Hey everyone today is another video where instead of me providing the
walking tour for you guys Minji is going to provide the walking
tour for us. This is actually something that you can book starting from June
June 2018 so I'll put links to this tour in the description below. I'm going
to give you little hints of what you can expect when you're doing it so let's go!
The term 'Chinatown' actually started with an American
He wrote it officially in text in 1857 and a British
journalist borrowed it and described the Chinese community in London not
exactly here but in the East part of London, Limehouse.
Chinatown, what are the three things that come into your mind immediately
Food, red colour, every capital seems to have a Chinatown
and I don't actually know why
Somebody told me that when somebody told her about Chinatown she thinks of
flat duck. That's the flat duck Chinese restaurants have in front of the
windows, that's a weird one. The other answer I thought is quite fascinating
somebody said is Chinatown is a living museum, it keeps the food, the tradition
and it's breathing, it keeps on transforming itself and changing itself
in its urban landscape so that's Chinatown
So this is actually pretty interesting, look at this. This is obviously a map of
London that we all know very well, it's a little bit all over the place, and then
look at this. This is obviously Beijing, the capital of China and look at how
not all over the place it is. Very very square, very very straight roads
London, for me it's like a living organism it moves
the self, it's like a mushroom copying itself everywhere, everywhere it goes it
goes expansion, a spiral, expansion and increasing in size to cater to the
people coming to London. It's organic, it's natural, but you don't see there's
one person who's been there and does all the top-down planning from the very
beginning. Beijing however is a very different story. The city of Beijing was
designed 700 years ago and somebody had a very clear idea how the city is going
to be for the next 700 years, or the next 1,000 years. The key is
always the centre, the access, and that's where all the powe,r authority, research, everything else has its position
The purpose is to build a city which centres around power and authority and
keeps harmony, symmetry at the same time
We're apparently going to try a mangosteen
which I've never had before. While Minji is inside buying the mangosteen
we actually got quite a good tid bit tip from her, if you want to come in to
eat Chinese food in Chinatown don't eat on the main street, all the
best places are in side streets and the off-shooting ones so I think that's
quite helpful. I've only here on the main street once
and it was sort of okay average food so yeah I definitely agree
So what are these two drinks?
These are quite special drinks and I personally love them
This is aloe drink with chia seeds and this one is lemongrass with chia seeds
These are actually Thai drinks and there are not a lot of places in London you can find these
Okay can I have that one? Thank you
Having drinks with bits in isn't usually
my cup of tea but I guess we'll see
My initial reaction was like I'm drinking a cake, that's really weird
I literally can't even tell you what this tastes like other than it tastes sweet but not bad for you
Is it bad for you?
It's... every Chinese food is supposed to be good for you
There you go then
Yeah I know what you mean
It's... it's like... it's like honey almost
Can I try your one?
Oh yeah, it's basically that but lemony
It's not very cold- [I think I prefer this one] Yeah?
I prefer that one, that's good, take it back
So this is mangosteen apparently
Ooooh it's so squishy
Oh my god! [It's really good, no?] Oh my god, that's so good
So this is a Taiyaki, it's a Japanese snack and what happened to get here to
London is that someone from the New York Chinatown travelled to Tokyo, saw it
loved it and brought it back to New York and then someone from the London
Chinatown went to New York, saw it and loved it and brought it here so now we
can enjoy them too
So it's been cooking in a very spicy soup for a little while
about three minutes. So this was the broccoli skewer a konjac skewer and a
pork skewer. So this is pork luncheon meat in spicy soup
Yep there's a spice, I'm feeling it but it's alright I can't eat she needs a
[It's good! It really like it]
Yeah I like it [I can handle this spice you know?]
I can't eat because she needs a thumbnail
Konjak? Konjac is like vermicelli noodles
It's got a strange texture. Oh! I feel way
more of a kick with this one. This one's spicier
[Here we go!] Right, so shall I try this with the fork?
Woah! This one's actually got like chili bits in it so it's definitely spicier
oh you're right
I can handle it
But it makes you giggle. Same pot different levels of spice. That... that's
the thing. Somebody's burning
This is a traditional Chinese breakfast it's a crepe which has Chinese... basically
like crisps and dough and a sausage, spring onions, egg and it's a little
savory dish which I'm about to try. I've made a mess to be able to eat this but this is
actually a street food, it takes quite a lot of effort so they don't do this at
home in the mornings it's a street food that they would go out and purchase
themselves, and in China this would cost about a pound but here of course in London it costs £4
Bit of a markup, let's try
[She asks if she can be in your video]
I'm Chinese
[What is your name?] Miun Miao Qian
This is very famous in my hometown
Where's your hometown?
Near Shanghai, Changzhou Province
Did you eat it everyday? Or very often?
Every morning for breakfast, for my whole student age
It's Chinese name is Jianbing 煎餅 / 煎饼
* Eleana struggles with pronunciation *
Like "Egg Cake"
This is coconut with sago and it looks like milk. This should be interesting
It's a dessert
You've got the coconut stuff on top and the sago are these little
things that you can kind of see at the bottom
So it's a dessert, let's have a drink
Oh, that is, oh yeah
It reminds me because... my mum used to make us coconut shaved ice
and it's got that... that idea
Yeah this is definitely my drink - slash - dessert of the season, it's so good
We have now finished the Chinatown tour, Minji has left us sadly, she's the most the
prepared tour guide I think I've ever seen, she had all the things