A Shoreditch Stodgefest*

Friday was a special day as Anne, Nicola and I went to the Bavarian Beerhouse near Old Street. I wasn't really sure what to expect but can confirm an authentic German experience was had by all. Dirndls, dodgy music and stodgy food were all in abundance, though we managed to restrain ourselves and not order Kleiner Feigling, even for old times's sake.

Tempting as it was to try some Weisswurst again (yes, I have had it before for my sins), we decided to forgo starters for fear of never reaching pudding. This turned out to be a wise move indeed and instead we kicked off the evening with pretzels (hurrah!) and beer. The pretzels really were everything a good pretzel should be - tasty, bready and crunchy, though I'm pretty sure we were brought margarine instead of lovely German butter.

In some ways, the beer menu was a little disappointing, but they have the main favourites and serve proper German measures of 0,3; 0,5 and 1 litre. I still can't quite bring myself to drink 1l measures outside of beer festivals though, not least because there is something hugely disturbing about having to lift up your drink with both hands. Anyway...Paulaner, Erdinger and Warsteiner were the main menu choices. I went with the Erdinger Hefeweizen which tasted predictably great. I tried to encourage people to order Diesel (beer and coke, for those who have never seen the horrors) but sadly nobody would.

Our genius idea for the main course was to order three meals and share them. I was particularly keen on this, as this was my first Bavarian style meat extravaganza since renouncing vegetarianism in all its forms a couple of years ago. A second tricky decision was made and we decided not to order Kaesespaetzle (lovely German pasta in cheese sauce) and instead plumped (I fear this may be the operative word for the evening!) for Kartoffelpuffer with salad, Schweinebraten with potato dumpling and red cabbage and Biergulasch (my views as an eduator means I am not prepared to translate!) with red cabbage and Spaetzle. I'd say all the food was very authentic - certainly tasty and very stodgy! The Biergulasch was probably the best dish though although the Schweinebraten (roast pork) was very tender and the Kartoffelpuffer (potato cakes) really got the mix of outer crispiness and inner fluffiness just right.


Potato dumpling has never been one of my favourite bits of German stodge, but that was good, especially mixed with gravy. The Spaetzle however were fantastic and if anyone has not tasted the brilliance of Spaetzle in general, then I'd certainly recommend trying them here. The red cabbage was also very good. It was sweet in what I thought was quite a sugary way, but there was a nice subtle aftertaste of what I suspect was cloves, and, being a German dish, caraway seeds.

None of us actually had any space for pudding, but that didn't deter us from ordering what is in my mind one of the finestfoodstuffs ever, Kaiserschmarrn. My Austrian cookbook doesn't offer a translation, though does note that the word Schmarrn iself means 'a trifle tossed off easily'. I however would describe Kaiserschmarrn as a kind of messed up pancake with raisins and this is exactly what we were given, with the added bonus of icing sugar, cream and orange. Delicious. And a perfect end to my pancake week.

*I am pretty sure the Beerhouse is not actually in Shoreditch. But I am not letting geographical accuracy interfere with the best title I could think of for this post. After all, it is certainly not far from there...

Pancakery

This has been a busy, and indeed, exciting, week for food and me.

On Sunday night I went to Numidie in Crystal Palace, ending the weekend in fine dining style with lambs liver in port sauce, fish tagine and creme brulee. It was, as expected, great. We also had wine, though as we had come straight from the pub I am not quite sure what it was. It was suitably amazing. Anyway they are doing 3 courses from the set menu for £14 on Sunday evenings, so anyone who can get down there probably should.

This week also saw one of the most important days in the carb-loading year, pancake day. As well as having pancakes out at the Breakfast Club at Angel (£5 for Scottish/American pancakes with maple syrup, creme fraiche and berries), I also had Ciaran and Leah over for pancakes, cider and general fun. Following Katie's bold example a few years ago, I did a first course of spinach and ricotta pancakes, salad and what ended up being a kind of yellow split pea hummus, followed of course by pudding pancakes. Sadly I have no photos, but had leftovers for breakfast the following morning and so can capture the fineness of batter, nutella, creme fraiche, blueberries and another unnamed fruit above.

During my foray up to Angel I also noticed that Tinderbox, a fantastic coffee place amidst all the many Starbucks there, has moved. So if you are ever over at Angel and in need of coffee, do not despair, just go to the newish shopping centre, look up and you will see it. How's that for a bad set of directions?!

Friday merits a post all of its own, so the culinary week ends on Friday with a trip to Pizza Hut at Baker Street. What can I say? It was everything I wanted and in many ways so much more - I even had my leftovers for Friday's lunch - but still not a patch on Dino's...how I miss them!

Hooray for Preston! Hooray for West Norwood!

Thursday was an eventful day. I went to Preston for work, which involved getting up at a wrong time in the morning, but was quite fun in the end as the people were LOVELY.

Lunch involved a trip to Cassandra's sandwich shop, which impressively my work contact walked me to, before pointing me in the right direction for getting to the office I was visiting in the afternoon. I had a sandwich involving either chicken or ham, or perhaps some odd combination of the two (cham?) and salad, which was good although involved too much (i.e. some)onion. Lunch pudding, however was one of the best flapjacks I have ever had. It contained cherries and what I would suspect were appropriate amounts of butter and sugar. If you ever find yourself in Preston, don't be put off by the scary nature of the Guildhall Centre, go in and eat oats!

Amazingly (Richard Branson does have his uses)I made it back to London town in time for the quiz at The Park in West Norwood. The Park is a lovely pub and has a good selection of beers and nice house wines (I have failed to notice what, but you won't be disappointed) and a fantastic quiz on Thursdays at 8ish.

The Park does wonderful pizzas and I had been fantasising about eating one from about Wigan onwards. As previously I went with the Pizza Funghi (£7.95)which was every bit as good as I had anticipated. Leah had one too and commented, 'it's like pasta sauce on dough'. This is indeed true. The tomato sauce is really good, and had a hint of chili, there was a good amount of cheese and the base was lovely and thin and crispy but suitably gooey in the middle. The best bit is that they even cut it into quarters for you. I have no idea if they are made there or are released from a cardboard box shortly before being served, but they are really very nice...

Hello, good evening and welcome

As some of you may know, this blog was conceived by me and Chris over Sunday lunch at the amazing Frontline restaurant near Paddington station. I decided that I wanted to combine my two loves of eating and writing (and indeed my third love, drinking) and set up a food blog. We then had the idea that with the power of the internet we could post updates during meals, becoming the ultimate tedious dining companion. Sadly the technology isn't quite there yet, so everyone will have to make do with me writing from home after the event for the time being. So in the spirit of sharing London's foodie pleasures with you all, here is my London town eating and drinking top ten, in no particular order...

1. Hampton Court Palace. The food here is amazing and surprisingly reasonably priced for a London tourist attraction. I had wild boar and pork casserole which was very good, but their chocolate brownie is one of the best I have ever had.

2. Sunday lunch at Frontline (http://www.frontlineclub.com/restaurant/). Frontline have their own farm from which they source their food, so the meal was just wonderful. I had egg and beetroot salad, followed by roast lamb and then chocolate soup with cracked pepper ice cream. This was one of the best things ever. And at £15 for a three course Sunday lunch, it is great value. And the wine list is fantastic.

3. Numidie in Crystal Palace (http://www.numidie.co.uk/). A fantastic French/North African bistro a ten minute walk from my current flat. The fish soup is particularly impressive and they even have Kir Breton.

4. The monthly slow food market outside the Royal Festival Hall. I went there today and had a hog roast for lunch and also bought some Iron Age pig sausages, which I cooked for my dinner with red wine, mushrooms, mash and red cabbage. Is this sounding like M and S food porn yet?

5. Vinoteca (http://www.vinoteca.co.uk/). This is near Farringdon. I hit my head on the wine shelf about half way through my lunch there, which is an indication of how much I was enjoying the beverages on offer.

6. Monmouth Coffee (http://www.monmouthcoffee.co.uk/). Shops in Covent Garden and Borough Market selling takeaway coffee and bags of beans. The coffee they sell is just amazing!

7. Mediterranea in Crystal Palace (http://www.mediterranealondon.com/). Back to Palace for this one. And the guys who run it have a stall at the local market, where they sell fantastically juicy olives as well as cheese and meat. Anyway, it is worth shipping out to the surburbs for the olives alone.

8. Just Falafs, Covent Garden. Admittedly the last time I went here it appeared to have closed, but the falafel is brilliant.

9. Ok a bit too general this one, but I really love Chinatown. Except for that time I thought it would be a good idea to order a whole crab.

10. Kurz & Lang, Farringdon. I was not in a good state when I went here, but it's the most authentic German sausage I have had this side of Stuttgart.