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I have started a new journey, called Cambridge Food Hunter – An ongoing series focused on exploring interesting and exciting dishes for you to hunt out and experience around Cambridgeshire.

In the first chapter of this journey, I have visited my favourite Chinese restaurant, The Dumpling Tree, for an exclusive look at an up and coming dish soon to be available – The Dumpling Tree Feast (name open to change upon release).

This dish pays homage to the Chinese restaurant banquet, often seen in places like China Town and is commonly known for bringing people together over a set menu of varied and hand-picked dishes. The difference with The Dumpling Tree Feast, however, is that this will have its own distinctive Yunnan identity, meaning there isn’t anything else like it around.

The Dumpling Tree Feast is open to change and the final dish may not be the same as one seen here.

Yunnan Rice Noodles

We started off with Yunnan rice noodles – a common side dish from this part of China. The rice noodles are made from ground rice flour and made fresh daily. I was surprised at how soft these were when compared to other noodles. They came accompanied with carrot, greens and a fermented Chinese mustard cabbage, called suancai. The suancai is straight from China and is fermented for 4 whole weeks, giving it a distinctive tangy and salty flavour.

Taro Dumplings

The next dish in this feast is the taro dumplings, a pastry-like dumpling, sometimes seen in Dim Sum. It came out warm with a delicious glazed pork centre. This, my friends, was absolutely incredible! A must try, if you visit!

Duck & Pork Platter

The centre piece of the Dumpling Tree Feast is the Duck & Pork Board. This comes with crispy duck breast and soft pork belly with a light cracking. 

The pork takes over 24 hours to make with numerous processes, including the prickling of the meat, salting (to reduce moisture), and a marinade of spices before roasting. This results in tender strips of pork with a light crispy texture and a bold flavour.

The duck takes two whole days to prepare. It starts with a treatment of Yunnan spices and oil that is put on to the skin and left to dry, which allows the flavours to fully absorb. This is then followed by a suture of the skin to lock in the juices while cooking which allows the duck to eventually dry out, creating a dense and lean portion of duck. It is incredible to think that such effort goes into everything at The Dumpling Tree but they really put in the work.

The platter comes served with homemade hoisin and a Yunnan sauce.  The hoisin sauce was one of the thickest and richest examples of the sauce I have ever seen and a million miles away from the stuff you get from the local Chinese takeaway.

Yunnan Shredded Potatoes & Yellow button mushroom

I was presented with their yellow button mushroom as a side portion, a popular mushroom commonly eaten in China. It was stir-fried with garlic and green peppers and cooked without seasoning, allowing the mushrooms natural nutty and earthy flavours to do the talking. It was a meaty mushroom with a lot of character and a good vegan option.

The Yunnan Shredded Potatoes are made using a special Chinese ingredient called “suan cai” (a type of mustard cabbage) which is fried with thinly sliced shredded potato, to give it a salty and spicy taste.

The Lobster

The crowning jewel of the feast is this incredible whole lobster. The team gets up at 3 am to visit Billingsgate in London, just to get the freshest catches. It is then cooked with Yunnan spices, with a distinctive flavour of ginger.

For anyone who has had lobster before, this is best eaten with your hands. It is a messy but fun experience and is a stark reminder that this is a casual and informal dining experience where people can relax and enjoy themselves.

The lobster is served on a bed of chow mein noodles that are cooked in an extra hot wok, to give them that crispy texture and wiry birds nest look.

Spiced Charcoal Beef

You may remember the Spiced Charcoal Beef from my previous review of The Dumpling Tree. Frankly, it is out of this world and one of my favourite dishes on the menu. 

It consists of diced beef belly that, according to the menu, has been “marinated and seared to perfection”. I couldn’t have put it better myself, as it is incredible. The beef has a spicy and crispy skin that is soft and succulent inside. The texture was perfect and the spice was not hot enough to scare anyone away, while also adding an exciting flavour. This is another must for anything looking to visit!

Soya dusted dumpling

These sweet and chewy rice dumplings are covered with a nutty soybean flour and filled with sesame. A good comparison (for anyone unsure) is mochi desserts, found in most Japanese restaurants. The dumplings are homemade, glazed with honey, and garnished with sesame seed – a perfectly soft and doughy end to a fine dining experience!

Conclusion

The Dumpling Tree offers the iconic Chinese banquet experience with a unique Yunnan twist. This is something not found anywhere else in Cambridgeshire and the perfect place to break bread with friends and family. I have always loved the idea of sharing food between a group, so it is great to know there are set menus out there specifically with that in mind. I was genuinely impressed at the time and effort that has gone into each dish, showing the dedication and pride gone into preparing the food that the team clearly has a lot of love for.

Watch out for episode 2 of Cambridge Food Hunter coming soon…