*our meal was complimentary*
a few weeks back mum and i headed out to the theatre - the first time in a long time for me, and to a show that had come highly recommended by many people: witness for the prosecution (this is not a review of that, sorry), which is currently showing at county hall in waterloo. on a beautiful night in june, before the summer well and truly disappeared, we decided to head for a quick bite in covent garden, and walk over to county hall afterwards to really enjoy what we could of the london summer before it disappeared so very soon after.
we ended up at ping pong, as it's one of my favourite spots for a quick and tasty bite, and it's bloody affordable to boot. it had been a while since i was last in a ping pong restaurant, so i was pleased to see a fresh take on the classic menu, by way of the summer of chinese health menu that has been created by nutritionist rhiannon lambert, and ping pong's dim sum master ruby wu (yes, she has the same name as everyone's fave mac lippy!). the menu is made up of two new dim sum dishes, a miso and aubergine dumpling, a vegan superfood salad of ginger and miso, and coconut and red date pudding - alongside a variety of smoothies and cocktails too.
i always start with the edemamme beans and duck spring rolls, but this time we added the vegan superfood salad into the mix too, for a little variety. the salad was definitely very fresh, but too bad for me, was also full of onions (i am intolerant). it was supposed to be ginger and miso-y, with pomegranates, goji berries and tenderstem broccoli on a bed of quinoa, but sadly the ginger flavour was a little lacking. mum is a massive ginger fiend, and she was a bit devo it wasn't more ginger-y, but still really liked the dish. too bad for us and our small table, but the waiter took it away long before we were done with it, and we were too polite to say anything. rookie error!
of the new mains, we decided to try to cod and okra dumplings alongside firm favourites golden veg dumplings (mum), and pork and prawn shu mai (meee). i love a dumpling; any food item you can put in your mouth in one go gets a yes from me, and when the dish is full of fresh flavours and textures, then even better. the cod and okra was a really fab combo of both. fishy but not too much, root veg-y but not too much, and a subtle crunch in every mouthful - ugh, it was great. it was definitely my favourite of the three mains, followed by the classic pork and prawn shu mai - the golden veg is just not my jam. too much carrot and bleurgh in it for me. sorry.
but it's okay, because we ordered double desserts, just in case. i fell in love with mochi when we were in japan so i wanted to make sure i ordered that. then, to make up for the lack of ginger in the salad, we also ordered the ginger cake. probably the least traditional item on the menu, but booooy was it good. still, not very ginger-y, more spice-y - as in, tastes a bit like christmas spice rather than actual ginger, but it was really bloody tasty. and the vanilla ice cream was really divine and sweet and melty and oooh yes, all very good. it was mum's first mochi experience, and she found the concept a little tough - or maybe, it was actually just the rice paper itself she found a little tough, but whatever the case, she rather enjoyed the cake, and i rather enjoyed it all.
there are some definite crackers on the new summer menu, and i'll deffo be back for those cod and okra dumplings, as well as some of the excellent-sounding cocktails from the summer of health menu. i wasn't up for drinking too much that night, so didn't get to sample them all. more of a reason to go back, really!
you can check out the summer of health menu here. our meal was complimentary, but all thoughts are mine.
