Monthly Archives: July 2010

Sichuan style cold pork belly & cucumber in a hot garlicky sauce

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Cold Sichuan pork belly

Nothing beats a good steak and there’s something special about the meeting of hot charcoal and lamb. But the meat I keep coming back to again and again, is that of the pig. Maybe it’s familiarity, maybe it’s that I see something of myself in the pig. Maybe I just love the taste of pork.

Whatever the reason, pork is a real comfort blanket of an ingredient. I feel kinda jumpy if i don’t have hanging around. You can do so much with pork, and I just love versatility. Cut some spicy sausage into a prawn jambalya? Magic. Pork shoulder in milk? Pure comfort food. Sizzling bacon sarnie? Hangover cure extraordinaire. Continue reading →

Tohbang’s new lunch menu

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Jjigae at Tohbang

Big lumps of slippery smooth tofu the texture of crème caramel rose and fell in the chilli hot currents of the deep red liquid slowly swirling in front of me, the odd prawn floating to the surface. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting jjigae to to be, but it wasn’t this.

Not that I was disappointed, far from it, this was exciting. I’ve eaten a lot of food from a lot of countries over the last three decades but Korean is a new thing to me. And boy, have I been missing out. Continue reading →

Chilli Cool revisited

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Crispy fried intestines

My first brush with proper Sichuan/Szechuan cuisine was something of a sweat soaked revelation. It left me panting for more. The question is, would Chilli Cool get through that notoriously tough second visit? All that expectation and the unrepeatable joy of a new discovery is tough to beat.

I remembered the crispy flavourful intestines, the earthy and hot lamb skewers and most of all that heavenly aubergine. Oh God the aubergine. Obscenely tasty I’d elevated it onto an oil-drenched pedestal.  So it was with both trepidation and excitment that I wandered into the dining room. Continue reading →

Lunch at 28-50

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Pork belly at 28-50

Pork belly. Those two words open up vistas of pleasure for most carnivores. Who would have thought that something so simple sounding could deliver so much pleasure? The antithesis of the push for lean dry tasteless meat that blighted the menus and school lunches of my eighties childhood, belly is full of interest and excitement.

And at lunch, well, it’d be a sin to pass it up. Meemalee, Mr Noodles and I were trying out 28-50. Named for the latitudes between which most wine is grown, it’s the more casual, wine-focussed, sibling of Texture. With the stripped back simple wood tables and underground space, there is something of both Terroirs and Vinoteca about 28-50. Continue reading →

Tea and chocolate: unusual bedfellows

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Tea in a white cup

Tea and chocolate. More daddy or chips than port and Stilton surely? That’s what I thought as I wended my sticky and hot way through sunbaked Fitzrovia trying to find Tapped and Packed, where I was to participate in a tea, coffee and chocolate matching evening run by Green & Blacks.

Coffee and chocolate, that I could see. They’ve closed the curtains on a multitude of meals from Turkish grills to Aussie seafood. I just couldn’t see fine teas standing up to a deep and bitter 75% cocoa dark chocolate. Just goes to show how much I know. Continue reading →

Mochi love

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Black sesame mochi

Big squidgy balls of sweet, gooey goodness. What is there not to like about mochi? While I wouldn’t pretend to know the first thing about how to make the wobbly buggers, they’re something I always try to pick up from Asian stores when I see them.

And nowhere stocks a range (in my very limited experience) like the Japan Centre. Black sesame, green tea, pink strawberry and plain white. Brightly coloured, neatly wrapped bubbles of fun waiting to catch your eye as you cruise on by. Continue reading →

Jewelled couscous

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Jewelled cous cous

This is my secret weapon when it comes to impressing dinner guests, particularly those who don’t eat much Levantine or North African food. Big piles of fluffy golden cous cous studded with glittering fruits and flecked with emerald green herbs.

And yet – shhhhhh, don’t tell anyone - it’s just so easy to make. There’s practically no cooking, very little preparation and you end up with this conical treasure trove of a dish that looks like it belongs in 1001 Arabian Nights. Continue reading →

A summer tomato, broadbean and feta salad

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Tomato & broadbean salad

Summer time is salad time. Which is great because I’m not getting home till quite late at the moment and all I’m craving after a long hot walk home is something fresh and light to eat on our small balcony.

Add a glass of delicately dry Provençal rose or a tart sauvignon blanc, and the warm light of the setting sun and you have something approaching paradise – or at least as close as you can get in London. Continue reading →