Rue Sainte-Anne: Higuma

It's become our weekend routine to head out for Japanese or Korean lunch, and the best place for this is Rue Saint-Anne. It's not fine dining, but popular eateries that serve steamy hot noodle soups and other nice treats at reasonable prices. However, it's popular to eat in this area, so be prepared to line up.

This time we paid Higuma a visit. Old place with about 100 coverts (?), established since 1984 in Paris, so a known place to locals. Food was nice, but no wow factor for me. Didn't expect and didn't get much service.


We had: Kimchi ramen (good broth), miso ramen (good broth), gyoza (ok), fried rice (good), coke, green tea.
Bill: 28 euros
Personal overall rating: (3 out of 5)

Would not return if I didn't have to, because there are better places for ramen :)

Happy weekend!

Stay tuned for new discoveries,
Maison Emil Paris

open kitchen so your clothes will smell food if you sit at counter :)

kimchi ramen - spicy but not too hot

fried rice was tasty and not oily at all

Home made dumpling sheets

home made dumpling wrappers

The first time I had some VERY GOOD dumplings was in Perth, Australia. A friend and a former colleague from Technip, Kym Wong, shared her home-made dumplings in the office, and I absolutely adored them. Thanks for sharing! I still remember the taste, Kimmy :)

A few observations I have made:

• Dumpling wrappers/sheets = high gluten wheat flour, water
• Wonton wrappers/sheets = flour, water and EGG 
• Dumpling sheets are thicker than wonton sheets

frozen wrappers from the store

You can buy the wrappers or make your own wrappers. Obviously the latter is more time consuming, but doable in small quantity. In Paris we are lucky to find good dumpling wrappers, but in Norway they are harder to get. So the below wrapper recipe is dedicated to my friend, Trine Johannessen, in Norway, who's started on her dumpling journey :)

Ingredients (for about 25-30 dumpling wrappers depending how thick you roll them):

• 1dl warm/hot but not boiling water (40-50c degrees)
• 2 dl high gluten wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon non-olive oil 
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil (this gives the familiar dumpling smell & flavour) 

Method

• Mix everything quickly with a spatula & knead with your hands. Dough should be warm and soft. If using Thermomix, use the dough function and mix 1 min.

High gluten wheat flour for best result (for me)

• Wrap and let rest for 30 min (in room temperature)

wrap and rest for 20-30 min

• Divide the dough in 2. Cover the other half. Roll a long sausage and cut 15 pieces. Or just divide in 15 pieces by pulling without rolling.

divide in 15 pieces

• Cover the pieces you are not rolling under a kitchen towel to keep them from drying

keep them under a kitchen towel

• Roll small round balls. If they feel dry, just wet your fingers with water

roll in small balls

Roll more for a thinner sheet

• Use a rolling pin to roll thin round sheet (the thinner the better)

wrapper ready to stuff with your favourite filling

shrimp and prawn filling

Fill with your favourite stuffing and fold (or try my meaty filling recipe)

I used to do by hand, but found this plastic set (comes in 5 different sizes), which makes my life easier :)

voila

Good luck experimenting Trine!

Like this recipe? Please donate to my Cycle4Girls Vietnam project

Maison Emil Paris :)