Sampan @ The Suryaa, New Delhi: Menu Makeover

It is said that variety is the spice of life. Sampan — the Flavours of Asia restaurant at The Suryaa Hotel — has also decided to go for a ‘makeover’, of their dishes that is!

We arrived for a sampling of the new menu on offer at the Sampan and didn’t go back disappointed. A specially crafted five-course menu, for ‘The Hotel Explorer’ team, was laid out for us for the evening.

Located on the top floor of The Suryaa, the restaurant offers stunning panoramic view of the city. The subtle and impressive interiors add to the charm of this Pan Asian restaurant.

The tasting began with two varieties of dimsums. A well-cooked dimsum always hits the mark and the Jiaogi Ji was just that. The mince made of chicken leg and shitake mushrooms packed a punch while the one with baby pokchoi, water chestnut and some baby corns should keep any vegetarian palette pleased.

The dimsums were followed by a couple of appetisers beginning with the Chilli Mountain Chicken. It was a perfect blend of sweet and sour — something that we have come to be accustomed with Chinese cuisine in India. The chilli was not overpowering and balanced out the sweetness perfectly. The Three Treasure Vegetable was the other appetiser — nice and crispy with plenty of crunch.

Chilli Mountain Chicken

We ordered some Sushi, which was not mentioned on our menu, and thank god we did. The presentation was lovely and it was Sushi with a twist as it had dressing. Pleasant surprise, I must say!

The third course of the evening was the Sour Pepper Vegetable Wonton. Now personally I am not a big fan of the vegetable wonton but this one changed my mind. The wonton wrap was nice and thin and the vegetable filling went well with the broth which was delightfully light.

Sushi with a Twist

The dish of the night was part of the main course — Thai Prawn Curry with Pea Aubergine. The curry was nice and tangy, like any Thai curry should be, while the prawns were cooked to perfection melting in our mouths. I would suggest one should try the curry with the Steamed Jasmine Rice in order of fully appreciate flavours in the curry.

For the meat lovers, we had the Kung Pao Chicken and you can never go wrong with that. The tofu and the stir fried green vegetables were well liked too and everyone went for a second serving of it.

Finally, the meal is never complete without some sweetness. The dessert platter featured Honey Tossed Almond Darsan — crisp to perfection — Seven Treasure Ice-cream which went perfectly with the Pisang Gorang. The latter is actually a snack food made of banana or plantain being deep fried in hot cooking oil, mostly found throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines.

All-in-all in this tasting we managed to take a culinary tour of the Oriental world with dishes from China, Thailand and even Indonesia. What more can one ask for in a night!