Hey! Ready for some Chinese food? Let's go! Good morning! We are at London's Chinatown I believe you could tell from the red lantern hanging up top... And the crowd is insane! There's quite a lot of people...but trust me guys, it's even crazier at night Which is why we are here during the daytime :D This is the place where you can find all things that are related to Chinese They have got different kinds of street foods Snacks Dim Sum Quet: Chinese Bakery...traditional Chinese medicine WL: Grocery stores Wow look at the team over there...they're in the professional league All you can eat Chinese buffets And of course, the most popular Cantonese Roast, or more specifically... Roast Duck What we call the London Roast Duck The London Roast Duck is so famous to the point where at least among the Chinese community back home when we talk about roast duck...they're like "Oh you got to try roast duck in London. It's really good. You got to try it in Chinatown." & I believe the most famous is called Four Seasons Now This is not our first visit to Chinatown because being Chinese...obviously we would have been here a few times :P I've tried Four Seasons and I've tried another one that is also pretty popular I'll bring you to what I personally think serves the best London Roast Duck in Chinatown But before that, let's start off with something steaming hot because I don't wanna start off straight with some greasy foods Let's grab some Bao~ We are at Bun house “品屋包子铺” Apparently very well known for their Bao especially their custard bun “奶黄包” and pork bun “烧汁猪腩包”! I'm sorry I have to look it up because it's not my usual char siew bao “叉烧包” Anyway, let's head in! Alright guys, seated in the shop and we've got 2 Bao One is a custard bun, we call it “奶黄包” & the other is a pork bun So let me start with the custard bun because it's custardy, we should eat it when it's hot It's good~it's proper~ *Speaks in Cantonese* "真係奶黄包喔大佬!" What I’m saying is that it's authentic! The bun is soft & chewy It's got a nice bounce as well & the custard within is sweet with a little bit of grittiness which I really like! It's a nice texture...a little bit of saltiness~ It's pretty watery though...I'm more accustomed to a saucy-based one but I like the fact that they give you this paper just in case the custard drips all over the place Quet: K my turn, this is BBQ pork bun Quet: Obviously it's a pork bun :D The bun texture is as good as the custard bun The pork meat is between a mix of lean and fat & this is not our Malaysian Char Siew Bao which is the sweet type It feels like a stir-fried pork with some chilli but the spice level is very mild There are some inconsistencies....the bao skin is more mushy... It's a little more chewy The custard bun was done really well though, I'll be honest...custard is good This is alright... :X That was a warming meal but I'm not ready for roast duck just yet...let's see what street food we could find Alright spot no.2 We're having some “煎饼果子” which is Chinese crepes & we're at this shop called Lin Lin Crepes It's a husband and wife team, you can see the lady and the husband busy making the crepes for the people who are queuing They start off by putting a thin layer of batter and then they break two eggs, spread them evenly across that flour batter & then they sprinkle some spring onions & coriander on top and let it set & they flip it around Butter it with Hoisin sauce & they place whatever ingredients you require We got some sausages, fried fritters & fried dough & they fold it up after it's done and turn it into this magnificent beauty Crepe is soft with a little bit of chew You could taste the egginess because they spreaded the eggs across the crepe & the coriander, the spring onion...they bring their own fragrance that lifts the flavour of this crepe & within...you've got that...still sort of moderately crispy fritter You know, because it's wrapped & there's condensation so obviously it's not as crispy The flavour is predominantly Hoisin sauce... with some spiciness It's very simple but it's pretty delicious For Malaysians, the skin with the eggs... It tastes like roti telur (Roti Prata with Egg within) K, let's grab a bite of the sausage It's a very... simple...sausage... I mean it's... it's a low level sausage...let's put it that way but the key point is in the fragrance of the eggs that flavour of the Hoisin sauce The sausage is just there for the texture...you know, the very cheap frankfurter that you'll get from Sainsbury's It's roughly there (in flavour & texture)... Fried dough has a nice texture Little bit crisp...chewy with very mild oil fragrance Main fragrance is still the Hoisin sauce Ultimately I will say...very simple snack but I think for Chinese... It's a flavour that we might crave when we're in London So yeah, I'll still say I enjoyed it very much~ Alright stomachs filled~ I think we are ready for the roast duck now Let's go~ Alright guys we are seated at Gold Mine Restaurant called “金山楼” & I've tried this...I've tried Four Seasons...I think this is better It edges out Four Seasons and we will explain after we eat their duck So let's see how they perform today We've got over here a Cantonese Roast Duck Correct me if I'm wrong The way I understood it before I arrive at London is I thought London Roast Duck was slightly different from Cantonese Roast Duck but as I got here to Chinatown they told me that it's actually the same... It's basically Cantonese Roast Duck I could smell the ingredients in there...it's spiced, it's herbed...and they've got this five spice powder smell That oil fragrance of the duck is crazy! Without further ado, let's try the duck first, see if the skin is still crispy Skin is crisp! The meat is tender & bitey! Oil fragrance is very good! That rendered fat from the process of roasting You could taste the innate gaminess of the duck, in a good way! I will even call it duck sweetness! Not so much of the spices... I think they (spices) are just there to bring out that complex flavour, to draw out the natural sweetness of the duck It's really umami! The key point lies in the oil fragrance That rendered fat is insane! I don't know if the mic can pick this up but it's actually crisp! The skin is crisp! & the meat, really... That umami! It's really good! Now let's talk a little bit about the difference between London Cantonese Roast Duck and Malaysia Cantonese Roast Duck The key in London is they use “银山鸭” Silver Hill Farm Irish duck basically So they are generally higher in fat content and with good skill from a master roaster... When you roast the duck, the fat protects the meat of the duck so the duck maintains its tender, succulent meat It doesn't go dry & with the perfect roasting skills, the fat in the duck will render out & you get a piece of duck that's crisp skin, succulent, tender meat and not overly fatty This is one of the key points of roast duck, is that it cannot get overly cloy The moment it gets cloy... It's not very good & I think Gold Mine has found a pretty good balance here The sifu showed me certain parts with too much fat & he said "You gotta cut this off if not it's gonna be cloy." & I totally agree and I think he is really dedicated to his craft & this duck is a good duck K guys I gotta put a pause on the duck for a bit because we got another dish that we need to try out now I've got a “双拼” which is “蜜汁叉烧” togther with “烧肉”which means roast pork with barbeque pork So let's try the roast pork first because I want to know if the skin is still crispy I really don't know if the mic can pick it up but... It's crispy! Very crispy! The meat is still tender & it's quite bitey The skin is where all the flavour is at The oil fragrance is all in the skin It's very crispy! It's almost like a cracker! It's crackling! Oh it's good! I'm surprised! Because it's doused in this sauce & it's been lying in the sauce for quite a while! The skin is crackling! This piece is much better~ The earlier piece... There's a hint of porkiness...not in a good way But this piece is good~ Let's try the Char Siew which is basically honey barbecue pork They glaze it with some honey as well I think Char Siew is decent...it's bitey A little bit tougher than I'd have like Not that much of that...when you call “蜜汁叉烧” normally there's this flavour of honey that is quite present This is not that present...perhaps because I've had a really good version at Shang Palace in Paris So yeah, there's a stark contrast, but it's still decent though...don't get me wrong Yeah, it's quite tough Anyway back to the roast duck Alright guys This is rice for one person This is a bowl of rice! Take note, it's actually a lot of rice So if you come here and you are not a big eater...one person rice is enough for two or maybe even three The sauce~ No way...the sauce today is on point That day when we tried...I'll be honest... Duck was good but the sauce was kind of too salty... it's like, just soy sauce salty Today the mixture is good~it's still salty but it's got a nice flavour of sweetness I think they mixed like, a sweet soy sauce with their soy sauce & maybe some... some form of oil within...maybe it's the duck oil And when you go with rice... It's crazy good! Rice is good as well I think they use Jasmine rice so it's got a just nice chew You can see they are individually grained This is good! **Kindly pause to read.** K guys we are about maybe five minutes walk away from Chinatown & there's this bun place called Buns from Home that we want to recommend to you guys because we tried it a couple of days ago Some good bread basically...or pastry rather...it's a good pastry So we got over here one of their signature which is the custard bun Quet: Vanilla custard... WL: Yea vanilla custard, so I'm gonna try this first...Quet is gonna feed me because she doesn't really take pure vanilla Let's go~ It's so big XD Yeah I like it~ It's not very milky...custard is cool...it's creamy The puff pastry has a nice baked fragrance The texture is a little bit bready so I guess that's why they call it Buns from Home I think they glazed it as well with some sugar so it's a bit sweet I'm not sure I think I tasted some cinnamon as well I don't know if they accidentally sprinkled some on or... Yea it's cinnamon There's some cinnamon in the bun I think the bun is glazed with cinnamon and sugar & I think the base is really thin so the cream is basically bursting out of the base...we're gotta eat this quickly I got to admit... not my best face... "eating face"... but it's good I like the flavour Quet: Not overly sweet
WL: Yeah It's very refreshing surprisingly I love this! This is good guys~ We have tried some bakeries in London This is the one that I find really proper! It's like, comparable to the ones you find in Paris Yeah, this is proper guys~really good~ Alright we're gonna keep the other one...I think it's a cheese with maybe raspberry and some biscuit crumbles We're gonna keep that for supper Let's talk a bit about "Plating Time" The first spot, Bun House. I would say very decent buns surprisingly...texture is nice especially for that custard bun Soft & bouncy Custard is a little bit watery but it's got a nice flavour and nice grittiness within as well The pork bun is a little bit mushy...there's some inconsistencies there and the flavour is fine but it's not overly exciting in a way & with that taken into consideration I'll say Bun House scores an "Honorable Mention" on TGP K spot no. 2 - Lin Lin crepes Quet: 煎饼果子
WL: Yea 煎饼果子 It's a familiar flavour for us Chinese & aside from the egginess which is really good, the rest of the stuff did feel a little too simple like, you don't taste the flavour in the sausage...not much anyway The fritters lack quite a bit of the fragrance...the fried dough also needs more fragrance let's put it that way So it's a really simple product that if you are Chinese and you are craving maybe flavour from home Yeah, then yo'llu enjoy it like we enjoy it very much So taking all this into consideration, I would say unfortunately Lin Lin crepes scores a "Zero" on TGP Alright the third spot which is the key point for this Vlog The roast meat from Gold Mine restaurant Quet: For today, the roast duck is on point WL: I think the key point is, it's got a crisp enough skin because Cantonese Duck is not like, super crispy where it's like Peking Duck but it still needs that crisp which they have Oil fragrance is ridiculously good today The duck is umami~there's a good amount of sweetness from the duck and the sauce is well balanced today I'll be honest...the last time we came the duck was good but the sauce was... It was one dimensional & very salty It was a lousy sauce the last time we came Today it was on point It was sweet...it was salty but it's good enough when you put it on your rice There is umami and the duck is good basically...it's a good enough duck So ultimately I think it is a really good Cantonese Roast Duck Is this the best Cantonese Roast Duck we've had? It's not but it's pretty up there maybe the only downside to this roast duck now is the breast because I personally think for perfect Cantonese Roast Duck you look at the duck breast...it has to be tender & succulent with crisp skin & it shouldn't be mushy & in this case unfortunately Gold Mine duck meat around the breast area is a little mushy which we find in most Cantonese Roast Duck, I'll be very honest but we did try a variant from Shisen Hanten in Singapore where their London Roast Duck has no mushiness Yeah, I think that is like, the perfect one...that's the best that we've tried to date But Gold Mine is really good as well So let's look at the other roast meats...the Char Siew and the Siew Yok Alright the roast pork has very crispy skin Flavour is all on the skin...you can taste the five spice powder which is very nice I did taste a bit of bad porkiness on the first piece but aside from that the rest are fine so I think roast pork is pretty good Char Siew is decent
Quet: Yeah Char Siew is very lean WL: It's not just very lean...it's lean but it's not tender enough...it's in a way...dry and the honey flavour is not that pronounced K now we are at the point where I want to talk about Four Seasons in comparison to Gold Mine I think Gold Mine is better because the duck generally edges out Four Seasons a little bit Four Seasons is not bad either, like, the duck is umami, the skin is crisp but... we did come across a little bit of that duck hair...it's quite a bit & then it's also more cloy...the duck that we had was a lot fattier I don't know is it because they didn't remove the really fatty part or what but yeah it does get quite cloy and... very importantly the rice is quite mushy from Four Seasons yeah... The way I'm going to score this is I'm going to just score it on roast duck because originally we only want to go for a roast duck but I got greedy so I got a roast meats as well & taking only roast duck and rice into consideration, Gold Mine scores a "Half a Plate" on TGP K the fourth spot which we originally only wanted to use it for the ending but I want to "Plate" it as well because it's really good I would say overall it's really on par with what you can get in Paris The better Patisserie in Paris in fact & with that being said Buns from Home scores a "Half a Plate" on TGP That's it for our food Vlog for the day Hope you've enjoyed this Vlog! If you did, do consider giving us a 'thumbs up' If you've yet to subscribe, do consider subscribing & hitting that notification bell button~ Till we eat again next week in London :D Bye-bye~
