https://www.scmp.com/rss/309896/feed Lucy is a food, wine and travel writer. A European native and former resident of North Africa, she is most at home in Asia. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com The 3rd arrondissement in Paris is home to the French capital’s smallest Chinatown – a network of streets close to the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers – where a community with roots in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, have come together. On the edge of this district, close to a Chinese hairdressers, on 13 Rue des Gravilliers, is 33-seater French restaurant Datil. This is where 33-year-old chef-owner Manon Fleury works closely with local producers to serve a plant-forward menu, which... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3263062/why-michelin-star-french-restaurant-paris-serves-congee-inspired-dish-its-plant-forward-menu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3263062/why-michelin-star-french-restaurant-paris-serves-congee-inspired-dish-its-plant-forward-menu?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 May 2024 05:15:10 +0000 Paphos in Cyprus – declared a European Capital of Culture in 2017 and a European Capital of Smart Tourism in 2023 – attracts archaeology enthusiasts, wine lovers, nature fans and shipwreck enthusiasts. Home to Unesco World Heritage site Nea Paphos – the remains of a historic ancient Greek settlement now covered in wildflowers, thyme and yarrow – the small city in the south of the island is rooted in myth and legend. It is in a region rumoured to have been the birthplace of Aphrodite, whose son... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3256589/best-things-do-paphos-cyprus-reputed-birthplace-aphrodite-ancient-greek-goddess-love?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3256589/best-things-do-paphos-cyprus-reputed-birthplace-aphrodite-ancient-greek-goddess-love?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Mar 2024 08:15:11 +0000 Behind the kitchen doors of France’s only Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant, it would be easy to forget it is in the centre of Paris. Chefs converse in Cantonese; woks hiss; and dumplings are pleated perfectly by hand. This is Shang Palace, helmed by Samuel Lee, who grew up on a farm in Hong Kong’s rural New Territories. Along with French-born restaurateurs Adeline Grattard and Céline Chung, Lee has been on a mission to improve the image of Chinese cuisine in France, using the country’s finest... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3074912/chinese-restaurant-revolution-paris-chefs-look-raise-bar-high?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3074912/chinese-restaurant-revolution-paris-chefs-look-raise-bar-high?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Mar 2020 07:00:14 +0000 London’s Chinatown is embracing the ability of social media to create mobile galleries on smartphones by launching the hashtag #HumansOfChinatownLondon and applying it to a series of images celebrating the people who work, shop and live in the central London community. Photographer Ken Lam and writer Jenny Lau were commissioned by area promoters Chinatown London to identify, interview and photograph individuals, capturing their stories on Instagram posts. UK-born Lam has a background in fashion... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3050468/chinatown-people-immigrant-chefs-local-firefighters-folk?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3050468/chinatown-people-immigrant-chefs-local-firefighters-folk?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Feb 2020 09:00:08 +0000 Award-winning photographer John Offenbach looks at one of the portraits featured in his exhibition “JEW” at the Jewish Museum in north London. “I liked this woman because she talked about discovering her Jewish heritage from an official document,” he says. The black-and-white photograph is captioned “Kaifeng Jew II”. It shows a middle-aged Chinese woman, surnamed Li. Offenbach travelled to her hometown, Kaifeng, in the central Chinese province of Henan, to learn more about the Jewish community... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3040702/question-identity-chinese-jews-kaifeng-and-photographers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3040702/question-identity-chinese-jews-kaifeng-and-photographers?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Dec 2019 07:00:14 +0000 The word “vegan” will turn 75 years old next month, coinciding with the anniversary of the foundation of Britain’s Vegan Society. Established by Donald Watson of Leicester in 1944, this society was set up for vegetarians who wanted to avoid all animal products in their diets. Watson felt that this subset of vegetarianism deserved its own name, so asked members for ideas. Among the suggestions were dairyban, vitan, benevore, sanivore and beaumangeur. Eventually Watson settled for vegan – a term... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3034145/vegan-food-london-how-chinese-cuisine-helping-meet-demand-more?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3034145/vegan-food-london-how-chinese-cuisine-helping-meet-demand-more?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Oct 2019 12:00:14 +0000 The art of siu mei – or Cantonese roast meats – is gaining momentum in London. Classic dishes such as roast duck, roast pork, crispy pork belly and slow-poached soy chicken are moving out of their spiritual home in Chinatown and spreading through the capital. When the chief food critic at Bloomberg, Richard Vines, was invited to curate Bloomberg Arcade – a food and art space in London’s financial district, which opened in October 2018 – he was looking for something different and found it in some... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3019903/how-london-falling-chinese-roast-meats-duck-pork-belly-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3019903/how-london-falling-chinese-roast-meats-duck-pork-belly-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Jul 2019 04:30:07 +0000 “I learned to cook at the age of 17 while on national service in the Turkmen army,” says Hezret-Arslan Berdiev. “On my second day I was told to go to the kitchen. You need to be effective at your work in an army kitchen or you will get beaten. “The products we had to cook with were of poor quality, so I had to make good food out of very little. It was a great training.” Berdiev’s work quickly caught the attention of a general in the Central Asian state, who would demand the young chef make him... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3017732/chef-turns-russian-embargo-food-imports-advantage-birch-his-st?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3017732/chef-turns-russian-embargo-food-imports-advantage-birch-his-st?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Jul 2019 04:15:04 +0000 In the heart of London’s Chinatown, popular cultural hub China Exchange wants to address the subject of dual identity. But it is not hosting a debate; instead, it will explore the topic through a series of photographs. The exhibition is based around a theme that can be at once unifying and divisive: food. British-born Chinese photographer Marcella Chan has been commissioned to produce 15 images for the exhibition. Her brief was to celebrate lesser-known Asian ingredients, so she decided to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3016924/british-chinese-dual-identity-explored-creative-food-photos?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3016924/british-chinese-dual-identity-explored-creative-food-photos?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Jul 2019 11:00:10 +0000 Asma Khan, star of Netflix’s Chef’s Table, is grateful to a central London pub for helping launch her culinary career. Khan, the first British chef to feature on Netflix’s Emmy-nominated documentary series, spent nine months from 2015 to 2016 cooking Indian food at The Sun & 13 Cantons, a 19th-century pub in London’s Soho area. She went on to open her own acclaimed Indian restaurant, Darjeeling Express, just around the corner in Kingly Court. “The experience was invaluable,” she says. Such pub... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3015544/creative-asian-cuisine-londons-pub-pop-ups-prove-hit-british?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3015544/creative-asian-cuisine-londons-pub-pop-ups-prove-hit-british?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Jun 2019 12:45:08 +0000 The humble Hong Kong egg waffle, transformed into an opulent dessert, has been a surprise hit with Londoners, who are showing an increasing appetite for regional Chinese street food. So much so that businesses are migrating from market stalls to bricks-and-mortar restaurants located in some of the British capital’s smartest districts. Bubblewrap, which sells the waffles in a sleek-looking shop in Soho, Central London, is the brainchild of business partners Sunny Wu and Tony Fang. Sweet, milky... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3009762/chinese-street-food-sweeps-london-bao-chicken-feet-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3009762/chinese-street-food-sweeps-london-bao-chicken-feet-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 May 2019 07:00:16 +0000 Restaurateur Mukaddes Yadikar looks through her dining room window, framed with loops of brightly patterned fabric, as a cold, bleak sky darkens above the rain-stained pavements of northeast London. “We love England,” she says. Yadikar is from Yili prefecture in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. She is Uygur, a member of a Muslim Turkic ethnic group estimated to comprise almost half Xinjiang’s population of around 20 million. She met her husband, Ablikim Rahman, in Turkey,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3005119/xinjiang-cuisine-londons-uygur-restaurants-its-all-about?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3005119/xinjiang-cuisine-londons-uygur-restaurants-its-all-about?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Apr 2019 11:15:10 +0000 Hakkaland is on a busy main street in Harrow, north London. Flanked by Chinese, Indian and European restaurants, it serves the Indo-Chinese style of cooking developed by the Chinese community in India. The style combines Chinese cooking techniques and flavours with Indian ingredients to create recipes that are unfamiliar in Greater China. The restaurant’s chef, Steven Lee, has never set foot in China. “When I take a holiday, I go home to India. My mum and lots of my friends still live in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2185449/indo-chinese-cuisine-pioneer-explains-why-south-asians-britain?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2185449/indo-chinese-cuisine-pioneer-explains-why-south-asians-britain?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 Feb 2019 12:00:45 +0000 Framed by the window of a historic house on Henrietta Street, in London’s trendy Covent Garden entertainment area, is a glossy advertisement featuring a woven bamboo basket filled with cream-coloured, pleated, steamed dumplings. The heritage building, in the centre of London’s theatreland, is the site of dim sum specialist Din Tai Fung’s first restaurant in Europe. It opened last week to rave reviews, and within hours photos of its world-famous xiaolongbao – steamed pork dumplings – had become... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2177187/famous-taiwan-dumpling-restaurant-makes-its-debut-europe-london?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2177187/famous-taiwan-dumpling-restaurant-makes-its-debut-europe-london?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Dec 2018 11:45:51 +0000 An imaginative London restaurant created by a Chinese-Canadian chef and a Nigerian-Sierra Leonean director has surprised British gastronomes and was last month awarded a star in the Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland 2019. Fuelled by West African flavours, Ikoyi is now among the 14 of London’s 71 Michelin-starred restaurants serving non-European cuisine. The Araki, a small Japanese omakase establishment, holds the highest accolade of three stars. Umu, another Japanese place, has two stars.... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2173890/chinese-west-african-restaurant-london-earned-michelin-star?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2173890/chinese-west-african-restaurant-london-earned-michelin-star?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Nov 2018 12:00:30 +0000 “I cook global Indian food, not Indian Indian food,” says celebrity chef Manish Mehrotra, as we chat over a cup of tea in the London outpost of his award-winning New Delhi restaurant, Indian Accent. Named India’s No 1 restaurant by the judges of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, his flagship establishment has been luring diners since 2009, keen to try his unusual format of traditional spice blends, diverse global ingredients and modern cooking techniques. How Shanghai hairy crabs get to your... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2169771/celebrity-chef-who-rewrote-rules-indian-cooking-india-and-west?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2169771/celebrity-chef-who-rewrote-rules-indian-cooking-india-and-west?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Oct 2018 02:45:30 +0000 If Deng Xiaoping, late leader of the People’s Republic of China, were to travel through time and appear in Shoreditch, London in 2018, he might feel quite at home. Executive chef Zhang Xiao Zhong of The Sichuan, on City Road, is the grandson of Deng’s personal chef. He cooks some of the former leader’s favourite dishes in his restaurant. “My grandfather was a famous Sichuan chef,” says Zhang. “He was invited to become a personal cook for Mr Deng [who was also a Sichuan native]. I can remember... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2167409/deng-xiaoping-chefs-grandson-his-london-sichuan-restaurant-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2167409/deng-xiaoping-chefs-grandson-his-london-sichuan-restaurant-and?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Oct 2018 11:15:30 +0000 “I never really wanted to be a chef, I kind of fell into it,” says Andrew Wong of one-Michelin-star restaurant A. Wong in Victoria, London. “I helped in the family restaurant as a kid – with resentment. That was my motivation to study. I took extra maths classes to have an excuse not to work.” The classes paid off. Wong studied chemistry at Oxford University, then anthropology at the prestigious London School of Economics. But after his father died in 2003, he returned to support his mother in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2164516/accidental-british-chinese-chef-and-his-michelin-star?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2164516/accidental-british-chinese-chef-and-his-michelin-star?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Sep 2018 07:00:45 +0000