food to dine on in London

I wrote about Chinese food in Britain a few weeks ago and now retract my statement about the state of Chinese food there.

If there is anybody who could find decent food in London, it is Terry Durack who writes for the Independent. Mr Durack was the restaurant reviewer many years ago for the Sydney Morning Herald. He moved to London with his partner Jill Dupleix when she got a job with The Times.

Mr Durack has found some decent Chinese eateries in London

Friday, 08 August 2008
Eat: Chinatown lifts its game

By Terry Durack

Judging by young diving champion Tom Daley's response to the deep-fried sparrows and water lily bulbs he is encountering in Beijing ("not nice"), our British athletes seem ill-prepared for the immensely varied cuisine of China. It's hardly surprising given the all-you-can-eat-Chinese-buffet culture of our own Chinatowns, I suppose, but sad nevertheless.

Personally, I'm as jealous as all hell about the deep-fried sparrows and water lily bulbs. But at least I can see a few auspicious signs that London's Chinatown might be heading for a bit of a revival.

It started in 2006 with the opening of Bar Shu, a small, sweet and spicy Sichuan restaurant just over Shaftsbury Avenue. Then came the modern Haozhan in Gerrard Street, after a raid on the kitchens of Alan Yau's Hakkasan. Just lately, we have seen the glammed-up Plum Valley in Gerrard Street, and the cheap and cheerful Baozi Inn, a Sichuan noodle-and-bun bar in Newport Court.

Now the Taiwanese are getting in on the act, with queues forming outside Leong's Legends, an atmospheric little newcomer complete with wooden screens and roughly hewn stools, just off Gerrard Street in Macclesfield Street. The chef hails from Din Tai Fung, a global noodle and dumpling chain first established in Taiwan in 1958. To the dumplings and soup noodles, he has added popular Taiwanese street food dishes that take me right back to Taipei – but without the snake bile. Go for xiao long bao, eight steamed Chinese pork dumplings filled with a piping hot aromatic broth (don't burn yourself) for £5, or a simple summery dish of glass noodles with minced pork that I think is called Ants Climbing Trees (£5), and miraculously crunchy bright green garlic shoots (£6). The oyster omelette is good, too, rich and gooey and golden, packed with tiny oysters, and topped with a thick, sweet, brown sauce that tastes very like the Japanese "okonomiyaki" sauce.

The mix on the menu is not altogether surprising, given that Taiwanese cuisine is such a mixture of influences from Fukien, Hunan and elsewhere, including Japan. I'm heading back in for lunch, when the kitchen is turned over to more steamed dumplings, cheung faan ricepaper rolls and my beloved congee rice porridge. A few more interesting places like this, and Chinatown might start turning itself around.

Leong's Legends, 4 Macclesfield Street, London W1. Tel: 020 7287 0288 No bookings.

Of course, there is also Nancy Lam's Enak Enak restaurant (Indonesian and Singaporean food). I spoke to her on the phone once, hoping to make a booking or at the very least, visiting her for a chat. Unfortunately, her restaurant was all booked up and she was on her way out to a television studio (she had her own cooking show back in 1997 and after that, made numerous television appearances).



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I found my glasses. I wonder if I should cancel the order for a new pair.