Where mango makes the meal
Cantonese dining at the Peninsula's restaurant Mei Jiang takes delicious advantage of the summer's fruit harvest
IF YOU’RE in the mood for Cantonese food and especially great dim sum, just point your tummy toward Mei Jiang at the Peninsula Bangkok. And now its celebrated chef, Jackie Ho, has something else with which to tantalise – the addition of flavourful Thai summer fruits at both lunch and dinner all this month and next.
Summer’s here and the livin’ is easy for devotees of exotic fruits, and Ho is keeping stocked up on green mangoes, strawberries, apples and jackfruit – all of them ingredients for eight delectable dishes made with beef tenderloin, abalone, scallops and prawns.
Each dish represents four servings, but if you’re dining alone, just ask the wait staff for a half portion, and the price is reduced accordingly.
The perfect start is Double-boiled Capon Chicken Soup (Bt480), for which chicken stock simmers for seven hours, livened up with just a little Japanese wine. Chicken, brown fungus, goji berries and red apples are then added, and the result is a satisfyingly light and smooth taste.
Mei Jiang is also known for pairing various teas with food, and for the first course its tea master has decided on white peony tea, known as Monkey Tail, which has a mild aroma that doesn’t overwhelm the dish.
The teas range in price from Bt200 to Bt290 per refillable serving and are dispersed “kung fu-style” (or gongfu-style), meaning the tea is poured evenly into the teacups in a circular motion. A lot of tealeaves are used and the infusion time is kept short.
Chiang Mai-bred strawberries are featured in the next dish, Fried Boneless Organic Chicken with sweet-and-sour sauce (Bt540). The tender chicken goes wonderfully with the fresh and firm berries, with their gift of tanginess, while green bell pepper adds crunch.
Then comes Spicy Marinated Fresh Abalone, Green Mango, Red Chilli and Sour Lime Sauce (Bt2,000). The slow-cooked abalone sits on a bed of shredded mango that’s neither sweet nor sour, alongside chopped red onion and the chillies and lime sauce. The taste resembles that of a Thai spicy salad.
Stir-fried Angus Beef Tenderloin (Bt850) is cooked with sweet and crispy jackfruit, honey beans, red bell peppers and onion and presented with gravy.
An oolong tea called Money Pick accompanies the abalone and beef dishes, stronger in flavour than the white peony, so it’s good with any meat that’s spiced up.
The other new dishes that I didn’t get to taste are Deep-Fried Prawn with Melon and Rose Apple (Bt800), Sauteed Scallop with Chinese Pear and Bell Peppers in Mild Chilli Sauce (Bt1,100), Mixed Seafood Fried Rice in Pineapple (Bt650), and Sweetened Snow Fungus and Gingko Nuts in Young Coconut (Bt300).
If you prefer something not so fruity, the menu has the restaurant’s signature dishes marked with a stylised fish, meaning they’re recommended by the chef. The lighter and healthiest options are marked “Naturally Peninsula”.
One of these must-try dishes is Deep-fried Crispy Fillets of Snow Fish with Garlic and Chilli Salt (Bt920 for four fillets). The fish is coated with breadcrumbs and deep-fried until golden and crisp, then topped with dried red chillies blended with dried shrimp, and finally roasted even crispier with garlic, salt and pepper and palo powder, an aromatic Chinese herb.
Meanwhile, if you’re craving rice, opt for the Abalone Fried Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf (Bt590).
Chef Ho’s dim sum is available at lunchtime and made fresh every day. It’s not the all-you-can-eat variety, and the prices per selection range from Bt120 to Bt300.
The Steamed Shrimp and Gung Choi Dumplings are generous with the seafood, the concoction slightly sticky and chewy. Other than steamed, you can have your dim sum pan-fried, as in the Crabmeat Dumpling, or deep-fried, as in the Scallop and Chinese Chive Crisps, which aren’t at all oily and taste great with Worcester sauce.
Speaking of health, no monosodium glutamate is used in the kitchen, and most of the sauces are home-made too. The seasoned XO chilli sauce is contrived with fish, top-quality conpoy (dried scallops), dried shrimps, chilli, shallot, garlic and pepper. It’s appreciated for its intensity and complex spicy-salty-sweet flavouring. You can even buy a bottle to take home for your own stir-fries or to use as a dip.
SOME DIM SUM!
The special fruit menu continues until July 31.
Mei Jiang at the Peninsula Bangkok is open daily from 11.30am to 2.30pm and from 6 to 10.30pm.
Book a table at (02) 626 1847.
