I have been really really slack with my posting. I can’t help it, I get so excited about my recent baking adventures that they are like my favourite children, my fingers stumble over each other trying to post them straight away and every-thing else falls by the wayside.
Favouritism. It exists. Deal with it.
Anyway, I’ve been pre-occupied with I-don’t-know-what, but I do know that I’ve been so pre-occupied with stuff that I totally forgot our Girls Gone Wild (keep dreamin’) In Alicante trip is this weekend. It’s been two months since the planning began, right along side those Harwood Arms scotched eggs, and while there’s been many a date night since to drill into the finer details of our trip (amongst them Buddha Bar, which was just dark and expensive and I didn’t love it anywhere near enough to post about it), my favourite girls-weekend-planning-lunch has been at Royal China on Baker Street.
Good ol’ dim sum.
Not to be confused with Royal China Club (its more expensive and less screaming-dimsum-orders-in-your-face sibling) Royal China has been a favourite amongst my pals for a while, but I don’t know why I never went. Maybe it’s the queues. Because if you show up any time after midday, there’s a queue. Alternatively, you can be clever like my friends and send an anally-retentive-super-punctual friend (me) to get a ticket and commence the waiting.
Used and abused, I tell you!
Anyway, we ordered a bunch of the usual suspects – no wait, we diverted from the dim sum menu and ordered braised asparagus, which was perfectly crispy and soft (I realise them are oxymorons but they were crispy and soft, all at the same time) – har gow, siu mai, lo mai kai, wu kok, low bok gow, xiao long bao, and all kinds of cheong funs. Oh and a Singapore noodle because anally-retentive me had a craving.
This Royal China meal was had eons ago and having been so tardy with my posting (and also being officially old now), I can’t recount how each dish performed on the culinary stage that is my taste buds. I do however recall that everything was very good ~ fresh, tasty and light (as opposed to gruesomely glutnious which can be the norm at some substandard dim sum restaurants). I also remember that the law bok gow (turnip cake) was delicious with perfectly gelatinous consistency and beautifully fried a golden brown on each side. We also ordered I think five serves of cheong fun, which, well I think that means we liked it. Just a little bit.
My dessert was a bit lot meh. I can’t speak for the mango pudding, but my almond jelly was b-l-a-n-d. Bland bland bland bland. Bland.
So anyway, Girls In Alicante weekend. Going wild? Possibly. You’ll have to stay tuned for that report, or follow my sun-burnt-ocean-soaked-alcohol-fuelled tweets. The first challenge was that we all checked in with carry-on luggage only. God. I mean, I totally need to bring everything. And the second challenge? Totally kick the Boys In Majorca weekend, which heh, I think we can do that 
Oh, one observation from moi: there seems to be a distinct lack of mango pancakes *drool* on offer in London yum cha restaurants. Why? They were the norm in Sydney and a staple in my diet.. and now there is just a gaping ugly mango-pancake hole in my torso. Ick.
Royal China
24-26 Baker Street
London, W1U 7AB
0207 487 4688
website
