Tamarind and Thyme

Oh, this year’s Korean Food Festival was a disappointment! Not only was it drizzling when I arrived at around noon but there were only three stands.

Three?! What a let down after the two previous years! Could this be the effect of the credit crunch or as Jonny suggested here, a result of the dismal weather forecast? Oh well, my brother and I made the most of it and had some spicy fried chicken (quite good) and beef kalbi (mediocre) with rice.

If you did make the journey out for the festival, I hope you did use the opportunity to explore the Korean restaurants and shops in the area. I found some lovely takeaway food for dinner that night: some little pajeon (Korean pancakes) and kimbap.

Luckily, one big thing made the trip worthwhile for me – I finally made it to Hyun’s Bakery while it was open! Whenever I’d visited New Malden in the past, I’d always try to visit and find it shut. Finally, the door was open!

As I’m a sucker for savoury Asian-style pastries, I had to have this fried sausage doughnut on a stick. This was similar to the hot dog bun you usually find but involved a proper pork sausage and a dusting of panko crumbs, all deep fried. Oh, and it was on a stick – a winner right there! (Notice that I forgot to take a photo until after I’d attacked it.)

My other selections were (clockwise from the top right) a fried vegetable doughnut, a mochi doughnut filled with red bean paste and a Castella cake.

The vegetable doughnut was alright, with a filling reminiscent of a vegetable korokke. The mochi doughnut was delicious and chewy and was generously filled with a chunky, and I suspect homemade, red bean paste. I loved the Castella cake – soft and plain sponge cake but still very moreish.

And all four items only came to £3.10! (There’s a little Japanese shop near me that stocks some buns from Hyun’s but they charge twice as much as the original bakery!)

Hyun’s Bakery
94 Burlington Road
New Malden KT3 4NT

I remember reading somewhere that HK Diner in Chinatown closed at 2am most days, making it perfect for late night meals and snacking and whenever we do find ourselves in the area on a late night, we almost always head there. It was late on a Monday night though when we last stepped through their door and I was afraid they would close soon. “When do you close?” I asked nervously.

The manager waved off my question with a smile, “Don’t worry about that question!” And so I proceeded to stop worrying and took to concentrating on the menu instead. The menu at the HK Diner is long – there’s a long list on the front, a long list on the back and even a long drinks menu too. I like their bubble teas!

That day, we’d been on a bit of a kick to eat healthily so we split only two modest dishes. The first was a healthy vegetable dish. I love the vegetables section on their menu – they first list a number of green vegetables that are available; there’s everything from kai lan to snow pea shoots to lettuce. Then they list a number of preparations, each listed at a certain price. We chose morning glory (aka ong choy, kang kung, water convolvulus) stir fried with fermented beancurd (we chose the preparation and asked our waiter which vegetable would go best with it – he recommended that). The vegetables were fried perfectly – it’s so easy for them to go super limp, super quickly, but these had soft leaves with stems that had just that bit of a bite to them. The fermented beancurd mixture was delicious with it.

For the main part of our meal, we shared a mixed seafood fried rice. Can’t beat a good fried rice, as this one was with small chunks of fresh scallops and prawns throughout.

On a previous visit (also late night), we opted to share a baked pork chop rice. This large dish of rice was topped with pieces of fried pork chop and their secret recipe sauce of wine and cream. The whole thing is baked (it takes at least 20 minutes) and the whole hot bubbling dish is then brought to your table.

Oh my, I need a recipe for this! It’s supremely comforting with its rice (no Chinese person can go without rice!) and its creamy topping. There’s even a baked seafood rice option if you’re not in the mood for pork.

To go with it, we shared a quarter of a crispy shredded duck – I hadn’t had crispy duck in years! It was such an exotic dish to me when I first came to London (though its availability in Marks and Spencers put a bit of a damper on the excitement) – it doesn’t exist in North America. There’s an air of theatre to the whole deal – first, the deep fried, slightly parched looking duck portion is brought to your table for your inspection; then the waiter/waitress quickly and efficiently shreds the entire thing with the air of a showman; and finally, you’re left with the shreds of meat, the nude bones and all the accoutrements: pancakes, hoisin sauce, matchsticks of cucumber, slivers of spring onion. It was good – crispy skin, moist flesh (the duck meat can so easily go dry).

What I need to figure out now is the menu for the rest of the one dish meals, like wonton mee and char siu on rice. I’m going to have to go back again for that – any tips appreciated!

HK Diner
22 Wardour Street
London W1D 6QQ

This Saturday, 11 July, sees the return of the Korean Food Festival at the Fountain Pub in New Malden. Let’s hope the weather holds till then!

Here are my previous posts on this event:

• Korean Food Festival 2008
• Korean Food Festival 2007

I am so easily influenced! Browsing the Food Pornographer‘s food porn (and porny it is) one day, I came across her post on a chicken stew that her partner, Jac, had put together. I instantaneously forgot that it was summer here (and winter down there in Australia, where they reside) and wrote down all the ingredients I’d need to put something like this together. And I managed to put it together even after a late-ish day at work!

This dish only took about 30-40 minutes to put together and results in a most comforting stew of flavourful chicken (do try to get dark thigh meat – so much tastier than breast!), tender carrot lumps, soft potato chunks, and bright green bursting peas. I quite like it when the potato is overcooked enough that the chunks start to break down and the resulting starchy bits thicken the stew naturally. The “Asian-style” derives from the use of Shaoxing rice wine, soy sauce, oyster sauce and various spices that gently infuse into the stew during the relatively short cooking process. Even though the weather was hot, this stew (I served it on white rice) hit the spot and I never found myself breaking into a sweat over a hot stove – it was all throw it in and stir a bit and then leave to simmer.

Asian-Style Chicken Stew
serves 3 to 4.

1 large onion, chopped roughly
sunflower oil
8 chicken thigh fillets, cut into small chunks
Shaoxing wine
2 potatoes (like Maris Piper or Russet), cut into small chunks
2 carrots, cut into small chunks
1 star anise
1 small stick cinnamon
a few cloves (I left these out as I couldn’t find mine!)
soy sauce
oyster sauce
500 mL water or chicken stock
a few handfuls frozen peas
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tsps cornstarch

Heat a large, deep saute pan over medium heat, add a tablespoon or two of sunflower oil and then saute the onions until softened. Add the chicken and cook until you don’t see anymore raw bits. (Some chopped garlic would be good at this stage too.) Deglaze the pan with a good slug of Shaoxing wine and let the alcohol bubble away. Toss in the potatoes, carrots, star anise, cinnamon, and cloves (if using) and stir through.

Pour in about 500 mL of water or chicken stock (or a mixture of both). Season with soy sauce and oyster sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until all the vegetables are quite soft – about 20 minutes. Add the frozen peas and continue simmering until they too are soft – another 5 to 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. If needed, thicken with some cornstarch slurry – 2 tsps cornstarch mixed with cold water.

Eat on top of white rice or with some bread on the side.

This photo of mine has been making the rounds on a number of Tumblr blogs. I thought I’d just share it here on my blog too!

I quite like a 99 Flake every now and then.

Anyway, here’s hoping that the sunny weather returns…