LONDON GEMS: DIM SUM AT GERRARD'S CORNER

Mention dim sum in London and most people think of Ping Pong. Maybe a handful will bring up Royal China or Kam Tong in Bayswater...but this little restaurant is my favorite spot for a bit of steamed dumpling action! 

Gerrard's Corner sits on the corner of Gerrard Street-duh- at the end of Chinatown, on the edge of Soho.

It's reasonably priced, authentic, and full of Chinese families and locals getting their weekly yum cha on. In Chinatown, that's how you know it's a good restaurant! Being a bank holiday, it was a little busier than normal but after a short wait we sat down and ticked the items we wanted on our little pink dim sum slip. 

It wouldn't be dim sum if we didnt get a couple of baskets of Siu Mai- steamed minced prawn dumplings. We get two baskets...but I only get one dumpling. The rest goes straight down Robin's gullet. My favorite is probably the most simple item- pan fried turnip paste. Trust me- it tastes better than it sounds! Turnip paste and shrimps are minced together and then fried until there is a nice crispy crust on the outside. The closest I could describe the taste is like...fried noodles squidged into a square! Another old favorite is prawn Cheung Fung. Whole prawns wrapped in a steamed rice roll with a sweet soya sauce drizzled on top. I could drink the soya sauce, it's insanely tasty!

The lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice is good here- called Lo Mai Gai. I always get nostalgic whenever we get this dish as it's the closest thing to a Malaysian treat called Pulut Panggang that I can find here. A mixture of chicken, soya sauce, dried shrimp and chinese mushrooms are wrapped in a parcel of sticky rice and then wrapped again in a dried lotus leaf and steamed. It's goood. Trust.

There's more! We always get a steamed bun of some sort- this time we ordered some Char Sui Bao. Barbecue Pork buns. The buns are fluffy and soft- and I have a feeling thanks to the opening of Flesh & Buns and the popularity of Yum Bun- could possibly be the next trendy food item the city goes nuts for.  Pull apart the soft bun and a sticky sweet mixture of barbecue char sui greets you. They do a chicken and mushroom version that is to die for as well. And because that wasn't enough barbecue pork for Robin, he got some char sui puffs as well...

For dessert, I had a hankering for some egg tarts. Let's take a closer look...

Woo! These are delicious. Sweet, soft, crumbly pastry filled with a golden eggy custard. They are heavenly. I would have been happy with these alone.

You know it's been a good feast if you need to walk it off for awhile...

Hope everyone had a great bank holiday! I'm off to cope with this ongoing food coma with an egg tart that sneakily made its way home...