Two Sundays ago, I was very happy to be back in my old routine in London. I meandered down Great Eastern Street, over Shoreditch High Street, down Hanbury Street, and up Brick Lane. A bit south of Cheshire Street–very close to the East London Line bridge–I saw this guy. I’ve seen him before, of course. But it’s been a while. And I hadn’t thought of taking any video previously. This time, I whipped out my iPhone, held it the wrong way (AGAIN), and made this…
The Victims: Aileen, Bob, and their two young doppelgängeren.
The Background: Fact: On my birthday, I like to eat Chinese food. I think it’s a childhood thing. We always used to go to Hunan Dynasty back on Strong Island and my brother and I would split the “Pu Pu Platter” which involved fire and multiple sparklers. Kids like fire, what can I say?
For my actual birthday this year though, I was in London. No Chinese food. (Not that there’s no Chinese food in London…it’s just that I have this certain set of friends that will only eat at a certain level of restaurant.) So we went to the very white and very pristine St. John Hotel instead. (More about that sometime soon.) But the desire for Chinese food was still there…so once back in Chicago, I rallied up my troops for what I was hoping to be an onslaught of DUCK.
Problem #1: Aileen and Bob have never had crispy duck or Peking duck before. They seem unsure of the concept. Bob admits that he’s never had any sort of duck before! I pause momentarily…to get to this point in life and to have never had Peking duck or duck rillettes or any sort of duck?? I think I would die.
Problem #2: If you want real Peking duck, you have to order it 24 hours in advance. Whoops. There goes that idea.
Combine Problem #1 and Problem #2 and I order a quarter duck and proceed to drink all of Aileen & Bob’s Pinot Noir. (Note: it was not a full bottle!)
Bob let me have some of his hot & sour soup. Normally, I think sharing soup is WEIRD. But Bob’s small was so huge, there was no way he could finish it all, even with the doppelgängeren. Plus, I think the doppelgängeren are a little too young for hot & sour. This was pretty excellent and it was also super CHEAP. $4.50 for the huge bowl? Wow.
There is no vegetable I love more than Chinese broccoli. But you know what? This just wasn’t very good. I felt like it tasted bad…like it was just about to go off. Aileen and Bob kindly gifted me the leftovers; I woke up the next morning, opened the fridge, and was struck with the gaseous stink of broccoli gone bad. Yuck.
The egg rolls were good though. Hard not to like deep-friend anything, I suppose.
OK, so back to the duck. I thought for sure I could convince them to give me some pancakes/buns with my 1/4 duck. NO DICE. They gave me plum sauce. They gave me veg. They refused me pancakes. Only, apparently, if you order the Peking duck. We debated asking the table next to us if they would give us any of their pancakes. I even told our server I would take someone’s leftovers. No love. No love at all.
The Decor: It all felt just a little bit dirty. Again, I’m all for a good hole-in-the-wall (although Sun Wah is so big it could never be consider a true hole-in-the-wall), I’m getting a little concerned by the number of Chicago restaurants which have never seen the end of a high pressure water hose.
The Verdict: Meh. Everyone seems to love this place, but my experience was just not so compelling. And to refuse me pancakes! Blasphemy.
The Background: I went to Chinatown on a dark and dreary and frankly freezing cold Chicago night. I almost didn’t make it. (When will it end? Really. When???)
But I was going to Lao Sze Chuan, a place I’d been to time and time again with my Chinese colleauges between 1998 and 2004. I used to let them do all the ordering. They liked that about me. They introduced me to tripe and changed my life.
This time, I was there with Grubwithus, the social dining experiment. (You should try it.) There would be no tripe this time. We were still all strangers to each other.
But we did start out with these very fat and very delicious pork potstickers. I felt greedy. I AM greedy.
Szechuan-style dried beef was fiery.
I liked the String Beans in Spicy Black Bean Sauce but wish they hadn’t cut up the string beans.
This was probably my least favorite dish–Baby Baicai with Black Mushroom sauce–and that’s saying a lot because it was still pretty good.
This Sole Fish Cutlet in Chili Bean Sauce was my absolute favorite dish of the night. I kept going back for more. No one stopped me.
Also excellent, the Salt & Pepper Prawns. I wanted to get an order “to go” and eat them on the train and offer them to strangers.
Around this point of the evening, I lost track of my picture-taking as the Lazy Susan spun round and round and the red wine in my glass got lower and lower.
And then the desert came. Lao Sze Chuan makes my kind of dessert…Crispy Sweet Potato cakes. (You might know that I like very few desserts. I am more a savory person. However, I do make exceptions for macarons, lemon tart, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and mango sorbet.) These were, in a word, stellar. They say people drive all the way down to Chinatown just to pick up an order of Lao Sze Chuan crispy sweet potato cakes, and now I know why.
The Verdict: I love it here. Really. We also had Chef’s Special Dry Chili Beef, Tony’s Chicken with Three Chili, Szechuan Smoked Tea Duck, and Garlic Chinese Broccoli. And they were all awesome.
The Background: My employer’s location in downtown Chicago is not a bad one. If you like shopping. But if you like Chinese food (like I do), you’re in a bit of a wasteland. This is a problem for someone who was used to having Chinese food for lunch at least once at week in London.
Hong Kong Cafe is on the 3rd floor of an office building full of jewelers. If you didn’t know it was there, you would never visit. We didn’t take the lift up to the restaurant, but I did think the lift was photo-worthy.
The Hong Kong Cafe is in the Mallers Building. The restaurant used to be a coffee shop. I like old signs like this.
The cafe still looks like a coffee shop. I was tempted to order a grilled cheese and a root beer float.
My colleague and I both opted for the lunch special. $7.45 for soup, egg roll, rice, and main. My hot and sour soup was really really good. Served piping hot with just enough of a kick to it. And full of very good things. I confirmed that this soup did not come from a bucket. The proprieters make everything fresh and on site.
My egg roll was flaky on the outside and full of more delicious things on the inside. In my haste to finish it after that first perfect bite, I neglected to more closely investigate the ingredients. The sweet and sour sauce is home made. In short, I could have done with another one of these.
For my main, I opted for the Szechuan chicken with peanuts. (Kung Pao Chicken?) My colleague and I both noted that our dishes weren’t overdone with meat like they can be in some places. For both of our dishes, the highlight was on the vegetables. (Tim ordered the Three Delicacies, which included beef, chicken and prawns. And lots of vegetables.) My dish was packed with peanuts…A LOT of peanuts. This is a good thing in my book. Ah, and the chili sauce you see there in the background? GREAT stuff. And homemade as well. Tim and I both cleaned our plates. (Although in truth, I may have left some white rice behind.)
The Verdict: Sometimes you come across a basic place where the food is made with care, the service is warm and friendly, and the price is totally right. The Hong Kong Cafe is all that, and more. Simple. I’ll be back.
P.S. For various reasons, I’ve been on a bit of a blogging hiatus this past week. This will all become clearer later. Don’t fret. I’m sitting on a backlog of posts….Hub 51, San Soo Gab San, Shiso, and the Logan Square Farmers’ Market. Plus some more!
The Background: American in London was on the lookout for General Tsao's Chicken. Apparently, this in an American staple. Despite my American-ness, I don't think I'd ever had it before. In my house growing up, our choices were pretty much limited to chicken and broccoli or beef and broccoli. I was never a sweet and sour fan, and I tend to gravitate AWAY from the deep fried dishes. (You've got to, with a hobby such as mine.)
Number 10 had been on my radar for a while because of a Chowhound thread or two. The Chowhound folks rave about the Szechuan items on the white board, and we probably should have thought about that as we ordered. Because in the end, it was the Szechuan items that really stood out.
The spicy aubergines were deliciously (surprise) spicy and melted away into cool hotness. I love when aubergine is cooked so perfectly as to not be too mushy. Let's face it. Eggplant gets mushy. It's a good cook that can make this work.
The boiled beef was AWESOME. This is one of those dishes that I think I could eat every day for a very long time. I might kill some tastebuds in the process, but that's okay.
We had some other dishes but really, they paled in comparison and I can barely remember them. The only other dish I do really member was a sliced pork of some sort. The pork tasted old. I wouldn't recommend it.
The Verdict: I don't know if I'd go out of my way to go to Number 10 again, but if I did, I would definitely have the boiled beef and the spicy eggplant. And I would stick with the Szechuan dishes. The rest is just not very interesting.
The Background: When I first started this blog, I had this idea that it would help me explore London.
While that was certainly true in the early days, lately I've found myself suffering from TFL malaise. If it's not in EC1 or N1 or WC1 or MAYBE W1, I really don't want to go.
I think about the old days, when I would happily trot over to Notting Hill or up to Belsize Park. Not so much anymore. I've become a homebody.
So it was good that Echo prompted me to get on the DLR one Sunday afternoon (the 4th of July no less) and head out to Crossharbour for some dimsum. The DLR on a sunny Sunday afternoon is really really lovely. I need water to make me feel sane and plodding along on the driverless train through Canary Wharf and its surroundings is certainly a peaceful little journey.
I arrive at Lotus and to our table, I'm the only native English-speaker. Echo has brought her mother and her adorable daughter Tong-Tong. Three generations. Awesome. I let everyone know that I like taro. And parsnip. I'll pass on the chicken feet, but sign me up for anything with seafood. There is much consulation and then the parade begins. As always with dim sum, I have no idea what I'm eating. But it's all pretty fantastic. And the light is perfect so every photo I take comes out gorgeous. (Except for that spot that looks like steam in the middle of each photo, but that was because I needed to clean my lens.)
Good Chinese broccoli. But not enough garlic for my liking.
These are my least favorite dim-sum. Too stodgy. I actually know what these are called…they're char sui buns.
No idea what these were, but they looked neat, all spherical and such. (Almost like that lamb ball, huh?)
These were fantastic. I gladly would have had more. Anyone want to tell me what they are? I can't remember what was in them either, except that they were fantastic.
I'm also a huge fan of the lotus leaves, packed with rice and God knows what other sorts of delicious substances. These were well done.
Tripe. Been there, done that. Way too many times. And unless it's spicy, it's just not for me. (But I do give myself points for continuously giving tripe a shot.)
Prawn dumplings. Perfect, really.
Taro. This is honestly my absolute favorite.
Can't for the life of me remember what was in these, but they were good. I'm sorry that this is the least informative blog post ever. But aren't the pictures lovely?
After the taro, these were my 2nd favorite. No idea what they're called. I think they're parsnip cakes? Anybody?
Just like the tripe, with chicken feet, I've been there, done that. Not for me.
The Service: Severe. They really did not want us to order in small batches. Everything had to be ordered at once.
The Atmsophere: Kinda nice sitting there, looking out onto the water.
The Verdict: I liked it here. Thought all my food was pretty good. But I probably need to eat more dim sum to truly write anything remotely close to informative here. I'm sorry if I've disappointed you.
I went to Pearl Liang. I put myself in the hands of Mr. Noodles. And I was happy. That is all.
The Verdict: Who needs words when you have pictures? (How did I ever do this in the early days without pictures???) Pearl Liang is pretty excellent. Careful with the loos though. Boys on the left, girls on the right.
The Background: I love dim sum. But I know very little about it. I just know how to point at things that look good. Oh, and I also know that every time I point at char sui buns, I accidentally eat the rice paper on the bottom and (not surprisingly) find the buns dry and disappointing.
At Princess Garden, there are no dim sum trolleys. This makes me sad, because I do like to point at things. (And laugh. Point and laugh. Point and laugh.) So instead, I put myself in QueeLim's hands and let him do the ordering.
So let's start there. Char sui buns. Dense, somewhat flavorless bread, surrounding marinated pork. Princess Gardens' chair sui buns are much better examples than those I've tasted elsewhere. And I didn't eat the rice paper.
I could be wrong, but I believe these were the Shredded Mooli Cakes (radish cakes) and the Shredded Taro Pancakes. (Not sure which is which, however.) I discovered taro–a kinda purplish potato root type of thing–during two weeks in China in 2000 and really really like it. I was ready to order more of these.
And I enjoyed whatever this was too. (Please enlighten me.) Although I looked fairly stupid trying to use my chopsticks to grab these.
The prawn dumplings were okay, but I think we let them sit too long before eating them. They were nothing to write home about.
I really wanted some noodles, but I was not pleased with these. Too gloopy. And this was our server's recommendation. The crunchy noodles were meant to melt under the meat and the sauce, but at the end, they just tasted like raw noodles.
The Verdict: Dim sum–it's like a surprise every time! But I wasn't over the moon about Princess Garden. That being said, we started off really strong with those mooli cakes and the taro and I would gladly go back for more of those. Maybe they do take-out? Would that be weird if I just showed up and asked for the mooli cakes and taro to go?
The Background: After dropping a whole lotta change at Kai in Mayfair with Alice and Cara a few months back, we had agreed that our next stop should be a bit more of the cheap-and-cheerful variety. You might know that I like spicy, so when Alice suggested Chilli Cool, there was no answer but "Yes."
The Entrance: There's some slight confusion when I enter. Firstly, Chilli Cool has two doors. The door on the left is for hot pot. The door on the right is for non-hot-pot. I go in the left door. Oops. They send me next door, at which point I give them Alice's name. They don't have a booking for Alice. Ah, I realize. It's under Cara's name. They don't have a booking for Cara either. After some back-and-forth, I figure out that they do have a booking for "Car" and we're sorted.
Alice has let us know that she's running late and has given us permission to order in her absence. She's also given us a list of dishes, which, combined with some tips from Mr. Noodles, creates our order.
We start out with some Kung Pao chicken, which I always love because of the peanuts. (As it turns out, Alice and I are both suckers for peanuts.) This is a nice dish, but the chicken is a bit on the sugary side for me, and it's lacking the wallop of heat that I was hoping for.
My two go-to dishes in most Chinese restaurants are Ma Po Tofu and the garlicky green beans. I'm looking forward to trying both here because I figure they'll be REALLY hot. Chilli Cool, after all, is a Szechuan restaurant. The Ma Po arrives and it does have a little kick to it, but I'm barely fanning myself. Not hot enough!
Then there are the green beans, which taste as beautiful as they look. I pretty much polish this dish off on my own towards the end of the meal. (Sorry, ladies.) But again, there's just the tiniest bit of chili here. I want more!
The star of the meal has to be Mr. Noodles' main recommendation of the Szechuan beef. I happily take home all the leftovers and have this for breakfast for the next two days. (Who says you have to have breakfast for breakfast?) There's more chili here, and the dish is just dripping in unctuous goodness. But still…it could have been hotter. I think about my meal at Bar Shu back (admittedly) in 2007–where I couldn't down water fast enough and Chilli Cool comes up, well, cold. Cold. Not hot.
The Service: Sweet.
The Verdict: Cheap and cheerful, for sure. But maybe they were trying to be nice to us or something…I could have used more HEAT.
Kai Mayfair 65 South Audley Street London, W1K 2QU
Date of Last Visit: Wednesday, September 30, 2009
The Victims: My fellow London food and restaurant bloggers An American in London and Gourmet Chick. I'm going to try to string all our thoughts together here so you have the full picture. The gals should be doing the same on their own blogs today, so you'll get a chance to read them all at the same time and discuss amongst yourselves.
The Damage: About £95 each, with one glass of champagne each, one bottle of white wine split amongst the three of us, and one glass of dessert wine each.
The Background, by Way of Wasabi Prawns Me: Back during Taste of London, I fell in love with some prawns. Kai's Wasabi Prawns. Light and slightly crispy tempura batter on the outside, a good prawnish snap on the inside, and a creamy wasabi mayo all over. So I was glad to visit Kai in person and try them on site. And they did not disappoint. A hefty £21 price tag yielded a surprisingly generous portion…we thought there were just four there, but then it turned out to be five, but then surprise surprise, there were actually SIX wasabi prawns under all that wasabi mayonnaise. An American in London: The Wasabi prawns (£21) were a great mix of flavours and textures: crispy, sweet and spicy; crunchy and gooey. The wasabi made it a more interesting dish such that it was one of the few dishes that justified the price tag. Gourmet Chick: From the entree list the must order is the wasabi prawns. Crispy battered prawns are served with a wasabi sauce that is creamy while still managing a kick of wasabi heat.
Crispy Duck Me: Eh, I think if you're going to eat crispy duck in an expensive Chinese restaurant, well, you shouldn't. Particularly if it costs £31 for a half-a-duck. This was good, but no different to me than the crispy duck at Crispy Duck on Gerrard Street. I did, however, note that their pancakes seemed homemade, not those ones that you know are mass-produced because the tissues that separate the pancakes all sport the same holes. An American in London: …while good, wasn’t £31 good. For a one-Michelin-starred restaurant, Kai shouldn’t be playing the dishes so straight. Gourmet Chick: For the pure theatre it is worth ordering the aromatic crispy duck which is presented whole and then expertly carved. We were each prepared one duck pancake and then left to work our way through a steamer basket full of pancakes along with the rich, dark duck meat and the necessary accompaniments of spring onions, cucumber and plum sauce.
Scallops and Asparagus Me: I missed the part on the menu that said that these were spicy. Ouch. Spent the first few minutes coughing my lungs out. But once I got over the hurt, these were quite good, fresh scallops. I was sad when I noticed our server clearing this dish with one scallop still left there…that one scallop had to have been worth AT LEAST £4. (£24 for the portion.) (Although now, after looking at the photo, there appear to be at least seven scallops there…possibly eight. So maybe £3 each.) An American in London: …tasty but no tastier than at, say, the mid-priced Pearl Liang Gourmet Chick: Scallops and asparagus with XO sauce did not blow me away as although the scallops were juicy and perfectly cooked the spicy sauce dominated.
Stuffed Aubergines Me: This dish was all the way across the table from me so I only had a bite and I was already feeling a little piggy so I held back. Aubergines are one of my favorite things in the entire world–I can never understand those aubergine-haters–I would have this again. Nice deep unami savoury flavours, thanks to the black bean sauce. An American in London: …tasty but no tastier than at, say, the mid-priced Pearl Liang
Pork Belly with Mint Me: This was soft and buttery, with a nice crackly skin; I needed more of this. But it was a very paltry portion for £19. Shame on them. An American in London: …the other stand-out of the evening for being atypical of what you’d get at a playing-it-straight Chinese restaurant. Gourmet Chick: Our waiter was a little strange when we ordered the pork belly. She told us that women never order the dish at Kai, only men. We assured her we were pork belly fans and the pork lived up to our faith in it. Crispy skinned fat sat atop tender chunks of pink pork.
Mango Cake Me: One of the best things I have eaten this year. Can I go back to Kai just for dessert? I might just try. An American in London: …good but tasted too little of mangoes and too much of a molasses-type sweetener for me to get too excited. Gourmet Chick: The star of the show was the Peranakan Mango Cake, forget deep fried banana, this was the best dessert I have ever tasted in a Chinese restaurant. The cake was served with fresh mango cubes, gula Melaka, coconut milkshake and ice cream. It had an almost toffee like taste to it and left all three of us craving more.
Almond Curd with Fresh Fruit Me: This was nice, but I wasn't in the mood for it. I was cold, and this dish was all about summer. Very prettily presented though. An American in London: in Taiwan [this] is served ice-cold at street markets by the ladle-full for about $1. Kai’s quivering room-temperature version was too anti-climactic to get excited about.
2007 Alamos Torrontés, Salta Me: I was surprised when the wine steward steered us towards this extremely excellent value. £28! He said it was like drinking lychee juice, and boy was he right. The aroma alone was all lychee. I very rarely hunt down wines after having them in a restaurant, but this one has me looking…WineDirect.co.uk has it for–ironically–£29.57 for a case of SIX…finger on Buy button now!
Serviceand Atmosphere Me: I am not sure if this was Michelin-starred service. I'm thinking about my meals at other one-stars–Claridge's, Foliage, The Lebury, Facil, Arbutus–and this fell a bit short in formalness. They were almost TOO cheerful. (The wine steward was particularly charming and happy.) And when we ordered the pork belly, the woman taking our order reminded me of my German Aunt Ursula…jokingly reprimanding a table of three women for ordering what she said was a very masculine dish. The service was good, don't get me wrong. But it was just so NORMAL. An American in London: The service was friendly and chatty, which I liked, and the women were super stylish in their Shanghai-Tang-looking purple-and-green outfits. The décor was high-end circa 80s lounge style, and for what it’s worth, no Chinese diners. Gourmet Chick: The look is corporate with bling. Lacking the wow design factor Kai emphasises its expense with a Mayfair address and plenty of chandeliers and mirrors.
The Loos Me: Cool sinks. Good tilework. Good products. Nice.
Score! Me: I ordered pink champagne at the bar when I arrived. The bartender poured me a "regular" accidentally. So we got two glasses for the price of one! This was extremely good because when I checked the bill later, my one glass of Laurent Perrier Rose was £20 quid…
The Verdict (Three of Them!) Me: If I were going to make a list of the top 10 dishes I've eaten this year thus far, the Wasabi Prawns and the Mango Cake would be on it. That being said, I'm not quite sure the other dishes surpassed what I'd get at a regular neighborhood Chinese restaurant. You'd think you'd get a little something extra…better plating, better presentation maybe. But no. And the price tag…ouch. So I probably wouldn't go back unless someone else was paying. Or if I had a huge craving for that mango cake!
An American in London: Whether it’s fair or not, I left Kai last week feeling that while the majority of dishes were delicious, very few dishes were worth the high price tag.
In deciding how to describe Kai, I’ve been wondering whether it’s fair to demand creativity from a one-Michelin-starred restaurant – more specifically: isn’t it enough that Kai cooks classic Chinese dishes very well? Am I holding a one-Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant up to a higher standard than I would, say, a similarly-starred Modern British restaurant? In asking these questions, I’m assuming there’s consistency in the way Michelin rates restaurants, which I suppose there isn’t (compare ho-hum Arbutus to never-lets-you-down Ledbury, for example).
Gourmet Chick: You can drop some serious money here, there is a soup on the menu for £108 which needless to say we avoided. However, it feels like the quality of the ingredients justifies the cash. The food at Kai was excellent and it is worth going for the mango cake alone, however the restaurant did lack atmosphere and the wow factor.
The Background: In celebration of the impending Chinese New Year, Echo organizes dinner for 24 at China Delight in the City. We're all looking forward to it because it's the first time many of us will meet Echo's 1-year old daughter, Tong-Tong.
The Entrance: China Delight is empty at 7 p.m. on a Thursday night, and it makes me a little worried. However, I am grateful that we're offered the "Special Chinese Menu." You know the menu…the one that's all in Chinese. (One of my best memories ever is visiting my friend Jon in Toronto over Thanksgiving in college and going to the all-night Chinese diner where the entire menu was in Chinese up on the wall. We all picked a number and let ourselves be surprised.)
The Food: I try to put Echo in charge of ordering, but someone decides that we should each order our own dish. I don't know about you, but 24 dishes for 24 people is A LOT of food. We still managed to put a good dent in everything, but I honestly think we could have and should have ordered differently. If you can imagine, 23 people ordered MAINS. I wisely ordered two side dishes instead. (One ma po tofu, one green beans. Both enjoyed by all. But particularly by me, who thought the green beans were about the best thing she's eaten lately.)
I really wish I had taken more photos. These two don't do justice to the feast we had. And really, the green beans were great. Best of all was the whole sea bass, served at the very end of our meal. Stuffed with ginger. Also fantastic was some sort of spicy seafood stew…with a nice big fish head in it. (We gave it to Echo, who loves fish heads, apparently.)
The Service: A bit surly and impatient. Kinda just added to the charm.
The Loos: Really, someone needs to start a power-washing business.
The Verdict: I was glad I visited China Delight with a lot of people from China. Otherwise, I think we would have ended up with a lot of Kung Pao chicken and Sweet and Sour Pork. I would go back here for an honest meal at a decent price, but only with a Chinese-English dictionary.
Xin Harrods Food Hall 87-135 Brompton Road SW1X 7XL
Date of Last Visit: Monday, May 6
The Victim: Me
The Damage: £20?
The Background: I’ve left Aunt Ursula and Uncle George in Paris and have returned to London for some retail therapy at the tail-end of the bank holiday weekend. I stop into Harrods to look at everything. My wallet remains intact.
I am hungry though, very much so. So I drop into the food court to have some dumplings at Xin. The best part about the meal was the tea, which blossomed as I drank it. The dumplings, however, were gloopy and forgettable.
The Verdict: I’ll be going back to Harrods, for sure. But I’ll steer clear of Xin.
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