Fresh noodles are pulled to order, broths simmer away in different stages of becoming, and plates are assembled with the precision of a team that knows exactly what it is doing. Tickets are checked one last time before every dish leaves the pass. Nearly every surface bears a CAUTION HOT SURFACE sign, a fitting warning for a kitchen that runs hot in every sense. For a limited-time residency, Pan Asian at ITC Grand Chola has welcomed Yi Jing, the acclaimed Chinese restaurant from ITC Kohenur, bringing its celebrated repertoire to Chennai.
We sat down and ordered widely, and the first thing that landed on the table immediately set the register for everything that followed.
The truffle and edamame dim sum arrives shaped like edamame pods and filled with an edamame-flavoured cream cheese that is richer and more layered than the exterior suggests. It is insane in the best possible way. The visual conceit is precise and the flavour delivers on it completely. This one does not need any further description. Just order it.
Then came the chicken char siu dim sum, which is not on the printed menu but you can ask for it, and they’ll happily give you it. It arrives on a plate designed to look like a pebble rock with a concave depression in the centre, a tiny pond of sorts, with two swan-shaped dim sum sitting in it and a bed of greens beneath them. The necks and heads are formed from coloured wheat starch. The bodies are sesame-dipped, fried to a pastry-like richness, texturally complex and excellent to eat. It is the most theatrical dish on the table and also one of the best tasting. Realism as a culinary language, fully committed.
The sesame-baked lamb dumpling is the opposite of theatrical and equally extraordinary for it. With sesame-scattered on top, it is subtle in every dimension: the outer layer soft, the seasoning mellow, the lamb inside juicy and tender. You have to be fully present to appreciate what this dish is doing. Eat it the moment it lands, before it dips to room temperature, because the window in which it is perfect is real and brief.
The pan-fried pork dumpling is the juiciest of the entire menu, a lattice crust giving it both crunch and visual architecture. The sticky rice dumpling stuffed with tender chicken is pinched into a clean straight line and coloured with beetroot powder, quiet and beautiful. The BBQ soy steak and Gucci forest bloom arrives looking like a mushroom, a literal mushroom with a stump, sweet and earthy and committed to its own metaphor. The oriental vegetable dumpling is the one you can skip without guilt. It is fine but it is the least interesting thing on a table that is otherwise constantly interesting.
And then the hand-pulled noodles arrive, and a chef pulls and twists them right in front of you from scratch. By this point we were completely full. We kept eating anyway. The minced chicken version is exceptional. It is an absolute must try and the best possible ending to a meal that had already asked a great deal of you and delivered on every ask.
Rs 1,125 onwards. On till July 12. From 6.30 pm to 11.30 pm. At Pan Asian, ITC Grand Chola, Guindy.
Email: shivani@newindianexpress.com
X: @ShivaniIllakiya
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