In the mood for the sweetness of minced pork and spring onion dumplings I walked over to Haiku to sample some of their dim sum. Dumplings, steamed and fried, may be the best known dim sum, or tapas, that make up this traditional Cantonese dish. Unlike the Spanish take on bite-sized food dim sum are more of a breakfast snack than an after work nibble in a bar.
| Haiku Asian Tapas +27 (0)21 424 7000 Email: haiku@bukhara.com www.haikurestaurant.com 33 Church St (entrance around corner in Burg St) CBD Cape Town |
Before Hong Kong’s housing crisis was resolved this Cantonese city was filled with cheap tea houses serving dim sum as people often didn’t have enough space to cook properly in their shared apartments. This is highlighted by Fuchsia Dunlop in her painstakingly researched memoir of eating in China: Shark’s Fin & Sichuan Pepper – a must read for those interested in Chinese cuisines and food anthropology.
Back to Burg Street Cape Town, home to Haiku, a restaurant in the same stable as the Bukhara branch upstairs. The interior is dark, though hardly dingy. All the same the windowless dining area is not exactly an appealing prospect during daytime. But soon your eyes adjust and well constructed down lighting (with dedicated lights hanging over each table) illuminates your food and the faces of your dining companions. Beyond your immediate personal space you are cocooned in darkness.
A small platter of “kimchi” is placed in front of me, though this is not the best known Korean cabbage kimchi, the apparently pungent fermented vegetable (which I am yet to try). One suspects most Capetonians might not be quite ready for the vrotkool* yet.
Rather it is given as portions of “daikon, or Chinese Radish”, cucumber and bean sprouts. The Chinese Radish looks more like an orange-coloured melon than a member of the turnip family and indeed it is a little fruity, with a savoury marinade for balance. Crunchy chopped bites of it are agreeably dipped in a tomato-garlic sauce.
The cucumber has a hint of fermentation while the bean sprouts are the most ‘gone’ with a lovely smoky flavour, injected with a dose of zing when dipped in a hot chilli sauce, which isn’t simply burny but has depth and complexity too.
Now it is time to select the main act, the dumplings. I see there is no pork in the dim sum choices and scanning down the menu see it is also absent from the wok dishes. How can this be? Pork is East Asia’s most popular meat. The answer, the waiter tells me, is that Haiku is “halaal friendly”. Muslim customers are important to the restaurant. However, this restriction does not extend to alcohol, which is openly promoted.
All is forgiven when my scallop har gau arrives: three sexy translucent steamed dumplings stuffed with scallop and “water chestnut”. A bit of sweet and a bit of the sea but there is no crunch of water chestnut that I am familiar with (I’ve only eaten them from a can). Rather inside are little pieces of the stem of a green vegetable similar to broccoli. I can’t say exactly what is in it but it doesn’t matter too much – it is delicious and truly exotic.
Piping hot barbecue duck spring rolls are next with a hoisin (sweet plum) dipping sauce. Crisp and dry they are far superior to standard restaurant spring roll fare. Soggy and dripping with oil, this is probably the dish South African kitchens screw up the most.
The spicy lamb pot stickers with dhania are the only disappointing flavour combination of the lunch. This is where the pork is missed the most. The minced lamb simply overpowers the dumpling. You might as well be eating South African lamb frikadelle (meatballs).
Despite the disappointing flavour combination of the pot stickers, execution is perfect. Half of each dumpling is fried and the other half steamed. Now imagine ordering a single egg, half of it fried and the other half poached, with the egg remaining intact. But then Chinese chefs are trained to make mince meat with the use of only a knife. (In reality the dumplings are steamed then pan-fried on one side.)
The menu is an extensive array of East Asian cuisines that include Thai, Japanese, Chinese (more than one) and Korean with many main courses too. From sushi and robata (charcoal grill) to noodle and wok dishes. Tempting options include Peking Duck (with apologies to the mayor of Beijing) and stir-fried prawns in a “Szechwan” style with black bean, red bean and chilli.
On previous visits the dim sum have always been the highlight. Once a wok dish was ordinary.
Minimum spend on food at night is R160. No minimum over lunch. I eat thee dim sum dishes (R40) each to give a total of R120 which satisfies my hunger. At dinner I would want more.
Big wine list highly reputable names but then with the spicy options you might want beer or a sweeter wine such as gewürztraminer.
Service starts informed, friendly and efficient and then as the place fills up becomes slower and slower. The thin paper napkin provided doesn’t do the job and the manager should be careful his long scarf doesn’t end up in your tom yum soup.
The biggest drag is not the restaurant but having to look at a table of teenage kids who have totally lost the thrill of being taken out to top restaurants by their father. If I were dad I would have dropped them off in Blikkiesdorp (tin can town) with R200 each to see what life can really be like.
Lunch at Haiku, like going to the movies on a bright day, is an exotic escape from the real world.
4/5 stars over lunch. Sneaks in.
AA Gill of The Times reviewed the London branch of Haiku three years ago. To read it click here. Beware, you may need a strong stomach for this one.
* rotten cabbage
Tom Robbins
Posted July 9, 2010
Tags: Asian cuisine, Asian cuisines, Asian food, Cape Town Asian restaurants, Chinese cuisines, Chinese food, City Bowl Asian restaurants, Japanese cuisine, Japanese food, Korean cuisine, Korean food, Thai cuisine, Thai food
