Honest Burgers - Brixton

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

Burger Night - Byron, Kings Road

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

I'm Lovin' It - McDonald's

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!"

Summer Dinners

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.

The Woolpack - Bermondsey, London

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

Happy Birthday, Stuart! Dinner at The Bountiful Cow

It was Stuart's birthday and we decided on something cheap and cheerful (and no, the local Weatherspoons for a Tuesday curry didn't quite fit the bill though that is where one of his birthday dinners took place ... many, MANY years ago). The Bountiful Cow seemed as good a choice as any but with a slight edge of a Toptable discount. I'm still quite amazed at the efficiency of the Toptable booking system. I made a request for a table on the Toptable website at 6PM, feeling quite certain that the restaurant would not have received the booking but lo and behold, there was a table waiting for us when we arrived at 7.30PM.

It was a slight downer that we had to choose from a set menu but 2 courses for £13 was too good an offer to miss. All the dishes on offer were straight off their main menu, minus the steaks (which apparently they are quite well known for .... they are called The Bountiful Cow ...) so there were some pretty decent choices.

Stuart started with Rillettes of Duck served on toast with sliced red onion and cornichons. The birthday boy was happy.

My Smoked Salmon with Bread, Butter and Lemon starter was incredibly generous. There were 4-5 slices of smoked salmon but I was a disappointed (and surprised) that someone in the kitchen felt the need to drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the slices of bread. Surely the butter would have gone quite cheerfully with the bread? I'm quite sure now I don't like extra virgin olive oil anywhere near my smoked salmon. The two strong flavours just collides and sends the wrong signals to my taste buds.

For mains, Stuart had the Steak Sandwich, which according to the menu is made with aged beef and sauteed red onions. Before the mains arrived, Stuart confessed that he was a little worried that meat would be tough as is the case with many steak sandwiches (the horrid person in me would have loved to roll my eyes and ask why he ordered it if he was worried but .... it was his birthday). Stuart needn't have worried, the meat was lovely - tender and moist with plenty of flavour. The serving was generous and the chips were pretty darn good - chunky and crisp. Lovely.

I went all out and ordered the burger - made with course ground steak and served with salad, sliced onions, a baby gherkin, bacon (my choice of the 'free' additions - the other choices were a fried egg or cheese) and chips. They certainly aren't stingy on their portions in this place. The burger was large - the main menu claims that their burger is a BIG 14oz/395g but Stuart reckoned that this was no where near that big. Even the piggy in me was pretty happy I didn't have to face a larger burger. I was really quite happy with what I got, but hey I'm no burger connoisseur. The mince was chunky and there was a lovely charred flavour from the flames. Even my portion of 'free' bacon was generous :) I was a happy bunny ... so was Stuart, he got half of my main meal.

The Bountiful Cow is certainly worth a try, especially with the Toptable offer. It's a little pricey otherwise - the burger goes for £12.95 ... a little steep. It's an intimate little place located just off High Holborn and less than a 3 minute walk from the tube station.

The main menu

The Bountiful Cow
51 Eagle St, London WC1R 4AP

Homemade Burgers

It seems an age since I lasted posted anything but I guess it's the usual lot of excuses. So much to do and really so little time to get it all done. That, however, doesn't mean I haven't been hoovering up all the food that has been put in front of me ... plus a few photos as evidence too :)

First up, burgers we had for dinner a few weeks ago. I'm not a huge burger fan. I do like one now and then but as I had bought some nice beef mince and was a little too lazy to make meatballs, so burgers it was. And how proud I was when they turned out so nicely :) I made a huge batch with about 800 grams of mince so there's still plenty in the freezer for another meal and a half.

Burgers
800g mince beef - the better quality the meat, the better the burger tastes
2 large eggs, beaten
2 large handfuls of breadcrumbs (I had some leftover cheese flavoured crackers so I crushed those and added it to my breadcrumbs)
3tsp of garlic powder (certainly use fresh garlic should you have it but I was feeling particularly lazy)
2tsp dry English mustard powder
2tsp dried mint
2tsp dried basil
2tsp sumac (one of those odd things sitting in my cupboard)
2tsp za'atar (a dry Middle Eastern mix of sesame seeds, marjoram and thyme)
good dash of soy (I cannot live without!)
salt and pepper to taste

• Mix all the ingredients together well
• Shape the meat mixture into patties - be however generous (or stingy) as you wish :)
• Heat a griddle pan on medium until it smokes lightly
• Place the patties on the pan and cook on one side for about 5 minutes before turning over
• The cooking time will really depend on how thick your patties are and how you like your meat cooked. Mine were cooked right through and took about 10-12 minutes for both sides.

Guacamole
2 large, ripe avocados
handful of very ripe, sweet cherry tomatoes
handful of finely chopped coriander
juice of 1 lime
salt to taste

• Cut the avocados in half. Scoop out the flesh, as close to the skin as possible to get the lovely darker flesh out. Mash.
• Cut the tomatoes into small chunks. If your tomatoes are small enough, just halve them but keep in mind this is not a chunky guacamole.
  
• Add the cut tomatoes to the avocados, along with the coriander.
  
• Add the lime juice and salt to taste. Mix well and leave the mixture for a few minutes to let the flavours fuse.

Putting it all together:

• Put the cooked patties aside to rest. Leave the griddle pan on the heat.
  
• Cut the bread/bun of your choice in half. We had rosemary and potato rolls that day. Warm the bread on the griddle pan.
  
• Put a leaf or two of lettuce (I used butterhead lettuce) on the toasty bread, top with a burger patty and plenty of guacamole. Top with the other piece of bread and serve.
  

Sunday Eating - Croissants and Burgers

We've had beautiful weather today, with sunshine and temperatures that have outdone most the summer days past. I dragged Stuart out of bed early-ish, fed him and shoved him out of the front door (nearly) for a day out.

Breakfast was mini ham and cheese croissants. I would love to say that those croissants were homemade :) but they came from the shop in a pack of 12. I stuffed a few with some cheese and ham and put them into a medium hot oven for about 10 minutes to melt the cheese and crisp up the exterior. This is one of those breakfasts that can't really fail. Ham, cheese and buttery croissants.... all good and yummy. Even yummier put together and warmed up. Served with milky, sugary tea for a hearty (and artery clogging :) breakfast.

But fear not, we headed for a nice long gym session in the afternoon to make sure we redeemed ourselves (and our poor tummies) somewhat. Killing some time between our gym session and dinner, we chilled out at Lincoln's Inn Fields where we met this little guy. The squirrels here seemed so incredibly tame, more so than at other London parks. He came bounding up to us hoping for a little handout (of which we had none) but still happily struck a few poses for me ;) He hurried away as soon he caught scent of a Weimaraner, in full hunting mode.

When the squirrels retired for the day, we went on to Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) for a few juicy burgers. We our hearts set on fish and chips from The Rock and Sole Plaice right after the gym session but after walking round and round looking for a cash point, we were a little too lazy to retrace our steps. So off we went to GBK at The Brunswick Centre, off Russell Square. I remember going to The Brunswick Centre for lunch when I was still a student in the area and it was one of the most depressing, run down of places. The only good thing about it then was the cheap noodle bar - the Hare and Tortoise (which is still there). A few years on and it's really cleaned up with lots of new shops, restaurants and a slick coat of paint.

GBK burgers are probably the best amongst the chain-restaurant offerings. And it doesn't break the bank. This was my third visit to a GBK restaurant and found that this branch was probably the most pleasant. The staff were more friendly and probably because it was a little early for the dinner crowd, the atmosphere was more relaxed. In tune with their informal chain-restaurant vibe, the GBK system works on staff greeting and showing you to a table with menus, cutlery, your table number and an explanation of how you have to order at the counter. After you've made your selection from the menu, up you go to counter to order and pay. Back to your table again and your food is brought to the table. Bit of a pain bit it's all generally cool - hopefully the savings they're making on the number of waiting staff shows in the price of my food :)

As usual I went for the Avocado and Bacon beef burger (£7.95). It's described on the menu as "100% Aberdeen-Angus Scotch beef, avocado, streaky bacon, salad, mayonnaise & relish" and yes, it was every bit as good as it sounds. The avocado was mashed up and oozed beautifully out of the burger. The thick cut streaky bacon had been cooked over the grill and had a lovely charred flavour, espacially where the fat had met the fire. The patty was meaty and cooked to 'medium' - as are all their beef burgers, unless otherwise specified.

After a little grumble about there being no cheese and bacon burgers on the menu, Stuart settled for the Garlic Mayo beef burger (£6.90) - 100% Aberdeen-Angus Scotch beef, fresh garlic mayo, salad, mayonnaise & relish. Extra streaky bacon - with extra bacon (£1.60). Yup, a double dose of mayo! He could of course just ordered a plain Cheese burger and added the bacon :) His burger does look a bit smaller than mine - because he squashed it and took a large bit from one end before I could stop him. I didn't try his burger but I did get a little swipe of the garlic mayo that had dripped out and it was good - they certainly ensure you get all the garlic you paid for!

We had a portion of GBK skinny fries (£2.75), freshly out of the fryer. The oil still sizzling off the golden brown spuds. They were not bad fries, they were just not great.

We also had the GBK Homeslaw 'the Antipodean way' (£2.35) with cabbage, spring onions, carrot, celeriac and vinaigrette. Very nice it was too. Unlike the usual coleslaws, this was not bogged down by heavy mayo although it was slightly oily. The vinaigrette was citrus-y (think orange rather than lemon or lime) and despite my dislike for celeriac, I found myself happily digging in until there was no more.

Verdict?

Tired and full we headed back for an evening of silly TV shows and mind numbing games on the X-box :D GBK-wise, I'm no burger connoisseur but I think the stuff from GBK is pretty good. I've read reviews where the burgers have been compared to the stuff in the States, but having never tried a Stateside burger, I'm quite happy in my oblivion. Hopefully the next time I'll be able to tear myself away from the Avocado and Bacon burger... and maybe the next time I won't be so greedy ... I was disgustingly full after all that food!

Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK)

44/46 The Brunswick Centre, London WC1N 1AE