New wave noodles: How London's Chinese restaurants are transforming their menus

Step away from the neon sweet n' sour sauce - London's modern Chinese is fresh, fun and full of kick-ass flavour, says Susannah Butter
Fine China: Jess Barton, assistant chef at BossLady in Peckham, shows off some of the restaurant's Hong Kong-inspired dishes
Daniel Hambury

Chinese food is about to go punk. DJ-turned-chef Carl Clarke’s next venture is called Chinese Restaurant Syndrome and, with his business partners David Wolanski and Ash Mair, he plans to bring “a bit of humour to the menu” when it opens later this year. That means dishes like ‘noodle crack’, a Chinese burger and suckling pig cooked with a candle.

Clarke admits “it’s Chinese food cooked by white kids” but these kids have studied the matter and are running with “a massive subject matter of good, fun food — there is such a broad range”.

Mair has developed the perfect egg fried rice — the trick is to freeze the rice after boiling it. “That stops it getting claggy. You want it to be crunchy in parts, with separate rice grains. You defrost it so the water evaporates before frying.”

Clarke’s Chinese food memories are of sweet-and-sour chicken on hungover Sundays but he also loves dim sum and the finer variations.

Regional Chinese food - in pictures

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London is becoming the perfect place to have all of that. There are plenty of traditional Chinese restaurants — at the smart side there is Alan Yau’s new venture Park Chinois, which serves sumptuous duck; A Wong in Victoria has a cult following for its soupy ginger pork dumplings — a feat of engineering — as well as beautiful tea eggs and custard buns, while Shaung Shaung is bringing the hot pot to a Shaftesbury Avenue audience.

Mama Lan is the broth café (brothel?) that was so popular in Brixton that it has expanded to Dalston, where “mostly Chinese” restaurant Fan Tong used to be. The wholesome beef noodles are up there with the best solace-giving foods. But it’s also worth mixing it up.

If you can’t wait for Chinese Restaurant Syndrome, BossLady is serving the ultimate Chinese comfort food until May from a cosy, 25-cover Portakabin in Peckham. Founder Henry Chung is from Hong Kong and came here to work as a graphic designer. He says: “Two years ago I had a yearning for a style of beef brisket noodle that is a speciality in Hong Kong but difficult to find in London. I experimented with recipes and eventually decided to open a restaurant that serves it.”

It is a meaty broth with wheat noodles and crunchy white radish. Chung describes it as “very rich and soothing but clean tasting. The louder you slurp the better.” The wontons are also popular.

The restaurant’s name comes from Hong Kong, where it is an affectionate term for female businesswomen in the food business. Chung spent a couple of months over there working for a boss lady to hone his technique.

The Chinese Laundry is another example of the new wave. It’s part of the trend for Eighties dishes and serves all-day Chinese family fare. If you are brave, try Chinese breakfast with doufunao (silky tofy curd), chicken congee (a slimy rice porridge that tastes better than it looks) and pork dumpling omelette to fuel you. There are plenty of more delicate-sounding dishes, such as the wholesome “milky little buns”. Dinner options include twice-cooked crispy lamb and punchy sweet basil chicken popcorn. For vegetarians there are plenty of inventive takes on eggs, and smashed cucumber or grilled aubergine with peanut brittle and coriander that is popular with meat-eaters too.

The cocktails are another chance to try unusual flavours. The Dirty Laundry is a good way to introduce yourself to bai ju, a spirit that’s made from grains.

It’s pronounced “bye zho” and will test your mettle — it’s potent. They infuse it with chocolate and add dry vermouth, olive juice, cocoa powder and chocolate ice lollies. Recover with a soothing Silk Road Nowhere featuring eerguotou, another Chinese spirit, cherry, apricot liqueur, lemon and egg white.

The drinks menu at Chinese Restaurant Syndrome is shaping up to be just as interesting. It will be another way for Clarke to serve “fun, colourful things”. There will be some fish bowls, banana coladas and a woowoo or two.

If it becomes too colourful, prawn toast is said to be an effective hangover cure — packed with protein and the right amount of guilty grease. An excellent excuse to head back and try it the next day.

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