I was fortunate enough to get tickets to this Wellington On A Plate event. Mulan managed to organise this for me and her friend got the tickets. She had gone last year but it was at Regal Chinese Restaurant and she raved on about it. This year it was at Dragon, which I rate is one of Wellington’s best Yum Cha offerings and I was excited to give it a try.
Crispy:
BBQ Pork Carrot, Prawn Toast, Squid Ink Paua & Chicken Dumpling & Pan-Fried Spicy Beef Bao
These were a really nice selection of deep-fried or pan-fried dim sims. Prawn toast was really nice and went really well with their house-made chilli oil. The BBQ pork carrot is a typical dish found at Yum Cha and I prefer the offering at Yum Cha than this one. The Spicy Beef Bao was good but not spicy enough for me and ended up adding more chilli oil. Finally, the Paua and Chicken dumpling were good but my least favourite on the dish.
Steamed:
Pork Sui Mai & Crab Roe, Chicken Dumpling, Spicy Prawn & Mushroom Dumpling and Pink Prawn Dumpling – served with Dragons Premium X.O. Paua Chilli Sauce
The pork sui mai was really nice and this is what I really like about Dragon. The chicken dumpling was ok and not my favourite. The spicy prawn and mushroom dumpling were also really nice and I loved the fungus in this dumpling. Lastly, the prawn dumpling was really good and had nice big pieces of shrimp in them. The XO sauce was so good and went really well with the dumplings. It made them just so good. The only downside was these could be hotter.
Chef’s Special
Seafood Selection in Sichuan Chilli Oil
This was a nicely presented and I was happy to dig into this. I really liked the large pieces of lotus root in the dish and went really well with the chilli oil. The scallops, prawn and squid were really nice. I really liked the slightly deep fried piece of fish as the batter soaked up the flavours in the chilli oil. Lastly in there were some glass noodles which were also so good as they also soaked some of the flavours up. Overall a banger of a dish.
Dragon’s Crispy Roast Pork with Hoisin Sauce
I was surprised how this dish was presented. I thought it would have just been pieces of roast pork with hoisin sauce. However, I was wrong. It was wrap like a taco but with Chinese pancake skins. Inside the wrap was also some mango and of course hoisin. This combination beats Peking Duck hands down. It was just so good and the mango was a brilliant idea. However, the choi sum vegetable was a real let down as it was overcooked and soft.
Dragon’s Special Soup Dumplings
Mulan was looking forward to this one the most. We both thought it might have been a Xiao Long Bao in soup, but we were wrong as there was no soup in the dumpling. The dumpling was nice but was very solid and the broth was mushroom based. Was nice but would have preferred if it was hotter in temperature.
Vegetables Fried Rice
Standard Fried rice. Was ok but went really well with the XO sauce and also with the Chilli oil that the seafood came in.
Dessert:
Coconut Bun & Mango Mochi
I was disappointed with these desserts. Mainly due to that they are just your typical desserts at Yum Cha. Dragon made all this effort with all the other dishes but this one was just their stock standard. However, I do like their coconut buns, so that was a bonus.
Double Dragon IPA
All the beers on offer were specially made for this event. Although I am not really a beer drinker, I really liked what was on offer and the different flavours each of the beers bought. This was a nice easy smooth beer and was really easy to drink, especially for a non-beer drinker.
Ba Bao Cha: 8 Treasures Lager
This was also a great lager. They used ingredients found in eight treasure tea. It had some herbal flavours in it and went really well with the steamed food that was offered at our tables.
Fire Monkey: Kumquat & Chilli Sour
This was an interesting beer and was surprisingly sour. However, it went really well with the food that it matched especially with the Seafood Chilli Oil dish and all the other chilli sauce that I was eating that night.
Mutiny of the Baltic: Coconut & Vanilla Bourbon Barreled Aged Porter
This was an interesting beer and was served in a whiskey glass. It had some really dark flavours and had a nice bourbon flavour to the beer. Also, it was quite sweet due to the coconut and vanilla flavours in the beer.
Overall a really great experience. I really loved the matching of the beers and I thought the food was really good. However, everything could have been served hotter in temperature as sometimes the food was just below warm, which was a real shame.
Trencherman's Travels 