Manchurian Legends
Gosh, I’m impressed. I’ve had a few really lousy Dongbei (or Northeastern) suppers in London, and until last night had never had a good one. But a friend and I decided to visit Manchurian Legends, a Chinatown newcomer that has won some enthusiastic reviews, and for once it did live up to the hype. We began with homemade ‘mixed chilled vegetable salad’ (家常涼èœ), an elegant mix of tofu skin, beanthread noodles, carrot, cucumber, spring onion and coriander, deftly seasoned with chilli oil, vinegar and lashings of garlic; and a couple of perky little fried pastries stuffed with scrambled egg and Chinese chives (éŸèœç›’å). The potful of sweet potato ‘glass’ noodles with sliced belly pork and pickled mustard greens that followed (é…¸èœäº”花肉燉粉æ¢) was delightfully soft and slithery in the mouth, soothing and refreshing at the same time, and we enjoyed another local speciality, thick, lazy ribbons of mung bean pasta on a bed of slivered vegetables, adorned with intensely-flavoured pork strips, chilli and vinegar (æ±åŒ—大拉皮).
We also ordered the Three Delicacies of the Earth ( 地三鮮, translated here as ‘sea spiced three vegetables’). Whenever I’ve had this dish before, it’s been greasy, heavy and unappetising: here, the aubergines, potatoes and peppers in a soy-dark sauce were certainly rich, but delicious with plain white rice. The undisputed piece de resistance, however, was the ‘Deep-fried pork in sweet and sour sauce’ (é‹åŒ…肉). Forget all those sickly-sweet, bright red sweet-sours you may have tasted in other Chinese restaurants, this was glorious: large, very thin slices of pork that had been lightly coated in batter and deep-fried to a perfect crispness, before being tossed with some slivered vegetables in a sophisticated, well-balanced sauce. Whoever was in the kitchen last night (presumably head chef Feng Yanshuang) was on top form, and fully in command of his fire (ç«å€™) and his flavours (調味).
The place, which is run by the folk behind the Leong’s Legends chain, is nice too, with its bookshelves and old black-and-white photographs of Manchuria on the walls, and we found the service good and friendly. Prices were very reasonable too: frankly, the amount of food we ordered could easily have fed three or four people with a little more rice on the side, and the bill came to £56.00, including a couple of glasses of wine. As something of a southern Chinese food snob, I really didn’t expect to be so won over by a Dongbei restaurant!!
9 Responses to “Manchurian Legends”
I always get hungry when I read your posts or books!
I must either try this place or get beck to Ba Shu as soon as possible.
Or perhaps The Old Place near Liverpool Street
Thanks for this review, I would love to go and visit next time I am up in town….so reasonable too for the amount of food you ate!
Oh, I’m glad you liked Manchurian Legends! I liked it too, but had been second-guessing myself after reading some of the blog posts and comments about it.
Did you get the email I sent you last month? No rush for a reply if it did arrive, but I sent it via your contact form, and it’s always quite hard to tell whether those things are working or not.
Wow, the photo there looks really good! I’ve found a new, small restaurant called “Yummy Paradise” and I think I finally understand why Fuchsia loves Chinese food so much – don’t settle for the ‘lousy’ versions…
As a Northern Food Snob, I can only say that Dongbei has the world to offer you.
Fuchsia, am going to Manchurian Legends on your recommendation! happy new year. simon
Hello Fuchsia,
I’ve tried this twice thanks to your review. Just yum!
Hope all’s well with you?
Louise
Well Mr Ritson, as you can see my eyes have been opened!
Any recommendations for a good dongbei cookbook? It’d be nice to have northeastern cookbooks that I can put on my bookshelf along side your much used cookbooks!