Wing Sing Inn

I try to steer clear of restaurant reviews, and I certainly have no intention of turning my blog into a platform for my dubious opinions about other people's cooking. (I prefer to keep it as a platform for writing about my own dubious cooking.) However, when you find yourself fantasizing about a restaurant when you are away, and visiting it as often as you can when you are back, then maybe it's time to give it a mention.

The Wing Sing Inn (147-149 Dundee St, Edinburgh, 0131 228 6668) specializes in northern Chinese food, and caters primarily for an Asian clientele.

I have to admit that I am not a Chinese food specialist, and I suspect that our ordering was a little idiosyncratic and far from authentic. After beginning with hot and sour soup, we ordered some shredded potato with fried chilli from the cold (kickshaw) options. (I think the shredded potato is blanched but not for long enough to remove its crunch, then served with a dressing. In other words, the potato is still slightly 'raw' from a western point of view. However, it is absolutely delicious. I've now eaten it three or four times at the Wing Sing, and I'm planning to track down a recipe for it and have a bash at reproducing it. Watch this space.)

Next up were some hot and spicy crabs. These are individual velvet crabs (I think) which are fried with chillies and garlic. After picking all the available meat out of the shells and claws, I discovered I could actually crunch through the claws and shells, too.


Spicy fried crab

Staying with the spicy, fried theme, we ordered szechuan fried chicken. This was a large plate of small portions of chicken leg and wing, with the bone in, fried with szechuan peppers and chillies. The szechuan pepper tingles rather than burns, although it also builds, and by the end of the dish my tongue was comfortably numb, as Pink Floyd might say.


Spicy Szechuan chicken

We finished up with some yu-hung aubergine (stewed aubergine with minced pork) which was delicious. It's always a good sign when a restaurant dish makes you rethink the way you cook an ingredient at home, and this one has definitely changed my approach to aubergines. (A lot of the dishes in the 'vegetable' section actually contain meat, but the last time I visited Wing Sing with a vegetarian, the chef was quite happy to adapt the aubergine by removing the pork.)

As always, I came away with a slight feeling of regret that the meal was over and I hadn't managed to eat all the things I wanted to on the menu. So if anyone fancies some shredded pig maw with spring onions in chilli oil (cold), some salt and pepper frog legs, or just some simple braised spare ribs with potatoes, please bear me in mind!


Spicy Spanish lady