Yum cha (飲茶), the act of going to a Chinese restaurant and ordering dim sum, one of my favourite things to do in the world. As a child, I used to especially look forward to Sundays as we would always go yum cha before being carted off to Chinese School so much so that I would have a little sulk if we didn’t get to go yum cha beforehand. It’s known as yum cha because for all the ordering of dim sum, it was always accompanied by the act of drinking Chinese tea (yum cha means to drink tea). The Mothership always said how she never really drunk Chinese tea at home, but if we went out to yum cha, she would drink copious amounts of tea, mainly because it helped cleanse your palate and there were nutritional benefits from drinking Chinese tea, but I suspect to also help dilute the amount of MSG you were consuming. In Hong Kong, yum cha is mainly a breakfast or morning activity – I remember the first time I went to HK and having to get to a restaurant for 8am and being used as a tool to get seats in a restaurant. Picture it, a child in a foreign land who was very obviously not local given they’re lighter skinned made to sit down on a seat on a large table as soon as a seat became available, watching the other occupants of the table as they eat their dim sum and waiting for them to finish in the hopes that as soon as they finish, an adult will join the child once enough spaces are free. Fine if a small number of seats are required, but little ol’ me trying to keep 5 seats free because there were 8 people in our party was a bit daunting – Especially as some pushy HK housewife would come over and try to force me out of the table because she wanted it for herself. Fortunately, we don’t have any system like that in this Country (if you could call it a system). Besides, we’re British and there’s nothing we like more than to queue if there isn’t a table big enough for ready as yet. Plus, yum cha is a mainly lunchtime offering (especially as restaurants don’t open until Midday). I’ve been meaning to write a post about yum cha and dim sum for some time now, but when an impromptu Tweat Up with Mr and Mrs Lap, Nick, Hannah and Tom was organised, it was the ideal opportunity to do so – Especially as being in a largish group would mean we could get a good selection of dim sum.

Dim Sum (點心) refers to a style of Chinese food, usually in the form of small plates. I’ve heard Dim Sum being referred to as “Chinese Tapas” but given I am Chinese myself and therefore unashamedly biased, I refer to tapas as “Spanish dim sum” I’ve already mentioned that traditionally, it’s eaten in restaurants from breakfast or during the daytime rather than an evening meal – Which is why in the UK, most restaurants don’t serve dim sum in the evening (or at least offer a very limited menu). I’ve seen the words “Dim Sum” be translated as either “to touch one’s heart” or “a little piece of heart” but the gist is that the small plates are pleasing enough for everyone to eat. There are hundreds, if not thousands of different dim sum dishes and it’s a style of food which is constantly evolving too with the introduction of fusion cuisine or at least stylised to cater for increasingly diverse tastes and palates. I believe there are some restaurants in China where the dim sum menu alone is near the 400 mark – Imagine eating there! For that reason alone, this isn’t going to be a dim sum 101, but will rather be the beginning in (what I hope will be) a series of posts about Dim Sum. So firstly, let’s talk about the basics as I realise that it can be quite daunting to go into a Chinese restaurant and try to order dim sum when you’re surrounded by Chinese people and have no idea what to order. You don’t see it so much here in the UK, but in HK and China, most restaurants have servers pushing trolleys around the restaurant offering whatever goods they have fresh from the kitchen. In recent years, it’s gotten even more helpful and the trolley actually lists what items are being served (which is even more helpful in a crowded room full of loud people all wanting to make themselves heard). That said, in this Country, most menus are in both English and Chinese, which does open up the possibility of terrible Chinglish typos or transliterations – Desert cake anyone? That said, I recognise that it makes it much easier for someone completely new to Dim Sum to order something to eat.

Dim Sum is generally split between steamed dishes (usually consisting of dumplings of some sort), bao/bau or buns, deep fried dishes and pan/wok-fried dishes. These aren’t hard and fast rules and divisions though, buns are generally steamed or even deep-fried but I’ve separated them to distinguish them from dumplings which are generally steamed. (Although, to confuse matters even more, some dim sum items can be ordered as a steamed, pan/wok-fried or deep-fried dish). Another dim sum item is Cheung Fun which are sheets of rice flour rolls generally with a meat filling and steamed so that the rolls are soft and tender (I guess they could be called a type of cannelloni made with rice flour), usually served with a special soy sauce (special in that it’s sweeter than normal soy sauce and has some oil added to it). However, when you go yum cha, it’s not just about dim sum – It is the norm to order some larger plates to go complete the meal, be it some noodles (wok fried or in soup), perhaps a (combination of) roast meat and rice, or even a bowl on congee (juk).

As I mentioned earlier, there are a LOT of different dim sum dishes which would be impossible to cover in one single post, so to get the ball rolling, in this post I’ll talk about what I (and my family) like to order when we go yum cha;

In recent years, I’ve noticed that restaurants like to offer you a mixture of savoury and sweet pastries to go with your tea as you wait for the rest of your table to arrive or simply something to nibble on whilst you look at the menu. When I was younger, I used to love Ham Siu Kok (鹹水角) which is a deep fried rugby ball-shaped dumpling made of sweet rice flour with a filling of minced pork and some vegetables which is slightly salty to contrast with the sweet rice flour. If they’re fried properly you get a crisp, crunchy exterior yet on the inside, it the rice flour dough should be soft and almost gummy against the grain of the filling. Very similar to the ham siu kok is the Wu Kok (芋角) or the Taro Puff, the filling is practically the same as the ham siu kok but the casing is of mashed up taro with some flour added to it and being deep fried gives them their distinct appearance – I used to call them hairy when I was younger and I still haven’t really learned how or what causes it, I only know I like that and will happily gorge myself on them if at all possible. You may also get a Chinese egg custard tart which are very different to the English ones we may be accustomed to in that the pastry is in the Chinese version is much flakier (there’s more lard in it!) and the filling is much sweeter – Rather than eggy with a hint of sweetness. More to the point, there’s no nutmeg anywhere near the Chinese version! You may also be offered a Char Siu baked ( generally triangular-shaped) dumpling, which is char siu in a sweetened sauce in (again) a slightly salty, flakey pastry.

Steamed dishes

There are certain stalwarts of dim sum which practically EVERYBODY orders when out yum cha, Har Gau (蝦餃) which are steamed prawn dumplings and siu mai (燒賣) which are steamed pork and prawn dumplings. Most Chinese people tend to prefer one over the other, generally har gau which are said to test the skill of a dim sum chef in that the skin (made from rice flour, sometimes with tapioca flour added, oil and water) must be thin enough so that it’s almost translucent but not so thin that it breaks when picked up with chopsticks, the dumpling itself should be pleated neatly and when the final steamed dish is presented, they shouldn’t stick to the basket it’s been steamed in. Furthermore, the prawn filling should be perfectly cooked and generous in the dumpling so you don’t get large air pockets which will make the dumpling sag once out of the steamer. However, my preference has always been for siu mai; I prefer the meaty addition of pork to the prawn filling and when I was younger, I liked the visual element of the yellow wonton wrappers used as the skin in contrast with whatever roe was sprinkled on top. Of course, I appreciate the skill involved in making har gau now that I’m older, but I’m still a siu mai girl

Dumplings, in particular xiao long bao (sometimes called Shanghai Dumplings and I’ve seen them transliterated as Siu Long Bao too) are quite fashionable now, there’s even a restaurant in London’s Chinatown naming itself “Dumplings Legend” which I think it is a pretty bold statement to make. Xiao Long Bao are dumplings filled with generally pork or chicken, but the main thing is that there is hot stock WITHIN the dumpling, so you break into the dumpling and drink the stock first before enjoying the rest of the dumpling. As with the har gau, there’s a deft skill required to make the dumplings in that the skin shouldn’t be too thick, but thin enough to hold in both the filling and the stock without breaking. Again, the emphasis is that the XLB shouldn’t be too big but still delicate enough to eat in one or two mouthfuls.

Cheung Fun is another item I like to order. Actually, I particularly like prawn Cheung Fun which are very similar to har gau and if I had to decide between the 2, Cheung Fun wins every time. Soft, slippery rolls made with rice flour and filled with meat of choice in a sweeter Cheung Fun soy sauce, they’re a must-order item whenever my family and I go yum cha. The rolls themselves should be soft and yielding, without being too thick or solid so that they are strong enough to pick up with chopsticks into a bowl, but soft enough to break down into smaller mouthful without any bounce s. An example of how dim sum dishes are constantly being redeveloped is how one place I go to wraps Cheung Fun around a Vietnamese spring roll, the rolls are then cut into bite-sized chunks and served with nuoc cham – Delicious!

I mentioned earlier that most people order a plate or rice or noodles to go with the dim sum too. Personally, I wouldn’t go for a roast meat and rice purely because I will inevitably order a bowl of congee, so to order roast meat and rice too would be rice overload. Instead, I go for a smaller bowl of rice, usually steamed spare ribs on their own or with phoenix claws in black bean sauce perched on top. Then you have your noodles; a favourite when growing up was the Special Chow Mein which I can guarantee is wholly different to what you may be accustomed to from your local Chinese takeaway. Instead, the noodles are impossible crisp without being deep fried and mop up an assortment of meat, seafood and vegetables in a thick, gloopy sauce. The contrast of textures of the crisp, crunchy noodles with the savoury sauce and whatever meat/veg combo is great – especially if you mix in plenty of chilli oil sediment as I like to. If I’m not in the mood for crispy noodles (“because they hurt my mouth to eat them”), I like stir-fried rice or udon noodles, sometimes with an assortment of seafood or increasingly so, dry-fried with beef. Again, they’re given the chilli oil sediment treatment to really jack up the flavours (and yunno, I live on the edge of destroying my tastebuds like that). However, there are times when I want something a bit more soothing so something like wontons and noodles in soup or even better, roast duck with flat rice noodles in broth. I am salivating just thinking of how the broth is full of the flavourings from the roast duck – so plenty of star anise and 5-spice powder with ginger and spring onions.. Sometimes, nothing can hit that sweet spot better than roast duck and flat rice noodles in broth.

Then there is the etiquette when out yum cha; when pouring tea (and you will be doing that a fair bit), it’s customary in families for the younger member of families to always top up everyone’s tea cup. There’s a certain art to pouring tea from the teapots I think, because no matter what contraption or bit of garden hose they stick on the spout, there will inevitably be a dribble casualty. But, providing you don’t get tea everywhere and over everyone, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Another custom is that you should always fill your own cup last as a mark of respect to everyone else at the table. Finally, there is my favourite tradition and custom of tapping the table as people pour tea for you to thank the server as they pour tea for you. Apparently, the origins are to mimic bowing to the server as a thank you which kind of makes sense now that I think about it. Finally, when you need the teapot to be topped up, you leave the tea pot lid open or as I generally do, precariously balance it between the handle and top of the teapot. I guarantee you will get your teapot topped up with water if you do that

So that’s it, I’ve listed (what I call) the main dim sum dishes but I’m hoping to constantly come back to this topic as I talk about different restaurants and/or one particular dim sum item (including items which may appear to be a bit funky to eat). Whenever we go out yum cha, the bill usually comes to around £10 a head – Any more and either you’re eating at a stupidly expensive establishment or you’ve been ripped off. Either way, yum cha is certainly yum(my) and I hope a visit brings you as much enjoyment as it does for me.

Various dim sum photos of mine can be viewed on my Flickr

I can’t quite remember the first time I actually ate Korean food. I can remember the first time I had a Korean BBQ (1986 in Hong Kong, my cousin and his gf treated my sister and myself) and it was *so* different to what I was accustomed to. I mean, the idea that you would cook your own meat at your table wasn’t something I’d ever seen and it’s stuck with me ever since. I’ve always moaned about the lack of a proper Korean restaurant or BBQ in Birmingham – There are places where you have the hot plate on your table and you can cook your own meats (be them on skewers or just marinated), but they tend to be Chinese regional variants rather than the Korean variety with Bulgogi or beef kalbi. So I would have to get my Korean Food fix either during a visit to Londinium or New Malden. So you can imagine my excitement when I first saw that there was going to be a bona fide Korean restaurant opening in Birmingham, but even that seemed a bit too much given how the sign saying it was “Opening Soon” and recruiting staff remained the same for about 7 months. However, a chance passing by (OK, I may have deliberately gone out of my way to check) showed that it had not only opened, but was doing brisk business. It was only a matter of time before I tried it for myself;

Miss Korea is located on the edge of the Chinese Quarter in Birmingham on Bromsgrove St, in a newly built building opposite the entrance to the car park for the Arcadian Centre. It seats about 50 ppl and given it had been open for barely a month when I visited with my family, it still had that newness look about the place but was still busy, which was heartening to see. Given there were 10 of us, I took the opportunity to order as much from the menu as possible, choosing dishes from each section that I could. Of course, I would happily have ordered the entire menu but we got a good selection of everything to cover all bases.

First off, we got some different kimchi to try. I was saddened to see that they fell into the trap of Korean restaurants in the UK charging for kimchi and other banchan when traditionally, they are free as they’re accompaniments to the main meal. We ordered the mat kimchi (chinese leaves/cabbage) and the cucumber kimchi only to later discover when they brought out the starters that you get a complimentary selection of different kimchi anyway – which included the mat kimchi. D’OH! Never mind as the kimchi was home-made so there wasn’t the tang from preservatives added to the kimchi I’m so accustomed to from packets, which made it all the more tasty. The cucumber kimchi was delicious – crunchy, a slight tang and kick to it and very moreish. I very nearly had to fight members of my family to finish it. As with the cucumber kimchi, the mat kimchi and the mouli kimchi were equally good, definitely a good start to the meal.

YML requested a yuk kwae which is best described as the Korean equivalent of a beef tartare; the meat is cut into thin strips and marinated with Korean seasonings before assembled on the plate with a raw egg yolk on top (as you would get with beef tartare) and served with shredded Ya pear on the side incase you don’t like the idea of eating raw beef, but it also adds a textural sweetness and crunch to contrast the marinated beef. The yuk kwae here was very good and surprised a few people around the table whom weren’t expecting the asian seasonings (it was slightly sweet, had a hint of sourness and a good splurge of sesame oil), but it was a hit amongst everyone.

The rest of the starters consisted of some lamb skewers which were dusted in ground and whole cumin seeds before cooked on a barbecue which gave them the requisite smokiness as well as the spice kick from the cumin. At £1 a skewer, you couldn’t really complain too much and I suspect that some friends of mine would happily go there and spend £13 just on lamb skewers and call that a meal. I didn’t get to try the tempura myself (too busy taking photos) but they certainly looked the part and I am reliably informed by those who did get to try them that they were indeed crispy and not at all soggy. The japchae had a lot more vegetables than I was expecting (and compared to when I cook it at home), but everyone was still lapping it up and let’s be honest, it was nice to get some vegetables compared to the protein-fest that was the BBQ to come. The seafood pajeon was probably the weakest dish of the night in that there wasn’t a great deal of seafood in it (as L, my nephew pointed out) and although the inside wasn’t as soft and fluffy as other renditions I’ve had, it was still crisp on the outside. I’d probably order it again to see if they can get it right next time, but it was the only dish of the night that disappointed. The dolsot bibimbap suffered a bit with me faffing about trying to get photos of it before everything got mixed up so the stone perhaps lost a bit of heat, but I don’t think it would have lost *that* much heat in the few mins I was taking photos, so I think the stone could have been hotter – Although I do sympathise in that they may not have got it *too* hot incase customers burn themselves. Like in all Asian restaurants, as soon as the initial starters of the kimchi came out, *EVERYTHING* came out at once and we couldn’t eat quickly enough to make room on the table for everything. With that point in mind, that probably had something to do with them holding back a bit before serving the bibimbap to us. Yes I’m being nice to them but there really wasn’t any space on our table between the drinks and the amount of food that was being brought out.. Anyway, the lack of heat from the dolsot meant that although there was enough heat to cook all the food once you mixed everything together, there wasn’t any of the crusty parts you’d get at the bottom of the dolsot as you would get if the dolsot was fiercely hot, which was a shame given it was a nice rendition inside.

Of the 2 soups we got, the (not very) Spicy Tofu Soup has some almost impossibly silken tofu which was different to the stuff my family and I are accustomed to when we buy fresh beancurd from Chinese Supermarkets, and was very VERY tasty. I asked the waitress if they could tone it down given it was listed as a spicy tofu stew and was meant to be for The Mothership who doesn’t like hot or spicy foods, only to be told that it wasn’t really *that* spicy anyway (!!). We all felt obliged to point out that the menu lists it as Spicy anyway.. Still, when it arrived it certainly wasn’t spicy but was very tasty and with the tofu, one of the hits of the night for all whom tried it. The kimchi jjigae was nice but if I’m to be completely honest, I think my own version is better.

Bearing in mind what the waitress said about the Spicy Tofu Soup, my overriding opinion on all the food thus far was that although it was certainly very tasty (well, apart from the pajeon), the food lacked that chilli kick. I mean, where was the gochujang? I could see the gochugaru in the kimchis we tried, but nothing really had that much of a kick to it as I was expecting, much less the slow gochujang burn which I love. I wonder if they toned the food down slightly given we asked for one of the items to be milder, but it may be worth considering that when you order there.

As everything came out in quick succession, we could barely clear the table quickly enough when they brought round the coals for the BBQ. Coal in place, hot plate greased, we waited for the hot plate to heat up sufficiently enough to cook the meat. We opted for the “Beef Selection” because we really couldn’t choose one cut over the other and it seemed a good chance to try the different cuts and marinades, plus L was keen to try the chicken gizzards and well, I felt my heart sing with pride knowing he was one of us when he asked for that – I’m very happy to see the next generation in my family keen on innards too. Oh, we also got some sweet potato for The Mothership but to be completely honest, they were a bit of a waste of time as they were too thin to retain any textural softness (especially after grilling them) and they weren’t the most flavoursome of vegetables anyway. If you’re going to get any vegetable for the BBQ, don’t go for the sweet potato!

I didn’t actually get to eat much of the food, if I’m completely honest because I was either too busy cooking the food, or taking pictures of it. However, the bits of beef I did try from the “Beef Selection” which included Beef bulgogi, kalbi and sirloin which was particularly well marbled, were all very nice and good for people whom can’t decide which cut of meat to have. For us, it was good to try all the different cuts to see if there was any one better than the rest (which there wasn’t, they were all just as good. It just depends if you want bones or not).

All in all, Miss Korea didn’t disappoint too much – Charging for banchan and an apparent lack of chilli aside (which is easily rectified by adding a load of gochujang). But the food overall was enjoyable and service was pleasant and attentive. Despite the fact that this was one of the last times we went out for dinner with the Mothership, I’ll definitely be going back – The very fact that even a fusspot eater like the Mothership enjoyed the food there says it all for me. Besides, I like Korean food too much not to go back!

You can view the full set of photos on my Flickr page

In the last couple of days before the Mothership passed away, her health was declining every day and there was one particular night where YKL and I were taking it in turns to stay up all night whilst she slept. At about 3am, after being woken up for about the 6th time we both noticed that the central heating was playing up. So there I was looking at the boiler whilst worrying if YKL was coping with the Mothership. Well, the boiler died and there was no coming back. Obviously we couldn’t call anyone out given it was 3am, so I went online to arrange an engineer visit, only the first available appointment wasn’t later that day, but for the following day. I made the appointment anyway and decided to wake up for 8am when the phone lines opened to try and get an earlier appointment. When I did eventually make the phonecall, I’m afraid I used the trump words “pensioner mother” and “terminal cancer” and they quickly rearranged the appointment for later that day. 9am, the doorbell rings and it’s the engineer. By 9:15, we have a working heater again. Amazing what key words can do during a phonecall…

Mum was admitted to hospital on the Wednesday night after it became painfully clear that we couldn’t cope with caring for her at home after the sudden decline the previous weekend and then a continuing slow and steady decline since. Actually, the decline was such that I insisted that the various sisters still in the UK (other than YKL who was still with me) should come and see the Mothership sooner rather than later as she could still currently recognise and acknowledge people, something I couldn’t guarantee would happen by the weekend.  Both W and Q just missed Dad’s passing as they were en route to Birmingham when he passed away and I’ve alway kicked myself for not insisting they make it to Birmingham just that bit sooner.  The GP recommended admitting her via A+E as there weren’t any beds available in the Macmillan Hospice, but the Macmillan Nurse (who was an absolute gem in the 2 days we had been dealing with him, so please donate any money you can to Macmillan as they genuinely help and support families dealing with Cancer), explained that Mum would be admitted overnight and he would fax over an application form in the morning so that the in-hospital Macmillan team could assess Mum and providing it was suitable to do so, would transfer her to the hospice as soon as a bed became available. I remember the look on my sister’s faces as they said goodbye to Mum and how there was the sense that this was it. Even waiting in A+E, she was the best I’d seen her all week and she was reasonably alert – As I still had to go to work the following day, I still began to think how it was better this way as she was surrounded by professionals who could look after her, and how I could always visit her after work without having to make the trek across the City as I had to previously when she was in City Hospital. The phonecall I got from YKL just after 1am saying we should get to the hospital NOW was a scary one, but S, Q and I all got there. I phoned W and even though she and R had only driven back home after being in Birmingham all day, I told them that they really should come back up and see Mum as she was significantly weaker and this was it.

Mum’s breathing was quite laboured and she had an oxygen mask on but with her one eye open (she was lying on her side), it would look at wherever a sound came from so she was still aware of what was going on around her. Using our iPhones and Skype, we even managed to get YML and H to speak to Mum and say their goodbyes – And they could see her nodding her head acknowledging that she could understand them. We all got to say our goodbyes to her and it was then a matter of whether she could hold on for W to arrive. Whilst holding her hand, I suddenly remembered how my Dad had these huge hands and how I missed them, plus for the past few years, Mum always liked to hold my hand as I said goodbye or goodnight to her, so I took a picture of my hand holding Mum’s.

When W did arrive, there were more tears as she said her goodbyes and at one point, Wendy took Mum’s hand and said to her “Can you hear and understand me Mum? If you do, then squeeze my hand” – AND SHE DID. I of course burst into tears again because it meant that Mum knew herself that this was the end and that we were saying goodbye. If life was like a storybook or as romantic as we all hoped, Mum would have passed away then, but she held on for a few more hours. In fact, when they took her BP and other stats at 7am, she had actually improved since we got there just after 1am. It had improved so much that at 7.30am, after some tea and toast provided by the hospital, some of us decided to go back home to get some rest. YKL needed it as she’d been awake for nearly 24hrs, Q needed more sleep and I left because even though I could have stayed, my phone battery was dying (again, I should have charged it up knowing that Mum was in hospital) and even if I stayed, I wouldn’t have had enough battery life to call people to say that she had passed if needed.

At 9:36, I got a phonecall from W saying that we should go in because at one point, Mum’s breathing had stopped so I quickly gathered Q and YKL and we got ready to leave. I was just putting on my shoes when at 9:43, W called me again to say that Mum had taken her last breath. Naturally, I felt bad that I wasn’t there at the very end but I had already said my goodbyes to her so I was ultimately OK with not being there. More to the point, I felt at peace for Mum that everyone – including the Sisters based in the US – got to say their goodbyes to Mum. Plus, S and W were there with her at the very end and I took great comfort in that (unlike how none of us were there for my Dad when he passed). She looked peaceful and W told me that she passed very peacefully so I’m very very grateful that she was spared the pain and suffering that other Cancer patients go through.

Fast forward to the day of the funeral and whilst people were in the room setting everything up and waiting for any possible guests to arrive, I started chatting to the undertaker and one of the administrators from the funeral directors whom we have been dealing with throughout the process of organising everything for the funeral. My BiL walks out from the main room and is in the small corridor about 6ft from us chatting. I’m being asked if I’m OK and various sympathetic questions when my BiL lets out a massively loud fart, walks around a bit looking at the fixtures and fittings on the wall, then walks off. It was loud enough that the undertaker actually stopped mid-sentence and looked at me as if to ask “Did he really just fart very loudly and walk off?” I carried on chatting normally and pretended not to notice.

Because Mum passed away just before Chinese New Year, we had to get her buried this lunar year, otherwise we were looking at having to wait at least 5 weeks before we could bury her. Of course, that would have *really* screwed us up, especially in terms of grieving so once we realised that we needed to get it done before Chinese New Year, we scrambled to find 1 or 2 suitable days in the Calendar (suitable as in what days are good or bad for burials, etc. as compared to what fitted our diaries). So it was decided that the day after Mum died, we would need to get the Death Certificate from the Bereavement Office at the hospital, then we would need to get the Death Certificate and also the green form which permits burials and cremations, and from there we would be able to make funeral arrangements with the funeral directors. Our plan was simple (!), up at 9am and straight onto the Register Office to try and get an appointment later that day, around 1pm, then check with the ward at the hospital Mum died that they had signed and sent all the paperwork to the bereavement office for when they open at 10am, then we have 2 – 3 hrs for them to get it prepared and signed so we could take it to the Register Office, get the Death Certificate and green form, then proceed to the funeral directors. Except it didn’t work out that way; Getting the appointment at the Register Office was fine, but what I didn’t realise was that the death certificate needed to be signed by the coroner first – Which can take a couple of days and on this particular day, he was in court until 12 midday – Cutting it fine to say the least! So what did I do? I got YKL to turn on the waterworks down the phone stressing how it’s a Chinese thing and that we needed the form ASAP so we could bury her before a deadline (which was loosely true). And you know what? We collected the Death Certificate just before 12 midday from the Bereavement Office. We’d already changed the appointment at the Register Office to 3pm by this point but it was still good that we got everything we needed.

Then there are the sadder moments like the first time I got a moment to myself and I was sat outside in the Bullring contemplating if I was going to stay in Birmingham or not. Don’t get my wrong, I have no immediate plans to leave my hometown, but I was thinking of how Mum and Dad used to say that they’ve been in Birmingham for so long now that it feels like home for them (finally), more relevant to this blog would be how Mum would say that there are a lot of good eating options in Birmingham these days, especially when thinking back of how when she first arrived in the City, you could hardly get anything remotely resembling what we’d now call authentic Chinese food. I sat there looking out to the East of the City and thought to myself that although I could now move away from Birmingham should I wish to, I kind of feel obliged to stay – Not because it’s my hometown and there is a whole City of good eats which I hope to be sharing with you all, but also because my parents spent so long here that my family have history here. So here’s to new beginnings and to this Brummie Tummy being given the chance to share good (and bad) eats with you all.

Love you xx

Christmas: A time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and for families to get together for a lunch/dinner of roast turkey. You may partake in singing some carols, you may enjoy a nice glass of mulled wine with possibly a mince pie (or 8). Or, it’s an excuse to go and drink and eat yourself to excess after having to spend endless hours looking as clueless as the thousands around you in shopping centres and stores looking for that perfect gift for those nearest and dearest to you (making sure you keep the receipt because you KNOW they’ll take it back for a refund/exchange at the first opportunity). There are only a few days left until Christmas Day and with all that’s going on in my life at the moment, I’m seriously behind in my plans for the annual Christmas Feast.

I’m the one who cooks at Christmas for my family, which I don’t mind and guess that in some ways I actually enjoy, I suppose it’s my way of giving something back to my family for being so awesome. And well, I guess that the one of the good things about Christmas is that it brings families together to eat around the same table, which is increasingly rare these days. This year, YML will be joining us for Christmas Day, as will W and her family so we have a large gathering on Christmas Day itself rather than the usual Boxing Day or 27th (which is when W or S usually come over with their families). I have to admit that it both terrifies and excites me knowing that I have extra mouths to feed, but one of my family’s traits is that nobody will ever starve and well, we tend to eat very (too) well anyway, plus the fact that there’s especially a lot of food at Christmas anyway so it should be good.

There are also certain things which have become almost traditional for us at Christmas beginning on Christmas Eve (yes, we start on Christmas Eve); YKL and Q come over on this day and I tend to work then, so we take it easy for dinner and especially as I’ll be cooking most of the following 2 days, we get a nice takeaway from somewhere. We used to get a ginormous sushi platter from Yo Sushi! as I got a decent discount from working in the same shopping centre but haven’t been able to get the discount since moving on 4 years ago. Then we used to get a takeaway from Mashwii, a local Arabian restaurant which was brilliant with their grilled chicken wings, tabbouleh and various dishes. Actually, we’ve been known to pre-order a shoulder of lamb early in the afternoon for them to marinade and cook and be ready for collection by the evening. Sadly, our custom alone wasn’t enough to keep them in business so we were left searching for another place to get our Crimbo Eve meal. I think last year we ended up getting Masala Fish in naan bread, which isn’t a bad thing as we all like it and we’ve since discovered another place who do a really great Masala Fish, but you kind of want something a bit special to fit the occasion.

Christmas Day mornings are always started with a Champagne Breakfast; you’ve got to have a Full English and to add a bit of decadence, smoked salmon is sometimes added to the scrambled eggs but we always get nice sausages, bacon, mushrooms, baked cherry tomatoes on the vine and I insist on HP sauce. All this is accompanied either by Champagne or at least Bucks Fizz. It’s a large breakfast but it sets us up well to do the veg prep for lunch/dinner. I say lunch but we’ve been so relaxed about it (and usually because we’re so full from breakfast), we end up eating the meal late afternoon. I like to try and aim for 3pm to coincide with the Queen’s Speech but have been known to be later..

We’re not turkey eaters in my family; The Mothership has always claimed to be slightly allergic to it and growing up, if she couldn’t eat it then we kids weren’t allowed it either. It’s fine though, I think that cooking a whole turkey is a bit too much effort in cooking something which isn’t that flavoursome and is usually dry. Given how beef wasn’t allowed either (for the parents religious reasons), it was either pork or lamb – But even that had its problems as some of my sisters don’t like lamb. In recent years, I’ve been cooking a cider-baked gammon, mainly because one of the joys of Christmas food are the cold cuts, in some ways I look forward to the cold cuts more than the main event itself – Cold thick gammon sandwiches – Yum!

Pudding is always Christmas Pudding – Usually swimming in cream, or custard for some of my sisters. There is something very appealing in the contrast of the hot, moist, rich and fruity pudding combined with cold plain cream which I always look forward to. We did opt for something light one year and want thought of making a trifle, but it soon became a bit fraught given everyone has their own opinion on what constitutes a trifle or not (which was completely against what we originally set out to achieve which was something simple and no drama associated with it).

I’ve already mentioned that this year, YML aswell as W and her family are joining us for Christmas Day lunch, along with the possibility of a couple of nephews, so it’s going to be a full(er) house – Much more so than usual, anyway. We’re all a bit stressed and all too busy trying to juggle the various things and battle the various forces in our lives, so there’s the potential that there will be screaming and shouting this year. But in all honesty, what I hope for is my family to get together and relax, having a good time in the process. Good food obviously helps but I know that come the day, I probably won’t eat very much – not because I will have spent many hours cooking the food, but rather because at that precise moment when we’re all around the same table tucking in to the cider baked gammon or chicken pie, or asking someone to pass the braised red cabbage or sprouts, I genuinely couldn’t be happier. And I guess that’s the whole point about Christmas – For that one meal at least, there’s peace on earth and goodwill to all men (and ahem, women) around the Christmas table and nobody worries too much about the world outside. Here’s hoping I don’t burn anything!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.

I’ve always loved glutinous rice. OK, I’m Chinese so I love rice anyway but glutinous rice, or rather sticky rice to make it sound just a bit nicer, has always had a special place in my heart ever since I was a child. I’m not sure if it’s the stickiness of the rice which makes it just a bit more comforting than normal rice that makes me like it so much, perhaps it’s the fact that we only really ate it on special occasions so in my mind it equates to something special, or perhaps it’s because in the Chinese dialect we speak, the phrase “to eat sticky rice” sounds a bit like being called stupid and thus is the source of much hilarity (well, it was when I was younger anyway). Whatever the reason, I still look forward to eating steamed sticky rice as much now as an adult as I did when I was a child – And I daresay my sisters will agree with me on that statement. I remember my parents cooking sticky rice with various chinese dried meats and seafoods, it was so delicious that we felt like we could eat several bowls (even as children) and whilst it would highlight the fantastic quality of dried meats and seafood (that was sent over from Hong Kong by various relatives or as a result of trips back), it was always the sticky rice – Especially the crusty parts that stuck to the bottom of the pan a bit too much that we’d (as children) always fight over.

My mother also used to make jyoong, which is essentially sticky rice with different fillings which are then wrapped and tied up in bamboo leaves. However, there would be a massive undertaking as not only would you have to prepare the fillings individually (and they could be savoury or sweet), but the actual assembly was quite hard (and one I’ve still not been able to master), then there was the little task of having to boil the bamboo leave parcels for a few hours until they were soft. Needless to say that the whole operation took a while and I genuinely don’t have that amount of time to dedicate to it. I keep (half) joking and say that I need to take at least a whole weekend off to do it, but one of these days, I’m gonna do it – And you can guarantee that I’ll be posting about it if/when that ever happens.

A distant relative of the jyoong is “lo mai gai” which is essentially sticky rice (the lo mai part), with a filling of mainly chicken (gai) which is then wrapped in a lotus leaf and steamed. It’s primarily a dim sum item that’s commonly ordered when we go yum cha, but I have a vivid memory of watching a HK drama serial when I was younger and to save time, the main character (a single dad) bought his young son a freshly steamed lo mai gai to eat as breakfast on the go on the way to taking him to school. I remember salivating at it thinking how delicious it must have tasted – Fresh sticky rice first thing in the morning! Oh how I wished I was that kid…

So I’d been wanting to make Lo Mai Gai for a while but never really got the time or the energy to do so – I generally had most of the ingredients but never all of them. Well, it obviously annoyed me enough one day because I headed out to buy all the missing ingredients and resolved to make lo mai gai:

Firstly, you need to soak the sticky rice – preferably overnight but I soaked it for at least 4 hours (which actually gave me time to head out and buy the ingredients I was missing). Whilst we’re soaking items, you may as well soak some dried shiitake mushrooms too as they can take some time to re-hydrate. Once the rice has been soaked long enough, line the bottom of a steam basket with some parchment paper, drain then add the sticky rice to steam. The idea is that the parchment will stop any wayward grains of rice falling through as it steams but what I found was that the rice at the bottom of the pile steamed before the rice at the top did. Of course, I realise that it could be I was too impatient and should have left it alone instead of trying to move the grains at the top to the bottom, but the result for me was that some grains weren’t as cooked as they should have been. The (mostly) cooked rice was then seasoned with some light soy sauce, sesame oil, a touch of salt and some extra water. It was then put aside to cool down slightly so that I didn’t burn my hands when assembling later.

Whilst the rice was steaming, I set about marinating the chicken for the filling; some chicken thighs were roughly chopped, I left the bone in but you could leave out if it doesn’t take your fancy. I chopped the chicken into fairly hefty chunks because I believe that since the chicken is one of the primary ingredients, it should be fairly prominent, unlike what you can get in restaurants where it’s more minced pork with a small piece of chicken. Marinade the chicken with some finely shredded ginger (I like the ginger tang but you could easily grate it finely should you wish to), light soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper and cornflour. In the 20 or so minutes it takes to marinade, the rice should be cooked through.

With the chicken marinating and the steamed rice cooling, drain the shiitake mushrooms (which should be fully reconstituted now) and remove the central stalk which no matter how long you soak for, will never will soft enough to eat. I’ve seen some recipes which suggest that you coat the mushrooms in oil and stream them for about 10mins to soften them a bit more, but I personally didn’t bother. The other ingredient for the filling is some lap cheung which is a Chinese dried sausage and easily available from Chinese supermarkets. I briefly soaked them in warm water to soften slightly before slicing diagonally. As these were pretty good quality lap cheung, I sliced them quite thinly otherwise the flavour from them would be overpowering, but if you were to buy them from a Chinese supermarket, I would hazard a guess that they won’t be quite as good as the ones I used so you could cut them up into thicker slices. With all the key components of the filling ready, time to cook the filling;

Heat up some oil in a wok and add some chopped garlic, move it around the oil quickly and add the chicken, brown it on all sides before adding the lap cheung and shiitake mushrooms. Mix everything together before seasoning with some shoaxing rice wine and a touch of oyster sauce, add some water and cover to cook the chicken through. There’s no need to thicken the sauce as there’s already cornflour in the chicken marinade which will thicken the sauce. Once the chicken is cooked, set aside to cool slightly whilst you get on with the last task before assembling – The lotus leaves.

Lotus leaves are weird, you can buy them from Chinese supermarkets and I knew they were big, but nothing prepared me for the fact that I could only buy them in 1Kg packs and that there is no bag big enough to hold them properly, well without running the risk of damaging them by folding. Plus, it’s also a bad idea to get them if you don’t drive so have to get public transport and on top of that, I especially wouldn’t recommend you buy them when doing a bit of a food shop around the markets which result in several shopping bags. Of course, if you have a car and someone to help carry bags for you, ignore what I just said. On the plus side, I know I won’t be needing lotus leaves again in a hurry! Anyway, I digress.. So yes, lotus leaves. Bring a large pot or wok of water to the boil and carefully remove the dried lotus leaves from the packet. Don’t worry if your pan doesn’t look big enough for the leaves – the trick is to gently drop at least one part of the dried leaf into the water and as it reconstitutes, it will become more malleable so you will be able to drop more of the leaf into the water until eventually the whole thing is submerged into the water. Needless to say, you need to take great care when manoeuvering the leaf into the water so that you don’t break the (still dried) part of the leaf. Once the whole leave is submerged, you need to boil them. After 10mins drain, clean the leaves slightly and you should find that the leaves are supple enough for use. Cut out the central core of the leaves and split each leaf in half (at which point it dawned on me that for all my worrying that the dried leaf was too big for the pot I was using to boil them in, I was only looking at half the leaf..). Anyway, the half leaf should resemble a fan shape. Finally – FINALLY – You’re now ready to start assembling;

Lay one of the (half) lotus leaves out on a surface – Shiny side up so that the veins will be on the outside of the parcel and flatten out some of the sticky rice to act as a base. How much you put depends entirely on how big you want to make them. Add some of the cooked filling – making sure to get a bit of everything (chicken, lap cheung and shiitake mushroom), then top the whole thing with a bit more sticky rice so that the filling is sandwiched between 2 layers of sticky rice. Square it off a little to neaten the edges then wrap the lotus leaf around the rice and filling mixture to form a parcel. Hopefully, the edge of the folds should be on the bottom so that the weight of the parcel keeps it enclosed as you steam it for the final time. I got the ratio of filling:rice a bit wrong so in some of mines, there was more rice than filling and in others, it was mainly filling but then again, my parcels were rather large and enough for 2 people to share or in the case of my family, enough for 1 hungry person. Given they were a bit bigger, I steamed them (fold side down) a bit longer to make sure that they were completely cooked through, but since the filling is cooked before you finally steam it, it probably only needs about 30mins or so. The main point of the final stream is for the lotus leaf to impart its wonderful flavour and aroma to the finished dish so you only really need to steam your wrapped parcels until they’re soft to touch.

Once they were done, the smell wafting out of the steamer when I lifted the lid was sensational. It’s such a distinct, unmistakable – and very enticing smell.  For a fleeting moment, I didn’t care how they tasted as they certainly smelled the part, but of course that never really lasted very long with me – I couldn’t wait to open one of the parcels up and taste the riches inside!

And how were they? They were pretty good.. I gave the Mothership the first taste and her response was: “Oh, it tastes pretty good!”. I don’t know if I should have been shocked/offended/happy at her response

Well, the rice wasn’t *quite* a soft as it could have been – Certainly I should have steamed the rice initially for a little longer, but I probably should have added a bit more water to the cooked rice too when seasoning just to let it fluff up a bit more during the final steam. I probably should have chopped the chicken into smaller pieces too but the flavourings were spot on, I think. My sister H also commented that a bit of pork belly was also needed (but I think you stray into jyoong territory there), but she also offered that the sauce needs to be extra EXTRA thick – almost gloopy so that the sauce will dissolve into the rice a bit more during the final steam. But I didn’t think it was too bad – A nice bit of tender filling (be it chicken, shiitake mushroom or a umami hit from the lap cheung) with the soft sticky rice all imparted with the aroma from the lotus leaf.. It was a bit of an effort but absolutely worth it and something I’ll be making again. In fact, I may not even order it when out yum cha again – *THAT’S* how much I liked it.

You can view the full set of photos on my Flickr page.

When the Arcadian complex first opened in Birmingham, I remember the excitement it generated not only because it was the first major building in the redevelopment of the Chinese Quarter, but it also brought with it a host of new bars and small businesses, along with the first major multi-screen cinema in the City Centre for a long time – Oh how we rejoiced at how we would now watch films in a cinema auditorium where the seats were actually comfortable and not flea-infested and/or broken in some way. Seriously, it was big news for us. Then, the cinema closed and was converted to serviced apartments which meant that a few restaurants and bars nearby also closed, in this case the Pizza Hut that was next door. After all, if the majority of your clientele were going to be passing trade from the cinema, there would be little point in staying once the cinema itself has gone.

Ocean Dragon initially opened as a Chinese restaurant specialising in seafood and with that came high end prices, presumably to reflect the expensive seafood they showcased. However, it never really took off (and the reviews were meh at best) and has been taken over by the same group who own Flaming Dragon, a buffet which also incorporates an Korean hotplate to cook your own food like a Korean BBQ, and calls itself a Bento and ramen restaurant (although they are probably more like a Izakaya, with a line in bento boxes and noodles). Either way, I thought I would take S with me and try it out with a view of being able to go to somewhere else afterwards if it wasn’t nice or satisfying.

Walking into the restaurant, I was aware that I was breaking the old cardinal chef sin of ordering fish on a Monday evening, but I was immediately put at ease when greeted by the charming waitress who attended to us all night. Sure, it was early and there weren’t many tables as a result, but the place began to fill up as the evening progressed. If it’s anything to go by, we were the only non-Japanese customers in the restaurant eating there. Looking at the menu, it certainly has all the items you would find in an Izakaya – Yakitori items including black cod with miso, a nice line in tempura items including soft shell crab, a compact – but varied – line in sashimi, sushi and noodle choices and more to the point, the prices weren’t too exorbitant.

Heading over to the sushi bar (yep, there’s actually a sushi bar where you can watch the sushi masters at work rather than someone filling a machine to churn out perfect rice for nigiri as in other places), I wanted to take a look at the fish on selection to determine if we should try it out (or not). There were the usual suspects of Tuna and Salmon but the cooked prawns were plump and didn’t look like they’d been sitting in a chilled cabinet for too long. Moreover, there were also other items like sweet prawn and octopus (which is still a rarity for sushi places in Birmingham). Jokingly, I asked if they had any toro of any sort to which the sushi chef replied: “That’s a special pre-order item, but I can certainly get you toro (midi or o-toro) if you wanted it.” I was slightly dumbstruck – A place in Birmingham – landlocked Birmingham – offering toro?!! To say I was impressed is an understatement. Heading back to the table, the waitress checked with the sushi chef if it was OK to do a sashimi selection based only on items we liked – Which they kindly agreed to do. It turned out that it was much easier to say what we didn’t like; No tuna or octopus – tuna is good but we’ve had too much bad tuna sashimi to be put off it and the octopus just didn’t take our fancy, reluctantly S agreed to trying the salmon as I could eat that all day One item selected, it was time to choose some other dishes. Our problem with a new place is that you want to try a bit of everything so that you can get an idea of where the kitchen’s strengths and weaknesses are. You could say that we’re just being greedy and want to eat everything, but the former certainly sounds better. We decided against ordering any noodles, so got a selection of items and asked that the sashimi be brought out first, and everything else together afterwards. Time to sit back, sip our green tea and wait for our food:

What we actually got first was some miso soup and a plate of some pickles and dipping sauces. Can’t say they were anything special – Miso soup is pretty much the same all over the Country, but they were certainly pleasant enough to eat and not anything to put me off. If anything, I wasn’t expecting the pickles so they were a pleasant surprise when I ate them

Then came the pièce de résistance: The Ocean Sashimi Deluxe (albeit moderated to our tastes). It certainly looked impressive and we couldn’t wait to get stuck in. The sweet prawns were sensational, S and I were there sucking the heads to extract every last delectable drop of the sweet, sweet nectar inside. The scallop was also very good, but it suffered from forever being compared to the scallop sashimi with truffle paste in the centre which I had at Sushi of Shiori. The surf clam wasn’t tough or too rubbery which I feared it would be, both the hamachi and bream were fresh and flavoursome – As was the squid and yes, even the Salmon. It was a very decent plate and more than acceptable for £20

For the bento box, we were allowed 2 choices; Well, unagi (eel) is an absolute must for us both and the waitress recommended the scallop which she explained was chopped with ocean stix (!), mixed with kewpie and put back into a scallop shell and grilled. She was so enthusiastic that it seemed rude not to go with her recommendation. Sadly, the unagi was the weakest part of the whole meal; it appeared to have been heated up in a microwave and rather than being moist and unctuous with the fatty layer, it ended up being quite dry and chewy. The scallop was pleasantly nice – I’m not sure I could manage a whole portion given how rich it was, but it was certainly different and I’m glad that I tried it. The soft shell crab tempura was delicious – succulent and sweet soft shell crab in a light crispy tempura batter. It was topped with deep-fried vermicelli and kewpie which was a bit odd, but didn’t detract too much from the deliciousness that was the soft shell crab, and for £6, it was certainly very good value.

In summary, there were a few misses but overall a lot more hits. It was certainly the best and freshest sashimi I’ve had in Birmingham so I’ll definitely be back for that, I would like to try their ramen though – especially as they call themselves a ramen restaurant. The bento boxes I think could be nice provided you choose wisely – I think you’d be safe if you went for a tonkatsu or a curry. However, given how good the quality of fish is here, why would you deny yourself better sushi and sashimi than what’s currently on offer elsewhere in Birmingham City Centre?

There are times when I get a bit “Asianed-out” when it comes to food. I feel terrible saying that as if I’m somehow betraying my roots and heritage, but the truth of the matter is that there are times when I don’t want anything which resembles noodles or rice, or anything stir-fried or braised. Of course there are times when I want nothing more than what I just listed, but sometimes, I want something different. Fortunately, YKL was visiting one weekend and she’s never really too fussy when it comes to food (No, I’m not saying she’s greedy…). Upon telling her that I was asianed-out, we set about buying ingredients to make Jucy Lucy’s (which I previously posted about here). Whilst buying the ingredients for the Jucy Lucy, I got some extra burgers with the view of freezing them so I had something to go to if I fancied a burger for dinner. However, I still wasn’t ready to go back to Asian food so they never made it to the freezer. Now, I wasn’t going to have another Jucy Lucy, so I started to think about what I could embellish my burger with; should I go traditional and a bit of sliced onion, tomato, lettuce, pickle, mustard and ketchup? Or should I jazz it up a bit as I still had some bacon and avocado in the fridge which needed using up. Then it came to me; I should make a Güber (Goober) Burger.

For those of you who don’t know what a Güber Burger is, it originated in Minneapolis (it had to come from the USA) and is basically a normal burger, with the exception of the burger patty topped with peanut butter. I believe the original Güber Burger also has a splodge of mayonnaise on it along with your more traditional lettuce and slices of tomato and onion. I’ll be honest, I’m not really that big a fan of mayonnaise – especially in a (beef)burger, and the thought of it combined with the peanut butter didn’t really appeal to me. However, I (mistakenly) thought that there was a fried egg involved and I could easily see that working – The sweetness of the peanut butter working in contrast to the savouriness of the egg (and soft runny egg yolk). With haste, I set about making the Güber Burger:

Now, I’m sure you all know how to cook a burger from scratch, so I’m not going to patronise you all by going through how to do so. Similarly, I’m more than confident that you’re all happy choosing whatever bun to house the burger in. Personally, I used whatever I could buy and I wasn’t going to make my own just for one burger – Not saying that there’s anything wrong in doing so, mind, only that for this particular occasion I didn’t feel the need to (see: I couldn’t be arsed to). So, with the burger cooked and the bun toasted, I slathered the top of the burger patty with some crunchy peanut butter (again, that was all I had it in my house) and as the burger was resting, I fried the egg. Seriously, if I wasn’t going to tell you all how to cook a burger, do you really expect me to tell you how to fry an egg?! Once the egg is done, place on top of the burger patty (topped with the peanut butter), bun lid on and that’s it, ready to eat.

And how did it taste? Well, the savouriness of the egg yolk in contrast with the sweet peanut butter and meaty burger was genuinely delicious. I was a bit apprehensive about eating it if I’m to be honest, and I even had a back up dish ready for dinner incase I didn’t like this. But that after that first bite, I knew that I was OK and really enjoyed this burger. In hindsight, smooth peanut butter would probably be nice than crunchy as it proved to be a bit *too* much textural crunch and again, some crispy bacon for added salty tang would have been nice addition. But overall, the old adage of how everything improves with a fried egg has applied itself in this case once again. As someone pointed out, it was essentially a burger with satay sauce (albeit less spicy) which is probably why the taste was strangely familiar to me and it wasn’t anything Asian which is what I craved. I’m still not entirely convinced that a traditional Güber Burger with the addition of mayonnaise and salad would work, but give it a fried egg and you’re well on your way to a nice dinner. I know it sounds a bit funky and scary and I’m sure that some of you will think that I’m frankly quite bonkers to even consider it, let alone eat it, but why not make it and try it for yourselves? I hope that you will all be as pleasantly surprised at its tastiness as I was.

Even though we got there fairly early in the evening, there were already a few tables in – mainly of whole families which was nice to see, including a large family table out for a special occasion which was especially nice to see. The decor is of the new modern Indian kind with the faux leather chairs (mines sagged a bit so wasn’t especially comfortable, but that could also be my large derrière at fault there). It was very clean and modern, I especially liked the upstairs seating area, but the artwork and lampshades on the walls were somewhat eclectic – the same art print design but in different colours and the frame didn’t enhance the prints in any way. However, I should stop being so pernickety and point out that whilst the artwork and lampshades may have looked out-of-place, they didn’t dampen our experience there in any way. I liked the fact that each table setting was properly laid out with napkins in silver napkin rings which added to the sense of occasion.

The menu was presented to us and as ever with menus in an Indian restaurant, the choices were vast. In fact, they were so vast that after W and I finally started to decide upon something (W likes VERY hot dishes and whilst I can take hot food, I’m going through a temperance period so stuck with something more medium-hot), by the time we considered if we wanted starters or not, side dishes or not, etc. etc. W pointed out the set menu for 2 which looked nice, except there was a LOT of chicken and we were going to go for 1 lamb and 1 chicken dish. So, we decided that we would ask if we could change one of the main chicken dishes to something else, if we could then we’d go for the set meal. Told you, we were both a bit brain-dead so needed something that was already decided for us. The waiter said that we were allowed to change the one main chicken dish so set menu for 2 it was. Order in, time for the food:

The poppadoms were the same as what you’d get from any Indian restaurant, but the difference is always in the condiments you get with them; in this case we got mango chutney, sliced white onion and coriander, chopped red onion (and tomato?) in a sweet red sauce and a chilli + tomato sauce. The only item I could eat of those was the white onion and coriander, so we asked for some yoghurt and mint as one of us was diabetic so couldn’t eat anything sweet. Sadly, the yoghurt and mint that came out was also sweetened so I couldn’t eat that either. Never mind, I was sleeping alone that night so a bit of onion breath wasn’t going to make much difference. But on a more serious note, why not listen to your dining guests? I mean, imagine if they brought something out with nuts in and one of us had a nut allergy?

Thankfully, this was the only grumble food-wise that I had. The starters of chicken tikka were moist and the spicing wasn’t overpowering, the other starters were meant to be vegetable pakora but they certainly didn’t resemble what I would recognise as a vegetable pakora – That being chunks of vegetables dipped in a gram flour batter and deep fried to resemble a fritter. What we got was something round and breadcrumbed, the insides of which consisted of puréed and whole chickpeas. Not that I’m complaining because whatever it was, it was delicious. I only wish I knew what it was so I could let you all know!

Mains-wise, the North Indian Garlic Chilli Chicken was pretty special – Hot enough for W to compliment it (and trust me, she likes her hot food so this is truly a compliment) and again, the meat wasn’t dry and the spicing not overpowering. It was hot enough to get your juices (and your nose) running, but not so oppressive that yoghurt was required. Our substitute dish of Lamb Satkora was citrussy and packed a punch enough for me to enjoy it. Neither dishes were too oily and given that the portions were very generous, we both struggled to finish it all, especially as the accompanying vegetable pilau rice and mushroom bhajee were equally good. Actually, we ended up taking some of it home in a doggy bag as there was enough and more importantly, it was tasty enough to do so.

It was exactly what we both wanted; quick, tasty food without having to spend too long deliberating over the menu and given that it’s so local to me that I could waddle home afterwards, I daresay I’ll be coming back.

It’s a pretty big one for her and you can read about her year of vague endeavours here. She’s got 2 days of partying planned, so I hope she has a brilliant time