ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted July 27, 2007 Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 Let’s dim sum! Having recently returned from Shanghai left us with a craving for the real stuff. Fortunately help is at hand at Nansho Manto-ten on Roppongi Hills (03-5413-9581), the first branch in Japan of the 100+ years old Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant in Shanghai. The menu is not extensive, but it offers all the essentials of a good dim sum restaurant: steamed soup buns with pork, shrimp and pork, or crab meat and pork filling (6 pieces, ¥800 - ¥1,700), steamed buns with vegetable filling, meat balls with sticky rice, Chinese pies with sweet bean paste or cashew nuts filling, dumplings with curried pork, spring rolls with crab and tofu, or dried scallop and egg soup. Course sets are available for ¥2,900 - ¥3,700. The service by the competent Chinese staff is very friendly and fast. A word of warning: everything served is boiling hot!•Just one floor up, near the stairs that lead to the Virgin Cinema complex, is Hong Kong Saro, or the Hong Kong Tea House Restaurant (03-5413-9589). It serves Hong Kong-style dim sum, as well as kajyō-sai (home-cooking). The more than 20 items on the dim sum page include delicacies such as shark fin dumpling soup, crispy spring rolls with shrimp, steamed spinach dumplings, yuba with beef and shiitake, pan-fried daikon cakes, or steamed sticky rice and chicken. There are 80 other entries in the seasonal specialties, vegetable, seafood, meat, soup, rice and noodles pages, with traditional items like roasted spare ribs, braised pork and lotus roots, honey barbecued duck liver, pitan and tofu salad, or honey-crusted walnuts. Information on both restaurants can be found on the www.soho-s.co.jp website.yuba: tofu skinshiitake: an East Asian mushroondaikon: large radishpitan: preserved duck eggLet's dim sum!This is a parody of the ever-present English language misuse in Japan. Every day you see ads like "let's tennis", or "let's english", etc. For more, and some good laughs, let's http://www.engrish.com/ B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted July 27, 2007 Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 Mmmmmm nice.I like Dim Sum. There are some good Dim Sum restaurants in Chinatown, London and I always try to get to one for lunch when I'm there.Can you explain Daikon cakes? We get Daikon in the UK and I like it a lot but I have difficulty in imagining a Daikon cake - if they retain the heat and bite of the uncooked vegetable they should be good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted July 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 Ah, now you've got me...The daikon cakes was something I just quoted from the menu, but didn't actually order. So I don't know anything about it.I have several smell "allergies" - smells that I simply cannot stand. Grated daikon is one of them, and I have to come to avoid anything daikon altogether. Even the simmered daikon in broth that the Japanese love so much; I avoid it if I can. (Another smell that almost makes me sick even if I get the faintest whiff is sesame oil. It makes me avoid any kind of Korean cuisine.)But when I go to that dim sum shop again, I will order them especially for you, and I will provide you with a description. Or better yet, I will just send them to you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted July 27, 2007 Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 Ah, now you've got me...The daikon cakes was something I just quoted from the menu, but didn't actually order. So I don't know anything about it.I have several smell "allergies" - smells that I simply cannot stand. Grated daikon is one of them, and I have to come to avoid anything daikon altogether. Even the simmered daikon in broth that the Japanese love so much; I avoid it if I can. (Another smell that almost makes me sick even if I get the faintest whiff is sesame oil. It makes me avoid any kind of Korean cuisine.)But when I go to that dim sum shop again, I will order them especially for you, and I will provide you with a description. Or better yet, I will just send them to you Funny how tastes vary. I love toasted sesame oil, and always use it 50/50 with olive oil in a stir fry. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tankus Posted July 27, 2007 Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 Hey pops ...you been to the New World in Gerrad Place ..? opp the fire station near the entrance to china town Best dim sum Ive ever eaten in London , got to get in before 12.30 or it will be full of chinese....Quality I think Ive had that daikon in tempura , in a bento box from the Japanese café on Lisle street ,(behind the multiplex on Leicester Square) ..... probably put it down to mystery veg ! hurriedly eaten to get to the prawns .... Suppose grated in a cake it would be like a less sweet version of carrot cake perhaps ?Seen the veg on sale in sohos supermarkets ...look like white carrots (which I thought they were .. I guess ) wiki sez they are a type of raddish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted July 27, 2007 Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 Yep, been there several times - and to the café on Lisle Street (I assume it's the one you mean).I bought a Daikon this afternoon. It's about 15 inches long and VERY powerful. Had some sliced in a salad for my dinner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tankus Posted July 27, 2007 Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 Piccies from an early morning in Londons China town back in march 2006 ..heh I was wondering if I could zoom enough to see them .... hey Pat .... to add a bit of flavour to your diaries take a camera ...or a mega pixel phonecam (bit less touristy ..innit )give us all a better idea......................................................................................................editI bought a Daikon this afternoon. It's about 15 inches long and VERY powerful.hmmm maybe I haven't had it then .... thought the tempura was a tad bland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted July 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2007 Suppose grated in a cake it would be like a less sweet version of carrot cake perhaps ?In Asian cuisine(s), "cake" has a different meaning than in the West. Not sweet, usually, but savory.Rice cakes, for instance, is steamed sticky rice, pounded to a pulp, then formed into balls or sticks. When fried or grilled, they melt like cheese. They are usually served with soba noodles, especially around new year. When formed flat, brushed with soy sauce and baked, they become 'sembei' rice crackers.Fish cakes, the Thai tot-man-pla, are flat, round cakes made from fish paste, deep fried, then served with a sweet-and-spicy sauce.So I am also curious about daikon cakes now, so I googled it and found plenty of recipes. Here is one that sounds authentichttp://www.geocities.com/emaildaneng/daikoncakes.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted July 29, 2007 Report Share Posted July 29, 2007 Thanks for that, Pat. As I wrote above, I have some daikon which I only used part of. I'll have a go at the cakes tomorrow.I imagine, though, that the bite and pungency (the part I like) will disappear on cooking.We'll see :)BTW Did you get the Clive James book? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted July 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 Yes, daikon will become almost sweet when cooking. Anyway, I am curious what you get out of it.Yes, I got Clive James' book, but we have a visitor from Singapore, so there wasn't much time for reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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