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.

So… just what is Beijing food?

It’s been just over a month since we opened our kitchen at Brixton Village Market and it would be somewhat of an understatement to say things have been just a little hectic.

Our plans of a nice easy opening, getting used to cooking in volume and generally familiarizing ourselves with our new Ikea kitchen (vintage, Spring 2011) changed somewhat when certain, Mr Jay Rayner, walked through our doors when we were all of 3 hours old and still trying to find our feet, or rather, pans.

Well we’ve not looked back since that fateful lunchtime and before we knew it, we sold our 10,000th dumpling.  My mum isn’t nicknamed the ‘machine’ for nothing!

Me and the 'Machine'

With dumplings and a variety of small plates at the heart of our menu, it’s not surprising that the question we’ve been asked most frequently is,

‘…so, you guys do Dim Dum right?’

Without putting too fine a point on it, the answer is no.  We just do dumplings and a few street snacks.

‘oh, so err… what’s the difference?’

Apologies for any aficionado’s reading this but put simply, Dim Sum is better defined as meal, much like breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea, elevenses etc.   Dumplings maybe something you eat at Dim Sum but they are more commonly eaten as dish by themselves in Northern China, much like having a big bowl of ravioli.  My enviously stick thin cousin regularly eats 40 plus dumplings a sitting.

Dim Sum is a very south China concept, or more precisely, a very Hong Kong concept.  Dim Sum is also what you would have if you were invited to go ‘Yum Cha’ which literally translates to ‘drink tea’. Traditionally eaten on Sundays for lunch, though this etiquette seems to be more relaxed now, Dim Sum typically comprises of small dishes which can range from anything from  a whole host of different dumplings (more on those later) to buns stuffed sweetened meats, fried spring rolls, chicken feet, beef balls, to eating a whole duck.    Despite trend setters such as Ping Pong or Yauatcha, most Chinese would still think twice at eating Dim Sum for dinner.

If you’ve not noticed, Yauatcha, is a play on words of Yau Yam Cha.  Alan Yau being the mastermind of, unsurprisingly, Yauatcha and  other iconic London restaurants such as Hakasan, Busaba Eathai and Wagamama.

Dim Sum dishes themselves are also very southern in their flavour combos and cooking techniques.  For example, the process of steaming rice flour batter to create cheung fun, for want of a better word, a pasta, is almost non-existent in traditional Northern cuisine.

Cheung Fun

So what about the dumplings?

There’s a great tradition in Northern China at New Year’s Eve when families, old and young come, together to make and feast on dumplings.  But dumplings are pretty much eaten at all times throughout the year.

Undoubtedly, you eat dumplings at Dim Sum.  But to put this into context, just because you eat a sandwich on a park bench doesn’t mean you’re having a picnic, neither does a burger count as a hot sandwich as I constantly have to remind the Boyfriend!

Much like the term sandwich, or pasta, or pie, dumpling, is also a generic term.    A pork pie is different to a fish pie which is different again to a pie which you would get at half time at a football match or a quiche – not that you’ll find many blokes searching for a quiche at half time!

There are sites all over the web which describe all the different types of dumplings there are in the world much more extensively than I care to here.  All I will say is that, all Beijing dumplings should be made using wheat flour, should not include pork lard in the dumpling casing (as you would find in those served in Dim Sum restaurants or those which are massed produced) and be pan fried or boiled and never steamed.

Most people refer to the fried dumplings as Guo tip, but to be ultra nerdy, the classical definition of Guo tip, means the dumpling is not actually completely sealed at the ends (does that mean we invited the sausage roll?!)

Guo Tip - open ended and not crimped

I know I’m making a bold statement, but in my experience, most dumplings served in Dim Sum restaurants contain some pork lard either in the stuffing or the dumpling wrapper or skin.   Even the roast ducks hanging by the windows (and even glazed cakes!) are often brushed with pork fat for that added shine.  When buying frozen dumplings, always look at the ingredient list of what you are buying.   My family are actually Chinese Muslim so are acutely aware of the wide use of pork lard in foodstuffs.   If you are in a restaurant and in doubt about the use of pork lard or fat ask the waiters /chef – you can always tell when they are unsure.

Cantonese roast duck dripping with pork oil

At Mama Lan’s, there is no such problem.  Only the pork dumplings contain pork – proper pork an all, not lard drippings.  There are no secrets to our cooking.  It’s just good home cooking using, albeit our own family recipes which have been handed down the generations.

Conscious that I could ramble off a books worth about dumplings, I’ll just finish by saying…

WE DON’T DO DIM SUM!

A new beginning…

I have officially stopped being an accountant on Friday 20^th May… as much fun as it was I couldn’t deny myself any longer that my heart was in food.  It wasn’t usual for a risk adverse accountant to do something so drastic but I thought to myself ‘why not?!  If it doesn’t work out, then I could always go back and beg for my old job back .’  So I quit my accounting job and taken up cooking full time.

Now… to do this properly, I thought I needed some inspiration and what better way than heading back to my hometown Beijing.  The street food stalls, authentic local markets and traditional restaurants would be fantastic to provide me with some ideas of what I could cook at Mama Lan’s.

So fast forward a week, here am I, in Beijing.  Still jet lagged (it’s 3:16am local time) and I just can’t sleep.  To be honest being sun burnt and with the night temperature of 30c properly doesn’t help the situation.  Whatever the reason maybe… I’m here sitting in front of my laptop going through the first day of food photos and I think I’m hungry again!

Today we had traditional Beijing steam pot – the copper style.

the copper steam pot

A lot of the modern restaurants nowadays only use electric pots, like Red and Hot in London.  The taste is never the same really as the food don’t get the smokiness from the coal burning inside the copper pot.

lamb slices and vegetables boiling away

The lamb we had was so smooth and tender, I thought I’ve died and gone to lamb heaven.

time to eat

Oh Beijing, I missed you!

A weekend of old Beijing style cooking

Five spice beef with potato

Diced beef slowly stewed in Chinese herbs and spices for 2 hours, then take out some of the nice beef sauce to cook the potato.  I’ve eaten potatoes in so many ways and I can tell you this is the best way of cooking potatoes!

Potatoes being cooked in rich beef sauce

This dish is such Beijingers’ favourite.  It can be eaten heartily with potatoes or rice noodles or just with seasonal vegetables.

The finished product - heaven!

Beijing style fried chicken

Eat your heart out KFC!  Best fried chickens are in town! 

The secrets?  No not 11 different herbs and spices but…

First, use free range chicks.  TV hasn’t been lying, happier chickens make for tastier food.

Second, the spices.  The ingredients we used were all fresh and easily sourced (salt, sugar, chilli powder, spring onions, ginger, garlic, fresh chillies, light and dark soy sauce, rice wine and vegetable oil).  I just had a quick search online, apparently the KFC original recipe chicken had MSG in it!!!  Oh how I hate MSG – right no more KFC from now on or rather, I will limit this to once a month going forward!

Chinese fried chicken served on Chinese newspaper - authentic!

Most efficient way to cook eggs

If you have a rice cooker at home, this is definitely the most efficient way to cook rice.  How peasant chic!

Just make sure you wash the eggs before hand!

No time to cook eggs - never again!

Red and Hot Restaurant

First week of the year is always a bit depressing, you had the nice relaxing Christmas and new year break but now its 4 months of wintery hell until the next Bank Holiday.

The cold dark days are enough to drive any insane but just try having to deal with a company yearend accounting as well!  Everyone in my department (Finance) had been working really hard over the last few weeks and the hours have been really long to get the yearend numbers finalised.  At times like these there is really on one thing that you can turn to…KARAOKE baby!

Before hitting the karaoke bar we had to have some food first.  We headed to one of the newish favourites in town, the Red and Hot Szechuan restaurant on Charing Cross road.  Since opening a couple of years ago the restaurant has become a big attraction among the Chinese community in the UK.  It’s speciality – hotpot!

What is a Chinese hotpot?  Well… basically it’s a big pot of boiling soup which presented in the middle of the table along with a selection of meat, seafood and vegetables.  The diners dip the food that they want to eat in the boiling soup and take it out once it’s cooked.  There’re various sauces you can put your food in to serve.

Chinese hotpot - clear and spicy soup

As most of my colleagues haven’t done hotpot before, I suggested we order hotpot and some signature Szechuan dishes.  The hotpot at Red and Hot came as a buffet and it consists of beef, lamb, ham, white fish slices, squids, mushrooms, Chinese vegetables, tofu, seaweed and potatoes.  For £20 per head and you could eat as much as you like, I thought it was a pretty good deal.  Oh and at Red and Hot, you could choose your base soup, be it clear (which is the traditional Beijing style) or spicy (Szechuan style) or you could order both.  We ordered both so they came in a bowl with a division in the middle to separate the two soup base.

Food for hotpot

We also ordered Dry Fried Chicken on the Bone in Red & Green Chilli, Gong Bao King Prawn with Peanuts, Sliced Fish with pickled vegetables soup.

Spicy chicken

Fish and pickled veg soup

Kong Po Prawns

By the end of the meal, we were all stuffed.  The highlights for me were the chicken and prawn dishes.  The hotpot was good for UK standard as I don’t think you could get a better valued place.  However, being a traditionist I wouldn’t be rushing back as my mum makes a better Beijing hotpot at home and the Szechuan soup was too hot for my liking.

Having added more junk to all our trunks – the only thing to do was to blast out some bootylicious tunes!

…. “Ken Leeeeeeeeeee…. jibul jibi dow choooo,   KEN LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…. “

Just be thankful this is not a video blog!