"I've taken the liberty of ordering us some tofu, some mushrooms and some duck tongues," said the western woman sitting across from me. "Do you trust me to keep ordering, or is there anything in particular you might like?" I looked at her thinking, "You whore!"
One of my favorite Chinese contributions to Khmer food is cha kvai (ឆាវខ្វៃ). Cha kvai are fried dough sticks, more like crullers than churros. They are sold in pairs, for dipping in or adding to your noodle soup. I got hooked on them in Phnom Penh. But I would bet that they, like the Teochew people, may be found throughout Southeast Asia. In Cambodia, they are most commonly found on restaurant tables alongside the condiments in the morning, and any given restaurant's supply is usually all eaten up by noon. Initially, I had assumed that each restaurant made their own. But after long hours of observation (lots of mornings sitting eating my soup and taking my coffee), I realized that they seemed to be produced elsewhere and either delivered to restaurants in the mornings by courier or picked up by restaurant employees. I stumbled upon one of these cha kvai production facilities one morning near Psah Kandaal.
During business hours, it is just an unassuming moto parts shop.
But early in the early morning, it is a bustling hub of fried dough production!
London is a city that's hard to unravel via the internet. For every reliable price estimation on the Squaremeal website, there's a hundred conflicting comments and reviews to weigh up, and top Time Out accolades can be meaningless (especially when it comes to Lebanese food. trust me on that).
So today I'm throwing up a few culinary highlights of our 6-week work stint in London: spots that came recommended by locals or researched by friends. A reliable way to seek out delicious grub in the capital.
FISH N CHIPS
'Wile Out' crackhouse producer DJ Zinc took us to the Butler's Wharf Chop House on the south side of the Thames - see phone-cam picture at top. The Chop House serves what's probably the best chish & fips I've ever had, with jars of tartar sauce and mushy peas, fish unfurled from a sleeve of grease proof paper, and fat rectangular chips that were not crispy at all but so yummy and potatoey when sprinkled with malt vinegar. DJ Zinc wisely ordered sides of baby carrots and steamed spinach ("hold the butter and garlic please"). The restaurant is near the Design museum, right on the edge of the river, and we never had trouble getting a table, which is pleasing in a city where diners love to queue. Fish n chips was the cheapest main at around 16 quid.
Butlers Wharf Chop House 36e Shad Thames, London SE1 2YE
PAKISTANI FOOD
Portuguese producer J-Wow took us to his fave London restaurant, the award-winning Tayyabs. The queue is LONG (literally takes an hour) but it is really worth it. The mixed grill is essential and the naan, chana (chickpea) masala and saag were also dope. It's BYO, and open from midday to 11.30pm. Definitely take beers to drink while you queue. Cheap! And goood.
BRICK LANE Another one of our colleagues, James Pants, is a well known curry aficionado, and he tested out many Indian restaurants in London. He took us to his favourite on Brick Lane, Shampan. It was most notable for not having curry hustlers outside (the ones who tell you if you come inside you get a free drink, and then the staff inside later claim no knowledge of this mysterious drink deal). I had a xacuti curry with tamarind and toasted cumin that was pretty good, but some of the thali plates looked a bit lackluster.
Shampan 79 Brick Lane London E1 6QL
CHINATOWN & SURROUNDS London's Chinatown is the kind of place, late at night, where you might see a drunk brit spraying air freshener on their socks in an an alleyway. But there's also quite a few decent Chinese supermarkets and a stall selling dragon's beard candy, and another stall outside a hairdresser selling really good baozi/steamed buns (it's opposite Baozi Inn on Newport Court).
Being fans of Sichuan food and also of the writing of Fuschia Dunlop, we tried out all three restaurants at which she is a consultant: Bar Shu, Ba Shan and Baozi Inn. To be honest, they're all much of a muchness. The fanciest and most expensive one, Bar Shu, has slightly fancier furniture and the staff wear earpiece headset things, but the atmosphere is not really posh despite the prices. My advice if you eat there is to go all the way and get a whole fish or crab, because the smaller plates (though yummy) are like really, really good home cooking. It's hard to feel they warrant the price tag.
Ba Shan (photos above and below) was just slightly better value and still tasty, though the Mapo-dofu (photo below) was a bit gluggy - we prefer the one at our local in Cologne which has tons of chillies in it. The chinese cabbage in broth with goji berries was comforting. I expect Antipodeans would find the prices quite hard to stomach.
My favourite was Baozi Inn, the cheapest restaurant of the trio: despite the uncomfortable wooden stools and the waitress making us take valuables out of our coat pockets before she hung them up. The baozi were sold out, but some reviewers say they're not the best offering there. The handmade dumplings in a slick of chilli oil were yummy, as was the flower tofu with peanuts and homemade tofu hiding under more chilli oil and ground sichuan pepper, and I really loved my red-braised pork - with its stodgy, slightly overcooked white rice.. it was good for a rainy winter evening.
Baozi Inn 25 Newport Court, London WC2H 7JS
Another decent spot in Chinatown is Haozhan, where you can get a decent meal including a couple of beers for 20 -30 quid. In the couple of years since it's opened (during which time the ex-Hakkasan chef moved on), it's become more shabby than sleek. For someone who doesn't get to eat pan-asian food often though, the singapore noodles, salt & pepper squid, small bowl of egg-fried rice, and softshell crab with curry leaves will wash down very well with your Asahi beer.
Haozhan 8 Gerrard Street, London W1D 5PJ
COFFEE If you have a bit of time up your sleeve - say two weeks - you can do as our American coffee-loving colleague Todd Osborn did, and get up early to walk to a different coffee spot on the East side of London as research. Thanks to him we know a world champion barista at Prufrock and his Swedish colleague claim to have invented the flat white, and churn them out of a clothing store which is in turn disguised as a cigarette shop in Shoreditch.
Other notable mentions: Tina, We Salute You in Dalston, The Whitecross Coffee Cart, Monmouth Coffee at Borough Market (they don't do soy milk), Climpson & Sons, Caravan.
Coffee with breakfast: My London-based kiwi friends Alice & John are into serious brunching, and my favourite of their haunts is The Modern Pantry in Farringdon, with its omelette with sugar-cured prawns and smoked sambal, or poached tamarillos & yoghurt w manuka honey. They also do a caramelly version of hokey pokey ice cream that's so delicious I've been known to eat it for breakfast.
JERK CHICKEN or PATTY For a city so famous for its nightlife, a lot of the clubs in London close quite early (they often stop serving alcohol at 2am), and good post-clubbing snacks are thin on the ground. Judy's Divine in Brixton is open til 1 or 2am, and they serve a patty between two fat slices of white bread if there's no buns. It's also just down the road from a club called Plan B, which has a Funktion 1 soundsystem and some good artist line-ups.
Judy's Divine 423 Coldharbour Lane Brixton, London SW9 8LH
BISTRO FOOD and DUCKFAT FRIES
Last but not least, Comptoir Gascon in Farringdon has really delicious meats (pork belly with parsnip puree! and little raviolis swimming in a yummy sauce that tastes like posh mushroom soup). YUM.
Before I moved back to Australia permanently (and a life based around work and reality tv shows), I was treated to a final family farewell feast.
Unlike the family feasts on SBS*, at my Chinese family feasts no one is slaving over a hot stove. Here you do not learn to cook. That is for the kitchen staff at the Chinese restaurant you have chosen and inevitably have vouchers for. Here one learns to eat and possibly dispute the bill.
Ten courses...two tables...four hours.....lots of tea
We started with soup. I think it was crab (no shark fins anymore....seems my family has decided to shun the delicacy)
Goose feet noodles
Fish Cakes
Peking Duck
Fish with preserved ginger and plums (Chinese umeboshi style)
Sizzling prawns with spring onion, garlic and corriander
ummmm...can't remember
Minced Peking duck as a side with congee
congee also accompanied by stir fried veges and omelette...just count those dipping sauces
Dessert...sweet plus cripsy biscuit thingy
Family portrait
It was a very sweet farewell dinner. For a family which by culture I would not describe as particularly expressive of their emotions it was quite an overwhelming display of affection. I was laden with compliments and gifts. My aunties all hugged me and my uncles passed on some of my late Ama's jewellery. One of my cousin's searching for something nice to say told me I had a lovely voice. I left feeling sad to leave them all behind.
*Oh and also, if you happen to be reading this and work for SBS I have a crossover reality show idea for you - My Family Feast meets Border Control. Large ethnic families have to try and make it into Australia with all the authentic ingredients they can without having them all confiscated by customs....the family with the least number of substitutes wins!!!!
Hock and I are both currently living in different countries in studio apartments
Yes sad, I know. I'm currently in Bangkok though, but only for a two week conjugal visit.
But given that we are both facing the challenges of living alone and cooking in kitchenettes (two stove top elements, no oven, microwave) I thought I would begin a series on kitchenette cooking solutions
My most recent ingenious solution, if I do say so myself is pressure cooker dumplings
Take said frozen pre-purchased or pre-made dumpling from your freezer and place in a bamboo steamer
Place a cup of water and a rack inside your newly purchased pressure cooker
Place bamboo steamer on rack
Secure pressure cooker lid and place on stove top. Bring to pressure, reduce heat and cook for 15 minutes.
Turn off heat and let steam release slowly
Eat dumpling
This seriously speeds up the cooking of frozen dumplings. It also works well for sticky rice parcels, various bao and other steamable items
I haven't managed to figure out precise cooking times for different items, but I find between 15 to 20 minutes does the trick
While the western world has in recent years been experiencing a renaissance/journey of discovery into the regional specialities of Chinese cuisine, and Sichuan has become a buzzword for lovers of spicy food, it has long felt like a revolution that would pass Cologne over.
I bemoaned the lack of yum cha here and Maytel asked me: "Is it possible you’ve moved to the one place in the world which Chinese people haven’t immigrated to?" In fact, although there is no Chinatown or thriving German language studies industry, like pretty much everywhere in the world Cologne has its share of Chinese supermarkets, biracial descendants and plenty of small Chinese takeaways selling deep fried meats in cornstarch thickened sauces.
But I have long cherished a dream that somewhere on a back alley in the gothic quarter, we'd find the place where all those in-the-know takeaway workers and tour groups went when they themselves wanted to eat out. We may have found that at Great Wall, which is owned by two young proprietors in their early 30s named Lily and Jojo. All the staff wear serious black shirts, there are fresh flowers and high-backed chairs, and Mandarin pop ballads pipe out from a tiny stereo positioned half way up the spiral staircase that separates three floors (banquet tables are on the top floor). In short, Great Wall is a dream come true.
Oceans of vivid red chile oil lick at the heels of tofu cubes, bumped up with handfuls of ginger, dried chillies, sichuan pepper and spring onion in their rendition of the classic Mapo Dofu. A generous plate of Mongolian lamb slivers comes dry-fried and crusted with lavish quantities of cumin & caraway seeds (the chef hails from Hebei province, which borders Beijing and inner Mongolia). The cucumber salad and rubbery black mushrooms are both must-eats, served cold with a garlicky vinegar dressing and sprigs of coriander. The Gong bao chicken, though tender and cut into satisfyingly uniform chunks, lacked spiciness and was overly moist - I'd stick to Fuschia Dunlop's more ballsy version in the safety of your own kitchen. Erik especially loved the Shanghai-style Niu Rou Mian, a generous serving of al dente noodles with chunks of fatty beef, one or two baby bok choi leaves scattered on top and a deep aniseed-cinnamon broth.
We love this place so much, we took visiting kiwi Gut Feelings blogger Coco Solid & Malaysian booty bass DJ Han Baby there last week - it's the jewel in Cologne's crown as far as I'm concerned. We all bonded over the deep fried, home-style aubergine which rivals the laid-back juicy eggplant at KKs in Auckland.
Sections of cucumber are sliced in single pieces which fold out like an accordion:
A few syndicated photos & quotes today from China-based almost-top-model Elyse Sewell, whose Live Journal blog yields tasty tidbits from time to time: rather like a bowl of mystery congee.
I had dinner at a popular fast food restaurant. There was a picture menu; I recognized the character for "porridge" and ordered this stuff thinking it was going to be yumi zhou, corn porridge, northcountry cousin to my good friend congee. Dismay! It was regular rice congee, just wack and sweet with pieces of lycheeish fruit in it. Not satisfying. I saw a savory congee on the menu doe, so XiNet.Life and I will definitely tangle again. ("XiNet.Life"? Also today I saw a shopping center called "Email Fashion.")
For Christmas, Elyse says she'll take "pretty much anything from Aisle 21"
So I've been back in Auckland for a week and am heading off to Australia tomorrow. I still haven't caught up on my NYC and Tokyo food blogs but I'll get there. Anyway, one prerequisite of a visit to Auckland always includes a massage at City Chinese Health Centre Clinic. It's located at 1A/30 Upper Queen Street, in the gully when you pass over Karangahape Road (or K Road as it is known to locals). Ada and Dickson are master masseuses that hail from Hong Kong, although they've been living in Auckland for over 20 years. And together they have managed to ruin any other massage I've ever had anywhere ever again since. Whenever I get a massage anywhere else I just lie there and start to miss them. They have a knowledge of pressure points that is unbelievable and while you may find yourself writhing in pain and even letting out small yelps while they go to work on your mouse arm and tight lower back, when you finally emerge from their functional little massage room you may find that you are slightly incomprehensible and dribbling. This may come as quite a surprise to you as the massage is often not at all relaxing in the way one might expect an ordinary massage. This is not only because Ada and Dickson know exactly where you hurt the most but also because Ada, especially tends to chat to you throughout the massage. She'll poke you where it hurts and laugh and say "Chinese massage not relaxing, like Chinese torture aye?" in her uniquely Hong Kong New Zealand accent. She'll taunt your tight little muscles and explain to you that your shoes are all wrong, or that you've got the wrong chair at work. She may also share her restaurant recommendations with you, as she did with me today. As she has recently had an operation and is not working, I got a massage from Dickson, meanwhile Ada pulled up a chair and we compared restaurant notes in between me letting out small yelps of pain.
For dim sim, Ada recommends Sunshine Restaurant in the city, near Grand Harbour which she believes is not as nice, has bad service and poor seating arrangements.
Cinta, Malaysian restaurant in Dominion Road also gets the Ada Lee seal of approval
Finally Grandma's House on Dominion Road at around 585 gets her approval although I couldn't find it on the web.
And at Ada and Dickson's bargain price of 55 NZD for one hour massage, you'll easily find money left over in your wallet for a meal.
I did just that today after I left them sore and dribbling. About three shop fronts up from their shop is a hand made dumpling shop run solely by a rather abrupt Chinese lady. Tianjian Dumplings, Northern Chinese dumplings, Ada said with a slight air of disdain. Ada warned me that they were a little on the salty side but since I am a salt freak they were fine to me. The shop is filled with formica tables with a few taken up with empty dumpling trays and one covered in flour with a rolling pin. Most of the varieties had sold out already, always a good sign, so I ordered the pork, shrimp and egg, 20 for $10 NZD. I couldn't finish them. I'm a little under equipped at the moment and don't have a camera to show you photos to attest to their deliciousness. But they were delicious.
So my recommendation for Auckland....go see Ada and then use the change to eat some home made dumplings.
We slipped in early to Momofuko with pal Ms Q in our whirlwind tour of NYC landmark eating. So no queue. We quickly decided what to eat and informed our extremely surly dragon lady waitress of our preferences
To start, hamachi with beet and apple, then some of the famous steamed buns, two pork, and one shitake for me which engendered funny looks from Hock and Ms Q. One bowl of the supposedly famous ramen and the skate to finish. A few "artisinal" beers which Hock chose.
Sashimi with beet and apple
This dish arrived as a painfully small portion of sashimi of a generally low grade. Words cannot fully describe the disappointment I felt over this fish. It could have, should have been lush thick pieces, with tart crisp apple playing off against a sweet beet flavour. Instead I felt like I was being fed left overs from a diners' meal at David Chang's more upscale Ko. Left over sashimi at a $16 US price point or there abouts.
Pork Buns
Shitake Buns
The buns arrived and offered a brief moment of reprieve. They were pretty good, but considering the price, (if memory serves they were around $9 for two) and the hyperbole, you'd hope for something decent. Especially given that it is still just a steamed bun - street food in most places in East Asia that can be had for a mere dollar or two - with much more succulent pork, speedier, sweeter service and less fuss. Such as this one, had in Japan for a quick bite (and created by someone who appears to be the Japanese "elvis" of pork buns)
But I digress....next arrived the ramen
Ramen
This was a major disappointment. With all the fuss that surrounds momofuku I half expected it to be the best bowl of ramen I have ever eaten. Alas it was at this point that Hock and I turned to each other in agreement and said "the emperor has no clothes". The broth lacked depth of flavour, the pork was like a dry Chinese char sui rather than a succulent fatty ramen pork. The noodles were definitely edible, but again at 16 USD for a bowl I felt as though David Chang had personally sucker punched me in the wallet.
With a single bite into the dry unmalleable pork, both Hock and I began to pine for "our" ramen guy on Thonglor, Bangkok. A simple ramen shop that serves the most unbelievably tender and delicious pork, with a dollop of homemade miso chili paste for the modest price of 80 baht. Or 2.50 USD. Now I know that labour costs and rents are higher in New York than Thailand, but you'd expect that labour perhaps to be more skilled or at least capable of preparing ramen of equal if not superior quality......but no the "labour" in question, standing behind the "noodle bar" seemed more concerned with the placement of his hispter head band and iphone communications than the succulence of our porky noodles. And certainly there was no appreciative yelling of "thank you very much for your custom" that cheers me to no end after eating at family style ramen joints.
Skate with brussel sprouts and kochujiang style sauce
The skate was fresh. And that about sums up all I have to say about this dish.
The beer was good, if not again a little over priced....aahh what a funky label and the words artisinal will do for prices these days
The total price of the meal USD$150 plus tips.....my Chinese grandmother would turn in her grave if she knew what we paid for a bowl of noodles and some pork buns.
Afterwards we headed to Chickalicious for a quick and reasonably price dessert
thumbs up...
it was good to see the original chef still working at her kitchen
Afterwards we landed at a bar in the lower east side that is reached by walking through a Japanese noodle bar. I walked in and half heartedly wished we had eaten here. We had a few whiskys chatted and Hock talked to the Japanese barmen. He told them we had just eaten at momofuko and how bad it was. They nodded in agreement and proclaimed it odd that "white people just love it there"
Which is exactly what momofuko is, it is gentrified "Asian" food cleaned up for a primarily white clientele who will unwittingly pay three times the price for an average bowl of noodles for the privilege and convenience of not having to navigate unfathomable menus and dirty toilets. "Eating the other, without meeting the other" is a term I recall being used once, which is odd, as I thought Japanese street foods like ramen and steamed buns had already been demystified to the general populous, and certainly a Japanese toilet is often far preferable to a western one...and here I was thinking that "Asian" is the new "White"....and that the time for repackaging a steamed bun and selling it for three times the price to scared white folks were over...how wrong I was.....David Chang may not be the greatest chef in the world but he certainly isn't the stupidest either. So in the end we too had to come to the same general conclusion as David Chang himself conceded when interviewed about being given the James Beard award - confusion and general bewilderment that such praise is utterly undeserved.
