TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Five o'clock in the afternoon was not the best time to visit a restaurant, since lunch time had passed and dinner time had yet to come. But Wong Heng Nam, the chef of 'M.A.D in Shanghai' restaurant knows the trick for such times. He jumped into the dim sum kitchen and made us some of jiaonzi (dumplings). Although dumplings were originally eaten at breakfast, the small-sized meals are now offered at anytime.
Wong is a specialist in making dim sum. Every single day for years, Wong has been twisting the dumpling skins for small sizes.
"As the result, my hands are always shaking," said the Shanghai man.
Unlike Chinese traditional restaurants which have three separate kitchens, M.A.D In Shanghai only has two kitchens; which are Chinese kitchen and Western kitchen. Both kitchens were opened so that visitors could see activities in there.
The newly-opened restaurant is a franchise of Singaporean restaurant and is carrying a fusion concept. The Chinese dishes are modified to have a bit of western style, while European meals are also twisted to have a bit of Chinese tastes.
The Chinese kitchen of M.A.D in Shanghai looked busier preparing the dumplings.
"This is because Chinese from central and north like Shanghai likes to eat jiaozi, while people come from southern parts prefer to eat rice even though they also have jiaozi," said Eddie Kee, the Senior General Manager of Tunglok group that owned the franchise license.
While we were waiting for Shifu Wong to finish the dumplings, we munched on the Truffle Fries, a french-fries-like snack with truffle spread. A French gastronome, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, called the truffles as the diamond of the kitchen. Truffles are hard to find since they grow hidden between roots of trees.
The Truffle Dumpling made by Wong was certainly the form of fusion concept, since Chinese culture did not usually put truffles into their dumplings. The Truffle Dumpling contained vegetables, ham, and has truffle spread on top of it. It tasted spicy. The colorful vegetables were seen through the transparent dumpling skin.
The dish that still had more original look was Xiao Long Bao, a unique kind of dim sum that has broth inside the dumpling wrap. To eat this, we should put the dumpling on a spoon, open the skin slightly, and once the broth leak out, we should slurp on the broth and put the dumpling into out mouth. There were ginger and scallion scents came out when the skin was torn.
"There was gelatin inside the dumpling, and when it was steamed, the gelatin melted into broth," said Wong.
We continued to try other dishes offered by the restaurant, such as the furry Yam Dumpling which is made of taro, Special Cheong Fun and Mantau Burger. Special Cheong Fun was a steamed rice roll that looked like small intestine of a pig. But do not worry, the chef did not put any pork meat in the dish. The rice inside the roll fried into a crispy texture, which is different from ordinary Cheong Fun that normally has regular cooked rice. We ate the roll by firstly dipping it into the sauce.
The Mantau Burger was an actually cross-breed dish. This was a wagyu burger sandwiched in mantau (Chinese bread). The mantau tasted sweeter and more filling than European bread. We ate the dim sum with the company of Tie Guan Yin tea.
When we felt that we had enough dim sum, we tried to other menu: the Baked Chili Cheese Live Scallop and Charcoal Grilled Spicy Coconut Scented with Cod. The first meal looked very western, with scallop wrapped in mouth-watering mozzarella cheese. The different was that there were spread of fried lotus root on top of the dish, which turned the taste into Chinese taste.
The Charcoal Grilled Spicy Coconut Scented with Cod, as the name reveal, was a grilled cod fish served with spicy coconut sauce. The melting texture of the dish plus delectable coconut sauce should be held longer inside the mouth.
Our last meal, the Foie Gras Beef Clay Pot Rice, was a dish consisted of goose's liver, slices of wagyu beef, and rice poured with soy sauce broth. The cooking method was a bit complex and the pot could only be opened just before we ate the dish. Once the pot was opened, the luscious aroma wafted all around the room.
QARIS TAJUDIN
