Chin Chin Laboratories

He's been all over the news, and finally I get to see what this "nitro" ice-cream parlour is all about. Ahrash Akbari-Kalhur, a former City broker, has set up the first ice-cream parlour in Europe using liquid nitrogen to speed up the freezing process that turns cream into that luscious dessert. Wacky! I love stories like this: nine-to-fiver decides to ditch the rat-race to become gastro-scientist with a lot of flair. It was a sunny day in buzzing Camden town when we went to visit this thriving institution...

Chin Chin Laboratories is situated on Camden Lock Place, amongst the strange, the tacky and the gloriously bizarre crowd in Camden. We get there for around 3pm, and there has been an ongoing queue since they open for the day. So exactly what is everyone waiting for?

Step 1: Ahrash pours his creamy mixture into a sort of giant magimix. It's manned (and womanned) by the man himself and his wife, so no wonder it's always a bit hectic. There are always 3 flavours on offer: Vanilla, Chocolate and the Special of the Day. Today the special is an exotic Lychee & Rosewater which has my name all over it. 

Step 2: Out of some very dangerous looking appliances, comes some theatrical clouds of liquid nitrogen into a  metal jug. Oooo!

Step 3: Into the magimix mixture it goes. Clouds still swirling, the magimix is switched on, and after some whirring and chemical reactions, voila! Ice cream is born in a ridiculously short amount of time! Ahrash will willingly explain the process to any non-scientific brain, and works frantically to take orders.

Step 4: Does this remind you of chemistry class? The pippettes, beakers and lab bottles are all immaculately displayed, holding exciting toppings you can choose from. Everything from popping candy, lavendar sugar, sugared nuts to chocolates is available, and then decide on a sauce as well. That day we had either sea salt caramel, raspberry or blackberry. 

Result! My Lychee & Rosewater concoction was delicately flavoured and so smooth. I loved the sea salt caramel that gave it more punch, ending with a little crunch from toasted and sugared peanuts. The flavours mixed and melted in that awesome way ice cream and toppings do in the end, ensuring a very empty cup!

Though slightly gimmicky, and I wonder how long it will be till there are other copycats, it is a delightfully quirky indulgence. Absolutely worth a visit, and I wonder what the next specials will be! £3.95 gets you one cup, one topping and one sauce, a fun demonstration and chat with our inventors. 

Yum Cha

What are your top hangover cures? An unctuous, juicy and even slightly stodgy I dare say, bite of dim sum is surely high on the list.

We've walked past Yum Cha on Chalk Farm Road countless times, and I finally get my jaded self there. It's a good mix of clientèle, and lots of fellow Chinese people. And you know what they say about seeing lots of Chinese folk in a Chinese restaurant..

Fried Taro Croquette: the crispy and wispy coating was light and crunchy, and the taro paste inside was of good mushy consistency. Good chunks of pork and prawn inside too.

Honey Roast Pork Bun: what looks like mozzarella are fluffy buns filled with roasted pork mince with a honey-barbequed sauce. Good fluff to filling ratio!

 Shanghai Siew Long Pao: I love these little critters, they are a dumpling with some cunning liquid inside, so when you craftily bite into one, it's a burst of soup that swirls around your mouth. The skin was beautifully light and hoorah, I didn't dribble first time!

Pork and Prawn Shumai: A real classic, these were compacted bites of prawn and pork that were roughly chopped, giving me that savoury cure for the night before! Excellent flavour.

Steamed spare ribs in black bean sauce: slightly disappointing, these were actually quite bland and tough, without much evidence of black bean flavour! When these are good, it's a pleasing job of biting around the bones to grab a tasty morsel.

Coriander, Bamboo and Prawn Croquette: it looks slightly lonely there, but I couldn't hold my friends down before taking the photo! This came with a sweet mayonnaise, and I regret to say I was rather indifferent on this one.

Turnip Cake: Mmmm, we're back on track! Yet another great choice to line the stomach, I adore that crispy outside and moist cake that is dotted with chinese sausage.

Fried Dough Stick Cheung Fun: I like describing Cheung Fun as Chinese cannelloni, it's quite simply a tubular noodle that holds fillings. This version sees the silky white outside coat a fried dough stick, so you go from smooth to crunch in the same bite. Pour a little soya sauce mixture on top and it's all good.

Worcester Sauce Marinated Japanese Baby Octopus: don't those red lovelies look striking! I'm a big fan of octopus, and have never had these little babies. They were slightly tangy, mostly savoury and their juicy bounce was a great texture.

Five Spice Beef Tongue & Shoulder: can you guess we're getting a little adventurous here. I loved the cold cuts of Chinese meat which had a peppery bite amidst the five spice flavour. Both meats were rather tender and moreish.

Steamed Lotus Leaf Rice with Chicken and Shrimp: more stodge to nurse me! Another less exciting dish as the usual earthy flavours from the mushroom or leaf weren't very forthcoming.

Minced Beef Cheung Fun: an interesting one as the beef inside the cheung fun had fused together to look less like mince and more like a slab. I would have this one again.

My expectations had been raised since reading such glowing reviews on the web, and off other food blogs. For the price point ( for ALL of those dishes, including drinks and service, it came to a very modest £14 per head between four people), it's a more than passable dim sum standard, plus off-the-beaten-track dishes like the octopus and beef tongue are done very well. I'm not bowled over, but I will come back as the service is pleasant and they work hard getting all those orders out! With 50% off the bill between Monday-Wednesday after 5pm, school night drinking just got easier!