Perhaps it has aspirations toward becoming the Ding Tai Fung of Europe, what with the copycat white walls, chefs folding xia long bao behind glass panels. Full marks for ambiance and kudos for trying to emulate a franchise which has perfected the delivery of consistently good XLBs. Unfortunately, we’re closer to Chinatown, London, than we are to Tienmu,Taipei, and sadly that makes for a more than wary customer in me.

I cannot say I’m not glad to see Dumplings’ Legend take over from the ageing and overly torrid Lee Ho Fook – a champion way before my time, but probably because of Warren Zevon’s singing rather than for its Michelin winning ways – which in its twilight years, churned out some of the worst Chinese food I can remember. Though usually applied to restaurants with rip-off prices, my dad branded it a ‘black store’ (as in blacklisted, banned, do no enter, nuclear wastage) anyway.

Unconfirmed reports and to my best guesstimations suggest that the owners of Dumplings’ Legend also own the Leongs Legends restaurants, as well as Empress of Sichuan. So at the very least, some semblance of quality can be expected. I take the general view that LL and LL Continues (for the overspill of customers) are two of the ‘best’ dim sum restaurants in Chinatown, which says very little of the tremendously bad quality of Chinatown restaurants these days really. Perhaps because of its associations, there are recognisable LL specific dishes, such as cheung fun stuffed with seabass, which I quite like.

As the name suggests, dumplings are at the heart of the game at DL, and as a result, features no less that 7 different types of xia long baos on their dim sum menu, from spicy pork to pork with crab meat and one with fresh crab roe.

Dim sum is served to 5pm, after which the dinner menu takes over. I’ll try not to sneer at the food too much since it is Chinese New Year anyhow.

Xia Long Bao, Spicy Pork, £6.

So it seems only natural to kick off proceedings with the XLBs. If we use the above photograph as a go-by, it would suggest a dry, craggily and underwhelming affair, where in actual fact it wasn’t too bad. The stuffing was alright, the juices were alright, but the wrapping was inconsistent at best. Some were too delicate, in that the slightest tug tore it apart, letting the precious broth flow away to the bamboo steamer. Others were incredibly thick, as if it were made of lead, instead of flour. While XLBs are no longer a rare occurrence in London, few if any, rarely produce anything quite as memorable as a trip to Asia. Though generally speaking, things are headed in the right direction. It’ll be a while before we see a true standard in London that can match anything the expanding Ding Tai Fung franchise (which in the grand scheme of XLB things, is not even the very best) , but we live in hope. Who knows, we might even see a genuine Ding Tai Fung in Europe before long? The year of the rabbit is a fruitful one.

Scallop & Cheese, Mashed Taro, £2.50.

I really enjoyed this fried puffer, not entirely sure what sort of processed cheese they used (probably the cheapest ones they could find), but it was great. Something about the grainy texture of the mashed yam, the sliced and diced scallop, the melted cheese….mmm. Or perhaps it was my palate requiring reorientation.

Siu Mai, £2.50.

Rich shrimp flavours, much more than that of pork fat – a good thing, spongy and spring-like, I thought it was pretty good.

Sea bass Cheung Fun, £3.30.

Not pictured, and which came sans any sauce whatsoever. It was nice though, if a little suspect. It was cold, suggesting that it might not have been freshly steamed, but for what it was worth, the texture was consistent, and slithering seabass went so well with rice flour. Reminiscent of Leongs Legends.

Durian Puff, £3.20

Aha! Finally the pièce de résistance, this I loved. Served warm, the sweet durian paste was flossy and appears to have been made with real durian flesh intermeshed with the preserved kind. In fact, we liked it so much we ordered two. It could do with even more durian and abit less pastry, and while it’s no comparison to durian puff specialists which can be found in the food hall at say Takashimaya in Singapore, it was of a good standard.

We paid £36.10 for all food, drank a mix of chrysanthemum and poli, and overall I thought it was not too bad. It’s no Wing Yip, but its as good as it gets in Chinatown terms. I wouldn’t mind returning for the XLBs to be quite fair, and expectedly, the bottomline is slender.

Happy Chinese New Year folks, Nian nian yiu yu, and may you eat fish a plenty.

The Gist of It

Dumplings’ Legend
Chinese, £20pp
15-16 Gerrard Street W1D 6JE
Tel: (020) 7494 1200
Tube: Leicester Square

Har Gao : Marina Metro ; Greedy Diva ; Chowhound Thread; Food Fight

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The fish counter at Wing Yip always gets my undivided attention, whenever we visit to stock up the larder. It’s those massive tanks with the filtered running water, the sound of an artificial waterfall, filled with still live and flopping crabs and lobsters, mussel stacked upon mussel and probably some of the cheapest rock oysters in town. Wing Yip are like the Ikeas’ of the Asian perishables industry, self proclaimed ‘Superstores’, the premises are giant warehouses which stock everything a Chinese restaurant could ever want, from giant bamboo steamers, to 19″ cast iron woks to the latest hoi sin sauce to hit the market. Majorly wide shopping aisles too. You can even get Roast duck in a box, dressed like a box of Gran Prix roses with a plastic window. No kidding.

There are two eateries at this particular Wing Yip superstore. The smaller one is a ‘dai pai dong‘-style, bistro/cafe which I frequent on week nights – Cricklewood is closer to me than Bayswater – for one platers. I much prefer their soya chicken and good manners to the step-on-you-and-die attitude accompanied by benchmark roast duck at Four Seasons. Oh and the orange-skinned bbq squid too. As with many Oriental superstores of its ilk in the UK, there’s inevitably a full sized Chinese restaurant on location, big enough and decorated with enough traditional trinkets (red lanterns, small red platform/stage) to host banquet dinners. The name of the restaurant is Wing Tai… but not that I really noticed, I have always thought of it simply as The Restaurant at Wing Yip.

Rather than wait for an invitation to a Chinese wedding, I urge you to head down to Wing Yip, with four or five warm bodies, at 12pm on any given Sunday for proper dim sum, at risk of preempting the report… but ahh, it’s the holiday season, and my brain is decaying to mush with the daily countdown to Christmas.

I love going to Wing Yip on Sundays not because the dim sum is world beating (which it is not), as you will have experienced much more clinical work at Central London’s starriest counterparts, Yauatcha to drop one name, but the thing with dim sum is that it is equally about atmosphere as it is about dumplings. It is a family affair, a gathering of close buddies, a time to reflect with the relatives, hive mind catching up, all contributing to the bustling, overcrowded, chaotic liveliness, that truly conveys the feeling that the weekend has reached its peak. That the spirit of dim sum is not one of glamour or trend, but rather to indulge in the company of those close by, over steaming dumplings and tea, on the day of rest, to let your hair down, almost completely.

In the last couple of years, I’ve been going back to Wing Yip about once a month, and I do think they are improving their output. Most dishes are actually pretty good, as I will illustrate.

Three selection Cheung Fun, £3.80.

Firstly, the rice noodle roll was al dente, strachy and springy and held together well. Stuffed with three different options, shrimp, char siu and scallops, and doused with sweet soya sauce. Yummy. I had no complaints.

Congee with pork ‘bones’ and fermented cabbage (I think), £3.90.

Proper texture, gloopy and dollopy as Cantonese style ‘juk’ should be. The flavours were stocky, slightly salty, and overall just a hearty experience, which in London, usually means something a little watered down, but this was far from it. About the only thing missing were slices of you tiao.

…Alot of food arrives.

Midway through lunch, the steamed dishes joined the fried stuff. The fried taro puff was great, and while I’m no fan of intestines, the better half really enjoyed the tripe.

Satay Baby octopus, £2.50.

Sweet and spicy.

The obligatory shui mai and har gaw. £2.50 each.

I was pretty surprised with these – this for me is the acid test – as I think they got ‘em spot on. Bursting with flavours of prawn, and a hint of pork fat in the back of the tongue, and spring-like in texture, great shui mai. Similarly the har gaw bounced like a basketball, with a juicy, prawn filled centre.

Steamed rice with Salted fish, £3.90.

Or you could also get one with steaming spare ribs, generally speaking, these steamed pots of rice are fab. My mum used to cook them just like this, and they are amazingly hearty, perfect for the wintry season. The entire steamed pot means that all those lovely juices that eek out of the fish during the steaming process would be reabsorbed by the rice, in essence leading to a flavour charged base of rice. Not many places in London do this, so there isn’t much in terms of comparsion. But it would be nice if they would pump up the variety in toppings, instead of just salted fish, which could be rather bland to some.

If they did Chinese mushrooms, chinese sausages (lap cheung) and some pak choi throw in, that would be a dream steam.

Tapioca and yam dessert, £2.30.

Served cool (probably already prepped in the fridge), milky, syrupy with chewy pearls and stodgy yam – just as one expected. Great way to end the meal.

So the burning question is if Wing Yip – being that it is such a trek to the North West – is worth the trek out or not. Well, food is pretty good, not quite the best as I said, but good enough to leave you satisfied. Prices are fair, and comparable to most dim sum serving restaurants in Central, but at the end of the day, I do think it is worth an expedition simply because it has great atmosphere. It is always full on a Sunday, and I think it says alot about how much people like it. To savour the ambiance – save for perhaps the Royal Chinas – alone is worth the wait. Do bear in mind though, if you go there at the height of lunch at 1pm, you will be in for a long wait for your ticket number to be called. So I do recommend to either turning up early or abit later. And then afterward, make sure you visit the Superstore, in fact, make the trip anyway to stock up your pantry with exotic perishables, like oyster sauce (by Lee Kum Kee no less), black bean sauce and try some bottled bird’s nest (ready to eat and pre-cooked in rock sugar) by Brands. And do swing by the fish counter and tell the live crustaceans, I said hello.

The Gist.

Wing Tai at Wing Yip
Chinese, £25pp
395 Edgware Road, Cricklewood
NW2 6LN
Tel: 020 8450 0422
Bus : From Kilburn Underground, take the No. 32 or anything to Cricklewood till you see the Pagoda.

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Food is much more accessible and democratic over on the right side of the Pacific. There is so much diversity, that at times, I find it ironic that the gourmet awakening (of sorts) is taking place in London, where food blogs are as plentiful as fishes, as opposed to the rest of Asia. That might just be an indication of how advanced the broadband networks are in London however or perhaps we crave the good life because we feel the dearth. Oh how I miss Asia.

There are food courts in the shopping centres, and then there are the stand alone market spaces erected specifically for a plethora of hawkers to sell in the same space. Whatever the permutations might be, the general rule of thumb across stalls would invariably be dirt cheap pricing (I’d imagine to stay competitive with their neighbours), often one plate meals, and one would buy food, drink and dessert from separate stalls. It is like a curating form of eating, and it’s an experience which I miss sorely.

Food courts were a way of life for me, memorable since we would visit every Sunday morning. Everybody whose anybody would bump into everybody, people had their preferred stalls, and it was always a precarious game to arrive early to jostle for tables. My family loved a particular char kuey tiaw hawker, others were into lao su fen soup (silver needle noodles¹. A plate of Kuala Belait’s finest char kuey tiaw would set you back no more than $1.50 (about 75p), anymore would be daylight robbery. What else do you do after morning mass right?

Setting foot on to large warehouse space on the 2nd floor of Pacific Plaza brought back pleasant childhood memories. It’s not as cramped as most Asian food courts (being brand spanking new), features alot less food stalls (whose number should increase with time) and it lacks the history and buzz of a living breathing food machine. It’s still in infancy afterall, but its a good start. Seemingly rising from the ashes of the now defunct, but much loved, Oriental City², I suppose many view this complex as its spiritual successor. Some of Oriental City’s original tenants have even set up new operations at PP.

It opened it’s doors toward the tail end of 2009, since then, I’ve returned on a few separate occasions to try the different cuisines on offer, the missus in particular loves PP, a place to grab a quick bite. Half the hall remains unoccupied (as of July 2010) however, and I’m a little disappointed that it has stayed relatively obscure throughout its short tenure. PP deserves more human traffic. There are merely eight stalls open for business, most with obvious names indicating their representative cuisines : Spicy Thai (for Thai), NP Star Snack Bar (Malaysian), China House (Chinese), Hot Korean (Korean), Shan (Japanese), Nambu (Japanese); Seleramu (Malaysian) and Darjeeling Momo (Tibetan). Also, there is a pretty capable Japanese bakery on the ground floor, Tetote Factory, which sells rather good ‘Asian influenced Western’ bread and cakes. Prices amongst the stalls are competitive, averaging £7 for a one plate meal, less for smaller dishes. I’ve compiled this report from three visits.

China House

The menu is overly long, and is visually laid out across the entire front of the shop. It also appears to be the largest of the stalls in PP, taking up what looks like four individuals units. They offer a mix of Cantonese and Sichuan dishes, and dim sum.

‘Special’ Shuimai Dumpling.

It’s nothing more than a prawn and pork shuimai really, fleshy, the bursting flavour of prawns, I didn’t expect it to rival some of the city favs but this was pretty good.

Minced pork on rice with egg (?)

This was from one of my earlier visits (which was way back in May) and I can’t seem to remember what it was called. And I didn’t take notes. I do however have this impression that it was a little like a steamed sausage mince…

‘Saliva’ Chicken.

One from the Sichuan section, nutty, spicy, oily and interestingly enough, the chicken (Bai Zhan) was surprisingly good, managing to be juicy, silky with that lively taste of spring chicken. No Uncle Lims³ however, but not bad.

Soya Chicken rice.

And it’s the same story with the chicken rice, the chicken was soft (soft being a major criteria at least for me), not bad but not quite the best around. I won’t pontificate about the merits of what is a pretty standard one plate meal.

Hot Korean

Spicy Cod with egg fried rice.

The portions were huge! For £6.80 it was a steal, the batter was fried to a bubbly crunch, softened by a runny spicy sauce. Peppery, but also a tad too much salt however, my mouth was beginning to dry out a little, and I wonder if the chef had been a little liberal with the MSG. I appreciated that the rice was only shallow-fried, it maintained the creamy starchiness of steamed rice, as opposed to individual rice grains. Though, if you were a purist, it shouldn’t be bland and sticky, it should be fried overnight rice, grainy, oily, rah, rah, rah.

Kimchi pancake with seafood.

Tremendously generous servings, at £3.50, yet another steal. Dough-ey, and a little bitterness perhaps from the kimchi. It had a home-made feel about it which I enjoyed.

Spicy Thai

The better half really rates this stall, she was a regular at its former output in Finchley Road.

Jungle Curry with Duck

And I am inclined to agree. Bamboo shoots, aubergines with a citrus punch and a mildly peppery kick helped to make the flossy duck an appetising treat.

Tom Yam Soup.

A tomato based soup, bamboo shoots mushrooms, spring onions, red peppers and coconut milk. Sweet, sour and mildly spicy.

Tom Ka Gai

Or a spicy chicken soup, distinctive due to it’s creamy white appearance. It smelled great too, wonderful aromas of coriander and coconut milk; appetising stuff.

The quality of food across the stalls is good enough, but that’s besides the point when the bottomline is so slim. At the moment, Pacific Plaza is still a barren platform and a far cry from what Oriental City once was, but I’m hoping that with time, perhaps someday PP will become a destination for families and friends to go for cheap and diverse Asian food. I suppose, that has to start with the local communities around Wembley, to embrace it before the rest of London does, and hopefully establish a constant flow of people to encourage even more independent operations to occupy the empty stalls, and thus create more options for the prospective diner. I think it can only happen if people are looking for the next Oriental City, and I suspect many of you share my affection regarding lively food courts. I do hope it does not continue to remain relatively empty, and that popularity picks up as word of mouth spreads.

Wembley is more accessible than Colindale I imagine, and if you happened to be in the area (England play Hungary on 11th August, and the Charity Shield is a few days before), I recommend hopping across the road to PP to fill up your tanks either before or after the game, it won’t break your wallet, and is ultimately better than the rip-me-off grub served inside the stadium.

The Gist of It

Pacific Plaza
From around the Pacific, £12pp
Engineers Way HA9 0EG
Tel: +44 (0) 207 409 7747
Tube: Wembley Park

News of the Pacific: North/South Food ; Danyul.net ; Will Eat for Money ; Meemalee’s Kitchen ; Randomness Guide to London ; Ferret Fabrications ; Tamarind and Thyme ; It Ends with Dovi

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Dim sum is one of the most unique and entirely accessible experiences in food. The literal translation for dim sum is ‘touch your heart’ – a term chosen to describe the style which is suppose to be small, packaged, and dare I say ‘bite-sized’ to tickle your fancy rather than cure a ravenous appetite. Dim sum is interchangeable with ‘Yum Cha’ – which simply means ‘let’s go for tea’. So the saying goes (according to my old bar manager) that in the same way an Englishman can hold his pint, a chinese guy can hold his tea… well quite the same thing but you get my drift.

This culture of going for tea still exists today as you can find dim sum places serving as early at 6 am in parts of Asia. The older generations would tell you that dim sum or yum cha is a time for them to catch up with the week’s worth of current affairs (especially the men). As this is the only time when busy folks have the opportunity to sip tea, read the paper, and to take the whole family out for a meal. This is also the same reason dim sum is a breakfast/brunch meal, usually on the weekends. What was once simply a way of describing ‘drinking tea and hanging out’ is now a full blown restaurant experience in itself, some even say a cuisine. As a simpleton, I cling to my conservative preconceptions about dim sum, and that this is primarily a time for family and close friends to catch up. Dim sum is all about warm laughs, sharing and that feel good factor. The particular style of food is usually based on the original Cantonese iteration, and I say usually because depending on where you are, other variations have been introduced to dim sum menus, particularly shades of Shanghai style cuisine. Broadly speaking though, dim sum dishes come in small portions, with the dishes being shared by the entire table. There is confusion as there are parallels with other sharing style pseudo-cuisines such as tapas for example. Where in truth, sharing has always been part and parcel of Chinese cuisine, and this has been going on for centuries. The difference being that for a full blown Chinese dinner, the dishes are larger, and touch your tummy more than your heart.

Typical dishes usually fall in two categories : fried or steamed. As far as I know, the ‘old’ way of serving dim sum is to have a manned trolley that goes around the restaurant floor. I think the old romantic scene of a waitress announcing the contents of her cart by shouting ‘Charsiu bao, Charsiu bao’ has long since vanished. Instead, waitress will wheeled over a trolley of fried stuff first. Usually, it is a mobile glass cabinet, so you can peek into it and see what’s available. Typical fried dim sum include prawn croquettes, yam croquettes and you will usually also find triangular shaped baked roast bbq pork puffs (char siu sou). If you think of this as a ‘course’, then this would be the starters. After that, the waitress would bring over a heated trolley filled with the recognisable bamboo steamers. It is part of the experience (if you will) to ask for to see her stuff – she’ll then give you a peek under each steamer. Typical steamed dishes include har gao, shui mai, chicken feet, spare ribs in black bean sauce, char siu bao and steamed chicken with ginger. The other famously typical dim sum dish which is usually ordered off the menu is of course the cheung fun (made from rice noodles) filled with either prawns, charsiu or youtiaw (fried dough). For pudding, it’s got to be the egg tarts, sometimes custard buns as well, or tofu fa (silky tofu in warm syrup). And that to me is a pretty typical, and traditional dim sum meal. One needn’t necessarily follow this formula as there are plethora of dishes which I’ve not mention, including lo mai gai (stuffed glutinous rice).

Speaking now on the contemporary way of serving dim sum, I think there is generally a shift toward trolley-less service (you certainly won’t see trolleys in London) which are quickly becoming archaic. In fact I haven’t seen one in the last five years either in London or elsewhere. There are several reasons for going trolley-less, chief among them is that food would be more fresh when made to order. As opposed to a trolley which might be keeping food which could have been going around the restaurant floor for hours. I prefer having dim sum steamed to order, food is alot more appetising when it lands on the table piping hot.

There is another one crucial topic to speak of which is the cha. While tea is part of the ceremony of dim sum, there is no obligation to do have it with dim sum, that’s a myth. I’ve quite happily had iced coffee and iced milo to go with my dim sum in the past, then agian that could just be that I like breaking the rules. Though if you must have tea, then my tip is to never ever ask for just ‘chinese tea’. While this isn’t explicitly written in the menus, generally speaking, chinese restaurants stock a range of popular teas ranging from something lighter say Xiang Pian (Jasmine tea) or Te Quan Yin (a type of Oolong) to something hardcore like Po lay (a black tea). If you’d like to try something alternative, I suggest giving Chrysanthemum a try (with abit of rock sugar if they can manage). More of a floral hot beverage, it carries a mild nectar sweetness to it as opposed to the usual roastness of teas.

Living in London, there’s actually a good range of dim sum restaurants. Generally speaking, not very many are exceptional, but across the board, many serve dim sum to a good standard. I can’t say that I have been to every single dim sum place in town, but I have been to enough to put together a list of what I think are stand outs:

1. Pearl Liang Paddington – This is my benchmark dim sum in London. Food is good across the board, prices are reasonable and the dining room is atmospheric. Bog standard, in a good way.

2. Yauatcha Soho – As much as I loathe the idea of Alan Yau turning what is supposed to be a relaxing family affair into a high nose, high culture, highly snobified excuse to charge money, I actually think that food in Yauatcha is very good. I’ve been about a dozen times over the last few years and each visit has also been positive. Their juuk (congee) in particular, I rate it highly, as good as you’d find in Hong Kong. And their venison puffs (a twist on the charsiu sou) is expertly crafted. Very expensive though, and I still dont understand dim sum for dinner…

3. Royal China Bayswater – This place used to be my benchmark, the shui mai was once the best in town in my opinion, but I think standards have declined in recent time. Still, very good, and constantly packed out on weekends.

4. Yum Cha Camden – Not to be confused with Yum Chaa, based in Camden, the food is excellent and might actually be better than Pearl Liang. Their egg tarts in particular are great, and they also serve very capable xiao long baos.

5. Leong’s Legends Chinatown – If you order well, you can have a great meal at Leong’s Legends. Taiwanese influenced dishes are found on their dim sum menu as well, so they set themselves apart from the pack with this twist. Although, there are howlers on their menu – their shui mais are torrid, but their juuk is benchmark material. I think this is Chinatown’s best offering, many restaurants along Gerard street are average at best.

6. Wing Yip Cricklewood – Touted as a Chinese ‘Superstore’, the restaurant is attached to a big warehouse supermarket. Abit out of the way, but on the weekends, one of the few places I know which has the bustling, oversubscribed family atmosphere that is part of the dim sum experience. Food is good but not exceptional, though it really is the ambiance that makes this place special. Also, the restaurant is done up in the old fashion grandesque banquet style which adds to the overall experience.

This list is not meant to be definitive, just some personal favourites. There are others out there who write more extensively regarding the range of dim sum places in London. Further reading includes World Foodie Guide also the food section of DimSum.co.uk which is the official British community website. Anyway, hope you find this little write-up useful, do let us know how your next dim sum quest turns out and do make sure you tap your fingers on the table when somebody pours tea for you, it’s only etiquette.

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Dim sum week continues to roll through LondonEater and I have chosen to return to Leong’s Legends Continues – a restaurant which I panned not too long ago. I have good reason to go back because I have heard good things about their dim sum. I take the view that ala carte and dim sum menus in the same restaurant are entirely mutually exclusive; I feel that the style of food is distinct enough which can lead to wildly differing meals. I suppose it is also the same reason why some Chinese restaurants hire dedicated chefs who are in charge of either menus. This isn’t just limited to London restaurants; I carry the same sort of mentality wherever the restaurant is, be it Crystal Jade in Singapore or Kam Fook in Sydney – both of which were memorable meals.

And so with this revisit, I emptied my memory banks of my previous meal. The subject of yet another massive tweatup and the usual suspects my missus, Mark, Euwen, Catty (in spirit) and Charzsiubao were all in attendance. There are actually two Leong’s Legends within a stone’s throw away from each other. Both are in chinatown with the original based in Macclesfield Street and Leong’s Legend Continues (this revisit) in Lisle street. I’m not entire sure if there are notable differences between two branches or if LLC exists to handle the overflow. Many accounts suggest that food quality is interchangeable. The uniqueness of the Leong’s Legends are their nominated style of regional cooking – mostly Taiwanese, though not limited to it. This offers an alternative to the largely recognisable Cantonese cuisine that punctuates much of Chinatown. This extends to their dim sum menu, while staple yum cha choices such as har gao and charsiu bao are ever present; one could supplement the old favourites with something different.

One of the best things about dim sum is the sheer variety of food, especially when visiting with large groups. The organised chaos which the table turns into when the bamboo steamers start stacking up on the table is really part of what makes dim sum so much fun. It does however make it trickier to piece together a cohesive narrative though.

Let’s kick things off with a Taiwanese classic : Gua Bao.

Basically this is a Taiwanese burger, and a form of streetfood (loosely speaking). One would usually find street vendors selling these at night markets in Taipei (it’s how I discovered it), and Leong’s Legends is one of the few places in London which does them. Served with pork belly and peanut shavings, and also smothered with a ridiculously good gravy. The bun was puffy and very soft, carried a touch of sweetness and overall it produced a very juicy mouthful. The tender pork belly was soaking with flavour. Oh yummy, just like Taipei.

Next up ‘Juk’ or Congee.

Oh wow, I was really surprised with the quality of the congee; very smooth going down, a consistent pastiness about it and it exuded the hallmark chicken stock saltiness which – in my opinion – is what makes or break a congee. We ordered some youtiaw – deep fried dough sticks – to dip into this traditional Chinese (Hong Kong I should say) breakfast and it felt like I was in Asia again. My all time favourite congee was a small two person vendor who sold in an open air food market in Brunei. It was a mother and son outfit originally from Hong Kong, whose family were basically descended from a generation of congee brewers (makers?) – the smoothest congee I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating. Last I checked (with my mum), they’ve long since moved on from their modest shop. Anyway, I think the congee here compares well. The only other place in London which I rate for congee is Yauatcha. Just to be clear, this style of congee is more Cantonese than Taiwanese, where the latter version sets itself apart with it being characteristically watery.

Next : Xiao Long Baos.

We ordered the two variants of this dish, both the pork as well as the crab, with the latter supposedly differentiated by the fish roe at the summit of each individual dumpling. I found the that both variants had great meaty flavours, the piping hot broth was quite abit intense, with a sharp tanginess in aftertaste. The crab version had a touch of fishiness probably due to the inclusion of a couple of frozen crabsticks – otherwise the differences in taste were relatively minor. Disappointingly, I found the wrapping to be a tad too thick, so much so that I thought that parts of it were undercooked, as it was definitely a little powdery. Abit of a let down, but otherwise the xiao long baos were quite good.

More good news : Prawn and chive dumpling.

I’ll use this part of the review to speak about the har gaw as well as the shui mai. But first, I have to say, the prawn n chive dumplings were very, very good – a prawn punch soften by the gentle dumpling wrap. Similarly, the har gao was dominated by an intense hit of shrimp, but with a peppery edge to it – something which might confuse purists, but which I thought gave it an interesting dimension.

The shui mai though – totally different story altogether – to be frank, it was disgusting. It reeked of pork fat, but not in an aromatic way. It was more like lard which had been boiled and then left outside to rot before being reused to make the dumplings. It gave rise to this stink which felt as if I had just rinsed my mouth with sewerage water and then proceeded to chew on newspaper. Some of the worst shui mais I’ve ever had, even worse than the frozen stuff from SeeWoo.

Next, grilled minced pork buns.

Pan-fried to toasty exterior, with the insides warm and hearty. I quite enjoyed these for the nostalgia it evoked – it felt like I was in my aunt’s kitchen all over again. Sizzling pan, sesame oil, the smell of toasty dough, could do with abit more soya sauce in the filling though.

So here’s what we are saying: best dim sum in Chinatown. It is less of a compliment than it sounds because in my humblest of opinions, Chinatown dim sum is categorically torrid. On the other hand, it is refreshing to know that I can start removing the mental blocks with regards to Chinese restaurants in Soho. Are there better restaurants to have dim sum? I think so, but then again, there are few places in town which serve good gua bao, xiao long bao or even good congee and Leong’s Legend delivers in that regard. I came out of this meal feeling uplifted which I’d put down to the high amounts of endorphins released, a pleasantly positive experience all around and a total contrast to my first visit. As I said before, there really are two sides to the dinner and dim sum menus in Chinese restaurants and I believe that Leong’s Legends is no exception. If you are looking to sample a range of great Taiwanese a la carte dishes, you’re better off looking elsewhere. However if you are looking for radiant dim sum with a difference, Leong’s Legend might just surprise you.

Other polarising viewpoints : The London Foodie ; Tales from the tip of my tongue ; World Foodie Guide ; London Chow ; Tamarind and Thyme

The Gist of It

Leong’s Legends Continues official site £25pp
26-27 Lisle Street WC2H 7BA
Tel : 020 7734 3380
Tube: Leicester Square

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The countdown to Chinese New Year begins now. We are technically now at the tail’s end of the Ox year – an insidious one I must say, but in little over three weeks, we will be welcoming the year of the steely Tiger and one which should see us return to prosperity once again. I have been saving up my Chinese restaurant articles and thought it’d be a nice lead-up to the Lunar New Year celebrations. The first day of Chinese New Year will coincide with Valentines this year, and it will last for fifteen days. Depending on who you ask, there are several reasons for the CNY festivities running for as long it is, though as my parents had explained it to me, this period was traditionally the only fifteen days in which people had time off work, technically, there are no more Chinese public holidays during the rest of the year.

Chinese culture is one that believes in not just working hard, but to be able to amass as much wealth as one can. The goal is to be able to pay for your knee replacement without financial aid well after you retire – if you can do that then you’ve achieved the ultimate dream, Chinese style. I am particularly looking forward to CNY this (next) year because it will the first in eight years I’ll be celebrating it with my folks. Yes, all these years galavanting around London restaurants will finally be swapped for some family time. When I think of Dim Sum, I’ll always think of my family, and for us, dim sum was every Saturday breakfast, without fail. Dim Sum is Sunday breakfast/brunch, preferably in a big group lots of friends, families and their kids. Of course, one can choose to have dim sum at any day one wishes, but personally, this is something I would only do on a weekend, any other day and it would have lost that special feeling. Sentiments aside, I somehow feel that in London, this tradition is a little lost, though one can still feel this bustling weekend dim sum buzz in Wing Yip (Cricklewood) or Royal China in Bayswater. Being brought up on morning dim sum, I still cannot understand why some restaurants serve it for dinner. It is the equivalent of having a full English for dinner… hmm, which doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. I’m saving the rest of this dim sum rant for Friday instead, my drafts are overlapping.

Broadly speaking, I feel that the standard of Dim Sum is pretty good in London, though there is nothing particularly outstanding. I am measuring this against the best experiences I had in Singapore, Hong Kong to Taiwan and even to Sydney – The best dim sum I’ve ever had was in Hong Kong. My uncle (a.k.a HKEater, 1979, yo yo yo) lives in Hong Kong and he took us to one of his favourite restaurants. Every time I have prawn cheung fun, I would always mentally refer back to that version.. chunky prawns, silky thin yet bouncy rice noodle rolls, sweet soya sauce…ohh… dim sum so good it ‘touches your heart’. Over the years, I’ve tried many dim sum places in town, but not all, I’d like to think that I have tried the best dim sum in town, though in my opinion, the real expert is Helen the WFG, who had recently hung her boots up in foodblogging. So I had heard lots of good things about Yum Cha (not to be confused with Yum Chaa, double a’s) ; based in Camden, I visited on a Sunday brunch with my homies: Catty, Charz and Euwen.

Our meal kicked off with the charsiu puffs.

The charsiu puffs form one fifth of the benchmark dishes which help me decide whether to love or hate a dim sum restaurant. The pastry was a little papery but the juicy honey sweet charsiu filling more than made up for any deficiencies.

Next up, the yam puffs.

Even better than the charsiu puffs, with a fragile crust and a silky yam centre which exuded a richness.

Xiao long baos.

I have to admit I’m not the biggest fan of xiao long baos purely because they burn my tongue everytime I have them, although this is the same reason why they can be a rush. One is suppose to wet the dumplings with the ginger and vinegar sauce it is served with, and grasp on to the dumpling with chopsticks with one hand, then position a spoon just under it, in case the hot juices go spewing everywhere when you bite into it. An immediately way to gauge the skill of the chef is look the thickness (or thinness I should say) of the wrap. A good xiao long bao should have a wrap thin enough that if you hold the dumpling from the tip, then you should be able to see through the translucent wrap to broth inside. The weight of the fillings should pull the entire dumpling down, it should hang and its shape should change, but then the xiao long baos should be strong enough to deny gravity without breaking apart. Too thick, it’s chewy, too thin, everything falls away. An example is this photo I found on flickr. Anyway, I did the hang test on the Yum Cha dumplings and I thought they were ok, just a tad thick, but overall the standard is pretty high. As for the broth & minced meat inside – very good, very mineral and then with a sort of porky hit. I burned my tongue again – a good sign. Although, I noted that these were nothing like the xiao long baos I sampled in Taiwan, it does not even come close to Ding Tai Fung.

You know one of the best things about dim sum is that half way through your meal, bamboo steamers start stacking up and then it’s like wow – I feel like a king. Here we sample tripe, the crystal scallop and prawn dumpling, carrot cake, har gaws and siu mai.

Another two benchmark dishes: the har gaw and siu mai, I am happy to report that both are agreeable. The har gaw was prawny and oily – good, while the siu mai tasted very meatbally, above average. On the other hand, the crystal scallop and prawn dumplings had rich seafood flavours and were brilliant. The slippery pan-fried turnip cakes were simply a joy to eat, it carried the signature charred starchy saltiness which makes this dish so interesting.

Next : The cheung funs.

I tried all the variations here and the best one of the lot are the cheung fun filled with char siu. Thick & tender charsiu, impossibly fragrant, it was heavenly – the best charsiu cheung fun in London I’ve yet tried. The prawn cheung fun was pretty good as well and I was pleasantly surprised with the crustiness of the Youtiaw filled version. Cheung fun is one of my benchmark dishes and I thought the noodle wrap was very well done. Smooth, a good thickness and a lively bounce, with the soya sauce that carried just a subtle tinge of sweetness.

Glutinous rice with chicken, or ‘Lo mai gai’.

Avoid this – this is bland.

Steering away from the steaming and puffy, we gave the squid a try.

Thick and mostly juicy with an able batter, it was let down abit with a blandness. The last of the benchmark dishes (if you are counting) are the charzsiu baos. I found that it had the standard fluffy fragrance, but not enough of it for me to give it my gluttonous stamp of approval, in fact it wasn’t even enough to motivate me to photograph it.

Finally, we ended with some egg tarts. They were served piping hot (I burnt my tongue again) , the crust was just a tad crusty in the place of a consistent density, but the egg custard itself was divine. Eggy and milky and probably rivals the Pearl Liang version, which I think is also excellent.

They got four out of my five benchmark dishes right and on the whole, I think Yum Cha is pretty good. Their xiao long baos, egg tarts and char siu cheung fun in particular stack up very well against the competition in town. I made a return visit a few weeks later to take the missus there, and the second visit pretty much aligned with the first. I lost the receipt from both visits although I can tell you that the price is comparable to their peers. If memory serves, they run regular discounts (25% off the bill) during the weekdays, making it even more of a compelling proposition to give this place a try. As a rule of thumb, there are few restaurants which get both their dim sum and dinner menu right and I don’t think Yum Cha is any exception. I would only recommend you try dim sum at Yum Cha and just ignore the rest of the ala carte. In that regard, it gets one and a half thumbs up from me, but with a warning because I don’t think everything on the menu is top drawer, though the positives far outweigh the negatives.

More photographs on my flickr account here.

Other considered accounts : Charmaine Mok for Timeout London ; Catty of The Catty Life ; Helen the World Foodie Guide ; The Wild Boar of Pigs Pigs Corner ; London Chow

The Gist of It

Yum Cha official site £20pp
36 Chalk Farm Rd
Camden, NW1 8
Tel: 0207482222
Tube: Chalk Farm

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Pearl Liang official site
8 Sheldon Square W2 6EZ (0)207 289 7000
Dim Sum £15pp

I can be a right tit, sometimes. You’ll remember my superficial slating of Chinese food during my cha cha moon visit and how I proclaimed that Chinese restaurants need to up the ante on the shameful way they’ve presented food of me ancestors. Well, thank Colonel Sanders for Pearl Liang, because I need to print a retraction as majesty is quite possibly being created in the decorative kitchens of Pearl Liang. Who am I kidding, Kang doesn’t print retractions.

The Benchmark.

Legend has it that Dim Sum is meant to touch your heart, some call it ‘sipping tea’. To me, it’s brunch on a sunday, chinese style with the folks and definitely with the special peeps (that includes you). The Cantonese in me normally shoots for the classic prawn, pork, prawn pork combos be it the dumplings, the cheung funs or the buns, however, the Taiwanese of me suggests that venturing out from the comfort zone once in a while, ain’t a bad thing.

So I started with the wasabi prawn dumplings, which is really a har gao with abit of the green stuff on top. And you know what, Yes. The dumpling wrapping is slightly chewy, with abit of spring, doesn’t break when you bite into it, and the minced prawn stuffing is heavenly. Spongy yet delicate; fresh yet appetizing and with a sharp shooting zing of the wasabi in the nose. We’re off to a great start.

Fry me some turnips.

As a foodblogger, my fingers itch when it comes to something I think I know alot about, but I’m going to refrain from giving you a dim sum history lesson. Forget the whole sunday brunch thing, eat it whenever you feel a craving, use a fork and forget the chopsticks, throw all the rule books out the window, because food is meant to be enjoyed and so, you should enjoy it however you like. I always do, and that’s why I only have one bottomline when it comes to blogging (not critiquing) : Tasty, or not. Off to the fried stuff then, the shredded taro puff is actually a shredded turnip puff, which almost tastes like silky moist squid pieces enveloped in a moon shaped light puff pastry.

A slightly heavier puffer were the mince pork croquettes, the pastry is more of a sticky dough, fried crisply on the outside, and the stuffing is a rather sweet mix of pork, dried shrimps, lots of yummy aromas. The two puffers are easy to eat and goes down like a good vintage, leaving me hungrier rather than bloatier, which is a good sign.

Intermittently

Even the cheung fun is good. Slightly sweet soya sauce check. Rice flour wrapping doesn’t fall away when I pick it up. Check. Prawns with springs. Check. Salivation. Check. I also ordered the monks vegetable version and was pleasantly impressed with the mix of carrots and mushrooms medley.

By the by, the restaurant is really pretty. No, I’m being serious here, some might say its ultra sleek or chic in the crazy sexy cool urban jungle of Paddington Central… but it really is quite pretty. Low spotlights, lots of rose wood, and a wallpaper of a painting, er, a painting for a wall paper, you get what I mean. For a moment, I really did feel as if I was in Asia. Ahh. More Chrysanthemum tea please.

All steamed up

Someone once told me that shui mai isn’t really healthy. Sure it’s steamed, but alot of the satisfyingly rich flavours actually comes from stuffing alot of pork fat with the prawns in the mince. I love shui mai, normally order two servings, but this one was a little disappointing compared to the other luminaries around town. It was more porky than prawny, which meant it stank more than it was fragrant. It was a little on the dull side and I just didn’t feel instant gratification. For comparison sake, I still think Royal china’s version is ‘best in class’, followed closely by Yauatcha’s….and maybe several steps behind is this one. Small matter, there are other things to eat. Such as these very good examples of the classic char siu bao. The bun itself is a pristinely fragrant delight, with a melt in your mouth fluffyness not unlike candy floss. With a tinge of sweetness in the bun, it married nicely to the sugary savoury roast pork filling, if I’m nitpicking, I reckon it could be a little lighter, somehow I think that the Yauatcha version beats this one out – but only just.

Beautifully, done.

I chose to end the meal with amazingly steamed Chrysanthemum custard buns, the orange tinge paste, is a rich egg flavoured grainy custard, almost like grounded sweet beans and the flowery fragrant of the chrysanthemum added natural sweetness to very satisfying and hearty custard bun. I really enjoyed this one and the flower bud styling looks great too.

Wonderful, simply wonderful dim sum and this has displaced the special place in my heart, which was previously occupied by Royal China (and Yauatcha when the FTSE was still surfing above 5000). I must say, the prices here are very competitive, my bill, 9 dishes, plus service came to just under thirty squiddodles for two, and I think on average it’s about a third, or even half that of a Yauatcha bill depending on what you order. Most importantly, food is excellent – mostly it is characterised by lots of melt in your mouth sensations, I previewed the dinner menu with an order of a double boiled soup with flat tofu skins (I think, unsure of the proper term for it) and flavoursome flat mushrooms (again, unsure of this, it’s the big dried brown chinese ones, help me out here guys). I was really impressed with this, just a light layer of oil, tingly as it goes down and a full umami rich taste to accompany a gentle broth.

Pearl Liang is good, perhaps even very good. The dim sum rivals some of the best ones in the city, and I really am impressed with this one. Even more so, the dining space is both easy on the eyes whilst still maintaining a rather relaxing atmosphere; a comforting experience all in all, and I can’t wait to go back for dinner.

The Gist of It.

Pearl Liang official site
8 Sheldon Square W2 6EZ (0)207 289 7000
Dim Sum £15pp
Verdict: Great dim sum, affordable prices, a spiffy dining space and really springy prawn dumplings – must eat.

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