Foto Friday # 35

This chicken shop had some genius ways of displaying their wares. Best thing of all was the plucking machine they had out back. Brilliant.

Christmas Days Out - The Sportsman in Seasalter

I ate many memorable meals in 2010, but really only three of them were truly memorable. In no particular order they were at Trinity in Clapham, Aux Lyonnais in Paris and The Sportsman in Seasalter.

All three of these meals were far superior to everything else I had eaten last year that they are forever embedded in my memory.

It wasn’t just the food at the Sportsman, or even the restaurant itself, or even the quirky manor that the menu is on a blackboard in the main bar that you are mixed with the other diners choosing your meal and then ordering it at the bar. Or even the fact that our view was looking out over the back garden of oyster shell paths. Or the surrounding area of deserted beaches and marshy fields. Or even the amazing drive through deserted roads that no restaurant should be at the end of it, or even that I had reserved it a month prior and was looking forward to it everyday. It was plain and simple everything.

The minute we walked inside I fell in love with it. What’s not to like about the place. Its quirkiness appealed to my weird sense of playfulness.

I like places where it’s my way or the highway. It’s a chef’s dream to be able to do something like this. To be able to serve the food you want in a style you want and also buck convention as well. Plus to win a Michelin star as well. I can just imagine those snotty Michelin reviewers having to get up from their tables and waddle over and choose their meals off a back of a door. Quality.

Our starters were light and beautiful. My chestnut and smoked goose soup lived up to and exceeded all expectations I had. The velvety texture of the soup with the slices of smoked goose delighted my taste buds. It was properly the best soup I had ever eaten. Ever.

Lina’s onion tart looked the part, but somehow it was not oniony enough for me. She loved it, but I like my onion tarts to pack a bigger punch. But don’t get me wrong the subtle flavours and the smoothness of the filling were of Michelin standard.

For the mains we went for a plate of Seared Thornback Ray, Brown Butter with Cockles and a Sherry Vinegar Dressing, the other was a Braised Brill Fillet with Chestnuts, Bacon and Parsley Sauce.

I really cannot fault either dish. Both were cooked fantastically. My Ray was probably the best piece of fish I had ever eaten. That soft white flesh came away with no effort from the bones. I love ray wings as it just never ends. You finish one side and then you just flip it over and begin again. Brill. The cockles with the sherry vinegar were a perfect combo. The chefs nailed this dish on the head. Perfect.

What I had of the brill fillet, which was not a lot, but it was damn good. They seem to have perfected those traditional combinations and taken them to new heights. Why do bacon and chestnuts work so well when paired with fish. So glad it does though.

We had no room for dessert, but I wish we had shared one, as they all looked really good as a string of them went to the large table in the corner. Next time.

We had a wander afterwards down to the beach. It was not a beachy day but who cares. It was the seaside and I kinda prefer beaches on cold, wet and windy days.

It doesn’t really matter to me that the Sportsman has a Michelin Star or not, as that book is kinda old hat now and has no relevance on the majority of diners in London today. The Sportsman however does serve great food in a quirky atmosphere, and should be on everyone’s list to dine at as soon as possible. I want to return as soon as I can.

Foto Friday # 34

For some reason I am now craving one of these babies. I'm on the first flight to Luang Prabang this afternoon.

Christmas Days Out - Cambridge Chop House

A week of driving around the outskirts of London was pretty amazing. The only problem was going anywhere from Islington took an age, especially when you gave no idea where the shortcuts are.

Just to drive up to the M25 through Edmonton took an hour. Well we learnt our lesson the hard way.

Cambridge was a joy even with the freezing cold weather and the thick fog that allowed us to see about 5 metres in front of us. We were wondering if we would ever make it or see anything when we arrived.

U never realized that the centre of Cambridge is a shopper’s paradise, which kinda depressed me a tad. I came for the Colleges and the Imperial architecture not to look at a branch of so and so that I see everyday back home. So we kinda steered clear of the centre and walked around it.

I’d not done any research about where to eat in Cambridge as I just assumed we would find a few places worth eating at. How wrong we were, apart from your chain restaurants and quite a few places selling jacket potatoes, there wasn’t that much on offer. Luckily we found the Cambridge Chop House, and it was a damn good find at that.

Wandering around the old college’s reminded how lucky we are to have such a heritage and history in this country. Makes me proud it does.

We found out the Cambridge Chop House is part of a chain of Chop Houses and other restaurants in Cambridge.

Its menu of hearty English fare was a welcome sight after a day of wandering around in awe at the beauty of this town in near arctic conditions. Damn it was a cold day. We were offered the punting tours, but in this weather you had to be either insane or a Japanese tourist. So being neither on this day anyhows we declined and scampered off for some nosh.

In true Chop House tradition the menu is big and hearty. Looking at it evoked a time of Edwardian debauchery and over eating. A time of big meals, large trousers and larger braces were the sign of a good Chop House.

This modern version still serves up some large portions for damn reasonable prices. The chalkboard of daily specials spell meat heaven. I was pretty tempted to have one of the veal or baby tortured cow chop but somehow the lure of some thick cut bacon and a duck egg with chips was too good an offer to turn down. Sometimes I just want food I enjoy eating at home, nothing fancy just plain simple good food.

The bacon was as it said thickly cut, with a lovely duck egg and some hand cut chips. It looked a small portion but by the end I was pretty well stuffed. But I had just eaten the whole basket of bread. This was all washed down with some local ale from the kegs behind the bar. Wondrous warm and comforting meal

Lina had the fisherman’s pie with a side of greens. This tasted really good and very freshly made. Lovely chunks of mixed fish along with a velvety béchamel sauce and a smooth grilled and crispy mash potato topping made this the star of the show. It was an award winning pie. One of the best I’ve eaten in a long while. I’d even go so far as to say it was better than mine. Modest I am sometimes.

I want to return to Cambridge in the Spring or Summer where we can punt down the river in between the colleges admiring the fantastic architecture. But more importantly we can try the other Chop House in this chain. 

Foto Friday # 33

Traditional London food. Pie n Mash, as seen here in Cooke's window on Broadway Market. Great to look at and delicious to eat.

Christmas Days Out - Hinds Head in Bray

Between Christmas and going back to work we rented a small car to travel to a few spots outside of London, to see that there is more to this world than this fair fine city. Guess what. There is.

I was going to write a tonne on our Xmas day meal detailing all the courses I cooked for our epic all day 5 course eating fest. But if the truth be told I can’t be arsed, and it’s a bit tacky anyhows so I shelved that idea, but I am going to bore you to death with a few of the places we went to on our little jaunts outside the capital.

We never had turkey on the big day itself, we had duck, as I am not a fan of this white meat. Too many years of too dry breast meat has put me off it forever. So my meals on the 25^th contain anything but turkey. So far duck has ruled supreme over the last few years. For Boxing Day I am a stickler for tradition, and in my household as a child we always and I mean always had cold cuts, mashed potatoes and salads. No idea where this tradition came form but we have been doing it since I was a wee little bairn, and I will not have it any other way. There are some things that must never change. Never.

So on the 27^th we left sunny Hampshire and headed to Berkshire and the small village of Bray. Anyone reading this thinking we were going to eat at the Fat Duck, can stop right here. It was a Monday and it was closed. No we were here for his posh pub, The Hinds Head.

It was exactly how I imagined it. A typical old English style pub in the countryside manner. I.e. it has very low ceilings, and yes I bumped my head even as we walked in. The sign told me to duck or grouse. I groused. Damn.

We were seated upstairs, which is a shame as it was a tad lifeless up there. Downstairs next to those open fires looked like a dream. Shame.

The menu is very simple and easy to read and eat. We ordered a started of pea and ham soup, and a scotch egg and devils on horseback.

To say the portions were small is an understatement. Pretty tiny, but with big boy prices. But the flavours out gun those prices 5 – 1. The soup was a tad watery but the flavours were awesome. Now that is how pea soup is supposed to taste. Wow. It’s pretty hard to put it into words, but imagine a really intense pea flavour, now times it by ten. The Scotch egg was well cooked and still had a runny quails egg inside. 

The devils on horseback were nice but one bite wonders. I only got 2 and I wanted more. But these were pre-ordering tasters, but I knew what I wanted and I was just amusing my stomach to get it active for the treat to follow.

For mains we ordered the oxtail and kidney steamed pudding, with sides of potatoes and green beans. Plus a rump steak, marrow sauce and triple cooked chips.

The oxtail and kidney pudding was unxious beyond belief, maybe a little too much as I could feel my mouth slowly sealing shut. The suet pastry was the right thickness, anymore and it would have been too much. The gravy, same as for the steak was fantastic.

The potato’s were a tad bland, and some of the green beans squeaked a little. Both were under seasoned. Not what you would expect from a Heston joint.

The rump steak up to that point was the best steak I had tasted since we came back in March. I never knew a steak could taste so good. I had lost faith after a weekend in Paris trying to find good tasting steak. It had so much flavour. No idea where he gets his beef from but that farmer cares for his cows. 

The marrow sauce was some of the best gravy I have ever had. The chips were good, very good, not sure if that was just the triple cookedness in them that made them good or what, but damn fine chips to go with an awesome steak.

We were pretty stuffed when it came to puddings, even with our waitress tempting us, but we just couldn’t do it. Even the coffees took their time going down, especially with the little truffled chocolates we had to eat.

The service was swift, smart and efficient in a very friendly way. I would have preferred to have sat downstairs in the bar area, but hey ho.

All in all it was a pretty bloody good meal. Small portions at big boy prices. But the flavours, textures and tastes all made up for it, even with one or two schoolboy errors.

I am now either saving up to come again, or to visit the Fat Duck across the road. Something I always said I would never do, but after this, I am very very curious.

Big Boys Steak Night at Goodman

This was definitely the best steak I have eaten since leaving Argentina at the end of February 2010. Even the steaks at Garufa, BuenAyre, Hinds Head (although that comes in a close second), and our short recent trip to Paris, which I still have to write about if I can remember any of it now, didn’t come close to these babies.

I’m not going to say too much about the décor, as everyone in London bloggerland has eaten there already and knows how it is. Its dark woods lend it to a tad corporate or even clubroom feel. But it has a nice vibe to it, especially on a Saturday night.

So let’s get down to business shall we. The steaks and cuts. You can also read a more in-depth write up of Goodmans here and here, so I shall dispense with the technicalities of how the meat is bred etc.

Our table of three were very impressed with the service, our waiter a French sounding guy from northern Brasil. It knocked us for six I can tell you. The training at Goodmans must be pretty good, as he was very knowledgeable about the cuts, the feed and taste, texture of the different cuts they had on offer.

The plate he brought us to show their prize cuts, consisted of two USDA ribeyes, one bone in and one boneless. The same with the two sirloin cuts and also a grass feed fillet from Scotland.

It’s quite an impressive thing to do, it’s braver than having an open kitchen, although that is very in vogue these days. Yawn. The marbling on all the cuts was pretty good I have to admit, and it showed the quality of the meat to you in one fail swoop.

We opted for two ribeye, bone in, and a sirloin bone in. I think my two friends ordered theirs medium, where I went for rare. A gasp of approval from the waiter. I guess not too many people order their meat rare these days. In Café Boheme, we used to get a lot of people asking for their steaks medium rare, and then sending them back asking for it to be well done. Idiots.

Sides were truffle chips, green salad, honey glazed carrots and some creamed spinach. Not sure if I could taste the truffle oil on the chips, but they were damn fine chips none the less, which is what you need when you are eating a great steak. The salad was good and in the Argentine style. Glazed carrots were sweet and carroty. I never tried the spinach, as it was gone before I thought of trying it, so I gather it was jolly nice.

OK the steaks. My bone in sirloin was amazing. Just to get a 400g piece of meat alone on a plate definitely has the wow factor. Nice cross hatch grill marks, the hallmark of a good American steakhouse. Although this is a Russian one, but you get my gist. It was cooked perfectly rare, just how I like it. It had been properly rested so there were no juices flowing freely on my plate. These boys know their stuff.

The fat had been trimmed and nicely rendered and had a smoky crispness to it, that was a pure delight to eat.

The meat itself was tender, juicy and well flavoured. You can almost taste the sweetness of the meat through the cows being grass fed on large open pastures. I’m sure they led a happy life and they would have been proud that the chefs treated them with respect and cooked them to perfection, and equally pleased that we enjoyed them so much. Well maybe not, but it’s a good dream to have none the less.

We each had a pudding, I had the American Cheese Cake, which was too cheesy and heavy after a glorious meat fest meal. I actually couldn’t finish it, but then again I am not much of a pudding guy.

All in all including tip (well deserved), a couple of bottles of wine, some desert wine and a meal fit for a king we spent about £85 each. Money well spent. I now have to take the wife here, as she was cursing me for going without her. Now there won’t be any problems with me returning here that is for sure. 

Foto Friday # 32

The thing I love the most about Singapore, is that you can walk into any unassuming restaurant and get a damn fine meal at a reasonable price.

Leong's Legend - The Original

I’m not gonna say too much about the original China Town Leong’s Legends, as I’ve already eaten and blogged about number 2 in this slowly growing chain of Taiwanese eateries. Plus the décor and menu are both the same so fewer words will be written. The only difference is really the vibe. The younger sister has a much better one.

The restaurant is somewhat smaller, but still has the same Song Dynasty drinking den feel and look to it. But somehow it is not as cosy as Continues is. I’ve not visited number 3 in Bayswater, but I’m sure it’ll be the same. But that won’t stop me from going one day soon. Real soon.

We weren’t that hungry so we only had a few dishes to tide us over. For starts we had a basket of Legends Siu Loung Bao. There were 8 of these little dumplings to wet our appetites. They were a mixed bag really. The insides were delightful, the pork was well seasoned and had a good texture. The jelly had melted and provided a soupiness to this dumpling when we bit into it. The only downside was the wrapper itself. It was too thick and almost chewy. Good but not great.

Next up were our mains of hot and fiery beef slices with beef tripe and a spicy pig’s offal dish. Our waitress, bless her, seemed shocked that we would order this dish. She did her best to dissuade us from ordering it, saying that only Chinese people liked it. She obviously had no idea of my obsession with offal. After a minute of this joyful banter she agreed to supply us with their offal dishes. As she turned to leave, she looked back at us and was about to try again but felt maybe we were ready for the good stuff.

Both were pretty damn good. The spicy beef slices with tripe were just that. Pretty damn spicy. Good texture and great flavour with some nice heat thrown in as well. Only downside was there wasn’t enough of it, as we could of eaten that all night.

The spicy pig’s offal came as more of a soup or stew than the previous dish as we were expecting. I think I tasted all bits of the pig there, liver, heart and kidney and all were well cooked and seasoned. It wasn’t that spicy but all can be forgiven as it was a really good dish.

I think word had spread amongst the staff, as they seemed impressed that we had eaten everything. I think they were expecting us to have it sent back and order something else that the other laowai were ordering.

All in all Leong’s Legends is a good restaurant with some funny staff, but somehow Continues has a much better vibe. Well we’ll see with numero tres.

Ajiaco Santafereño

Ajiaco Santafereño to give its full name is the national dish of Colombia, unless of course you are from Medellin, where it would be Bandeja Paisa. No question. Ajiaco is an odd soup. Then again most soups in Colombia are pretty bizarre, but they all taste pretty damn good. It really falls into being a light stew rather than a soup, as the broth and contents are pretty light, but in Colombia they call it a soup, and it is theirs to call what they wish.

In Medellin I have only ever had this at family gatherings, so I always liken it to a celebration food rather than an everyday meal, whereas bandeja paisa or mondongo are easily available from restaurants all over and outside of Medellin. Ajiaco is a special treat worthy of a special occasion.

Lina opted to make this for our Xmas eve dinner we were having with some homesick friends. Some Colombian, some not. It is actually a very easy dish to make for large groups, as it is pretty quick and easy to prepare and execute. 

There are however two key ingredients you must use to get a pretty authentic Ajiaco. They are guascas and papa criolla. Both are now readily available in any good Colombian or Latin American retailer. I.e. any shop near to Seven Sisters and that pink monstrosity in Elephant and Castle. Or as we recently found out some shops on Blackstock Road near to Finsbury Park as well.

The papa criolla are needed as when they cook they dissolve and give the soup its traditional yellow colour. Guasca is needed for the taste.

You can do most of this well in advance and a day of mixing those flavours together will do it no harm at all.

Ingredients for 4 (kind of)

1 Chicken breast

4 chicken thighs

Several pounds of as many different types of potatoes as you can get

2 ears of corn, cut in half

2 handfuls of guascas

Chicken stock or water

To serve with

Capers

Double cream or crème fraîche

Cooked rice

A banana each

Slices of avocado if you are so inclined. I am not.

Method

1. Get a frying pan pretty hot and add some oil. Add the chicken thighs and crisp up the skin. Pop in the oven to finish cooking. This is better this way, as most people put the thighs in the soup to cook and the skin goes soggy. Not nice. Keep warm.
2. Bring the water or stock up to a simmer. Add the chicken breast and a handful of the guascas. Simmer till the breast is cooked.
3. Remove chicken breast. Set aside. Once cooled, shred.
4. Add the potatoes and corn to the pot. Bring back to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes, or until the corn and potatoes are cooked.
5. Remove some of the potatoes and mash with a fork. Add back to the pot to thicken. Add the rest of the guascas.
6. Add the shredded chicken breast back to the pot to warm through. Season.
7. Place one chicken thigh, ½ an ear of corn, and several good ladles of the soup into bowls.

Serve the rice, banana, capers and cream separately, you can then add or not add as you wish to your soup. I like to add a bit at a time so I have the soup with bits of cream and capers but not all the time. When you order Ajiaco in a restaurant in Colombia, the cream and capers are added on top just before service.

Don’t ask me why the banana with a soup. I don’t know. But it does work. I prefer to eat mine separately, but some people mix it in with the soup.

Slices of avocado are generally eaten with most Colombian meals, not only soups. I am not keen on this green mushy mess, but if you want to then this is up to you.

Enjoy this wonderful warming and hearty soup in these dark cold days.