Layman1's Profile
When Restaurant Reviewers 'Just Don't Get It' - Moved from UK/Ireland board
Hi All,
I read about the restaurant on here with great interest, as I bought Fuchsia Dunlop's book on Hunan Cookery a few months ago (and have been teaching myself from her Sichuan cookery book for the last year or so). Then I saw the link to the aforementioned Indepenent review, and was so outraged I really had to leave a comment! So the comment on there from 'layman1' is in fact from myself, a fellow Chowhounder! Are any of the others from any of you? And DaveMP, did you email/get any response from the Independent? :)
Hound refugee in Manchester/york needs recs
Hi, I never saw your original post, but when I saw the title of this, I immediately thought to recommend you to visit Red Chilli!
They have branches in York and Manchester (and Leeds, which is where I am currently based).
If you are going for a fish dish, I'd say the finest by far is the 'pan fried sea bass with garlic heart, mushroom and bamboo shoot'.
Not only I, but several other diners that I've been with, including mainland Chinese people, have said this is the best fish dish there! If for any reason this doesn't appeal, there's a dish of seabass fillet peices poached in a spicy broth with Chinese cabbage underneath and dried chilli and crushed sichuan pepper on top.. it's called "shui zhu yu" (pronounced "shway jew you" ) in Mandarin, but I can't remember the English name! (or 'La zi yu' is a similar dish they might have).
Other than that, 'ma po dou fu' (pock marked mother Chen's beancurd - minced beef cooked with soft chunks of tofu in a chilli and sichuan pepper flavoured sauce) is excellent, shredded potato with red pepper is good, and I recommend the "beancurd, vegetables and vermicelli claypot" as a great dish for helping you manage all the other chilli laden dishes! Its a soup dish with rice noodles, fried beancurd chunks and chinese cabbage; very soothing :)
For a good meat dish "la zi ji" (I think it's called 'aromatic diced chicken with chilli' on the menu is great; with or without batter (I actually prefer the battered version, served amongst a pile of chillis and sichuan peppercorns from which you pluck the pieces to eat! Anyway, hope that all helps, and hope this reply isn't a few days too late :P
I don't know the restaurants in those cities to make any other recommendations sadly, but good luck with your food hunt!
Coffee in Leeds
Hello, me again, and delighted to see the responses and that others are also discovering the joys of Opposite 2 :)
A few responses to the things above;
HurricaneJosh: Have you tried Coffee by the Monmouth St. Coffee Co? Or Union Roasters? Monmouth may do mail order delivery, not sure about that, but Union definitely have a website from which you can have wholebean (or ground to order coffee delivered). Finally there is Hasbeen (also delivering via a website), whose coffee I have tried and found to be excellent.
Opposite2 now sell bags of Square Mile whole bean espresso, which can be ground to order (I used some in an Aeropress, which was pretty good!).
Also, they sell bags of Hasbeen coffee (wholebean/ground to order); I found the Sumatran one to be outstanding, and in fact none of them are less than good!
So how many of you are going there on a regular basis? I've probably seen you there and not even known you were fellow Chow-people! :p
Coffee in Leeds
Hi all, only just joined so will take care of photo etc later. Just want to say, am a real coffee fanatic, love Monmouth in London, and can't wait to check out some of the places I heard about more recently, such as Dose.. For Leeds, there is finally a decent place to get coffee.
It's a small hexagonal kiosk in the Victoria Quarter, just behind the Harvey Nichols cafe (if you were walking down from the main entrance to the Victoria Quarter). The espresso changes seasonally and comes from the famous Square Mile roastery in London. The range of filter coffees come from the equally prestigious Hasbeen. Milk is organic, the baristas are well trained (to my knowledge the people who set this up came 2nd in the UK barista championships last time they competed) and are mostly passionate about coffee. It opened in July 2009, so they are still getting some things sorted (the cafe will officially be called 'Opposite 2', but there is no sign up yet) - however, look for the small hexagonal kiosk selling coffee (NOT the other one which sells bagels) as directed, and you won't go wrong. Best coffee I've had outside of London, without question. Anyone else been there?
