The smell of mushrooms, sizzling hot noodles and steamy soup. The knocking klikity klak of randomised synchronisation of high heels and colliding porcelain to the tune of a muzak of an epic eighties love ballad by Jacky Cheung, but above all of that a near enough constant stream of murmuring chatter in the background. Invariably this includes big round tables of women, babies, the next generation eyeing the next generation of the neighbouring big round table with the processions led by the belly laughter of silvering Chinese men. That unmistakable harmonious bustle is the very signature of a Chinese restaurant and as far as my experiences have taken me, it is an ambiance that is near enough the same the world over.

My Taiwanese other half grew up referring to this particular type of Chinese cuisine as ‘yum cha’ , where you do drink tea, but really, the slang has more in common with Sunday lunch than afternoon tea. For me however, yum cha is dim sum (where she will say refers to pudding when I say tianping… on the same subject, when I say run – jo – she thinks I’m saying walk – pau) , and it is more of a tradition than a meal, a treat for soothing the heart and the only time of the week for the family and the closest friends to sit together on the same table to share a civil meal and speak of the changing world.

It was no coincidence that dim sum involved pressed shirts and blouses, and that it followed right after the morning Sunday mass. Of course, we’d like to think of ourselves as god-loving baptised atheists, but dressing up for Sunday lunch was something me and my brother always looked forward to, psychologically, it was when the the week felt like it finally arrived. And since we’d usually skip breakfast for Dim Sum, the empty stomach only made the anticipation more tempting.

“Guk-fa, ga tong.” That’s how we usually began our Sundays, that’s chysentemum with rock sugar. Looking out to the restaurant, which is big enough for banquet style weddings, you can raise your arm and wave in just about any direction, and have a familiar hand return the gesture. Being that we were naughty little critters, we’d rather cool off with a couple of tall glasses of ‘teh si ping’ – iced milk tea – than indulge in tongue burning tea. This was usually followed by two steamers each of shui mai, har gaw and two plates of char siu cheung fun.

I have such fond memories of growing up around large round tables in Chinese restaurants, it is a tradition I find myself fortunate enough to be continuing in London. I won’t disagree that Alan Yau’s legacy restaurants do the cuisine proud and it’s a wonderful thing there is so much choice for dim sum in this city that we can opine about the ones we prefer, but for me, dim sum is as much about seeing the joy of large tables of mulit-generational Chinese people related to one another as it is about the fluffy sweetness of a char siu bun.

On the topic of the fluffy buns, the dim sum at Princess Gardens was much more than adequate. All the traditional stuff was great as far as I could tell, the har gaw was full of shrimpy bounce, the rice flour used in the cheung fun was chewy and sticky just a tad thick but fresh tastin’ and as good as you could get in London. Personally, I thought the shiu mai was constellations above the London competition, managing to tamp sheerly decadent rims of pork fat with copious amonts of mushroom and crab. The ball of dumpling was so bouncy, it could double as a tennis ball – bounce in this type of dumpling is the best kind of attribute. The ‘thousand layer’ sponge cake, which is sometimes referred to as Malaysian sponge cake felt like I was laying my tongue over a thousand layers of fine Persian carpets – that’s simple pleasures at its finest matey.

Being Chinese, one can only appreciate the shellfish overkill for breakfast, and the scallop gai lan dumpling was the icing over a largely fine start to the weeping Sunday. As we near Fall, warm Sunday dim sum is a welcoming addition to my life’s dowdy schedule, as the days get shorter and as I count down the days till I have to turn the wick up on the heating.

We paid £38.40 for the first meal here for two, drinking guk-po (that’s po-li leaves and chrysanthemum). I left a more gregarious fella than when I entered the restaurant, and I liked the meal enough to return the following Sunday with a similar resultant mood. About the only thing I thought was below par were the egg tarts – too dry, unsweet and overcooked, aka, just abit shit really. Otherwise, the quality of the dim sum was exemplary. I was pleased to find sizzling wok-hei in their noodles too.

I’ve had some truly terrible dim sum – not this one obviously – in my lifetime, but I’ve almost always consumed it with a smile, I think of my dear mother, my cranky father, my pathfinder of a brother and I thank them for gifting me the ability to appreciate one of humanity’s greatest inventions : Hospitality.

So if you are at Princess Gardens next Sunday, and you spot a curious Chinese fella with a Leica around his neck, come say hello to me. Princess Gardens is currently serving my favourite dim sum in London, besting Pearl Liang. It carries the right kind of atmosphere and the quality of food is redolent of many fond things.

The Deets.

Princess Gardens
Dim Sum £25pp.
8-10 North Audley Street W1K 6ZD
Tel : 020 7493 3223
Tube : Bond Street

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… and for the photo lovers…

Shredded Mooli cakes, £2.90

Scallop Dumplings, £2.90

Monk’s beadcurd roll, £2.90

Crystal dumplings (I think) , £2.90

‘Thousand Layer’ sponge cake, £2.60

Shiu Mai (Pork & Crab), £2.90.

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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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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a brief history of sunday breakfast, chinese style 

For the uninitiated, dim sum is a specific chinese cuisine which is usually served in the mornings till lunchtime in chinese restaurants (this doesnt seem to apply in London). It is normally a weekend affair where families and close friends gather. It can be rather hectic as most chinese restaurants come to life with all the hustle and bustle. A bit like the chinese version sunday brunch. It is also a tradition where the elderly gather to chill out (not sure if they’d call it that..), read the paper and engage in lively debate. That’s also why some people also refer to dim sum as yum cha, which means drink tea. (you might have realised alan yau’s yautcha is a play on the words so you are drinking alan at his joint) 

Dim sum (in cantonese) roughly  translates to ‘touch heart’. Depending on whom you speak to, ’touch heart’ can mean that the food is just so heart-touchingly good, or that the food comes in small bite sizes, they are like little gifts to touch your heart. Both are valid interpretations in my opinion, especially when you are eating at Royal China.

Typical dishes come in easily manageable bites (generally speaking, four if is tiny, three if its a big bite and two if its a mouthful). They can be broadly split into steamed, fried and sweet categories, although, the varieties are endless. There are the safe dishes such as ha gao (prawn dumpling), cheung fun (rice noodle rolls), shui mai (pork and prawn dumpling), steam spare ribs in black bean sauce (pai kuat), steamed chicken feet (kai giok). I will state now that, personally, I’m not a big fan of chicken feet, but you can’t go wrong with everything else.

These days, restaurants are taking more liberties in terms of creating nouveau dim sum which tend split diners into two camps, one championing the traditional stuff, and the other leaning more towards the new. Im a nostalgic kind of guy, so I tend to fall into the former camp, though, it doesnt hurt to try new things every now and again. (yup, it’s all about balance)

first things first: arrive early

My brother was just coming back to england after being away for quite a while, so I thought it would be a great idea to catch up with him on a sunday afternoon, nothing beats quality family time.

A word of advice on weekends - go early. They open at 11 on sundays, and a long queue will slowly start appearing half an hour before they open. If you show up on the hour or quarter past, then you should be ok getting a table, the restaurant is pretty large and can accommodate quite alot of people. If you show up at noon, chances are you’ll be waiting about an hour for a table. My brother and I rocked up at half past one and the waiting area was absolutely packed with people! Lots of families, was nice seeing grannies holding their grandbabies too. If you do happen to show up where there are lots of people, make sure you push past everyone and get a ticket from the head waitress. And then, just stand back and wait for your number to be called.

“no. 84″, and some flower in my pot please

I usually treat dim sum as breakfast so I go on an empty stomach, we waited half an hour, not bad, but I was ready to eat the table cloth if they hadnt called us sooner.

Ordering tea is part of the dim sum experience and there is alot to choose from. The only problem, its all on some sort of secret menu because Royal China (like most chinese places) don’t advertise this selection.

If you ask for chinese tea, they give you the cheapest leaves, so whenever you can, try something that’s not going to burn your digestive tract. I never really understood the secret menu concept, but anyway, the ones that I know about are ‘tie guan yin’, which is the ‘iron goddess of mercy’, is a balanced tea that does the job. ‘hiung pin’, which I think means, ‘fragrant’ is a lighter version, good for soothing after an oily meal. For the fiery among you, you can try ’Po-li’ (so strong I don’t know what it means), which is a type of black tea with strong flavours.

If you dont trust my dodgy chinese pronounciations then I recommend you try chrysanthemum tea (with some rock sugar if they can manage), it is made with the flower of the same name. Fragrant, light and sweet, it tastes of fresh flower nectar in tea form. Lovely, now you know what bees are attracted to.

finally, we get to the food, it’s great by the way

Yeah, it really is. Ive eaten here lots of times over the years, and also in their other branches (Canary Wharf and Baker street) but I still think this branch produces the best stuff. Don’t get me wrong, the others do it just as well, but maybe it’s the first love effect, you never really forget the first time. Psychological or otherwise, being consistently packed out on weekends (for years and years) must mean they are doing something right.

I hadnt eaten dim sum for a few months now, so I went with the more traditional stuff. I forgot to mention that pastry dishes are part of the cooking style too. We ordered the ‘char siu sow’ (bbq pork pastry). Good pastry is meant to be crispy on the outside, but light on the inside. The perfect char siu sow should melt in your mouth and you notice the distinct bbq sauce carries a slightly sweet edge, that marries nicely with the savoriness of the meat. This place does it spot on. Really appetising. Next, my favourite, pork and prawn shui mai. Next page, more photos, more food…

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