Fuzhou Cuisine @ New Aroma

Of the myriad regional schools of Chinese cuisine that have arrived on Britain's shores in the past decade, one that is grossly underrepresented is the food of Fujian province, in particular that of its capital, Fuzhou (福州). Especially when you consider that many of the workers in Britain's Chinese restaurants (irrespective of style) come from the Fuzhou area.

Whilst New York's Manhattan Chinatown has many Fuzhou restaurants, they are less common in London. But that's not to say that they don't exist, as there's the Fuzhou Restaurant on Lisle Street and the venue for the meal featured in this post, New Aroma on Gerrard Street.

One of the best-known Fuzhou dishes is fishball soup (魚丸湯 yu wan tang), which is one of those dishes that transcends its roots and can be found in non-Fuzhou eateries. Fuzhou fishballs differ from normal ones by having a ground pork filling. Unlike many restaurant fishballs, these were 'own-made' and all the better for it.

It seem that balls loom large in Fuzhou cuisine, as evidenced by the sweet potato balls (蕃薯丸 fan shu wan) – these were another favourite of mine. The filling of ground pork and seaweed was damn good, and it came with a tasty broth with rice vermicelli (米粉 mi fen).

Other classic Fuzhou dishes include lychee pork (荔枝肉 li zhi rou), a sweet and sour style pork dish, so-called because the pork pieces looks like lychees. Other favourite dishes from the evening include eel in red wine lees (紅糟鰻魚 hong zao man yu), and a seafood noodle dish, whose Chinese name escapes me.

Incidentally, New Aroma also serves Cantonese food (both the real stuff and the Anglicised variant) as well as Sichuan food. Whilst these menus are in English and Chinese, the Fuzhou menu is in Chinese only. Our servers were helpful and they will probably help translate the Fuzhou menu, if you ask nicely.

Being a bit of a food trainspotter, I enjoyed sampling a cuisine, that other than Fuzhou fishballs, I hadn't really tried before. So I'd like to thank Limster, he of Chowhound fame, for deciphering the Chinese menu and ordering so adeptly, and Kake for organising the gathering.

If you want to know more about this restaurant and Fuzhou food (let's face it, my reviews are pretty half-arsed nowadays) then check out this Chowhound thread and the write-up on the Randomness Guide. For more photos of the food, check out this flickr stream.



New Aroma, 11 Gerrard St, London, W1D 5PP (Tel: 020-7287-6478)
Nearest tube: Leicester Square

Fuzhou Fish Balls Ho Fun in Soup @ Young Cheng

Young Cheng in the heart of London's Chinatown has been on my radar for a few months ever since Pa Noodles bought some superior take-away Cantonese BBQ there. I finally got round to eating at this restaurant the other week. I was going to order some three roasts noodles (sam siu mein 三燒麵), before another dish caught my eye.

福州魚蛋湯河 Fuzhou fish ball ho fun in soup (£5.50) screamed out to me from the lunch menu and was begging to be ordered. However, I had some reservations owing to some bad fish ball experiences at HK Diner and Fuzhou Restaurant. Things were so bad in the state of fish ball that I resorted to rustling them up at home.

Thankfully, this bowl of noodles went someway in restoring my faith in the humble fish ball. After all, I could have no complaints about the generous helping of six puffy fish balls filled with ground pork complemented by slippery smooth ho fun noodles (河粉) in a bowl of clean tasting broth.

The fish balls were reassuringly misshapen, which to me indicated that they were own-made but sadly they weren't that 'QQ' or springy. That said, the ground pork filling – the defining feature of Fuzhou fish balls – was juicy and flavoursome. The broth would've been a tad plain but for some fried garlic bits that ever so subtly gave it a lift.

I also bought a portion of take-away roast belly pork (siu yuk 燒肉). This had nice crispy crackling and plenty of five-spice flavour. A winner and a bargain at £5.50; I'll be sure to return and sample the rest of their roast meats.

I visited the Lisle St branch of Young Cheng, there are a couple of others in Chinatown, and it's a bit of an 'all things to all people' kind of joint. At lunchtime, it serves dim sum and one-dish meals whilst the main à la carte selection includes Cantonese favourites of both the hard-core and tourist-friendly variety. In common with many Chinatown joints, service was fast and furious but without being too brusque.



Young Cheng, 22 Lisle St, London WC2H 7BA (Tel 020-7287-3045)
Nearest tube: Leicester Square

Fuzhou Fishball Soup @ Fuzhou Restaurant (Chinese), London

I love fishballs but unfortunately most of the ones you get in Blighty aren't that good. Perhaps I'm spoiled as I grew up on home-made fishballs that my mum and dad made from scratch - miles better than the bought-in manufactured efforts most Chinese eateries use.

Other than my parents' efforts, some of the best fishballs I've ever sampled were Fuzhou fishballs (Fuzhou yuwan). Fuzhou is the capital of Fujian province in Southeast China and their fishballs are rather special – bigger than normal with a juicy ground pork filling.

I've never been to Fujian but Fuzhou fishballs are widely available in parts of the world where the Fujianese settled. I first tried them in Singapore - look for the stall in the Maxwell Rd Food Centre - and I've also eaten them in Taipei.

In the West, they're quite common in New York where there is a 'Little Fuzhou' within Manhattan's Chinatown. However, I've never thought to order them in London until when I walked past the Fuzhou Restaurant on Lisle St the other day.

Now I must have walked past this place countless times but never thought to check it out. Truth be told, it doesn't look too alluring from the outside and its English language menu of anglicised Chinese dishes doesn't really appeal.

They have a Chinese language menu listing Fuzhou specialties but we all know the trouble I have with these. Fortunately I know the characters for fishball soup and yay it was on the menu. In my ropey Mandarin, I checked with the waiter whether these were the Fuzhou variant and double-yay they were.

The portion was generous with seven large fishballs in a clear broth for a mere £5 and they were definitely own-made but there was something not quite right about this dish. The pounded fish wasn't as springy as I'd like and the ground pork filling could have been a bit juicier.

I also didn't like the broth. I'm not sure what it should really taste like but I found the weird vinegary flavour too overpowering. Overall, the fishballs were OK but like many a dish you try on your travels, it never tastes quite the same at home.

Verdict: I feel crap at having a bit of a pop at Fuzhou Restaurant - the fishballs might not entirely be to my taste but this is a place that serves up giant portions of a regional delicacy not widely available in London for a fiver.

Other Stuff: Despite the number of Fujianese that toil away in Chinese kitchens across Britain, there are few places where you can sample their native cuisine. The only other place I've spotted is New Fuzhou on Gerrard St but alas they also hide their specials on the Chinese menu.