Tuesday, January 29, 2013

"What I ate" Weekly - Issue 1

So this weekly round up is going to be a "thing" for me. Let's call it a trade off to try and at least keep up and get some constant content on here.

Paul's Pies

First out of the traps, the guys at Paul's Pies. Randomly, I used to work with one of the guys behind this, and he got back in touch letting me know about his new venture. "Do you want to try some pies?" he said. "Hell yes" I said. A few days later, a delivery arrived packed with four handmade and rather excellent pies. Dinner for the week sorted. Each pie is hand made and packed with whatever the box says (I think the venison and mushroom was my favourite). Knock up some mash and gravy and you'll have a rather excellent dinner. Thanks guys!

You can get your hands on a pie through their website HERE.

Outside

One of the highlights of the week was an unsurprisingly excellent meal at Silk Road in Camberwell. A local favourite selling Tsingtao for a couple of quid and a host of reasonably priced dishes from the Xinjiang region of China. We devoured the menu in under an hour and left as satisfied as food and beer can leave you. Order the lamb skewers, aubergine, homestyle cabbage and their dumplings. Roll home. 

Here is my old post on Silk Road


Nanban Popup
Tuesday saw me visit The Thatched, a lovely pub located in the heart of Ravenscourt Park, for a test run of Tim Andersons (he of Masterchef fame) menu of his upcoming restaurant Nanban. Based around the food from the South Island of Japan (Kyushu), we tried a number of strange dishes, from lotus root to ramen to kinako buttercream (or roasted soybean to the unaquainted). Best of the lot was a cheesy vegetable curry crowned by a slow cooked egg, crazy in conception but it just drags you in for that one more spoonful. Look out for the official Nanban opening in the next few months.

Nanbans FB page is HERE.


Deal


For a couple of months, my friends and I have been plotting to get away for a few days, them predominantly from their wives, me, away from the hustle and bustle of London. How we settled on Deal in Kent, I have no idea, but it's close, has a rather drab pier, and more pubs than you can shake a stick at. It was a pretty slack weekend of pubs, pizzas and pound coins (couldn't resist sticking some money into the fruit machines), with little gastronomy in sight. Thankfully, we came to our senses before our drive home and ended up at the Black Douglas Cafe on the Deal seafront, an excellent cafe recommended by Marina O'Laughlin. In our state, only the Black Douglas big breakfast would do, and the end results were exactly what was needs. I loved the look of the proper menu too and it  was packed on the Sunday we were leaving, which I guess says more about it than I can write in this paragraph.

Deal

More info on the Black Douglas cafe can be found HERE.

So there you go, roundup 1 done. Lets see if I can keep this up for another 49 weeks....

Deal

3 comments:

London Chow said...

Hmm... I've only have had lotus roots in double boiled soups. And even then, they are soft and crumbles easily to the bite. How are those at Nanban prepared? They certainly don't look boiled. Roasted perhaps?

Hollow Legs said...

Oooh. Weekly round up. What a good idea!

tehbus said...

@London Chow - I would go to say par boiled, although they were still firm and crunchy.

@Lizzie - Spread on how long I can keep this up for?