Monthly Archives: April 2010

Pho restaurant

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Salads at Pho
86 St John St, London, EC1M 4EH, 020 7253 7624, www.phocafe.co.uk

I go to Pho quite a lot, it’s the only place within walking distance from work where I can get a decent noodle soup to take back to my desk. So when Mathilde asked me to come and review it for lunch, I thought “why not”? I thought I knew what I would say – that it’s a great introduction to Vietnamese food for the uninitiated, but it’s hard to match up to some of the Phos you get in Shoreditch.

But I didn’t have Pho. And I made a discovery. Pho is not what Pho is best at. Explore the menu a little more, venture off the fashionably beaten track and you’ll be rewarded with some tasty surprises Continue reading →

Baked sea bass with honey and saffron onion marmalade

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Seabass with honey and saffron onion marmalade

I’m funny when it comes to fish. I don’t tend to cook very much during winter months, and when I do, it is often a far-eastern style braise, a fish pie or a spicy Creole stew. But when the sun comes out to play it’s like a switch has been flipped.

The strutting little tyrant in my head orders my appetite to about turn. Don’t focus on those oxtail stews, lamb tagines or slow cooked pork bellies! It’s time to turn back to fish. Continue reading →

Simple and seasonal English asparagus

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Fresh asparagus salad

Simplicity. Reducing a thing back to its essence. It’s something that’s at the heart of many beautiful things and successul ideas. Google and Apple, Jamon Iberico and sashimi, pizza and kebabs. All very simple.

When you pare something right back, you can’t obfuscate or camouflage. And you must use the very best ingredients. Which is why the English asparagus season is such a wonderful time of year. Continue reading →

Fresh Vietnamese(ish) style summer rolls

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Fresh summer rolls, sweet potato and watercress

After sampling the fabulous Vietnamese rolls at Fernandez and Leluu’s supper club, I’ve gone a bit summer roll mad. This was encouraged by creating a lunch for someone who’s severely alergic to gluten, all dairy, and can’t eat much fat. After wracking my brain for hours the my mind wandered back to those fabulous summer rolls.

Rice, herbs, vegetables, lean meat, prawns – all low fat, gluten and dairy free goodness. I did a little jig before getting down to the serious business of planning the lunch. Then again last night the hankering came upon me again. This time I was less well prepared. But y’know, where there’s a will… Continue reading →

Sweet and spicy japanese aubergine

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Sweet and spicy Japanese aubergine

I hit the kitchen properly last night for the frst time in about ten days and banged pans about with wild abandon for a couple of hours. After all of which I ended up with an almost radioactively bright moong dhal and a gentle, ok – bland, leek and potato soup. Disaster.

As a result I felt a certain degree of performance anxiety tonight. The fridge contained just three long slender aubergines and a scraping of miso. Add that to some staples (onion, chilli, garlic) and my stock of sauces and an idea germinated. A sweet spicy aubergine hotpot/stirfry/curry type thing. Continue reading →

Anchor & Hope

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Duck hearts on toast
36 The Cut, London, SE1 8LP, 020 7928 9898

I have really mixed feelings about the word ‘gastropub’, it’s been massively overused by pubs serving big brand wine and mediocre food. A bit like bistro, trattoria or taverna, it’s a label that indicates the type rather than quality of food you’re going to get.

But, and it’s a big but, there are pubs that really live up to, and transcend the label. They serve high quality unpretentious, unabashedly British food, providing an experience you really won’t find elsewhere in the world. The Anchor and Hope is one of these. Continue reading →

Tohbang

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My first bibimbap
Clerkenwell Road, opposite Leather lane

Korean cuisine is something I know next to nothing about. Vague images of BBQ and steamboat, kimchi (fermented spicy cabbage) and – er – well that’s about it. So when Meemalee suggested the suggestively named Tohbang for a quick lunch I jumped at the chance to try something new. Continue reading →

Return to the Eastside Inn

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Basil ice cream
Eastside Inn, 40 St John Street, London, EC1M 4AY, 020 7490 9230, www.esilondon.com

Going to a really good restaurant for a second time is a bit like reading a hot new author’s second novel, or buying that difficult second album. There’s a nagging worry that it’s not going to live up to the excitement of the first visit, that everything will seem a little duller than your nostalgically polished memories.

So it was with a little trepidation and some excitement that we popped back to the Eastside Inn for dinner. Imagine my delight when not only was it as (metaphorically) glittering as it was first time round, but there had been changes. Good changes. Continue reading →

Jim Haynes at Fernandez & Leluu

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Prawns, spring and summer rolls, terrine and salad

If someone had said ‘supper club’ to me five years ago, I’d have thought of young Cameron-a-like students gathering to scoff cheese and quaff claret in their tailored tuxedoes. Now the picture is of a secretive and romantic world of gastronomic (and glutinous) adventurers gathering at secret locations to indulge their semi-illicit gustatory desires.

And so it was with a little frisson of excitement that I wandered down a quiet London backstreet looking for the nondescript entrance to Fernandez & Leluu, one of the foodie destinations of the moment. Continue reading →

Smoky silk: aubergine and smoked tofu with udon noodles

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Smokey tofu and aubergine udon noodles

There’s nothing better for a night when you’re feeling a bit crappy than a full on assault on the senses. This delivers that attack in spades. Chilli heat, silken aubergines and smoky tofu. All those strong flavours maintaining a fragile truce.

Blues are banished – along with any remaining subtle taste buds – in the pungent, silky-smooth smoky chilli miasma. Continue reading →