Dumplings of Duck

Spicy tender chunks of duck encased in sweet sticky rice: a harmonious melange of flavors that had me cooing, drooling and gurgling like a mindlessly excited infant. My fondness for Dim sum began when I traveled in China, where I ate innumerable variants of this snack made quite literally to ‘touch the heart’, as the word translates from Cantonese. Though designed to be mundane street side food, the dish is pretty open to interpretation and often gets elevated to gourmet status. There was certainly nothing mundane about this particular steaming dish I chanced upon at Trikaya, Andheri W, Mumbai. They were sweet with a spicy edge, tender yet packed a meaty bite and light yet very satiating !

photographs © Salonee Gadgil  / Bellyfirst

The Tasty Tangles

Set right ! ***

Tasty Tangles has a rather enthusiastic twitter presence, where their set menu lunch was frequently mentioned. I like set menus; they offer little choice, so there’s no pussyfooting around what to order. The dark cloud of the impending bill doesn’t loom over the meal; ones goes in pleasantly aware of the damages.

Coming to this particular set menu, I was offered a concise list of items, and I all but had to check the corresponding boxes to make my choice.  I ordered Aromatic Spicy Chicken Dumplings to start. I’m a sucker for dumplings and if they got this one wrong, I would have written off Tasty Tangles completely. However, they triumphed. The dumplings displayed some very refined hand skills, and the spicy flavor was well balanced. Two just quickly melted away, and I was compelled to ask for another round.

The Char Kway Teow Beef noodles were also good, made particularly special by the tender well marinated chunks of meat. Something about the Steamed fish in XO sauce reminded me of my stay in China. The dish had a home-made charm, but the strong fishy smell is probably an acquired taste for most.

Asian restaurants usually fail when it comes to dessert. So my skepticism was warranted when I reluctantly ordered Cinnamon Honey fried wonton with Ice Cream. I’ve had countless renditions of this dish, but I finally found a place that got it right. I would go back for those fried strips of wonton drizzled with cinnamon powder and honey. I also sampled the fruit pudding, which was summery and fresh.

The ambience is boring, even borders on cheap. But the staff is polite and the food itself is well presented. Something about it fits all Asian restaurant stereo types, with Chinese paper lanterns and odd looking plastic pens. But I’d readily ignore all of that for this lunch. i

Damages : Rs.499 per head

Location : Khar west, in the lane next to Nike show room, above Sancho’s

Ming Yang ( Taj Land’s End, Bandra)

The Bitter Sweet End ***

I wouldn’t have known about or visited this restaurant, had it not been for an old school friend’s birthday dinner. It was a mini reunion of sorts. So the food should not have mattered, but of course, it did.

I entered the richly decorated dining area with high expectations. The place reeked of old school opulence, from the faux-gold accented furniture to the concierge who greeted us with proper colonial etiquette. Classic? Or stuffy? The décor sat on the thin line between the two.

As we were ravenous, we got right to it with Mushroom dumplings and Pork Buns, both were exquisite. The soups were nothing spectacular, nothing memorable. I must mention here that the timing of the service was spot on. Once we finished entrées, and were ready for our next course, we were served the Five Spice Pork, Burnt Garlic rice, and Hoofan Chicken noodles. The pork was tender, and was complemented perfectly by the rice. The noodles may have been the best flat noodles I’ve had; could’ve kept eating those.

I really wish I had ended meal here, because what followed was nothing short of disastrous. It was like following good sex with that ill-timed smelly fart. The pastry chef I think was hired straight from the renowned kitchens of Shiv Sagar ( no disrespect to Shiv Sagar ). The batter on the Fried Ice-cream was thick and oily, the Custard filled Spring Rolls were dense and the Date Pancakes were chewy. All the deserts left an oily aftertaste, reminiscent of cheap malpua. Even visually, there was nothing appetizing about them. Thank god my fortune cookies came with very pleasant predictions, at least the meal ultimately ended on a sweet note.

Fortune #1 – “Your lover will never wish to leave you” (phew!)

Fotrune #2 – “If you want good advice, ask your mother” (duh! mommy’s always right)

Damages : about 1,000 per head without drinks