Crispy duck in Chinatown
The New Year lanterns had been taken down and were lying in great piles in the street. Feeling like eating some fragrant crispy duck, three of us went to the London Chinatown in Gerrard Street.
Its foyer suggests its previous ancestry as the Hotel de Boulogne.
I loved the little homilies in Chinese, especially this one. The staff obligingly made us a table for three, then offered us a better one as it became vacant a few minutes later.
We’d come for fragrant crispy duck, so we all ordered the crispy duck menu, which started with crispy aromatic duck with pancakes, spring greens and onions, put onto a bed of plum sauce and rolled up to be eaten – one of the world’s classic dishes.
The menu, excellent value at £10 per head, also included fried shredded beef with chilli, sweet and sour chicken, and egg fried rice. It was delicious, and we drank a Still Bay sauvighnon blanc (12.5 percent) alongside.