Mama Lan - review

She arrived in London from Beijing aged 15 and went on - obviously - to the LSE and a job in private equity. The supper club emerged from her frustration with the lack of authentic north Chinese food in London. It made the unlikely transition to SW9 only because a friend up the street at Honest Burgers suggested she check out the space (now crowded as well as small).

Her mother, the eponymous Mama Lan, and father help out in the cramped kitchen: the counter, which is the dumpling production line, stands a chopstick's flick from the tables. One chef rolls out small balls of dough into discs about two-and-a-half inches across. Then Mama Lan dabs on a smear of filling and pinches them into their little parcels. Last, Papa Lan carefully packs them into frying pans, cooking them in oil and a little water, thereby steaming them while rendering their undersides crunchy.

They can simply be boiled, too, but fried is the way my Beijing-born sister-in-law cooks such dumplings, and I can report that these were up to her standards. Best were the richly flavoured beef and carrot; pork and Chinese leaf were good; dill and spiced tofu seemed to me a less successful combination. They are in any case all decent at five for £4.

While dumplings are the main event, other choices intrigue. Under the headings of street snacks, chilli oil chicken was a generous plate of shredded chicken slathered with smoky chilli.

Slow-cooked beef with Chinese herbs and spices was delicately spiced yet very meaty. In fact the two salads offered are more like street food too: seaweed salad with toasted sesame, and five-spice boiled peanuts, wood ear mushroom and celery - both unusual combinations of textures.

To a Western palate more accustomed to Cantonese or Szechuan food, this is a different, heartier set of flavours. Designed to ward off the long, cold Beijing winter, it felt right for a late autumn day. But will it be enough to allay the worry now gnawing at many new devotees of Brixton Village: can we stay warm enough in its street cafés this winter? I hope so.

STREET SMART

As the temperature falls this week spare a thought for those who have ended up sleeping on the streets usually through no fault of their own. Instead of giving them spare change you can help that person by heading to a restaurant that's running StreetSmart where a voluntary £1 is added to your table's bill and the proceeds dished out to homeless charities operating across London who engage with street sleepers, provide them with shelter and food for the night and give the support they need to help them off the street for good.

The list of restaurants is getting bigger and more varied each Christmas with over 500 participants including neighbourhood restaurants like Pane Vino in Kentish Town, Blue Elephant in Fulham, The Prince Arthur in London Fields and The Mitre in Holland Park. For a full list of participating restaurants and where the money goes visit www.streetsmart.org.uk

Mama Lan
Unit 18
Brixton Village Market
SW9