cookingwiththehamster
- Jul 22, 2020

Jia Wei (CLOSED)

The Chinese restaurants in Milan are now really many, some to differentiate themselves offer decidedly niche and very curious menus, others instead decide with courage to propose a classic and known taste (to us Italians). But how can the latter differentiate themselves in this apparently all-equal offer? Using simplicity and love for genuine things. This is in fact in the case of the Chinese bistro, opened for about two years, located in De Angeli which bears the name of Jia Wei (literally "home flavor").

Entering Jia Wei means sitting in the new house of the kindest and most loving mother you ever dreamed of having. Here Mrs. Silvia will pamper you as never before. Her husband (very skilled cook) in the kitchen and her sons Stefano and Sofia will make you really feel at home.

The environment is precisely cozy, simple and clean, with Beijing opera masks adorning a wall.

I read the menu and find many dishes from south-eastern China (the whole family is in fact originally from the Shanghai area): for this reason, here you will find a multitude of ravioli and dim sum, soy spaghetti, pork-based dishes, beef and fish.

I want to eat what they commonly eat and I leave free space to Mrs. Silvia who immediately accompanies me to the counter to proudly show me the mythical machine to prepare the cheung fun, the stuffed rice cannelloni. She tells me that they bought the machine in Hong Kong because in Italy it is impossible to find it and it shows me step by step the procedures to make this delicious dish which, by the way, is one of the best ever eaten in Milan. Cheung fun are prepared with a mixture of gluten-free flour, rice and potato, steamed and stuffed with roasted lean pork or prawns.

Seeing with your own eyes the realization of such a beautiful and complicated traditional dish is a really exciting premise!

Soft and tasty boiled peanuts are served as a welcome. Then the dumplings arrive rightly accompanied with vinegar soy sauce aside: xialongbao stuffed with broth and dumplings with duck meat. Both superlatives - note that all dishes, as well as dumplings, are made at the moment in a totally artisanal way.

We then move on to the pork and chicken baozi (the latter looking more yellow because it is made with the addition of carrot juice in the dough), the shrimp croquette cooked in steam and then fried with phyllo dough and the fried prawn always in phyllo dough accompanied by a fabulous honey mustard, the rice noodles with vegetables and seafood (delicious) and then get to what is announced as the dish that they eat habitually and that everyone likes: a spicy sea bass soup typical of Sichuan with enoki mushrooms and cucumbers accompanied by hand-made tagliolini separately. Mouth-watering!

At the end of this fantastic dinner, coconut milk pannacotta is served with fresh mango cubes and a homemade grappa of rice with mulberries that leaves me speechless.

Jia Wei is perhaps one of those places that can unfairly go unnoticed but that should be frequented assiduously, whether you are new to Chinese cuisine, or that you are navigated instead.

Freshness, love and wisdom are the keywords that underlie the cooking of this delicious family. Also order a takeaway or delivery, if you prefer, the portions are abundant, tasty and the price really fair. From today I can say that Jia Wei is like my second home.