What happens when you combine these ingredients: appetite, exotic food, live music and awesome friends on a Saturday afternoon? I’ll answer that, magic happens! Zen Garden held the China Town Street Market over the weekend and it was magic and more at the place. Specially organized and curated by Chef Dan, this was Zen Garden’s way of sharing the Chinese cuisine to local food lovers. The live cooking and music made the experience all the more wholesome. The food stations felt like stepping into a little wonderland each time.
Photography by Ekta Patel
Pancakes and Plum Sauce
The crispy tofu pancake was the starter at the first station and it was a great introduction to the other dishes. The pancake was rolled over with veggies. The texture was lightly crispy and the Hoisin sauce made it even better. The taste was similar to what your typical chapati without the softness to it would taste like.
Dumplings
Money bags! But make it chicken and pork! This is what their dumplings and dim sum selection included as well as green sum and pepper crab bao. The chicken and pork flavour could be tasted in the money bags which had a doughy taste to them. I wanted to have more of these lumpy appetizers but I had to try a few more dishes.
Photography by Ekta Patel
Off the Wok
Have you had a taste of heaven recently? Sorry, I’m about to make you crave for some of it. The Heavenly Beef delivered on the savouriness. Well cooked, well spiced and delicious enough to make me think I was having beef dipped in honey and salt. The sweet tooth in me enjoyed the sugary twist to this meaty serving and I’d sure have it again.
Let’s not forget the salt and pepper ribs! The words ‘delicious and hot flavoured’ are not enough to fit the description of how amazing they were. The bold taste of balanced pepper made devouring these ribs such an experience. The ‘Off the Wok’ dishes at the Zen Garden China Town street food market were incredibly good with the Dan Dan noodles topping the list. The noodles had a smoky taste to them and worry not, they were not too long to struggle consuming. The Kung Pao chicken was tangy with the pepper and vegetables delivering a fantastic taste. Are you hungry yet?
Photography by Ekta Patel
Chargrilled
Zen Garden was fully booked on this day and the spicy miso wings live cooking station had a sizeable queue. Yes, the chicken wings were piquant, slightly charred, soft texture on the tongue and a delightful taste to keep you going for more. Their chilli lemon sweet corn was the softest corn I’ve had in a while.
Gin cocktails
You can try to say no to gin but remember, it’s 40% stronger than you and thus we had to try the gin cocktails. Their mixologist made the Greenall’s gin with raspberries for us. The raspberries gave it a sweet taste that made one almost forget the strong taste of gin. Pink is man’s new colour because that’s how it appeared, perfect for Instagram’s ‘Photo of the day’ on such a Saturday.
Photography by Ekta Patel
We also had The Botanist gin cocktail with grapefruit and mint which had zesty sharp flavour because of the dry gin. If we had more time, we’d have tried the Opihr with ginger and black pepper as well as the Bloom London gin with pomegranates and thyme cocktails. Times seems to fly when you’re having a good time.
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