Red Bar

It was on our way to Gourmet San (much lauded Northern Chinese restaurant on Bethnal Green Road) that we came across this. London’s East End is riddled with this kind art, albeit temporary but it’s generally downright more acceptable than the usual eyesore graffiti. The idea is if you see something like it, snap it immediately (with your camera that is). It won’t be there for long as the person or artist who hung it up in the first place is loitering around stealthily watching you (with a degree of self satisfaction I dare say) .

As expected Gourmet San was jam-packed and I couldn’t be bothered with the queue. I always come prepared with a Plan B when it comes to eating out. Red Bar is located near the bus stop where I have to catch the number 8 back to the West End from a ritual Sunday doss in E2. From the outside the place looked seedy and uninviting. Judging by its close proximity to Gourmet San, Red Bar was assumed to be one of those opportunist (harsh wording but true) bandwagon outfits who came about purely to reduce the queues at Gourmet San. I also came here because it offered nose to tail eating, it was non-Cantonese and it had a website.

Like all Chinese restaurants, the name in English has little or no bearing on the original name in Chinese. Hung (sounds like red in Chinese) means magnanimous. Red Bar has been around since last December and despite having a web presence, its reputation was set in concrete by the Mainland Chinese diners who frequent here. By enlarge The dining room looks nothing like the photos shown on its site, the seediness from the outside is transformed to the inside as well. The room also suggested thoughts of Hakkasan aspirations, but the budget sort of ceased on the first day of shop fitting. The furniture seemed like the abandoned variety from Chinatown. The service from the young girl (she was the only waitress that evening) was remarkable, what enthusiasm and commitment! Her willingness to converse in English was certainly noteworthy and you know how the womenfolk go on about multitasking, well let’s just say I’ve witnessed it.

Just before we go on to the food, I thinks it’s worth quoting Fuchsia Dunlop- ‘If you visit a typical high-end Chinese restaurant alone, or with one dining companion, you are likely to be able to try only a few dishes, and to miss the excitement that comes from a really well-planned and diverse dinner for a group, which can be a kind of showcase for different cooking methods.’ Even taking the ‘high-end’ away this is very true when dining Chinese, which is also why I hardly blog about Chinese restaurants, what little dining companions I know, dining Chinese doesn’t rock them. The person I dragged with me to The Red Bar, is a wuss. He crumbles when both offal and chilli are on the menu, he came because there was no one else to call upon on a Sunday evening.

Sliced Tripe and Ox Tongue- like all the dishes to come this was massive and way too much for two.

Excellent sesame oil dressing with spicy kick. Wonderful bar food to go with beer.

Stir-fried Pork with Agarics. The young lady wrote this dish down in error, we actually wanted Double Cooked Hunan pork. Never mind, we insisted that we’ll have it. Again huge and not exactly a sophisticated plating.

The agarics in this dish are the Cloud Ear fungus and Golden Needle mushroom (some of you folks call it Enokitake). Gawd there must have been at least four eggs cracked into the dish as well. Excellent nonetheless.

Chongqing style Aubergine. By the time this dish turned up I knew we were in trouble, how could we possibly eat the whole aubergine! It’s all very well saying that we’ll skip the rice, but that’s impossible as these dishes are too salty to be consumed on their own.

Terrific tasting dish, the only gripe I have is the inclusion of crabsticks. I hate bloody crabsticks, they immediately taint whatever credentials the chef might have. Oh well, prepared to forgive, the entire dish was only six quid.

The foodies’ favourite of Poached Sliced Sea Bass in Hot Chilli Oil. Declaration time, this one betters the ones that I had at Bar Shu, Snazz Sichuan, Mr Chow and Angeles. An astonishing tasting pot of spicy goodness, I’m convinced that the huge amount of chilli and Sichuan peppers in this dish is enough to kill off any flu viruses.

I also noted that the fish slices were rather mean in quantity for a huge bowl. Goes without saying I had to tackle this dish on my own as dining companion, bless his cotton socks, bit into a Sichuan pepper that numbed him senseless for the rest of the evening.

Magnanimous by name and certainly relayed to the portions as well. Excellent value and assured service. Highly recommended, I intend to come back here with more people and exploit the extensive menu; the food here is indeed tasty.

True enough that painting has disappeared.

132 Bethnal Green Road
London E2 6DG


www.red-bar.co.uk

MSG- 100 years on.

Prejudices aside, most of us enjoy eating a bag of cheese and onion flavoured crisps (or have you ever wondered why McCoy’s Salted is so addictive) and choose not to acknowledge the presence of monosodium glutamate (MSG) in its list of ingredients. MSG is highly elating to the appetite and like the naturally occurring free glutamates that are found in Parmesan cheese, Marmite, mushrooms etc.; the resultant sensation of umami is paramount to good eating. I’ve said it once before and I’ll nag about it again, salt is a lot worse for our health than MSG. Read Alex Renton’s wonderful tuppence worth for the OFM here. MSG shouldn’t be shoved to one side and consigned to Room 101, used within the right context and moderation, Kikunae Ikeda’s discovery is totally useful at best. The Essence of Taste (Aji no Moto) is a century old this year. If a dish contains some MSG, I’m au fait with that because I like my food tasty*.

*We shouldn’t deny to ourselves that a huge majority of Chinese restaurants (as well as Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, etc) include MSG in the cooking, it’s part and parcel and it’s certainly not the end of the world. Restaurants who lead you to believe they’re MSG free are only kidding themselves, MSG is present in soy sauces and oyster sauces. Chill folks, it’s only umami and it’s by enlarge delicious!

The Underground Tea- Victoriana

Tea Time Extraordinaire

Let's just say that I had such a wonderful time today and I'm not going to bother with the wordsworthy aspect of the whole event. I sincerely hope that the photos here do justice to the food; everything was by enlarge beyond delicious. Excellent fun to have met a lot of beautiful people. Thanks to Sienna for playing Otis Redding and Fleetwood Mac on pure and organic sounding vinyl LPs. Hats off to MsM's Mum for waiting on us. Big thanks to Lavender Bakery and MsMarmitelover for a terrific sojournal Sunday afternoon.

Victoria sponge

Yummy Marmite and cucumber Sandwiches- apparently with a bit of input from teasy Nigella Lawson.

Clockwise from top- Lavender shortbread (my highlight of today!), Rosewater & Pistachio meringues, Madeleines au miel and Green tea matcha shortbread.

Warm Scones

I know I should have cut the thing in half, but the knife went awol!

Ms Lavender Bakery and Hubbs to be

Crumpets are a-cookin'

Home-made crumpets
A rare treat that tastes nothing like the pre-packed stuff, heavenly.

Savoury Tart

Chocolate cupcakes

Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

Lemon cake

Mini lemon & lime tarts

The Underground Restaurant The Lavender Bakery

Dastarkhan

Et voilà, my main course of Beshbarmak.

Ewwww...

Came here for dinner with three wonderful companions. The MsMarmitelover and two ladies from Randomness Guide to London. -Peckham's wonderful Laura and at long last, I finally get to meet the ace Kake.

I first read about this Kazakh restaurant in the horrible londonpaper. Well let's just say folks I've done you lot a favour by coming here, I wouldn't bother if I were you for it was poor and pathetic. Words escape me that I can't even write about it constructively. Please bear in mind these are my views and I daresay the ladies will post their own reports soon. After the woeful experience I’ve started to take Borat seriously.

The restaurant proper on the uppermost floor of Phibbers

Our table with the topchan (tea bed) seating, all very novel but 'pins and needles' inducing.

Bread basket of Kingsmill, Hovis and baursaki.
The baursaki or Kazakh fried dough bread is the only decent food worth its salt tonight!

Aubergine Salad of some sort.
To be fair the 'shopped' photo looks a more attractive than it actually was. This dish reminded me of ready made dips in a jar to go with the tortilla chips, but only less tasty.

Some kind of vodka drowned pickles and salad.

We all agreed the strange tasting tomatoes had some 57 varieties zapped into them, they reminisced of Heinz tomato ketchup. With hindsight I found this dish yuck!

"Russian style" herrings
Very salty and no vinegar to taste of.

Cheburek
Fried pastry with minced meat- it was so memorable that I'd forgotten what it tasted like!

Laura's Plof
Pilaff rice with lamb things. Probably the only palatable mains out of the four. By now I've come to accept that presentation is not Dastarkhan's strongest point.

MsMarmite's veggie manatee manti dumplings
Clumsy and pointless come to mind, £7.50 for the above can only suggest that we've been had!

Kake's Manti "Dastarkhan"
Traditionally steamed dumplings with meat and onion- by now I’ve decided these dumplings tasted traditionally bland. Let’s not even mention Leong’s Legends, these mantis made the Polish pierogis totally esoteric.

Only one good thing amounted from the evening and that was the company of the three wonderful ladies. We hope to converge again.

Phibbers Bar
203 Holloway Road
London
N7 8DL

http://dastarkhan.co.uk

Corner Café

Just in case I get embroiled in a situation concerning any conflicts of interest with regards to this place, best set the record straight; we’re flickr contacts. I believe we share a common interest in coffee and they haven’t a clue what I look like. I value my elusiveness.
The location of a greasy spoon or workman's café set within a sprawling council estate in London’s East End makes it even more purposeful. And the name Corner Café just cannot be anything else but that, I mean can you picture ‘Anton’s Bistrot’ as an alternative name (Roman Road, E2, etc.)? No, lead balloons admonish such thoughts. Truth be told, I was drawn here by the coffee pics on flickr, incredulous suggestions of latte art found in a greasy spoon…unheard of! Roman Road is not the most accessible for a West End wretch like me, I arrived here by the number 8 bus.

I didn’t pay much attention to the inside of the café but my recollections were that of a tidy and orderly establishment, it’s the sort of place that indicates the owner’s heart is very much in the business and the commitment is obvious to note. I ordered one of the many set breakfasts available on the menu and as with all genuine greasy spoon caffs like this, tea or coffee is included. Just to be on the safe side, I told the lovely lady that I wanted to upgrade my inclusive drink to a cappuccino. (As a rule the coffee served in cafés in the UK is s**t)

Settled myself al fresco. The assured bliss of both the bus fumes and smoker sitting next to me…Sybil, what more can one ask for!

My word, here we go, the cappuccino. The lady who served me also made this, the woman is quite clearly a proper barista*.

Technically speaking this is a beautifully made cup of coffee and only let down by the blend of the beans used, if only Union or Monmouth beans were used instead, Corner Café would then be Premier League material. I’m an immensely happy bunny to come across this place.

The Set B breakfast. Check out the bread, these guys are serious.

Delicious rooms.

The ubiquitous St. John+ sausage** (forget about posh bangers made from rare breeds, this is authentic greasy spoon fodder); golden brown perfection! The problem with sitting out here is that everyone who walks past is either drooling over what you’re eating or questioning the condition of your arteries.

£4.70 for the lot, so pigs do indeed fly. For comparison’s sake I paid £3.00 for my triple shop flattie at the Milk Bar on the same day, peeps I declare Corner Café a destination place. Great coffee and great breakfasts. Highly recommended.


*I was later told her boss is even better at creating rosettas.

**By enlarge an unknowingly offal rich plus much ‘more’ mass produced sausage.



140 Roman Road
Bethnal Green
London E2 0RY