Scratching a Pork Chop Itch at Old Tree Bakery

I do love a good pork chop rice. While it seems to be available at every other Chinese restaurant in New York City (there’s even a restaurant named for it), this Taiwanese classic is quite difficult to find in London (unless you make it at home as I have in the past). It was on the menu at Old Tree Bakery, though, a Taiwanese bakery-cafe in Golders Green, and I made my way there one Saturday for lunch. I had first discovered the existence of the bakery at one of the annual Taiwanese food festivals and I had been impressed by their biscuits.

It’s not very far from the tube station and it’s a bright and airy space with a case of colourful cream cakes and their buns all on display in the window. There’s something almost unworldly about their baked buns, all hyper glossy and looking fake, like plastic. But I wasn’t there for buns, I wanted pork chop rice.

It was still empty when I arrived but the cafe filled up quickly. The waitresses, all in identical uniforms, were lined up behind the counter and all looked extremely nervous. One left the safety of the pack to give me two menus, one’s the same as that online and the other is of even more Taiwanese specials) and I ordered a bubble pearl milk tea (£3.60) and their marinated pork chop with stewed egg and rice (£6.50). I got my order through easily but a couple near me had trouble with their order as their waitress spoke very little English. Don’t expect great service here.

The bubble pearl milk tea was quite milky but very nice. Cold and refreshing and a good chew on the tapioca pearls.

The pork chop rice came looking a treat. The chop was a thin lightly battered version (sometimes they’re grilled), dusted with a mixture with five spice powder. As is traditional in Taiwan, this was served with rice topped with a rich minced pork sauce and sweet-tart pickled mustard greens. The egg had been cooked with the pork mince sauce and had soaked up all that savoury flavour.

The meal even included a side of soup, a clear broth with seaweed and tofu. It certainly scratched that pork chop itch. If I had to nitpick, the pork chop could have been thicker.

A couple of buns came home with me for Blai. They’re perfectly fine though the roast duck bun I bought had scant filling for the price (£2.50); in general, their buns are more expensive than the bakeries in Chinatown.

I’ll be back for that chop though. Good things have also been said about their Taiwanese beef noodle soup and I want to try their homemade Taiwanese sausage.

Old Tree Bakery
105 Golders Green Road
London NW11 8HR

 

Taiwan Village in Fulham

A few weeks back, I met Mr Noodles and Rahul to eat Taiwanese food at Rahul’s local – Taiwan Village in Fulham. I have no idea why two of London’s foremost Taiwanese restaurants are located in Fulham (the other being Formosa) but hey, as a west London girl, I can’t complain. The chef here at Taiwan Village used to cook at Hunan in Pimlico, well known for only serving up a tasting menu of sorts, and this might explain the existence of a Leave it to Us set menu for a fixed price. Of course, we went for that – we’d be fed…but we had no idea what was coming. We did have one choice though – to go with a more Chinese menu or a more western-Chinese menu. The former, of course.

Things started swiftly. A tangy pork broth with a soft meatball was served in a bamboo cup. It was a gorgeous broth that had a surprising slight acidity to it. We slurped it down and felt like we were in good hands, food-wise.

San choi bau, lettuce wraps with a filling of seafood with chopped vegetables, arrived next. Though the dishes came quite quickly, we never felt rushed.

Steamed meat dumplings had delicate skins and a tasty filling and made for a comforting mouthful.

A trio of delicious deep fried morsels then were placed on our table. Taiwanese fried chicken was beautifully crisp and dry and dusted with five spice – I could have hoovered the entire portion for all three of us. Crispy Tiger Prawns were served with salad cream which always weirds me out a bit but then I end up enjoying it.

The Deep Fried French Beans were nothing short of amazing. They had been lightly battered, fried and then tossed with fried chillies, garlic and spring onions; they were incredibly moreish.

We had a short break after these starters while our plates were cleared before a shredded quarter of a Crispy Aromatic Szechuan Duck was brought out. To my surprise, the excellent pancakes that came out with them were homemade and the hoisin sauce was also tastier than that usually found elsewhere. That said, though it was very good crispy duck, it was still the low point of our meal.

It was then time for the main courses and again, another surprise, these were served with Egg Fried Rice. Banish any thoughts of any egg fried rice you’ve had before – this was what all egg fried rices which they could be when they grow up. It was full of fluffy egg threads, seasoned perfectly and not at all greasy.

A Dry Tofu with Sliced Pork had been cooked with dried orange peel and was fragrant and full of different textures.

Ma Po Tofu and Mince in Hot Sauce was Rahul’s usual takeaway order and I could see why. It was spicy and fragrant from a light dusting of Sichuan peppercorns and the sauce was thick and meaty.

The Beef in Sha-Cha (spicy barbeque sauce) was delicious and made me question my lack of sha cha intake in the past.

The classic Taiwanese Three-Cup Chicken with Sweet Basil was good but needed more basil.

A dishful of clams also arrived in a thick, slightly acidic sauce (does acidity feature strongly in Taiwanese food?). Sadly, most of the clams were closed but the sauce was lovely on the rice.

A small portion of Hakka style Braised Pork Belly also arrived and was just as rich and delicious as it looked.

These were all placed in the middle of the table and we feasted. When our egg fried rice bowl was perilously close to being empty, they brought out a whole new freshly fried bowl full.

By this point, we were pretty full but I was still pretty gutted that the set menu didn’t include dessert. From the very short dessert menu, we ordered and split two of the Special set dessert – caramelised bananas and Haagen Daz vanilla ice cream and an Azuki pancake (a traditional red bean paste pancake).

Both desserts were outstanding. The chunks of banana were fried in batter and then coated with a thin crisp layer of caramel. The pancake was thin, filled with red bean paste, and topped with sugar, crushed peanuts and the biggest surprise that night – chopped coriander! And to all the doubters out there, it really worked. We asked the owner about this herbal addition and she only smiled and laughed that this was the chef’s innovation.

My part of the bill came to about £35 – that’s for the set menu, dessert and one grass jelly drink. Service was extremely friendly and jolly and we truly did feel very welcome and the restaurant was surprisingly smart with an impressively huge wood carving in the front. Thanks so much for introducing the place to us, Rahul! I hope to return soon to try the dishes from their Taiwanese Specialities part of the menu.

Taiwan Village
85 Lillie Road
Fulham
London SW6 1UD

 

Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

We ate quite a bit of Taiwanese beef noodle soup, growing up in Vancouver. It was one of my father’s favourite noodle soups and he’d look for it when we went out to sup and it grew on us too. I’ve not actually been to Taiwan, of course, but Vancouver does have a good reputation for its Asian food and what I ate as a teenager was all delicious. Anyway, it’s a wonderfully soothing meal-in-a-bowl and while it’s possible to have it in London (I’ve had it at Formosa in Fulham and Mr Noodles recently had a version at Mama Lan in Brixton), it turns out it’s quite easy to make at home. (I’ve since learned that its Chinese name is niu rou mian and it is made all over China.)

The soup itself has a phenomenally simple recipe and it only gets involved once you’re putting together the bowls of noodle soup. The list of ingredients does seem long but if you normally cook Chinese food at home, you’ll have most of it in your cupboards. They’re pretty much just dumped into a large pot and left to simmer for about 4 hours – what results is a hearty, beefy soup that’s eminently slurpable and tender, melt-in-the mouth chunks of beef. All that’s required is a bit of greenery and a tangle of wheat noodles. If you’d like it spicier, add some chilli oil.

Feeling a little restless while the soup was on the simmer, I put my hand to making hand pulled noodles. The idea had been on my mind after I read a recent blog post on Pulled Noodles, Lady Style on Life on Nanchang Lu (I also found this very good explanation of the technique.) This method takes up less space and less mess than the regular hand pulled noodles (lamian or laghman in Uygher) you see made by men pulling the dough to an arm aching degree and dusting flour all over the place and I believe is made at home in Xinjiang by women. I can’t say I was incredibly proficient on my first go but as you can see, I did manage to produce enough to feed the two of us!

Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
adapted from a recipe from The Newlywed Cookbook (on Gapey’s Grub)
serves 4.

500g beef shin
500g oxtail
2 tbsps sunflower oil
6 cloves garlic, smashed
4 slices ginger, bruised
4 spring onions, cut in half crosswise
1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder
2 star anise
1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
2 dried red chilies
1 fresh red chili
2 tbsps Shaoxing rice wine
2 tbsps light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 heaped tbsps chili bean paste
2 tbsps sugar
7 cups water (2.25l)

To serve:
wheat noodles for four
spinach or pak choy
chopped spring onions
chopped coriander

This first step is optional but makes things a little easier at the end. Take a square of muslin/cheesecloth and bundle up the star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, dried chilies and fresh chili.

Heat a large stock pot over medium-high heat and add the sunflower oil. Brown the oxtail and beef shin on all sides before adding the garlic, ginger and spring onions. Stir and fry until fragrant. Add the five spice powder, the spice bundle, the chili bean paste, the Shaoxing rice wine, the light and dark soy sauces and the sugar and pour over the water. Bring it to a boil and then turn down the heat and leave to simmer, half covered, for 4 hours.

At the end of the simmering time, take the meat out and separate it from any bones and cut into large chunks. Set it aside. Strain the soup (I used a Chinese spider), skim any fat if there looks to be too much, and keep hot.

Boil water in another pot and boil your noodles until cooked. Drain and place in a bowl. Top with some beef. Bring the broth to a simmer and add the vegetables. When cooked, drain the vegetables and place on top of the noodles also. Pour some broth over the noodles and sprinkle it all with the chopped spring onions and coriander. Serve immediately.

 

Beijing: Bellagio

The last day of my conference was a half day and once that was up, I ran out to meet Mirna for lunch and an afternoon of shopping. Our target that afternoon was the Yashow Market, billed as being much less touristy than the Silk Market. But first, lunch, and luckily, one place I’d marked was Bellagio, one in a chain of restaurants in China specialising in Taiwanese cuisine, and one that just so happens to be within walking distance of the market.

The room’s pretty glam, isn’t it? It wasn’t over the top crazy though and it certainly didn’t distract from the food. Do you see the waitress in the photo above? With the sash and the cropped hair? All the waitresses had cropped hair and I don’t think it’s a coincidence! Wow.

Their illustrated menu was the first I’d encountered that didn’t overwhelm me: it’s not too long. Still, everything looked so good that it was difficult to narrow down our choices. There were many drinks to choose from but we both settled for our usual iced lemon teas, Hong Kong style. I like the side of syrup they provide on the side: many cafes in London would do well to offer this with cold drinks.

The Taiwanese stewed minced pork came in a little pot and we split a bowl of rice to eat with it. This was utterly gorgeous as the pork was mainly of the belly cut and it had been stewed in a mixture of five spice and soy sauce and was utterly scrumptious on top of rice. As a bonus, we found a whole hard boiled egg at the bottom! (If I had been eating there by myself, I would have just had this on rice… they have lunch sets with them at the back of the menu.)

After hearing Mirna go on about the delights of sweet and sour fish, I ordered one, hoping that it would taste just like the one my mother used to make. It wasn’t bad – the fish fillets had been twisted so that the crispy fish skin wouldn’t get soggy under the sauce and there was a nice scattering of pinenuts on top. The sweet and sour sauce itself was a little too red but the flavour was excellent – much smoother than the takeaway versions here.

For greens, we ordered the stir fried dragon beans with garlic, as recommended by Helen of World Foodie Guide. Strangely, I’d never had these beans (also known as winged beans) cooked but only raw and dipped in sambal in Malaysia. They’ve got a lovely crunch to them and I love anything with garlic.

Our final dish was a Taiwanese cold noodles – a pile of noodles topped with shredded chicken and cucumber, to be tossed together with a sesame paste based sauce and chilli oil. While lovely, they got a little neglected on our table what with the pork and the fish.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have any room for one of their spectacular shaved ice desserts! They really were quite something to behold – gigantic mounds of shaved ice topped with various fruit and bean concoctions; most groups were sharing one. If you’re going to go, try to make space for one of these! I absolutely loved our meal at Bellagio and wish I’d eaten there more than once on our trip! Prices are reasonable for London again – I think the meal came to about £15-20 altogether.

Bellagio
6 Gongti Xilu
Chaoyang District
Beijing, China

 

Formosa in Fulham

I was quite excited to finally try the Taiwanese food offered at Formosa, located across the street from Fulham Broadway tube station. The cuisine is under represented in London, with a Google search resulting in Leong’s Legends, Taiwan Village (which I’ve not tried), Keelung (which was in Chinatown but has now closed) and finally, Formosa. Last Friday, a group of us gathered there to celebrate Kevin’s birthday – he’s one of my colleagues and is quite the foodie himself. I do believe he’d told me about this restaurant in the past but I just never found myself in the area and so I was really looking forward to this meal which he’d organised and I know that if Kevin’s involved, it’s gonna be good!

Turns out the restaurant is quite tiny and yet there was just enough space for us all plus a few other non-partygoers. As there were over 20 of us, we were divided up onto a few large tables and served one of each dish to every four people. The meal felt like wave upon wave of dishes arriving at the table – there was a lot of food and I’d be really surprised if anybody left hungry!

First to arrive was this braised pork knuckle. The meat was so tender and falling off the bone and I detected some five-spice (or some of the spices in five-spice!) in the braising liquid. Bottomless bowls of white rice accompanied this and all the other dishes and was an absolute must!

Plates of lightly cooked pickled vegetables came soon after and were lovely refreshing bites to contrast the rich meaty pork knuckle. I never knew the Taiwanese loved to cook with so much chili but in all the dishes that day, it was mainly for flavour rather than heat. That said, there was a fresh chili sauce available that would knock your socks off.

More pork arrived in the form of this white pork with garlic sauce. The meat was indeed tender but wow, that innocent-looking sauce really did pack a punch with its unexpected amount of chopped raw garlic.

Big bowls of Taiwanese beef noodle soup were brought out at this time. The owner of the restaurant was hilarious in her instructions: “One of you will have to play auntie or big sister and serve the others!” One of the guys made his opinion about her choice of gender known, to which she replied, “Oh! Or big brother!” She’s quite chatty and extremely friendly and was happy to answer our questions.

This was the first beef noodle soup I’ve eaten in this country and I was pleased to find it was delicious – the soup good and beefy, the beef tender, the noodles with a good chew. I’d love to recreate this at home.

Was this next dish the infamous Taiwanese stinky tofu? Well, I detected no stink but crispy fried tofu is always a winner in my books.

This Sichuan-style chicken lacked the chili heat I expected but it was still tasty. I suspect the chicken had been velveted giving it an incredibly soft and moist texture.

More pork (Yes!) – now it was the turn of one of my favourite Taiwanese dishes: fried pork chops. These moist inside, lightly crisp outside chops were delicious and I could have downed the whole plate myself.

The famous Taiwanese three cup chicken (cooked with equal parts of soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil) also made an appearance and again the meat was supremely tender and so moist (also velveted). I’ve been sitting on a recipe for ages and really must cook it at home.

I was surprised to see a Taiwanese interpretation of the Sichuan dish of ants climbing a tree (minced pork on mung bean vermicelli) – there was no chili here but still tasty nonetheless.

The final savoury dish got some mixed reactions at the tables. Cooked oysters aren’t very common in European cooking, I gather, and so many people did balk at the strong flavours within. I loved this as it reminded me very much of the oyster omelettes we ate in Singapore, only this one came with a not unpleasant sweet sauce on top. I particularly love that tender yet crispy eggy and starchy edges to it. However, as this came right at the end, we were all struggling to fit it into our already distended stomachs.

What’s a birthday without a birthday cake? Well, for Kevin, it was a big birthday platter of toffee bananas and apples. A piece each was enough for dessert – tummies were being rubbed by this stage.

Now, some important points to note if you’re planning on visiting to try these Taiwanese dishes. Kevin had preselected the menu from Formosa’s Chinese language menu (I don’t like the fact that this special menu isn’t translated), which lists their Taiwanese specialities. I did speak to the owner about the dishes and she suggested that if you’re planning on ordering them, but can’t read Chinese like me, you can to try to describe the dishes or use their English names (i.e. ants climbing a tree). As well, one or two of these dishes may not be on the menu so if you’re very keen on any of these you see above, it’s probably best to call ahead and ask. I thought this place was a gem and we hope to return soon.

And if anyone’s interested, Kevin had managed to organise this whole menu at a cost of £16 per head.

Thanks for the invite, Kevin – the party was great with both good food and good company – and happy birthday again!

Formosa
1 Walham Green Court
Fulham
London SW6 2DH