Chinese New Year Celebrations in Manchester 2009

My first blog for the new year, so Happy New Year and also Happy Chinese New Year for those celebrating. The weather has been really cold lately and I have not spent as much time in the kitchen as I would have liked to, as it has no central heating in it. Hence, the break since my last blog. Come spring, and I should be more in the mood to experiment further in the kitchen. I also have a few more stories to tell from my last visit to Malaysia and I will try to drop them in occassionally.


On Sunday 1/2/09, Manchester Chinatown celebrated Chinese New Year in the most extravagant event of the year so far. The celebrations were held in two venues, outside the City Hall and in the centre of Chinatown. The weather was barely above freezing, but it did not deter the crowds, majority non- Chinese, from turning up. This is not to say that there were only a few Chinese, but we account for such a small proportion of the UK population, even if we all turned up, we'd still be outnumbered by the others. It was great to see people from all other walks of life making attempts to learn more about the Chinese culture, despite the fact that many stalls were obviously setup to exploit those who knew little... I will show a little more about this further down.


It was 12pm and Princess Road, which cuts through the city centre, were closed to traffic and there was a huge crowd gathered in anticipation....





.. for this! A huge 15 metre Dragon dance, which danced for 30 minutes in front of the City Hall before making its way into Chinatown.



There were also other shows on a specially erected stage. Lilke this impressive acrobat show from a troupe from Yunan. All paid for by the City Council.




Moving into the heart of Chinatown, and there was a sea of people with lots of roadside stalls selling goods and services related to the occassion.





This stall had tacky goods which were lapped up by mainly non-Chinese.



And this one too! Loads of parents bought these cheap paper dragons for their kids to wave about.



You had to pay £1.50 for someone to write your name in Chinese with a calligraphy pen.





I dont even know what this is suppose to mean!





This was a genuine religious stall, in that you were given free lighted incense / joss sticks to dedicate to the buddha statue. I dont know what the furtune cookie packets had anything to do with buddhism though.

As for food, well, that's what the Chinese are known for in the UK, and the amount of food stalls we saw today did little to disprove the stereotype. What surprised me this year is that there are more stalls selling "Thai" food than any other types of food. I said that in inverted commas because the majority of the food dished out here were not in the slightest bit authentic and way overpriced. It would not have cost much more to eat in the warmth and comfort of a restaurant.

The stall pictured here sold Thai food.

More Thai food. This was one of the better stalls which looked like they made some effort with the food they sold.



This one looked impressive. Also Thai ... but he was actually reheating the noodles in a wok rather than actually cooking then in front of the customer. The guy behind him was grilling Thai satay ..not sure if that was fresh or also just reheating.



These lovely ladies were actually cooking Thai satay from scratch. Smelt lovely too, but too expensive for me to want to buy them.... 4 sticks for £3!

This Thai bbq chicken also smelt gorgeous!



These ladies were doing vegetarian fried noodles and rice. Did not look too appetising to me, as, they overloaded the wok and the flames were too low. Definitely no "wok hei" there! But it would have looked impressive to the uninitiated!


Some examples of the exorbitant prices charged! The fried noodles and rice dishes either don't or contained little meat!





Wow! £1 for a cup of hot water with a couple of dried chinese tea leaves diluted in it!



Look at the state of the bins! The food cant have been that good, for people to throw away so much of it! Looks like its going to be a feast for Mickey and Minnie tonight!



After all that walking around, we sat down for a meal in a restaurant and managed to order a portion of roast suckling pig. This little portion cost us £13. In the UK, a pig cannot be slaughtered under 8 weeks old. Hence, it has become quite meaty by then and also the skin has grown thicker than those eaten in South East Asia. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the treat thoroughly!



However, it cannot be compared to this half pig we had at Greenview Restaurant, Section 19, PJ in Malaysia,a few months ago, during our hols!

Beef in Black Bean Sauce

Another one of those Chinese dishes, like Sweet & Sour, which I had never tasted before until I came to the UK. Can anyone confirm if this is as popular in the far east as it is here in the UK?

The trick to restaurant quality black bean sauce is.... wait for it .....

...NOT TO USE BLACK BEAN SAUCE! :))

Ok, what I really meant was that you shouldn't use black bean sauce bought off a supermarket shelf. Instead, I simply marinate the beef with oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil and bits of chopped garlic and a few fermented black bean.


Then, in a smoking hot wok, I fry some chopped garlic and a tsp of black beans, then add the beef and quickly fry it, adding the veg shortly before it becomes completely brown. Then add stock and cornflour to make up a sauce, and salt and/or sugar to taste. The better the quality of beef, the more tender it is. If you can afford it, use sirloin or fillet of beef.


So, in essence, I did not use "black bean sauce" at all, just a sauce with some black beans in it. Fermented black beans should always be used sparingly as the flavour is too strong and salty. Crushing too many into a sauce will also give it a bitter taste. Hence, I prefer just to just lightly flavour the stir fry dish with the beans.

Chinese Buffet Restaurant in Manchester

Tsai Wu Oriental Buffet is located on Oxford Street, in Manchester, not far up the road from the universities. In my opinion, it is one of the best Chinese buffet restaurants in Manchester and does not resort to cheap tricks likes many London ones where you have to dig through hundreds of pieces of onions to find the meat. A daytime buffet meal costs only £5 whereas the eveneing weekend meal costs atround £10. The quality of the food is the same, except that they have a few more dishes in the evening, such as crispy duck pancakes, stir fried tiger prawns, stir fry squid and a gateau dessert. To be honest, I am usually too full to bother with the dessert anyway, so that does not bother me. At half the price, the daytime bufffet is by far the better value and although the quality cannot compare to an ala carte meal, it is nevertheless delicious.


Here is a picture of the shop front on a busy overcast winter Saturday afternoon on Oxford Street.


A small section of the food on display. They have mirrors on the display, so you are seeing only two rows of trays, not four.


Another section of the food on display.


Close up of the pork section... clockwise...bbq spare ribs, salt & pepper battered spare ribs, pork slices in Cantonese sauce and stir fry pork slices.


Close up... clockwise... chicken in chinese curry sauce, salt & pepper battered wings, green lip mussels in black bean sauce, sweet & sour chicken.

The noodle section.... clockwise.... Singapore fried meehoon, a stack of plates, fries fusili pasta and fried fresh egg noodles.


The frys section... onion rings, aubergine fritters, crabsticks fritters, chips, mushroom fritters and mini pring rolls.


Some of the mixed dishes I selected. Notice the lack of rice and noodles. Why choose the cheap ingredients when it all costs the same??!!




A rather strong bowl of hot and sour soup. Rich and meaty.


My favourite dish! A bowl of clear seafood soup consisting of fishballs, fish maw, mussels, shrimps, tofu and chinese cabbage.


Just a light dessert afterwards.. some ice cream. They even have a whippy ice cream machine free for you to use.


After all that, we dragged our heavy stomachs off the seat and walk wearily to the car park. Do not expect to continue city centre shopping after a meal here. You will not be in the mood for walking!

Char Siu, revisited (Chinese Barbeque Pork)

Here is a dish I have blogged about before. However, I felt I had to do it again because, like all amateur cooks, my dishes do not come out identical evertime I prepare them. On this occassion, it turned out really well, in taste as well as appearance. The reason is because I bought belly pork (the kind used in crispy roast pork - siu yoke) instead of tenderloin or shoulder/neck steak. The big difference is the amount of fat in belly pork and I also made too much marinade for this lot. As a result, it had a stronger taste and the fatty bits made some parts crispy and charred with that "melt in your mouth" texture as you bite into it. I dont usually use belly as its rather unhealthy, but find that it's the best cut if you want your char siu "pun fei sow" (half fat, half lean).



I am still a complete novice when it comes to food photography and presentation, but I am learning a lot by looking other people's food blogs. Can anyone tell me how to capture a photo where the object in front is clear, but all behind is blurred? I'm afraid I have only used the auto feature of my camera. When I select manual, everything is blurred!