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Sino Chai, Dubai Healthcare City

Taiwanese gourmet food — with lashings of health benefits

On second thoughts, it is almost fitting that Sino Chai is located in Healthcare City (Building no 27, to be precise). Felice Liao, lovely co-partner and brains behind the Sino Chai big idea, immediately informed us she is fixated on the health peg: for instance, at the restaurant, even vegetable oil is given a go-by because it’s not as healthy as, say, the somewhat more expensive canola oil or, better still, the substantially more expensive tea seed oil. Only organic ingredients are used. And staples such as rice and flour are all fresh and unprocessed (read: healthy).

Getting back to chronology, my first thought had been Sino Chai is a fusion Chinese-Indian type. Not so. The place specialises in “home-style” Taiwanese cuisine. “I was missing home food so much that I decided to start Sino Chai [in 2009] almost as a vent for my cravings,” Felice chuckles.

What comforted me was that, etymologically, I was not way off the mark: chai, like it does in Hindi or Urdu (and which is why I’d decided much before I entered the restaurant portals that there was an Indian twist to it), stands for tea in Taiwanese too. Traditionally, the tea-houses in Taiwan were the places where people met for cups that cheered, chatter and more. Sino Chai, that has a ‘teahouse restaurant’ tag, takes the notion forward — by throwing in some serious food (strong influence of Chinese, Japanese and Dutch cooking in Taiwan) into the mix.

There is a formidable tea menu, but we decided to sample that on a later date and concentrate on the food. Interestingly, tea here, unlike what happens at regulation Chinese eateries, is not drunk as a copious accompaniment with food; it is savoured at the end of a meal.

The interiors are opulent, yet cosy, with a lot of dark reds, golds and blacks. Lovely bric-a-brac from the island nation abound which, while adding to the atmospherics, do not add to the clutter in any way. As a result, you feel at home immediately — like we did.

Starters comprised of “melt-in-the-mouth” (not my words, but my companion’s) beef bites prepared with Chinese five spices, vegetarian dim sums (with a touch 
of oolong tea) boasting the thinnest coats possible, yummy prawn chives, seafood rolled in an almond crust (very interesting and pretty good) and refreshing spring onion cakes. But the garlic tofu with a sprinkling of spring onions was the standout as far as I was concerned — mostly because I’ve always had a natural aversion to tofu, and I had to totally do a volte-face the moment I popped the first magical piece into my mouth.

Next to follow was the seafood pumpkin soup — which I thought was a bit 
too creamy, and could 
potentially play spoiler to your appetite.

For mains, there was an exquisite ginger fish, and an even better ginger lobster (both use lashings of soy sauce paste, garlic and spring onions, other than the ginger of course).

Then, there was a beef stew that, reportedly, could have been a bit more tender (not a first-hand report since I am not a beef-eater), and 
a mixed mushroom (shiitake) with broccoli and a smattering of oysters, that passed muster. The chicken roll made with, again, five spices and soy sauce, and stuffed with germinated brown rice tasted impeccably Oriental.

There were also prawns mixed with fresh pineapples, strawberries and kiwis, tossed in a mango-mayonnaise sauce — this alone warrants a trip back to Sino Chai.

On the side, there were different kinds of rice: brown, buckwheat, millet, black glutinous and a host of names I was hearing for the first time.

By now, we were protesting loudly there was no room for desserts whatsoever, but were egged on to sample the ‘home-made’ ice-creams. Well, full marks for exotic flavours like pomela, red bean (did you ever imagine it could be converted to 
anything dessert-like? Neither did I), black sesame, and green tea.

If you want to go back with a slice of the evening that went by in a gastronomic haze, pick up some really cool gourmet stuff that are imported from Taiwan: array of teas, assortment of sauces (don’t miss the killer soy one), cracking red chilli pastes, organic red rice, wholemeal flour, and, yes, the elusive, custom-ordered tea seed oil that would be missing at most groceries.

sushmita@khaleejtimes.com

In seven words: 
Little-known Taiwanese food with a gourmet twist

1. What we liked: Ensemble setting of restaurant, teahouse and treats store
2. What we didn’t like: The pumpkin soup
3. Cost for two: Dh300
4. Best for: 
Long, leisurely dinners, especially if you have embarked on a health trip. The dim sum brunches on weekends are supposed to be spectacular
5. Did you know: 
Taiwan was formerly known as Formosa
6. Contact: Sino Chai, Dubai Healthcare City, 04-4355650
7. RATING ****