CHASING FOOD DREAMS: Dragon-i Restaurant: Celebrate June with Lobsters and Dumplings!

Lavish the month of June with Dragon-i Restaurant’s Lobster Spectacular Set Promotion and Glutinous Rice Dumplings!

With a staggering 18 outlets in Malaysia and Singapore, there must be a reason why Dragon-i is constantly spreading its wings across Asia! Highly infamous for Xiao Long Bao and handmade pulled noodles of La Mian, Dragon-i is constantly reinventing the gourmet industry with new offerings and promotions. For the whole month of June, one can unrestrained their appetites for lavish offerings of succulent lobsters and traditional glutinous rice dumplings at all Dragon-i outlets in Malaysia! A generous invite had everyone anticipating the ravishing crustacean and customary glutinous rice dumplings with great enthusiasm.

Dragon-i Lobster Spectacular Set Promotion

A lavish gourmet experience awaits guest through Dragon-i Lobster Spectacular Set Promotion where guests are to savor a five piece gourmet set meal of lobster creations! The set meal consists of Shanghainese Dumplings with Lobster Filling, Spice Salted Lobster Head and Claws, Lobster Meat with Ginger & Spring Onion, Fried La Mian with Lobster Tail and Double boiled Longan with Snow Fungus.

Lobster prepared four ways, we started off with Dragon-i’s renowned Xiao Long Bao in the rendition of Shanghainese Dumpling with Lobster Filling. Each mouthful of dumpling was filled with a good dose of broth gently encased in thin dumpling skin. Definitely drool worthy with the addition of the crustacean as the flavors had a lovely sweetness of lobster to it. If only they made this available on its own without the set meal, I would have gladly savored this on its own!

The dish that took our breath away was Lobster Meat with Ginger and Spring Onions! Chunks of sweet tender lobster meat were lightly stir-fried with lots of ginger and spring onion. Flavors were gentle but distinctively scrumptious. A good hint of wok heat was also detected, rendering a lovely aroma to the dish. Well controlled and cooked to almost perfection, the chefs did great justice to the crustacean!

Nothing is left wasted in a Chinese kitchen! Spice Salted Lobster Head and Claw is an example of that. The excitement in the dish is to suck out all the flavors and bits of the meat in the crustacean head and claws. Salty and loaded with lots of umami flavors, we polished this with great gusto!

The finale of the crustacean was Fried La Mian with Lobster Tail. Showcasing another Dragon-i signature, the hand pulled noodles was braised in a luscious soy sauce with lobster meat. Executed with al dente texture, the noodles were sumptuous and well flavored. Sweetness and savory flavors exuded from the noodles at first slurp!

The final dish of the set was a traditional Double Boiled Longan with Snow Fungus. Decent and loaded with the titled ingredients, dessert was a classic ending to a Chinese table.

For Canton-i the dumplings is being replaced with Siew Mai with Lobster Filling hence the Fried La Mian is being convert to Fried Yee Mee with Lobster Tail.

These delicious set meals will be priced at RM138++ per pax, with a minimum order 2 pax. American lobster species is being used to prepare these dishes.

In addition, to cater for those Lobster cravers who dine alone, Dragon-i had specially tailor made a one person set meals which is priced at RM138++ and using 600g American lobster. The menu consists of a choice for Lobster Meat with Ginger & Spring Onion or Lobster in Superior Soup.

Spice Salted Lobster Head and Claws or Fried La Mian with Lobster Tail which is available only at (Dragon-i) only RM20.00 charges will be imposed for the said dish for a one person set.

15% discount will be given to Public Bank credit/ debit card holder. (The promotion runs from 5^th May 2012 till 30^th June 2012)

In addition to the lavish feast of lobster and dumplings, we also feasted with some appetizers and mains from their regular menu.

Honey Glazed Eel was piled up with long pieces of amber gold coated eel pieces. Sweet from honey and almost creamy from the eel, these were very delectable in flavors and textures. Beware… addiction may set in before you know it! J

A spicy glutton like me cannot help but to raved about the Chilled Spicy Chicken in Szechuan Style. Cold poached chicken thigh was chilled and had a smooth texture bathe in fiery red chili oil. Here comes the tingling sensation of the infamous Szechuan chili peppercorn that lingers on for a bit. The rendition here is sufficiently satisfying with a sprinkling of crushed peanuts on top.

Crispy Beancurd Skin Roll with Mushroom is set to lure vegetarian fans with its layers of papery beancurd sheets, carefully layered and rolled to secure slivers of mushrooms for a moist filling.

A simple rendition of Japanese Cucumber with Garlic is refreshing and cold while garlic flavors pump up the dish.

Doubled Boiled Lean Pork Meat Soup with Conch Meat features a clear consommé of earthy pork broth. Pieces of tender conch meat were a welcome bite in the glorious and comforting soup.

Simple Stir Fried Bok Choy provided some greens to our meal.

Glutinous Rice Dumpling Promotion

As Dumplings Festival approaches and to celebrate this Dumplings Festival in lavish style the culinary team of Dragon-i has created a gift for its guests. With the coming festival of ‘Duan Wu Jie’, Dragon-I has brought on Hong Kong Master Chef Li Hong Wah to present the art of dumpling wrapping.

A glorious spread of ingredients was enough to tempt everyone at what was to come in the workshop. Spared no expense, the list of generous ingredients such as dried scallops, marinated chicken and pork, roasted pork, salted egg yolk, mushroom, chestnut, mung beans, glutinous rice and a luxurious abalone was a sight to behold.

The Art of Dumpling Wrapping!

No easy feat but Master Chef Li made it look simple with his experience and skill. Showing two different methods of dumpling wrap, both steps were equally mesmerizing.

A charming chef, Chef Li was happy to oblige to our request to pose with his dumplings!

CEO, Mr. Henry Yip accompanied Master Chef Li for a picturesque moment!

CEO, Mr. Henry Yip and his team of Master Chefs.

Sampling the most luxurious one, Glutinous Rice Dumpling with Sliced Abalone had soft and creamy equal ratio of rice and yellow mung beans. Flavors are light on purpose as one can add more flavors to the dumpling by dipping it lightly with sugar or soy sauce. Yes, you heard me correct… sugar! Despite the oddness of it, I genuinely like it with a little sugar surprisingly. It seems to balance up the rich savory ingredients beautifully with each bite.

Each dumpling is individually shrink-wrapped and chilled. One only needs to heat up the dumplings prior to enjoyment.

Four Glutinous Rice Dumplings with various ingredients are available at all Dragon-i outlets:

· Glutinous Rice Dumpling with Sliced Abalone,

· Glutinous Rice Dumpling with Red Bean,

· Glutinous Rice Dumpling with XO Scallop Sauce,

· Glutinous Rice Crystal Dumpling with Lotus Seed Paste

Dragon-i has tailor-made two type value-for-money dumplings sets while individual purchase of dumplings are also available. A Free recycled tote bag will be given for any set purchases.

· Royal Glutinous Rice Dumpling Abalone set – RM61.40

(Glutinous Rice Dumpling with Sliced Abalone 1pc, Glutinous Rice Dumpling with Red Bean 1pc and Glutinous Rice Crystal Dumpling with Lotus Seed Paste 1pc)

· Deluxe Glutinous Rice Dumpling set – RM39.40

(Glutinous Rice Dumpling with XO Scallop Sauce 1pc, Glutinous Rice Dumpling with Red Bean 1pc and Glutinous Rice Crystal Dumpling with Lotus Seed Paste 1pc)

HSBC credit card holder they are entitled to a special promotion prices for Royal Glutinous Rice Dumplilng Abalone Set at RM49.80 and Deluxe Glutinous Rice Dumpling priced at RM30.80.

In additional, under Royal Glutinous Rice Dumpling Abalone set customer who wish to upgrade their Glutinous Rice Dumpling with Sliced Abalone to an Australian 2 Heads Abalone Dumpling it will be priced at RM168.00. A 3 days advance order is needed for the upgrading.

*The above prices are excluded government tax.

Both Promotion ends on 30th June 2012.