Foodie treats in the East

People always wince slightly when I tell them I live in East London, but it is such an underrated part of London. This is made even more so now that there are increasingly interesting and good places to eat around here. Everyone must know about Tayyabs in Whitechapel by now, but here are two more places you should definitely make the long trip over to try.

The first is Cafe East, a Vietnamese establishment originally in the middle of nowhere in Deptford, which literally had about 6 tables. It has recently moved to much larger premises right next to Surrey Quays Odeon, and whilst the location is still quite random, the food remains as good as ever.

Their menu is really quite brief, with some quite interesting English translations, but all you really need to know is to order copious amounts of banh cuon. Apparently their version is not at all authentic, and I must say I haven't found a similar version anywhere else in London, but essentially it is steamed rice flour rolls (cheung fun) with a pork, mushroom and vegetable filling, covered with slices of Vietnamese sausage, beansprouts, deep fried garlic and herbs. Doesn't sound like much, but it is a taste sensation!:

I met another Connie at this lunch (very confusing), and another one of Eugene's friends Cindy, both of whom have never really tried Vietnamese food before, both of whom loved the banh cuon!! We also ordered the more traditional prawn and vermicelli rice paper rolls to share, not quite so exciting:

But the other main thing I come to Cafe East for is their pho. Again, I don't think it's all that authentic, and they only offer rare or well done beef (so no brisket, no tripe, no other random organs unlike most other places), but their soup base is very good, very intense:

One thing to beware of is that their portion sizes are a bit ridiculous. I struggled to finish off my pho, and the beef and vermicelli salad that Cindy and Eugene both ordered were bigger than my head! This place is out of the way, but it is now within a 10 minute walk of Canada Water station, so come when the Jubilee Line actually works / when the East London line starts working again!

East London is also very good for not-so-ghetto, not-so-fancy dim sum. Yi Ban (一品) is right opposite London City Airport, a bit in the middle of nowhere, but is DLR-able as it's right next to Prince Albert DLR station. They have these huge windows all alongside one side of the restaurant, so you can watch planes go up and down, and it has much nicer service than your average Chinese eatery.

My family and our family friends John and Julie have been coming here infrequently for the last few years. The standard has picked up recently, so we decided to come here for Easter weekend dim sum. Beware that it gets packed at the weekend, so arrive before 12:30 if you don't want to wait.

We had the most pleasant start to the meal. The table next to us had a big plate of what looked like 酥餅 or flakey biscuits, something obvious not on the menu. So we asked one of the waitresses what it was, and it turned out they were specials they gave to their 熟客 loyal customers. We certainly are not that loyal, but they gave us a plate anyway! They were very flakey and slightly almondy/coconutty, and best of all, free (we're so Chinese)!:

Overall, the standard of the dim sum here is absolutely fine. The very standard 蝦餃 'har gau' prawn dumplings and 燒賣 'siu mai' pork and prawn dumplings were just ok, but some of their more unusual dishes are actually very good. Their 八爪魚 octopus is very very good, although you wish the portion was a big better (you can tell they bulk it up with pickled vegetables underneath!!):

Their 墨魚餅 fried cuttlefish cake was very homemade looking, and had some lovely coriander and spring onion flavour:

I also liked their 豆苗餃 pea shoot dumplings. I love pea shoots, and the flavour of them really came through:

My favouritest dim sum dish ever, 牛柏葉 tripe with ginger, was very good, not greasy like it sometimes can be:

We also indulged in some pudding. Julie recommended what they call the 雷沙滑湯丸, a very flowery name for what is basically moochi with a sesame and peanut filling. It was very moreish given it was made fresh and still hot when it arrived at the table, but very heavy too:

Other good East London dim sum places that you might also want to try:

• Peninsula 新世紀 - at the bottom of a Holiday Inn in North Greenwich - consistently good over the years, but this one really needs a car to get to
• Shanghai 上海 - located in an old pie and eel shop in Dalston - used to be very good, including a dim sum 'happy hour', but standards went down after it changed hands, and I haven't been in nearly a year
• China Palace - by the Excel centre, it used to be called Superstar and had a list of discounted dishes every weekend - but haven't been since it changed hands