Christmas and New Year

We ate in over Christmas and since I don't do any of the cooking I don't really feel like I can blog about it. Although I do a lot of the eating. For the record we had Lasagne (veg) and then a Japanese style dish with rice noodles and tofu. Very nice.

As for eating out, we haven't done much of that recently but are plannign to go to the Real Greek for New year's eve, which is a little random but it is on the river, close to home and they do Gigantes beans, how could we resist?

Also, plan to have lunch in the V & A on new year's day so will report back on that too.

Le Pain Quotidien

Le Pain Quotidien, which apparently means daily bread, is a Belgian chain consisting of a restaurant and bakery, based unsurprisingly around it's very high quality and correspondingly highly priced bread. The 'concept' is that there are long wooden tables in the centre of the restuarant around which everyone sits, ie you share a table. Although in the waterloo branch there are also a lot of smaller tables for the less european and more squeamish among us. The decor is all unvarnished wood and large wooden dressers selling jam and other such condiments.

I have never eaten an evening meal there so can only comment on what I have had, which is two boiled eggs, fresh bread soldiers and a very aesthetically pleasing paper wrapped french butter pat accompanied by a vat of lovely coffee served in a bowl. Joff has also only had the same, several times. Call us unadvertourous but we know what we like...and we are vegetarians which probably serves us right. Still, I have seen people eating all sorts of things there and they all seemed happy. Service is friendly and the clientele unreletingly middle class, I have never seen so many little boys in faux hand knitted sweaters in my life, except in chiswick.

I like it there. The coffee is excellent, the eggs are fresh, the bread is perfect: crusty, chewy and fresh. There is also something immensely satisfying about cupping a large white bowlful of coffee in your hands. It is of course absurdly expensive if you allow yourself to think about it, which I suppose in these crunchy times you should do, £4 for boiled eggs and £3 for a large coffee. But if spending money on good quality food is what you like to do and you can still afford to do it I recommend you do it here.

Trees for Cities

This is a late update but we completed the Treeathlon. It was a gorgeous day and there weren't too many runners which made for a relaxed atmosphere. Battersea Park is pretty and, importantly, flat. Joff ran with me this time so he coud be the pace person, I told him to keep an eye on the time as I wanted to do it in under 40 minutes adn then every time he looked at his watch I shouted that I was going as fast as I can and he could go on if he wanted. Which led me to the conclusion that I am a grumpy runner, I do not feel the wind in my hair and freedom driving me along, it feels like a hard slog, I look red and sweaty as opposed to lithe and athletic and it always feels like a long way. However, once finished I am excited enough that I didn't actually die doing it that it all seems worthwhile. In the end I managed to complete it in 34 and a bit minutes, which wasn't too bad, event though at one point I was being overtaken by some pretty elderly looking people.

And on to the food. We collected our Veggie brunches in their little brown paper bags, took them back to my mums, where we changed, and then promptly went out to lunch. Not that they didn't look nice but going out to lunch seemed like the thing to do. For the record the brunch consisted of a club sandwich with salad, egg and cheese. I think it was the egg and cheese that did it, I don't really see the point of egg and cheese, it's a bit like having pizza and chips. We went to Coffee Republic on the Kings road and had bagels, which they make at the counter and which were fresh and suitably chewy. The coffe there is good and strong, the surroundings seem a little faded but this meant there was room to sit down. I prefer the coffee here to most of the other coffee chains, except perhaps Cafe Nero, and you could do a lot worse than lunch on one of their bagels.

Running 5k

Next weekend we are running 5k for a charity trees for cities, which is a tree planting charity. Please see the widgit on the right for details of my just giving sponsorship page. We are having a veggie brunch afterwards which I will tell you about when I have eaten it.

The Cut Bar and Restaurant

The Cut Bar and Restaurant is attached to the Young Vic Theatre and is therefore mainly aimed at pre and post theatre eating and drinking. It is a large open space with outside tables and an upstairs Bar area and does become fairly noisy. Given that you are unlikely to come here for a quiet, romantic dinner the noise is not really a problem and lends the place a lively atmosphere.

The food is good and reasonable priced, it is not a wide menu but this means that it is quick to come to the table and what there is is high quality. Last night I had courgette and aubergine sandwich (burger style) and chips. We shared a large and very green salad with deliciously sharp dressing and a side dish of green beans and shallots. The courgette and aubergine were perfectly cooked, with just enough chargrilling to give them a smoky taste without obliterating the original vegetable. The chips were the best I have had for a long time, crispy outside and soft and fluffy in the middle. Joff finished with a scoop of apparently very good vanilla ice cream.

With two glasses of wine each the bill came to £42 pounds which I think is pretty good value. The service was efficient and friendly and the whole operation friendlier and more inviting than the basement restaurant at the Old Vic.

Toast

I have been excellent toast this week, a rye and carraway seed loaf from De Gustibus in Borough Market. It has lasted all week and becomes crispy round the edges when toasted properly. I like it best with peanut butter.

Moti Mahal

Moti Mahal is a modern Indian restaurant in Covent Garden's Great Queen Street. The restuarant started in India and has now expanded globally, the chef used to cook for the Indian Prime Minister apparently. The decor, with it's white interior, linen table cloths, fine table ware and wooden floors, is far removed from the more traditional Indian restaurants in the area, and the staff are smartly dressed and attentive, if a little formal and unsmiling. The clientele, on a thursday night when we visited, are mostly business types who look well fed and used to fine dining and the whole atmosphere seems, well, flashy.

Flashy is not necessarily a bad thing and we found ourselves ordering a glass of champagne and a Manhattan cocktail, not our usual drinks order for dinner. The service wa a little slow to start with but warmed up quickly, the drinks were good, although the Manhattan wasn't laced with quite enough Bourbon for Joff.

The food was very good indeed, we ordered two starters and both were fresh tasty and unusual, the Bhuney Aloo aur Mutter ki Tikki being the best, a stack of little potato cakes, stuffed with vegetables and served with a yoghurt and tamarind sauce. It was full of flavour, delicately cooked and beautifully presented. The main courses were of the same quality and although they looked small the food here is rich so we found ourselves very full at the end, I could only manage one out of four of the chocolates that came with the bill and I love chocolate (also my husband really dislikes it so I face no competition in the eating of it). Joff's main course was full of wonderful looking mushrooms and the other dishes used ingredients not often used in Indian cooking, well not in the restaurants I have visited anyway, for example wild boar and lamb chops. There are excellent vegetarian choices which means we cna both visit again without having to have the same thing, a peril of vegetarian dining.

we left full, happy and agreeing we would come again. It isn't cheap, the bill was £62 for two starters, two main courses, a side order of dal, a glass of champagne and a Manhattan. However, if you are looking for something different with smart surroundings and beautifully cooked food, this is the place to come. And if anyone ever suggests that you go on a blowout to The Red Fort suggest this instead.

The National Gallery cafe

The National Cafe is the Peyton and Byrne venture inside the National Gallery, it has been there for a year or perhaps more but I visited for the first time last week. It is beautifully designed, a little like having a slap up lunch in a library or the dining room in an old country house. We visited the cafe, which is attached to the brasserie, which also looks good and may warrant a visit soon.

The centre piece of the cafe is a large dresser like table covered in cakes and pastries from which you help yourself, using a pleasingly old fashioned cake slice. The cakes are all homemade looking and unimpeded by wrapping of any sort, so the effect is that of visiting an enthusiastic Aunt's house for tea and being invited to help yourself to whatever you want, which cleverly allows you to forget you will actually have to pay for it when you reach the counter. The sandwiches are fresh and made with good dense bread, I had pitta bread, hummus and tomato and onion salad, all of which was lovely, the hummus tasting pleasingly tahini filled.

Once you have loaded your plates with cake and paid you can either sit at a table or perch on a stool at a bar which gives you a surprisingly entertaining view of the cake stand and allows you to watch other people loading their plates with cake. All in all it was a pleasing experience and I have already chosen three more types of cake to try which means I will need to go back at least three more times (the giant fig rolls look particularly exciting).

Rosso Pomodoro

Rosso Pomodoro is an Italian chain of restaurants with a branch in Covent Garden. There is an important distinction from a chain of Italian restaurants and an Italian chain of restuarants, Rosso Pomodoro started life in Italy and there are branches in Milan, Rome and Naples as well as many other Italian cities and they now have 3 in London, which means that they pride themselves in providing authentic Italian food with quality ingredients. I realise that these phrases are over used and that most restaurants now claim to use quality ingredients, however Rosso Pomodoro also claims to be part of the slow food movement (10 of their dishes use slow food ingredients) which means that they use ingredients from producers who grow rare or threatened varieties of certain foods in a way that protects the environment and at a price that is fair to the grower. The rest of the food they use comes mainly from 6 trusted suppliers.

This all sounds very earnest and right on but actually translates into delicious, fresh, beautifully cooked food with it's roots in Naples. The tomatoes are exceptional and the olive oil is excellent. There is not a huge range of dishes but I think that this is one of their strengths, most dishes come, not surprisingly, with tomatoes in some form, the main choices being pasta, pizza and a few meat or fish dishes. This is presumably because they limit their ingredients to those that they consider to be top quality. Pasta is handmade, pizzas are cooked in a firewood oven and taste somehow unlike any other pizza I have had in this country service is friendly and efficient. the decor reflects the name and is mostly tomato red and white. On one recent visit someone in our party sent their pasta dish back as it was not very hot, it was immediately taken off the bill and she was offered anything else she might like free of charge.

Rosso Pomodoro is a good quality Italian restaurant with just enough of a difference to make it stand out from the sea of other pizza restaurants in the capital. It offers good vegetarian choices and the best tomatoes I have eaten in London.

Hummus Galore

Hummus Brothers is, unsurprisingly, a Hummus restaurant/cafe run by two brothers. I remember it opening on Wardour street and thinking, although I adore hummus, that it would never last, the menu would be too limiting and you can just buy a tub from the supermarket surely. How wrong I was. They have just opened their second branch in Holborn and deliver across the west end. I have passed it many times and it is always busy so last Saturday, after visiting Bar Italia, we decided to try it out, although it had clearly already proved itself a success.

It is a concept restaurant in so much as you chose a bowl, small or large, choose a topping to go on the hummus and a side dish if you want one. This is all explained by a cheerful waitress and service generally is quick and friendly. I had cherry tomatoes, onion and cucumber salad as a topping and Joff had tabbouleh and a hard boiled egg. The egg was an extremely strange colour but this didn't deter him and we both tucked in. It was good. And filling. The hummus was a nice consistency and you could taste the tahini, garlic and lemon sauce is served on the side for those who are squeamish about such things. It makes a decent alternative to a sandwich and would make a good, quick dinner before a film or show. You can add more sides to make it more substantial or go for a bigger bowl. It cost about £15 for two with two large glasses of apple juice. It is more or less opposite Just Falafs and has mostly shared seating but with more of a restaurant feel than the falafel bar.

Bar Italia

Bar Italia, for those of you who have not yet visited, is a famous and long standing Italian coffee bar, with the emphasis on Italian. There are some tables outside which enable a good view of the comings and goings on Frith street and some stools inside so you can sit, feet dangling and listen to the waiters showing off. The coffee is good and strong, if not cheap (it cost £5 for two coffees yesterday). The place has been here for years and is open late, which means that many Londoners have a history associated with it, usually a well needed coffee after a late nights drinking. They also serve cakes and sandwiches, none of which i tasted, but which looked fresh enough. It makes a difference from the ubiquitous chains and the coffee really is good and strong enough to keep you ticking along for a day in town.

Running 10k

Last Sunday we ran the British 10k. It was my first public run, unless you count slogging along the road occasionally or running on the treadmill at the gym, and I actually enjoyed it. It took me 1hr 15 minutes and I was stained a deep reddish purple but there is something exhilarating about being involved in large public events, as well as being able to run in the road past several key London landmarks. I may well do one again and it hasn't stopped me running at the gym so there must be something about it I like...afterwards we went here and ate chips.

Eat and Two Veg

Eat and Two Veg is a vegetarian diner in Marylebone High Street, with the emphasis on diner. It is the diner styling of the restaurant that makes it so appealing. Most vegetarian restaurants, at least until recently, have either been cramped cafe style affairs for lunch or a hasty dinner, or pared down, austere temples to health that aren't that much fun. Eat and Two Veg is a proper restaurant with red leather (or perhaps leather 'style') booths, spacious seating and good, friendly service. The food does tend towards vegetarian versions of meat dishes, such as schnitzel, sausage and mash and burgers, which I know will put some people off. However it is perfectly good, if not high end, food and the vegetables themselves are fresh and nicely presented. The burgers are tasty, the chips crispy and my husband has enjoyed a range of 'fake' favourites such as hotpot and schnitzel and mash with watercress sauce. I know there is an argument against imitating meat dishes in vegetarian cooking but there is something comforting for a vegetarian in knowing you can choose anything from the menu and be served, good, nicely cooked food in relaxing and enjoyable surroundings. It may not sound like a lot to ask but it makes a welcome change to risotto or earnestly served bean salad and quiche.

Lunch in borough Market part 3

We were again searching for somewhere to eat in Borough (had just been to the gym) and were marching down Borough high street towards Joe's Kitchen (more of this in another post). Walking past Taz, a good chain of Turkish restaurants, we noticed Taz cafe next door, empty- ish and inviting enough so we went in. They serve sandwiches with slightly off the wall fillings (Leek, spinach and yoghurt plus feta, olives and mint) as well as traditional Turkish pastries stuffed with cheese and spinach, falafel wraps and fresh looking salad plates. Service was friendly enough, the price was reasonable and the food good. I will definitely add this to the everso slightly expanding list of places to sit and eat in Borough. Oh and we had a piece of Baklava too which was fresh, buttery and dripping with honey... delicious.

Just Falafs

is a falafel cafe in wardour street, sort of like Maoz but a little more upmarket,eg it has proper seating. You can choose between a 1,2 or 3 ball wrap (sounds alarming but is very tasty) and then have a choice of sauces, salads and relishes. It is good value for money, a 1 ball wrap costs abotu £2.50 and is much larger than you might expect. We arrived there having bickered our way around soho looking for the perfect lunchspot, having failed, and feeling tired, hungry and ratty, I led us into just falafs as a sort of last resort and was pleasantly surprised. We left feeling full up and happy. I would definitely go back.

Eggs VW style

Having just come back from Dresden where we did a lot of eating I am now deviating from the London theme but sticking to the food theme. Hungry and looking for lunch on the one rainy day we had, we wandered into the famous (in Dresden) transparent VW car factory to look at the restaurant of ocurse and managed miraculously to get an egg sandwich. We had to ask for them to take out the ham and the cheese but eventually managed to get a delicious and pretty sandwich, my first in a car factory. We left without paying much attention to the cars but did admire all the glass and design (and the loos). If you are ever in Dresden and in need of an egg sandwich then the vW factory is the place to go.

The Larder

The Larder is a restaurant, bar, bakers and shop all rolled into one glossy package. It is on st. John street in clerkenwell, an area already laden with bars and restaurants but this is a welcome addition. The bread is made ont he premises and is for sale to take home alongside other pastries. The meat and fish are all bought from trusted and named sources and there are good and unusual vegetarian options, for example, asparagus, poached egg and parmesan or vegetable paella. The food is rich and tasty and the portions generous, the service attentive and friendly without being manic. The place itself is all clean lines and mood lighting with an open kitchen, an arrangement I am becoming increasingly fond of.
our meal for two with two good glasses of wine came to £35 which I think is pretty reasonable for such good quality. We will absolutely be going back.

The Garrison

The Garrison, which I have mentioned previously as being one of my favourites, is a gastro pub on Bermondsey street. It is still beautifully decorated and retains a good atmosphere, it is still a great place for a drink if you can get a table. However, having eaten there a couple of times recently, I think that the quality has slipped. Twice food has arrived cold and the cold dish has been taken away while Joff had either to eat his or wait for mine and leave his to go cold(i have to say that both times it was taken off the bill). The most recent visit was better, but even then the food was not quite as hot as it should have been and was ok rather than delicious. It all gives the appearance of having been assembled and heated up rather than actually having been cooked, if you see what I mean. Anyway, sadly, I will not be going back for a while and will instead be going to the superior Bermondsey Kitchen.

Royal Festival Hall

Company of Cooks have installed themselves in the terrace cafe area at the Royal Festival Hall and have made it an excellent place for lunch. There is plenty of space, much of it with a riverside view, and the place has a light and airy feel to it. It is not really a formal lunching kind of place but a good lazy Sunday or
Saturday destination. Excellent sandwiches on good, dense, seedy bread or focaccia with hummus and roasted courgettes. The cake is excellent and unusual, including a lavender cake with a wonderfully subtle flavour or, for Easter, a good rich, fruity simnel cake with generous amounts of marzipan. They also do seasonal salads and soups. Well made coffee and quick service make it one of my current favourites.

Nordic Bakery

The Nordic Bakery in Golden Square, is a relatively new Scandinavian bakery and coffee shop. It serves open sandwiches on dark rye bread (salmon tartare, egg and anchovy, cheese and gherkins) and, the real draw, warm, fresh and deeply enticing cinnamon buns. The interior, as you might expect, is clean and modern looking and yet, mainly because of the comforting and drool inducing smell of cinnamon and baking when you enter, it also immensely comforting. We escaped the hailstorm there and had tea in retro looking and oversized cups. The tea was perfectly brewed and reasonably priced, the smell was deeply delicious and the service friendly and efficient. In this part of London, tucked behind the generally overpriced and tacky Piccadilly, this is a rare find and i strongly you pay it a visit.

Red Fort

Red Fort is an Indian restaurant on Dean Street. Sounds nice and simple, well it's a posh Indian restaurant on Dean street. One with a slightly intimidating but smart exterior and a man on the door. Starting to sound more complicated? Good. There is a bar downstairs that serves good cocktails and has slightly worryingly efficient service. But back to the restaurant, for an Indian restaurant it has a small selection of vegetarian food, no mains, but all vegetable dishes can be eaten as mains, fair enough. In fact I found it hard to tell whether the vegetable dishes were sides or mains and, when they came, what the difference was. And this is where the trouble starts, the food tasted good and the service was brisk and friendly enough but by the end of the meal, although we had all had a good time, one look at the bill left me feeling thoroughly ripped off. Joff had a mushroom dish as his main but it was served in the same dish as the side dishes and put on the table without an explanation, was it part of the table's side dishes or his main? As a result he had to grab it quickly before it was snaffled by someone else. My aubergines were good, spicy and stuffed with paneer and cashews, but absolutely tiny ( I guess I should have paid more attention the descriptor 'baby' on the menu). A selection of starters for everyone translated as everyone getting a plate each containing all of the starters - an expensive an unnecessary way of doing it as we had to give away all of our fish and meat starters and were left with a tiny patty and a mini veg kebab. with rice and bread for the table, again, (the table was very well fed) and water brought without the choice of tap, the bill came to an astounding £60 a head! i have been to a fair few expensive restaurants but this was undoubtedly the most expensive when you take into consideration what we actually got for our money. Oh and the bill for the water alone came to £ 40. We managed to have a good evening despite this and the bill was met with disbelief and good humour. However I will not be going back and I would advise others not to unless they are feeling extraordinarily flush. Next time i might try Amaya or Veeraswamy.

Dealer's Choice

Dealer's Choice is a Patrick Marber play. Patrick Marber wrote Closer and the screenplay for Notes on a Scandal, for which he won an oscar nomination. Dealer's Choice has transferred from the Menier Chocolate factory and has had excellent reviews. It stars Roger Lloyd Pack (Trigger from Only Fools and Horses) and is directed by Samuel West.

We went to see it last night full of expectation. I like the Trafalgar Studios, steep seating which means there is no restricted view and some seats right on the stage where you can almost taste the actors sweat (if you really want value for money). The start was promising, a good set and funny dialogue, the characters a little stereotyped but plenty of room for them to develop. However after about half an hour the characters were stuck firmly in stereotype and the plot looming inevitable ahead, the possibilities for misunderstandings and betrayal laid out all too clearly.

The story was played out around a pivotal poker game, which happened in the second half, but by the time it started I felt as if I had seen it already. The game itself was supposed to draw out all the simmering tensions and father /son relationships within the 4 characters working in an unnamed restaurant. There were suggestions of the desperation and compulsive risk taking that may have made it more interesting but these were not developed enough. There was plenty of crying and teasing laughter but it all rang hollow, the crying in particular was entirely unconvincing, something which at this level of theatre is really not good enough. The long, tension building pauses were so devoid of tension that it seemed as if the actors had forgotten their lines. the ending was completely obvious from the start and roger Lloyd Packs attempts at sounding menacing meant him lowering his voice to a throaty growl devoid of any actual malice. Any threat of physical violence was staged badly so that hands raised in anger hovered uncertainly in the air, immediately dissipating the tension and making the threat seem fake.

I know it easier to slam a production than praise it but I was really hoping to enjoy this. However it seemed hopelessly dated, even though it was only written in 1995, and the acting could not save the script which was not funny enough or menacing enough to truly explore the relationships between the men, or to make us care about their blasted hopes and dreams.

Cafe Koha

Cafe Koha is a wine bar and restaurant in the centre of London, st. Martin's court just behind Leicester square. I have been going there for years now but recently it has had a refit and now is more spacious and better designed, you no longer have to walk sideways to avoid bumping into tables.

It is a rare find in Soho as it is not a chain, not a pseudo club, not frighteningly crowded and they do not force you to eat if you don't want to. The wine list is good, the waiters friendly and if you find yourself getting peckish as you linger over your wine you may fancy the meditteranean platter at £6.95. Not enough for a meal but enough to take the edge off. The food on the rest of the menu is good but not spectacular, but that is not really the point. The point, as I see it, is that Koha is a refuge in Soho, a good meeting place, good for a glass or two before or after shopping, theatre or a film.It is calm, classy and welcoming, and you can't say that about most of the places around Leicester square tube station.

Lunch in Borough Market pt 2

So it is true that it is difficult to sit down and eat lunch in Borough Market, a lot of standing up and shovelling down meat filled rolls goes on. Which is all well and good but we were looking for somewhere to sit and chat and recover from the rain. We tried the French Patisserie but were told we couldn't just have coffee but that we all had to eat, 'It is a patisserie' we were told rather snootily. So we decamped to shipp's tearooms and were welcomed with open arms, even told that they only did tea but we were welcome to go and buy a coffee and bring it in! Needless to say we didn't, we all had tea, served in retro little tea pots with floral china on freshly laundered table linen. It was fantastic and old fashioned but quite clearly styled that way, with china cups suspended from the ceiling and girls with rose bud complexions serving. Service was friendly, tea was delicious and the cakes were moist, buttery and everything that we hoped they would be. This all does not come cheaply, but then you are in Borough market so presumably you have already left your financial sense at the gates. I can't say exactly how much it cost because my Aunt kindly paid, but I did notice that she had to reach into her purse for an extra note when the bill came. However it is a great place, friendly, tasty, and extrememly well dressed.

Lunch in Borough Market

is actually farily tricky if you don't want ot eat standing up, outside or in a pub. I may be picky but all I ask for is a nice sandwich, good coffee, fine cake and a seat to sit on with a roof over my head. I realise space is at a premium but I would pay extra on top of the extra I am already paying just to be able to sit in at, for example, Konditor and Cook. Anyway I am off there to meet my mother and aunt and to pick up some bread at DeGustibus. Will report back...

Groats

Tonight we had groats made from oats. It was a risky shopping choice but we were feeling adventurous and it paid off. Joff cooked them while I occassionally tried to boss him around. He ignored me and the groats were really nice, cooked in water and with onions added they were soft on the outside but with a bit of bite, very comforting. Like barley but nicer. ANyway we had them with tofu burgery things, peas, broccoli, spring onions, red onion and a cucumber and sprout salad. Very vegtastic and I realise not everyone's cup of tea but it was delicious and meant that here was room for plum crumble afterwards...perfect.