Review of the Dulwich Tandoori - June 2010

Where: Dulwich Tandoori, East Dulwich
With whom: The Vole
How much?: £25 for a shared main, four sides / starters and a couple of beers (the obligatory After Eight was complimentary)

East Dulwich's answer to New York's Restaurant Row has a huge amount to offer the marketing consultants, media workers and bankers who throng its pavements daily and nightly. There are some good, if pricey, restaurants and gastropubs (yes the Palmerston, I'm looking at you), an excellent chippy in the Sea Cow and Green and Blue - one of the best neighbourhood winestores I've ever found. As well as those treats, it's home to a number of twee boutiques, a couple of delis and a very good local butcher. All in, an asset to the area. 

For some reason, it's also got a fair number of competing curry houses. After so-so experiences at several of these, I'd all but given up on them, putting the quality down to a lack of authenticity and a surfeit of generically spiced, pre-prepared, fast food served for a predominantly Anglo-Saxon palate. I used to live just off Tooting's curry mile, and so the loss has hit me hard.

I was therefore somewhat dubious as we entered the Dulwich Tandoori, one of the only we haven't tried yet. As it goes, I was pleasantly surprised. It's a real throwback to the 80's mind you, I felt like my father. Dusky red 'ethnic' wallpaper (verging on flock), a Bollywood-lite covers soundtrack of contemporary pop hits, paisley carpets and a small white jug of carnations on every table took us both back. The irritatingly sexist man arguing with his partner on the next table added to that Ashes to Ashes authenticity, though was perhaps less welcome.
  
We had a couple of poppadoms and skipped straight to a combined main course. the menu offers a few surprises. While they have every dish you'd expect from a local curry house, there are a few Bengali specialities that warrant a further look; Shatkora Chicken, named after the sour aromatic citrus fruit of the same name and a fish dish called Rup-Chanda made with the pomfret, a fish I'd certainly never heard of. They also, rarely, had several duck dishes on the menu. 
The chicken Dhansak, a traditionally Gujarati dish, was excellent. Succulent and perfectly cooked chicken served in a spice hot lentil mixture, flavoured with cumin, garlic and chilli. A fresh (if not especially authentic) mushroom pilau and a pleasingly flavoured Aloo Gobi complemented the generously portioned dish, easily enough for the two of us. It was all light, relatively oil free (with the possible exception of the Aloo Gobi) and obviously fresh. Microwave hot towels came on completion, and the modest bill was presented with a brace of After Eights. I'm sure, if we'd had room to contemplate looking, there would have been various frozen ices, served in fruit shells to finish.


I'll be back, the friendly service and interesting menu options will prove too tempting to avoid. It's no Benares certainly, but it's nice to find a good local curry house finally. Seeing what they are capable of with shackled with a menu stuffed with obvious staples I'm also tempted to ask the kitchen to prepare me one of the dishes that they'd prefer to be eating.

Eating the World Cup - England v Germany 27 June

Where (in South Africa): England v Germany, Bloemfontein, Sun June 27. This article is part of my Eating the World Cup series, to start at the beginning, have a look here

Where (in London): Only one option really,we went to Zeitgeist in Vauxhall. 

With who: Teacher Boy and a horde of football fans (some of who I actually knew) though I've been there before with a more sedate crowd
How much: Mains from £7 to £9 each

We've got an awful lot in common with the Germans. An obsession with beer, a football team less than the sum of its parts, cliched tabloid antipathy towards the French and a near religious relationship with pork. 

It's fitting therefore that they have elevated the humble sausage to the status of national dish. It doesn't have much competition to be fair, and served properly it can be a thing of beauty. In towns and cities across Germany you're never far from an Imbiss kiosk, a semi permanent food stall selling hungry folk a range sandwiches, chips, drinks (including beer, always a shocker to the Brit) and the omnipresent wurst. Grilled or boiled (Frankfurters mainly), damn tasty either way, they'll have a couple of alternatives with the drinkers favourite, the Bockwurst (cut with chives and parsley), found on most grills. You'll also spy the pale casing of the solid pork tubes of bratwurst and the juicy creaminess of the weisswurst (particularly in Munich) on many menus. My particular favourite however was always the currywurst - a concoction so iconic that the Berliners have opened a museum to it.

Kurz and Lang is a fair to middling takeaway counter in Farringdon. Styling somewhere between the traditional German sausage booth and a British butchers, it serves sausage in several styles and to go with them, the salty, golden potato cubes known as Bratkartoffeln. It's difficult to get such a simple joy wrong, and they thankfully don't. A recent visit served up a perfect currywurst, steamed, sliced and served under a thick blanket of 'curry' sauce, in reality a heavy mix of tomato ketchup and curry powder.

I've been to Zeitgeist before with the Vole. It seems slightly incongruous, a chocolate dark inside hidden away down Black Prince Road in Vauxhall within a barely rebranded frontage bearing the Jolly Gardener brand. We walked past it twice before realising where it was. Described as London's first German gastropub (a fairly safe claim) they offer 40 odd different beers. Some excellent choices, if a little pricy. DAB, a light and crisp easy drinker from Dortmund is a semi regular treat when bought from Oddbins, here it's over £4 a pint. They offer a range of wurst (including the ubiquitous currywurst) alongside a selection of schnitzels, a more Austrian treat, but one known across both countries. On previous visits I've sampled these, and can particularly recommend the Schnitzel Kolsche Art, the traditional pan fried pork escalope coated in breadcrumbs, served in this instance with a black pudding and apple sauce mix. It isn't gourmet, but does as its makers intended and serves up a hearty filler to put a cap on the foamy lager you've just sculled.

Review of Blah, Blah, Blah - June 2010

Where: Blah, Blah, Blah Vegetarian Restaurant, Shepherd's Bush, London
With who: Lady Vole
How much: £20 each (including a very good apple and elderflower drink, they're BYOB so grab some before you get there) for a shared starter, two big main courses and a pud.



Prior to seeing the excellent Local Natives at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, we ended up walking away from the gentrification and the monolithic Westfield centre with its chain restaurants - destination, the wrong bit of Goldhawk Road and the appallingly named Blah, Blah, Blah. 
It's a stayer to be sure, having been there for 19 years. Outwardly down at heel with some very dated touches, I did like the 'make do and mend' theatre lanterns on the ceiling and we were very happy to take advantage of the crayons they supply to draw on the paper table cloths (can't see chef Ramsey letting you get away with that somehow). Despite this, it didn't seem the cheeriest of places to be honest, dark and a little muted, though this was possibly due to the early week visit.
If the atmosphere was muted, the food was anything but. We started with a shared plate of potato fritters, the spicy battered slices served hot, straight from the fryer. A nice green salad accompanied the portion, too big for one, and the slices were perfectly offset with a zingy piquant sauce (not dissimilar to A1 Steak Sauce to my untrained tastebuds). My main was a reasonable aubergine 'schnitzel', stuffed with a cheese and tomato mix, panko crumbed and oven baked. It was fair enough, but it did make me long for a slice of veal. Unlike the excellent Mildreds in Soho, I felt the lack of meat here. A mustard sauce was well done, though a little incongruous (and I couldn't taste the alleged jalapeno in it) and the overcooked potato cake it came with was a pointless afterthought.


Vole went for the quesadilla, served with perfectly cooked coconut spiced beans and a wonderfully punchy tomato and basil sauce.
For me, the defining moment came with the desert. I'd be tempted back here for this alone. A tower of creamy mango cheesecake came teetering on a light biscuit base topped with a contrastingly tart passionfruit sauce. The combination was a resounding success, as was the American portion. Vole pleaded satiety but still managed to 'help' me with this, "If I wasn't in a restaurant I'd be licking this plate right now..." Praise indeed.
They make a good argument here at Blah Blah Blah. It's a terrible name, but pleasing solid food. To me though, for food of this style, a robust, spiced vegetarian take on classic world dishes, I'll stick to Mildreds, or head to Vanilla Black, for its meat free take on fine dining.

Review of Khamsa - June 2010

Where (in South Africa): England v Algeria, Green Point, Fri June 15
Where (in London): As proudly pointed out by our host tonight, there is only one authentically Algerian restaurant in London, Khamsa. The more established Numidie in Crystal Palace is actually French-Algerian.
With who: Nico Polo
How much: £25 each (including BYO wine) for two massive courses, mint tea and pastries to finish


I realised tonight why I started this project. Sitting down with Nico Polo in the small friendly dining room of Brixton restaurant Khamsa I reflected that this was somewhere I'd never have even thought about coming to if it hadn't been for my desire to 'eat' all of England's World Cup opponents. Acre Lane will never be the prettiest street in London, an ill-tempered traffic snarl cutting between the uglier bits of Brixton and Clapham. Every other shop is a bottle shop or a cheap fast food store and the few spots of slowly emerging gentrification poke like grass out of concrete.
Khamsa was set up in October 09 by the owner and his wife. Listening to them talk passionately about the importance of freshly prepared, locally sourced food you wish them every success. It's evident their neighbours do, five or six passersby greet, and are greeted, warmly.
Cooked to order, with the minimum of prep, the food is simple, authentic and delicious. While much more subtly spiced than Turkish or Middle Eastern equivalents, the flavours and dishes of Algeria are familiar. We start with a selection of cold dishes to share. A familiar sounding Baba Ghanouch is creamy and light, like a delicately flavoured hummus rather than the more familiar smoky mix. A personal favourite is the Loubia Be Dressa, a spicy mix of black eyed beans and slow cooked onions in a piquant tomato sauce.
Our smiling and modest host advises that we only go for two if we're really, really hungry. We are, so we do. Nico went for a Tajine Djadj, a creamy chicken, spinach and sultana pot served with a sprinkle of freshly toasted almonds. I go for Couscous Modern, topped with perfectly cooked skewers of succulent lamb and chicken, a too subtle merguez sausage (the only duff note for me) and a wonderful lamb stock based sauce, so thick it's almost a stew, so much it's a separate dish. The courgette, peas and green beans soaking up the juices are all sourced from nearby Brixton market and cooked fresh each day.
The owner trained as a pastry chef and it shows. His pastries are served with a digestif mint tea are sweetened with (local) honey only. A standout is the brittle baklava flavoured with cinnamon and orange water notes.

Eating the World Cup - England v USA June 12

Where (in South Africa): USA v England, Rustenburg, Sat June 12, score 1-1 (poor sad Robert Green..)
Where (in London): For preference, Hawksmoor or Goodman, though I do look forward to trying the Soul Food Kitchen soon and you can't argue with a Bodean's BBQ fix.


Now if you follow the hypothesis of Matthew's rather lovely blog - It Ends With Dovi - and I advise that you do, it seems it must possible to eat the food of any nation in London. While Americans might not be as well served as the Italian, Indian or Chinese ex pats, I had assumed there must be some places they could get the taste of home. Expectation overpowers actuality. While there are lots of foodstuffs one associates with the States (the two best known examples are burgers and the simply served steak, while others may throw out chowders, tex mex and soul food), American cuisine is by definition a fusion of imigrants doing their best with the flavours of a recently settled nation. There are actually very few authentically 'American' restaurants to chose from.
There are however, vast numbers of steakhouses and burger joints that populate our fair city and some of these are worth some explanation here (with links to the restaurants and reviews where they exist).


The humble burger
There are some great examples available in London, including the best burger I've eaten outside the US (and possibly only second to In 'n' Out), the Classic Cheeseburger at Lucky Seven in Westborne Park Road. Other fine exponents include the off-menu brioche bun at Joe Allen (off menu, so the story goes, to avoid embarrassing the actors who can't afford to eat as much as their friends) and the near legenday Meatwagon (head over to Ibzo's messianic post here. He's a man who appreciates meat as much as me and sums it up very well. The last time the wagon rolled up at the Florence in Herne Hill, there were hour long queues. I blame it on Twitter...). The other two of real note are Hawksmoor and Goodman, more of which below.
On steak
Likewise, we're well served with steak, that other staple of American dining. Hawksmoor (my review here) is top of the list for me still, but recent experiences at Goodman (my review here) and Maze Grill prove there's stiff competition in this sector. All three do excellent burgers as well, though that's not really what you're there for... I'd avoid the Black and Blue chain (my review here) unless you're absolutely desperate, the other three are infinitely better and it almost goes without saying that you should never, ever walk into an Angus Steakhouse, unless you have to dine with someone you really dislike. 

The Diners
Where the diners exist, they're often just chain burger joints, and a real mixed bag, rather than the working class temple to short order chefs seen and expected across the states (see my review of New York's Viande for photos). There are none that standout as being exceptional, though I do have happy memories of boozy milkshakes at The Diner in Ganton Street. Exceptions
There are a few exceptions. The 'family-friendly' New Orleans 'themed' Big Easy in Chelsea is populated by teenage Sloanes and banker's with their young families neatly combining a large number of my dining prejudices, (or predjudi?). I have similar distain for the faux Tex Mex of the Texas Embassy on Trafalgar Square after an awful press night there. We have the tasty Bodeans BBQ restaurant chain, perfect for a Friday lunchtime 'Soho Special' (hot pulled pork and burnt beef brisket ends in a slightly too sweet BBQ sauce served in a sloppy bun). The other interesting option is Brondesbury's Soul Food Kitchen, Transport for London have transpired twice to keep me from it, but I will be trying the fried chicken, cornbread and mac and cheese (a vastly underrated carb-filled goldmine) soon.

Review of Hawksmoor brunch - June 2010

The Hawksmoor Brunch burger - A studied take on my biggest guilty pleasure.
Where: Hawksmoor, SpitalfieldsWith whom: Me, myself and I (thanks to Leisure Suit Larry)How much?: £20 all in with coffee and orange juice (and they had to roll me out)

One of the joys of mobile phones (even without the extraneous addition of the now obligatory apps) is the ability to make and rearrange plans at late notice. Unfortunately that also means you can stand people up at late notice, which is how I found myself tucking into my Sausage & Egg HK Muffin as a solo diner. Thankfully I had the paper and a chipper Kiwi knowledgable enough about the football not to make me feel too alone.

As many of you will know (and some may dare to outwardly agree with) there's nothing like a lipsmackingly greasy, salty and robustly overcooked sausage and egg mcmuffin from standardised fast-filth vendors MacDonalds when you need to recover from a hangover. There's something about that combination the morning after the night before that sends grown men (and yes, this is mainly a male thing) into eulogies, willing to trek miles to a shop (I refuse to call it a restaurant) that they'd never normally go near. Thankfully the guys behind legendary Liverpool St steakhouse Hawksmoor have gone and created an up-market version.
I've been to Hawksmoor inumerable times but have only ever had eyes for their steak. While these are available at brunch, it was the sausage muffin I had my eye on. I'd got there early to grab a table, but the Saturday brunch crowd were conspicuous by their absence. A few early lunchers wander in as I read the paper in the dark wood surrounds, enjoying the early summer sun streaming through the slatted blinds. Clean, friendly, knowledgable and efficient. 5 years of service haven't dented the standards here, I hope it continues when the focus shifts towards their new site opening in Covent Garden soon.

The muffin arrives looking promising. While the too runny white lets down the sun yellow yolk of the freerange eggs topping it overall it's a more than worthy classier homage to its high street inspiration. The pork, beef and mutton sausage is a strong, dense patty and full of good fatty flavour. The Ogleshield cheese is a worthy addition, softly yielding, not over-flavoured, soaking into the freshly baked muffin.
Alongside it I'm foolish enough to have the short rib bubble and squeak. Foolish because this is a meal in itself. £4 gets you a very generous portion of roughly mashed potato, buttery greens with a fresh bite swirled in with large, moorish shards of tooth sticking short back rib. Served in an iron skillet, the dish is topped with a thick meaty gravy. As I say, a step to far, but reader, I ate it all...
A significant improvement on Automat's brunch burger and at £8, half the price. It's a guilty pleasue like its namesake but one I'll certainly be back for.

Review of Vapiano - June 2010

Where: Vapiano, Oxford Circus
With whom: Various colleagues
How much?: A range of fresh pizza, pasta and salads, generally £8-£10 with drinks
Vapiano is an institution in the US, the Middle East and mainland Europe, and it appears we're a little slow to get the franchise. The first London outpost appears slightly belatedly in the scheme of things, there are already 35 in Germany and assorted other global outposts from Sweden to the UAE. 
It's a simple enough concept. You order a range of Italian food from different counters along the walls. The counters surround a central section of tables. You get given a buzzer that goes off when your food is ready for you to collect. So far so blah... 

The styling is clean and refreshing. It feels a little like an upmarket shopping centre food court, but in a good way. The staff are friendly, polite and unobtrusive (not surprising considering you do everything yourself). Sadly though the food is little better than alright. It's fresh certainly, something they highlight with the pots of basil sitting on every table and they don't start cooking or preparing until you arrive at the counter so everything is cooked to order. On the last visit I went for the Diavolo pizza, a spicy, less than authentic combination of Italian sausage, peppers and red onions. It was fine, though nothing special. The dough was fairly tasteless and the topping needed the additional zing of a spoon of chilli flakes. Another irritating niggle, I got it fast, but it hadn't been left in the oven for long enough (or more likely the oven was cooler than their timings were set for) and the dough was still a little too soft in the centre. 
It's a passible option (and better than most chain restaurants in central London) but we're not exactly short of upmarket pizza / pasta chains in this country,so I do struggle to see the differentiation between Vapiano and the more established Pizza Express, Ask or Strada chains. It doesn't strive for an authentic menu and other than being close to the office and big enough to guarantee a table I don't think that the 'innovation' of letting me collect my own pizza will be forcing me back for a repeat visit.

Review of Vanilla Black - June 2010

Where: Vanilla Black, Holborn
With whom: The Vole
How much?: £30 for three courses or £24 for two courses 

Hidden away on a tiny cobbled street behind Holborn's bustle, Vanilla Black is a cultish vegetarian oasis more in the mould of laid back Michelin starred food emporia Arbutus than the often holier than thou High Veg of somewhere like Saf. There are no opinions shoved at you, and no ethos that you have to subscribe to, they just want to serve you good ingredients, cooked well, in a calm friendly atmosphere. That those ingredients happen to all be vegetables, seems a coincidence.

This approach is unlike San Francisco's Ubuntu or New York's Dirt Candy, two other great, high end, vegetarian experiences this committed carnivore places in his top dining experiences of recent years. Both of them celebrate individual, specific veg in their dishes, with Ubuntu (where all of the food is grown within 20k of the kitchen) offering Cauliflower cooked four ways and a wonderful Carrot Gnocci and Dirt Candy (an all together grittier, East Village experience) presenting Corn, Mushroom and Pumpkin as the stars of their own dishes. I digress.

One chatty server took pity on me while waiting for the Vole (once again...) The friendly staff are a contrast to their severe black uniforms but fit nicely in with the clean grey-green and white walls. When she finally arrived, we settled down in the quieter front section of the restaurant - the fact that someone called Dharma was enjoying their birthday revels in the rear section was the only hint of hippie that we saw all night - the rest of the clientele were smart, though not overly dressy and given it's location, there were more than a few suits floating through the celebratory groups.

An amuse of 'fresh tomato with celery salt' was as nice a shot of Virgin Mary as I've had and a good palate cleanser. If I admit to not being overly impressed with a starter of Sweet & Sour Glazed Beetroot with Wasabi Cream it was only due to a severe food envy. This was suffered from my (single, solitary!) taste of The Vole's Puy Lentil Dhal braised in red wine and served with a potato puree, curry oil and a crunchy moorish spice mix - one of the best variants on a, quite frankly often plain, dish I've tasted.

A perfectly subtle and lovely Ozzie gewurztraminer (from a little boutique producer in Clare Valley called Skillogalee if you're interested...) perfectly chimed with our mains. It was now The Vole's turn to suffer food envy. Her Asparagus and Chervil Pesto Crumpet with a leek tagliatelle was perfectly executed but my Ribblesdale cheese pudding was one of the tastiest dishes I've eaten this year. It arrived with a side of tart pineapple puree that seemed initially incongruous, but set off the creamy soft set cheese pudding perfectly. A dish of two halves, it came paired with a poached ducks egg sitting resplendent on a stout and expertly prepared smoked potato cake. The two worked together well. Too well for me to let the Vole have more than a morsel.

If the deconstructed carrot cake I had to finish had a flaw, it was only in it's size. The elements all came together as expected, though the carrot 'halwa' was more of a puree. 

We were pretty much the last to leave at 10 and while the restaurant had been full during it's 8pm sitting, I definitely thought they could, and should, have been busier. Every now and then remember that it's not all about the steak or the burger and give Vanilla Black a go. You won't miss the meat (for a night anyway).