Category Archives: food

Happy Hampers At Xmas

Posted on by under Europe, food, food producers

Not sure what gifts to get friends and relations that live nowhere near you? A great British Hamper can send your best wishes as far away as Australia.

‘That’s called ‘sizzle’, a friendly packer tells me as I handle one of the elements that go into packing a British Hamper Company hamper for postage.

I feel like Gregg Wallace, but while he always feigns amazement, ‘Gor! Vat’s incwedible!’, I am genuinely intrigued..

Sizzle is the trade word for the shredded paper ‘straw’ that is used in vast quantities not just to protect all the items in transit, but to add to the visual appeal and the excitement when the lucky recipient delves into their hamper.

‘We do it in layers, as well as around the items, that way the surprises keep coming. It’s all part of the fun’.

It’s a happy place, The British Hamper Company. The regular staff of around eighteen are right now supplemented with another thirty to handle the demands of Christmas. There is no automation, no humming soulless machines, each packer finds all the items required for the hamper that’s been chosen online and adds them to the hamper by hand.

There’s an art to the packing and each item has its own rules to make sure it presents at its best. Even the ribbons are tied in a standardised way. ‘I love working here.’ one young seasonal worker tells me (and no, she was not in earshot of management) ‘best place I have ever worked. It’s good to know what you’re packing will be a lovely gift for someone and doing it well is satisfying’.

It’s a family business, James Tod is the co-founder and MD, his dad Mike is the other founder and Chairman, and his sister Alice is Sales Director. In 2014 they decided to get into e-commerce and from experience in his world travels, James felt there was demand from expats for much loved British food, as well as British gifting.

A website was set up and the best British artisan producers found. At first, working out of a gazebo office and a barn, sales were slow, around sixty hampers a month. Then came the first Xmas period and sales hit a thousand a month. Now sales are around 30 thousand a year, and they have a proper warehouse facility just outside of historic Lincoln.

‘Thirty five percent of our hampers go overseas’ explains James as we eat a ‘picnic lunch’ using a variety of delicious goods from the warehouse, ‘although’ he says, gesturing at the table, ‘of course those going out of the UK can’t contain perishable produce like this smoked salmon’. It’s very good smoked salmon, and I help myself to some more luscious slices. I also eat more than I should of the All Butter Cheddar Biscuits,  which are absolutely delicious and fiendishly addictive.

‘We begin planning for Christmas in March,’ James explains,’then start test-tasting new products and ordering the stock in May. Finally in September we begin to pack 500 – 600 hampers a day with the dry goods. These can be stored ready and then just before dispatch in go any perishables such as cheese and salmon, as well as any personal message. Delivery is guaranteed within a few days in the UK, often the next day.’

Each year artisan producers all over the UK approach the company hoping to be selected, a tasting task that the family relish. Whilst everything in the hampers carries only TBH branding, the volume they can sell makes it well worth it for the producers because that income supports their businesses in a reliable way. ‘They can focus on creating great products and we do all the rest,’ says James.

So what might lucky recipients find in their hampers, which come in all sizes from bijou to whopping?  Well a £55 Xmas hamper has Sweet & Salty Popcorn, Caramel Sea Salt Fudge Gifting Tin, Bean to Bar Milk Chocolate, Jalapeno & Lime Mixed Nuts, Festive Spiced Cookies, Sea Salt & Black Pepper Corn Crunch, All Butter Cheddar Biscuits and Bean to Bar White Chocolate. The options are almost infinite and all very tasty.

At the very top end there is the £1000 Grand Extravagance Hamper with whiskies, cheeses, and superb English sparkling wines, amongst a plethora of other treats, all in of course an eco-friendly traditional wicker basket. Hampers also come in cool cardboard boxes, too.

In between there is a massive choice to suit all tastes, including vegan, gluten-free, halal and other specialty options. About thirty five categories in all, which makes picking the perfect hamper very easy.

Prices include packaging and carriage to your chosen destination. And with a hub in the Netherlands, hampers and gourmet produce can be shipped across Europe with fast and reliable delivery and no additional customs fees.

‘We also do a good trade year round in providing corporate gifts.’ adds James, ’many big companies like to fly the flag with their customers and a luxury hamper of British goods is a great way to do it. We can personalise their hampers, too.’

Down in the warehouse, I have a go at packing. It is actually quite good fun, although my attempt would not pass the quality control. My sizzle action is praised though ‘Nice and tight’.

Maybe I can come back next year.

You’ve still got time to order a gift hamper for someone special for Xmas, although the last dates for abroad are fast approaching.

Make your choice at www.britishhamper.com

Med Sallah Restaurant Review

Posted on by under Europe, food, restaurant reviews, Restaurants

In the heart of Kangaroo Valley, this small but perfectly formed Vietnamese restaurant is properly delicious

It’s not really fair to call Earls Court ‘Roo valley anymore, but back in the 60s just about every young Australian lived there. Today its grand old houses are more likely to be hotels than bedsits, but the area still has a certain rundown aura.

Down under one of the big houses, in what would once have been the servant’s domain, there is still a kitchen at 32-36 except now instead of boiling cabbages it’s grilling delicious fish and meats and simmering some wonderful Phos.

Med Sallah is the new restaurant from Med Pang and Koi Lee, the people behind critically acclaimed Malaysian favourite Med Salleh Kopitiam.

Once down the steep little steps you enter a compact place warmly painted and with a market scene across one wall. The chairs look like they’ve been rescued from a 1920’s British open topped car, they’re very covetable and also very comfortable.

Koi’s Vietnamese wife Syphong Lam is in the kitchen and out front is a welcoming and friendly team. Most of the customers also appear to be Vietnamese, which is usually a very good sign.

We sat back and let the team choose for us, after wimpishly specifying ‘no offal’ and we certainly got the works.  Translucent prawn summer rolls with dipping sauce were packed with crispness and great clumps of fresh herbs, the prawns eerily visible through the wrapper skin as if hiding behind a shower curtain.

Rather cleverly the prawns are divided in half lengthways so they appear large but are in fact light and delicate. Veggies can have the version with mushrooms.

Moving on, a mango and prawn salad has the classic Vietnamese interplay of sharp, sour, sweet and hot. Tomatoes, grated carrot and lettuce all up the freshness. Personally I would have upped the fish sauce quotient too, as well as the lime, but I have no doubt this is done correctly for Vietnamese tastes. It was delicious all the same.

Med Sallah focuses on street food and in Vietnam that means things cooked over the simplest grills, literally on the street.

We have three superb lamb chops, crusted in spices, grilled and perfectly pink-ish. Lemongrass and chilli seem solidly represented and they are very gnawable right down to the bone where the best flavour always is.

Also grilled is a squid, the whole tube and at sea-monster size too. It’s not easy to cook squid well, it either needs to be cooked very fast and very hot, or slowly braised. In between it’s rubbery. Here it was spot on, and again generously but not overpoweringly spiced. The waitress cuts it into rings with large scissors, a very useful aid to eating. We have a little tussle over the tentacles, for me the best bit.

Bun Cha is cold vermicelli rice noodles with meat marinated in lots of lemongrass, garlic and fish sauce and soy sauce. You can have it here with grilled chicken, beef, prawn or mushroom. We have excellent beef and chicken, the cold noodles are a bit odd at first but we come to love them. I imagine they are wonderfully refreshing in a hot climate.

And Pho. Created in Nam Định, Pho Phở is of course broth, rice noodles, herbs, and meat. The meat cooks in the hot broth when mixed at the table.  Here we had a version almost certainly not eaten on the average street, unless perhaps it’s Bond Street, which was their Classic Signature Truffle Wagyu Pho.

Well it was superb, the dense flavours of the stock pricked by the truffle and the beef was remarkable. Soft, melting and all too soon gone, but drinking the stock kept the flavours going.

And to end something from the mists of time, a deep fried banana with ice cream. This made me very nostalgic as  I burned my tongue just as I used to do all those years ago. Mind you,this was fresh crisp batter, and back in the day that was unheard of.

You have to like Med Sallah, its cafe style relaxed atmosphere, the great food and the lovely people. Take a first date there and impress them with your knowledge of places not on the radar.

32-36 Hogarth Rd, London SW5 0PU

medsalleh.co.uk/viet-earls-court

Thornbury Castle Restaurant Review

Posted on by under chefs, Europe, food, restaurant reviews, Restaurants

You may not eat in the same room that Henry VIII did, but you will have a royal good time

There’s a bit of a cliche around the royal meals of Olde Englande. Kings chucking well-chewed chicken legs over their shoulder, at least twenty meats on the table and the fish could include ​​conger eel and even porpoise.

These days castle meals are finer dining and the restaurant at Thornbury Castle is a restrained and elegant affair with Executive Head Chef, David Williams who recently retained the hotel’s 3 AA Rosettes with his tasting as well as his a la carte and set menus, serving up a three course menu of three dish choices for each course at £75 per person.

The setting could not be more fabulous, the beautiful castle was once the property of Edward Stafford, who built it in the 1500s but who lost it to a jealous Henry VIII. The King then stayed there on occasions with Ann Boleyn who got the chop, and not the lamb and mint sauce kind, months after her last visit.

Courtyards, stone stairs, gorgeous lounges and grand bedrooms abound in the hotel and the dining room is a cosy circular ground floor room with a massive fireplace. A place for a posh meal and suitably decked out with the sort of heavy white linen now sadly absent from many high end restaurants, presumably because of the cost of cleaning.


After drinks in the pretty Privy Garden, we found our way to the dining room and had no problems choosing from the compact set menu.

We rather like our amuse of frothy avocado and then soon settle down to some Pate En Croute with Rare Bread (sic) Pork and the hotel’s  own Piccalilli. A large walled vegetable garden in the grounds provides much of the fresh produce required by the kitchen with preserves keeping things going into the winter months.

Pate en croute is French for Game Pie (not really as there’s no hard boiled egg, but there is a family resemblance) and this has lovely pastry, very much a leading component, along with a thin layer of jelly and well-seasoned pork interior. The crisp pickle is a good foil to the meat and jelly, while the minimalism on the plate is attractive, although the lack of bulk would have had Henry VIII calling for the chef’s immediate execution. Today it’s a perfect portion.

Burrata with heritage tomatoes, with balsamic vinegar and olives, always relies on excellent burrata and tomatoes with flavour and this dish scores highly. The pouch of cheese cuts open to let the creamy interior flood out and mingle with the sweetly sharp vinegar. The tomatoes are well ripened, slightly acidic as they should be and very colourful too.

As a nod to Henry, I waive my usual rule of ‘no steak’ and have a big hunk of perfectly cooked fillet of beef accompanied by an elegant rosti, some bright carrot and tousled spinach. Across the table a rather complicated mix of hake, salt cod, clams, mussels and shrimp actually delivers simple pleasures, each element a star on its one and the combination a real winner.

Mango cremeux with Thai basil and coconut ice cream is beautiful to look at and eat, while vanilla and strawberry cheesecake is stylish and refreshing.

Staff throughout have been conscientious without being cloying, there when needed and away when not. Over attentive waiting breaks conversations up annoyingly.

So many gorgeous hotels fail to deliver on the food front, but not Thornbury Castle. The modern food is a contrast to the ancient stones and the price is reasonable for all you get by way of atmosphere and service.

Thornbury Castle
Castle St, Thornbury
Gloucestershire, BS35 1HH
+44 (0) 1454 281 182
reception@thornburycastle.co.uk
For more information and reservations please see the website.






Jeru Restaurant Review

Posted on by under food, Northern Europe, restaurant reviews, seafood

This excellent restaurant was never all at sea, and now that it’s added a choice of quiveringly fresh fish it’s one of London’s best catches

‘After two years in London I’ve developed great relationships with all my suppliers and fish is no exception. That’s why I’ve created Fish Market, to show off and cook the best UK fish’

Jeru’s Executive Chef Roy Ner likes to come out and chat to diners, the chefs in the long open kitchen behind him don’t need standing over, you can see they are all getting the dishes out like a well-oiled machine.

I’m standing by his display of fresh fish and tonight I can see Monkfish, Seabass, Red Snapper Sea Bream, Gurnard and Lemon Sole and Lobster, all fresh, line caught  and sustainable and from boats in Brixham, Peterhead and Fraserburgh. It’s now up to the diner to choose a fish and then how it’s to be cooked  – cured, charcoal grilled, steamed or baked.

We ponder on that for a bit and then decide on shared monkfish, charcoal grilled, and go back to the regular menu for our pre-dishes, one of which has to be the potato bread with truffle honey, chickpea miso butter. We ate this two years ago and I’ve been dying to have it again.

Freshly baked in the wood fired oven that’s by the restaurant entrance, it’s even better than I remember. The 72-hour fermented bread is fluffy, moist and chewy,  the butter decadent and that truffled honey just makes me a bit weepy. It’s so good.

A ‘mezze’ of roasted aubergine and tahini striped with Piquillo peppers and enlivened by a mint dressing is also excellent. Aubergine, particularly the ones we get here in the UK, can be so deadly dull but roast one, particularly in or over charcoal, and it takes on a whole new character. Solid yet buttery and with a smoky aroma against the very sweet peppers and a sesame loaded tahini.

Jerusalem artichokes get a bad rep in the UK. On allotments they take over like weeds, ask me how I know,  they are also an absolute pain to peel and their effects on the digestion are well known, and usually audible, for some hours later. Not everyone knows, by the way, that it’s actually a species of Sunflower.

So full marks to Jeru for making it so tasty, By roasting these hasselback-style (slotted like a toast rack) lots of flavour gets in and each is topped  off with a white anchovy. Celeriac, another vegetable rather ignored in the UK, has been roasted and pureed with tahini with spring onions on top and plenty of olive oil. We love the crunch of the artichoke, the umami of the anchovy and celeriac is always good.

Raw tuna, or tuna tartar if you like, with a fennel salsa, whipped avocado and herbs is another excellent dish, fennel is an unusual choice but a very good one and the tuna is a good chilled temperature, just enough to make it refreshing but not so much as to dull the flavour,

Time for the main attraction, which is going to have to be very good to top what we’ve had so far. The monkfish tail arrives with it main bone removed and laid to the side with heritage tomatoes chopped and mixed with smoked sumac between it and the fish.

And what a lovely piece of fish it is. Whoever first ate Monkfish was very brave because the head looks like something Dr Who would run away from, but the tail is delicious. It used to be called ‘poor man’s lobster’ and I remember my mother warning me off buying cheap breaded scampi,  ‘they use monkfish dear!’. How times change. The smoky tomato is wonderful.

We have an asparagus side dish with it, quite where they get such fine thin asparagus this time of year is a mystery, but who cares? They’re very good.

By now we’re so pooped we could beach ourselves and wait to be pushed back out to sea, but we manage a dessert selection with rather wonderful ‘crackers’ made from white and black sesame seeds – sesame seeds get a lot of love at Jeru – and then we heave off into the night.

We already loved Jeru, this new Fish Market makes it even more of a place to push the boat out.

jeru.co.uk

11 Berkeley Street,

Mayfair,

London,

W1J 8DS

Revery Bar Afternoon Tea Review

Posted on by under Europe, food, restaurant reviews, Restaurants

“Tea, Cakes & Cocktails,” is a twist on Afternoon Tea and redefines the quintessentially British pastime with a modern angle.

I’ve done a few afternoon teas this year but Revery’s “Tea, Cakes & Cocktails” is the winner so far.

Tucked away in the London Hilton on Park Lane, the menu features the usual array of savoury and sweet treats but they are all outstandingly good. And at £65 a head, a bargain too.

In addition to the traditional tea offering, you also get mixology experience that includes one cocktail and one mocktail, prepared tableside for an interactive and personalised touch.

We began with canapés – Beetroot Cheesecake and Mushroom Pate Tartlet, followed by the “Finger Feast” course featuring Mini Poached Lobster Roll with Marie Rose Sauce, and Devon Handpicked Crab on Sourdough Toast with Citrus Bisque Jelly. Each was incredibly well made, looked a treat and tasted superb. The Black truffle macaroon with chicken liver pâté was particularly good. Revery’s pastry chefs are geniuses.

The sweet course had Carrot Cheesecake, a Triple Chocolate Sandwich, and then both Plain and Raisin Scones with Strawberry Jam and Clotted Cream. All excellent.

Drinks began with cocktails, a nice change from champagne, choice ranges from Earl Grey Sour to the Pistachio Bliss – a blend of pistachio liqueur, amaretto, and cream. I had a Mexican breakfast Patron Silver tequila infused with English Breakfast Tea, it wasdelicious.

Non-alcoholic options include the Blooming Blossom, featuring elderflower syrup and fresh strawberries, and the Moroccan Souk – a blend of orange juice, ginger, cinnamon, and mint.

And of course there was tea. Revery Revery has partnered with London Tea Exchange to offer a selection of over 300 premium and rare teas sourced from twenty different countries. These teas are some of the rarest and most sought-after by connoisseurs globally.


We ended with a selection of Revery’s pic ’n’ mix, including Apple Jelly, Vanilla Fudge, and Dark Chocolate Truffle.

Revery Bar’s “Tea, Cakes & Cocktails” is a wonderful treat and it’s in one of London’s most iconic hotels as well. Definitely one to savour.

Revery’s “Tea, Cakes & Cocktails” costs £65 per person and is available to book Thursdays – Sundays from 12pm – 6pm.

Revery Bar, 22 Park Ln, Mayfair, London W1K 1BE

Bookings can be made here: www.reverybarparklane.com

You Be Chef. Light Up Your BBQ Game

Posted on by under chefs, Europe, food, food producers

These boxes of deliciousness from the Isle of Wight  are just the thing to make your barbecue sing

Okay yes I know, the weather has been a bit awful. Not that it ever stops me BBQ’ing though because I have the best BBQ in the world, the Weber Kettle, and it has a lid.

In the UK we tend to refer to anything cooked over charcoal as BBQ but, to be more accurate, what we Brits tend to do is grill.


BBQ means the food is not cooking directly over the charcoal, but instead is ‘oven cooking’ with the BBQ lid on, This is what traps the delicious smoky aromas and is perfect for large pieces of meat. That lid also means you can cook in the rain. I also have a remote thermometer so I can monitor the temperature inside the meat without leaving the house. Cunning, eh?

So we got ready to cook with one eye on the sky and the lid at the ready.

You Be Chef comes from the Isle of Wight, via chef Robert Thompson. Not only does he have an MBE, but he also won a Michelin star in 2007.

Robert is a champion of Isle of Wight produce, and is a big part of the Island’s food scene. His idea was to take the island’s produce, write recipes around it, and send the food and instructions all over the UK.

Our trial chilled box arrived on the hottest day of the year (so far) and was thoughtfully left on the front doorstep, in the blazing sun, by a delivery driver who obviously didn’t think it was worth ringing our bell.

Luckily he did at least send me a text and so I was able to call my wife to rescue the parcel before it melted away, or became victim to our local ‘porch pirates’. They will pinch anything round here, even though they have no idea what it is they’re nicking.

Unboxing was fun, each panel revealing a message, and it was good to see most of the items were in recyclable packs, some sort of cardboard material. 

We had the Tandoori Lamb Burger for two. So we had the burgers (natch), and then in various packs – Sesame Challah Buns,  Pont Neuf Potatoes with Garlic and Flat Parsley Butter; Onion Rings – Fried in Curious IPA Beer Batter with Black Onion Seeds; Rose Harissa Hummus; and Crushed Avocado with Lime, Beef Tomato slices, Feta, and Baby Gem Lettuce. Oh and there was Red Onion, Mint and Lime Salad and flavoured grilling oil.

It all appeared good, but for the lettuce leaves, which clearly had not enjoyed their journey and were rather limp and tired looking.

Juggling the oven times for the chips and the onion rings was a bit tricky. After some thought we cooked the rings first in our brilliant Ninja Foodie,  then took them out and kept them warm while we cooked the chips, then we put the rings back on top for the final minutes to get them hot again.

The burgers were a large diameter, I had my doubts they would fit in the buns, but once cooked they became the right size.

Now I am no chef, but I was surprised when the instructions said to give the burgers six minutes a side. I was so doubtful, that after rubbing them with the supplied grill oil,  I only gave them three minutes a side, after which time my trusty Thermapen read 62C in the centre, which is just right. I suspect there may be a typo in the instructions and it really means six minutes in total.

We added, as per instructions, the feta to the top of the meat for the last minute to warm it up, then split our buns (ooo err madam) toasted them lightly, and put the lettuce on the bottom (it’s important to ‘waterproof’ the bun from the juices), then added all the other ingredients to create an impressively stacked burger.


I’m a survivor of the burger craze which swept social media a few years back, ending only when the biggest influencers realised they were killing themselves eating so many monster burgers a week and gave up, so I know what to look for and this burger was perfect.

It had size, but with heavy pressure it was compressed to be eatable. And very good it was too, with the lamb superbly juicy and spicy. The other ingredients all added to the pleasure, particularly the salty feta and the limey avocado. The buns were a bit sweet for me, but fine.

The Red Onion, Mint and Lime Salad was rather like shredded pickled onion, no bad thing and mint is always an ideal partner for lamb.

The onion rings were crunchy and also sweet. We liked them a lot, but couldn’t eat all eight, and the chips were excellent, although dangerously hot inside so we had to leave them to cool for a bit. They were great dipped into the hummus, which was not as spicy as feared.

It really was a great BBQ blow out. Having everything ready made was a game changer and made it all so easy. And it didn’t rain.

Order your boxes at www.youbechef.com

Nanyang Blossom Restaurant Review

Posted on by under Europe, food, restaurant reviews, Restaurants, seafood

A bit of everything makes up Nanyang cuisine. Chinese, Malaysian, Burmese, Vietnamese,  Indonesian and even Filipino but that doesn’t mean it isn’t focussed. Flavour comes first.

irst though you have to find the place. It’s in a stumpy little pedestrianised street, barely a hundred metres long, almost opposite Harrods. The street’s main purpose is to cut the corner between Knightsbridge and the Brompton Road. It’s called Knightsbridge Green.

Ah yes, Knightsbridge so, spoiler alert, this is not going to be a cheap restaurant. The question is whether the price is worth it for us mortals watching the pennies. The sound of supercars going down the Brompton Road suggests that the locals at least are not short of disposable income.

Nanyang Blossom is small on the outside, but Tardis-like larger within and set over two floors. It’s opulently furnished with thick fabrics and smart chandeliers and the staff have uniforms and are all swish operators. Chef de Cuisine Daren Liew was once Executive Sous Chef at Hakkasan Group, while General Manager David Chan. David used to run Zen in Hampstead and Phoenix Palace, Marylebone.
It’s busy at lunchtime with many customers of Asian appearance, which is normally a good sign.

The menu is large and, while we wander around it, we eat marinated skinned cherry tomatoes. I pity whoever has that job in the kitchen, still though it’s nice for the customers. These are quite good tomatoes, but as I have an allotment they don’t beat mine fresh off the vine and still warm from the sun.

Choice is hard, it all sounds good, but we stay fairly conventional at first with chicken satay ‘Melaka’ (Malaysia)  skewers. These are clearly thigh meat, which is a good thing, although I do wonder if it is a little bit undercooked. Doused in a sweet and sour sauce it’s enjoyable and there is only a small amount of peanut sauce, which is a bonus as the unusual pineapple and cucumber relish does a far better job of partnering the meat.

Prawn toasts in a standard Chinese restaurant are usually pretty awful. Here though they are very pretty and elevated to fine dining by being fluorescent green ( the colour comes from edamame beans we are told, and not seaweed), and a topping of flaked almonds that makes them resemble Mr Kipling’s finest slices. They are very good indeed, the almonds adding a whole dimension of texture.

Talking of texture, we had squid sambal next which always makes me think of the Chinese restaurant joke that’s no longer acceptable. ‘Waiter, this squid is rubbery!’’ Why thank you very much sir!’

Of course this is not rubbery at all. The sambal is spicy and sweet and it’s all topped with what I think is deep-fried bread. Pomegranate seeds add a sharp note that’s very effective.

We’re not sure about the Knightsbridge Crispy Beef Ribs though as they aren’t crispy at all and are very fatty and sweet with Medjool dates and pineapple. The only dish we’d not order again

However Seafood Nyonya Sambal Fried Rice is gorgeous, in some ways it’s an oriental Paella, as the rice has absorbed all the good flavours as it cooks. Lobster, octopus, and prawns all served in a claypot, we scraped that pot out and then chased the last rice grains with our fingers. Superb.

And finally Lemongrass chicken, something of a staple on my home BBQ. Plenty of char here, and char is where the flavour is. I have never topped mine with tamarind and mango kerisik (kerisik means ‘dry’) as they do here though, but I shall try now. A simple dish but done very well. I have to give a shout out to the baby Pak Choi side dish too, so sweet to look at and wonderfully tender to eat.

Bananas always seem to feature on Chinese restaurant dessert menus, usually over-battered and deep fried. It’s a favourite Southeast Asian snack. Done well it’s crispy and not greasy, which is how it’s served here. For the first time I actually enjoyed this classic.

We downed a bottle of decent Picpoul with the meal, it was crisp and citrusy. It worked well with all the dishes

Verdict? All very good, bar the Beef Ribs, and the space and service are all charming. I could definitely head back for  the Seafood Nyonya Sambal Fried Rice which was outstanding.

Of course the prices are, as I hinted, high. However in this area they are actually average while the food is very above average. So if you have the cash to splash, I’d definitely recommend Nanyang.

12 Knightsbridge Green, SW1 7QL








Beef Brisket Mondays at Smith’s Bar and Grill Review

Posted on by under Europe, food

Low and slow is the recipe for success with this cut of meat. Smith’s Bar and Grill have pretty much nailed it

BBQ-ing brisket is a kind of religion in the US of A, especially in Texas. It’s a slow process, ten to twelve hours in a hot smoker, if it weighs around five kilos. Anything smaller will dry out.

It’s a labour of love and skill. I tried it once in my Weber Smokey Mountain and well after darkness had fallen the meat still wasn’t cooked and a small rebellion was going in our garden with guests demanding I go out and buy sausages as they were so hungry.

Available only on Mondays at Smith’s Bar and Grill restaurant in Paddington, this Beef Brisket Platter is slow-cooked for 13 hours and served with mac-n-cheese, pickles, corn and sweet potato fries.


I had to try it, to learn something about its cooking if nothing else, and on a hot day sitting by the Grand Union Canal seemed like a very good idea.

An idea that appeared to have occurred to a lot of people, as the terrace was full and the platters were flying out from Head Chef David Reyes’ kitchen at lunchtime.

It’s not terribly easy to find the canal when you leave Paddington Statio  if you’ve not done so before, or it’s been a while. So much has changed in a relatively short time. I went in a large frustrating circuit of the station and found myself pretty much back where I started, before a kind local put me straight.

It’s a lovely location with some houseboats bobbing on the water, some other boats converted into bars and restaurants, and well-heeled locals languorously drifting along what was once the towpath.

So the platter. £40 to share, which isn’t bad at all, and served on a wooden board as these things so often are

The corn has been sliced into quarters lengthwise, which is not a bad idea. It’s a lot easier to eat this way, less butter down the shirt. The mac n cheese is gooey in a good way, and who can resist a pickled gherkin? Not me.

The sweet potato fries I am not sure about, I like the taste, but they’re as limp as a politician’s handshake. I’d have preferred standard fries, but I know that Americsns do like sweet things with their meat.

Well what about that meat? I’m coming to that. I like to see a good ‘burned’ coat on slow cooked ribs and brisket but this didn’t have it. It’s called ‘bark’ and it comes from chemical reactions, as well the Maillard reaction and polymerization with the rub ingredients.

However there was ‘pinkness’ in the outer edges, clear evidence of smoke getting in, and it did taste very good. The meat was ‘cut with a spoon’ tender and with enough fat remaining to keep it all moist. We were actually rather impressed and tussled over the last slices, although there were plenty for two.

At £40 for two it’s a bit of a bargain and you can get a bottle of red or a white wine selected by Head Sommelier, Maurizio Titone, at 50% off every Monday. An opportunity to discover new fine wines at a fraction of the price.

Miyako Restaurant Review

Posted on by under Europe, food, restaurant reviews, Restaurants

Sushi, sashimi, teriyak, bento and sake. This little jewel of a restaurant will cheer you up on the greyest day, and do it all day long

There are two ways into Miyako. Enter from the street, turn right at the chef’s station and into the compact dining room. Or come in from its parent luxury hotel, Andaz, it’s just off the reception and feels rather secret as if you’ve just found a hidden room at Hogwarts. One that serves sushi.

Is it a hotel restaurant or a stand-alone then? Does it matter? The offer is fresh food, unpretentiously served and at a not all that bad price. It’s open from lunch until late, so we got there at 2:30. This meant the lunchtime eaters had gone, but people still drifted in and out.

I immediately embarrassed myself by knocking over the soy sauce pot on the table, but the staff dealt with the tsunami with patience and good humour. With this drama over, I could concentrate on my now slightly soy-stained menu.

It has all you’d expect – maki, uramaki, nigiri sushi and sashimi etc and, if you want something hot, bowls of steamy udon, plates of crispy tempura, gyoza and, to me at least, the inexplicably popular katsu curry. It always reminds me of the 1970s, even though I was barely there. There are some teriyaki dishes, too.

Head Chef Kosei Sakamoto was raised in Kyushu in South Japan before moving to Tokyo and to London. Unflappable and focused he sends out the dishes at the right speed.

We had too many dishes to detail, but the tuna tataki stood out immediately, the tuna perfectly seared for the requisite few seconds. A drop of truffle oil elevating the usual citrusy dressing. Slippery fellows to get the chopsticks around, though, I dropped them a lot.

Plates of maki went down very well, some with fish, some with veg, all dipped into my now replenished soy sauce saucer. These much easier to handle with chopsticks, but it is allowed to use your hands.

We had to use our hands on the Uramaki. Here the seaweed is on the inside and the rice on the outside. Many of these were beautiful to look at, but totally impossible to pick up without them falling apart. We simply got messy. There was of course tangles of pickled ginger and blobs of punchy wasabi to add to each mouthful. I love pickled ginger.

There was also lots of sushi, the fish as fresh as could (and needs) to be and tamagoyaki-topped nigiri sush. This rolled and sliced omelette is usually left for last as its slight sweetness makes it almost dessert.


We ate a great deal, we enjoyed all of it. This is the kind of unpretentious, but focussed, small place that makes Japanese dining enjoyable and not daunting.

Be sure to check out their Bento Box deal as well, and their ‘Business Lunch’ fixed price menu served between 3pm – 5.30pm. It looked rather good.

Website

40 Liverpool St, London EC2M 7QN

Opening Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 12pm – 10pm.

Swaledale Lamb. From The Dales to your door

Posted on by under Europe, food

If you don’t have a decent butcher on your doorstep don’t worry, you can still get the finest meat delivered

I don’t live in a ‘nice’ London postcode. Waitrose won’t set up shop anywhere near us and Ocado has an armed escort and throws the shopping at our door rather than risk stopping.

Well not really, but we do lack posh shops and the nearest proper butcher is many miles away. So we are at the mercy of the big supermarkets, and much as I like lamb, particularly at Easter, I have had too many expensive disappointments from supermarkets to ever buy it there again.

So Swaledale had me in interested with their talk of being an award-winning Yorkshire-based online butcher that works in partnership with small-scale, sustainable farms on The Dales. They specialise in heritage breeds of cattle, sheep and pigs, wild venison, and native game birds, supplying many a top restaurant.

The Dales are particularly noted for sheep farming, with hardy breeds such as Swaledale, Lonk, Dalesbred and Herdwick all foraging freely on the lush grass, herbs and flowers. The result is smaller, darker-fleshed lamb that tastes of the ‘terroir’, although I suspect many down to earth Yorkshire people would gag at such fancy French talk.

So we tried out some of their lamb by post. Lamb chops, because a perfectly cooked lamb chop chewed off the bone is one of life’s’ great pleasures. We also chose some Merguez sausages because we were intrigued to taste a Yorkshire merguez. Another great pleasure is eating merguez slapped into a buttery baguette, a staple snack at every French bric a brac market and always served with a barquette of freshly cooked from frozen frites and glass of raw vin rouge.

And just for ‘fun’ we also had some mutton chops. A lot of people give mutton a miss, it’s regarded as a bit old fashioned and can also be a bit too ‘gamey’ for modern tastes, but good mutton is well worth seeking out.

The lamb chops were excellent. The plan was to grill them on our new Weber, but while I factored in the weather I forgot it gets dark at 6pm, so we cooked them on a cast iron grill on the kitchen gas rings. Three to four minutes a side with the grill hot as Hades, the internal temp checked with the trusty Thermapen – overcooking lamb is a criminal offence, or should be.

The Merguez were the best I’ve tasted outside North Africa, quickly frying to an attractive gold colour and with a firm snap to the skins. We ate some cooked with red peppers dobbed with a poached egg, and the next day sliced into pieces in a couscous. My suggestion that we should also have them for breakfast was vetoed.

Finally the mutton chops. For these we thought we’d be a little adventurous and used the recipe from the take it easy chef for mutton chops karnatkas style. This involved pressure cooking the chops in some water and spices before adding a masala mix and simmering for twenty or so minutes.

Indian cooks use pressure cookers a lot, they’re fast and energy efficient. Here the cooker turned the meat very tender without taking hours of slow cooking. Lots of flavour and an authentic taste.

So we were impressed with Swaledale’s lamb. As traditional quality butchers become harder to find, and hard to afford, mail order meat is certainly a great way to go.

swaledale.co.uk