Introduction:
If you are Chinese food lover you’ll know how difficult it is to discover an actual Chinese restaurant which gives an exact flavor of China. In the process, restaurants sometimes have to ‘americanize’ the food, which is quite a deviation from genuine Chinese food. Ming’s Garden does one thing to differentiate itself from other Chinese restaurants; it excels at it. Out of the way from the hustle and bustle of other nearby shops and restaurants, passing through the doors takes you directly to the world of the food markets of Shanghai or Beijing.
Patrons ordering food at Ming’s Garden will get to taste food that has been prepared using very fresh ingredients that have been carefully selected by a Hong Kong born chef. The menu is filled with meals which are hard to find in other Chinese restaurants in town and are special to a certain region. For those first tastes of Ming’s food – one bite will bring you in for life – his adventure of flavors, textures, and aromas is a result of many generations. Read on for the what to order when at this havens for lovers of Chinese food.
Ming’s Garden and the Concept Behind it (with the Focus on Its Precedence)
Ming’s Garden has been founded by Ming Chen, who decided to move from Hong Kong to open the restaurant in 2019. Chen is an accomplished Cantonese cook, who was bred in his family restaurant in Hong Kong, where his father, a renowned Cantonese cooking wizard, trained him for the job.
After moving to the states, Chen set his goal of serving the Chinese food that is not easily found in the area. The name Ming’s Garden has been derived from the imperial gardens of the Ming Dynasty and we have a history of providing art, music and food for generations. As with these ancient gardens, Chen worries about using his restaurant to take diners to a different world all together through the courses he serves.
Earlier this year an old deli building was transformed into a modern oriental dining room, and Ming’s Garden opened its door. With imported motifs, Chen filled almost the whole dining room — hand-painted ceramic tiles from the ancient village in Beijing, wooden furniture with inlayed mother-of-pearl originated from the coastal areas. He had even bought lanterns and fabrics of old silk factories in Shanghai to be smuggled into other countries. Even small things depict the true picture of China throughout the space.
However, the spirit of Ming’s Garden is found in the kitchen, though not officially named as such. Chen directly sources from reliable suppliers in California products that are real Chinese ingredients that cannot be easily acquired in town. He maintains that everything must be made from scratch to traditional recipes, and while cooking, the best methods passed on from his ancestors are used. Right down to the house made XO sauce, and dumpling wrappers which are translucent are all hallmarks of Chen’s dedication to tradition and proper execution.
Specialties You Should Not Miss When Visiting Ming’s Garden:
Because of its variety of interesting specialty dishes that can hardly be found elsewhere, Ming’s Garden enthral Chinese food lovers. Some of them are Chen’s special dry fried noodles, XO seafood fried rice which has unbelievable spices, and other districts from the remote province such as the dry north numbing pepper chicken.
Dry-Fried Egg Noodles
Rare to Hong Kong street food, Ming treats the guest with a showstopping performance of this bestselling dish that affords both pleasant textures and highly umami notes. Next, Chen is shown parboiling fresh egg noodles till perfectly al dente, and then stirring them in a burning hot wok using a little bit of oil. This grills the noodles to Can You Taste the Burn? achievement and imparts a fantastic smoky flavour. He then stir fries them with thin strands of barbecued pork, shrimp, bok choy, bean sprouts and yellow chive. The smoke is just the right touch against the bounciness of the noodles, the crispness of the vegetables and juiciness of the meat. Only a hint of soy sauce is added to unite the dish. It is something unique to wok hei, the wok breath smoke common to Chinese cuisine.
XO Seafood Fried Rice
As for the fried rice, it is possible to cook fried rice with XO sauce but Ming did it in a most ingenious way. He begins with sautéing rice over Jinhua ham fat to get amazing aroma on it. He then stirs in prawns, scallops, Chinese sausage and vegetables, the food is stir-fried briskly. Recently, he sautés the rice and seafood ingredients with his homemade XO sauce which is created using dried seafood and ham from Yunnan. This gives a fabulous burst of savoury, character and a touch of heat. It is fried rice as you may never have seen it before.
Dried Pepper Chicken
This dish of Sichuan street food holds true to form with the mala spice – numbing peppers, and tingling Sichuan peppercins. Chen first woks sears chicken thighs until the skin of the chicken is golden brown and let them rest inside the wok. He then sautés freshly chopped chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorn, ginger, and garlic in hot oil to develop a very invigorating stock. Last of all, he panisses it in this sauce until the chicken thighs are generously coated in the aromatic, spicy oil with peppers sticking to succulent chicken. It is an electrifying experience and indeed a great success in presenting the unique numbing spice character of Sichuan province.
Why Dim Sum is a Must Try Chinese Delicacies
Besides the mandatory menu specials that are a must try, Ming’s Garden shine at dim sum. Only served during breakfast on Saturdays and Sundays, Ming’s great dim sum options are presented as colorful dumplings, rice rolls, and Chinese pastries that meet the taste buds and eyes.
Dumplings here are indeed the perfect examples of what dim sum look like; wrappers as thin as saran wrap with the most excellent fillings. The pillowy shrimp and leek dumplings sit on a nest of golden roe are sweet, tender shrimp; enhanced with aromatic leek; and come with a depth of bitterness from briny roe. Another star is the certain white turnip cake with XO sauce. Unlike the dense types of this appetizer cake found in other restaurants, the cake is incredibly light because Chen has whisked the rice batter properly. It is cooked till crispy and golden brown and served with house XO sauce which is perfect blend of crispy texture and savory sauce.
However, as a way of showcasing the restaurant’s perfect dim sum mastery, it is, of course, not limited to rice noodle rolls. So unlike in conventional shops, Chen prepares the shimmering rolls to order by steaming colorful cones made out of rice noodles, garnishing them with barbecued pork or shrimp with herbs. Sliced like breads, they surround the located colourful fillings in enticing layers. The contrast is perfect each time it bites the noodle wrapper is so light, yet the filling is infused with so much flavours and spices.
Don’t forget baked pastries as well also they offer as well. Despite the lack of ostentatious bling do not underestimate the food situation here; sweets may mislead, and so do looks of unsophisticated sweetheart custard tarts with incredibly smooth and tender egg custard nestled in delicately flaky puff pastry. Eggy yolk custard buns gush out its bright golden liquid when ripped apart by chopsticks. Crispy and tasty, lotus wrapped sticky rice steering into a great surprise of juicy pork belly and sausage covered with well steamed rice layer.
In the weekends the place is usually filled with multi generational Chinese families taking their time to savour food and tea during leisurely breakfasts or brunches. But, the cat is now out of the bag- fabulous dim sum is available at Ming’s Garden and Chen and his crew create every morsel with care.
Conclusion
Phenomenal is not even close to enough words that could be used to attempt to explain a diner’s experience at Ming’s Garden. From the setting designed to suggest China to the potent regional tastes that are seldom duplicated in town to prepare visitors for an immersion in Chinese food rather than just a repast.
Besides, giving a unique culinary touch to visitors through a new Shabu-Shabu dining experience, Ming Chen has a lot of pride in ensuring that each specialty is made using traditional recipes from his lineage. Most dishes boast of accumulated family recipes from century-old recipes used in the preparation of XO sauce to the instinctive perception of the degree of heat and wok required in breath taking wok hei noodles.
But while Ming’s Garden has a more traditional feel, Chen keeps his menu as current and timely as he can by following the seasonal offerings of meats year-round. Available at the Market every day, probably the freshest vegetables and seafood give a boost to the new weekend specials and the changes to the menu. Meals are rooted in tradition amid the Chinese approach and, at the same time, demonstrate creative potentialities of Chinese food as seen by Chen.
It is always tempting to while away time again at Ming’s Garden after you have had the meal of your life here one day and so you keep planning to come back to the restaurant on other weekends, jam packed with inspired dim sums or planning to come back with families and friends to bring in special occasions. As each trip denotes experience – at one time you have only explored a little of what the menu has to offer.
For everything from presentation, texture contrast to the accentuating fragrance, Ming’s Garden is a prime representation of what Chinese gourmet is and can be at its best here at this soon to be Manchester’s best kept secret Chinese restaurant sure to be a go to for those who wishes to have a memorable and distinctive dining adventure reminiscent of China’s rich culinary heritage.