Seven Days, Cambridge

 Somehow the name "Week" doesn't roll off the tongue as well...

Hello Mr Chilli, nice to meet you.

PC, The Shok and myself manage to score a free meal off M&M, and whilst there are some strong suggestions for Midsummer House, it is decided in the end that we should do Chinese and go to Seven Days for dinner. Always on the ball, The Shok calls ahead to make a booking as it's a Friday night, and Seven Days is notoriously popular, especially amongst the Chinese student crowd in Cambridge.

Fish flavoured fried eggplant.

The first to arrive is the 'fish flavoured' eggplant, with the tender eggplant chunks cooked with a generous amount of oil, seasoning and serious wok hei. Perfect with rice, this dish is immediately PC and M&M's favourite, so much so that we don't hesitate to order a second portion. In my opinion, the sauce is a little too strong on both sweet and salty levels, but still delicious and superior to the rendition I had previously had elsewhere.

Fish fillets in hot chilli oil.

The next to arrive is a pile of dried chillies bathing in a giant bowl of scalding hot oil. And this is the small size. Underneath the layer of chilli lies slices of incredibly tender and silky fish fillets, thanks in no small part to all that oil. Right at the bottom of the dish is a bed of bean sprouts, which I find to be a little on the salty side.
This dish is also a clear winner, and everyone seems to enjoy "fishing" for the small remaining pieces of fish until the bowl is completely cleaned out of everything but chilli and oil.

I'm surprised that this Sichuan cooking technique (shui zhu) is one that has only become popular relatively recently, so the internets tell me.

King prawn fried with salted egg yolk.

Next is the prawns fried using salted egg yolk, something which I pick because M&M wants king prawn and I haven't had the taste of salted egg in a while. Reluctant to get their hands dirty, and perhaps a little uncomfortable with prawn heads, this dish unfortunately ends up being a little neglected. I get superlazy and start eating the shell... although after getting colder, this becomes a little bit unpleasant and I revert to peeling them. In my opinion, this actually isn't bad at all, although it does get too greasy and heavy when it cools down.

Tofu with fish mince in chilli oil.

Last but not least is the tofu which is basically like mapo doufu except with fish. Standard and does the job.

At the end of the meal, I feel like I've eaten several bricks, probably because of eating far too many of the prawns in a desperate (and successful) attempt to not waste them. Everyone is most definitely satisfied, but not requiring food for quite a while. Or at least until an hour later when we scoff down a blackforest cake between the four of us...

Seven Days is one of the best Chinese restaurants in Cambridge, with authentic flavours that don't compromise for a foreign palate. Perhaps a little too heavy on the oil to be eating regularly, but that's how the cooking style goes. At around £55 for 5 big dishes and rice for everyone, it's decent value too.

And by the looks of the crowd it attracts every night, we're not the only ones who likes the place.

Seven Days
66 Regent St
Cambridge CB2 1DP
Tel: +44 (0) 12233 309559

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I've been in Munich this week for a certain festival. Take a wild guess what I'm referring to...

Of course, the CIPSM Festival of Chemical Biology! Oh apparently, there's also some other festival on at the same time that has something to do with beer, but I mean who on earth would be interested in that?

Zhong qiu jie kuai le! (中秋节快乐!)

So I bought some overpriced mooncakes today for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Clockwise from top left: Five nuts/seeds, lotus paste, red bean (double yolk), black sesame (double yolk).

Always eager to educate and expand horizons, I asked M&M and PC to come over to share some of these strange-chinese-cake-things with a decent amount of scepticism. I mean, who puts whole salted egg yolks inside a cake?

Asian protip: It is highly recommended to buy mooncakes after the mid-autumn festival date. They often go on sale for half price.

The insides, same order as previously.

The reactions were varied to say the least...

PC: "For your blog, you can say I liked it... but not the egg."
M&M: "I have stomach pain now. Man, this is probably horseblood mixed with lead and stuff..."
YH: "No way, that would be too expensive to make."
PC: "My nose is bleeding now."
M&M: *knowing glance*
YH: "I like tendon... pause... a lot."

I have to say, despite all the fancy types you can get these days, I still prefer the plain old lotus paste ones, and of course with the egg. So what are your favourite (or least favourite) mooncake flavours? And do you like egg yolks in yours?

Happy mid-autumn festival everyone!

Yim Wah Express, Cambridge

There are two good signs in this picture.

The first is that you can see the chef at work, meaning that they have nothing (or less at least) to hide. The second is the racks with hanging roast duck and pork - whilst some people apparently think it's unhygeinic, but for me it's always a reassuring and slightly mouthwatering sight at a Chinese restaurant.

After our last after-lab-dinner trip, this time YST and I decided to try out Yim Wah Express, the new Chinese place on the corner of Lensfield Rd and Regent St. Together with Golden House and Lan Hong House, this now makes a trio of Chinese restaurants on this corner. Unlike it's take-away style neighbours however, it looks like they've spent quite a bit of effort to make the place look nice, with shiny new furniture and a decent sized seating area.

I had initially intended to go for something with roast duck in it, since they had it just hanging there, but upon reading the MASSIVE menu (over 200 food items, a logistical kitchen nightmare... how do they do it? lots of frozen stuff?) I decided to go for something a little different...

Marinated beef tripe ho fun in soup (£6.80)

In my opinion, most non-muscle cuts of meat taste pretty good, and most people don't give it a fair go because they are turned off by the mental distress of eating a cow's stomach lining.
So I was delighted to find my tripe soup noodles turned out to be more than just tripe (stomach), but also liver, kidney and tendon.

Does anyone find this too hard to STOMACH? Get it? Damn I'm funny.

Tendon and tripe are my favourites - tendon is wonderfully thick and gelatinous in texture thanks to lots of collagen, a little similar to the texture of fat except without all the guilt. Tripe on the other hand is more chewy, but it really soaks up flavour!

Kidney wasn't bad either, with a mix of meatiness and jelly-like consistency. Liver however was my least favourite - it was a little gritty and had that characteristic livery taste which I'm not the biggest fan of (although I do like pate).

Chef's special mixed fish balls and vermicelli soup (£7.20)

YST's fish ball noodle soup was a little disappointing I have to say, with just a few balls and a bit of chinese cabbage as the only toppings.

Frog legs with chilli (£6.20)

We also split a dish of frog legs, which were deep fried and slathered in a generous amount of sticky sweet chilli sauce. Sensory overload but pretty bloody addictive!

Overall this restaurant seems like a welcome addition to the Chinese restaurant scene in Cambridge, with the generally milder flavours a good counterpoint to the more fiery style of Seven Days (which will be the next blog post!). I'm keen to go back and have some of the roast meat dishes, as that seems to be their kind of speciality.

Yim Wah Express
2-4 Lensfield Rd
Cambridge CB2 1EG
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 309530
http://www.yimwahhouse.co.uk/


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Reality Check: Stir-fried Chicken and Beans with Sichuan Pepper

It's all well and good to spend several hours on a weekend shopping for, preparing, and making photogenic a dish to put up on a blog. But what about the rest of the week?

For those that might have an unnaturally keen interest in this blog, you might have noticed that we haven't had an SMBC for a while. We could probably blame it on The Shok who is currently back home in Malaysia, however, the truth is that we're all actually getting ridiculously busy with work (long weekends in the lab and such).

One still does need to eat though. PC's go-to food seems to be risotto and pasta. Mine is plain rice cooked in a pot with something stir-fried in a pan... because a) rice cookers are banned in college, and b) I only own one pot and one pan!

So to put up some 'normal' food as a reality check for this blog, I've decided to write up what I made a couple of days ago (and will be eating for the next few days).

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I've been craving the taste of ma-la (麻辣) for a while. Ma-la comes from the Sichuan province in China, ma being the tingly tongue-numbing sensation from Sichuan peppercorns,and la being the heat of chilli. Top it off with an excessive amount of chilli oil and you have the basis for many a Sichuan dish.

I recently bought some Sichuan peppercorns at Sainsbury of all places, plus a bottle of Lao Gan Ma (老干妈) chilli sauce at one of the asian shops on Mill Rd. I shall not explain the awesomeness that is Lao Gan Ma, but instead direct you to their website for you to appreciate their amazing Engrish. I particularly like the part about an ″aircraft carrier″ of chili processing industry. Old granny's gonna call some airstrikes if you don't finish every grain of rice in your bowl...

Everybody loves granny sauce. She must be filthy rich, so the question is, why does she look so angry?

Ingredients:
12 deboned chicken thighs 400 g green beans 2 cloves garlic Lao Gan Ma sauce (the black bean type) Dried chilli flakes	2 tbsp light soy sauce 1 tbsp dark soy sauce 1 tsp sesame oil handful of Sichuan peppercorns

First, cut the chicken into bite sized cubes and marinate with the soy, sesame oil, a couple of good dollops of Lao Gan Ma, and some crushed up Sichuan peppercorns.
Whilst marinating, chop the green beans into 3cm-ish lengths. Mince garlic into small pieces.

***Stir-fry tips when on a college hob***
Make sure the pan is really hot (this may take 5 minutes...). Cook the meat in small batches, otherwise all the heat will be sapped away, leading to watery steam-'fry' and tough meat.
I used a bit of canola oil for the first batch, but after that, there was plenty of oil in the marinade (thanks to Lao Gan Ma) so there was no need to add any more.

After frying the chicken and putting it aside, fry the minced garlic, more Lao Gan Ma, Sichuan peppercorns and chilli flakes (I had no fresh chilli) briefly, then add the beans. After a while, put a lid over the top to help cook it through. Add a dash of light soy if not salty enough.

Finally add back the chicken and heat through. All done! Best served with plain rice!

Om nom nom nom.

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I'm heading back to Sydney in a week's time! Going to knock down some serious food cravings, plus fill up on some home cooking =) 
Oh yeah, and stock up on Tim Tams.

SMBC #2 - Broccoli Lemon Chicken with Cashews; Chilli Tofu with Chicken

Here's the second edition of our SMBC series, this time courtesy of PC.

Ingredients:

General:	Seasoning:	Extras & Decoration:
450g deboned chicken thighs 300g tender stem broccoli 400g rice	1 tablespoon cornflour 1 tablespoon honey 2 tablespoons sesame oil 2 lemons (preferably organic) 1/8 cube of vegetable stock 1 tablespoon soy sauce 2 large garlic cloves pepper and salt	canola oil for frying fresh chilli if you like it hot thin strips of lemon zest handful of cashew nuts

• Start with roasting the cashew nuts in a non-stick pan at medium heat, flipping them over repeatedly so that they don’t get burnt. 

• Next, peel off a few pieces of zest from the lemon using a sharp knife or peeler. Avoid the white part of the rind, it just tastes bitter. Cut the zest into very thin strips, set aside some for decoration. 

• Chop the remaining lemon rind and put it into a bowl together with the finely chopped garlic, the juice from one lemon, honey, soy sauce, sesame oil and salt and pepper to taste. Mix the seasoning thoroughly and add the chicken meat, cut into lengthy chunks, give it a good stir and put it to rest for 10 minutes.

• In the meantime, wash and cut the broccoli if too large. To obtain a nice tasty sauce with the right consistency, dissolve the cornflour and the vegetable stock in a little water and add the juice from the second lemon. Cook the rice in a separate pot.

• Fry first the marinated chicken in a well heated pan with some oil until golden brown and set aside on a plate. Subsequently stir-fry the broccoli with the chilli in the same pan. If the broccoli starts to become brown, add some water. Don’t overcook, the broccoli should retain a nice green colour and remain crunchy.

• Finally combine the chicken meat, the broccoli, the cashew nuts and the corn flour-lemon juice mixture in the pan and heat gently till the sauce thickens.

• A nice way to present the dish is to press the rice into a scoop. With the help of a spoon, arrange the rice hemispheres on the plate and top them with the chicken and some sauce. Garnish with some more cashews and spice it up with the lemon rind strips. 

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Ingredients for the Tofu:
400g firm tofu 150g deboned chicken thighs 2 large cloves garlic 4 spring onions	oyster sauce fresh chilli sesame oil	light soy sauce dark soy sauce canola oil for frying

• Mince the chicken and mix it with the soy sauce and the oyster sauce and a few spoons of sesame oil in a bowl. Separately, mince garlic and chop the spring onions and chilli. 

• Drain the tofu and cut it into cubes of about 2cm edge length.  
  

• Fry the garlic in a pan with little oil, followed by the chicken mince. When cooked, add the tofu, followed by chilli and spring onion and fry for another 2-3 minutes. Serve in a bowl as garnish for the rice.  

And SMBC proudly presents the end result...

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Join us next week when we take on Greek cuisine, minus a grill or oven of any sort. And as always, let us know if you have a recipe suggestion! Have a good week =)

PS. No we did not have this for breakfast. 
PPS. We went to 3 different supermarkets in an attempt to find silken tofu without going to Mill Rd. We failed.

Charlie Chan, Cambridge

"My palate has been stunted from all this Trinity stodge." 

Having eaten in hall once too often this week, Pope JP decides that we (Dr C and myself) should go out for dinner tonight. Given his recent cravings for Chinese food, we decide to head to Seven Days on Regent St, which serves pretty authentic dishes and seems to be especially popular amongst the local Asian contingent. True to form however, the restaurant is completely full when we arrive at 7:15 pm.

Given the queue growing in front of the counter, the decision is made to adopt plan B and try out the other Chinese restaurant just down the road - Charlie Chan.

Try as I might, I can't help but associate the name Charlie Chan with a really dodgy bottle shop in Sydney CBD. So it is with trepidation that I enter the restaurant, not helped by the slightly cringeworthy musak and neon lights which adorn the foyer. While the Pope and Dr C aren't bothered at all, I am a little relieved when we head upstairs to be greeted by a more comfortable dining area.

The three of us decide to order one dish each to share, although The Pope and Dr C both want aubergine with ginger and garlic. Always the gentleman, The Pope changes his mind and goes for beef with chinese mushrooms in oyster sauce, whilst I go for the barbecued belly pork with yam in clay pot.

Beef with Chinese Mushroom in Oyster Sauce (£8.50)

First to arrive is the beef, which as expected is pretty standard fare. The beef is tender and there are mushrooms enough to satisfy The Pope's chinese mushroom cravings.

Barbecued Belly Pork with Yam in Clay Pot (£12.50)

Next is the pork, which for some reason I thought would be this, turns out to be a rather generous serving of this (I should have read the word "barbecued'). Nonetheless, the streaky slices of pork belly match quite well with the yam, and the whole cloves of garlic are actually surprisingly tasty!

Aubergine with Garlic and Ginger (£8.00)

However the aubergine is unanimously the favourite dish of the three - you can taste the heat (temperature) retained in the eggplant from the braising (literally 'red cooked' in Chinese i think...), plus we all lap up the sauce in all its oily goodness.

The overall consensus? Perhaps not the most original or ground-breaking Chinese food, but at the end of the night we are three very definitely satisfied stomachs.

Charlie Chan
14 Regent Street, Cambridge, CB2 1DB
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 359336


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