TOM JACKSON60 The Times Magazine
and separated from their neighbours across
the way by eight lanes of furious traffic and
a rusty 8ft fence, decorated every 500 yards
with bunches of petrol station carnations in
memory of impatient locals who couldn’t face
the two-mile walk to the traffic lights to cross
the road and thought that, as it was so dark
and rainy, they might risk the eight-lane dash
and rusty fence jump, just this once...
Over the past couple of years, I’ve spent a
lot of time up here at the Jaguar dealership on
Staples Corner, thanks to having bought an
all-electric i-Pace whose main contribution to
global ecology is never being roadworthy for
more than a few weeks at a time. And while
waiting for them to give her the once-over and
say, “I’m sorry, Giles, it’s the heater element.
Could be six to eight weeks,” or, “There’s a hold-
up with semi-conductors from China. We’re
looking at two to three months,” I often pootle
up to Wing Tai (which is about 15 minutes’
walk, if you use the crossing, or five if you take
your chances with the... screeeech honnnnnk!
SMASH!) for good, cheap, wide-ranging dim
sum (although it’s even cheaper if you buy it
still frozen from the Wing Yip superstore of
which it is part), or the Reindeer Café next
door, for still cheaper dishes in a livelier,
angrier, more truck-stoppy environment.
So I thought I’d give this other place a go,
the one next to the Polski sklep at Hanger
Lane, because I was hearing very good things,
and maybe it would be good enough to stick
a flag in for you to follow from whereverEating out Giles Coren
was going to send you all for a rare
and interesting Chinese up the North
Circular this week, sandwiched between
a Polski sklep and an “Unlock That
Phone You Stole” booth, on a service
road off a giant roundabout, because
that’s where a lot of the good stuff
happens these days, if you’re happy to
sacrifice gold trim, fancy wine lists, waiters
in black suits and waitresses in nighties for
cheaper, less artful, but more representative
southeast Asian diasporic cooking.
But I hesitated because of the location.
If you live in Chelsea or Bolton or Virginia
Water then you won’t have much use for the
North Circular and certainly won’t be in a
position to detour there for okay Chinese food
on a budget. But to me, the North Circular is
simply “home”. I grew up on its Cricklewood
section and semi-circumnavigated it daily, to
and from school, or to shop at Brent Cross, or
to relatives further west. My in-laws live on
it now, and it is where I still gravitate for the
buying of anything large, such as cars, sofas,
dishwashers, computer systems... though I stop
short of the houses, which are pebbledashed,
1930s, three-up-two-downs, jerry-built in the
“Great Expansion”, dwarfed by their forests of
wheelie bins, blackened by diesel particulatesI
‘Fag smoke wafts in,
deliveries rattle past
and service is brisker,
but the kindness and
competence remain’
Chuan