In the past, Chinese food in London was almost exclusively Cantonese,
and Cantonese was the language of Chinatown. In recent years, however,
there’s been a steep increase in numbers of students and other visitors
from all over China. They speak regional Chinese dialects, and like to
eat in Chinese restaurants that offer some of the flavours of their
hometowns.
Time Out has for some time tracked the emergence in London of Chinese
regional cuisines that have been breaking the Anglo-Cantonese
stranglehold on the capital’s Chinese restaurants.
Feature continues
Last year we reported on the growing influence of the Fujianese, who
have introduced oyster cakes, fish-and-pork balls and gentle seafood
soups to curious Chinatown diners-out. More recently, it’s the
Sichuanese and Hunanese who are raising eyebrows with the delicious and
often fiery cooking of their home provinces.
Angeles, a Chinese restaurant in Kilburn is run by Xue Meizhang, an
amiable 32-year-old who speaks Chinese with a delightful Sichuanese
drawl. ‘There are so many Cantonese restaurants in London,’ she
explains, ‘and I wanted to do something special. Sichuanese food is
hugely popular all over China and, as I’m Sichuanese myself, I decided
to open a Sichuanese place.’ She brought over a chef from Sichuan, and
set about wooing London’s Chinese residents with the spicy tastes of
the province.
The menu at Angeles lists some of the conventional Anglo-Canto
restaurant dishes (crispy duck et al), but is also a rollcall of
classic Sichuanese fare. Old favourites such as gong bao chicken (small
cubes of chicken with peanuts and chillies in spicy sweet-sour sauce),
fish-fragrant pork slivers (yu xiang rou si, in which the meat is
flavoured with garlic, ginger, spring onions and pickled chillies) and
pock-marked Mother Chen’s beancurd (ma po dou fu, tofu with minced
beef, Chinese leeks, chilli bean paste and black fermented beans) are
included, as well as dishes that are currently popular in Sichuan, such
as shui zhu yu (boiled fish in a fiery sauce). You’ll find, too, a
number of offal plates, like fire-exploded kidneys, which are
stir-fried at a very high temperature, and tripe with a spicy dressing.
Zhang personally imports all her key seasonings from Sichuan, so there
is good, lip-tingling Sichuan pepper, plump red ‘facing-heaven
chillies’, and, most delightfully, the chilli and broad bean paste (dou
ban jiang) that lends a deep red colour and rich, spicy savouriness to
many Sichuanese dishes.
Time Out London magazine (Issue 1836)
London Eating & Drinking
