Shanghainese specialties – DRAGON-I restaurant

It is Sunday morning, initially a friend and I planned to wake up to have Chinese Dim sum early in the morning, unfortunately our plan did not work out because we cannot wake ourselves up, the reason is simple: we did not usually slept early most of the night as part of our habits, that is a bad habit guys, so I personally advice do not follow us and we are trying to change that too. Therefore we change our breakfast plan into lunch and we decided to have our meal at a Chinese restaurant named DRAGON-I (龍的傳人) it means “Descendants of the dragon” Chinese often use this term of a sign of ethnic identity. We went to the restaurant located in Leisure Mall, Cheras.

Short introduction of the restaurant in Malaysia, this company specialized in Chinese culinary, the culinary style is from the regions of Shanghai, Szechuan, Beijing and Lanzhou, Dragon-i was established in 2004, its first outlet opened at Mid-valley. This restaurant’s signature dishes are “Xiao Long Bao” which is soup dumplings and “La Mian”, hand-pulled noodles, I made a quick guess because they written the words on their restaurant signboard, their menu, and their black sealed towel, so I guess this is their famous items to have. So there was I looking at their menu after my friend and I sat down.

While thinking what to have our lunch, I noticed the images of the food are special, I mean their food presentation is very attractive, colors, decorations, etc. very tempting; So after a while I had decided to have myself as followings:

Front entrance of the restaurant

The menu with Chinese design

Main dish

Braised Pork Belly with Preserved Vegetables in Hot Stone Pot (石锅梅菜扣肉)

– RM 20.00

Side dishes
1) Shanghainese Steamed Meat Dumplings (上海小笼包) – RM 10.30
2) Steamed Meat Dumplings with Chili Soy Sauce (红油抄手) – RM 12.00

Soup
Double-boiled Pear with White Fungus and Red Dates (红枣雪耳炖雪梨)

– RM 12.00

I ordered a soup because I think their drinks they have in their menu are normal besides I think Chinese soups are generally worth a try. After a while, the waitress bought us our utensil, there is one thing I like about this restaurant’s way branding is they have a custom made chop-stick stamped with their restaurant’s logo on it, so is their black towel.

Words written:"Descendants of the dragon"

Ok, around 15 to 20 minutes of waiting, the Shanghainese Steamed Meat Dumplings is served

Shanghainese Steamed Meat Dumplings (上海小笼包) 

Once the waitress opens up the cover, the steam literally burst out, it must be fresh cooked~! Allow me to show you the way to eat a dumpling: First you place the dumpling on a spoon, then you pinch a small hole at the top with your mouth and carefully sip the hot soup inside, then only you consume the whole dumpling with ginger and Chinese black vinegar they provided. There you go their signature dishes, containing minced pork shank, ginger and natural pork skin gelatin, all covered with a skillfully handmade dumpling skin with at least 18 delicate folds (sounds pretty epic huh?), personally I like the filling of the dumplings and the soup, I actually prefer a thinner dumpling skin though, it should be strong enough to hold the filling and yet thin enough to be translucent.

Braised Pork Belly with Preserved Vegetables in Hot Stone Pot (石锅梅菜扣肉) 

Before we finish our dumplings, my main dish has arrived, honestly I was a little bit of a disappoint to the presentation of the food, because it is far too different to the menu, maybe because of the color of the soup is dull, but I should not jump to conclusion of the taste yet despite of its first impression, I ordered a bowl of rice for this dish, I scooped some soup to the rice and have my first bite, I am pleased with the taste of the soup with rice, it is quite salty but it is fine with rice. The braised pork and the preserved vegetable is a good mix, these two combination makes the pork belly does not taste oily even though you can see the thin layer of fat from the meat, because the preserved vegetable kind of counter the oily part, overall I am satisfied with this dish, must have it before it gets cold.

Double-boiled Pear with White Fungus and Red Dates (红枣雪耳炖雪梨)

And then the soup came just in the right time because I need some liquid form to clear my throat and mouth, this soup is boiled out of pear it is good for our health basically, the pear itself helps in digestions, prevent dizziness, normalize blood pressure, good for throat (ah-ha!) and etc. the red dates helps in lowering the blood pressure, strengthen out immune systems and etc. I can go for a long list of benefits for soups even though the taste is not tasty, but it contain a slightness of natural sweet, I did not mean those artificial sugar sweet. Chinese herbal soups have one thing in common they are all specialized in strengthen our inner organ and immune systems which is why I stated in the first place, their soup is worth a try.

And finally the last side dish has made its way,

Steamed Meat Dumplings with Chili Soy Sauce (红油抄手) 

I would say this dish is normal, nothing special about this dish, just that the volume of the soup inside is a lot more than the Shanghainese Steamed Meat Dumplings because when I took my first bite, the soup burst out from the side of my mouth, I was shocked and quickly cover my embarrassment with a poker face, pretending nothing happen.

Conclusion
First of all this restaurant is non-Halal, because it served pork, the environment here is nice, it provide a smoking area outside, the interior has a very nice design of Chinese elements, dragons, red and black colors, you name it, my friend and I has a good time there, oh they have music too, just it is not oriental ones, I think they should have play Chinese oriental music, but overall it is a good place to spend with families and friends.

Below is the google map for this restaurant.

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