Morito

I do love Spain and its Tapas bars. A whole night in some towns on a tapas crawl will leave you drunk and very nicely filled up as well.

It’s the diversity I love so much. Imagine a street lined with small bars that only do a few different plates, but do them well. You go from one to the other having a glass of wine or beer sampling what each bar does so well. A very good night indeed.

I’m amazed some shrewd businessman here hasn’t opened 3 or 4 tapas bars all within a ½ mile of each other, so we can have this mini tapas crawl in London. Hey if I had the cash I’d open them up. Does anyone want to join me ? All you have to do is put in the cash for my wonderful idea.

I’m surprised Brindisa or Moro haven’t done this. Or maybe Morito is just the first in a mini chain of Tapas bars around Clerkenwell. Hey you read it here first.

But this is what is kind of happening in Soho with Polpo et al, but they are more for the civilised dining scene, than the drunken tapas crawl I want to see here in London.

Anyhows away from my dream. The recent wedding bank holiday, we found ourselves around Exmouth market and very hungry. We was tempted to hit Caravan again, but I think twice in two days would be a bit much, or maybe not. But the better half wanted to try somewhere else. Amazingly this was the first time I’d seen space in Morito. Ever since it opened it has been packed to the rafters, which for a restaurateur is great, for a punter it’s a bloody nightmare.

A really unfriendly waiter seated us at the window. He obviously wanted to be watching the wedding. Thankfully he only told us where to sit, and had nothing more to do with us. Phew. He could have really ruined our meal.

To be honest I could have eaten the whole menu as it read so well. Lots of Moorish dishes to dive into and nourish your soul. We were in for a treat.

First off was an empanada. It was fried. I don’t like fried empanadas, I prefer them baked in the Argentine way. We didn’t particularly like it and cannot remember what its contents were. We were hoping this was just a glitch on the way to tapas heaven.

Next off were a brace of salt cod croquettes. They were smooth, creamy and fishy. Oh my god they were good. I wish we had ordered more of them, they were that delish.

The tablouleh salad was nice, but a tad under seasoned, but that is a personal thing on how much of the white powder we all need. I need more than others. It did however go very well with the lamb chops.

Those chargrilled fatty beauties were divine. Actually heaven on a plate. I love chargrilled lamb chops. When I used to work nights in the kitchens at Café Boheme, I used to steal a few and have them for a late night supper. Good times.

These chops were cooked to a lovely bloody pink, the flesh tasted so lamby and the fat had that slightly chargrilled taste, that just brought out the sweet lamby taste.

Lastly was a plate of botifarra. It was a must, not only because it was served on top of creamy white beans, but I kind of became addicted to them when we lived in Colombia.

The butifarra in Colombia, which mainly comes from la costa is normally served with Bollo de Yuca. Mashed yucca or cassava rolled in corn husks. You don’t normally find them outside of la costa region, but we found a place that sold them, and we ate there a lot. I do miss some things of Colombia.

I do love tapas, and only wish we had more of them closer together. Dreams. Let’s hope Morito is just a first stepping stone on the way to a tapas crawl that any Spaniard would be proud of.

Camino - Puerto del Canario

We were guests of Camino.

Camino in Canary Wharf opened about a month ago to a big party and the now infamous “Sherry Ferry”. To which I wasn’t invited.

I was however invited to come and sample what this new branch has to offer. This I jumped at, after eating and drinking at the original one in King’s Cross and loved it. I haven’t been back though since we returned in March. Must correct.

So we booked a table for the day after the recent “Tube Strike Monday”, damn those tube drivers from keeping me from my work a second time.

I’m not a fan of Canary Wharf, I find it a pretty soulless place to go to, never mind work. But for a restaurant serving good food here it’s a win win situation.

The new branch is on the riverfront, and has a bright and airy restaurant with a large bar for those big spending money type people to hold big money spending parties to celebrate their latest bonus.

We decided not to be seated right away, as there was a nice vibe in the bar, so we choose to have a drink and chill for a bit. They have Estrella on draft, and the staff make a mean mojito. Although way too limey for me, but La Latina likes them that way. So she was happy.

These drinks we paid for, I felt kinda happy to pay for something tonight, as I now feel I can give an unbiased view of the place. Although I would have done that anyhows. We met the owner Richard Bigg, who is a very passionate man, with a good knowledge of everything in his restaurants. We chatted for quite a while, mainly shooting the wind about the company, Spain and life in general. A really nice guy. I wasn’t expecting to meet anyone, so it was a surprise to meet the man himself. On my entire 10 weeks on that trip, I only ever met two GM’s from over 200 hotels. Sometimes it’s nice to meet the big man. You get a better feel of the place.

He asked us what we would be eating and drinking. Politeness always rules and I asked if he could make some recommendations for us. His suggestions were so good that I think we ordered them all. For the wine, he insisted on ordering for us. OK. Not gonna argue with the boss on that one.

He ordered for us, a fine bottle of Pintia from Toro, which is northwest of Madrid. This wine has some large tannins and deep concentrated blackberries, which I love in wines. This came from the big guns menu. For those guys with big bonuses to spend. Lucky buggers.

So after looking at the menu, we literally stuck with Richard’s suggestions. Damn good choices they were as well. We also took on some recommendations from our waiter, Augusto. Who had a good deal of knowledge of the food on the menu.

To wet our appetites we ordered the selection of embutidos, and some croquettes de Jamon. The cured meats were thinly sliced and at a room temp so the taste was exquisite. The croquettes were perfectly cooked. And had a strong Jamon flavour. Perfect.

We also had some Txigorki’s (please do not ask me to pronounce this.) Basque style sandwiches with sun dried tomatoes and goats cheese. I wish some deli’s would sell things like this. They would make a killing.

For our mains we ordered the Presa Iberica, (the shoulder blade of the black trotted pig) which comes medium rare and was the best thing we tasted that night. Truly awesome, a great smoky flavour, as it is cooked over live coals. Not like another restaurant not a million miles away.

We also ordered Pulpo a la Parilla, which is a whole octopus tentacle draped over some olive oil mash. Both were perfectly cooked, but the mash was slightly too over powering for the delicate pulpo. The mash worked perfectly with the Pork blade. Really that was our only criticism of the night. Not a big one.

We decided not to pig out, as we wanted to sample some of the puddings. Originally we were told we could order what ever we wanted, but not to go crazy. I’m not a greedy person anyhows. Ok let me correct that. I am a greedy person. I just hate waste, even if it I am not paying.]

The only puddings we were tempted by were the Torta de Santiago, and the Crema Catalana. Well they are Spain’s most famous puddings, and it would have been shameful not to sample them.

We were offered a couple of desert wines to complement the deserts. A moscatel for the Torta, and a Pedro Ximenez for the Crema Catalana.

I’ve never been that big on desert wines, mainly because I find them too sweet, but the muscatel went like a dream with the torta. It rocked my boat. The Pedro Ximenez just didn’t do anything for me. It has too a strong flavour for my palette, but they went perfectly with the respective deserts.

At the end of the meal we were offered a liquor to aid our digestion. Patxaran is typical liquor from northern Spain made from sloe berries macerated in anis. It’s sharp and will cut through anything, and perfect for an after dinner shot.

I know we were treated very well, and maybe but I don’t think that the chefs cooked our meals any better than they would do for any other client, as I’ve eaten at the other branch. The food is damn good.

Even if this hadn’t been a free meal, I would have been very happy to have paid for it. It was that good. 

Am I in Spain, not quite ……

The other night we decided to pop along to rhe much published Barrafina. A trendy tapas bar in Soho, owned by the Hart brothers. There are no reservations taken, so it’s on a first come and first serve basis. The restaurant has about 20 stools all along the L shaped bar, from where you can watch fish being cooked on the flat top grill. Jamon being sliced off the leg in front of your very eyes. A marvellous sight for any carnivore. The place was buzzing which always adds an element of excitement to your meal. But you would expect this place to be jammin’, as it is the “IN” place to be seen at the moment in Soho. And packed it was. We only had to wait about 30 minutes, as a lot of people were pre-theatre dining. But with a clear crisp bottle of Albarino white wine, the wait flew by. As I said the wait flew by and in no time we were seated at the bar, and given a list of the days specials, which were all fish. The menu is easy to read and digest. Nothing really out of place here than you would find in an upmarket tapas bar in Spain. We opted for some Jamon Croquettes, what we thought were patatas bravas, but turned out to be fries with a mildly disappointed sauce (as we were with it.). A little but too runny small tortilla, and one of the specials, a beautiful piece of well cooked haddock. The croquettes were sublime, that combination of deep fried potato and ham rolled in breadcrumbs never seems to amaze me. We do a veggie option in the café with goats’ cheese and herbs. Eat far too many. The idea of doing French fries instead of cubes of potatoes is no short of stupid. This isn’t the golden arches you know, and if you say the sauce is brava then make it so. Not some tomato sauce with a little bit of paprika mixed in. The one portion tortilla is cooked in the same small frying pans we fry our eggs in, and is a great size for a tortilla. Unfortunately the inside was still a little bit too runny. Needed a little bit more salt, or have I become over salted working in a French (in style) café. The haddock was beautifully cooked on the flat top grill. Fantastic. Cooked all the way through, but still moist and the flavour was great. Hats off to the girl who cooked it. To finish off we shared a portion of chocolate tart. Nicely cooked pastry and good chocolate filling. For some reason since working at Café Boho, I have developed a sweet tooth, which never used to be there before. Maybe as I said it’s the amazing amount of salt I am now consuming, or maybe it’s the lack of food I am eating and I am getting my energy from the copious amounts of lemon tart I consume on a daily basis. All in all it was a good night, but would I return.... It's unlikely, unless I happen to walk past and there was space and I was a little peckish and fancied a little something with a glass of wine .....