Desi Dragon
Cuisine: Indian Chinese

1/60 MacGregor Terrace
Bardon, Brisbane
Ph: 3369 9558

www.desidragon.com.au

I enjoy trying new things when it comes to food and I have never had Indian influenced Chinese food before. I took a look at the menu in advance and was intrigued by the notion of Szechuan potato fries and salt and pepper paneer. I had been working up quite an appetite before dinner and the first entree was the Szechuan potato fries ($7). I don’t know why I’ve never heard of potato fries with a szechuan sauce before but they were very tasty. Not very spicy at all though. I wondered if I was enjoying them so much because I was really hungry but everyone else confirmed that they were indeed good for eating.

Next up was the Chicken Saiwoo ($10), buffalo wings tossed in a sweet chilli and shallot sauce. The sauce was sweet but again not spicy. Regardless I was a little disappointed that I had to share the four pieces of chicken.

Our dinner guests had ordered the Happy Dragon Platter for 2 ($19), an entree platter with two buffalo wings, a bowl of Szechuan fries and also paneer and pea wontons and lamboo tikki (some lamb and bamboo rissoles, get it?).

The salt and pepper paneer ($9) was really strange as it was neither salty nor peppery. I was expecting something similar to a nice piece of deep fried camembert but the paneer did not have much flavour and the batter did not add anything to the dish.

When we ordered our mains we asked for them to be served with medium hotness but I’m not sure if the waiter misheard us or underestimated our ability to consume chilli. If only he knew that I have always suspected that one of us sleeps with a bottle of mega death chilli under his pillow (ahemyangcough). The only dish that was a bit spicy was the Chicken Manchurian ($25), chicken dumplings tossed in a soya garlic shallot sauce.

The goat shank Szechuan style ($28) was my favourite dish. The meat was so tender and went beautifully with the herb sauce.

The chilli chicken ($25) was good, though again not spicy. There were dried whole chillies in the dish but I avoided biting into those. I also realised after a few bites that there were whole peanuts in the dish and somehow I survived without my allergies affecting me.

For a fourth main we had a designer main, where you match a meat (or paneer, tofu or vegetables) with one of their sauces. There is a choice of six sauces, Szechuan, chilli garlic, hunan black bean sauce, satay sauce, sweet and sour or ginger and lemongrass. Hubby likes to bring balance to the world by eating the foods I can’t, so he ordered chicken with the satay sauce ($21). He finished most of it off so it appears to have met his love of all peanut foods.

To accompany our mains we had some plain egg fried rice with chicken ($14). I really liked their fried rice, it wasn’t too greasy. One bowl was just right for the four of us after entrees and four mains.

We were much too full to try any dessert but I was very curious about the crisp honey sesame noodles with ice-cream ($7). Our dinner was finished off with the presentation of a small wooden chest which contained a bounty of fortune cookies and of course our bill.

It was a little pricey and I’m not used to paying a lot for Chinese food having been brought up in a family where no one likes to spend a lot of money on food mum and dad tell you they can make at home. But I don’t think mum has ever told me she can make Szechuan style goat shank and it was an adventure trying something new. An exciting night out for a foodie.