Before you ask, if you haven’t already, our order from Lychee Garden was delivered to my house, therefore I could not get a photograph of the shop front, as is customary on Cedric Suggests. Hence, the featured image on this post is of a marvellous Spaniel called Holly. Or maybe her name was Poppy. I have no idea really.
The first item on our delicious dinner menu were the Hong Kong style spare ribs, pictured below. These are made by a coating of paprika, brown sugar, fennel seeds, five-spice powder, salt and 2 teaspoons garlic, followed by a baking in garlic with honey, vinegar and soy sauce to make dipping sauce. I can assure you, though I suspect they used sesame seeds instead of fennel, this was quite an astonishing dish. Prepare to get dirty hands, however.
Once I recovered from my inelegant devouring of the ribs, I moved onto chicken with pak choi and rice. This is the dish in the left corner of the below photograph. unfortunately I was unable to get a proper photo of it because of poor lighting and laziness. Delicious by all accounts. Pak choi is a wonderful Chinese cabbage with smoothly tapered leaves. Quite delicious when combined with chicken usually, though I found this dish a tad bland.
Now, the sliced duck with Chinese mushrooms & bamboo shoots stole the show for me. The duck was beautifully cooked and tender to a fault. The marinade was light, almost watery in consistency. The mushrooms were odd looking but no less flavoursome. The vegetables were fresh and generously portioned.
Overall, this is an excellent takeaway with a Birmingham-wide reach. I recommend it to those of you who fancy an economical meal of the highest quality. Let me know what you think about the Lychee Garden.