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ventaAt the weekend, I headed into town to meet up with some university friends who had parked their kids somewhere and run away to the big, wicked city. After extensive quality-checking of Thwaites' Wainwright golden ale in a handy pub (it was lovely, thanks) talk turned to a dinner destination.
Dave had requested "spicy food", and Jamie weighed in with a recommendation of a nearby Chinese restaurant. The recommendations I'd managed to come up with had been a bit vague[*], so we followed Jamie in a small procession to Ba Shan.
Unlike most Chinese restaurants in the UK - which serve Cantonese food - Ba Shan serves Hunanese dishes. The Hunan region is where Chairman Mao came from. Admittedly, I know this only because it says it on the wall in Ba Shan.
(Blurry phone-photo in a dark hallway, sorry about that.)
The menu was delightful - a large, leather-bound affair full of unfamiliar dishes with ridiculous names. At least, that's my idea of delightful. I mean, who wouldn't want Slippery Wood Ear Fungus as a starter? Or Old-Woman Pockmarked Tofu?
My Slippery Wood Ear Fungus arrived, and turned out to be a cold salad of what I presume to be the fungus; it had the consistency of thick seaweed, with just a tiny amount of crunch. It was really, really nice and.... woah!
Y'see, despite Jamie selecting it as a prime "spicy food" location and despite the other poster on the wall...
... I'd failed to appreciate one of the characteristics of Hunanese food. It's bloody hot. In fact... all that red stuff in my starter? Ah. That'll be chillies.
It was very, very tasty though and I'd happily have eaten it, only I ended up swapping with someone who'd inadvertently ordered a starter they couldn't eat. I forget what my main course was called - it turned out to be fine noodles and mushrooms in a pork-based broth, and was lovely but absolutely immense. I have a horror of having to a return a dish without at least a substantial portion consumed, so addressed myself exclusively to it for a while. Which meant I missed the chance of the Chairman Mao's Pork or the pig trotters that were going elsewhere on the table. I did try some of the Old-Woman Pockmarked Tofu and it was great - but (I think) about 50% Szechuan peppercorns and thus rather spicy.
So, with the following provisos:
1. The food is hot. There are chillies on the menu to indicate hotness. Take them seriously.
2. The portions are large. Four mains would probably have done five of us, and some of us are big eaters.
3. The service is probably best described as brisk. Or brusque. We were there lateish and they didn't seem to mind us lingering around after eating, but it is very much the sort of place where plates are plonked in front of you as food becomes ready, and whisked away with dispatch.
... I'd recommend it :)
[*] Challenge for Londoners: you are in Soho in the evening, and someone wants spicy food. Where do you take them?
My initial answer was to walk to Covent Garden to the Mexican restaurant on Langley Place (Cafe Pacifico), but then I remembered how damn noisy it gets on a Saturday night, and we were keen to be able to hear each other talk.
I've eaten in various Indian restaurants around Soho, and they've all been "fine", but nowhere especially recommendable.
Dave had requested "spicy food", and Jamie weighed in with a recommendation of a nearby Chinese restaurant. The recommendations I'd managed to come up with had been a bit vague[*], so we followed Jamie in a small procession to Ba Shan.
Unlike most Chinese restaurants in the UK - which serve Cantonese food - Ba Shan serves Hunanese dishes. The Hunan region is where Chairman Mao came from. Admittedly, I know this only because it says it on the wall in Ba Shan.
(Blurry phone-photo in a dark hallway, sorry about that.)
The menu was delightful - a large, leather-bound affair full of unfamiliar dishes with ridiculous names. At least, that's my idea of delightful. I mean, who wouldn't want Slippery Wood Ear Fungus as a starter? Or Old-Woman Pockmarked Tofu?
My Slippery Wood Ear Fungus arrived, and turned out to be a cold salad of what I presume to be the fungus; it had the consistency of thick seaweed, with just a tiny amount of crunch. It was really, really nice and.... woah!
Y'see, despite Jamie selecting it as a prime "spicy food" location and despite the other poster on the wall...
... I'd failed to appreciate one of the characteristics of Hunanese food. It's bloody hot. In fact... all that red stuff in my starter? Ah. That'll be chillies.
It was very, very tasty though and I'd happily have eaten it, only I ended up swapping with someone who'd inadvertently ordered a starter they couldn't eat. I forget what my main course was called - it turned out to be fine noodles and mushrooms in a pork-based broth, and was lovely but absolutely immense. I have a horror of having to a return a dish without at least a substantial portion consumed, so addressed myself exclusively to it for a while. Which meant I missed the chance of the Chairman Mao's Pork or the pig trotters that were going elsewhere on the table. I did try some of the Old-Woman Pockmarked Tofu and it was great - but (I think) about 50% Szechuan peppercorns and thus rather spicy.
So, with the following provisos:
1. The food is hot. There are chillies on the menu to indicate hotness. Take them seriously.
2. The portions are large. Four mains would probably have done five of us, and some of us are big eaters.
3. The service is probably best described as brisk. Or brusque. We were there lateish and they didn't seem to mind us lingering around after eating, but it is very much the sort of place where plates are plonked in front of you as food becomes ready, and whisked away with dispatch.
... I'd recommend it :)
[*] Challenge for Londoners: you are in Soho in the evening, and someone wants spicy food. Where do you take them?
My initial answer was to walk to Covent Garden to the Mexican restaurant on Langley Place (Cafe Pacifico), but then I remembered how damn noisy it gets on a Saturday night, and we were keen to be able to hear each other talk.
I've eaten in various Indian restaurants around Soho, and they've all been "fine", but nowhere especially recommendable.
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no subject
Date: 2013-07-25 02:47 pm (UTC)But I think you get the actual kudo for your cut text. ;-)
The restaurant sounds great! Although it's probably too spicy to take
very much the sort of place where plates are plonked in front of you as food becomes ready, and whisked away with dispatch
How is this not a good thing? I'd always much prefer this to slow service.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-25 02:54 pm (UTC)I don't think that kind of service is necessarily a bad thing - it sort of depends what you want. Although it can lead to things feeling rather hurried and rushed - I certainly felt we were a bit pushed into ordering quickly (particularly as someone's choice was off and they had to have a rethink).
Mostly I think it depends what you're after - if you're wanting a quick meal before you head somewhere else, it's great. If you want a leisurely evening sitting chatting over food with friends, then it's rather disconcerting to find yourself turned round and headed back out the door in 35 minutes. (As I said, they seemed happy to let us linger afterwards, but places of the very-brisk-service nature sometimes aren't). So it's not bad, it's just a thing that's useful to know in selecting your restaurant.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-25 02:58 pm (UTC)In a spirit of fair reporting, I should say that my noodly main dish wasn't hot at all. At least, not spicy, it was ferociously toasty when it arrived. I don't know how much of a choice of non-hot dishes there was, though, I wasn't paying attention at ordering time. And the menu on their website is strangely... blank.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-25 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-26 08:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-26 08:49 am (UTC)