Burgers, an institution - New York

We do love our burgers over here in the UK. I mean, how else can you explain the constant expansions of new Gourmet Burger Kitchens, Ultimate Burgers and Burger Shacks across the capital. With the addition of Byron and Hache, and more recently, the highly researched Hawksmoor burger, burgers in London are constantly improving and appear to be moving in the right direction.

The thing is, London and the UK in general is very much behind the US in the burger stakes. Over in New York, burgers are a way of life. Here, where at the moment it seems to fulfill a purpose, out in New York, it often fulfills a passion.

I wanted to sample the best New York had to offer but the choice is vast. I mean, check this article out. It lists New Yorks 82 most notable burgers. All independent outlets, the choice is simply vast. I have been taken to JG Melons (not even mentioned in the former list) before, so chose the Shake Shack after Foodbymarks recommendation and the BLT Burger on my cousins.

Shake Shack



Shake Shack are famous for three things, their burgers, their custard shakes and the often monstrous queues. Originally modelled on a "roadside" shack in the middle of Madison Square park, Shake Shack now have 3 locations spread all over New York.



For some unbeknownst reason, I managed to totally miss the crowd. I turned up just before 7pm and needed to queue a mere 3 minutes. I had passed by at lunchtime and the famous queue was in action, its big and never seems to go down as more and more people stream in to get their hands on one of these revered burgers. They even have a webcam to monitor the queue situation so you can plan your attack. A minute after I ordered, the famous queue had once again begun to snake its way round the park. How jammy am I!



So, was this burger any good then? Two moist and tender patties of brisket, with chuck and short rib thrown in. Not greasy, a good yielding but firm bun (an essential component of the burger) and most importantly, a well rounded and deeply beefy flavour. A fantastic example of a burger. It almost made me begin to understand why some people would queue for over an hour for one of these (but not quite).

Special mention needs to be given to the special Salted Caramel frozen custard milkshake. Pure heaven in a plastic cup. Yes, it is as good as it sounds.

Shake Shack (website) - Madison Square Park, Madison Avenue and East 23rd Street.




BLT Burger



BLT is not named after the famous sandwich of the same acronym, but stands for Bistro Laurent Tourondel, chef and proprietor. My cousin likes it as she has a 15 month old daughter and the restaurant is extremely child friendly. It seems that this is not always the case in New York and word clearly spreads. On my visit, it was full of rowdy "Football" fans out the front, whereas the main dining room was crammed with strollers and young families.



The combo's are definitely erring on the expensive side ($17 for burger, fries and a shake). In this case, I opted for a "Rocky Road" shake. This was a chocolate shake filled with bits of brownie, almond and marshmallows. The shake itself was lovely but it was a little OTT on the added extras. It felt like a whole meal on its own.



This burger is a combination of chuck, sirloin and rib eye and is again perfectly pink. Whereas the Shake Shack aim for medium rare for every burger, you get to nominate how its cooked here. Medium requested, medium received. Again, a good bun but I was rather perturbed by the massive lettuce leaf which tried to prod me in the face every time I tried to take a bite. Here, they take extra measures to keep the burger moist. They soak them in cold water and glaze with butter before cooking, indeed keeping the burger moist and succulent, but I didn't find the flavour as good as the Shake Shack burger.

BLT Burger (website) - 470 Sixth Avenue, New York



So what's the verdict? The burgers in New York are clearly good and I really admire the dedication of the two burger joints I visited. I definitely favour Shake Shack but wasn't blown away by either. I still have great memories of JG Melon and am slightly sad I didn't revisit it on this trip, but I guess I will have to settle with the fond memories.

Whitecross Market - EC1

A quick pictorial break from my NY posts.

Prior to my WMPC swap with Food Urchin this week, I decided to pop up to town early and check out Whitecross Market.

Located on Whitecross Street between Old Street and Moorgate, Whitecross Market is thought of as one of the oldest markets in London. Predominantly a "general" market selling all sorts of bric-a-brac during the weekdays, it also becomes a food fair on Thursday and Friday when food retailers invade to provide vittles for the local work force.

It was fairly busy when I went, although I suspect much of the lunch crowd had already passed through. Here are a few of my pics:











If you fancy a few more pics, you can see them here.

Gramercy Tavern - New York

On my recent trip to New York, one of the things I wanted to experience was some fine dining, American style. I wanted to try and grab a table at Corton, highly recommended by Simon Majumdar of Dos Hermanos, but it appears my two weeks advance notice was insufficient. I needed closer to 2 months. A quick perusal of the Michelin guide showed that New York has quite a wealth of Michelin stars. Although not always a good indicator of a good feed, it certainly helps to point you in the right direction. One choice stood out, the Gramercy Tavern. Close to where I was staying and it looked like it served highly seasonal, high end American cuisine. A few clicks later and a table was booked.

The Gramercy Tavern is a truly stunning space. The Autumnal colours of soft oranges and browns of the dining room matched the changing seasons outside it's front doors. With a bar and open space bistro at the front of the restaurant, we were led past their roaring wood fired oven (where they freshly bake their own bread amongst other things) to our table towards the rear of the restaurant in the heart of their fine dining section.

We were given a menu and the waiter went through the list one by one. Most of the dishes appeared to be "amazing" in his humble opinion. And indeed the menu did appear "amazing", I wanted to eat everything, this menu was going to take some negotiating.



Calamari and Carrot Salad - A seemingly straightforward dish but it was absolutely bursting with flavour. Thin strands of perfectly cooked squid interlaced with uniform julienne carrots. There was an intense smokiness from the squid, I assume that these were flash cooked on a char grill, and the toasted pine nuts added another level. The zingy confit lemon dressing, the perfect bedfellow for these deep flavours. A highly accomplished dish illustrating what you can achieve with a simple combination of good ingredients.



Lamb Pappardelle with olives, lemon confit and swiss chard - Originally on the menu as a starter, I couldn't resist but upgrade this starter to a main. I love lamb and I love pasta, win win. Or so I thought. The potential combination of flavours really had me quite excited. In conception, the ingredients lend to an almost Mediterranean feel and I am sure that this would have been delicious had the chef not decided to lump a handful of salt into it. All the delicate flavours of the lamb, lemon and swiss chard, totally obliterated. On a good point, the pasta was well made and well cooked.



Pork Croquette with potato puree and bitter greens - This was a much more accomplished dish. The massive pork croquette was formed from slow cooked pork shoulder and just fell apart as I poked my fork into it. The unctuous meat of the shoulder, with strands of fat holding the croquette together, was well seasoned and was complemented by a smooth and buttery mash (although a teensy tiny portion).



Blueberry Corn Sundae with toffee popcorn - Before I start, I think I should let you into a bit of background. I love sweetcorn. In every format. If I had to eat only one thing for the rest of my life, it may well be sweetcorn. When I saw this, I ordered it immediately and certainly didn't regret it. Mounds of silky sweetcorn ice cream sat atop a blueberry compote studded with sweetcorn. On top, a dribble of cream and scattering of toffee popcorn. Truly scrumptious.

This was the first proper meal I had on my eating Odyssey of New York and it certainly got the trip off to a bang. It's a beautiful restaurant, one of the nicest I have been in, with plenty going for it but even the extravagant dining space can't cover up some of its failings. Poor seasoning is a cardinal sin in any restaurant, let alone a Michelin starred one. The saltiness in my main was unforgivable and on reflection, I should have sent it back, something I have never done before in a restaurant. And before I could get really annoyed, that joyous dessert turned up.

If you're in New York, give it a go. But if they serve you over salted pasta, just don't be scared to send it back.

Gramercy Tavern (website) - 42 East 20th Street, New York NY 10003

A Man Who Brunches - New York

Back in London, we can always rely on the good old English full breakfast. Sausages, bacon, beans, mushrooms, hash browns, toast and lashings of butter all washed down with a mug of builders finest. Over in New York, they turn their noses up at such delights and instead opt for Brunch. Eaten slightly later (normally between 11 and 1), we are talking pancakes, thin strips of streaky bacon, eggs any and every way, all washed down with as much filter coffee as is humanly possible. No nonsense.

I love the English attitude to breakfast, but the New Yorker's have managed to reinvent it all on their own. In the few days that I have here, I managed to fit in three different outings for brunch:

'Wichcraft:


Wichcraft is essentially a chain of upmarket sandwich shops scattered across New York. Created by the same man who runs the chain of Craft restaurants, a fine pedigree in itself, the order of the day is sandwiches with a bit more thought and execution than your everyday Pret. They serve mainly to a lunch crowd but have a range of sandwiches to cater for the brunch crowd. I went for what was called "Fried Eggs" which contained bacon and Gorgonzola alongside the aforementioned eggs. I even picked up a slight warming chilli kick, a nice if unexpected touch. All washed down with a decent coffee, a great little place to drop by if you're on the go and in need of nourishment.

'Wichcraft @ Flatiron (Website) - 11 East 20th street @ Broadway, New York




Clinton Street Baking Company:


When asking for New York dining recommendations, one place that is never far from most peoples thoughts is the Clinton Street Baking company. Located on the Lower East side, it's not exactly near all the other local tourist haunts but is certainly worth the detour. Famous for their pancakes, unless you arrive the minute they open, you are in for a wait. I was there around half ten and was told a 45 minute wait would ensue. 10 minutes later, wave upon wave bustled their way through the front door, only to be told they would have to brave the elements once again as the wait had now increased to an hour and a half.



Inside, it's tiny. People are seated wherever there is space, be it near to the coffee machine, at the window or in the actual "dining room". Even so, the atmosphere is jovial and the service efficient and with a smile. I think the promise of a good feed helps, but I happily passed the time with a coffee and stared into the kitchen, mesmerised as the brigade of chefs produced dish after yummy looking dish.



Eventually, it was my turn and I took my seat at the "bar" and ordered. I went for the French Toast Brioche with Pecan and Caramelised bananas, and as if that wasn't enough, I ordered a side of smoked bacon. I know I should have got the pancakes but enough has been said about them and I wanted to try something different. And the french toast was fantastic. Delicate brioche dipped in egg and fried, the toast still moist and soft but certainly not soggy. The caramelised bananas added a nice sweetness and the pecans crunch. Bacon was crisp, smoky and not greasy, a winning combination.



Clinton Street Bakery certainly had a lot to live up to, and even with a 45 minute wait, I actually enjoyed every minute of it. If anything, the wait just built up my hunger and I demolished my food the minute it arrived. Worth the trek and don't be surprised if you're there a while.

Clinton Street Baking Company and Restaurant (Website) - 4 Clinton Street (btw. East Houston & Stanton), New York




Spoon:


Conveniently located on the ground floor of where I was staying, Spoon is a relative new comer to the Brunch stakes. Originally opened as a catering outfit, it serves coffee and sandwiches during the week and opens its doors to the Brunch crowd at the weekends.

Family friendly, a rarity in New York it seems, it was packed to the gills with well behaved and well dressed young children. I went with my cousin and her one and a bit year old who proceeded to cause a ruckus, throwing veggies heavenwards whenever possible, only to generate coo's of forgiveness from the adults around her just by pulling adorable faces.

The brunch menu is limited but irresistible. I wanted to eat everything. Pancakes were on there as standard, in both blueberry and chocolate versions, but I wanted something more savoury and went for the baked eggs.



This was like baked eggs deluxe. Alongside the two baked eggs was sausage meat, spinach, mushrooms, they even managed to pack a hash brown in there. It was topped off with a Parmesan crust and was a very hearty brunch. Lucky that, as it was the only thing I ate before I boarded my flight back to blighty.

A fitting end to a rather OTT feasting trip. Rumour has it that Lucy Liu is a local and often comes to Spoon for brunch. I didn't spot her this time, but the next time I am back in New York, I may well be camped in Spoon on the look out.

Spoon (Website) - 17 West 20th Street
(between 5th & 6th avenues), New York

The Blaggers Banquet - November 15th 2009

in aid of

Just a quick post to let you all know of an exciting event that the blogging community are organising.

On the 15th November, the food and drink blogging community are taking over the Hawksmoor on Commercial Street for the inaugral Blaggers' Banquet. This is an event where 50(ish) food and drink bloggers pool resources and rely upon their finely honed blagging skills to organise a 50 cover four course meal with a charity auction, all in aid of Action against Hunger.

There will be bloggers sourcing, bloggers cooking and bloggers taking care of you throughout the evening. And at the end of it all, you can tell us exactly what you think of us. In fact, we may even let you take pictures of the food ;)

If you would like to come, there will be a dedicated site created shortly and all the details of the event (ticketing and otherwise) can be found there. Will link to it as soon as I have it.

More importantly, if you would like to help at all, be it by donating some food we can cook or a prize that we could auction, please email me at tehbus@googlemail.com. All donations are welcome, although it will be up the organisers to sort out what they need.

For other details, check out Eatlikeagirl's, the Wine Sleuth and Ginandcrumpet's posts!

Many thanks in advance and here's to a successful night!

Addendum, people I have blagged stuff from so far and have offered to help in some way (THANK YOU!):

WMPC: Mum's Chicken Rice (a recipe!)

Where's my Pork Chop? Sorry Danny, but you're not going to get it off me.

Not so long ago I attended a very interesting meeting of food bloggers discussing PR engagement. After this contretemps, we all congregated to the pub and socialised over a few bevvies. I got talking to the Food Urchin and he explained to me a little project of getting bloggers to cook him a meal every week. A few beers later, I had agreed to participate.

I love cooking, but it scares me. I am far too critical of my own food and care far too much what people think. What the hell had I let myself in for?

Anyway, in my minor panic and long deliberations about what I wanted to cook, I decided to resort to a dish I had never cooked before but I knew was delicious, my mothers chicken rice. I never really use measurements, but I have tried to provide them where I can. I mostly cook to taste.

Mum's Chicken Rice (enough for two)



2 x Chicken thighs (deboned and cut into chunks)
2 x Chicken drumsticks
200g Jasmine rice
A handful of chestnut and shittake mushrooms (sliced)
100ml of dark soy, light soy and oyster sauce
1 chilli
A "thumb" of ginger
2 cloves of garlic
Chicken stock for the rice
Sesame oil and spring onions (optional)
White pepper

1. Mix the light and dark soy with the oyster sauce in a mixing bowl, add the chicken, season with white pepper and then leave to marinade.

2. Chop the ginger into fine pieces and crush and chop the garlic. Wash and then dry the rice so most of the starch is removed. Fry the garlic and ginger gently so the flavour is released and then add the rice and cook for a minute so the flavour is combined with the uncooked rice.

3. You can transfer the rice into a rice cooker or saucepan. Cook in 2/3rds stock, 1/3rd water. Keep an eye on the rice, it needs to cook halfway.

4. Whilst the rice starts to cook, remove the chicken thigh pieces from the marinade and stir fry on a high heat. Once sealed, reduce the heat, add the mushrooms and chilli and continue to cook. Add the marinade and some stock until a gravy is formed. Corn starch can be used to thicken.



5. Once the chicken is cooked, add the chicken and gravy to the half cooked rice and continue to cook the rice until it is light and fluffy.

6. Whilst the rice is finishing cooking, fry the drumsticks so the skin crisps up. When the rice is done, serve up together with some finely chopped spring onions and a drizzle of sesame oil.

Fingers crossed, this recipe turns out to be as good for you as it has been for me over the many years that my mum has cooked it. Bon appetit!

Vamos a Iberica (an invite), Great Portland Street

Picture the scene. I'm sitting in a pub in deepest darkest Soho. I have just been served a strange foreign beer by a heavily tattooed woman, decorated with a variety of adornments pierced through her nose, ears, lip and any other appendage which dares hang loose from her body. Just when I think the evening couldn't get any stranger, I meet a mysterious Spaniard who is experiencing "troubles". Of what nature, your guess is as good as mine. As usual, in any awkward conversation, I try to bring it back to my comfort zone. So I attempt to pester him about food to get his mind off whatever is bothering him. Eventually he reveals that Iberica is his favourite restaurant before descending into the dark fug which is beginning to form around him. I get away before I get drawn into this ever evolving downward spiral.

So, a couple months down the line, I received an email from Urbanspoon asking me if I want to give Iberica a go. Fate? Probably not, but I'm going to go anyway. If any of you don't know what Urbanspoon are, they are essentially a place to find somewhere to eat, with reviews supplied by the public to help make up their minds. I contribute to Urbanspoon and they post my reviews and send me readers. I scratch your back and you scratch mine.

Iberica is located at the upper end of Great Portland Street and is a formidable space. It's massive windows and numerous light fixtures lend to a lofty and bright dining room. Inside, it is broken up into various sectors, with a generous bar area, surrounding tables, a dedicated dining area towards the back and newly opened fine dining restaurant upstairs (called Caleya).

We sat down and had a chat with Marco, one of the joint owners. Here he regaled a few stories about how the restaurant came to be, and of the effort that he had gone to ensure that Iberica was Spanish through and through. This included the tiles in the bathroom to the lampshades, designed by a Spanish lampshade designer! When it comes to the food, not everything can be sourced from Spain. Where it was too difficult or cost ineffective, they try to find alternative local sources. This ranges from the Galician chicken (which are allowed to roam wild to create a more muscular meat, almost resembling red meat) which they convinced a British farmer to start breeding for them, to the Hake, which comes from Dorset but is swapped with the Spanish fishermen out on the seas.



We were ravenous by now, so started with the trio of Iberican ham with a glass of Tio Pepe sherry to accompany it. Smooth, with the nutty flavour running through the fat only found due to the pigs diet of acorns. Expertly sliced into thin slices, this didn't last long but was a noble prelude to the meal. The sherry was dry and intensely woody, nice, but I think I still need a bit of convincing to convert to a sherry drinker.





As soon as we had consumed the ham, our next trio of dishes arrived. The ham croquettes were luxuriously viscous, studded with ham and covered in fine breadcrumbs. I have no idea how they got them onto the plate in one piece, they were so fragile. Calamari were accurate with a light batter and a gum sucking dollop of alioli to help it down. The "broken eggs" with chorizo was probably the most interesting dish. The chorizo appears lightly fried with the panadera potatoes, their oil staining the potatoes a slight crimson, and finished off with an egg mixed in. A really hearty dish, although the level of salt had me reaching for the water more than once.




(I realise that the quality of the pictures deteriorate somewhat during the night. This may have been due to the fading light, or the increased consumption of wine)

Onto the larger dishes. Here we had monkfish parcels, squid ink cooked rice, and a churrasco (rib of beef). We hadn't actually wanted monkfish, but the hake had proven to be rather popular and had been sold out. The monkfish was incredibly meaty, and just needed a squeeze of lemon to bring out all its flavour. I have never had anything with squid ink before, but its use in cooking the rice adds a hint of the sea, whilst giving the rice a creamy texture. Thrown in a few prawns and few pieces of the aforementioned squid and you have an extremely tasty dish. However, be warned. It is incredibly heavy, I was struggling after a few mouthfuls. Last but not least, the churrasco, a steal at £8.95. By this stage, we were beaten, destroyed by the multitude of courses before us, but I had a mouthful for the cause and I can certainly vouch for the beef. Cooked for 2 days, its tender and moist, infused with the flavours of rosemary and garlic.

I can see where the mysterious Spaniard was coming from. He may be a troubled young man but he certainly knows the food of his homeland. Iberica is a great restaurant selling fantastic tasty food. It may be a little out of the way, but it was packed to the gills. I think that probably tells it's own story.

Iberica (website) - 195 Great Portland Street, W1W 5PS

Kiasu, proper Straits food - Bayswater

Kiasu has quite a following in London. Located in the secondary Chinatown that is Bayswater, it differentiates itself from its popular neighbours (Goldmine and Four Seasons are a few doors down one way, whilst Royal China and Mandarin Kitchen can be found down the other) by selling Straits food. Originating out of Malaysia and Singapore, many of its dishes are based on hawker stall classics, where they often sell for no more than about a pound a dish. The prices are clearly not comparable here in London, but even so, each main comes to easily under a tenner.

To give this place the once over, I brought two of the harshest critics of Straits cuisine I know, my parents. Both born and bred in Kuala Lumpur and brought up on char kway teow, prawn mee and nasi lemak, who better to judge whether the food was decent and, most importantly, faithful to true Straits food cuisine.




We started with some chicken satay and a rothi paratha, two staple roadside dishes. The satay were quite poor. Four paltry skewers of chicken, with inadequate spicing and a poor sauce. All the traditional accompaniments were there (such as onion, cucumber and pressed rice) but it felt like it had just come out of a packet. The roti, on the other hand, were very good. Crisp and compact, with a good homemade hot curry. Simple but nice.



For my main, I ordered Ko Lo Mee. In truth, I didn't really know what I was ordering, I was actually expecting something slightly different. The char siu (barbecued pork) and won ton soup were there as expected (both of a high standard), but instead of the dry egg noodles with dark soy I was expecting, I got a claggy mess of overdone egg noodles steeped in a sweet chilli sauce, seemingly straight out of a bottle. It was horrible. I tried to eat this and failed.



My parents mains were much more successful. My dads Char Kway Teow (essentially fried noodles) was superb. What's in it? There are probably too many bits and bobs to list them all here but my favourite bits were the generous amounts of Chinese sausage and the little nuggets of fried pork fat interspersed within the noodles, releasing individual explosions of flavour. If I had to fault it, the noodles were slightly greasy but that would be my only criticism.



My mum went for another straits classic, Hainanese chicken rice, and this was probably as good as you are going to get in central London. The rice was delicately flavoured with ginger and cooked in the chicken stock, with a light chicken broth on the side. The soya chicken itself was moist and was bursting with flavour, no mean feat considering the hard time chicken often gets for being a quite "generic" meat.

I am torn by Kiasu. Some of the food was sublime whilst some of it was a horror show. And the service, don't even get me started on that. It was slow and we had to ask them for various missing dishes, numerous times. I know it was busy but that shouldn't be an excuse.

"Kiasu" can be loosely translated as the fear of losing. I still think it has a long way to go to truly rule supreme in the London straits food standing. There are many pretenders to the crown including Rasa Sayang, Satay house and the newer chain, Jom Makan, to name just a few. I don't think it is quite "losing" but it has some way to go before it wins.

Kiasu (website) - 48 Queensway, W2 3RY