If you love Soups and Dim-sums , you will love the ‘Soup and Dim-Sum festival ‘ at Hunan Chinese Restaurant Bangalore 😉 . Joyful and embracing of all things festive , Hunan has come up with the monsoon food festival offering a wide range of Soups and Dim-sums specially curated for the season .
Currently, it seems like most of the cultures around the world have come up with a dim-sum of their kind , basically a closed bag of dough which wraps the filling which could either be savory or sweet . I was at Hunan for the exclusive tasting event setup for the food bloggers to try out their new Dim-sum and Soup Festival and to get with the real experience of this festive yet seasonal menu we happened to visit this place after an aftermath of heavy rainfall Bangalore faced last week . A dinner comprising of Steaming hot soups and Dim-sums was the best way to get away with the long and the hectic day we experienced .
Hunan is located on the famous and busy road of Koramangala 5th block just opposite the California pizza kitchen . The decor out here is relaxed, yet has a sense of urban sophistication to it while the menu is diverse and engaging, and also includes a selection of celebratory dishes to try out this season .
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We started off with the Carrot and sweet potato soup: which was a Thai flavored thick and creamy soup with a coconut milk base while the crushed peanuts added to the crunchiness of this soup . The soup being rich and creamy was almost a meal in itself hence I chose not to fill myself up with this soup alone and give way to the rest of them in the menu .
The chef made sure the soup and dim-sums were served alternatively so that we do not end up having all the soups in a row and end up not having the dim-sums . Thus a wise decision was made and the carrot and sweet potato soup was followed by the Bok Choy and mushroom money pouches : The oyster mushrooms and one of the variant of Chinese cabbage called Bok Choy that came together into small pockets of wheat starch skin to give it an appearance of small cute little green money pouches . The filling inside was juicy while they tend to have a larger ratio of wrapper to filling than the commonly found dim-sums.
We then tried the Truffle scented edamame dumplings : If you love Edamame you will love the dumplings made of this soybean and truffle oil mixture which is served with a sauce made of soy and rice vinegar . The plating was beautiful and so was the texture of the filling which was wrapped in a thin dough . The next in line was the Chicken drumstick with noodle soup: which appeared with a bowl consisting of a drumstick , veggies and noodles served with a flavorful broth that was to be poured on top of the subject mentioned in the bowl.The contrast in textures and flavors were exquisite .
This was followed by Sesame chicken pot-stickers : These crispy golden fried bottoms stuffed in with tender ground chicken , garlic and nutty sesame oil were complete with fresh dough and requisite number of pleats while the Vegan Vietnamese spring rolls was one of my favorite with neatly arranged colorful veggies bunched together inside a rice paper roll and served with a portion of spicy hoison dip. It seemed healthy and surely tasted like one with the presence of fresh veggies and the crunchiness it adds to the dish itself .
We were back to the soups as we got to the Sweet and Sour Tofu soup with Crab meat : A soup best suited for a rainy day when you do not want to have something heavy but yet want to indulge into a portion of a supreme broth consisting of fresh crab meat , tofu , bamboo shoot , peas and baby corn . And then came the Cocktail rolls of chicken and prawns which were mini crispy rolls stuffed with chicken and prawn and deep fried to give it that attractive texture where in one would just want to keep gorging on them as they were accompanied by an amazing Mango chilli sauce.
The last soup from their festive menu was the Chicken meatballs with prawn wanton soup : Light and healthy clear meatball broth with prawn wontons. I was not very impressed by this soup and so was eagerly looking forward for the next item to be placed on the table which happened to be the Crispy Lotus stem . And i just couldn’t stop binging on them . I placed an order for another portion of this dish as I loved how the slices of lotus stem were stir fried in Ginger garlic and honey sauce and served with a whole lot of chopped spring onions on it .
Chicken Steamed Fatty Bao came next on the table in a row of three . A Bao is basically Chinese steamed stuffed buns or breads that use a leavened dough . The filling that went into this was made up of pan seared chicken with pickled cucumber while the BBQ sauce and the scallions uplifted its flavors .
The next few dishes served were the Taro puff with minced chicken , crunchy wanton ribbon prawns and the pork flower dumplings . I personally liked the filling made of chicken , shiitake mushrooms and five spice in the taro puff , while i wasn’t a fan of the marinated prawn wrapped in wanton which was fried and served with honey mustard sauce much as I found the outer coating too crisp and hard . The pork flower dumplings ended the Dim-sum saga for the evening with some delicate minced pork , ginger and scallions which were rolled into the wanton wrappers and steamed to perfection .
We were done with the soups and dim-sums on the menu but little did we expect a one pot meal arriving at the table filled with noodles and veggies cooked in coconut milk and garnished with boiled egg , peanuts and fried garlic – Khow Suey . A dish that could never go wrong . To finish , we were served some Chocolate rolls which was served with vanilla ice-cream . I found the the outer layer of it to be thicker than it should normally be but, this dessert was just enough to sweeten the mouth and hopefully ones mood before the arrival of the bill 😉
The soups were enjoyable and the dim-sums tasty, although the execution on some of them could have been better.Service was very slick indeed, with waiters noticing every little detail. It was a very respectable dining experience, made particularly pleasant by the lovely menu and charming service.
Since all of these dishes mentioned above are a part of the Soup and Dim-sum festival you wouldn’t be able to get your hands on them after the 30Th of August 2016 . So, hurry up and get there before its too late !
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