Flashback Friday: HONG KONG

When we were growing up, Hong Kong was our weekend getaway.  At just an hour and a half flight, I can't recall how many times we visited with my parents and grandparents over the years. When I moved to Paris in the early nineties, Hong Kong was too far away to visit but when I went back home in 1997, I visited again and even stayed there for longer periods while A was posted there in 1999. Since then, I hadn't been back, and I had heard that the Hong Kong of my childhood had changed - it was bigger, brighter, more crowded - the New York of Southeast Asia.  

Finally, in 2014 I went for a few days with my friend T.  We lucked out on a promotion at the newish Mira Moon designed by Marcel Wanders and you Studio.  In a slim modern tower, on the edge of Wan Chai (which used to be the infamous red light district of Hong Kong), it's near the convention center and to several hip restaurants.  With just 91 rooms, this boutique hotel was perfect for our girl's mini-break.  On each floor, there are only a few rooms.  Our Full Moon Premier Room was much bigger than we expected and the bathroom was huge, with a separate rain shower and a large bathtub with a sliver view of the harbor.  There was a pretty wooden Grey Goose box filled with everything for martinis, intricately-carved cabinet doors, and rabbits everywhere from the ceilings to the glass etchings and the lamp bases.  Even the signs scattered around had rabbits including one that said "Good rabbits don't smoke".  We enjoyed breakfast al fresco at their tiny but well-designed terrace and on one of the evenings, we also managed to have a few after-dinner cocktails.

On our first evening, we explored the little street and had dinner at the more casual and better-priced Hee Kee for their fried crab rather than at the fancier Under Bridge Spicy Crab which was two steps away.  The fried crab was sweet and overloaded with crunchy garlic.  We had it with their salt and pepper squid and a plate of stir-fried greens which was a tasty start for our Hong Kong holiday.

The next day, we wandered around Wan Chai and explored the area near Wing Fung street and had an early lunch at Classified before we crossed over to Pacific Place and some retail therapy.   On another day, we explored the IFC mall and had lunch at Open Kitchen which had long queues at their large deli counter of salads, sandwiches, cakes and pastries.  We continued our shopping at the Landmark were we stopped for a much-needed afternoon espresso at Fuel. 

Our last lunch was at the traditional Maxim's Palace City Hall - an old school classic dining room with large windows all along one side.  We shared an assortment of dim sum -  prawn filled cheong fun (rice paper rolls), flaky char-siu puffs, the usual siew mai and her gao, steamed pork ribs, custard buns, buchi (red bean paste-filled glutinous rice balls) and the standard dan tarts.  As always, the dim sum in Hong Kong didn't disappoint.  I never made it to my childhood haunts - Spring Deer and Yung Kee but now that Hong Kong is just a few hours flight from Singapore, there's no excuse not to visit more often.

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• Mira Moon Hotel

388 Jaffe Road, Causeway Bay

Tel:  +852 2643 8888     Email: enquiry@miramoonhotel.com

• Hong KongHee Kee Fried Crab

Shop 1-4, G/F, 379 Jaffe Road, Wan Chai

Tel: +852 2893 7565, Open daily noon-4.30am

• Fuel Espresso
• Classified
• Open Kitchen
• Maxim's Palace City Hall

CHOPSUEY CAFE

One of my favorite restaurant areas in Singapore is Dempsey Hill where the old (colonial black and whites) and the new (modern restaurant concepts) have successfully come together and with the added bonus of free parking, a rarity in Singapore where sometimes, the cost of parking equals an expensive main course.   A newish addition to the P.S. Cafe group, Chopsuey Cafe quietly opened late last year in a quiet corner of Dempsey road.  We have been several times now (for brunch and lunch) to this beautiful, airy, light-filled all black and white interior (from the floor tiles to the chairs) with color brought in by the towering flower arrangement and the cakes displayed in huge glass domes.  There's a cozy indoor dining area, an roofed open-air conservatory and an outdoor terrace for those willing to brave the humidity and for smokers.

The extensive menu of mostly Asian dishes, from dim sum - both steamed and fried to noodles and rice along with a selection of classics with a twist and Asian versions of western dishes makes it accessible to all tastes.  When we go, we usually do a mix of some Western with some Asian dishes which we share family-style.  Dim sum is beautifully presented on pewter edged dim sum baskets stamped with the restaurant logo, plates are placed on different height pewter stands and the accompanying sauces  - spicy tamarind, sweet chili and a fiery red chili. There are also daily specials on the blackboard including starters, main courses, desserts and even drinks.

For brunch one day, we had the west corn, coriander and potato rosti benedict - poached eggs with a sweet sour hollandaise and the mandarin French toast - thick slices of caraway bread with mandarin marmalade and a passion-fruit lime butter.

Lunch is more of a family affair with lots of dishes placed in the middle for everyone to share.  From the dim sum menu, we've had the char skew steamed buns and the har gau (prawn dumplings), the deep-fried crayfish stuffed bean curd skins and the crispy spicy prawn wantons.  For starters, our favorites include the classic prawn toasties (sesame prawn toasts), the sticky crunchy baby squid and the san chou pau (minced chicken and pork with corn and green beans wrapped in lettuce cups and eaten like a taco).  For main courses, we had the orange beef - battered deep fired beef in a sticky orange sauce, the chili jam prawns, Szechuan string beans with minced chicken and a maple apple crispy pork belly form the daily blackboard special.  We also shared a mud crab fried rice while the kids had the usual egg fried rice.  For drinks, we always have one of their special fruit coolers - lychee and lime or lemon and basil, although there is an interesting list of cocktails and wines as well.  Dessert was their hummingbird pavlova - a tropical version of the classic, this time filled with pineapple, many and passion fruit.  As with all restaurants from the P.S. Cafe group, the average check is usually high but in the case of Chopsuey cafe it's well worth it.

Chopsuey Cafe

Block 10, Dempsey Road 01-23

Dempsey Hill 247700

Singapore

Telephone: +65 9224 6611

*Open for Lunch Mondays to Fridays from 11:30 a.m., Dinner daily from 6:30 p.m., Brunch and Tea on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays from 10:30 to 5:00 p.m.

RONI

The Moscow restaurant scene has certainly evolved since the deep, dark, post-perestroika nineties with two main restaurant groups (Novikov and Ginza) filling the city with all sorts of restaurant concepts.  Roni is part of the pioneer Novikov Restaurant Group (from Arkady Novikov) who started it all with Sirena (which already existed when I lived in Moscow) and now has an empire with almost 50 restaurants, food and beverage concepts (including the franchise for Krispy Kreme) and even Novikov TV which runs a never-ending loop of images and events on television screens which seems to be a typical Moscow restaurant accessory.

Roni is located on Petrovka street (where the only club on that street in the early nineties was Marika).  Interiors are dark and modern with a large black and red chandelier serving as a focal point in the center of a square room with lanterns and black and white photographs.  The open kitchen is on one side of the room alongside the bar where open shelves showcase Asian ingredients - bottles of chili sauce, oyster sauce, noodles - while open crates line the counter filled with dried chills and different spices.

I ate there twice in a week  - once for lunch with girlfriends on a snowy day and again for dinner with A after an evening at the Bolshoi.  Both times, the food was good, the atmosphere fun and the crowd interesting.  Malaysian chef Mamu heads the kitchen and although the food is a melange of Asian cuisines catering mostly to what Russians like, it surprisingly works. For lunch, we shared several appetizers - a tuna tartar, some sashimi, seared scallops,  fried gyoza and a wonderful salad mixed with crunchy duck in with a sesame-based dressing.   For dinner, we had some miso soup, sweet and spicy fried chicken, tuna tataki and fried rice.  It worked and gave us a much-needed Asian fix in Moscow.

Roni
Ulitsa Petrovka 20/1
Moscow
Telephone: +7495 625 2606

NEW TASTE

In our constant search for proper Asian food, we finally went to the Chinese restaurant that is supposed to be the most authentic on the island which is also conveniently located across the street to the only Asian grocery in San Juan.

We went for Sunday dim sum and were pleasantly surprised to enter a bright restaurant filled with large Chinese families having lunch - a good sign.  We ordered a few dim sum items from the typical large menu along with a few a la carte dishes.

The dim sum came piping hot in the standard metal containers - har gao (prawn dumplings), siu mai (pork siumai), char siu bao (roast pork buns) which were quite good.  We noticed that the other tables had some cheung fun (flat rice noodles filled with either meat or seafood) which wasn't on the menu but which we'll try on our next visit.  We also had the salt and pepper squid - a classic salty, spicy and crunchy Chinese dish, sesame chicken which was overly sweet, delicious crispy fried noodles with vegetables and egg fried rice.   All in all a decent meal and a good discovery.  After lunch, we went over to the Asian grocery to have a look at what they have available then walked over to the Condado Sunday market. 

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New Taste

1018 Avenida Ashford

Condado 00907

Puerto Rico

Telephone: +1 787 721 8111

HAKKASAN

I did a girl's holiday with my friend  T in New York a few weeks back and on our first evening we booked an early table at the newly-opened Hakkasan.  Although they got slammed by the NY Times, we decided to give it a go as we had fond memories of our last girl's holiday together in London and our wonderful lunch at the original Hakkasan off Tottenham Court road.

The interiors (see photos from the NY Times here) are dark with rich colors, lots of reds and purples, and cozy corners making this one of the sexiest Chinese restaurants ever.  There is a long runway-like white marble hallway for an entrance that leads to the dimly-lit bar and further on to the screened-off areas making it seem like different rooms in a home instead of a large restaurant.  We opted to sit at the far banquette nearest the frosted glass windows to enjoy some of the summer evening light and so I could take photos of our dinner without using a flash.

Hakkasan's dinner menu is bound in a leather-covered book and as expected from a Chinese restaurant, lots to choose from.  Along with the regular menu was the prix-fixe menu offered for NY Restaurant Week (most restaurants had a lunch prix-fixe for $24.07 and a dinner one for $35).  As there were three of us for dinner, we decided to go for the bargain $35 menu and add another dish from the Small Eat section and share everything family-style the way Chinese food is supposed to be eaten.  The 3-course prix-fixe dinner menu had a choice of three appetizers, three main courses and three desserts plus either fried rice or steamed rice.  To make it easy and to give us a chance to taste the most dishes, we chose one of each along with some Riesling by the glass.

First up was the selection of appetizers: fried dim sum, steamed dim sum and the salt and pepper squid. The steamed dim sum was excellent - four pieces of delicately flavored beautiful steamed parcels - a classic har gao (steamed prawn dumpling), scallop siu mai topped with shrimp roe, black pepper duck dumpling and an all-vegetable chive flower dumpling.  The fried dim sum starter had roasted duck and pumpkin puff, crispy prawn dumpling and XO seafood puff - all three were different in shape but quite similar in taste with the ribbed crispy prawn dumpling having the best flavor mix of salty crunch. The salt and pepper squid was less successful and quite bland for a traditional Chinese dry-fried dish - not enough salt or pepper or spice.  The extra order of our favorite fried soft shell crab with curry leaf and chili ($19) was also served with the appetizers.  One of Hakkasan's signature dishes the battered and deep-fried soft-shell crab chunks came tossed in curry leaves and chili, and topped with shredded crunchy egg-yolk threads.  The soft-shell crab was a burst of flavor with each sweet-salty-crunchy-seafood-umami bite making it quite hard to stop popping more in the mouth.

We took our time finishing off the appetizers as the portions were quite big for a prix-fixe menu.  The main dishes came next - sweet and sour pork tenderloin with pomegranate,  spicy prawns with lily-bulb and almonds in a light curry sauce and the vegetarian stir-fried sugar snaps, water chestnut and cloud ear mushrooms and the spring onion and egg fried rice for all of us.  Surprisingly, the sweet and sour pork was very good and interesting with the pomegranate seeds providing the sour crunch to the dish.  The vegetables were not soggy and overcooked but crisp and fresh with the sugar snaps retaining their crunch and sweetness, the water chestnuts like crispy turnip chips and the addition of the cloud ear mushrooms giving the dish a smoky twist.  The dish that was a letdown was the spicy prawn which was not spicy at all and quite bland with the prawns looking and tasting like they were just steamed then tossed in the curry sauce and almonds.  The egg-fried rice was, again, bland.

Dessert was much more refined than anything one would ever get at a Chinese restaurant - apple tatin with green apple sorbet, summer cherry ganache and the PB&J.  The classic tarte tatin was served in a perfect rectangle along with a tart green apple sorbet to complement the sweetness of the caramelized apple layers.  The cherry dessert was a long slice of dark chocolate ganache over a chocolate dacquiose (chocolate flavored meringue) with 2 dollops of sorbet - white tea and cherry.  Finally, the PB& J, a riff on the classic peanut butter and jelly which was modernized into a peanut butter parfait, raspberry jelly and passion fruit sorbet concoction.

Dinner at Hakkasan was ok.  Several hits but also lots of misses which shouldn't be the case for a high-end overpriced Chinese restaurant especially in New York where a short subway ride downtown can mean a fantastic Chinese meal sans the sexy fine dining ambiance of Hakkasan.  Could it be because uber-chef and creative founder Alan Yau is no longer involved in the Hakkasan group of restaurants or because they haven't worked out the kinks in their menu yet since they opened in less than six months ago?  Whatever it is, Hakkasan has lost some of it's shine food-wise and in a super competitive high-end restaurant environment like New York, their tried and tested formula needs reworking.

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Hakkasan

311 West 43rd Street

New York NY 10036

Telephone: +1 212 776 1818

*Open daily for lunch and dinner from 11:30 till late.  Dim sum brunch served on weekends.

YANK SING

What better way to end a gastronomic weekend in San Francisco than a Sunday yum cha (morning tea) or dim sum brunch at Yank Sing, a Michelin-starred and James Beard awarded dim sum restaurant.  The great thing about dim sum is that the food rolls be in carts so it's ready, making it a really good place to go in a group with kids or when you're starving.

We booked an early table and sat down and just watched the carts roll by for a bit then started ordering directly from the carts.  Here's what we had: fried dumplings filled with ground pork and vegetables, small portions of Peking Duck - just the skin served with the traditional pancakes, scallions, cucumber strips and Hoisin sauce,  vegetable spring rolls scissored in half for us to share, honey walnut prawns in mayonnaise, stir-fried green beans with chili and ground pork and Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce.  From the steam baskets: char siu bao (buns with roast pork), siu mai (ground pork and shrimp dumplings), har gau (prawn dumplings) and the popular xia long bao (soup-filled dumpling).  The food was good and the service exceptional.  Yank Sing is traditional yum cha in a refined setting without the usual noise and clutter of a typical dim sum restaurant but still with delicious dim sum.

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Yank Sing

49 Stevenson Street

San Francisco CA

Telephone: +1 415 541 4949

*Open Mondays to Fridays from 11a.m. to 3 p.m.

*Open Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

*Another branch in Rincon Center at 101 Spear St. (Telephone +1 415 781 1111)

DIN TAI FUNG

I was in Singapore for a week and spent most of my time at Mt. Elizabeth so I had to figure out where I could go that was nearby.  Lucky that I had just downloaded the new LUXE mobile guide for Singapore on my iPhone.  Using their map application, I found out that the famous Din Tai Fung dim sum restaurant was just at the Paragon shopping mall across the street from Mt. E.  I was looking forward to having lunch there as a friend of mine had also mentioned that this was her favorite dim sum place in Singapore.

We arrived at the restaurant at around 12:30 and the place was packed with a long queue of people waiting for a table and we were about to leave when we realized they have a fantastic seating system with a digital screen (take a number and wait to be called) as long as all the people in the group are present.  While we were waiting, we were given a menu checklist attached to a small clipboard so we could already make our choices.  We didn't have to wait long.  After about 15 minutes, our number started to flash on the board and we were led to a table.  The person who seated us took our clipboard order away and the food started to come one after another.  

As we were quite hungry, we ordered several dishes - steamed chicken noodle soup, fried pork chop, egg fried rice, stir-fried spinach with garlic, and of course steamed specialties - pork won ton in black vinegar, chili and soy sauce, prawn and pork sio mai plus their famous steamed pork dumplings (xiao long bao-style soup-filled dumplings).  Service was fast and our food came in quickly.  Hot and freshly made, some in steam baskets and some in little dishes that were set all over the table for all to be shared.

We enjoyed our lunch so much that day that we returned two days after for another dim sum fix.  This time, we knew what we wanted but we also decided to try a few new dishes.  My son wanted a portion of the exquisite black vinegar, chili and soy soaked won tons which he finished on his own while A and I shared another bowl of these won tons.  We still had the xiao long bao and the prawn and pork sio mai but we also managed to try the noodles with ground pork and tofu, steamed pork bun, sauteed sugar pea shoots and their special drunken chicken.  Again, service was efficient and quick and when you're done, you just go straight to the cashier and pay your bill.  This is stylish fast food dim sum and a must for lunch.

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Din Tai Fung

Basement 1 #03-06

Paragon shopping mall

290 Orchard Road, Singapore

Telephone: +65 6836 8336

*No reservations, take a number and wait to be called.  Remember that your party must be complete or you won't be seated.

FEY LOON

No, I haven't abandoned my blog.  I've just been busy searching for a house which is proving to be much more difficult than I thought.  It isn't because there aren't any, but the really nice ones are only for sale and the ones that aren't are either not very nice and not cheap or amazing but way overpriced.  I've spent the last six weeks searching and still haven't found anything appropriate.  The only compensation I have is that my husband found a fantastic Chinese restaurant downtown so we've spent the last two Saturdays drowning our househunting problems in copious amounts of dim sum and roast pork.

Opened in 2002 with a Hong Kong chef in charge of the kitchen, Fey Loon specializes in Cantonese barbecue, dim sum and seafood in the middle of bustling Kuta.  On the two Saturdays that we were there, we ordered several dim sum items and all were freshly-made and delicious - char siu pao (steamed roasted pork buns), har gao (steamed shrimp dumplings), siu mai (steamed pork dumplings), xiao long bao (steamed Shanghai soup dumplings).  From the barbecue selection, we have our favorite roast pork belly which is crispy and served with the traditional peanuts.  We have also tried the steamed chicken with ginger-soy sauce, stir-fried kai-lan and the fried tofu with egg sauce.  The food has been consistent and reasonably priced.

The roast Peking duck looks authentic but as we are always only three or four for lunch, we can never order the whole duck but the next time we go in a group, we will definitely order that as well.  Lots more to try form their extensive menu, Fey Loon will be one of our regular restaurants and as they also do takeaway, we will surely be ordering Chinese feasts to-go when we finally find a home.  I hope that day will be sooner rather than later.
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Fey Loon
Jln. Raya Kuta No. 98
Kuta - Bali
Telephone: +62 361 766 308
Open daily for lunch and dinner, Dim Sum served every day
(TIP FOR BALI RESIDENTS: If you present your KITAS or Indonesian residency card, you get a discount on dim sum).

CHANG'S HONG KONG CUISINE

Las Vegas has so many Asian restaurants that we always make it a point to eat as much Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Thai while we're there since we can hardly get authentic Asian cuisine in Marbella.   On one of those evenings, we went to the only restaurant we know of in Las Vegas that serves Hong-Kong style Peking duck with pancakes (most places serve it with the Chinese white buns, at Chang's you can pre-order the pancakes to go with your duck).  My sister had her birthday meal at Chang's recently and the food was good so a few weeks after that, we went back for dinner.

First of, the menu at Chang's isn't the typical 10-page Chinese menu.  They have a limited (4 pages) dinner menu with select items and a full choice of dim sum daily.  Lots of typical dishes on the menu and lots of seafood specialties as well.

We started off with wonton soup - clear chicken broth and pork-filled dumplings.  The pièce de résistance came next - Peking duck served two ways - first with the crispy skin sliced and served in pancakes with Hoisin sauce, sliced green onions and sliced cucumbers.  The second traditional way is the cooked duck meat minced and served in lettuce cups like moo shu pork which we asked to be changed to duck fried rice instead which they were happy to do.

The rest of the dishes were soon served after: crispy orange-flavored beef,  deep-fried salt and pepper flounder, spicy green beans and crispy noodles with seafood and vegetables.  The beef was spicy sweet and crispy and a good choice for the kids, the green beans were hot and spicy and the noodles were covered in squid, shrimp, fish, bok choy and carrots.  The second-best dish after the Peking duck was the crunchy batter-covered flounder which was filleted, fried then served on top of the whole deep-fried flounder fish bones.  The fish wasn't oily at all and the subtle spice mix of salt, pepper and hot green chilies gave it a deliciously spicy kick.  And the best indicator of really good Chinese food - our plates were clean and we didn't have much left to take home.

Chang's food isn't the typical greasy stuff you get at other restaurants.  It's Chinese cuisine that's brought to another level and although dinner is quiet, they say that the lunch is packed.  Next time, we'll be back for some dim sum.

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Chang's Hong Kong Cuisine

4670 S Decatur Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89103
Phone: (702) 362-3663

Open daily
Dim Sum Brunch: 10:30am - 3pm
Dinner: 3pm - 10pm

BUSABA

Our first meal in London was supposed to be at Yauatcha, Alan Yau's funky dimsum restaurant so we hopped into a cab and went straight to Broadwick Street in Soho. When we arrived, we were surprised to find a very quiet restaurant and were greeted by the not-so-friendly hostess who informed us that only the tearoom was open while the restaurant kitchen was undergoing renovations.

Since we were quite hungry, we walked around to try and find another restaurant. At the end of the road was Wardour street where there was a Busaba, another Alan Yau creation, which was on my list of restaurants for lunch the next day.

Walking into Busaba's modern interiors was a pleasure. The restaurant was filled with square tables, benches and large pendant lamps over each table focusing on the three bottles of essential sauces in Thai cooking - Sriracha hot sauce, soy sauce and Squid brand fish sauce. We were seated at a corner of the large table making it much easier to have a conversation during the meal instead of being seated side-by-side on the long bench. Each place was set with a simple brown paper mat in the same color as the wood of the table and some chopsticks (although Thais don't eat using chopsticks but forks and spoons, which we were given later on).

The menu is divided into: salad, soup noodle, wok noodle, stir-fry, grill, rice, curry and side dishes. We wanted to try several dishes and just share them all. From the wok noodle, we had the Sen chan pad Thai (a twist on the usual Thai rice noodle dish because of the addition of crab meat and green mango). From the stir-fry section, we had rose-apple and chicken stir-fry, a side dish of Chinese broccoli with garlic and shiitake mushrooms and coconut rice. All the food arrived quickly piping hot and served in simple white crockery. The vegetables were crisp and not overcooked, the stir-fried chicken was sweet from the fruit with a hint of spice and the coconut rice was delicious but the best dish was the pad Thai which was a large portion of rice noodles with prawns and crab meat, crushed peanuts, egg and the tangy twist from the slices of green mango - an excellent Thai flavor combination of sweet-sour-salty and spicy. We were pleasantly surprised with the bill which came to £15 each for n excellent lunch.

The next day, we were supposed to meet up with another friend, C, for lunch at the Busaba on Bird Street near our hotel. Instead of going to another restaurant, we decided to eat there again since we had such a delicious lunch the day before. This time since there were three of us, we were able to order more dishes from the menu and just place them all in the middle and share them all. We tried the pat prik king prawn (stir-fried prawns with snake bean, lime leaf, ginger and red curry), the char-grilled duck in tamarind sauce with Chinese broccoli, a side dish of Thai calamari with ginger and peppercorn, a non-noodle Mai sai-sen pad Thai made only with Chines chive, tofu, bean sprouts, egg, peanut and lime plus our favorites from the day before: the Sen chan Pad Thai, Chinese broccoli with garlic and shiitake mushrooms and coconut rice. We also tried the Unif iced green tea which was very refreshing and a nice alternative to fizzy drinks or regular iced tea.

As usual, the food arrived quickly and piping hot - the new dishes we tried were all very good: the prik king prawns were spicy, the grilled duck was sour-sweet from the tamarind marinade, the squid, crisp and hot with the whole black peppercorns and the non-noodle pad Thai an unusual yet delicious option for vegetarians. Everything else was exactly as they were the day before with the crabmeat and green mango Mai sai-sen pad Thai again standing out for its' original flavor combination. We thought we would never be able to finish all that food but we somehow managed to eat every last morsel which was useful as we needed the energy for our afternoon of retail therapy. Again, the bill was very reasonable at £20 each, excellent quality-price ratio.

We hit the shops on Oxford street all afternoon starting at Selfridges stationery department and food hall then heading off to M&S, Russell and Bromley, Mothercare and back again to Selfridges women's fashion and shoe floor where we spent a few hours escaping the heat and trying tons of Christian Louboutins, LK Bennett's and Havaianas. It was a perfect girl's day of lunch, shopping and catching up on gossip.

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Busaba

106-110 Wardour St.

London W1

+44 020 7255 8686

* perfect for hanging out in Soho

8-13 Bird St.

London W1

+44 020 7518 8080

* great for shopping on Oxford Street

another on:

22 Store St., London WC1

+44 020 7299 7900

Open daily, all-day long.

Monday-Thursday 12 noon to 11 p.m.

Friday-Saturday 12 noon to 11:30 p.m.

Sunday 12 noon to 10:00 p.m.

CHINESE EXPERIENCE

London's Chinatown in Soho is spread out over several blocks and there are numerous restaurants lined up on the streets surrounding Shaftesbury Avenue. I checked the Zagat for a Chinese restaurant that served dimsum (traditionally served at lunchtime) in the evening and found Chinese Experience which had received a reasonable rating from the Zagat and a decent review from Time Out London.

We had just spent the day walking around Sloane Street, Bond Street and finally ended up at the large Waterstone's bookstore on Piccadilly and decided to walk up Shaftesbury Avenue to the restaurant although we were an hour early for our reservation.

The restaurant was not busy at all as it was only 6:00, save for a few diners having an early meal. We were seated immediately and started to peruse the large menu. We decided on the prawn dim sum to start along with some wonton soup. The dim sum was very good and perfect with the soya-chili oil dip. The wonton soup was flavorful and the dumplings were filled with ginger-flavored ground pork.

Our main courses were shredded crispy beef, salt & pepper fried pork spareribs and Szechuan stir-fried string beans with a small order of vegetable fried rice. The crispy beef was good but the sauce was more sweet and sour than the sweet, spicy vinegary sauce that usually accompanied this dish. The spareribs were tasty but it was the stir-fried string beans that stole the show. They were perfectly crispy, not overcooked and spicy. The vegetable fried rice didn't have much flavour since they used a lot of Chinese mushrooms mixed in and the mushroom flavour overpowered the rice. Overall, a very pleasant meal in a modern dining room. Perhaps, next time we should stick to the dim sum which always gets rave reviews.

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Chinese Experience

118-120 Shaftesbury Avenue,

(Opposite the Curzon Cinema)

London W1D 5EP

Telephone: +44 207 437 0377

Dimsum delights at ORCHID'S GARDEN

My sister took the day off today and so she and her husband plus my 5-year old went to have lunch at a restaurant on the corner of Sahara and Decatur called Orchid's Garden. We were going there for some dim sum, a Cantonese specialty of dumplings, steamed dishes and other small bites usually served to accompany tea. Unlike some places that serve dim sum only on weekends, here it's served everyday from 10:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Think of dim sum as Chinese-style tapas mostly served in little bamboo baskets.


Orchid's Garden had the whole array of traditional dim sum plus a separate a la carte menu. Most of the those at lunch today, including ourselves, were taking turns flagging down the dimsum ladies who wheel around carts with all the different goodies on display. You see something you like, you point to it, she serves it to your table then places a stamp on your bill. Each plate or bamboo basket equals one stamp and every stamp is a set price.

From the steamed selection, we had har gao (shrimp dumplings), siumai (pork and shrimp dumplings), shark's fin dumplings, Char siu bao (roast pork buns) and the rice noodle roll with shrimps. We also chose a small plate of fried noodles and crispy shrimp wonton. All of this was of course accompanied by jasmine tea. For dessert, we had the dan tarts (the original of which are Portuguese custard tarts adapted from the Macao Cantonese) and buchi which are sesame -encrusted balls of sweet bean paste.

Dim sum is a great lunch option since it's quick, delicious and cheap and much better than having a fast-food drive-thru Mc'Donald's meal. In less than an hour, we had eaten a superb lunch and spent only $30 (22 euros) for the four of us - a real deal.

RED 8 at the Wynn

I've been feeding my cravings for oriental cuisine since I arrived in the States. It's one of the things that I really miss living in Europe. One of the places we ate in the last time we were here was Red 8 at the Wynn hotel which just opened over Christmas 2005. Since then Malaysian chef Hisham Johari has become a friend of my brother-in-law so when we had lunch at Red 8 over the weekend, we got the red-carpet treatment.

The menu is predominantly Cantonese but with a strong leaning towards Malaysian influences and also includes some typical Southeast Asian specialties. During our recent lunch, we were treated to dishes upon dishes just coming straight out of the kitchen like a traditional Chinese banquet where many courses are served in just one meal, sort of like a Chinese-style tasting menu except the portions aren't tiny. Everything was served family-style meaning they plonked the food in the middle of the table and everyone got a taste of whatever there was.

We started out with dimsum (steamed dumplings with different fillings): pork Shiu Mai, shrimp Har Gao, pork Char siu bao and Cantonese potstickers. My son also got his favorite vegetable spring rolls. One of the chef's signature dishes followed - oxtail soup with potatoes and crispy shallots. The last appetizer to be served was the roast duck and roast pork combination which is a typical Cantonese dish.

Main courses soon came after: crispy calamari, a special wok-fried lobster with chili and garlic and deep-fried prawns. We also had the wok-fried water spinach with preserved bean curd along with a large portion of dried scallop and egg white fried rice to complement the meal. Desserts were shared as everything else was - chilled mango soup with sago, a fantastic coconut pudding and a large scoop of peanut ice cream.

The restaurants' name Red 8 comes from the fact that both the color red and the number 8 are lucky for the Chinese. Maybe after lunch or dinner here you can try your luck at the casino but I think I would rather have a delicious meal at this lucky restaurant.

YAUATCHA

Spent last weekend in London and had pre-booked the restaurants I wanted to visit. First one we went to and high on my list was Yauatcha in Soho. It's another creation from super restaurateur Alan Yau (of Wagamama, BusabaEathai and Hakkasan fame). I was there in November last year and enjoyed an excellent dim sum lunch with two girlfriends. It was a bit quiet for lunch but they still imposed the two-hour limit on our table. This time around the place was packed and the ambiance at dinner was much better.

My husband and I arrived very early for our 7:30 p.m. booking. We thought we might as well maximize the strict two-hour time limit on the table by having lychee martinis while waiting for our friends. With our drinks we ordered the baked venison puff which is like a baked charsiubao except that this time it was filled with venison instead of the traditional roast pork - the pastry was crumbly and the filling was salty-sweet. We pre-ordered our dim sum and asked the waitress to start serving them as soon as our friends arrived. Yauatcha is a dim sum restaurant so the menu is divided into - steamed, fried, baked, grilled - and the items are served as soon as they are cooked.

We started out with Steamed Chilean Sea bass roll and Steamed spinach cube with prawn and water chestnut - both delicious yet simple with the distinct flavor of the sea bass and the prawn. Then we had the Prawn Cheung fun (flat rice noodles with prawns and light soy sauce) -which was a bit bland. Of course we couldn't resist the half portion of Crispy aromatic duck served with the cucumbers, spring onion, Hoisin sauce and pancakes. The duck was perfectly fried, crispy but not dry and not at all oily. We must have had six pancakes each - it was that good!

Four stir fry dishes followed - Mongolian Rib-eye beef which was very tender and tasty and the Crispy Szechuan beef with mango served alongside Baby Pak Choi with salted fish and Singapore fried noodles. The stir-fry dishes were a bit of a disappointment except for the Mongolian beef. They just didn't stand out like the dim sum.


The amazing thing about Yauatcha is the place itself - the slick modern interiors designed by Christian Liagre (check out the fantastic aquarium bar) and the building itself care of Richard Rogers. I wouldn't say that the food was better than the typical, noisy and white-tablecloth Chinese restaurants in London's Chinatown but if you want to have very good dim sum in a hip and happening atmosphere and lots of people-watching then Yauatcha is the place.



Yauatcha - 15-17 Broadwick Street, Soho, London, W1F 0DL
Tel: 020 7494 8888
(Book at least a week in advance and be on time because they don't extend the 2-hour time limit on the table)
Sample menu - http://www.city-eating.com/menu/24705.pdf

*Hot Tip - When they not so subtly place the bill on the table to encourage you to leave, walk down the road to The Player (8-12 Broadwick St.) and look for the nondescript entrance right beside the SpaceNK and have some fantastic cocktails with lounge-y music from the live DJ.