En China and Dine: wins points for being slightly different than the usual take on Chinese food

Area:  Castle Plaza Hotel キャッスルプラザ, 5 min walk east of Nagoya Station, Exit 11 of Unimall  ユニモール
Restaurant:  En China and Dine　チャイナ＆ダイン 園
Website:  http://www.castle.co.jp/plaza/restaurant/en/
Map:  http://r.gnavi.co.jp/m42vaga00000/map/


Hours:  Lunch 11:30am-2pm, Dinner 5-9:30pm (LO9pm)



I'm not usually craving the Japanese take on Chinese food, but this restaurant had a sign advertising their dumpling lunch, and I've been craving dimsum.  Plus I had an early lunch break so I could make it in time for their 2pm last order.

First, they brought out the tea; my own teapot filled with jasmine tea.  This was a good sign of authenticity.  They also didn't take away the extra plate settings on the table (I've been told it's rude to leave the extra settings out in Japan).  

The first dish was a duck salad.  It was fairly Japanese in flavor since it used a common sesame dressing.  The salad had crunchy transparent noodles had no flavor (almost like fried harusame or mung bean noodles).  It was garnished with bits of fried egg wrappers.  The duck was only lightly seasoned so it nice gamey flavour.  

Next was the soup, it tasted like shark fin soup, but I doubt there was any shark in in it.  The enoki was probably there to mimic that.  Black tree ear fungus and carrots were also in this slighty vinegary and very salty seafood broth concoction. 

Now for the part I was waiting for.  Starting with the 4 pocket dumpling:  the wrapper was a bit mushy and sticky (sticking to my teeth),  the filling had some sort of crunchy cartilage.  I was advised that each dumpling was seasoned but if there was not enough I could use vinegar, rayu (a spicy sesame oil) or soy sauce (Japanese soy sauce of course, although Chinese soy sauce may have been preferred here).  

The little yellow dumpling was obviously shrimp with perhaps chunks of chewy squid.  It had a lot of white pepper in it.  The flat dumpling was a crab filled one. The skin was slightly broiled it seemed, so it wasn't as mushy as the previous, but it was still sticky.  White pepper was also strong in this one.

The greenish siu mai shaped one was a pork filling with a wasabi flavored wrap.  Since dim sum is often served with yellow mustard. The wasabi here definitely worked nicely.  

The pinkish flower shaped dumpling was filled with asparagus, shrimp paste and chunks of shrimp.  It was nicely seasoned with the presence of ginger.  The wrapper however was a bit mushy.  

The green triangle was filled with a green vegetable.  Perhaps the wrapper was made with yomogi.  But it was mild on the seasoning so the veggies weren't overpowered. 

The one looking like a brain was filled with nira.  It had a garlickey essence to it.  The wrapper was cooked nicely, not sticky nor mushy, more like a Gyoza wrapper.  

The dumpling covered in corn was a bit interesting.  With big chunks of shrimp in a ball of steamed dough (This was didn't come in a wrapper).

The thick wrapper dumpling was more authentic, with a juicey pork filling and a nice chewy and non sticky wrap.  

The siu mai was good, but not so authentic.  It had a lot of onion and cabbage in the filling making it very soft pasty.  The texture was not so different than the Japanese kamaboko or fish cake (this is the usual texture of the Japanese take on siu mai). 

The congee used Japanese rice, so it didn't have the same aroma as Hong Kong style.  It was perhaps made in chicken broth, seasoned with only a slight amount of salt. 

Dessert of course, being in Japan, included an-nin dofu, an almond flavored tofu-like pudding.  It had canned fruit and syrup poured over it.  The mango juice had a huge piece of delicious mango hiding in the liquid. Mangos, being expensive in Japan, that piece was probably 2 or 3 dollars worth!  

The cheese cake was strange.  I couldn't decide if I liked it.  Slightly sweet with an almost unnoticeable lemon flavor.  The taste of undercooked dough was apparent although it did not look raw.  

The egg tart's pastry seemed like it was siting in the fridge a little too long.  It lost its flakiness so it was a bit chewy.  The egg filling was only slighlty sweet and was coconutty.  It went well with the strawberry jam, but did not conjure up the idea of a Chinese dessert. The fried sesame ball was probably the best part, and something you'd find at a real dimsum restaurant.

For 1800 yen, I'm not sure the flavours were worth it, but for the originality, it was.