Chinese New Year 2017

Chinese New Year starts this Saturday, 28th - the year of the rooster. Here's a round-up of places to eat during the celebration, which lasts for two weeks. Time Out has a great list of things happening in London to mark the new year.

TaTa Eatery, in Haggerston, is having a 9 course collaborative feast with chefs from Koya Bar, Taberna de Mercado, and BossLady to present a Chinese sharing feast rooted in "pairing European ingredients with Asian attitude", as is TaTa's concept. Running from 12 noon until 11pm on the 28th Jan, you can book via their website for £48pp. I visited TaTa's pop-up and their new site, and if you're looking for innovative and incredibly delicious cooking with Asian styles, this is sure to be a belter.

Soho's Yauatcha has created specialist red coloured pastries, as well as a red dim sum platter and cocktail to celebrate the new year with this traditionally auspicious colour. Available until 11th February.

Hakkasan is celebrating with a limited edition menu, featuring very traditional dishes, such as braised abalone, double-boiled soups, steamed turbot, and other premium ingredients - obviously this comes at a high-end price of £88 pp. This runs until 11th February.

The Duck & Rice have an additional menu available, from 23rd Jan - 5th Feb - Cantonese lobster, stir-fried curry crab, salt-baked chicken and potted rice, amongst others.

Raw Duck in Hackney have 'Dumpling Mondays' where the first Monday of the month is, well, dumplings. Their dumpling recipes have come down through generations, and the first Monday of February just so happens to be the 6th, during Chinese New Year.

Sambal Shiok are doing a £20 pp special tasting menu of prosperity salad, a snack platter, one of their great laksas and dessert, Jan 28th to 11th Feb. 24 hours advanced booking required - here are the details.

Crosstown Doughnuts are offering 6 x Pandan doughnuts for Chinese New Year, for £19 - available 27th - 31st Jan.

Otherwise, get a bunch of you together and head to Gold Mine for a shiny, lacquered roast duck Cantonese bbq blow-out.

Things to order:

Dumplings
Turnip Cake (loh bak goh)
Roasted meats
Whole fish, normally steamed
Lobster noodles with ginger and spring onion
'Lo Hei' - a raw salad mixed by tossing ingredients up high with chopsticks. The higher you toss, the more good fortune you capture.
Rice cakes, or 'nian gao'
Sweet rice balls ('tong yuen') for dessert

Recipes for lots of these are in Chinatown Kitchen, too.

DO:

Clean your house before the 27th.
Try and see as much family as you can.
Wear as much red as possible. Even your pants.

DON'T:

Cut your hair. You're cutting the wealth out! Some even don't wash their hair for the first few days.
Snip long noodles shorter. Noodles resemble longevity.

On Málaga, and Solo Holidaying

I turned 30 last week. It seems like one of those big milestones in life, one of those really important birthdays that everyone celebrates with real gusto, though I'm not really sure why. I get 18 - legally allowed to do all the fun things, like buy booze and vote, and see smutty films. I sort of understand 21, it's that American ideal of being a proper, proper adult. But 30? 30 feels like one of those ages that at least, as a woman, people put upon you that feeling that you'd better get on with it. But when it comes down to it, 30 is important. 30 is the age I got to where I felt like I could really do what I wanted, without judgement. I can eat coco pops for dinner whenever I damn well like. No I don't want to do that. Whatever. 

I had a few days off in between jobs and I wanted to do something with it - it's all too easy to sit at home in your pants watching Narcos and eat pizza - so I decided to go away by myself. I know it doesn't sound like much, but the number of raised eyebrows I got was surprising. "You're so brave!" 

"But won't you be lonely?" was a common question, or "can't someone go with you?" Both fair points, but I didn't want to. I'd had a pretty intense period at work on over-lapping projects, so actually the thought of waking up in the morning and just doing whatever I wanted made my mouth water a bit. Being alone doesn't make you lonely. 

I went to Málaga. Actually, when I booked it I managed to book my flights to Málaga and my accommodation in Majorca. Anyway, Málaga is the dream place for an easy few days. It had everything I wanted; decent flight options, easy transport if you don't want to drive, city, beach, weather. It's a bit like Barcelona, on a much smaller scale. I bumbled around cycling down their wide boulevards, lazing on their beaches, a mere 15 minute walk from my apartment. I ate at market places, tapas bars, chiringuitos. I read books on the beach in between napping, I climbed hills to viewpoints across Málaga, and I stared down pitying gazes from couples in their geriatric years (only really them, weirdly) as I asked for tables for one. I slept for HOURS and I discovered I don't much like Picasso, but I found Jackson Pollack quite entertaining. Anyway, I'd hugely recommend Málaga, and here are some of the places I ate, with thanks to @thaneprice and @sevilla_tapas for their enthusiastic recommendations. 

Casa Aranda is THE PLACE for churros and chocolate while you watch the world go by, and they are delicious; the churros are just the right side of salty, and the chocolate thick and sweet, but I challenge you to go and Do Stuff after a day started like that. I prefer a gentler beginning, like the breakfast at La Recova, a tiny little ceramics shop that doubles as a café. For something ludicrous like 4 Euros you get coffee, bread, tomatoes, a sobresada (spicy, spreadable sausage), and confit chicken spread, as well as honey and banana spreads so you can have mains and pudding. This guide has all the deets. 

My parents, bless 'em, did a 6 hour drive round the coast to come have lunch with me (they moved to Spain last year) and we had a seafood extravaganza at Andres Maricuchi, in a lovely traditional seaside town of Pedragelejo. I cycled there and flopped on the dark volcanic sand in the morning, watching the restaurants build barbecues up in raised boats, for their signature sardines-on-a-stick. Grilled squid with potatoes could have done with a little more oil basting and a little less time on the heat, but prawns, liberally sprinkled with rock salt, were easily some of the best I've had. Sweet, sweet seaside. And they peel their tomatoes for their garlic-heavy salad. I don't know why they peel them, but damn it felt luxurious.

LINK

Back in Málaga proper, Taberna Uvedoble was one of my favourites. The menu offered tapa portions of everything even if you're sitting at a table outside, so I got to try lots of lovely little bits, like this squid ink fideua, with tiny baby Málaga squid and aioli. 

I have a total obsession with Salmorejo - which is a Andalucian gazpacho, made creamier with the addition of bread, and the exclusion of peppers and cucumbers. Every time I visit Spain I buy it in cartons in supermarkets, though they're much fancier with chopped garnishes, here with egg and jamon. Smoked swordfish loin too is rolled in paprika and cayenne, with a loose tomato sauce. Lunch was barely a tenner with a beer. 

In the evenings I wandered around the cobbled streets and stopped off in tapas bars for a little beer or wine, sampling a dish here or there. The prawns at Wendy Gamba were the first time I considered maybe having that again, they were so good. I love the Spanish tapas culture, especially since I'm the kind of person that finds it difficult to stay still - the idea that you can just snack around is heaven to me. I also went to Los Gatos, which was fun to sit at the bar and snack on stuffs on bread, especially since they gave me a glass of cava after I paid my bill. I also enjoyed El Refectorum Catedral, which was one of the more upmarket tapas places I found myself in, though their croquetas are greasy and quite frankly, a bit rank. 

I LOVED Meson Cortijo de Pepe; mainly because after trying to squeeze into El Tapeo de Cervantes and basically being shooed away (apparently one must book) they were very welcoming, and they served lots of nice little plates of tapas that you could just point at. Also, vegetables! Lovely vegetables. If you find yourself there, get the avocado salad. I particularly enjoyed a totally bonkers Japanese lady who spoke perfect Spanish and sidled up to me. She raised an eyebrow and told me that many single women go to tapas bars to pick up men but she, she assured me, was only interested in the food. I smiled sweetly and told her I was there to pick up men. 

Atarazanas Market, open lunchtimes, is a great place to wander around to look at produce and eat some lunch. It also happened to be practically under my apartment. It was here I learnt to be more assertive. Often when I'm on my own I become a bit meek, trying to be as polite as possible, not to get in anyone's way, avoid drawing attention to myself. If you did that here you simply wouldn't get fed. Fuck it. I elbowed my way in, shouted GAMBAS! BOQUERONES! and I was rewarded. It was fine. It was very fresh. The waiter behind the counter was indeed dreamy. But these are plates made for sharing and the amount of variety I crave means a lot of wastage, or over-eating. I went back to Taberna Uvedoble. 

I came back to London, refreshed and perky, ready to face 30. 

Grilled Scallops with Ginger & Garlic Scape Butter

See Woo in Chinatown now has a fishmonger added to their supermarket, as well as a butchery counter. I love that I now have access to fresh seafood, including lobsters and crabs in their tanks, at an hour I can feasibly get there after work; usually I have to wait until the weekend and cycle over to East Dulwich. 

All the usual suspects are there; sea bream, turbot, prawns - but they also have salmon heads, and red grouper, and conger eel. There's also live eels in tanks, but I can't look at them too closely as they're basically sea snakes and that gives me the right wibbles. 

I bought some scallops, live in their shell, and was asked if I wanted them cleaned. I was perfectly willing to do it myself, until I remembered the 8 I was tasked to prise out of their shells , and de-frill at New Year's Eve, and the incredibly weird nightmare I had associated with it, that very night. Yes, yes you can sort them out for me. 

What happened to the roes?! I actually gasped out loud when I opened them at home, only mildly placated that there were 2 left intact. Maybe the man thought I wouldn't want them. That's what I get for being lazy. At £3.80 for 5, I will definitely be eating a lot more of them.

As they were going to be part of a Chinese meal, I wanted them to fit in but damn I wanted that garlic butter bad. So, I used garlic scapes - they are a sturdy thick grassy stem, and it smells pungently of garlic. They're delicious; crunchy, sweet, and without being too over-poweringly garlicky. They're also really great stir-fried with bacon (which is a recipe in Chinatown Kitchen). Ginger is a natural partner to seafood, and these turned out beautifully. We polished off those plump, sweet scallops and drizzled that butter, pooled in the shells, over the rice. Waste not want not and all that. 

Scallops with Ginger and Garlic Scape Butter

Enough for 5 scallops

5 scallops, with shells
2 stems of garlic scape, minced
3cm piece of ginger, peeled and minced
A hefty pinch of salt
A smaller pinch of white pepper 
60gr butter
1 tsp mirin
A dribble of cooking oil

Using fridge cold butter, really work the pepper, garlic scapes, ginger, salt, oil and mirin into it. 

Preheat the oven on high and add the shells to a rack to heat up, for 4 minutes. Add the butter, which should hit with a sizzle, then add the scallops and grill for a few minutes, depending on the size of them. If your scallops are fresh, don't be scared and over-cook them; they are far better, nay desirable, being slightly under-done. 

Turn the scallops over, baste with the butter, and grill until cooked. Serve as part of a feast, with steamed rice. 

Where to Celebrate Chinese New Year in London

Kung hei fat choi! It's the Year of the Monkey, and for the next two weeks families all over the world will celebrate Chinese New Year. It's a time to get together and eat, to wish each other prosperity and wealth, and to get together and eat. Have I mentioned it's big on eating?

Traditionally foods eaten tend to be noodles, to symbolise longevity (woe betide you if you cut these with scissors during this time). Whole fish, often steamed but also braised are often on tables, as the word for fish can sound like 'surplus'. Dumplings look like ingots of silver and so are eaten for prosperity, and well, who doesn't like a dumpling? You may see a lot of oranges and tangerines in Chinese homes, as well as the colour red, to symbolise luck and success. There are plenty of recipes appropriate for this time of year in Chinatown Kitchen, like Sichuan wontons, steamed sea bream with goji berries, and tomato, preserved vegetable and egg noodles - but what if you don't want to cook? Here are some recommended places in London to go get cooked for, instead.

Gold Mine, Bayswater

Gold Mine has long since been a favourite for Cantonese food. I've taken friends there, I've taken family there, I've taken clients there. Every time it's consistently good. The best thing here is the duck - roasted Cantonese style, so forget the pancakes. The crisp, lacquered skin and tender, juicy meat comes drenched in its own sweet, star anise basting sauce and it's just incredible. You can order it on or off the bone. Other good things to order are char siu, siu yok (crispy pork belly), lobster and spring onion noodles, steamed egg custard, Japanese egg tofu with minced pork, a vegetable dish (we had gai laan, with oyster sauce), salt n' pepper squid and some rice. That should do 6 of you nicely.

102 Bayswater
London W2 3RR

Tel: 020 7792 8331

Silk Road, Camberwell

Anyone who knows me at all would have known this was coming. I'm a huge fan of Silk Road - I've celebrated my last 5 birthdays there, in fact. I love them mainly for their vegetarian dishes, like smacked cucumber, homestyle aubergine & cabbage, and Xinjiang shredded salad. The lamb skewers are not to be missed though, nor are their dumplings. Book to avoid disappointment.

49 Camberwell Church Street
London SE5 8TR

Tel: 020 7703 4832

Little Lamb, Shaftesbury Avenue

Hot pot (or steamboat) is a very traditional celebratory meal, and it doesn't get much more traditional than an evening at Little Lamb, bang smack on Shaftesbury Avenue. A few doors down is the recently opened Shuang Shuang, another hotpot place serviced by a conveyor belt (more on that to follow), and while I really liked it there, Little Lamb gives more of an opportunity for a larger group get together, with a tighter control on spending. For a set price of £23 a head, one can order 5 ingredients each. I've found 4 - 6 is the optimal number for Little Lamb, and a wide variety of ingredients to dunk in the bubbling broth yourself. 

72 Shaftesbury Avenue 
London W1D 6NA 

Tel: 020 7287 8078

Xi'an Impression, Holloway

One of my favourite openings of 2015, I only wish I lived closer. Xi'an Impression is a tiny little place, 

but they're turning out some incredible food. These spicy belt noodles are flappy folds of joy, and their 

'burgers' - stewed meat in toasted flatbreads, are incredible. Influenced by a large Muslim presence, the food
here is characterised by spice and the use of lamb. More words are here. 

Xian Impression
117 Benwell Street, N7 7BW
Tel: 0203 441 0191

Dragon Castle, Elephant & Castle

Everyone has their favourite dim sum joints, for whatever reason, and mine is Dragon Castle. While they won't win any awards for their dim sum, it is consistent, fresh and reasonable in price. It's near my home and the room is large, so it's not too long a wait for a table (though around Chinese New Year it's better to get there early). 

100 Walworth Rd, 
London SE17 1JL

A. Wong, Victoria

Where Dragon Castle is a casual dim sum restaurant, A Wong is the opposite. Located in Victoria, they serve 
dim sum during lunchtimes only. The dim sum is served per piece, meaning that if you're there as a couple 
you can have very different meals. Often dumplings are served in 3 or 4 which makes dining as 4 often awkward - 
not here. Their food is very much re-imagined classics of Chinese food. On our visit my mother had sesame dumplings
with foie gras, and a crisp char siu bao, topped with a sweet crust. 'Three sauce rice noodle roll' was your classic 
cheung fun filled with Chinese doughnut, the swipes being the sesame, hoisin and soy sauce. The xiao long bao had 
too thick a skin,but otherwise we had a very enjoyable lunch here. As you might imagine, it's easy to rack up a bill, 
though you can make it out at around £20 a head without booze. 

70 Wilton Rd, 
London SW1V 1DE

Tel: 0207 828 8931

HKK London, Shoreditch

If you want to go super-luxe I would head to HKK. I trialled their Chinese New Year menu last year and found 
incredibly well made high-end Cantonese cuisine, featuring a delicacy of flavours and incredible skill in cooking.
All my quibbles from last year - I wasn't enthused about about the poussin and I missed noodles - have now 
been rectified in this year's menu, so I'm imagining a near-perfect experience. 

88 Worship Street
Broadgate Quarter
London EC2A 2BE

Baozi Inn Skewer Stall

If Chinese New Year passed you by completely and you haven't had a chance to arrange a night out with friends
and its not looking likely, just run past Chinatown and grab a couple of snacking skewers from the Baozi Inn
Skewer Stall, next door to the main restaurant. Nothing but a counter with a pot of bubbling broth, they always
manage to cook each ingredient just so, to retain the best of their character. I particularly like the fish tofu, broccoli,
enoki mushroom and 'luncheon meat'. Spam. Mmm. 

Baozi Inn Takeaway, 
27 Newport Court, 
WC2H 7JS.

2015 Favourites

I'm fond of lists. It orders my mind, gives me a sense of achievement if I need to tick them off, and it provides a handy tool to round things up with. So, slightly late in proceedings, here's a list of the favourite things I ate in 2015, in no particular order. Some are new restaurants, some are stalwarts. I should point out that I paid for all the meals I've mentioned, just in case it makes anything of a difference to you. Happy new year!

Portland, Fitzrovia: 

I went to Portland three times this year; to celebrate a birthday, my work leaving lunch and just cos. Each time it was brilliant. Particularly loved this salsify dish that tastes like a carbonara. The opening photo dish comes up a lot in their mostly-changing menu - it's raw Isle of Mull scallops, beneath wisps of radish and dressed with buttermilk. Isn't it pretty? 

Mama Lan, Brixton

These spicy fried wings are just SO GOOD. Crisp, crunchy, spicy, happiness, even if perched on a stool somewhat uncomfortably in Brixton Market. I often come here for these and a few dumplings as a snack. 

Decatur, Druid Street Markets on Saturday

I love these oysters, trading out of Maltby / Druid Street on Saturdays. Charcoal grilled with lemon, hot sauce and butter, I've never enjoyed a cooked oyster more.

Elliot's Cafe, Borough - lunchtimes only

I was skeptical about the seeded bun - do we really need seeds? - but turns out they're pretty ineffectual. Delicious, well seasoned meat cooked perfectly medium, and good chips. I'm a fries girl myself, but these had such a great potato flavour. 

Xi'an Impression:

These are called 'liang pi', or 'cold skin noodles'. Sure, they're not really a patch on Xi'an Famous Foods in NYC but they are, nonetheless, very good in their own right. Love their 'burgers' too. My full experience is here. 

Chang's Noodle, Bloomsbury

The signature lamb noodles are so so good - creamy, savoury, intense depth to them. I haven't tried enough of the menu to recommend anything else, but I'd struggle to return here and order anything but this. Perfect for cold, windy, winter nights. 

Quality Chop House, Farringdon

I hardly think these need much explanation, but just in case, these confit potato are rightly famous. Crisp on the outside, gooey and soft within - just how any potato should be. I love this restaurant and everything they cook - I even went to the Bloodshot supper clubs at The Dairy when Head Chef Shaun Searley was guest cooking. If you've not heard of it, it's a supperclub for the hospitality industry, recognising that nowhere decent is open after all our hard-working chefs and waiting staff have finished for the evening, so they set up a monthly dinner that starts at 1am. I was delirious by the time I was eating dessert at 4am - I rarely stay up past 2am being the old lady I am. Totally worth it. 

Salon, Brixton

One of the best dishes I had this year was this duck with cherry sauce. The set menu is fantastic value, and I only wish I had gone more often this year. 

Ceviche, guesting at Le Coq, Islington

This quinoa scotch egg at the Ceviche takeover at Le Coq had such interesting flavours and textures, and the whole meal had brilliant dishes throughout. I must get to Ceviche, and Le Coq properly next year.

The Camberwell Arms, Camberwell

Not exclusively this dish of squid with chickpeas, but in fact much of what is served at The Camberwell Arms is really excellent. Had a lukewarm and slightly greasy venison stew recently but I'll forgive them that for all the other great dishes. Here's my full post. 

Finally, my Restaurant of 2015 goes to The Newman Arms. 

They serve comforting pies on Monday lunchtimes, wonderful roasts on Sundays, but also incredibly inventive cooking that's brilliant and interesting, a few cuts above usual pub comforts, by Head Chef Eryk Bautista. I've written about the weekday evening menu here. Owner Matt Chatfield of The Cornwall Project surely has to be the nicest man in the industry; he lends his kitchen and facilities out to charity soup competitions, and to aspiring chefs and street food traders to host guest dinners. It's that kind of collaborative, generous and wonderful spirit of sharing that is really really special. It warms me, and makes me want to return again and again. 

Have a great 2016!