Introduction
Hiding in one of the crowded Chinatown areas there is a small, but really loved Ming’s Garden Chinese restaurant offering truly delicious dishes full of the taste. Entering the restaurant, a characteristic smell of sesame oil, garlic, and ginger used in a kitchen can be noticed. Since its establishment more than 30 years ago its customers have been coming here with their appetite to taste the delicious Chinese home style dishes.
The menu is filled with various famous Cantonese dishes, and appetizing dishes like salt and pepper shrimp, Mongolian beef, General Tso Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork. However, it is the sauces, as well as the prompting of how to best season each dish, to be created at Ming’s Garden from scratch.
Complexity of Flavors of Your Choice, All Compact in Each Piece
Ming’s chef and owner Ming Chen, was very proud to awaken as much flavor as possible in raw ingredients before putting them in the plate. From meats and sea foods to vegetables, Chef Ming has taught everyone how make ordinary proteins and produce turn into oriental delights with his secret sauces recipes and his inherited family cookery style.
For instance let us look at the Szechuan String Beans that are some of the best in their food range. Chef Ming sautés green beans in a blazing hot wok so that it develops a slightly burnt tender look but is still crunchy. He then tempers the fish in his newly created house Szechuan sauce which is the blend of soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, garlic, ginger and dried red chili. And the final product is plate of green beans dipped in a glorious deep umami and spicy sauce that packs a fun flavor ride in every vegetable.
Another veggie dish that is worth making is the Broccoli with Oyster Sauce. Chef Ming slightly blanches bright sulfur-containing florets of broccoli to be stir fried with thin interlayered wafer-like slices of raw garlic, white pepper and a sizzling pool of oyster sauce, soy sauce and chicken broth; all covering every tree-like stalk. This is because the pale, dark green crunchy broccoli lays perfectly with the glistening brown sauce, alongside creating a flavor and texture attackers in the mouth.
Top Seafood Dishes that take You to Coastal China
Originally from Fuzhou, China which is rich in seafood, and famously produce some delectable food such as Fuzhou fish balls and the steamboat soup known as Buddha jumping over the wall, Ming introduces his hometown’s specialties at Ming’s Garden.
His Cantonese-style Steamed Whole Fish is a new fish that he buys every morning at the markets in New York’s Chinatown. It is not-gustatory marinated just in salt, ginger, sliced scallion then coated with hot peanut oil to be steamed until it could be fork tender. These lock the sweet and briny flavor of the steaming flesh which almost dissolves on the tongue. Comes with the traditional soy ginger sauce, A luxury that is brought straight from the sea to the table.
The Salt and Pepper Shrimp is another favourite seafood dish that does not mask the natural sweetness of fresh plump shrimp coated with only salt, white ground pepper and encased in a loose batter that fries to an astonishing crisp. The sound one gets from the first bite is followed by the tenderness of the shrimp that has been well fried in that light batter. This is a very addictive appetizer to munch as accompanied by slices of fried jalapeño – crunchy, spicy, and perfectly complements the bacon-wrapped shrimp.
Chinese Barbecue Meats of Char Siu and Soy Sauce Chicken
As a young boy, Ming broke many rules and loved watching over the weekend as his family would go to Chinatown to taste all the forms of barbecue Chinese meat. It has also made him to act as a Chinese barbecuing expert and he introduces two outstanding recipes to his restaurant, of which include Char Siu and Soy Sauce Chicken.
Char Siu, another red barbecue sauce Cantonese barbecued pork contains glistening strips of pork shoulder and belly marinated with a sweet syrup of honey, hoisin sauce, rice wine and spices. The meat is then roasted to fork tender and varnished a dark mahogany color from the glossy caramelized marinade. It is a treat in each slice of salty sweet which could slightly chew on the flavors of the pork. Served over steamed rice, it is as classic a Chinese barbecue pork dish as you can get, and done superbly.
To the lovers of poultry their Soy Sauce Chicken is readily available for those who crave for it. A whole bird is baptized in hot water then cooled before being massaged with an aggressive salty sweet savory sauce made from soy sauce, rice wine, rock sugar and spices. It is then roasted for hours till the skin becomes crunchy and turns a dark amber color coated with the thick ‘molasses like’ syrup. Eating the soy sauce chicken is a delight, where the moment the fork meets the chicken the texture is as if the meat is flaking off from the bone and the flavors as the concentrated salty, sweet and umami essence of soy sauce will fill your taste buds with a moist satisfaction.
The harmony of the grain compositions and the juxtaposition of warm and cold in classic noodle & dumplings.
Among all the noodles and dumplings at Ming’s Garden they stand for the Chinese traditional approach to prepare meals that include various parts of an animal. Let’s start with one of their most popular dishes, the melt in your mouth Potstickers; Dine’s meaty pork and napa cabbage filling wrapped in a thin wheat dumpling skin and pan fried to crispness on the bottom. It is ideal followed by their cup of hot and sour soup comprising of silken tofu, bamboo shoots, vinegar and sliced white pepper giving it its hot and tangy taste.
Shanghai noodle Pan fried has wok hei from the yellow chive, Chinese bacon, beansprouts, and the shredded pork and chicken, stir fried together with the noodle. Lording it over the pile of noodles is an egg fritter that is light and delicate inside but has crispy outside layer. When you stir everything together, just before serving it is when you get a good texture from the springy noodles, crispy veggies and pork belly and the soft fried egg.
Saving Room for Sweets
Finally, when you are through ordering for your meal with Ming’s Garden, don’t conform to the idea that Chinese cannot offer desert. As for the creation of refreshing and cool food palette, their Sweet Red Bean Soup served chilled spoons sweet red adzuki bean puree and topped with evaporated milk. They also have the regulars’ trusted egg custards that are made with osmanthus flower. When the warm egg custard sets to a soft jiggle, the initial taste of it in a spoon is smooth and slightly sweet and leaves one with the right dessert feeling.
Continuing on the ideas from part 1 we come to part 2 of the story, The Next Generation Carries On the Legacy.
Jenny, the daughter of Chef Ming who is now at his retirement age has recently joined the restaurant as has his cousin Michael, who also have grown up working in the restaurant. The two are the new generation who are bringing their new ideas in addition to being offspring continuing the family business at Ming’s Garden. Jenny and Michael who was trained under the mentorship of Chef Ming in the kitchen insisted on the use of made-from-s Scratch cooking methods and secret family recipes which are based on a balanced flavor profiling for Chinese cuisine.
Of course, dishes that are still popular now, such as the salt and pepper shrimp, General Tso Chicken, and potstickers, are still going to be on the menu, however Michael and Jenny are also bringing P.F. Chang’s into the next era with new dishes to be added to the menu like the dry-fried green beans, eggplant with garlic and of course more soup dumplings. They are also updating the beverage section where one can have intentionally created concoctions such as the Salted Plum Fizz or the Chrysanthemum Iced Tea.
After taking the bottles of the torch from their parents, Jenny and Michael’s primary concern of their restaurant is to ensure it retains its commitment of producing true to flavor Chinese meals that the institution has been established for the last 30 years. Just a single spoonful of their food takes you to this Chinatown restaurant’s taste of fusion that you can only dream of. Therefore if you are looking for large, dominating Chinese FLAVORS – then head straight to Ming’s Garden.