This June Mei Ume, The East Asian restaurant at Four Seasons Ten Trinity Square, is celebrating the annual Dragon Boat Festival with a menu inspired by celebrated poet Qu Yuan. Taken from the legend of Yuan’s tragic death in the Miluo River, the festival is now a time where communities gather together to race ornately decorated dragon boats and feast with friends and family. Coinciding with London’s own dragon boat festival which takes place each year on the Thames, Head Chef Tony Truong will now bring the celebrations to the restaurant with a specially created feast, available for three days only.
Dishes will include; a traditional Seafood soup with bamboo fungus and Chinese pickled cucumber alongside Sweet and sour red mullet with pineapple. A dim sum platter of baked Wagyu beef puffs and crispy spring rolls will be accompanied by Stir fried noodles with lobster. Tony has also reimagined the iconic sticky rice dumpling Zongzi, believed to have been thrown into the river as an offering to Yuan’s spirit, which will come filled with Char sui Iberico pork and chestnut. Desserts will include a Dragon Boat Fruit Platter with petit fours served in a custom-made bamboo boats.
‘The story of Qu Yuan is over two thousand years old and it’s been a wonderful challenge to reimagine it though this special menu. We’ve taken inspiration for the recipes from the story itself, we want guests to experience the feast in the same way they do across Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. It’s always a great time of celebration and we wanted to bring a taste of that to Mei Ume.’ Says Head Chef Toni Truong.