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Nice very nice. These words will cross the mind
of those who enter the new Chinese Restaurant in the city, Mainland
China at Tulip Aruna on the Sterling Road. It is spacious and has
an ambience a pretty good one at that.
 Instead
of relaxing, surrounded by all that woodwork, everyone will go on
red alert, as the packaging is very impressive. Chicken wotibs or
steamed dim sums (Rs.120) and corn cubes (Rs.110) are enjoyable.
There may not be much novelty in Mainland China, actually there
are quite a number of golden oldies on the menu, but these oldies
are golden here.
The dish that simply out stone the rest, which
are by no means inferior is the stir-fried Chinese cabbage, snow
pea and asparagus. It is nothing less than perfection. The greens
are crunchy, glistening green tossed in a light white sauce.
Sauces. That is where Mainland China scores. May not be all that
original but they, including the dips, are done very well. The meats
too are good. The main attractions are the braised lamb in black
pepper sauce (Rs.160) and roast duck in light soy sauce (Rs.300).
After living in water starved Chennai, ducks have become a weakness
for all the visitors to the place. And this one did not let anybody
down. The sauce merely enhanced the flavour of the meat. The only
dish that did not go down well is the streamed noodles with crabmeat
sauce (Rs.140). The strong smell gave the crab away.
For desert, again the problem of same choices- Date pancake, chocolate,
dipped litchis etc- crops up. But majority plumbed for Darsaon and
Date wontons (Rs.45 each). While the first one was ample and nice,
the second one had only a measly amount of dates.
Except for minor hiccups here and there, it is a tasty meal at
Mainland China.
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