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The most important and exciting time in the Chinese calendar is upon us once again. This year sees the year of the Rat on the 25th January.

This festive time brings 15days of celebration in China, a time for family reunions and long honoured traditions. Commonly known as ‘Spring Festival’, the streets in China will be lined with brightly coloured lanterns and decorations.

How many times have you a heard someone say that they went to a Chinese restaurant, and all that they were able to eat was rice because everything else contained meat products? This makes us so sad because Chinese and Cantonese cuisine has a long heritage of wonderful vegetable dishes. Some of the fondest food memories of people across the country involve exquisite cooking of China’s fresh herbs, flowers and vegetables. 

At Chung Ying, we want to demonstrate this incredible heritage across our menus. As we have the biggest Dim Sum selection in the UK, and possibly in the world, this section of our menu was the perfect place to start.  All of our vegetarian Dim Sums are also vegan, with the exception of our Deep-Fried Caramel Buns, Steamed Caramel Buns and Steamed ‘Liquid Gold’ Buns (numbers 72, 76 and 77 on our full Dim Sum menu). Unfortunately, the sumptuously sweet lava that erupts from these soft buns contains yolk from duck eggs. As hard as we tried, we couldn’t recreate this filling while using exclusively vegan ingredients. 

What’s the difference between Chinese and Cantonese cuisine?

It is important to remember that China is a huge country comprising an enormous variety of cultures and geographical landmarks, which directly impact on cooking trends in its different regions. Cantonese cuisine refers to food from the Canton area of Southern China which includes Guangzhou and Hong Kong. This cuisine is so different from the meals enjoyed throughout the rest of China for several important reasons.

Being one of the original restaurants in Birmingham’s world-famous China Town, we are proud to offer a sumptuous selection of noodle dishes across our menus. From traditional cuisine to innovative new dishes, our veteran chefs cook a variety of noodles to perfection, so that they can introduce even the most experienced diners to unique and authentic tastes that they haven’t encountered before. Here’s a brief guide to the differences between the noodles that we serve and the restaurants where they are available.

Dan Dan Noodles

Available at Chung Ying Central

Dan Dan Noodles are one of the hallmarks of Sichuan (Northern Chinese) cooking. Soft noodles are combined with spicy chillies, prawns and crispy pork in a boiling hot soup to present your taste buds with a festival of flavour. This dish is spicy enough to be interesting, but isn’t so spicy that you’ll need to drink a gallon of milk to recover afterwards. That makes it a perfectly balanced introduction to classic Chinese cuisine. The dish originally gained popularity as Chinese street food and was called ‘Dan Dan’ as the noodles were often carried by street vendors on poles of the same name. Unsurprisingly, these delicious noodles only increased in popularity and eventually made their way to authentic Chinese restaurants around the world.

Are you bored of going to Chinese restaurants and ordering sweet and sour pork with egg fried rice? While we cook these classic dishes to perfection, we also want to take our guests taste buds on an Oriental tour while they are with us. Here are some of the more adventurous dishes on our menu for those who want to try something a bit different when they enjoy a Chinese meal at Chung Ying.

Baos are hugely popular across China. Buns vary from the size of a dumpling to the size of a burger depending on which region you’re eating them in. Here we’ll give you a brief guide as to how Baos became popular and how they differ from region to region.

Who made the first Bao?

The Bao (‘bun’) developed in Chinese culture as a filled form of ‘Mantou,’ a plain steamed dumpling which is often compared to bread. The story behind this steamed delight explains not just its unique shape, buy why its development into Baos (or Baozi) was such a natural one.

Mantou is said to have been created by legendary 3rd Century military strategist Zhuge Liang. On the way back from battle during his famous Southern Campaign to quash a rebellion around the area which is now Sichuan province, Zhuge was faced with an enormous logistical challenge. The strategist had defeated his enemies, but was staring at the prospect of defeat not by an army, but by a river which was impossible to cross. The river was said to be closely guarded by a Deity, who refused to allow safe passage to Zhuge unless he threw the heads of 50 of his soldiers into the river. Wanting to satisfy the Deity’s demands without sacrificing his troops, Zhuge ordered for 50 buns that looked like human heads, due to their flat bases and round shapes, to be thrown into the river. The plan was a success, the Deity was deceived, safe passage was granted and the buns were named Mantou (barbarian’s heads) in celebration of the famous victory that Zhuge had masterminded over the barbarian rebels.

Birmingham’s Victoria Square is a beautiful place at any time of year. When it’s full of representatives of some of the finest restaurants in the city, and they are all offering taster portions of their most popular dishes, this famous square gets even better. From Friday 5^thto Saturday 6^thJuly anyone who happened to be in the city centre from 11am-7pm could pop over and enjoy great food in wonderful weather thanks to the Colmore Food Festival. Prices of portions were capped at £4 each and drinks prices weren’t allowed to exceed £5, meaning that everyone could come and enjoy a mix of tastes and flavours which would not normally find their way into their lunch breaks. The Festival is organised by the Colmore BID to make sure that everyone knows just how special the area’s bars and eateries are.