The expert on Chinese food on a home-from-home Turkish canteen, her favourite Chinese restaurant in London and a chaotic gem of a street market
EATING OUT
Somine
131 Kingsland High St, London E8 2PB; www.somine-restaurant.co.uk
Asked if she has a favourite restaurant in the neighbourhood, Fuchsia picks this cheap, informal Turkish café on Kingsland High Street. “It’s the nearest to home cooking if you’re eating out. When my kitchen was being redone, I went there a lot. They have all these lovely stews, which you have with rice, a salad and pickles. They also do these fantastic manti, ah! They’re tiny lamb dumplings covered in yoghurt, melted butter and ground chillies – fantastically delicious.” For Turkish kebabs, she recommends Mangal 2.
Song Que
134 Kingsland Rd, London E2 8DY; www.songque.co.uk
The area of east London where Fuchsia lives is also great for Vietnamese food. “Song Que is my favourite. I would have the bún – rice noodles with pork. It’s the best thing. The fried spring rolls are really good and so are the beef grilled in betel leaves. The woman in charge of the food is a real trooper, she works so hard to keep the standards up. She’s an amazing person.”
Lyle’s
Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High St, London E1 6JJ; www.lyleslondon.com
Of the new wave of modern European restaurants appearing in east London over the past few years, Fuchsia mentions this excellent restaurant in the Tea Building run by chef James Lowe. She also expresses a liking for the Clove Club, Rochelle Canteen, St John Bread & Wine, Trullo and Lardo.
Royal China Club
40-42 Baker St, London W1U 7AJ; www.rcguk.co.uk
“My favourite Chinese restaurant in London is Royal China Club – I go for dim sum. All the Royal China restaurants are good.”
Four Seasons
12 Gerrard St, China Town, London W1D 5PR; www.fs-restaurants.co.uk
“In Chinatown, for late-night quick bites, the Four Seasons’ roast duck on rice is really good. It’s open very late. Also in Chinatown, Golden Dragon and Imperial China are good for dim sum. And there are some quite interesting and different restaurants run by a guy called Geoff Leong, including Manchurian Legends.”
Sichuan Folk
32 Hanbury St, London E1 6QR; www.sichuan-folk.co.uk
Asked if there are any decent Sichuan restaurants in London, Fuchsia mentions Bar Shu, the Soho restaurant for which she is a consultant, but also nods to this excellent place in Spitalfields, as well as Tian Fu in Shepherd’s Bush.
BUYING IN
SeeWoo
18-20 Lisle St, London WC2H 7BE; www.seewoo.com/chinatown
“This supermarket in Chinatown has a great selection of fresh vegetables. They have a lot of things that used to be very difficult to get: garlic stems, yellow chives, fresh water chestnuts, and very nice fresh greens, some from China, some from Europe. I’m excited because a couple of months ago they opened a new seafood and meat counter, so they have things like pig’s trotters and chicken hearts. They also have very fresh and live seafood.” Fuchsia also recommends New Loon Moon, also in Chinatown, for chillies and Thai rice.
Yu Xiao
98 Kingsland High St, London E8 2NS
“This little Chinese grocery just around the corner has really changed my life. I’m always in there. They have the basic seasonings and some very nice fresh greens, fresh tofu, wonderful fresh noodles. I used to have to go either to Chinatown or to the Vietnamese shops on Mare Street, but to have all these things so close is so brilliant.”
Turkish Food Centre
89 Ridley Rd, London E8 2NH; www.tfcsupermarkets.com
“I love this place so much. The produce is much fresher than in a supermarket and it’s really seasonal. They have fresh pistachios, really nice tangerines with leaves on, fresh rocket and parsley, and very good lamb.”
Ridley Road Market (pictured above)
51-63 Ridley Rd, London E8 2LH
A colourful, chaotic gem of a street market close to Fuchsia’s flat. For fruit and veg, she favours the third stall on the right as you come from Kingsland High Street. “You can get really fresh, really cheap produce here,” she says. “Things like bunched spinach, which you can’t get in supermarkets. And wonderful ripe raspberries, strawberries and peaches.” Open 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday.
Harvest E8
130-132 Kingsland High St, London E8 2NS; www.harveste8.com
“A fantastic place run by a Turkish family, this does all the organic stuff, nuts and seeds, ecological cleaning fluids…”
Growing Communities farmers’ market
St Pauls Church, Stoke Newington High St, London N16 7UY; www.growingcommunities.org/market
Excellent farmers’ market open on Saturday mornings in the grounds of a Stoke Newington church. Fuchsia buys meat from the Longwood Farm stall. (She also recommends the Ginger Pig butcher in Victoria Park.)