Go west for true Far East flavour

10 April 2012

Chinese food didn't particularly impress me until I started visiting the country in the early 1990s. What I ate in China was shockingly different from anything I'd previously tasted, and altogether more delicious.

My first taste of the famous cuisine of Sichuan province, during a fleeting visit in 1993, was partly what lured me to go and live in the Sichuanese capital, Chengdu. While officially learning Chinese at its university, I took private cooking lessons at the famous local culinary institute, and ended up training as a Sichuanese chef.

Since then I have roamed all over the country, from the dim sum restaurants and speakeasies of Hong Kong to the pasta-eating north, from the Turkic oases of Xinjiang to the old gastronomic capital of Yangzhou.

When I first became interested in Chinese food, the restaurant scene in London was limited and dominated by Anglicised Cantonese dishes. Since then, growing numbers of Chinese visitors and residents have created a demand for better food.

Regional restaurants are springing up, and menus are becoming more adventurous. It's still just the tip of the iceberg - Chinese cooking is extraordinarily rich and diverse - but things are definitely improving.

Here are a few of my favourite places to visit when I feel nostalgic for an authentic taste of China.

NEW MAYFLOWER
When I go to Chinatown, this is usually where I end up. It's a casual, crowded Hong Kong-style restaurant where you usually have to queue but the food is hearty and delicious, and served in generous portions.

Its Chinese menu has some more unusual dishes but the main menu is tempting too. I've enjoyed the slow-cooked belly pork with taro, and clams in the shell in a boisterous black bean sauce. They give Chinese customers (and others who ask for them) free pickles and Chinese-style desserts. 68 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1 (020 7734 9207). Cost: £25 per person.

JEN CAFE
This tiny Chinatown cafe, with its short menu and canteen-style decor, is not a place to linger but I like to drop in for a plateful of jiao zi (boiled dumplings), or some guo tie - "pot-stickers" - the same dumplings steamed and fried until their bases are golden.

Jiao zi are a typical northern Chinese snack but they were rare in London until a couple of years ago. You can watch a woman wrapping the dumplings in the window - they are always freshly made. Jen offers a pork and a vegetarian version. 4 Newport Place, WC2 (no phone). Cost: Main courses from £4-£16.

BAR SHU
Just entering this place in Soho makes me feel happy because the aromas of the food remind me so much of Chengdu. The food is upmarket Sichuanese, with a mixture of street snacks such as the divine pork dumplings in chilli sauce, and more expensive dishes including boiled sea bass in a fiery sauce, which comes to your table in a sizzling cauldron of chillies and Sichuan pepper.

Decor is idiosyncratic, with a many-armed Buddha statue presiding in the main dining room. I have to declare an interest as I work for the restaurant as a consultant but the many Chinese customers and Chinese food aficionados who eat here seem to appreciate it, too. 28 Frith Street, W1 (020 7287 6688). Cost: £25-£40 per person.

PHOENIX PALACE
London now has plenty of good dim sum places, from the Royal China chain to the posh Royal China Club in Baker Street and Hakkasan, but I keep returning to Phoenix Palace.

It feels just like Hong Kong, with its large, smart dining room filled with Cantonese customers and a good menu that features interesting Cantonese dishes and seasonal specials.

It's also popular with the British establishment, judging from the many photographs of ministers and other grandees on the wall.
5 Glentworth Street, NW1 (020 7486 3515). Cost: £20 per person for dim sum, £25-£35 for dinner.

SHANGRI-LA HUNAN RESTAURANT
Here I was amazed to find a chef and other staff from the northern Hunanese city of Yueyang offering authentic dishes from the region. It's not posh food by any means but as far as I know it's the only place in London when you can order Hunanese pickles, steamed fishhead with salted chillies, or Hunanese duck hotpot. Decor is functional, the place is obscurely located, and the demolition of the whole Oriental City complex seems always to be imminent - but it's fun. Oriental City, 399 Edgware Road, NW9 (020 8200 9838). Cost: main courses from £1.50-£16.

DRAGON CASTLE
Despite its unpromising location, this restaurant has won plaudits for offering some of the best and most authentic Cantonese food in the capital. Chef Felix Yu leads a team known for their deft touch at the wok and chopping board. Dim sum is served at lunchtimes. 114 Walworth Road, SE17 (020 7277 3388). Cost: £15-£35 per person.

HUNAN
At first glance this restaurant seems more European than Chinese. The food is Hunanese-via-Taiwan, which is to say that it pays homage to the cooking of a famous Hunanese exile chef in Taiwan, Peng Chang-kuei.

House specialities include a chicken and pork soup served in a bamboo tube, dry-fried green beans and Dong Po pork belly but the best way to order is to leave the staff to design your menu, which will involve a parade of many small dishes.

I love the way they use some more unusual ingredients, such as lotus root and bitter melon. 51 Pimlico Road, SW1 (020 7730 5712). Cost: £45-£55 per person for a feast.

Shark's Fin And Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop will be published by Ebury Press on March 6th.

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Go west for true Far East flavour

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