The Grand China House
Once you enter its large wooden doors you give yourself up - to fine dining and fine wining, in the finest of ambience. You could be savouring Peking Duck in any top restaurant of the world, says a content Javed Gaya From the moment you enter the courtyard with the little oriental ponds set off by some rather dramatic frangipani trees you face the most formidable of wooden doors at least twenty feet high with copper handles  you know the experience is going to be something out of the ordinary. When you enter the China House it puts the traditional Chinese restaurant décor on its head. It is contemporary and completely cutting edge, the design from the great Japanese House of Super Potato. This is a famous design house founded by Takashi Sugimoto in 1971 and has been responsible for some amazing décor concepts throughout the world, in Bombay the other two examples of Super Potato design are the revamped Thai Pavilion and Wink, the bar at the President in Bombay. Innovative partitions play a starring role; workstations representing different aspects of the creative efforts have the effect of breaking up the restaurant. This is the traditional way of  structuring places found in Japanese restaurants. For Bombay high society it works beautifully because it ensures privacy for those who are part of the celeb gang and anonymity for those who aren't. The combination of wooden glass works very effectively as the wood reconnects this artificial environment to the real world. So much for the décor let's get down to the food. China House specializes in Sichuan cuisine. It also boasts some lovely Peking and Cantonese dishes as well; but the emphasis is on demonstrating the sophistication, complexity and diversity of the cuisine. The main chef is from Sichuan, Qiu Jia. He trained at an important school in the capital of Sichuan, Chengdu.  Unfortunately, in India Sichuan has been a much abused cuisine, merely because the predominant ingredient is chilli, the assumption is that this gives liberty to the Chef to put in masalas and Indianise the food, making it something which any self-respecting Sichuan Chef will tell you bears no relationship to the traditional cuisine. There is chilli and chilli. The Sichuan pepper is the most important ingredient in the cooking. It is known as the 'Flower Pepper' and comes from the prickly ash tree. It is interesting to note that this Sichuan pepper originally came from the New World in the 17th century. This pepper flower creates the most remarkable flavour on the tongue. You either like the spice or you don't, but one thing is clear it tastes nothing like an Indian spice. In addition to the pepper the predominant sauce is the YU xiang sauce, fish flavoured and made from vinegar, ginger, sesame and soy. The extraordinary facet of  Sichuan cooking is the variety of techniques used, the regions humid climate encourages pickling, salting, drying and smoking, in addition to sautéing, stir-frying without stewing, dry-braising, Pao (soaking in water) and Hui (frying then braising with corn flour sauce). All these techniques as well as a variety of dishes are showcased in the menu of China House, the starters include some novel dishes. One of my favourites is the Beijing steamed spinach with mustard sesame sauce, it is exquisite. Another very good vegetarian starter is the lotus root fritters served with a sweet and sour dip.  Amongst the non-vegetarian starters there are the usual dim sum, but I strongly recommend the Cantonese prawn siu mai, the siu mai is a combination of sea food and chicken and it is excellent. The other great starter which is worth ordering are fried crab claws with sweet and sour chilli sauce. Crab is a particularly messy thing to eat, the sweetest meat is in the claws. Well all they do is they make the meat accessible by putting it on the claw and deep frying it; it is absolutely yum.We avoided the soups and went to the main course. The concern when ordering was to ensure that we didn't over order the particular Sichuan sauce. We avoided the famous  Beggars Chicken and ordered a good old fashioned Sichuan chicken. This was a revelation; it consisted of a combination of soy sauce, rice wine and ginger to make a tasty chicken and cashew stir-fry. The colouring was bright red and the complexity of the flavours made for an extraordinary creation. I have had the Beggars Chicken here on several occasions and I definitely prefer the Sichuan chicken. My editor, Farzana Contractor who had already finished shooting the pictures and whose company I was dining in, agreed.As we both had eaten the Peking duck on other occasions we did not order it but I strongly recommend that those who have not had it should do so. It is made in a wood-fired oven and the manner in which it is served is gastronomic art at its highest. The restaurant is rightly proud of the manner in which it is served.  There is a special Peking Duck Chef who appears at the table with the full duck and starts slicing it before you. It is sliced in parts and served course wise. The first slices are the skin which is the original Peking duck that is normally had with icing sugar and the moistness of the skin and sugar work quite beautifully. The next slice is the breast meat which is of course traditionally eaten in the pancake roll with the plum sauce and then the rest of the meat. If the chef is in a good mood he can make a broth out of the duck's feet, something of an acquired taste.The Sichuan sea food is also something to be appreciated.  One of my favourites is the sizzling sea bass fillet with green onions and spicy tomato sauce, the spicy tomato sauce almost certainly has some Sichuan pepper in it giving it a kick but not overwhelmingly so. The sea bass was beautifully cooked, tender and moist outdoing the best black cod I have had. The wok fried prawns are another favourite of mine, again a very simple dish stir fried with one of the many Sichuan combination sauces. For me though the great dish and the one I keep returning to is the lamb shank 'hot pot' served with fragrant coriander buns. I have heard people say that this is some form of concession to Indian taste, a sort of Chinese nihari with buns which act like kulchas or sheermal. This is simply not true. In fact the cuisine of Chengdu is famous for hot pots, which is exactly what the lamb shank hot pot is. These hot pots range from simple spicy to moderate. The most famous being fish head hot pot. In fact Chengdu is full of famous hot pot restaurants.  To get back to the lamb shanks, they are cooked in a rich spicy concoction, with bamboo shoots, mushrooms and the lingering aromatic Sichuan pepper. The broth is rich and the coriander buns soak up the gravy. It really is quite an experience. For the vegetarians, the dish which I enjoy the most is the braised aubergine. It is served with green onions and pickled chillies. It is a sort of equivalent of the Sichuan chicken. I also enjoy the steamed broccoli which has a most fragrant and delicate garlic sauce. The desserts like in most chinese restaurants are quite ordinary including the standard Chinese custard buns, but the jasmine tea tiramisu is exceptionally good. There are Western desserts as well, but these don’t really need a comment. China House, Grand Hyatt Mumbai, Off Western Express Highway, Santacruz East, Mumbai 400 005 www.mumbai.grand.hyatt.com |
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