Dan's House @ Haymarket

We all love a good meal deal, and one of my uni friends found a great one for Dan's House which is a Chinese Cuisine restaurant with a speciality in peking duck, and other duck based dishes. It is a new restaurant that has been open since Late April 2012. The deal allowed us to pick 2 entrées with peking duck as the main dish, and a dessert to share.

Sugar cane smoked duck breast with lychee and mango jelly

As soon as I saw this on the menu I wanted to try it, the idea of lychee and mango with duck sounded tantalising. The result, was good but not great. I found that the texture of the mango jelly was too hard, which didn't quite work with the soft duck. However, the lychee sauce with the duck and the cucumber worked extremely well. If the mango jelly was a bit softer, it would have made the dish great.

Sichuan numbing chicken with fresh fruit salad

Now this entrée was tasty! After doing some quick Google research, the term 'numbing' comes about due to the use of Sichuan pepper as an ingredient. The chicken was cooked with perfection, but the marinade is what made the dish. It had a perfect balance of sweetness and spice. That marinade could accompany any meat. The strange part of the dish was the fruit salad for 2 reasons, first we were unsure how to eat it with the dish, and secondly the fruit purée at the base. 

We ended up just blowing the fruit salad into our bowl and eating it with the chicken (which was a good result). However, the ingredient of the purée was difficult to figure out (I was supposed to ask the waiter, but I forgot too). It tasted like rock melon, but at the same time it didn't, and it had a slightly rough texture. We were both confused.

Peking duck with complimentary soup

Mmm peking duck. We both love peking duck, and this definitely hit the spot. No words can really describe how good peking is. In summary though, soft duck meat with a slightly crispy skin and vegetables all wrapped up results in a great main.

Chilled mango sago cream with pomelo and vanilla ice cream

When this dish came out I was actually unsure on how to eat it, lucky for me, my friend knew how. We split the sago cream into 2 portions, and dumped a spoonful of ice cream into each bowl. The sago cream had bits on mango, but the pomelo is what made the difference where it added the bitterness, resulting in a bittersweet dessert.

The overall dining experience was exceptional, where the wait staff reminded me of people you would see at Yum Cha. This means, that as soon as they saw any dirty plates on the table they would take it away.

Good food, good times!