My grandmother’s first restaurant Lung Fung, which auspiciously means ‘The Dragon and the Phoenix’ opened in 1959 in Middleton, Manchester known locally as ‘Holey City’, a nickname it picked up in the Second World War when bombs fell on the city – most of which never exploded. The story goes that the bombs had been made in slave labour camps and the workers had deliberately left out the detonators. When they fell on Middleton they didn’t level the town but made big holes in the ground. Middleton is home to us and it is here that salt and pepper mushrooms were created.
This recipe might change your life. If you’ve never tasted mushrooms like this before I would highly recommend you try out my recipe and let me know if you have been converted. So many customers have told us this is THE best mushroom dish and they can’t get enough of it. Thank you to those customers but all I’m doing is combining simple ingredients and flavours with a skilful technique. I would love you to try it and put a smile on your face!
Serves 2
Prep time 10 minutes
Cook time 5 minutes
1–2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1–2 garlic cloves, sliced
½ medium onion, diced
½ [red, green or yellow?] pepper, diced
1 fresh red chilli, finely sliced
250g button mushrooms, halved
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon five spice powder
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
Add the vegetable oil to a hot wok. Quickly stir-fry the garlic, onions and peppers and chilli for 1 minute.
Then add the mushrooms and cook for 4–5 minutes until they are browned. Sprinkle over the salt, sugar and five spice powder. Add the Shaoxing rice wine and toss well. Serve.
To book a table at Sweet Mandarin email sweetmandarintables@gmail.com . Our opening times are Tuesday – Sunday 5-10pm.
Sweet Mandarin is a Chinese Restaurant in Manchester which serves delicious Chinese cuisine and exotic cocktails. We make our own sweet chilli sauce, bbq sauce, sweet & sour sauce which you can buy from Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Ocado, Booths, Wing Yip and Chi Yip. Sweet Mandarin Chinese Restaurant and Cookery Schoolcan cater for the gluten free, dairy free diners. We are a short 15 minute walk from the Manchester Arena. We are not based in Chinatown, but based in the trendy Northern Quarter near the Arndale Centre, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Debenhams and Primark. The nearest hotels to us are the Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn Express, Premier Apartments, Blue Rainbow Aparthotels, Light Hotel and Hatters Hostel.