An evening in China Town

Dàjiā hăo 大家好 Hello everyone

China can seem a distant place with an undecipherable language, deeply different culture and confronting food. Our evening in a restaurant in Gerrard Street upset one or two of these notions through excellent food, friendly service, traditional Chinese paper folding and some additional magic.

I did not come equipped to write up the evening, so the picture of the restaurant is reproduced by kind permission of Ollie Toogood of The Local Data Company – thanks! I must also squirm about my own poor photos, which were all courtesy of a Blackberry.

Arriving in Gerrard Street itself is an experience on a damp winter evening. Suddenly the street signs are in Mandarin. The smells are of tasty oriental cooking. Some restaurant windows display cooked duck hanging in rows.

We sat at three round tables. I had the pleasure of getting to know Pastmaster Michael Wilkey and reminisced happily with him about Highgate and its environs; where he has lived and I have not lived for thirty years. (As you may or may not all know by now I'm a lad from down the Archway.)

The food was a good quality version of what we all expect from a Chinese restaurant these days. No nasty hint of Nouvelle Cuisine here. Starters explored the full range from battered prawns to fried “seaweed”.

I found the shredded duck in thin pancakes, with plum sauce, cucumber and Spring onions to be excellent. But I'm always a sucker for that dish as long as the duck has consented to be shredded enough. The main courses were varied and I particularly appreciated the green vegetables which seemed very fresh. I also liked the rice which did not bow to Western tastes as much as is usual.

Ancient Chinese skills of paper folding were demonstrated to us before the meal and some of the handmade folded paper objects created before our eyes.

During the meal a magician, Hui Ling Zhu (Ling), did amazing things with string and “washing”. An instant before the following picture there were items on the line and it snaked through interesting parts of the participants' anatomies. None of us seemed to understand how the string became free of washing and bodies!

All in all, a great evening – thank you, Liveryman Karl Davies, for working so hard to make it possible.

Xiè xie, Zài jiàn, 谢谢，在见. Thanks, thanks. Bye-bye.

Liveryman Michael Gifkins