Whilst the addition of hua jiao Sichuan pepper corns is abundant in the cooking, there is a common misconception that all Sichuan food is hot and numbing (ma la). In fact some of my favourite Sichuan dishes such as Zhang ya zi (zhang tea smoked duck) and huo guo rou (double cooked pork) are pretty much mouth-numb free.

One night, after a big whine about how substandard non-southern Chinese food is in London, a mainland Chinese friend had recommended I take a trip to Earls Court to try No. 10 Sichuan. It’s where he gets his ‘fix’ apparently. Determined to seek out good Sichuan food we visited on a cold Sunday evening, arriving early to find the restaurant nearly at capacity. The restaurant is fairly small, fitting no more than 25 in a very tight, dark space. The menu is divided into two sections – the short one page Sichuan menu and the long ‘other’ menu. Looking around us, the mainly chinese student crowd were intently chowing down Sichuan classics, so it was clear that we should stick to this side of the menu.

We started off with the Shui zhu niu rou (Water cooked beef). The huge pot of steaming spicy broth, dried chilli’s, mouth numbing pepper corns, tender slices of beef and vegetables was topped with delicious red chilli oil. There was serious heat in this dish (we did tell the waitress to make it ma la) and boy did we need a bowl of rice to wash it down. The depth of the broth was rather addictive and the corn flour tendered beef was so silky, yet fiery hot at the same time. Sam found the dish a bit too hot, but at the same time, he couldn’t get enough of it – which of course meant he was happily in tears munching through this dish.

Next came a perfectly sour and sweet and spicy suan la tang (hot and spicy soup). The serving was fairly generous, thick and made spicy with a generous shaking of white pepper. We probably should have ordered two bowls as we found ourselves fighting over the last few drops of this.

To say our last dish was a disappointment would be an understatement. After high expectations were absolutely exceeded with the first two dishes, we were bitterly disappointed when our la zi ji (chicken cooked with dried chilli’s) was served. Expecting a huge bouquet of vibrant red dried chilli’s surrounding pieces of lightly fried boned chicken, what we got instead, looked nothing of that sort. So far from our expectations in fact that we actually called the waitress over just to check that it was the correct dish. Stir fried pieces of boneless chicken were served wok tossed with dried chills, onions and vegetables. To me the dish looked like it could be an acceptable version of gong bao ji ding (kung pao chicken). In fact it tasted more similar to a gong bao ji ding than a la zi ji. But alas according to the waitress, it was indeed their la zi ji.

Overall No.10 seems to produce some solid Sichuan dishes. Neighbouring tables were happy munching down dan dan mien (spicy pork tossed noodles), liang mian (cold noodles in chilli oil) and other Sichuan comfort food which I will definitely be back to try. Portions are large, prices reasonable and service rather friendly for a Chinese joint, but stick to the Sichuan menu – it’s fiery hot, but absolutely worth numbing your mouth for.

Around £40 for two including non-alcoholic beverages and service.

No 10 Sichuan
10 Hogarth Pl
Earls Court, SW5

The first stop on our gastronomic tour, The Harwood Arms in Fulham as I figured if I was going to wow him with a gastropub it might as well be a good one.

I have written before how much of a fan I am of Brett Graham, not just because he is a fellow Aussie, but because his food is simple yet brilliant. At his flagship restaurant The Ledbury, his simplistic, yet sophisticated touch lets the produce do the talking and I was very pleased to see this same approach in his more casual (yet Michelin starred) pub. 

There has been much written about the fact that the Harwood Arms in indeed still a pub and therefore fairly no-frills in terms of decor. They even still do Tuesday trivia. There is both a bar menu (snacks) as well as the restaurant menu and specials board. Like the Ledbury, the staff are mainly Australian and New Zealand, and their relaxed demeanor really suits the pub.

We started off with Scotch Eggs (£3.50 each) all round. Honestly I have never been a fan of scotch eggs, mainly because the few that I have had have been luke warm bordering cold, hard-boiled with a gummy sausage layer. The Harwood Arms version, rather looks like a croquette when served. The breadcrumb layer is very crisp (panko breadcrumbs?), the meat layer obvious without being too meaty and egg, perfectly soft-boiled with a runny core. Mixing the runny egg yolk into the crispy breadcrumb shell was just divine!

For our main course, brother J and I decided to share a whole rib roast joint for two (£39). Still loaded with meat from my Albion fix the week prior I was curious to see how the Harwood Arms would match up. Our perfectly medium rare slice meat was served on a huge chopping board (though perhaps not as good as the Albion’s) alongside crispy goose fat potatoes, buttered cauliflower, kale and beans, as well as two perky looking yorkshire puddings.

Brother J took one look at the yorkshire puddings and thought they could possibly be a pie of sorts. Whilst traditionally yorkshire pudding is left plain, this version was not too far off the ‘pie’ mark. Graham has geniusly encased slow butter cooked mushrooms at the bottom of the yorkshire pudding case, almost ‘self-gravying’ the pud. Our meat was tender and juicy, though in parts a little fatty. The serving size was phenomenal and the two of us struggled to finish our mains.

The Harwood Arms doesn’t claim to be something that it’s not. It offers great food, in a laid back environment. The only shame is that we all don’t have a local as great as this.

Harwood Arms
27 Walham Grove
Fulham, SW6 1QP

Over the course of the actual meal, there was so much going on, so many new berries, flowers, herbs and techniques to digest that it felt as if we were rediscovering food again – I didn’t quite know how to respond to that. It wasn’t until a few days later, after looking at our photos and reading our Noma book that we could truly appreciate what Noma is doing for food.

The restaurant is so far ahead of its time, and I don’t mean this in a molecular gimmicky way. Rene has created a menu that truly highlights his ingredients by treating the produce with the respect that it deserves. His food is so fresh, so vibrant, so alive.

Please read Noma – Part I, the snacks before reading this post…

The bread

The home-baked bread actually is worth of the mention on its own. Arriving in a beautiful petal felt basket, apparently the sourdough bread is baked twice-daily right before service and is served alongside the most satisfying ‘pork scratching’ butter. Not for the faint hearted, this butter is truly as rich as it sounds. One look at Samson and I could tell he was re-living a Tetsuya moment (the Sydney restaurant serves butter with black truffle specks) as he frantically tried to pick all the tasty ‘scratching’ bits out.

The 12 course nassaqq menu

It was only now at this point that our waiter came over and asked which menu we were to eat. Noma is truly once in a lifetime, so for us, we were willing to eat as much as we could get. However our waiter seemed rather surprised when we opted for the full 12 courses over the smaller 7 course menu.

Course 1: Shaved hazelnuts and Puree of lettuce. Juiced lettuce was combined with spinach puree to surround a hazelnut jelly and shaved hazelnuts. The dish was rather interesting, in particular the hazelnut jelly, but I honestly wasn’t the biggest fan.

Course 2: Dried scallop slivers with watercress puree, grains, squid ink. This was a rather interesting dish to get your head around. The scallops were thin sliced and dried and had a very strong flavour not dissimilar to dried Chinese scallops. The grains were a little hard for my liking, but the watercress puree and squid ink were rather delicious. Honestly I really enjoyed each component of this dish individually but as the flavours of each component was rather strong I didn’t really feel like it worked when eaten together.

Course 3: Shaved chestnuts with buttered roe. This dish was a little more to our palette, and clearly due to the French butter influence. The roe was sweet and though I did find the rawness of the chestnuts a little hard on the jaw, it was nice to be served a warm course after already consuming 10 courses of raw cold/room temperature food.

Course 4: Langostine rock with oyster seaweed emulsion. Warm stones are ceremoniously brought to the table and atop each is a mouth-watering langostine tail with artistic dots of green. This ‘green’ is in fact an oyster emulsion which has been made combining oysters and parsley and is finger-licking good. In fact Noma encourages you to eat this entire dish with your hands suggesting that you grab the quickly sautéed langostine tail and ‘swipe’ it across the rock to pick up the oyster emulsion. Not one shy about getting dirty, I used my finger to literally scrape off drop of the rich, delicious ‘green’.

Heston’s ‘Sounds of the Sea’ beware. I didn’t need an iPod to help me picture the ocean. Rene took me there with this dish. An outstanding course.

Course 5: Pot cooked oyster is served in a pot filled with hot rocks. Jamming open the shell reveals a perfect, fresh oyster served with tapioca (love the play on pearls!), wild beach herbs and a touch of cream. An amazing, perfectly cooked course with clean, fresh flavours.

Course 6: Grilled cauliflower with fern oil. This dish was probably the least interesting of the evening. Lightly poached then grilled, the cauliflower was a little overcooked to my liking. I actually expected a lot more cauliflower flavour to come out of the dish, but unfortunately it was very bland. The fern oil was rather delicious however. After this course, our waiter asked what we felt, we told him exactly what I wrote here. I was actually rather surprised that he didn’t take criticism of this dish well.

Course 7: Perch-pike cross with root vegetables, celeriac puree. The fish was perfectly cooked with an amazing thin crispy crust. The sauce was herby and slightly tart, but perhaps the highlight was the celeriac puree which was simply outstanding. The flavours on this plate were fairly subtle and really showcased the produce.

Course 8: Cook your own egg. Apparently a classic dish at Noma, this course is just a little bit gimmicky and it honestly failed to deliver. First, a bowl with greens and herbs is brought to the table alongside a spoon of thyme butter. This is soon followed a hot cast iron skillet with a duck egg in shell to the side. Our waiter poured hay oil into our pan and instructed us to crack the egg into the side of the dish that the oil moved to. After the 2 minute timer sounds, the thyme butter is added as well as the greens and herbs. The dish is finished with fried potato chips, a touch of salt and a last sprinkling of fresh herbs. The result a perfectly cooked duck egg. That’s the problem though, it’s nothing more than a perfectly cooked duck egg with some tasty green herbs on the side.

Course 9: Wild duck breast with apple. An intriguing ancient dagger is brought to the table prior to this course, which gets us excited even before we what we are about to eat. Special cutlery surely means something special and we weren’t mistaken. A duck breast is cooked sous vide for 15 minutes at 63 degrees is then glazed and served with baby herbs. The meat itself is deliciously blue, perhaps the most raw I have ever eaten my duck but it was simply delicious. The duck is intelligently surrounded by all things apple – curls of pickled apple, smoked butter cooked apple wedges and apple seeds made from malt. Topped with an apple based sauce, this dish was outstanding and a true treat for my taste buds.  The obvious presence of the herbs makes for a very bold dish, in particular as it is served so blue. Truly out of this world.

Course 10: Pear tree with thyme ‘sponge’. Noma has a rather unique approach to dessert. We were told that Rene has a preference to use natural sugars in his cooking rather than making things overly sweet. This is very much apparent in his Pear Tree and thyme sponge. The thyme sponge was very much reminiscent of the bread and butter ‘air’ pudding that we ate at La Alquiera, yet made completely savory with the use of Thyme. A slight sprinkling of salt on top of the foam made the thyme flavour even stronger. The pear portion of the plate is a half grilled pear with a thin slice of pickled (?) pear on top. Lemon thyme and flowers surround the pear and the dish is finished off with a vibrant sauce made from thyme oil.

Course 11: Jerusalem artichoke, apple, malt and merian. Again this course was rather savory, and it did take some time to appreciate. Thin apple, malt and merian ‘discs’ atop Jerusalem artichoke and puree apple. The discs were crunchy and sweet, the apple puree added a refreshing acid to the dish. I am not really used to eating this much malt, so it really was a dish that I had to grow used to.

Course 13: Brown cheese, blackcurrant and beetroot granita
Our ‘cheese’ course arrived last and again is totally unexpected. The course is essential a puree of light, slightly pungent cheese, surrounded but a frozen granite of red beetroot. We are instructed to take spoonfuls making sure to pick up all ingredients on the plate. The beetroot and cheese pairing with the sweetness of the blackcurrant makes for a great and cleansing end to the meal.

The service

It’s nice to have chefs from the kitchen running most of the food as it allows them to express how passionate they are about what they do. Being Australian, of course we immediately got on fairly well with one Aussie chef who had previous stints in the kitchen of Ramsey’s flagship Royal Hospital Road.

It took our waiter/sommelier quite a bit of time to warm to us, only cracking a bit of a smile by the 6^th course. Whilst polite and professional, he was fairly focused on what he needed to do rather than making us feel comfortable. In saying that, he was incredibly attentive topping up wines and water so really can’t fault him.

Wines and Water

I quite like the fact that still or sparkling water is charged at a flat rate of 50DKK per head (£6). Water can add up to be a fairly significant amount on your bill, so it was a really nice surprise that this was the way they charged.

Ordering matching wines with our 12 course menu, I had read of Noma’s preference for regional ‘themed’ tastings and was pleasantly surprised when we found out that we were to drink wines from the Alsace region for the evening. How perfect was it that Sam was being served a degustation from his favourite wine region to accompany his 30^th Birthday meal at the best restaurant of 2010. Like any good restaurant the matching wines were ‘topped’ if you finished your wine prior to your course which in the case of the red, saw our waiter coming back to re-top a few times! At 1045 DKK the wines pairings don’t come cheap, but well worth ordering in order to live out the full Noma experience.

Wines listed below, all from Alsace.

2009 Riesling ‘Kritt’, Remy Gresser, Andlau

2009 Riesling ‘Zero Sulfites ajoutes’, Pierre Frick, Pfaffenheim

2009 Riesling Vieilles Vignes, Laurent Barth, Bennwhir

2009 Pinot Gris Grand Cru Altenbourg de Bergbietenm, Roland Schmit, Bergbieten

2008 Sylvaner ‘Zellberg-l’hernitage’, Julien Meyer, Nothalten

2003 Chateauneuf-du-Pape ‘Henri Bonneau’, Henri Bonneau, Vaucluse

2008 Pinot Blanc ‘Cuvee Vieilles Vignes’, Dirler-Cade, Bergholtz

2003 Pinot Gris ‘Vendange Tardives’, Marcel Deiss, Bergheim

Reflection

Rene is doing something truly amazing by inspiring the young chefs that are lucky enough to work in his kitchen. His stripped back approach to food, appreciation of produce in its raw state and lack of barrier between the kitchen and his customers is inspiring.

But I have to ask myself whether I would go back again. To be honest I am not sure. The food was truly outstanding and Rene is producing a food concept well ahead of most chefs in this world – well ahead of his time. I don’t doubt that this was probably one of the best meals of my existence, even if I don’t know it yet. So my only hesitation to return is whilst I have consumed my fair share of fine food in my life, I don’t believe that my palate is sophisticated enough to truly appreciate the simultaneous simplicity/complexity of his food concept.

It does blow my mind how successful Noma and Rene is at such a young age. Being able to produce such amazing food at this point in his career brings me to wonder whether or not we are even near experiencing the peak of his creative abilities…

Lastly, the damage? Around £300 per head, 22 courses including wines and service.

Noma, Copenhagen

Part I will review the 8 courses of ‘snacks’, part II (coming soon), will review the actual Noma Nassaq 12 course menu.

Securing the reservation

The ‘process’ began quite a few months back. Being Sam’s 30th this year, I wanted to take him somewhere special and his heart was set on Noma.

Noma has a unique policy where it takes bookings 3 months prior on the first day the month, for bookings for that entire month. So unlike say somewhere like The Fat Duck where bookings are taken for a single day only, you are essentially competing on phone lines with people who are booking for the whole of that particular month. With lines opening at 10am Denmark time, I was poised next to my phone (automatic redial on Skype) at 9am GMT. Fortunately, Noma are also set up to take online reservations and after 22 panicked minutes of simultaneously refreshing and redialling later, I managed to confirm my reservation for a table for 3 on Saturday 4^th December 2010. The day of Samson’s 30^th birthday. There are no words that can describe how elated I felt at that moment.

Snow, snow go away

With flights booked ex-Gatwick, the stress began early in the week when early December snowstorms crippled Surrey. A closed Gatwick airport meant no flight, which ultimately meant no Noma. In the days leading up to our flight, I must have checked a combination of the Gatwick Airport website, Gatwick express website, MET weather website at least once an hour.

Luckily the skies opened on the eve of our booking, and whilst delayed, Sam and I were almost in tears as we took off. One dining companion flying ex-Heathrow was too caught up in delays and actually only made it to Copenhagen an hour before our reservation.

If you were lucky enough to already be in Copenhagen last week, apparently it was a good week to score a last minute bookings as the restaurant told us that multiple reservations from England had been cancelled due to the weather. How my heart would have hurt if that were me!

Dining at the worlds best

The restaurant is simple. Bare wooden tables, beautifully designed chairs with only a rustic fur blanket as decoration. The lighting is rather dim, and the restaurant cosy and warm, which helped make the large, empty space feel more welcoming. Welcoming too was the reception that we received when walking inside the restaurant.

At first the Maître’D couldn’t find our reservation (I almost had a heart attack!) but Chef Rene lurking in the background came to our rescue and found my name on the list. Widely praised and at the young age of 32, Rene Redzepi still has a slight boyish aurora about him. When he speaks he is quiet, yet articulate but interestingly he comes across as rather shy – almost as if he would prefer to be lurking in the kitchen, not meeting and greeting guests.

Uniquely our waiter is also our sommelier and what makes Noma even more unique is that the chefs serve as food runners. Having chefs bring out and describe each dish is rather interesting and you really get the opportunity to understand the passion and process involved in creating each dish. The chefs too speak fondly of their weekly foraging expeditions, though at the present time due to snow, this is currently being outsourced to professionals.

The snacks

Before being handed the menu, Noma offers diners a series of 8 or so ‘snacks’ – a degustation of amuses if you will. All eaten by hand, the snacks are designed to capture the essence of Noma – clean, natural, fresh food; all in one bite.

Snack 1: Shallow fried reindeer Moss with crème fraiche. Chips and mayo eat your heart out. Here the moss was deep fried and dusted lightly with cep powder. Dipped into crème fraiche, the moss smelt fragrant and was surprisingly quite delicious

Snack 2: Sea-buckthorn leather with pickled rose hip petals. The leather is essentially berry puree that has been dried into paper-thin strips. The result is a tart, yet crisp film with a taste not dissimilar to asian haw flakes. The rose hip petals that accompanied the dish had been picked during the summer and pickled to be consumed during the winter months. The harmony between the flavours are no coincidence as both buckthron berry and rose grow side-by-side in Denmark where they were foraged.

Snack 3: Leeks deep-fried with garlic puree. Next we were served stalks of baby leek which had been cooked only at the ends. We were instructed to take only a bite of the sweet leeks, which had been coated with a bit of garlic puree. The stalk was creamy and sweet and roots crispy fried. A perfect bite of food.

Snack 4: Savoury cookies with speck and blackcurrants. A biscuit tin was presented to us, which we were instructed to open up. Inside we found three small savoury bite-sized cookies. The blackcurrant flavour was rather tart and speck layer smokey. Not my favourite dish but a perfectly fine bite of food.

Snack 5: Toasted rye bread sandwich with chicken skin, smoked cheese and fava bean cream. This snack was really quite special and I can only describe it as the most gourmet ryvita snack I have even eaten. The rye bread top was crisp with slight perforations to allow the sweet, smooth fava bean cheese to squeeze through. The crisp chicken skin base wonderfully fat-coated the base of my mouth and bringing richness to each bite. Texture and taste. A winning combination.

Snack 6: Pickled, smoked quail egg. One of Noma’s signature dishes, lightly hay smoked pickled quail eggs were presented to us in a ceramic egg resting atop a bed of hay. One of the biggest highlights of the evening was opening up the ceramic egg and taking in the smoky aroma. The egg itself was soft to the touch, richly runny in the yolks with just a slight smoky flavour.

Snack 7: Radishes & Carrots in soil. A small terracotta pot was presented with what appeared to be weeds growing from it. In fact, we soon found out they were raw radishes and carrots and should be consumed stalk, dirt and all. The ‘soil’ was made from hazlenuts and crushed malt, which dusted the vegetables coated with a yoghurt and tarragon mixture. The carrots tasted like carrots and turnips like turnips. Refreshingly raw.

Snack 8: Herbs, flower and duck fat crisp. A thin wafer sandwich topped with herbs, flowers arrived next. We quickly discovered that the top layer was in fact a duck film made from fat in a duck broth. Crisp, fatty and just downright tasty, the skin was intensified by a rich smoked scallop roe emulsion that was squirted atop the herb scatter. My absolute favourite dish of the evening combining freshness from the herbs, richness from the duck fat and overall just delicate.

To be continued… Noma Nassaq 12 course menu to follow in Noma Part II.

1. - Japanese, preferably izakaya (bar food)
2. - Within few blocks of the target Fitzrovia bars
3. - Reasonably priced

A search through chowhound brought back nothing that fit, and I was about to suggest we loosen the criteria a little when I stumbled upon this post by Catty from The Catty Life. Her review of Soho Japan described a Japanese restaurant serving izakaya bar food in the surrounds of a former Irish pub. Strangely allured we booked ourselves in. 

Don’t let the name fool you, Soho Japan is actually in Fitzrovia not Soho. Walking in, it’s not until you see the sushi counter that you realise you’ve found the place right. In fact, in our slightly alcohol fuelled state, the lack of signage meant we actually ended up in the bar/speakeasy downstairs before being shooed back into the dining room on the ground level. The restaurant has actually made little effort to hide the décor of its Irish pub past, which makes it a little quirky and suitably the restaurant has Asahi and Kirin beer on tap.

The menu is vast and offers a variety of sushi, hot dishes, robata grilled items and noodles to choose from. We opted to order a variety of food thinking it would be paced from the kitchen. Instead we were pretty much bombarded with food all at once.  Our appetisers (£8.95 for three) consisted of marinated seaweed, chopped tuna tartare and crispy salmon skin. We ordered the seaweed on recommendation but were disappointed by the flavourless strips of seaweed. Tuna tartare was much better – fresh, topped with finely chopped shallot and wasabi. Crispy salmon skin was a bit of a star and was topped with a palatable soy mirin based sauce.

A few sushi rolls of spicy salmon and a California roll arrived next (£3.50-£4). Both were fairly pleasing with fairly fresh salmon fillings and vegetables. Rice was nicely vinegared.

Vegetable tempura (£9) arrived next and whilst decently fried was a little too small of a portion in my opinion. Unlike many other place in London, the serving of dashi dipping sauce was substantial (and hot!) and served appropriate with grated daikon.

Overwhelmed with the amount of food delivered to the table at once, Agadashi tofu (£4) was left sitting in its dashi broth for too long and unfortunately was a little soggy by the time we got to it. There was a nice cornflour ‘film’ to the batter though and I imagine it would have been much nicer had we eaten it hot.

From the grill, we ordered salt and pepper chicken wings which tasted as described really.

Our last dish, Nasu dengaku or grilled aubergine with white miso paste was a little bit of a disappointment. This is generally one of my staples at a Japanese restaurant, but this version was a little bland.

At this stage we actually intended to revisit the menu and start ordering from the robata grill – what izakaya is most famous for. Unfortunately we were already struggling to finish what we had ordered so didn’t quite get a chance.

We walked out paying £22/person including a beer or two each which I thought was really reasonable. There are very few Japanese places within that area, so this find is definitely good. On the friday night that we visited, the restaurant was fairly busy with a mainly Oriental crowd. I will return hopefully sometime soon just to try a few more things from their robata grill.

Soho Japan
52 Wells St
Greater London, W1T 3PR

The Albion is far from a secret, and the gorgeous Georgian pub is known to draw in the local Barnsbury crowd creating an atmosphere that feels far, far away from the hustle and bustle on Upper St. The lovely beer garden is a major draw on the weekend though the gastro-pub does turn a little ‘hip’ towards the back end of the week.

A starter of house cured salmon (£7), was served with fennel salad and buttered brown bread slices arrived first. The salmon was flavourful, fresh and slightly unevenly sliced which I felt gave it that little rustic edge.

Potted beef (£7) was a little strange. A potted jar of beef was dramatically served on a huge chopping board alongside crusty sourdough, cornichons and sweet onion chutney. Being served inside a jar, I actually expected it to be similar to beef rillettes. Instead the beef was a quite terrine-like in texture which made extracting from the jar a little complicated. Coupled with the fact that there was a huge layer of clarified butter to get through, I didn’t exactly love the dish. Cornichons and sweet onion chutney were good though.

Our 30 day aged rib of lorrghonr beef (600g, £35) pour deux was an absolute success. Cooked perfectly medium rare the beef was a substantial portion of tender, juicy and flavoursome beef. Served alongside a delicious garlic sauce, the beef was perfect with a slight touch of mustard and mountains of triple cooked chips. We almost forgot to share.

Our main of calves liver with potato mash and bacon (£13) was less successful. Whilst our waitress indicated that it would be cooked medium, it was served more on the more medium–well side. Perhaps the problem was that the liver cut pretty thin? Aside from this whilst the liver itself was well seasoned, the addition of bacon really made it far too salty and I ended up abandoning it on the side.

Skipping desserts, and together with a few bottles of wine our meal came in at a decent £35/head. Not out of the ordinary for a gastro-pub in Islington, but not exactly what I would call an everyday meal. The Albion also offer a £300 whole roasted sucking pig for 10 which I have been meaning to organise. Perhaps a reason to return back then? I think so.

The Albion
10 Thornhill Rd
Islington, N1 1HW

The name Teatro del Sale, translates to theatre of salt though the irony in the name is that bread is Florence and Tuscany is baked without salt. 

Foreigners are entitled to five euro annual membership which is only attained after agreeing to abide by a rigorous set of rules. Afterwards we were shuffled into the dining room, paid our 35 euros a piece, before joining the masses collecting bottled water and carafes of wine and choosing seats on shared tables.

The dinner service itself is a bit of a performance and first up was antipasto. Crowds elbowed their way to the plates piled high with 10 different type of antipasto – eggplant, potatoes, artichokes, olives, bread salad and more, careful not to fill up too fast. The real night commenced when Chef Picchi himself charismatically appeared in an open window of the glassed in kitchen and announced his starter course of a delicious clear tomato jelly. No sooner had he made his announcement, 90 strong diners beelined to the window to claim their stake of the course. The jelly was smooth, rich and slightly spicy. Well worth the elbowing.

The next 2 hours felt like a food marathon. In fact it was. No sooner had we scoffed down one course, another would be yelled out and we would be quick to race to the serving station to collect that course. Food wasting is frowned upon, but going back for seconds is encouraged – so long as you bring back your dirty dishes to porter’s window.

Getting to the food, it was in short, amazing. Tender meatballs were followed by grilled sardines, then an amazingly rich clam soup, steamed mussels, mushroom risotto and ragu pasta. At this point we were getting a little concerned (and full) as we realised we were still on primi’s. The onslaught of food continued with roasted vegetables, Picchi’s signature ‘bone’ bread, braised tripe and roast chicken. If that already wasn’t enough food to feed an army, a selection of 2-3 desserts were brought out to end the meal.

Exactly 2 hours after we had entered the doors, tables disappeared, glasses were cleared and we rearranged our seating to face the theatre stage. Each night the teatro puts on a show and tonight was no different as we were treated to 2 acoustic guitarists. At that point, drunk and full, in my mind there was no better way to end what was already a memorable night.

Teatro del Sale is probably not an ideal dining experience for everyone. But if you can get over the self-service, occasional food fighting (all in good fun) and the requirement to speed eat, it definitely is something special. The food is amazing, portions generous and combined with the show, unlimited wine and bottled water I guarantee you’ll walk out thinking it’s the best 35 euro you’ll ever spend.

As unfortunately photography is prohibited, I don’t have anything but semi-drunken memories to go off on for this meal!

Teatro del Sale
Via de’ Macci, 118
50122 Florence, Italy

For months prior, I spent countless hours researching places to visit but more importantly places to eat. The lovely posters at Chowhound were our most valuable source of coming up a shortlist of possible restaurants to dine at. The way we saw it, 16 days = 32 restaurant meals give or take.

So after all that hard work eating our way through the region, I have decided that for part IV of my Italy series, I’m rounding up our favourite four meals. 

1. La Saletta, Certaldo
Via Roma 3, Certaldo

This small beautiful medieval town is home to La Saletta, a family run restaurant which emphasises on seasonal, local produce. With his 80-year-old mother in the kitchen, dear son runs the restaurant floor with efficiency and professionalism. Wine lists are extremely reasonable and a variety of freshly made bread is sliced as needed.

Appropriately named ‘sleeve’ pasta cinghiali (wild boar) ragu was rich and tender, and whilst it doesn’t appear to have a lot of sauce, had sufficient moisture to encapsulate the al-dente rings of pasta.

A fillet steak cooked to medium rare perfection was finished off with a thick Brunello di Montalcino sauce. The sauce was a clear star in this dish as it combined sweet certaldo onions, grapes and the Brunello to create something that was simply magical.

2. Trattoria Pallotta, Assisi
Vicolo della Volta Pinta, 3, Assisi

It was truffle season in Umbria, and there was no chance that Sam was going to miss out. Unfortunately forced to cancel our truffle hunting expedition due to bad weather, we figured the next best thing would be to find a good restaurant to eat them.

Strangozzi is the thick ‘spaghetti’ typical of the Umbria region. Made from semolina and water, the rough surface of the pasta means it clings better to sauces. La Pallotta served up am amazing home-made al-dente version of this pasta, tossed simply with umbrian olive oil and topped liberally with black truffles. Could we ask for more?

3. La Trattoria del Oscar, Bevagna
Piazza del Cirone, 2, Bevagna

Prior to the trip, we probably didn’t do as much food research into the Umbria region as we did Tuscany, primarily because it’s Tuscany that’s most renowned. Had we know what we know now, we probably would have eaten a few more of our meals in Umbria.

Bevagna is far from the most picturesque towns in Umbria. In fact I think it was the only Umbrian town we visited that wasn’t photographically perched atop a hill. But its secret gem is La Trattoria del Oscar, a small husband/wife run modern trattoria serving amazing food at very reasonable prices. Set across two levels, the bright restaurant seats around 30 and even boasts part of a Roman wall in its basement.

Let me make it clear that Sam and I will rarely order a soup at a restaurant. Not that we don’t love soup, but it has more to do with the fact that soup often doesn’t allow room for a ‘wow’ factor. La Trattoria del Oscar proved us wrong.

Our Pumpkin squash soup was a creamy, rich, smooth and velvety bowl of such intense pumpkin flavour I was blown away. Call me crazy, but it tasted like pumpkin should taste like. Served with cooked pieces of mouthwatering chianina beef and topped with soft pecorino, this dish was literally heaven in a bowl.

Any visitor to Tuscany or Umbria is guaranteed to eat ragu’s and a lot of them. Nearing towards the end of our holiday, we almost went against the recommendation of our waitress to order the pappadelle al ragu di chinina. Luckily we didn’t as this was by far the best. Perfectly handmade pappadelle tossed in a rich, sweet chianina beef ragu. Fantastic.

4. La Fiammetta, Rome
Piazza Fiammetta, 10, Roma

La Fiammetta is a relaxed, no fuss casual trattoria not too far from Piazza Navona. Famed for their eggplant parmigiana, it was their knockout penne carbonara that we fell in love with. There are no better words than to describe the dish as a no-nonsense plate of rustic love. Al-dente pasta was tossed in a rich sauce of egg yolk and fatty tasty speck. This dish took me beyond my wildest dreams of what good carbonara could taste like. Blow your socks off dining.

So there is it, four our our most memorable meals of the trip. Now that it’s all written and posted, I am amazed to see how I even managed to choose my favourites.

If you enjoyed this post, please have a look at my other Italy posts:

Italy Part I – the quest for offal

Italy Part II – To market, to market

Italy Part III – Taking on a bistecca fiorentina

If you ask a Londoner the best place to eat roast duck, chances are he’ll send you on your way to Four Seasons in Bayswater. The reputation of Four Seasons is so great that apparently in a past life, people would travel internationally just for a chance to taste the duck. Today, whilst the restaurant doesn’t have as much international fame, the restaurant is still equally popular as a duck destination. 

It is universally understood that no level of customer service is to be expected at this restaurant. Bookings are scarcely honoured, and your ability to get a table is really in the hands of the bossy lady with the clipboard. If your name isn’t on her list, you won’t have a chance at a table.

The menu is fairly typical of a Cantonese menu but in all honesty everyone here is only really interested in the roast meats. The usual offer of BBQ pork, roast pork belly, and duck is available in either single-person portions or sharing plates. With a fairly big group on the table we opted to order the peking crispy roast duck (£36) and a whole roast duck (£19).

The peking duck arrived first. Unlike crispy aromatic duck (the more popular version in the UK), Peking duck is the method of duck made famous in Beijing. The duck is air-dried and prepared in a special oven creating a crisper, textually pleasing skin. The skin is sliced off the duck and wrapped in thin pancakes alongside spring onions and hoisin sauce. The flesh is usually cooked up into a second dish eaten with the main part of the meal.

At Four Seasons, the duck was completely cut to be eaten with the pancakes. Unfortunately the pancakes were neither moist nor thin so we did need to apply a generous spoon of hoisin sauce on each pancake. The skin on the duck, whilst slightly crispy, appeared to be made crispy through deep-frying over anything else.

The roast duck arrived next, with bone (you can request it to be deboned but to be honest you lose a lot of meat that way). Flesh was moist and juicy, but the best thing about it all was the sweet soy juices that are poured on top.

A week following our Four Seasons visit, we found ourselves again in Bayswater seeking duck yet again. On the same stretch of restaurants in Bayswater only a few doors down lies Gold Mine. The story goes that apparently the old chef packed up his bags and set up shop in Gold Mine, taking a lot of his customers with him.

We decided to again order the Peking duck as well as the roast duck to better do a side by side comparison of the restaurants. From a price perspective both restaurants were similar.

Gold Mine’s Peking crispy skin roast duck arrived first and like the Four Seasons version, arrived completely sliced up. Accompanying the duck were thin, but dry pancakes as well as the usual hoisin and spring onions. The portion was far larger and but tasted pretty similar to Four Seasons. The roast duck on the other hand was a very generous (the ducks in the window look much larger than Four Seasons) plate of aromatic duck, with a slightly crisp skin that had soaked in much of the sweet soy juices that were poured on top. The sauce was far less sweet than Four Seasons, and the flesh fairly fat-free.

Overall I have personal preference for Gold Mine’s duck. For me it comes down to the combination of a larger portion and little fat under the skin. Whilst both restaurants are famed for their duck over anything else, I have tried dishes from both restaurant and again I feel Gold Mine has the upper hand in terms of quality and quantity.

With both restaurants consistently busy, it’s clear that there is a London divide as to who makes the best roast duck. Four Seasons does seem to have the slightly longer line, but if you can’t manage the thought of leaving your fate in the hands of the clipboard holding lady stroll up the road to Gold Mine. It’s where I will be anyway.

Gold Mine
102 Queensway
Bayswater, W23

Four Seasons
82 Queensway
Bayswater, W23

We visited on a Friday evening when the restaurant was in full swing. The patrons were predominantly non-Chinese (generally not a good sign), but I think most likely because of the restaurants location on the main Chinatown drag. For a restaurant that specialises in dumplings, the restaurant’s menu really doesn’t reflect this. On the inside cover of the menu, westernised set menus are proudly displayed (which explains the non-chinese clientele), and the rest of the menu divided by starters, dumplings, meat, seafood etc.

Given the restaurants claim to specialise in XLB’s I was anticipating more regional northern Chinese food, so I was surprised when the menu was mix of both standard Cantonese and northern Chinese dishes. Interestingly food with a north/west china origin was generally marked as a speciality of the restaurant, so it was with those dishes we stuck to.

Unfortunately with only two people to share the food amongst, we decided to stick with the XLB’s and a few cold dishes to start.

Our cold starter of drunken chicken (£4) arrived first. I have really fond memories of this dish from many visits to Shanghai. The dish is essentially cold white cooked poached chicken that once cooled is soaked in Shaoxing rice wine, absorbing the ‘drunken’ flavour. Unfortunately the Dumplings Legend’s version was a few slivers of fridge-cold white chicken which barely had absorbed the flavour of the Shaoxing. Not a good start to our meal.

Next to arrive were was a delicious plate of cold chilli Beef tendons (£4) which is interesting described as cold beef tender filet on the menu – what a major error if you didn’t actually eat tendons! The beef tendons were deliciously crunchy without being chewy and were marinated in a wonderful chilli oil that I just couldn’t get enough of. Major plus.

Our final cold starter, was a cold chilli cucumber dish with garlic (£3). Like the drunken chicken, this dish was a little blah. A good version of this dish should be presented with the garlic and chilli sauce absorbed through the flesh of the cucumber, yet still remaining crisp to the bite. Dumpling Legends version was simply sliced cucumber with garlic and chilli oil poured on top.

We had fairly high expectations of the XLB especially since the restaurant is apparently famed for it. We ordered both plain pork and crab meat/pork versions and I’m pleased to say that they did indeed taste different. The plain pork dumplings (£6, 8 per serve) had a thin skin, perhaps more moist than Din Tai Fung’s dry, malleable skin, but slightly thicker, all secured with a slightly-too-thick knot on top. The pork was flavourful and the broth inside the dumpling rich albeit not enough. Crab meat and pork XLB’s (£6.50) were similarly encased, and the sweet taste of the crab was obvious in both the broth and meat mixture. Eaten with black vinegar, the sweetness is even more evident. My small complaint is that I wished for slightly bigger dumplings (more soup) and finer chopped ginger slivers.

XLB’s at Dumplings Legend do pretty high on the London XLB scale and are definitely strides ahead of the current standards at Leongs Legend.

I’d be interested to go back to try some of the other ‘recommended’ main dishes to see what the quality is like in their mains.

Dumplings Legend
15-16 Gerrard Street,
Soho, London, W1D

I’m a bit sad to finally put this in writing, as for some reason it makes it seem a bit more real. But it is true and in less than one month we will no longer be residents of Islington.

Moving primarily to be closer to work, the sad thing is that we will really miss all the good food we have access to in and around Islington and the North East.

The positive news is that I’ve discovered Singapore Garden.

Situated on a rather residential corner of Swiss Cottage, Singapore Garden looks rather formal for something that so local. The wait staff are attentive, polite and dress in typical Singaporean dresses which brought back very fond memories of Singapore Airlines long-haul. Kitted out in typical Singaporean drapes and colours the overall feel is far from tacky but rather a very modern, subdued elegance. 

Visiting the restaurant for lunch, the tables are set with formal wine glasses, but are quickly whisked away when we politely declined wine. An iced jug of water arrived without question. Big tick.

The menu contains a rather overwhelming list of pan-Chinese food so on initial glace I was a little sceptical whether I was going to be fed authentic Singaporean meal. It wasn’t then until we found the area titled ‘Singapore and Malaysian specialities’ that we found the food words we were after – rendang, assam and sambal. Being lunch and looking for a one plate meal, we settled on Fried Kway Tiao and Singapore Laksa.

The Singapore Laksa (£8.50) was a generous curry laksa choc full of seafood, vegetables and (some would call mandatory) fried tofu puffs. For me a perfect laksa base needs to have a balance between cream, curry and spice. The laksa broth at Singapore Gardens managed to be both perfectly creamy and curry at the same time with a subtle spice which was easily pumped up with the addition of chilli. Without a question probably one of the best laksa soup bases I have eaten in London.

The fried kway tiao (£7.50) was not as successful, and whilst the fried rice noodles had a nice char, and the egg was well cooked through the noodles, the dish lacked any other excitement. Portion-wise it was much more generous than say Sedap, but again I have always though the portions at Sedap to be a little mean.

Despite only trying two dishes here, I am rather excited to have good Asian food in my new ‘hood. No doubt I will be visiting Singapore Gardens more frequently in the future so I hope to expand this post at some stage. The restaurant also has a rather interesting cocktail list which I hope to try on my next visit.

Upon leaving the restaurant, we noticed that the Swiss Cottage branch of Atari-ya has set up shop a few doors down, bringing to the North West all the fabulous sushi the group sells from their Acton shop. And whilst our move is still another month away, I am pretty keen to make another visit shortly if only to give it a go. Sushi anyone?

Singapore Garden Restaurant
83 Fairfax Road
London NW6 4DY

Visting italy food markets without access to a kitchen was pretty tough. Seeing mountains of porcini, fiori di zucca (corgette flowers), tartufo (truffle) and without a means to experiment with them had begun to get frustrating. So when we finally moved into our apartment just outside of Greve-in-Chianti there was no question that we would get our cook on. The only question was what. Then we saw the Chianina T-bones.

Chianina beef is from the prized white cattle from Val de Chiana near Arezzo. One of the largest and oldest breeds in the world, it is the Chianina cows that give the prized bistecca alla fiorentina or Fiorentina Steak. Prized for its tenderness and flavour, the t-bones steaks are usually served at least 2 inches thick and prepared simply without any sauces.

After getting our hands on a 1.6kg marbled monster, we sought advice from the butcher as to how to go about cooking it. After deciphering his instruction (we got there eventually — his italian + hand signals/our poor italians + hand signals) we knew to take the bistecca out of the fridge into in ambient temperature at least 4 hours prior to cooking; heating a hot hot grill; placing the steak on the hot grill, without butter, or oil; waiting 7 minutes; turning over and seasoning the cooked side (not beforehand); cook for another 7 minutes; season the other cooked side; then rest, carve and serve.

Without a grill we knew we wouldn’t be following his instructions perfectly, but still we had high hopes that it would all work out. Armed with a frypan (that barely fit the steak!) and gas hob, we heated the pan until it couldn’t be heated any longer. As soon as the steak hit the pan, the amazing aroma of natural fats filled the room. And then we waited.

I honestly don’t think I have ever been so stressed about cooking a piece of meat before. In our minds we knew that there was no possibility of overcooking this beast – after all it was 5cm thick. But that didn’t stop the nerves getting to us.

When we turned the steak over at the 7 minute mark, we were surprised to see how good it looked.  A firm crust had begun to form on the outside, and as we seasoned the cooked side with salt, the crystals barely penetrated the surface – keeping the flesh moist inside.

When we finally removed the meat from the pan we noticed the pan had tablespoons of natural fats that had rendered from the beef. After letting the beef rest for a short period (just long enough to take these photos in fact), we wasted no time cutting it open.

Perfectly crusted beef, rare on the inside. Juicy, tender and flavourful. What more could you ask for in a bite of food!

Italy Part I – the quest for offal

Italy Part II – To market, to market

Italy Part III – Taking on a bistecca fiorentina

Italy Part IV – The restaurant roundup

Over the course of our Italian getaway we found ourselves seeking out markets, festivals and food fairs just for the opportunity to sample various regional cuisine. In a country where food is life, believe me it wasn’t too hard.

Here’s our rundown of the best and worst of our market adventures…

Local growers food Fair, Firenze
2nd October

Late on a saturday afternoon we stumbled across this food and wine market set up in the Piazza Della Republica. Highlighting regional Tuscan produce it was here that we first discovered pecorino fresco. Needless to say that we consumed copious amounts of this soft, ewe-milk mild version of the formaggio for the remainder of the holiday. Oh and tartufo – both black and white.

Boccacesca – Food and Wine Festival, Certaldo alto
9th October
Set atop the picturesque ‘high-town’ of Certaldo, this annual food fair celebrates wine and food from the region. It was at this fair that I tried my first Sopressata Toscana. This large (up to a foot long and often several feet long) Tuscan sausage quickly became my favourite cold meat. Made with basically the whole hog head (tongue n cheek included!) the sausage is prepared by boiling the whole head of a pig, chopping, seasoning and then mixed with the highly gelatin cooking liquid to form a sausage. The texture in parts is crisp like cartilage and at other parts, rather meaty.

The area is also famous for its Cipolla di certaldo or Certaldo purple onions. These onions are unbelievably naturally sweet. So sweet, I am not sure my caramalised onions (after much TLC) end up as sweet. We ate these at any chance we could – fried (onion rings), tossed in pasta (with pork and fennel) and braised to form the base of an amazing Brunello di Montalcino Chianina filet sauce.

‘Butchers for Children’ charity market, Panzano in Chianti
10th October

Boy do the Italian know how to put on a good charity event. Stumbling upon this street fair in Panzano in Chianti one Sunday morning, we had no idea what culinary delights lay ahead. Indeed had we known, we probably wouldn’t have eaten brekky that morning. After our best attempts at an Italian conversation with the Nono guarding the wrist bands, we realised that the sea of people beyond the barricade we’re all taking part in some sort of charity raising event. ‘Butchers for Children’ they rather inappropriately called it.

Rather skeptically we paid our 10 euro suggested donation, and passed into what we soon discovered to be food heaven.The street was full of people, wine and food. We quickly realised that this wasn’t just a ‘taste a few bits of salami’ type of fair, but rather a full on food affair. Hot plates and bowls of food were being ladled out and handed through the crowd with effortless Italian flair. Plate after plate of beef ragu, braised beef, sausages, tartare beef, crostini di lardo, zuppa, porchetta and prosciutto were piled into our willing mouths all washed down by free-flowing wine and prosecco being poured by all to willing local butchers.

And when we thought that we could not possibly eat another bite, one of the butchers ceremoniously brought out the pièce de résistance – a succulent sucking whole roasted pig. So crisp, so tender, so moist, so juicy that in that moment I felt my life was that much more complete. I was 100% content.

‘Cuochi e Beccai’ festival for the Chianina beef, Greve in Chianti
10th October

Vegetarians beware. A visit to Toscana is really not complete without a taste of their famed Chianina T-bones. Whilst staying near Greve-in-Chianti we were lucky enough to stay at a beautiful Agriturismo called Podere Casa Nova. A family farm stay managed by their charming (and gorgeous) son Mario, we ‘food connected’ immediately when he delivered home-grown heirloom tomatoes, family made wine (complete with lees), olive oil and vinegar to our farmhouse door. He also informed us that his father (a local butcher in town) was going to be cooking at the annual Chianina festival the following day, and that we should definitely visit town.

Drawn by the aromas of BBQ meat, we found ourselves in Greve town square the following day, watching all the butchers in town tender to a smoking BBQ full of 1.5kg Chianina t-bone steaks. Mario’s gracious father even paused during cooking to allow Sam to get a few shots of the prized meat.

Eurochocolate Festival, Perugia
16th October

For a few days in October Perugia plays host to the Eurochocolate festival, an annual event rather famous worldwide. The festival is quite literally a chocoholics dream. Every major chocolate manufacturer is there mixed in with boutique chocolate makers from all over the world. The whole city had an aroma of chocolate and we were in heaven.

Often I find it so hard to find different ways to describe how amazing food is, and I do worry if I come across false. But believe me when I say that the markets that we visited during our 2 week trip literally took our breath away.

If my Italian food journeys interest you, stayed tuned for my next post where I will attempt to document the delicate process of home cooking a Chianina t-bone steak.

Italy Part I – the quest for offal

Italy Part II – To market, to market

Italy Part III – Taking on a bistecca fiorentina

Italy Part IV – The restaurant roundup

Many people will ooh ahh over foie gras or liver pate yet strangely cannot stomach the though of eating stomach, cartlidge, or brain. Personally I enjoy the texture of offal and enjoy experiencing the love and tradition that has gone into slow cooking an ordinarily hard protein to cook. Whilst I would never rave on how head to tail eating demonstrates greater respect to the animal (as many other do) I do enjoy knowing that no part of the animal has gone to waste.

Sam and I are major suckers for offal. We see tripe, sweetbreads, pigs ears, marrow or liver on a menu and there is no discussion about not ordering it. So it goes without saying that on our recent trip to Italy, we went nuts for the tripe. And lot’s of it.

Here’s our official offal roundup of Tuscany and parts of Umbria:

Teatro del Sale – Firenze
Fabbio Picchi’s casual theatre pumps out some amazing dishes during the 2 hour, at least 13 course ‘buffet style’ meal (separate post to come). One of the highlights of the bargain 30 euro dinner was the amazing garlic, olive oil and tomato trippa, slow braised to mouth-watering perfection. If you don’t like tripe after experiencing this tripe, I’m afraid you never will.

Da Vinattieri – Firenze
Quite literally a ‘hole in the wall’ this traditional trippa e lampredotto stand is masterfully hidden through an archway just off Via del Corso. They serve traditional Trippa alla Fiorentina as well as Lampredotto. Slow braised in a tomato sauce, the tripe was tender and one half of the bun was dipped in the tomato broth to soak up the juices. Unfortunately the tomato sauce was a little bland which could have easily been fixed with a sprinkling of salt.

San Lorenzo Market – Firenze
Here we tried the lampredotto which is substantially more offaly that white tripe. I have been told that it is the last lining of the stomach which would explain the thinner texture of the offal. The meat is more tender, perhaps owing to the fact that it is flatter than trippa, and is again slow braised in a broth. Ask for a lampredotto bagnato and one side of your bread will be soaked in the juices. Whilst the lampredotto was tender, there was a clear offal taste that even to me was a little strong. The other major let down was the fact that the bread was slightly stale.

Piazza de’ Cerchi – Firenze
Again we tried the lampredotto and this time we were not let down. The bread was amazingly fresh with one side soaked in braising juices. The stomach was tender and did not at all have a offal smell. Best of all it was stuffed to the brim and the lampredotto was served with a generous helping of chilli picante sauce as well as a green sauce (salsa verde).

Boccacesca Festival, Certaldo, Toscana
Trippa Fritta. You don’t have to be a linguist to understand what it means. Having never eaten tripe crumbed and deep-fried before, I must say it was rather pleasing. The outside was crisp, yet the tripe was super tender and succulent – evidence that there was some pre-frying slow braising to this tripe. I might go even as far to say that it’s a strong contender to kick crispy salt pepper squid off its pedestal.

La Trattoria de Oscar, Bevagna Umbria
A little husband and wife team run this amazing restaurant in Bevagna. The chef got us on his side immediately when he sent out few complimentary slices of sopressata. Sopressata is a Tuscan sausage basically made up of anything left over from a pig, from its head to tongue. The sausage has a varied texture and this one in particular was really flavourful. This was followed by a lightly tomato braised tripe served with generous shavings of soft pecorino. The tripe was delicate and simply melted in our mouths. Combined with the pecorino – bliss!

Looking back now I don’t think we ate nearly as much tripe as we could have though I did feel fairly ‘triped out’ during the trip.

Stay tuned for more Italy posts… that is if I can even find the words to describe how amazing our food experiences were!

Italy Part I – the quest for offal

Italy Part II – To market, to market

Italy Part III – Taking on a bistecca fiorentina

Italy Part IV – The restaurant roundup

Just behind Tottenham Court Road is Giles High Street, an unassuming row of cafes and 4 Korean restaurants. Today we were to try Assa, one of the busiest in the row.

Entering the restaurant at 6:30pm, the place was packed to the brim and it didn’t appear they could fit us in. However after a short wait at the door, we were ushered downstairs into what looked like a karaoke room set up with tables. Already filled with diners, we were seated and promptly brought a sort of weak cold rice tea to drink.

The menu has quite a few of the normal korean staples – bibimbap rice pots, beef bulgogi with rice, spicy rice cakes – but being so cold outside we opted for once of their many  hot pots and a korean pancake.

Complimentary banchan of seaweed and bean sprouts arrived at the table after ordering. I was pleasantly surprised, as whilst this is pretty standard in Korea, the US, Australia or even New Malden (London’s Korea town), it almost never happens in central London.

Making way for a portable gas cooker on the table, our marinated Beef and Kimchee hot pot (£15) arrived next. The hot pot was a mixture of marinated bulgogi beef, kimchee, tofu, mushrooms, veges and potato noodles all in a kimchee broth. As the broth came to a boil, the ingredients cooked fairly quickly and we wasted no time digging in, drinking up all the kimchee broth with a some rice. The broth wasn’t too spicy so if you do like it hot, then you may want to request it.

Our Seafood pancake (£7.50) arrived next. Chock full of squid and vegetables, the pancake was fluffy and not doughy or over fried. Sam went so far to compliment it as one of the best pancakes we have had for a while.

For £26 we left the restaurant happy and well fed. Now to try the next restaurant on the row!

Assa
53 St. Giles High Street
Covent Garden, WC2H8