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Diners who found themselves in London with a yearning for northern Chinese food used to have a hard time, given that the vast majority of Chinese restaurants in the British capital - run by southerners from Guangdong and Hong Kong - served mediocre approximations of it at best. The opening of Ba Shan, in Soho's Romilly Street, will therefore please purists...
Serving xiao chi - small dishes inspired by the street food of Sichuan, Henan and Shaanxi provinces - Ba Shan is the newest venture from Shao Wei (who helped pioneer authentic Sichuan cooking in London with his Soho restaurant Bar Shu). It has been put together in consultation with food author Fuchsia Dunlop, the first Westerner to graduate from the Sichuan Culinary Institute. "My role is to mediate between Western taste sensibility and Chinese authenticity without compromising on delicious and diverse tastes," she says. (See pictures of Beijing...
...mind-numbingly hot dishes are there if one wants them. But most of the dishes on Ba Shan's long menu are a harmonious mix of sweet, sour, salty, woody and zesty. As appetizers, try the aromatic preserved radishes with sesame, the cucumber salad with scorched chili and Sichuan pepper, the "good luck" rolls of chicken and nori, and the crisp broad beans with "fish fragrant sauce" ("actually pickled chili, ginger, garlic, spring onion, vinegar and sugar," explains Dunlop). Segue to a mesmerizing array of delicate dumplings (the wrappers are made fresh each day in the kitchen and are fetchingly...
...Ba Shan is housed in a heritage building on several floors, each decorated with wooden screens, dangling lanterns and gilded birdcages in the Chinese folk manner. One room is decked out like a noodle shop, another like a Chinese wine store. Most fitting, considering the delightful show that comes with dining xiao chi-style, is the room that resembles a shadow-puppet theater. For reservations, call...
...British Airways is asking its 40,000 employees to volunteer for one to four weeks of unpaid work. Chief executive Willie Walsh--who has agreed to go without a salary in July--called the request part of a "fight for survival." It could be worse. At least BA's pilots aren't being asked to handle luggage, as those of Dutch airline KLM were in early June...