Pinoy Response (2024)

19/01/2023

Inside Scotti’s Snack Bar, the old-school Italian Caff in Islington. | Isaac Rangaswami

“Big money talks, and Scotti’s Snack Bar is small money.”

Scotti’s Snack Bar, an Italian sandwich shop that is over half a century old, fears that planned “improvements” to London’s historic Clerkenwell Green will have a “devastating impact” on business. Works are set to begin as early as February 2023, Eater London has learned. The planned changes include reducing road space on the Green by 51 percent and removing 43 parking spaces.

Scotti’s is often affectionately described as “museum-like” or a “time capsule.” It dates back to 1967, when Clerkenwell was London’s “Little Italy,” and when the capital’s caffs were full of black cab drivers on a well-earned break. Scotti’s still depends heavily on cab drivers for business. As well as being drawn in by generous breakfasts and legendary chicken escalope sandwiches, they rely on Scotti’s because of the plentiful street parking nearby. If redevelopment works go to plan, the Green will look very different by summer 2023.

With the number of office workers in the City of London still well below pre-pandemic levels, Al Scott, who runs Scotti’s with his brother, Max, is worried about the café’s future. “Our customers are people who can’t work from home: cabbies, builders, and window cleaners,” he says. “Scotti’s is somewhere they can park up and have something to eat. They don’t have time to park half a mile away and walk to us.”

Islington Council consulted locals on the proposals back in 2017, and Al organised a petition to oppose the plans. A lot has changed since then — the effects of Brexit, a global pandemic, and a cost of living crisis — and Al argues that the plans should be reconsidered. He also believes his business’s concerns were not taken seriously. “They don’t care about old-fashioned caffs and the people we bring to the Green,” Al tells Eater London. “Big money talks, and Scotti’s Snack Bar is small money.”

Scott says that the caff was “deemed too small to be on the [consultation] committee.” He says that as a result, Islington Council did not make any concessions to mitigate the risk to Scotti’s business. “They could have compromised with a timed zone,” he says, “because we really rely on that early morning business.”

In a response to Scotti’s initial concerns about the proposals, a spokesperson for Islington Council wrote that “reducing through-traffic and increasing public space will create a more welcoming and less polluted Clerkenwell Green.” They also argued that “whilst traffic in the area will reduce, the quality of the environment will improve and will encourage people to visit and stay in the area, enjoying the characterful surroundings,” predicting that “this in turn would create additional trading opportunities.” Islington Council did not immediately respond to Eater’s request for comment on the current situation today, 19 January.

Isaac Rangaswami

Scotti’s Snack Bar is popular among cabbies, builders, and window cleaners, its owner says

The planned changes to Clerkenwell Green are at an advanced stage, and are set to go ahead unless a Traffic Management Order (TMO) is declined. Interested parties have until 27 January 2023 to object to the TMO. Failing this, works will begin in the coming weeks, and will bring significant changes to the neighbourhood.

Irrespective of the outcome on Clerkenwell Green, London’s days as a car-friendly city are emphatically over, and they have been for some time. On top of the now-20-year-old (but more recently expanded) congestion zone charges, the rollout of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) was accelerated after the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and pedestrianisation is transforming the face of areas that had long been dominated by buses and cars.

This might be good news for the 42 percent of London households which don’t have a car. If it leads to an overall reduction in motor vehicle usage, then it will be good news for the environment, too. Some food businesses may benefit from pedestrianisation — it can create an attractive atmosphere for restaurants with kerbside outdoor seating — but there are undoubtedly others like Scotti’s which stand to lose out. How redevelopment plans address the concerns of these businesses, if they do so at all, will affect their chances of survival.

The future of cafés like Scotti’s, which rely on motor traffic, also depends on their ability to adapt to a city in flux. For a variety of reasons, including rent hikes and changing consumer habits, there are historic Italian food businesses under threat across London. As Joy Lo Dico puts it in an Financial Times column on Soho’s I Camisa, they “can’t survive on nostalgia alone.”

There is hope for Scotti’s yet, however. At least in theory, a successful last-minute objection to the TMO is not entirely out of the question. And although cab drivers have historically been Scotti’s “bread and butter,” as Al puts it, they are not the only customers drawn to the café.

Ann Pembroke, the founder and director of the Clerkenwell Green Preservation Society, tells Eater London that Scotti’s “counts many of the residents on the Green as loyal customers, who will continue to support the café in future.” She hopes that expanding the public space on the Green will “encourage people to visit this precious and historical place, which is a conservation area and has been a public open space since the twelfth century.” She predicts that the changes will “attract a lot of tourism, which should bring Scotti’s more business.”

Some of London’s most influential new food writers, including Isaac Rangaswami and Jonathan Nunn, regularly champion Scotti’s freshly-made sandwiches. This brings new customers to the café, and reminds lapsed regulars that this vestige of old London is still, for now, clinging on. It remains to be seen whether a renewed interest in London’s caff heritage will be enough to keep cafés like Scotti’s going. Whatever happens, there are difficult days ahead for businesses which rely on car traffic alone.

Inside Scotti’s Snack Bar, the old-school Italian Caff in Islington. | Isaac Rangaswami “Big money talks, and Scotti’s Snack Bar is small...

17/01/2023

Chef Jeremy Lee’s famous meringue “tumble” at Quo Vadis in Soho | Helen Cathcart

Deep-fried bread-and-butter pudding with cold custard, meringues piled high with cream and nostalgia, flaming crepe suzette, and more

Pudding can be the crowning joy of a good meal. It’s the opportunity for a little froth and fun, once the kitchen has earned the trust and affection of the eater. Historically, British traditional cooking has known this to be the case. Wibbly wobbly jellies, meringues upon meringues in a rococo pouf, a whole lemon boiled inside a pudding: Surprise! It’s all so silly and delightful!

There is power in a morsel of sweet pudding to conjure halcyon memories — sometimes real, but more often imaginary — of innocent school days, 1970s glamour, or cigar smoke filled 19th century eating clubs. It’s a cultural or collective nostalgia, one which may bear little or no resemblance to any historically lived reality, but which has a strong and pleasurable pull nonetheless.

So while contemporary restaurant desserts tend towards the staid — a little something to satisfy the sweet-toothed or those still hungry after a meal of scanty small plates — there remain both the old guard and a new breed who know the talismanic power of a good pud.

Chef Jeremy Lee’s famous meringue “tumble” at Quo Vadis in Soho | Helen Cathcart Deep-fried bread-and-butter pudding with cold custard, m...

16/01/2023

A spread of kaya toast, eggs, kaya, and curry puffs from Kopichadim. | Kopichadim

Kopichadim is taking over Ong Ong Buns’s former location on Bethnal Green Road

A new Malaysian cafe and bakery is bringing kaya toast and pandan blondies to Shoreditch, as Kopi茶店, pronounced Kopichadim, opens at the address formerly home to Aaron and Icy Mo’s Ong Ong Buns.

A partnership between bubble tea entrepreneur Yan Chen and Sue Chow, owner of highly regarded online Malaysian bakery Sueperlicious, it opened at 122 Bethnal Green Road on Monday 16 January.

Many of Sueperlicious’s bakes are on the opening menu, including the raspberry salted caramel pandan brownies; curry puffs filled with a coconut sweet potato filling; and kaya, the thick, sweet spread made with coconut cream, eggs, sugar, and pandan, sandwiched between white toast with hefty pats of butter.

They’re joined by Chen’s bubble tea, as well as teh tarik, pulled between two vessels from a height, and what the founders describe as “robust, creamy” coffee drinks.

More soon.

A spread of kaya toast, eggs, kaya, and curry puffs from Kopichadim. | Kopichadim Kopichadim is taking over Ong Ong Buns’s former locatio...

16/01/2023

Pizza bianco from Pizza East | Pizza East

Soho House Group-owned Pizza East in the Tea Building and at the top of Portobello Road have shut up shop

Casual icons of the 2010s, the Pizza East restaurants in Shoreditch and Notting Hill, have permanently closed, Eater understands.

The east London location from which the restaurant created by the Soho House Group in 2009 took its name occupied a significant footprint of the ground floor of the Tea Building, which also houses the global company’s flagship east London members club, Shoreditch House.

The west London location for which the name Pizza East was a little incongruous sat at the top of the iconic Portobello Road, occupying a smaller, but similarly grand location, opened in 2010. It too borrowed from the New York City aesthetic of exposed brick and industrial fixtures, serving charred pizzas from a wood oven, alongside oven-roasted meats, salads, and wines and cocktails in Duralex glassware. The Portobello site was popular with west London-based celebrities, like Michael McIntyre, Kirsty Young, and Sienna Miller.

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Eater understands that internal strategic priorities and personnel change at Soho House could be behind the decision to close the Portobello Road site on 31 December 2022 and in Shoreditch yesterday, 15 January 2023.

Close by, Soho House runs Cecconi’s on Redchurch Street, which offers a similar loosely Italian menu with higher prices in a smaller location.

Soho House Group, nor Pizza East immediately responded to a request for comment.

Pizza bianco from Pizza East | Pizza East Soho House Group-owned Pizza East in the Tea Building and at the top of Portobello Road have sh...

13/01/2023

Byron Burger has closed nine more restaurants. | Byron Burger

Nine restaurants close at the cost of 218 jobs, as Famously Proper sells the chain to a new company — run by its parent’s co-founder

Nine Byron Burger restaurants will close at the cost of 218 jobs, as the beleaguered burger chain flips itself out of administration. One London restaurant, in Wembley, is among the nine, with the remaining restaurants in London staying open.

A new company called Tristar Foods has bought the surviving 12 Byron Burger restaurants. Tristar is run by Sandeep Vyas, who is also the co-founder of Calveton: the investment vehicle that put Byron into administration in the first place.

Administrators Claire Winder and Chris Pole, from Interpath Advisory, issued a statement on the sale detailing “significant challenges to trading, driven by rising costs, principally food and utilities, together with a reduction in customer spending as a result of the current cost-of-living crisis.”

It is the third restructuring in four years for the beleaguered chain, which is less a victim of circumstance and more of a long-running game of private equity firms playing pass the parcel with its assets and perceived value. At its peak in 2013, one such firm, Hutton Collins, paid £100 million for Byron; by 2020, when new owner Three Hills Capital auctioned it off to Calveton, the fee was just £4 million.

Byron was most famous first for opening a chain whose restaurants had their own identities, and then for assisting the Home Office in an ambush immigration raid on its own employees. And though its story is specific, it is far from unfamiliar, with fellow chains Bella Italia, Cafe Rouge, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Carluccio’s, and Pizza Express all subject to the same aggressive expansion, debt-leveraged buyouts from private equity firms, and ensuing closures and job losses when the music stops on the pass-the-parcel.

Byron Burger has closed nine more restaurants. | Byron Burger Nine restaurants close at the cost of 218 jobs, as Famously Proper sells th...

11/01/2023

Boris Johnson in London in January | Ricky Vigil M/GC Images

Reports say the remarks were made at an “alcohol-fuelled” leaving party during Covid-19 lockdown in 2020

New reports have emerged with claims that former Prime Minister and law-breaker Boris Johnson boasted about being at the U.K.’s most “unsocially distanced party” when attending leaving drinks inside Number 10 Downing Street when the country was under strict lockdown rules — introduced by Johnson’s government — designed to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

It’s the latest in a string of so-called “partygate” stories, the series of scandals which eventually brought Johnson’s premiership to an end in 2021.

Now, as reported by the Guardian, new revelations and allegations have emerged from an ITV podcast series, Partygate: the Inside Story. Johnson “made the remark as staff gathered round a table filled with alcohol and party snacks to hear him toast his outgoing director of communications, Lee Cain, in November 2020,” it says.

According to the Guardian, a source told ITV:

“I was working late. Some music came on, the mumbling – sort of – rose, and there were loads of people stood around, but this time I came out because I heard the prime minister speaking and that’s when I heard the quote: ‘This is the most unsocially distanced party in the UK right now,’ and everyone was laughing about it.”

At the time, as stipulated on 5 November 2020, indoor gatherings banned except for in certain circumstances such as “work purposes”, and social distancing remained the rule in workplaces.

The story comes as the the Commons privileges committee inquiry into whether Johnson misled MPs about law-breaking parties during the pandemic restarts today, Wednesday 11 January. Should Johnson be found to have indeed misled ministers, it would constitute “a serious breach of parliamentary rules that could end his career as an MP,” the Guardian states. Hearings relating to the inquiry — are we going to see this guy again?! — are expected to take place in the coming weeks.

Boris Johnson in London in January | Ricky Vigil M/GC Images Reports say the remarks were made at an “alcohol-fuelled” leaving party duri...

11/01/2023

Comedian Adam Hills. | Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images

He’s backing Scott Hallsworth’s latest revival of Freak Scene, in Parsons Green

The Last Leg host and comedian Adam Hills is getting into the London restaurant business, by backing the revival of ex-Nobu head chef Scott Hallsworth’s Freak Scene.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced Hallsworth to close the most recent iteration, on Frith Street, in Soho, in July 2020. But he and Hills are now partnering on an opening at 28 Parsons Green Lane, in Fulham, after Hallsworth ran an interstitial pop-up called Double Dragon out of Clerkenwell in early-to-mid-2022. With 46 covers, it will be the first fully fledged restaurant for the itinerant brand.

In all its versions, Freak Scene has been what Hallsworth calls “a whistle stop tour of Asia,” loosely influenced by his stint at Nobu and its maximalist, high-acid penchant for deep-frying some things, serving most others raw, and generally using as much hamachi, tobiko, and wagyu beef as is humanly possible. A new catering pack for the restaurant proffers menus that include hamachi sashimi with yuzu and soy; black cod “tacos”; and a trio of wagyu.

It opened its Frith Street space after a series of Clerkenwell pop-ups despite failing in a crowdfunding bid to go permanent. On this occasion, Hallsworth is hoping to go the whole hog, while Hills will be hoping his first venture into London restaurants won’t soon find itself on its last leg.

Comedian Adam Hills. | Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images He’s backing Scott Hallsworth’s latest revival of Freak Scene, in Parson...

10/01/2023

Turbot with courgettes and butter at Cadet, Newington Green | Michaël Protin

Eater’s recommended restaurants in London, from the most nourishing stews and curries to the smokiest, most succulent jerk this winter

The Eater 38 hopes to answer any question that begins, “Can you recommend a restaurant?” It’s a curated list that covers the entire city, spanning more than 20 cuisines, neighbourhoods, and price points. It’s a list that tells the story of the London food scene: It documents the dim sum, Sunday roasts, curries, pizza, sinasir, rarebits, banh mi, udon noodles, pepper pot, and more: All that which makes London among the very best and most diverse places to eat in the world.

The Eater London 38 aims to reflect the best food and most important restaurants in capital at the beginning of 2023 — with new venues making their mark and older establishments having rediscovered their pre-pandemic groove once more. The list will continue to showcase a mix of over three dozen restaurants, which have all done outstanding things in extraordinary times, restaurants which have emerged, survived, thrived, and continued to enrich the city and its food culture as it finds its feet and emerges from more than two years of turmoil.

A monthly updated primer to the best new restaurants in London complements this guide. Please share all tips, ideas, and suggestions with Eater editors by contacting us here.

Turbot with courgettes and butter at Cadet, Newington Green | Michaël Protin Eater’s recommended restaurants in London, from the most nou...

09/01/2023

Photo by Hollie Adams/Getty Images

Where to find the best dumplings, noodles, and whole steamed fish

This year’s Lunar New Year festivities fall on Sunday 22 January, and it’s no surprise that food and drink are central to the celebrations — both are said to play a big part in bringing good luck and great prosperity. Families reunite to feast for days during East and South East Asia’s biggest annual holiday; each food has its own time-honoured tradition, and represents special traits for the coming year.

This Lunar New Year is also significant because it is the first in two years where, in London, life feels at least somewhat closer to normal. Whether aiming higher with a nian gao (year cake); elongating life by slurping some longevity noodles; or wondering exactly to what extent the culinary tropes of Lunar New Year represent the reality of the diaspora communities of the U.K., one thing is certain: the Year of the Tiger is going to be delicious.

Lo Hei/Yusheng (Prosperity salad)

Chinese culture is big on similar phonetics to auspicious phrases, which is why “yusheng” meaning “raw fish” sounds a lot like “abundance.” This communal Cantonese-style raw salad is served at the start of a Lunar New Year Banquet and symbolises abundance, prosperity and vigour. It’s typically made up of various shredded vegetables and assorted toppings, a sweet plum sauce, and slices of raw fish. The saying goes; the higher the toss, the more luck brought into the new year. Gather the gang around the dining table with chopsticks at hand and work those arms out by mixing and raising ingredients together all whilst shouting auspicious wishes and “Lo hei, lo hei!” (scoop it up, scoop it up.)

Where to get it:

Sambal Shiok

Kick start the new calendar year by making a mess. A lightly smoked salmon-topped Prosperity salad packed with fresh vegetables, pomelo, marinated seaweed, prawn crackers, and wonton crackers. Mandy Yin’s beloved Holloway Road restaurant is making this annual hit available for pre-order to both dine in and take away, with a salad designed for four-to-six people accordingly priced at £46.66.

171 Holloway Road, Holloway N7 8LX

Tao Tao Ju

Part of its Year of the Tiger celebration set menu or as a standalone dish for two to four persons. Beautifully arranged cucumber, carrot, pepper, lettuce, radish, onion, ginger, pomelo, salmon and fried wonton strips on a platter. Sprinkled with sesame seeds and peanuts.

15 Lisle Street, Chinatown WC2H 7BE

Rasa Sayang

This Straits cuisine restaurant is serving a special Yu Sheng salad for between two and six people from 14 January. Perfect for diners that don’t want to commit to an entire feasting menu to try this popular LNY dish, portions come in a medium size for two, or a large for six people. Served in many restaurants and homes throughout Singapore and Malaysia, each interpretation is different and the ingredients all carry a special significance.

5 Macclesfield Street, Chinatown W1D 6AY

Dumplings

The number of dumplings eaten at New Year is said to symbolise the amount of money one will have in the coming year, so eating one’s weight in “gold” by gorging on a mountain of dumplings comes highly recommended. The reason behind the wealth connection is that the shape of the dumplings is said to resemble ingot-shaped coins, an ancient Chinese currency. Some people may even choose to hide a coin inside one of the dumplings — the person who finds the coin is said to receive good fortune. But: let it be known that the origins of this tradition are regionally contested, prone to debate, and, perhaps, exaggerated by political media.

Where to get it:

My Neighbours the Dumplings

Get your fill of mighty fine potstickers and plump dumplings that are made in-house and available either for dining in or finishing at home.

165 Lower Clapton Road, Clapton E5 8EQ

Dumpling Shack

Shack up with a tray of juicy shengjianbao which have been pan-fried and steamed to perfection. A word of warning though, the scorching hot broth will sq**rt everywhere once bitten into.

Old Spitalfields Market, Brushfield Street, Spitalfields E1 6EW

Noodle and Beer

Eat the dumpling rainbow at this fashion-forward Chongqing and Sichuan noodle restaurant. All are handmade, filled with either Sichuan-spiced pork or chives and prawns.

31 Bell Lane, Spitalfields E1 7AB

Din Tai Fung

18-pleat steamed soupy perfection. There’s a reason why these Taiwanese treasures are so sought after around the world.

5 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden WC2E 8PS

My Old China

This Acton restaurant is a double act between a Catonese and Sichuanese chef. The former presides over some imperious dumplings.

270-272 High Street, Acton W3 9BH

Michaël Protin/Eater London

Dumpling Shack’s shengjianbao

Steamed whole fish

In Cantonese the word for fish — “yu” — sounds similar to the words wish and abundance, going hand-in-hand with “leen leen yow yu” — another traditional Chinese saying meaning to have abundance, success and wealth year after year. As a result, it’s customary to serve fish at some point during a New Year meal. For bonus luck points, the fish should be served whole, with head and tail attached, which symbolises a good beginning and ending for the coming year. A word of warning, though: an old superstition says it’s a big no no to flip the fish whilst eating, as this symbolises belly’s up, or in Chinese, “fan tow” — a capsizing boat, or death.

Where to get it:

Chu Chin Chow

Oakleigh Park’s hidden gem bringing the goods. Choose from sea bass, dover sole, or turbot steamed in ginger and spring onions, black bean sauce, pan-grilled with soy sauce or Malaysian assam sambal sauce.

7 Cat Hill, East Barnet EN4 8HG

Golden Dragon

Part of the six-course Year of the Rabbit set menu. Order the show-stopping whole steamed turbot with ginger, spring onion, and chillies.

28-29 Gerrard Street, Chinatown W1D 6JW

Jinli Uxbridge

Jinli’s whole steamed seabass, prepared with black bean sauce, ginger, and spring onions is the perfect dish to usher in the new year.

91 Pleld Heath Road, Uxbridge UB8 3NJ

Jessica Wang

Turbot with spring onions and ginger at Chu Chin Chow in East Barnet

White cut chicken

White cut chicken is a whole chicken that’s been poached in a broth; it may not look like much, but it’s moist, tender and packed with heaps of flavour. Serving a whole chicken during the celebration symbolises completeness and rebirth. In Chinese culture, chicken forms part of the symbolism of the dragon and phoenix, both mythical creatures bursting with luck, and the origin of the rebirth meaning. Again, extra luck points for keeping the whole chicken intact; having its head, tail and feet attached represents wholeness.

Where to get it:

Gold Mine

Its famous roast duck gets all the attention, but the steamed chicken with ginger and spring onion sauce boasts an unreally soft butter-like texture.

102 Queensway, Queensway W2 3RR

Longevity noodles

Don’t even think about cutting the strands of noodles short: the longer the noodle, the longer the lifespan. Noodles are the key to longevity and harmony in Chinese culture and they’re not just limited to lunar New Year celebrations, they can be a part of birthdays as they mark every passing year.

Where to get it:

Chang’s Noodles

Thanks to the hand-pulled technique and no use of machinery, Chang’s noodles are some of the most elastic and chewy in the business.

35-37 New Oxford Street, Bloomsbury WC1A 1EP

Four Seasons

The roast duck specialist might be known for its glossy hanging birds, but the braised yee mein noodles with crab meat are bouncy strands of delight covered in a thick gravy-like oyster sauce.

23 Wardour Street, Chinatown W1D 6PW

Mandarin Kitchen

Signature lobster noodles are the name of the game at this legendary Queensway joint, but try the homely braised e-fu noodles, a delightful springy chewy texture loaded with luxurious umami seafood and shiitake mushrooms.

14-16 Queensway, Queensway W2 3RX

Spring rolls

Say goodbye to winter and say hello to spring with some delightfully crunchy spring rolls. Spring rolls get their name from the Spring Festival in mainland China and they’re served to represent the new beginning of the year. Typically filled with vegetables or meat, these crisp little cylinders of joy are a symbol of wealth because of their likeness to golden bars.

Where to get it:

Maxim Ealing

A west London institution that needs no introduction. Instead of the signature old-school Pekingese dishes try the crispy crackling spring rolls filled with rainbow julienned veggies.

153-155 Northfield Avenue, Ealing W13 9QT

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Tang yuan (Sweet dumplings)

These chewy, multi-coloured glutinous rice balls in sweet syrupy ginger soup are associated with family togetherness. The round shape and pronunciation also symbolise union, so they’re often eaten throughout the New Year period when families get together for meals.

Where to get it:

Five Friends Dessert

Chinatown’s new dessert shop on the block. Slurp up a range of refreshing dessert bowls such as sago, bean paste soup, double skin soup or sweet yet fiery clear ginger broth. All are accompanied with a choice of toppings, including ‘QQ’ texture glutinous brown sugar black sesame rice balls.

12 Little Newport Street, Chinatown WC2H 7JJ

Tian Tian

Balls to the wall. Choose from an assortment of flavours including black sesame, red bean, or peanut in a green tea soup at this little restaurant — not to be confused with the popular supermarket of the same name.

166 Mile End Road, Bow E1 4LJ

Nian gao (glutinous rice cake)

Nian gao literally translates to “year cake,” which also sounds a bit like the Cantonese homonym for “higher year.” The sweet dessert is supposed to help the person that eats it climb the social ladder and achieve new heights. For this reason, some believe that the sticky steamed cake leads to a richer and sweeter life. Typically made with glutinous rice flour and cane sugar, it’s usually served as a dessert, but in different parts of Asia it can come in many shapes, sizes and varieties.

Where to get it:

Royal China Groupa

Back by popular demand, the regal Chinese restaurant is offering its jiggly nian gao alongside its famous turnip cake for savoury and winter root vegetable lovers.

Various locations.

Mama Chen’s Kitchen

A glutinous rice cake made with love and hand-pounded care. A laborious process, but chef Ivy and her mum promise extra bounce and chew than the standard fare.

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Good fortune fruit

Load up on the vitamin C, as auspicious fruits are said to bring wealth, good health and fullness.

There’ll be plenty of lucky oranges and tangerines being passed around, as the Chinese words for orange and gold sound similar, while the word tangerine sounds like “luck.” Pomelos are also considered lucky, as the large grapefruit cousin signifies abundance; the Chinese word for pomelo sounds like the word for “to have.”

Where to get it:

Plum Valley

Technically not an actual orange, but finish on something sweet with these oh-so cute limited edition New Year custard buns shaped like the lucky citrus fruit.

20 Gerrard Street, Chinatown W1D 6JQ

Photo by Hollie Adams/Getty Images Where to find the best dumplings, noodles, and whole steamed fish This year’s Lunar New Year festivit...

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