Free time

My study schedule is pretty busy in Kunming, with full time classes from 8:30am to 4pm, and then another 2 hours or so private studying at home in the evenings. So it comes as no surprise that I'm enjoying my afternoons off right now due to Chinese New Year, and probably explains why I am posting so much at the moment :)

I'm currently sitting in a beautiful, extremely Western cafe drinking some beautiful Earl Grey tea. Prague Cafe appears to be something of a Yunnan guilo institution, with branches also in Lijiang and Dali, and it is packed out with us guilos all using the free wireless. There is quite a good book exchange here of both Chinese and English books (Clare - I finally find an Isabella Allende here! After all that time trying to track her books down in South America!), good collection of wines and teas, which almost makes up for the fact that they play Dido non stop.

For lunch, I munched my way through a spaghetti carbonara:

Now, carbonara is one of my comfort foods of choice, but this was really quite hard going. Maybe it's because my body has become so used to the lack of cheese and cream, that even now, 90 minutes afterwards, I can feel it just resting uncomfortably in my tummy. Maybe I should have stuck to the questionable Japanese food they serve here.

The other benefit of free time is that I've been able to wander around a lot, sampling the various street food on offer. Most of it is common to what you will find all over China - stone fried chestnuts, boiled peanuts, tea soaked eggs - and I have been indulging in some of my favourites. Nothing like a roasted sweet potato from the roadside on a cold day:

Although the middles tend to be a little raw (and if you're Chinese, you'll know the consequences :p)! I also like the 年糕 year cake, a cake which is about 80% pure brown sugar, sliced and lightly grilled. It's nothing like my mum's though - she used to make fried pieces of it dipped in egg after we came home from school, and sometimes even wrapped in spring roll wrapping and deep fried - how on earth was I not the size of a house when I was in high school?

The other thing I really like about being here is that no one calls me Connie - yes, that is the extent to which English is spoken!! Everyone calls me by my Chinese name, which is a bit weird (even my folks call me Connie, or Eric when my mum muddles us up), but also quite nice at the same time. Apparently I have quite a pretty name, my homestay mum in particular loves it. So pretty in fact, that I should start charging the number of shops that illegally use it without my permission, such as this one!:

It's just like when we were in Chile and kept seeing Claudia's name everywhere! Appropriately, this is the first time I've felt so happy and elegant in a long time, so long may it last.

Chinese New Year

This year was the first year I had a proper Chinese New Year in China in many many many years, and Yinne very kindly invited me to Beijing to spend it with her extended family.

A lot of Chinese families spend New Year's Eve making dumplings, and given that I was in Beijing, obviously we had to do it. It is one of my favourite things to do with my mum and dad, so I was pleased to spend the evening wrapping away. Here were our creations - please note that the especially pretty pleated ones were mine :p

And the lovely family working hard :)

And given that it was New Year's, I was literally fed every minute of the day!!! This was the small (!) selection of snacks available when we were wasting away the evening playing mahjong - pistachios, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, strawberries, grapes, oranges, pear and apple, and I think some walnuts, sweets, and biscuits joined the party a few minutes later:

I was fed some very very nice buns for breakfast one of the days. I'll have to ask Yinne again what they're called, a kind of non juicy siulongbao:

My one big request whilst in Beijing was to have Beijing duck, mainly because all my blooming Mandarin textbooks always use it as an example of where people go for dinner with friends!!! I'd eaten it once before in Beijing about 6 years ago, and remember it being so greasy, but good! Again, Yinne's lovely family came up trumps and treated us to a lovely duck meal at their family's favourite duck place, 鴨王烤鴨, literally the King of Duck. I feel fat just remembering that meal!:

It was probably the best Chinese New Year's I've had in a long time. I especially loved the literally non stop fireworks right outside the house for about 5 hours before and after midnight on New Year's Day, and seeing people carrying huge boxes of fireworks with cigarettes dangling from their mouths. Only in China!

Lunchtime!

Yunnan University is situated right by what they call 外人街, Foreigners Street, and there is no shortage of interesting food options for lunch between my Mandarin lessons. For the first week, I literally only went to one place, 胡九小吃, horribly translated to 'The No.9 Man in the City', a chain of Yunnanese fast food eateries specialising in Yunnanese spicy noodles. I literally still cannot get enough of them, especially as they are only about Y6-7 a bowl.

But I was starting to get strange looks from the staff, so decided it might be best to venture out to see what else was out there. One of the more popular places is Heavenly Manna on 文化巷Wenhua Xiang, popular with foreign students because it claims it doesn't use any MSG in its food. The menu is ridiculously long, specialising in homestyle cooking - I would love to go back with a few friends, because going on your tod really doesn't make sense here, given portions are huge and family style. The day I went, I plumped for 魚香茄子 (fish scented aubergine) and 家常豆腐 (family style tofu):


Both were pretty good, but I should have probably chosen something not spicy :p And of course I completely blew my usual lunch budget - this came to a grand sum of Y20!

My private Mandarin tutor 飛飛, Fei Fei has been raving on about this Indian restaurant near our lessons ever since I got here, adn I was interested to see the Chinese take on Indian food (trust me, the Indian take on Chinese food is not pretty!). The Indian Kitchen is on 文林街 Wenlin Jie, and is apparently owned by an Indian. Well, when I walked in, he certainly wasn't about, nor were any other Indians, and the walls appear to have been decorated by the Indian Tourist Board.

The menu though, is pretty much what you'd expect from a typical English Indian place - onion bhajis and pakoras for starters, lots of baltis and jalfrezis and tandooris for mains. This was the first non-Chinese meal I had eaten since I arrived here, so I thought I would plump for the most Western thing possible: our national dish the chicken tikka masala!!!

And it was pretty much like the ones we have at home, although this version (we are in Yunnan after all) definitely had a kick to it. I decided to be a pig and also had some naan bread:

This looked pretty underwhelming when it arrived, but it was actually very very good, you could tell it was straight out of the tandoor, even reminded me of the breads we had in India. I was completely completely stuffed though, and burped my way through my Mandarin lesson afterwards (poor Fei Fei). But I was starting to learn the lesson that non-Chinese food is ridiculously expensive compared to Chinese - this set me back Y40. Later that day I found Earl Grey tea at Y10 a pop - might turn into an expensive habit given that I drink buckets of the stuff.

After yoga one evening, I decided to continue experimenting and spotted a chain of Japanese ramen eateries right next door. I have seen 味千拉麵 Ajisen Ramen all over Hong Kong before, and don't think they've got that good a reputation there, and apparently it is huge in China now (67 stores in Shanghai alone, according to wiki). I was tired and hungry, with memories of Ryo's in Sydney in the back of my head, so I went for a 豬軟骨拉麵 (tender pork ribs ramen):

Again, very keenly priced at Y28 a bowl of noodles in China, but I must admit it wasn't all that bad. Given that the soup base must be mass-produced somewhere, it had a decent flavour, and the pork rib was very morish. Not sure why it is quite so popular though, given its price and you can definitely find more interesting noodles all over China. I will have to venture into a proper Japanese sushi place next to see what that is like here...

Yunnan's most famous dish - not very impressive

Every single guide book I've read (I've actually read one written by a Chinese person, you'll be glad to know) raves on about Yunnan's most famous dish, 'Over the Bridge Noodles' 過橋米線. The story behind it is kind of romantic I guess. It goes that there was a scholar, once upon a time, who had to cross the bridge to go to his lessons. His patient wife had to deliver him his lunch everyday (yes, I mean, wtf?!), but by the time she arrived, everything would be cold. But one day, she delivered him some chicken soup which had a thin film of fat on the top, and it remained warm, so she used this idea to make her husband a noodle dish each day.

So today, Over the Bridge Noodles is basically a bowl of hot soup (stewed with chicken, duck and spare ribs), accompanied by a variety of raw/semi-raw foods which you put into the noodles to cook at the table. Yesterday I went to try, and my version had quail eggs, chicken, several unidentified pieces of pork, beansprouts, and Chinese chives:

The woman next to me was laughing at me as I was assembling it all - although I look the part, they can always tell I'm a guilo really :) The soup wasn't actually all that hot, but the chicken was actually cooked, the pork really thin, so it did all cook very quickly.

But I must say I was pretty disappointed by this. It was a lot less greasy than I'd imagined, but it is pretty much a boring bowl of soup noodles, and the soup wasn't all that exciting. I was later told that I had to go to this really famous place in Kunming, 江兄弟, which is really famous, and most importantly run by some former students of my homestay mum's! I think I'm going to stick to my hot and spicy lunch noodles for now, until Caris and the crew arrive in Kunming for our eating fest anyway! :D

Home cooking

Living with a homestay family means I am being extremely well-fed in Kunmimg. I haven't had 2 meals the same so far. Spicy and oily food is pretty ubiquitous, and pretty much every day for lunch I go and have some hot and spicy noodles (my favourite!), so it's a good thing that my homestay mum cooks pretty plain food at home.

Some examples of my dinners here - the first one was some simple vegetables in soup, with some fried pork - accompanied by hot sauce :)

This meal, we had pumpkin soup, tofu with carrots and chinese chives, and some Kunming roast pork - very much like 叉焼 (char siu), but less sweet:

Last weekend, I also had some time to learn some dishes and help with the cooking (normally I get home from school about 5pm, and dinner is already on the table - the Chinese do eat alarmingly early). My sister Yang was making a beef stew (need to find out the Chinese name), which involved orange peel, chillis, ginger, star anise:

Rough method was:

1. Frying off chunks of beef brisket until dry; add in some soy bean paste, then remove to a plate

2. Fry the above ingredients in the same wok, until the chillis change colour

3. Return the beef to the wok, and add about 3 large bowls of water and bring to the boil

4. Pour the whole thing into a slow cooker and slow-cook for about 3 hours

I was doing my homework with it all bubbling away, it made me darn hungry that afternoon! The resulting beef was just melt in the mouth, must try and cook more beef brisket at home.

That day for lunch, my honestay mum made us all wontons (餛飩/雲吞). Kunmingese wontons are a little different from the Cantonese ones I'm used too - much less filling for one thing, and wrapped different too.

And of course eaten with some hot sauce - I really liked the addition of Chinese chives in this one though:

Thank goodness it's all pretty wholesome and healthy food, otherwise I shall return to England the size of a house.

Some things I am missing though right now:
1. Cheese - which always happens when I'm in Asia, not a sniff of Stilton to be had here
2. Tea - obviously I am drinking buckets of Chinese tea here, but I haven't had a proper cup of milk tea since I arrived!!! I do actually have Earl Grey and PG Tips in my suitcase, but we don't drink milk at home
3. Alcohol - no, actually, I'm quite glad to be missing it (although a nice glass of Chilean red would definitely warm me up in the evenings). I haven't ventured out to any guilo bars yet, I don't really felt the need. Last week I managed to go the whole week without speaking a single complete English sentence. Today, some Swiss students arrived today - the first guilo students I've encountered actually, but they speak French!!! I will probably really confuse myself if I try to speak French to them too... :)

Kunming first impressions

I am now in Kunming for 2 months doing an intensive Mandarin course in an attempt to get at least conversationally fluent before I leave. People have asked me why I chose to come to Kunming to learn Mandarin (as Bernard said, it's kind of like going to Texas to learn English), but Kunming is in Yunnan province, which borders Burma (or Myanmar), Vietnam, and Laos, plus the province itself has some natural Chinese beauty spots in Lijiang and Shangri-la, I thought it would also be a good base to do some travelling. Kunming is also blessed with eternally spring-like weather - I had thought of going to Harbin or Dalian, where the accent is supposedly more accurate, but they are about -10C right now!!

I am staying with a lovely host family during my stay here, in the hope that I will get to practice a lot more than if I was staying in the university dormitory. The apartment I am staying in is really very nice, in the north part of Kunming, set in the middle of a modern, middle-class housing estate. I have a cosy room all to myself:

I also have a private bathroom, which I probably shouldn't go to after a few drinks...:

I have a lovely new mum and new sister who I am living with. My new mum is a retired primary school teacher, and my new sister, Yang, is currently studying for her Masters in Chinese ethnic minorities as well as training to be a high school teacher. She is about a month younger than me, it's lovely having a sister my age :) Here she is in the kitchen making her breakfast:

The apartment itself is really spacious, with 3 bedrooms, and a lovely open lounge:

The lounge opens up to the dining room which is actually on the balcony:

Overall, I am loving it, although it is a little cold at the moment. Average temperature around this time of year is 10-15C during the day, but it does get pretty cold at night, about 2-3C. It doesn't help that there is no heating in most apartments here.

Luckily, I have something to cuddle up to when I get cold! This is 毛頭 (literally translated as Fluff Head), who is my new dog!!! I am quite excited about having a dog. He is very very well behaved, and likes to look at himself in the mirror, which confuses him:

I am starting my Mandarin lessons proper tomorrow at Yunnan University, apparently the most prestigious university in the province (although I am also told that all universities in Yunnan are amongst the best in the country - arf!). Here is where I shall be having lessons with all the other guilos:

Obviously, the most important thing to be reporting on is the food - and I'm glad to report I am ecstatic at the quality so far. One of the best things about living with a host family is that I get to eat normal home-cooked meals rather than having to eat out all the time. This was my breakfast this morning, glutinous rice steeped in soy milk. As my mum will know, this is exactly the kind of stuff I love to eat, but will never be able to make back home, such a good start to the day:

The food options around the university are also pretty excellent. Given the number of international students at Yunnan Uni, there is a whole street of foreign-inspired restaurants right next door, but there are also tons of local eateries around. Yesterday, Fei Fei, one of my tutors, took me to have Beijing dumplings, at Y3 (about 30p) a portion! Today, I had a 酸辣粉 which set me back a grand sum of Y6!

The pricing of things here are a bit crazy - as you can imagine, anything slightly foreign is hiked up (I am currently sitting in a very Western coffee shop to take advantage of their free wireless, but a coffee here will set you back Y20, or about 3 bowls of noodles!). I am determined to stay away from white people whilst I am here though, which is probably help both my wallet and my waistline :)

Back in Hong Kong: just before I leave

Just before I leave Hong Kong, I just had to have another juk hit. During my juk googling, I found another place in Central which reportedly has good juk, even better than Sang Kee, so I rushed off to Hong Kong Station to get rid of my luggage first thing in the morning to make sure I had time for a visit.

The place is 羅富記 (Law Fu Kee), and there are two branches, one on Queen's Road Central, and also one on Lyndhurst Terrace. The former branch I have walked past many times before, and there is always a huge stink of won ton noodles flowing out, and also for novelty value I went to the Lyndhurst Terrace branch. As the menu boasts, it is an expert in juk and noodles:

And very extensive the menu was too. But I was lazy and stuck to what I knew - another bowl of fish ball and beef juk!!! I think this was a little cheaper than Sang Kee, HK$26 a bowl, and there was the added bonus that I was sitting right next to the juk chef. This is normally quite a disturbing experience in Hong Kong cafes, as you get to realise how extremely dirty the kitchen areas are, and true enough, the chef was wearing wellies, and I'm not sure his fingernails have seen a nailbrush recently. Ah well, at least you can see that he was making the fishballs from fresh!

And here was the masterpiece:

The verdict? You could definitely taste the MSG in the juk, I was reaching for my water bottle literally as I walked out of the door. I liked the fishballs, but the taste of orange peel was a little bit overpowering. Still, the beef was very very good.

I also had an enjoyable time actually at the airport for once! First, I spotted a famous Hong Kong actor there in the lounge with me, 元華 (Yuen Wah), who was in Kung Fu Hustle, but more impressively was Bruce Lee's stunt double in Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon (I obviously just looked all this up on wiki :p). But more importantly, the Dragonair lounge actually has a noodle stand and you can get wonton and fishball noodles for free!!! You have no idea how excited that made me. Hong Kong airport is just ridiculous nice (there is also free wireless in the entire place - Heathrow T5, leave and learn!!), looking forward to my being back there!

Back in Hong Kong: Day 2 spicefest

For the reunion with the Uncle B/no-longer-Uncle B crowd, we had to go have Sichuan food, which still gives me some of the fondest food memories from my transfer to Hong Kong. The 麻辣 ma-la numbness is just too addictive, and there is always the spectacle of seeing Nic sweat so much he needs to bring a towel.

We decided to defect from our usual Sijie Private Kitchen though, and go to a rival place set up by one of Sijie's relatives who used to work at Sijie's, but had a fight with her (this is what Nic claims anyway :p). The decor is definitely interesting - so many soft furnishings around you do feel like you're invading someone's front room, plus there are a few useless sister-like waitresses hanging around.

The place is 渝川菜館, also at Lockhart Road in Wan Chai. Overall, everything was nowhere near as spicy as Sijie's, but this actually made most things edible!! Part of why we love Sijie's I guess is the challenge of seeing how long you can last before you lost all feeling in your mouth, and this was somewhat lacking here.

Nevertheless, some excellent food to be had. My favourite dish of the night was 夫妻肺片, literally translated as husband and wife pork lungs. I think this might be the first time I've ever eaten it, but so so good. The texture is slightly chewy, but moreishly so, and I liked the level of spicing to give a little warmth:

We also had my favourite 麻婆豆腐, mapo tofu, which made us all reach for that bowl of plain rice:

The chilli chicken lacked any noticeable evidence of actual chicken pieces:

We were also not so impressed with the squid with lychees, which just tasted weird:

But we loved the cold spicy noodles - this dish is normally the one that kills us at Sijie's, but this version was lightly spiced, and the noodles had just the right amount of chew. I could have eaten the whole plate of this had this not arrived right at the end.

It was supposedly the coldest night of winter so far in Hong Kong, so was good to eat some spicy food, but not sure we are in that much of a rush to go back to this place.

Back in Hong Kong: Day 2 Kau Kee fest

After all that juk, it was amazing I still had room for lunch, but I really did have to make room because we were going to 九記牛腩 Kau Kee on Gough Street!!! This is probably one of the most famous noodle shops in Hong Kong, and apparently frequented by Tony Leung (although I haven't had the very good luck of bumping into him yet). Expect to queue to get in - Brian and I arrived at 12:15 for opening at 12:30, and look at the queue by 12:25 (with Brian looking smug at the start of the line!):

I literally do regularly have dreams about this place, mainly of me being in a taxi and not being quite able to go there. And every time I go, I have 2 bowls. This time though, I decided to experiment and try the curried beef brisket e-noodles:

Hmmm - this was my second bowl, and I regretted deviating from what I knew (profit from the core and all that :p)!!! I agree with Edwin that the curry at 九記 leaves a bit of a funny, almost stinging taste in your mouth - the curry one last night was definitely better. And the brisket in this bowl was ridiculously fatty :(

But it just cements the fact that their clear soup brisket e-noodle is just ammmmmmaaaaazzzzing. Just such a fab combination, and just small enough a portion to make you want that extra bowl. Although I am getting swayed by Wes' idea of just having the soup and noodles instead - maybe when I am back in March. Anyway, here is my stuff of dreams!!!:

Gah, this has made me hungry now!!

Back in Hong Kong: Day 2 jukfest

This post is mainly for Dave's benefit, as I know it will drive him nuts

Still on my quest to find a congee breakfast, I had a good google session last night and found somewhere nearby, and it's apparently quite famous! I quite like the fact that these little places get a bit notorious in Hong Kong and people flock to them clutching their food magazines. Anyway, the place was 生記 (Sang Kee) on Burd Street in Sheung Wan, which also has a few other branches including one in Yau Ma Tei.

The menu was really quite tremendous - you can basically get any combination of congee (or juk) containing fish belly (their specialty), beef, Chinese mud carp fish balls (鯪魚球), fish bones, pork liver, lean pork, preserved egg, chicken, pork heart, and probably some other things too. I wasn't really quite brave enough to try the fish belly, so I opted for a 'ping' of beef, fish balls, and preserved egg:

I was in juk heaven!!! Exactly exactly what I was after. The juk itself was very soft, very 綿, and didn't really taste that MSG-fied, although they did give you a very tasty dish of soy with spring onions which definitely was just MSG and soy!! The ingredients were also rather fine. The fish balls were just perfect - favourful, bouncy, with a nice bit of coriander through them. The beef was silky smooth, and the portion more than generous.

Given that I will only have this one time there, obviously I had to try some of the side dishes, which quite disturbed the waitress I think!!! I ordered both the fried fish cake (basically the fish ball but fried to give some crunch) and dough stick:

It probably was too much in the end, but the waitress just kept asking me 'are you sure??!!' when I kept ordering more things. Certainly not the behaviour of a normal Hong Kong girl to ask for so much food! But they were both just perfect accompaniments to the juk, I scoffed it all! All this came to HK$50, a little expensive perhaps for a juk breakfast, but very good it was.

The waitress herself deserves a comedy sketch! She practically runs the place, and it's amazing to see her memorise every single order in her head, shouting at anyone getting in her way. She also likes to burst into song at random intervals. This place illustrates exactly why I love Hong Kong cafes - there may be a guy right behind you slicing up the pork livers, and the place really isn't that clean, but it's all about the food. And you can have little giggle to yourself about the waitress too :)

Back in Hong Kong: Day 1 noodlefest

I am back in Hong Kong for a few days en route to Kunming, where I shall be stationed for 2 months in my ever attempt to learn some Mandarin.

I am really like a child whenever I am back in Hong Kong. I was born here, and grew up here until I moved to the UK when I was 7 years old, so all my tastebuds are geared towards the things I used to snack on as a little kid. My poor friends have to put up with me as I eat the most unsophisticated things :)

First up, I really really wanted congee this morning when I woke up, but after the demise of Ho Ho Congee Shop on Des Voeux Road, it looks almost impossible to get a decent bowl before 11am in Central anymore. So I had to settle for a real childhood favourite - plain cheung fun (or rice noodle sticks I guess is the nearest translation) with sesame, soy, and sweet sauce, or what I affectionately call dok-dok cheung fun (because you are given a stick to poke or 'dok' it) - it took me a looooong time to find a place that does it in Central, but there is one on Lyndhurst Terrace:

This actually got me thinking about how onomatopaeic Cantonese is, and how childish it actually sounds. In an average day, as well as the dok-dok, you will also encounter doot-doot on the underground, can ride on a ding-ding, and if you live in my house, you fight over the gum-gum. I obviously need to get out more.

For lunch, I went to the place I went to most often when I lived here for 6 months in 2006/7, and it is very dear to my heart mainly as none of my friends really quite get why I'm so obsessed with it. 南記粉麵 (Nam Kee) on Stanley Street is a typical Hong Kong cafe serving noodles with dumplings, fish balls, beef balls etc., but specialises in what they call 春卷 or spring rolls, but are really the Chinese version of fish fingers. Laden with MSG, they are really addictive. Today, I had what my usual, a chilli broth with fish-skin dumplings (top left corner), spring rolls (top right corner), and beef brisket (the brown lumpy things), served with ho fun, Chinese chives, beanshoots, dried beancurd, and spicy minced pork - HEAVEN in a bowl, and all for less than 3 quid:

And if you think the stuff above is weird enough, I would stop reading now!! I suggested to Edwin that we go to 九記牛腩 (Kau Kee Beef Brisket), which is the place I have repeatedly dreamt about for dinner tonight, and he actually (somewhat blasphemously) suggested there was somewhere better for beef brisket in Wan Chai!!! So I couldn't resist the challenge.

Similar to Kau Kee, this place was tucked away on a side street off Wan Chai Road. I will probably never find it again, but I did cleverly take a picture of the name in case my dad wants to go sometime:

The menu is pretty similar to Kau Kee's, specialising in beef brisket in clear soup, or beef brisket in curry, but it is a bit more extensive in offering some other beef bits and bobs. First up was the curry - I've never had the curry at Kau Kee's actually, mainly as I have normally already scoffed 2 bowls of the clear soup to fit anything in, but this version has encouraged me to branch out. Only criticism was that the brisket was a bit on the fatty side, with large lumps of yellow fat that I had to pick off - and you know how much I like my fat!

For the clear soup, we actually had beef brisket as well as honeycomb tripe, or 金銀肚, which easily became my favourite thing I ate today. I love love love tripe, it is by far my favourite dim sum dish, and this was just a revelation! People say that Chinese food is all about the texture, and this is just the perfect example. The outside is nice and soft, but once you bite in, there is just a little bit of chewy give. More please!

Of course, whether this is better than Kau Kee really is still up for questioning. Good job I'm going there tomorrow to revisit how good it is then!!! :D

First pud of 2009

I realised what a horrendously sweet tooth Drew had when I visited him in Brighton, and I’m very proud of his resolution for 2009 to cut down the 3 sugars he takes in his tea. As return for his kind hospitality therefore, I attempted to make him one of his favourites, a cheesecake. The problem was that I had not made one for a good few years (probably since school!!), so I kind of made it up as I went along, but it turned out really good!

Raspberry and passion fruit cheesecake (serves 1 hungry, greedy Drew, who refused to let me take any for Kath and James to try!)
150g digestive biscuits
125g butter
Half a large tub of raspberry yoghurt
1 small packet of cream cheese
4 tablespoons sugar
Some fresh raspberries
Some passion fruit

1. Crush the digestive biscuits – the method I used was to wrap them in some paper towels and bash them with an empty wine bottle, but might be safer to use a rolling pin and clean tea towel if available!
2. Melt the butter, and let it cool. Once cool, mix in the crushed biscuits, and press into the bottom of your cake tin
3. Mix together the yoghurt, sugar and cheese and add more/less sugar to taste. I think the version I did at school actually also had some whipping cream in it, but I guess this is a slightly less fat version, hee hee
4. Pour the cheese mixture on top of the biscuit base, and return to the fridge to set for at least 30 minutes
5. To serve, either cover the above cake decoratively with your raspberries and passion fruit. But the trick I learnt from Come Dine With Me is to actually serve it in little glasses – layering both the biscuity/cheesey mixture with raspberry and then topping with passion fruit.

So simple, and really quite yummy! And of course, we were Loving It!!!

Finally, dan dan mein in London!!

Somewhat on a whim, I ended up in Bar Shu (巴山) in Chinatown with Simon and his lovely girlfriend Lisa the other week. I’ve heard so many good things about Bar Shu, tauted as one of the first genuinely good Sichuan (or Szechuan) restaurants in London, but had never managed to make it there given that most of my friends would be massively scared, and you really do need a crowd for this kind of food. But Simon’s girlfriend is Chinese too, and when they invited me, I was straight on the phone booking a table.

I got addicted to Sichuan food in Hong Kong, after Nic introduced us all to the magical Sijie (四姐) Private Kitchen in Wanchai. I can’t get enough of the immense spiciness coupled with completely numbed lips from the Sichuan peppercorns, it just raises your heartbeat a little. And the dish I am most addicted to is dan dan mein (擔擔麵) - noodles in a spiced soup, with some more spiced minced pork on top. Surprisingly, it was difficult to get a good version of this even in Hong Kong, and I regularly got into trouble by going to 小南國 in Central, a pretty posh place, and only ordering a HK$20 bowl of noodles, so I have given up even looking for it in London. Until now of course!!!

So, the Bar Shu dan dan mein. The very first impression is that it is ridiculously expensive - £4.50 per serving, and the serving is absolutely tiny!!! About the size of a normal Chinese rice bowl!!! This was made worse by the fact that the noodles were really actually pretty good – lovely flavour in the soup, lovely topping with a little sautéed garlic, the noodles themselves just the right side of chewy – you just had to eat it really really slowly to make it last the whole meal! If the serving was about 4 times bigger, I would definitely be a regular.

We did try some other dishes there. Simon’s choice was a not so spicy Fish Fragrant Aubergine (魚香茄子), which was not particularly fragrant with fish, but the aubergines were lovely and smooth:), which was not particularly fragrant with fish, but the aubergines were lovely and smooth:

We also had the very traditional Boiled Sea Bass in Chilli Oil (水煮魚), which is as tasty as the Sijie version which I love so much. But the waiter was in somewhat of a hurry to fish out (no pun intended!!) the chilli and peppercorns that I didn’t have time to take a picture, so I substitute one from Sijie instead!! It really isn’t as spicy as it looks, bonus is if they put any beansprouts or glass noodles at the bottom. Mmmm!

The verdict? Really very authentic stuff, and really very tasty, but oh is it expensive!! The fish itself was £28 by itself!! Time to book in some time with Sijie for my little visit in Hong Kong methinks…