Luscious Temptations

Villandry - Bicester Village

2011-12-11T17:21:00.000Z

I went to Bicester Village the other week. If you like your designer goods, don't mind that designs are a few seasons out and may be sorely disappointed that you probably won't get anything in your size, then it's the place for you. Actually, I probably made that sound very negative considering I had a good day walking around the shops and splurged on a pair of jeans (which I still haven't worn), a dress for work (worn twice) and a lovely cut pair of trousers (worn once). I even got fed at Villandry - weighing the fact that I quite liked my visit to their London branch when I was there a few years ago, I was more than a little disappointed.

Queues were long (understandable since it was bang on lunchtime on a Sunday afternoon but there were so many tables available it boggled the mind why there was even a queue to start with!) and the service was slow (which probably explained the long queue).

My Dining companion decided on 2 starters to make up a meal - tomato soup served with bread and butter. A little too tart for my liking but overall it went down well. The 2nd of the two starters, prawn and mango salad. I was imagining green mango salad and a little surprised at the ripe orange mango slices that arrived with the salad. But overall the taste was fine.

The real let down was my grilled chicken and avocado mayonnaise salad. The chicken was dry, cold and tasteless. The dish was unseasoned and the leeks ............... what in the heck were they doing on my plate? It was totally and utterly out of place. It was a dish that really shouldn't have been on the menu.

I would give it a very middle of the road 5 out of 10. Half the meal was fine (my companion's) and the other was bad (mine). It's a pretty fair score.

Villandry
50 Pingle Drive Bicester, Oxfordshire OX26 6WD

Icco - Fitzrovia

2011-12-11T16:50:00.000Z

It's always happy pizza time at Icco (Italian Coffee Company).

Neptune (top left) - Anchovies, black olives, cheese, tomato sauce, basil & herbs (£ 4.50)

Pepperoni (top right) - Pepperoni, cheese, tomato sauce, basil & herbs (£ 4.50)
Capricciosa (bottom) - Ham, mushroom, black olives, cheese, tomato sauce & basil (£ 5.30) with extra artichokes (£0.50)

And a little extra dosh for the little dippers - garlic and BBQ. Garlic wins everytime.

Brew Cafe - Clapham

2011-11-20T17:48:00.001Z

SM and I wondered down to Clapham with dessert cravings aplenty recently. At 10PM choices aren't in the biggest supply if we weren't looking to quench our sugar rush in alcoholic form but if the craving is big and one looks hard enough, there's always something to be found - Brew Cafe on Northcote Road. It's small and snugly - brilliant in summer when the doors are pulled back to incorporate the tables on the patio with those in the restaurant into one space. But for now only the brave are left outside with a few heaters and rugs to help fend off the cold.

We're both craving chocolate and I call dessert shotgun for the Chocolate Brownie Affogato. Intense, fudgy little squares of chocolate goodness piled into a small glass and topped with an equally intense shot of espresso and a dollop of vanilla ice-cream. It was ... intense. Good intense. If I were to make a suggestion or two of my own - (1) a bigger glass, please. All that digging and ensuring all the good stuff didn't topple out was a bit of a feat. (2) whoa ... that coffee was strong. Digging to get to it was too drawn out and I had to eat the brownie and ice-cream (happily) before I could get to the coffee. Sadly most of the coffee had to be left behind.

SM was stuck with the Chocolate Fudge Cake with Clotted Cream. It was good cake and with the strong coffee situation, I think SM was secretly glad to have ended up with the fudge cake. And doesn't clotted cream make up for most shortcomings? Not that there were any with that cake. SM polished off the cake (down to the last cake crumb and sliver of cream left glistening on the plate) and gobbled up a few of my brownie nuggets too. Well done!

Brew Cafe
45 Northcote Road London SW11 1NJ

Osteria Dell'Arte - Clapham High Street

2011-11-20T16:37:00.000Z

After having our hopes dashed for a table at Mongolian Grill in Clapham (Saturday night + no booking = utter stupidity), SM and I wandered down Clapham High Street when we passed Osteria Dell'Arte. It hadn't been there the last time we passed (a little light Google-ing has informed me that it used to be San Marco) and it looked as good as any of the other overflowing restaurants. Seated initially by the entrance we were lured to the back with promises of a spacious larger table by the waitress. We passed the kitchen, we passed the loos ... before we were arrived in what I later grumbled to SM was the store room. It wasn't really but after the bustle of the front room, the back dining area felt a little too remote for my liking. In SM's own little way I was told to just chill out since it would look really stupid if we tried to get our old table back. Fine, whatever. The waiting staff were friendly and sure enough our little area soon filled up making it less store room-ish.

SM started with the deep fried sardines with shaved fennel which was fresh and light. Not only was it after every morsel was gone and the plate wiped clean did SM reveal it was too small, too clean, too light a starter. Well, bully for SM because if that revelation had come a little earlier I would have happily swapped.

I had a very nice bruschetta topped with porcini sautéed in olive oil and butter and topped with a little cheese (no idea what kind) and mixed foliage. Warm, earthy flavours. Perfect for an autumn's evening.

As usual it was a pepperoni pizza for SM. It was a perfectly good pizza - thin crust with just the right amount of toppings but the crust was over the top salty. Definitely something that the chef should work on.

After my usual indecisiveness, I ordered the pappardalle with spicy sausage only to have an apologetic waitress come back just before the arrival of the starters that it was sold out. No matter, I pointed to my backup on the menu she was holding out. But what was set out in front of me later on didn't look anything like the seafood linguini I thought I had ordered. The mass of black pasta topped with crab and cherry tomatoes looked appetising enough ... if you liked and could eat squid ink pasta. I was horribly allergic to squid ink (random I know) as a child - swelling of the face, itching ... yup, you name it ... and have steered clear of it ever since. It's not something you come across regularly. The waitress was good natured about it - she misheard me and thought I had pointed to the dish below the linguini I was ordering. She whisked it away and replaced it with what I wanted 10 minutes later. It was absolutely delicious. Fresh seafood, punchy tomato sauce, al dante pasta ... I only wished I ordered 2 portions.

The prices were reasonable - the meal with 2 drinks came to about £35 or thereabouts for 2. The service was friendly and the food good. This all adds up to a definite return.

Osteria Dell'Arte
126 Clapham High Street, SW4 7UH London

Pinkberry - Selfridges, London

2011-11-20T14:31:00.001Z

After calm over the summer I have been on the hunt for frozen yogurt again. After my initial dissapointment I decided to give Pinkberry another go- this stop, Selfridges (possibly one of my favourite places in London - I never said I wasn't just a little bit shallow). As with my previous visit in Dubai, it was a Natural and Pommegranate swirl and this time I was a little wiser and only went for 3 toppings - granola, strawberries (heavily mascarated but yum indeed) and plain chocolate chips. It costs about £4.50 for a medium cup with toppings.

It's still not my favourite - my heart still belongs to Yog and Yuforia but it was few pleasant minutes spent slurping froyo and slowly wandering around the food hall.

Pinkberry
Selfridges, 400 Oxford Street, W1A 1AB London

Lunch @ Work

2011-11-17T13:14:00.000Z

Chef (or one of his kitchen minions) at the staff canteen was feeling particularly generous this lunchtime. I couldn't quite believe my luck when I got this pile - grilled gammon steak on jambalaya with spicy Italian sausage and a poached egg. I added portion of boiled to hell and back veg (because I secretly quite like veg that is overly floppy every now and then).
Negatives - the sausage was non-existent, the gammon was horrendously salty, the poached egg was overdone and there was a suspiciously large number of mushrooms in the rice (overflow from this morning's brekkie buffet I think.
On a slightly more positive note, the rice was delightfully spicy and despite the saltiness the gammon was thick and meaty.

Village East - Bermondsey

2011-11-13T02:12:00.000Z

Sometimes there is nothing better than an incredibly lazy Sunday lie in followed by a hearty meal, allreally chilled out because I cannot handle another drop of alcohol before theweekend is out. A quick Google search zooms me on to Village East, with itsbetter than good reviews and the possibility of gorging myself silly ondelicious brunch goodies – big fry ups, smoked salmon and wobbly eggs, golden Frenchtoast …. buttermilk pancakes!!!!

Orange and Ginger Presse

Short of a skip and a hop (or jumping into the car for thedrive to Bermondsey), we arrive in good time but spend another 20 minutes driving around in circles becausethere’s no bloody parking. I get terribly savage when I’m not fed on time anddoesn’t SM know it! SM suggests I’m dropped off to get a table to which I barkit’s bloody pointless since we’re having a fun day out or are supposed to behaving one anyway. Bless SM’s littleheart for putting up with me all these years :)We do finally get parking, make it to Village East, are seated at a frontfacing corner table and then informed by the bemused waitress that the kitchenstopped serving brunch about an hour ago as it was past 3PM. No amount ofpleading would get Chef to change his mind, she added. Damnit, it’s bloodySunday! It should be mandatory that brunch be served all day on a Sunday!

Grudgingly, I settled for Grilled Chicken Sandwich with smokedbacon, flat mushroom and Gruyère cheese (£7.40) and double grudgingly I admitted I waspretty damn happy with it. It was hearty, tasty and just what I needed to takethe edge of my Sunday growl.

My side chips (£3.60) were hot, crisp and most importantlyskinny. I’m willing to turn a blind eye to the extra calories.

I never thought I’d have such good memories about a saladbut there was something so yummy about this one. Thin slices of baby radish, little carrot matchsticks, fine cliced salad onions, small chuncks of tomato, sliced skinless and seedless cucumber on the diagonal tossed with the usual suspects of the green leaf salad bag - baby spinach, chard and rocket. Lightly dressed in a vinegrette. So simple but yet utterly refreshing not just fed green leaves straight out a ready washed bag of leaves.

SM was in the mood for a roast and went for the beef Lyonnaise potatoes, veg and gravy.It was rather good despite it looking slightly too pink (for SM) with too thick a border of fatty wobble (for me).

For a sweet treat I manage to convince SM to share a Hot Fudge Sundae with me - really just a ploy to take the edge off my guilt for eating ice cream. And to eat those pesky little marshmellows - chewy little disrruptions to an otherwise perfectly good ice cream dish.

I've never been to New York (ok ... so shoot me) but I'm told that places like Village East are in abundance over there (East Village - geddit?). It's cool, it's chilled out. I'm a bit of a fan.

Village East

71-173 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3UW

Suda - Covent Garden

2011-10-16T23:41:00.000+01:00

Deciding against booking a table during our last regular meet up, NS and I found ourselves wondering around Covent Garden. Heading towards the direction of Soho but not quite there yet when we stumbled upon Suda. Beckoned by the large open front windows and the possibility of refreshing cocktails, we were sold.

Perched on a high table at the front of the house, we ordered cocktails and a plate or two (or 5 in this specific case) just to get us going before we moved on to dinner. About 15 minutes in, our drinks hadn't arrived but the first of our food had started trickling over from the kitchen. And there kick starts my impatience ... I hate it when my food arrives before my beverage. It goes against my acknowledged order of events when it comes to restaurant dining. I know the bar wasn't mad rush busy, I have a great view of it - perched high as I am right in front of it. The drinks do finally arrive (with nary an apology from the waitress for its late arrival!) and well, well ... what else could get me simmering a little more? The Thai Pimm's, so penned as "traditional Pimm’s with a Thai twist! Pimm’s with fresh Thai ginger, mint, holy basil with sliced orange, cucumber, topped with lemonade" (£6.50) on the menu was warm, flat and decidedly lacking that Thai twist. An utter waste of time!

The Pla Meuk Tod Prig Klue - Thai style calamari with sweet chilli dipping sauce (£4.95) was the first to arrive and looked decent enough. I liked the look of thinly sliced kaffir lime leaves encased within the batter but too bad the crispy batter hid a shameful secret underneath - rubbery squid.

The Satay Gai - chicken satay sticks with peanut sauce (£4.95) was fine but I've had better. However, point be made that this is coming from a girl from Malaysia. It would be a sorry state of affairs if I claimed the best satay I had was this dish. It was fine. No more.

I was particularly looking forward to the Gae Yang Som Tum - Grilled lamb chop with lemongrass and chilli dressing, served with Som tum salad and sticky rice (£8.50), since Suda boasts of a som tum bar. This is another dish I can only best describe as "fine". Despite the meat looking rather limp (thanks to a good bashing with a mallet?), it was pretty tasty (down to a good amount of time spent in the marinade?). The som tum was .... forgetable. I really do not recall how it tasted so I can only deduct it wasn't bad enough for me to remember or that good either.

The grilled prawns in the Yum Som-o Goong Yang - Pomelo salad with kaffir lime juice and grilled prawn (£5.50) were actually rather nice. Nice fresh crunchy prawns were unfortunately let down let down by the star of the dish - the pomelo salad. There were pieces of fruit in that salad that were out of the freezer frozen. It thawed in my mouth, adding an interesting crunch along with the peanuts.

By now NS and I didn't know if we should laugh or cry or outright refuse to pay. The food was going from bad to worse and to say that the service was bad would be unfair. It was just that the staff tried so hard and in doing so, didn't actually give very good service. For example, after we ordered I asked if I could keep a copy of the menu with me. Sure, no problem. But every time I put the menu down, one of the staff would try to grab it off the table. I went through the my explanation of wanting to keep a copy with me to 3 people before I gave up. At this point I was very to move on but NS relented into giving them another chance by ordering another drink (a much faster turnaround time for this drink - things were picking up), when much to our surprise another dish arrived - chicken wings with herbs (also known as pandan chicken). We had forgotten all about it and till this day, the taste shall also remain forgettable.

Shall I be returning? Oh no, I shall not!

Suda
23 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard, London WC2E 9AB

Dessert Time - Yauatcha, Soho

2011-10-16T21:03:00.001+01:00

Following our somewhat disastrous lunch at Spuntino, RB and I were in total agreement we had to make up our day with dessert. And preferably something that oozed chocolate. A leisurely stroll around Soho (to allow for a lengthy digestion of the truffled egg toast), we ended up at Yauatcha. A brilliant dessert choice. Years of staring longingly at their cake offerings at the window was no more ...

Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Delice with vanilla ice cream (£7.75)

Milk Chocolate Praline Cake with kalamansi sorbet (£7.75) - this was so freakin' delicious I still think about it. Chocolate mouse on a crunchy praline base, encased in silky dark chocolate. What hit this on the head was the kalamansi sorbet .. so mouth puckeringly yummy.

Cucumber and Lime Ice Tea (£4.90)

I have to note that whilst the desserts were pretty darn good, the service really needed a kick up the backside. It may have been graveyard hour (we were probably there at about 16:30 on a warm Sunday afternoon) but it was no excuse to fall behind on service - 10 minutes to bring the bill, no attempts to take our order without arms flailing in the air trying to procure some sort of attention from the staff - all this with a fully staffed restaurant. Shameful!

Yauatcha

15-17 Broadwick Street. Soho, London, W1F 0DL

Honest Burgers - Brixton

2011-10-16T11:23:00.004+01:00

In the market that I used to shop for fresh fish and veg (at ridiculously low London prices), a new breed of traders seem to have emerged with lightning speed recently. Jostling for space with the last few lingering fishmongers, butchers, greengrocers ..... these new kids are infinitely more delicious (and minus the persistent overwhelming smell of tough cleaning agents).

Home made lemonade

The setting for Honest Burgers, like most of it's other newbie-ish neighbours, is utilitarian. The seating are wooden benches and fold up chairs, the tables are slightly rickety, the menu is up on the large chalkboard and little sheets of paper handed out by the waitress. The list of offerings on the menu is minute - if you don't want burger, well .. heck, you're in trouble. But in all honestly, why come to a place called Honest Burgers of a plate of spaghetti?

I'm all for a simple burger - beef patty in a bun, some lettuce, a bit of tomato ... anything more my brain gets overexcited, starts salivating all over itself and then goes into massive overdrive at the prospect of having to attempt to finish the load of food. Despite my initial tinge of disappointment at the size of my Beef burger (£6.50) when it arrived, it was pretty darn good - just the right size, juicy flavourful patty, nice bun ... not too squishy, not too dry. Even the onion relish I didn't mind. At least it wasn't overwhelmingly sweet and it did add that little bit extra to the burger. The triple cooked hand cut chips with rosemary salt were fine but maybe a tad too limp and heavy on the rosemary for my liking (burger companion SM thought they were absolutely fine).

House dressed green salad - to counter all that beefy goodness

SM got the Honest burger (£8) with 35 day dry aged British beef, smoked bacon, cheddar, pickled cucumber, red onion relish and lettuce (picture at the top of the post). SM is the polar burger opposite to me. The one more heavily piled the burger is, the more desirable it is to SM. To be fair SM so nearly got the chicken option - free range chicken, lettuce, tomato and lemon mayo (£8) - diet, you see - but my sweet talking changed SM's mind. I didn't want the burger but I so darned wanted to see what it turned out looking like and just wanted a weenie little taste. I believe SM thanked me profusely too - who wants to be stuck with a measly chicken burger when there is a hunka beef to sink your teeth into.

SM and I have been talking about going back and to do so quick before it gets cold. I, for one, will not be a happy bunny having to sit in the Brixton Village Market arcade in the freezing cold.

Cute tin the bill arrived in

Honest Burgers

Unit 12, Brixton Village Market, Coldharbour Lane, London SW9 8PR

Spuntino - Soho, London

2011-09-04T09:30:00.000+01:00

I wanted, expected to be blown away by Spuntino. All those rave reviews had made Spuntino one of those absolute must try places. But in so many ways I'm more sheep than shepard and had waited for the waves of reviews surround to me before I got round to marching myself down to Soho, plonking myself down on one of Spuntino's bar stools and ordering a round of Italian/American inspired small plates of food. And frankly, I was disappointed.

The complementary chilli popcorn was chewy, hard and flavourless despite the chili. And it stuck to my teeth. Not the best look to start a meal with.

Eggplant chips with fennel yogurt (£4) were pretty average. It came out piping hot, the spiced coating was crunchy and the dipping yogurt was a nice touch - all of which should add up to a good dish but it didn't. It lacked a certain 'oomph', a step further in foodie flavourings to make this really delicious.

The soft shell crab with tobasco aioli and fennel shavings (£8.50) was technically fine. The deep fried crab was hot and crunchy, the tobasco gave a nice little kick to the aioli but the fennel salad just fell in a heap of dry boredom. I wanted a tart dressing or even just a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of of salt to zing it up.

We got 2 sliders to share - ground beef and bone marrow (£4.50) and lamb and pickle cucumber (£5). The slider buns were a little on the dry side and the fillings were fine if nothing to write home about. Absolutely ridiculous it may sound but I was telling RB as I was munching on my share of the lamb and pickled cucumber slider how moist the ground pork patty was. With a raised eyebrow RB informed me I was tucking into lamb and the cucumber was pickled. Oh.

Our last dish was, without a doubt, an absolute terrible mistake on our part. Neither RB nor I are cheese lovers yet we hands down agreed to try the truffled egg toast (£5.50). Our faces screwed up in unison as soon as the plate was set down in front of us - "WTF, is that stench?!?". We forgot that cheese + truffles = possible smell issues for us. I like to say we bravely soldiered on, cutting large pieces for ourselves, avoiding possible gagging as the egg yolk mixture spilled forth from the cheesy bread centre and popped in into out mouth for an awaited try. Oddly, despite it smelling bad (or good, depending on your love for truffled cheese scents) it tasted a bit like cardboard. The scent just didn't translate over to flavour. The cheese was bland and the whole dish desperately needed seasoning. RB and I at one point toyed with the idea of donating our dish to the group sitting next to us who were openly salivating over our carved up dish but opted instead to keep it and make the occasional pokes at it.

RB and I left disappointed and just a little bit hungry. Perhaps we made some wrong choices with what we ordered but it's seriously unlikely that either of us would be willing to go back to give it a 2nd go. Another aspect that put us off just before we left were the 2-3 members of staff with their too cool for school is totally in this season look who were standing at a corner of the bar openly staring and laughing at customers. Heck, I know bitching about customers takes place but really ... try to more discreet about it.

Spuntino
61 Rupert Street, London W1D 7PW

Udonlicious - Koya, Soho

2011-08-21T23:29:00.000+01:00

I tried to get into Koya once, many months ago when it was freezing cold only to be told I would have to wait outside for at least half an hour. I took my empty belly and disappointment down to Chinatown and drowned my sorrows in roast duck and sweet and sour pork. Now with the sun making it's usual peek-a-boo appearance I lugged a sister and nephew to slurp down some noodles and nourishing broth.

Hot Japanese Tea

After days of chugging down Italian, Lebanese, gallons of taramaslata, lusciously beautiful anchovy stuffed olives, Turkish delights, handmade chocolates, wobblingly creamy burrata, roast dinners with gloriously crunchy roast spuds in beef dripping ... it was time to take it easy and rest ourselves and Koya seemed like the ideal place to do so. Serene and orderly as only a Japanese restaurant can be, we managed to bag ourselves a seat before the lunch crowd arrived. Truth be told it hadn't been very hard to navigate ourselves around London on the days following the troubles (except Oxford Street ... shoppers have no fear except the thought of not bagging a bargain). Specialising in fresh udon noodles, Koya has intrigued me ever since I heard about its opening. I like udon - big, fat and so slurp-able. I was ready to enjoy myself.

Our side order of Kakuni (£6.20) was the first to arrive. Whilst I'm not a big fan of roasted pork belly, I love it braised. It reminds me of all those lovely fatty Chinese belly stews I grew up on. Taste wise this braised pork belly in cider tasted fine, homely. But totally lacking the expected excitement. The pork could also have done with a touch longer in the pot for it to reach that absolutely melting tender point.

The next to arrive was another side - Yasai Ten Mori (£7.70). The assortment of vegetables were delicately battered and deep fried, this was a plate of loveliness. It came with it's own little dish of condiments to add to the dipping sauce - grated mooli/daikon, sesame seeds and chopped spring onion. So pretty.

My steaming bowl Tempura Udon (£9.30) arrived with a humongous battered prawn perched on top. For a second a negative, "I hope that isn't all batter!" streamed through my brain. Oh how wrong I was. It was indeed all prawn with a good crunchy exterior. A touch too greasy but forgivable. The broth was clean. Probably to balance the greasiness of the tempura but I would have liked a little more 'ummph' to the soup. My sister, C, took quite a liking to it and happily swapped with me halfway through.

C's choice of Kinoko Hiya-Atsu (£10.80) of cold udon with hot mushroom broth with a side of walnut miso was, to my taste, a little odd. I absolutely adored the mushroom broth - all it's lovely umami goodness, by itself. I though the walnut miso odd and not at all enjoyable but C disagreed, happily slurping it down. Another oddity for me about this dish was the notion of the cold udon/hot broth. Dipping one into the other just made for a lukewarm dish. It's really not for me. But I would happily order that broth again.

The star of the meal had to be my nephew's Niku (£9.30), hot udon in hot broth with beef. It took ages to arrive, well after the other 2 mains and the hungry boy was definitely not impressed by the wait. But for this dish I would happily return to Koya .. and perhaps wait half an hour in the cold. The broth was all beefy goodness with the deliciousness of a generous hand of ginger. It was warming and hearty. And would probably have done well with an extra order of poached egg.

Despite my declaration of love for the udon noodle, I'm not sure if I'm a big fan of fresh udon. It was chewy and for my first mouthfuls very enjoyable. It wasn't until C pointed out that it was a little too doughy, too heavy that I realised she was right. I think it's still going to be the packet stuff for me. But for a bowl of Niku all to myself, I'll definitely be going back to Koya.

Koya
49 Frith Street, London W1D 4SG

Weekend Breakfast - The Lido Cafe, Brockwell Park

2011-08-21T02:37:00.000+01:00

For all the best laid plans, my sister C and nephew ZW's recent visit to the sunny English shores unfortunately managed to coincided squarely with the burning of London town. Unable to fully tackle C's 'To Eat' list (thankfully it included easier to source items such as a M&S BLT sandwich, as well as the trickier meal at The Ledbury), I hope I managed to feed them both sufficiently.

Scrambled eggs on buttered sourdough toast (£4.25)

On the morning before their depature it was a hearty brekkie at The Lido Cafe at Brockwell Park. Revamped to highlight it's Art Deco heritage, the cafe now does brisk business with the yummy mummy and daddy crowd during the day and with a more mellow wine and dine feel in the evening. Overlooking the swimming pool, the glass doors are opened to the terrace in the summer with the overspill of customers seated in the great outdoors with the splash of happy swimmers in the background.

Blueberry Pancakes with Bacon & Maple Syrup (£5.50)

Free Range Full English (£8.65) -Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms grilled tomatoes and buttered sourdough toast

It was a nicely filling breakfast that I can't complain about - the overall consensus, I believe. The eggs were nicely buttery and soft, the toast had an enjoyable slightly charred/grilled flavour, the sausage was delish (pure porky goodness and none of that overpowering herbiness) and there were lots of mushrooms (I like me a mushroom or two!). There was some ... constructive feedback on the bacon though - it could have been crisper. Well done, Lido Cafe.

C and ZW - I had hoped your trip would have been more enjoyable but ZW did manage to adopt a new, cool hood on fashion and a full English brekkie sure does make the rest of the day more positive, innit? x

The Lido Cafe
Dulwich Road, Brockwell Lido, London SE24 0PA

East Meets West

2011-07-25T00:28:00.000+01:00

Roti canai topped with a fried egg and a side of caramelised onion sausages and red onion chutney

Why the utterly marvelous meal combination? Just because I could .... and because there was no better combination I could dig out from the depths of my freezer/larder that I could be bothered to deal with. I can't claim it was utterly delicious. It was certainly.... utterly interesting ....

Lazy Sundays with a Touch of Italian - Rocca Di Pappa

2011-07-11T23:45:00.002+01:00

Pescatore - fresh pasta with Fresh clams, cockles, wild mussels and a touch of chilli £8.95

London at it's best? The first basking of wonderously warm sunshine over the city with just just the slightest twinge of breeze to make life all that more bearable. And then it all goes downhill from there (there's that happy cynic in me resurfacing again!). But I stand by what I say. After that 1st day of lovely weather and happy Londoners .... the heat in the underground starts getting unbearable, you start to notice that the person whose armpit your faced is jammed into at rush hour has never heard of deodorant, then the train comes to a standstill in the middle of a long dark tunnel because some wise crack decided to steal the copper wire on which train tracks in Britain are so reliant on ....

Americana - pizza with Tomato, pepperoni and mozzarella £7.35

Alright, so there's me thinking that 11 years in this country has earned me a little bit of a right to have a right moan every now and then. But there truly are some lovely bits to this city. Like that first basking of warm sunshine with a light summer's breeze that allows for a lazy weekend's al fresco dinner.

Insalata - house leaf salad £3.25

I like Dulwich Village but it can sometimes be totally yummy mummy and happy daddy overwhelming for me. That and the very grown up £1million plus houses and the Land Rovers littered. It's still a nice place - it's what I aspire to when (if?) I grow up. Rocca on the main street adds a nice touch to Dulwich Village (it has an older sibling of the same name in Kensington, with a slightly larger menu and bigger price tags too). Think lots of warm, light woods with dashes of cream/off white and tarnished bronzes (another look I would love when I grow up and set up my million £ home complete with a lazy ginger tabby and slightly bonkers chocolate brown Lab).The staff are friendly, the food is very acceptable (stay off the bread though ... it was a tad doughy and heavy for my liking) and the prices are very reasonable. And best of all, for those balmy summer days there's outdoor seating out front or in the rear garden, as well as lovely big windows that open up in front of the restaurant.

Rocca Di Pappa
75-79 Dulwich Village, London SE21 7BJ

Yummy Yummy Sarnies in My Tummy

2011-07-09T13:36:00.004+01:00

Things have been a little maniac at work lately and the first things that fell off my radar was my blog. So whilst I frantically sort out my many food photos this weekend, I will leave you with a photo of my somehwhat recent bout of glutton-ess - a whole tray of finger sandwiches from M&S. Oh yes, a whole tray of sarnies all to myself. Think BLT (that's bacon, lettuce and tomato for those who have had a sudden sandwich filling moment of blankness), Cheese and Onion (yuck!), Roast Chicken, Prawn Cocktail, Ham and Mustard Mayo, and Egg and Watercress.

Sunday Dinner - Canteen, Royal Festival Hall

2011-05-16T11:27:00.002+01:00

A blustry Sunday (where has the lovely warm sunshine dissapeared to?) most definitely calls for a hearty Sunday dinner with all the trimmings, of course.

NS had the Roast Chicken and Chips with garlic moyonnaise - the chips were quite lovely - hot and crisp with lots of ultra crunchy bits, which NS totally ruined with a liberal sprinkling of malt vinegar. ARGH! The chicken was, well .. dry. My roast of the day beef was fine. Served medium rare with buttered rosemary scrented greens, non-crunchy spuds, an over done Yorkshire pudding and mediocre gravy.

I gleefully laddled on the horseradish (it came in a cute little Kilner jar) only to realise that Canteen's freshly made horseradish sauce was more horseradish scented crème fraiche. There were a few high notes when the heat kicked in but it mostly fell flat. Think roast beef with a cream sauce.

The Chocolate Brownie Caramel Sundae was probably the highlight of the meal (except when NS kept digging out the peanuts that littered the brownie. I, on the other hand, adore peanuts). The vanilla bean ice cream was lovely - more milky than creamy, which is a particular preference of mine.

The bread pudding was really nice - nicely spiced and lots of little nuggets of raisins. The caramel ice cream though was really not my cuppa tea. Jaw achingly sweet. Yes, I know ... it was caramel ice cream! Like my mother says, it's no point eating caramel if it isn't sweet. Ok, fine.

I really want to like Canteen. I've been there a few times over the years but I just haven't clicked with it. There's always something niggling. Chicken too dry, the hit and miss service, the kitchen's heavy hand with sea salt .... my list is pretty long but almost not substantial enough to completely wipe it off my list of potential places to eat if I so happen to be in the vicinity and fancied myself hungry.

Canteen
Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Rd, London SE1 8XX

Bounce Bounce Bouncing Bubbles - Boba Jam, Shaftesbury

2011-04-19T17:30:00.001+01:00

Bubble tea - love or hate 'em? Chewy deliciousness or little bouncy health hazards?

I'm totally on the fence on this one. It's always a case of:

Suck the bubbles up too weakly through the mega bubble tea straw and they simply get stuck halfway up.
Suck too hard (which trust me will happen when a line of bubbles get stuck) and without fail at least one bloody ball will go shooting to the back of the throat blocking the airway.

It's such a no win situation but yet people love them. Hey, even I got excited when I heard that there was a new bubble tea place in town - Boba Jam on Shaftesbury Avenue. For all my sitting on the fence I've been back twice in the space of a week and bought a total of 3 drinks -heck starting from about 4 quid each (depending on the "extras" you might decide to go for) they don't even have the decency to be cheap! Truthfully, I only went for the bubble that first time in ice blended lemon green tea with an extra serve of aloe vera. Next time it was ice blended peach green tea with nata de coco and a ice blended honey lemon green tea with nata de coco. Yes, I know ... my theme is the ice blended bit. The bubbles I'll happily flick away.

Boba Jam
102 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D5EJ

Strawberries in a Bottle

2011-04-19T16:06:00.000+01:00

There isn't much reason to why I'm blogging about this lovely bottle of beer other than I had it on a deliciously warm day last week and got rather tipsy (I swear I've become such a lightweight recently!). It's like strawberries in a bottle and it's local - produced on the green, green shores of England - we like (but seriously who am I to fuss about local ingredients when this girl ain't even local herself).

But what really caught my eye was the proud small print proclamation that it's vegan. A random thought later (no, actually I'm still holding on to that random thought) ... can vegans eat yeast? Well, I know they do since I've seen more than one vegan munch down on a slice of toast and gulp down a beer but doesn't that defeat the whole purpose veganism or don't yeast forms count? Go on, shoot me down.

An Evening at The Dorchester - The Grill and The Bar

2011-04-18T13:45:00.006+01:00

Amuse bouche - smoked trout pate with cucumber jelly and breadcrumbs. Love, love, love!Lightly smoked fish, crunchy breadcrumbs and cool, cucumber jelly.

I had an absolutely lovely time at The Dorchester recently and though I would never have thought to say this about somewhere as associated with the phrase 'hoity toity' as The Dorchester it was a really chilled out, relaxed evening. I've been to a smattering of fancy restaurants around London (One-O-One, Pearl by Jun Tanaka to name a few) and I have never failed to be impressed by the pompousness that drip off the staff like a melting glacier. One-O-One was a particularly horrible experience (lovely food but such bad, bad, BAD service) but I was so horrified at the merciless post that I wrote on it I never got round to publishing it. Why? Because I was racked with guilt (stupid softy that I am sometimes) and because I had such a bad time I didn't think it was a particularly fair piece of writing. But I do stand by the fact that my evening was abominable.Moving on, back to The Dorchester.

Warm bread and butter (warmed to a spreadable consistency)

Every couple months or so NS and I meet up. That's when I turn to my trusty Toptable account and start rustling around. A little oo-ing and ahh-ing later a table for 2 at The Grill was booked was booked for 7.45 PM. Giving us just enough time for a drink at The Bar, as all good meals start (and end) with a drink. I whet my apatite with a Milky Way (sounds terribly childish but terribly refreshing with lemon grass, lychee and lemon juice, rose cordial and soda water) - yes, non-alcoholic as age has taught me that it is either food or alcohol with my tummy. Mix them together and suffer the consequences. NS goes down the alcoholic route (it's the Scottish blood in her and she heartily agrees!) with a G&T. Lovely service and with added deliciousness of warm canapés that make the rounds every half an hour or so (we were served dauphinoise potatoes on a Chinese spoon - so freakin' good! Or maybe I was just hungry).

Incredibly fresh Mackerel starter

Leaving our coats with the staff at The Bar, we made our way across the gallery to The Grill (love how it's all The around here) with all it's Scottish pride furnishings - think head to toe tartan and paintings of long gone Scottish heroes in their kilted finery. It's absolutely dotty but incredibly comfortable at the same time. Greeted and seated in no time - so quiet mid week. The one dip in the evening came at this point. We were left drink-less, menu-less and all round service-less for a good 10 minutes. Just when the restaurant was sinking rapidly in my estimation, the restaurant manager made his way round to us and introduced our server to us and told us that our menus would be with us shortly. Right after that service perked straight up and kept on a steady high. So what was that dip all about? I told you they were a little dotty in this place. It probably doesn't help with all those ashen faced, long dead Scottish dudes staring down on you all day from those walls.

Chicken livers with mango. I imagined this to be a parfait. A little surprised when this arrived. Pleasantly so. The mango could have done with a little more punch. Livers were well cooked.

Main of salmon with spinach, puy lentils, celeriac mash and scallop foam. Crispy skin salmon, creamy mash. The sauce that accompanied the lentils were a little too strong and meaty for this dish.

Main of roasted pork belly with mash and kale. This was one humongous portion. I was very nearly jealous when I saw this. If only I liked roast pork a bit more. And that crackling .. it had big roar of a crackle. The only trouble with this size a portion of pork belly is that some bits are whole lot more tender than other

Petit fours - (left to right from the top photo) salted caramel chocolate truffle (runny oozy salted caramel centre), apple tart (buttery with sweet/tart fruit), fruity macaron (indecipherable fruit flavour with a very soft marshmallow-y shell - not my favourite), rum baba (interestingly not drenched in alcohol like others I have, very nice it was), fruit jelly pastille (generally I heartily dislike fruit pastilles but this was fruity, soft and wobbly - delicious) and a sugar encrusted marshmallow (marshmallows, argh!)

Filled to the brim, we signaled for the bill and proceeded to wobble our way back to The Bar. The bill was heartily reasonable - £25 for 2 courses and a glass of bubbly (or £29 for 3 courses with the bubbly) from the set menu. The à la carte menu has the usual blow your blow your purse away.

Back at The bar, we perched ourselves at the bar (ah hemm..) and prettily asked the bartender for him to mix up a couple of post dinner cocktails for us. He obliged by shaking up a as yet unlisted on the menu gin based cocktail for NS - my one sip reminded me of English summer breezes in the sunshine. No idea what went into his shaker other than the obvious gin and cucumber. It was one heck of a cocktail that came with a pretty big price tag. Boozy cocktails start from £15. NS reckons she paid about £30 .... but I have my suspicions that she might have misread the bill after her 3rd glass ;)

I wuss(iciously) kept off the booze for the evening with a 2nd Milky Way (more than a little too tart and not as good as the first) and ventured down the menu with a not so great Thai Lemonade (coriander, lime, orgeat, and ginger beer). Boo! Next time I'll have to keep off the food and stick to the booze :) A big thank you to NS for settling the bar bill. The next time it'll be on me (Starbucks does great chocolate milkshake like drink =)

The Grill
The Dorchester, Park Lane, London W1K 1QA

Pineapple with Mint Sugar

2011-04-03T22:47:00.002+01:00

A little warm sunshine and I've gone into summer mode (between you and me I think the British weather optimism has finally rubbed off on me). I have Jaime Oliver for the inspiration for this dish - pieces of pineapple sprinkled with mint sugar. Oh so freshing. So very, very summery.

Mint Sugar
About 20 mint leaves
4 tbs golden caster sugar (or white is fine ... but I like the slight caramel flavour)
Zest of 1/2 a lime

Put the mint leaves, lime zest and sugar into a food processor. Blitz. It's done once the sugar has turned green, is the texture of fine sand and there are no large pieces of mint leaves.
Sprinkle over large slices of pineapple. Tuck in and feel (imagine) the summer sun on your face.

Tea and Biscuits - London Review Cake Shop

2011-03-29T18:36:00.002+01:00

Tea time - that most time honoured of English traditions. For me it's the great escape from the office when the lull of the dreaded lull of the afternoon sets in and the tummy is grumbling that the puny amount of leftovers from the night before was insufficient to see it through to an 8PM dinner. Sometimes I head to Sainsbury's and cheat myself into thinking some pre-cut fruit will be good for me (along with a chocolate bar or two), sometimes it's Starbucks and other times for a little injection of intellectualism it has to be the London Review Bookshop.

The London Review Bookshop is a great little place behind the British Museum, brilliant for browsing and keeping yourself to yourself with lovely whiffs of that delicious scent of books. Adjacent to the bookshop is the London Review Cake Shop selling lovely tea and cake in a woefully tiny bit of space. Today I had a pot of Keemun Mao Feng (described as black tea with sweet orchid notes) and a polenta and lavender cookie (I asked for a biscuit the Australian waitress insisted on giving me a 'cookie'). The tea was lovely, as teas go. The cookie was a little too buttery for my liking and thank heavens the lavender was hardly distinguishable - I'm not a fan of lavender in my food.

Now back back to the drudgery of an afternoon at the office.

London Review Cake Shop
14 Bury Place, London, WC1A 2JL

Sunday Lunch - Comptoir Libanais, Marylebone

2011-03-28T18:59:00.003+01:00

Sunny Sundays mean late leisurely lunches and long walks. Last Sunday was relatively quiet - shoe trying and bag admiring at Selfridges before a late lunch/early dinner at Comptoir Libanais on Wigmore Street.

There wasn't much to fault my mixed maze plate - the food was nice, I enjoyed it and I thought I got myself a pretty good deal - a falafel, a spinach and cheese pastry, houmous, baba ghanoush topped with pomegranate, tabbouleh (too coarsely chopped in my opinion), mujaddara (rice and lentils), pickles (lurve pickles!) and topped with bread. Veggie goodness.

But complaints I do have (unfortunately). What is it with their menu at the counter? Half the items on their printed menu isn’t even on the board (I would later find out after I’ve been seated) and what is on there doesn’t make much sense. It was the same thing at their other branch at Westfield … ooops, no… I forget. They don’t even have a menu. Doh, silly me! Another moan would be directed at some of their staff – let me paint you the scenario: I walk in and there are 2 guys behind the counter who greet me and then leave me to it. I’m standing there studying the menu board (if you recall is really not the best written) for what must be a few minutes and they are blatantly not interested. They’re chatting and stock taking (or something like that). When I do get their attention they fob me on to another colleague who’s just appeared from the depths of the restaurant. Gee, thanks guys. Good thing this new guy seemed ok – compared to the other 2, I like him. Within seconds he’s told me that if I want to sit in they do table service. Oh, well…. Good thing the 2 guys were nowhere to be seen when I left with a full belly. I have been told that my evil stare is quite deathly.

Here’s to lovely, sunny Sundays!

Comptoir Libanais
65 Wigmore Street, W1U 1PZ

Burger Night - Byron, Kings Road

2011-03-14T00:09:00.002Z

As I slumped across my couch all day Saturday, feeling slightly worse for wear from the 2 pints of cider I had the night before (one of the most obvious signs of ageing I'm told), all I could think of was cow. Big, juicy minced up cow and served to me between a squashy bun garnished with lettuce and tomato. When SM turned up asking me what I had in mind for the evening, I jumped at the chance of going to Byron. Now, I've never been to Byron so maybe I should have suggested something safer, somewhere I was familiar with but McDonald's just wasn't going to cut it for me. And my cow between bun fantasies didn't include other high street favourites either ... Ultimate Burger, yuck. Gourmet Burger Kitchen, yuck. But I was willing to take my chances with Byron. So I grabbed the postcode of the nearest branch (Kings Road), jumped in the car and off we went. I like Kings Road. What's not to like. It's Kings Road. It's Chelsea. Enough said.

It was just past 9 when we arrived and the restaurant was still heaving with people. Not that we waited long, probably about 5 minutes in total. Our waitress was all smiles as she handed menus and took orders for drinks. She was still all smiles when SM attempted to a badly aimed, English humour laden joke. She didn't get it but she still smiled like she got half of it. Service was pretty good then.

SM got a coke float. Every time I see a coke float I remember my mother's stories about how she had her first float - or brown cows as they used to call them back in the day. My mum's über '60s - think floppy hats, flowers in the hair. The mental image I get is of her in a Mary Quant miniskirt with a big floppy hat sitting at the counter of A&W, the first US fast food chain to arrive in Malaysia, sipping from a glass of root beer float. It's a totally incorrect image, of course (the timeline is just all wrong) but that's what I see in my head when there's a brown cow around.

I stuck to fresh lemonade. I love proper lemonade. Icy cold and sour, balanced oh so slightly by a hit of sugar. Just right for a warm Spring day - it was all of 10°C yesterday.

I wanted to go for the Classic - 6 oz patty with lettuce, tomato, red onion, mayonnaise and a pickle on the side. But SM convinced me that for a whole £ more, I could get cheese too. I paid the £ and got the Monterey Jack (see the first photo). I should have stuck to my guns and just gone for the Classic. The cheese does nothing for me. Neither does the mayo. Next time I'll have to remember to tell them to hold the mayo. Other than that, the burger was pretty good. Much better than either Ultimate Burger or GBK. It had a nice grill char flavour and other than the useless cheese, it was simple and honest.

SM went for the full Monty and got the Byron - dry cure bacon, mature Cheddar and Byron sauce (whatever that is). SM winced at how pink the patty was (mine was definitely more well done and apparently had more of a charred flavour) but still managed to wolf it down in an astonishing amount of time. I didn't try it so I can't comment on how it tasted but it seemed to go down well with SM.

And we most definitely need sides, various deep fried sides. Chips. Crisp but the most boring bowl I've had in awhile. It tasted like something I could buy from the shop and fry myself. Fail.

Courgette fries - I love the idea of courgette fries but they always let me down. As SM described it - "as limp as a man's penis after 9 pints of beer". Sorry, that was very rude! SM's words, not mine. But oh so true though in the case of the courgette fries.

The onion rings on the other hand were a really winner. Ultra crisp and very yummy. Same batter used on the courgette fries I believe but there was absolutely no limpness whatsoever.

Winners: The burgers were good minus a few points of cooking inconsistencies of the patties, the onion rings, the lemonade, our waitress

Losers: Limp courgette fries, factory fries, the dirty floor (when we arrived I noticed a stray chip lying on the floor that had been stampled to death on, it was there throughout our dinner and it was still there when we left. The said chip was right by the entrance).

Byron
300 King's Road London SW3 5UH

Japanese Goodness - Nizuni, Fitzrovia

2011-03-13T22:43:00.003Z

We went for Japanese the other week and it was delicious. Even yummier with the 30% off the food bill from Toptable. It's not often that we have a good Japanese meal other than a quick bowl of noodles and we have a lot of that and it's boring! So with the pending meal at Nizuni, I laid down a few ground rules:

No noodles (a no-no when there are so many other yummy things that we can order)
No rice (same rule as noodles but sushi is OK because sushi is sushi)

Agedashi Tofu - my order because I love it. But before I could even say "Boo!" SM had gulped two thirds of this down. Believe me I was horrified! First, I thought we were sharing this meal and secondly - keep off my special dish!! It turns out SM thought this was miso soup (SM's special order). It left me slightly speechless. Seriously, how does someone who had lived in Vancouver for a year and pratically lived on sushi and Japanese food get agedashi tofu and miso soup mixed up? Totally not impressed. The dish was nice though. Light crisp batter, yummy salty tentsuyu broth. My only little niggly complain would be the use of firm tofu. I missed the silken smoothness I would usually expect.

Beef Tataki with pear gherkins, capers and ponzu sauce - as it came so well recommended. It looked really weeny when it arrived. OK, let's go instead with 'delicate'. It sounds much nicer. The serving may have been small but it was delicious. The beef was utterly tender, the capers and gherkins lent a lovely tang. Two thumbs up.

Tempura Moriawase - because anything deep fried is always welcomed at our table. Light as air batter, crisp and none of that heavy greasiness. The vegetables retained their veggie integrity and the prawns had that lovely fresh crunch.

Nasadengaku. Aubergine, good. Miso, delicious. Aubergine with miso, vegetable bliss. SM and I are very fond of aubergine and the nasadengaku was spot on. Not too oily, not too salty, not too sweet. Just a complete balance of flavours.

I was a little surprised when SM agreed to a order of Sashimi Mori Ni - the chef's selection of 14 pieces of sashimi. Normally the closest SM would get to a piece of raw fish would on top a blob of sushi rice. Surprised as I was, I wasn't about to disagree. The serving was generous and the fish very fresh. I'm a happy bunny but there is a little matter that confuses me. No matter how many times I look back on my photos of this dish, I can't make out how the serving is 14 pieces. I'm pretty darn sure it's 15! The scallop that the chef cut into 3 pieces instead of 2 :) I gain 1 extra bit ... apparently.

The salmon skin make rolls with spicy mayonnaise (sakekawa) were a bit of a hit and miss. A hit with with SM but a miss for me. The skin was chewy and really too much of a bother to enjoy.

The Dragon Roll, on the other hand, with its fresh crab meat, cucumber and avocado topped with eel was supremely good. The roll on its own would have been nice but it was the eel that made it.
Sweet, rich with a slight char from the grill. So, so good.

Our food came out in 2 lots with the maki rolls and the sashimi coming out slightly later than the rest. Not that it really mattered since the first few dishes came out really quickly but I was stuffed even before half our meal made it to us. I know SM was gleefully hoping I would concede defeat but seriously, that was never going to happen. Me? Concede food defeat? Never!

Overall it was lovely evening. Food was good and the staff were friendly but slightly slow at times. The downsides would be the table arrangements - with all their space, they could surely leave a little space between tables? I heard every bit of conversation both our neighbours were having. It gets more than a bit uncomfortable after awhile. Also, they might want to rethink their flooring. We heard and felt every thudding step every member of staff and every customer took past our table.

Other than that, it was all good. Really :) It does get a get a little better thoug. The bill came to a total of just over £70 for the two of us without drinks and with the 30% discount we paid about just over £50. Rather good I should say. Don't you?

Nizuni
22 Charlotte Street, London, W1T 2NB

Mint and Parmesan Crusted Rack of Lamb

2011-03-13T14:51:00.002Z

Mint and Parmesan Crusted Rack of Lamb

Two large French trimmed racks of lamb- I personally like to trim some of the fat off but it's just a preference
4 tbsp Dijon mustard
Large handful of white course breadcrumbs
Small handful of grated Parmesan cheese
Small bunch of fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons of dried mint
Small spring of rosemary
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
2 anchovy fillets in oil

Put the breadcrumbs, Parmesan, fresh and dried mint, rosemary, garlic and the anchovy fillet (including the oil) in a food processor and pulse. Stop once the mint, rosemary, garlic and anchovies are finely chopped and well incorporated into the rest of the mix. Set aside.

Heat an oven proof griddle pan until hot (smoking if you dare), sear the racks of lamb starting with the fat side down (don't oil your pan or you'll very likely set your smoke detector alarm off). You don't necessarily have to sear your meat but it does give it a nice colour and I like the fact it gets rid a bit of the fat. Once lightly seared, take the lamb off the heat.

Spread the Dijon mustard over the fat side of the rack of lamb. Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture over and pat down gently when all the mixture is used up. Drizzle a little olive oil over the top - this will help the breadcrumbs crisp and golden. Cook at 200°C/fan 180°C for about 30 - 40 minutes depending on how well you like your meet cooked. I cooked mine to about medium, which was about 40 minutes. Rest before carving the lamb into cutlets. Serve with your sides of choice. Mine were steamed broccoli, green beans, roasted parsnips and a rather lumpy gravy made from red wine, beef stock, lingonberry jelly and a little leftover breadcrumb mixture.

Cheap Cheap Lunch - Wong Kei, Chinatown

2011-03-12T20:15:00.000Z

Sea spice aubergine with sliced pork

Lunch at the legendary cheap and cheerful Wong Kei, the place that fed 2 generations of my family as students. Rumour has it that it closed by the health authorities a few years ago for its questionable hygiene standards. True? No idea. Business is still as good as ever and the service you will be pleased to know is as curt as it ever was. It's still cheap though.

Ngau lam (that's beef brisket to you and me) with rice

Wong Kei
41-43 Wardour Street, London W1D 6PY

Uncle Lim's Chicken Rice .........

2011-03-08T21:53:00.001Z

........... came out an ungodly shade of yellow!

Why did they do that? Jaundiced chicken is attactive? It sure didn't look like this the last time I dined here. My first thought was perhaps it's reminiscent of the fat on organic, corn fed chickens ... but seriously, who am I kidding? I talk such rubbish sometimes. I have no idea why Uncle Lim's were intent on staining the skin of the chicken yellow but ye gads ... turmeric or not, it was still pretty tasty dish. Garlic rice, smooth pieces of chicken off the bone and the all important garlic and ginger chili sauce. I'm such a happy bunny!

Uncle Lim's Kitchen
Upper North Arcade, Whitgift Centre, Croydon, CRO 1UZ

Tea and Cake

2011-03-08T17:22:00.000Z

It was tea and cake this weekend for JN's birthday hosted by her lovely self at her new flat. We stuffed ourselves silly with zesty lemon cupcakes, slices of fruity passion fruit sponge, sweet crumb apricot and almond tart, crumbly scones heaped with clotted cream and jam, fudgy chocolate brownies and an incredibly huge but utterly delightful pot of ragù alla Bolognese. All washed down with steaming cups of tea, bubbly prosecco and the definitely over the driving limit lychee vodka cocktails.

Wonderful food, lovely company, a great day! Thank you.

Ragù alla Bolognese (that was all gone by the end of the evening)

Miso Marinated Salmon Fillets with Vegetable Noodle Soup

2011-03-02T00:55:00.001Z

Ultra quick dinner last week - flash marinated salmon fillets in miso, soy sauce and mirin. Grilled for about 5 minutes.

Served with a large bowl of vegetable noodles in miso soup, scattered with toasted black sesame seeds and coriander leaves.

BLUEERGGGH - Melur, Edgware Road

2011-03-02T00:24:00.000Z

I had a horrid meal recently. Between a scale of disappointing and outrageously bad, this meal probably sat somewhere in between but if I were to have written this review right there sitting in the restaurant, I would have given it a big fat zero! Why? Because the food was crap, the decor of the restaurant got on my nerves and the staff just ... well, just annoyed me.

What stopped me? Sigh .. SM did. SM who looked at me with a raised eyebrow and said, "c'mon it wasn't that bad".

I huffed out a "yeah , it bloody was" before I shut up and decided to sleep on it.

Thing is I don't usually publish many bad reviews - because they're all sitting in my outbox, just waiting for me to click on that red shiny "send" button. But I never do. Mainly because I forget and when I do remember, it never seems all that important any more. This time though, I remembered and I'm going click on that shiny button.

So Melur ... sitting on the site that used to be Mawar (where I had my share of cheap and cheerful meals when I was a student - I still remember my first meal there, kangkung belachan, tom yum soup and white rice. I thought I was in mini heaven). I have no idea when one changed to the other or why but since I fancied a bit of a taste home, I thought whichever of them would do me just fine. But it didn't. Where Melur recognised it was somewhat cheap, Melur decided to jazz things up cheaply and it showed. Cheap furnishings, damp peeling walls .. arggh! The staff were less than energetic - hey, I don't expect them to be bouncing off the walls like a fully charged energizer bunnies but some enthusiasm on the job wouldn't have hurt anyone. Example - picture this, SM and I have just walked down to the restaurant (they're located in the basement, which probably explains the damp walls) and we get a weak greeting from the waitress behind the bar. At the same time she notices us, another waiter who is faffing about with some cutlery on am empty table looks up, looks me in the eye, holds the gaze for about 2 seconds, totally ignores me and continues faffing. No smile, no greeting, nothing. Nice people they employ.

Ok, so all the above wouldn't quite have bothered me so much if the food was half way decent. The beef rendang arrives and it looks ok. Small-ish portion but ok. Then we wait .... 5 minutes pass before another dish is set down. I ordered the ayam percik but wtf was that in front of me? I know my ayam percik as well as I know my rendang and whatever that they make in this place and try to pass it off as ayam percik is horrid. A semi burnt piece of chicken sitting in watery sauce and bits of bruised vegetable floating about. The watery sauce was a bad sign, the floating bits of veg just pissed me off ... I can only gues it was pieces of iceberg lettuce the chef had attempted to decorate the plate with before ladling over the sauce. After this, we had to wait. Again. Finally 2 minutes later the kangkung belachan and rice arrive.

The chicken itself wasn't too badly cooked, as if it wasn't overcooked. Taste wise ... what taste? Fine (I'll try to be nice!), there was a smattering of all the flavours that the dish should possess - lemongrass, turmeric, chili, tamarind, coconut (which we all know they overdosed on) but where was the 'oomph'? The punch?

The kangkung belachan was pretty close to competing with the chicken for the bottom rung of the meal ladder. Bad enough for SM to refuse to eat it and it takes a bloody lot for SM to refuse to eat something. Where I would have been happy (and expected no extra ingredients other kangkung and belachan and well, the oil to cook the veg), the chef decided to bulk the dish up with a very large handful of dried salted anchovies. Large part chewy, part crunchy bits of salted fish (oh yes, and the kitchen may also have forgotten to remove the salt from the fish prior to cooking) in a dish which would have been perfectly adequate without the added extras.

The rice ... oh, the rice ... the rice was mushy. An Asian restaurant that can't cook rice properly.

So the winner of the evening was undoubtedly the beef, with a 5 out of 10 rating. The sauce was fine but not as good as say .... mine or my mother's (no, my recipe is not the same as my mother's) or my grandmother's (whom I believe also has her own recipe) or any other self respecting Malaysian cook who cites the ability to cook rendang.

Badly done, Melur. You could do well to buck up but I guess it doesn't matter to me because I won't be going back.

Melur
175A Edgware Road, London W2 1ET

Grilled Pork Chop with Vegetable Mash

2011-02-28T16:31:00.001Z

Spurred on by my crisp frying, I decided to go for the full whack and make dinner as well. Pork chops marinated in soy sauce, oyster sauce, shao hsing rice wine, sesame oil and a dash of white pepper. Grilled to glistening perfection (if I may say so myself). The slight chewiness of the meat had nothing to do with either my marinating or cooking abilities. It was the pig! Or the farmer.

The mash was courtesy of the inspirational 4 episode Jaime Oliver special I watched whilst huddled in bed (see my last post). Inspirational as in I blatantly ripped it off and messed around with the original. But hey, isn’t that what cooking is all about? I will, however, cite the wonderful Jaime and fully acknowledge that my version may or may not be tastier than the original =)

Vegetable Mash

2 large baking potatoes, skin on cut into small chunks
2 medium sweet potatoes, skin off cut into small chunks
1 medium head of broccoli, florets separated from the main stem. Cut the main stem into roughly the same size as the chunks of potatoes
2 small handfuls of frozen peas
generous knob of butter

Basically you’re making a normal mash with a few extra bits thrown in.

Boil up some water (however you may normally do this – straight in a pot over the stove or like me in a kettle and then into a pot sitting on the stove). Salt the water and add the potatoes, sweet potatoes and the broccoli stem. Leave to boil for about 10 minutes before poking the end of a sharp knife into the middle of one of the potato chunks. If the knife comes away easily but the potato is not breaking up just yet, add the rest of the broccoli and peas. Bring to a boil and take the pot off the heat once the broccoli florets are tender (yup, that means sticking your knife into the pot again but this should be about 2-3 minutes from the time the water comes up to the boil again).

Drain. Leave contents to draining in the colander sitting over your pot for a few minutes. You want to let some of the steam escape. You don’t want watery mash.
After a few minutes, tip the potatoes and veg back into the pot. Add the butter, season well and mash the hell out of it with a sturdy wooden spoon or if you have a poncy potato masher sitting around the kitchen like I do (technically it’s SM’s – mash is usually SM’s territory, along with the washing up).

Serve with a stonkingly large piece of grilled meat – SM style. Or eat with a spoon out of a soup bowl with nothing on the side – Luscious Temptations style.

Root Vegetable Crisps with Rosemary and Sea Salt

2011-02-25T12:09:00.001Z

I've had absolutely no inclination or desire to cook lately. Other than my mechanical forays into the kitchen for my beloved instant noodle soups and bits of burnt toast smothered in butter and dripping with homemade peach and vanilla jam (oh and cups and cups of steaming tea) I've steered clear of the one room in my flat I usually quite like spending time in (other than my bedroom where I'm usually found under my heap of a duvet).

Then one Saturday afternoon, whilst peeking out from under said duvet, I caught a few episodes of Jaime Oliver's 30-Minute Meals (4 back to back episodes to be precise). Good ol Jaime ... Justine finally got her inspiration back! OK so I spent another week or so under that duvet (I quite like it under there - it's cosy) but I've navigated my way out and dragged SM to a supermarket. Poor sweetie .. We haven't done a proper shop since mid Dec (uh huh yeah that long) but to be honest I think we were both secretly rubbing our hands in glee over the amount of money we were saving - ?

The next day I even made it to the my corner fruit and veg stall. Stocking up on beetroot (as I have never cooked with them before, it is rather curious why I even gave them a second glance), sweet potatoes and the usual run of the mill white spuds, I was left with no other option but to slice them up and chuck them into a pot with lots of hot fat. Lo and behold - crisps! Deep fry a few spring of rosemary and scatter over the crisps and sprinkle over some sea salt. Good crunchy all natural goodness.

Late Night Munchies - ICCo, Fitzrovia

2011-02-20T13:58:00.001Z

It was a late night munchies at ICCo (Italian Coffee Company) on the corner of Goodge Street and Charlotte Street.

Pepperoni and the Special (black olives, artichokes and an egg). You can never go wrong with pepperoni ... always sublimely good. I love articokes, I like black olives but I will never get the whole egg thing on pizzas.

A Pepperoni and a Special. Thin, chewy crust = tick, pipping hot = tick, level of deliciousness = pretty darn high. And at around £4.50 for an 11" ..... I would say these pizzas were pretty darn amazing!

ICCo
46 Goodge Street, Fitzrovia, London W1T 4LU

Dubai with a Bang!

2011-02-18T18:24:00.002Z

The impressive Burj Khalifa, previously known as the Burj Dubai

The equally impressive dancing fountains at the base of the Burj Khalifah

My twenty hours in Dubai was a whirlwind of big brand madness. Glimpses of the Atlantis, Mirage, Armani and lord knows how many other gazillion star hotels, browsing through the stores of big fashion labels crammed into the Dubai Mall and chowing my way through some delights offered by some well known high street names of the foodie world.

Fro-yo at Red Mango - a small original with 3 weenie scoops sliced strawberries and a scoop of dark chocolate chips

It started with Pinkberry on my way out to Colombo. On the way back it was Red Mango (triple servings of strawberries and one of dark chocolate chips), a red velvet cupcake from Magnolia Bakery at Bloomingdale's and salad on the terrace at Joe's Cafe overlooking the dancing fountains (Joe's as in fashion brand Joseph).

Breakfast! A red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting from Magnolia bakery

I have to say Dubai was a real eye opener. Luxury dripped off the silk lined walls and money (or the seemingly oodles of it) screamed from the rooftop of every skyscraper. It's almost expected of me to say that I hated it but I didn't. Quite the opposite in fact. I think I could quite happily live there. Sure, everything is man made and more than just a little superficial but life can be comfortable. And I think I'll happily go for comfortable.

Salade Niçoise at Joe's Café

Man made - every inch of it and yet surprisingly tranquil when it wants to be

In Dubai with Pinkberry

2011-01-29T12:34:00.001Z

I had a little time to kill when I was laying over in Dubai (again!) and I chose to spend it in the company of Pinkberry. My twirled natural and pomegranate with crushed Oreos, dark chocolate niblets, crushed hazelnuts and sliced strawberry Pinkberry to be precise.

I've been having frozen yogurt withdrawal symptoms lately (damn Yog! Sorry the post hasn't gone up yet but it will be going up shortly) and I couldn't imagine my luck when I saw the Pinkberry man handing out samples. I think I'm in danger of becoming one of those obsessed frozen yogurt fans I only ever read and laugh about :)

The Pinkberry verdict
Taste wise I was hoping (expecting) something a little more tart. The portion size wise it was grossly tiny. The yogurt was piped to the centre of the container leaving a pretty gap on the sides. The amount of the 4 extras that came with small size were grossly stingy. Considering I paid just over £6 for the yogurt and a small bottle of Evian I expected a little more. I certainly get a larger portion for a third less of the price at Yog. However, I think I may have got my own back when I took 2 bottles of Evian by mistake :) Shhh I won't tell if you don't.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Shoes, Holidays and Cake - Aubaine, Selfridges

2011-01-19T13:50:00.002Z

I've done it! I survived my yoga session on Saturday and I finally got round to booking my flight to distant lands where the sun shines everyday and the temperature is never below 25 °C. At the moment my body hurts like crazy and my bank is on the verge of calling on the IMF AND the European Union to bail me out. But hey ho .... I'm going away on holiday (imagine me dancing a wee online jig)!

I'm off in a couple of weeks but until then a girl has to keep her spirits up and what better way than a long overdue visit to the new Shoe Galleries at Selfridges? 35,000 sq ft, 150 brands, 4,000 pairs on display and 55,000 pairs in stock at any one point - that's a lot of shoe stats. It was intense shoe pleasure - I wriggled my toes in Louboutins, shimmied around in Choos, glided around in Ginas and I even dared to ignore the eagle eyes of the old bats down at Chanel and copped a feel or two of their goods before rushing out (just in case they saw through me and called security!). High on heels (flats and everything in between) we headed for the one section of the shoe area we could possibly afford - Aubaine.

Stuffed to the brim with ladies who shop and men who wait for ladies who shop, Aubaine's limited space was packed. To maximise every inch, tables were jammed together. Customers tried hard to ignore conversations around them and very likely failed. Well, I did ... I became quite fascinated with the stories the 2 girls from New York (very much Londoners for the moment, apparently) next to us were regaling each other with. They too in turn looked suitably horrified the moment after I suddenly exclaimed to my friend, "Oh, have I told you about the guy who's stalking me?". The stalker story is very much true but that's for another time.

My shoe fanatic-in-arms suggested we share a portion of salt and chili squid, unsurprising since she has a bit of a thing for deep fried squid. The dish was actually rather lovely. The squid was pipping hot, the batter was light and crisp and the whole dish was seasoned well. This in the middle of the shoe department in one of the city's most exclusive departmental stores. I'm really quite impressed. They did, however, let themselves down on the lime aioli. Under seasoned and just a tad bit lame.

This was what we came for - cake. Well, I did anyway and ended up ordering their over sized strawberry macaron. Topped with a light handed sprinkle of poppy seeds, the macaron was fine. Not particularly exciting but good. Crisp, light shell with a jammy centre.

My companion chose the raspberry tartlet - yes, raspberries in the middle of January...imagine! Little sweet/tart nuggets sitting on crème patisserie and a crisp, buttery pastry. Served with a squiggle of raspberry coulis. She seemed incredibly happy with it and my little bite tasted just fine.

So what do I now know about Aubain that I didn't know before the weekend?
I now know that Aubaine does a heavy cup of skinny latte, the staff don't know their white wine glasses from their red and the food served is actually rather scrummy, albeit on the steep side. I also know that the service is pretty decent but with slight dips here and there ... like the guy who kept insisting on arranging piles of forks in strict military precision on the service counter right next to our table ... imagine .... *clink, clink, clink, clink, clink ....*

Aubaine
Selfridges, 2nd Floor - 400 Oxford Street, London W1A 1AB

A Half Cheat's Fish and Chips

2011-01-15T12:32:00.003Z

So the tale of Miss Grumpy Pants continues ....

I've been eating more than what's good for me and had room for more. Plus dessert. Hopefully I'll be up and running soon. I have a yoga session today - with some luck I'll survive to tell the tale. Until then I leave you with a super large dinner that I made recently - my odd version of fish and chips.

I lightly dusted some sprats (bought right off the fishermen when I was down on the Kentish coast right after the new year) in equal parts plain and cornflour. Deep fried until lightly golden - 2-3 minutes. The "chips" were your run of the mill supermarket hash browns. I did make sure I bought the smallest bag possible, simply because there was no space in the freezer for any leftovers. *Tah dahhh ..... * Fish and chips :) Hope your weekend isn't as painful as my yoga session!

A Meal for a New Year

2011-01-03T02:14:00.000Z

I have been such a scrooge this Christmas. I didn't mean to, promise! I actually made vow to myself in November that I would be nice .... and try to actually enjoy the festive season for once.

Then .....

The the weather took a turn for the worse, the snow came and I tumbled - or sank into a miserable heap into the ice. In the last three weeks I have battled a cold, a tummy bug, immense tiredness followed in equal measures by insomnia and because of all of the above, total and utter boredom at being stuck at home. So whilst the parties went on ... I shuffled around the flat cursing the evils of the holiday season.

Shredded pork with Szechuan perserved vegetable - probably not what I was expecting. I gave it a blank stare when it arrived. I was anticipating a stewed dish with lots of lovely gravy.

But hey ho, it's a new year. Fresh starts and all that. As for the colds, tummy bugs and all that ... nothing a good Chinese meal can't put to rights :)

Dau mui with garlic - my favourite vegetable.

Fried chicken with preserved red beancurd sauce - with a surprise of black fungus and golden needles (dried lily flowers) cooked in fermented beancurd hidden under the chicken.

Joy King Lau
3 Leicester St, London WC2H 7BL

Big Dirty Breakfast

2010-12-12T23:02:00.004Z

Brekkie at the local greasy spoon. Big, hearty and a more than a little greasy - the best way to start a weekend and fight the big chill.

Big brekkie 1 - Bacon, sausage, fried egg, fried mushrooms, black pudding, beans, tinned tomatoes and chips.

Big brekkie 2 - same as the above except it the chips were replaced with hash browns.

Rosa's - Soho, London

2010-12-09T18:06:00.001Z

The first time I went to Rosa's I left my camera charging at home and couldn't stop kicking myself for being such an idiot. So I promised myself I would return - not just to take photos, mind ... but also because the food was rather tasty and deserved another visit. Persistently on Timeout's list of Top 10 Cheap Eats in east London (mind you this was in the day before the branch in Soho opened) and I've been wanting to try it out but was way to lazy to head all that way east. So all the better for me when they opened up in central London. I know there's been quite a bit of criticism about how the quality had dropped dramatically over the last few years but hey, I'm none the wiser. On this visit it also tickled me to drag my friend Rosa along (childish, I know!).

Perusing the menu, I realised I had forgotten that Rosa doesn’t take too well to anything spicy and is no fan of coconuts either. The 2 things so entrenched in Thai cuisine. No worries, there had to be something that she could have – sticky rice – safe and definitely had no spice and no coconut. Interestingly it was not until recently that I realised quite a few people don’t like coconut milk/cream. I guess growing up in Malaysia I just took it for granted that people just ate it – nothing to dislike. Ooo … I do remember thinking it was the oddest thing when I found out an old boss of mine not liking bean sprouts! She would laboriously pick out every bit from her plate before she started eating. Imagine! And she lived in Malaysia too where nearly every noodle dish comes with a handful of bean sprouts. Anyway, I diverge from Rosa’s meal. For her main she chose Gai Pad Cashew Nuts (£8.25) – innocently described as stir-fried chicken and cashew nuts with mixed peppers in oyster sauce. So Rosa digs in – first bite “emm … nice”, second bite, third bite …. Then she starts sniffing. A little at first and then a bit more.

“Are you OK, Rosa?”

“Noooo … this is spicy!!!!”

So I peer at the dish. It still looks incredibly innocent. I shove my fork in and taste a bit.

“Don’t be silly, Rosa. It’s fine.”

I shove my fork into the dish again (I’m notoriously greedy and would never say no to an extra titbit). Then it hit me. Uh ohh … there’s some heat coming through. Peering at the dish again I realise that the little dark specks throughout the dish were not innocent bits of blackened veg but bits of lethal dried chilli. Poor Rosa! I dare say she was not a happy bunny (no worries, we went for cake after, which cheered her up immensely).

I would say this to Rosa’s though …. If you’re going to add chilli to a dish, just say it on the menu! Put a little chilli sign next to the dish. You do for all your other spicy dishes.

I went down the boring route and ordered what my dining companion had on my first visit a few months previously - Gaeh Yang Char (£10.50) - grilled rack of lamb served with spicy dry chilli sauce and cooled steamed vegetables. I really enjoyed this dish on my previous visit and then it hit me … I probably only enjoyed it so much because I only had a few bites. Faced with a whole dish – 3 large pieces of grilled lamb covered in creamy coconut gravy – I realised what a wimp I had become. Oh I finished it alright … along with the steamed veg sitting at the bottom of the meaty heap – steamed cauliflower and carrots (I’m still not sure what they mean by “cooled steamed vegetables” – cool against the spice of the gravy or the veg was hot once upon a time when it came out of the steamer and now it isn’t?). But I was almost whimpering by the time I swallowed my last bite. It was a mountain of food and this wasn’t even counting the steamed rice I had ordered on the side. I offered to share my meat with Rosa – she likes lamb, she told me so – but my offer was kindly declined.

“It’s covered in coconut sauce, Justine.”

Ah, yes. I had almost forgotten. She did accept a piece – a conciliatory gesture. She did point out it wasn’t cooked through. Yeah, I know …. It was an extremely bright shade of uncooked red in the middle.

“I think the English like to eat their lamb a bit rarer than you or I, Rosa”.

She simply nods. From one foreigner to another.

Rosa’s Soho
48 Dean Street, London W1D 5BF

Oodles of Noodles - Mien Tay, Battersea

2010-11-21T00:03:00.000Z

I will unashamedly admit that I returned to Mien Tay the very next day after my first visit for another meal. It was supposed to be burger night but after a failed hunt for the reportedly best burger this side of the Atlantic sold by The Meatwagon for 1 day only outside the The Ship down in Wandsworth (oh, we found the truck alright but they had soldout!!! 3000 burgers made for the weekend, they had sold 2950 the day before in Islington leaving only 50 burgers to be fought over down south on Sunday. Oh rubbish, but maybe next time!) we trudged back to Battersea. It was a toss up between McD's (it was burget night, remember ...) and Mien Tay. Naturally I have veto power and Mien Tay it was.

We weren't into having another pig out like the previous evening and opted for a single dish each. I had the the Phở Đặc Biệt (£6), which I believe translates to 'special phở'- it basically had sliced beef, beef brisket and and beef balls (the greedy person's phở). The soup was a tad bland but nothing a little sprinkle of salt and a dash or two of fish sauce didn't sort out. I was so content after eating this, I felt like I had been wrapped up in a big fluffy blanket. Oh, I do like my noodle soups.

SM had the Mì Xào Bò (£5.50) or not so exotically translated to stir fried soft noodles with beef. Flavours were good, it was packed with sliced beef and veggies but only one problem .... SM hates celery and the dish reeked of celery. I confes I'm not a celery fan but I'll eat it cooked should the occassion call for it. SM dislikes celery even more than I do but I doubt it mattered that night as the dish was wiped clean within minutes after I took my last shot of the dish.

I forgot to grab a shot of the free fruit presented to every table at the end of the meal on my first visit. Cute way to present fruit.

Mien Tay
180 Lavender Hill, Battersea, London SW11 5TQ

Comptoir Libanais - Westfield, London

2010-11-20T16:07:00.000Z

As much as I love shopping and enjoy browsing the shops I find always find myself slightly ill at ease whenever I'm at Westfield. It's something about the layout that's all wrong - for all its space, Westfield still has the make me feel incredibly claustrophobic as I walk into one of their shops. But having to wait for a friend to finish her shift, SM and I found we had a couple of hours to hang around and decided to sniff around for some food. Their "foodcourt" - The Balcony - is laughable piece of space. If you're not up to having a meal at one of their restaurants, grabbing a sandwhich from Marks, munching on a prettily iced cupcake or slurping down an artisan gelato as you browse the shops, The Balcony is probably your best bet for a resonably priced bit of food. But the problem is it's anything but reasonaly priced and for all the space they have allocated to it, there are only few "stalls" to choose from. Just 12 high street chains - Square Pie, Pho, Crepeaffaire, etc. serve the hungry hordes. Because of the horrendously long queues at the other outlets, we choose Comptoir Libanais. Their main store on Wigmore Street in Marylebone is part deli part cafe, which has been described as the Middle Eastern equivalent to Carluccio's.

The first thing that stuck me was the lack of a menu. If there was one, I didn't see it and wasn't offered a glimpse of it. We just stood there looking around as a server waited for our order. So we ha a look at the somewhat sad looking pastries at the counter and peered into the pots of ready made stews. There was, however, a small sign sitting on the counter proclaiming their meal deal - a choice of stew with rice or couscous for around £7-8 (I can't remember the exact figure now and the receipt has gone astray). So far it's not a bad deal.

The kofte tagine with rice was SM's choice. Lamb meatballs simmered in tomato based sauce with chickpeas, peppers and courgette. It was good. Simple, honest food.

I had the aubergine and chickpea stew with couscous. Slow cooked aubergine (to an almost mush like state) in a tomato sauce with chickpeas. An incredibly heartwarming dish. My kind of comfort.

To wash it all down I had a pommegranate lemonade.

Comptoir Labanais does probably deserve a another visit but it would have to be to their Wigmore Street branch.

Comptoir Libanais
The Balcony, Westfield Shopping Centre, Ariel Way, Shepherds Bush, London, W12 7GE

Bodean's Pig Out - Tower Hill, London

2010-11-19T18:19:00.001Z

Bodean's Pig, Tower Bridge and a ball game on telly

Cold and hungry as we headed out to the east end to check something out for a friend a few weeks ago, SM and I passed Bodean's at Tower Hill with a sign advertising their £10 pig out. Exactly what our grumbling tummies needed - a big mountain of food with lots of meat.

Table sauces - oddly the Hot Chipotle and the Smoked Hickory tasted exactly the same!

We used to go to Bodean's every now and then but that was years back and we haven't been in awhile. They must still be doing reasonably well since it was place was almost full on a Friday night in Tower Hill - not the hippest and most happenin' of areas.

The both us opted for the pig out deal with SM going for the half rack of baby back ribs and pulled pork combo. From a choice of sides, SM decided on fries and coleslaw. The ribs, covered in BBQ sauce, were nicely tender and meaty. No complains from either of us. I wouldn't have personally ordered the pulled pork mainly because it was stringy and just that little bit dry. I don't usually mind dry so much - I've recently discovered a liking for Ryvita's (but that is another story) but the pork just didn’t do it for me. Though a good douse from BBQ sauce from the squeeze-y bottle did perk it up.

I went for the burnt ends, chips and coleslaw combo. The slow smoked chunks of beef brisket served with BBQ sauce was wondrously tender. Some pieces had some big bits of fat attached but I wasn't fussed. Cut off, move on to the meat. Satisfyingly good. I remember when Bodean's only ever served this on weekends but it seems it has now made it onto the daily menu.

Each meal came with a drink and I choose Tango. Not something I would pick - I'm not much of a fizzy drinks girl but I make an exception for Orengina. I adore Orengina. Anyway, back to Tango .... I thought the Tango orange heads on the tin were pretty cute :)

You've been Tango-ed

Good, bad, ugly?
It's quite a deal for £10. It's solid food and it's tasty. Will I return? Heck ya ... those burnt ends were really nice and the ribs were decent.

Bodean's Tower Hill
16 Byward Street, London EC3R 5BA

Mien Tay - Battersea, London

2010-11-07T02:43:00.003Z

Fine, I admit it ... I'm a terribly superstitious person. Little niggly things that I let influence my life (most of the time anyway) and one of them is Vietnamese restaurants in London. The last time I ventured over to the east end to sample a couple bowls of phở my dining companion and I ended up having a raging argument on the street after (yes ... one of those embarrassing ones and yes, please don't ask why). And the time before that ... well, let's just say my friend whom I dined with discovered a serious health problem that very day (of which she is only slowly recovering from - the health problem not the dining experience with me). I know it's silly to associate Vietnamese restaurants with bad events but like I said niggly little things influence my life .... alot.

But last night I seemed oddly unperturbed by my little superstition and decided to try Mien Tay in Battersea (Lavender Hill, Clapham Junction .... take your pick - it seems like Asda has decided fire up the old Battersea/Lavender Hill/Clapham row. Hmph!). We were sat in a little corner in the low ceiling-ed lower level with what seemed like 2 large tables celebrating birthdays - excited chatter, sudden eruptions of alcohol fueled cackle and indecent displays of male flesh (yes, you read that right .... some of the guys at the next table thought it would be a hoot to drop their trousers). OK, so the restaurant is a little small and the service is a bit of a hit and miss but I didn't really drop by for the environment or the service.

As usual, I ordered. I had to make sure it was boy friendly - anything deep fried and meat is probably best. Bánh xèo (£6.00) is always a good choice (as are spring rolls but that gets boring after awhile). I like my crepes crispy and Mien Tay delivered. The filling of sliced pork, prawns and beansprouts were a little bland but fine once dipped in the nước chấm.

I was interested in tasting the quail with honey, garlic and spices (£4.50) since it was one of those dishes that I've heard so much talk about. Tender, succulent little bird served with squeeze of lime on the side. Nice honey and spice flavours coming through but in no way sickly sweet. Good order.

The failure of the evening - aubergine with minced pork (£5.40). Perhaps the kitchen ran out of minced pork and substituted half of the mince with sliced pork instead? Or maybe half and half is what they usually do at Mien Tay. So ... the problem wasn't so much that the dish had minced and sliced pork in it but there was just no 'uumph' to the dish. Perhaps I've been spoilt by Chinese restaurants who make this dish a whole lot better with that almost compulsory wok hei flavour.

My favourite of the evening had to be the deep fried sea bream with shredded green mango and nước chấm (£9.00). So simple and so tasty. I don't very often order fish when I dine out but as this came as a recommendation from the waiter I thought, "why not?". The fish was incredibly fresh (not event the slightest hint of fishiness around the stomach area) and I got the tail and head to suck the flesh off - my favourite bit :) The mango and the nước chấm added freshness and lightness to what would have been boring old fried fish.

I am really glad I shook off my superstition for the evening and wandered into Mien Tay. Truth be told, the other suggestion for dining venues was KFC ... so you can see how easy my decision was. An excellent choice if I can say so myself.

Mien Tay
180 Lavender Hill, Battersea, London SW11 5TQ

Rita's - Southall

2010-10-30T18:41:00.000+01:00

For one reason or other SM and I found ourselves in the Southall area a Saturday evening a few weeks ago. Having only ventured down that way a couple of times before, our instinct had us stick to the high street and so into Rita's we went. I had been to Rita's once on my last visit to Southall when in the middle our big shop for shawls and bangles my friend (and fellow food lover) RK developed a sudden craving for felooda. I was blown away by how delicious felooda was. Truth be told I had never heard of it until RK ordered it and even if that particular version was terrible I would have been none the wiser. But I did remember Rita's.

We started with a lamb samosa, an onion bhaji (onion fritter) and gobi pakora (deep fried pieces of cauliflower in a batter made with gram flour) served with tamarind sauce. The starters were passable. Nothing less, nothing more.

I insisted on ordering the butter chicken. I've been obsessed with finding my idea of the perfect butter chicken and I have so far failed in my mission. I'm usually on a palak/saag paneer (spinach cooked with chunks of cheese curds) mission too but I decided to give it a rest that day. Rita's butter chicken was edible - sizeable boneless chicken breast pieces, thick creamy sauce. Better than some but still lacking something ... a depth to the dish I keep looking for.

The lamb masala was, on the other hand, really quite good. The meat (hidden deep in the sauce in the photo) was incredibly tender and full of flavour. It had obviously been cooked in the sauce for a long time. The sauce itself was very nice. Nice flavours and not too much of a chili kick.

Our carbs for the evening included a very sad and very flat puri. It had obviously been cooked sometime before it was served to us and it just slowly deflated as it lay somewhere waiting to be ordered. An absolute failure of a puri.

SM is obsessed with any dish that has "garlic" as part of its name. Garlic naan was definitely a "must have".

The pea pilau was just a step better than the puri. Pilau rice with some peas thrown in. It was too oily and though I would personally just have plain boiled rice, SM is fond of flavoured carbs so flavoured rice it was.

Rita's Restaurant
112-114 The Broadway, Southall, Middlesex UB1 1QF

Authentically Malaysian - Sedap, Old Street

2010-10-30T18:15:00.003+01:00

I do believe I had the best Malaysian meal in London last night.

The evening didn't start off all that well ... it had been pouring with rain all afternoon and I wasn't a happy bunny when we walked into Sedap at about half 7 in the evening. The tiny restaurant space was packed with people and the waiter nonchalantly waved us to the oddest positioned table in the room - pushed up against the wall right in the pathway of the bar/service area, door to the inner restaurant and door to the kitchen. It was one of those tables that was set up because they expected a crowd and there was a bit of an empty space for it in the room. I guess it was pretty evident that I wasn't happy with this arrangement because the one of the waitresses quickly offered to separate a table set for 4 for me (which had a reserved sign when we walked in). Well, I wasn't to say no.

Sedap has a pretty decent menu with the usual favourite curries, noodle and rice dishes. I was pretty keen to try the few dishes I had seen on several food blogs so SM was more or less banned from ordering. I did make exceptions for the roti prata and the prawn cracker requests. I gave in on that those, though I rolled my eyes at the mention of prawn crackers. When the roti prata arrived I screwed up my nose but waited patiently for the waitress to be out of earshot before I let out pretty indignant, "what in the heck is that?". It looked like the a crispy cousin of Rita's failed version of a puri but I really should learn not to judge my food by its appearance. I should know ... some of the food that comes out my kitchen looks like it's been hit by a tornado. Aside from the fact it had been cooked in copious amounts of oil, there was hope upon dissection of the roti. There was good signs of flakiness ... don't think flaky pie pastry but head towards the image of a beautifully crafted croissant. The soft innards as you tear the pastry apart ... The curry was nice too with a just about enough chili heat for me. The sauce was generous enough for that one piece of roti but at £4.80 was pretty steep (you can get roti with lamb curry for £5.50 and an extra piece of roti for £2 - yes, ouch!) but I guess you do get a piece of chicken in the curry which adds to something.

I had been eyeing the portion of Penang Char Kway Teow that had been delivered to the table next to us and couldn't help thinking over and over again to myself, "how small is that portion?!?". To be fair portions sizes are about the same if you had the dish in a Malaysian coffee shop but hell ... this was costing me £7.25 not RM5! Yes, fine ... I'm in London and these are the prices I'm going to have to pay for a small slice of home. The dish itself was very, very good. Probably the best version of char kway teow I've had in London. By keeping the portions small the flavours were beautifully presented and that all important wok hei was definitely there. There was generosity in the ingredients too - 4 large crunchy prawns, sliced Chinese sausage, fishcake, beansprouts, chives, egg ... Even for a non-loving char kway teow person like myself (I like it but have no deep passion for it), I was very impressed.

The Nasi Lemak (£7.60) was also another winner. It was the same chicken curry that came with the roti prata but with a larger piece of chicken and whole lot less sauce - a bit more would have been nice since all the other condiments were pretty dry. The rice was rich with coconut flavours and the deep fried mackeral with the sambal sauce was so, so good! I say that all the traditional recipes that call for ikan bilis should be torn up and thrown into the fire and be replaced by this. Crispy yet tender, and substantial compared to those puny weenie lil deep fried anchovies.

If it couldn't get any better, it did! Another win for the night was Malaysian Blachan Chicken (£6.00). Served pipping hot with a side of sweet chili sauce lightened with white vinegar and swirled little cucumber slices to freshen up what can sometimes be an overly sweet sauce. The chicken thigh pieces (yay!) were juicy and the batter was incredibly crunchy.

I still can't believe it took me so long to discover this place. It's been on my radar for some time now but I've found so many Malaysian restaurants in London so disappointing (my first thoughts go to Kopi Tiam on Charing Cross Road that proved so bad I haven't had the heart to write up a review on it) and a few that are passble (Rasa Sayang sits high on this list). But hey, I'm proud of Malaysian food and if a bit of my country is going to represented abroad, it better be bloody darn delicious!

Sedap
102 Old Street, London, EC1V 9AY

I'm Lovin' It - McDonald's

2010-10-26T15:22:00.000+01:00

Everyone needs a McDonald's pit stop every now and then. I think you can tell this stop was overdue ... all this food, including an orange juice and a LARGE Mars milkshake, for two people. Yes, 2!

This was a seasonal special. I can't actually remember what it was called but it was probably along the line of 'Q' with bacon.

'Q' innards - grilled beef patty, Swiss cheese, bacon (hiding in there somewhere), tomato, lettuce, some sort of creamy dressing on a toasted ciabatta style bread

Filet-O-Fish - My childhood favourite that I haven't had in years! To be honest I'm not even sure if this was my favourite McDonald's burger as a child. It was just something that was ordered for me that I just ate. It's good though. Sinking my teeth into the pillow-y softness of the bun felt like I was transported back in time :)

Filet-O-Fish innards - deep fried breaded white fish fillet, tartare sauce and a cheese slice (this rubbery yellow slice of stuff is definitely not cheese but some miracle whipped up in a boiling vat in a factory - you would know all about it if you watched the very informative 3 part programme - E Numbers: An Edible Adventure on BBC2) sandwiched between a pillow soft steamed bun.

9 pieces of chicken McNuggets

A side order of a double cheeseburger. I haven't eaten one of these in years (not that I eat McDonald's all that often anyway) but I had forgotten how much I like these burgers. It's something about that double meat pattie and rubbery cheese layer. Emmm mmmm...!

"Burp!"

The Great Thai Cafe - Fitzrovia, London

2010-10-24T23:48:00.000+01:00

SM and I stumbled upon this great little Thai cafe in Fitzrovia (which according to Wikipedia is the area situated between Marylebone and Bloomsbury and north of Soho) about a week back and I'm slightly embarrassed to say that I've loved it so much that I've been back twice since. On my 2nd visit I actually planned a meeting I had in the area to finish at lunchtime so I could grab something from my new favourite Thai cafe. It's nothing fancy. If you blink you might even miss it. But the prices are reasonable, service very efficient and the food is pretty darn good. My knowledge of Thai food isn't excellent - my one and only visit to Thailand was when I was about 12 to the painfully touristy Phuket but I do know what I like and I liked the food at The Great Thai Cafe.

SM went down the usual route and got a chicken Thai green curry (less spicy, please) (£4.95) and garlic fried rice (£2.50). The chef definitely did her (yup, she emerged from the kitchen downstairs halfway through our meal to greet a regular customer) best to tone done the spice level as requested but all the flavours were there - slight tingle of heat, fragrance of the lemongrass, lime leaves, coriander, fish sauce and creamy from the coconut milk.

I went with the Thai boat noodle soup with sliced pork and pork balls (£6.50). Beef is probably a lot more traditional but I never say no to my favourite pork balls. The soup was heartwarming with the flavours of star anise, cinnamon, soy and fish sauces really coming through. To top it all off a teaspoonful of crispy minced garlic. Happiness in a bowl.

To ensure that I got my 5 a day (or rather out of curiosity) I also ordered a portion of som tam (Thai papaya salad) (£5.50). I must have had this dish a few times over the years but it has never clocked in my brain. So I will consider this my first experience with this dish. Any good? It was bloody hot! My tongue was on fire (I forgot to ask for it to be made with less chili - those damn bird's eyes kept staring right at me!). Yes, despite the tongue numbing heat (I've become more of a chili wuss the longer I stay away from Malaysia) the other flavours were there - sweet, sour, salty. I noticed that the green papaya was bulked up with cabbage but hell, I'm not so much of a purist to mind.

The bill came up to just over £20 with 2 drinks. Pretty good I thought. And the food appeared bubbling hot and delicious about 10 minutes after ordering.

The 2nd visit was for a lunch takeaway (sorry no pics) was from their Express Lunch menu (all main dishes for £5.95 served with steamed rice). I could have ordered from the menu but I stuck with the chicken Thai red curry mainly because ready and warming in a bain marie by the counter. It was so yum ... I definitely had more than one envious colleague that day.

The third time was for dinner with SM again last night. I was feeling low and down after a disastrous yoga session and needed some comfort Asian food. And lo and behold, where was The Great Thai Cafe? One street down. Yay! We shared a portion of special fried rice with pork, beef massman curry and minced pork omelette. No photos I'm afraid. Just a few well fed, satisfied oinkers.

The Great Thai Cafe
57 Great Portland Street, W1W 7LH London

Swedish Meatballs ...

2010-10-24T22:27:00.000+01:00

.... where else but Ikea, Sweden's greatest export to the world. I wasn't even there to buy anything. It just one of those random visits ... apparently I have been on a few of those to Ikea because on this visit I could distinctively tell the meatballs weren't quite up to scratch. Or maybe I've had them (meatballs) once too often recently. Ohh here's an interesting bit of information ... did you know the Scan Pork & Beef Swedish Meatballs (found in most major supermarkets) taste exactly the same as those served up in Ikea?

And since we were there anyway, it would have been a bit rude not to stop off for a hot dog and an ice cream cone on our way out. Believe it or not but SM stood in the queue for 20 minutes just for these. Reminder to self - stay away from Ikea on a Saturday!

Second reminder to self - maybe stay away from the meatballs for awhile and go withthe hotdog. It's surprisingly good.

Tempura Udon

2010-10-24T13:20:00.001+01:00

I think I might just have found myself a winner batch of batter! Whoop whoop! A big thank you to the Japanese and their technique of using ice/cold water - I should never have doubted you. I have to say my fritters or should I say tempura was bloody fantastic. Light and crisp ... sigh ....

Tempura
Prawns - I could only get hold of a packet of pre-cooked teeny weeny prawns so I went with that
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup corn flour
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup cold/ice water
Oil for deep frying

Mix the plain and corn flours and the salt in a mixing bowl. Add in the water and mix the batter lightly. You don't want to over mix it and definitely want it a bit lumpy. Tip the prawns into the batter
Heat the oil in a deep pan until a breadcrumb sizzles and turns brown when dropped into it.
Add a tablespoonful of prawns and batter into the hot oil. Cook the batter in batches of 2-3 fritters per batch for 2-3 minutes each, or until crisp and golden. When cooking in batches, ensure you leave enough space between them to ensure they don't merge into a large fritter.
Carefully remove each fritter from the oil and drain on kitchen paper. Serve.

I served my prawn tempura with udon and broccoli.

Sweet Temptation

2010-10-21T01:57:00.000+01:00

Running with the high calorie, caramel theme of the last post Stuart got himself a Venti Caramel Signature Hot Chocolate with Cream when we popped into Starbucks for a quick coffee over the weekend. Oh, so drool worthy! He even got the caramel syrup and the cream free, courtesy of the Starbucks Card (no, I'm not promoting anything but you should know by now what a sucker I am for anything free:) As it was also probably the end of the day the girl behind the counter asked Stuart if he wanted extra "drazzle" of caramel on his drink. I shouldn't laugh but it amused us to no end that evening. The girl really was quite sweet and she even piled on the cream.

Me? I got a tall filter coffee for £1. That's 'cos I'm stingy ........ :)

Buttermilk Pancakes, Crispy Bacon and Butterscotch Bananas

2010-10-17T14:57:00.001+01:00

A breakfast to induce a heart attack and add inches to those pudgy thighs, just what I need this Sunday morning.

Serves 2 hungry people or 3 slightly less hungry people

Buttermilk Pancakes
100g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
284ml tub buttermilk
pinch of salt

Butterscotch Bananas
100g butter
100g caster sugar
100ml double cream
2 large bananas

Crispy Bacon
6 rashers streaky bacon

For the pancakes, sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar and a pinch of salt into a bowl. Mix together the eggs and buttermilk and whisk into the flour mixture until the batter is thick and smooth.
Heat a large frying pan on low-medium heat, preferably non-stick, and brush lightly with melted butter. Drop 2 or 3 large spoonfuls of batter into the pan to make pancakes about 10cm in diameter. When bubbles begin to appear on the surface, after about 3-4 minutes, carefully flip the pancakes over and cook on the other side until browned. Cook in batches of 2-3 pancakes in the pan until all the batter is finished.
Whilst you're cooking the pancakes, make the butterscotch by heating the sugar and butter in a pan on medium heat. Be careful when heating sugar - it gets really hot and burns pretty fast as soon as the sugar melts. As soon as the sugar crystals have melted into a medium brown colour, add the cream. Let the mixture boil until it turns a lovely golden butterscotch/caramel colour. Peel the bananas and slice on diagonal into half inch thick slices. Add the bananas into the sauce and stir. Remove the mixture from the heat and set aside.
Just before you cook your last batch of pancakes, put the bacon on an oven try and put the meat under a pre-heated grill. Grill for about 3-4 minutes on each side or until crisp.
Plate up with 3-4 pancakes a person. Laddle on the butterscotch bananas and top with the bacon.

Tea and Cake ... with a Teaspoonful of Tolstoy and a Dash of Larsson

2010-10-16T02:03:00.001+01:00

I don't think there's ever a bad time for a cuppa and cake. A slice? Oh go on, make it two. I actually got round to making a lemon and poppy seed cake a few weeks ago but I can't for the life of me remember where I got the recipe from. If I'm truly honest with myself, it was probably a recipe I boshed together myself and thank heavens on this occasion it turned out just right. I do remember I used oil instead of butter, which points to the dissection of a muffin recipe along the way and yogurt for moistness. Ahhh... and then there was the lemon drizzle - just in case the yogurt only did half the job. I really must go find the recipe!

On a more literary note, if you've been through my Flickr stream you'll notice the constant presence of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace by my lamp. I've been trying to get into the book for months and months (actually it's closer to years and years now) but that entry point just keeps alluding me. I seem to go backwards more than I go forward but I live in hope that one day I'll be determined enough to finish reading the darn thing. Until that day I faithfully dust off the covers every now and then before moving to more exciting books ..... like Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. I'm on book 3 at the moment and I can't believe how many other people I see on the tube and bus reading one of the books in the series. I actually had a full conversation with someone on the bus *shock horror .... really? In London?* about the books. It really is the little things that bring people to talk to each other :) For me it all started with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in a little corner of one of the many Starbucks dotted around the city with my usual brew - skinny latte with an extra shot, please.

The Re-emergence of the Work Desk Lunch

2010-10-16T01:22:00.000+01:00

Lunch at work has been eaten increasingly at my desk recently. Not that I mind much most of the time but sometimes it's nice to have a break to recharge the old batteries. On this occassion it was cheap sushi - an eel roll and three inari pouches topped with cooked grated carrot.

Wantons - Weekend Cooking

2010-10-02T00:15:00.003+01:00

A visit to my uncle and his family always means one thing - food ... and lots of it. My last trip up I made wantons. Or should I say, we made wantons. It's always nice to have a few helpers about the kitchen :)

We decided on a mix of pork and prawns for our wantons. Minced pork, diced prawns, water chestnuts, chives and a dollop of grated ginger.

A good mix of all the ingrediants with a good splash of soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame seed oil and white pepper. The mixture was then left to rest for an hour or so to let the flavours fuse.

I also mixed up a batch of wanton filling minus the pork for my cousin LH who isn't at all that keen on meat.

The wantons all prettily wrapped up and the sides sealed shut with a paste made with a touch corn starch and a drop or two of water.

The extra pork and prawn wantons were rolled into little balls to be cooked in a broth along with the soup wantons.

Deep fried to golden brown gorgeous-ness. There was a ton more wantons, some prettier than others but all just as delicious. No photos of the wantons and meatballs in the soup, I'm afraid. They were not at all photogenic.

Sinfully Good Sorbets - Gelupo, Soho

2010-09-21T00:12:00.000+01:00

How could Gelupo not make another appearence? It's a practically a hop, skip and a jump from Maoz and it would be rude not to drop by ... really. On this visit I got a double scoop on a cone - chocolate and espresso sorbets. Rich, dark and so good!

Gelupo
7 Archer Street, London W1D 7AU

Falafel Sandwiches and Belgian Fries - Maoz, Soho

2010-09-20T23:53:00.001+01:00

A late appointment in Soho a few weeks ago led me to Maoz for a bite to eat. Despite having walked past on numerous occasions I've never been in. There's always somewhere I would have preferred to eat like ... well, Chinatown. Think of all those yummy crisp skin roasted ducks, wobbly soft braised pork belly, crunchy sautéed greens coated in minced garlic ... This time I wanted cheap and fast and NOT McDonald's so Maoz it was.

The Maoz Sandwich combo meal is priced pretty decently (around the 5 or 6 quid mark or thereabouts) and it consisted of a falafel sandwich with houmous and grilled aubergine, a side of Belgian fries and a drink. There's also a free reign of the salad bar. To be honest I'm not sure what they mean by a free salad bar ... would I be whacked on the hand if I went back for more? I wasn't about to find out so I made just that one sweep at the bar. It's not so much fun since they cunningly stuff the pita pretty full in the first place. But no worries ... Woolworth's (in the days of old) pick and mix taught me valuable lessons on how to get as much sweeties into a tiny little bag and not having to upgrade to a bigger bag. But under the eagle egg of the girl behind the counter and the guy next to me at the salad bar who kept getting in my way, I didn't pile on as much as I would have liked. I managed a few pickles, red cabbage, lots of fried cauliflower and a great big splat of garlic sauce. Verdict? All the top bits were yum but the bread was dry and just got in the way of the serious eating. On a scale of 5 it was probably a 2.5-3.

I'd been looking forward to the Belgian fries (yup, that's what it's called on the menu) but they were seriously disappointing. I've always salivated when I saw photos of the fries from Maoz - crunchy golden nuggets of deliciousness. They were instead the exact opposite of how I imagined them to be. A solid fry with a limp-ish exterior. Also, drinks wise don't bother with the fresh lemonade with mint. It unfortunately sounds and looks better than it tastes. I'm a big fan of ice and Maoz doesn't do ice or chilled either it seems. The lemonade was lukewarm and incredibly sour.

Maoz is actually pretty decent. The food's not bad for the price and the next time I stop by I'm definitely going for the salad box. I've worked out that the salad container is sturdier (better) for the purpose of fried cauliflower and garlic sauce overload. And minus the whimsy bit of pita. Happy days!

Maoz
43 Old Compton St, London W1D 6HG

Cupcakes - Bea's of Bloomsbury, London

2010-09-15T01:27:00.001+01:00

I've been in a right old state over the last few weeks. Nothing more than what I call my annual bout of autumn blues. But I think I'm being particularly dramatic this year. Come tomorrow I can officially say that I have called London home for the last 10 years. It's a pretty big milestone and it's throwing up more questions than I have answers for.

And all this while I have been craving cake but not any old rag pile but a particularly fine Victoria sponge. Trawling through the net I found an entry for Bea's of Bloomsbury's. A mere stone's throw from my office too. But being the overly dramatic queen I'm turning out to be, I moaned to a colleague about my hankering for cake but refused to walk out to get myself some. The next day when I got to my desk I found a box sitting on my desk with these little babies sitting inside. My lovely colleague, TN, whom I was moaning my life's ills away to the day before had stopped by Bea's on his way to work to pick me up some cake. No Victoria sponge but a lovely chocolate cupcake with chocolate fudge ganache icing topped with a sliced strawberry and very pretty another chocolate cupcake with raspberry buttercream icing topped with a raspberry. It certainly put a smile back on my face. Thank you, TN!

Malaysia Eats

2010-09-12T02:45:00.003+01:00

I thought I should finally sort out my photos tonight, starting with those of Istanbul taken all those months ago back in April. But ... there's always a but ... bloody Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Live Photo Gallery keep crashing my computer so I've given up. I'm too tired to faff around trying to troubleshoot something I haven't a clue about. So I've turned my attention to some of the stuff that never made it to my posts about my last trip home. Just a few photos from various meals. Oh hush my grumbling tummy .........! Enjoy :)

Marco Polo Restaurant
1st Floor, Wisma Lim Foo Yong, Jalan Raja Chulan, 50200 Kuala Lumpur

This used to be one of the places to hold a Chinese wedding banquet when I was a kid. I haven't been back in years. The dim sum is decent - think a step up from your local coffee shop on a Sunday morning and not quite as fancy as the Chinese restaurant at your favourite downtown 5* hotel.

Steamed black pepper chicken balls

Lor mai kai (steamed sticky glutinous rice with chicken, mushrooms and various other bits)

Din Tai Fung
Lot LG-207, Lower Ground Floor, The Gardens, Mid Valley City

Famous for their xiao long bau (Shanghainese soup dumplings) and very popular with my family. The food is pretty good and seems pretty consistent from the two occasions that I've been here. The one thing that grates on me is their insistence of the waiting staff to only speak Mandarin to their customers. Correct me if I'm wrong but Cantonese is the accepted Chinese dialect spoken in KL, so why insist on Mandarin? The waitress is only giving herself more work since she'll have to repeat everything she just said to me in English anyway. Yes, I sound like a spoilt brat and I refuse to apologise for it ..... making me sound even more brattish :)

Xiao long bau ... yum yum yum! Good splurt of hot broth but eat too many and you'll start to notice how fatty each little dumpling is.

Thin slithers of ginger in black vinegar, the traditional accompaniment to xiao long bau.

Deep fried beans with mince. I always thought of this as a Sichuanese dish but apparently it's Shanghainese too.

Braised seaweed topped tofu with Chinese mushrooms

Beard Papa
Lot LG007, Lower Ground Floor, Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur

I haven't had a Beard Papa custard puff in years and it seems like my mum had never had one ever so I bought us one to share. It's still good. And I still not a huge fan of choux pastry.

Ampang Yong Tau Foo (shop next to Foong Foong)
Jalan Besar Ampang, 68000 Ampang

Foong Foong is the family stall of choice when we want Ampang yong tau foo (like so many other families I suspect) but mum broke some rather sad news when I insisted we cross town in mid day traffic to eat here ... Foong Foong is closed. Seriously? Surely not ... it's been there since.... well, since I remember eating yong tau foo. We went anyway and sure enough the shutters were down and the gates firmly padlocked. I hope we went on a day they decided to close for the day or I shall be very upset. So we went to the stall next door. Usually sad and so in need of custom, they were doing a good trade with Foong Foong closed (I don't even know its name ... dearie me). To be fair the yong tau foo tastes (dare I say it .... ) almost the same as Foong Foong but years ago they cocked out and started selling other dishes to entice customers. Imagine ... assam fish with yong tau foo ... impossible!

Our miserly looking 15 piece yong tau foo plate for 4 people ... it just can't compare to my dad's order of 40 pieces for 4 people when I last ate at Foong Foong's in January 2009. This order was definitely enough considering our 4 this time included my 90 year old grandmother who now eats like a bird.

Deep fried sui kow (like wontons but better!)

This is really what I come for ... the soup sui kow. This has got to be one of my all time favourite foods.

Restoran SS2 Murni
Jalan SS2/75, Petaling Jaya

Murni has got to be one of the coolest mamaks around. Run by a Chinese owner (*eyebrow raised .... "really?"), it's frequented by a truely muhibah crowd ... we sat next to a large Indian family finishing their dinner, a Malay couple eating roti and sipping teh ais whilst talking quietly to each other, a young Chinese couple sharing an extra large juice and a maggie goreng as they busily texted friends and practically ignoring each other, a large group of friends who were very possibly in college together. And there was me and my sister busy stuffing our faces, nudging each other and cackling out loud as we watched out our neighbours. I've been coming here for years and it's still as busy as it was when I was in college. The food is insane ... the menu combination is like no other mamak - there's your traditional rotis and rotis with a new twist - roti hawaii, roti seafood, roti salad. There's also the steak and chips, loh shu fun, spaghetti marinara. Brilliant!

The juices are also another reason to drop by Murni. We both got the medium watermelon juice special. Fresh watermelon juice blended with lots of ice, topped with lychee, chopped watermelon and nata de coco. So damn good on a muggy evening.

Candice had a hankering for fried chicken so we got fried chicken. The waiter gave us a choice which was - batter or not batter? Errr .... no batter please. Batterless fried chicken .. almost pointless. It was quite nice though. A whole chicken leg marinated in soy and served with chili sauce.

My must have dish when I'm back in KL - Maggie goreng. Probably not as good as other mamak stalls but it'll do.

Roti Jepun - we're still not entirely sure what was in this but we think it was egg, cheese and condensed milk (or the Malaysian version of dairy free condensed milk anyway). Not sure how this is in anyway Japanese and it wasn't particularly great.

Roti Hawaii - a new twist on the traditional murtabak. Filled with mince beef, sliced frankfurters, tinned pineapple and cheese. Topped with a generous squeeze of the mayonnaise bottle. Served with a blob of red sauce (chili or ketchup?), dhal and curry. What a combination. I oddly liked this. Give me frankfurters and ketchup and I can be very forgiving.

Penang Teochew Cendul
Lebuh Keng Kwee, Off Penang Road, Penang

Part of our search for good Penang char kway teow included a cendul stop (see post here). There was apparently a very good stall that we just had to try. Personally I wasn't too bothered to get to this stall. It was a horridly hot day, I was stuffed from too much lunch and it was too comfortable in the air conditioned car to tempt me out. But hey I was on holiday and it would be mighty unsociable to continue snoozing in the car, which would get baking hot the moment the engine was stopped. So we trudged along Penang Road, not quite sure where we were going until we found it. A dingy little stall down a side street with a crowd of people holding plastic bowls. The sign proudly proclaimed it as the famous Penang Road Teochew cendol. So how is Teochew cendol different from ... let's say the Indian guy who sells it? No idea. This stall does however add red beans to their concoctions. Ergh! Hate red beans.

I just had to be difficult - my special order of no red beans. Good cendol? It was ok cendol.Less sweet than many other I have tried. My mother who has a particularly sweet tooth would have complained they were too light on the gula melaka. Ahhh each to his own I suppose :)

Mangal Ocakbaşı - Grilled Lamb Dreams Do Come True!

2010-09-03T13:30:00.001+01:00

My visit to Istanbul was all about the consumption of lamb .... all the delicious dripping goodness of the revered baby sheep. But by the time our 5 day stay was over, lamb ... and mutton was definitely off my menu for awhile. Ok... so Istanbul was months ago (end of April ... and still no posts from that trip up yet) and even then I surprised myself when I suggested trudging up to Dalston/Stoke Newington over the weekend for some grilled meat ... some Turkish grilled meat to be precise. It is a long way to trudge, something of which SM constantly reminded me of as we made our way there through Saturday evening traffic, but what's a few miles and a bit of light London traffic when there's such promise of good food? I think some true Malaysian colours are shinning bright from me :) Anything for a bit of delicious chow.

I had done my bit of research and was set on Mangal Ocakbaşı with its very decent online reviews. Not even a Saturday evening with queues of diners and rumbling tummies was going to deter me from this restaurant. Thank heavens the queue was short and we got a table within 10 minutes of arriving. As we waited we watched the man behind the grill work his magic - meat on, wait, turn meat, wait, turn meat, wait, meat off the grill - all this behind a huge plume of smoke. I take my hat off to him. He must go home stinking of grilled meat at the end of the night.

As soon as we sat down, a basket of bread was set down on the table. Judging from the other tables, this was the bread we were going to have to work with throughout the meal. Soft yet chewy at the same time it .... brilliant on an empty stomach and even more delicious with our order of ezme salata - finely chopped tomatoes, onions, parsley, chili and lemon juice. I absolutely adored this (remember my love for tomatoes?) ... tangy, refreshing .... what's not to like? Oooh .. maybe the the raw onions. What a strong lingering after taste.

I was pretty insistent on getting the lahmacun, which came thin,crip and topped with a right amount of minced lamb, onion and peppers. Very nice indeed but (shake your head if you must) even better with a nice big dollop of ezme salata. Perfect portions for a starter but not enough for me. I wanted more!

For a bit of everything, the mixed grill is a pretty good choice. For £13 there's a minced lamb kebab,a piece of lamb chop on the bone,a piece of lamb chop off the bone, cubed lamb and a chicken wing (fortunately/unfortunately you don't get the other boring chicken bits like chicken breast kebab). Served with a grilled tomato, grilled green chili and a mixed salad. For a couple of extra quid, the quail could be added to the mix. he lamb chops on the bone was probably the best of the mix, tender with just the right amount of fat and of course that bone to gnaw on. I found the chop off the bone had a little too much fat and the lamb cubes were cut just too small. The chicken wing was tender and juicy and oh so good. I sometimes forget how much I enjoy barbecued chicken on the bone.

Adding to our lamb fest, I ordered a portion of lamb chops on the bone (£9). The three large juicy pieces of lamb were served with the usual grilled tomato, grilled green chili and a mixed salad.

Mangal Ocakbaşı is not the sort of place that seduces you into staying too long. Space is tight, noise levels are high and there's almost always a group waiting eagerly for a table by the entrance. Here you eat, you drink (it's BYO if you want anything alcoholic) and then you make way for the next lot of diners. The service was brisk but not unfriendly. Some old timers have complained that Mangal Ocakbaşı has lost some of its charm since its popularity has soared over the last few years - heaven forbid,they have even introduced a menu! :) The food is wonderful and so worth the visit.

Mangal Ocakbaşı
10 Arcola Street, London E8 2DJ

Summer Dinners

2010-08-23T12:59:00.002+01:00

Tom Yum Mussels with Garlic and Chili Pasta

The mussels were a spur of the moment purchase from a Chinese supermarket one weekend. I cooked them up with a tom yum spice mix I had brought back with me from Malaysia and tinned tomatoes. Loads of herbs I also picked up from the Chinese supermarket went in - coriander, dill and mint. Served with pasta simply tossed in olive oil, garlic and chili.

Chedder Stuffed Burgers with Courgette Crisps

I stupidly didn't consider the size of my roll when I shaped out these patties. Amateurish mistake! I was so focus on getting the meat to encase the ball of cheese I forgot about everything else. The patties turned out pretty darn good though - oozy melting cheese. Yum. The meat was flavoured with a myriad of different things I found in my cupboard, which is possibly why none of my food ever tastes the same twice :) The courgette crisps were made by deep frying thin long strips of corgettes coated in cornflour.

Full English

Well, not really a full English since I decided against eggs and bread but I got the hash browns that I had been thinking about. I won't take any credit for this meal as Stuart knocked it up in about 10 minutes flat.

Bacon Fried Rice

I had some rice sitting in the fridge, a pack of bacon I couldn't find room for in the freezer and a whole load of bits and bobs lying around. So fried rice it was and bacon just goes so well with just about anything, doesn't it?

Sweetcorn Fritters with a Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Someone mentioned sweetcorn to me in passing one day and I just knew I had to have sweetcorn fritters for dinner that very evening. I mixed up a batch of batter of flour, corn flour and an egg, seasoned it and added some cayanne pepper. I then added as much sweetcorn as the batter could hold. On hindsight I should have defrosted the sweetcorn before I added it to the mixture to avoid the huge sweetcorn clump. Yes, I know it's summer with an abundance of sweetcorn but sometimes I just want a pain free evening that frozen food offers. Served with a simple salad of chopped tomatoes and cucumber topped with olive oil and chili pepper flakes.

Roast Teriyaki Chicken Legs

I marinated a batch of chicken legs in teriyaki sauce, honey, black pepper and spring onions overnight. All I had to do the next day was to shove it all into the oven and dinner was ready 40 minutes later. Served with steaming hot rice, of course.

Grilled Mackeral with Thai Inspired Salad

The mackeral fillets were quickly grilled (about 3 minutes each side) and served with what I like to call a Thai inspired salad (thinking along the lines of the Thai papaya salad, som tam). Long shreds of courgette, carrot, red onion, tomatoes and coriander tossed in a dressing of fish sauce, chili, lime juice, sugar and garlic.

Macaroni in a Fresh Tomato Sauce with Burger Patties

I love summer for it's abundance of fruit and veg and none makes me smile more than the tomato. My tomato love affair is intensely passionate and if I could, I would probably add tomato to all the dishes I cook. I bought a huge batch the other week and I'm desperate to eat them before they go bad. What better way than a fresh tomato sauce with olive oil, garlic and basil. I also added some spinach to my boiled macaroni and fried up some sun dried tomato burger patties (cut up into bite size chunks) to serve with it.

Fried Kway Teow (Thai Style)

My food is frequently Thai style but never truely Thai. I just like borrowing elements from Thai cuisine - I love the freshness, the herbs, the flavour. This is a lot like phad thai but minus quite a few of the essential ingredients like tamarind juice, crushed peanuts, lime juice, etc. I boiled up some flat rice noodles (which I love over and beyond any other kinds of noodles and know it as kway teow or hor fun), fried up some chinese leaf, thinly sliced tomato, spring onion, shredded chicken, prawns and egg. I added the softened noodles to the mixture before flavouring the dish with fish sauce, oyster sauce and my secret ingredient, ketchup. I guess I'm just a big kid who never outgrew her taste for ketchup with almost anything :) Some rough torn basil leaves went in just before the final toss of the noodles for extra flavour.

Summer Treats - Amorino & Gelupo, Soho

2010-08-22T23:09:00.002+01:00

I've gone a little ice cream mad lately. Actually not just any old ice cream but that lusciously beautiful stuff that the Italians are so proud of - gelato. I love ice cream, I LOVE dairy .... I could quite happily eat ice cream and whipped cream by the bucket load ... did someone mention clotted cream? Oh yeah ... bring on tub down with you.

Unfortunately, dairy don't love me.

Every now and then I turn a blind eye to this love-hate relationship and indulge for all its worth. First stop, Amorino on Old Crompton Street in Soho. I've poked my head in a couple of times for a good look at the lavishly displayed offerings and walking away with muttered reminders to return another day. Not that I've ever made it back for a tasting until DT showed up in London on a short notice holiday and suggested dinner. DT, it turns out, is a big ice cream fan so Amorino seemed like a pretty good dessert stop.

The back wall of Amorino is lined with glass cases filled with boxes of beautifully coloured sweets for sale but look at the price!

I stayed on the safe side and got myself a small tub and got my two favourites - Alphonso mango sorbet and hazelnut. I wasn't thinking of great combinations when I got those flavours mixed. I never miss out when there's Alphonso mango on the menu and well, I kinda love anything that has hazelnuts in it. Both flavours were good but I was hoping they would blow my head a way a little more than they did. It's pretty hard to get hazelnut wrong so that was fine but there just wasn't enough 'umph' to the mango. When you put the name Alphonso in front of mango, I expect a great big hit. Then again I sometimes do expect too much .....

DT got a large cup with crème caramel and pistachio (what I liked about this place is that the small cup size gets you 2 flavours and all the larger sizes gets you as many flavours as you wish to combine - cup sizes go up to XXL, I believe). The crème caramel was nice but got really sickly sweet after the second bite. Brilliant if you have a super sweet palate. Now the pistachio was a different story. It was SO good! An amazing revelation to me. You see I have spent all these years avoiding pistachio ice cream mainly because I thought it would be another case of good almond/bad almond. I like almonds as a nut but then something weird, bad and wrong happens when it's ground down, cooked, or whatever ... and I, well ... naively thought this would be the same for pistachios but it's not. It's so delicious with an almost meaty depth. So you have it ... a pistachio ice cream convert.

A few weeks later I was on the ice cream case again (even though my 'dairy hates me' consequences from my last ice cream stop had barely faded from memory). This time I wanted to try Gelupo, also located in Soho but this time located down the slightly seedier Archer Street opposite its sister restaurant, Bocca di Lupo. Gelupo is decorated along clean line with duck egg blue tiles, marble table tops and white painted floorboards. Unlike Amorino, their offerings of gelatos, sorbets and granitas hide beneath metel domes that are only revealed when you make an order. And here you pay per flavour not by cup size.

SM was quick to put in an order for blood orange granita and melon sorbet. Damn, those were my choices too! If I had to pick between melon and mango, the melon always wins. It's just so hard to find a place that does melon and does it well. But I'm adamant there will not be duplicate orders. I go for the espresso sorbet and after lots of 'ahhh-ing' settle for the hazelnut (of which I mentally kicked myself over and did berate SM for talking me out of getting the pistachio). I love my hazelnuts but I've had pistachio on my mind ever since I had it at Amorino.

SM's choices were an instant hit. The blood orange was amazing - mouth puckeringly tangy with an amazing hit of dense, full bodied blood orange . There is no such thing as watering down the flavours at Gelupo. The melon in contrast was mellow with great perfume. Considering the punch of the blood orange, the melon held it's own very well.

I'm officially in love with the espresso sorbet, which is apparently milk free ... but does this mean it's dairy free too?Not that it matters, I guess but it's one of those things that will niggle at the back of my mind until I find out. The sorbet is bitter and strong with just a twinge of sweetness to keep it in check. So, SO good. The hazelnut is good but with the discovery of the other flavours it is slightly sidelined. I think I may just have to give it a rest on my next ice cream trip. There is a whole world of amazing flavours to be tried. Rumour has it the avocado and honey is good, and there is even a rice flavour (I had it in Vietnam and it was pretty darn good).

I do believe I have a preference for Gelupo over Amorino. The flavours are whole lot more exciting and there is more heart in getting what they offer up to scratch. Food tastings aside, the service is much better at Gelupo too. Yes, I know it's an ice cream parlour with minimal interaction with staff but in those short minutes spent at the counter, efficient and friendly service makes all the difference. The servers at Amorino seem almost impatient with customers. No smile, haughty explanations of how their cup size system works and (almost) looks of disdain when recommendations were asked for. When I asked what one of the gelatos was (my Italian being non-existent, so the name tag meant nothing to me) he prattled out the name anyway and I asked him what it was exactly, there was a definite look of 'how can you not know what it is?'. Not good, not good at all ... My other gripe about Amarino is the odd queuing system - this place operates on pay first and get served later but the till is located at the far end of the room after the refrigerators housing the ice cream. So they make customers walk away from the goods they want to buy only to come back again later. This to-ing and fro-ing makes an already tiny space congested and confusing and somehow I don't believe the mind of the customer works the way they have set their operation out. By all means ensure your customers don't have to start queuing on the street but there really must be another way to all of this. Despite my grumblings I will quite happily return (I'll just have to ignore the appaling service). And believe me when I say thank heavens there are a few more decent ice cream places in central London. Not so long ago the best recommended was Scoop which I find to be pretty dire and have kept my distance ever since.

Amorino
41 Old Compton Street, London W1D 6HF
Web: www.amorino.com (there's a language choice of either French or Spanish)

Gelupo
7 Archer Street, London W1D 7AU
Web - www.gelupo.com

A Trip Down To the Coffeeshop .... Malaysian Style

2010-08-19T23:53:00.003+01:00

I've been feeling a little homesick recently so I thought I'll go out of my way and do myself absolutely no favours by digging up some photos from my last trip home. Some lovely photos of gorgeous food .. my last meal of my trip actually which I shared with my mum. Yup, that's right ... all this food for two people :) Looking at the food is making feel all warm and fuzzy inside. A quick fix indeed.

Teochew braised duck with tofu and hard boiled egg. I absolutely adore this dish - everything except the egg. It's not a dish that one comes by all that frequently.

Hakka mee - my first every bowl of Hakka mee at a coffeeshop, ever. But nothing beats my grandmother's version - oily, salty and brilliantly delicious.

Hong Kong char siew cheong fun. Soft, silky with a decent amount of meat and a nice dollop of chili oil. Not the best but not too bad either.

Ipoh kway teow - no self respecting stall in Ipoh would serve anything like this. Definitely two thumbs down but on the bright side the noodles where beautifully soft and silky.

Iced barley and iced local coffee with condensed milk. I really miss local Malaysian coffee with it's hints of buttery-ness. No wonder since it's roasted in margerine

Aubin and Randall - Soho, London

2010-08-02T01:32:00.001+01:00

Knowing my father's fondness for seafood platters, I mentally jotted down Aubin and Randall in Soho as a potential place to eat when he was next in town. The restaurant was always bustling on the numerous occasions I have passed by and the food didn't look too bad either. Reviews online showed the sort of middle of the road comments ... never quite a five but around the three. Good enough to risk a meal with my parents.

A no booking policy meant waiting for a table but with the nice weather and a chilled glass of wine supplied by the charming waiter, the time passed by fast enough. Once settled on our high stools in the teeny tiny restaurant, a little cramped but it's all part of the charm (though someone might want to tell the staff that the slightly overenthusiastic dance music was more than a little out of sync with the Parisian chic atmosphere that they were trying to recreate), we were supplied with bread, butter and olives (a surcharge of £1.50 is charged per person) for us to nibble on whilst waiting for our orders.

Finally the pièce de résistance arrived - the fruits de mer. Our waitress advised getting the minimum order for 2 people (priced at £29.50 per person) with the serving being rather large and getting a few sides to share or another main (or two) later if we were still hungry. And how right she was .... the serving was very generous - a selection of rock oysters, whole crab, giant prawns, Atlantic shrimp, diver picked scallops, whelks, cherry stone clams and green lip mussels. There was supposed to be langoustine on the platter as well but as they had run out for the day we had extra oysters. All the seafood was fresh and tasted good. My father was satisfied. So all was good.

I had started eyeing another table's order of roast chicken and frites when we were standing outside waiting for our table but with our large order of seafood to finish, I had to settle for a side order of fries (£2.65). Not the best fries I've ever had but it had to do for the day.

To jazz thing up a little further with a touch more fried food I also ordered the zucchini frites with basil mayonnaise (£4.95), which were yummy-delish! Juicy batons of courgette encased in light batter served with basil tainted mayonnaise. I absolutely adore mayo with fried food so was particularly delighted with this dish.

After much debate if we should get more food, we finally decided to "not overdo things" and get a main to share instead. The waitress recommended the pan fried king scallops with braised fennel and sauteed potato crisps (£16.85). The scallops were nicely cooked and despite being a fennel hater ... I found it rather yummy. Braised but still retaining a little crunch. The most interesting part of the dish was the sauce which took quite a few guesses to try to get right. Saffron, mango juice and star anise amongst other things ...... who would have thought ... it came out robust with an underlining fruitiness. Even then it was the waitress who came round to inquire if I had guessed the ingredients correctly. Apparently it is a common occurrence with customers who order this particular dish to conduct a taste test on the sauce.

Decent food and friendly service. Our waitress even gave us a little lesson on the French occupation of Algeria as she sorted out our bill. I think my father might suggest another visit when he is in town next.

Aubin and Randall
16 Brewer Street, Soho, London W1F 0SQ

Moo! - Whitechapel, London

2010-08-01T18:37:00.002+01:00

Flicking through Time Out online on Friday, I came across a review for Moo! a new-ish Argentinian café and wine bar in Whitechapel (from the same team behind the popular Battersea steak house, Santa Maria del Sur which was featured in Gordon Ramsey's F Word). Just a stone's throw from Farrigdon Station, the area is deathly quiet on Friday evenings but perfect for a chilled out bite to eat.

We were greeted, seated and the small menu explained by the very friendly manager (I didn't get his name but from the Time Out article he must have been Jose, the Argentinian manager who runs the place with his South Korean wife). Moo! is all about the lomito (sandwich) with the option of beef, chicken or aubergine. You can either have the simple version (£5) - just tomato and lettuce or go full whack and get the lomito completo (£6.50). Big ass with ham, cheese, tomato, lettuce and egg. Or if you're feeling particularly picky, you can make your own (£4). Additional toppings are £0.50 but additional beef, chicken or aubergine will set you back another £2.50.

To start we ordered a tomato, mozzarella and basil empanada to share, despite being warned by Jose (with a smile) that our orders of lomito completo with chips (add £1) were large. But Jose had never seen SM and I eat. Our baked empanada arrived steaming hot - bigger than a curry puff but a whole lot smaller than a Cornish pasty - and filled with lots of oozing mozzarella, chopped fresh tomato and torn basil leaves. Cheesy puff. Nice but nothing to write home about.

Our lomitos finally arrived and Jose was not lying when he said they were large. They were HUGE! To share we ordered a chicken and a beef. Our order of chips was piled onto one of the plates, not a biggie since we were warned beforehand.

The sandwiches were lush. Both the chicken and beef were still juicy. The beef in particular went particularly well with the chimichurri (that famous Argentinian green sauce that goes with grilled meat), a bottle of which sat at every table. Though I'm not complaining I do wonder why the sandwiches featured ham in them. I'm all for the extra meat and I do like my ham but with all the other meaty flavours, the ham was a bit redundant.

Tummies full, SM and I left very happy indeed to have a little wander around Brick Lane. We even had a little dosh left for a pastry (or two) and a builder's brew from the Brick Lane Bakery .

Moo!
4 Cobb Street, London E1 7LB
Web - http://www.moogrill.co.uk/

Summer Jams

2010-08-01T15:55:00.001+01:00

My new obsession in the kitchen this summer is jam. Two years ago it was ice cream, last summer I was too busy stocking up on my personal levels of vodka to seriously notice anything I did in the kitchen except to fix myself a salad or two but this year my new hobby has taken over. It all started when a few friends and I headed to The Rose Lounge at Sofitel St James for my birthday tea in April and we tasted some magnificent raspberry and rose jam. Oh it was absolutely delicious and I don't say this lightly. I'm not usually a fan of floral tones in my food ... I absolutely detest lavender anywhere near my mouth and none too keen on rose tea but rose in jam I love. It's brilliantly offset by the tart and intense flavour of the berries. Sadly The Rose Lounge don't sell their jams and it's curiously difficult to find that particular flavour combination on sale anywhere.

Armed with a tiny bottle of pure rose oil I bought from Turkey especially for this recipe (I smelt fab after dabbing some on my pulse points too but it got a wee bit cloying after while) I boiled up a vat of jam. I have to admit I modified the recipe a little - using strawberries to bulk up the jam but it still tastes lovely with the strawberries giving it another berry dimension to the overall flavour. So far I've made 2 batches of my strawberry, raspberry and rose jam with slightly different results. The first batch came out very well - with a little help from this blog post by One Girl in a Kitchen where I learnt that apple peel is full of pectin, that all important ingrediant to helping jams set. The lemon, on the other hand, works well with the sugar to jell the pectin (whatever that means .... but it looks like I'm full of useful information today). I wasn't so lucky with my second batch. Not so much luck but an attempt to over complicate things on my part. Instead of just using sugar, I substituted half the sugar for argave nector. A silly move on my part since I have never manage to master the substitution ration of nector to sugar. So my second batch of jam is not as sweet as it should be, which is a no no since ... well, jam is all about being sweet, isn't it?

On the other hand both batches of my peach and vanilla jam came out very nicely. Lush soft chunks of peach encased in thick sweet vanilla scented syrup. Beautiful on toasted sourdough with lots of butter. My one batch of gooseberry and elderflower jam (yes, I'm seeing the floral tone throughout all three jams but it seems I can't get enough of it) didn't quite fare so well. I've somehow managed to avoid gooseberries these many years - never tasting it in a fool or a crumble - and didn't quite know what to expect. I know enough to avoid them raw (but I suppose a little nibble won't have done me any harm) but a little research pointed to them cooking down well with the likely seasonal partner of elderflowers. Feeling a little over confident with my jam making skills at this point I let the jam cook a little too long and in the infamous manner of Kylie Kwong, I let my jam "caramelise". It's still very much edible - it tastes fine (not that I would know any better since I've never eaten it before) but it looks a little darker than it should be ... I think.

Jam is such a homely thing to make ... it's simple enough to make but it does take that bit of love and patience. Something of which I seem to have in abundance this summer :)

Strawberry, Raspberry and Rose Jam
1.5 kg of strawberries - hulled and cleaned
500g raspberries - cleaned
1.5kg sugar - most recipes call for granulated sugar but I quite like the set of my jam when I use caster
Lemon juice from 1.5 - 2 lemons - depending on the size
Apple peel from 3 small apples - depending on the size
3-4 drops of pure rose oil

Halve or quarter your strawberries if they are too big but leave them a little large. It's quite nice to have little chunks of fruit in the finished product.
Place all the ingredients, except the rose oil, into a large pot and mix well. The sugar will disolve as the mixture comes up to a boil. Skim off any scum as it appears.
When the mixture has come up to a boil, lower the heat and let it simmer until it has reached a nice thick consistency. Skim off any scum every so often and give the mixture a stir every now and then to ensure none of the jam has caught at the bottom.
Meanwhile, sterilise your jars. Preheat your oven to 100°C. Wash your jars hot soapy water, rinse well and on a rack over a baking tray. Place in the oven for at least 15 minutes.
Add the rose oil as the mixture thickens.
Once your jam has reached a thick-ish consistency, test the setting point by placing a drop of jam on a cool plate. After a few seconds run your finger down the middle of the drop. If the mixture remains separated, the setting point has been reached. If the liquid returns to form one puddle, leave the jam to simmer for a little while longer.
When the setting point has been reached, switch off the heat. Discard the peel. Remove your jars from the oven and fill with the jam. Be careful not to touch the insides of the jars with your kitchen gloves, etc as you don't want to introduce any unwanted bacteria to your clean jars.
Seal and store in a cool dark place. It should store well for about 6 months to a year.

Peach and Vanilla Jam
1.5 kg just ripe peaches
1kg sugar - caster or granulated
1 vanilla pod
Lemon juice from 1 - 1.5 lemons - depending on the size
Apple peel from 3 apples - depending on the size

Skin the peaches as you would tomatoes - making a 't' shaped slash at the bottom of the fruit. Put the fruit into a bowl and pour over boiling water. Drain after about a minute and the peach skins should slip off easily. Another reason to use ripe peaches is that their skins peel off a lot easier compared to slightly under ripe fruit.
Remove the stones from the fruit and slice the peaches. Each fruit should give you about 8 slices. Don't cut them too small as you want to maintain a bit chunk to your jam.
Place the fruit into your jam pot and add the other ingredients. Slice the vanilla bean in half and scrap out the vanilla seeds before adding both the seeds and pod into the pot.
Mix the ingredients as it comes to a boil. When it starts to boil lower the heat and let the mixture simmer. Skim off any scum when necessary.
Once the jam has reached the desired consistancy, test the setting point. Switch off the heat and discard both the peel and the vanilla pod before laddling the mixture into sterilized jars.
Seal and store in a cool dark place.

Gooseberry and Elderflower Jam
1kg gooseberries
4 tbs elderflower cordial
500g sugar - caster or granulated
Apple peel from 2 apples - depending on the size

Top, tail and clean the gooseberries.
Place the fruit and other ingrediants into your jam pot and bring to a boil. Mix as it boils and skim off any scum when necessary.
Once the jam has reached the desired consistancy, test the setting point. Switch off the heat and discard the peel before laddling the mixture into sterilized jars.
Seal and store in a cool dark place.

Breakfast at Carluccio's - Kingston

2010-07-18T12:45:00.000+01:00

Usually nothing can drag me out of bed before noon on a weekend but circumstances called for an early morning meet up with the girls in Kingston a few weekends ago. Given that choices are limited at that time of the day - Carluccio's definitely won over greasy spoon cafes and McDonald's. Carluccio's with its fill of yummy daddies and mummies playing happy families and older folk with their copies of Daily Mail, Telegraph and maybe on occasion the sneaky copy of the The Sun (purely for the sports section mind you).

Having browsed the menu online the day before (always better prepared) I had my heart set on the Colazione Magnifica (£8.95) for no other reason than that was the heartiest item listed (with a choice of juice and coffee/tea included with the price - bargain!). I got a very nice glass of freshly squeezed (it does make all the difference, doesn't it?) orange juice and a latte. The water was brought over on request by one of the other girls which I probably drank a little grudgingly. More liquids means less food space!

My scrambled eggs, grilled pancetta, sautéed mushrooms and half a grilled tomato came piled on a slice of toasted Italian bread - not quite sure what exactly Italian bread is but at Carluccio's it sure is tough and chewy. Everything else tasted fine - the eggs were done nicely with the right amount of fluffiness and left just a tad bit runny.

JN's order of Uova E Funghi (£6.25) - scrambled eggs with sautéed mushrooms on toast. Pretty much the same as mine but without the pancetta, tomato, orange juice, coffee .....

The others opted for eggs benedict (£7.50) with Italian roast ham. The hollandaise appeared in an over-enthusiastic shade of yellow and smelled like it had come in contact with a heavy hand of vinegar. It tasted like it looked - off-putting. Claggy, sharp and in good need of seasoning. I was personally unimpressed and the dish won no points despite the eggs very prettily cooked.

Being the piggies that we were (are) we ordered another round of carbs after polishing off our mains - a Breakfast Bread Tin (£3.95) and almond croissants (pastries from £1.40) to share. The bread tin consisted of one very good looking croissant (in golden brown perfection), more Italian bread (untoasted this time, which surprisingly tasted a lot nicer than its toasted counterpart), butter and fig jam (ergh!).

We got in a few good hours of natter and noshing before it became distinctly obvious we had overstayed our visit. The breakfast menu was cleared off the tables and the happy families munching on Danish pastries were replaced by hungry families queuing up for their midday fill of risotto and raviolli. All this and it was only just gone twelve. I must say it was weird to have done so much (eaten so much ... I should rephrase) by noon on a non-working day and still have a whole day ahead of me. I should do this more often .... I will keep reminding myself that ... I will ... I will ... zzz ...

Carluccio's
2 Jerome Place, Kingston upon Thames KT1 1HT

Cheap Thrills at the Local Havester

2010-07-13T00:50:00.000+01:00

I made Justine history today .... my first ever trip to Havester! SM and I have been joking about having a meal at one for ages now but you know how silly jokes can go ... it's never actually supposed to take place. Having egged each other on one too many times, we finally drove to the one closest to the flat. I have to admit I was grining like a Chesire cat all the way from the car to the restaurant and even insisted on having my photo taken outside. Embarassingly I did the same thing when I visited my first ever WalMart in Canada. Yes.... seriously!

I was allowed to order from the 'All Day Early Bird' (go figure!) section of the menu - SM's shout so SM gets to give the orders - and I got the rib and chicken combo. A rack of ribs smothered in BBQ sauce, quarter of a roast chicken ...... AND all the salad I could eat from the bar. Exciting stuff. The ribs were surprisingly fall off the bone tender - I did wonder if it had been boiled to death and then slapped on the grill for 2 minutes but seriously for that price (£6.99) ... who cares. It tasted good. The chicken on the other hand didn't fare so well. Dry and overcooked. Blegh. And despite my best intentions I only managed 2 pathetic trips to the salad bar. I did, however, discover the joys of eating raw cauliflower. I'm not usually a big fan of cauliflower (the poor, poor cousin of the magnificent brocolli - in my opinion anyway) but thinly sliced and covered in coronation dressing it's surprisingly good.

SM's Chicken and Bacon Stack (£6.99) was also rather tasty - grilled chicken breast topped with sweetcured bacon and Emmantal cheese in a puddle of BBQ sauce. The chicken was tasty and tender and can do almost no wrong since it was covered in BBQ sauce. Yum yum yum!

It's a fun and silly place to go where the prices are cheap and you don't expect too much. Cheap and cheerful is just what we all need sometimes.

Havester
Website: http://www.harvester.co.uk/

The Woolpack - Bermondsey, London

2010-06-28T17:46:00.001+01:00

The cold front has finally lifted and London is bathing in glorious sunshine. And what better way to welcome the warmth of summer than a cool icy pint of Sweden’s best perry and a plate of food in a beer garden.

The batter was crisp, the fish fresh and chips even crispier than the fish batter … just the way I like it.

A fully loaded burger - cheese, bacon and a smack of the Heinz ketchup bottle. Good stuff.

A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon with the day’s excitement provided by a celebrity sighting of Gok Wan and a power failure that affected the whole of Bermondsey Street.

The Woolpack
98 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3UB

In Search of Penang's Best - Char Kway Teow

2010-06-25T18:53:00.001+01:00

For every plate of char kway teow that is served up in Malaysia, there are only a few that gets the distinct nod of approval. And apparently there are more heads nodding in Penang than anywhere else in the country. Good char kway teow is all about the 'ummph' factor. The big fire to lend that great 'wok hei' flavour, the right amount of ingredients that goes into the wok at any one time just so not to overwhelm the heat ... it's beautiful art and science rolled onto a plate.

Whilst Sisters on McAlister Road serves up a decent plate of noodles; with those big crunchy prawns and sprinkling of crab meat just before the dish is served, I have always been left with a twinge of disappointment of the lack of ‘ummph’ I felt. On this trip to Penang (for VO’s wedding ….or should I now say Mrs VT) it was straight pass McAlister Road and on to Heang Huat on Lorong Selamat instead. Look for the lady in the wacky sunglasses and you know you’re at another of Penang’s char kway teow institutions.

The noodles were good but I was still not feeling the ‘ummph’ . I was not throwing up my hands in the air and declaring it one of the best plates of char kway teows I’ve ever had. Even worse I was beginning to think that Penang food was standing on an extremely rickety pedestal. All the elements of a good plate of char kway teow were there – good wok hei, good balance of the ingredients, some very nice big crunchy prawns but if I were to be pedantic (which I am so totally not … ) there was not enough chives and it was so oily that at least a healthy half a teaspoon of oil was left on the plate after I had finished. I walked out of Heng Huat feeling slightly dejected. At this rate there was still no challenger to my all time favourite from Seng Lee in Damansara Heights.

A flurry of wedding festivities over, we were headed back to KL but not before one last plate kway teow. This time we let a local take charge. First impressions of Khoon Hiang were pretty bad. Tucked away in a corner of a not particularly busy area (but let’s remember it was in the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday), the coffee shop was dead quiet save a few old men gathered around a formica topped table sipping cups of iced tea and a few strays flopped about in the shade. And it was hot, not helped much by the corrugated tin roofs. Grumpy and eager to be on my way home (it had been a terribly long weekend with too much food and booze and not enough sleep) I wasn’t even cheered up with arrival of the first plate of noodles. But as the chorus of ‘emmms’ and ‘not bad, not bad’ (high compliments coming from a bunch of discerning Malaysian eaters) compelled me to dig in. It was good. Good flavours without the feeling of an oil slick in my mouth (which was perhaps my biggest objection to the CKT from Lorong Selamat).

If I thought the first plate was good, the second was better. For a few ringgit more they add extra prawns (those big crunchy babies that are so darn delicious) and mantis prawns (which look suspiciously like smaller version of a witchetty grub). If you want the full whack, spend an extra 50 cents and your run of the mill chicken’s egg will be upgraded to a duck egg.

Belly full and burping wok hei garlic I think I may have just eaten some very good CKT. Is it my personal favourite? Maybe not … call me a KL girl at heart. I like my noodles with a touch of thick dark soy sauce KL style. Penang CKT may just be too fine a dish for me ….

Kafe Heng Huat, 108 Lorong Selamat,Penang
Ah Leng Char Koay Teow, Kafe Khoon Hiang, Jalan Dato Keramat, Penang
Sister’s Char Koay Teow, Lam Heng Cafe, Jalan Macalister, Penang

It's A Long Ride Home

2010-06-17T17:38:00.001+01:00

I hate travelling. Oh I don't dislike going on holiday, quite the contrary in fact, but I hate the journey. The waiting around, the boredom, the stress ... especially long journeys with transits when you're travelling alone. After awhile all airport transit lounges roll into one. This time it was Dubai International, the last it was Schiphol. Funny how I've been through these airports but have never visited the cities of Dubai and Amsterdam.

Long trips away mean cleaning out the fridge of any immediate perishables. There have been numerous occasions when I have been away only to return to find rotting veg - nice, eww! This time I smartened up (finally!) and cooked myself a big wokful of vegetable fried rice, dumping in all those bits and pieces that seemed to have built up in the fridge. Overnight rice, beansprouts (which I had always turned my nose up at in fried rice but it's actually quite nice if the crunch is maintained), broccoli, tomatoes, sliced ham, tinned tuna in oil - all mixed together with a good dash of fish sauce, oyster sauce and white pepper. This is my Everything Rice. Ingredients are, of course, seasonal :)

I guess it's not entirely true to say that if you've seen one airport you have seen them all. They are remarkably similar but some are a whole load nicer than others. I'll probably say the same thing about Starbucks. I'm sure I've said this before - whilst I'm all for the independent coffee shop I do love my Starbucks. There's something quite comforting in getting the same thing that tastes the same anywhere you are in the world. At Dubai International my Iced Mocha tasted good, the same, the usual .... but oh dear god ... that is not a muffin! It looked normal enough. You know muffin like. It smelt like what it said on the label - banana and choc chip. But I could have given someone a serious concussion if I had lobbed it at their head (not that I had reason nor occasion to). It was that solid. Hard and dry. Let's just say it gave for some interesting eating.

Back on the plane I was pleasantly surprised to find myself with three whole seats to myself. Since Emirates separated the KL and Jakarta legs, the KL flight has been a bit quieter. From the refreshments cart I got myself an orange juice and a glass of water. Got to keep those hydration levels up. Next up food - yay! I only managed to chip through a quarter of that muffin.

Sweet and sour chicken on fried noodles. Sounded promising, tasted disgusting. To be fair the meat was fairly tasty and moist. The sauce and and noodles, on the other hand, were so gloopy they just melded together and formed a large pool of mush.

The strangest Niçoise salad I have ever encountered. I thought the version I had in Paris last summer that was served with rice was a bit odd but this didn't even look like a Niçoise. If I hadn't checked the menu, I would have just brushed it off as a very untasty potato salad.

The saving grace of the meal was dessert. Tiramisu, halal style (minus the alcohol) with chocolate sauce. It wasn't traditional but more like a nice creamy dessert.

All that food and I still managed a good 4-5 hour sleep. Next stop - KL International. I'm going home!

Post Holiday Blues

2010-06-17T13:03:00.001+01:00

It's been awhile since I posted anything - a jet set lifestyle leaves a girl with little time to blog about her eating adventures :) True, I have been traveling - a much needed break to Istanbul at the end of May with sister and mum and two weeks later it was back home to KL for the wedding of a very dear friend. But trust me, it's all been un-glamourous slogging at the office in between trips trying to make a decent penny to pay off my credit card bill.

Two lovely holidays and I should be raring to go, bursting with energy as I sit nine hours at my desk, five days a week. Instead I find myself bemoaning the injustice of another British summer washout. I look out the window at work and it's absolutely miserable - clouded over with that light drizzle that goes on for hours (yet as I write this today, the sun is out and shinning brightly but I'm stuck indoor with a sore throat whilst feeling hot and cold all at once).

So put the salad orders on hold and keep the stodge coming. I made cottage pie ... well, sort of anyway. The basic elements were there - mince beef and potato. Ahh ... so this is what deconstructed food is all about. In my case I was merely being lazy but I think it tasted pretty darn good.

Deconstructed Cottage Pie*

Mince beef (about 250g)
Jersey Royal potatoes (or any baby potatoes of your choice)
1 Red onion (diced)
4 Garlic (minced)
1 large Courgette (diced)
Peas (about 50g)
Milk (about 1 wine glassful)
Red wine (about 1/2 a glass)
Tomato purée (a generous tablespoonful or two)
Chipotle chili jam (a good heaping tablespoonful)
Olive oil (2 generous glugs)
A handful of grated Chedder (or any other good melting cheese)

Heat your oven to about 170-180 °C. Wash and boil the potatoes until tender (you should be able to push a knife into a potato quite easily). Drain the spuds and let it stand for a minute or two. Transfer to an oiled baking tray. Using the back of a fork, crush each potato (or just slightly flatten each spud - no need for prettiness). Pour over the 1st glug of olive oil, season and put the tray into the middle shelve in the oven. It should take about 20 minutes ot until the potatoes are golden brown and the edges are crisp.
Heat a large pan with the 2nd generous glug of olive oil. When the pan is decently hot, add the mince and breaking up any large chucks. Let the meat brown (I find draining the meat once or twice of the juices that come out during the browning process helps it cook faster - there is so much moisture in pre-packaged meat).
Once the meat is nut brown (or thereabouts), add the onion and garlic to the pan. Cook for a few minute or until the aromatics are released from the onion and garlic. Mix the tomato purée in and let the meat cook for another minute or two.
Pour in the wine. Let the alcohol evaporate before adding the milk, chipotle chili jam, peas and courgette. Season and mix. Cover the pan with a lid and let contents simmer for about 10 minutes.
The meat is done when the veg is cooked through and the sauce has thickened. Serve with the potatoes and topped with some grated chedder. I put my bowl back into the still oven for a minute or two to let the cheese melt.

*As with most of my recipes (if you can call them that as I tend to make things up as I go along) I don't usually keep track of measurements. I'm a staunch beliver in personal taste - little more of this or none of that at all, it's all up to you. Everything I write is just a guide. Your tastebuds will lead you.

Dim Sum - New World, Chinatown

2010-04-25T19:17:00.002+01:00

Think dim sum and images of leisurely Sunday brunches with a few little bamboo steamers on the table, opened newspapers lying about and lots of tea being drunk should spring to mind. But I'm a Foong and Foongs don't do leisurely dim sum. We do maniacal over-ordering because that's the only way we know how and we love it. If I wasn't bad enough, bring my new manager at work, ISW, into the picture and the world turns into a Mad Hatter's tea party. In between moans and groans about work, we do serious food talking and plot out our future restaurant empire.

First the talk. Next the eating, the important bit. We headed to Chinatown for dim sum midweek and chose New World for it's location and the trolley service. To maximize our ordering capabilities, we roped in JE and TN who both had never had dim sum before. Almost rubbing our hands in glee with 2 extra tummy space, ISW and myself filled the table, to a point it was almost embarassing. As long as JE and TN kept eating, we didn't stop ordering. The two bird size ladies at the next table were giving us positively evil looks. They had 4 dishes on their table when we arrived and they were still pushing the food around the same four dishes when we left - an hour and half later. Maybe they were grumpy they couldn't order more?

Steamed Tripe

Snails in Curry Sauce

Prawn Cheong Fun

Sui Mai

Xiao Long Bao

Steamed Barbeque Pork Buns

Steamed Beef Balls

Steamed Pork Ribs with Chili and Black Beans

Har Kau

Pan Fried Raddish Cake

Woo Kok

Deep Fried Squid

Ham Sui Kok

Roast Duck

Stuffed Aubergine in Black Bean Sauce

Wanton Noodle Soup

Fried Beef Hor Fun

My doggie bag - with the extra 2 dishes we ordered, Deep Fried Squid Balls and Minced Prwan on Sugarcane

And because we couldn't resist dessert but were a tad bit too full we bought a few egg tarts from the bakery section of Far East Restaurant on Gerrads Street. I used to love these tarts but gave mine away to Stuart when I got home. The guilt of that huge lunch had started to creep up on me and I could face another bite.

On the way back to the office we passed the crazy cake shop ... the colours and decorations on their cakes are so fantastically gaudy that I never fail to stop for a look :)

New World Restaurant
1 Gerrard Place, London W1D 5PA

Far East Chinese Restaurant
13 Gerrard Street, London W1D 5PS

Chicken Cacciatore

2010-04-25T17:18:00.001+01:00

I remember my mum making this dish way back in the day when having Italian food at home was a wee bit of a novelty. It's not a fancy dish. Just a hearty one pot dish with chunky bits of chicken on the bone with lots of punchy tomato sauce. Comfort in a bowl.

Chicken Cacciatore
6 pieces of chicken on the bone (I jointed a whole chicken and used the legs and wings for this dish)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 glass of red wine (anything drinkable is fine with me - I'm not fussy)
2 tsp tomato purée
1 onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
a good handful of black olives
generous splash of olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat the pan on a medium to high heat and add the olive oil.
Place the chicken into the pan and let it brown. Don't attempt to move the chicken around too much at this point as the meat will stick to the pan. Once a lovely golden brown, turn the pieces of chicken over to cook on the other side.
After all the sides are browned, lift the chicken out of the pan onto a plate and keep warm. Drain the fat from the pan, leaving only a tablespoonful or two.
On a medium heat, add the onions and garlic. Once the onions are translucent and the garlic is smelling gorgeous, add the tomato purée. Mix it into the onions and garlic. Let the tomato purée cook out for a few seconds before adding the chicken pack into the pan.
Add the wine and tomatoes. Season.
Stir and let the mixture come to a boil to cook out the alcohol from the wine. Once the acidic smell has evaporated, the alcohol has cooked off.
Scatter the olives and put the lid on the pan. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

I served the chicken with a quick stir fry of spring greens and garlic flat breads from M&S. Rather delicious on evenings when the weather is still not quite warm enough for a salad.

Weeknight Dinners

2010-04-20T00:08:00.001+01:00

A quick look at what has been keeping me warm and nourished through the last dregs of winter and the first signs of spring as the daffodil heads poked through the ground.

Minced beef braised with potatoes, onion and garlic in oyster and soy sauce. Served over white steamed rice, a fried egg sunny side up and steamed choy sum. And not forgetting the good shake of Maggie seasoning and white pepper over the fried egg. This is real comfort food for me, especially as the yoke oozes all over the meat and rice.

Stir fried mee hoon with mussels and lots of veg, which I picked up as part of a special deal at the supermarket. I made a simple omelette which I cut up and added to the nearly finished dish. I never noticed how almost deep frying an omelette makes it taste like deep fried tofu. Well, there you go ... I learn something new everyday.

Rotisserie chicked basted in barbeque sauce that was picked up from the supermarket along with the baguette. I made some slaw with finely sliced white cabbage, carrot and red onion dressed with mayonnaise, lime juice, a touch of ketchup, a splash of sweet chili sauce and a dash of fish sauce.

Whilst I was at the Korean supermarket I picked up some thinely sliced beef usually used for bulgogi. I marinated the meat in soy and oyster sauces with a touch of sesame oil overnight before adding it to a simmering pot of with a miso base soup and lots of vegetables - Chinese cabbage, beansprouts and broccoli. The meat cooks is about 2 minutes and had the lovely flavours of the marinade. Served with soba noodles.

I used some of my other Korean supermarket purchases, fish tofu and fresh tofu, for another noodle dinner. This time it was in a katsuobushi dashi base soup flavoured with tomatoes. I guess you can that fish tofu is my new discovery. Soft, yet firm blocks of fish paste ... like a cross between a fish ball and tofu ... crazy, yet very yummy. I added more beansprouts ... huge bags of beansprouts are so cheap at oriental supermarkets. It makes you wonder what sort of killing the high street supermarkets are making with their little bags of 'from bag to wok' stir fry vegetable mixes. I also added some spinach and served it all up with some thick udon noodles.

Four Seasons - Chinatown, London

2010-04-19T01:21:00.006+01:00

Our last leisurely Friday lunch took us to Four Seasons for duck and rice. I got the 2 meat and rice combo for £6.50 with roast duck and soy chicken as my choice of meats. The duck was good as usual but the chicken was pretty awful. Verging on tough and dry, it was certainly not up to Four Seasons standard. If that wasn't bad enough, the ginger and spring onion sauce that accompanied the chicken (usually one of the highlights of getting soy chicken) was tongue numbingly salty and looked like something they had mixed up the week before.

To balance the heaviness of the meat we got two portions of vegetables. Stir fried ginger for crunch and dau miu (my absolute all time favourite) for deliciousness.

Four Seasons Chinese
12 Gerrard Street, Soho, London, W1D 5PR

Soy Braised Chicken

2010-04-12T23:14:00.004+01:00

Sometimes when you're down and out all you want is something that tastes remotely of home. Tonight I made chicken stew. Not just any chicken stew but soy braised chicken with melting onions and spiced with cinnamon and star anise. And it tasted like a little piece of home heaven ... :)

Soy Braised Chicken

12 chicken pieces (I used leg pieces. Skin and bone the chicken if you wish but I was too lazy. The skin and bone does add extra flavour to the finished dish)
3 small red onions, peeled and roughly sliced
5 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
3 pieces of star anise
1 cinnamon stick
2 tbsp oil
5 tbsp soy sauce and an extra splash for good luck
5 tbsp oyster sauce and an extra blob for 'umph'
2 tsp sugar
150ml water

Heat the oil in a wok on high heat.
Once the wok starts to lightly smoke, turn the heat down to medium-high. Add the onions and garlic. Fry until slightly browned.
Add the chicken pieces along with all the other ingredients except the water. Mix well to coat the chicken.
Leave the mixture to bubble. Once the sauce begins to cook down and catch at the bottom of the wok, add the water.
Put the lid on the wok and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked. Check half way through and if the sauce is too watery, take the lid off and continue to simmer uncovered.
If you like your sauce thicker, add a mixture of part corn starch and water just before you take the wok off the heat. Serve with a sprinkling of sliced spring onion, pipping hot steamed rice and perhaps a veg of your choice.I made a quick stir fry of spring greens, rocket ad tomatoes.

Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Crab?

2010-04-10T19:30:00.001+01:00

A visit down to Folkstone over the bank holiday weekend brought me back to London armed with a few goodies courtesy of the bright blue sea.

Four brown crabs needing to be dressed was something I soon discovered was going to be a pretty mean feat. It's one thing to pick, suck and prod at a crab piece for instant gratification and quite another when the eating pleasure is to be delayed. After three long hours picking through the one big beast and three smaller crustaceans, I swore I would never attempt to dress a crab again. There were about a half a dozen little cuts on my hands, crab shell littered the floor and the air was heavy with the salty, wet stench of the sea. Next time I want to eat crab I'll wait till I get back to Malaysia or I'll buy a neatly dressed crab from my local fishmonger who sells them for a very reasonable £5 each.

After all my hard work I was almost tempted to stash the meat away in the freezer until I had managed to get some of the crab smell off my hands (ohhh a few weeks or so ... ) but I went ahead and dressed some of my beautifully picked crab anyway. Some sweet white meat, some brown meat (for that lovely richness), mayonnaise, lemon juice, paprika and ketchup was mixed up for my afternoon snack of crab on toast.

The next day the crab became part of a sandwich - dressed with a little mayonnaise, paprika, ketchup, sweet chili sauce, fish sauce (fishy on fishy = quite delicious), finely chopped coriander and lime juice served on tomato bread with cucumber. Yum ... much nicer than the day before. The other sandwich for the day was ham with grain mustard, rocket and cucumber.

The rest of the crab is now sitting in the freezer waiting for me to decide what to do with it .... chili, garlic and lemon crab with pasta or crab cakes? We'll see ...

Ants Climbing on Trees

2010-04-10T00:29:00.001+01:00

I've been absolutely fascinated by this dish ever since I saw it in my sister's copy of The Food of China by Murdoch Books (I love cookery books with lots of photographs, the more the better). The dish itself is pretty simple ... fried noodles with mince but it's the imagination behind it that I love. The noodles being the spindly branches of a tree, red ants with their fiery bite represented by the mince coated in stinging chili bean paste and I even added foliage to my tree with the addition of slices choy sum.

Ants Climbing on Trees
Serves 2

250g mung bean thread noodles, soaked and ready to cook
100g minced pork
small bundle of choy sum, sliced
heaped dessert spoonful of chili bean paste
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 spring onion, finely sliced
a small handful of coriander, finely sliced
splash of oil
splash of soy sauce
splash of oyster sauce
light drizzle of sesame oil

Heat a wok (large pan) over a medium meat. Add the oil and allow it to heat until it smokes (or thereabouts). Add the mince to the wok/pan in small batches to allow even browning. If too much liquid is released from the meat whilst cooking and like me you get too impatient for it to cook off, tip the meat and liquid into a strainer. Once the most of the liquid has been strained, return the meat to the wok/pan and let it sizzle to a nice light golden brown colour.
Add the garlic to the meat. Allow the garlic to work it's magic in the heat - once there's a delicious aroma of cooking garlic (mind you burnt garlic is not an enticing smell), add the choy sum. Stalks first followed by the more tender leaves. Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, chili bean paste and sesame oil. Toss to mix evenly. If it looks a little too dry, add a little water.
Once the vegetables have wilted slightly, add the noodles to the wok/pan. Give it a good toss to ensure the noodles are mixed in properly. Taste - add more soy sauce/oyster sauce/sesame oil/chili bean paste if you think it necessary.
Serve with a sprinkling of spring onion and coriander.