But luckily, today had a chance to have lunch at Dragon-i, a restaurant chain that is famous for its window display of chef preparing its signature dish of Siew Loong Pau and hand made noodles. There were ten of us and its thanks to a good friend for the treat. (her photos are in the gallery)
We decided to order dishes and have it shared and accompanied with white rice. So off we order and I will go through each dish that we have.
To start off, the most famous dish from Dragon-i, its Siew Loong Pau, which is dumplings with a meat filling. The uniqueness of this is that when its steamed, the meat or filling in the dumpling will actually release a generous amount of "soup". Thus the technique of eating this dumpling is to first suck out the soup and then have the dumpling. I must say, this is also my favourite dish here. The flavor from the soup is slightly sweet complimenting the meat stuffing. Only thought, though not sure if its possible would be if the skin of the dumpling at the top be softer and not as tough.
Rating : 4.5/5
Next we have stir fry spinach, fried chicken with dried chilli and peppercorn, chinese ham with jelly fish, chinese style thin crust pancake with spring onion, stir fry egg with seafood, japanese dumplings, stir fry spinach with crab meat, sweet and sour prawns & fried crispy duck with pancake wrap.
So many dishes which we ordered, and I will give a summary of each of the dishes.
Stir fry spinach and stir fry spinach with crab meat are basically identical dishes except one is plain and the other has crab meat. I would say this is OK, nothing out of the ordinary or exceptional.
Rating : 3.5/5
Fried chicken with dried chilli and peppercorn is a very appetizing dish. The chicken bits are deep fried and then tossed in with the dried chilli and peppercorn giving the chicken a very tangy spicy bite. Taste is good, though the chicken pieces are abit small thus when its deep fried, the chicken is abit dry. The spiciness level is good, would rate it pretty high. Other minus is that there is very little pieces of chicken in the otherwise big basket.
Rating : 4/5
Chinese style thin crust pancake with spring onion was ordered to satisfy my friend (WC) curiosity of how this would be different compared to our Malaysian staple of Roti Canai. I have to say, its different enough to warrant it being called something else. Heheh, the pancake it thick, has a crunchy texture, and well flavoured with some spring onions added. Not something I would order if I returned. Just not special enough.
Rating : 3.5/5
Stir fried egg with seafood is something that I would say its a first for me. Never had a dish cooked in such a way before where basically I think they have cooked the egg white first and then serve the dish with a raw yolk on top. The yolk is then mix in with the egg white creating a very silky texture for the dish. Overall I give it marks for originality but I think it could have been more flavorful.
Rating : 4/5
Japanese dumpling is abit of a disappointment to me as I was expecting something like gyoza or a more special dumpling. It was almost like a version of Siew Loong Pau without the special soup in the dumpling and also with a thicker skin texture.
Rating : 3/5
Sweet and sour prawn was pretty good. The prawns are a good size and the sweet and sour sauce had excellent flavor and was not too watery. The prawns were probably quick deep fried and then cooked with the sauce. Overall, satisfying dish.
Rating : 4/5
The last is fried crispy duck with pancake wrap. At first, when it arrived, I thought its just another duck dish. Then they laid down the pancake and the plum sauce, spring onion and cucumber strips before I see where this dish is going. The duck will be used for a pancake wrap. With that, that is exactly what I did next and wrap a nice piece of duck and some sauce with the condiments and took a big bite. Nice! The fried duck gave it a good flavor and texture which I find it better than a typical roasted duck. With that, I recommend this as another item to try.
Rating : 4.5/5
Overall a very good meal especially with the many varieties of the dishes. And of course thanks Susan who so very nice treated everyone to this lunch.
More pictures : http://www.apples-studio.com/gallery/ww41.3_09_lunch/index.html
Wikimapia link to Queensbaymall : Its located at center court, 2nd floor : http://wikimapia.org/#lat=5.3407882&lon=100.3024292&z=15&l=0&m=b&show=/608887/Queensbay-Mall-Jusco-Penang
Siew Loong Pau
Fried chicken with dried chilli and peppercorn
Stir fry egg with seafood
Sweet and sour prawn
Fried crispy duck with pancake wrap
