China has the world's greatest variety of teas and spring sees the year's first batch of fresh tea produce. Jade Chinese Restaurant (玉中餐厅) has designed a special tea menu for May comprising some great samples of dishes that use tea.

The 8-course menu starts with an appetizer platter of four lovely bite-sized specialties: a green tea pudding, an octopus roll, a crispy jellyfish slice, and half of a tea-preserved egg. This is followed by a tasty chicken broth soup with Chinese caterpillar fungus in it, served in a typical Chinese purple clay teapot. This precious variety called "winter worm summer grass", is dubbed "herbal gold" because it costs as much as gold, for its rarity and medicinal properties.

In one main dish, Oolong tea leaves are used to flavor golden fried shrimps, which greatly reduce their oiliness, although the shrimps remain crispy and fragrant. In the other two dishes, a really tender steamed chicken is flavored with rose tea, and a healthy poached green vegetable, with chrysanthemum tea.

Finally, a tiny mouthful cup of Puer tea is used to match fried rice with barbeque pork and XO sauce. Rounding up the meal is a beautiful looking cup of green tea pudding.

The meal offers diners a good chance to taste typical Chinese tea in their food, although most of the time the taste of the tea can hardly be discerned, especially when it is mixed with much stronger tasting food.

But diner do find the meal feels lighter than usual, and the tea in the food certainly makes for faster and easier digestion.

The dinner costs 588 yuan per person, plus 15 percent surcharge. The restaurant provides two tea menu special dinners on the evenings of May 15 and 29, which will feature a spring tea tasting.

Noon-2pm, 6-10pm. 2/F, The Ritz-Carlton, Beijing, A 83 Jianguo Lu, Chaoyang district. 5908-8777.朝阳区建国路甲83号，北京丽兹卡尔顿酒店二层玉中餐厅

Story by Ye Jun, photos by Jiang Dong

(China Daily 05/09/2009 page6)