Dimsum in London

While, to many, Chinese food is about noodles, rice, sweet & sour and black bean sauce, for a substantial number of us (and for even more Cantonese), one of its finest moments is made up of tasty little steamed parcels.

Dimsum – also known as yum cha – are a subset of chinese food that luckily for London come mainly from Canton, the southern region of China where former British colony Hong Kong is.

There are dimsum places all over London spanning from cheap and cheerful authentic Chinese in Chinatown to three-figure bill upmarket Western interpretations. So here I would like to try to quickly talk about a few places to eat quality dimsum, aside from the ultra-famous (and uber pricey) top-notch like Hakkasan and Yauatcha, which both definitely produce the goods for those unaffected by the credit crunch or lunching on copious expense accounts.

Firstly, lets set up the context and protocol. Dimsum is typically brunch food, so is normally eaten late morning to afternoon in China. It’s also always worth getting as big as possible a group of people together to go. This allows more dishes to be ordered and brings down the price. A meal for one or two at a decent Chinatown place is around 20 pounds a head, but once 3 or 4 more people are there it’s somewhere near 15.

Focus on the dimsum, there is no need for noodles or rice with it. Oh, and maybe just get a dish of Chinese vegetables like kailan or bok choi. Aside from the Hakkasans of this city, there are two main types of dimsum place in London. The authentic Chinese version and a slightly more adapted take – also known as “modern dimsum” – of Ping Pong type western restaurants. As a purist who prefers the integrity, taste and variety of the Chinese version, I would venture that Ping Pong is not actually bad although I would pay NOT to ever have to eat at its rival chain Dim T going on my dining – nay, wretching — experiences at its Gloucester Road branch.

The top end is made up of glitzier restaurants like Royal China, Princess Garden and Marylebone’s Phoenix Palace. These are good, though Phoenix Palace stands out for me a little among them.

China Garden on Finchley Road is one I have never tried, but it stands out as getting very strong reviews from Chinese friends. My personal favourite is Harbour City on Gerrard Street in Chinatown, which has a very wide selection of good dimsum, reasonably priced. For people in a hurry however, Chen Cheng Ku on Wardour Street serves decent dimsum from mobile trolleys that circulate around the tables so there is no need to wait the 15-20 minutes for them to be steamed after ordering. On the downside, as they are not prepared to order, try to go at peak times to make sure your food is as fresh as possible.

So those are my dimsum pointers. I am, as alway,s open to comments or suggestions from people on places to go, if I have not mentioned them. Now, for your next hungover Sunday if you fancy a feast with friends and are bored with British fry-ups, why not head out for a steamed Chinese treat?

On the London Spice trail!

Are you a die-hard chili-junkie, locked in a constant search for a stronger buzz, that undiluted high? Did your last attempt at blowing your taste buds with a vindaloo land flat?

Well fear not, for London, as the most cosmopolitan city in the world, is a trove of different cuisines. And where there are chilies, there is probably a restaurant serving them in London. So let’s take a look at a couple of easy taste-bud blowers.

Despite all the silly bravado, there actually is a rational explanation for liking chilies. They ARE like a drug. According to recent thinking, their consumption leads the body to release serotonin, the chemical the brain uses to create happiness and pleasure. In the case of chilies the secretion is caused by the initial feeling of pain created by ingestion, which the body instinctively counters.

So where can you get a potent kick in a restaurant near you? Well, you may not be surprised to read that your local Indian is one place. I am sure we have all heard of vindaloo. But that’s nothing, compared to phall (pictured below). Any Indian restaurant I have been to can serve up a phall, which, like so many “Indian” standards including Cobra beer and chicken tikka massala, is actually a British dish invented by people of Asian descent in the UK. But Indian restaurants hardly ever put it on the menu, and when I order it, I invariably get a worried look from the waiter who then says “sir, you know it is very spicy?”. Once the dish arrives, its red colour spells danger, and it also reflects its make-up, which is basically ground chillies and a touch of ginger in a tomato base. If you feel like having a personal sauna, followed by an exhilarating buzz once the heat wears off, then this is your dish at the Indian. It also tends to ensure that nobody else at the table touches your platter and you are able to eat it peacefully while still tasting other people’s orders.

But it’s not just well-known cuisines like Indian and Thai food that pack a punch. It’s also worth knowing of that region of China called Szechuan, which is known throughout Asia for its chilies. Of course, while we speak of hot Indian and Chinese food, we tend to forget that chilies are indigenous to neither of these regions. They started in America and were exported worldwide where they were then bred differently in different regions, leading to the wide variety we now find.

Szechuanese chilies are not the hottest in the scale, but they definitely pack enough of a punch to get noticed. They are also quite large and flavourful, and give a nice unique taste to Szechuanese cuisine. So if you like chinese food and chilies, then leave the Cantonese staples of Chinatown behind and look a little harder to find Szechuanese. There are at least two such restaurants in the West End worth mentioning.

The first, Bar Shu, is the glitzier alternative. It is located on Frith Street in Soho and boasts a nice dark designery interior with intimate tables, as well as separate rooms for large parties. Its food comes in rather expensive, at 40-50 pounds a head. But it is good, offers many alternatives, and is known, according to a Chinese friend, as the dating hangout of Chinese embassy staff. It is also worth trying the fiery Chinese liquor on sale there. Maybe stick to a single shot however as it is almost as strong as lighter fluid (I haven’t checked on the latter, and just thinking of a certain scene in Withnail and I).

The second option is a street away on Charing Cross Road, and is called Red & Hot. It is almost exclusively packed with Chinese, much more relaxed and while the décor doesn’t compete with Bar Shu, the food definitely does, and the price tends to come in at a much more reasonable level between 20 and 30 pounds a head. Make sure you try the specialty, of pork or beef “Sichuan Style Lavishly Topped with Chilli & Sichuan Pepper”. The only thing as memorable as the food is the awfulness of the menu translations and some of the staff’s English. I remember asking if they had snake, for the waiter to say “yes, yes” then bring me a menu of “snacks.”

Anyway, there are some suggestions. I am very open to other people’s advice on places to go in London off the beaten track to experience hot food,so let me know your tips in the Comments.