On The Town: London (Feb. 2012)

I’m currently having a bit of a love affair with Londontown.  While Paris will forever be my lover, London holds a special place in my heart as well.  You may remember that I was in London over the summer.  I had no plans to return so soon but the stars aligned and I found myself back in London a mere 9 months later. Luckily my list of eats was practically already compiled for me as a had a few places that I didn’t get to hit on my last trip.

Here’s the rundown…

The Bull & Last
168 Highgate Road
London NW5 1QS

Last time I was in London I REALLY wanted to eat at a gastropub.  Sadly, there were only so many meals I could do and gastropub fell down the list.  Luckily, I was able to make gastropub The Bull & Last my first food stop when I returned to London.  The Bull & Last is in a lovely historical house near Hempstead Heath (isn’t that name just magical?) and it honestly feels like you’re having dinner in a friend’s dining room.  It isn’t that small but it is super cozy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since this was my first meal after being in France I decided to transition from wine drinking to beer drinking.  Since I know nothing about beer (although it’s on my list of things to learn more about this year) I had the server help me choose.  I chose Camden Town beer because I liked the idea of it being super local. To start I had a fish soup with gruyere croquettes.  I could’ve eaten a dozen of the croquettes (I got maybe about 3 or 4) but the soup was not what I was expecting.  It was really just a brown fish broth.  It tasted fine but was so different than what I had in mind.  My main on the other hand was great.  It was roasted cod with an oxtail ragu!  Fish and oxtail!  Pretty much two of my fave things.  ANNNND it had gnocchi and something called “monk’s beard” which was the green veg in the picture on the right.  If only all of my fish dishes were covered in a meat sauce… so good!  If I had been in London longer I would’ve gone to B&L another time since the menu sounded so good.  Worth the trip to Northwest London for sure.

Moro
34 – 36 Exmouth Market
London EC1R 4QE
+44 (0)20 7833 8336

I’m currently in a bit of a love affair with Gwyneth Paltrow and her weekly GOOP newsletter. But with good reason, GP and her team have the best picks when it comes to travel!  They always pick the best shops and restaurants.  On my last trip to London I found a number of places through GOOP and was always impressed.  Moro was a holdover from my last trip that I was sad that I didn’t get a chance to visit.  Located in Exmouth Market (really just a street) they serve up Moorish foods and tapas.

I started off my meal with a salt cod carpaccio that was in a deliciously nutty and fruity olive oil and sprinkled with lemon and fava beans.  The Jamaican in me has the softest of soft spots for salt cod so I couldn’t resist this dish. While it was good it was definitely on the salty side but I did enjoy mopping up the saucy goodness with some bread.

From there I decided to go with a fish and had a fish (whose name I can’t remember) in a Romesco sauce.  This was my first time having a Romesco sauce and I have to remember to make it one day.  Romesco is a bit like pesto but made with tomatoes, red peppers, garlic and nuts (I think I found some marcona almonds in there).  The sauce was a such a wonder with it’s perfectly balanced flavours and a variety of textures to crunch with every bite. Loved it.

While my meal was delightful the thing I keep on talking about is the dessert.  Yoghurt cake with pistachios and pomegranates. Nuff said.

 

New Tayyabs
83-89 Fieldgate Street
Whitechapel, London
(44-20) 7247-9543

Last time I was in London I had to have Indian food and ended up at Dishoom.  It was good but it was a little too new and fancy for me.  Right before my trip this time around Mark Bittman wrote an article about Indian restaurants in London for the NY Times.  Perfect timing.  Most places seemed like winners but I settled on New Tayyabs because the location was convenient for what I wanted to accomplish on that particular day.  Tayyabs is a few minutes away from Brick Lane (the strip that most would associate with Indian food in London) and is down the street from the Whitechapel street market which was a fun browse featuring many Indian goods and various trinkets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Tayyabs is actually Pakistani and thinking about it I’m not sure if I’ve ever intentionally gone to a Pakistani restaurant.  Not that it makes a crazy difference either way.  Anyhoo, I hit up Tayyabs for a lunchtime feast.  And feast is exactly what I did.  I ordered a mango lassi to start which was almost a meal unto itself.  Everyone raves about the lamb chop appetizer so I started with that.    You get 4 lamb chops that have been flattened and smeared with a yogurt marinade and grilled to perfection.  They were so good kind of like meat lollipops.  For my main I decided to go veg and have the  Dhal Baingun which is a dal with eggplant.  Truthfully, dal has never been one of my fave things.  I usually find it kind of bland and uninteresting.  This dal was great and I loved the soft, smokey eggplant in it as well.  I ate it with naan and loved scooping up mouthfuls of dal with the fluffy naan.  Tayyabs was definitely a winner.

Borough Market – Kappacasein Dairy
8 Southwark Street
London, UK
Open: Thurs 11a-5p, Fri 12p-6p, Sat 8a-5p

Perhaps one of the saddest things on my first trip to London was simultaneously discovering the Toasted Cheese sandwich at Borough Market and then learning that they no longer had a stall at the market.  I was CRUSHED.  I loved toasted/grilled cheese and if Ruth Reichel votes it as being super delicious I trust her tastebuds and must try it.  Luckily Kappacasein is back at Borough which meant… TOASTED CHEESE FOR ME.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The famed toasted cheese sandwich features bread from Poilane in Paris, Montgomery Cheddar and a mix of onions, leeks and garlic.  How could one NOT fall in love with that?  After the first bite I truly understood what all the hype was about.  The bread was toasted and had a nice amount of fat on it for it to toast even better.  The cheese was pungent but mild enough for those who don’t like stinky cheese.  And the addition of the onion mix added a good amount of spice to cut through the cheesiness. Heaven.  I ended up back at Borough two days later and decided to go back to Kappacasein to get the Raclette since the line for it was very long the first time I was there.  Never mind the fact that it was 10 in the morning.  The Raclette featured potatoes smothered in melted Ogleshield cheese and served with gherkins on the side.  Best breakfast ever.

St. John’s Bakery
Arch 72, Druid Street
London SE1 2DU
Tel:

On my last trip I had dinner at St. John’s restaurant and enjoyed it.  I remember reading that they had a bakery and since I love trips I did a little digging and figured it all out.  Their bakery is located in one of the arches on Druid Street, a street lined with food producers and wholesalers that open up their storefronts to the public on Saturdays only.  It really is a cool strip with produce, cheese shops, butchers etc.  It seems a bit random when you approach but it really is quite cool.  Luckily I realized on Thursday that St. John was only open on Saturdays and planned accordingly.

Good thing I did.  Now, you may or may not know that doughnuts happen to be my middle name.  If I’m in a city with great doughnuts I must seek them out.  These doughnuts may be the best doughnuts ever.  They are known for their custard-filled doughnuts.  These are no ordinary custard-filled doughnuts.  The custard is magnificent.  It isn’t a sticky custard. It is cream, light and airy but not too airy, it still has body.  It is also vanilla-flavoured.  They also do a raspberry-flavoured doughnut that is also delicious but really, go for the custard.

Parliament

I just had to throw this in.  I had the opportunity to eat lunch at the private cafeteria at Parliament (where all of the MPs etc. eat) and they were serving… JERK PORK and RICE AND PEAS! I couldn’t resist!  The food was on the bland side and they served it with this coconut curry sauce (whaaaat?) but it was decent enough and I appreciated the effort.