The observant among you will have spotted that I've set up a new page called London Hall of Fame (this idea totally rip-offs was inspired by the B/A Pantheon) that features some of my favourite places to eat in the capital.
For those of you expecting Michelin stars and hot new openings, it isn't that kind of guide. It's not that I have anything against restaurants of that ilk; it's just that I'm not particularly well qualified to judge them.
What I am better qualified to judge, though, are restaurants where chopsticks are used, and I've put together a list of seven favourites that cater to different moods, palates and budgets. Delicate dim sum; spicy treats from Sichuan and Hunan; Vietnamese pho noodles and Cantonese BBQ all feature in my Hall of Fame.
Eat Noodles Love Noodles is two today! And to celebrate, it's hosting the awards ceremony that nobody is talking about: The Golden Noodle Awards.
The Golden Noodle – awarded to the best noodles in the world
Winner: No.1 Special Noodles (特製らー麺) by Kudan Ikaruga (九段 斑鳩)
Well OK, not necessarily the best noodles in the world, but the best I've tasted. I've decided to go global this year to encompass the amazing noodles that I've come across on my travels.
I mean it would be criminal to exclude places like Kuala Lumpur's Soo Kee where I had shan har mein, a dish of giant river prawns atop crispy noodles. And noodle joints like Mak's Noodle and Tsim Chai Kee in Hong Kong, where you can pick up a bowl of wonton noodles for less than the equivalent of £2. But as good as these places are, they fall just outside the medal positions.
Taking the bronze medal is the very posh Steamed Fresh Flower Crab with Aged Shaoxing Wine, Fragrant Chicken Oil & Flat Rice Noodles at The Chairman. This Hong Kong restaurant's signature dish has a rich Shaoxing wine based sauce that is soaked up by some very special rice noodles (chenchun fun 陳村粉). By the way, the flower crab was pretty tasty too!
We stay in Hong Kong for the silver medallist, the prawn roe noodles w/cuttlefish balls and shui jiao dumplings at Lau Sum Kee. These noodles are made the traditional way with a bamboo log and come with a prawn roe topping that is ever so addictive. In any other year, this dish would've been a certain winner.
As much as I enjoyed the noodles from Hong Kong, they're eclipsed by Tokyo's finest: No.1 Special Noodles (特製らー麺) from Kudan Ikaruga (九段 斑鳩). What's not to love about this dish? Springy ramen noodles, chashu pork, menma, nori and a perfectly boiled egg were all superb but what really made these noodles special was the amazing broth – a blend of tonkotsu (pork bone) and gyoku (fish).
The Golden Restaurant – awarded to the best London restaurant new to me
Winner: Launceston Place
I'm not what you call a dedicated follower of fashion, which is why the likes of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Pollen Street Social and Spuntino are absent from the shortlist. Judging by my past track record, I might end up checking these places out sometime in 2013, assuming they're still around then.
What I have been doing is sampling dim sum in unlikely corners of London. It'd be fair to say that Teddington, Earl's Court and Mayfair aren't exactly the kind of places that you'd expect to find dumplings of a higher order. But find them I did at Imperial China, Dragon Palace and Princess Garden of Mayfair respectively. Of this trio, the latter is a cut above and takes the bronze.
The trend for regional Chinese cuisine in London shows no sign of abating. In addition to the increasingly familiar flavours of Sichuan, I've checked out London restaurants specialising in the food of Beijing, Fuzhou, Hunan, and Shanghai. Of these I'm a big fan of New Aroma, whose Fuzhou offerings came close to getting a medal. However, it's the Hunan menu at Soho's Ba Shan, which deservedly picks up the silver medal in this category.
Years after every single other London blogger, I finally got round to visiting Launceston Place. To me, this classy yet understated establishment epitomises the best of British with dishes like duck egg on toast with Somerset truffle (as pictured). Quite how this superior restaurant hasn't got a Michelin star is beyond me. But you know what? Loads of places can get a Michelin star but there's only one winner of The Golden Restaurant. Take a bow, Tristan Welch!
The Golden Dish – awarded to my favourite (non-noodle) dish of the year
Winner: Fish-skin dumplings (魚皮餃) by 花好悦园酒家
To be eligible for this award, the dish has to be one that I've eaten for the first time. So for example, the typhoon shelter crab from Hong Kong's Under Bridge Spicy Crab and the chilli crab from Singapore's No Signboard Seafood are both ineligible, as I first sampled these dishes years ago.
However, one crab dish that does qualify is fried crab with sambal belachan. Now one might think that this is a dish indigenous to Malaysia, but in fact it was created in Hendon at a Malaysian Chinese restaurant by the name of Gourmet Garden. Belachan, a fermented shrimp paste, is an acquired taste but I defy anyone not to be knocked out by the fiery shrimpy flavours that makes this dish a worthy bronze medallist.
I visited Japan for the first time this year and I ate like a king. Rather surprisingly, one of my favourite dishes was kara-age aka Japanese fried chicken served with mayo and a squeeze of lime. Now I've eaten kara-age before, but to all intents and purposes, the fried chicken at Tokyo's Charari Charari might as well have been a different dish. I know I'm bending my rules, but they're my rules to be bent, so it's silver for the kara-age.
Guangzhou's 花好悦园酒家 is, in my humble opinion, one of the best restaurants that I've ever been to. Any number of dishes that I sampled there would've been a worthy winner of this award, but for the fact that I've eaten many of them before. However, there is one dish that I fell in love with: fish-skin dumplings (魚皮餃), made with a fish-skin wrapper and filled with pounded fish meat. Served in a broth with vegetables, this dish encapsulates the soul of Cantonese cuisine.
The Red Card – awarded to who or what I want to send off the field of food
Winner: 'Laksa' by The Providores & Tapa Room
I always try to be positive on my blog, but every now and then I get the hump. In particular, I got angry at Marks & Spencer's third-rate attempt at dim sum. And San Pellegrino's World's Best 50 Restaurants sent me apoplectic with rage - whilst there are some excellent restaurants on there, much of it reads like a list of where Russian oligarchs like to hang out with their arm candy.
However, the winner of The Red Card award, by a country mile, is the 'laksa' served at The Providores & Tapa Room. Or to give it its full name: smoked coconut, tamarind and liquorice laksa with a chicken lime leaf dumpling, green tea noodles, crispy shallots and coriander.
It's this kind of crap that gives fusion a bad name. Notwithstanding the incompatibility of subtle green tea noodles with a flavoursome aromatic broth, it was also poorly executed – the noodles were overcooked and the dumpling virtually had no filling.
Perhaps if I was richer and had the appetite of a quail then I wouldn't have been so pissed off at the high price tag and miniscule portion size. But for me, the laksa from The Providores & Tapa Room should be sent-off now!
Song of the Year – awarded to my favourite song of the last year
Winner: Blackout by Anna Calvi
I'll just let the music do the talking. Suffice to say, if there were any justice in the world then Anna Calvi would be a global superstar.
If you want to check out last year's Golden Noodle Awards then please click here.
I've finally tracked down a decent version of General Tso's chicken (左宗堂雞) in London. Never having had a proper rendition of this American-Chinese dish before, I wasn't sure quite what to anticipate. That said, it felt more real compared to my previous brush with what turned out to be a fake General.
From what I read and had been told, I was expecting a tart piquant dish with sweet undertones. I wasn't disappointed. It was hotter and less vinegary than I expected, but very moreish nonetheless. So where did I finally track down this dish? It was at the relaunched Ba Shan, previously a xiao chi (小吃) or 'small-eats' joint, that now specialises in Hunan cuisine.
The General Tso's chicken was one of many delights, as we also enjoyed in no particular order: mashed aubergine, potato slivers, duck egg with chillies, beef brisket in mini-wok, Peng's fried tofu, hand-torn cabbage, steamed catfish with salted chillies and noodles, and Chinese bacon with dried radish.
Everything was excellent, and the dining room had a warm charm that is all too rare in London's Chinese restaurants. All told, a brilliant dinner with someexcellentcompany. Highly recommended.
Apologies for the brief write-up but I've got review fatigue. The thing is I'm finding it increasingly difficult to do a full blow-by-blow account of the restaurants that I visit. That's not to say I'm getting bored of eating out in London; it's just that I'm not up for writing about the experience at any great length.
I hope you understand and I'm not ruling out a return to writing 'proper' restaurant reviews should I get my mojo back. In the meantime, I'll be blogging about other stuff that I hope you'll find as interesting as I do.
If you can't get a table here...
... then you might want to try Golden Day on Shaftesbury Avenue. It isn't as accomplished as Ba Shan but it also serves Hunan cuisine.
I'm taking a break for a few weeks. In the meantime, if you've come across this blog for the first time, there are a few recent posts that I'd like to draw your attention to.
Cha siu
As well as recently celebrating its 1st birthday, the blog also celebrated its 100th post with a guest recipe from 3 Hungry Tummies. I've also had the honour of writing a guest post on The Grubworm where you can read about my efforts at making cha siu.
In recent years, Chinese regional cuisine has taken off in London and whilst Sichuan cuisine has broken through, could the food of Hunan province make a similar impact? Check out what I thought of traditional Hunan cuisine at Golden Day and in its Americanised guise in the form of General Tso's chicken.
General Tso's chicken is to American-Chinese cuisine, what chicken tikka masala is to Anglo-Indian cuisine. Whilst not exactly authentic, this combination of lightly battered fried chicken in a tangy spicy sauce with garlic, ginger, and chilli pepper is probably the best-known Chinese dish in America. However, like many things that are popular across the pond such as country music and NASCAR racing, it hasn't really caught on in this country.
I first became aware of this dish a little over ten years ago on a business trip to Hong Kong. My then boss, an American, complained that General Tso's chicken wasn't on the menu in the restaurant we were in. He was also quite incredulous that neither the guys in the HK office nor I had heard of this dish. When I did look this dish up on the internet, I can't say I was that interested in it but over the years my indifference has waned and I've found myself wanting to check it out.
So when meandering around Earl's Court one day, I got quite excited when I spotted the similarly named General Shou's crispy chicken at No.10 Restaurant. I would've tried it on the spot but for the fact that I was full. The other thing holding me back was that I wasn't 100% sure that it was the same dish as General Tso's. With that in mind, I made a note of the Chinese name, 左宗堂雞, and this matched when I checked it on the interweb.
I'm also glad I waited, as I realised having never eaten this dish, I had no idea how it should taste. That's when I decided to call in some expert help in the form of An American in London to organise a tasting of the General's chicken. Upping the North American contingent, Krista, Su-Lin and late substitute, Mr A-in-L also joined us.
To be honest, I was a bit disappointed when I finally sampled this dish in that it was like a bog standard sweet & sour with some chilli. I'm also not sure what the hell peanuts were doing in there either. It was as if General Tso had started a fight with Kung Pao and won custody of the peanuts. My fellow diners agreed that this faux-General was a bit of a let down. The search for the real General Tso in London goes on.
Spicy shredded chicken cold noodles (before and after)
What about the rest of the meal ? To be honest, it was a mixed bag. My tip would be to stick to the Sichuan specials at the front of the menu. The boiled beef aka shui zhu niu rou, spicy shredded chicken cold noodles, and sea spicy aubergines aka yuxiang qiezi were amongst the better dishes of the evening. On the downside, we were a tad miffed that the dry fried green beans were off the menu.
Less successful was the Cantonese twin platter of siu yuk (crispy belly pork) and cha siu (honey roast pork). The siu yuk was obviously reheated and too dry whilst the cha siu was tired looking and had far too much red food colouring. That said the gai lan stir-fried w/garlic was well cooked.
Together with rice, drinks, and service, the bill clocked in at around £75 or £15/head - pretty good value. For a similar price, Chilli Cool is superior but still it's good to know that there's a restaurant in Earl's Court that knocks out competent Sichuan.
Postscript: There are conflicting claims as to who invented General Tso's chicken. Whilst it is often described as a Hunan dish, it was actually invented in either Taiwan or New York by chefs with Hunan ancestry. For a recipe and a bit more history about the dish, click here and if you're still intrigued, further reading can be found here.
Hunan is part of the Chinese spice belt* and its food is typified by being gan-la (dry-hot) in contrast to the ma-la (numbing-hot) of neighbouring Sichuan. Hunan cuisine is popular throughout China and there are many restaurants in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Following the Chinese Civil War, it also became popular in Taiwan from where it subsequently established a presence in America in the 1970's.
So whilst Hunan cuisine (or a localised version of it) is very common in America, it's very rare in the UK. However, things seem to be changing and restaurants are now starting to appear. For example, there's Local Friends in Golders Green and Golden Day, which is on Shaftesbury Avenue on the site of what was Chinese Experience. It was at the latter that I joined Kake and Bob from the Randomness Guide.
I've previously eaten Hunan food in China but I can't remember too much about it except that I enjoyed it and it was spicy. Needless to say, this was in my civilian days before I took photos and documented what I ate. So it was a real pleasure that Kake's friend W – who hails from Hunan – came along to show us the ropes. I'm not so sure she was as pleased though, as she had to field 101 questions about her native cuisine.
First impressions were good and I liked the fully bilingual menu with pictures, which was pretty much 100% Hunan with the exception of a small selection of 'Greatest Hits' for the less adventurous. The clientele was predominantly Mainland Chinese sprinkled with a few tourists. The interior was clean and modern but in my opinion over lit.
Onto the food and we gave the cold starters a miss and dived straight into a selection of main dishes. I enjoyed the Xiangxi-style dry pot duck w/baby ginger (£15.80), which was presented in a mini-wok sat atop a burner. This dish featured bits of duck (on the bone) and vegetables in a gravy that was lent heat and depth from the chillies and the ginger respectively.
Fielding my questions, W advised that this dish was from the west of Hunan and that the presentation with the burner was gimmicky and not strictly traditional. Mind you that was a moot point, as the burner prematurely extinguished, which meant the gravy didn't reduce, as it should. For all that, I enjoyed this dish unlike The Independent's John Walsh, who doesn't seem to realise that the Chinese prefer their poultry on the bone.
How a Chinese restaurant prepares fish is always a good indication of its ability in the kitchen. Golden Day passes with flying colours with its steamed sea bass w/home-chilli paste (£15.80). This was perfectly steamed and the delicate flesh flaked off, as it should. The chilli sauce was really powerful and was the only really spicy hot flavour of the night. It should've been a winner but it wasn't, as in my opinion, steamed sea bass and chilli sauce are uneasy bedfellows.
With such a delicate fish, this robust chilli sauce was too overwhelming. I do enjoy spicy fish dishes, like those in Sichuan restaurants but the fish used in such dishes is meatier and has been coated to protect the flesh. That said, perhaps years of eating steamed fish the Cantonese way with ginger, spring onion, and soy has conditioned my tastes, as everyone else liked this dish.
Of the other selections, authentic sun dried green beans w/pork slice (£8.50) was a home-style dish that had a nice kick to it although we could've handled more heat. The mashed aubergine w/Hunan local taste (£6.80) was presented beautifully with the pestle that was used to mash the aubergine at the table. This silky smooth dish is a must-order for all the lovers of the 'gine genie. Taste wise, I thought I could detect sesame although others thought it smoky.
For sides, we also ordered competently done morning glory w/garlic (£8.50) and some Chef's special fried ho fun with beef (£5.50), which was OK but not as good as you can get in a Cantonese joint. The bill with rice, drinks and service came to £100, which at £25/head was reasonable value. Service was a little inattentive as the tea took a while in coming. Mind you, they did let us linger after the meal, which isn't always the way in some Chinese establishments.
Verdict: Opinions were mixed with little or no consensus over favourite dishes. The Randomness peeps didn't think it hit the heights of a previous visit, although they sampled 14 different dishes that day. W thought it average and toned down, which is to be expected coming from a Hunan native. I enjoyed the food but it didn't change my world. That said there's more than enough interesting dishes to lure me back.
Other Stuff:Golden Day got a glowing write-up from Jay Rayner in the Observer and his review is plastered pretty much everywhere in the restaurant from the window display to the bar. It was so omnipresent that I was surprised not to see it above the urinal.
* – The Chinese spice belt is considered to consist of the following inland southern provinces: Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan (including the Chongqing municipality), and Yunnan. Each cuisine uses chillies liberally and in different ways. There is much debate as to who is the ‘Daddy’, when it comes to spiciness.
