Plum Valley dim sum for Autumn Moon Festival

Today I went to Chinatown with my family and we saw the lion dance for the Autumn Moon Festival. There were also some stalls an other entertainment going on, organised by the London Chinatown Association.
We decided to go to the new restaurant Plum Valley on Gerrard Street as I had heard good things about it. It is kind of a budget version of Hakkasan. Black wooden minimalist interiors with seating booths. I do like a booth. Also handy with small children as they can be 'trapped' in between 2 people in a booth (my daughter is very curious and constantly trying to escape). We ordered some dim sum and a couple of noodle dishes. All excellent. The prawn and chive dumplings had a nice spicey kick to them, the lo pak ko (turnip cakes) were exquisite (not greasy or rubbery and packed full of shrimps and pork). Lucky Cat recommends!
After that we went to the bakery next door and I bought a mini lotus seed paste moon cake. An afternoon well spent.

Credit Crunch Noodles Recipe

Packets of Asian brand noodles can make for a tasty and cheap meal and you'll feel less like a student if you add some fresh ingredients.

• One packet seafood flavour noodles
  
• Handful of beansprouts
  
• Handful of chopped coriander
  
• Handful of tiny, dried baby anchovies
  
• 1 egg
  
• 2 Finely chopped muschrooms
  
• 1 finely chopped spring onion or small leek
  
• 1 clove of garlic cut into slices
  
• Water
  
• Oil
  

First boil the egg for 8 minutes (nearly hard boiled but still a bit of a squidgey yolk). Set aside. Stir fry the baby anchovies, chopped mushrooms and spring onion for 2 mins then add the garlic slices. When nicely browned and fragrant remove from heat. Follow the instructions on the noodle packet to cook noodles. When done and in a bowl peel the egg and slice in half, place on top of noodles. Scatter the fried ingredients over the egg and noodles, then the beansprouts then the coriander. Add a wedge of lime if you want to get really sophisticated. Tuck in.

On the Wire mix 20th September 2008

Mr Steve Barker, journalist, broadcaster, dub connoisseur and current Beijing resident, very nicely asked me to contribute a one hour mix for his BBC Lancashire music show On The Wire. I am pleased to announce that my Lucky Cat mix will be aired on Saturday 20th September on BBC Radio Lancashire on 103.9, 95.5 & 104.5 FM and on 855 & 1557 AM and on local digital radio (all of these apply to Lancashire residents otherwise check the podcast or blog links below).
Podcast here:
http://odeo.com/channels/47901/rss.xml
Blog here:
http://otwradio.blogspot.com
About Steve Barker
BBC Lancashire page
http://14tracks.com - Steve's selections