Toss It Up Mondays At The Oriental Blossom, Hotel Marine Plaza, Churchgate

Soya Sauce. Hunan Sauce. Kung Pao Sauce. Cauldrons of Sauces. Spices. More & More!

 

When most of us think about Chinese cuisine, this is what we think of. Sauces. chillies, spices, oil, oodles of all of it. But that is because of the way Chinese food is cooked & presented in most of India aka Indianized Chinese. One of the greatest things about India is how we customize everything to our taste-buds. But in reality, Chinese cuisine is very serene, quite bland, bringing out subtle plus distinct flavors of all the veggies, grains and soup stocks. However, the absolutely authentic Chinese cuisine is perhaps unpalatable for the best of us :D So how does one solve this dilemma of wishing to taste authentic Chinese delicacies without compromising on taste, the way we like it? Simple. Visit The Oriental Blossom at Hotel Marine Plaza, Churchgate, Mumbai :)

 

 

Honestly, I had heard really good things about The Oriental Blossom and was just itching to go here, especially ever since I relished the Mediterranean Food Festival at The Bayview last month. Now as anybody who reads my blog knows me, I am no fine dine gourmet expert, I haven't traveled the world (yet :P) and have no idea how any authentic cuisine tastes! But I am ready to learn and experiment and savor :) I am as much at home relishing the best of Indianized Chinese from 5 Spice & such places as I was hoping to get a look into some authentic Chinese food. Mainland China & Sichuan House did make me happy some time ago and when I got the invite to attend Chef's Table at The Oriental Blossom, well, it was just heavenly.

Hotel Marine Plaza oozes premium standards in terms of facilities and hospitality. The Oriental Blossom is a luxury destination for relishing Chinese food. Imagine my surprise then when I came to know of their ''Toss It Up Mondays'' concept which is basically the most Value for Money proposition for an express lunch I have come across. A 5-course feast of Soup, Starter, Main Course, Rice/Noodles & Dessert presented as a Set Menu with plenty of options for Vegetarians as well as Non-Vegetarians, all at Rs. 1099 (inclusive of all taxes). This defines VFM. Yup. Go ahead, shriek with joy :D Mondays gonna get better now y'all!

Tasting this set menu in the company of some brilliant bloggers,now that is how I want every Saturday to be like :D Starting with the elegant ambiance, the warm and impeccable service and the generously portioned delicacies, everything is pitch perfect here. Menu has been created with every preference in mind. So there are dishes for those with a love for spicy/fiery/aggressive notes as well as those who like their food softer, subtler and wholesome. 

 

 

Start off the feast with a choice of soups. For those with a love for something intense but not fiery (like me!), go for Lung Fung Soup, a sort of mini meal in itself with those lovely bits of carrots, spring onions and mushrooms giving off a healthy vibe :D Manchow Soup is best for those who love to play with fire! But make sure there is plenty of room left in stomach for the appetizers which made me want to borrow a stomach from someone else & store it all in for future consumption :D Vegetable Dumplings were not bland or soggy, rather had a distinctive crunch of the veggies having been stir fried before stuffed into the dumpling. Interesting :) Then came the Three Treasure with Salt & Pepper,which had given me mental visuals of Charlie Chaplin's silent movies for some strange reason :P I thought 'Salt & Pepper huh? How can that be tasty?' And how I love to be proven wrong :D Mushrooms, Zucchini, Broccoli seasoned AND presented to perfection. Subtle and hitting all the right notes in terms of flavors. Just when I had nearly stuffed myself with these alone, I realized there was Crispy Vegetable Szechwan waiting to be savored. Normally, I hear the word 'Szechwan' and apart from the fact that I simply cannot pronounce it correctly, I think 'Fiery Spicy' and won't touch it. But wait, here, it is not an overdose of spices, remember? So it was the most beautiful medley of mild spice and mild sweetish kick which I adore :) Oh just look at it all, doesn't it all look appetizing? My photo skills seem to have gone for a toss here, but trust me, everything tastes even better than it looks :D

   

  

Okay, so that is about 30% of menu covered :P No,I was not kidding when I talked about generous portions! The main course is yet to come and it is a treasure trove too. For those on a health kick, look no further than Stir Fried Oriental Vegetables in Garlic Soya Sauce with crunchiness of veggies & drizzling of lip-smacking flavors intact :) We especially loved Waterchestnuts, Peppers, Baby Corn in Chilli Black Bean Sauce which went as perfectly with Fried Rice as Cakes go with Birthdays :D Bursting with flavors, it is what we say a larger than life dish where the ingredients themselves are the star, without anything overpowering anything else. And then came a surprise. Now raise your hands if you dislike Eggplant or our humble Baingan :P I do! My mom has been at her wit's ends trying to get me to eat Eggplant & Sweet Potatoes since childhood. I just don't like them. I will eat them, if you blackmail me ('Eat or that poster of Leonardo di Caprio will go missing from your room') but I won't be happy :P You get the point :D So when the 3rd main course dish was Diced Aubergine with Red & Green Pepper in Hot Garlic Sauce, I had zilch expectations from it. In fact,I was just pretending to be cool and casually engrossed in conversation with others when the dish arrived so as not to even look in its direction. It did not help that it was kept right beside Hakka Noodles and I had to look there eventually, you know, when I needed second helping of the noodles :D It was love. At first sight. With Baingan. I know what it sounds like :P This is one dish where the whole personality of Baingan/ Eggplant/ Aubergine has transformed. Imagine Charlie Sheen transforming into Tony Stark. Or something along those lines. So soooo good. Try it to believe it. Goes really well with Hakka Noodles too!

You won't be mistaken to assume that I reached a comatose state of existence after so much good food. I almost did. Only I knew that my favorite part of any meal, Desserts, were about to make an appearance. And so did Chef Huang who has been supervising the kitchen of The Oriental Blossom since 20 years and still makes every meal himself. He is the humblest man one can hope to meet. A true lover of food, he loves to sample local cuisines on his world travels and personally takes care of every visitor here, personalizing food to their preferences. His presence made the Desserts section even sweeter,if that were even possible. My absolute favorite Honey Tossed Noodles with Ice Cream came in a brilliantly innovative presentation mix. Quite a few places make a grave error when it comes to this dish, they either drizzle too little honey or they make it toooooo sweet. Not only are the honey tossed noodles here perfectly nurtured with honey, they are not too sweet either. The crunchiness of the noodles, the natural sweetness of honey, mixed with the creamy vanilla ice cream. H.E.A.V.E.N. We also had Molten Chocolate Lava which was dense and intense. If you are a chocolate lover, you will attack this like Hulk attacks...umm...everything :D

One Meal. Every Monday. So Much Deliciousness. 5 Stars. Absolutely Recommended :)