Jiaozi and Baozi in the UK (or lack of it...)

[pookie]

Hi all,

I live in the UK and am married to a Taiwanese girl. My fav food from trips there are jiaozi and baozi - very filling and very tasty. Apart from the odd Chinese supermarket selling underfilled, low quality frozen ones, I can't find them anywhere here.

Non of the restaurants seem to do them (just the same old bright orange sweet and sour mush). Is this because 99% of the restaurants here are bandwagon Cantonese restaurants?

Anyone know where to find any or why I can't find any? USA seems to have plenty of dumpling establishments.

Cheers

Sean

[chris2005]

Hi –

If you are anywhere near London, and happen to be in the Russell Square area, you could try The New Culture Revolution (75 Southampton Row, London WC1B 4ET, +44 (0)20 7436 9706) ). I recently brought some ethnic Chinese friends (usually fussy about their food!) there. We had jiao2zi3, and they enjoyed it. (Ok, this is in the context of their thinking that food in the UK is generally terrible, so possibly anything anywhere near decent might have seemed wonderful!)

chris

[chefintheprc]

Tough break, life without dumplings or buns…horrible. I feel for ya.

[ophion]

Making them is not particularly difficult.

[geraldc]

Most of the Chinese in the UK are from Hong Kong, so most of the restaurants are Cantonese. Whereas in the states people are from all over China, so you have a greater variety of food there. I'm trying to think if I've ever had mantou in a restaurant in the UK, and I don't think I ever have.

There's a restaurant in Chinatown called Dumpling Inn, I guess you could try them if you miss dumplings.

What's funny is that more Japanese style restaurants (Wagamamas et al) do dumplings than Chinese restaurants, so more people here call them Gyoza than jiaozi.

The frozen ones aren't too bad, you just need to shop around to find a brand you like. Plus they are ludicrously easy to make yourself, flour water, pork and cabbage. I think it was the first thing my mother let me make.

When I was a kid, the condiments used to be vinegar, soy sauce and chilli sauce. Now everyone seems to have them with Worcester sauce and soy sauce.

[Quest]

Cantonese restaurants should have a variety of tasty 包子 and 饺子...... why not? （go to one that offers dimsum service)

I can give you a list:

莲蓉包

麻蓉包

奶黄包

菜肉包

生肉包

葱花包

豆沙包

叉烧包

小笼包

灌汤包

etc etc....

甜馒头，鲜奶馒头，有馅/无馅 etc etc

水饺/煎饺/蒸饺/汤饺: 菜馅，肉馅

应有尽有

Baozi and Jiaozi are everyday breakfast items in Cantonese culture. Hot and sour soup, on the other hand, is very un-cantonese... I've never had it/seen it in my 10+ years in Canton.

[adrianlondon]

This is all London biased :

The food court at Oriental City (drive North out of London on the A5 and, although it feels like you must be in Nottingham already, you'll come across it in Collindale) has a place selling lovely steamed buns.

China town does, of course, have them dimsum style, but not the same as I've had in Asia.

I live near Russell Sq but haven't tried the new-ish New Culture Revolution place (it's not far from Holborn Station). Maybe I should and report back.

[pookie]

Cheers guys!

I really enjoy cooking chinese food, so maybe this is a great excuse for learning how to make them. I presume they freeze very well too. They wouldn't last long in my house thought - freezing them's probably not required

[hakkaboy]

Are you sure jiao in jiaozi is second tone? I thought it was third.

[sundoudou]

Theoretically,饺 in 饺子 is the third tone,and 子 is also the third tone.But practically,when two chinese characters which have the same third tone meet,we pronounce the first character as the second tone,then the second is pronounced as the third tone.For that,wo can handily pronounce the characters.eg:我有一本书。The tone of 我 is changed into the second tone because the tone of 有 is the third tone too.

But there are some particular occasions.Eg:饺子.It can not be pronounced as jiao2 zi3 because 子 here ought to be pronouced as the light tone.So it should be pronounced as jiao3 zi(no tone).

[Quest]

Eg:饺子.It can not be pronounced as jiao2 zi3 because 子 here ought to be pronouced as the light tone.So it should be pronounced as jiao3 zi(no tone).

I think there might be a historical reason to this. Some light tones do affect the previous character. It could be that before people attained the habbit of adding 子 and 儿 to everything, 饺 was actually always pronounced in the 3rd tone, so when 子 was attached later, it still didn't change 饺's tone.

[wrwills]

I can confirm that New Culture Revolution in Holborn does do 饺子 and 锅贴 (it's part of a chain so I assume this applies to the other ones as well-- I know offhand that there's another in Notting Hill). I've been there a few times and they serve good snack-style food. They're usually willing to talk to me in Chinese too which is nice. Tai Won Mein (大碗麵) in Greenwich also does 锅贴, but thus far I've only tried their noodles.