London: Taking a walk through Asia (Part I)

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I hope you enjoyed my last update on the state of London franchised food. Once I finished writing that piece, I had this sudden urge for a black bottom cupcake. Ahh. Today's update is almost as if you're taking a stroll through Asia. Well, almost. The great thing about Asian cuisine as a whole is that it is so incredibly diverse. Not only are the cuisines so different between Asian countries, the cuisines can be quite different depending on the region of a country. We're going to take a walk through Vietnam, Japan, Thailand and China. I thought I'd be able to talk about it all in one update, but I seem not to know how to shut up. Therefore, taking a walk through Asia will be exercised in two parts. First, Vietnam and Thailand, then China and Japan thereafter. Most likely the third London update that I promised will be spread out onto more updates like this one too. Enjoy :-)

Welcome to Vietnam:

This might seem strange, but my love affair for Vietnamese food actually started from two really good experiences in Thailand. It seemed quite odd at the time that the best food I had during my ten day road trip around North East Thailand was from two Vietnamese restaurants, but seeing as Thai food was a constant diet for me at home, it was probably more of a relief than anything to eat Vietnamese food. During my stay in London, I had an awesome Vietnamese flatmate who had a passion for cooking that seemed quite similar to my own. She would often cook Vietnamese dishes, yet also had the guts to experiment often. It was always enjoyable seeing what she would do from one day to the next and further enthused my interest in her country's cuisine.

Cay Tre

42-43 Dean Street, Soho, W1D 4PZ (Closest tube station: Leicester Square)

I have read numerous times that Hoxton was the best area to find Vietnamese food in London, as Hoxton's full of Vietnamese restaurants. However it didn't stop me from trying out the food in Soho. One of my first stops was here at Cay Tre, where the decor had been more stylish than I anticipated. In fact, it didn't seem like I had entered into a Vietnamese restaurant at all.

I ordered one of my favourite dishes, 'bun thit nuong' (£8.50), a bowl of cold vermicelli noodles with grilled pork, fresh herbs and vegetables, and nuoc cham  (a pretty common condiment/dipping sauce in Vietnam). It also came with a hanoi meatball (which I don't think they include anymore) and cha gio – that's pork spring rolls to you. Vietnamese spring rolls are the best kind of spring rolls out there (well second to my mother's. Sorry mother). I love this dish because it's refreshing and light –well minus the cha gio – but ironically, I can never finish this because every restaurant that has served me this dish seem to always provide me with an overly generous serving of noodles. I also tried the Vietnamese Iced Coffee (£3) which was so cold and satisfying that I wanted more! I had no qualms about service either. 

Viet (now VietPho) Noodle Bar

34 Greek Street,  Soho, W1D 5DJ (Closest tube station: Leicester Square)

Viet is pretty small and unpretentious, and looks more like a café than a restaurant once you enter inside. As much as Cay Tre was a decent experience with good food and good service, I much preferred Viet as their bun thit nuong (£8) was the best I had in London. I pretty much ate 95% of the dish, which is the closest that I have ever come to finishing it! Now that they've changed the name a bit, I'm not sure if they've changed owners or not, so I don't know whether Viet still makes quality food or not. My food arrived pretty quickly seeing as I made my pitstop outside peak lunch hours at 3pm, but the service itself was nothing special. The only strange thing I remember about this place was the fact that they had quite a few Thai dishes on the menu. Why would you order pad thai when you have the intention of going out to a Vietnamese restaurant?

Welcome to Thailand:

I must admit that outside of my mother's cooking, I do not eat much Thai food. If I do, it always feels like my mum is standing behind me (when she's not), nagging me about how it's not really Thai food. Sadly, most of the time she's correct. She's installed this seed of doubt into my brain about the authenticity of Thai food unfortunately. I'm hopeless at cooking Thai food because my mum refuses to give me approximate measurements for her dishes. Seriously, telling me 'this much' and 'that much' and to do trial and error doesn't help me much. So when I moved to London, I underestimated how much I'd miss my mother's cooking.  So whenever I was in the mood for Thai, I had to venture out to the streets of London to satisfy my hunger. 

Busaba Eathai

35 Panton Street, London SE1Y 4EA (Closest tube station: Piccadilly Circus)

This should have really been in the last update, since Busabi Eathai has expanded throughout London, but it never really crossed my mind. Before I left for London, I asked my brothers who had both studied in London some time ago, for some recommendations on where to eat. It had been some time since their last visits to the UK, but one of my brothers recommended Busaba to me. I remember my friend Z and I had the intention to go to Wahaca, but it was so packed and could not handle the 45 minute wait for a table, and went ahead with Plan B instead. Busaba was very busy as well upon our arrival and we were lucky to get seats, where the seating is based on communal tables.  For drinks, I wasn't really in a wine mood so I proceeded with a glass of coconut water with raspberries (£3.30). Probably shouldn't have ordered it but it was interesting. The best coconut water really comes from the young coconut directly as opposed to buying a commercially packaged one. Those are nasty.

To start our meal, we went ahead with the thai calamari with ginger and peppercorn (£6.50), which was flavourable but a bit chewier than I expected it to be. Following the calamari we shared the mussaman duck curry (£10.50), the stir-fry ginger beef (£9.10), and a side of coconut rice (£3.10).

I still don't understand why rice is so blimmin' expensive in London. You can easily get rice for $1-2 per person in Auckland, and Auckland's not exactly the cheapest city out there. Rice anger aside, if you're looking for traditional Thai food that your Thai mother similarly likes to make, Busaba is not exactly what you're looking for. I think this is what people call modern Thai? I'm not exactly opposed to it, in fact I did enjoy my meal. But both Z and I were wanting something more authentic, so it was a slight problem for us at the time. The flavours were perfectly fine (though the mussaman seemed darker than what I'm normally used to) so I can understand why Busaba Eathai has been wildly popular in London for many years.

Charuwan

110 Junction Rd, Archway N19 5LB (Closest tube station: Archway)

If you're looking for authentic thai food, I wholeheartedly recommend this place. This restaurant was pretty much out of the way for both Z and I, but the trip was worth it. I remember reading a review of this restaurant on a blog called London Foodie one day (probably procrastinating from my university readings), and I was amazed by how authentic the dishes looked from the blogger's photos. Sometimes you can just tell from the look of a dish. I showed the photos to Z and she readily agreed to come with me.

As soon as we were given the menu, we were given a basket of prawn crackers to nibble on. I guess it's the Asian equivalent to giving out a bread basket, huh? Anyway, for a starter we shared the garlic and pepper spare ribs (£4.95) which literally melted off the bone and were tender. While I've recently come to the conclusion that I'm not much of a ribs fan – more bone than meat bothers me – these were pretty good.

For the mains, we decided to share two dishes alongside a small bowl of steamed rice (£2.55). I decided to order the larb gai (£5.95), which is essentially a minced chicken salad. 'Larb' is a very common Thai dish and is most often made with chicken (gai), pork, or beef. This tasted very similar to my mother's and the flavours were bright and balanced and not watered-down so to speak, which is a definite compliment. It was almost like I was at home.

Z was in the mood for curry and decided to order the jungle curry (£6.95). I must admit that before this visit, I had never tried this type of curry before... mainly because I'm not the biggest fan of curry in general with the exception of mussaman and yellow curry. Anyway, jungle curry is a bit different from the normal red or green curries in Thailand as it is made without coconut milk. We both noticed that it had four chillis on the menu, indicating that it would be super hot. Both of us had doubts that it would be super hot and we thought maybe it was just hot for the average diner. Boy were we wrong. Our tongues were burning and I swear Z was acting a little bit crazy since she kept taking sips of the curry liquid/broth/whateveryouwannacallit. I remember telling my mother about this on skype and she looked at me like I was stupid. "Jungle curry is hot, you moron!!" Ok, she didn't exactly say it like that, but if my mother considers it hot then really there's no hope for me. 

While we were eating our meals, both of us knew that this was a strange situation. Authentic Thai food actually existed outside of my household/Thailand! Proper Thai food that actually tasted good! Service charge was not included, so all in all it was about £10 per person which made the experience even better. The service was also very good - all the waiters were rather attentive and filled our water glasses when needed. The only disappointing factor is/was the location of the restaurant as it was simply just too far for us to regularly visit. I had planned on taking my fiancé there once but unfortunately never had the time to leisurely make our way there.

I wish I had photos of my excursions to Sri Thong and Mudmee, with both of these restaurants in walking distance to Liverpool Street Station. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos so I don't really remember much. My fiancé wanted to me to talk about the tod mun pla (a thai fish cake blended with red curry paste and beans) that we ordered as a starter at Mudmee, which he deemed disgusting. "No texture at all! Greasy!" he said. Well yes it was rather greasy and that was pretty unfortunate, but the taste was nothing new to me. Tod mun is a bit spongy in texture, different from the breadcrumbed fish cake that everyone is more acquainted with, so usually for a bit of crunch you can add some peanuts to the sauce. Those were omitted so I kind of understood where his complaints were coming from, however maybe the taste of tod mun is an acquired one since I enjoyed it! Or maybe he just doesn't know what he's talking about! 

Coming up soon: Taking a walk through Asia, Part II! China and Japan.