Spending time in Cali.... Los Angeles Edition

OK. I am officially rubbish. Goodness knows how many dishes I’ve cooked and thought well, wouldn’t that be perfect for the blog. And how many times I’ve been out and thought oh I’ll just take a photo for the blog. But somehow. The blog has managed to stay in stasis for a few weeks.

But my recent trip to America was just too good to miss out on sharing with you fine folks.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve maybe been a bit snooty about people who go to America on holiday all the time – I mean where is the challenge in going to a country where they speak the same language? Pooh pooh to that. Well I take it back.

So let’s get down to business. The food. Well the first thing is that there was absolutely tonnes of it. If I talked through every dish I had while I was out there, we would be here for bleedin’ ever. So this is going to be a shortish run-through of the things that found a special place in my heart...

Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles

Ever heard the Notorious B.I.G song ‘Goin’ Back to Cali’. Well, I’ll tell ya, it’s a treat. I believe the lyrics go a something like this:

Frequently floss hoes at Roscoe's
If I wanna squirt her, take her to Fatburger
Spend about a week on Venice Beach
Sippin Crist-o, with some freaks from Frisco

Well ladies and gentlemen, this is Roscoe’s... And while I’m not down with the flossing of hoes (dont even want to think about what that means) I can say hand on heart that Biggie made a damned good call on this place.


The name of the restaurant says it all, chicken and waffles are the main attraction here. That is a plate of southern fried chicken, huge fluffy waffles drowned in a vat of maple syrup. Sceptical? I was but can see the appeal of this gorgeous little heart-attack on a plate. If you’re going at the weekend be prepared to queue.

I’m saving Fatburger for next time. Speaking of burgers...

Bob’s Original Double Deck Hamburger
Bob was a big boy. He ate lots of his own burgers, probably washed down with quite a few of his milkshakes too. Bob's is one of the original diners

They are very nice. For me though, half the excitement was checking out the vintage cars gathered in the parking lot for their weekly meet. Swing by on a Friday evening and hang out with the drivers who are a massive fount of (slightly obsessive) information about their Beach Boy-styled cars! Then chow down on a big juicy burger.

Melisse
After lounging around in my sandals and summer dresses, Melisse cropped up a refreshing breath of formality. Chef Josiah Citrin serves up a gorgeous amalgamation of haute-French cuisine at this Los Angeles institution. We were almost more impressed by the service than by the food and the food was excellent. Watching the waiters however, was like watching a well-rehearsed and much practiced ballet. Dishes were served with a flourish and worked their way through a catalogue of the most delectable ingredients....a trio of foie gras, artichoke soup, wagyu beef.

Asia de Cuba
Asian and Cuban food? Asia de Cuba pulls off what could be a disaster of flavours with excellent style. It’s no wonder that this is one of the Sunset Boulevard hotspots... That and the rather cute waiter....



Santa Barbara Wineries – Kalyra & Fess Parker
I couldn’t go to California without heading out to some wineries. So when Rachel had the brilliant idea of visiting some of the wineries from Sideways in Santa Barbara County, I was enthusiastic to say in the least. We started off with Kalyra, a small winery in Santa Ynez headed up my Aussie-born winemaker Mike Brown.

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert but the Sangiovese caught my tastebuds’ attention ...

We moved on to the larger, more industrial Fess Parker winery a fifteen minute drive away where the pours were on the generous side. Hence the notice...

I find it hard to get excited about wine in the same way that I do about food but the woman behind the bar was incredible and her passion was infectious. So Rachel and I got a bit tiddly and passed out in the car back to LA. The end. I did pick up a Riesling that I’ll be cracking out at the Christmas Supper Club in a few days. I loved it at the time, but the subsequent hangover obliterated the reasons why... will keep you updated.

Viajante - A Traveller's Tale

Not so long ago, East London was the endz, a veritable ghetto haven of Del Boys and wheeler dealers. If it starred in a rap video, it would have been a tough-as-nails-tattooed-to-the-hilt badass who flashed his gold teeth and flat cap with pride. Though noone would go so far as to say that the whole area has been gentrified, the fact remains that it has changed a lot.

Cue The Town Hall Hotel. Designer interiors and an impressive facade, along with a restaurant from one of London's most exciting young chefs Nuno Mendes (who was dutifully working in the kitchen on the Saturday we visited).


The chef himself

Viajante is the Portuguese word for traveller, a hint of the food you'll find on the table. Though I loathe the word fusion, I fail to grasp another that summarises what Mendes is doing here so well.

Our three course (along with 3 amuse bouches) menu took us on a culinary journey around the world, one that left us pleasantly full and feeling as if we had discovered something special. Particularly in stark contrast to Bar Boulud the day before.

Of the three amuse bouches, the Thai Explosion was my favourite – delicately Thai-spiced chicken sandwiched between two wafers and eaten in one go. A mouth-watering explosion of flavour that wouldn’t have gone amiss as a starter in itself if it was slightly larger.

The starter was a glutting of beetroot, small pieces of the vegetable cooked in different ways. Roasted, ribbons and jelly (filed away for future thought), with green apple, goats’ cheese, shredded crab and nuts. The dish was impressive, and an eye-opener for someone whose thoughts on beetroot range from finding it rather boring to a mild dislike.



I’m a sucker for a visual show, so it’s not without fond memories that I recall the lemon sole with asparagus, confit of egg yolk and tapioca. The yolk is presented on the plate, over which the tapioca is poured. Unlike many of these visual tricks, the final product was a taste of sheer brilliance and disappeared in a matter of minutes.




The lemon and Thai basil sorbet tasted like a jazzed up version of the lemon and mint thirst quenching drinks that are so popular in the Middle East. Whether you like it or not largely boils down to whether you like Thai Basil or not – I did and quite liked it, mumsy didn’t and it remained the only dish largely uneaten throughout the meal.

Dessert came in the form of an intensely chocolatey amalgamation, it’s a shame that the ‘ice’ quickly started melting into water and detracted from the rest of the flavours on the plate. Ambiguous as I am about chocolate, especially chocolate desserts, this was quite a winner.



In summary, despite some small misgivings along the way, Viajante stepped into the books as one of my favourite new-ish restaurants in the city so far. Bold, striking and innovative, it’s no wonder that Nuno Mendes is proving to be one of the darlings of the current social scene – I look forward to seeing bigger and even better things from him in the future.


Waiting rating: Stellar, especially as without it you wouldn’t know what you are eating!
Scoffing potential: Really rather good.
Wallet buddy: Lunch can be had three courses for 25 pounds – thumbs up. Expensive wine list. Thumbs down.
The crowd: A heart-warming dissection of London’s social milieu

Vıajante, Patriot Square,
London
E2 9NF
020 7871 0461

Bar Boulud: Lowering the Expectations of the Average Londoner

Once in a while you come across a new restaurant that is worth all the hype, that truly warrants the media fuss, press coverages and swarms of people desperate to try out the new place to be.

Most of the time, unfortunately, you don’t. Bar Boulud in the Mandarin Oriental, Hyde Park is one such destination.

Saying the restaurant is an exercise in disappointment is a bit excessive. A bit. I suppose it depends on how high your expectations are in the first place. If you are looking for a perfectly pleasant dinner, be reassured, you’ll get what you expect. No more, no less.

If you think all Michelin-starred chefs serve up turds of overrated and overpriced junk and approach with this mindset then guess what. You are in for a TREAT! The food at Bar Boulud really tastes far superior to a turd.

Raise your expectations higher than either of these two options and you’re setting yourself up for a disappointment. So I suppose that it was really my own fault that I found this restaurant to be so overwhelmingly lacklustre. Expectations were just too high and I take full responsibility.

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh. Some of the food was decidedly on the side of brilliance – the Boudin Blanc sausages came with a truffle sauce that didn’t really taste of truffles but was unarguably the highlight of the night. A plump little saucisson lying sexily on a mashed potato base and drizzled with the sauce.



The cheese board too was pretty stellar – the Stinking Bishop comes highly recommended. But I hope I am not the only one that sees the discrepancy between three (three!) Michelin stars in New York and a dinner where the sausage and the cheese are the stars of the show. Thought not.

A brief run through: charcuterie – ok, scallops – large but lacking in flavour, chicken – same story. Meh.

Service was friendly but unreliable – the sommelier only popped up halfway through the meal, even though we’d asked for wines to be matched to each course. For the first course, we were left to our own devices wine wise, not a tragedy but not quite up to standard. Otherwise, glasses were dropped, wine was spilt... teething stages I’m sure.

One of my biggest gripes was the sheer number of people they had packed into the space. It’s a large restaurant by anyone’s standard, so is it really necessary to pack the tables so closely together that punters feel like wiggling and jiggling like a sardine as the surroundings are so conducive to doing so?

It was a Friday night and it was heaving. I could literally hear the woman next to me inhale as she finished chewing and was far too close to another table’s plastic-surgery face fest than is ever comfortable whilst eating. Diners were squished together closer than the rails of Next on the first day of the sale.

In short, go to Bar Boulud if you want to eavesdrop on society’s ‘finest’, complete with a step by step runthrough of what they’ve just purchased in Harrods but don’t go forthe food. You’re setting yourself up for a fall and will be far better saving the pennies for Blumenthal’s restaurant in the same hotel later this year.

Waiting rating: Ditzy would be a compliment
Scoffing potential: Not as good as you'd want it to be with all the fanfare
Wallet buddy: Not particularly friendly, especially in light of the actual food
The crowd: London's wannabe hip crowd and those with more money than tastebuds

66 Knightsbridge
London SW1X 7LA
020 7 201 3899

Taste of damned good decadence

Cakes from Bea's of Bloomsbury

Another year, another Taste of festival, but unlike last year when I was at Taste of Dubai this year I was back in the hometown and loving Taste of London. What was not to love? It was 6pm on a summer's day, the sun was shining and many of the city's most famous chefs conglomerated for what can justifiably be called the London foodie festival event of the year...

Taking a turn around the event with food-lover and very-well-connected-man Adrian Bevan was always going to be pretty exciting. Within five minutes of arriving, we were chatting to Roast (and we all know how much I love Roast) head chef Lawrence Keogh and British Airways's Global Food Design Executive (read head honcho) Mark Tazzioli about the challenges of creating restaurant-styled and standard cuisine at 35,000 feet.



I have to admit that I think a lot of plane food is fairly grim, even after the so-called revolution started by Emirates in the last decade. On the KLM flight back from Tanzania I didn't even bother eating the plonk that they put in front of me... But talking to those two definitely gave me a pause for thought. Of course the airline is thinking about quality but there are so many other factors - this is food that has to fit into a tray, be tilted at take-off and be able to be produced on a mass scale that's unthinkable to most restauranteurs, which also causes a problem with sourcing produce from suppliers.

If you do get a chance to try the joint efforts of these two on the London City-Shannon- New York City Route, let me know what it's like. I'm itching to combine it with a cheeky four nighter trip to New York but might have to put it on hold for a while.

I digress, Keogh was refreshingly honest about the challenges he had setting up the much-loved Roast, overcoming the problems of a fully seasonal menu and a large number of interesting facts about Borough Market (did you know that Borough Market bought the Floral Hall that Roast now lives in from Covent Garden in the 1990s for the bargain price of £1).

Having had enough of talking about food, it was high time we went out and tried some. First on the list was The Cinnamon Club where we bumped into founder and executive chef Vivek Singh. The Spiced Sea Bream went down a real treat, it's always hard to maintain the fresh and delicate flavours of the fish while ensuring that the spices come into their own - it's not hard to understand why Singh has been and continues to be one of the leading protagonists of London's Indian dining scene.



Now that Singh has his hands full with the newish Cinnamon Kitchen too, we were particularly surprised to find that he still spends quite a lot of time cooking the food in his kitchens and overseeing every aspect of the food to the finest detail. We like.

Light and spicy was all very good but our next dish was the antithesis of both these words: Tom Aiken's Foie Gras parfait with onion marmalade. I didn't get a picture, I was too busy stuffing my face with what I can only describe as lashings of foie gras. As portions go, it was huge and I'm ashamed to say that I didn't get to finish it.

The next hour passed in a whirlwind haze of tasting far more than my stomach could comfortably handle... highlights were

Bife de chorizo steak with chimichurri at Gaucho



Tuna and soba noodle salad at Hake no Sana

F**k off huge oysters at Bentley's. freshly shucked and down the gullet.



And meeting The London Foodie, Luiz, who remains a source of inspiration, information and about a million reasons why I spend the majority of my waking life eating, thinking or talking about food.

Of course, half the fun of Taste is wandering around and finding out about millions of small suppliers for all your fave things. I now have a list about a mile long of where I need to buy produce from (goodbye holiday money, hello crazy online food shopping addiction) and will be working through a few of these in future posts. Keep your eyes peeled.


The Barbados food stand


The bread shop


The bread shop

Aussie Rules

It has been a long time (when hasn’t it) since the last blog. Bad blogger blah blah,won’t happen next time (probably will), let’s get over the excuses and get down to business. Business being Australia.

Now I must admit I was a little bit perplexed when it came to the Australia blog post. I know that Aussie food is delicious and healthy and has a whole range of influences from all over Asia, but on the whole, you know (don’t shoot me), I was beginning to think “It’s nothing we’ve not seen in England....” In fact. I was thinking of not doing an Aussie blog post so I could hide my mixed feelings from you all and pretend that I didn’t go at all and therefore didn’t need to write a blog post on it.

When I arrived, I saw how wrong and snooty I’d been. Anyone who’s watched an episode of Masterchef Down Under or whatever they’ve called it (curiously addictive) will see that Australia has a lot to teach the world about food . But I was still a little baffled about what to do for the blog. Until Tijana, saviour that she is, came up with the world’s most fantastic idea. I should go and test my skills in a commercial kitchen, namely the one at Lurleen’s – one of Brisbane’s top restaurants. She knew a friend of a friend who could get me a work experience day there...

Of course, I said yes without a moment’s thought, me! Working in a kitchen! With real chefs, in fact someone who has been named one of Australia’s top chefs (Andrew Mirosch). Get out of here. I hero-worship chefs in a way that most teenagers look up to high-pitched squeaky-clean pop stars, that is to say unashamedly and wholeheartedly.

But, as the day drew closer, I began to get a bit nervous. It was all very well and good saying I wanted to work in the country’s top kitchens, but why on earth would they want me? My talents in the kitchen so far haven’t extended to catering for over 200 at breakfast, and 400 for lunch and dinner. And I was going in on a Sunday! One of their busiest days! Truth be told, I was rather cacking it. They have ridiculously sharp knives, what if in my state of nerves I chopped a finger off? Or screwed up an important dish.

Finally, it was time to put my worries aside and do the deed. Although the restaurant is in Brisbane, it’s a good half an hour outside of the city, based on the Sirromet Winery estate. Brisbane’s not quite Australia’s Hunter Valley, but if you are looking to try something different, Sirromet is turning out some pretty impressive and tasty tipples – and the grounds are filled with wallabies hopping around and a few koalas thrown in for extra measure – perfect for a Sunday afternoon’s meandering after a wine tasting session and lunch in the restaurant.

By the time I stepped into the kitchen, I was pretty calm. Dressed up in my chef whites (if I’m honest, not the best look I’ve ever sported. I bore a disheartening resemblance to a kitchen roll), I’d barely got through the introductions before I was put through my paces. I’d worried about Mirosch being some kind of shouty tyrant who would chew me up and spit me out in pieces but he was friendly, albeit a bit distracted by the ever increasing numbers of patrons sitting at the tables (who goes for Sunday breakfast at 9am out of the city? People’s dedication to the food cause never ceases to amaze me).

After establishing that this was my first time in a commercial kitchen, Mirosch put me under the capable hands of his sous chef who set me to work..... plucking herbs.Even my enthusiasm wilted when I was faced with what I can only describe as a mountain of parsley which would require my deft fingers and undivided attention for the near future. Soon enough though, I was caught in the rhythm of the work and chatting to the other chefs about working at Lurleen’s – surprised at how all of them seem to remain calm under the constant pressure and orders flying around the kitchen.


Hanging around the dessert section...

For the next few hours, I watched as they served up breakfast after breakfast, chopping, chatting, arranging and occasionally swearing if it went a little awry, without even batting an eyelid. It was impressive. More impressive was the huge pile presented to me at the end of the rush “here’s some breakfast for you” Mirosch smiled. I’ve always been a lover of the full English fry up but delicious as it was, this one defeated me. It might have been the best English breakfast I’ve tasted though, which was very disconcerting as I’d always thought it was one of the (many) things we did rather well.

Soon after, I’d finished picking the mountain of parsley and set to work on making a salsa verde under the eagle eye of the chef next to me. It was depressing how quickly the parsley I’d spent ages preparing was gobbled up by the food processor, but the final product was well worth it – tangy and with just the right amount of kick to it.

“So, how do you feel about doing something with fire?” Err, bloody amazing. Turns out it was frying the straw potatoes for lunch until they were just the right colour but I was proud when they were declared perfect, and sent out to the diners who had ordered them. Yay.

The rest of the day passed like that; odd jobs here and there – nothing too hard. I chopped stuff and didn’t chop my finger off, made guacamole (very naaaayce), washed veg, and took some pictures when I could.



By the time it was over I was knackered, the heat was incredible and I was sweaty, dishevelled and my feet ached, but it was definitely worth it. Especially when I got out just in time for a sparkling wine on the grass, a walk around the grounds and a bit of sunbaking in the afternoon sun...

The Fast and the Furious – Hong Kong

If The Fast and the Furious wasnt a terrible film in which a beefed up Vin Diesel (admittedly, he was the object of my affections when I was 15) revs his way into the bad boy books of America, it would have been the perfect moniker for Hong Kong. Sexy street stalls full of spicy, flavoursome dishes, Michelin-starred gastronomic heavyweights with breathtaking views, we were literally spoilt for choice when it came to picking treats to indulge in during our two day trip (I know, two days, it’s a crime).

Food was everywhere, in the shopping malls, lining the sides of the streets, wafting out aromatic fragrances that put your stomach onto red alert. So finally we succumbed – wandering down the Night Market on Temple street, our eyes alighted on this sign and we both knew this was where we belonged.



In an ideal world, we’d have walked over to this restaurant, sat down and eaten the most wonderful meal we’d ever tasted in our life. Our tongues would have sang the praises of this heavenly mead. We’d have raved about it to all our friends around the world, telling them they simply had to go to this little market restaurant we found in Hong Kong, but to hurry up before The Times ruins it with a review.
Unfortunately this was not the case. We ordered razor clams and vegetables in black bean sauce and chilli crab. I’ve no complaints about the razor clams – they were perfectly adequate, in a slightly salty but bland sauce.



But the chilli crab, even I couldnt muster that much enthusiasm for it, for the simple fact that there was hardly any there. I’m all for the cracking and scooping and picking that comes hand in hand with getting to crabmeat, but anyone’s going to be a little put out to go through the whole rigmarole to find it’s all been a case of all talk and no action. I mean nada.



Doesn’t it look appetizing? Mounds of garlic and chilli promising potently flavoured crab that will rip your mouth out and get it dancing the salsa? All lies. Which is a shame, because when Paul and I did get our spoonful each of crab, it tasted good.

If we’d have been there for longer, I’d have made it my mission to leave you with a street restaurant you could believe it, but we didn’t have time. So it was on to Spoon by Alain Ducaisse at the InterContinental. Nothing disappointing there. Coming from Dubai, a place in which there are more celebrity chefs and their wannabes milling around than in Michel Roux’s kitchens over the years, I’m somewhat unfazed by this celebrity chef thing but had yet to encounter Alain’s particular brand of cooking, which is well, impressive. A brilliantly-executed and adventurous menu expertly paired with matching wines, a stunning setting on the banks of Victoria Harbour – all big brownie points in my book.

It’s always a sign of a good restaurant when everyone on the table loves their own food but also has food envy of the person next to them. It was like a Jackie Collins book – I was eyeing up Paul’s starter, he was quietly coveting Carole’s main and when it came to desserts, we gave up the fight and dipped our spoons into each other’s dishes with glorious abandon. Something like that anyway.

The highlight for me was the wagyu beef cheek, which was a melt in your mouth affair to remember. An affair I do remember, with a slightly growling stomach and a wistful look in my eyes. No matter, I’m in Vietnam now and there’s some hot stuff that’s about to hit these pages. Watch this space. And when it comes to the rest of South East Asia, Oz and South America – as old Blue Eyes said, the best is yet to come...

Taste of Dubai

At the end of the last post I said that I was going to have something special for you. Never one to fail my readers, I’ve quested in the search for the most exciting, splendiferous entry possible and I found it at….. Taste of Dubai.

The finest restaurants from around the city gathered together for a foodie mélange in the Media City Ampitheatre. It was heaven – not least because one of my favourite (and arguably the cutest) chef was in town – James Martin.

Word on the street was that James was going to be doing cookery classes in the cookery school area on the Wednesday and Thursday nights. I won’t expose myself by telling you how excited I was about the prospect of one on one contact with Mr. Martin but suffice to say, 6pm had myself and Monica hurrying out of work and over to Taste of Dubai.

The first thing we did when we got there was sign our names on the list for the class – that in hand we set off to discover the treats in store in the rest of the festival.
We’d walked about three seconds when we were confronted by this beautiful vision:



You’d have to be blind not to have noticed the artily-designed, larger than life cupcake revolution that’s been taking the cities of the world one by one. First I heard tell of a coup in New York, then murmurings of a fully-fledged takeover in London and now finally, it’s made it to Dubai. The ones above are from Sprinklez – a one-woman show working from home baking little bites of happiness to spread over the emirate.(www.sprinklez.ae)

Round the corner Sugar Daddy’s was courting storm of popularity with it’s gargantuan creations – no wonder why, these Oreo cupcakes are good enough to, well, eat…..



And then it was on to the hot stuff. For those of you that are in the know, Zuma, Victoria Beckham’s London eatery of choice (she eats?!) has recently opened doors in the maze of DIFC. I heard that Beckham deigned to go and sniff edamame (sniffing is as good as eating I’m told) in the Dubai restaurant on her trip over a few months ago.

As I’m fairly skeptical about the sniffing school of thought, I tucked into a dish of Chilli Fried Squid with Lime while Monica tried their Barley miso marinated chicken lets on cedar wood. The squid was superb – crunchy, spicy and tender – the chef, Colin Clague, obviously knows a thing or two about Japanese food.



So engrossed were we in our plates, that we missed the beginning of the James Martin class. I still maintain that we got there at 7.30 on the dot but alas, it was no cooking for us. Still, we got to stand in on the class and watch as he whipped up Balsamic strawberry cheesecake, whilst cracking jokes and making fun of some of the less successful attempts by some of his pupils. I was still a little sulky, but got some nice pictures to make up for it.



Then, it was our turn – the next class was making Tom Yam Goong soup with chef Naruemol Poolkan of Benjarong in the Dusit Dubai. It was a revelation how simple it is to make this deliciously piquant, hot and sour soup –

We boiled…


photo courtesy of Antonie Robertson

Chopped…

photo courtesy of Antonie Robertson

Added…


photo courtesy of Antonie Robertson

Then consumed…

photo courtesy of Antonie Robertson
And it was worth every second of it I’m glad to say.

Here’s the recipe – whip some up for a quick treat for the tastebuds. Go easy on the chilli if you’re not a fan of the hot stuff and keep some tissues on hand to mop up the chilli nose runs.

Tom Yam Goong Soup

8 oz (250 g) shrimp/prawns, shelled and deveined
3 cups (24 fl oz/750 ml) fish stock
2 garlic cloves, minced
5 kaffir lime leaves
3 thin slices fresh or dried galangal
1/4 cup (2 fl oz/60 ml) fish sauce
2 stalks lemongrass
2 shallots, sliced
1/2 cup sliced straw mushrooms
5 green Thai chili peppers optional
1/4 cup (2 fl oz/60 ml) lime juice
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro/coriander leaves

Bring the fish stock to the boil. Turn down the heat to simmer gently, add the kaffir lime leaves, lime juice, galangal, fish sauce, garlic, lemongrass, shallots and cook gently for a minute.
Add the mushrooms and chillies and cook for a further minute
Add the prawns. Cook for one minute, remove from the heat, garnish with coriander and serve.