Dumpling Shack pop-up

So I managed to grab a couple of places at John Li's Dumpling Shack pop-up event in Leicester Square last weekend - no mean feat, considering that his last pop-up venture with Shotgun sold out within hours.

Dumpling Shack has been resident in the School Yard at Broadway market since 2014 and John Li has built a steadily increasing reputation and fan base for his fresh, handmade dumplings amongst some very stiff competition. This pop-up brought his street eats inside and central, at Leicester House in Soho.

The table was set with some roasted peanuts and a sizeable bowl of zingy smacked cucumbers (surprisingly easy to make at home btw if you are serving a spicy Sichuan main) for a fresh, palate-cleansing start.

First to arrive was a salad with lily bulb, celery and jellyfish. I can't recall having had lily bulb as a key ingredient before but it was interesting, with a texture and flavour not unlike a mild version of roasted chestnuts.
This and the toasted sesame dressing went well with the crisp celery and the classic delicacy of very finely-sliced jellyfish, looking almost like glass noodles.

Then came the star of the show, the dumplings. Note that these are sheng jian bao, pan-fried soup dumplings, which have a completely different texture to the xiao long bao Shanghai soup dumplings popular in dim sum restaurants. These are more robust in texture, the exterior almost like a thinner version of the fluffy char siu bao bbq pork bun; and they needed to be, as the fillings were substantial - and amazing.

The signature pork and water chestnut filling was tender, juicy and deftly seasoned; the shiitake, woodear and leek provided a veggie option that had great depth of flavour, but for me the crab and truffle option was one of the highlights of the evening and had me chasing tiny shreds of filling around the plate with my chopsticks out of pure greed. They were as good as I had heard - a beautifully crisp, browned base, not too doughy and piping hot. One word of warning though - when I say hot, I really do mean hot - please don't be tempted to pop a whole one in your mouth as soon as they are served, as the result will not be pretty.

These were followed by the long bean fritters with smoked tofu mayonnaise. These were not so much actual fritters as long bean tempura, with the lightest of batter coatings and a fabulous gently spicy chilli kick, balanced by the creamy smokiness of the mayo.

Next up were the barbecued duck heart skewers; beautifully and simply presented, tender nuggets of meat with robust bbq flavours.

Potatoes in spicy red bean sauce arrived next; again the spice factor is mild, more warming than eye-watering, with the starchy sweetness of the red beans providing a comforting backdrop to the dish.

We were seriously starting to flag when the next dish arrived at our table, the signature spicy cumin lamb chops with pickled radish. However, these were everything you might hope they would be: juicy, crisp, perfectly seasoned melt-in-the-mouth heaven. Definitely one of the stand-out dishes of the evening.

Scallops in XO sauce came next. I lived in Hong Kong for a couple of years and XO sauce was a staple seasoning, a seafood-based umami high. These were good but not outstanding . . . although in fairness we were both ridiculously full and still going on about the lamb chops.

The final dish arrived, a vegetable dish of kai lan served with crushed peanuts. I had a mouthful or two and confirmed that yes, I absolutely would order it again as a side if I hadn't already eaten my own body weight in dumplings and associated fabulousness.

Rumour has it that this pop-up is in preparation for a bricks-and-mortar version of Dumpling Shack planned for 2017. For what it's worth, my vote is a resounding YES PLEASE.

Yours, still daydreaming about dumplings,

Girl About Town xx

Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy

Like many people, my first introduction to Ai Weiwei was his sunflower seeds installation at the Tate Modern; I remember looking out over the huge space of the Turbine Hall and thinking that the combination of painstaking detail and sheer scale produced a perspective shift that was almost meditative, like looking out over the sea. In his new exhibition at the Royal Academy, Ai Weiwei again delivers work that masters its impressive surroundings and grabs your attention - even before you enter the building, in the case of his courtyard installation 'Trees'. (photo courtesy of the Royal Academy) 

Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist and political activist, son of a dissident poet and sent along with his family into exile in labour camps as a result of his father's work, not returning to Beijing until Mao's death. I usually like to go round an exhibition once without any form of guide just so that I can come to it without any preconceptions but in this case the historical and political background is so intrinsic that I did take advantage of the audio guide included in the ticket price and I recommend that you do the same.

At every turn there is something beautiful, thought-provoking and challenging. Ai's signature large-scale work, coupled with wonderful curating which allows you to walk around, through and under the installations, means that you can really immerse yourself in the exhibition. You can find one-metre cube versions of much smaller precious objects made of crystal, tea, or intricately-carved wood, or disparate items such as sex toys and human remains reworked in different materials.

In 'Marble Stroller', the worker-bee-like segments of marble grass evoke his famous sunflower seeds, all similar but individual. The stroller, and the petrified surveillance camera, represent a chilling encounter when Ai Weiwei was out with his young son and challenged a man photographing them. Weiwei took the memory card from the man, who claimed to be a tourist; checking it later at his studio, he found hundreds of images of his child.

'Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn' is here, along with 'Coloured Vases', a group of Neolithic vases (or are they?) destroyed/transformed by industrial paint. This, for me, was perhaps the least engaging part of a magnificent exhibition - possibly because the rest is so raw and visceral, this paled by comparison. The questions of value, authenticity and art are interesting but they are ongoing and I feel if they had been exhibited separately they may not have been immediately identifiable as his work; I didn't feel powerfully drawn to these in the same way as the rest of the rooms.

The opposite is true of 'Straight'. This is my absolute favourite section of the exhibition; by which I mean, it brought me close to tears. 'Straight' is a response to the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 in which over 5,000 children died as a result of shoddily-built schools collapsing; film footage shows distraught parents attempting to resuscitate their lifeless children amid the wreckage.

The names of the dead - originally not released by the Chinese authorities - line the walls in bare chart form along with their dates of birth, while in the centre of the room a huge undulating row of rusted metal rods echoing the seismic activity graph of an earthquake, or the wave itself. These are the cheap rebars used to reinforce the concrete in the schools (there is a suggestion that the money intended for rods of a suitable strength may have been diverted to line official pockets) collected by Ai Weiwei and his volunteers and then hammered straight again. It is incredibly moving.

Ai Weiwei started a blog at the end of 2005, stating 'If to express oneself needs a reason, let me say that to express oneself is the reason.' This was shut down by the Chinese authorities after it started getting 100.000 hits a day and he used it to call for freedom of information so now he spends hours a day on Twitter. For me, one of the most elegantly powerful statements about this came in his 2012 Guardian interview: 'The Internet is uncontrollable. And if the Internet is uncontrollable, freedom will win. It's as simple as that.'

S.A.C.R.E.D is set of six large, rusting industrial tanks containing half life-size dioramas of scenes from his illegal incarceration on the vague grounds of alleged 'financial irregularities'. The works show Ai Weiwei eating, showering, sleeping and using the toilet whilst two impassive uniformed guards stand feet away, watching. Disturbing enough, you have to view the scenes by standing on a step to look in a small gap at the top of the tank, or stooping to peer through a narrow window along the side, forcing you to become part of the intrusive voyeurism of the work.

You leave the exhibition under the twinkling glamour of an extravagantly huge chandelier, constructed using thousands of crystals and the humble Forever bicycle, ubiquitous in China.

The Royal Academy have extended their opening hours for the last few weekends, including an unprecedented 56-hour marathon for the final one. So don't miss this; it has gone straight into my top five exhibitions ever and will stay in your mind long after you leave.

Yours, newly thankful for the ability to write and post this at all,

Girl About Town xx

Leong's Legend

As a one-time resident of Hong Kong my idea of a traditional Sunday lunch is Cantonese dim sum as much as it is an English roast, although I love them both. Since my return to London I tend to get my dim sum fix at the same restaurant in Chinatown (see my blog post in July, which also explains what the main dishes are) but have been thinking I should really at least try somewhere else for a change . . . so this time we veered slightly off our beaten track and went to Leong's Legend in Macclesfield Street. Actually a Taiwanese restaurant, the dim sum nevertheless came highly recommended.

Two points to note if you are planning to eat here. First, they have two restaurants in Chinatown: this one and Leong's Legends Continue in nearby Lisle Street. As far as I can tell the latter is more of an overflow venue so the food should be pretty much the same, but if you're arranging to meet friends it might help avoid confusion.

Second, actually getting in to the restaurant gave me a slight speakeasy flashback; the welcoming doorway to the left of the venue, next to the window with visible seated diners, is in fact only  for the Candy Cafe upstairs. To get into Leong's you knock on a really solid-looking door to the right of the window which needs to be opened for you from inside by a member of staff. Squeeze in and you will find yourself in an attractive and unexpectedly stylish tea-room type interior with wooden tables and benches, deep blue walls and gentle lighting.

We were seated immediately and given both a la carte and dim sum menus. For those unfamiliar with dim sum, it is a meal of several small sharing dishes (think Chinese tapas) either chosen from passing trolleys wheeled by staff or ordered from a tick-sheet menu. Leong's is the latter version; helpfully the English translation is written underneath but do make sure you are ticking the right box as it can look a little confusing mid-page. Dishes arrive at the table in no particular order and you just tuck in. Our selection was as follows:

Prawn and Celery Cheung Fun - quite good, but the prawns had a very solid texture that made me wonder if they had been in the freezer a tad too long, or were perhaps a little overcooked. I couldn't detect any celery in them, although there was coriander . . . which is called cilantro in the US. A possible typo? Nice mix of flavours though.

Prawn Dumplings - classic har gau, generously sized but again I felt the quality of the prawns was a little lacking.

Sticky Rice with Shredded Pork - a squat tower of sticky rice topped with a moist and well-flavoured mix of pork and mushrooms. I had expected the sauce to be hot but it was actually mild and sweetish. This was good, although I kind of miss the theatre of unwrapping the rice from a lotus leaf as in other restaurants.

Pan-fried Turnip and Shrimp Paste - the flavour was good, but they were a bit heavy; I prefer the outside/edges a little more crispy and the inside a little less dense.

Legend's Pork Siu Loung Bao - English translations of Chinese dishes are notoriously variable but these soup dumplings are usually found on menus as 'xiao long bao' or just 'XLB' for short. You can either bite the top off and sip at the spicy soup and pork filling or pop one in whole, bite down and let the flavours burst into your mouth. I prefer the latter but do be careful; dim sum is freshly-cooked, so these will arrive very hot! The filling was excellent, with a meaty depth to the soup and a kick of ginger, which I love. The wrapping was quite thick which made them a bit stodgier than I would have liked, but  otherwise these were great - and very good value at £5.50 for eight pieces.

Prawn and Ham Stuffed Rolls - not deep-fried spring rolls but steamed in a very savoury (MSG?) sauce. I liked them but my companion found the flavour a little too pronounced.

Egg tarts - nice filling but a little too much pastry. I flaked most of the outside of mine onto the plate.

A word about the staff; on our visit they were absolutely fine, perfectly helpful and courteous. Perhaps we were lucky, but I do wonder if the repeatedly negative comments about staff attitude is a cultural thing; you just don't get that American chatty new-best-friend version of service, more a polite and reserved efficiency which is seen as more appropriate. Personally I would rather have my food and a brief smile than some teenager hunkering down by my table and quizzing me insincerely about my day.

So this is Leong's Legend - I enjoyed my visit, just not quite enough to tempt me away from my regular.

Yours, faithfully,







Girl About Town xx

Traditional Sunday lunch - with a twist

If you're a frugal foodie feeling like a change, why not go for a traditional Sunday lunch Cantonese-style? Dim sum is a tapas-esque selection of small dishes either chosen from a selection wheeled round on trolleys or ordered from a menu, and is available in most Chinatown restaurants daily until late afternoon. My personal favourite is Lido - just look for the blue awning near the end of Gerrard Street.

http://lidochinatown.com/index.php?page=welcome

Ask for the dim sum menu and don't panic about the Chinese-only tick sheet - the separate menu has corresponding numbers with both pictures and English descriptions. Simply find the number of the dish you like on the tick sheet and write how many you want (usually one) in the brackets. (Don't include the menu in your Facebook check-in pic and everyone will wonder how you managed it!)

 We tend to order seven dishes between two people, but I may well be greedier than you: for dim sum virgins, may I suggest a selection from the following:

Har gau* - called 'dumplings' but actually prawns steamed in a light translucent wrapper a bit like very thin pasta. Served in a steamer, these will be HOT so be careful - but then don't leave them too long, they are best eaten as fresh as possible. I like mine dipped in a dash of chilli oil, but soy sauce or just as they are is fine.

Siu mai - again, steamed 'dumplings' this time wonton wrappers filled with minced pork and prawns, open at the top.

Cha siu bao - steamed savoury buns filled with Chinese barbecued pork. Light, fluffy and delicious, but very filling!

Cheong fun - flat rice noodle wrapped around a filling of your choice, a little like slithery cannelloni. I'm a seafood girl, so I normally go for the prawn ones, but that's me.

Spring rolls - prawn and yam, or Vietnamese for a change.

Steamed glutinous rice in lotus leaves - this looks very exotic! A little package of sticky rice filled with mixed meats and Chinese sausage, all parcelled up in lotus leaves and steamed. Simply unwrap and enjoy (and don't eat the leaves!).

Turnip paste - yes I know it sounds very Baldrick, but it's actually made with daikon, a Chinese radish/turnip, and finely-chopped meat, cut into slabs and fried - kind of like a very mildly-flavoured Cantonese bubble and squeak, with a comforting texture. Do consider it - I am addicted to it dunked in fiery chilli sauce, I know not why.

Noodles - I'm a big fan of the flat, wide Ho Fun rice noodles with beef, stir-fried dry or with sauce, but these are fairly self-explanatory so take your pick. This will be a big portion, a meal in itself!

To finish - I love the little bite-sized custard tarts, but the coconut pudding is also good.

Some words to the wise. Don't wait for everything to arrive before starting; dishes will be brought to your table as and when they are freshly-prepared by the chefs, so just dig in and make room for the next set of plates and bamboo steamers to appear. Given this, remember the staff will be visiting every table at least five or six times so don't expect them to hang around and smile and shoot the breeze - they are lovely people and the service will be very efficient but you're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Traditionally dim sum is served with Chinese tea; if you plump for this option, refills are free and you will probably pay around £15 a head or less, depending on your dim sum choices. If you've over-ordered, just ask for some take-away boxes and there's your midnight TV snack sorted.

* PS: the English spelling of these dishes varies, so I have opted for the most common - not necessarily the ones Lido uses.

Have fun and share nicely,







Girl About Town xx