LONG YIN Presents Year of The Rat 2020 Chinese New Year Menu

Entering the Year of The Rat in 2020 Chinese lunar calendar, Long Yin restaurant in Le Meridien Dubai Hotel & Conference Centre has specially designed a prosperous two days only 7-course “Year of The Rat” 2020 Chinese New Year Menu to delight your palate. Celebrating lunar Chinese New Year in a foreign land can somehow be a challenge especially when and where to look for a traditional Chinese New Year’s meal that translates nostalgic memories and emotions that makes you feel less home-sick while craving for those salivating home cooking Chinese New Year dishes to satisfy your craving. It is somehow a challenge for some restaurants to offer the best from its authenticity by introducing their most traditional way of cooking and presentation to suit the local palate in which many may not know how to appreciate the best of flavours. The culinary team may also have their challenge by finding the right ingredients from the local market or due to some import restriction that limits the talent with their know-how to bring out the best taste and flavours from their skill. mylifestylenews writes.

<Shredded Chicken with Black Mushroom Soup>
Warm your appetite with the shredded chicken with black mushroom soup. This thick soup is overly starched and overpowered the essence of the broth and the supposed fragrant black mushroom with dried and chewy “hand-pulled” shredded chicken. It tastes more like a regular foreign version of hot and sour soup without the heat and the presentation was a little messy with starchy stain all lover the rim of the bowl. Not as cleanly executed as we were expecting and a tentative start especially for a prosperous Chinese New Year meal.

<Duo Dim Sum>

Next we moved on to the Steamed Scallops & Mixed Seafood Sio Mai (Siu Mai to be precised) which came in a steamed bamboo basket wrapped around with a yellow plastic lid and around the rim. The scallop was steamed to its perfection but the combination of the mixed seafood inside the thick wanton paste wasn’t as pleasant as it should be, being rough and dried. The Steamed Chicken with Coriander Dumplings also did not bring out the best flavor of the coriander and the entire bite was bland and the see-through flour paste was again too thick and less delicate.

<Steamed Fillet Hammour with Premium Soya Sauce with Ginger & Spring Onion>

Local Hammour fillet was steamed with specially pre-mixed premium soya sauce – a little too sweet (every Chef has their own secret recipe to create the sauce) and garnished with julienned ginger (hardly any) and spring onion (mostly Chinese parsley) and topped with sliced shitake mushroom laying on a bed of halved Bok Choy which is not quite a classic Cantonese way of a steamed fish dish. The Hammour may not be the best cut yet still quite meaty and cost effective and pleasant in tase. In most Chinese and Cantonese cooking, fish is steamed as a whole (with the head and tail) to be reminiscent in all kind of work that we perform shall be from start to finish, no quitting. Each Chinese New Year dish has its own special in depth meaning and representation that reflects to our daily life and routine.

<Sauteed Tiger Prawns with Honey Beans in Brown Garlic Sauce>

Two average size mashy-ish tiger prawns were served and lacking of the firm and springy prawn texture stir-fried with supposed honey beans but none can be found and substituted with broccoli and sliced bamboo shoots instead.

<Tenderloin Beef with Cashew Nuts in “Kong Po” Style Sauce>

A great quality beef tenderloin in texture and flavor and yet the same messy presentation with sauces spilled all over the rim of the serving dish.

<Diced BBQ Chicken Fried Rice>

To our surprise, this is the best dish of the evening. The rice was light and fluffy and each grain was separated from each other instead of sticking together for its texture on the palate. The color combination from the golden brown eggs, rice and diced BBQ chicken perfectly complimented the entire dish with spring onion. Good Work!

<Mango Exotica with Strawberry Caviar>

Not exactly a Chinese New Year’s dish but an improvisation of a mango pudding desert. This fusion dish has a biscuit crumb type base with a the mango mousse on top and was well executed in presentation as well as being a sweetly delicious dish! The strawberry caviar is rather “exotic” and bursts in your mouth with every bite.The service was quite attentive but yet a little disoriented and missing the promptness of attention to details. While the menu may need to be more carefully crafted, especially for a special Chinese New Year’s dinner, to be reminiscent of the lunar new year’ festivities, prosperities and wealth as most dishes can be found from its regular day to day a-la-carte menu.

Tried & Tested:

Location: 3.5/5

Design & Decor: 4/5

Food & Beverage: 2.5/5

Service: 3/5

Value For Money: 3.5/5

Experience: 3.5/5

Highlights:

Diced BBQ Chicken Fried Rice

LONG YIN

Airport Road

Dubai UAE

Tel: +971 4 217 0000

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