Charles Morgan
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2010
- Messages
- 8,206
- Car
- Mercedes 250CE W114, Alfa Romeo GT Coupe 3.2 V6
My favourite local Chinese, Number Ten, has multiple personalities. For the numerous tourists in Earls Court, it is a bog standard Chinese, the usual Cantonese and Peking done well, but without any real inspiration. For the adventurous though, the chef is from Szechuan, and wondrous things like tripe, boiled beef with chilies, twice cooked pork and numerous other garlicky, spicy and offally bits of joy are in the special menu.
To my horror the place closed for what seemed like a month, in fact, they were merely replacing one set of bad furniture for another, and faux crocodile skin wallpaper, which I can guarantee no crocodile was hurt in its production. So making up for lost time, I have been back twice within a week, and as I shall be moving away next week, I shall be back again before I go.
So, the first time, husband and wife offal dressed with peanuts and chili oil. More about texture, this featured tenderised cartilage, beef and pork tripe, all served finely sliced and cold, dressed only with a piquant chili oil. A great way to liven up the taste buds, not for the faint of heart.
To follow, smashed cucumber soaked with rice vinegar, soy, finely sliced fresh red chili and unfeasibly large quantities of crushed garlic (it was this I had been eating last year when I had to give a police statement after a crash I witnessed. This might explain the willingness of Mr Plod to do it at a later date as my breath must have been concentrated alium). A wonderfully cooling dish, this paired with a pork belly and potato hotpot, with a rich concentrated sauce of soy with garlic and ginger. The belly was still springy , but the fat was bouncy and melting, a gloriously salty, obesity and artery hardening dish. Wonderful cut with the cucumber.
Today, as I stayed in the adventurous zone, the patroness offered me an unlisted sliced pigs ears, sotto voce. Seeing the table by me consisted of two elderly gentlemen from Yorkshire, who could have been scripted by Alan Bennett but with pauses between their antifonal conversation more worthy of Harold Pinter, I think they might have been scandalised, slowly, as they tucked into the tourist mild fare and talked of Mazda 323s.
Me, I was reading about driving a Bristol 400 drophead bodied by Farina, and after the gorgeous pigs ears - thinly sliced to translucency, dressed with black beans, thick spring onions and hot but not burning chili oil, it was a dish of considerable magnificence, although I freely admit to a pigs ear fondness.
To follow, a glorious stew of fatty beef brisket, with crunchy chinese leaves, julienne of ginger giving a sharp aromatic hit, fresh red chili fragranced stock based garlicky sauce and to cut the fat some rice vinegar pickled green pepper. To say this was excellent would be to understate quite how delicious this was - the brisket melting and tasty, the fat just to die for and of, different textures and fragrances supplied by the vegetables a perfect counterpoint.
I have eaten reasonably extensively in London Szechuan, and while many are good, the chef here is a gem. Proper home style food, minimal concessions to the western palate (for which they can have the bland stuff), unafraid of salt and fat and oil and oodles of chilies this is magnificent.
Number Ten in Hogarth Road, SW5 - just opposite the tube on the other side of the Earls Court Road. Well worth a visit. Take a chance, but if you really can't handle pain, avoid the beef broth. I counted 30 dry red chilies in my dish one day.
To my horror the place closed for what seemed like a month, in fact, they were merely replacing one set of bad furniture for another, and faux crocodile skin wallpaper, which I can guarantee no crocodile was hurt in its production. So making up for lost time, I have been back twice within a week, and as I shall be moving away next week, I shall be back again before I go.
So, the first time, husband and wife offal dressed with peanuts and chili oil. More about texture, this featured tenderised cartilage, beef and pork tripe, all served finely sliced and cold, dressed only with a piquant chili oil. A great way to liven up the taste buds, not for the faint of heart.
To follow, smashed cucumber soaked with rice vinegar, soy, finely sliced fresh red chili and unfeasibly large quantities of crushed garlic (it was this I had been eating last year when I had to give a police statement after a crash I witnessed. This might explain the willingness of Mr Plod to do it at a later date as my breath must have been concentrated alium). A wonderfully cooling dish, this paired with a pork belly and potato hotpot, with a rich concentrated sauce of soy with garlic and ginger. The belly was still springy , but the fat was bouncy and melting, a gloriously salty, obesity and artery hardening dish. Wonderful cut with the cucumber.
Today, as I stayed in the adventurous zone, the patroness offered me an unlisted sliced pigs ears, sotto voce. Seeing the table by me consisted of two elderly gentlemen from Yorkshire, who could have been scripted by Alan Bennett but with pauses between their antifonal conversation more worthy of Harold Pinter, I think they might have been scandalised, slowly, as they tucked into the tourist mild fare and talked of Mazda 323s.
Me, I was reading about driving a Bristol 400 drophead bodied by Farina, and after the gorgeous pigs ears - thinly sliced to translucency, dressed with black beans, thick spring onions and hot but not burning chili oil, it was a dish of considerable magnificence, although I freely admit to a pigs ear fondness.
To follow, a glorious stew of fatty beef brisket, with crunchy chinese leaves, julienne of ginger giving a sharp aromatic hit, fresh red chili fragranced stock based garlicky sauce and to cut the fat some rice vinegar pickled green pepper. To say this was excellent would be to understate quite how delicious this was - the brisket melting and tasty, the fat just to die for and of, different textures and fragrances supplied by the vegetables a perfect counterpoint.
I have eaten reasonably extensively in London Szechuan, and while many are good, the chef here is a gem. Proper home style food, minimal concessions to the western palate (for which they can have the bland stuff), unafraid of salt and fat and oil and oodles of chilies this is magnificent.
Number Ten in Hogarth Road, SW5 - just opposite the tube on the other side of the Earls Court Road. Well worth a visit. Take a chance, but if you really can't handle pain, avoid the beef broth. I counted 30 dry red chilies in my dish one day.
