Photos: Dragon Xpress & Cole Pennington
COCONUTS HOTSPOT – Dragon Xpress’ recipe for success is to take the best elements of the Earth’s two most populous countries’ cuisines and combine them.
Most people on Earth are eating Chinese or Indian food anyway so fusing the two seems long overdue. But lets be clear, Dragon Xpress owe a massive debt to a third nation, The United States, for its American-style Chinese take-out delivery model. The restaurant packages its fusion fare in white cardboard boxes just like they do in America, sans the fortune cookies.
On the menu you’ll find Paneer, an Indian cottage cheese often found in dishes like Palak Paneer, but served in paksing sauce, a sweet and sour Chinese-influenced sauce.
Another interpretation is Momo, a northern Indian and Nepalese dumpling, served steamed in a bamboo basket like traditional Chinese pork buns.
Whereas in China the bones are usually not removed from the chicken, at Dragon Xpress the chicken used in all entrees is boneless, just like American Chinese take-out. Luckily, what’s not American are the sauces. Thankfully, Dragon Xpress does not load them with excessive amounts of thickening corn starch. Instead diners can expect less viscous and more flavorful sauces, which are closer to Chinese tradition.
Takeout is the way to go with Dragon Xpress, but if you really want to get the whole cross-cultural experience you can find the restaurant on Soi Asok (Sukhumvit 21). The atmosphere, at least, is distinctly Indian, complete with Hookah smoke filling the air and Bollywood tunes blasting.
FIND IT:
Dragon Xpress
68 Soi Sukhumvit 21 (Asok)
Phone: 0220405889
