Archive for the ‘Food’ Category
November 12, 2018
Finsbury Park can feel a bit bleak after a few days research in Paris so it was a happy thing that I was invited to dinner by friends to a new (to me) restaurant to get over the post-trip blues.
Thai Granary (or Granary Thai) is a tardis like room. We headed up to the mezzanine inside, which is cosy and looks out on a bijou one table terrasse.
The room was not as busy as it could be on a Friday night in SG, which is a shame as the cooking was first class. A starter of spring rolls (we hadn’t specified but they’d guessed correctly that we were carnivores) crispy and meaty. And I was fortunate to get in on some summer roll action from across the table – they were even better, really fresh and aromatic.
My main was a spicy chef’s special (wish I could remember the name), and I mean spicy, and there was plenty of it. The rice alongside had a good helping of bean shoots (yum) and despite predictions to the contrary I demolished pretty much the whole lot. Helped by a couple of good, cold beers.
At 25 quid a head this was as good value as you’ll get in these parts for this quality. I’ll look forward to another Friday night outing with les Travis soon.
8/10
#Food #London
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November 8, 2018
Let’s put it out there straight away – Pizzeria Brooklyn is the kind of tourist trap that I would normally avoid. But with an appointment with an Opera we needed food in Bastille quick. PB delivered on that, in fact in terms of food it overdelivered.
But everywhere else it didn’t. Let’s do the food first. We got veggie antipasti up front and it was very good – a generous helping of autumny veg. The pizzas (we got the MBappé specials in honour of the great man) were excellent and massive. I now know what a pizza pie is – it’s a puff pizza with deliciously moist dough which when you pierce it with a knife let’s out a column of steam to reveal its meaty tomato guts. But I’d been walking all day and I still couldn’t finish it – we should have got one to share. House white was bland but drinkable (and cheap, it’s France after all).
The room was set up for Instagram – a pizza oven with something sloganned on it. Bits and pieces of vaguely New Yorky stuff around and a soundtrack of things I wish I didn’t know the tune to from the 1980s. And the bogs! Who would not get rajjed having to take a leak with the legend, ‘Keep calm and eat pizza’ drilling into their eyeballs?
Well, people who like to take selfies in front of food, pictures of their food (the pizzas were square (so wonderfully Instagrammable), wonky pictures of pizza ovens and selfies with pizza ovens. They love that shit. No wonder the staff had all the chaleur of a late night petrol pump attendant.
Did I say the pizza was good?
5/10
#Food #Paris
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Tags:Bastille, Food, France, French, Paris, Pizza, Restaurant
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November 7, 2018
A late arrival in Paris and we wanted to eat local. I had a hankering for Cambodian but there was none of that going on near us so we chose L’Aubergeade on the basis that it looked like a friendly. Good instincts.
It was empty when we arrived at 7 but it didn’t take us longo to realize that we were lucky to have got a table. The next time I looked round I was being handed a menu and the place was full.
The menu is nose to tail rustic French stuff. Up front James chose veal head and I chose mushrooms but what’s this? A sinister amount of egg on the mushroom meaning we had to swap plates. I have to say that eating tête de veau isn’t something I’ll do again in a hurry. The meaty bits were ok but the gluey bits were … gluey. No amount of piquant sauce could hide that fact. But if you’re an aficianado of that kind of thing I guess you’ll have booked a table already.
Main was a more conventional swordfish steak with cheese-creamed rice. That hit the spot on a cold damp autumn night. As did the Anjou red it rolled in with. But not the affogato dessert. This was a mug of whipped cream and not enough coffee.
Which was a shame as the cooking is obviously skilled and popular with the locals. I should have trusted my instincts and just rounded off with a coffee rather than indulging in the sweetness. I’d definitely go back but with a more rigorous eye for what works for my palate.
7/10
#Food #Paris
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48.846593
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Tags:11th, Food, France, French, L'Aubergeade, Paris, Restaurant, Veal Head
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October 29, 2018
Where does one go when one’s just staggered out of Jean Cocteau’s Orphée wondering ‘What the f*** was going in that thing?’ French I guess, to keep the vibe going. Not too far either if it’s the coldest day of the year and you’ve got a stinking manflu. So we went to Bon Vivant, which has replaced a perfectly good Italian on the corner of Marchmont Street, something I’d slightly held against it when walking past previously.
But rarely does London stay still and BV does a good job of imitating a standard French bistrot. A pungently good French soup worked wonders as a starter. Despite being in the grip of la grippe mâle. I could taste the garlic and got a good fishy slap around the chops to boot. The Viognier fared less well against such a blast of flavour, I should have picked a red. Good bread kept us going while we waited for the next round.
For main a confit duck leg was good without being to slaver for and came with death by spuds (one of The Fall’s B-sides compilations) but not by vegetables. Some frizzy lettuce made like tumbleweed across the plate before I pronged it and scoffed it. A sticky red wine sauce was excellent, as was the service.
The room was empty when we arrived at 6 on a Sunday but it soon started to fill up with mostly visitors to these shores. The music was all over the place, starting Europoppy and then moving onto to something more soporific. Except for the volume which always stayed just the wrong side of discreet. I could have done with some Georges Delerue, or indeed to keep with the Orpheé theme, some Georges Auric. And what the pre-pubescent boy at the next table made of the rather lascivious décor in the ‘powder room’ I’ve no idea but it wasn’t to my taste. The food, on the other hand, was. Next time I’ll order me own légumes.
7/10
#Food #London
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51.525522
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Tags:bloomsbury, Food, French, London, Restaurant, russell square
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October 24, 2018
I’ve been in serious training for the Great South Run for several months. Dr Oddbin’s and Dr Nando’s carefully calibrated groundwork meant that when I arrived in Pompey the night before the race I only required a visit to a couple of local hostelries and a restaurant to round off a gruelling program of shoving things in my face to be in peak condition for the big day.
The Golden Eagle provided liquid refreshment while we decided that Fah Thai would provide the necessary pre-run carbo-loading. A brief wait for a table on a busy Saturday night saw us ensconced in a cheerful room hung with oriental knick knacks. Fellow diners munched and conversationed hummed pleasantly. I didn’t want to stray too far from the mainstream so shared a crispy fried seafood and spring roll starter with a Thai Green Curry to follow.
The food was good and there was plenty of it, thus satisfying both of my requirements for the evening. Cheerful, prompt service dispelled the slightly condescending chaos of Koh Thai from the memory. Fah easily outclasses Koh in all areas of the game in this neck of the woods.
Pompey never looked so good.
The weather was glorious for the following day and thanks to the power of Thai food I completed the course in a creditable time. Future runners could do worse than follow in my footsteps.
8/10
#Food #London
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50.786826
-1.079633
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Tags:Food, Great South Run, Portsmouth, Restaurant, Southsea, Thai
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October 23, 2018
Membership of the Crouch End Players entails a gruelling amount of pre- and post-show entertainment that only the strongest constitutions are apt to survive. But it does have the upside of getting to try out the ever-changing restaurant scene in N8. The Victoria Stakes, however, is a stalwart at the foot of Muswell Hill yet curiously I’d never eaten there before.
The room is gastropubby without choring on about it (we dined in the downstairs bar, I think (though I’m not certain) that it’s more formal upstairs). They had a new menu and the staff were eager to know how we liked it. I liked it a lot – solid bistrot style dishes with plenty of options for veggies and vegans.
I was a hungered man and went for the onglet steak. This came cooked, sliced and seasoned to perfection (and I mean perfection, i.e. high end restaurant quality) with lashings of crunchy chips and a satisfyingly hefty lump of watercress on the side. House red didn’t spoil the effect and the only downside was that the bream across the way had plenty of fish but not enough accompaniments.
Service was cheerful and efficient, making the VS a good option if you’re seeing any future CEP productions at the Moravian Hall.
8/10
#Food #London
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Tags:Crouch End, Food, Gastropub, London, Pub, Victoria Stakes
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October 14, 2018
Having been to the extraordinarily good Mantegna-Bellini (I’d say it’s a must see) the previous Friday we returned to the NG for the Courtauld Impressionists. This too is an impressive show. If you haven’t been to either the Courtauld or the National Gallery before. If you have there is literally nothing new to see save for a fancy book created by Mr C to show off his impeccable taste. Since we have a membership for the NG we didn’t have to pay for the tickets (although in a way we kind of had as part of the membership).
There’s a questionable morality around making people (i.e. the British public) pay for something they already own and can usually see for free. Don’t get me wrong, there’s an upside to the sectioning off of these masterpieces behind a pay-wall. Seurat’s Bathers can be revelled in in all its glory without the usual accompaniment of tedious selfie takers and listless tourists getting in the way.
Bringing the two collections together also allows for excellent juxtaposing of works in fresh ways. I was especially struck by two Daumier illustrations of episodes from Don Quixote, especially as the Courtauld’s picture is usually rather inaccessibly hung high up above a chimney breast. But the fact that major paintings like ‘Bathers’ (and many others) are not available to the public throughout the year sticks in the craw somewhat.
So I consoled myself with pizza. Rosso Pomodoro I haven’t been to for some time. They pride themselves on being a Neapolitan outfit and so it was satisfying to get a round of fried stuff to share up front. According to my son Naples is the Glasgow of the south, a place where they’d deep fry their own offspring if they could sell them through a hole in the wall.
The calamari was excellent – squid rings and octopus childers in a fluffy batter. Less enjoyable (though very tasty) was the seaweed croquette. This was more croquette than seaweed. Delicious and fluffy but definitely bringing to mind the potential implications to my arteries of eating so much fatty food.
It was a good job I was hungry as the quattro stagioni that followed was a generous chunk of pizza that overflowed with high quality toppings, especially in the cheese department. The dough is fermented for 24 hours and this tells in the finished product – it’s not often that I want to eat every last portion of a pizza crust but on this occasion I did. Even if ultimately I didn’t manage it; it was with regret that I had to call an end to my struggle.
The service was very good throughout and in seats with a view of the misguided fools queueing to get into Dishoom we were in an admirable place to people watch the parade of human traffic through Covent Garden of a Friday night. It’s worth giving RP a go if you want a change from PExpress.
8/10
#Food #London
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Tags:covent garden, Food, Italian, London, National Gallery, Pizza, Rosso Pomodoro
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September 26, 2018
Back in Lem dropping off the old boy we were in the mood for a proper Midlands curry. The siren call of King Baba was difficult to resist but a 4.9 rating on Google told me that Kayal might be worth a shufty.
We hadn’t booked so had a brief wait in their bar area before being given a table in the window next to a jolly office party. The room is sociable without being cramped, ideal for this kind of dining.
Kayal’s speciality is South Indian food, so plenty of fish on the menu and dhosas a speciality too. Perversely we had neither, it was chicken for me and lamb for him as mains while we had chicken puffs and chili paneer up front. The starters were good – accompanied by three chutneys they each delivered the required heat but also plenty of flavour. Similarly my chicken curry was excellent, a level up from your standard high street Indian cuisine. Nutty chapatis and coconut rice provided the stodge (as did a slice of draught Kingfisher).
The service thorughout was excellent – a packed restaurant was run to perfection, something that is deceptively difficult to do. The friendliness of the staff was judged perfectly though I did miss Baba’s gonzo repartee. And his incredibly low prices. Though at around 25 quid a head a visit to Kayal will hardly break the bank for those in regular employment.
8/10
p.s. The morning after I treated myself to coffee on the terrace of Procaffeinate. Coffee, staff and view add up to
9/10
#Food #Leamington
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September 17, 2018
Eight hours of straight cricket is apt to make a man or woman hungry so it was with a ravenous appetite that I sought sustenance in Crouch End on Saturday night. And what’s this? The empty block where the unmissed North African place used to be has been filled by Here Crouch End (who comes up with these names?) which looked classy from the outside; and it turns out from the inside too.* We were welcomed by a charming front of house team who explained what they were up to and how we could get it.
As with Goods Office the offer is tapas so this made for an interesting head to head. Here (really?) is aiming for a higher standard of cooking (so it’s really a bit invidious to make the comparison as they’re trying to find different niches in the market) and this is reflected in the price. Eighteen quid for a sharing plate is not cheap but then when that dish is a superb smoked duck salad it’s hard to begrudge it. I wanted it all for myself.
Not all the dishes are that expensive – the padron peppers were reasonably priced, more numerous and better prepared than those at GOffice. And there’s a much more extensive selection of stuff, from staples like polenta chips or calamari (I liked the batter on the squid, others at our table were less happy) to more unusual fare like the duck. The management philosophy is all about locally sourced, quality products and it really does show in the excellence of the food on offer. And the wine was good too.
This was a second welcome find in the local area within a week and while Here is a little too steep to become a regular outing it is a place I can heartily recommend to ethically conscious north London foodies (I believe there are a few around).
8/10
#Food #London #N8
*We were there for its final night. In order to get coffee my friend Trav went to Tesco and brought some for them to brew up.
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51.580373
-0.124225
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September 14, 2018
A welcome addition to the local restaurant scene is Goods Office which nicely fills in the gap between Stroud Green and Crouch End. It replaces, after many years, a previous eatery called the Triangle and as you might guess occupies a triangle-shaped room. This doesn’t make it the easiest space to wrangle table-wise and to be honest I’m not sure the present set up of rows of tables quite works. But it looks to me that they’re still in the teething stage and no doubt a few furnishings will appear too to dampen the rather rattly accoustic.
But what about the food? It’s tapas so we went for a few options each from veg, fish, meat and sides. The stars of the show were a cured mackerel (top quality fish) and beef croquettes. The calamari were also excellent but could have done with a bit of aïoli or similar alongside. Padrone peppers were decent but too few. The rash splurge on a second bottle of wine for the party took the spend above 20 quid a head which is about standard for this side of the tracks of north London.
The service was excellent, really friendly and I hope this place goes from strength to strength – if only because it’ll save me walking that bit further when I want to go somewhere other than Harringay High Street.
7/10
#food #London
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51.573601
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