I love a cheeky Friday lunch. Being self employed I tend to bunk off early on a Friday (if I work at all that day) and lunch is just the ticket to lead me nicely into the weekend.

J and I, plus her cousin, who shall be named Long Joan Silver (“LJS“) hereon in (as she had broken her foot in multiple places, but manfully made it out with crutches and a walking cast to lunch – now that is devotion to food!), decided to give a rather interesting Chinese place called Jianghu, in Cathays, a go.

Universely good reviews from people whose opinions I trust on food suggested a fine meal was to be had with a mix of BBQ skewers

and larger format dishes on the expansive menu

at rather interesting (in a good way) prices.

A chap I know via the Mystere Wine Club recommended the pork intestine skewers and, with the post title, I had to try these. I recall a holiday (my first with Mrs. SF back in the Neolithic age) to Kusadasi in Turkey, where a marvellous smell emanated from street vendors dotted all around the place where we were staying. We approached one such vendor and asked what they were selling and after much pointing at my (back in the day) svelte stomach, we worked out it was intestine.

In my youth, I was much less adventurous with food than I am nowadays and we passed (to my regret – they smelt so good) fearing (rather ironically) a dodgy gut. Being closer to home and more adventurous,  I have no fear of intestines these days. Also, I am not a fan of the “Oh I know I won’t like that” attitude when it has never been tried. Got to try a thing once before you can say you don’t like it (although that need only be a small taste rather than a full blown 10 course colon to cerebrum tasting menu).

Some dishes are clearly aimed at the Chinese student market, with a preponderance of nose to tail/arse to the appendix items

and a guts full of offal.

Some menu items are just in Chinese (Mandarin?)

and I was expecting these elements to be a deep dive into the really less well-known bits of an animal, but on using Google Translate it seems not all.

I am curious as to what Overlord Elbow (dodgy translation, I assume, or a regional  variation on “Under the thumb” perhaps 🤔) really is, but mussels in garlic and baked meat balls seem pretty vanilla (subject to what meat is in the meatballs I suppose). Sheep scorpion (sheep spine, it seems) is a little more out there, but you have to commend this “nothing is wasted” style of cooking.

First up, we tried a selection of the BBQ skewers (J and LJS passed on the prawn and the intestine, with J threatening to punch me in the face if I waved the  intestines any closer to her face).

The beef (£2.80) and lamb (large, £2.80 – small one must be truly diminutive) skewers were both cooked nicely, with a bit of char on the exterior but retaining a juicy interior. Both were liberally coated in cumin, which added a nice flavour profile with a touch of warmth and sweet nuttiness.

The prawn one (£2.00) wasn’t really conducive to sharing, with LJS and J both  leaving it for me to devour.  After tasting the coating, I decided against deshelling it and just ate the lot, head, legs and all. Lovely sweet meat and a flavour packed head.

Next up was the pork intestine skewer (£2. 80), which had both LJS and J recoiling in horror.

This was very nice with a crunchy exterior, slightly chewy interior and a flavour reminiscent of slow cooked crisped up pork fat, with just a touch of gaminess. Cumin again added a bit of warming nuttiness, which worked well. When presented with out of the ordinary stuff, I think you sometimes have to go with your gut 😁 and try them. I will definitely be eating these again.

After the skewers, we order 3 main course style dishes and rice.

The beef hofah was a really comforting dish,

with good quality, tender slices of beef, slippery, slightly springy, thick, flat rice  noddles and crisp bean sprouts. Nice spicing here, with only a touch of chilli heat. Good portion size too, I thought, for the £9.80 price tag.

Salt and pepper prawns were excellent,

with a great seasoning coating the shells and a touch (not excessive) level of chilli heat.  Heads were ripped off, the coating sucked off the body and head (the latter is always the best bit of a prawn) and the sweet meat devoured. Only slight qualm was they were not deveined. Didn’t really bother us, but Mrs. SF is not a fan of undeveined prawns and suspect there are a fair few other out their who are of a similar view.

Think we had 3/4 each, which for the £12.80 price tag was very fair.

A shredded pork with green chilli dish (£12.70) was (our collective view) the best of the lot.

A bountiful plate, with loads of tender pieces of full on flavour pork. Eating this left our mouths coated in glossy, fat rich, pork sauce. We ate it with gusto, with me (Mrs. SF not being present to tell me off) deploying the finger to mop up the residual sauce on the plate.

So good, with the only surprise being the mildness of the chillies. Did they see a pasty faced trio and hold back on the hot chillies? Shame if so, as a touch more robust chilli heat would have been the icing on the cake for this dish.

We have a positive mountain of egg fried rice (£4.80)

which was nicely seasoned and not oily at all

The drinks menu is a bit of a challenge, with a lot in only Chinese.

Dodgy Google Translate came to our aid, indicating some interesting stuff  such as the £188 Erguotou

Great stuff if you have deep pockets and a penchant for jet fuel.

We decided on a beer,

all going for Tiger ( I know it is Singaporian, but I marginally prefer it to Tsingtso and it is infinity better than the utter pish that is Budweiser, Heineken and Corona). All beers by the bottle were £3.60.

Wet and cold, it was perfectly nice for washing down the food down the gullet (or indeed the gullet, which was also probably on the menu).

The verdict

Really enjoyed this meal. Chinese food in the UK can sometimes feel very formulatic and toned down for Western tastes, dare I say boring and all too safe. Deep fried elastic bands (aka most takeaways’ rendition of crisp fried beef) is one of my food bête noires. Here you get the real, no holes barred, deal in terms of what Chinese cuisine is about and it is all the better for it.

The food here is really good, with the portioning and pricing being equally attractive. It’s a heady mix that will have me going back for more (may be just a bit more adventurous with the menu next time).

As for the more exotic stuff on the menu, the intestine is definitely worth a try.  Jelly fish I would pass on though, as had it in Thailand as part of a rather different Christmas day lunch and it was akin to eating a zip lock bag (although I suspect the zip lock bag would have more flavour).

With Long Joan Silver in our party, I was mildly upset that parrot (portioned into, oh I don’t know,  eight pieces perhaps)  wasn’t a special.

Come to this place with an open mind and you are likely as not to leave will a full gut.

One important point to note here is that it is cash only (at least was on date of my visit), so bring some cash as  your plastic will be of no use here.

The details

Address: 106-110 Woodville Rd, Cardiff CF24 4EE

Website: Not one, as far as I could tell.

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