By Rosemary Parkinson, Freelance Writer
May Li and Sarah Liu, the two charming young ladies who own and operate Dragon Garden Restaurant on Constant Spring Road.
I HAVE found a cute little Chinese restaurant Dragon Garden Restaurant owned and operated by two charming young ladies from China. I have been suitably impressed with their establishment and their fare.
May Li and Sarah Liu run a tight ship and can be seen running up and down in between tables helping their staff, quietly getting on with the task of
keeping customers happy, serving and cleaning up when they have to, making up bills,
organising take-aways, while still having the time for a chat (particularly Sarah) and big smiles of welcome.
EXOTIC AND EXCELLENT
Three of us required a large table because we were there to sample (we were there too 'cause we were starving and wanted to eat nuff). Anyhow, we began with Cantonese Spring Rolls, which were delicious. Hit into some fried wontons. (You can't go to a Chinese Restaurant and not eat wontons that would be like going to Switzerland and not touching chocolate). No sooner had these little morsels gone down the gullet, we had soup.
My lady friend who ordered the wonton soup did not give anyone a chance to even see the contents of the bowl. Before it even reached the table, it was all gone. I did manage a photograph of one huge wonton being squashed into her mouth but that will not be shown here the wonton looked good. Another friend had Egg Drop Soup and that was excellent. Moi? Well, I went for something just a little different Seaweed Egg Drop. There's something exotic about seaweed in my soup although I cannot imagine why, since I absolutely detest having a piece of seaweed, even graze mi foot when I go swimming.
LET THE FEAST BEGIN
Then the feast began. Roasted Duck, Spare Ribs with Dragon Garden Sauce, half of a Crispy Chicken, Beef with Ginger, Chinese, Broccoli, Jasmine Rice and various types of sauces for the dishes. The Roasted Duck was crispy on the outside, inside was as tender as a baby's bottom with just the right amount of fat to keep the meat juicy. The flavour was to die for. Two of us adored the Spare Ribs with Dragon Sauce. The ribs were perfect little fat, not overdone and nuff flavour to keep China in Chinese food. The half of Crispy Chicken looked like one hell of a whole turkey, if you ask me, and was scrumptious. I mean tantalising. A little sprinkle of the special mix-up seasoning dem give you and I was in heaven. Plus, I love those coloured shrimp blow-up t'ings dem had all over the dish as decoration. Melt in your mouth.
The Beef with Ginger Sauce hardly spent much time in its covered tureen, and the Chinese Broccoli was positively divine. Up to now, I cannot understand why one lady in the group (on missing the rice that the poor waiter was just coming out of the kitchen with) hollered out "Where's di rice. Chop. Chop. We can't have Chinese without rice. Wey di rice deh?" Believe me, not one of us could fit a grain into our stomach after all the rest of the business on the table.
WELL SERVED
Gary Thomas was our waiter and did everything possible to make us feel well-served although the 'rambunctious' lady within our group would have made any sane person go right off the bend in a second.
Thomas kept his calm and when last I spoke to Sarah, I was told that he has also managed to retain his sanity, although he had developed a habit of looking out the large windows at five-minute intervals.
By the way, one point of
note, I know one well-known businessman who drove into
the concrete column that seems to house a nest of wires on its top, and my lady (the 'maddie') nearly slam it too. So when
parking, keep an eye out for
that rather large disaster. One wonders sometimes where we keep our intelligence.
Dragon Garden Restaurant, Shop 1 Millbrook Plaza, 21 Constant Spring Road, Kingston
(876) 925-3871, 969-5711
