Taste of China, Oslo – Restaurant Review

One of the things I miss most about living in London is the sheer variety of global cuisine on offer. Whether it's a bowl of steaming hot phở, a garlicky hummus Beiruti with freshly baked flat bread, or some fiercely spiced jerk chicken. In London, it seems, you can have it all, and usually at a price that won't break the bank.

But perhaps the thing I miss most is my tradition of Sunday dim sum; it's what Sundays were made for in my opinion. Wake up late (we're talking pre kids here), grab my favourite section of The Sunday Times, head over to Royal China on Baker Street and settle in with some green tea while contemplating the array of steamed delights on offer.

Bubbleology, London – Review

I'm a relative newcomer to the delights of bubble tea, having only first tasted it last year. However, I love the stuff and I've certainly been making up for lost time. Bubble tea originated in Taiwan in the 1980's and is essentially tea that contains large tapioca pearls. The sweet tea is served with a wide straw that allows you to suck up the moreish gelatinous pearls – a sort of drink/snack hybrid. Typically bubble tea is served cold, but you can also have it hot too.

Yauatcha, London – Review

Travelling back to London will always be like coming home for me. I lived in Britain's capital for 15 years, and during those years the city has witnessed me progress from spotty young university fresher, to meeting most of my friends, getting my first job, marrying my love, and to seeing the birth of my first daughter. So it's unsurprising that I have grown to adore the city. Of course, the bittersweet irony is that it's only when I chose to leave the place that I realised what a magnificent city it truly is. Maybe distance has made me sprout a pair of rose-coloured spectacles, but forget the relative trivialities of tube strikes, congestion charges, and Daily Mail-esque warnings of "broken Britain, innit" – at its heart London is a vibrant, cosmopolitan metropolis, throbbing with pace, energy, wit and charm. Yes, it is noisy and crowded, and sometimes downright nasty, but it affords an adopted Brit like me a myriad of freedoms and a number of small daily joys.

One of the many small joys I miss is Sunday dim sum. Whether it's the morning after the night before, a family get-together, brunch with friends, or some well-deserved time alone, nothing can soothe the soul and satisfy the stomach quite like good dim sum on a Sunday. So when Mrs. Nibbler and I were in London to celebrate a friend's birthday recently, we got the chance to indulge again in a favourite Sunday pastime and headed off to Yauatcha for some restorative yum cha.

Yauatcha has been going since 2004 and was founded by legendary restaurateur Alan Yau. It is currently one of three Michelin-starred Chinese restaurants in London. The famous red guide isn't the ultimate arbiter of quality, in my experience, but it is generally the most consistent indicator of a restaurant's calibre. However, I find that once Michelin strays from its comfort zone of 'modern European/French' food, their ratings retain less significance. So I was genuinely curious to see how Yauatcha stacked up against my dim sum experience at the excellent non-starred Pearl Liang a couple of days earlier (see review here).

Yauatcha is designed as a modern take on an old Chinese teahouse. We were seated in the ground floor dining room whose interior was quite minimal and light, with clean lines of glass, wood, and concrete dominating. There is also a darker and moodier subterranean bar and dining area. The menu here blends tradition with modernity quite well, and the focus is on dim sum dishes and other smaller plates, although more substantial main courses are available too.

We started with baked venison puffs (£4.50), a twist on the more traditional char siu (barbeque pork) puffs. Pieces of tender, sweet venison were encased in flaky, buttery pastry. These were sooo moreish – a fantastic start to the meal.

Next, some scallop shu mai (£7.50) and char siu buns (£3.50). The shu mai consisted of open-topped dumplings filled with moist prawns and shredded carrot, topped by a thick slice of sweet scallop. The whole thing was crowned with glistening roe.

The classic barbecue pork buns seemed lighter than those I had experienced before and were all the better for it. Both dishes were a delight.

This was followed by pan-fried turnip cake (£5.50), which I discovered is not made from turnip at all, and instead features daikon as the main ingredient. The turnip cake had a thin layer of egg and chives on one side, which lent it an extra richness. I could never tire of turnip cake such as this.

Next were some wild mushroom dumplings (£4.80). A vibrant green wrapper contained a moist mixture of oyster, shimeji and shiitake mushrooms. The filling packed an umami-rich hit of woody mushroom. It was OK, but nothing special. Each dumpling was decoratively studded with pearls of qian shi (fox nuts) – a first for me; their taste was rather neutral, so they were maybe there just for texture, although in Chinese medicine they are considered good for the kidneys.

Our kidneys suitably cleansed, we dived into some excellent prawn cheung fun (£5.80) and shanghai dumplings (£3.50). As at Pearl Liang, the waiter poured some sweet soya sauce over the cheung fung, the wobbly rice noodle rolls packed to the rafters with succulent prawns. The shanghai dumplings were a bit of a disappointment, however, as I was expecting these to be the soup-filled, steamed kind. Instead we got the grilled variety of pork-filled dumplings. They were fine, just not what I was expecting.

Finally, to finish, one of the highlights of the meal: plump and bouncy har gau (£5.00) dumplings. Each dumpling was made with beautifully pleated, translucent wrappers filled with oh-so-perfectly cooked prawns. They were just heavenly!

Throughout the meal we sipped from elegant cups of silver needle white tea from Fujian Province, which was beautifully mild and refreshing with a vague sweetness to it. The total bill, including service came to £53, which was not as much as I had expected it to be. I really enjoyed lunch at Yauatcha; there's something very cosseting and slightly decadent about going there for Sunday dim sum. However, judged on the food alone, I'd have to give the edge to Pearl Liang – the quality and sheer value for money of their dim sum is, I believe, unrivalled in London. But if you're looking for a touch of healing luxury when you're feeling bleary-eyed on a Sunday, then you can't go wrong with a spot of yum cha at Yauatcha to leave you feeling sated, happy, and ready to face the world again.

Food:        8 / 10
Service:     7 / 10
Ambiance: 8 / 10

Yauatcha
15-17 Broadwick Street
London W1F 0DL

United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)20 7494 8888

Pearl Liang, London - Review

We had just touched down at Heathrow and the hunger pangs that started at check-in in Oslo were now becoming an incessant, gnawing irritation. Must. Find. Food. On the Heathrow Express all thoughts of first dropping off the luggage at the apartment rapidly vanished. Must. Find. Food. Now! A few clicks on my phone and a quick scan of the interweb revealed a well-regarded Chinese restaurant close to Paddington station. Did they have a table for two available in 15 minutes?

So that is how Mrs. Nibbler and I arrived, luggage and all, at Pearl Liang, located in what estate agents euphemistically call 'Paddington Central' – a newish development of shops, offices and flats in what used to be a triangle of no-man's land, bounded by the railway line, Bishop's Bridge Road and the A40 flyover. Not the most obvious place to find exquisite dim sum, but find it we did.

Pearl Liang opened in 2007 and is owned by Humphrey Lee and Paul Ngo, the former manager and head-chef team of the acclaimed Mandarin Kitchen in nearby Bayswater. Together they have created a real gem of a Chinese (Cantonese) restaurant. For what it's worth, Pearl Liang was recently voted Britain's favourite Chinese restaurant in Tsingtao's third annual Legacy of Taste competition, ahead of over 500 other contenders.

We arrived at the tail end of a busy lunch service and the tables seemed to be packed with office workers finishing off plates of vibrant looking Cantonese food. The interior was an odd mix of glamour and corporate blandness – think of Hakkasan in a Holiday Inn Express and you'll get the idea. But by this point we were too hungry to notice, and almost before we were even seated we started rattling off our order from the extensive dim sum menu. I'm by no means an expert on yum cha, so I played it fairly safe and stuck with things I was familiar with. This was hardly the time for experimentation; we had appetites to feed! After a short pause the food started to roll out of the kitchen in double time and we were rewarded with stunningly fresh dim sum. As the first few delicious bites began to appease our ravenous bellies I could start to relax, safe in the knowledge that this would be a good meal.

First to arrive was prawn cheung fun (£3.20) served with a sweet soya sauce that was pored over it tableside. The slippery rice noodle rolls were packed with moist king prawns and the dish was a real delight.

Pan fried turnip cake (£2.70) was crisp on the outside and the soft interior was laced with pieces of pork.

Next, some plump, bouncy har gau dumplings of barely cooked prawns (£3.00), which were delicate and delicious.

King crab and egg white dumpling (£3.20) were fantastic. The rich crab meat was lightened by the egg whites and the whole thing was topped with roe.

Then, my favourite dish of the meal: delicious xiao long bao (£2.80), soup-filled pork dumplings, which burst in your mouth, their scalding hot contents bringing a tear to my eye.

Next, some barbecued pork puffs (£2.70). Triangles of puff pastry slicked with a sweet sauce and filled with jammy and savoury pork.

We also had some pork shu mai (£2.80) but I don't seem to have a picture of it. But these had a good balance between the fatty pork and lighter flavoured prawns. By now we were pleasantly full and so had to skip noodles and dessert.

The whole lunch, including the charge for the brusque, but efficient service, a bottle of Tsingtao beer and water, came to £30, which left Mrs. Nibbler and I giggling like schoolgirls at the seeming absurdity of it. Maybe I've been in Norway for too long, where £30 will probably cover one main course in a semi-decent restaurant in Oslo, but Pearl Liang seemed like an extraordinary bargain to me, and served some of the best dim sum I've had in the capital. Suffice it to say that I think I now have a new favourite dining ritual for when I am fresh off the plane in London.

Food:         8 / 10
Service:      7 / 10
Ambiance:  7 / 10

Pearl Liang
8 Sheldon Square
London, W2 6EZ
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7289 7000

Wow Bao, Chicago - Restaurant Review

I adore baozi. There's something so comforting about those soft, warm, steamed buns filled with unctuous goodness. They sit there like feathery down pillows that you yearn to slumber upon. Served with a dollop of fiery red chilli paste, they make a perfect lunch for when you're on the go.

So when I was in Chicago recently, I was intrigued by a relatively new restaurant called Wow Bao that serves "hot Asian buns" (oi, you with the dirty mind, stop it!). Wow Bao is the creation of Chicago restaurant giant Lettuce Entertain You, who own 70 restaurants nationwide, including culinary heavyweights such as Chicago's L2O, Tru, and Everest restaurants. Yet despite having a corporate giant as a parent, Wow Bao manages to retain its own quirky personality, and has developed an army of loyal fans through an active social media marketing campaign (Twitter @BaoMouth and Facebook).

Wow Bao is a fast-food style chain of restaurants and, as its name suggests, the focus here is on those moreish steamed bao buns. They offer six different savoury fillings and two sweet fillings (chocolate and coconut custard), and even three egg-filled "breakfast bao's", although I'm not sure I like the idea of the latter. They also serve jiaozi (potsticker dumplings), rice bowls, soups, and salads. But it's their heavenly bao you really want to go for. Wow Bao also make their own homemade ginger ale, which is just sensational. Made with fresh ginger, it is so crisp and refreshing with a pleasing spiciness to it. Have it plain or with pomegranate or green tea. The full menu can be seen here.

Between Mrs Nibbler and me, we tried most of the different bao's on offer. Our initial problem was that they all looked the same, and it took us a while, and a fair bit of breaking open buns and sniffing inside, until we figured out that the name of each filling was printed on the paper underneath each bao. Doh! I'd say that the spicy Mongolian beef and BBQ pork (disappointingly, it wasn't char siu) came out as our clear favourites. The buns are steamed on site and have such a wonderful light texture to them. The filling, meanwhile, is generous and deliciously spiced. OK, so they are not the most authentic baozi around, but this is how fast food should be - cheap, fresh, and delicious!

Food:        6 / 10
Service:     6 / 10
Ambiance: 7 / 10

Wow Bao
1 West Wacker Blvd
Chicago, IL 60601
Tel: +1 312-658-0305

Also, locations at:
175 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, +1 312-334-6395
835 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, +1 312-642-5888