The new menu at Zega, Sheraton Hyderabad Hotel offers the best of dumplings and grills

The preview session of the new menu at Zega, Sheraton Hyderabad Hotel, began with stories about Chinese weddings. Chef De Cuisine, Ho Chi Ming tells us, “While we celebrate our weddings, we gather around a large table which has ample variations in soups, dimsums and grills. The new menu is like that when it comes to choice,” said Chef Ming, all set to bring nearly 30 dishes to our table. Of course we pleaded excess and convinced him to scale it down to a more manageable number — that turned out to be delightfully memorable dishes.

Since the longtime patrons love the dumplings here, we were not surprised that there were quite a few new additions in that section. “This time, we have tried to stay close to the authentic flavour profile,” says Chef Ming who curated the fare with executive chef, Sidharth Bhardwaj. First up, we tucked into the Soupy Dumpling, with minced chicken filling laced with comforting soup inside.

The other equally delectable short eat that we tried was the Four Mushroom, Haricot and Asparagus dumpling. The outer layer was in an ecru hue, and the first bite was met with a definite amount of crunch, courtesy the haricot and the fresh asparagus. What made each of these dimsums stand out was that the translucent outer layer came in different shades. For the Jade Dumpling — the veggies used for the filling were pok choi, napa cabbage and roasted garlic. The latter was a tad overpowering and smothered the other ingredients. The last one in the array of dumplings had subtly-flavoured edamame filling, with an earthy taste of truffle oil which we loved.

We then moved on to the entrée with Japanese Minced Prawn Chicken, Scallion Butter Skewers, which one can find in their South East Asian section. The succulent chunks of meat, laced with a taste of prawns was an instant hit. We also tried the Coriander, Peanut, Sesame Marinated Lamb Chops, which was earlier served with spicy tiger sauce, that has been done away with. As we tried a spoonful, it almost tasted sweet with a hint of peanut and cilantro enhancing its flavour. However, the dish that we would remember to order every time we come here was the Thai Lotus Stem, Orange Chilli Jam. The crispy lotus stem, larger in size than usual and sliced into discs, was crispy to bits with a slight hint of sweetness and we wanted more of it with every bite we took! If we had to choose a clear winner from the menu, we must say we found it in this dish.

Rs 2,500 onwards.
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@Paulami309

Photos: R Satish Babu