Momofuku, New York

Buns 

I just got back from New York for a friends wedding which was wonderful fun & obviously whilst there I made sure that I went to some amazing restaurants. The first one that I rushed to was Momofuku noodle bar for dinner, http://momofuku.com/new-york/noodle-bar/. Along side me was my old friend Jateen who came out to NY also.

On first impressions the decor seemed like a nicer Wagamama's (a lot more wooden), packed full of people & very loud rock music blasting away. We sat at the bar so we could watch the chefs working & ordered a carafe of the Momofuku house sake. I expected a small carafe but they literally bought what seemed like a jug of sake. Pretty good & only $21.

Ramen

For starters we had to try there famous "Pork bun" with hoisin, scallion & cucumber. It was absolutely delicious. I could of ate quite a few of them but as it is there is 2 on a plate. It was almost like crispy duck pancakes or at least the hoisin sauce made it feel like that. Either way, Yummy!

Onto mains, I had the "Momofuku ramen" which consisted of pork belly, pork shoulder & a poached egg. It was again, delicious! Really tasty slices of pork belly, lovely noodles & the broth was really tasty without being to heavy, if that makes sense. Jat had some sort of veggy mushroom ramen & he seemed a bit dissapointed with his but didn't really give a reason.

For dessert we went round the corner to the Milk bar http://milkbarstore.com/, which is part of the Momofuku chain & does cake & coffee. I had the "Crack pie" which is a tart based cake. I was pretty tipsy from all the sake by this point so I don't remember much about it, but it was sweet & a bit salty & I scoffed it down. I remember thinking it was good.
Jat left by this point & I really needed the loo so I tried to sneak into a bar across the road from the Milk bar & got completely spotted by the bar staff so ended up having a $20 Negroni cocktail. It ended up also being a Momofuku place called Booker & Dax, http://momofuku.com/new-york/booker-and-dax/. Lovely Negroni but I was wasted!

Anyway the meal was so great I took my godmother there for lunch a few days later & we had the pork buns again (still delicious) but this time for main I tried the "Chilled Spicy Noodles" consisting of Sichuan sausage, spinach & cashews. The waiter said it was very hot but I didn't believe them as usually when people say it's hot I find it never is but this was one of the spiciest dishes I've ever eaten. It was really really tasty! there was a good crunch from the cashews which were sweet & salty & the combination of that with the heat was brilliant.

I had to finish on a ice cream to cool the mouth & they had a sort of Mr whippy machine with one flavour, which was "Cream Cheese Sage". It was really quite tasty & cooled the tongue down no end. Anyone going to New York should definitely visit one of the many Momofuku restaurants, Milk bars or cocktail bars. They all seem brilliant.

Rita's Bar & Dining at Birthdays

So me & Daisy were having a few drinks in a nice pub called The Fox in Dalston trying to decide where to go for dinner around the area. There's some brilliant kebab places but I was up for trying a place called Rita's Bar & Dining, http://birthdaysdalston.com/food/ which is in a bar & club venue called Birthdays. The menu seems to be a cross of American, Asian & European food & sounds delicious.

We got there about 9 & the bar was pretty pumping as well as the dining area so we ordered a Negroni, quaffed that at the bar & got shown to a table in around 10 minutes.

We went straight in for a starter of "Black Sauce Wings" & a "Piston Head Beer & House Shot" to get the ball rolling. I necked my tequila & Daisy necked her bourbon & then we tucked into the delicious wings. The sauce was really sticky & sweet, I kept on getting flavours of ginger & honey & it reminded me of spare ribs that my folks used to make when I was a kid made from a recipe by the TV chef Rustie Lee. A great start!

Onto mains which were equally great but we were both let down by the sides. For my main I ordered the "Fried Chicken Roll" which we shared. The chicken was lovely & crispy & had a good hint of spice to it & it didn't taste greasy at all. Daisy ordered a "Patty Melt" which unfortunately got lost somewhere in the business of the night but when they did bring it, it was definitely worth waiting for! It was basically a burger patty with cheese on inside toasted cardamom bread. It was very juicy & the cardamom bread was a great addition. I could of ate 2!

For the sides we ordered "Green Chilli Mac & Cheese" & "Mustard Greens". I couldn't eat much of either as they both tasted so buttery or margariney, I'm not sure which, that they were both a bit unpleasant which was a bit of a shame because everything else was ace. But that was the only complaint as there was loads of other things I would like to go back to try like the "Bacon Brittle" & the "Haggis Crumb, Candied Walnut Salad" sound both amazing. Good place for a boogie afterwards if you can move & the patty was on the house which was very nice of them!

Hello, been a while & Agata e Romeo

So have been gone a while, mainly being slack & working but this hasn't stopped me from scoffing my way through some amazing restaurants in the UK as well as abroad (some awful places too). I've got quite a few restaurants to write about & this place was quite memorable in Rome last summer maybe not for the best reasons though.

The restaurant was called "Agata e Romeo" http://www.agataeromeo.it/. I've never been to a Michelin starred restaurant in Italy so thought whilst seeing family in Rome it would be nice to check out a smart restaurant. There is a 35 Euro lunch menu so me & my pa strolled up one sunny lunch time to try it. We tried to open the door to which I realised you actually had to ring the buzzer, which I thought was a bit rubbish straight away. We were shown to a quite nice bright room, lame surreal paintings though & were shown to our table. The waiter gave us our menus which seemed to be missing the lunch menu so I called him back over & got the lunch menu off him. So for 35 Euro you got a glass of red or white wine, pasta or spaghetti as a starter, a choice of 2 fish mains & a coffee at the end. We both ordered a white wine which was fine, got given lots of home made bread & little pizzette's which were lovely & for my starter I ordered the "Chitarrine al ragu di pesce" & my pa ordered the "Rigatoni alla Bolognese". Mine was guitar string spaghetti with skate & broccoli which was delicious. The ragu was really flavoursome & the fish was very nicely cooked. My pa's pasta was equally tasty & went down a treat! 

"Driest fish finger in the world"

So it was a big shame when the mains came! My pa ordered "Orata al Limone" which is sole with lemon & I ordered perch. Both came with spinach & both fishes were completely overcooked & both very under seasoned. The sole was vaguely passable but my perch was wrapped in breadcrumbs & was basically a big, dry fish finger, only not as nice. I had to ask the waiter for a lemon & I think even he thought it was dry so he brought a whole lemon to the table slice up. The spinach was ok though. We had our coffees at the end, paid & left & decided that next time we'll go for a slice of pizza on the Spanish steps. Cheaper & a lot tastier!

The Nut Tree

So for mothers day the other month I decided to take the folks for some slap up nosh somewhere different but near to where they live so I found out about a lovely pub near Bicester & Oxford called The Nut Tree http://www.nuttreeinn.co.uk/home.html which is in a lovely village called Murcott & has 1 Michelin star.
We went for Friday lunch & started by having a Campari & a couple of lovely nibbles (I think they were parma ham or prosciutto galettes). We scanned the menu everything sounded delicious & me & ma had to order the 6 course tasting menu, sounded ace! My pa went  for "Risotto of wild mushrooms" & we were shown to our table in a lovely bright room.
We were given some amazing home made bread & an amuse bouche of a soup with a little drizzle of truffle oil which was very tasty, then onto the six courses!

The first to come was "Fillet of Cornish mackerel". It looked wonderful as well as tasting delicious. It came on an onion tart with tapenade, pickled cucumber (which were deliciously tangy) & roasted peppers. The Mackerel was very tasty & went amazingly with the pickled cucumber.


Next up was one of my faves, "Pan fried terrine of pigs head & black pudding"! It was like a block of cake full of meaty pudding sitting on a little bed of sauerkraut, a schmear of piccalilli & there was a little fried quail egg on top which was perfectly cooked. The sauerkraut & piccalilli really set the whole dish alight!


Whilst all this eating was going on for me & my ma, my pa had his "Risotto of wild mushrooms" which was very earthy & had a wonderful mushroom taste. He enjoyed it very much & took a good half hour to eat it. Whilst he was eating his we were given "Roasted fillet of Cornish line caught seabass" It was a wonderful meaty piece of seabass & was served with wilted spinach & what I thought sounded maybe risky but was in actual fact incredible, curried risotto! It wasn't spicy but just had this incredible curried taste that was very moreish. A real winner & a dish that I really want to try again!

Onto the next & last savoury course which was "Roast cannon of Lamb" This was also bloody good. There was a torte of braised lamb shoulder with potato which was so tender & so so tasty. It just melted in the mouth. Under the cannon of lamb was creamed spinach so all in all another wonderful course. If I had to say anything bad about it, there was a few cubes of tomato which I don't think it needed but hardly a complaint.

This meant we were on to our desserts. What came up was one of the most beautiful & tasty desserts I've ever had. It was "Boiled egg & soldier" Obviously we were not sure what to expect until it came but it was a hollowed out egg shell with creme fraiche & vanilla mousse on a little bed of fruit (kiwi) with mango puree squeezed in from the bottom up. It was also served with a brioche perdu (creamy brioche), this was amazingly delicious. They also gave my pa one to which he enjoyed immensely. The staff were amazingly friendly & very kind!

So onto last dessert! We all tried something different, I had "Orange & Vanilla souffle" which was served with a blood orange sorbet. The souffle was light & fluffy & the sorbet was very refreshing. A very good souffle. My pa tried the "Warm chocolate fondant" which came with orange jelly, toasted almonds & cardoman ice cream. I tried a little of all of his & it was equally tasty. I especially enjoyed the cardoman ice cream. My ma had the "Rhubarb & custard" served with vanilla creme brulee & a yorkshire rhubarb sherbert. The brulee was lovely & ma enjoyed it very much.

This was definitely one of the best meals I've had for a while. We also had some lovely glasses of wine & I had a very nice sweet wine but can't remember the names of any I'm afraid. The sommelier was very enthusiastic & helpful. All of the food was absolutely delicious, the service was excellent & friendly & the pub itself has a lovely atmosphere. I will definitely go back, sooner then later though I hope!

Pitt Cue co, Misato, The Pizza Pilgrims & The Four Seasons

Pitt Cue

Working in Soho sometimes can be pretty hard when you're starving! There's just to much choice which is great but you end up taking 20 minutes to decide where you want to go. Here's a few places I've been to over the last month or 2 starting with the Pitt Cue co http://pittcue.co.uk/ .
Since opening there has been a wait of a couple of hours to get in after 7pm & because of the size of the place they don't take bookings. There ribs are supposed to be fantastic & last summer they were selling them out of a van around the South Bank area.

So one day I really fancied a burger & walked by Pitt Cue co only to see they do take out buns! One was a "Pulled Pork bun" & the other a "Beef Brisket bun". I went for the "Beef Brisket" & ran around to Golden square to chow down on the bad boy. The beef was lovely & tender with a lovely sticky BBQ sauce taste, crunchy slaw & pickles & served in a lovely brioche bun. Not soggy at all & scoffed it in a couple of minutes. They don't seem to do take out ribs yet but amazing takeaway & definitely a Friday treat AT £6.50! yumma.

Salad with my mayo

Next onto Misato, couldn't find a website but it's a Japanese restaurant onWardour street, number 11 to be precise. Everytime I walk past there's a huge queue but one evening I walked past & could see a table free so I popped in. Looking at the menu there was the usual thing (sushi & chicken teryiaki don) so wasn't hugely excited but I went for the "Tori Kara Age Rice" which is seasoned deep fried chicken, sort of KFC style but I ordered without the rice & extra salad mainly because I saw someone eating a plate next to me & the rice they served up was immense, enough to feed 2 probably. What I was given was pieces of chicken with a huge plate of salad, lettuce to be precise with 2 cherry tomatoes & the largest amount of mayo I have ever been given or seen on a plate! The chicken was ok but I couldn't eat all of the salad but for £8.50 including a can of lager & service I suppose it's a pretty good deal & that's why it's usually always packed. Good before a large night out!

Pizza from the back of a van

Next up is The Pizza Pilgrims http://www.pizzapilgrims.co.uk/ who make pizzas out of a oven installed in there 3 wheeled van. On the day I went they had 3 flavours Margarita, Nduja (spicy spreadable sausage) & "The Time Out" which had aubergine, black olives & rocket which is what I went for. It was a good size pizza, nice crisp base & good fresh ingredients. I added 50p for some extra chilli so my pizza cost me £6.50. Maybe a little steep I thought but it was very fresh & tasty & I would definitely go back to have the Nduja pizza next time.

Won Tons

Onto the last Restaurant which is in Chinatown called The Four Seasons http://www.fs-restaurants.co.uk/. They have a couple of restaurants around London & have been known for doing great roast duck, char siu & crispy belly pork. Lately though I've been really getting into there"Prawn Won Ton Noodle Soup" which is served in a great sized bowl for 1 & you usually get 6-7 Won Ton's, some Chinese broccoli & a good bit of vermicelli style noodle in a hot broth. I usually chuck in most of the chilli's & sauces that they put on the table & with a pot of tea & with the slices of orange at the end it usually comes in at £8.50. It's a really delicious & warming bowl all for under a tenner with dessert & a drink! Not bad.

Franco Manca

Pizza

So the other month I was living in West Dulwich & popped along to Brixton market for a wander. It's a great market, lot's of little restaurants, fruit & veg stalls & some vintage shops, well worth a little wander on a Friday lunchtime. I was mainly there for pizza & to go somewhere I'd been ages ago with Daisy & wanted to try again & that place was Franco Manca's http://francomanca.co.uk/.
It's set in one part of the indoor market & get's pretty busy at lunch time. They have a wood burning brick oven & make a damn fine pizza with it.

I went simple & tasty & had the "Tomato, Galic & Oregano" pizza with a lovely glass of Montepulciano d'Abbruzzo red wine (region my dad's from) & scoffed away! The crust is lovely & crispy in the right places & what I like about this pizza is that it's not so heavy because no cheese.  One very good pizza & one of many good reasons to go to Brixton. Oh & cost around £7 which I thought was good for a pizza & glass of red!

Mishkins & The Brass Rail

Dumpling

So the other Sunday me & my friend Jason were in the Covent Garden area feeling a little peckish for a snack rather then a full blown meal so we popped along to Mishkins, http://mishkins.co.uk/?referrer=true "A kind of Jewish Deli" as they call themselves. It was around 4 in the afternoon so they didn't have the full menu on, to late for lunch & to early for dinner.

They had a couple of things we wanted to try & I went for the "Chicken matzo ball soup" & a Strawberry malted milkshake. The matzo ball is a Jewish dumpling in soup & in general the soup was pretty tasty. Pretty simple I suppose, a few bits of carrot & chicken here & there but was nice & warming & a good snack. The milkshake was not bad to.

Jason tried the "Severn & Wye lox beigel with house schmear" & went for a chocolate malted milkshake. As beigels go it was very tasty salmon with cream cheese & served with a perfectly cooked runny egg. Not sure if it was better then a beigel on brick lane but very tasty & I believe the chocolate shake was good to.

Banana pud

Had to try a dessert so we went for the "Bananas foster" which is bananas cooked with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, rum & then vanilla ice cream scooped on top. It was pretty damn tasty & me & Jason had actually created something like this before but didn't know it actually had a name. Basically it was a comfort dessert, boozy & stodgey, in a good way.

Mishkins is a pretty cool place, you can sit at the bar as well & they do nice looking cocktails. Service was a little slow & maybe disorganized but friendly & I really want to go back to try there "Reuben on rye" which they apparently toast. The Reuben is not always which brings me to....

The Brass Rail at Selfridges! I went there with Tony (my bro) to try out there Reuben. A Reuben is basically salt beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, gherkin & Russian dressing. It's a whopper of a sandwich!

The Reuben!

It's been a famous spot in Selfridges food hall for a long time & we queued up with our tray & ordered a Reuben on rye bread each, I believe they usually serve it on sourdough bread but Tony explained how heavy & large it is, so the main carver who has been there over 33 years apparently, carved us up a Reuben on rye.

It was so big that I had to split the sandwich in half. It was tasty, the salt beef moist & the sauerkraut tangy & sweet. It did need some sort of punch so we ended up smearing loads of sachets of Colmans English mustard on. Overall very tasty & very large, though you can definitely share it with someone rather then getting a whole one each. It was a struggle to finish so had to leave the bread & just eat the contents. Mishkins for the Reuben next I think...