May | 2010 | The grub worm

Ozlem

Posted on 28 May 2010 by The Grubworm

Prince George Road, London, 020 7275 9974

You know when you have a box full of sweets but you’ve lost the key to the flavours? You dig a hand in and grab a couple of lurid foil wrapped choccies and the first one is one of those luscious caramels, but the next is a fruit cream tasting of detergent. It’s a horror we’ve all had.

That was what eating at Ozlem was like. Lurching from the good to the crap via the decidedly average, dinner at this Dalston Turkish joint threw up a really really mixed bag of a meal. Continue reading →

Cafe VN

Posted on 26 May 2010 by The Grubworm

144 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DP 020 7278 4123 www.cafevn.co.uk

Like the proverbial buses, Vietnamese restaurants seem to be appearing all at once. For a long time, you had to travel to Shoreditch or Mare Street to get your Pho fix but now you can score a summer roll all over London.

Cafe VN is emblamatic of the new breed of Vietnamese style cafe-restaurants. Following the lead of Pho restaurant they are eschewing the canteen-like and or mock Indochina decor you find in most established joints in favour of a more contemporary feel. The menus are shorter too, but still cover the basics of summer rolls, bun cha and pho. Continue reading →

Almond, Medjool date and ewe’s cheese salad

Posted on 24 May 2010 by The Grubworm

You know when deserts bloom for a day when infrequent rains sweep majestically over the sands every few years? Green shoots explode out of the arid ground, flowers unfurling to the storm clouds. You’ve seen the BBC nature programmes too? Good. That’s like my approach to BBQ in the British “summer”.

Once the sun appears and temperatures climb, I can fire up our reliable little kettle BBQ in a matter of minutes (once I’ve scrubbed away months of grime from the grill). Slap on some sausages, halloumi and aubergines and I’m all set. And then I’ll make something like this salad, it’s a cracker of an accompaniment. Continue reading →

Canteen

Posted on 19 May 2010 by The Grubworm

Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Rd, London SE1 8XX, 0845 686 1122 www.canteen.co.uk

Sometimes a long leisurely meal is not what’s required. Sometimes you need to get in and out in under an hour. It’s amazing the way a need for quality food at speed reduces your choice. Particularly when you have a specific time you need to vamoose by.

Unless of course you go down the sarnie and drink route – a quick Pret, an Eat or even Leon’s balls. But there is a third way. The Canteen way. Continue reading →

Chilli Cool

Posted on 17 May 2010 by The Grubworm

15 Leigh street, London, WC1H 9EW 020 7383 3135 www.chillicool.com

I’ve read about it, heard people raving about it, even attempted to cook it. But I had never, till now, really tasted authentic Szechuan food. The cuisine du jour about four years ago when, with opening of Bar Shu, a chilli-fevered enthuiasm for it swept London’s food critics.

And so, when the call came through from foodie central (well, from Meemalee, which is pretty much the same thing) I grabbed my gear and headed to Chilli Cool in Bloomsbury to get my socks – I hoped – well and truly blown off. Continue reading →

Za’atar, sumac & lemon roast chicken

Posted on 14 May 2010 by The Grubworm

My mum came round for dinner last week. Those of you who learned their love of food at mother’s apron strings will be familiar with the leap of excitement and dread those words can summon. Because if there’s someone you want to impress, it’s your mum.

And so there was much scratching of head and leafing through books. Italian was out, my mum loves Italian, and she’s much better at it than me. Time to look to my own strengths and influences. In this case the Eastern Med. Continue reading →

Green bean, mangetout & hazelnut salad

Posted on 12 May 2010 by The Grubworm

I don’t care if spring has chilled down to the level of a Greenland glacier, it’s still sunny. And so, in the great British tradition, I am determined to forge ahead as though I’m in a temperate paradise.

So it’s got to be fresh light food to match those – ahem – fresh winds blowing down from the north. Continue reading →

Byron Burger

Posted on 9 May 2010 by The Grubworm

Branches in Islington, Wardour St, Kings Rd, Gloucester Rd, Kingston, Kensington, White City. www.byronhamburgers.com

Wham, bam, thank you ma’am. Eating at Byron was a ten-ton truck of revelation hitting my poor Saturday morning self. And if that sounds like some deep-fried Dixie Bible-belt conversion, well then, it’s not too far off.

My very first bite of the “Byron” – 6oz burger, dry cure streaky bacon, cheese and special sauce – brought back sepia-toned childhood memories of burgers past. It was so good I came back 24 hours later to go through the whole experience all over again. Continue reading →

Asparagus risotto and poached egg

Posted on 5 May 2010 by The Grubworm

I think I’ve got a bad case ooze addiction. After the cauliflower cheese I craved more ooze, and more sophisticated ooze. And nobody does sophisticated ooze like the Italians.

And as the English asparagus I love so much is sprouting all over London, I was able to combine two desires into a seasonal ooze of a risotto. With a poached egg on top because I love the wibbly, yolky mess that leaches out when you get one just right. Continue reading →

Cauliflower & potato cheese

Posted on 3 May 2010 by The Grubworm

Sometimes, when faced with a big white ball of a cauliflower I’m stumped. It’s one of the few vegetables that I can’t think of something to do straight away. Then I remember cauliflower cheese and all is okay with the world again.

Along with spicy curry, this is the best – and certainly most comforting – way to cook cauliflower. If you do it well, thick and cheesy with a bit of bite, then it can be extraordinarily good. Continue reading →