Category Archives: Eating out

Launceston Place Revisited

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This is MiMi of meemalee’s kitchen keeping the Grubworm’s blogging seat warm for him as he wends his way around the world …

A while back, there was some discussion on Twitter as to whether you should cut a restaurant some slack if the head chef was off that day. Metro critic Marina O’Loughlin had reviewed Koffmann’s and had found it lacking – turns out Chef Pierre was at Noma in Copenhagen.

Some people argued that it was unfair to expect the food to be as good as usual if he wasn’t in the kitchen; I was on the side of those who maintained it shouldn’t make a difference.

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Someone then said to me that they’d gone to Launceston Place on two occasions, the first when head chef Tristan Welch was there and they’d had a wonderful meal, the second when he was away and it had been decidedly un-wonderful.

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Now, I don’t tend to review a restaurant more than once unless I feel I have something to add, but I do revisit the ones I like, and Launceston Place is definitely in that category.

I have to admit though that it had been a while since we’d gone back to visit, so, concerned by this complaint of inconsistency, my husband and I trotted over to South Ken and popped in for lunch unannounced.

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A hot pot feast at Little Lamb

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The-spread

I’m a hot-pot novice, but anything that gets a big group of friends and soon-to-be friends round a table slurping and munching and spilling and chatting has got to be a good thing right? So when an invite came from Going With My Gut to join a hot potty crew for dinner, I was never going to refuse.

And it was everything that I hoped it would be. Tasty, interesting, fun and full of lots of new things. The restaurant, Little Lamb, was cozy and – thanks goodness – air conditioned. Eating spicy hot and aromatic hotpot is, well, HOT work. Continue reading →

Kaosarn: Thai restaurant in Brixton

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Beef massaman curry

The search was long and arduous, but finally I’ve found it. A good Thai restaurant in London. It took long enough to find! There was none of that namby-pamby bowing to “western” sensibilities either. This was properly spicy, if you asked for it. And yes, I certainly asked for it…

So, thanks and a shout out to all those tweeters who recommended this as a place to try when I sent out a distress call on Twitter. North East Londoner that I am, I was a bit lost when heading into the badlands of the South West (of London). And what a happy surprise it was to find them neither bad nor boring.
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The Big Brunch

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Cheese & bacon swirls

Brunch is not a meal to be taken lightly. It’s obsessed over by both sides of the Atlantic, even if our European cousins seem not to be so bothered. Brunch covers both lunch and breakfast bases for the lazy riser. It’s pretty much the focus of the foodie day.

And so, when you’re invited over for brunch, particularly one with a whole group of snap happy food bloggers, you know there’ll be a meal made with sweat, blood and tears, or at the very least, a lot of delicious and unhealthy things. The sort of baking you need to set you up for the weekend. Continue reading →

Ba Shan: Hunanese food in London

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Smashed salt and sesame aubergine

Before today I had no real idea what Hunanese food was, or how it differed from Sichuan. Sure, I have the Fuschia Dunlop’s cookbook. But following recipes for a cuisine I’ve never tried is not the way to experience it. After Ba Shan though, my response to Hunanese has gone from “Huh?” to “Hell yeah!”.

From the first mouthful of preserved duck eggs and salted (I think) chillies, all creamy, subtle and darkly translucent “whites” covered with vivid fire-engine red chilli I knew this would be interesting. And the fascination just grew, right through to the despairing lift of my chopsticks as i tried to cram in one, last piece of tofu. Continue reading →

Antepliler: Lahmacun to remember

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Baclava

Islington isn’t the first place that comes to mind when talk turns to Turkish food. All that glistening grilled meat and multi-dish meze spreads is far more Dalston and Green Lanes, a natural habitat for great Anatolian food.

The N1 scene, such as it is, was dominated by the busy Gallipoli boys, all dancing on tables and tasty apple tea. But food that hardly sets my taste buds alight. So there was excitement when I saw Antepliler, one of Green Lanes’ best, open an upmarket joint on Upper Street. Continue reading →

Bloggers’ Lunch at The Ship – a proper party

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Mini crab cake with quails egg

From across the capital (and beyond) they came, braving arctic conditions and the vagaries of London transport. They crossed rivers, trekked ice-bound wildernesses, clambered up treacherous stairs and made their way, swaying and clanking, through tunnels deep underground.

Why? To get to one of the events of 2010, the bloggers’ xmas lunch. No fewer than fifty bloggers found their way through snow and wind to The Ship, a beacon of warmth and light perched on the south bank of the Thames. A pub full of friendly folks chatting, eating and drinking. Continue reading →

The finer side of Georgia food

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Quail and grits

The States ain’t all about junk food, coffee and down home cookin’, contrary to much popular opinion. Yes, it is the home of the hamburger, and awash with salt-laden processed food and fast food joints. But, just like here, you can get good food, really good food, in the US.

Having been charged with cooking the Christmas dinner, we went hunting for some of that fine food. And I had heard rumours that one of them had an in-house butcher. Sure enough, we found an unmarked door with a button alongside saying “Press me” (or words to that effect). It was all very Alice-in-Wonderlandish, which for Georgia is downright weird. Continue reading →

Georgia: down home and delicious

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Georgia bbq ribs

“Georgia, Georgia, the whole day through. Just an old sweet song keeps Georgia on my mind.” That old sweet song, and grits, burgers, pancakes, crispy bacon, eggs sunny side up, all that low down deliciously dirty food, keeps Georgia on my mind. And in my veins.

Sometimes what you need is dirty food. It hits the spot. None of that hoity toity linen and silver fine dining rubbish. No. What you need is grease and chipped formica. And something with a strong taste, something fresh, something that’s been cooked instead of prepared, sliced, heated, arranged and combined. Fuel not art. Continue reading →

Bar Pepito: all about sherry and the pig

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An intense duck pate

Bar Pepito, all four tables of it, is a rare beast, a Spanish bar in London that actually has the whiff of Iberia about it. Despite the “rustic” tabletops-on-barrels and small space, this is no rural Spanish replicant. From the fine sherries to the beautifully presented and deceptively simple tapas, it’s the sort of place you’d expect to find in trendy areas of Barcelona.

It’s also, thank goodness, a world away from the cover-all-bases tapas warehouses that sprang up all over London like fungus a few years back. This is a low-lit reductionist kind of place, and it reduces everything down to the very essence of Iberian tapas – sherry and the pig. And a decent glass of Rioja too. Continue reading →