Wan Chai Corner, 3 Gerrard Street, London W1D 5PD

Wan Chai Corner is my favourite Chinese Restaurant. I've been going there for years. It's difficult to find a good Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown at the lower price point, but this is it! Lovely food, and good service from friendly staff.

I don't usually order spring rolls. These were very nice - they had a choice of chicken or vegetable. I ordered chicken, but thought they'd given me vegetable in error. It was only when I got to the last piece of the second one that I spotted a tiny cube of chicken. The only piece I found! I was a bit disappointed, but they were still nice.

I haven't had their Tom Yum Soup Soup Noodles for a few years. I was disappointed to find they no longer put pineapple in it, and there was no fish cake which I love.

I can't remember what was in it before as I only ordered it once or twice. Today it had prawns, white fish and fish ball slices. The veg was red chilli, onion, spring onion, tomato, and red and green peppers. Maybe the tomato is replacing the pineapple? I can't remember if it had tomato before. I know pineapple isn't traditional in Tom Yum, but I sure like it!

The broth itself was delicious, with a lovely depth of flavour.

Overall, a very enjoyable meal.

Spring Rolls with Sweet and Sour Sauce

Thai Tom Yum Soup Noodles

Five Guys, Bromley

Cheeseburger All The Way

Five Guys opened in Market Square four weeks ago, so I thought it was time I paid them a visit.

I chose the Cheeseburger All The Way as it comes with every topping I like - grilled mushrooms, fried onions, tomato, lettuce, gherkin, ketchup, mayo and mustard.  There are other toppings available for no extra charge and you can have as many as you like for no extra cost. The burgers are cooked well done and juicy, so if you like your burger medium or rare you're out of luck! Health and safety and all that.

The burger was juicy and the two patties were cooked to perfection. Loads of melted cheese! A real dirty burger. They give you plenty of serviettes, but I was glad I had some hand wipes with me!

I like that you can help yourself to a free trayful of monkey nuts to nibble on whilst you're waiting for your burger to be cooked.

To drink, I chose a peanut butter milkshake with malted milk.  Disappointingly, there was very little peanut flavour and none at all of malt. This could be due to eating the monkey nuts, but it just tasted of vanilla. It was nice and thick, but tasteless.  Not a patch on Ed's Diner. Next time, I will have Coca-Cola as it's bottomless and comes in all different flavours.

Verdict: These burgers are expensive, but absolutely delicious.

Borsch Recipe

This is my version of my Ukranian friend's borsch. Nataly doesn't speak any English. I worked out how to make it with a combination of research on the internet, and seeing bones, bay leaves and peelings in the food waste bin! There is more than one version of borsch, the most famous one contains beetroot. This one does not. It is also known as Shchi.

2 pork medallions
1/2 half a cabbage
1 baking potato
2 bay leaves
1 small carrot
1/2 red pepper or 2 tomatoes
1/2 onion
Tomato puree, good squeeze
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper, or to taste
Sour cream, to serve


Fill a medium stockpot 3/4 full with water. Put in the pork and bring to the boil. Skim off the fat and scum. Let it simmer for about 25 minutes whilst you prepare the vegetables.
Finely shred the cabbage, and peel and chop the potato into small dice. Put them in the stock along with the bay leaves.
Finely chop the onion, and grate the carrot. Thinly slice the pepper and cut into small pieces, or if using tomato, de-seed it and cut into small cubes.
Fry the onions until golden. Then add the grated carrots and red pepper or tomato, and cook for a couple of minutes. Add a good squeeze of tomato puree and cook for a minute or so.
Take the pork out of the stock and cut it into small pieces, and return it to the pan.
Put the onion and carrot mixture into the stock. Season the soup with salt and pepper and cook a little more until it looks an tastes done.
Serve each bowl with a tablespoon of sour cream and a slice of light rye bread

Note: You can use any kind of meat. Nataly used a couple of chicken legs or thighs with the bone-in.

Borsch

Recently, my Ukranian friend Nataly gave me a bowl of borsch. I didn't know there were other kinds of borsch other than the one with beetroot.

This one contains cabbage. Russian Cabbage Soup is also known as Shchi. You can put any kind of meat in it. Nataly put chicken in it this time, but it's also nice with pork. It also contains potatoes, onions, grated carrots, red pepper, tomato puree and a couple of bay leaves. Some times she puts diced tomato in instead of red pepper.

I researched the recipe on the internet and managed to work out how to make it just like Nataly's. She doesn't speak any English. I'm happy to say that I nailed it. When Nataly tasted it she said "Wow!"

         
             I put two pork medallions in mine to make the broth.

 

I've gone a bit mad with the sour cream!