Celebrate 2024 Chinese New Year at this food festival in city!

While the collective attention of the city's populous is on Valentine's Day, Golden Dragon has come up with a food festival that celebrates the 2024 Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dragon. Chef Lian has curated an exquisite lineup of dishes that left us searching for words to explain how they were, for they were carefully curated, diverse, and most importantly, delicious.

Also read: Chennaiites are going gaga over Korean food and we tell you why

Mushroom for improvement

We began our meal with the Double Boiled Monkey Head Mushroom Broth, a soup that is mild to taste and also features cilantro and carrots. The monkey head mushroom looked odd, but it did have a lovely flavour to it, and it was very soft as well. On the contrary, the Shi Hu Lamb soup that we tried next was the complete opposite. Featuring minced lamb, egg drop, and tomatoes, the soup was colourful and very flavourful.

As soon as we were done tasting the soups, the Shuijiao (dumpling) arrived. We tried the vegetarian and chicken versions of the water-poached dumplings and liked the one with the meat more, as it had more flavour in comparison. Also, the dumplings were shaped like ancient Chinese currency. We also tried the Steamed Longevity Noodles and the Moon Fan. The latter, which had jasmine rice and Chinese five spice was very good, while the noodles were good too. We found the noodles, despite them featuring scallions, garlic, soy, and sesame oil, a bit bland.

Served on the bone

Then came what was arguably the star of the entire meal. Called the Nanjin Style Salt Duck, it was an amazing dish. Slow-cooked and served on the bone, the duck was as good as it gets, for the meat was juicy, soft, and simply melted in our mouths. It did come with a soy-based sauce, but the duck was so good without any add-ons that we continued eating it as is and before we knew it, the whole duck was almost gone. It is definitely a must-try.

While we were still enjoying the duck, the steamed Cantonese Tiger Prawns landed on our table. They had a great taste to them thanks to the wine and garlic, and the texture was very nice too. We did not have anymore room for food, so we had to forego the Hangzhou Tenderloin and Kou Rou (Pork belly), among other dishes that are also on offer.

However, we did try the Chinese Egg Tart and the Chen-Pi ice cream for dessert, and both turned out to be so good that we felt relieved, for our decision to eat a bit more food had been validated. The ice cream, in particular, deserves mention, for it had oodles of orange flavour. Happy Chinese New Year, folks!

INR 3,500++. February 9-18. Lunch and dinner. At Taj Coromandel.