New Mayflower - Chinatown, London

I've been trawling through Flickr and came across these photos from a meal I had yonks ago at Mayflower in Chinatown that I never got round to posting. Mayflower is still one of those old favourite's that is so worth visiting for a good Chinese (Cantonese) meal.

Stuart's 'must' dish' - Crispy Aromatic Duck with pancakes, spring onion, cucumber and hoisin sauce

My 'must dish' at Mayflower - Mui Choy Kau Yoke (braised pork belly with salted preserved mustard green). A hearty Hakka dish that is lusciously beautiful in every way. More Chinese restaurants should put this on their menus.

Sweet and Sour Pork - one of the best versions I've had in London with the pork encased a crisp batter enhanced with the addition of cornflour, just like they do it in Hong Kong

Crispy Chilli Beef

Stir Fried Dau Mui - one of my all time favourite vegetable.

Stir Fried Hor Fun with Beef - lovely charred flavour from an incredibly hot wok

Aubergine, Peppers and Tofu Stuffed with Shrimp Paste in a Black Bean Sauce

New Mayflower Restaurant
68-70 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 6NA

Cheat's Cookies

I made cookies the other day - cheats - straight out of the red- edged Betty Crocker packet into a mixing bowl with 2 tablespoons of water then plopped onto a baking tray.

10 minutes later - freshly baked cookies. They weren't great but to be fair they weren’t terrible either. And it did satisfy that sudden cookie munchie craving – when the nearest shop seemed like a million miles away and the thought of making my own cookies threw me into a shudder of laziness (that is if I could have mustered up the energy to shudder).

Good Morning

I freely admit I’m not a morning person. Nine out of ten mornings I suffer from terrible grumps cleared only after about 2 hours of wakefulness and my usual routine of coffee and serious overload of butter soaked carbs. The morning carb of the moment - cinnamon and raisin bagels – toasted with a good smear of butter, usually the fake stuff (spread) but the real stuff is better, and unfortunately also a luxury I don’t always indulge in. Whilst saying that I had some butter laden mash last night …. So good I’m having the leftovers today.

Happy Monday! (At least the sun is shinning in London today and temperatures are expected to raise to 14 degrees C. Yay!)

Lunch Cravings - Nando's Chicken Pitta

I've never been a big fan of Nando's ... that is until I discovered their Chicken Breast Fillet Pitta with 2 sides - chips and corn on the cob. I thought it was so yummy that I had it twice last week. Emm .... I think I'll have it again next week =D

Weeknight Dinners

I admit it, I am a bit of control freak in the kitchen. I'm terrible at delegation unless I'm pretty darn certain the person I'm delegating to is pretty darn capable. And I'm a harsh critic. It's likely I won't say something is good unless I really think it is. This is probably explains why Stuart has only ever cooked a handful of times for me over the last 6 years. To be fair he does know his way around the kitchen and would cook a great deal more if only I let him. And come up with something really decent too.

He took over the kitchen one night this week and made some scrummy roasted belly of pork, Chinese style - I tasted soy sauce, oyster sauce, white pepper ... the usual suspects, including my embarassing favourite - ketchup. It has been noted on several occassions by different people that I have not given up my childhood taste for tomato sauce (that is what I grew up calling it - ketchup was a weird word I had to adapt to when I came to London). I would quite happily eat ketchup with anything, almost everything ... With the pork, Stuart made fried rice with peas and corn and just for me, a side of obligatory green - steamed broccoli.

And when one is stressed and tired, there's nothing worse than the thought of cooking. So for another evening it was stir fried veg (Sainsbury's does a a nice bag of mixed veg in their Basics range for a quid - which they happily advertise is heavy on the beansprouts), pre-cooked chicken in a barbeque marinade and steamed rice. Easy stuff for a weeknight .. or any night.

The Garrison - Bermondsey Street

Exterior

The sniffles and coughs and seasonal tummy bugs finally caught up with me a few weeks ago and I have been feeling absolutely sorry for myself. I did, however, manage a nip down to The Garrison down by London Bridge before the seasonal viruses set in.

The kitchen hard at work

The charming if rickety looking sauce cabinet below the serving window

I'd been told how good the food was, the menu online looked promising and it went on the 'definitely try' list. I asked a friend who lived in the area what she thought of the pub and her answer was, "oh, the poncy one?". I took it to mean it was less of a boozer and more of a gastro-pub. Bodes well for a meal then. The website does warn diners to book a table but we thought, "fiddlesticks that, we'll just turn up for an early dinner!". Ahh but apparently 6PM on a Tuesday evening is not quite early enough at The Garrison. Diners really do take the reserve a table warning seriously, very seriously. For every table that was occupied, there were probably another 2-3 with reserved signs in them. We were told we could either wait 45 minutes for a proper table or try to squeeze onto the high stool and bar area in front of the open kitchen. Squeeze, we said! Not exactly the most comfortable seating but it gave us a brilliant view of what was happening in the kitchen (very efficient if I may say so) and all the lovely food that was coming out.

The daily specials

We were probably being painfully picky but nothing on the menu particularly captured our eye that evening (be warned, several dishes shown on online are missing from the actual menu - if they are going to put a menu online, why don't they keep it up to date? Like I said, I was being picky). There was plenty of oo-ing and ahh-ing,very normal for me, but a little irritating for our perky waitress. She came to take order 4 times before she exasperatedly told us to call her over when we were ready. Egging each other on, JN and I decided we would go for the full whack - 3 courses. I started with the Wild Rabbit Terrine served with pear & grape chutney and chunky brown bread toast (£6.80). I remember the first time I had rabbit, I cried. All I could see was Thumper, a dead Thumper on a stick (my first rabbit dish was satay). I ate that stick of satay and have never looked back. My portion of terrine was very generous. A thick slab of shredded rabbit in jellied broth, thick slices of toast and a healthy portion of chutney. Unfortunately for this dish I must say, thank heaven's for the chutney. Whilst the meat was tender, the terrine was lacking in "umph". Eaten on it's own, the sweet flavours of the meat and jelly came through (studded throughout with little nuggets of carrot) but it barely held its own against the punchy chutney. And for a starter, there was definitely too much bread.

JN's Warm Smoked Haddock with a poached egg, blinis and a chive & lemon beurre blanc (£7.40) fared a lot better. The fish was flaked very nicely and was well cooked, the yoke of the poached egg burst forth beautifully and the chive and lemon beurre blanc was lush - butter sauces are just so hard to resist, don't you think?

I a little torn between the pheasant from the main menu and the guinea fowl on the specials. I've never had either before so whichever I chose was going to be interesting. In the end I went for the guinea fowl (£13.50) - it was on the specials so perhaps the chef had something good up his sleeve. Guinea fowl tastes like chicken. I say that in amazement because I rather hoped something great would be revealed to me - like a a brand new favourite meat. That might not have been the case but I got a very generous portion of game-y chicken (earthier with a deeper flavour). The 3 generous sized thighs were falling off the bone tender, the sauce had bags of flavour but the fresh tagliatelle was a little boring. The sauce was a little too thin to lend enough flavour to the big mound of noodles - they should really think about cutting down on the portion size.

Being in a fishy mood JN opted for yet another haddock dish for her main, this time the Pan Roasted Haddock Fillet served with red onion, parsley and aubergine couscous (£14.60). The portion of fish generous and was well cooked but the couscous flavours was a bordering on bad. The first thing that came to mind was airplane food. Whilst it wasn't terrible but who wants to eat non-descript food if they didn't have to?

Insistent we plough on with our decision of a 3 course dinner (we started to falter after our starters), we ordered decided on dessert. JN had the Apple Crumble with vanilla ice-cream (£5.50) and I went for the Sticky Toffee Pudding with ice-cream (£5.50). I am a huge fan of sticky toffee pudding but have never found one as good as Delia's recipe (which is GORGEOUS). The Garrison is not Delia but it certainly does a mean sticky toffee pud. I love how there was still a slight grittiness from the dates and they didn't stinge on the thick sauce.

The crumble was nice - there was nothing wrong technically and taste wise but after the crumble from Roast in Borough, there are few that seem to match up. I personally like my crumble topping with a bite to it. Here it was too fine and really too little of it - the top barely covered the fruit beneath.

I also ordered a glass of Orange Muscat Essencia 2005 but ended up with a Muscat Beaumes De Venise 2003 instead. I'm no wine expert (to be fair, I know very little about wine) but what I had in my hand didn't quite taste right. By the time I had figured out I was given something else, I had already drunk half and really wasn't in the mood to get it changed.

The bill(s)

What I did get changed was the bill. My main was overcharged by £3.40. Not a big deal and it was sorted very efficiently by the manager. Other than a few hiccups, service was good. There were some very nice dishes - the smoked haddock starter and the sticky toffee pudding - but there wasn't enough for me to give it a full thumbs up. Maybe just half of one.

Gong Hei Fatt Choy!

Happy New Year!

The first day of my new year was spent in the kitchen cooking up a storm for a family meal. It was exhausting but great fun and heart whelming - this the most fuss I've made of Chinese New Year in about six years and it was nice to be with the family at a time like this.

Chinese New Year Menu

Spring Rolls with Sweet Chili and Worcestershire Dipping Sauces
Pan Fried Pork Dumplings with Ginger Dipping Sauce
Steamed Fish with Ginger, Garlic and Soy Sauce
Stuffed Peppers and Aubergine in Black Bean Sauce
Steamed Chicken with Chinese Sausage
Stir Fried Prawns with Gow Choy Fah (Flowering Garlic Chives)
Fried Cabbage with Tomatoes

Gong Hei Fatt Choy!!! May the year of the Metal Tiger be auspicious and joyful.

There's Always Room for Mamak!

No trip home would be remotely complete without at least a plate of Maggi goreng. Curly wurly pre-boiled instant noodles fried with an assortment of shredded veg, tofu,egg and flavoured with that powdered magic that comes with the noodles in a little sachet - usually curry flavour. Drenched in limau kasturi. Just the way I love it.

To be honest, the brunch meeting with NH and WMF wasn't supposed to be about Maggi goreng. It was supposed to be about rotis from Nirwana but predictably tardy Justine was .. well, late. NH and WMF had already polished off their rotis by the time I arrived and Nirwana had switched over to their lunch menu - no rotis but everything else got la ... Hoping to track down a couple of rotis, we headed to Pelita up the road but no such luck. All the Mamak-isq places had stopped serving rotis for the daylight hours for that day. Not that I minded, I was quite happy with my noodles (they even topped it with shredded lettuce! :) Bangsar, eh?)

NH and WMF decided to share a cheese naan served with dhal, some sort of curry sauce and an ultra green mint sauce. I have no idea why naan is still served out of roti hours. Maybe because there's tandoori chicken on the menu? Naan and tandoori chicken seem to always go hand in hand. I wonder if this is always the case ... something to do with cooking naan bread in the tandoor, maybe?

A little poke around the cooked food counter and I returned armed with a deep fried chicken drumstick. I love the batter they use at these places - I think it's the fresh turmeric they add. The best deep fried chicken used to be from a run down stall by an outdoor parking lot on Jalan Perak in downtown KL. It's gone now - it made way for some building or other. I still miss that chicken. More often than not the pieces of chicken came fresh out of the hot oil. Crisp and juicy - utterly beautiful. My piece from Pelita was a little cold and the batter had gone a bit hard but will have to do for now.

I also chose a gigantic deep fried squid but unlike the chicken, the man didn't hand it to me straight away. He shoo-ed me away and told me he'll deliver it to my table. Ten minutes later and I was beginning t wonder where my squid had gone off to when it finally arrived - utterly transformed. It had obviously been sent back to the kitchen where it was re-battered and re-fried with curry leaves and shallots. Oh, it was so much better than I had dared hoped. Yes, the squid was slightly rubbery but the batter was so good that we promptly forgot about the rubbery-ness. It was hot,crunchy and fragrant - very nicely done.

A few days later and it was a breakfast date with VO and TL at Devi's Corner. I'm not quite sure I like this "new" location at the corner of Jalan Telawi 2 and Jalan Telawi 4. It's a little claustrophobic and I'm never quite comfortable when I'm there. VO ordered a roti pisang - normal roti stuffed with sliced/mashed (?) banana and served as usual with dhal and some sort of curry.

I had a hankering for roti stuffed with aloo marsala but couldn't for the life of me remember what it was called so I ended with with rawa thosai. This was definitely not what I wanted but it was good and I love coconut chutney but I was still wanted my roti stuffed with potatoes!

By a simple process of elimination, we finally worked out what I was looking for - marsala thosai! I got more of my favourite coconut chutney, a spiced version, dhal and a curry of sorts. Happiness!

Nasi Kandar Pelita
2 Jalan Telawi 5, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur

Devi's Corner
14 Jalan Telawi 4, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur

Lemon Tart - An Obsession

Taking a little breather from my holiday blogs, I just remembered a little obsession I had before I went home for Christmas - tarte au citron. It was one of those niggling food longings that I couldn't shake off.

There was the the lemon tart I got as part of a late night discount goodie bag when I was in Marylebone one evening. Despite the huge crack down the middle, it was a delicious tart with a full bodied tang. The other items in the box were a chocolate eclair and a slice of tiramisu. Neither as good as the tart.

There was also the tarte au citron from St Germain with its caramelised top and side of crème fraîche that I had previously blogged about here.

The offering from Paul's was probably the best looking of the lot. Neat with an alluringly yellow filling and such a pretty glaze but alas, not the best tasting. The lemon flavour was somewhat lacking and the pastry wasn't quite up to scratch.

I stopped by Patisserie Valerie one day and was met with a somewhat lackluster looking tarte au citron. I nearly walked away but I was in serious need of a lemon tart fix. It was gorgeous! Where it lacked in appearance it compensated in taste. The pastry crumbled just right with the barest hint of butter, the filling was sharp but not cringingly so. It was, without a doubt, the best of the lot.

My quest to find a good lemon tart had become a bit of a running joke with some of my colleagues. One day I found this sitting on my desk - fully packaged and minus the huge bite into it, of course. Oh, it was disgusting! Hard, sugary and full of that artificial lemon flavour. Sigh .. that was a cruel, cruel joke!

OK Porridge - Imbi, Kuala Lumpur

Smack in the middle of downtown KL, there's Imbi - undeveloped and more than a little seedy. Beneath the shabby exterior lies a wealth of good Chinese food and none more so than the little gem that is OK Porridge. If you're prepared to trot straight from your car to the restaurant and ignore the parade of ladies of the evening who use the premises as their meeting point before their business day begins, you're in for a treat.

Their house specialty is porridge - good, old fashioned rice stodge cooked to order in a claypot with the seafood of your choice. On this visit we had two pots - the fish was subtle with a pleasing clean palate and the prawn had bolder, sweeter flavours from the cooked crustacean shells and heads. Garnished with ubiquitous spring onion and coriander for hints of freshness and for bite, yau char kway.

Another must is the silky smooth Ipoh poached chicken. Deliciously succulent meat served on the bone and topped with soy sauce, a splash of oil, cucumber pieces and topped with sliced spring onion and coriander. This would be perfect with garlic rice but steaming hot rice gruel would have to do.

Ultra thin and crispy choy boh (small pieces of preserved turnip) omelette - the perfect accompaniment to porridge.

There seems to be a craze at the moment for anything cooked with salted egg yolk. On my last visit I had never heard of it but it was love at first taste when I had it cooked with crab. It was to die for - literally if you have a wee bit too much. Those yolks can induce a heart attack quicker than you can say "haam daan wong"(salted egg yolk)!Dad looked a little guilty when asked what our obligatory vegetable was ... aubergine with salted egg yolk. Deep fried thin slices of aubergine in a salted egg yoke batter and tossed with dried chilies and curry leaves.No wonder he looked guilty ... this dish was beyond sinful. Crisp and aromatic, vegetables are never this good.

On a previous visit we had kam heong lala (clams). Whilst kam heong is not my choice style for cooking seafood, this was a sight better than the dish we had at Robson Heights. The integrity of the clams (tiny, yes) were, at least, preserved and not overwhelmed by the sauce. On this occassion we also had an extra dish of sotong assam (no photos, I'm afraid). Nice tender squid with a slight crunch cooked in a lovely spicy assam sauce - beautiful with a nice big bowl of rice, which we didn't have so we resorted to dipping our chewy fried bread sticks into the sauce instead.

OK Porridge serves some very good food but visit on at your risk. * Entertainment is also provided - see the latest trends in tight, see through and gaudy designs brought to you courtesy of Sungai Wang.