Dim Sum in Chinatown

The ocean called, They're running outta shrimp?

Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld episode “The Comeback”)

The other day we were around Covent Garden and got an urge to get some Dim Sum, so decided to look for options in Chinatown. After a quick research with Timeout and Yelp we ended in one of the Young Cheng places. Quiet for a late lunch, and the only tables were Asian, wich is a good sign. Limited menu for dim sum for diner, only 12 options from 5pm to close though.

Dim Sum Time

We got a selection of the available dishes, crabmeat with pork, Shanghai style, cream custard bun, the classic barbecued pork bun, and others. Food was ok not the best dim sum I have had in London, the highlight was definitely the deep fried shrimp.

Deep fried shrimp

Good service, bill a bit expensive for similar places, quality ok, probably better options around so will keep looking.

Young Cheng

T: 020 7287 3045

Chinese Cuisine

Approx Damage: £25pp

Area: Chinatown

Borough: City of Westminster

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A sunny day out in East London and Burger Wars Episode IX: Farm Academy

We got a sunny Saturday a few weeks back and to celebrate this particular event my friend Sarah invited me to hang out in the Broadway Market. She wanted to try the Vietnamese coffee Ca Phe ZgoZ, apparently one of the best options in London, as for me I went more for curiosity, I love to visit different markets here, but I don’t know how I usually end in the same places, I live in the east of London but to be honest I spent most of my time in west London.

Cheese Stall, Broadway Market

The market is just great, a diversity of people, hanging out, musicians playing on the streets, bars, pubs, and coffees every corner, and a plenty variety of food. You can find anything you want, even the black market showers of the Seinfeld episode "The Shower Head" when the shower heads in Jerry's building are changed for a low flow model, and Kramer is desperately looking for a high flow model.

Newman: Now here's the lowdown. Through a certain connection, I've been able to locate some black market shower heads. They're all made in the former Yugoslavia. And from what I hear, the Serbs are fanatic about their showers.

Jerry: Not from the footage I've seen.

We reached the Vietnamese coffee stall, and we noticed they where the best coffee in London  in 2008 according to Time Out (I think, but not sure, sorry short time memory loss), so first question was what happened in 2009 and 2010? We did the queue and after at least 5 minutes trying to decide which coffee to go, we ended with a black iced Vietnamese coffee, and a white iced Vietnamese coffee, but with regular milk not the condensed one (yeah Sarah is really picky, maybe that’s why she’s a really good friend). We sat for at least an hour, talking and watching the people pass by, and listening a trio playing just a few metres away from us some kind of American folk southern rhythm and blues music.

Another Market Square Hero

I spotted a stall that was making burgers, with a pretty decent queue. So for my research to find the best burger in London I decided to give it a try. The stall was from Northfield Farm, I asked for the pork and stilton burger and added mature blue-veined cheddar.

Northfield Farm Stall

The verdict, the meat was well done, nice flavour with the stilton, but a little bit too much with the cheddar, it almost tasted like a cheese sandwich, also it was quite small, so I easily could have eaten two of them.

The damage, 4 pounds for the burgers, no fries, no drinks.

The conclusion, good option when you’re in the market, I should give it a try to the lamb and mint option they have. I will give them a 4 in my burger scale, and a 6 for market food standards.

Northfield Farm Burger

Ride across the river

After that we decided to walk across the Regent’s canal from Broadway Street to Angel, really nice view, some good places to go and have a drink, and a perfect place to jog. We ended in Sarah’s flat in Moorgate (quite a walk) because she needed to prepare brownies for a party, and don’t ask me how, I ended doing the brownies and she was “supervising” (yeah right), at least she was kind enough to prepare me a pretty good lunch/dinner and invite me to the party, quite impressed with her culinary skills, now waiting to try her pancakes.

Banksy Hoodie in Regent's Canal

Sarah's Omelette / Salad

In search of the best burger

I have decided to solve the mystery. Find the mythological place, probably it doesn’t exist but I will try it even if it cost me my life. No I’m not hunting the remaining Jedi that are in the galaxy, I will leave that to Lord Vader. I’m in search for the best burger place in London. I have been reading reviews on blogs, time out, and hearing my friends making recommendation on what they think is the best burger in London. So far in two years, I don’t have a clear winner, so after a disappointing experience last week in a burger place that a friend recommended. I researched, created, checked, and double checked a list of places to go and try their burgers. I plan to visit them all and write about it.

So I’m ready to the challenge, and open to anything, can be a foie gras burger, ostrich burger, or a plain cheeseburger, it doesn’t matter, the only thing I’m expecting is that it delivers and fulfills my expectation. Talking about ostrich burger I had one in Cambridge a few years back but the best memory I have for that is the Seinfeld episode “The Maid”.

George: You're sleeping with the maid?

Jerry: Yes.

George: I've done that. Did you ever eat an ostrich burger?

The places to hunt down:


Hache, Ground, Byron, Le Pont de la Tour, The Diner, Dollar Drills & Martinis, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Hamburger Union, Maze Grill, Ultimate Burger, Cross Keys Gastropub, Automat, The Bountiful Cow, Big Easy, and Albannach. So let the hunt begin…

First encounter of the third type:

The first victim was Byron (Proper Hamburgers), my friend Carla and I get together every Thursday, or at least we try, sometimes we go for a drink, other opportunities we eat something, just chat and complain about our life, and from time to time she shares with me the latest adventures of Lesley Maria (who in my opinion is definitely taken from a sitcom comedy). Carla heard about this place, apparently there is a huge hype in the blogging/tweeter community, the best burger in London, we must go and check it out. First thing I did was checked their website, first strike: it was a chain, I don’t have anything against that but in my mind I still believe that the best burger place probably is a small little hidden place. We reached the place, good decoration, the service was good, we saw the menu and STRIKE TWO poor variety, they only have bacon, 4 different types of cheese (Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Blue Cheese, Gruyere), a chicken burger, and a vegetarian option, you can add ingredients but that’s going to cost you more so if you want avocado, portbello mushrooms, or jalapenos you have to pay extra. I went for the blue cheese and add an extra of dry cure bacon, I order some French fries, yes French fries, slim fries not the huge fat chips we are used to here in the kingdom, and Carla ordered the cheddar cheese with onion rings.

Carla disappointed with the oily/saggy onion rings 

The verdict: size was decent, the meat was served medium rare, actually it was almost alive (I like raw meat so for me was ok but otherwise be aware), a good taste but I was definitely expecting more, the fries were just fine and the onion rings were oily and saggy, STRIKE THREE YOU’RE OUT!

Byron's Blue Cheese and Bacon Burger

The damage: 18 pounds for a burger, beer, and fries.

Conclusion, not even close to become or hold the best burger of London in my humble opinion. In an scale to 10 I'm giving them a 6,5 too much hype and no delivery of results.


If you have any place do you think it should be worthy to go and try their burger please let me know, to end this post I will leave you with a video (copyright Michael Nesmith in Television Parts) that an Irish friend sent me, It’s quite funny. I had a flash back when I went to Dublin and this Irish lad started to talk to me, I actually didn’t get any of the things he was saying, he was completely drunk and with a really strong accent. So enjoy and remember “Tap of the marning to yah! My what fine looking potatoeeeee! beeeeeeeeeeep.

Irish Language Lab (copyright Michael Nesmith in Television Parts)