Last updated at 11:39, Saturday, 26 November 2011

Fancy some steamed chicken feet with black bean sauce? How about steamed pork wrapped with bean curd layer in fish soup, or maybe beef tripe with ginger and spring onion?

They’re just some of the more adventurous dishes on offer at Carlisle’s newest Chinese restaurant.

The newly-opened Panda restaurant is the only one in the city with a special dim sum menu.

Dim sum is a range of small bite-sized steamed or fried dumplings with sweet or savoury fillings.

The dishes are usually a Sunday lunch treat for Chinese families, all washed down with pots of China tea.

Panda manager Ching Cheung says he and his dad, chef Ringo, wanted to bring “proper Chinese food” to Carlisle.

“We are trying to bring something new to Carlisle, and see how it goes,” he says.

“We are offering a lot of dishes that you will not find in other restaurants, like the dim sum.”

The dim sum dishes range from £3 up to £6 for pork crackling, shredded fish and nut congee, pork liver and kidneys congee or preserved egg and pork congee.

And he says some special dishes like the sweet egg custards and barbecue pork puffs are only available on certain days of the week because they are so difficult to make.

The restaurant in Wilfred Street has taken over from the Pattaya Thai restaurant that was based on the first floor of the building.

The menu ranges from starters of soups, squid and spare ribs at £3.50 to main courses of sweet and sour fish (£8.50), monkfish and aubergine in a clay pot (£9.50) and a range of king prawn dishes for £13.

Meat dishes include spicy sliced lamb with cumin (£8.50), stir fried chicken with cashew nuts (£8) and diced fillet steak with garlic flake (£12).

There’s also a selection of roast meat dishes, including belly pork (£9), whole canopy poached chicken (£17) and a whole roasted duck (£18).

There are also 15 vegetable and vegetarian dishes.

“We offer more vegetable dishes than other Chinese restaurants in Carlisle and there are other dishes, like a special roast duck – not like the crispy or aromatic duck – a pot of mixed seafood and a crispy noodles and shredded chicken dish, that are not made elsewhere,” he adds.

The retaurant is open daily from noon to 11pm.

First published at 08:59, Saturday, 26 November 2011
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk