I REMEMBER eating in the original Wagamama within weeks of it first opening just around the corner from the British Museum. Back then in 1992 such pan-Asian canteen style dining seemed revelatory. Two decades later, several changes of ownership later, it’s just another high-street staple with more authentic ramen bars catching the hipsters’ attention.
A chain with no pretensions to world domination is our own Tampopo with outlets in Albert Square, Manchester, the Trafford Centre, London and Reading with a delectable little pop-up operating outside the Corn Exchange while it undergoes its £30m facelift into a food hall, after which it will move back in alongside many newcomers.
The name’s based on a 1985 comedy about a noodle shop family. David Fox and Nick Jeffrey founded their first Tampopo, the Albert Square one, 12 years later and it’s still going strong with its constantly evolving exploration of East Asian cuisines from the likes of Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. The menu has colour-coded countryies’ names next to each dish, along with helpful red chilli symbols to indicate spiciness. Mind, no dish here approaches the heat of some of the Thai and Szechuan joints in Chinatown.
Checking out the autumn menu tweaks at Albert Square, we ordered edamame beans served with sesame chilli oil as nibbles to accompany our Asahi beers. The waitress double checked we were up to the heat. That was fine, the stringiness less inviting.
I was late lunching with a kimchi freak. An increasingly number of folk share her addiction to this pickled Korean cabbage. Our helping accompanied Bulgogi (above), the country’s national salad, featuring slivers of pleasantly smoky beef and twirls of green pepper on a large lettuce leaf. Lovely itself, but the kimchi was pallid poor relation of the intense, addictive stuff. Our other starter was a welcome newcomer to the menu – Gai Yang (£5.75), Thai-style char-grilled sweet chicken thighs
I was tempted by an old favourite, the Ped Makham (duck breast in a tamarind sauce on pak choi) but decided that was greedy, so checked out instead fellow Thai, Nua Yang Manao (below), rare grilled rump strips in a refreshing, herby salad (£9.95).
For mains I went for Mahi Mahi two ways. That makes it Mahi Mahi Mahi Mahi, so good I wrote it out four times. The Mahi Mahi Molee Curry (£13.25) – cooked with coconut milk, turmeric, curry leaves, galangal, tamarind, green mango and cherry tomatoes – is a textbook example of the fusion of East Asian elements you get in Singapore cuisine.
The Filipino Mahi Mahi Escabeche (£13.25)featured diced and fried mahi mahi in was a sweet and sour sauce with red and green peppers. Slightly too sweet for my plate –I would have prepared a more vinegary kick – it completed a South Eastern Asian culinary journey, which is what Tampopo is all about.
Tampopo and the Mines Advisory Group
Fox and Jeffreys based their restaurant approach on their own real-life travels in what was a much-troubled region in the 20th Century. The legacy of so many wars there is the abundance of deadly landmines still to be cleared. The Manchester-based charity MAG (Mines Advisory Group) exists to save lives across the world by clearing landmines, destroying weapons and making land safe after war. In a compassionate partnership, Tampopo will be donating 50p to MAG from the sale of every Vietnamese Pho – noodles in a broth scented with fresh Asian herbs, star anise and lime (with beef £9.95, with chicken £8.50).
Tampopo, 16 Albert Square, Manchester M2 5PF. 0161 819 1966. http://www.tampopo.co.uk. Don’t miss their Eastern Express Lunchtime Menu, from £6.95, available 12-5pm Mon-Fri.