A tourist in my own city

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Archive for the category “Food”

18 Nov 2013
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Terroirs

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Terriors, next to charring cross station on William IV street is a great wine bar with an extensive wine list for most budgets that serves great food.

I went on a wednesday evening after being a Gordons wine bar, and luckily they managed to fit us in at the bar where a very knowledgable and helpful bar man got us a great bottle of wine. The menu consists of Charcuterie, cheese, small plates and a couple of main dishes, essentially everything you could wish for with wine!

We had the deep fried pigs head, which was amazingly tender pigs cheek in a crisp batter, accompanied by bitter leaves and pickled walnuts. The selection of charcuterie, including duck rilettes which was silky smooth and wonderfully rich, which on the fresh bread was impossible not to go back to. Pork and pistachio terrine and Felino Salami.

For mains we Shared the baked Mont d”or with new potatoes, endives and cooked ham. This was a great sharing dish, spooning the molten cheese onto your plate or dipping bread strait into the pot, with the wine or endives cutting though the rich creaminess of the cheese, and the new potatoes and ham adding a great variation of texture and flavour wither with or between the cheese.

I will most certainly be going back to Terroir for some more great wine and indulgent food.

Posted in Drink, Food
18 Nov 2013

Mulberry Street, Notting hill

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Mulberry street, located on Moscow road in Notting hill sells New York style pizza and in massive sizes, I got the 20″ pepperoni, which gives you monstrous slices which hardly fit on a normal size plate.

The pizza is thin with generous amounts of cheese and a great crust, which has a slightly chewy texture and a bit of crunch.  The pepperoni has great flavour woith a hint of spice and is thicker than you would get any many other places, which i liked.

The 20″ pizza is great for sharing and is without doubt impressive and brought out the inner Adam Richmond in me, although i will not be attempting to finish one of these solo anytime soon!

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18 Nov 2013

Rossopomodoro, Fulham

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Rossopomodoro now has six locations across London. They import everything from Naples, using San Marzano tomatoes for the pizza sauce and buffalo mozzarella, they even import water from Naples to make the pizza dough, whether this is a gimmick or not the pizza is amazing. The pizza is as expected cooking in a wood fired pizza oven and cooks in around a minute due to the heat that is achieved in a pizza oven and the thinness of the dough.

To start we shared a brushetta that tasted very fresh, with the crunch of the bread that had been in the pizza oven and the tomatoes that were in really good olive oil and a hint of garlic, which set us nicely for the main event.

This pizza is definitely one for the tomato lover, with generous amounts of the San Marzano sauce and a scattering of fresh mozzarella. the base is super thin, to the point where you can’t pick up a slice as the dough can’t support the weigh of the toppings. The crust is puffy and with the great chewy texture that is found with a good Naples style pizza. I had a Napoletana, which came with the expect toppings of Tomato sauce, mozzarella, anchovies, garlic and oregano. I added friarielli and spicy salami to mine, friarielli (Neapolitan broccoli) being one of my favourite things to have on a pizza. The second pizza was a Verace which has Tomato sauce, fresh buffalo mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil from Sorrento and fresh basil, Also with added spicy salami.

Both pizzas were highly enjoyable, but the toppings (which are as good as you will find at any pizza place) here are almost a sideline to the amazing pizza base that is totally moreish and doesn’t leave you feeling sluggish as so many pizzas can!

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09 Nov 2013

The Frenchie

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The Frenchie, is a street food van i went to today at the Real Food Festival in south bank. They are definitely up there in the most luxurious ingredients stake. A brioche bun with red onion chutney, confit duck, crispy duck skin a choice of blue or goats cheese with truffle honey and a sprinkling of greenery. the confit duck, cheese and truffle honey is all combined on the flat top until its an oozing mixture.

This is real street decadence! the soft bun absorbes the fat from the duck when its being warmed up, and the truffle honey and melted cheese all soak in as well.

This is a winning combination, although should be a rare treat unless a heart attack is high up on your wish list!

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07 Nov 2013

The Jam Tree, Chelsea

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The Jam Tree on the New kings road was the venue for a hung over roast a couple of weeks ago. The picture above has got me into the final four for the best Instagram picture, to win a £500 bar tab, so fingers crossed!

It was a great choice of the bat as they have an entire page devoted to the various Bloody Marys that are available, from the classic to asian inspired wasabi spiced one, to one with a shot of their beef stock in. The classic was a great Bloody Mary with a good amount of spice and well seasoned.

On to the main event, roast beef which came medium rare as i ordered, i am amazed how many places ask how you would like the beef and then completely ignore that and send it out how they please. The vegetables were cooked perfectly with a good bite to them and the pigs in blanket were a nice addition to the dish. The roast comes with a proper beef jus which is generously applied by the kitchen, which negates my biggest gripe with a roast of a measly dribble of gravy artistically applied around the food. The roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings were also very good.

The main issue i had with the Jam Tree was when it came to dessert, as i don’t have a very sweet tooth if there is cheese on offer thats what i want. The horrors, there was not a single Port on offer to have with said cheese! I couldn’t bring myself to order cheese without Port so just had some more wine.

All in all The Jam Tree is a great place to get a roast and there is no need to book 2 months in advance as with so many places that serve a good roast in London.

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01 Nov 2013

Aqua, The Shard

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When you enter Aqua in The Shard you enter into the 3 floor atrium bar in the middle on the 31st floor. This is one of the most impressive first impressions i have ever had walking into a restaurant, with all the walls being glass the views are amazing. As you can see from the photos of the view concentrating on your food is quite difficult, especially as at sunset the view is continuously changing as London started to light up.

This branch of Aqua serves contemporary British cuisine. To start i had the beef tatar with a scotched quail egg and Bloody Mary ketchup. One of the best tartars i have had, perfectly seasoned, with a running yoke in the scotched egg and nicely spiced ketchup.

For mains we had the saddle of salt marsh lamb and the pork belly which a side of mash. The lamb came with aubergine, goats cheese, red pepper, young garlic, potato fondant and lamb jus. The lamb was perfectly medium rare and melted in the mouth, the goats cheese in the aubergine was lovely and creamy and the rich jus really adding great flavour.

The pork belly, with buck-wheat pancake, spiced fruit chutney, black pudding, heirloom tomato with pork and orange jus. the pork was so tender i did not ever need the knife and all the fat and rendered out to leave just the amazing flavour of pork belly. The tomato had really flavour to it and the chutney didn’t over power the pork, but you got a hint of spice.

The mash with beef jus, was perfectly smooth and the rich beef jus made it irresistible, and it was a great accompaniment to the pork that didn’t come with a potato with the dish.

For dessert we shared the artisanal British cheese board that was as always a bit light on cheese, but never the less a great end to the meal with a glass of port.

The meal was not cheap, but the grandeur of the place with the three floor atrium and sheer wow factor makes it well worth the cost. Not a place to go every week, but if you want to go all out you can’t go wrong here.

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31 Oct 2013

Le Réfectoire, Street food van

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At Dalston Yard a couple of weeks ago  i went to Tweat up’s ‘street food europe’ a collection of street food trucks from all round Europe. This little slider from the French van Le Réfectoire  was by a long way the best thing i had.

Inside the artisanal bread, was a little beef patty, compte, bacon, ketchup and fresh parsley. It was so rich and gooey, with the bread saturated with the juice from the meat, and intense bacon flavour from the thick cut pork.

They are normally found around paris and i will be making a bee-line for these guys the next time i step off the Eurostar to get this burger full size!

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31 Oct 2013

Street Kitchen burger at Doodle bar

IMG_0889This window in the wall in car park come toilets come entrance to the Doodle bar in Battersea provides great burgers on friday and saturday night.  I had the ‘Buffalo Bill Burger’. Amazing brioche bun with medium rare patty, Cheddar, pickled onions, baby gem with mustard and  ketchup, i added some bacon into it. With a side of their rosemary fries.

wonderfully juicy bordering on messy burger that went down a treat after a couple of meantime pale ales. The pickled onions really bring a nice sharpness to cut though the meatiness of the patty.

The Street Kitchen Hatch isn’t a place you would just pop into if you don’t live close as it is in a train black hole, its a bus or taxi ride. If you are in the area it is definitely worth giving it ago, and its also definately worth a drive if you are sober enough on a friday or Saturday night.

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