My Life In Food: Sandia Chang, Bubbledogs & Bubbleshop
The restaurant from my childhood that will always stay with me is the Marriot Hotel in Jeddah’s Grand Buffet. I grew up in Saudi Arabia, and back in the 80s, international hotels were so grand and spectacular. As a treat, maybe four times a year, my parents would take us to have the brunch buffet at the hotel restaurant. The buffet was the most amazing spread of top-quality international cuisine I had ever seen. It was just so grand. One of the most memorable bits of the buffet was the sushi spread. It was the only place in Saudi Arabia at the time where you could find sushi.
The first dish I learned to cook was egg fried rice. My mother taught me. I still use her method today and cook it for my daughter all the time.
The restaurant I revisit most often is A. Wong in Pimlico. I love how creative the menu is. It’s a very modern take on Chinese food but still holds on to the real, traditional flavours and cooking of Chinese cuisine.
My favourite country when it comes to food has to be Spain. The ingredients and the food are so delicious and approachable. You can eat and drink like a king without paying a high price for it. We visit Barcelona quite often – it’s so easy to bar and restaurant hop. But San Sebastien is still my favourite area. El Xampanyet in Barcelona is my favourite and in San Sebastien, it’s Bar Borda Berri.
When it comes to travel, Paris is pretty unbeatable. It is so easy to get to and we always eat and drink well there. Airbnb is the way to go, especially with a group of friends. When it comes to food, head to Bistro Paul Bert for something classic, and Le Verre Vole for a nice wine spot. Clamato is a really fun, casual seafood spot.
The best thing about London is that it’s such a cosmopolitan city with such great energy and food and drink. At the same time, it has a great low-key European vibe where people take the time to enjoy life.
My husband, James Knappett is a top chef. He’s the exec chef at Kitchen Table, but it’s quite rare for him to cook at home because on his days off, he’s usually not that keen to cook again. But during lockdown, we had the pleasure of having him cook almost three meals a day for us. I love it when he does whole grilled turbots on the BBQ in our backyard.
A recent restaurant opening I’m loving is the Brat pop-up at Climpson Arch. It opened this month and is really great. I loved the grilled bread with anchovy, and their wine list is also really on point. I usually go for a bottle of white.
My most memorable meal has to be the first time I went to Chez Panisse in San Francisco. I was studying at the Culinary Institute of America where students are taught all the classics and I’ll always remember how Alice Walker transformed the simplest of ingredients into the most amazing dishes. I can remember the whole menu. It was in the height of the anchovy season from Monterey Bay and the first course was a soused anchovy with fennel salad. The second course was wild foraged mushrooms with hand-cut pasta. The main course was duck breast with fresh cranberry bean cassoulet, and for dessert, it was the most delicious plum tart.
The most decadent meal I've ever had was at Asador Etxebarri in San Sebastien. Everything is cooked over the grill but yet every dish is so distinct in flavour and the quality of the ingredients always shines through. The most memorable dish was scrambled egg where the eggs where scrambled with a piece of charcoal. It was served with freshly sliced winter black truffles.
The pub I like the most is The Southampton Arms in Kentish Town. It makes you feel like you’ve stepped back in time. Everything in there is old school. It was only recently they started taking card payments. It’s all ale or cask cider by small producers, and these are always rotating and changing. I’m not a beer girl, so I prefer cider. On Sundays, they do an amazing roast pork bap.
And my favourite bar is Quality Wine Bar. The menu is always changing, and I usually have one of everything. Their wine selection is always fun, and I can always find new delicious juice there.
At home, I tend to drink wine. Recently I have been drinking a lot of beaujolais, as well as enjoying wines from a great new producer, Domaine Chapel. If I’m entertaining at home, I always serve champagne. People just expect it. My signature dish is a Mexican street corn dip.
My dream dinner guest would be The French Laundry chef/owner Thomas Keller. He is my mentor and it would be an honour to have him round. But I’d be really nervous.
The secret to hosting a good dinner party is to keep it simple and do as much prep as possible beforehand. You don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen cooking when your guests arrive – you want to be able to enjoy it as well.
The best party I’ve ever thrown was a magnum and Pictionary Christmas party. Guests brought magnums of wine, and I made classic Christmas dinner dishes in the form of canapés, so it was easy for people to munch on them whenever. We also played Pictionary while drinking and eating.
A top recommendation for a date would be any restaurant where you can sit around the open kitchen. At Kitchen Table, the menu changes daily and normally you don’t know the menu until the dishes start arriving, which makes for a great conversation starter.
My perfect Sunday is a nice walk on Hampstead Heath with the dog and the family, followed by a Searley roast – that’s a Sunday lunch cooked by our lovely friends Joanne and Shaun Searley, of the Quality Chop House. You just can’t beat Shaun’s roast beef.
After a long, late shift I like to eat Shin Ramyun instant noodles. The Gourmet Spicy flavour is my favourite.
If I’m ordering a takeaway, I usually go for Thai food – normally a pad thai. But I’ve moved recently, so I need to find my new favourite Thai takeaway. During lockdown, it’s been really great seeing so many restaurants move into delivery and meal kits, too. We’re now selling at-home hot dog kits in the Bubbleshop which is fun. James and the team have also been working hard on the launch of &Home by James Knappett, which is going well so far, too.
My death-row dinner would be sweetcorn soup as a starter, Chinese roast duck with lobster noodles as my main and vanilla ice-cream for pudding. If I see a dish with sweetcorn on the menu, I always order it.
And my food hell? A jacket potato. To make a main dish served in a potato is beyond boring for me. The staff at work always warn me in advance when we have jacket potatoes lined up for our staff meal so I can go out and buy something else.
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