Having been spoiled by Ed Schoenfeld's incredible Red Farm in NYC, it is not easy for me to eat Chinese food with glee, anywhere else. His food is the stuff of midnight yearnings and insouciant cravings. Hunger that can only be sated with visits to Red Farm.
How happy I am to report that Mandarin Trail in The Great India Place Mall, whilst not truly Chinese, has the kind of fare, that has had me return to a mall, to eat food, half a dozen times. Each time with yearning. Each time leaving me with a good feeling of full satiety.
It is easy to find dim sum just about everywhere in Delhi these days. Most places call them "Dimsums". Not realizing that Dim Sum is already a plural. Malapropisms if funny in Chinatown in Manhattan, New York, are just as odd and funny in New Delhi.
"...Dim sum is literally translated to mean “touch the heart” and the associated Cantonese phrase yum cha means “to drink tea.” Taken together, dim sum is a meal of small dishes served with tea comprised of a collection of savory and sweet tastes from a variety of steamed and fried buns, dumplings and rolls...."
Click on this link to read more about dim sum.
To enjoy some delicious dim sum, get yourself to Mandarin Trail, and you will find yourself savoring dumplings that have been made with judicious care, deft handling, filled to the gills, and with fillings that have as much personality as one can appreciate, and more. These are not pretty things that have no soul, dumplings here are full of personality and shine with crystal clarity.
The wrappers of the dumplings are as good as the inside fillings. Not often the case.
The Szechwan chicken dumplings (the first photo of this post) were exceptionally delicious. Took me back in memory lane to the pork and peanut butter dumplings that Eddie would make for us at his home. These chicken dumplings were juicy beyond belief. Had just the right amount of heat. And with a most wonderful textural contrast between filling and wrapper. I began by taking one, as I am usually the reluctant meat eater. But just as I was happily enjoying the first bite of the first chicken dumplings, I let our server know that I would gladly take a second.
The exotic vegetables crystal dumplings were most surprisingly flavorful and textured. Most often vegetarian dumplings are a menu place filler. Forgotten items. Given least bit of thought and time. But at Mandarin Trail, that is clearly not the case.
Chicken and green garden crystal dumplings were made with another moist filling of chicken, But with a green cilantro sauce binding the ground poultry together. Giving the dumplings that savoriness and flavor that an Indian palate needs for sure, but would also please and sate anyone wanting tasty morsels of deliciousness.
Rohit and Anirudh (my nephews) had the prawn and coriander suimai which looked rather beautiful. They seemed happy with them. I wish in retrospect that I had eaten at least one.
Mandarin Trail has a small offering of dumplings, but each noteworthy and delicious. I would rather have few choices, but brilliant ones. This restaurant understands that less is more.
Crispy string beans are one of my favorite things to eat at Red Farm in NYC. They are also good at several other Chinese restaurants in the US and other cities and countries.
Just like I treat a margarita pizza as my gauge around estimating the skills of a pizzeria, strings beans are my way of testing the skills of a Chinese kitchen.
The beans at Mandarin Trail pass the test with flying colors. It seems the chefs in the kitchen only keep getting better at making them. I was in love the first time I dined there almost a year ago. And today, I was in love with them even more so. This time they came with a healthier dose of sweet peppers fried with the beans. An incredible visual as well as gustatory treat.
As I type this blog, I wish I had ordered a second portion. But I was the only vegetarian at the table. We had ordered too much food for three. It would have been me that would have had to finish the beans all by myself. I know I would have done so. But, that would have been too greedy of me.
The deliciousness of the beans has me already plotting my next visit to Mandarin Trail.
We had ordered four different dumplings and the strings beans as our first course. The server had to pull away the plate of green beans with some resistance from me. I was done with them, they were gone, but a part of me did not want to part company with the plate.
Next came three meat dishes and one vegetarian main.
It was the boys first time eating at Mandarin Trail. I wanted them to understand the simple yet deep brilliance of the restaurant and its cuisine.
These are fuss free dishes, made with love, prepared with pride, and shared with affectionate and caring service.
It was by design that I ordered more food than I knew we would finish. I wanted to boys to leave with a feel for the restaurant,. Also, them being boys, young ones at that, had me confident that any leftovers would be put to good use.
Stir fried pork in Szechwan sauce was beyond delightful. Moist and packing heat. Just the right amount of sweet to counter the fire of the peppers. Sauced Indian style, and was explained to us that we could go light. We decided to go as the locals do. It worked out just fine.
Anirudh decided to go with the lamb chili coriander. A wonderfully fine choice. The meat was moist. The flavors bold yet not overpowering. There was a refinement to the sauce that is not often found in the Indian-Chinese genre. That the chef can be measured in his cooking, is evident at every stage of a meal at Mandarin Trail.
Pan Fried Noodles with chicken in a hot garlic sauce had Rohit drooling from the get go. Nostalgia of meals past was taking over his mind. As I watched him devour this dish, pretty much mostly by himself, I realized how much he must love these crispy noodles with a generous topping of sauce. His eyes had the same look of joy and contentment that they had when he saw them listed on the menu, as when he tasted his first bite.
Memories of food, are the trickiest memories to live with. They harken back to those moments when we first taste something. Even if hundreds condemn a dish as being a worst-in-class, but our memories take us back to that version of a famous dish, NOTHING, no Michelin stars, no fanciful setting, and not even romance with a sexy partner, can make us think another version, the better version as deemed by countless many, as being good enough.
Associations we have with dishes. Memories we have from the past about food. Our first tastes of dishes that are iconic, always are the guiding and deciding factor around if and when we might like another version of that same dish. Chances are, that nothing ever will add up to that first experience.
The noodles are an Indian take on an American take of Chinese noodles. No self respecting Chinese might even consider them worthy of their glance, let alone a taste. But many of us have come of age eating noodles this saucy and over handled. They are comforting and memorable. Delightful and delectably sating. Need I say more.
Chicken in chefs special green curry took me back to the green curry made for us by Chef Chai Siriyarn at Marnee Thai, the temple to Thai cuisine in San Francisco. When Chai cooks, one stops everything and eats, eats and eats, till Chai has finished cooking. His is food of delicious flavors, honest caring hard work, and ancestral brilliance. Nothing every quite matches up to Chai's food. But that is the beauty and brilliance of his food.
That this curry at Mandarin Trail reminded me of his curry, was the best compliment, and the most superlative elicitation of a reaction.
It is no surprise that I love this curry, as Mandarin Trail is a rare restaurant in India where the chef actually makes his green curry paste fresh, and is not buying it in a can or a tub. The fresh flavors are not all, it is the uniqueness of the flavors and their personality, that separates them from all others, that make both Chai's and this curry, most memorable.
Other versions of green curry are always just a shade of the same boxed curry powder. With a tad more of this or that added, to give it some fresh identity. But the underlying flavor is always the same canned or tubbed taste that is too sour, too perfumed, too pungent, too common. Also always a tad too sweet or too spicy or too garlicky or lemongrassy.
The green curry at Mandarin Trail was a joy to discover a year ago. The joy only greater still, for it was a discovery I had made in India. That it was so close to home. That it was at a place where I could send any and all.
The chocolate brownie sizzler with vanilla ice cream was exactly as advertised. Rohit enjoyed it, even as I stole several bites.
The sesame crisp honey drizzled noodles with vanilla ice cream also just what I had expected.
Mandarin Trail's desserts are no trailblazers. But that is also the case of Red Farm. Not sure why, but Chinese restaurants, Asian restaurants, seem to focus less on the sweet course. Sad, as Asians have notorious sweet tooth, and this would be a most incredible way of upping the sales in each tab.
Memories are what life is all about. Lasting memories are what make or break us. Memorable experiences when good, can propel us to places that few other things can. When memories are cloaked with horrors, one can easily be broken beyond repair for life.
Dining with my nephews, Rohit and Anirudh, I saw in them two men who are poised to make great impact in the world as we will know it tomorrow. Both dynamic, charming, sensitive, caring, kind and decent. They also are grounded in cultural and societal nuance in a way that their actions today, are a reflection on the actions of the forebears past. The collective past of their family as a whole, shall also affect their own future and what legacy the leave in their lifetimes.
And so, memories are what we ought to be investing in. Memories of the sweet kind, even when we are savoring salty and spicy foods. One never knows how and when a memory, a thought, a moment, can trigger us into places of great joy, happiness, creativity, caring, and brilliant sharing. Such are the powers vested in our actions, and especially those actions we invest wholly in.
Whilst Mandarin Trail is no French Laundry or Per Se, it is a charming restaurant in a modest mall in Noida, a town that is as much a part of Delhi as Gurgaon.
What makes Mandarin Train memorable is not its fanciness or lack thereof, its fussiness or lack thereof, its hipness of lack thereof, its chefs credentials and storied past or lack thereof, its hot decor or lack thereof, or its buzz of popularity or lack thereof -what makes Mandarin Trail memorable is that it is a restaurant that takes itself seriously enough, yet it doesn't take itself too seriously. It is moderately priced, has a pleasing look, clean and neat, with a menu with ample choices for vegetarians and meat eaters alike, with service that is on point, and handled by servers that are aiming to please and leave their guests with a memorable experience.
It is the package as a whole that makes Mandarin Trail most appealing. Also that it has already been around long enough, to not be a hipsters den, makes it both more approachable and memorable friendly,
My drive from South Delhi to Noida is never too long for me to make when I crave its dishes. The Barapullah bridge makes the ride 18-25 minutes depending on the time and day. Totally and easily doable.
When one dines with charming friends and family like I was blessed with today, there is no reason at all to not take them to Mandarin Trail.
I wanted to leave Rohit and Anirudh with a comforting lunch experience. An experience that was not trendy, not fancy, not scene-y, not too noisy, and not too expensive - Mandarin Trail fit all those criterions and delivered on each one with memorable elan.
Mandarin Trail
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