Dan Dan Noodles in London: Baozi Inn

Despite having been in England (mostly Cambridge) for a month, I haven't had any meals worth of reporting on. Rice Boat (37 Newnham Street, Cambridge) is a good - not superb - Kerala restaurant in Cambridge: I had an excellent Syrian Christian Stew - chicken in a thick coconut sauce - Kerala has a large Christian population in Indian terms, although the other dishes were not outstanding.

However, I am writing about a North Chinese restaurant in London's Chinatown (near the theater district). Baozi Inn is a small, inexpensive restaurant that specializes in Beijing street food (and other inexpensive dishes). It compares well with Fabulous Noodles and Katy's, although having a somewhat more extensive menu. I found their Chendu Dumplings in Chili Oil to be excellent, spicy and not too fatty - even better than Lau Sze Chuan (the oil was spicy, but not GWiv spicy). The Dan Dan noodles were as tender as those that I order at Katy's. And the Baozi (a bun filled with pork - another version has egg - was really loaded with filling). The millet porridge, plain in taste, was a nice match for the chili oil. All of this was under $20 US, which I thought was very reasonable.

I have a photo, but no way to upload it at the moment.

P.S., The restaurant comes highly recommended by Time Out London.

Baoxi Inn
25 Newport Court
London (Chinatown - near Leicester Square)
(0)20-7287-6877

Another good place around there is Jen Cafe, very good water/boiled dumplings (shui jiao), which are difficult to find in many places including Chicago, and pretty good noodles that I think may have been handmade but can't fully remember. Get the water dumplings with Chinese chives.

Jen Cafe
4 Newport Pl
Leicester Square, WC2H 7

My favorite thing about LTH: shared experience supporting relevant context that is otherwise unimaginable. If I'm ever in that part of London, I'll seek out Baozi because someone whose opinion I trust compared it favorably to places I know are great.

And thank you, too, for the mention of Rice Boat -- I'll be in Cambridge for several days in July. The Syrian Christian stew sounds like an excellent thing to seek out.

I have so far been underwhelmed by the culinary options (especially the South Asian options) here in Cambridge, but I did find the Syrian Chicken Stew at the Rice Boat pretty good. Not so the vada or the kingfish curry (the latter was OK). We don't really have Kerala options in Chicago. Fitzbillies has pretty good pastries - it's located on Trumpington, near the major colleges - and it also has a little restaurant area, more a lunch place. The Varsity is an old Cambridge Cyriot-Greek restaurant (1950s) on St. Andrews, which I quite enjoyed. The kleftiko lamb is wonderful tender and perfumed with oregano.

I am planning to explore some high end Indian restaurants in London.

Fitzbillies Restaurant
51 Trumpington Street
01223 352500

Varsity Restaurant
35 St. Andrew's Street
01223 356060

The Rice Boat
37 Newnham Road
01223 302800

I've had some pretty good English food in Cambridge, nice pub food too. You might give that a try, eating local, I mean.

Geo

Any suggestions?

It's been a while. Let me check around. I've had some real luck with the CAMRA guide. Do you have a copy? If not, it might be worth your while to check it out! They're pretty solid.

Geo
PS. This is a beautiful season to be along the Cam—you might give us a travelogue!

CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) just had a beer festival in Cambridge on Jesus Green (He would have approved, I like to think). So I indulged, although I most loved the mead - some of which was as interesting as the better class of Sauternes. The problem is that you had to buy beer in half-pints or full-pints, which even with a taste for excess, limited the 200 beers that I could try.

GAF wrote:(He would have approved, I like to think).

Raises the interesting question "What would Jesus drink?" donnit?!

If you can find a pub serving Hook Norton ("Hookie") anywhere in Cambridge, do, do give it a try. Altho' I'm an Oxford guy, I'm generous enough to share this secret with someone in Cambridge. Also, I read on the CAMRA site that they're having a Greene King special this month, and that's certainly pretty local to you!

Mead is interesting stuff. I've made it a couple of times, but it really takes some skill, way beyond mine own. And yes, it can rival sauternes when well done. It's not for nothing that really fine Sauternes can be called "honeyed" !!

Did you taste some Lindisfarne Mead? I've visited the meadery (? is that a word?) in the abbey, and it is a *very* cool place. Plus the mead is delicious.

Oh, how I envy you GAF!!

Geo

London, rather than Cambridge -- but have you dined at Rules? It's in Maiden Lane, tucked between the Strand and Covent Garden. It is where Bertie wooed Lilly Langtry and was favored by Graham Greene and other literary luminaries. It's the oldest restaurant in London. (Food-serving pubs predate restaurants, so you can find some much older pubs, but this is the oldest actual restaurant.) My favorite meal is Stilton soup followed by the wild Highland red deer. I'm sure everything is lovely, but I can't bring myself to order anything else at Rules -- it's one of the things I count on each time I visit London. They also have the best coffee I've found in Britain thus far.

As for pub grub, I've always cherished the Ploughman's lunch, anywhere it's served. It's just a large chunk of the local cheese, fresh bread, Branston pickle (like large chutney), a pickled onion, and a small salad. That and a pint of good cider, and I'm a happy camper.

And if you want a historic meal, there's a great pie shop on the main drag in Greenwich -- Goddard's Pie Shop -- that still does jellied eel and stewed eel. The first time I ordered it there, a French woman in line behind me pointed to it and told her children, "C'est un monument, comme le Palais Buckingham." Then, turning to me, she repeated in English, "That is a monument." I don't know the address, but you can't miss it. You come through the passage that connects the main street with the light railway, turn right, and it's within a block of the passage.

Geo wrote:

GAF wrote:(He would have approved, I like to think).

Raises the interesting question "What would Jesus drink?" donnit?!

Geo

Given that the first recorded miracle of Jesus was producing around 180 gallons of good wine, I don't think we have to wonder too hard.

Almost forgot -- have you been to the Borough Market? Amazing, historic place that is most readily compared to Green City Market, except thousands of years old.

A bit of history, for those who may not be familiar with the market: As invading Romans marched toward London in AD 43, they found a thriving, well-established food market on the southern side of the Thames. It was called the Southwark Fair Market, and it became even more successful after the Romans built the first bridge across the river. By 1014, merchants from all over Europe were traveling to this market to trade. The market was acknowledged as an institution by 1276, and in 1754, the market at Southwark was officially recognized by Act of Parliament, with its 4.5 acres in Central London permanently safeguarded.

Still vividly active today, the Borough Market in Southwark is a bustling culinary paradise packed with fabulous seafood, game, fruit, veggies, honey, jams, herbs, and myriad other delights. The crowds include not only knowledgeable shoppers stocking their private larders, but also restaurateurs in search of the freshest and best ingredients. And many vendors sell snacks and even lunches, so you don’t have to choose between shopping and eating.

Borough Market is, indeed, amazing. I spent a few very happy and filling hours there in 2007. And I do love eel: when I was 20 and spent part of a summer in Belgium, I had eel every day. I don't quite recall why I started (although it was inexpensive), but I was addicted.

As for mead, I will keep an eye out Geo. It would be interesting to compare the Oxbridge styles.