vytoh

The UK edition has an appendix containing suppliers - doesn't the US edition have an equivalent? Strangely in the UK sichuan pepper is fairly easy to find, the tricky things to track down is the right kind of chilli bean paste (Lots of looking at ingredients on jars in chinese supermarkets) and the right kind of chilis (Never managed, but found a reasonable compromise) ← If you're still looking for Facing Heaven chillies in the UK, try mail order from The Spice Shop <www.thespiceshop.co.uk> They're out of stock at the moment but I'm told they'll be back to purchase in about a month. The Cool Chile Company used to stock them a few years ago but have since streamlined their business to specialise in mexican produce. I'd almost given up hope in finding a new source until I found The Spice Shop.

My mother has always served stirfried iceberg lettuce leaves with garlic and oyster sauce. I grew up thinking it was normal until my SO pointed out that hardly anyone ever cooks lettuce. I love it though - damn cheap and tasty! Just chop some garlic and throw into a hot wok with a bit of oil. When fragrant, throw in you IL leaves (pref torn in half but not too small) and stir until they wilt (drizzle a little water over them to help the process if required). shake some oyster sauce in to taste - as the lettuce cells break down, the water in them should escape and mingle with the oyster sauce to form a yummy light gravy/sauce for the dish. Serve with hot rice and other dishes as appropriate.

Does anyone know a source for dried Sichuanese chile's? I'm after the "Facing Heaven" variety (also known as "sky facing") I'm almost through my bag from Cool Chile company - they used to stock it a few years ago but now they only seem to be selling mexican produce. I've had a look in various chinese stores - I can find the peppercorns easily but not the chile's themselves. I'm not sure I'll be able to cope when I run out....I need my chile's! I'm willing to pay for postage within reason from anywhere in the world. Does anyone have/know of a source?

My best local is Faulkners on Kingsland Road. They only use fresh fish from Billingsgate - you pay for the privilege but I haven't tried the others mentioned so maybe that's just the price you pay for decent quality seafood in this town. Last time I was there I ate in the restaurant and had 6 MASSIVE fat sardines for £7.90 including chips and salad. and my waiter topped up my wine glass for free. happy happy joy.... oh - whitebait was good too!

Guppymo - I love this thread and the photography is luscious. It is sooo cruel to be reading this while at work. It makes me crave vietnamese food - I think i know what I am having for dinner tonight! Do you ever make Bun Cha or Bun Bo, perchance? These are both dishes I had in Hanoi on my last visits and I couldn't get enough of either. I would LOVE the recipe for either of these. I have been lucky enough to find that one of the local East London vietnamese restaurants does a fantastic Bun Cha (albeit only with the grilled pork meat as opposed to the lovely little grilled pork hamburger style patties that you get in Hanoi) but the nuoc mam soupy mixture that the bun is served in is really quite good. I have not seen a restaurant around me serve Bun Bo though. It was kind of like a Bun Cha but cooked with a stir fried beef, beansprouts and chopped peanuts instead of pork. Have you seen any good recipes or would you know of one? Thanks also for the Bun Bo Hue recipe. It is my boyfriend's favourite dish - I might have to try it for him, if he's good! Please keep up the posts. I am looking forward to the next one!

Good question - they don't seem to be available in this country. Guess it's an antipodean thing! A flat white is like a latte but with less milk. It comes across as a strong latte but seems fuller and creamier, regardless of the fat content of the milk. I'm actually an espresso or macchiato drinker as I'm fairly lactose intolerant (but suffer the consequences for delights such as ice cream) but when I found out they do flat whites I ordered one. Then I was told they have soy milk as well - so I changed my order to a soy milk flat white and almost fell off my chair with joy Have a great time - do let us know what your guest thought of the experience

I was at the Tapa room of Providores a few weeks ago. Had to wait outside for 15 minutes while a table slowly paid up and left, but it was worth it. Food standard is a good as ever. I had the roast appleton pork belly and it was most delicious! If you've been before you'll know that the menu pretty much fits your bill. Med (mostly spanish) elements but strong mix of asian spices and ingredients as well. Might be a good change for your guest. Great food, not too OTT in vibe or price and the best (only?!) flat white in town (yes I'm an aussie). I can never go past the hokey pokey ice cream either. Not only is it the best version of hokey pokey I've ever tasted (and I may have tried a few back home), but you just can't really get anything like it over here. a good choice of wines too if your guest doesn't mind the new world style. delicious...

Well, I finally managed to try this place on Saturday for dim sum and have to say that I was really quite happy with it. As I visited Shanghai Blues the week prior, I couldn't help but compare the 2 experiences. The dim sum selection at The Chinese Experience isn't as extensive as Shanghai Blues but I think it's much better value for what you do order. The decor isn't as "cool" (not that Shanghai Blues is anything like Hakkasan...) but the service was just as good. I am pleased to report that I had excellent service in both restaurants...something I'm beginning to be extremely grateful for after reading the posts and reviews of other eGullet members. In both cases I had knowledgeable waiters/waitresses and I could barely finish the tea in my cup before it was being refilled. I don't think I received any special treatment either - I guess I was just lucky in my timing and staffing! Back to the food..... I found it a little annoying that the first page of the dim sum menu is written only in chinese with no indication of whether the same items can be found on the english pages. Were they specials? I ended up asking the waiter for translations and then ordered the scallop steamed dumplings and the king prawn dumplings. I asked if the latter were Har Gao and was told they weren't....though they certainly looked like Har Gao when they came out! I didn't care - they were delicious and perfectly salted. The scallop dumplings were even better! yum.... From the english menu we had the Tien Chuan pork dumplings which I haven't seen served in London before. I've had them in (their native?) Tian Jin as a child so I was happy to see them on the menu. Lovely fluffy dough encasing a pork filling, steamed and lightly fried in the base for a bit of texture. I'm not an expert on these by any means and I'm sure my memory from childhood has been dimmed by age but a very enjoyable comparison. I wasn't such a huge fan of the beancurd rolls in portugese sauce reviewed above. My dining companion was but I found the rolls weren't quite cooked through, leaving a chewy beancurd layer. and I wasn't a fan of the curried sauce - but that's just my taste. I prefer the more traditional ones, if I have to say! I actually preferred the xiao long bao (shanghai soup dumplings) here, above Shanghai Blues. Would like to try them both again to compare, to test for consistency across venues. I found the SB pastry a little thick up top where the pleats were gathered. The surprise of the meal was the siu mai. Far and away the best siu mai I've had in London, mainly because of the crunch of the prawns in the top layer of the dumpling (as opposed to being chopped up and scattered through the pork mince). We also tried the handmade noodles (Jah Jan mein) - they were ok. Would have liked a little more "bite" to the noodles. The sauce was very similar to Jill Dupleix's "asian bolognaise" recipe I succumbed to dessert and I shared the custard bun plate with my partner. Expecting a standard custard bao to be presented to me, I was surprised to be faced with 3 little tiny yellow dumplings, each the size of my thumb. Perfectly formed and almost too cute to eat.... I hesitated only a second to admire before demolishing my share. I needn't have worried about finding room for them as they really were bite sized but as egg custard is quite rich I was completely full after this dish. I'm wondering if this dish is being fine tuned for the london palate as my waiter asked me if they were too sweet as he cleared the steamer basket away. I thought not. I liked the touch of saltiness that distinguishes these from the commercial fillings (though these are so obviously handmade, not only from the size but also the yellow colour in the dough pastry with a sheen from the custard below) Overall I really enjoyed the food and for £27 all up including service much better value than Shanghai Blues or Yauatcha at normal prices. I do recognise however that their menu isn't as extensive and there are certainly dishes I would go back to SB or Yauatcha for. I also recognise that a lot the wow factor in the dishes comes from sitting almost right next door to the kitchen so everything came out piping hot and fresh - a definitely plus. It doesn't take long for dim sum to cool down and become less than amazing. Overall, I'd be quite happy to pop into the Chinese Experience for a dim sum lunch anytime. excellent quality for the price. Not so enamoured with the decor or the stares of the passing traffic on Shaftesbury Ave as they gawk at the plastic (?) offerings in the window, but the arrival of the food soon made me forget. For atmosphere I'll take Hakkasan or Yauatcha any day, even Shanghai Blues but I think they're in a different league as an overall experience (SB less so but it is certainly trying for it).

Thanks! Glad to contribute a review for once - I have to admit I've done my fair share of lurking on the board and reading (mostly drooling over) the many wonderful reviews written by eGullet members. Thanks for the review of your seafood....now I really can't wait to go back to try it myself! Will be curious about the wine menu - I have been wondering how Shanghai Blues will fare against its competition down the road in Soho. Hakkasan and Yauatcha both serve solid, and mostly always excellent, dim sum - and sexy cocktails to boot. This seems to hold great appeal in this day and age. If SB can't deliver great cocktails then the wine menu will have to hold up. IMO, the decor is stylish, but in the daytime it's much like just being inside a curtained room with the lights on (not surprisingly) - but perhaps that's just because it was quite empty on a Saturday mid afternoon. I would imagine it would work well when filled with people, or at night. But honestly - I wasn't there for the decor. The food spoke for itself and now I can't wait to go back and try that crab for myself. Thanks for the excuse to go back!

I went to Shanghai Blues for a dim sum lunch on Saturday and can report the quality of the cooking is excellent. The service was outstanding as well - very attentive and polite, and the management went to great pains to explain the dinner menu is even more extensive and unusual. I was impressed with their enthusiasm. My favourite Har Gao (and a measuring stick for all dim sum restaurants) had a fat prawn nestling within its crystal pastry with neat pleats in each. I would say that perhaps only Hakkasan is slightly better on that dish in London from my experience, just because of the sheen of the pastry? However, the har cheong fun (prawn with chives) was outstanding and filled with more fat prawns with crunch. The Siu mai (another standard) were good - not outstanding - but they came with a piece of crab leg on top for some extra flavour, and I detected a small hint of salted duck egg as the orange dot on the top of each dumpling, which was a nice change. I very much enjoyed the soup dumplings. We tried 2 types - the standard Xiao Long Bao which were nice but could have been a 'bit' more soupy. Perhaps the tops were just a little dry by the time they came out to us...but I LOVED the seafood version which had pieces of scallop and king crab in it. Much more delicate in texture and flavour. The seafood was cooked perfectly within each and the soup within the dumpling came out of the seafood juicily. A joy to eat. Shanghai Blues offers a lot of dim sum dishes that aren't standard and we had great difficulty in choosing what to order as we wanted to try them all. We tried to stay away from the standard dishes, apart from those I've described so far, in an effort to see what else they could offer! I only wish we had more than 2 of us dining that day. I also liked the steamed scallop dumplings in spinach juice pastry (ie. green translucent rice flour pastry), and the fried pumpkin dumplings filled with mince pork were visually entertaining (shaped like little pumpkins with a sprig of coriander as a sprout. Kind of like a play on the traditional "hum shui gok"...again, I apologise but my cantonese is terrible ). I give the chef marks for presentation. I didn't think the grilled pork belly was that special - very tasty and certainly not dry or overcooked. Just not overwhelming (not that it was underwhelming by any means). I just wish we'd tried the razor clams with jellyfish dish instead. A new fun dish for me was the deep fried cuttlefish with chicken liver pate with crispy bits (sorry - can't remember the exact name of it but it's not far off that). Loads of fun to eat and the cuttlefish was tender and juicy - only a little spot of pate in the middle but prob enough to get the idea. We had about 8 dim sum dishes in total (they're mostly about £4-5 from the lunch menu) including the pork belly dish that was a little more, and the red bean & tea jelly pudding to share. We also shared a pot of oolong tea and the total bill came to £47, less 40% discount. Service was applied after the discount was applied which made the whole meal incredible discount - I would have been more than happy to tip on the full amount. They also include a dish of roasted peanuts, a dish of pickled cucumber and some curry(?) flavoured prawn crackers complimentary when you are seated. They also gave us a complimentary fruit platter. Perhaps they felt we ate too much meat?! I am used to complimentary oranges or in season fruit at chinese restaurants but not a fruit plate on the menu worth £6 list price. Not that I was complaining - We literally rolled out of the restaurant late afternoon.... Overall, I think Shanghai Blues is a worthy contender for the likes of Yauatcha and Hakkasan for dim sum. They do try hard to offer a great experience with some dishes that are a little different, but they don't lose out on quality for the sake of it. I am looking forward to returning for dinner with a group of people to try out more dishes. Sorry I can't comment on the drinks/wine menu either but the bar did look fully stocked. Tarka? I hope for all our sakes that Shanghai Blues succeeds - they certainly deserve to. Please go and report back!

Hi folks, I work on Baker St and wandered by Anda late last week....and it looked closed! The curtains were drawn, the menu box was empty and I couldn't find a sign telling potential patrons why it was closed. Walked past again last night and same story. Not sure how long it has been like this for, but does anyone know what has happened to Anda? I wasn't a fan and it never seemed to be doing particularly well when i walked past (combination of quality for price, service, decor and prob mostly location i suspect) but has it closed its doors? or will it be reborn as something better? Has Alan Yau closed it to concentrate on Yauatcha instead? questions questions...just curious!

I was there on opening night by chance, and had a lovely night. I had high expectations as I am from Sydney and had been a fan of Paramount; but tried to lower them in case I was disappointed, as with Nahm (mainly due to the surly and boorish service ). In this case I was greeted by a very friendly girl (australian) and found out that Christine had headhunted her trusted staff, and invited them to come with her to London to work. This girl was obviously thrilled to be in London (even in winter) and the admiration of Christine's work echoed throughout the rest of the staff, regardless of whether they'd worked with Christine before or not. I had a brief conversation with Christine, mainly about why she chose London (the opportunity was offered to her, so why not?). She did say that she had been travelling the world since closing Paramount, consulting and learning at the same time. She offers a choice of 2 tasting menu's for £35 each, named Delicious and Wicked. 5 courses each. We had one of each tasting meny and it was a competition to see who had the most order envy at each course. The food is not fusion of eastern and western as the dialogue so far and the name might suggest - it is more a fusion of eastern cuisines, with a stronger japanese influence perhaps, but greater use of spices as the chinese and vietnamese love: and Christine advocates. I can't and won't repeat the menu to you, but highlights for me were the lobster rolls, the diver scallops and the taste sensation of the match made in heaven - morsels of salt and pepper squid followed up with a taste of Jerez (Christine has chosen a wine to match each dish, and you are able to order these as you wish at an additional price by the glass. Prices of the wines to match are extremely reasonable in my opinion, for a hotel restaurant) We had no room for dessert but I will be back. I have never experienced such friendly and helpful service in London (apart from aggressively so) - the cynic in me says that it was opening night and it will go downhill, but I sincerely hope not. I would hope that the Aussie spirit prevails. I would think that Christine's insistence on quality extends the whole way through the business. The bar downstairs seemed nice too - lots of dark wood but high ceilings so it wasn't claustrophobic. I hear the bar food is to be eaten with chopsticks and great for sharing. Go if you have the chance. I think it's great value and I hope you won't be disappointed.

my family calls them "Cheong Fan" (kind of pronounced "chong fun" in english!) or to be specific, the prawn version is "Har Cheong" and the pork is "cha siew cheong fan" Great taste - I love them too!