[UPDATE - October 2009: I've returned to Leong's Legend for dim sum and it's turning into a reliable Chinatown dim sum spot for me. Apart from more xiao long bao (such good value and very soupy), I again ordered the Taiwan mini kebab with pork. It's very filling and most delicious. The pork belly rice is also highly recommended after you've had the dim sum dishes. It costs under £5.00 and for that, you get some gigantic hunks of pork belly with a sweetish sauce, and rice on the side. The classic Cantonese dishes - cheung fun, har gau etc are not as good in comparison. ]

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Background:

After I had dinner at Taiwanese restaurant Leong’s Legend a few months ago, I thought I’d never return. The three dishes I had weren’t bad at all, although they weren’t spectacular by any stretch of the imagination, but the rude manager annoyed me intensely. However, seeing as my Where To Eat Dim Sum In London post needed updating, I decided to give their dim sum a try, so feeling a little skeptical, I dragged along two dim sum veterans to help me out.

It was practically empty at just after 12.30, which was a relief, and even when we left an hour or so later, it still wasn’t that busy (perhaps not surprising given that it was mid-week). Although I kept an eye out for him, the rude manager was nowhere to be seen. In his place were calm and polite staff who served us efficiently and didn’t pull faces when I ordered tap water for three.

Menu:

The dim sum menu is small compared to other restaurants, but then this isn’t a Cantonese restaurant. There were a few classics like har gau, cheung fun, pan-fried turnip paste and char siu bao, but I was more intrigued about the non-Cantonese dishes. And of course on the menu were xiao long bao or Shanghai soup dumplings, pork as well as crab ones, for which Leong’s Legend have developed a good reputation. Having eaten xiao long bao most recently at Yum Cha (which were excellent), I was keen to see how these compared to those as well as the ones I’ve had in Taipei (the best ever so far). Xiao long bao aren’t technically classic dim sum fare, but more and more restaurants are now serving them as part of their dim sum menu.

What we ordered:

• fried dough stick cheung fun (£2.20) – my mother always orders this when we have dim sum. Both this and the roast pork cheung fun arrived in special cheung fun dishes, with the sweetened soy sauce in the sauce section rather than poured over the cheung fun, as is traditional. Because of this, the fried dough stick stayed nice and crispy. It was also perfectly fried and yet not oily-tasting. This is certainly one of the better versions I’ve had in London

• roast pork cheung fun (£2.80) – the cheung fun rolls, as with the fried dough stick cheung fun, were beautifully thin and translucent. The roast pork filling, cut into very thin slices (sometimes the meat is so chunky, it’s not very nice) was substantial

• pork xiao long bao (£5.00) – eight (very lucky!) xiao long bao arrived in a covered basket, with the dipping sauce of vinegar with ginger slivers. The skins were slightly thicker and not quite as silky as the ones at Yum Cha, and they weren’t quite as juicy. However, they were still very, very good and I look forward to returning just to have these and the crab xiao long bao!

• grilled minced pork buns (£2.50) – these sounded nicer than they actually were, in my opinion (top photo). They arrived piping hot, and the bun was light and fluffy, but the filling lacked flavour and was a little underwhelming, given their appearance

• roast duck & chestnut puff (£2.20) – a disappointing dish. The puff part was perfect, but I can’t for the life of me remember what the filling tasted like

• Taiwan mini kebab with pork (£2.60) – a stunner of a dish, although when it arrived, we had to ask for a knife to cut it into three. It’s the size of a smallish burger, with a gigantic slab of melting pork belly inside. The bread resembles the jiamo at Ba Shan, but is fluffier

• Beijing pork & chive dumpling (£3.20) – these are just boiled jiaozi (very popular in Beijing), served with a vinegar-based dipping sauce, when I was expecting steamed dumplings. These were rather ordinary, particularly when compared to the superb Ba Shan jiaozi

• wontons in spicy sauce (£2.80) – as I’d just made these Sichuan / Chengdu wontons (also known as chao shou in Sichuan) at home, I wanted to see what the spicy sauce tasted like. It was quite fiery (I know it’s all relative so you’ll have to try it for yourself!), and stronger than the Ba Shan version

The verdict:

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of dim sum at Leong’s Legend, to the extent that I’ve added it to my shortlist of dim sum recommendations. So far it’s the only Chinatown-based dim sum restaurant on the list and could very well turn into a regular haunt for me. I’ll have to return to try some of the other dim sum options, but based on what I tried, on my next visit, I would certainly re-order the xiao long bao, mini kebab and cheung fun. After a few more visits, I’ll be able to pin down exactly what to order and what to avoid, then I’ll update this post…

Click here to see the dim sum set of Leong’s Legend photos.

10 – Perfection, 9.5 – Sensational, 9 – Outstanding, 8.5 – Superb,
8 – Excellent, 7.5 – Very Good, 7 - Good, 6.5 - Above Average, 6 – Average

All the London restaurant reviews on World Foodie Guide

Contact details:
Leong’s Legend
4 Macclesfield Street
London W1D 6AX
Tel: 020 7287 0288

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

This is the eleventh in a series of Postcards from the recent Hong Kong, Macau and Beijing traveleating trip. Rather than writing up each food experience in separate posts, which would have taken me up to Christmas, I thought it would be more fun to outline the trip in diary form, to include travel and sightseeing tips as well as food recommendations.

Day 12 highlights:

• Beijing Glasses Centre & Panjiayuan
• lunch at Din Tai Fung
• foot massage at Taipan

Today was our last day in Beijing, and I had left it quite open in the schedule. We were also exhausted by this stage of the trip, and the last thing I wanted to do was sightsee all day, so it was nice to take it easy. The only planned event was lunch at Din Tai Fung, not to be missed. After having eaten at Din Tai Fung in Taipei (from where the world-famous chain originates), I’ve become a convert. All the photos are from lunch, except for the one of the vanilla ice cream with hot raspberry sauce, which we had for dinner after home-cooked mushroom risotto…

Beijing Glasses Centre & Panjiayuan:

Beijing Glasses Centre (sorry, a rough translation only) is about 5 minutes walk from Panjiayuan market. There are actually two buildings, across the street from each other, both full of shops selling only spectacles. Everyone goes to these two places to buy their spectacles as they are a fraction of the cost in retail shops, and you could spend an entire day here choosing from tens of thousands of pairs. We went so that the husband could choose a pair of reading glasses.

He ended up with two pairs made of handmade acetate, with ‘foreign-made’ lenses rather than domestically produced ones, costing just under £90 in total. The eye test was quite comical, as I had to do the translating, and there was a bit of haggling on my part, as our friends’ driver had told us that we would definitely be charged more as foreigners. Because it would take two hours for the lenses to be fitted, we returned to Panjiayuan to while away the time.

It was a very different affair on a Monday morning, with barely any visitors, and even the vendors looked too tired from the weekend hustle and bustle to work up the energy to sell to us. The shops around the perimeter were open, but not many of the stalls in the centre (perhaps one tenth of the total number). So if you plan to visit Panjiayuan, it’s got to be at the weekend, and preferably in the morning.

Lunch at Din Tai Fung:

The long-awaited event – lunch at Din Tai Fung. We chose the branch at Shin Kong Place, because we knew the building, and I’d had enough of hunting for elusive restaurants in an unfamiliar city. Located in the heart of CBD (the business district), it’s popular with nearby office workers, like our friend based next door in China Central Place. Although it was quite late, the restaurant was still busy.

It’s a large space, with some prized window seating, and the kitchen is visible from the outside (en route to the toilets), as the walls are entirely glass. This naturally attracts curious diners, and of course this food blogger. I was happily snapping away at the sci-fi scene, when I was politely asked by the manager to stop taking photos. Bizarre that the kitchen is on full public display, but photography is forbidden. Anyway, I took more than enough photos to show you…

The menu is bilingual with good quality photos (this seems to be the standard in all the restaurants I’ve visited in Beijing, making it very easy to order food). I was delighted to see that Din Tai Fung do half portions of most of the xiao long bao (Shanghai dumplings) and other varieties of dumplings, which meant I could try different things. After a quick read through, we hurriedly placed our order for:

• steamed specialty pork dumplings (RMB23 half steamer/RMB45 full steamer – these are Din Tai Fung’s most famous xiao long bao. I had one half steamer, consisting of five , then later ordered another half steamer! It’s also good if you don’t want them to get cold, as there’s nothing worse than cold XLBs. I’ve waited nearly three years to tuck into these, and they were worth the wait! (even though I remember them being even more amazing, so perhaps the Taipei ones are better quality. I’ve been comparing the photos of the Beijing and Taipei XLBs and the latter seem to first have more pleats and second appear more plump and full!)

• steamed specialty Shanghai hairy crab roe, meat and pork dumplings (RMB24 for half steamer) – as it was Shanghai hairy crab season, I thought I’d try these. Strangely enough, I didn’t like these so much, especially when compared to the plain pork ones. Perhaps I found them slightly too bland for my liking

• steamed vegetable dumplings (RMB23 half steamer/RMB46 full steamer – the vegetarian husband’s number one choice, we ordered one and a half steamers in total (not at the same time!). He loved them – the wrappers were super fine, and although the filling was not so flavourful, these tasted great with a chilli and soy sauce combination. The difference between these and the xiao long bao is that the vegetable dumplings contain no soup filling

• sautéed pea shoots (RMB38) – fresh and tender, cooked in garlic, this was an excellent accompaniment. Pea shoots can cost around £10 in London Chinese restaurants, so every chance we had, we ordered pea shoots in both Beijing and Hong Kong

Lunch for two came to RMB194 (£17). And the rest of the Din Tai Fung photos can be found here.

Foot massage at Oriental Taipan:

Two nights ago, when we were at Oriental Taipan having a foot massage, I decided to return for more. So after lunch, with nothing much to do and feeling quite satiated, we headed back for another 90 minutes of bliss. Despite thinking that my feet didn’t really need a foot massage just two days after the first one, in fact it felt almost as good. And best of all, daytime treatments are discounted, so for two of us, it cost a total of RMB237 (£21). If you’re in Beijing, I really recommend having a foot massage, particularly if you’re going to be on your feet a lot.

N.B You’ll find all the China Postcards under Restaurant Reviews – China, and the entire set of food photos on Flickr.

CONTACT DETAILS:

Din Tai Fung
No.2 Beijing Branch
6/F, Shin Kong Place
China Center
87 Jianguo Lu
Chaoyang District
Beijing
Tel:86 (0)10 6533 1536~7
OR
Din Tai Fung
No.1 Beijing Branch
24 Xinyuanxili Zhongjie
Chaoyang District
Beijing
Tel: 86 (0)10 6462 4502
www.dintaifung.com.tw/en/index.asp

Oriental Taipan (there are 5 other branches)
2F Block 9 Lido Place
2 Fangyuanxi Lu
Chaoyang District
Beijing
Tel: +86 (0)10 6437 6299

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

I’m writing this as a short companion piece to my post on How To Eat Xiao Long Bao or Shanghai Dumplings. If you’re not already a die-hard fan of xiao long bao, you’ll be converted once you’ve tried them. Then you’ll be on the never-ending quest to find the perfect xiao long bao…

Xiao long bao in Mandarin Chinese literally means ’small basket dumplings’, and originally come from Nanxiang, a suburb of Shanghai, China. The dumpling traditionally contains minced pork intricately wrapped in a delicate dough skin, which is then pleated multiple times, twisted at the top and steamed. There are now many variations on the filling, such as crab meat and pork, shrimp and pork, vegetable and pork, and just vegetables.

But the most special part of the Shanghai dumpling is the soup or broth inside it. I’m not even going to start describing how this is made, as it’s rather complicated, but it involves preparing the soup, chilling it and adding a small cube of the solidified broth gelee to the filling, which liquifies when steamed. The explosive combination of filling, soup and skin when bitten into is sensational, to say the least.

The xiao long bao are usually served in large bamboo steamers and come in multiples of eight or ten, but it really depends on where you eat them and if you’re eating them as a main meal or as part of a dim sum lunch, when they might come in threes. They are eaten dipped in light vinegar, with finely shredded ginger slivers. And apparently they come in different sizes, small, medium and large (the latter eaten with the aid of a straw to suck out the soup!), but I’ve only had the small version, which seems to be the most common.

As for how to eat them, please read the post I mention above. It’s quite easy once you’ve practised a few times, but there are a few ways to enjoy them properly, without tearing the skin and losing the precious soup. I also wouldn’t recommend popping the whole dumpling in your mouth like some people do, unless you want to seriously burn yourself. Some dumplings are completely sealed at the top, while others come with a small hole. With the latter, it’s less easy to burn your mouth, but be careful nevertheless.

How are xiao long bao rated? People take into account the thickness and texture of the skin; the quantity of soup (a soupless, dry xiao long bao is such a disappointment, which I recently experienced); the quality and moistness of the filling; the quantity of the filling (it should fill most of the dumpling and not be a measly bit inside a large skin); and generally the dumpling should taste extremely fresh, as it should be prepared upon ordering and not made in advance.

Hopefully I’ll go to Shanghai in the near future, so that I can eat xiao long bao in their city of origin. Meanwhile, I just order them wherever I go, to try them in different cities and countries. So far, Din Tai Fung in Taipei, Taiwan, is top of my list for the best xiao long bao. Admittedly, it is a famous brand and an international chain, resulting in high quality and attention to detail. A Taiwanese company dating from 1958, it opened its first Shanghai branch as recently as 2001. However, I’ve also had excellent dumplings at a simple food stall in Shilin night market in Taipei, so it goes to show, the perfect xiao long bao could be lurking anywhere…

Check out the Useful Info page for other traveleating posts.

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

Din Tai Fung’s xiao long bao (Shanghai steamed soup dumplings) are considered to be the best in the world, and the Taiwanese restaurant chain has many branches world-wide, including Beijing, Shanghai (of course), Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore and the US.

During our five day stay in Taipei, my friend and I walked past one branch of the restaurant numerous times, but never thought we would be able to eat there because of the extremely long queues, controlled by an electronic ticketing system. On our last evening, we tried one last time and were amazed to be able to simply walk in at about 6pm, beating the queue which started to form not long after we started eating.

The xiao long bao come with various fillings – meat, seafood or vegetables  – and are eaten dipped in a small dish of vinegar and slivers of ginger. It’s important not to pierce them with your chopsticks while picking them up, otherwise the delicate outer skin will rip and the soup will leak out. I place my bun on my spoon, poke a small hole in the skin at the top with a chopstick, spoon some vinegar and ginger over it, then I eat it from my spoon but still using my chopsticks. This way, none of the precious juices are lost, but be really careful as the contents of the xiao long bao are very hot. And watch out for spurts!

We lost count of how many bamboo steamers (ten dumplings each) we managed to get through, along with plenty of fresh green vegetables. As they’re best eaten nice and hot, order one basket at a time. The restaurant only takes cash, but it’s really cheap to eat here and a must if you visit Taipei…

Other posts you might be interested in – What are Xiao Long Bao and How To Eat Xiao Long Bao. And another great restaurant is just round the corner from Din Tai Fung, Slack Season Tan Tsi Noodles.

10 – Perfection, 9.5 – Sensational, 9 – Outstanding, 8.5 – Superb,
8 – Excellent, 7.5 – Very good, 7 - Good, 6.5 - Above Average, 6 – Average

Contact Details:
Din Tai Fung Restaurant
218, Zhong Xiao (Chung Hsiao) East Rd
section 4 (enter from Lane 216)
Taipei
Tel: (02) 2721-7890

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide