255 replies to this topic

[muichoi]

I haven't been here unfortunately-but if you like tripe(not the disgusting soft version)that chilli-shredded pigs' maw should be a wonderful dish.

[Pweaver1984]

Has anyone got any pics of the food?

Paul

[Gary Marshall]

Enjoy it, and let me know what you think. Also, try and find some very important clients in Manchester who you MUST visit for a boozy lunch...

thanks for that thom, i'll do my best to scoff as much of that as possible. My colleagues are looking slightly scared now though as i regale them with their possible choices!

[kutsu]

I had the braised pig trotter - fantastically soft gelatinous trotter meat served in a rich sauce, and the sechuan smoked duck - nice if a little dry, but had to order it as the missus didn't fancy much pig.

Oh and of course, the spring onion bread, for sopping up the juices.. fantastic.

Can't wait to go back.

[Gary Marshall]

ok so we had

vegetarian hot & sour soup (gesture for my halal meat eating colleague)

diced chicken lettuce wrap
salt & pepper spare ribs
fillet steak rolls
salt & pepper baby squid
deep fried squid in batter
seasame prawn toast

then a whole aromatic duck

then

aromatic crispy prawns
spicy hot poached deboned sea bass
mt city duet pork
spicy hot poached lamb
painter daqian spring chicken
stir fried fillet steak with chilli

plus a special starter of smoked chicken from the specials board with the mains

the best dish was definitely the poached lamb the sea bass wasn't as hoped it was the same preparation as the lamb unfortunately . We weren't in the mood for eels today!

it was a very pleasant lunch but i still feel i need the guidance of an expert to get the most out of this kitchen, it's nicely spiced but to be honest doesn't wow me as much as i thought it might, saying that i'm sure the killer dishes are on the menu i just don't know where to look!

[YKL]

goodness me Gary - and that was for just the two of you?!?!?!

Hats off to you Sir!

I'm due there with some friends on Tuesday evening - four stomachs in total, so unless my friends choose that moment to reveal that they are chilli lightweights ... then we should be able to try a few different things!

Yin
X

[Gary Marshall]

no! there were 5 of us, and it was a lot of food!

i seized the opportunity to try as much as possible!

cheers

gary

[thom]

Gary,

That's good eating even for five of you!

Pity that you weren't blown away though. As I said, the more standard dishes are good, but it is the more unusual stuff where it really hits the heights. To be honest, part of the fun for me is just finding a Chinese menu that really excites me, as even the good Cantonese restaurants such as Yang Sing rarely inspire me any more.

Also, not sure whether maybe the Manchester site might have held onto the best or most experienced chefs as it was the original site? You notice the difference between chefs as I have once been in to the Mancheter restaurant a couple of times on a Sunday and noticed a difference in several of the dishes to the weekday fare.

Be good to see you over in Manchester; we can really give the menu a proper going over. Hope all is well over the otherside of the Pennines (and the other side of the bar).

Cheers

Thom

[Carlovski]

Now I'm really hungry
But I'm back up in the homeland on Wednesday - might have to take a trip into the centre for some 'shopping'....

[culinary bear]

I feel the need for another meal there before I up sticks and move :)

[Gary Marshall]

I feel the need for another meal there before I up sticks and move :)

are you going to stop being so modest and tell everyone where you are moving to?

[Carlovski]

He's sold out hasn't he, moving down to that London I bet. It will all be lah de dahs and Martinis.
Can't get a decent pint of bitter down here you know.
And not a decent wok fried pigs maw to be found.

[Gary Marshall]

no quite the opposite, although he's a bit more lah-de-dah now

[thom]

Oh he'll still be a Northern boy all right.

In fact, he's got a job as apprentice tripe bleacher in the processing plant at 'Brocklethwaites Innards Emporium' situated in the quaint little Lancashire town of Grimly-on-the-Mire.

Quality of life? Read it and weep to those of you living the hoity-toit life in that there London.

Cheers

Thom

[Bapi]

No Thom,

Gary told me CB is the Apprentice to the Apprentice Tripe Bleacher. It'll take him three years to work up to becoming an Apprentice.

Good Work fella. For a horrible moment I thought he was going to work with Gary

[culinary bear]

It's just the soft tripe I'll be dealing with to begin with... I have to pass my City and Guilds 8171/2 in Advanced Abomasum and Mesenterium Management before they'll let me touch the honeycomb tripe.

[thom]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why he got the job.

Cheers

Thom

[Weasel]

I haven't been here unfortunately-but if you like tripe(not the disgusting soft version)that chilli-shredded pigs' maw should be a wonderful dish.

Mmmm - this is a spectacular option, a fiery chilli sauce coats a dish of long shreds of meat. The meat is cold and has a memorable melting texture. The cool smoothness of the meat works perfectly with the fire of the chilli.

And I have to order the spring onion bread on all visits as a greasy, savoury delight.

[Carlovski]

Well, just got back from Manchester.
Managed to squeeze in two lunchtime trips to Red Chilli and was suitably impressed.

First trip I had the previously mentioned spicy mixed meat clay pot. With the warnings from culinary bear and Thom still fresh I didn't order anything else (Couldn't persuade anyone else to go!). It was fantastic - the pig skin was a little too much texture over taste for me, but I managed a few strips (there was quite a lot in mine!). Surprise was the beancurd, first time it has really made sense to me - it absorbed the sauce wonderfully well, but still had some of it's fried texture left. I was really hungry and absolutely stuffed myself, but still only got 2/3rds through it, and I left some rice too. Absolute bargain.

Second trip I obviously tried the chilli poached lamb! I also ordered the french beans with minced pork. Enough has been said on the pork dish - I'll just like to mention either culinary bear got a whimpy version or he miscounted, There were a lot more than 20 chillies in mine! The beans were fantastic though, another one to add on the list of dishes to try, they were probably quite spicy, but obviously overshadowed by the lamb, but they were perfectly cooked, salty, spicy with a vinegary kick from I think black vinegar and preserved vegetables. I'd have been quite happy with just those and a bowl of rice.

There were so many things I wanted to try on the menu too - has anyone even tried any of the chicken dishes yet? I bet the home style tofu is pretty good too and some more of the pork dishes, I almost tried the Mt City Duet pork guessing it was a variant on double cooked pork - should of asked.
BTW anyone got a clue what 'molly' is? It's in a couple of the clay pot dishes.

Couple of general points about the place -

Don't like to make sweeping generalisations but, those chinese can pack a bit away can't they? Next to me two youngish lads ordered 3 cold appetisers, a hotpot dish, 2 stirfried dishes, soup, rice and a giant bowl of crispy noodles. The other tables looked quite similar, if less extreme. I felt like a bit of cheapskate with one dish!

The portion size and pricing is rather bizarre, the clay pot and poached dishes are as we have mentioned huge and easily enough for two on their own. But a simple portion of greens is only a quid cheaper, and a lot smaller. I reckon the poached lamb dish has about the same amount of greens in it as a full portion.
It might be less confusing (especially for us western types!) if they standardised the portions a bit, maybe reduced the prices (And portion sizes) on some things to make it easier for small groups or solo diners to get a varied selection without wasting food (Something I hate doing). Maybe mark the 'big' dishes as for 2-3 people, and up the price a bit?
I'm sure they would do smaller portions if you asked - I heard a waiter ask two ladies if they wanted a smaller portion of something.

One slight moan about the place - if you want to try and make your restaurant stand out from the rest of chinatown (Which they are obviously doing) and be a more modern contemporary restaurant then keeping all your cleaning stuff, along with a giant vat of cooking oil clearly labelled 'economy' is not a fab idea....

[culinary bear]

Matt and I were clearly thinking, given the pre-dinner beers, that we were seeing double and halved what we saw in order to get what we thought was an accurate count. :)

[muichoi]

I'm sure 'molly' is mooli-aka white radish. Good point about portion size in Chinese restaurants-anything invloving whole fish, chickens etc,and hotpot type dishes are usually amazing value. In good places greens can seem expensive, but actually gai laan, choisam, ong choi and peasprouts are expensive-and a real treat at good places. Avoid all chinese restaurants that offer only stir-fried and deep-fried dishes.

[Carlovski]

Matt and I were clearly thinking, given the pre-dinner beers, that we were seeing double and halved what we saw in order to get what we thought was an accurate count. :)

Normally a good idea - the chilli hit must have snapped you out of it!

[Carlovski]

I'm sure 'molly' is mooli-aka white radish. Good point about portion size in Chinese restaurants-anything invloving whole fish, chickens etc,and hotpot type dishes are usually amazing value. In good places greens can seem expensive, but actually gai laan, choisam, ong choi and peasprouts are expensive-and a real treat at good places. Avoid all chinese restaurants that offer only stir-fried and deep-fried dishes.

The good thing, from my point of view about Red Chilli isn't just the fact it does these things, which many other restaurants offer (Maybe not all of the spicier options, but hotpot dishes etc) but the fact that they print them on the English menu and encourage you to try them.

[Weasel]

On portion size - ate at the Leeds branch last week and tried a 'christmas special' set meal. This was a vegetarian feast starting with hot and sour soup, followed by a plate of appetisers (spring roll, tempura fried mushrooms, mock chicken yakitori style, seaweed and two very good 'milk balls' which were a sort of custard, not overly sweet fried in tempura batter). This would have been enough but there then appeared full size dishes of (i) Mrs Spotty's Beancurd, (ii) a very spicy and delicious stir fried dish with much chilli and shreds of things I didn't recognise (hadn't studied the menu at length before ordering), (iii) a soothing dish of juicy bok choi and chinese mushrooms which perfectly balanced the heat of the other two mains and (iv) a large portion of rice stir-fried with crunchy vegetables.

All this for me and my newspaper at lunch, all this for £12. Despite my greed I could only make limited inroads into the mains and the waitresses kindly offered me takeaway and returned the leftovers neatly packaged. I noticed that they were doing this for quite a few of the westerners in the restaurant and its certainly a bonus to be able to take home your next meal.

[thom]

Another year, another trip to Red Chilli...

Actually, my last trip was technically in 2005, but I'm planning to be en route again next week.

Anyway, the trip as ever was excellent. We (my better half and I) didn't go crazy, but we did have:

*Cod slices with chilli
As recommended by Bertie, though when I saw him eat this I'm sure the cod was unadorned but on this occassion I was slightly worried that it was in a batter. Luckily the batter was light enough to be almost undiscernable except was the slightest texture, and it helped hold the delicious sauce to the fish. The chillis gave it a pleasing heat, unless you ate them instead of admiring them for garnish, at which point they really had some poke. All in all, a hit.

*Gung Bo chicken
I think the spelling is right, though it is a variation on the dish that is spelt 'kung po' or 'gung bo' in various other establishments. Basically it is a sweet, chilli sauce dish and is chavvy, lowbrow, and a disgrace to select off such a wonderfully exotic menu. My girlfriend picked it. I have to say though, this was a pretty good example. Sweetness and spice were well-balanced, and it was nicely reduced to a stick coating making it very moreish. The whole peanuts sprinkled through the dish worked well too.

*Braised pork belly with preserved chinese cabbage
This was a belter, and what could be better on a frosty winter lunchtime - pork, fat, cabbage, slow cooking. Mmmm... It was basically your typical star anise heavy chinese pork belly, but again a very, very good version. The fat just melted away, (courtesy of four hours cooking) and the flavour was fantastic, and well complimented by the soggy but delicious cabbage which seemed almost stewed.

Add to this a couple of nice glasses of wine and a good time was had by all. I must admit we stuggled to get through it all but as noted above a doggy bag was suggested and it was all parcelled up for us to pick at that evening.

Yum.

Cheers

Thom

[Carlovski]

Having a look at the menu it seems that there is a kung bo on the anglicised menu and a gong-bo on the 'spicy' menu. But looking at the chinese characters for the 'kung bo king prawn' and the 'gong bo prawn' they appear to be the same!
A genuine gong bao/kung po etc etc is a perfectly fine and authentic dish and can be delicious (The recipe in Fuschia Dunlop's Sichuan Cookery is pretty good) Only problem is in most places it is just sweet and sour with an added spoonfull of chilli powder.

Someone has got to try the 'Blessed the Whole Family' soon - just so we know what it is!

[thom]

A genuine gong bao/kung po etc etc is a perfectly fine and authentic dish and can be delicious

I always knew my Soph was a classy lady of taste and discretion.

And you're right, someone has to have the 'Blessed the Family' dish, and really we should give the 'Husband and Wife Lung Slices' a go too.

In the name of research I'll take one of them next time I go if someone will pick up the spare?

Cheers

Thom

[Bapi]

You are on Thom- as long as you don't dip on me again, feigning too much work and then read egullet all afternoon

Incidentally, I went with a friend a weeks back and thought the Gung-bo prawn off the "spicy" menu, was the weakest dish we tried.

[thom]

You are on Thom- as long as you don't dip on me again, feigning too much work and then read egullet all afternoon

Incidentally, I went with a friend a weeks back and thought the Gung-bo prawn off the "spicy" menu, was the weakest dish we tried.

You bugger, when you questioned my work load I thought you had clocked me scampering through Picaddily station with my organic M&S bread and dried fruit and nuts (part of a squirrel-like new year health kick).

Anyway, I merely have eGullet ticking away in the background whilst I pile through copy-proofing and eye-watering operations spreadsheets. I consider it vital executive stress relief to have the occasional flit through the forums.

Consider it a shaken deal - Husband and wife slices and blessed the family for us the next time we go. Last two weeks in January are looking pretty good for me.

I have to admit though that as a company (only five of us in the office I admit) we are having a Red Chilli takeaway tomorrow (our local greasy spoon is on holiday so the holy Friday ritual of communal homemade cheese and onion pie, chips and gravy is on hold for a week). I'm sure it will be the best eating at my desk I've ever had.

Cheers

Thom

[Carlovski]

I'm back in Manchester at the start of Feb so I'll try and explore a bit more of the menu too.