A Dim Sum Feast at Leongs Legends

When I lived in NYC, one of my frequent Sunday brunch destinations was the Vegetarian Dim Sum House on Pell street. I was a vegetarian then, but even if I hadn't been this place rocked. You'd have to get the timing right otherwise you'd have to join the ever increasing queue of people wanting the same thing: impecable dim sum of all shaped and sizes. My dining partner and I would systematically work our way through the entire list from start to finish back to start again over several meals. We even saved a copy to rate the ones we particularly liked/disliked.

Fast forward quite a few years and now that Kelsie and I living in London I've been hoping to resurrect this tradition. Lucky for me, World Foodie Guide has done a stellar job of providing a list of the best dim sum places London has to offer.

On this particular Sunday we had organised a reunion of sorts as our dear friend Cat was on her way home to Aberdeen via London, our other friend Kim has recently moved to Londonm as has our friend David and Jorge who happen to have moved quite close to where we are in Crouch End. We were also joined by Marco, another Aberdonian transplant.

The best thing about going for dim sum with such a large group of people is that you really can try everything on the list in just one go! And that's exactly what we did. Unfortunately i wasn't as systematic as i was in the past, and couldn't really tell you what all the dishes were. But they were delicious indeed. And we're hoping to organise another dim sum fest really soon.

Here's a selection of Kelsie's photos from the afternoon:

Rasa Sayang: Cheap, cheerful and oh so good

Note: please keep in mind that the photos in this post were taken with a cameraphone -- apologies for the graininess.

Kelsie met me downtown for dinner last night after I finished work. She was shuttling her family around (they're visiting from up north), and wanted us to go out after she dropped them off at the show they were going to see.

On this particular occasion I wanted to a) not spend a lot of money; b) try someplace new that neither of us has been to before; c) stay close to the neighborhood where my office is (Piccadilly Circus) whilst avoiding the countless chains and tourist traps; and most importantly d) have something really tasty.

We started our meal with a couple of starters: Roti canai and Fried wontons. The roti had a beatufiul soft texture and was accompanied with a bowl of sweet/sour/spicy/earthy red curry sauce. The fried wontons were stuffed wtih vegetables and prawns and were accompanied by a sweet chilli sauce.


Roti canai

For our mains Kelsie had Sinagpore fried rice and I had Nasi Lemak. The Singapore fried rice was redolent with sesame oil and came topped with crispy shallots. There was cabbage and seafood mixed in.


Singapore Fried Rice

The Nasi Lemak was my idea of a perfect combo meal. Tender chicken in a hot curry sauce like we had with the roti, hard boiled eggs, steamed rice, the most brilliant dried tiny anchovies, extremely flavourful and spicy sambal and some cooked veg with red peanuts made up the plate. Combining the fish/egg/chicken/peanuts in one bite sent me on a wild ride of texture and taste. This is the kind of food i love!


Nasi Lemak

We ordered a crisp dry Pinot Grigio to go with the meal and the total of the bill was a very reasonable £35. Our servers were friendly and very efficient. Over the course of our meal the table next to us turned twice and there was a steady stream of people coming and going.



Would we go back? Absolutely, definitely. I've already promised our server Joyce that i'll be back in for lunch some time next week!