Pre Zoo Dim Sum at London Jade Garden

This week I took a well deserved Monday off to go to London and see my friend Kathryn for a day of fun in honour of her birthday a few weeks back. We planned to do a few things but the two main items on our list were dim sum in Chinatown and London Zoo. I had asked the advice of my lovely London foodie friend Julia about good dim sum, she recommended London Jade Garden on Wardour St. also Royal China which is near Baker St. was praised even higher.

So Kat and I took the tube down to Piccadilly and went in search of those wonderful Chinese morsels.  London Jade Garden was extremely easy to find, which was encouraging as there are so many restaurants in Chinatown that it can be hard to locate the one you are actually looking for.

Decorated with dark woods, old Chinese photographs and pictures and smatterings of gold you will also get the benefit of proper tablecloths, something my mum is often quick to point out when we go out to dine. Chinese tea was waiting for us as soon as we sat down, at 50p a pop for a big pot, this is a bargain and perfectly cuts through the richness of the dim sum. We ordered 7 dishes between us and waited as patiently as two hungry people could manage.

Very Fluffy Char Siu Bao

Har Gau Dumplings

Siu Mai and Squid Rings

I will keep this brief but the dim sum was excellent, definitely some of the best siu mai I have had and the pork buns were super fluffy and well filled. The fried prawn dumplings were a bit different to what I have had before the only real way to describe them is like a pasty but with batter instead of pastry. The turnip cake is something I am slightly addicted to it's slightly sweet, pretty moreish but I know it won't be for everyone, but if you are adventurous give it a go.  Definitely head to London Jade Garden if you fancy a cheap lunch this only cost us £11 each, and the service was quick and efficient.  I could have eaten more but London Zoo awaited so decided to hold back a little, but I definitely have a dim sum addiction forming.

Fried Prawn Dumpings with Salad Cream Dip

Turnip Cake, (although really it is made with shredded Chinese radish)

 Next couple of blogs will hopefully include breakfast at Cosmopolitan, wine, cheese and nibbles at The Kensington Arms and dinner at Noa. Enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend people, got any good food plans in the pipeline?  In the mean time enjoy this photo Kathryn took of some lemurs.

London Zoo Lemurs

Lunch at Leong's Legends in Chinatown

This will be a post about my lunch at Leong's Legends in Chinatown, not obviously Bristol but definitely a tip if you like a good meal for a good price and you are in London.

It was the morning after the night before, which in question was my friend Andrea's hen do. There was drinking at the beautifully decorated Jewel cocktail bar on Piccadilly Circus and karaoke and set menu Chinese food at Imperial China in Chinatown. The food at Imperial China was actually quite nice especially the pork in ginger dish.

On Sunday I woke up tired but without a thick head, stuck to light drinking you see. After being cooked a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs with smoked salmon by Jessie's cousin whom we were staying with, I said goodbye to the beautiful Siamese cats that I had the pleasure of being pestered by throughout our visit and headed from Tufnell Park to Angel.  It was still early so I read my book and watched the rain with a hot chocolate in a nearby cafe. I was due to meet my super lovely fellow excitable foodie Julia for lunch and was really looking forward to a good catch up mostly talking about our latest food experiments. Once I got the signal I went off to meet her and we travelled down to Chinatown.

After a good amble about deciding where to eat and sifting through the Chinese supermarket for various delights we settled on Taiwanese restaurant Leong's Legends.

You have to knock on the door to be let in, which was some what of a novelty. It is quite a small restaurant inside with lots of dark rustic wooden tables. We settled in the corner and sat down with the menu to decide. We decided ordering a few dishes and sharing bits and pieces would be a good way to test more of the menu. We chose, crispy chilli beef, sticky rice steamed in bamboo, some char siu bao, siu mai, prawn dumpings, fried turnip cake and their speciality Legend's xiao long bao or siu loung bao as they are on the menu.

Legend's Xiao Long bao

This was my first experience of xiao long bao, they are described as soup dumpings, I assumed they would be dumpings in a soup. I was wrong. They taste a lot like gyoza, minced pork with ginger and other fragrant spices. However the difference is that they have soup stock inside them. They make these by popping a gelatinous soup stock cube inside the dumping which then dissolves when they are steamed. These were delicious if you see these on any dim sum menu order them immediately, although wait for them to cool a bit first.

Crispy Chilli Beef and Sticky Bamboo Rice

Pork and Shrimp Siu Mai

The crispy chilli beef was spicier than I've had before but very tasty. The sticky rice came in a mini barrel for us to scoop out. It had mushroom, chicken and shrimp mixed in with it and was simply wonderful. I was pretty slack taking photos because I was too busy eating and talking but we ordered just the right amount of food. The siu mai were stuffed with pork mince and shrimp and might have even been better than the ones I had at Dynasty. The fried turnip cake was a revelation it was almost creamy with a very slight hint of sweetness I am definitely keen to try it again it was just so different.

Prawn Dumpings

Finally, always a favourite the prawn dumplings, they look so pretty the crimped translucent bundles of peachy coloured joy. These were some of the chunkiest shrimp filled ones I have tasted so far and the casings just melt in the mouth.

Lunch for two with Chinese tea accompaniment cost us £17 each a total bargain for all the food we had if you find yourself in Chinatown definitely pay Leong's Legend's a visit it is really worth it.

This weekend we are off for a barbecue where I will show off my Pina Colada making skills, wish me luck it's been a while.