Tea in a dish

China has the world's greatest variety of teas and spring sees the year's first batch of fresh tea produce. Jade Chinese Restaurant ( 玉中餐厅) has designed a special tea menu for May comprising some great samples of dishes that use tea.

The 8-course menu starts with an appetizer platter of four lovely bite-sized specialties: a green tea pudding, an octopus roll, a crispy jellyfish slice, and half of a tea-preserved egg. This is followed by a tasty chicken broth soup with Chinese caterpillar fungus in it, served in a typical Chinese purple clay teapot. This precious variety called "winter worm summer grass", is dubbed "herbal gold" because it costs as much as gold, for its rarity and medicinal properties.

In one main dish, Oolong tea leaves are used to flavor golden fried shrimps, which greatly reduce their oiliness, although the shrimps remain crispy and fragrant. In the other two dishes, a really tender steamed chicken is flavored with rose tea, and a healthy poached green vegetable, with chrysanthemum tea.