Islam Food 清真牛肉館

Have you heard of Chinese Islam food before? I certainly hadn't before trying this place out! For some reason, my first thoughts of what to expect were along the lines of sweet and sour falafels, kebab meat wrapped in Peking duck pancakes, or maybe... Yeung Chow fried couscous?

The restaurant, simply called Islam Food (the Chinese name 清真牛肉館 is a lil more descriptive - Halal beef restaurant), has been around since 1950, and essentially sells Chinese food with Halal meat. So, no, none of my imaginative concoctions were cooked up.

A lot of the food is done in Northern Chinese style - think Shanghai food with their xiao long baos, noodles, rice cakes etc, but there are also Pakistani-style curries and sweet and sour dishes (Cantonese food). 

There's more on their story here at www.islamfood.com.hk.

Veal Goulash is probably their most famous dish. It's a juicy beef burger patty, enclosed by a layer of dough that is somewhere between naan bread or pitta bread, and dumpling wrapper pastry, which is then fried until crispy! 

As tempting as it looks, do not pick it up and take a massive bite as soon as the waiter sets it down on the table! The scalding hot beef juices WILL burn your tongue and your taste buds will no longer be in top form to taste the rest of the dishes to come. So be careful, and daintily bite into this beefy delicacy only when its cooled a little. You have been warned!

Here at Islam Food, they have a extra high ratio of beef and lamb foods. This may be to compensate for the lack of pork dishes? Whatever the reason, I'm not complaining! Lamb, and then beef are definitely my favourite types of meat, so the menu suits me well.

This cold dish is Lamb Jello. It is some lamb chunks sitting in 'jelly'. I'm not sure what exactly the jelly is, but probably consists of lamb juices and gelatine cooked from bones/cartilage that means that it sets when cool enough. As soon as it enters the warmth of your mouth though, it melts into a lovely aroma that is surprisingly not oily.

Beef dumplings in soup. I liked how these are round in shape, and they contain yummy juicy beef inside! Again, hot liquid is encased in these little bite-size parcels!

Lamb noodles! A lot of the food here can be done with different kinds of meat, so if lamb is not your thing, choose beef. Easy!

These noodles are delicious! Okay, so maybe the noodles themselves are a lil overcooked, but the lamb broth is sooooo good! It's rich and has that lovely lamby-ness that lamb lovers love.

Okay, so maybe I should mention that this post centres heavily around lamb... If you haven't noticed =P

These are lamb jiaozi 煎餃子, which are dumplings that have been pan-fried. The filling is bursting with goodness, but the pastry is a little doughy... I prefer the lamb xiaolongbao 小籠包 which tastes amazing and is steamed instead (no photo unfortunately!)

Their curries are another thing to try! They are done in Pakistani style and are the soupy type (as opposed to thick saucy type). I found it to be hot and spicy, so it's definitely got a kick to it! 

Spring rolls! These are crispy crispy crispy, and brilliantly light. 

And a final lamb dish to rave about: Boneless lamb chops which have been deep fried. They are served with a bowl of rich and concentrated lamb soup for dipping. The meat is tender, though not for the faint-hearted, as its a fatty cut - that's probably why it tastes so good!

Final thing to mention about Islam Food is that there are two branches. Both are in Kowloon City, and the branch shop is just a street or two down from the main shop. A lot of people insist on going to the 'original' but really, its the branch shop you want to go to!

Not only is the branch shop bigger, more spacious and cleaner (at least it feels that way), but their menu is also more extensive! Some dishes are only available at this second store, oddly enough, not the other way around. And, less people know about this store (or choose not to go), so there's less chance you'll have to queue for ages. Win-win!

Islam Food // 清真牛肉館

總店: 九龍城龍崗道1號地下 // Main Branch: 1 Lung Kong Road, Kowloon City

分店: 九龍城打鼓嶺道33-35號地下 // Second Branch: 33-35 Tak Ku Ling Road, Kowloon City

More info on their website

About HK$50-$100 per person

Warming Winter Food at Norman's Kitchen

One thing that amazes me every year I come back to Newcastle is how cold it gets. I know I should know better really (after all this is my fourth year here!) but I'm never quite prepared for it. The problem is that it gets cold so early. By the time it's the start of October, there's already wintry gusts slapping your face whenever you step outside. I think I can handle it, only for it to get colder, and colder, and colder, and colder...

I have a cute little paper thermometer, that changes colour according to what temperature it is (it's supposed to demonstrate some chemistry thing...?). It only ranges from 12ºC to 34ºC. It's blank, no colour appears, probably because the temperature in my house is not registrable on that scale, and I'm pretty sure it's not cos it's too hot!

Cold weather makes me lazy. All I ever want to do is sleep. And not get out of my warm cozy bed. Except maybe to eat.

Especially when there's good food...

There's a neat little homely place in Newcastle City Centre, near Chinatown, but not in it, that's popped up in the last year or so. Norman's Kitchen is a quiet subtle place thats easy to miss if you're not looking for it. 

I'd been recommended the place by a friend who kept gushing on about the amazing clay pot rice there. What a better thing to do on a freezing winter day than to try it out.

The menu boasts a page of different clay pot rice toppings, but they do various other rice and mains-type dishes as well.

We opted for a typical clay pot dish - beef mince with egg, and another typical Chinese dish, although not one I've seen in a clay pot before - crispy roast pork.

The wait was average, nothing too long, as can be with some restaurants who serve clay pot rice, as they require time to cook the rice only when you order it. Our rice was piping hot and smelt incredible. They also give you a dish of soya sauce each to pour over your own pot, which means you can control the saltiness according to your own tastes.

The only thing was they took the lids off as soon as they served it, while I like to keep the lid on my clay pot rice for 5 minutes or so, as the steam helps to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot, allowing you to eat the wonderful, slightly burnt, crust of rice that forms. This proved not to be a problem though, because they were quite generous with the oil heh. 

The portions were massive, we were both so full, and barely managed to finish it all! But we did, because it was just that good.

The mince beef was incredible, the texture of the patty was so smooth and fine, yet not mushy at all. The fried egg on top was the cherry on top! Could've been more runny, so all the golden goodness can run out, but nevertheless, delicious all the same.

The roast pork was not bad either, but while it did satisfy my cravings (I do miss proper Chinese food  when I'm away from home...), I can see why it's not a usual topping. The roast pork is roasted, and the added onto the rice when the rice is done. This means that crispy skin on the pork stays crispy(ish), but it also means that the rice does not get any of the flavour of the meat while it is cooked.

I think next time, I'm going to opt for ones where the meat is cooked inside the clay pot at the same time as the rice.

Because there will definitely be a next time!

If I can ever bring myself to get out of bed, and face the inhumane weather conditions of this country.

Restaurant Information:

Norman's Kitchen

Tel: 0191 261 5717

Address: 93 Clayton Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 5PZ

Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Normans-kitchen/372160226210960

Chinese Dumplings with Pork and Cabbage - Jiaozi - 餃子

Some days at university are long - a drawn-out day of lectures and seminars and practicals splattered about the place, during which you still need to go to the library to get that book you requested, and to the student office to drop off some silly form or other, then topped off with some club or society activity afterwards. When you finally get home, you realise that you've volunteered to create a revision handout for your study group, and you've still got that extra reading to do for tomorrow's class!

The last thing you can afford to do is to spend an hour trying to cook up something... (usually with the non-existent ingredients in your kitchen, because you've also forgotten to buy food for the week!)

My usual quick fix meals contain NO meat: pasta and pasta sauce, instant noodles, spaghetti on toast, canned soup... okay this is depressing. There are two main reasons for this: First, meat doesn't keep for long, so it's usually the first thing I run out of. Frozen meat at times like this is about as useful as a medical student without their Oxford Handbook (translation: useless!) because at these times - I want food, and I want it now! And secondly, meat isn't easy to make. You can't really eat it raw, or just chuck it into some salted boiling water for 10 minutes (well, you could... if you really wanted to...), so a lot of the time, when I want a quick meal, I go meatless. 

But I'm putting an end to those days! Move over pasta and jarred pasta sauce, because I've found my new saviour: Dumplings. 

These little dumplings are the perfect thing for those busy (or just lazy) nights. Just make some (i.e. as much as your freezer will hold) when you've got some free time on a weekend, and freeze them all for later.

This combination of pork, cabbage and carrot is my favourite, but you can put anything into dumplings: any meat, any veg.

I marinated the pork mince overnight, just using light soya sauce, sugar and cornstarch, to the make dumplings extra tasty, and also to improve the texture of the meat.

Now for the vegetables: peel some leaves off the cabbage. My cabbage was a decent size, so I only used about half of one. Then, cut thin strips of carrot. I use a peeler for this as you get very thin slices and its quick!

The vegetables need to be briefly cooked, because they're quite hard raw, which makes it difficult to fill into a dumpling. The cabbage needs to be boiled for 10 minutes until softened (but not mushy!) and if your carrots are super thin like this, you just need to put it in boiling water for 30 seconds or so.

Now that they are nicely softened, they need to be thinly chopped up. This doesn't have to be neat at all, just aim for smaller pieces which will easier to mix in with the mince. 

Time to mix all the filling ingredients together! Put the mince, cabbage and carrots into a bowl and mix it good. Add an egg and a tablespoon of oil to help it stick together. If you're willing to get down and dirty, use your hands!

Dumpling pastry / skin / wrappers come in different shapes and sizes. In terms of shape, we want the round ones for jiaozi. While the diameter of these dumpling wrappers are roughly the same, they all have a different thickness. The ones I chose are slightly on the thicker side, as I love the chewiness that they maintain. In contrast, thinner dumpling wrappers are lighter and airier, but they can be harder to wrap as they tear more easily, and are less suitable for frying for the same reason.

With clean, dry hands, pick up a dumpling wrapper and place it in one hand. With the other hand, use a tablespoon to scoop up some filling, and put it in the middle of your dumpling wrapper.

Now, the more filling you use, the more plump and delicious your dumpling will look, but bear in mind that you need to be able to seal the edges tightly, and you don't want any spilling out, or to make any tears in the wrapper.

Dip a finger of your free hand into a bowl of water to and draw a semicircle around the edges of your dumpling wrapper. Make sure your hand is dry again and then grab the top and bottom edges of the wrapper and pinch together.

Keep on pinching all the way around. If the filling starts to ooze out, push it back in with your finger. If it doesn't seem to work, then take a bit of the filling out. (You've been too greedy!)

You should then end up with a perfectly sealed dumpling. I know that most dumplings from Chinese places have a pretty border, but this is the easy way (hehe) and they taste just as good!

Keep on filling your dumplings. I made about 60 with this recipe, but it really depends on how much you fit into each one!

These dumplings are now ready to cook! It's easiest just to boil them: simply boil a pot of water, and lower them in one by one. They're done when the pastry becomes more translucent, and the dumpling floats to the surface of the water, which should only take about 5 minutes.

For dumplings you're not planning on eating now, dust a tray / plate with some flour, and place the dumplings so they don't overlap or touch each other. Place the tray into your freezer, and when they are frozen, you can pop them into a box or ziplock bag to save some space. When you want to eat them, just take out however many you want, and put them into a pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes to cook from frozen.