The Pudding Menu with Gurdeep Loyal: newsletter volume 5.0

The craft of dumpling making in China Town, James Beard's heavy cream hamburger, a black leather(ish) shirt from Malmö, Schoenberg's triskaidekaphobia and the surprising inventor of the Lazy Susan.

Sep 18, 2024

Volume 5.0! If you missed volume 4.0 be sure to check it out (or 3.0 or 2.0 or indeed 1.0). And please do subscribe… thankyou as always. Gurdeep :)

New(ish)… National Dumpling Day at The Golden Phoenix, China Town

As ridiculous as some of the ‘national days’ can be (Cow Milked While Flying in an Airplane Day?!), there’s one coming up on the 26th September that I can get very behind indeed - National Dumpling Day!

In celebration of it, I went along to a very brilliant masterclass in Chinatown, hosted by the wonderful Micheal Zee of Symmetry Breakfast fame - who’s also written a new book called ‘Zao Fan: Breakfast of China’.

It was an absolute masterclass in the finesse of dumpling making. The Golden Phoenix - right in the middle of Gerrard Street - handmake all their dumplings themselves, with the dumpling master generally only around in the day time.

For this reason, in the evening they only serve a very small selection of dumplings - because the main craftsman is simply not there! I loved that fact so much - true commitment to excellence, like you don’t often get these days.

The dumplings themselves were beyond delicious - my favourites being the crispy bottomed pork creations, the har gao crystal dumplings and the deep fried prawn dumplings served with salad cream! We also feasted on fried chicken noodles and possibly the very best roast duck I’ve ever eaten - artfully plated and placed on a Lazy Susan (which Micheal taught me is not a Chinese invention at all, but something that was allegedly invented by Thomas Jefferson!).

The Golden Phoenix has just passed over to Maria Lai-Lentz, the daughter of the original founder - who was one of the very first China Town pioneers 30 years ago - but sadly passed away during Covid. I was really moved by her story of taking over the restaurant: she told me that she learnt more about her Dad when she took over The Golden Phoenix than she ever knew before. It’s a beautiful poetic expression of a person’s culinary spirit being present in a building even after they’re gone - like a guardian of taste that guides and supports through their eternal energy. I really can’t wait to dine here again.

The Golden Phoenix, 37-38 Gerrard St, London, W1D 5QB

goldenphoenixchinatown.co.uk @goldenphoenix_london

Oldie but a goodie… James Beard’s heavy cream hamburger

My love of classic food texts has had something of an acceleration thanks to my discovery of Abe Books - which I always knew about but had never actually used until recently. In turn, my ‘collection’ (ok fine... hoard!) of Beards’, Childs’, Olney’s, Fisher’s and Cradock’s has increased 21646% in the space of a week… and yes, I really do not have space for them…

‘Beard On Food’ is one of my favourite new-old books - a selection of food vignettes and recipes that collate some of his own favourite writings.

It opens with his ponderings on the perfect hamburger - and a recipe:

“You take 2 pounds of top-quality chopped round of chuck, spread it out on a board, and grate 2 or 3 tablespoons of onion into it - use a fairly fine grater so you get just the juice and very finely grated onion. Now mix in about a tablespoon of heavy cream and some freshly ground black pepper… As to cooking, it’s my firm held belief that a hamburger is best cooked in a heavy skillet with a combination of butter and oil… I like mine crusted on the outside and very rare in the center. Salt this creamy, oniony, peppery hamburger before serving it on a buttered bun or English muffin…”

I can’t stop thinking about it - and his gorgeous use of literal adjectives. My hero in every way.

Delicious design… Séfr Menswear

I bought a black leather(ish) overshirt recently. It’s verging on Folsom Street Fair territory - and i’d be lying if i said that wasn’t the intention, because it very much is. Bondage-goth autumn is very my post Brat-Gurd summer vibe this year.

It’s from the Swedish brand Séfr by founders Per Fredrikson and Sinan Abi:

I don’t have anything more to say on this, other than to inform you that it’s my new uniform until Spring equinox, when I plan to go S.S Daley Charleston preppy fae Eton boater.

Séfr is available at Liberty and Harrods

Kitchen hero… a new David Mellor!

I’ve gone on record many times talking about my love of David Mellor in Marylebone - and now they’re opening on Pavilion Road! In their own words they are “creators of cult cutlery and purveyors of pots and pans to the stars”… but are in fact one of the very best kitchenware stores around.

Originally built as a fire station, Corin Mellor and the David Mellor team did all the work restoring, creating and outfitting the new shop - with fixtures built in their own cutlery factory. Go!

David Mellor Sloane Square, 190 Pavilion Road, London, SW3 2BF @davidmelloruk

For pudding… how the man that f*ed up tonality with 12 tones was scared of the number 13**

Arnold Schoenberg is the man that took the twelve notes of the Western scale - gave them equal weighting and in turn re-invented the entire language of classical music - and then refused to ever teach it himself because he felt people should come up with their own languages. As a Stravinsky-Ravel obsessive, i’m never sure where I stand with him, although I do think that his seminal twelve-tone serialist work Pierrot Lunaire is possibly one of the greatest modernist creations ever made in an artistic medium…

I learnt recently that he had a fear of the number 13 - triskaidekaphobia (yes it’s a word) - like no other. He was born on the 13th of September - and always believed he would die on the 13th, which he feared his entire life - every single month... of every year...

Such was his fear that he wouldn’t even allow his musical scores to have a page 13 - he would label them 12 - 12a - 14 - instead.

Ironically, the Albert Giraud poems that Pierrot Lunaire is set to each have 13 lines - which he tried to offset by calling the work “Three times Seven Poems from Albert Giraud's 'Pierrot Lunaire’”. Its the kind of unhinged superstition that actually gets me to love someone very much.

In the end, it was indeed July 13th 1951 - a year that is a multiple of 13 - in the last 13 minutes of the day - that would be his last hours. His last word was apparently ‘harmony’. Weirdly, he was good friends with Mahler - which is a prophecy-on-prophecy collision like never before…

And for pudding wine… Strawberry, Peach & Nutmeg Jam

I’ve got VERY into jam making at the moment - partly after watching a Mrs Crocombe video on how to make a ‘Gertrude à la Crème’. I did a recipe recently for Borough Market which I wanted to share - perfect for the last of the summer fruits: