Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year, celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar which typically falls after 12th Jan as per Gregorian calendar. The festival holds tremendous cultural significance for the Chinese, as they decorate their houses, deck themselves in new clothes and of course, prepare a whole gamut of delicacies to ring in the new year in style. Yi Jing, at Sheraton, New Delhi, Saket, also showcased a special Chinese New Year menu for its patrons. The menu curated by chef Deepak packed a mix of traditional and contemporary dishes celebrating the varied palate of China. Here’s everything that we tried and loved.
We started with the dimsums (of course). Yi Jing, is renowned for its range of dimsums, we sampled the Prawn Jiaozi. Filled with prawns, soya and wheat, these dumplings were served with soya-based chili sauce, serving as a perfect start to our dinner. The perfect blend of textures was displayed again in water chestnut and edamame dumpling, both bringing a different type of crisp and crunch.
A colourful and umami Chicken wanton soup was presented to us next. The soup had a medley of crispy vegetables like broccoli, spring onions, bell peppers, carrots and more, right in the centre was a giant chicken wanton, a chicken-filled dumpling. The Cantonese-style soup was clear and not spicy, but savoury to the very core.
The appetisers were a mix of crispy fried chicken, crispy fried tofu, spring rolls and vegetable stir-fry. The attention to detail and quality of ingredients used reflected in the overall flavour of the dishes.
Moving on to the mains, we love our meat, but the Cantonese Style lotus stem and mushroom in Mala sauce had our heart since the very first bit. It is the crunchiest lotus stem you’d ever bite into, complimenting the thinly cut chewy mushrooms. The crispy edamame adds a lovely Umami flavour to the semi-dry gravy dish with a prominent accent of black pepper. Lamb lovers, you have much to look forward to in the Sichuan lamb. Thinly cut lambs tossed in mildly spiced, and punchy sauce makes it an ideal companion to the vegetable fried rice (made with sticky rice and fresh veggies). The tiger prawns cooked in the hot and sweet sauce were another item on the menu we enjoyed thoroughly.