SHANG Garden, the Chinese restaurant at Futian Shangri-La Shenzhen, launched a new menu recently.

Featuring a total of 100 dishes, of which nearly 60 are new, the menu retains classic flavors while introducing new gourmet creations by chef Anthony Dong. Patrons will taste the best as they indulge in Shang Garden’s signature favorites as well as gastronomic innovations from the champion of 2017 Chinese Culinary Competition.

Shang Garden made a name for itself with its Huaiyang and Cantonese cuisines. While maintaining a focus on its signature cuisines, the new menu also introduces a number of Sichuan and Shandong dishes from 10 different categories: cold dishes, soups, poultry, livestock, freshwater and seafood, vegetables, bird’s nest delicacies, abalone and shark fin, staples and snacks and desserts.

Highlights of the cold dishes include the homemade scallion pancakes with foie gras and nuts, which injects new energy into an all-time favorite Chinese snack. The foie gras is heated over a slow fire before pecans are added. The fragrance of the nuts and foie gras will awaken your taste buds immediately.

Healthy eaters cannot miss the black truffle with quinoa and vegetables. Featuring green beans, potatoes, cucumbers and carrots on a quinoa base, the dish is like a mini garden with the sweet scent of black truffles, combined to perfection.

Yellow croaker with braised pork is one of Dong’s highly recommended dishes, and it is easy to see why. The pairing of premium yellow croaker with Huaiyang braised pork presents a colorful clash of flavors that is strong but not overwhelming. Another heavyweight is the premium braised meatball. The meatball has a diameter of 15cm and weighs 600g. The core is made of a meat dough with three salted egg yolks, and is covered with a layer of fully cooked dried pickled mustard, followed by a layer of diced meat. The meatball is then coated with a strong meat paste and braised for four hours before it is ready to serve.

Those looking for a dish with an auspicious name need to look no further than the prosperous Dongting Lake fish head. The head of a carefully selected fish from Dongting Lake weighs up to five catty and is cooked in a refreshing thick sauce made with hairy crab meat, abalone, meatballs, prawns and other premium ingredients. There is no better way to round up a feast than with the beef fried rice with black truffle and sea urchin.

During the rainy season in 2017, Dong ventured into the mountains of Yunnan Province to find precious mushrooms for his mushroom banquet. The resulting fried rice won over the stomachs of many food enthusiasts. The combination of black truffle and sea urchin is a match made in heaven.

The new menu also retains many of Shang Garden’s signature dishes, such as tofu blossom in sea cucumber and matsutake soup, which sees Dong showcasing his exquisite knife-handling skills.

A piece of Japanese tofu is cut into a “blossom” with 3,600 fine strands, and cooked in a soup brewed with sea cucumbers from Liaoning and matsutake from the Yunnan mountains. Other favorites include Huangqiao sesame cakes, curry shrimp balls with colorful buns and egg white with crab roe.(Tang Li)