Chinese food. Of all the foods of the world I’ve tasted, I have to admit that Chinese was the one I’ve enjoyed least. I ate plenty of it growing up… but what we shovel onto plates at 5$ buffets in Abilene, TX is worlds away from anything authentic and should hardly be counted. In my limited exposures to it I’ve always found it overly heavy, too fried, or involving unappetizing ingredients (sort of like the American food of Asia ).

I don’t want to overly sell my experience at The Chairman in Hong Kong. I’ve read many a review calling some slightly innovative dish a revelation and thought somehow they’d cheapened the word. A foam on a plate of food is hardly revelatory But my meal at The Chairman challenged not only what I thought of specific, classic Chinese (Cantonese) dishes, but also how I viewed Chinese food as a whole.

I’d never heard of The Chairman prior to my last visit to Hong Kong. I wouldn’t have heard of it if not for a fortuitous seating arrangement at the Miele Guide Gala launch party in Macau. We had taken our seats earlier than everyone else and found plenty of time to talk with those seated with us at the table. A duo from Tokyo, two from D’Sens in Bangkok and two from The Chairman. The conversations went immediately to food with everyone asking us our opinions on Singapore cuisine. I was honest, telling of how though I enjoyed Chili Crab… I found the sauce too thick and masking the tender meat of the crab. Our new friend agreed and began to unfold a description of a beautifully simple crab dish that was a specialty at her Cantonese restaurant in Hong Kong. I casually said I hadn’t made plans yet for lunch tomorrow and she wrote her personal number on a business card and told me to call her… she’d ensure I had a seat.

It was only later that evening that I googled the restaurant and discovered the usual three month waiting list to get a table.

I arrived at the restaurant and found it simple and clean. White walls, white tables, and none of the garish decorations commonly associated with Chinese cuisine. We sat and were promptly greeted by our servers. Tea and towels were immediately at the table, and we were talked through the house specialties. We’d come for crab, but they were so passionate about other classic Cantonese dishes and everything sounded so good. Except two items on the menu I was planning to give a pass to… the century egg and pigeon. Squab I’m OK with, Chinese-style pigeon has just never done it for me. I was gracious and decided if it’s a signature I might as well give it a polite bite and tuck it into my napkin when no one was looking.

First out was the century egg. For those who don’t know, this is the infamous egg commonly believed to have been buried for a hundred years in horse urine. This was due to the ammonia aroma usually found in the egg. There’s no urine involved today, rather an alkaline agent that changes the composition of the egg.  The egg is simply more or less pickled. I think of it as ancient Chinese Molecular Gastronomy. This egg was lovely. The accompanying pickled ginger was good enough to eat by the plateful. I’m not kidding you. It was one of the freshest, cleanest tastes I’ve ever had in my mouth. One of the owners explained that it was harvested during a small window of 2 precious weeks locally in the summer and then using only the most slim part of the ginger, the fingers, it is pickled in house. The ferry back from Macau had been choppy, leaving my stomach a bit queasy. The ginger settled me down and got me ready for the feast coming our way.

Next out were Deep-fried Taro Cake with Smoked Duck & Water Chestnut. They were lighter and more delicate than the name would suggest with a delicate creamy filling.

Then came another challenging little dish: Crispy Small Yellow Croaker served with Balsamic Dressing. Not challenging in taste in any way. I didn’t grow up eating a lot of fish and still have slight mental hangups when it comes to eating whole fish with bones, heads, eyes and all. This one was beautiful, light and the balsamic dressing lifted flavors I didn’t expect to find in such a tiny fish. Because the fish is marinated at length, the bones soften and the fish can be eaten whole. .

Now was time for my old nemesis. The Chinese pigeon. I’ve shot many a Thai-Chinese wedding and this is always on the menu. I’d quietly think to myself, OK this is a traditional dish from back in the day when they had to eat anything they could find, but now they can have chicken or quail so why do they keep eating “flying rat”. These pigeons were far removed from the statue shitters found in your favorite city. These were young, under 20 days old. The skin was crispy and the flesh was moist due to a delicate tea smoked preparation. It made a believer out of me.

Now it was finally time for the crab. I worried about room at this point. It was only noon after all and I hadn’t planned for a multi-course lunch having just had a four-course feast and more than a couple post-Gala beers. But one look at the crab somehow made my stomach find ample space.

They do crab differently here. The crab itself is a special local crab called the flowery crab and only a small amount are caught everyday in Hong Kong. Further there is no heavy masking sauces. The crab is cooked simply in a bath of Aged ShaoXing Wine & Fragrant Chicken Oil. The sauce gives a slight lift to the dish. You can still taste of bit of fresh ocean in the tender flesh. At this point the table had devolved into a caveman like frenzy. No conversation, just snaps of shell, sucking and slurping of meat and an occasional (though hidden) lick of the fingers.

The crab is served with accompanying broad, flat noodles used to mop up the remaining sauce. Mmmmmm. I don’t care how much food you’ve had previously. You will put all this down. Just seeing it sitting there still waiting will have you reaching continuously for another spoonful… just one more you say, till the plate is empty.

We rounded out the meals with a seasonal veg, some spare ribs, and a dessert. They were all lovely. I was exhausted, but each one carried me a little bit further than I thought I could go.

Our new friend from the Gala had arranged for another owner, Danny Yip, to speak with us during the meal. He made it out between courses to discuss a bit about the restaurant and guide us through the meal. He was a gracious host and very informative. I don’t normally associate Chinese food with local, fresh produce, but he told us that this is actually the hallmark of Cantonese’s cuisine arising from the history of being close to abundant vegetation and fresh seafood. So the cuisine developed with a lighter touch to showcase the freshness and natural flavor of the ingredients… not mask the low quality like what you’d find up north with their super sweet sauces. Everyone at The Chairman was committed to this idea of excellence in ingredients. They charter a private boat to line fish for their seafood. They revisit the menu seasonally to take advantage of what’s best. You’d think it was some snooty San Francisco restaurant with the way they talked about food… but amazingly it wasn’t some fusion abomination… it was packed with locals.

I adjusted my belt a notch, paid and walked slightly dizzy into the street. The meal might not have had the showy flourishes of a Robuchon meal, but easily trumps any other Hong Kong dinging experience I’ve had, Chinese dining… and probably ranks among the top-5 just all around best meals I’ve ever had. Just the kinds of meals that leave you happy, satisfied, and opening your eyes to new foods and ingredients you previously wouldn’t consider.

I look forward to returning. I can still taste the pickled ginger, smokey pigeon flesh, and that fresh, seawater crab. I wish them much success, but I also kind of hope it stays bellow the radar, before the critical haters roll in wanting to have their unique voice and tear it down. There’s something special going on with the food here and I just hope I can always get a seat

The Chairman
?????18???18, Kau U Fong, Central
2555 2202

Amazing Hunan food and among the best spareribs in Shanghai

It seems like often when we go to Shanghai we tend to gravitate to high-end Western dining. While certainly I never get bored of sky high Bund dining and glamorous cocktails, on this particular evening I had a hankering for something a bit more local. So when my friend Joerg who has been in Shanghai for about 5 years offered to show me his favourite spareribs in town, I said “let’s go!”

We hopped in a cab and headed over to the French Concession area of Shanghai to Di Shui Dong, a Hunan style restaurant which is a long time favourite of locals and expats alike. One of the eight regional cuisines of China, Hunan cuisine is often compared to Sichuan, but it relies more on chillies, shallots and garlic rather than the unique and toungue-lashingly hot Sichuan peppercorn. Still Hunan cuisine is not for the faint of heart, but that makes the accompanying Tsing Tao beer taste even better

Of course the spareribs were a must try and did not disappoint. Coated with herbs and tender to the point of falling off the bone, it’s easy to see why the Zin Ran spareribs (58RMB) are a local favourite.

Next up we tried the Mandarin Fish with Pine Nuts & Sweet and Sour Sauce (98 RMB) and Mao’s Quick Fired Shrimp. Both presented super fresh seafood, expertly prepared and beyond delicious.

And to compliment the abundance of proteins, we ordered the Sizzling Eggplant. Now I love eggplant and this was perhaps one of the most addictive eggplant dishes I have had in a long while, rich yet not heavy.

Joerg was right. Di Shui Dong had perhaps the most succulent spare ribs in Shanghai. But more than that, everything was amazing and presented at surprisingly low prices for such skillfully prepared, classic Hunan cuisine.

Note: the staff hardly speaks any English, but the menu has English and photos so you can point. Also, the toilets only have squatty pottys – consider yourself warned.

Di Shui Dong
56 Mao Ming South Road, 2nd Floor
(by Change Le Road)
Shanghai, China
Telephone: +86 (21) 6253 2689

Any chef that can have me actually dreaming of eating crocodile again is a chef of note in my book. Hong Kong Chef Liu Ching Hai of Summer Palace in the Regent Hotel is that chef. You might remember our recent review of Summer Palace. We were treated to a special Sunday lunch of traditional Asian dishes and ones with a more modern twist… every dish as tasty as the next. After the meal we were gifted another treat – a chance to sit down and talk (via translator) to Chef Liu about his life & approach to food… and we even got a signature recipe!

Like many great chefs, Chef Liu was inspired by watching his grandmother cook as a young child. He soon caught the full time cooking bug and at 17 began his life in the kitchen, opting to learn through a traditional apprenticeship over formal training.

He soon made a name for himself and began cooking not only in the region’s top hotels, but also for western and Asian celebrities in Hong Kong… including Jackie Chan and Michael Jackson. He even catered Chow Yun Fat’s wedding (I’m a huge fan of his films and so was excited to hear this)! But the celebrity status hasn’t gone to Chef Liu’s head. When pumped for information about the assignments you realize he really treats every diner the same… not placing more importance on a celebrity meal than a regular hotel brunch crowd. I did keep asking him questions though and the most I was able to pry from him dirt-wise is that the Asian celebrities were a bit more down to earth than their western counterparts… taking time to come talk to the chef about their food and about life in general

Chef Liu specializes in seafood and we’re not just talking snapper here. He’s comfortable with anything that’s lived it’s life in water, and prefers simpler recipes that let the quality of the ingredient shine…. something he’s used to from his days in Hong Kong with daily deliveries of the freshest seafood.

The crocodile dish one more time

When not at work he’s cooking at home with his two sons. They’re only 8 and 10 but are already looking as if they’ll be following in their Dad’s footsteps. He says they’ll go to the market and the kids will tell him which part of the fish they want and then once home will stay in the kitchen with their father watching his every movement.

Chef Liu is actually a bit older than his looks, a rarity for chefs… particularly American chefs who look as though they’ve cooked themselves with their years over open flames. So I asked the chef if there was some traditional remedy responsible for his youthful appearance. He smiled and said it wasn’t bird’s nest soup as the translator had joked… it was eating simple and fresh food and trying to just be as happy as possible.

I asked the chef to provide our readers with a signature dish of sorts. Something reflective of his roots, but also something that had ingredients not so out of reach of the average home chef. So I am thrilled to give you:

Wok-Fried Prawns with Asparagus and Black Bean Sauce

Ingredients
Prawns 200g
Asparagus 100g
Black Bean Sauce 20g
Garlic 10g
Bell Pepper 20g
Oil 20g
Flour 10g
Sugar 10g
Chinese wine 5g

Instructions

• De-shell & de-vein the prawns
• Wash the asparagus
• Heat up the wok and add oil into heated wok
• Place prawns into wok, stir-fry till half-cooked, and drain prawns out
• Pour garlic, black bean sauce, bell pepper and asparagus into wok and stir-fry for 2 minutes.
• Add in half-cooked prawns
• Add flour, sugar and Chinese wine
• Stir-fry for 3 minutes.
• Ready to serve.

Classic Shanghainese cuisine in this traditional restaurant near Huahai Lu

Paul and I spent a great deal of time in Shanghai this winter. We traipsed about enjoying top-end international food at places like Stiller’s, Jean Georges, Laris, M on the Bund, T8 and more. So when we were speaking to a Shanghainese friend and she asked us where we wanted to have dinner, we said “something that is typical Shanghai, please.” And what better way to experience local food than with a local person guiding you through the menu and introducing you to classics and family favorites? So it was that we found ourselves at Liu Yuan restaurant on a drizzly Sunday night for a guided Shanghainese culinary experience.

Liu Yuan is not far from the popular Nanjing Lu shopping area…we took a brief 10 minute walk to Huahai Lu and found it centrally located on Shanxi nan Road South about 50 meters past a large shopping mall. Our friend explained that this is a very popular restaurant with Shanghai locals to come after work with colleagues or with their families for dinner on weekday nights. Repleat with the requisite round tables and tea carts, it was traditional in every sense of the word.

Shanghai cuisine is a distinct type of cuisine versus other perhaps more popular and well known culinary styles (Sichuan and Cantonese). In Shanghai they use a lot of soy sauce and sugar which results in a salty / sweet flavour profile and even use alcohol to make meat, chicken and fish dishes “drunken”. We let our guide order for us, instructing her to not go easy on us and order foreigner friendly, but to show us some of her personal favorites.

Arriving at the table were bean curd with soy sauce, a crispy fried fish, sauteed shrimp and sweet and sour pork. We questioned our host on if the sweet and sour dish was really a local favorite (vs her just being polite to order something familiar) and she explained that the Shanghainese love the sweet and sour combination and it is in fact a local favorite, one that even her mother would make at home.

While everything was absolutely perfectly prepared and delicious, I think my favorite was the bean curd and fried fish – the sauces were clearly the distinct Shanghainese flavor profile described of salty / sweet. Where as Paul was partial to the sweet and sour pork and sauteed shrimp.

In the end, another meal where our eyes were bigger than our stomachs and we left completely satisfied albeit a bit overstuffed. We were told that one of the characteristics of Shanghainese dining is that Shanghai people eat very small and delicate meals….I am not sure we actually observed this cultural norm.

But for me this is the fun and adventure of trying new foods….local expertise to explain the culinary approach and cultural context plus the anticipation of what will become a new favorite.

But you don’t have to go to Liu Yuan with a local. The staff is friendly and nominal English is spoken (enough to manage the meal). So whether it is Liu Yuan restaurant or other, don’t miss the opportunity to savour Shanghainese cuisine. It may become a new favourite for you as it did for me.

Liu Yuan Restaurant
141 Shaanxi Road S., near Huaihai Road M
Shanghai, China
Telephone: +86 21 6247 0101

The flagship restaurant in the stunning Grand Hyatt, Beijing, Made in China is not the dive restaurant one often imagines when thinking of discovering cuisine in China. It’s not dingy or grimy. There’s no rats scurrying across your feet while you dine. Waiters don’t bark at you in unintelligible regional Chinese dialects. Made in China is in all the guidebooks, all the tourists know it, and most importantly the taxis all know it. You won’t have to undertake a small personal oddyssey to find it… but if you can set your Columbus complex aside, there’s a great meal to be had here.

Everyone should visit the restaurant once just to see the set up. Multiple open cooking stations surround the dining room displaying the creation of all the dishes, from Peking Duck to “pot stickers”.

Speaking of Peking Duck, this is the signature dish of the restaurant. The restaurant features a beautiful, open brick oven smack in the middle of the dining room. You get to see your duck roasting to a deep, rich color, and if that wasn’t enough, the chefs come and carve table-side so you see every skillful carve the bird as it’s plated fresh in front of you.

Here’s a quick visual guide for Peking Duck. Think of it like Chinese burritos. Take your wrapping, place some sauce on, place some duck inside, some spring onion, a piece or two of cucumber,  fold up and enjoy! It’s that simple. You can play around with how much sauce and veggies make the perfect wrap.

There’s more on offer here though than just Peking Duck. We asked our server to help us order some veggies to go with our meal and enjoyed the “tong hao” (veggies with minced garlic & rice vinegar) & spinach leaves tossed with sesame sauce and rice vinegar.

Another favorite of ours was the fried string bean w/ minced pork & preserved vegetables.

And since we were seated right next to the section of kitchen responsible for the pot stickers, we had to break down and order this foreigner favorite

Surprisingly the desserts were good (not a common trait in Asian restaurants for my personal palate). I enjoyed my pandan waffle and chocolate ice cream.

And Joanna settled for the lychee creme brulee.

I say settled for because service took a nose dive at the end of the evening. It took us asking 3 times with 3 separate servers to finally get the dessert menu. And then after we had ordered the desserts they waited another 15 minutes to come back and inform us that one of the desserts we ordered was unavailable. This would have been fine if it was merely down to being hard hit by a massive rush… but this wasn’t the case. We were actually the last table from the first seating. Most customers had left and the staff was hurriedly making preparations for the next seating, at the expense of current diners. The bad service at the end was somewhat surprising given the location and caliber of the restaurant.

Despite the service at the end I’d still have to strongly recommend anyone new to Beijing or China (and even seasoned Asian foodies) to give Made in China a try. It may not be the undiscovered duck ‘hole in the wall’ you can brag to your friends about… but it might also spare you the upset stomach that can come from “discovering” the less than stellar hole in the wall

Made in China at the Grand Hyatt Beijing
1 East Chang An Avenue
Beijing, 100738
Tel: +86 10 8518 1234 ext. 3608 (if dialing from within China dial 010-8518-1234 ext. 3608)

A 140-year old white tea plantation, spice and rubber tree farm

If you visit Sri Lanka, you will certainly be tempted to visit a tea plantation. And there is probably none more famous than Handunugoda – the legendary tea plantation that used to produce the famous “virgin” white tea for the Chinese Emperor Tsong. Only virgins harvested the tea, never touching it with their own hands, but instead using golden scissors and bowls to collect the tea leaves. The emperor lips were the first to touch the tea.

Today you can visit this tea plantation and learn a bit about tea production in Sri Lanka, ancient Ceylon. Sri Lanka is the 3^rd largest tea producer in the world. And Handunugoda is one of the largest in the country and is also one of Dilmah Tea’s largest suppliers. But there is more than just tea at Handunugoda, there is also a spice farm…Sri Lanka has been producing cinnamon since the 1700’s when under Dutch rule (before they started making tea in the 1800’s). And there is also natural rubber being harvested. If you have never seen rubber being harvested, it is fascinating…you injure the tree with a knife, the tree “bleeds” and this liquid is collected, as it hardens it becomes rubber.

Probably for me, the most interesting part was seeing the tea production process – from fresh green leaves from the harvest to the dried tea leaves that tea manufacturers receive. There are 7 steps:

1. the leaves are left to dry on screens for 18 hours
2. a machine rolls the dried leaves for 30 minutes into curled tea leaves we know…this process can take 3x to complete
3. the leaves are sifted to let the broken, odd bits fall out
4. tea leaves are put on tile to ferment
5. tea is put into the 150-year old dryer to dry the leaves
6. Leaves are sent to the grading room to be sorted  according to size / quality
7. The separator removes all the brown leaves and stems leaving only high quality tea leaves

Handunugoda runs a lovely, detailed tour explaining all of the details and covering a good bit of the estate to see the various activities (complimentary). The tour starts with a visit to the main house where you can enjoy tea and cake on the verandah while the plantation history is briefly explained. Then, you can see the factory, followed by a tea tasting near the factory.

It all makes for a truly unique afternoon. Our guide, Herman, was thoroughly knowledgeable and welcoming. And much like many experiences of going directly to the source, in this case the farm, our enjoyment of tea now and in the future is enhanced by the experience.

Note: If coming from Galle the trip is about 40 minutes to Handunugoda.

Handunugoda Estate
malinga@bellmail.lk
Tittagalla, Ahangama
Sri Lanka
Telephone: +94 77 329 0999 (Herman)

An oft-recommend restaurant on the Bund…can it live up to the hype?

I had been meaning to get to Whampoa Club for a while. It has been recommended several times but somehow in my many trips to Shanghai I often ended up elsewhere. Having had the occasion to try it this time I was excited to see what it is about. Will the pan-Asian flair really be so inventive? Will open up new worlds for me in Chinese cuisine? With locations in Shanghai and Beijing – would Whampoa Club be my new favourite haunt when in China?

Whampoa Club presents Hong Kong chef Jereme Leung’s take on Hunan, Shanghai and Sichuan cuisines in the well-known address of 3 on the Bund, rubbing elbows with the likes of Jean Georges and Laris. Seems I always end up in this famous fine dining neighborhood of Shanghai, being a regular at the Westin on the Bund during my frequent business trips to the city. And so it was that we found ourselves at Whampoa Club looking forward to some inspired Chinese cuisine.

As is often the case on Asian menus, it seems the more descriptive text is in the local language and so the dishes themselves are described quite simply.  I really do miss the evocative descriptions on menus - for me it is a kind of culinary foreplay to the main event. In fact, I have often fancied being a menu copywriter – when done well, the way the words are strung together in menu descriptions can be a culinary poetry that sings to the diner.  Since this was not the case on this particular menu and given its seemingly endless number of pages (15+), we asked our server what they were famous for and what she would recommend.

And so we found ourselves with an assortment of dishes including Crispy Beef Strips with sun-dried pickles and orange peel (68 RMB / $ 9.96 USD / $S 14.54); the chef’s signature Deep Fried King Prawn coated with a Wasabi Dressing and Crispy Prawn Flakes (188 RMB / $ 27.55 USD / $S 40.21); Sauteed Chicken with Fresh Mango and assorted peppers (88 RMB / $ 12.90 USD / $S 18.82); and finally an order of Pork Buns (68 RMB / $ 9.96 USD / $S 14.54).

The King Prawn was the standout dish of the evening– cooked perfectly in a lightly crispy coating and drizzled with a judicious amount of sauce lightly seasoned with wasabi. Being not a huge fan of wasabi, I was pleased that it was not a overwhelming aspect of the dish and allowed the other tastes to hold their own. The shrimp actually reminded me of a favorite dish from a Cantonese restaurant called Chiam in New York City – I haven’t eaten at Chiam in probably 5-7 years, but when I lived in that area of Manhattan, there was a dish called Grand Marnier Prawns that I used to crave fortnightly.

The Pork Bun was a cross between a bun and a potsticker – crispy on the bottom and fluffy on the top. While it was hard to criticize per se, I am not sure this Pork Bun was any better than your typical street food dim sum buns, which are quite good anyway and at a fraction of the price. The Chicken and Mango dish was simple, but enjoyable, with the perfectly ripe mango contributing the expected freshness to the saucy chicken. Sadly, the beef was rather forgettable…a little dry and excessively tough and chewy.

While individual dishes like the King Prawn did stand out, I kept asking myself what is holding me back from a wholehearted recommendation of Whampoa Club?  And on the final analysis I have to say there are simply far more spectacular fine dining options simply an elevator ride away on at 3 on the Bund or even across the street at 5 on the Bund in Shanghai. Yes, Whampoa Club features a Bund view (“bund” meaning the embanked riverfront for which Shanghai is famous), but the overall ambiance of the place was an odd combination of grand Chinese decor and modern Mondrian inspired color panels. A combination that frankly should be reconsidered and somehow even though it features timeless design references, manages to give an overall feeling of the place being a bit tired and dated. The too bright lighting inside didn’t help matters much either. And to be honest all this combined did effect my enjoyment of the food. Don’t get me wrong, I eat noodles on the street with motorcycles whizzing by and am perfectly happy…but when one goes to the oh-so-luxe Bund, one expects a more refined aesthetic.

The jarring décor combined with good, but not excellent cuisine, makes me think that next time I will choose a slightly more exalted dining option on the Bund…maybe M on the Bund again, or Jean Georges. Since the aforementioned options are all rather international in nature, if I am really craving Chinese food, I’d probably head back to my old friend South Beauty instead, a Shanghai classic fine dining restaurant where one can be sure to get tasty, reliable and elegant Chinese cuisine in a lovely setting.

Whampoa Club
3 on the Bund, 5th Floor
Zhong Shan Dong Yi Road
Shanghai, China
Telephone: +86 21 6321 3737

Pictures from Whompao Club via Just the Planet

Hey all,
A trip to Hong Kong without Dim Sum is like going to Texas and not getting a steak, Japan and sushi, New York and a bagel/hot dog, and… well you get my point. We knew we needed to find and cover dim sum on our last Hong Kong trip, but which place would be best? After studying various options we settled on City Hall or Maxim’s Place on the 2nd floor of City Hall, Central. 

We decided on this one because it’s not as trendy as the others…. we’ll do that next time. According to most sources this is the last of the traditional dim sum locations and very worthy of a top in city ranking.

I don’t know what we expected in terms of ambiance, but I think it’s fair to say that we weren’t expecting a hotel conference room type vibe… which is pretty much what this place feels like. But that’s OK, we were there for the food and not to look at a pretty room. The place is massive and was already packed. After about a 20 minute wait we took our seats.

Check out the guy behind the cart eyeing the dim sum!

Besides the glowing recommendations from many articles, the main reason we chose this location was that they serve the dim sum on passing carts. I learned dim sum in Bangkok. Learning dim sum there is great, but unfortunately I learned things in Thai…not super helpful outside of Thailand. So when I read a menu with English descriptions of the offerings I’m lost. It’s so much easier to have carts roll by and all you have to do is point and eat.

I won’t try to match up the names and the pieces. They moved too quickly for us to appropriately name all the dishes we tried. I will say that all were good quality and well made. It’s amazing to me that they can pump out good quality dim sum to such large numbers of guests.

Some of the items that caught our attention on the menu included:

Deep Fried Dumpling w/ Shrimp
Steamed Shrimp Dumpling
BBQ Pork Bun (one of my all time favorites…and breakfast in Bangkok)
Baked BBQ Pork Puff
Steamed Sponge Cake
Rice Roulade w/ Shrimp
Fried Cuttlefish w/ Spicy Salt
Deep Fried Taro Puff

My favorite from this dim sum restaurant

It was a nice meal at our own leisurely pace. It’s nice sitting and having tons of different “waiters” passing the table from time to time with various goods. Can eat, digest, get ready for more…with no pressure. The place is a bit packed out, but the noise wasn’t bad at all.

I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to try dim sum in Hong Kong, unless you’re wanting ultra modern/clean/new interpretation kind of stuff. Also this isn’t a cheap, road-side stand kind of place with plates averaging between 25-44 HKD per dish.

City Hall Maxim’s Place
Low Block, City Hall, Central, Hong Kong
2526 9931

Located about halfway down Smith Street (a large collection of Chinatown street food), Lan Zhou La Mian lies quietly hidden behind other stalls and tables. There are no street hawkers accosting passers-by with menus or pictures of food. You can’t even see the sign for the restaurant from some angles. But if you take two seconds to look, you can see the sign that matters most to Singaporeans (one we’ve quickly learned)– the “this shop is full/has a line outside the restaurant” sign. Unless it’s a dead day (public holiday, early Sunday, etc), if you walk by a hawker stall, food court, whatever and don’t see a line… chances are it’s not worth eating.

Thankfully our good friend Allexia was already keyed in to this phenomenon on her first exploration of Smith Street. Given that the street was relatively dead that night, the number of diners in Lan Zhou La Mian surprised her. So she decided to test it out.

Allexia ordered the dumplings and loved them. She took Joanna who also loved them. Joanna brought me and now… lets just say they know our face. If we don’t turn up to eat there two times a week now they’d probably send someone looking for us.

The first two dishes we ate, and the dishes that continue to bring us back are the dumplings. Specifically the panfried and steamed – mostly the steamed. The panfried dumplings are very similar to what we call “pot stickers” back in the south and what the Japanese call Gyoza. They’re tasty with just the right amount of crispy on the outside. But the steamed dumplings… words can’t really do them justice. The soup contained inside combined with the sausage (if marketed in the States would put Jimmy Dean out of business) form a Chinese taste sensation that’s perfect any time of the day. We’ve had them for late breakfast, business lunch, dinner with beers, and they’ve always been just as satisfying. The only downside to these tasty little treats is that they’re served in servings of 8 – just not enough so we end up having to order two!

It wasn’t till I had been dining there for a week or two that we finally branched out. I was eating lunch with a friend and he had the good sense to ask the shop what they were famous for. The server replied by gesturing at a photograph on the wall – Minced Pork with Bean Sauce Noodles. Done. This dish has now been added to our regular meal there.

The noodles should have been obvious to us, but since we are unfamiliar with Chinese cuisine and noodles we had no idea. The name of the shop Lan Zhou La Mian gives it away. La Mian, is a traditional hand-pulled noodle from Lanzhou, China. They are wheat noodles similar to Yamien noodles, but vary a bit in texture and shape.

The restaurant itself is a pretty basic, street-type shop. Plastic chairs, one page laminated menus, cheap plastic cups for drinks, and a clear view into the kitchen – where the main chef entertains diners by publicly preparing the noodles. This is somewhat of an attraction, as the photographs lining the walls will attest.

The last time we ate there they saw me with my camera taking pictures of him working the dough and had me join in – but sadly it was with my camera so I’m not holding my breath that I’ll be featured with the hundreds of others on the wall… but hopefully someday ?

Our regular meal –

• Chinese Tea or Homemade Herbal Tea
• The complimentary “pineapple” Kimchi with peanuts to start (I love it, but Joanna and others that don’t like Kimchi don’t appreciate the taste)
• Steamed Dumplings (these days usually two servings)
• If only one serving of the Steamed Dumplings then we’ll also get a Panfried.
• Minced Pork with Bean Sauce Noodles (to share)

Lan Zhou La Mian
Location
19 Smith Street (Chinatown MRT)