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China Delight

China Delight
2 Minster Court
EC3R 7FL

Date of Last Visit: Thursday, January 22nd, 2008

The Victims: Echo and 23 others

The Damage: £20-ish each

The Background: In celebration of the impending Chinese New Year, Echo organizes dinner for 24 at China Delight in the City. We're all looking forward to it because it's the first time many of us will meet Echo's 1-year old daughter, Tong-Tong.

The Entrance: China Delight is empty at 7 p.m. on a Thursday night, and it makes me a little worried. However, I am grateful that we're offered the "Special Chinese Menu." You know the menu...the one that's all in Chinese. (One of my best memories ever is visiting my friend Jon in Toronto over Thanksgiving in college and going to the all-night Chinese diner where the entire menu was in Chinese up on the wall. We all picked a number and let ourselves be surprised.)

The Food: I try to put Echo in charge of ordering, but someone decides that we should each order our own dish. I don't know about you, but 24 dishes for 24 people is A LOT of food. We still managed to put a good dent in everything, but I honestly think we could have and should have ordered differently. If you can imagine, 23 people ordered MAINS. I wisely ordered two side dishes instead. (One ma po tofu, one green beans. Both enjoyed by all. But particularly by me, who thought the green beans were about the best thing she's eaten lately.)

 

I really wish I had taken more photos. These two don't do justice to the feast we had. And really, the green beans were great. Best of all was the whole sea bass, served at the very end of our meal. Stuffed with ginger. Also fantastic was some sort of spicy seafood stew...with a nice big fish head in it. (We gave it to Echo, who loves fish heads, apparently.)

The Service: A bit surly and impatient. Kinda just added to the charm.

The Loos: Really, someone needs to start a power-washing business.

The Verdict: I was glad I visited China Delight with a lot of people from China. Otherwise, I think we would have ended up with a lot of Kung Pao chicken and Sweet and Sour Pork. I would go back here for an honest meal at a decent price, but only with a Chinese-English dictionary.

Dim Sum at Harrods: Xin

Xin
Harrods Food Hall
87-135 Brompton Road
SW1X 7XL

Date of Last Visit: Monday, May 6

The Victim: Me

The Damage: £20?

The Background: I've left Aunt Ursula and Uncle George in Paris and have returned to London for some retail therapy at the tail-end of the bank holiday weekend. I stop into Harrods to look at everything. My wallet remains intact.

I am hungry though, very much so. So I drop into the food court to have some dumplings at Xin. The best part about the meal was the tea, which blossomed as I drank it. The dumplings, however, were gloopy and forgettable.

The Verdict: I'll be going back to Harrods, for sure. But I'll steer clear of Xin.

Szechuan: Snazz Sichuan

Snazz Sichuan
37 Chalton Street
NW1 1JD
Tel: 020 7388 0808

Date of Last Visit: Wednesday, April 23

The Victim: Ben

The Damage: £20 each

The Background: A long time ago, I was in either Virgin Music or HMV...one of the ones by Piccadilly. I picked up a random CD by a random band called Cut Copy. I vaguely rememnber that there was a note on the CD saying that some band I liked (whose name escapes me) liked Cut Copy. So I bought the CD. And I fell in love.

Apparently, all of Australia is in love with Cut Copy too because at the Scala on April 23rd, you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting an Aussie. (Dead cat swinging? Where did this come from?) And the next day, my colleague Andrew--an Aussie living and working in Chicago--noticed my Cut Copy Twitter and commented on his excessive jealousy. Cut Copy rocked the house, and the Scala is a good place to see a show. (Loved the sound-proof bar overlooking the floor.)

Anyhow, before any house-rocking got started, Ben and I had dinner at London Szechuan/Sichuan Snazz. Now I should mention that Ben is married, and in a three day period, I had dinner alone with two married men. (My friend Jason was in town from Swaziland on Friday and we had some nasal-passage-clearing wasabi rolls and assorted sushi at Life on Old Street  on Friday night.) Man, I get around.

The Food: I like the food at Snazz. We had the ma po tofu, which was probably my favorite dish. And some green beans, which were nice and crispy with a little fire to them. And then some kung pao chicken, which was great as well. Very peanut-y, which I liked.

The Funny Bit: I ordered some tap water. Our server told me that she wasn't allowed to bring me tap water. I could only have bottled water. Now firstly, I think this is illegal. Secondly, she failed to realize that we were sitting right by the men's room, where there was lots and lots of tap water. Ben made about five trips to the men's room to fill up our beer glasses during the course of our meal. It was fantastically funny. To me, anyhow. Serves them right. Not allowed to serve tap water...give me a break!

Also, Snazz is up the road from a what might appear to be a tanning parlour. But it's so not a tanning parlour.

The Loos: Dirty, dirty, dirty.

The Verdict: I'll go back for the ma po tofu.

And don't forget to vote...

Chinese: Four Seasons

Four Seasons
84  Queensway
W2 3RL
Tel: 020 7229 4320

Date of Last Visit: Sunday, April 20, 2008

The Victims: Rutton, Jay, Orvis

The Damage: £20 each

The Background: Running is both a good and a bad thing. It's good, of course, for your cardiovascular system. It's good for losing weight. It's good for increasing endurance.

It's bad, however, in that it creates--for me anyhow--a license to eat.

Meaning, I'm starving.

The Food: Not one but TWO whole ducks. Peking Duck and Crispy Duck. I can't really tell the difference. Shame on me.

Chinese broccoli. I want to eat all of it. I've always had a fondness for broccoli. Egg-fried rice, which I'm not so crazy about normally, but which I polish off like there's no tomorrow once it arrives. It's good. Sticky. Good.

A mysterious beef platter. We order the sizzling kind--you know, the type they bring to the table with a flourish while it's still making noise--but we just get something with beef and green peppers, no sizzle.  It's a little gooey. I prefer the duck pancakes.

All washed down with copious amounts of tea, water, and talk about property (of course) and our investment banking friends and the storm they're weathering.

The Loo: UGGGGHHHH. Plus, the floor outside the loo was coated in duck fat, I swear.

The Verdict: There's just something about that egg-fried rice!

Tea at Yauatcha, Plus Contest Finalists

Firstly, can I tell you the challenges of a keyboard where the letter A sticks? It has affected my blogging mojo, and for that, my dear readers, I apologize.

Secondly, Stacey is getting married next month. In the south of France, no less. So we took her out for tea at Yauatcha, where the macaroons are lovely and the service is a little all over the place. And then we spent 3.5 hours in Selfridges. (I never thought that possible, but pink champagne makes anything possible) And then we went to The Soho Hotel for more champagne. And then somehow, we ended up in Barrio Norte in Islington (the old Warwick). And then I went home.

Yauatcha
15 Broadwick Street
W1F 0DL
020 7494 8888

In other news, my finalists in my "Win Dinner with Krista" contest are...
Douglas from Intoxicating Prose
Bombay Beauty
Jon from oishii oishii

Check back next week to see what they have to offer, and then remember, we'll vote on the best on starting May 6th...

Where else have I been...

Two types of duck at The Four Seasons in Bayswater
The East Room, on multiple ocassions
Kipferl, for linzertorte
Snazz Sichuan for a spicy dinner

Happy Belated Chinese New Year

What is it about me and Chinese pastries? I love them. I love the sesame seed balls. I love the coconut stuffed thingies. I love the bean paste sweets. We found these outside a pastry shop on Lisle Street in London's Chinatown during all the festivities. Very close to the Leicester Square tube entrance/exit. I think the Chinese pastry shop is called Sun Luen, but I could be wrong...I'll be back soon though, so there's time to figure it out.

Chinese: Shanghai Blues

Shanghai Blues
193-197 High Holborn
WC1V 7BD
Tel: 0207 404 1668

Date of Last Visit: Thursday, November1st

The Victims: Al, Dave, Natalie, and Dave's friend whose name I've forgotten. Bad of me! And she was really nice, too.

The Damage: £57 each

The Background: I like Chinese food. A lot. In a past life, I think I was Chinese. Give me chicken feet and I will eat them. (Although let it be known that I do not necessarily seek them out.) Snake, check. Tofu, check check check. About the only "Chinese" dish I don't like is sweet and sour chicken (or pork). Too sweet for me. (Some would argue that this is not Chinese food at all, so in that sense, it makes sense.)

So when Al suggests meeting up for dinner at Shanghai Blues, I am intrigued. I read some reviews online and more than a few mention how dark it is inside Shanghai Blues. I am even more intrigued. Even more so when a very large man lets me in the front door. A restaurant with a bouncer? Porquoi? (I would write "Why?" in Chinese, but my Chinese is limited to gweiluo in Cantonese, xie xie in Mandarin, and beer, which I always forget the word for.)

I am late--very unlike me--because of an unfortunate incident with my cash card where the machine said it was dispensing cash but no cash was forthcoming, but I catch Al and brother Dave at the bar (which is dark--but not so dark that you can't see), drinking martinis. I am reminded of my Sake-tini in Mexico, of all places. I peruse the bar menu and there are no Sake-tinis to be found, but I ask the bartender and he smiles knowingly. He has to call up a cucumber from the kitchen, and proceeds to slice it up a bit. He uses the slices to line the bottom of a martini glass. I feel like I am in the hands of an expert. He tells me I am in on a big secret at Shanghai Blues.

The sake-tini arrives a few minutes later and it is COLD. Icy cold. Perfect. I am in love.

The Service: I am not so in love with the service at Shanghai Blues. The serving staff are gruff and unhelpful. I pry recommendations out of them like English people performing denistry at home. (Btw, guys, this has GOT to stop.)

The Food: Our starters are beautifully presented though, so there's that. Al's got some little pumpkins...They are, if I get this right, pumpkin dumplings shaped like pumpkins. They are cute. (I took a photo but it is way too dark.) My dumplings come in their own little dumpling hammocks. Well done.

My main--a recommendation for which which I gave away my first unborn child--is the star of the night. It's beef and peppers and it's amazingly delicious. Days later and I am still thinking abou it. The rest of the dishs are not so nice. There are some limp veggie noodles and some slippery some spicy tofu.

After our meal, a very creative fruit tray arrives with a candle in it...it is Dave's birthday, after all. The waitstaff are temporarily redeemed, as they apparently overheard us say it was Dave's birthday and decided to put the festive fruit tray together for us. They fall back out of our good graces when our request for the check takes AGES.

The Verdict: That beef dish was great. And the dumplings were so cute. I made good choices. I would go back.

Chinese: Haozhan

Haozhan
8 Gerrard Street
W1D 5PJ
020 7434 3838

Date of Last Visit: Friday, October 5th, 2007

The Victims: Echo, Bill, Xiang

The Damage: £20 each with Tsing Taos for the boys and me.

The Background: I store a lot of stuff at my office. Shoes. My monthly wine delivery. Mobile phone chargers. Gym clothes. Etc.

So every so often, I stop in the office to pick something up. The last couple of times, I've run into Xiang, who's newly arrived from China (for the second time). He's usually on Skype (or some variation thereof), talking to his wife and daughter back in China.

Moving to another country is hard. I've got it easy because I speak the language here. And even when I lived in Germany in 2003, I had the benefit of decently passable German. But in Munich, my weekends took on a noticeable routine--McDonalds. (It was right across the street, and they had bagels. Give me a break.). Gym. Wander streets endlessly. Go to scary Internet cafe at Hauptbahnhof. Call parents and tell them everything I'd already told them in email.

So I thought dinner with Xiang might be in order. Combine this with three reviews of Haozhan all in the same week--The Telegraph,  The Independent, and The Guardian, and well, the gods were trying to tell me something.

The Entrance: You don't get written up in three major rags and not get a crowd. So Haozhan was already pretty full at 7 when we arrived. Here's the thing though--the three guests I brought were the only Chinese people in the place. Now normally, when I go out to eat with Echo, I'm surrounded by Chinese people. So this was a little weird.

The Ordering: We put Echo in charge, like she normally is. She starts off with the waiter in English, but they soon switch to Chinese and there's a barrage of questions towards me..."Do you like pork? Do you like beef? What type of vegetables do you want? Do you like it spicy?"

The Food: And it arrives. The clear winner--for me--is the quail with chillis which is lightly breaded and fried and is just so nice and crispy. We also had an order of jasmine ribs, which I have absolutely nothing to complain about.

And then come the mains...the tofu arrives and it's dramatic looking. Four fried short squares, each topped with a scallop and some roe. It's a very soft tofu that is creamy on the inside...these disappear quickly. The tofu was my 2nd favorite dish of the night after the quail. Szechuan duck is nice, but not very szechuan-y. And the mongolian beef is just beef, to me, but it's presented very nicely with some light onion-y things. The big let down dish is the vegetables with lotus root, which were very bland.

The Service: Pretty friendly. Pretty efficient. After reading all the reviews, I expected it to be super excellent, and it wasn't. It was good though.

The Bad Part: An older couple came in about 30 minutes into our meal and were seated next to us. The gentleman was unwashed and I'll leave it at that.

The Funny Parts: Xiang's announcement: I like drinking. And smoking. Me teaching them all the meaning of ADS. (After dinner smoke. So later, on our walk to the bus, it became, "I like drinking. And ADS."

The Loos: They should send someone in to pick things up every hour or so. Although nicely done--great tilework--no one had touched it since lunch at least.

The Verdict: Echo declared that Haozhan was her new favorite restaurant in Chinatown. So I think that says something. I liked Haozhan too.

Random Fact: Haozhan means Good House in Chinese. 

Hot!: Bar Shu

28 Frith St
W1D 5LF

Date of Last Visit: Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Victims: Well, let's see...Icy, Lizzie, Wei, Penny, Emma, Gavin, Paul, Gabby, Ying, Natasa

The Damage: £24 each

The Background: "Team China" is heading back to Shenzhen while I'm off to Mexico. (More to come on MY trip later!) I really am sad to see them go, and I'm sad I didn't get to spend as much time with them as I would have liked. (But I'm hopeful that they will invite me to Shenzhen at some point!) We wanted to have a farewell dinner. A spicy dinner. And the gang had been to Bar Shu before and very much approved, which is always a good sign.

The Food: We put Wei (who, just to clarify, is not really a member of Team China) in charge and we get all sorts of good things. And they are all coated in chilies. I am afraid, but I know that I am in good hands. There's a sliced chicken dish that's quite nice. And a really great plate of spicy tofu. And some little rib tips.

And then along come the mains, and they are very plentiful. The standout has to be the boiled sea bass in chili soup. This big porcelein bowl comes to the table, and you can somewhat see that there is fish in there. But it's COVERED in two types of szechuan peppers. (That's it in the picture.) The familiar red ones, and little green ones. (The green ones, the team explains, are like a "cool hot." And now I understand why.) 

Our server dishes most of the chilies out of the bowl. But leaves just enough to keep me sweating through the meal. HOT. But I just can't stop.

There's a great chicken dish, which the team explains is chicken served in a clay pot. And the garlic green beans are amazing--very crisp and crunchy and salty and garlicky. All the right things. Ah, and I also liked the prawns, which are slightly sweet, although they're still spicy. And yes, I eat a pig's foot. And I like it.

The Service: Pretty decent. But I think it helped that we had some native speakers. Although it did take ages to get the bill.

Chinese: Wong Kei

41-43 Wardour Street
W1D 6PY
Tel: 020 7437 8408

Date of Last Visit: Thursday, June 21, 2007

The Victims: Ben, Gerry, Matt

The Damage: £20 each with drinks

The Background: My Chinese friend Echo has told me on a number of occasions that Wong Kei is THE place to go in Chinatown for Chinese food. Matt has organized a night out for Gerry and Ben and myself--a variety show at the Cafe Royal in Picadilly--and so we drop into Wong Kei for dinner beforehand.

The Loos: I started my Wong Kei experience in the ladies' room, and it was really gross in a very disgusting way. The stench hit me the moment I walked through the door. The 5-second rule could not be applied here. A little power-washing would go a very very long, long way. Like long in a dig-a-tunnel-to-China-way. Yuk...I am grossed out just thinking about it. The things I do in London for my blog readers, I swear.

The Food: We started with some duck pancakes, which were really nice, as they usually always are. And a platter of mixed vegetarian items for Gerry. I don't get the whole crispy spinach thing. It's hard to eat, and it's not very good! It's like eating paper, no?

Now while we were enjoying our starters, the woman at the table next to me got a great looking dish. Our server explained that it was eel, and being a huge fan of unagi, I decided to give it a shot. I got the unagi and pork dish with white rice. The pork was really great, but the eel wasn't my favorite. So I ended up having a few pieces of pork for dinner, along with some white rice. Not the most filling meal.

The Drinks: Tsing Taos all around, plus a bottle of HOT SAKE. If I had a band, I would call it HOT SAKE. Forgive me if I've told you this before.

The Service: Echo has warned me that the service isn't very good, but I thought it was okay. Sure, it took us a bit to get the check at the end, but that was alright. I was expecting rudeness, gruffness and maybe a little name-calling, and we didn't get any of that. Part of me was slightly disappointed.

The Verdict: If I go back, I will go with Echo and make her order for me. Given the number of people streaming in the doors, Wong Kei has something going for it. I just have to find out what it is. It certainly is not the toilet facilities.