A Chinese food and culture tour through London: noodles, dim sum and ancient treasures for a Sinophile who misses China

I miss China. It’s been three long years since I was last there and the itch for street noodles, speedy trains and the wafting scent of temple incense has become overwhelming.

Pre-pandemic, I was visiting annually, often for weeks at a time, travelling to small villages and odd outposts in the name of guidebook research before settling in for a craft beer at the Great Leap Brewing bar in Beijing. But two years into the pandemic, China feels farther away than ever.

Luckily I live in London, a city with historical ties to Hong Kong and the Middle Kingdom. With lockdowns lifted here, I set out to get my China fix in the British capital.

My first stop is Bell Lane, in East London, where it is possible to do a short noodle crawl. Noodle and Beer provides a tongue-numbing Chongqing xiao mian but before I move on to a dinner of Guilin-style mifen at Chew Fun a few doors down, I am distracted in Spitalfields Market by pearl milk tea and someone serving savoury jianbing pancakes from a food stall. I return home and fall into an early food coma.

Another day, another lunch, this time at Xi Home Dumplings, near Trafalgar Square, where I fill up on jiaozi and an accurately rendered roujiamo pork sandwich. Years ago, a friend pointed out that roujiamo sounds like “Roger Moore” and now I can’t order one without also craving a martini.

That evening, I sit down with a fellow Sinophile at The Alma, near the Angel tube station, with London-brewed One Mile End IPAs and giant bowls of Yunnanese “crossing-the-bridge” rice noodles (guoqiao mixian). The warming bone broth is speckled with bright, red goji berries and fresh chrysanthemum petals. Heaven in Angel!