New dishes for Chinese New Year

To welcome in the year of the Dragon, we added some new dishes and some very special and rare teas to our menu at Mama Lan’s.  Sneaky peak below:

Woodear mushrooms, Chinese leaf and carrot dumplings

First up, we have some new vegetarian dumplings made with my mum’s favourite Woodear mushrooms.  The more observant of you may have realised that these were on our menu in the first week of Jan.  Well, the reason for this was that the filling takes a bit more technical skill to prepare given the water content of the ingredients and so we needed to check if we could make these, en masse.  I shouldn’t have doubted my mum’s recipe as every dumpling we made turned out crisp, juicy and very tasty, if I do say so myself!

Spiced lamb skewers

I have been wanting to put these on the menu for a while but have held back especially for Chinese New Year.  Hailing from Xin Jiang, these lamb skewers are sold pretty much all over Beijing, but being of Chinese Muslim origin, I find some of the best can be found on Cow Street which serves Muslim snacks only.

Dusted with a hint of cumin and enough chilli to give a nice mild kick (but not to burn or ruin the flavour of the lamb) these are very addictive.  We made some for some friends a while back, and before we could tell them what they even where, all we had was a big pile of empty skewers on the plate.

Unfortunately, health and safety means we’re not allowed to have an open charcoal BBQ in our tiny store in Brixton Village but the grill we bought says it was made in China, so it’s still authentic innit!

“White Monkey Paw” Green Tea

The cute name of this rare tea comes from the furry tea leaves which resemble little monkey paws.  Handpicked in first two weeks of the season and gently steamed, this is a really delicate and smooth green tea.  Don’t be confused that it doesn’t come out Hulk green – it is very pale, almost like a white tea.

Peregrine 1st Flush Mountain China Black Tea

Like the White Monkey Paw tea, the Peregrine 1st Flush black tea is a rare and sought after tea.   It has an intense deep, full bodied flavour.  A relatively high caffeine content means this tea is great for perking you up and increasing alertness.

As for the name?  Well, legend has it that a young boy came across a Peregrine, caught in a snare.  The bird spoke to the boy and promised that, if he set him free, he would lead him to a field of undiscovered tea which would bring him riches.  Thankfully, the boy made a great choice and we can now put it on our menu.

Well, I hope thats made you hungry.  All the dishes can be found on our menu as of…wait for it… as of …NOW!

 

categories A day in the life of Mama Lan | | datetime January 17, 2012 21:46 | comments Comments (0)

January celebrations

With the wind lashing and drizzly rain rapping on my bedroom window, I spent the first 10 minutes of the new working year, lying in bed thinking up reasons why I couldn’t get into work that my boss would find vaguely plausible…

“The high winds have caused a power failure on my train”

“I’ve come down with the flu”  cough, cough, splutter, splutter

“Stomach cramps”

A hundred excuses later, it became obvious that there was no chance of duping my boss.  The task master had heard all the elaborate stories and lame excuses before.  She had even synchronised her cycle to match mine, if she can work through PMT, then she demands that I do as well.

Sigh, as I clambered out of bed I thought to myself….sometimes, just sometimes, being self employed losses its appeals.

With the most difficult part of the day over with i.e. getting up, my spirits were lifted as I was going through my to-do list for the day.  Ordinarily, this would largely consist of mundane tasks such as, ordering more stock for our restaurant in Brixton, preparing veg for the dumplings, making chilli oil etc, but this week, my to-do list also include preparing for Chinese New Year.

A little over a few weeks away, the Chinese New Year is the event I have looked forward to most of all.  Whilst the western New Year is somewhat of a damp squib in my household back in Beijing, the Chinese New Year, is a celebration of colour, dance, family and feasting.  Based on the lunar calendar, the Chinese New Year this time around falls on 23rd January and will be the year of the Water Dragon.

Now of popular culture, the Chinese Zodiac consist of 12 different animals which rotate each year.  The animals consist of: the Rat, the Ox, the Tiger, the Rabbit, the Dragon, the Snake, the Horse, the Ram, the Monkey, the Rooster, the Dog and the Pig, in that order.  So 2011 was the year of the Rabbit, so 2012 is the year of the Dragon and so on.

 

The 12 animals

The Zodiac is also complimented with 5 elements, namely, metal, water, wood, fire and earth.

Each animal (when combined with each element) is said to have different characteristics which you inherit depending on which year you were born.

For me, I’m a Water Pig.  Apparently this means I enjoy entertaining my friends and enjoy life.  Pigs also like peace and will do what is necessary to maintain it.  Water pigs, are especially flexible (like water) in their approach to people and therefore make good negotiators.  However, because of the constant need for peace, water pigs can be taken advantage of.  (Boo!)  When it comes to money, Pigs also enjoy spending more than saving.  (No comment)

Following my piggy nature, I’m hoping to celebrate Chinese New Year will all new friends at Mama Lans.  We will putting on a few special dishes, but still deciding the final menu so keep an eye on Twitter and our blog for details.

categories Chinese Culture | | datetime January 12, 2012 17:08 | comments Comments (0)

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A London-based supper club serving homemade north-east chinese dishes. Now a restaurant @Brixton Village!

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