#FryHard

Yippee-Fry-Aye.

Shoreditch - April 2015

Lent. Traditional time of penitence and abstinence, before we all hail the chocolate rabbit god laying eggs from whence the baby Jesus hatched  (I think I have that right). Basically, no badness is the general rule for many. Clearly Messhead (aka Chef Jim Tomlinson and Miss Cakehead) didn’t get the memo.

Last seen trying to recreate the taste of human flesh in a burger, this Easter holiday weekend they’ve been down at Boxpark in Shoreditch armed with a couple of deep-fat fryers and “a load of things you can just buy down the shops” (to quote the chef). The premise is simple: deep fry the shit out of stuff.

Abstemious this is not. Take that, Lent.

It’s hardly haute cuisine, but it takes a certain type of mad genius to think ‘what’s missing from a crème egg? Batter.’ And given they’d all sold out of those when we rocked down late on the first day, clearly the masses agree.

In fact, after a three & a half hour lunchtime rush, about half of the 100 options on the coronary-inducing menu were gone. No pancakes, no sausage rolls, no donuts (I totally love the idea of deep frying a deep-fried snack). 

But from the selection of what’s left, the best proved to be foodstuffs with a low melting point; cheese-strings and babybels become gooey treats and a rocky road is pure filth - now a squidgy warm cake filled with oozing melted mallow.

I don’t think frying improves a shop-bought scotch egg (but a fresh made one, with a warm runny yolk could be amazing). And in the case of jaffa cakes, the orange jelly melts away too much – leaving a mere disappointment of sticky orange essence.

It’s Willy Wonka meets Chip Shop. A fondue party in the age of austerity. And props to them for trying to answer a classic pub debate – what else would you, and what else could you deep-fry? Now, roll me to the cardiac ward.

Beer & Buns

I like big buns and I cannot lie...

Liverpool Street - 27 February 2015

Buns are big business. London’s premier steamed bun slingers, Yum Bun have a pop up in Harvey Nic’s (dahling), and their main rivals in delicousness, Bao, are about to open up in the heart of Soho. 2015 is the year Hirata hits the heights.

And joining them (on a temporary basis at least) are Beer & Buns, a six-month pop up near Liverpool Street that does exactly what it says on the tin. And a little bit more.

The location doesn’t immediately scream ‘exciting food pop up’. Above a sushi train in an outside-of-office-hours deadzone. But persist. Once you’re through the quiet & empty, up the blackboard painted stairs (with chalk for adding your own bun-based bon mots), you find yourself in perfectly on-trend Narnia of cool. The rock soundtrack speaks to my child of the nineties sensibilities, there’s table football & pinball, and more scope for wall-scribbling. And most importantly; beer and buns.

And wings.

The menu reads short and sweet; three types of buns (well four, but one was vegetarian), three flavours of wings.

The buns themselves are excellent – soft, fluffy, and pretty damn big; certainly the biggest buns I’ve eaten (that’s what she said). The star of the show is the signature bun; filled with chicken katsu and yuzu coleslaw. The chicken is moist and tender, the coating crunchy, the slaw creamy. It’s a winner.

The pork bun is nice enough, a thick slab of belly meat, but the pickled cabbage a touch bland and the whole thing lacks any punch – there’s allegedly some mustard mayo, but I didn’t notice it. The gf hit upon the perfect trick by dabbing her bun through the leftover sauce from the wings and said it was immediately improved. The duck is well cooked, but the supposed caramelised spring onions and advertised sauce add nothing to elevate it beyond good. In both, the base is there for something special - some bottles of Sriracha (or similar hot sauces) on the table would lift everything. 

And it’s worth reiterating that the chicken buns (with self-saucing slaw) are spot on.

The wings are great; deep fried, beautifully crisp and liberally coated in super-sticky sauce. And it’s satisfying to bite into a meaty, manly, whole wing, than the pitiful twiglets some places pass off as wings these days. This meat is tender and comes clean off the bone. The whole dish is three or four napkins messy. Yes, the 3 different sauces all taste similar; the sweet and spicy, and the Korean hot are virtually indistinguishable, but who cares, it’s delicious and filling.

The beer part stacks up well also, with an interesting selection of Japanese craft brews I’d never heard of. I’ve now added Hitachino Nest to my list of must-try again beers.

Beer & Buns is a tasty little find. Go there with a bunch of mates, get on the table football, grab some brews, smash through the chicken buns and wings, and you’ll have a banging night. BYO Sriracha.

Beer & Buns
'Upstairs @ K10'
3 Appold Street
London
EC2A 2AF

http://www.beerandbuns.co.uk/

Q Grill

Jump into the Q

Camden Town - December 2014

It may seem bizarre to say it now, but there was once a time - not all that long ago in the UK - when pork went un-pulled, ribs were almost exclusively spare, and smoking was something you did to your salmons.

Now you can barely budge for brisket and the place is practically dripping with BBQ sauce. If Marks & Spencer are selling pulled pork, it’s fair to say that BBQ is here to stay. And with this cross-over from fad to bona-fide culinary phenomenon, it’s gone upmarket.

My judgement of barbeque restaurants uses the Bodeans BBQ Benchmark – London’s stalwart original providing a solid balance between portion-size, price and flavour. But, a new breed of restaurant has sprung up, where the weight of the plate and the load on the wallet is more finely balanced. It’s within this more rarefied sphere that Q Grill operates; they’ve got a pop up in Selfridges and branded plates, so this clearly ain’t your standard smoked meat slinger…

It was to their original place in Camden that we headed this past twixmas in search of a meaty  antidote to all that turkey. Thankfully closer to Chalk Farm than Camden Town, the levels of rage Camden Lock invoke in me were avoided and I could rate my meal in a relaxed and balanced way.

All the staples were on show in the restaurant – bare wood, leather booths, rock n roll soundtrack, at least 3 beards. It’s a bit clichéd, but it works to create the relaxed vibe you want when chowing on barbequed meats, particularly when the room is as big as this one; there’s no sitting on top of one another as encountered at other places.

The food is of high quality too. They have a Josper grill that has been a signal flare of smoked excellence, in my mind, since trying the much-missed Ribstock 2012-winning ‘Roxas Racks’ from Redhook. And it’s put to good use in our first starter; a sac magique of juicy, fall-apart tender hen’s wings. Sticky, but sans sauce, the sweet meat is the star here with smoky flavours an able supporting act. And bonus points for serving them in a bag. As theatre goes, it’s hardly Hamlet, but it is fun and I’m easily amused.

Elsewhere we have a ceviche that is light and fresh, but lacks chilli kick and citrus zing that you get with the best, so it’s not hitting the heights of our experience at Lima Floral. But then we’re in a barbeque joint and not a Peruvian restaurant run by a Michelin-starred chef, so perhaps that’s an unfair comparison.  The plantain chips are a great crispy addition.

We went for a rib-fest for out mains; pork and shortrib. No visible smoke ring to the pork, but a nice crisp char to the outside which adds crunch to the tender meat. The quality and the flavour of the pork is the main event and shine through. Unfortunately the BBQ sauce that accompanies it is a huge disappointment – watery & insipid, it adds nothing.

The beef rib is impressive, to behold and to eat; meaty, glossy and deeply satisfying. It (note a singular rib – but a hefty one) does all the good stuff you want your shortrib to: fall apart at the merest touch, melt in the mouth, add an inch to the waistline. It comes swimming in an unctuous, glossy gravy, with sweet potato mash and roasted garlic. The whole dish is pretty bloody delicious.

So, where does Q-Grill sit in relation to the B-BBQ-B? Well, the meat and cooking is of a higher quality. This also means higher costs for smaller portions. For example, you’re looking at £18 for the beef – roughly the same price as an entire Bodeans platter. But with the standard of the dish, it doesn’t represent poor value. And here’s the kicker – if you sign up for their Casual Diner’s club, they’ll take £20 off your bill the first time you visit. Which made our tasty meatfest rather reasonable. Score.

 

Q Grill
29-33 Chalk Farm Road
London
NW1 8AJ
http://q-grill.co.uk/

Peckham Bazaar

Wanna know the rest? Hey, buy the rights...

Peckham Rye - December 2014

Getting to Bazaar feels like you’re going on a bit of an adventure. It’s not found in the usual Peckham hotspots like Rye Lane or Bellenden Road, and walking there seems like you’re heading into the middle of nowhere. But at the end of this unexpected journey, you’ll find something very special. 

We’d been dying to try the place for quite some time, after the food grapevine was a-buzz at the beginning of the year with talk of a small local place serving up incredible grilled meats on an outside grill. Unfortunately, a planned six week closure to move the grill inside stretched out to nearly six months, thanks to issue with extraction (some shit with a fan) and complaining neighbours. But it’s back. And it’s banging. 

Styling itself as a pan-Balkan grill, Bazaar was opened in answer to the lack of, in the owners’ opinion, any decent Greek / Turkish / Albanian food in London. That’s obviously a subjective point (I’ve had some great Greek & Turkish meals myself, and I suppose it’s been the classics), but if it has given rise to this place I’ll go with it. 

The food is all about up-to-date flavour combinations but without the faff of ‘modern’ techniques; you won’t find a waterbath within a mile of this place. Everything is grilled over an open charcoal pit at one end of the small room - which fills the restaurant with delicious smells and adds the occasional theatrical flame for good measure (incidentally, there have been Tr*pAdvisor reviews bemoaning the smoky restaurant. We experienced nothing of the sort, suggesting that extraction works well). 

Also, the menu is ever-changing, dependent on what can be sourced from the markets at any given time. So there’s every possibility you’d never be able to try the food we ate, which would be a real shame, because a couple of the dishes were incredible (the others all decent).

For starters we have marinated octopus, which is smoky, spicy, well seasoned and tasty. A shame then, that it’s also not nearly tender enough. Chewing it, let alone cutting it into mouth-sized portions, takes some serious elbow grease. But the flavours are enough to make up for a lack of tenderisation. 

The mackerel we had was delightful, firm flesh, crispy skin and packing some serious heat from the esme salad. 

The heat is carried through into the mains with an amazing dish of partridge breast and leg, which manages the alchemy of setting your mouth slightly ablaze with adjika, while retaining a depth of sweet flavours in the meat and the sauce. More smokiness from the moutabel (mashed aubergine) complimented everything. The flavour of spices kept building in the mouth long after the food had disappeared, and when the dish was eaten clean, both Mr. & Mrs. Eatings looked forlornly at the empty plate wishing there was more. 

Next to it, the lamb dish felt a little washed out. Beautifully blushed pink, tender and juicy, with a fragrant sauce and creamy beans, it was a very tasty dish, but it really didn’t stand up to the powerful punchiness of the partridge. 

For desserts we had a cheese board, and to be honest, there’s a reason you don’t hear much about Balkan cheese. It’s always interesting to try alternative cheeses, but there was no trees being pulled up by this selection of pretty samey hard cheeses.

The baklava however, was a bigger success. Mr. Eatings is no fan of it, but the raptures my fellow diners were in, suggests it was a fine effort. Sweet and sticky, with a light rosewater hints, poached fruit and ice-cream to cut the richness. 

They're on to a winner here. The general consensus from the group was that the meal was delicious. There’s nothing bizarre about that. 

Peckham Bazaar
119 Consort Road,
London SE15 3RU

http://peckhambazaar.com/

Oh My Dog!

Where My Dogs At?

Nunhead - 19 November 2014

They say every dog has its day. At The Old Nun’s Head, that day is a Wednesday when Oh My Dog! takes over the kitchen.

It’s my favourite pub in London with a relaxed atmosphere and a strong selection of ales and craft beers. Moreover, their revolving door of kitchen residencies allows a variety of fine street food vendors (including the incredible Burger Bear) to hone their skills and develop an eager south-London following. OMD have been in there for a couple of months so we were probably overdue a visit.

I have to admit up front, I’m not really a dog person. Despite the hot dog’s growth in popularity over recent years, a hot dog will never be top dog in my eyes… My first love will always be burgers…That said, we thought these were tasty. The imported German franks have a porky taste, with the skin giving way with a satisfying ‘snap’ when bitten into (hours of Man vs Food having taught me this is the key to a good frank). Their demi brioche buns are dense, but they hold up well under the toppings.  And those toppings are excellent. 

On the Chilli-Steak Dog, the beef chilli is soft, juicy, with the spices balanced well so the flavour of meat isn’t lost; and the jalapenos and onions add twang. The Deputy Dog’s pulled pork is soft and smoky, touch dry, but the barbeque sauce is banging with a real kick to it.

The dogs are winners and have set my benchmark to judge other hotdogs. What actually got me more excited was their sides... First we had a portion of Meaty BBQ Beans packed with pulled pork (no worries about dryness here), at a strong 60:40 ratio. Now that is how you make beans – stick a ton of meaty goodness in there.

And then we had the Deep Fried Mac n Cheese; wow! Three monolithic blocks of fried mac n cheese with a BBQ dip. The mac is perfectly cooked; not a hint of stodginess or heaviness. The cheese holds everything together well, whilst the coating is crunchy, not at all greasy. Again, the BBQ sauce is sweet, smoky and spicy. Loved it.

While I will never love a hot dog anywhere near as much as a burger, these are fine examples of the genre. At £9.50 for the dogs, I think they’re also perhaps a bit on the pricey side, but I guess it boils down to one question; would I go back? Yes. For the Mac n Cheese alone. And while I was there, I’d have some Meaty Beans and then, well, it would seem wrong not to have a dog…

Oh My Dog!

Wednesdays @ The Old Nun's Head

15 Nunhead Green

SE15 3QQ

https://www.facebook.com/OMDhotdogs

theoldnunshead.co.uk