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Fit for kings
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Rahul Verma appreciates but is not floored by the food at The China Kitchen
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Once in a while, my creaky bones tell me that they have had enough of traipsing around Old Delhi, in search of that mouth-watering kabab or crispy kachori. That is when one of my brothers-in-law and his wife step in. They have done their bit to enrich my food journey at the high end of the road by inviting me to some of those places you can only visit if you have an expense account, or a fat legacy left by a miserly uncle who saved all his money for you.
Last week, they called us over for a meal at The China Kitchen in Hyatt Regency. I had heard a lot about this restaurant, which is known for, among other things, its Peking duck. It’s also known for its high prices. I shall not get into the prices here, for the B-I-L was paying, and it would have been rude to try take a peek at the bill. Let me just give you a hint. A plate of steamed spinach stems served with a mustard and peanut paste is for Rs.250, without taxes. My gourmet friends who have eaten there have always held forth on its excellent food.
So, naturally, I was quite keen to try it out for myself. We were a large group of friends and family, so the order was equally large. And at the end of it, I was happy with the food at The China Kitchen, and happier still that I had a generous relative. What I truly enjoyed were the starters. We asked for a wide variety of appetisers — dumplings stuffed with prawns, chicken and chicken-and-crab meat, stir-fried pork and steamed spinach, so that we could tell ourselves that we were having a balanced diet. For entrees, we had ordered pork ribs, crab, prawns in chilli sauce, lamb and chicken, all to be eaten with noodles and steamed rice. The food is served in a bowl and you mix your sauces with rice and go from one dish to another. I particularly liked the pork, which was lightly cooked and came on a bed of fried garlic. The prawn was again wonderfully succulent and fresh. And the crabs, with a light batter, couldn’t have been better. I avoided both the lamb and the chicken. I usually like my lamb cooked in a Chinese sauce, but I had, frankly, eaten too much. And I wanted to leave some space for the dessert.
This pancakes
The dessert was a platter consisting of thin pancakes, caramel custard, a green tea tiramisu, a fruit bowl and caramelised toffee ice cream. I like the custard and the pancake and enjoyed the fact that the sugar levels were low —though this was exactly what a friend at the table complained about. But the meal, indeed, was a satisfying one. On my way back home, I tried to rate the restaurant, which opened around the same time as My Humble House in ITC Maurya. Most critics preferred The Hyatt restaurant, but I think, much as I enjoyed my meal at The China Kitchen, I liked the food better at My Humble House. But then, to each his own. That’s what democracy is all about!
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