Aunt Victoria and Uncle Patrick were in London from Australia this week. Of course, that means I have to come up with a restaurant idea (the thought of cooking mid-week in our small flat was immediately dismissed). Always tricky to balance a number of considerations - type of food, style of restaurant, price point. It seemed to me that it would be nice to do something 'British' as we are, after all, in Britain and the next day was the English national Day, St George's Day.
So after reading some good reviews (such as on London Eater, who named it his 'eat' of 2008), I decided upon Wild Honey. Good quality British food, good ingredients well executed, impressive wine list, reasonable price, centrally located. Ticked all the boxes.
No photos this time, unfortunately, but bear with me . . .
I started with a warm salad of purple sprouting broccoli, goat's curd and smoked pork belly. Purple broccoli is one of those ingredients I see around a lot, but my fruit and vegie shop doesn't have any, so we don't get it. In actual fact, it isn't all that exciting. It tasted just like broccolini, but looked a little brown at the top. The salad was nice enough but nothing really amazing. Kyle, however, had the warm smoked eel, beetroot tart and horseradish which was exceptional. Really delicious. Neither of us had ever tried eel before, but I am now definitely keen to go again. Rick, smoky, oily fish cut through with the horseradish on a crunchy pastry base. Yum. This turned out to be the highlight of the night.
For main, I had the slow cooked English veal 'blanquette'. I didn't really know what this would be but Wikepedia now provides this handy and approriate description. After two guilt-enducing veal meals in Venice, I thought I would attempt to redeem myself by having some more 'animal-friendly' English veal. The dish was very pleasant - the veal was tender and flavoursome and the accompanying vegetables of baby leek and cabbage were tasty. The dish was served in an attractive copper pot, but with a plate that you had to dish it into yourself. Erm . . . what is the point of this please? Kyle's main was the soft polenta with portobello mushrooms, pecorino and olive oil. It was fine.
To finish, we shared some cheese. Wild Honey has a proper cheese board in the French cheese trolley style. Kyle chose the cheeses for us and they included a Comte, Brie de Meaux, a blue and another smoky style French cheese (can't really recall the details). They came with some crackers, grapes and honey. The cheeses were all good served at the perfect temperature and the honey was a nice, location-appropriate touch.
My expectations of Wild Honey were very high, I will admit. So it is possible that is why I thought it was just okay. It wasn't cheap, but I wasn't expecting cheap, I was expecting excellent food. The service was quite good (the two girls on the door were in particular very friendly and passionate about the restaurant) but a little patchy at times. The wine list was very long and there were a lot of choices by the glass (250ml carafe). In the end, we chose a bottle of Cotes du Rhone, which was nice enough.
Ultimately, I feel like I missed something. I probably wouldn't go back due to the 'lots of restaurants in London' issue and maybe that's a shame. It wasn't an embarrasing restaurant to have taken people too, but I was kinda hoping for something wow, you know?
Food: 7/10
Wine: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Wild Honey
12 St George Street
London W1S 2FB
DIY Thai
I have been craving Asian food recently. Perhaps it is the hint of Summer in the air, perhaps it is an excess of British food, but I decided I had to cook some sort of Asian meal this weekend. And if you're going to cook an Asian meal, why not make it a Thai feast?
We started with Pork Larb in Little Gem Lettuce cups. This was really tasty - lots of typical Thai flavours, such as chilli, fish sauce, lime juice, mint and coriander, so was packed with flavour. The lettuce made for a refreshing almost juicy contrast and the toasted ground rice (something I have never had before) provided perfect crunchy texture. Fun to eat, good to look at and tasty to boot, this is a great starter.
Main was Noodle, Chicken and Aubergine Laksa. I'm not a huge fan of laksa, but this really appealed and was also delicious. The red curry paste we used could have been stronger (or we could have used more) and we added some dried chilli flakes to boost the heat. The chicken was meltingly tender, the aubergine sweet and soft and the fresh basil really leapt out of the dish. This could have changed my mind about laksa.
After all this richness, a light dessert was all that was needed, so the Fresh Pineapple with crushed mint and lime sugar was perfect. It really was just fruit +. Unfortunately, I made the mint and lime sugar a bit too far in advance so it went a bit brown and clumpy, but still tasted good. Seeing as this takes, oh, 30 seconds to make, there is really no need for advance preparation.
I was very pleased with my Thai feast - lots of strong, fresh flavours and some really different dishes (for me, anyway). Unfortunately - or is that fortunately? - I still don't think it has cured my Asian food cravings. Stay tuned . . .
We started with Pork Larb in Little Gem Lettuce cups. This was really tasty - lots of typical Thai flavours, such as chilli, fish sauce, lime juice, mint and coriander, so was packed with flavour. The lettuce made for a refreshing almost juicy contrast and the toasted ground rice (something I have never had before) provided perfect crunchy texture. Fun to eat, good to look at and tasty to boot, this is a great starter.
Main was Noodle, Chicken and Aubergine Laksa. I'm not a huge fan of laksa, but this really appealed and was also delicious. The red curry paste we used could have been stronger (or we could have used more) and we added some dried chilli flakes to boost the heat. The chicken was meltingly tender, the aubergine sweet and soft and the fresh basil really leapt out of the dish. This could have changed my mind about laksa.
After all this richness, a light dessert was all that was needed, so the Fresh Pineapple with crushed mint and lime sugar was perfect. It really was just fruit +. Unfortunately, I made the mint and lime sugar a bit too far in advance so it went a bit brown and clumpy, but still tasted good. Seeing as this takes, oh, 30 seconds to make, there is really no need for advance preparation.I was very pleased with my Thai feast - lots of strong, fresh flavours and some really different dishes (for me, anyway). Unfortunately - or is that fortunately? - I still don't think it has cured my Asian food cravings. Stay tuned . . .
Braised artichoke pasta
If the magazines have been inundating me with roast lamb recipes, it seems the bloggers choice for must-cook food of the moment is artichokes. In the last few weeks, I have read about artichokes here, here and here, among others. And then there was the posting from Smitten Kitchen for Artichokes braised in lemon and olive oil. Smitten Kitchen appears to be becoming my favourite source of new and unusual recipes. Her style of writing and photography is readable, pleasant to look at, passionate and practical and this recipe certainly demonstrates those characteristics.
So artichokes had been on my mind and when I saw a pile at the fruit and vegie store on Saturday, I was vaguely interested. They were pretty second hand looking - if Deb thought hers were rough, they had nothing on these - but they offered them to me for free (I did say they weren't great!), so it seemed a good opportunity to practice on this intimidating and complicated vegetable.
I have only ever tried to cook an artichoke once before and it was a dismal failure - I had no idea what I was doing and ended up throwing the artichoke away. Deb's pictures were so helpful and the method of cooking them first and then removing the choke made life much easier. Still, we were surprised at how much of the artichoke is thrown away. We had quite a production line going between us, but this is still a high-maintenance vegetable - it took nearly two hours to cook this. Our lunch of artichoke pasta was quite late in the end!
And they are lovely, very mild flavoured and absolutely not remotely similar to bought artichokes. Unfortunately, the effort to result ratio is a little distorted, so I don't think I would do this all that often.The Dervish, Stoke Newington (6.5/10)
The Dervish is a Turkish restaurant in Stoke Newington and is quite attractive with myriad different coloured latterns hanging from the ceiling. The restaurant was a third full at best on a Saturday night, but the Turkish music and dim lighting ensured a certain amount of atmosphere.The menu was pretty standard Turkish fare - meat, kebabs, grill. The difficulty with Turkish restaurants is that the main meals all seem pretty similar and for me, the variety and action is all in the appetizers. So it was at The Dervish.
We ordered the mixed Meze to start, which comprised a broad bean salad, black-eyed bean salad, couscous salad, potato salad, roasted aubergine, houmous, a youghurt dip, felafel and borek. Almost everything on this was quite nice, fresh ingredients and quite a few different tastes despite how similar everything sounds. It was served with bread, which was quite disappointing - Turkish bread is a favourite of mine and this was pretty dull.
Kyle's main was spicy Turkish sausage with pita bread, yoghurt and 'special sauce'. My main was grilled lamb cubes with . . . pita bread, yoghurt and 'special sauce'. So, yes, they tasted pretty much the same. The sausage was reminiscent of chorizo and the lamb was like a nice piece of barbecued meat. While you can't complain about any of this, it wasn't all that special.
They didn't have the wine we selected, so we just went for the house red, an Italian Merlot, which was quite nice.
Service started well but then really fell off towards the end. I was going to get dessert but by the time they finally came back, I couldn't be bothered. Considering the restaurant was pretty empty, there isn't really an excuse for that.
All in all, The Dervish was okay, but considering how many Turkish restaurants there are in the area, I wouldn't bother again.
Food: 6/10
Wine: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 6.5/10
The Dervish
15 Stoke Newington Church Street
London, N16 0NX
TV Filming of Food Fight
Second super blurry photo of the week! This one is the TV set of the new Channel 4 show Food Fight, which we went to the studio audience for this week. Last time I did this, I vowed never to go again. As entry is not guaranteed, you queue for two hours in the cold before finally being let into the studio. Last time we saw the 'comedy' show Argumental, which really wasn't very funny, but when the offer of seeing a food show came along, I found myself tempted once more.
The wait was awful, no doubt. Luckily, the show was quite good. It was hosted by Sue Perkins (we saw her with Giles Coren in a show where they ate the food from the Second World war) and she was absolutely hilarious, really made it. Team captains were Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (looks exactly the same as on TV) and Ruth Jones (apparently she opened the first UK gastropub) and guests were Neil Morissey and Fay Ripley (from Cold Feet).
The show is basically showing off their foodie knowledge and was reasonably interesting, but not earth-shattering. I'm not sure how it will present on TV, but Sue Perkins is probably good enough to carry it.
Bill Granger cooks for Delicious
Delicious magazine is apparently running monthly cooking demonstrations in conjunction with Waterstones bookshop. This month the Aussie with the teeth, Bill Granger (yes, that blur is Bill), was doing a demonstration at Waterstones Piccadilly. They have a brilliant demonstration theatre with a full kitchen and mirrors above the benches so you can see a reflection of the demonstration. It was quite a small crowd, perhaps 70 people, so was a lovely intimate atmosphere.
Bill is as relaxed as you'd expect, but is a little more . . . erm, masculine in person. And those teeth - impressive! He cooked four dishes from his new book, Feed Me Now:
- Chocolate coconut slice
- Marinated chicken wings with satay sauce
- Hotcakes with caramelised bananas
- Curried prawn stirfry
Overall, the event was very worthwhile and it is worth keeping an eye out for future similar events. It cost 6 pounds and included 1 1/2 hour cooking demonstration, a glass of wine, a Delicious bag, this month's Delicious magazine (which I already had) and a Bodem 6 cup coffee plunger (we have a coffee machine). Lovely gifts but fairly useless for me. Still, my friends all got some lovely freebies this week!
Roast beef sandwiches
Inspired by the leftover onion gravy from the Easter roast lamb and also by the steak sandwich from Smiths of Smithfields, we made these awesome sandwiches with roast beef from the butcher, rocket, parmesan and onion gravy on granary bread. Really, really good!
Roast lamb for Easter
In the weeks leading up to the Easter long weekend, I was bombarded with magazine articles and emails about roast lamb. Clearly it is the thing to eat over Easter in the UK. So, as an Australian eating in London, I felt a certain obligation to follow the trend.I'm not a big cooker of roasts. I have a habit of overcooking them, perhaps because I buy smaller ones for less people, but I generally find it all a bit disappointing. So it was with some trepidation that I selected my leg of lamb from the butcher on Easter Saturday.
With the recent mint sauce triumph in Venice in mind, I also decided to make a mint sauce. I selected a recipe from UKTV Food, which seemed appropriate.
I have to say, I was pretty happy with how this turned out. I ignored all instincts to keep it in for longer and it was a lovely rosy pink colour. I served it with goose-fat roasted potatoes, beans, the mint sauce and an onion gravy. The mint sauce tasted nice, but the one in Venice must have been boiled and reduced to be as thick and sticky as it was. I'll have to try again.Happy Easter!
The other St Johns - Archway, North London (9/10)
It is interesting sometimes the random methods you use to choose a restaurant. This would have to be one of the more convoluted examples. In October last year, we spent half an hour in a 4WD hurtling through the Wadi Rum in Jordan with a guy called John. We had one of those standard conversations you have with someone that you will only spend such a short amount of time with.
John: "So, where are you guys from?"
Us: "Australia, but we're living in London at the moment."
"Oh yeah? Whereabouts?"
"North London, Highbury."
"Ever been to a pub in Archway called St Johns?"
"No, we've been to St Johns in Clerkenwell? Archway is on our number 4 bus route though."
"My brother is the owner (chef? Little hazy on the details), its really good."
"Cool, we'll have to go one day."
[Everyone returns to staring out the windows at the endless sand dunes broken up by a few rocks and camels]
Fast forward six months and we're standing out the front of The Olive Tree, a Greek restaurant just around the corner from us. They've apparently just won Best Family Restaurant in the Islington Gazette Restaurant Awards and the window is covered in promotional blurb about the awards. So later at home, we try to find more information about it on the Gazette's web site, but no luck. We did, however, come across a review for the Lord Palmerston Pub in Archway (still not there, but soon, I promise), which sounded good, but looked a bit dodgy in the photos. Further googling of this pub brought up a reference to another pub also in Archway. Yes, we've made it - St John's. Distant alarm bells rang back to that conversation in the desert and we decided to give it a go. I did say it was convoluted.
We reserved a table for a Saturday night and were told we had a two-hour time limit. I can understand for the restaurant why they do it, but I do find time limits annoying. Eating out is supposed to be a relaxing and enjoyable experience, not a clock-watching one. That's work.
Anyway, we arrived a bit early to have a drink in the bar. The pub was absolutely nothing special from the outside, but on the inside was strongly reminiscent of other London gastropubs we've been to, such as The Eagle in Farringdon and The Westbourne near Notting Hill. There seems to be some gastropub rule where the furniture has to be as plain, rustic and as mis-matched as possible.
We started with a pint of Pride for Kyle and a glass of Cava for me and then decided to sample one of those strange British culinary creations - the Scotch Egg. I've been interested in trying one since reading the Dos Hermanos blog. This being my first Scotch Egg, I can't really say whether it was a good example or not, but it is certainly bizarre. A hard-boiled egg, wrapped in sausage meat, coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried. The strangest part is that it is served cold, so it is really quite stodgy and heavy. None of the ingredients screamed flavour so the accompanying salt and pepper and mustard took over. Not the greatest thing I've ever eaten, but it certainly looked interesting!
After this not so light appetizer, we moved into the restaurant proper, which was a much fancier, high-ceilinged room decorated with a clutter of drawings and paintings (unfortunately it was also a lot darker, so the photos are pretty bad from here on in). We were immediately presented with some delicious chewy bread, unfortunately let down by another one of my restaurant pet hates, unsalted butter. I mean, what's the point? It tastes like nothing. Luckily that lovely salt came in handy again.
The wine list was quite extensive with a strong leaning towards French and Spanish wines. About 8 whites and reds were available by the small glass (125ml), 1/2L carafe or full bottle as well as another 15 or so just by the bottle. We ordered a bottle of Guelbenzo, a Spanish wine comprised of about seven grape varieties, including syrah, tempranillo, cabernet sauvignon and a few others I hadn't heard of. It was surprisingly light in taste considering the dark colour, but had a wonderful dry finish from lots of tannins.
We had seen the menu already in the bar, which was quite good, as in the restaurant they only had it on a blackboard, that was quite hard to read. It was a daily menu, which always seems a good sign to me, that you will have fresh seasonal ingredients. This was supported by another blackboard listing the provenence of a number of ingredients. There was a surprisingly heavy weighting towards fish (4 out of 9 mains) and as we had been eating more fish pie than we care to mention all weekend, neither of us were that keen to go fishy again.
I decided to try the Cheddar, pea and wild garlic tart to start. I have been reading a lot about wild garlic at the moment - apparently you can find it growing anywhere all over England, but perhaps not in North London. My little fruit and vegie store also doesn't stock it, so I was keen to give it a go. The pastry of the tart was excellent - buttery and crumbly. The filling was also good with only a very mild taste of garlic and lovely texture from the burst of baby peas (frozen, I assume?).
Kyle's starter was scallops with black pudding and asparagus veloute. The scallops were quite small, but did come with the roe on, which Kyle enjoyed. The scallop/black pudding thing seems to be quite a fashionable Masterchef combination but did work well.
As an Australian eating in London, one of the things I don't have very often here is steak. It is generally very expensive and without a barbecue as home, I rarely cook it either. So when I saw a good old Rib Eye and chips on the menu, it seemed like a good option. I asked for the steak medium-rare and it was beautifully cooked with a lovely charred flavour (Oh, I do miss barbecue). Unfortunately, there was quite a lot of fat that hadn't quite rendered out, so it was a little stringy in places, but otherwise tender and delicious. The chips were big and fat, perfectly crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The steak was served with a traditional bearnase sauce, which was quite mild (the charred steak flavour overpowered the sauce) and a woefully inadequate amount.
Kyle's main was a pork chop served with chorizo, beans and kale. The beans and kale in the slightly sweet sauce were delicious, but the chorizo was quite tough and the pork chop, while well-cooked and tender, was somewhat drowned out by the other strong flavours in the dish.
The dessert menu included quite traditional British desserts, such as Bakewell tart, cheesecake and chocolate fondant. There was also a selection of six British and French cheeses at 2.50 pounds each, which I thought was a great idea for serving cheeses. From this list, Kyle chose a Reblochon Fermier, a soft mould ripened cow's milk cheese, and a Saint Maure de Touraine, a medium soft goat's cheese. The cheeses were served with crackers, chutney (which completely didn't go with these two cheeses) and oddly, half an apple and half a pear, just like that. The goat's cheese was the star - rich and creamy with a distinctive but not over-powering goat's cheese flavour.
I opted for the Chocolate Pot with Coffee Cream, which arrived looking like a cafe latte. It was the perfect end to the meal - intense, smooth chocolate, just the right side of rich that it didn't overwhelm.
We had such a lovely night at St John's. The food was proper gastropub, very traditional but with lovely seasonal fresh ingredients. The service was excellent all night and the atmosphere was great. They didn't end up kicking us out after two hours, which was good, but the restaurant was really busy the whole time - every table was full and a number did turn over twice. Good to see in these credit crunch times. Overall, top place, would definitely come back.
Food: 9/10
Wine: 8/10
Service: 9/10
Ambiance: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
St John's
91 Junction Road
London N19 5QU
John: "So, where are you guys from?"
Us: "Australia, but we're living in London at the moment."
"Oh yeah? Whereabouts?"
"North London, Highbury."
"Ever been to a pub in Archway called St Johns?"
"No, we've been to St Johns in Clerkenwell? Archway is on our number 4 bus route though."
"My brother is the owner (chef? Little hazy on the details), its really good."
"Cool, we'll have to go one day."
[Everyone returns to staring out the windows at the endless sand dunes broken up by a few rocks and camels]
Fast forward six months and we're standing out the front of The Olive Tree, a Greek restaurant just around the corner from us. They've apparently just won Best Family Restaurant in the Islington Gazette Restaurant Awards and the window is covered in promotional blurb about the awards. So later at home, we try to find more information about it on the Gazette's web site, but no luck. We did, however, come across a review for the Lord Palmerston Pub in Archway (still not there, but soon, I promise), which sounded good, but looked a bit dodgy in the photos. Further googling of this pub brought up a reference to another pub also in Archway. Yes, we've made it - St John's. Distant alarm bells rang back to that conversation in the desert and we decided to give it a go. I did say it was convoluted.
We reserved a table for a Saturday night and were told we had a two-hour time limit. I can understand for the restaurant why they do it, but I do find time limits annoying. Eating out is supposed to be a relaxing and enjoyable experience, not a clock-watching one. That's work.
Anyway, we arrived a bit early to have a drink in the bar. The pub was absolutely nothing special from the outside, but on the inside was strongly reminiscent of other London gastropubs we've been to, such as The Eagle in Farringdon and The Westbourne near Notting Hill. There seems to be some gastropub rule where the furniture has to be as plain, rustic and as mis-matched as possible.
We started with a pint of Pride for Kyle and a glass of Cava for me and then decided to sample one of those strange British culinary creations - the Scotch Egg. I've been interested in trying one since reading the Dos Hermanos blog. This being my first Scotch Egg, I can't really say whether it was a good example or not, but it is certainly bizarre. A hard-boiled egg, wrapped in sausage meat, coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried. The strangest part is that it is served cold, so it is really quite stodgy and heavy. None of the ingredients screamed flavour so the accompanying salt and pepper and mustard took over. Not the greatest thing I've ever eaten, but it certainly looked interesting!
After this not so light appetizer, we moved into the restaurant proper, which was a much fancier, high-ceilinged room decorated with a clutter of drawings and paintings (unfortunately it was also a lot darker, so the photos are pretty bad from here on in). We were immediately presented with some delicious chewy bread, unfortunately let down by another one of my restaurant pet hates, unsalted butter. I mean, what's the point? It tastes like nothing. Luckily that lovely salt came in handy again.The wine list was quite extensive with a strong leaning towards French and Spanish wines. About 8 whites and reds were available by the small glass (125ml), 1/2L carafe or full bottle as well as another 15 or so just by the bottle. We ordered a bottle of Guelbenzo, a Spanish wine comprised of about seven grape varieties, including syrah, tempranillo, cabernet sauvignon and a few others I hadn't heard of. It was surprisingly light in taste considering the dark colour, but had a wonderful dry finish from lots of tannins.
We had seen the menu already in the bar, which was quite good, as in the restaurant they only had it on a blackboard, that was quite hard to read. It was a daily menu, which always seems a good sign to me, that you will have fresh seasonal ingredients. This was supported by another blackboard listing the provenence of a number of ingredients. There was a surprisingly heavy weighting towards fish (4 out of 9 mains) and as we had been eating more fish pie than we care to mention all weekend, neither of us were that keen to go fishy again.
I decided to try the Cheddar, pea and wild garlic tart to start. I have been reading a lot about wild garlic at the moment - apparently you can find it growing anywhere all over England, but perhaps not in North London. My little fruit and vegie store also doesn't stock it, so I was keen to give it a go. The pastry of the tart was excellent - buttery and crumbly. The filling was also good with only a very mild taste of garlic and lovely texture from the burst of baby peas (frozen, I assume?).
Kyle's starter was scallops with black pudding and asparagus veloute. The scallops were quite small, but did come with the roe on, which Kyle enjoyed. The scallop/black pudding thing seems to be quite a fashionable Masterchef combination but did work well.
As an Australian eating in London, one of the things I don't have very often here is steak. It is generally very expensive and without a barbecue as home, I rarely cook it either. So when I saw a good old Rib Eye and chips on the menu, it seemed like a good option. I asked for the steak medium-rare and it was beautifully cooked with a lovely charred flavour (Oh, I do miss barbecue). Unfortunately, there was quite a lot of fat that hadn't quite rendered out, so it was a little stringy in places, but otherwise tender and delicious. The chips were big and fat, perfectly crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The steak was served with a traditional bearnase sauce, which was quite mild (the charred steak flavour overpowered the sauce) and a woefully inadequate amount.
Kyle's main was a pork chop served with chorizo, beans and kale. The beans and kale in the slightly sweet sauce were delicious, but the chorizo was quite tough and the pork chop, while well-cooked and tender, was somewhat drowned out by the other strong flavours in the dish.
The dessert menu included quite traditional British desserts, such as Bakewell tart, cheesecake and chocolate fondant. There was also a selection of six British and French cheeses at 2.50 pounds each, which I thought was a great idea for serving cheeses. From this list, Kyle chose a Reblochon Fermier, a soft mould ripened cow's milk cheese, and a Saint Maure de Touraine, a medium soft goat's cheese. The cheeses were served with crackers, chutney (which completely didn't go with these two cheeses) and oddly, half an apple and half a pear, just like that. The goat's cheese was the star - rich and creamy with a distinctive but not over-powering goat's cheese flavour.
I opted for the Chocolate Pot with Coffee Cream, which arrived looking like a cafe latte. It was the perfect end to the meal - intense, smooth chocolate, just the right side of rich that it didn't overwhelm.We had such a lovely night at St John's. The food was proper gastropub, very traditional but with lovely seasonal fresh ingredients. The service was excellent all night and the atmosphere was great. They didn't end up kicking us out after two hours, which was good, but the restaurant was really busy the whole time - every table was full and a number did turn over twice. Good to see in these credit crunch times. Overall, top place, would definitely come back.
Food: 9/10
Wine: 8/10
Service: 9/10
Ambiance: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
St John's
91 Junction Road
London N19 5QU
Fish Pie with Prawns and Cheesy Leek Mash
I had been faintly entertaining the idea of making that classic British dish - fish pie - since I saw a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall program where he was 'teaching' some non-cookers how to cook by making what looked like a very complicated recipe! He was obviously copying Jamie's thing, but I think he missed the point.Anyway, so Fish Pie. I have never made a fish pie and as a concept I'm not even that excited by it (I have never ordered it at a restaurant for example), but for some bizarre reason, I really wanted to make one. I decided Good Friday would be a fitting occasion, seeing as I have this inexplicable religious hangover for eating fish on Good Friday even though I'm not religious and then I go and blow it anyway by eating chicken and pork at Dotori. Oh well, surely the thought counts and it is a good excuse for making the fish pie.
After much internet trawling, I settled on the recipe for Fish Pie with Prawns and Cheesy Leek Mash topping. I guess you could call this a traditional recipe with a bit of a twist (the twist being a few more calories in the cheesy mash). The recipe was a bit of a challenge for my small kitchen - I think we used almost every dish we own and every saucepan twice!
But in the end, we had a lovely layer of cod, smoked haddock, prawns and boiled eggs, over which to pour the sauce made from the milk the fish had simmered in. This was all topped by the cheesy-leek mash (which on its own was delicious) and then grilled until brown.
I did actually like the fish pie, but it was very rich and I think I over-salted it a little. I served it with just some simple peas and they were necessary for cutting through the richness. All the fish had nice bite and using prawns that I cooked instead of pre-cooked prawns gave them better flavour and texture, I think. The eggs are an unusual (although apparently typical) addition - it was always a bit of a surprise when you bit into the egg - and the mash was superb as a topping. It's not the prettiest food in the world, but all in all, I enjoyed this British classic although I don't think I will make it too often . . . all those calories!Great new local restaurant - Dotori (8/10)
I subscribe to the Time Out newsletter and give it a quick read every week to see if there is anything interesting happening. My interest was most piqued when I saw a restaurant in Finsbury Park in their Cheap Eats feature this week. The restaurant in question is Dotori and is less than 10 minutes walk from our flat. We went for lunch on Good Friday, a day that is as dead as Christmas Day in Brisbane, but seems quite buzzy here in London.
The restaurant looks very different to everything else around it. I mean, let's face it, the area around Finsbury Park Station is far from salubrious! Dotori is quite small but beautifully decorated with rice paper lanterns and bamboo on the walls. There was only one other couple in the restaurant when we arrived around 1pm, but by the time we left at 2pm, there was a queue. I think the Time Out coverage had been seen by quite a few locals!
They pretty much have two complete menus - a Korean and a Japanese. The Japanese was quite familiar, with sushi, sashimi, teriyaki and bento boxes. The Korean menu was all quite new to me. The waiter was fantastic. He recognised our indecision and offered a recommendation of the Korean Hot Pot, which I decided to go with. Kyle went with his original choice of Japanese Pork Katsu.
But first, we were given these salads. Now I realise this is just iceberg lettuce with some shavings of carrot and capsicum, but the dressing was amazing. Sweet, but salty and very moreish - I think it was probably soy and rice wine, maybe rice vinegar. I did ask what it is, but apparently it is the chef's secret. I wanted to drink the rest out of the bowl, but managed to restrain myself.
To start, we shared a plate of Crispy deep-fried dumplings, stuffed with chicken mince and served with a soy dipping sauce. The filling of these was a little bland, but the wrapping was perfect - light dough, crispy on the sides and they looked beautiful lined up on the plate!
My Hot Pot was really interesting. It was a mix of rice, seafood and raw vegetables (mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, beansprouts) that came in a really hot stone pot (hence the name!), which cooks the vegetables and keeps the dish super hot for ages. It looked so pretty when it arrived and then the waiter mixed the accompanying chilli sauce into it before I could take a photo. Oh well. This was a really tasty dish, very fresh ingredients and a nice amount of heat in the sauce (although I only used a small amount, but I guess that variability is good).
Kyle's dish of Katsu Donburi was described on the menu as Deep-fried pork in breadcrumbs and egg in special sauce. I don't know that I've ever really liked Katsu much, but it is normally served with a rich curry sauce and is all quite heavy. This one came with the 'special' sauce, which was light and really sweet (reminiscent of the salad dressing - more rice wine perhaps?) and was absolutely delicious and huge! The sticky sushi rice it came with was also excellent.
All of this came with Miso soup and we also tried Hite, a Korean beer, which was crisp and resfreshing - perfect with the mild spice of the hot pot in particular.
All of this came to a bargain 21 pounds, which for food of this quality and quantity is outstanding value. I really enjoyed this - the restaurant is lovely, the food was excellent and the service was friendly and helpful. There are also so many things on the menu I would like to try and it is only 10 minutes walk away! So, in summary, we will definitely go back. What a discovery! Good on Time Out.
Food: 8/10
Drinks: 6/10
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
Dotori
3 Stroud Green Road
London, N4 2DF
The restaurant looks very different to everything else around it. I mean, let's face it, the area around Finsbury Park Station is far from salubrious! Dotori is quite small but beautifully decorated with rice paper lanterns and bamboo on the walls. There was only one other couple in the restaurant when we arrived around 1pm, but by the time we left at 2pm, there was a queue. I think the Time Out coverage had been seen by quite a few locals!
They pretty much have two complete menus - a Korean and a Japanese. The Japanese was quite familiar, with sushi, sashimi, teriyaki and bento boxes. The Korean menu was all quite new to me. The waiter was fantastic. He recognised our indecision and offered a recommendation of the Korean Hot Pot, which I decided to go with. Kyle went with his original choice of Japanese Pork Katsu.
But first, we were given these salads. Now I realise this is just iceberg lettuce with some shavings of carrot and capsicum, but the dressing was amazing. Sweet, but salty and very moreish - I think it was probably soy and rice wine, maybe rice vinegar. I did ask what it is, but apparently it is the chef's secret. I wanted to drink the rest out of the bowl, but managed to restrain myself.
To start, we shared a plate of Crispy deep-fried dumplings, stuffed with chicken mince and served with a soy dipping sauce. The filling of these was a little bland, but the wrapping was perfect - light dough, crispy on the sides and they looked beautiful lined up on the plate!
My Hot Pot was really interesting. It was a mix of rice, seafood and raw vegetables (mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, beansprouts) that came in a really hot stone pot (hence the name!), which cooks the vegetables and keeps the dish super hot for ages. It looked so pretty when it arrived and then the waiter mixed the accompanying chilli sauce into it before I could take a photo. Oh well. This was a really tasty dish, very fresh ingredients and a nice amount of heat in the sauce (although I only used a small amount, but I guess that variability is good).
Kyle's dish of Katsu Donburi was described on the menu as Deep-fried pork in breadcrumbs and egg in special sauce. I don't know that I've ever really liked Katsu much, but it is normally served with a rich curry sauce and is all quite heavy. This one came with the 'special' sauce, which was light and really sweet (reminiscent of the salad dressing - more rice wine perhaps?) and was absolutely delicious and huge! The sticky sushi rice it came with was also excellent.
All of this came with Miso soup and we also tried Hite, a Korean beer, which was crisp and resfreshing - perfect with the mild spice of the hot pot in particular.All of this came to a bargain 21 pounds, which for food of this quality and quantity is outstanding value. I really enjoyed this - the restaurant is lovely, the food was excellent and the service was friendly and helpful. There are also so many things on the menu I would like to try and it is only 10 minutes walk away! So, in summary, we will definitely go back. What a discovery! Good on Time Out.
Food: 8/10
Drinks: 6/10
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
Dotori
3 Stroud Green Road
London, N4 2DF
Beef and Bean Burritos
I have made these Beef and Bean Burritos before, but they are really easy and tasty and even seem reasonably healthy, so I thought they deserved a mention. Good mid-week meal.
Limoncello Strawberries
I had quite high hopes for this dessert - Strawberries with basil and a Limoncello and sugar syrup and I guess it wasn't bad, but I don't think I'll make it again. It was more like a weak cocktail than a dessert!
Daffodils!
These beautiful daffodils were a bargain at 2 pounds for 4 bunches! They look so 'Spring'!
Tonight we're having chicken . . . no, prawns
So the plan was to make the Devil's Chicken Thighs with Braised Leeks from Smitten Kitchen on Saturday night. A nice slow-cooking dish when we didn't have any other plans on a Saturday. Somehow, though, it ended up being 8pm before I even realised (British Summer Time has started and it is light until so much later - it has really thrown me!).
I decided to persevere and as instructed, we started the Braised Leeks first. The leeks were pan-fried and then braised in the oven for 30 minutes with some shallots, white wine and chicken stock. All good ingredients and as promised, they looked and smelled amazing.
So the leeks were braising away when I turned to the chicken part of the recipe to read 'marinate for 4 hours or overnight'. Whoops! I do recall reading that part, but somehow it slipped my mind . . .
So with the leeks braised and the chicken marinating, in a rare spontaneous food moment, I decided to make Sunday's dinner on Saturday and vice-versa.
The plan for Sunday's dinner was to make something to go with the lone bottle of Riesling I have had for ages. I'll admit - I'm scared of Riesling. I imagine it to be sweet and quite gross actually. But it is so fashionable - you read about how fabulous it is everywhere. So I must have bought this bottle in an attempt to overcome my fear and all that has happened is it has sat there while cartons of wine have come and gone around it. So this was it. I chose a recipe for Spiced Shrimps with sautéed spinach.
It was a bit weird, to be honest. Strange sauce made with red capsicum, basil, garlic and lots of oil, so the whole dish was really oily - you can see it on the plate. The prawns in the chilli flour were not bad - they were a little crispy with a nice bit of heat, but overall, I don't think the dish really worked. If I did make it again (which is unlikely), I wouldn't serve the oil from the sauce - I would use a slotted spoon to just get the bits out.
So not only was the meal bad, but I also didn't find the Riesling all that crash hot. It was a Dona Isidora from Argentina and I did find it too sweet. It wasn't crisp like a Sauvignon Blanc or rounded like a Chardonnay. It was somehow fruity in a bad way. I'm not converted. But the hype must be about something, so I probably will try Riesling again.
Anyway, back to the chicken thighs and braised leeks. The original plan was to have the chicken on Saturday and then leftover leeks on Sunday. I decided to go with part B of that plan anyway, particularly since Deb raves about the leeks on their own.
She recommended serving them with all sorts of accompaniments, but we just had some nice ciabatta and butter and it was honestly enough. The leeks were, as advertised, divine. So much flavour for such a simple dish - this one is definitely repeatable.
And then finally, it was time for the chicken. Deb does admit that the recipe involves a lot of faffing - and she isn't exaggerating. So after marinating the chicken overnight with vermouth, onion, chilli and thyme, it is pan-fried until brown and crispy-skinned. The chicken is then slathered in a mixture of sautéed shallots, more vermouth, Dijon mustard, egg, thyme and tarragon. Fresh breadcrumbs mixed with browned butter, thyme and parsley are piled on. The chicken is then baked on top of the braised leeks for about 45 minutes. So yes, it is definitely a lot of mucking around.
Luckily, the dish was delicious. The chicken was amazingly tender but with a crunchy breadcrumb topping for contrast. You could taste the distinct flavours of the vermouth and mustard, which were quite unusual. We already knew the leeks were outstanding, so with the chicken, this was a really good dish. I would have to be reasonably motivated (and much more organised) to make it again, but I'm glad we did it this time - really tasty . . . and even worth the wait!
I decided to persevere and as instructed, we started the Braised Leeks first. The leeks were pan-fried and then braised in the oven for 30 minutes with some shallots, white wine and chicken stock. All good ingredients and as promised, they looked and smelled amazing.
So the leeks were braising away when I turned to the chicken part of the recipe to read 'marinate for 4 hours or overnight'. Whoops! I do recall reading that part, but somehow it slipped my mind . . .
So with the leeks braised and the chicken marinating, in a rare spontaneous food moment, I decided to make Sunday's dinner on Saturday and vice-versa.
The plan for Sunday's dinner was to make something to go with the lone bottle of Riesling I have had for ages. I'll admit - I'm scared of Riesling. I imagine it to be sweet and quite gross actually. But it is so fashionable - you read about how fabulous it is everywhere. So I must have bought this bottle in an attempt to overcome my fear and all that has happened is it has sat there while cartons of wine have come and gone around it. So this was it. I chose a recipe for Spiced Shrimps with sautéed spinach.
It was a bit weird, to be honest. Strange sauce made with red capsicum, basil, garlic and lots of oil, so the whole dish was really oily - you can see it on the plate. The prawns in the chilli flour were not bad - they were a little crispy with a nice bit of heat, but overall, I don't think the dish really worked. If I did make it again (which is unlikely), I wouldn't serve the oil from the sauce - I would use a slotted spoon to just get the bits out.
So not only was the meal bad, but I also didn't find the Riesling all that crash hot. It was a Dona Isidora from Argentina and I did find it too sweet. It wasn't crisp like a Sauvignon Blanc or rounded like a Chardonnay. It was somehow fruity in a bad way. I'm not converted. But the hype must be about something, so I probably will try Riesling again.
Anyway, back to the chicken thighs and braised leeks. The original plan was to have the chicken on Saturday and then leftover leeks on Sunday. I decided to go with part B of that plan anyway, particularly since Deb raves about the leeks on their own.
She recommended serving them with all sorts of accompaniments, but we just had some nice ciabatta and butter and it was honestly enough. The leeks were, as advertised, divine. So much flavour for such a simple dish - this one is definitely repeatable.And then finally, it was time for the chicken. Deb does admit that the recipe involves a lot of faffing - and she isn't exaggerating. So after marinating the chicken overnight with vermouth, onion, chilli and thyme, it is pan-fried until brown and crispy-skinned. The chicken is then slathered in a mixture of sautéed shallots, more vermouth, Dijon mustard, egg, thyme and tarragon. Fresh breadcrumbs mixed with browned butter, thyme and parsley are piled on. The chicken is then baked on top of the braised leeks for about 45 minutes. So yes, it is definitely a lot of mucking around.
Luckily, the dish was delicious. The chicken was amazingly tender but with a crunchy breadcrumb topping for contrast. You could taste the distinct flavours of the vermouth and mustard, which were quite unusual. We already knew the leeks were outstanding, so with the chicken, this was a really good dish. I would have to be reasonably motivated (and much more organised) to make it again, but I'm glad we did it this time - really tasty . . . and even worth the wait!Strawberries and bubbles
It wasn't quite warm enough, but these strawberries were amazing and the sun was out, so strawberries and bubbly in the park it was!
Crostini and Bruschetta
I couldn't let those leftover chicken livers go to waste now, could I? And I found a stray tomato in the fridge, so crostini and bruschetta seemed an obvious choice.
No real recipe here. I diced the chicken livers into really small pieces, melted some butter in a frying pan and cooked the liver really quickly with some finely diced shallot, adding a splash of brandy, finely diced fresh sage and seasoning at the end.
The bruschetta was de-seeded chopped tomato, with basil and olive oil and left to marinate for about 30 minutes.
I brushed some ciabatta slices with olive oil, baked them in the oven for 10 minutes, piled the toppings on and hey presto (is that the Italian version of et voila?), a really tasty appetizer.
Can I compete with the Italians?
We arrived back in London from Venice at around 2pm, a bit tired and a bit sad that I only ate pasta once. So I decided to make my own. Having been a little disappointed with my recent attempt at Beef Ragu, I decided to up the ante and look for a recipe with more ingredients, more cooking time and more WOW factor. I found it in Delia Smith's Authentic Ragu Bolognese. This recipe had plenty of good ingredients - two types of mince, bacon, chicken livers, heaps of tomato paste, red wine - and a whopping 4 hours cooking time! How could you go wrong?
You couldn't really. I served the sauce with some egg tagliatelle and parmesan and it was gorgeous. Rich deep flavours of meat and tomato and you could definitely taste the flavour of the chicken livers (if you're not a big fan of chicken livers, I'd probably suggest reducing the amount, but don't leave them out altogether!). This was a great recipe for anyone with serious Italian pasta cravings! And of course, it made an enormous amount, so you can freeze it and have it over and over again.
La Zucca (The Pumpkin)
I had read a lovely review of La Zucca on A Spoonful of Sugar and decided this was a good restaurant to include in the eating frenzy our Venice weekend had become. I took particular note of the difficulties she described in finding the place and asked the concierge at our hotel for directions. He confidently marked the place on the map, giving us a nice little nod of approval at our choice of restaurant (always makes you feel good!).
We rode the Vaporetto to San Stae, even though it would probably have been quicker to walk, and it was a fabulous trip. The sun was finally starting to come out and the views from the boat were fabulous.We arrived at the Campo S. Giacomo dell' Orio at around 7.20pm, with some time to spare before our 7.30pm reservation. We were conscious not to be late as we'd tried to book for 8pm but had only been able to get the earlier time slot, so assumed they were quite busy. We located the street the concierge had marked out and decided to stroll around the square for a while soaking up some atmosphere until it was time to go to the restaurant. At which point we realised the street was a completely empty dead end with no sign of anything. It was now about 7.28pm and we had no address and no clue. We wandered around for a while and finally went into a shop to ask directions. They spoke no English but the Italian hand gestures came into their own and eventually, by some miracle, we located the restaurant on the opposite side of the square and around the corner. In the end, we did no better than the review I'd read. Still, we were only about 10 minutes late - luckily, as the restaurant had a sign on the door advising they were fully booked for the evening.
La Zucca was originally a vegetarian restaurant but had a good selection of meat-based dishes as well. The menu was the only one we came across that was only in Italian and we struggled through, ordering the Buffalo Mozzarello with tomatoes and olives for me and the chicken liver pate for Kyle.
The pate was an enormous serving and came with a pile of too-crunchy toasted ciabatta bread and some lovely little curls of unsalted butter. The pate was really rich, but Kyle persevered and managed to polish it all off. My mozzarella was stunning - a firm to the bite texture, but creamy and with real flavour. Quite often, mozzarella can taste of nothing. The tomatoes and olives were also good, but the cheese was the star of the show.
Kyle picked the best pasta off the menu - Tagliatelle with sausage and mushroom, so I decided to go for Osso Bucco, only realising when it arrived that I had ordered veal again (oops). The pasta was nice enough, but was a little dry as there wasn't really any sauce. My Osso Bucco was a tender piece of meat, slow-cooked until you could just pull it apart served with a chunky carrot and onion sauce and some rice. It was really tasty, but something I could probably do at home reasonably easily (although perhaps not with veal).
We ordered a one-litre carafe of the house red, which wasn't bad, and was a bargain 10 euros.
I had been very excited by the sound of the desserts on the Spoonful of Sugar review, so was very disappointed to see no chocolate desserts at all on the menu. I know it was a long time ago, but I'll admit, my hopes were high. I decided to settle for the Zabayon Semi-freddo with Caramel, while Kyle opted for Panna Cotta with strawberries. Both desserts looked nice enough but were quite simple and plain, nothing to get all that excited about.La Zucca was clearly very popular - they filled the restaurant across two sittings on a Monday night (although it isn't huge), but I would have to say I found it a little wanting. Everything was nice enough, but except for the mozzarella, nothing was amazing.
That being said, we ate extraordinarily well in Venice. It definitely doesn't deserve its reputation for bad food, although you might have to look a little harder for it. Ironically, for all my research, the best meals were the ones we hadn't planned - at Casin dei Nobili and Da Acighueta. Typical!
La Zucca
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