Spring Blossoms: Lobster, Abalone, and Filet Mignon with Creative Twists

▲ Spring tea in cuisine: Hotel chefs show their creativity. (Photo provided by the business)

Tourism Center / Taipei Report

Spring is a season of blooming flowers, and hotels have introduced a variety of creative spring dishes to capture diners' palates. Visiting domestic hotel restaurants reveals not only top-tier, refined ingredients but also how chefs creatively use them—a true showcase of culinary skill.

Chef Kao Kang-hui from the Yi Garden Restaurant at The Sherwood Taipei has created seven delicate and delicious "Spring Tea and Flower Fruit Banquets" by combining premium ingredients such as abalone, lobster, bamboo shoot clams, and filet mignon with fresh spring tea leaves, tea oil, tea soup, matcha powder, and fresh fruits and flowers.

These include the starter “Prosperity in a Stir,” featuring abalone, salmon, and jellyfish, paired with shredded vegetables and cleverly finished with fresh spring tea to awaken diners’ taste buds. “Spring Shadows: The Dragon’s Trace” is Chef Kao’s first attempt at combining lobster with matcha. “Pan-Seared Filet Mignon with Tea Oil and Boletus Mushrooms” is another innovative dish that surprises the palate. “Fragrant Flower Fruit-Crusted Bamboo Shoot Clams” use a sauce blending Thai and Japanese flavors, paired with fresh loquats to highlight the tenderness of the clams. The “Private Spring Tea Chicken,” made with over 150g of spring tea, incorporates the chef’s secret recipe, yielding crispy skin and tender, tea-infused meat. Each dish carries a rich yet refreshing tea aroma, with actual fresh spring tea leaves adding texture and a sweet aftertaste.

Yi Garden Spring Tea and Flower Fruit Banquet Set Menu

Prosperity in a Stir
Inspired by the Singaporean dish “Lao Sheng” (loosely translated as “mixing up”), where the Cantonese pronunciation symbolizes prosperity, the base includes shredded onions, cucumbers, carrots, crisp bean sprouts, and pickled ginger. The top layer features abalone, salmon slices, and jellyfish, topped with the chef’s special Thai sweet-sour sauce and Japanese-style sauce. When mixed together, the seafood, crisp vegetables, and pickled ginger create a harmonious blend of umami and subtle sour-sweet freshness. Spring tea plays a crucial final role here—chewing the leaves gently neutralizes the seafood’s brininess, leaving a delicate tea aroma that primes the palate for the upcoming spring tea dishes.

Spring Shadows: The Dragon’s Trace
While Easterners enjoy lobster with garlic and scallions and Westerners prefer it with butter, this dish pairs the premium seafood with tea and matcha. Using fresh tea leaves, spinach, and high-grade Japanese matcha powder, along with chicken stock, the sauce is thickened into a vibrant green. The tender, springy lobster is coated in the matcha sauce, offering a refreshing bite.


▲ “Spring Shadows: The Dragon’s Trace” pairs lobster with tea and matcha for a refreshing taste. (Photo provided by the business)

Premium Fish Maw Stewed with Vegetable Heart
Tender cabbage hearts are cut into pieces and steamed until soft. Premium fish maw, rich in collagen, is blanched before being cooked with chicken, bamboo fungus, and apricot mushrooms in a pot. Added to the mix are old hen stock, cabbage hearts, and fish maw, simmered for nearly two hours. This soup lacks tea flavor, allowing diners’ palates to rest between the “Spring Shadows: The Dragon’s Trace” (lobster) and the upcoming “Pan-Seared Filet Mignon with Tea Oil and Boletus Mushrooms,” preparing them for another spring tea journey with its refreshing fish maw and chicken broth.

Pan-Seared Filet Mignon with Tea Oil and Boletus Mushrooms
Using fragrant tea oil, a premium American beef filet mignon is pan-seared to medium-rare for optimal tenderness. Boletus mushrooms are lightly fried to enhance their aroma, then simmered with other mushrooms, stock, and red wine to create a rich mushroom sauce. The tea-scented tender filet pairs beautifully with the aromatic mushroom sauce, garnished with lightly fried fresh spring tea leaves for a luxurious, full-bodied experience.

Flower Fruit-Crusted Bamboo Shoot Clams
Fresh bamboo shoot clams are lightly coated in flour and pan-fried to achieve a crispy exterior and delicate interior. The chef prepares a special Thai sauce to cook fresh loquats, complementing the clam’s tenderness with the fruit’s aroma for a quintessential spring seafood delight.

▲ “Flower Fruit-Crusted Bamboo Shoot Clams” uses a special Thai sauce to highlight the natural flavors of the seafood. (Photo provided by the business)

Yi Garden Spring Tea and Flower Fruit Banquet à la Carte Dishes

Supreme One
A clever combination of large dungeness crab and winter melon, this dish balances tenderness and strength. The winter melon is peeled and deveined, then braised in stock for 30 minutes to absorb its essence. The whole claw and rich roe of the dungeness crab are steamed, shelled, and then steamed again with the winter melon for three minutes, finished with a thickening sauce. The base layer is a vibrant green matcha sauce made from fresh tea leaves, spinach, Japanese matcha powder, and chicken stock. Together, the crab claw, winter melon, and matcha sauce create layers of fresh, delicious flavors.

▲ “Supreme One” combines dungeness crab and winter melon for a “balanced” texture. (Photo provided by the business)

Private Spring Tea Chicken
A whole chicken is soaked in spring tea for 24 hours to absorb its delicate aroma, then air-dried, fried to crispy perfection, and smoked with tea leaves for an intense flavor. Each bite delivers a burst of tea-infused richness. Whole fresh spring tea leaves are lightly coated in flour, fried until crisp, and served alongside. Additionally, large amounts of Longjing tea leaves are also fried. This dish offers the tea aroma in the chicken, the freshness of spring tea leaves, and the fragrance of Longjing tea—three elements combining for an exceptional spring tea experience.

Spring Tea Stir-Fried Shrimp
Springy sword prawns are fried, stir-fried with Longjing tea, and seasoned with Shaoxing wine and spices, then garnished with whole fried spring tea leaves. The wine-infused shrimp pairs with the crispy tea leaves, offering a unique twist on the classic Longjing shrimp dish.

Detailed Pricing:
Spring Tea Flower Banquet Set Menu: NT$2,500 per person
Prosperity Stirred by the Wind – 280 RMB per person
Spring Shadows, Dragon’s Trace – 500 RMB per person
Braised Shark’s Fin with Chicken Feet Collagen in Jinhua Style – 800 RMB per person
Pan-Seared Fillet with Tea Oil and Porcini Mushrooms – 480 RMB per person
Crispy Bamboo Shoots with Fruits and Flowers – 320 RMB per person
Private Selection Truffle Abalone Rice – 420 RMB per person

Single Order: Dominating One Side – 600 RMB per person
Private Selection Tea-Flavored Chicken (half / whole – 680 RMB / 1200 RMB)
Single Order: Spring Tea Stir-Fried Shrimp – 780 RMB per person
(All the above prices are subject to an additional 10% service charge)