Barbecoa

Commuting into the City is a slightly unnerving experience for me. Not only have I been transplanted into a concrete jungle from marshy, spire-strewn Cambridge, it's actually a journey that is incredibly familiar to me. I took the tube into school in the Barbican every day for seven years and six years later here I am again, rejoining the Square Mile rat race for law school. It's no wonder that certain City landmarks fill me with nostalgia. St. Paul's was once a favourite lunch spot; I know I'm at a very different stage in my life when it forms the backdrop to a celebratory dinner with Roxy at Barbecoa.

 

The Basque word barbecoa is the origin of the word barbecue, so it will come as no surprise that this restaurant places a heavy focus on meat, particularly steaks. (Vegetarians, I promise I will find a veggie restaurant to blog about soon.) But it's a steakhouse with a hell of a view. Christopher Wren's instantly recognisable dome is visible at all times through the floor to ceiling glass windows, and with a view like this and a cocktail in your hand it's hard not to feel like you own the city, SATC-style. Especially when your best friend has just been promoted (well done, Roxy!)

If anything deserves a toast, it's a promotion. And to our delight, we discovered that Barbecoa serves £5 cocktails from 5-8PM - if that's not a deal in the City, I don't know what is. What followed was genuinely one of the happiest hours I've had so far this year. I chose a chartreuse daiquiri - a spellbinding concoction of white rum, chartreuse, lime and cane sugar which made my lips tingle. For Roxy, the Barby 75, which might as well have been made for her - London dry gin, prosecco, rhubarb bitters, lemon and sugar.

To begin, we shared a plate of crab hush puppies with a sweet squash salsa and chipotle mayo. I thought the fruity chunks of squash went exceedingly well with the crab and gave the fried hush puppies a much-needed light, fresh touch. 

But it's the main event everyone's really interested in. Particularly when it looks like this. Roxy is a steak connoisseur (she's also pretty good with the wines - I let her take over the reins on this one) and immediately went for the fillet. It's one of the pricier cuts on the menu, but oh man, was it good. Tantalisingly pink from the outside, this steak rolls deep with the most appetising of companions - a hefty dollop of smoked béarnaise and luxuriant bone marrow dressed in a herb salad. I took one bite and immediately fell prey to the most insidious food envy. 

Steak ordered, I decided to pick a main with a palpable barbecue element to it, and guided by the very helpful Charlotte (always patient, smiley and very knowledgeable about the menu - a real credit to her team!) I chose the pit beef from the Low & Slow section of the menu. The beast that arrived must honestly have been the same size and weight as one of my calves. Encrusted in a beef-dripping crumble, it came with a dash of bacon and Worcestershire sauce ketchup and a New York slaw. 

The meat itself had a supremely smoky flavour, as expected! Probably owing to the fact that it was such a huge piece of meat, I found the top part of the cut slightly dry, but this was easily remedied with a splash of ketchup and the underside was juicy and tender enough to keep me happy. My vegetable cravings, meanwhile, were seen to by the little mound of slaw on the side.

Rather incredibly, Roxy managed to not find the bone marrow until the steak had nearly been polished off. We were wondering how she'd unintentionally avoided it at the time, but now that I see the photos I have my own theory on the clandestine bone marrow: Roxy's over-enthusiastic inclusion of the beef dripping chips. DCI Lim at your service. The chips themselves were fine, but at £5 I expected them to be a cut above - crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, all that jazz. Yes, I'm spoiled. Any dryness was again, easily offset by sauce - in this case, a pot of classic mayo.

The other side we chose was a delightful creamy spinach with nutmeg. Had Roxy not been there I would have hoarded this in the manner of Gollum and the Ring. My preciousssssssss. 

A marathon of a meal like this practically requires an intermission for digestion. Luckily, it wasn't quite 8PM yet so we ordered a second round of £5 cocktails...

...and prompted by the dazzling array of bottles at the back of the restaurant, a few glasses of wine. To Charlotte's horror, Roxy daringly ordered a well-priced white in spite of the red meat-heavy meal (quick disclaimer: sacrilege committed, culinary or otherwise, when we're out together is her fault and not mine - I allude to what happened later that night. My halo remains thoroughly intact.) 

Our second cocktails of the evening: femme for me and butch for Roxy. Coming Up Roses was an ecstasy of rose liqueur, cranberry, vodka, lemon and sugar complete with single floating rose petal worthy of Valentine's Day. For Roxy, Unkie Steeners Old Fashioned: a short masculine tumbler filled with a liquid so dark it'd prompt a warning from the bartender (do any guys out there get cautioned that their drink of choice is a bit strong, or is it just us delicate gals?) - bourbon, fernet branca, Islay whisky and a root beer reduction. 

Our hunger for all things savoury wholly sated, our thoughts turned to pudding.

Our choice: the Snickersphere, a name that brings to mind childhood excursions to the newsagent for chocolate bars as well as something a little more sci-fi and fantastical. And that's pretty much exactly what we got. Topped with a sliver of gold leaf, this chocolate dome rivals St Paul's Cathedral.

A bisected Saturn ringed with peanut fragments and orbited by a scoop of malt icecream.

Inside the sphere: the ice-cream freezer tucked away at the back of the newsagent's. Icy strata of peanut praline, chocolate and vanilla parfait with a glistening river of salted caramel. Exceptional.

Thank you for a fantastic meal, Barbecoa! Knowing that there's a new Barbecoa-to-go branch on Watling Street is going to be a serious temptation where it comes to my lunch hour in Moorgate from now on. For now, I'll content myself with fantasising about the Snickersphere. And next time I visit, I'm heading straight for the steaks and no one can stop me...

Disclaimer: I was invited to review Barbecoa on this occasion; all opinions remain firmly my own.

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Silk Road

Today I'm wrapping up my holy trinity of Chinese New Year posts with Silk Road. We started our voyage at C&R in peninsular Malaysia with six centuries' worth of migrant southern Chinese recipes. Next we travelled back up to mainland China for the refined yet familiar Cantonese fare of Pearl Liang. Finally, I invite you to journey with me to Silk Road, serving food from the furthest reaches of northwest China by way of Camberwell. Silk Road serves food from the gigantic Xinjiang province which borders on Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, a culturally unique location immediately discernible through its flavours. I'm embarking on new territory here as this is a style of Chinese cooking that is completely new to me; chances are it will be new to you too!

There's a kind of magic in stepping out of the pouring British rain and into the warmth of the restaurant, the rough and tumble interior of which would not be out of place in China itself. The huddles of people waiting around the door and the buzz of the packed long tables are testament to the overwhelming popularity of this place (and indeed, don't bother turning up if you don't have a  dinner reservation here as you'll be queueing all night). Hustled to the back of the restaurant, blessedly miles away from the wind and rain, we started safe with dumplings. Yet what dumplings. Fried to perfection and stuffed with soft, wonderfully flavourful beef and onion. A strong start.

But it's where the menu takes a sharp turn away from the easily identifiable dishes that things start getting exciting. A plate of shredded kelp salad with chilli, Szechuan pepper oil and garlic was reminiscent of a Japanese sunomono salad in texture, but with far punchier flavours.

As soon as the waiter set these grilled swordfish skewers down in front of us I knew we'd found something special. This dish speaks volumes about the rich culinary history of the Silk Route: kebab dishes immediately conjure up visions of the Middle East. In fact, shish actually came to Xinjiang through the Uyghur tribe, a Turkic ethnic people who migrated from Mongolia into Northern China over a millennium ago. This fish had an amazingly smoky flavour brought out with paprika and I found myself fighting my family for the meat. For an incredibly cheap lunch, a fish skewer plus vegetables would suit me just fine.

Another set of skewers, and not one that you would immediately associate with a Chinese kitchen. These lamb shish, roasted over charcoal and rubbed with cumin and chilli, were absolutely spectacular. And of course, memories of Central Asia immediately sprang to mind as I bit into the meat - particularly images of snacking on kofte in Istanbul. 

Another interesting dish, especially to a girl who considers herself somewhat of a noodle connoisseur. These Xinjiang style noodles are hand-pulled into all shapes and sizes, stir-fried for a deliciously chewy texture, and doused in a broth flavoured with tomato, onion, chillies and pieces of lamb. It's a flavour profile that irresistibly reminds me of Italian pasta, and leaves me in no doubt that Marco Polo must have brought noodles back to Italy (controversial, I know...)

An undisputed highlight of the meal was the double cooked pork - incredibly thin slices of pork belly with shallots and onions, coated in a tangy sweet sauce. One of those dishes where the family ate in silence, interrupted only by sighs of contentment. Make sure you order this.

This 'big plate chicken' wasn't what I expected at all. I'd pictured a large dish of Chinese-style chicken. The reality was far more interesting: a trough of soup brimming with wide, hand-pulled 'belt' noodles added at the table. These were unlike any noodles I'd ever eaten before and actually comparable to sheets of lasagne, spiced up with chunks of chicken, potatoes and green peppers. This was hearty, filling, simple food that I can imagine has been eaten by rich and poor alike for centuries. It's apparently the most popular Xinjiang dish in China, and it's not hard to see why.

And at the end of it all...the remnants of the home-style cabbage. Crunchy young leaves drenched in silky sweet soy sauce and piquant red chillies - well, they obviously went down a treat. So much so that I didn't realise that I hadn't taken a picture until I'd had three helpings.

Silk Road is undoubtedly one of my new favourite restaurants in London. It's been around for a good while but shows no signs of decreasing in popularity. It's also incredibly good value for money (our bill came to about £13 per head). Don't be put off if you're not a south Londoner - this sort of food is worth travelling for.

I hope you've enjoyed my trilogy of Chinese New Year posts! C&R, Pearl Liang and Silk Road show just how amazingly diverse Chinese food can be in the different regions in and outside of China. All three are worth venturing to for different reasons and I would recommend each and any of them to any brave soul wishing to expand their knowledge of Chinese food beyond prawn toast and spring rolls! Tomorrow marks the end of CNY (and the Lantern Festival), so a final gong xi fa cai to all: go out and feast on the food of the Middle Kingdom for one last night.

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Pearl Liang

Welcome to the second of my three Chinese restaurants for Chinese New Year! The second installment in a trilogy is sometimes regarded as a disappointing filler, but let's just say Pearl Liang is The Godfather Part II - a shining gem in the depths of Paddington Basin. The last post focused on C&R, where you can drop in for a bowl of noodles whenever the fancy strikes; meanwhile, Pearl Liang is definitely reserved for more special occasions. Walking in here stirs up fond memories of Chinese New Years past, lunches with family friends, and lobster noodles on the day I secured a training contract last July. Needless to say, it's the food that induces us to return time and again. 

Lychee martinis all round. We ordered these for the first time in a glitzy bar in Shanghai nearly a decade ago (I only had a sip, okay?) and now they're the cocktail of choice in our family.

Starting on a high point with a majestic Peking duck and pancakes. Usually we order a half roast duck or crispy aromatic duck with pancakes, but apparently Peking duck is more befitting of a formal meal at CNY (and crispy aromatic duck is a British invention - who knew?)

It's also incredibly tasty - a strong contender for my desert island dish. Succulent meat, crispy skin with a lacquered shine, cucumber and spring onion strips, fragments of keropok and sticky plum sauce to tie everything together. Honestly the stuff of dreams. Tread softly because you tread on my duck (an excerpt from that well-known poem, Tamsin wishes for the pancakes of heaven). I'm delirious with the memory. 

There's a few prescribed dishes you must eat if you're seeking maximum luck at Chinese New Year. Some are chosen for their names - for example, the word for glutinous rice cake is niangao, which sounds like 'getting higher year on year' - excellent for increasing the height of your children, your grades, your performance at work, etc! Tangerines, too, are great because they're 'golden' and are called chéng, which sounds the same as the Chinese word for success. Meanwhile, dumplings are mandatory simply because they look a bit like boat-shaped Chinese ingots, so eat them for maximum prosperity and wealth!

Wasabi prawn dumplings. 

Sticky pork xiaolongbao bursting with soup.

King prawns with chilli and onion. 

Noodles are also de riguer at New Year - unsurprisingly, their length denotes longevity. Apparently the longest noodle ever made was over a mile long, so whoever ate that should live to 1000. 

Sister's favourite fried ho fun with beef. 

And finally, we went panning for gold in this miniature lake of coconut milk, the tapioca spheres within themselves reminiscent of seed pearls. Ending on a virtuous note. I'd like to think so, anyway.

Pearl Liang also does fantastic dim sum, but although it has an evening dim sum menu (the source of the dumplings), it always feels slightly wrong to order dim sum when the sun has gone down. Do you have a favourite dim sum restaurant to recommend me? There's one last weekend of festivities for me to indulge on dim sum with minimum guilt, you see...

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C&R

Happy Chinese New Year to all my readers! Regardless of whether or not you are of the Asian persuasion, I hope you've all had the chance to celebrate and eat good Chinese food. In London we are blessed with a host of excellent and varied Chinese restaurants on our doorsteps, and in honour of the new year, I'd like to introduce you to three of these, starting with C&R in Westbourne Grove. It's high time I devoted a post to it since I have had countless happy meals here! Catering for homesick Malaysian Chinese expats seeking the elusive flavours of sambal, belacan and gula melaka, it's an established favourite with my family and therefore the perfect place to see in the Lunar New Year.

While flipping open the menu reveals the Chinglish typos that never fail to make me snigger (I'll bet smacked cucumbers make for a spicy evening. Yes, I have the immature humour of a 12 year old), the actual content is fairly different to the 'number 35' Chinese food you may be used to in most parts of the UK. At C&R, you can do so much better than the classic Cantonese takeaway staples of chow mein, sweet and sour pork and spring rolls.

For example, ask me about my favourite dish at C&R and I'll wax lyrical for about ten minutes about the wat tan ho. It's the closest I've found to my favourite childhood meal from 'Fatty's' in Petaling Jaya (no wonder I put on 5 kg every time I go back...) - thick, flat noodles, king prawns, fat fish balls and chewy squid swathed in a sticky egg drop sauce. Heaven.

For the true Malaysian, though, it's the fish-based asam (sour) laksa which is the main draw - rice noodles and cucumber strips swimming in that characteristically sour, spicy lemongrass broth that is catnip to those raised in Malaysia. According to my mum, C&R is the only place in London where you can get an authentic asam laksa fix. But beware - this is not a dish for the faint-hearted! The uninitiated may be left bewildered, eyes and nose streaming. Or worse, unconscious. I speak from bitter experience - but then again, I'm a spice wimp.

Usually when it's just the two of us we order the wat tan ho and asam laksa and leave with extremely contented (and often, distended bellies). But on special occasions we'll order a little extra. CNY eve definitely qualifies as such an occasion. The star dish, ordered on a whim, was the incredible butter prawns: deep fried and nestling in light flakes of batter interspersed with distinctive-tasting curry leaves and red chilli. At £16.50 this dish is not cheap by any means (by contrast, the wat tan ho and asam laksa clock in at a much more manageable £8.50 each) but oh my, it's worth it if you're willing to splash out a little.

Also incredibly delicious: this Japanese beancurd hotpot. Sizzling merrily away, it's another great dish for a celebration, and is just made to be wolfed down with a generous bowl of plump white rice.

There are so many more excellent dishes on the C&R menu that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend - the crunchy kangkung 'Morning Glory' belacan, the sweet cendol drink-dessert that transports me straight back to childhood, the roti canai and char kway teow. And for those reluctant to make the journey to the further reaches of west London, there's the younger sibling branch in the heart of Chinatown, raved about by Jay Rayner, which is also worth checking out. If you're new to Malaysian food, start here - I guarantee you'll be back for more.

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