yeah that place! my big tough mate had to leave his own leaving dinner cos it was just too much. just unbelievably hot and unbelievably sour.
Where should I eat in London?
- Thread starter Melchior
- Start date
yeah that place! my big tough mate had to leave his own leaving dinner cos it was just too much. just unbelievably hot and unbelievably sour.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Hm, that doesn't really sell this place to me - is it for people who like good authentic food or is it for macho idiots who always order the hottest thing going just for the sake of it?
mistersloane
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They're both that kinda strange mix which qualifies as 'mainland' now, Royal Palace - you have to ask for the menu - is 'northern' according to the people who work there, very fresh. They used to have a Chinese only menu so you had to just ask for 'food' and take your luck but now they've got a menu with pictures but it's only a quarter of what the menu in Chinese is. Still great though. Just round the corner from Surrey Quays overground
New China is just a mix of stuff - again you have to ask for the 'other' menu - but is the closest to food that I had in ChengDu in London, for its in-your-faceness, though the quality is so-so. Very nice though. They've taken Dan Dan Noodles off the menu but you can still ask for them. One of my mates went red in the face and started crying but he still finished them. Good man.
edit for Mr Tea : No, it's not just for hot macho, but they've kept the hotness which is tempered a little bit over here. In ChengDu people were laughing at us when we ordered things, then clapping after we ate them, it's kinda cultural knowledge that they just eat ridiculously hot shit.
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mistersloane
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Pretty much agree with this except Gourmet San which I didn't like at all - greasy - and Golden Day where I got mild food poisoning, but that wouldn't put me off going again, though I'm not in a hurry.
There's another one opened called San Xia Ren Jia at 29 Goodge Street
www.sanxia.co.uk
but haven't tried it yet.
viktorvaughn
Well-known member
Amazing mental image of this, made me chuckle!
no it was actually good food, i'd recommend it. i remember an amazing prawn thing. not cheap but then it's in flippin central innit.
viktorvaughn
Well-known member
San Xia Ren looks interesting, like the fact they are bigging up having flat screen TVs and have unexplained pictures of steamed meat under the news section. The normal menu section has standards Chinese restaurant stuff in and the About Us section has screen shots of a menu with Hunan type stuff.
I’ve had some amazing stuff at Gourmet San – crab with chillis, mapo tofu, beef slices and some less good ones, squid and another couple of htings. Their lamb skewers for £1 each are sensationally nice.
Yeah, Golden Day was a bit meh in places…nice century eggs tho.
PS, any tips on books (either cookbooks are just interesting social/history stuff) or websites about this type of Chinese regional cooking/area? I have the Fuscia Dunlop one and a couple of older American ones. Thanks.
viktorvaughn
Well-known member
Have also heard good things about Le Wei Xiang, v cheap. Blog review.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
i'm jealous of Sloane for Chengdu as well!
Def try the aubergine at Chili Cool - not joking that it's a cut above even the other stuff on the menu there (though the pork belly is dead nice, and the hot pot interesting but pricey). Will give Red Bar a go soon...
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Malabar Palace, West Green Road (near T'pike Lane tube) - excellent, really excellent, and never full. Beetroot thoran is sublime, as is the ginger chicken and lots more. Lovely people, super cheap, proabbyl have enough for the next day's lunch. Anyone up that way - go now before they close due to lack of custom (really bad location f or a restaurant, not enouogh passing traffic cp to Green Lanes)!
mistersloane
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Kenneth Lo did one called Regional Chinese Cooking very early, 1981. I was brought up not to use his recipes though. He adapted things all over the place. Recipes have no Sichuan pepper for example, even ones that should have.* But it's an interesting read, and he was certainly the first to try spreading the good news in the West I think, but it's one to read rather than to use.
Picked up one recently in a charity shop called From China to Chinatown which is a history of the spread of Chinese food to the West, interesting read :
http://books.google.com/books/about/China_to_Chinatown.html?id=6Oxh3JUVK3sC
*due to availability of ingredients I suspect so he was making the best of what people would be able to get
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
OK, cool. I'm never quite sure with ultra-hot food whether it's an authentic taste of what-these-people-really-eat-in-the-old-country or whether it's just been made up to cater for the lagered-up-lads'-night-out demographic. I'm pretty sure 'phaal' is Hindi for 'drunk white twat'...sounds like this Szechuan stuff is a different pile of peppers, though.
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mistersloane
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In one restaurant a little boy, must have been 6 or 7, ran to the fridge looking scared and offered us yogurt drinks after he'd heard what we ordered. He looked incredulous when I signalled that we wanted beer.
Fuschia Dunlop quotes Chairman Mao who said
"You can't be a revolutionary if you don't eat chillies".
benjybars
village elder.
yeah but it's no longer a meze wing .. now it caters exclusively in the more leftfield meat-dishes.. lambs testicles.. sheep brain etc.
shame, cos i much preferred it when it was a meze place.. but what can you do.. turkish guys just fucking love their meat!
viktorvaughn
Well-known member
Wicked, cheers for that, will have a peep.
I've got Mrs. Chiang's Szechwan Cookbook: Szechwan Home Cooking
and
The Good Food of Szechwan: Down-to-Earth Chinese Cooking
which have some interesting looking things such as braised Lion's Head meatballs and puréed steamed aubergine with sesame paste (very nice).
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
I always kind of assumed it was until I head a bunch of Alison's housemates in Glasgow having a lengthy argument about whose home region of India had the hottest chillies - "you should try the massala powder we had at home, mate, you would die..."
Although there's historically been a sound reason for having hot food in hot places anyway insofar as hot food = sweat = cool down faster.
mistersloane
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Good question, I mean the English used white pepper, no? The idea that Brit food is bland is a myth, you just add that. You still get it in pie and mash shops. In its fresh form it's lethal, it's like horseradish (another one, jesus. There are some mustards that KILL). So maybe white pepper?
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Yeah, peppercorns are an obvious one I guess. And mustard and horseradish! What's weird is that it's a different kind if heat (wasabi too, innit) that gets you in the nose rather than the throat.
Thinly sliced roast beef, so rare it's still mooing, with proper yellow English mustard and a bit of sea salt. There's no better combination on earth, I'm sure. In fact when I cook beef I often take a wee cheeky sliver before it's even gone in the oven, add a dab of Maldon and gobble it down. Just so, so good.
Edit: sorry, this is meant to be "where should I eat in London?" not "Ollie's meat fantasies", isn't it? I had dinner at Rules last night - very English and quite pricey - rather un-Dissensian I suppose, but it was pretty good. Venison steaks as rare as you like, my friend had game pie which was also amazing.
Thinly sliced roast beef, so rare it's still mooing, with proper yellow English mustard and a bit of sea salt. There's no better combination on earth, I'm sure. In fact when I cook beef I often take a wee cheeky sliver before it's even gone in the oven, add a dab of Maldon and gobble it down. Just so, so good.
Edit: sorry, this is meant to be "where should I eat in London?" not "Ollie's meat fantasies", isn't it? I had dinner at Rules last night - very English and quite pricey - rather un-Dissensian I suppose, but it was pretty good. Venison steaks as rare as you like, my friend had game pie which was also amazing.
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viktorvaughn
Well-known member
Black pepper was used in large quantities until chillies arrived. Think there are still dishes esp in S India where shitloads is used for spice. Hard to conceive of Indian food with out them really.