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Kitchen Parties – Rack & Ruin Review

24 May

As the sun set over London last night, Lucy and I approached a large Victorian corner building with black painted windows. We were to spend the evening at Kitchen Parties, an immersive dining, drinking and entertainment concept.

We entered into The Fourth Wall, the cocktail bar area, and sipped on a delicious lychee cocktail while we waited to be called to the table. The restaurant we chose to dine at was Rack & Ruin and we were to enjoy a ‘hearty three course banquet of delicious medieval style preserves and meats cooked on an open grill’.

When we eventually made it into the dining room, we were seated at a long banqueting table and told to visit ‘Peter’ with our wooden board (plate) so that he could carve us some meat. We could see the large open grill in front of us, which was adorned with huge chunks of barbecued meat, cooking away right in front of our eyes.

Our visit to Peter was surreal. A shady character, Peter pulled pieces of meat from the grill and hacked away at it in front of us, placing a big chunk on each of our boards. We received pork ribs, mutton, beef, chicken and pork belly and by the time he had finished, our boards were piled high of juicy looking meats.


The friendly waiter brought over an accompanying salad, some bread and home made preserves – mackerel pate, tzatziki and hummus – and told us that we could go back up for more whenever we wanted. I thought I could but the meat got the better of me and before I even finished my first boardI was stuffed to the gills.

We were treated to  a ‘light’ pudding of nectarine soaked rum (although Lucy complained that she couldn’t taste any booze) and chantilly cream before heading out into the night.

Kitchen Parties is a rolling programme that welcomes up to five temporary dining experiences at a time, changing every four to six weeks and is bringing something  completely original to London; the chance for exciting new talent in the restaurant industry to join together and move the scene forward a few paces.

We loved Rack & Ruin. It was a very fun evening, full of delicious food and drink and I can’t recommend it enough.

Visit the website for more information.

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Imli Street, Soho

22 May

A few weeks ago Jack and I were walking up Wardour Street when we spotted what we thought to be a new restaurant. We admired the decor from afar and noticed the familiar name – Imli Street – sister restaurant of the Michelin starred Tamarind in Mayfair. We carried on walking, promising ourselves a future visit. A couple of weeks later we were back.

We started off with a Twisted GT – saffron gin, citrus twists, tonic water and lemonade and set upon deciding our dishes. The concept at Imli Street has been developed by Tamarind Collection’s multi-award winning Director of Cuisine, Alfred Prasad and all dishes are based on four distinct inspirations from the Indian street food arena: Coastal Shacks, Food Carts/ Dhaba’s, Railway Cuisine and Beyond Borders.

We chose one dish from each section, plus a side of Hyderabadi aubergine. Our favourite dishes were tandori paneer and a ground lamb with lettuce cups, a simple dish of spiced mince lamb and lettuce leaves to wrap the mince in.

We were full after dinner but our waiter insisted we try a dessert. I wasn’t so sure at the time but I’m so glad he persisted. It’s been a few weeks since we dined at Imli Street and I’m still thinking about the dessert – warm rice pudding with acai berries.

Imli Street is very Soho – perfect for a quick, delicious bite any night of the week. The cocktail list is different to anywhere else I’ve been and it’s worth the trip alone just for the desserts!

Imli Street
167-169 Wardour St
London
W1F 8WR
020 7287 4243

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The Grill on the Market

20 May

A few weeks ago I heard about the new brunch offering at The Grill on the Market. I am a huge fan of brunch as it is but one thing in particular caught my eye – unlimited Prosecco for the duration of your meal. I desperately wanted to visit so I arranged a date with my friend Gabriela on Saturday to enjoy a late lunch and a few glasses of bubbly.

We were presented with a glass on arrival and topped up constantly for the duration of our meal. We enjoyed starters – I had beetroot cured salmon salad with a horseradish cream and Gabriela opted for the crunchy calamari. We both plumped for a Hereford rare breed fillet steak for main, which was served with skin on chips, mixed greens and a side salad to share. We also both had the rhubarb fool for dessert, which arrived in a tall glass and consisted of jelly, chantilly cream and crunchy poached rhubarb.

We were dining next to a group of girls and occasionally one would pipe up to exclaim ‘wow, this is just fantastic value’. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy their lunch and we were excited about what was in store for us. The main was excellent – the rare breed steak cooked just how I liked it – rare to medium and incredibly tender – my knife slid through the flesh with ease.

If you want to make the most of unlimited Prosecco, simply take along two or more friends, order anything off the brunch menu to be treated for the duration of your meal (maximum of two hours). With brunch dishes starting at just £9, the Grill on the Market’s bubbly brunch represents excellent value for money.

The Grill on the Market
2-3 West Smithfield
London
EC1A 9JX
020 7246 0900

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Goats Milk Praline Ice Cream Affogato – De’Longhi Challenge

15 May

This year has been crazily busy for me so far. I started a new job and joined a gym in January and have been training for a half marathon in October in preparation for the London Marathon next year. I’ve been keeping up with this blog a couple of times a week and Jack and I have also been busy looking for and buying furniture for a flat that we bought last year, which we should be moving into within the next couple of months.

As I’ve been so busy I seem to be leaving everything until the very last minute. Take this challenge, for example. Jack and I decided what recipe we were going to do a couple of weeks ago but I only had the chance to buy all of the ingredients to make the ice cream at 9pm last night – so you can imagine what kind of a night and morning I’ve had. Not complaining, though – I did get to eat the most delicious affogato for breakfast.

We used the Flavour Thesaurus by Nikki Segnit for inspiration. If you haven’t been out and bought a copy yet, I highly recommend you do. It is a must have in the kitchen if you want to be a little experimental with your food. I used it for my stint in Britain’s Best Dish and it got me to the semi-final.

This recipe is fantastic for anyone who is dairy intolerant and the best thing is that it tastes just like normal dairy ice cream. The hazlenut praline adds a welcome crunch and sweetness and the coffee, made by the fantastic and utterly beautiful De’Longhi Vintage Icona Bar Pump coffee machine, adds a caffeine punch that is oh so welcome at any time of day.

Ingredients

For the praline
100g golden caster sugar
100g whole hazlenuts

For the ice cream
2 pints of goat’s milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla paste
4 Burford Brown egg yolks
4 oz golden caster sugar
3 tsp cornflour

Method

Ice cream – first make the custard
1. Heat the goat’s milk and the vanilla paste over a low heat until simmering. Do not boil.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks, cornflour and sugar together for a couple of minutes or so until sugar is almost dissolved.

3. When the milk starts to simmer, take it off the stove and pour it in with the egg and sugar mixture, and whisk continually. Return to the pan and stir over low heat with a wooden spoon until thickened.

Now for the praline

4. Heat the sugar and hazlenuts in a pan on a low heat and stir continuously until the sugar begins to caramelise and the nuts are coated. Once you reach this stage, pour out onto a greaseproof paper-covered baking sheet, sprinkle with sea salt flakes and leave to cool. Once set, smash the praline into pieces with a rolling pin.

5. Once you have a custard, place in the fridge until completely cool. Prepare your ice cream machine, mix the custard and praline together and churn to your machines instructions.

And to finish

6. Scoop the ice cream into a glass. Prepare a shot of espresso and pour over the ice cream straight away.

7. Enjoy!

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Propstore at The National Theatre

7 May

Last Thursday I visited the Southbank, one of my favourite areas of London, to experience the launch of The National Theatre’s pop-up riverfront cafe-bar, Propstore.

Now in its second year, Propstore features a collection of props and scenery from recent National Theatre productions.

We REALLY enjoyed the range of street food on offer, including pulled pork buns, sweet potato and chickpea falafel and literally the best fish finger sandwich I have ever had the pleasure of tasting.

We sipped on Sipsmith Summer Cup cocktails, sat on House of Commons benches from This House, followed Luke Treadaway’s original train sets from The Captain of Kopenick around the track and recognised Cillian Murphy’s tape deck from the Misterman production that we saw last year, all whilst watching the world go by on the Southbank and the rippling waves on the Thames.

Whether you’re passing by and fancy a quick drink, need a delicious bite to eat or fancy listening to a live band or DJ (Friday and Saturday until 2am), Propstore is a must visit destination this summer.

Propstore, in partnership with American Express, is open until 28th September.

Watch the video of Lauren Laverne’s visit and chat with the curators here.

Opening hours
Monday – Thursday 12 noon – 11pm
Friday, Saturday 12 noon – 2am
Sunday 12 noon – 6pm

Friday and Saturday nights will see Propstore transformed with DJ’s and live music until 2am.

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Fire & Stone, Spitalfields

3 May

Whenever my friend Lucy and I meet for dinner, for some reason we always end up eating pizza. We used to frequent Pizza Express fresh out of university, 50% off voucher in left hand, pizza slice in right. But on Wednesday evening we tried somewhere a bit different.

Fire & Stone has been around for a few years. I visited a while back to enter a competition to create a pizza named after a European city – the winner got to go on holiday to the city. Mine wasn’t the winning pizza unfortunately so I didn’t get to jet off to Seville but I thought I’d head back to try a couple of new additions to the menu.

Fire & Stone Spitalfields was buzzing on a mid week evening with post workers enjoying pizzas inspired by and named after cities from around the world. The new pizzas we were there to try included the Canberra and Trinidad and Tobago. We were offered thin and crispy for £1.25 extra so we opted for the Canberra to come on that base, following the waitresses recommendation.

Fire & Stone pizzas are hand stretched, topped with parmesan and stone baked, something I hadn’t been too fond of before but my mind was changed on Wednesday. The Canberra was my favourite with a topping of roast chicken breast, garlic & rosemary potatoes, marinated mushrooms, mozzarella, sour cream, sweet chilli sauce and chives. The Trinidad and Tobago was topped with spicy pepperoni, fresh red and green chillies, jalapeno peppers, mozzarella and tomato salsa and despite enjoying it, I felt that it didn’t have the same depth of flavour – it was extremely spicy but we both had to peel off a fair few chillies so that we could actually taste everything else.

The pudding list landed in front of us as soon as we had wiped the last crust in chilli oil but neither of us could face it – the pizzas had well and truly won the battle.

Fire & Stone wins against Pizza Express any day, but I still have my reservations whether it can beat the Italian sour dough kings, Franco Manca and Santa Maria, that I love so much.

Fire & Stone
4 Horner Square
Old Spitalfields Market
London
E1 6EW

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The Attendant

29 Apr

I drank coffee out of a urinal last weekend. What? I did! And it wasn’t just me. Around fifteen other people were crammed into a Victorian public toilet in London’s NOHO drinking Caravan coffee and nibbling on sweet and savoury treats. You don’t believe me? Well you’ll just have to go and see it for yourself.

It was a sunny Saturday and Jack and I arrived at The Attendant at 1pm to sample the coffee and French toast. We trundled down the steps and arrived in the small underground room full with good looking youngsters sipping on flat whites, reading papers and laughing with friends.

We took a pew at one of the original urinals, which have been converted into tables and watched the customers pour through the doors to grab a coffee and a cake. As I waited I glanced around the room and fell in love with the design of the place. Beautiful original Victorian tiles adorned the walls and the floor, the door to the kitchen was painted a distressed orange with an old fashioned ‘attendant’ sign nailed into it and a communal table sat at the back of the room, surrounded by original Victorian restored furnishings – The Attendant is a feast for the eyes are well as the stomach.

Our coffees arrived and without even sipping I could tell that it was going to be good. The milk was smooth and there wasn’t a bubble in sight on the beautiful latte art. I took a sip and my initial thoughts were confirmed. Smooth, strong and utterly delicious – in fact, one of the best flat whites I’ve had in London.

My French toast arrived and I was in for a treat. Fresh, sweet and juicy fruit was strewn across two thick slices of French toast, which was drenched in a vanilla syrup and served with a vanilla crème fraîche. I shared half with Jack and we also shared a toasted wrap, which was good but not quite as enjoyable as the magnificent toast.

I loved The Attendant and I think the guys behind it have done a superb job. They have taken a beautiful Victorian landmark and turned it into something for all to enjoy. I can’t wait to go back for another one of those flat whites.

The Attendant
27A Foley Street
London
W1W 6DY
0207 637 37 94

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Aperitivo at L’Anima

27 Apr

L’Anima has been on my radar for a few years, ever since Francesco Mazzei taught me how to make pizza at a bloggers event and it is one of those restaurants that despite being desperate to visit I have just never made it.

It’s no secret that Italian flavours are my favourite – fresh tomatoes, pillowy dough, creamy cheese, fresh cured meats. The list goes on.

Aperitivo is one of the latest crazes to sweep the London restaurant scene and L’Anima is now offering a range of aperitivi cocktails, which are served with one specially prepared small plate. We visited the bar a couple of weeks ago to try a few cocktails and dishes.

L’Anima is part restaurant, part bar and the large space is split in two by a large glass window – the long bar on the right and the restaurant on the left. I saw similarities to one of my favourite cafes, Princi in Soho, and shortly after I noticed it became apparent that Francesco and his team were consultants on the project.

Our first cocktails were aperol spritz and campari shekerato, which were accompanied by panzerotti, small crescent shaped tomato and mozzarella filled hot parcels. I then enjoyed the best negroni I have ever tasted – Portobello Road gin, cocchi rosso & campari mixed in a short glass with a huge cube of ice to ensure the drink stayed nice and cool the whole way through.

Throughout the remainder of our evening we were presented with a range of small but perfectly executed aperitivo dishes – veal meatballs and the most tender squid I have ever had the pleasure of tasting, served with a homemade chilli jam.

We topped our evening off with a lychee bellini and tour of the kitchen and private dining rooms. One dining room doubled as a wine cellar and featured a long table surrounded by cabinets with mostly Italian wines. The second room resembled a church – smooth cream coloured cool marble surrounded us with a long green marble table sat in the middle.

I walked out of L’Anima a happy lady. Excellent service, the best classic cocktails I have experienced in London and delicious authentic Italian snacks to boot. As we put our coats on the manager told me something that helped me sum up the L’Anima experience – the restaurant does not use fridges or freezers – all produce is freshly cooked that day. I’m already itching to return to L’Anima and I’m extremely excited about the L’Anima Cafe, which will open in August. Bring it on.

Aperitivo cocktails at L’Anima start at £5.

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Lazybones, Farringdon

15 Apr

2012 was the year of meat. It rode into London in all its glory and captured the hearts of, well, most of the capital. Leading the way were MeatLiquor, Pitt Cue Co and Pizza East owned Chicken Shop. Us carnivorous Londoners were so caught up in the meaty movement and it was inevitable that others would follow. Independent burger and chicken restaurants popped up all over and captured the imagination of home cooks, supper club owners and restaurant dreamers.

One of the newest meaty restaurants to take the up and coming foodie area of Farringdon is Lazybones. Situated just off Cowcross Street, Lazybones is a restaurant / bar, or should I say bar / restaurant? After visiting last week I’m not sure which I would put first. But I liked that about it. We grabbed a table in the middle of the room and perused the menus before ordering at the bar. We were provided with paper cups and straws, which we were told we could fill as many times as we wanted from the soda machine behind us and were given a small bag of freshly popped corn and told to add our own toppings, which were also situated behind us.

We ordered pulled pork with slaw – eight hour-cooked pork shoulder in pale ale, fennel, honey, smoked paprika & honey with a homemade cabbage, carrot, fennel, beetroot, celeriac, radish and yoghurt slaw, which arrived in a toasted brioche (of course) burger bun. The pork melted away in the mouth and the slaw was fresh and crunchy but there was a slight issue with the bun, which had a very soggy bottom.

To go alongside the burger we ordered a large portion of chips topped with monterey jack cheese to share and a couple of each of the chicken wings – sweet & spicy, BBQ and HOT! We were warned that the spicy ones would ‘blow our heads off’ so, curious, I tucked into that one first. It didn’t blow my head off but it did taste delicious. All wings at Lazybones are marinated and cooked twice for maximum flavour and you can certainly tell. My favourite wing was not the super spicy HOT! wing but the sweet and spicy, which are marinated in ginger, honey, coriander, hot sauce & lime.

No meal is complete without a little something sweet but feeling like we had just entered a meat induced coma we opted to share an American brownie with caramel ice cream. The energetic waiter bounced across the room with our dessert and told us that the ice cream came from his dads farm in Cornwall (I found out shorlty after posting this review that he was telling a little fib.) The name rang a bell but I’m not sure I had ever had the pleasure of tasting it before. Remember this name – Roskillys – the creamiest, most delicious caramel ice cream I had ever tasted.

I really liked Lazybones. It’s the perfect venue for a post work pit stop or a fun meal out with friends. Just save room for dessert.

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Asia de Cuba Dim Sum Brunch

13 Apr

I’m no stranger to brunch. I might even go as far as to say that it is my favourite meal of the day. And it’s even better if someone else makes it for you.

My favoutites are eggs baked in chorizo, banana bread and pancakes with blueberry compote to name a few. I have a sweet tooth so anything sweet and cakey usually does the trick. A few of my university friends used to go to Chinatown for a Dim Sum brunch on a Sunday but I never joined them and until last weekend I never thought it was a good option.

I popped to Asia de Cuba at St Martin’s Lane hotel on Sunday at midday to enjoy a range of dim sum dishes and cocktails while listening to a live Cuban band.

We opted for a sashimi selection to start, which consisted of grouper with seville orange and aji amarillo, prawn, snapper and ‘confit’ watermelon, Scottish salmon and salted avocado helado and curried kingfish and passion fruit. We enjoyed all four dishes but were unsure whether they needed to be served with such a large bowl of prawn crackers and dried plantain.

We took suggestions for a couple of the dim sum dishes and ordered seabass, corn & thai basil dumplings, miso black cod & snow pea spring rolls, chicken, spring onion & ginger wontons and bok choi, bamboo shoot and chilli potstickers. Each dish contains three small parcels so it’s a great opportunity to share as many dishes as possible! There were only two of us so we couldn’t fit in much more than four but out of the ones we did try the bok choi was my far our favourite dish.

I had been to Asia de Cuba before and I recognised one of the desserts on the menu – Mexican doughnuts – brioche doughnuts rolled in cinnamon sugar and filled with butterscotch sauce. I can’t even begin to tell you how delicious this dish is and I think it might just win my prize for best dessert in London.

The brunch wouldn’t have been complete without Cuban inspired cocktails and we finished off with a wonderful caipirinha. I would recommend Asia de Cuba for brunch on a Sunday. The band is fun, the food and drink is delicious and the setting oh so glamorous.

Asia de Cuba
St Martins Lane hotel
45 St. Martin’s Lane
London
WC2N 4HX
0207 300 5500

Asia de Cuba on Urbanspoon

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