Opposable Chums

Must see this documentary:

Opposable Chums.

About the World Series of Birding.

Miso So-so: a Dim Zum lunch

My intrepid Zoë and I head out for another 4 and 20 experience.

End up in Miso, a new noodle bar in Richmond that turns out to be part of a chain. What is it with these Wagamama clones?

This one is very much like Ping Pong, the place that launched this blog. Clean, contemporary, inviting but ultimately a fast food joint. You can get both Chinese dim sum (which translates as 'touch the heart') and Japanese noodle dishes from the same menu. Always suspicious.

Special #4. Coconut Butter Prawns – crunchy, salty, kind of yum but no hint of coconut.

Dim Sum #4. Minced Prawn and Crab Dumpling (see above with Zum) – Run of the mill but a dumpling. Dipping vinegar with red chili slices. Zoë dared me to eat a chili.

Main Menu #4. Seaweed. With lumps of fivespice, I think. Sweet, crunchy, dissolving.

Dim Sum #20. Grilled Meat and Vegetable Buns. Zoë: "They'r elike marshmallows or candyfloss. White puff sugar buns. Sometimes sweet and savoury doesn't work together but htis does." Too sweet for me.

In fact, it was all a bit sweet and gummy and greasy and queasy. With a distinct MSG buzz to take away.

Do Chinese people fear 20?

Okay, so if you look at my first blog post, you'll see that our first restaurant (Dim Sum) did not have either a four or a twenty on its menu.

I suspected this might be a Chinese superstition and now I'm starting to feel I might be right. I checked out our Chinese menu for home delivery (Good Earth, Richmond -- really good).

They have a 4 but no 20.

Hillside Thai: Bean Curd Blocks!

Hillside Thai in Richmond (Red Lion Street).
Bright, cheerful room. Serene, dignified waiter. Christmas shoppers scrabbling past the window with their bright bags of crap.

#4 Kanom Jeeb – Steamed dumplings. Pork and prawn (probably not kosher then). Delicate. Served in a basket. Wilted sprig of coriander. Two sauces for dipping: a thick, sweet soy and a bright red thing that made my head sweat.

I've never met a dumpling I didn't like. I even love the word 'dumpling'.

#20 Tou Hou Tod – Deep fried blocks of bean curd, each just big enough to subsume a small matchbox car. Nicely stacked on a plate alongside a carrot flower and a real orchid blossom (surely they must re-use these). The sauce: peanut and plum (like an Indonesian or Malaysian Satay sauce).

After a few minutes the batter on the tofu blocks was getting soggy from the steam. Still a nice soft, warm substrate and a thoroughly efficient vehicle for the sauce.

With a small bottle of sparkling: £12.50 + tip.
I recommend this place.

The uncanny birth of a blog

I've been wanting to do this one for a while: travel around the world (or wherever I happen to be), go to restaurants with numbered menus, then try the same numbered dish at each one and report on it.

Yesterday, Zoë (that's her on the left) and I decided to start. We chose the numbers 4 and 20. Four would probably give us a starter and twenty would put us deeper into the main courses.

We went to Marylebone High Street in London to do some Christmas shopping. The first lunch place we saw was Ping Pong, an outpost of a newish dim sum chain. We went in and looked at the numbered menu. To our shock, the only numbers missing from the menu were numbers 4 and 20.

I'm not kidding. No four. No twenty. What are the chances of that? Do the Chinese have a thing about 4 and 20 the way superstitious westerners do about 13?

We thought about changing our numbers to 2 and 26 and duly ordered these. They weren't very good.

Tim Little convinced me to stick to 4 and 20 and start the blog with the weird story.

Not the official start, but FYI:
Number 2: Chicken dumplings - off-puttingly sweet & gummy
Number 26: Duck Spring Roll with Hoi Sin sauce – flavourless rolls, candy-like hoi sin


To be fair, the steamed dim sum was better at Ping Pong than our two choices. But this is still one of those 'concept' restaurants where more has been invested in the concept than in the food, I'm afraid. It looks great and the menu makes you want almost everything. But the dishes let it down.
Shame because I love Dim Sum.

Sam Taylor-Wood and Jay Jopling were there while we were eating. I tried not to look.