Bad Brunch @ The Ozone

This is going to be a very short and not-so-sweet post about Ozone, the newish coffee and brunch spot close to Old Street and just around the corner from the new Salvation Jane outlet.

Pie n Mash @ F Cooke - Crimes against Pies

I have a fondness for pie n mash, maybe because of all the stories I used to hear from my parents, aunts and uncles when I was a child about how great it was.

When I first tried it, I thought it was the blandest meal I’d ever had. Then I learnt pretty quickly that the vinegar, white pepper and salt are all there for you to make it to your liking. And like it I did.

Every pie n mash shop I’ve ever been to, sells the dish exactly the same. There is but one recipe and change it at your peril.

The mash is always smooth but never seasoned or buttery enough. A bit like mash at school in the 70’s but without the lumps. The pies are made with a cold water pastry with a lovely minced meat filling that a tad of vinegar brings to life.

The green liquor, which I used to deplore, has become a staple on my plate these days. Something about that eel water and parsley that has a hook in me now.

I’d never been in a F Cooke Pie n Mash shop before. But I was expecting everything to be as I’ve eaten countless times before. But it wasn’t quite there.

The mash was as it is always, smooth but bland. The liquor was green and not too thin that it ran around the plate, it was pretty spot on.

The problem was the pie. The filling was good after a drop of vinegar and white pepper on it to bring the bugger to life.

It was the pastry. It was like cardboard, bloody hard and old. I not sure how long they had been stuck in that small oven on the counter waiting to be sold, but it was more than a day. The pastry was so hard, I could of done with a knife to cut it. Normally a spoon suffices but on this occasion it was rock solid. Not a happy man.

The girl behind the counter was less than interested, and seemed annoyed that people were coming into the shop and was taking her away from her texting marathon.

I was less than impressed with my first venture into an F Cooke shop if the truth be told, that I’m not sure if I want to venture into one again, but as I am a sucker for these things I probably will, but maybe not this branch on Broadway Market.

Swing Dancing and the Victoria Tandoori

A few weeks ago we went to watch some friends perform at a Swing Dance performance in Hackney.

To be honest if they were not performing I would not have given it a second thought about going. In fact it’s very unlikely I would even have known this all existed.

It’s a big thing in London it seems. Regular dancehall meet ups and lots of groups in all parts of London were there showing off their routines.

It was an enjoyable night and the performances were really good, and some were exceptional.

I can say that I have absolutely no rhythm at all, and am probably the worst dancer in the world. Well I can’t, so I was very impressed with those folks who had the bravery to go and dance in front of an audience of at least a few hundred.

The video was taken on my old flip camera, sadly now lost somewhere on the London underground I thinks. But I’m slowly getting more Amazon vouchers so I can buy another one.

After watching a ton of groups we decided we were all hungry and wandered through Victoria Park to get some food. The Littlest One knew of a really good and cheap Indian restaurant near to where she lived. So food sorted.

The Victoria Tandoori is your old skool Indian restaurant, basic furniture with very friendly chatty staff who were more than happy to accommodate our table of 10 with out a pause for breath.

I’m sure that chef must have shat himself with the amount of food we ordered. We literally ordered everything off the menu. OK slight over exaggeration but it was a lot and all was liberally shared between us.

High fives goto the Tandoori Chicken, even with it’s red coloring, but the taste was superb and unlike most places, damn juicy as well.

The Dal Makhani was rich and creamy, it was only missing that smoky taste of being cooked for an age over burning embers..

A Beef Madras and a Chicken Korma headed up the curry section and all with flying colours, as did the wide assortment of naans we ordered as well.

It was a good feast all washed down liberally with large glasses of Cobra Beer. I wished I lived closer to the Victoria Tandoori as it is a great and very economical place to eat and I’m sure I would be a serious regular.

Sunday Roast @ The Royal Inn On The Park & The Pub on the Park

We are currently in the process of finding somewhere else to live. Not only are we paying too much for this place, but our landlady has decided to increase the rent once our contract exprires. Can’t blame her really, I’d do it also, but we don’t want to pay it. So we are moving.

We have been thinking about moving out further east for sometime now, mainly as the rents are cheaper, living is cheaper and it gives me another excuse to quit my job and look for another one. Now I can blame the distance, amongst other things.

So off to Victoria Park we tromped to look round a few houses that we just about had enough money for. Just. But they were all the same. Nice area, crap flats. Finding this a lot recently. So scrap Victoria Fields off the list. Phew. I did find the area a tad dull to be honest so I am not too unhappy that we won’t be moving there. Except that there is the Lauriston there. Which is part of the group that owns my own personal favourite pizza pub, the Regent in Islington. So all is not bad.

Whilst visiting the area one Sunday we decided to grab some food at the Royal Inn on the Park. I can only describe this as an old time boozer jazzed up into a gastro but still has the old time boozer feel about it.

I was half expecting to see the two old guys at the bar with their little Jack Russells standing over half empty glasses of bitter putting the world to rights. Maybe they have been scared off by the new clientele.

The menu for a Sunday was quite standard. Pork, beef, chicken, lamb and the token veggie dish, which I cannot remember what it was. It was that memorable.

I’d hate to be a veggie, as most places really do not cater to them. Most chefs scorn veggies like they are the scum of the earth and only under duress and pain of death put one option on the menu for this mutant breed of being.

I went for the lamb, and Lina had the chicken, well it was a poussin. Same same but different no.

They must have an experimental chef in the kitchen. As the poussin came with the bread sauce napped over the breast of the poussin. I had a most odd mint sauce. I’m still tying to figure out what those cubes were.

My lamb was well cooked, it never had a strong lamby flavour, so slightly disappointed in that. The poussin again was well cooked, nice and moist. The bread sauce was really well seasoned and creamy. Nice.

The veggies were ok. Nice carrots, broccoli (good to see on a roast menu) and courgettes (this I hope never to see again on the same plate as a roast). All were well cooked, seasoned and had a slight bite to them. Nice.

Potatoes were not as crispy as I like, but were floury and fluffy inside. The yorkie was small and a tad soggy. But it was hiding underneath both our meats. It needed to assert itself on this plate and be the star of the show. The gravy had a nice meaty flavour to it and was quite thick. A relief, plus as a bonus the plates were hot.

A good selection of beers and wines to be had here, good friendly staff, and if we did move here, which we are not, I’d be very happy to spend at least one Sunday a month eating a good solid roast with a few pints of real beer.

The next area on our list was London Fields. Who doesn’t want to live near to Broadway Market, and all those lovely people that frequent it every weekend. Well me for one, but the rents on the otherside of the park were cheap. With good reason as well. Crap areas and crap flats. The only good thing we found was the Pub on the Park. A really quality place.

We’d been told about this place after some friends of Linas got married and had their after vows drinks there. These I missed, but made up for it later at a different pub somewhere on a dodgy estate in Hackney.

We’d already eaten and were passing when some friends called us to meet up for a drink and some nosh. You really need to be lucky to find seats downstairs, when we arrived it was heaving. In fact it was more than heaving, there were people sharing seats it was that busy. We did however manage to find a small table that just became empty as we arrived. So the table for 3 now became a table for 5.

If you can, I’d recommend sitting downstairs. The vibe up above was a tad flat, mainly due to two children sleeping on the sofa and their parents giving everyone the evils if you spoke above a whisper. If you want your kids to sleep put them to bed in their beds, not in a pub. Grrrrrrr.

As we had eaten, we had to sit and endure the other three munching on their very good roast beef lunches. Even though I was full, I was tempted to order one for myself.

I never tasted any of the food, as the other three are non-sharers. But we were told it was delicious. The beef looked quite nice, quite thickly cut. Good mix of veg, and several (yes I say several) good size roasties. Nice looking Yorkshire pudding and it was crispy. Good amount of gravy and all this for less than a tenner. Not bad.

But for me the vibe made the place, shame we were apart from it upstairs and the mum with the evil eye.

As we are unlikely to be moving to or around London Fields, as the places we liked are out of our price range, which is a shame as we really like the area, even if some of its inhabitants are not to my taste.

Next stop South London.

A is for Argentina @ Buen Ayre

I hadn’t eaten at Buen Ayre for quite a while, especially after discovering Garufa, which is very close to our house. Then again Broadway Market is just a bus ride away. I do enjoy where I live.

I first went there not long after it opened, oh so many years ago now, to celebrate an ex work colleagues birthday. That was a great Sunday afternoon, and I met a few Argentineans there, who subsequently kept inviting me to their weekly asados. Heaven.

This return trip to Buen Ayre, was because our Colombian friend and her Polish husband were in need of some serious steak action. We had recently returned from a weekend in Paris, where we tried but failed to find some good steak and frittes. The quality of meat in Paris has seemingly declined over the years. Disappointing. So after Buen Ayre was suggested we jumped at the idea of eating some good red meat.

For some reason I had my apprehensions about eating here. No idea why, but I have become a major fan of Garufa, and having eaten at some of Buenos Aires best restaurants over the years, that any restaurant being hailed as a true Argentinean steak restaurant I take it with a pinch of salt. Sometimes over hype is never a good thing.

But former eatings at this restaurant should have reminded me that I had nothing really to worry about, as it’s still pretty damn good. That wood burning parrilla churns out steak after steak all night and all of them are cooked to perfection.

People think it’s an easy job to cook a steak on a bar-b-q as they do it once a year, whenever the sun comes out. But to do it perfectly for several hours time and after time, day after day is a real art. In Argentina these artists are not called chefs, but Asadors or parrilleros, as they are the maestros of the asado.

As we were on for some serious meat eating tonight we went straight for the Parrillada Buen Ayre. A fine selection of chorizos, morcillas, mojecas, rinones, steaks and ribs. Man we were in meat heaven.

The steaks were cooked just as we liked them. Rare and juicy, but with that smokiness from the fire, that always makes any steak taste a whole lot better. The offal were gorgeous and as I like them. Crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside.

The accompaniment of chips and an onion and tomato salad, the quintessential side order of any asado. Actually they were some of the best chips I’ve eaten in a long time. Damn good, as good as Garufas, if not better.

The parilla was as good as you would get in any no frills restaurant in Argentina, but for over here, it’s pretty bloody fantastic, and to be still producing great food on a constant basis for many years is one hell of an achievement.

As we were finishing the decent bottle of wine, we decided to start this crazy thing that may or may not last. But we’re gonna give it a go anyhows. Well we had just started with A, so why not go onto B. Well we were pretty drunk by this point, so any idea seemed like a good one.

So onto B. Let’s hope it will be as good as A was.

Hackney Bores