The Hackney Pearl redux

05/03/11

Grilled onglet with Paris Café butter and thrice cooked chips- £14.70.

Superb tasting steak and suitably well bloodied but let down by the skin-on chips (skin = indolence) that were anything but thrice cooked.

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The Hackney Pearl resonates my appetite, both unfailingly and rewardingly.

I cannot think of better place to spend the rest of your well-earned Sunday afternoon than here.

The dining room embraces natural daylight with dignified intent. The service is warm and charming.

I always start with one of the best Bloody Marys found in the capital.

Great starters are offered on the menu to be shared and savoured.

Big fat juicy pilchards Cornish Sardines.
I could quite easily devour half a dozen of these with a bottle of Pouilly-Fumé

Chicken liver pate, toast and cornichons

I don't usually dig chicken livers but The Hackney Pearl ensured otherwise.
Absolutely delicious.

A second Bloody Mary maintains the craving for the next course!

The mains are impressive and luscious.

Now who needs Petersham Nurseries, when similar grub can be had here for less than half the price!

Roast lamb rump, flageolet beans and wild onion pesto.
I was suitably overwhelmed by this dish and will order and order again.

Vegetarian meze platter with Turkish bread.

The houmous and Balkan slaw were a resounding success.

Pork chop (from a happy pig I presume), new potatoes and apple doo-dah.

Sweet and tender tasting meat. Beautiful.

A regular pud at the Pearl that's Eton Mess.

Don't fret about piling on the pounds since a hard workout is called for the next day at the gym!

Alas the Pearl is not without faults; the flat white served here (using Square Mile beans no less) is below average. I blame the machine used.

The folks at The Hackney Pearl have put the Wick on the map and that's even before the Olympic Stadium is completed. See you there on Sundays. Highly recommended.

11 Prince Edward Road
(Grnd Flr Oslo House East Wing)
Hackney Wick, E9 5LX


http://thehackneypearl.com

Dishoom

A rather fine food blogger told me recently that he would weep if he saw another review of Dishoom, Sushi Ga Ga or Goldfish City. Well, I too wept like a baby with the overabundance of Bar Boulud postings (which incidentally I haven’t been and nor do I intend to. This is simply because of the over-praising of the charcuterie platter and the DBGB burger that might incite the insidious prejudices I may harbour and thus write about.) As for this post, I could but only drum up two lame excuses for doing so. Dishoom is directly opposite my daughter’s fave memorabilia store and me blog is beginning to look dormant.

Dishoom is in three+ words; refreshing, good (certainly not brill), and not cheap. When we visited the place it had already garnered enough potential and repute with the congruous amount of YBAs (Young Brithish Asians) seen lunching. The modernity of the interiors made it hard for me to appreciate or perhaps realise the ‘faded elegance’ of the original Bombay cafés that Dishoom is supposedly modelled on but that said, the service was entirely excellent. The menu is one of those that are created to deceive and entice both the brain and palate. A little of what you fancy, and this, and that, and before long you find yourself settling the bill with plastic because you thought a 20 quid note would suffice for a ‘café’ meal. This is the unfortunate curse that’s part and parcel with joints that offer small plates or tapas!

What we had-

Dishoom Calamari
As promised on the menu, it was indeed zesty and spicy. The squids were beautifully cooked.

Roomali Roll of Malai Chicken

A wrap by any other name consisting of mildly spiced chicken, herbs, rabbit fodder and chutney. Daughter thought it was overridden with herbs (coriander she meant) and I agreed. If you want an Indian inspired wrap, then Mooli’s is truly indicative.

Desi Fish Fingers

Was kinda expecting Birds Eye Fish Fingers with a bit of twist. Alas, not so, breadcrumbs where art thou? True the fish were cooked to perfection but the overgenerous amounts of chilli powder in the batter made it impossible to identify whether it was cod, haddock or pollock. I suppose it can only be good news for the latter as it can no longer be classified as cat food at Dishoom.

Bombay Sausages

Slices of tiny chipolatas in Bombay masala. Now if any nation wish to modify our venerable banger then as far as I know only the Thais have done it well, see here . Unfulfilling. The dish would’ve been better if they served the chipolatas whole, but then again this would mean the curtailing of operating margins for the restaurant. However, the masala bit was redeeming; delicious and moreish.

House black daal
Posh tarka dhal to the chicken tikka masala praiseworthies. Daughter suggested it was a Marmite dip, I thought it was the best dish served at Dishoom. It was so perfect you could drink it (albeit without burning yourself) instead of eating it. Yum. This is one of the reasons apart form the service I’ll revisit Dishoom.

Three small plates, one wrap, a veg side (dhal is classed as so in 90% of Indian menus in Britain) and two bottles of sparkling filtered Thames; Dishoom is hardly cheap. But I would go back to sample the grills, biryanis and a bit of booze. Credit cards need apply here.


St Martin's Courtyard
12 Upper St Martin's Lane
Covent Garden
London, WC2H


www.dishoom.com

Red 'N' Hot (Euston)

You can tell that I’ve been spiritless of late with my postings. So here’s the latest offering-

Video

This was previously Snazz Sichuan, my favourite Sichuan restaurant in London that has been taken over by the Red ‘N’ Hot group. As checked out by Kake, the same chef remains in place.

What we had and what I thought-

Hot and numbing beef- disappointing, despite the numbing and spicy effect the beef tasted of anything but.

Fire exploded kidney flowers was tender and excellent. The kidneys were obviously cleaned and rinsed thoroughly as the weewee smell was absent.

Sichuan-style pig's blood mix- absolutely gorgeous, the Spam added to the bowl was a bonus. If you can eat white tofu, then the cubes of pig’s blood tastes more or less the same. Highly recommended.

Mr Noodles' choice of special fried chicken with dry chilli and cumin- another brilliant dish, I didn’t mind sweating like the proverbial gnawing on those deep-fried chilles!

Fish soup with pickled vegetables- not a patch on my previous visits, lacked the acidity of the pickled greens. The sea bass fillets were perfectly cooked though.

Pea shoots in rich broth- portion was huge for a veg dish, but thankfully not overcooked. The dish needed a bit more seasoning as it was bordering on being bland.

Dan dan noodles- better than the consistently overcooked shite served at Chilli Cool but Barshu is still the best.

Zhong's crescent dumplings- no complaints, ‘harmonious victuals for make benefit glorious nation of China’

I’m not convinced that the old kitchen cooks of Snazz Sichuan have been retained here in its entirety, the dishes I ate lacked the wow factor. But as tossup between its neighbour Chilli Cool and Red ‘N’ Hot, I would go for the latter. The service here is helpful and friendly and the ambience is a lot more comfy. As for now Barshu is still my favourite destination for Sichuan food, it’s expensive, so save up.

Full credit to Red ‘N’ Hot for being transparent (unheard of in Chinese restaurants) with their no-nonsense fully itemised and descriptive bills.



37 Chalton Street
Euston,
London NW1 1JD


www.rednhotgroup.com

Sichuan Restaurant

Came here not too long ago and had a wonderful evening with the following: the über intelligent Kake, ‘for she has no foes’ Su-Lin, Mr Genial aka Ewan, a couple of friends from RGL; James and Marna and lest I forget the redoubtable Mr Noodles.

The beauty with this post is I don’t have to write much and you don’t have to suffer. So if you need to know more about the place then read here, here and here.

The menus

The written confirmation

What we ate-

The standard fleebie
Corn with salted egg yolk
Baby cuttlefish
Spicy fried chicken
Dongpo Pork
Water-boiled beef
Geriatric green beans
Dan dan noodles 1 2 3 4
Ants climbing a tree
Sweet and sour eggplant dragon
Sour and spicy potato threadlike

Meet my excellent dining companions 1 2

Sichuan Restaurant is commendable but it isn’t Snazz Sichuan.

116 Churchfield Road
London W3 6BY

The Shed

I feel remorseful that I haven’t posted this earlier. I’ve been to a lot of supper clubs during the past 14 months but I must say that The Shed is indeed one of the best and certainly the most at ease as well. I suppose the ease is to do with the ace hosts Nicola and Andrew actually dining with the guests themselves. Came here with my restaurateur chum, KC who declared Nicola’s cooking as wonderful home-cooking without the usual pretence that’s endemic in the supper club scene. I couldn’t agree more, The Shed likes food and we love The Shed.

The lazy Sunday meal is normally served in the shed but when we were there the muddy garden courtesy of the February weather prompted Plan B; we supped in the hosts’ living room instead.

The red gingham is The Shed’s trademark

Music was provided by DJ-in-residence, Andrew

Spiced pumpkin soup with garlic croutons and Emmett’s black bacon

A monumental moment

Slow roast lamb, Mujadara (lentil and rice dish), grilled aubergine and brocs,
The lamb was delectable; beautifully pink and melting.

An obvious success as everyone either had seconds or thirds

The pause and break before the pudding course

Home-baked chocolate brownie

Home-made Lemon tart

Excellent evening and big thanks to Nicola and Andrew. A solid recommendation is called for, so do yourself a favour and enjoy The Shed.





What I paid.



theshedlikesfood.blogspot.com

Breakfast #2- Caravan

...a man cup of coffee after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.

And that's strictly filter coffee and none of that Americano shoddiness. A cup that has been 'dripped' using freshly ground coffee beans is one of the few things that we all take for granted and by the love for caffeine; Caravan serves it and they roast their own beans. Massive tick for that alone.

I could quite easily live near Exmouth Market, not too far away from work..

…and a lovely church.

No stuffiness here and excellent service observed.

CARAVAN FRY UP
TWO EGGS ANY STYLE, THICK CUT BACON, SLOW ROAST
TOMATOES AND CREAMY SOY MUSHROOMS ON SOURDOUGH OR
GRAIN TOAST –– £8.00

Daughter thought this was the best breakfast she’s had. Although labelled as a fry up, it’s not strictly so- where are the goddamn sausages and beans? She was right though, her platter was very good.

My two poached eggs on grain toast with a side order of an abattoir favourite. I’m a fussy grump but the otherwise perfectly poached eggs were served too cold. The smoked black pudding was an awe-full sight; quite the best thing I’ve had for a long time.

She loved the place and so did I. Highly prized. Lunch or dinner with booze awaits yours truly. Thank you Dos Hermanos.



11-13 Exmouth Market
London
EC1R 4QD

www.caravanonexmouth.co.uk