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Oriental flavours

Mainland China lets customers experience the true flavours of the cuisine rather than the modified fare that one normally gets to have

PHOTO: MURALI KUMAR K.

JUST RIGHT The restaurant's mix of uniqueness and consistency keeps customers going back for more

For those who've been to Mainland China, there's no real need to read further. After all, anyone who's been to the restaurant, which completes its third year in its reworked avatar on Church Street this August, almost always comes back for more. And, say both customers and the restaurant's management, it's easy to imagine why. Few other eateries provide the kind of unique and varied flavour that Mainland China does. As repeat customers assert, fewer still manage the kind of consistency that the restaurant asserts.

Indeed, the sheer range of dishes on offer is mind-boggling. Start off at the dimsum menu, and there is enough of a variety here to keep you hooked for years to come. With chicken, prawn and lamb offerings in different spices for the non-vegetarians and different vegetable and even tofu dimsums for vegetarians, the dimsum menu ensures you are spoilt for choice.

We take the safe route first, crunching down the simplest vegetable spring rolls and chicken dimsums. With our tongues adequately prepped up, we go to the other end of the spectrum, trying out the fascinating bean curd delight. Here, soft cubes of tofu are topped off with a powerful bean sauce to provide an experience you can't forget — the wonderful feeling of creamy bean curd flowing off your tongue even as the first hit of the bean sauce settles.

Drooling over starters

The starters, however, are what you'll remember the most about your meal. Two dishes, in particular, stand out from everything else we try — the crackling spinach and the crispy chilli corn. The former is definitely one of the most innovative uses of spinach one can find. As the name suggests, the leaves really crackle in your mouth, and are slightly sweetened to offset their natural bitter taste. The latter, consist of ears of corn fried in a mix of spices to create a dish that is fibrous and substantial, but leaves plenty of room for everything else you try. For seafood fans, the crispy fish with golden ginger is a good option. Here's where one realises the difference between authentic Chinese food and the hybridised fare normally served in the city. The taste of ginger is prominent but not pungently so, and the result is a starter that's spicy but not overpowering.

Or you could try out the sliced fish with roasted chilli and sansho pepper or the stir fried prawns with garlic and brandy. The Keong's chilli chicken, like the crispy fish, is disarmingly different. One always expects a chilli chicken to be a full-on assault on the senses, which is why its subtlety is so fascinating.

At this point, our overloaded palates need reprieve, and on cue the soups are brought out. Refreshing, mild, palate cleansers, they only carry a hint of spice in them.

The generous portions ensure that our stomachs are bursting even before the main course. So we go easy, trying out the stir fried hakka noodles and ginger and capsicum fried rice with the seasonal vegetables with broccoli in Chinese parsley sauce and the tsing hoi chicken. The fried rice is excellent, with a crisp and light taste that ably supports the gravies. While the tsing hoi chicken follows in the same vein as the various starters, the more exotic vegetable gravy leaves us wondering why American children hate broccoli so much. If you're looking for a finer, but slightly costlier experience, the range of crabmeat dishes can well be considered.

The desserts are a more placid affair, with daarsaans, date wontons, date pancakes and the like on offer, but you couldn't really manage much anything more at the end of the meal.

To make the experience more exotic, Mainland China is also now offering frequent customers a chance to win a free holiday to China. Scratch cards with letters on them are given at the end of the meal, and the first person to complete the name Mainland China wins a holiday for two. Mainland China is located on Church Street, and can be contacted on 25597722 or 55372747.

Ambience: Oriental
Service: Informed, prompt
Speciality: Starters
Wallet factor: Rs. 600 to Rs. 900 for two

RAKESH MEHAR

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