London Trip, August 2014

Let me preface this that this was not a foodie trip: We were there primarily for the World Science Fiction Convention, and ate a lot of meals based just on convenience to the ExCeL Center. That being said, the immediate area in and around the ExCel doesn't suck. Sure, it's a little overpriced -- although the full Big Breakfast at the Airline Cafe at the west end of the center is only £4.95 for one egg, sausage, bacon, beans, toast, and coffee or tea is a decent deal (similar breakfasts went for twice as much near our flat). But there's two Indian places and a Chinese restaurant just outside the center, and the fast food stations within include two more Indian (Mint Leaves is pretty darn good), Cho Zen Asian Noodles, Cornish Pasty, in addition to the more typical sandwiches, bagels, pizza and pasta.

We did have pub food a few times -- watch out for who runs your pubs, or you'll get repeat menus: The famous "Eagle and Child" in Oxford (where Tolkien and Lewis wrote and talked) and "The Castle" on Bishopgate (just north of the flat we rented) are both Nicholson pubs, and had the same food. At least the word "gastropub" never appeared: just good food in the pub. And cider: Aspall's is probably my current fave, crisp and light, very refreshing.

I'll have a few more posts, and add some photos to this one, but wanted to get it started so I don't forget.

One of the first things we did when we arrived was go to the Borough Market. Under the London Bridge's south end, it's long been a supplier for shops and restaurants, and is open to the public Thursdays through Saturdays.

We picked up some Croatian salami, olives, bread, nuts, and some cookies, but forgot cheese (d'oh). This provided lunches for the next couple of days when we were touring around London, Oxford, Salisbury, etc.

There are a number of to-go booths serving everything from curry to scotch eggs to fresh juices. Numerous butchers, a few produce places, bakeries, etc. etc.

While not as opulent as, say Barcelona's Bouqueria, it's still a foodie paradise.
I was particularly impressed by this game selection of burgers:



We meant to get back there on the second week, in particular to have food to take on the plane, but it never happened, and we dealt with some cheese and crisps we had left over in the flat, plus a brownie and a chocolate bar we bought in the airport with the last few pound coins we had.

{removed as I edited everything else}

Looks like a great trip. I love the Borough Market. Aside from the glorious food, I'm a glutton for history, and it has been around since before the Romans invaded in ad 46. (Most histories say 250 years old, but 250 years ago is just the date when Parliament finally said, "This place is here to stay," and protected the land on which the market takes place.

But definitely one of my "must visit" places when I'm in London.

I'm also glad to see London getting a little respect. I've always thought it was a tremendous food town.

Dinner on Friday, our first night, was one of the few places we'd made advance reservations: Sue had chosen Gail's Kitchen off the Bib Gourmand list, and we figured on a Friday night it'd be packed... it wasn't and I can't figure out why. Food was outstanding, and service very friendly (I could do without the metal patio-chair-like seating though).

I swear one of us took photos, but it's not on my phone or Sue's camera. The receipt also appears to have gotten wet or something and is completely unreadable between "Guests: 2" and "Balance Due." Given that this is the jet lag day, I can't even remember what we ate, except that the bread service was outstanding, we had lamb. It's a small plates kind of place, we only ordered four dishes, partly because we'd been snacking on stuff from the Borough Market all afternoon. Aha! By reading the online menu, I can remember what we ate:

• Burrata, grilled bread, smoky aubergine, marjoram, honey - rich, sweet and creamy, a nice start
• Lamb belly, pickled onions, tomatoes, oregano, aioli , grilled bread - Think a Publican pork belly dish, then make it lamb. Awesome.
• Porchetta, mash, BBQ jam, coriander - Less exciting: this had a breadcrumby filling instead of pork on pork. Very tasty, but not an awesome porchetta
• Stoneground polenta chips, burnt tomato salsa, sour cream - interesting, but not so successful: the chips are a little on the leathery side, and the salsa was more of a ketchupy squirt of fruity acidity with the sour cream than a salsa

Gail's Kitchen (2014 Bib Gourmand)
11 - 13 Bayley Street, Bloomsbury,
London WC1B 3HD
+44 0207 323 9694
http://www.gailskitchen.co.uk/#about

Saturday we'd taken a tour bus to Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath. I don't recommend doing that kind of tour, as you have barely enough time to see the attraction before you have to run back to the bus. There was some good gelato in Bath, though.

That evening when we got back, we walked to another spot Sue had picked out that wasn't far from our hotel, "Maggie Jones." It was billed as inexpensive bistro, but it felt more like upscale pub food. I liked it very much, but perhaps they need to change their marketing. The place is full of odds and ends of antiques, mismatched chairs and old-fashioned china plates. This time I've got pictures, and a readable receipt, because the online menu has already changed (always a good sign).

For starters we had potted shrimps, and a salad with stilton, bacon and walnuts. The salad was wonderful, the potted shrimps novel, sort of a rillette-like dish of shrimp in (I think) butter.

potted shrimps

bacon walnut stilton salad

I had the lamb pie which was on special, sue had a dish labeled shoulder of pork. I really liked the pie: great short crust, absolutely tender meat, and rich gravy which went well over a side of mash. The pork was very good, I can no longer recall what was on it, though, except for apples.

pork shoulder

lamb pie


The bread and butter pudding we had for dessert was nothing special -- no match for the Dublin versions we'd had last year.

Oh yeah: my first pint of Aspall's Cider. Wonderful stuff, one of the most refreshing drinks on the planet. Apple flavor is mild, low sugar, very crisp and bright.

Sat down, be cider

Maggie Jones
6 Old Ct Pl
Kensington, London W8 4PL
maggie-jones.co.uk
+44 20 7937 6462

Sunday was a more DIY tourism -- we took the train out to Oxford. I highly recommend the student-run walking tours that start near the tourist office -- they're pay-what-you-want at the end, and are allowed in buildings the commercial tours aren't.

We had a snack at the Eagle and Child, haunt of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and many others. Some of the pubs, including this one, require ordering and paying for your food and drink at the bar, and it's then delivered to the table (know your table number before you head to the bar). It's a Nicholson's pub, if you end up in one I can recommend the tomato soup with caramelized onions, and the onion rings. Crabbies makes both alchoholic and non-alchoholic "cloudy" ginger beer. I had the latter, very nice.

Eagle and Child
49 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LU
+44 1865 302925
http://www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/theeagleandchildoxford

That evening we moved into the flat we were renting for the week (sharing with another couple), and went for Pakistani at a place called Needoo's that wasn't too far a walk from the flat. We picked that from a Time Out "50 Best Indian" article a colleague in the UK sent to us. No pics, but very good food (although they were out of their famous nihari). Their samosas (we tried the meat and the veg) had a light crisp crust, they have a fantastic "peshwari naan" which is stuffed with nuts and spices. The curry dishes were appropriately spicy (my beef with okra was particularly good), and very rich (as my cookbooks say there should be, there was oil floating on the top of each). Other dishes included Karahi butter chicken masala, and Daighi slow cooked dry meat, which was very interesting and complex. We split a pistachio kulfi for dessert, and were disappointed to find it a prepackaged, on-a-stick item.

Monday, the last of our group (father and son staying in a different flat in the same building) arrived, and we did more tourism: British Museum, shopping around town, Covent Garden antique market. It's not really food-related, but behind one of the stalls in the market was this sign, which I think has to be the origin of the Monty Python Argument Clinic sketch's Abuse: "You make me want to puke, you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous pervert!"

Toffee Nose

As part of wandering around, we picked up tickets to the stage adaptation of "Let the Right One In" -- if this comes to Chicago, see it! With show tickets, we had a quick dinner at the pub just up the street from the flat, the Woodins Shades. This turned out to be another Nicholson pub, with the same menu as Eagle and Child, but thankfully it's a pretty wide menu. Fish and Chips were very good, another ginger beer. Others ate Macaroni and Cheese, Burger... I wasn't thinking foodie this night, I don't remember.

The Woodins Shades
212 Bishopsgate EC2M 4PT, London EC2M 4PT
+44 20 7247 4324
http://www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/thewood ... atelondon/

The big dining highlight I'd been looking forward to is Ottolenghi. I'm a huge fan of the Jerusalem cookbook (and the Plenty More book is on my xmas wishlist already), and we made reservations in advance. I'd hoped all six of us could go, but (a) their online reservation system didn't have anything for more than 4 people, and (b) while the vegetarian father could find plenty to eat, his picky-eater son would probably be stymied by the menu. So it was just four of us, with eight dishes (a couple repeats). I was a little surprised at how small the menu was: the Jerusalem cookbook has such a deep exploration of culture and cuisine, and there were only about seven each cold and hot dishes. It was also significantly less middle-eastern than I anticipated, being more just really good international flavors, less so mediterranean or Israeli.

The place has a small take-out area up front, with a few bar-like seats for quick eats, and a single long table down the middle of the narrow restaurant putting you cheek-to-jowl with all the other diners (I think there were some two-tops down the sides too).

Quail (sorry for the blurry pic). A quartered whole quail, with five spice, rhubarb and apple salsa and pickled yellow mustard seeds

blurry quail

Peach: Caramelised peach, mixed bitter leaves, spicy pecan nuts and Urfa chilli with Roquefort and yoghurt dressing

peach

Pork Belly: Roast pork belly, prawn and chilli sambal, pickled kohlrabi, nashi pear and char-grilled baby leek. Out-freakin'-standing. Perfectly crisp on top, unctuous without being gooey, great flavors.

pork belly

Lamb: Seared lamb cannon with spiced peanut sauce, piquillo pepper, caperberries and anchovy. (I only got a taste of the sauce here, but it was delicious, almost a mole)

lamb cannon

Tuna: Yellow fin, line-caught seared tuna with mixed sesame seeds and soy, honey, spring onion and ginger sauce. This was ordered by the other couple, it seemed pretty pedestrian seared tuna, but apparently was just perfect for all that.

tuna

Corn Cake: Served in corn husk wrapper, but lighter than a tamal, this included a beet salad. Probably the least successful of the dishes we had (notably not on the online menu right now)

Corn Cake

There was a very nice bottle of wine whose credentials have disappeared, and we took home a packet of pistachio-cheddar shortbreads that were like Tolkien's lefsa: crisp, sustaining, delicious.

Ottolenghi Islington
287 Upper St, London N1 2TZ
+44 20 7288 1454
http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk

JoelF wrote: this sign, which I think has to be the origin of the Monty Python Argument Clinic sketch's Abuse: "You make me want to puke, you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous pervert!"

No it isn't.

Roger Ramjet wrote:No it isn't.

I'm sorry, our time's up.

Actually, no, I visited quite a number of other places, but no more pictures. But I'll give a quick summary.

Wednesday:
By this point, our traveling companions and we were starting to have differing tourism goals: we decided to hit the Victoria and Albert briefly, then cruised up Portabello Road for some possible "riches of ages" (Sue bought a book on shoes). Our goal was to meet up with the others at 4 for tea at a place near the Spitalfields market, but when we got there, we were told you couldn't have afternoon tea (more than just pastries) without a two-day reservation... although their website says "afternoon tea every day." This was a disappointment, but we ate at The Castle pub just across from the Farringdon tube station. I had a bangers and mash that was pretty darn good, but no match for the version at The Hairy Lemon in Dublin last year. Sue had some fried calamari. Reasonable prices, tasty food, friendly service, nice atmosphere.

The Castle
34-35 Cowcross St
020 7553 7621
http://www.thecastlepublondon.com

We then split into two groups for theater: Four of us to the Globe for Anthony and Cleopatra (great production, with A&C seemingly in a sex farce while everyone else played it straight), the other two at a production of Richard III that was supposed to have Bilbo/Watson in it, but didn't that night. Afterward, we met up in Chinatown, where we were "looking for the place called Lee Ho Fook's, gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein." Apparently, though LHF has moved to the burbs, and there was a place called "Dumpling Palace" in its place, that closes at 10, so apres Theater wouldn't work. One of the few places still open late on a Wednesday was the adjacent Golden Pagoda. Crispy Duck and Beef Ho Fun were excellent, but prices were pretty high for basic Chinese fare (the two dishes came out to about $55).

Golden Pagoda
15A Gerrard St
London W1D 6JD
United Kingdom
+44 20 7434 2888

Thursday through Saturday we spent in and around the ExCeL Center for the convention. Saturday night, because of lines for the Masquerade contest, we didn't even get out of the building to eat, and just grabbed Indian from a stall called Mint Leaves, which turned out to be very good.

The Fox at Excel is sort of a TGIFriday's-ish version of a British pub -- less friendly, a little more commercial, but still order at the bar. Very good burger with stilton and chile jam, but they won't let you order below medium-well.
The Fox At Excel
Warehouse K, Excel Centre
2 Western Gateway
London E16 1DR, United Kingdom
http://foxbars.com
+44 20 7473 2288

China Palace was having what looked like a wedding party going on, so they guided us around the building to a back door, down some stairs, past some rooms where there was heavy smoking and mah-jongg playing going on, before we were seated. Service was very rough, but food was pretty good, prices reasonable. Above-average hot and sour soup.
China Palace
Unit R1 Warehouse, Royal Victoria Dock North
2 Western Gateway
E16 1DR, United Kingdom
chinapalaceexcel.com
+44 20 7474 0808

The last night we dodged the convention (I was watching the tweets from the Hugo Awards) and ate at Haz, a Turkish place which deserves some high praise. One of the best dining deals we had the whole week, they had a £12.95 two-course "Haz" prix fixe dinner and a £15.95 meze "Cicek" menu, both of which were steals. Sue and I both went with the Cicek, which included humus(sic), tabule (very lemony), kisir (a bulgur salad, and one of my new favorite things), Imam bayildi (eggplant), bakla (broad beans and yogurt), manca (?), borek (feta pastry), falafel, kalamir (squid), icli kofte (very similar to Pita Inn's kibbeh), kofte (ground lamb grilled), grilled hellim cheese, and patates koftes (potato fritter). This took two plates to deliver -- we probably could have ordered one and maybe one more appetizer for the two of us. Everything was fresh and bright, one of the most enjoyable meals we had, and just a block from our flat (they have several other locations).

Service was friendly, they were accomodating of our picky eater (and there was a variation on the Cicek menu for our vegetarian), we had a Turkish wine which was pretty good

Haz Wine & Dine
112 Houndsditch, London E1 7DJ
+44 20 7623 8180
http://www.hazrestaurant.co.uk

JoelF wrote:

Roger Ramjet wrote:No it isn't.

I'm sorry, our time's up.

, we were told you couldn't have afternoon tea (more than just pastries) without a two-day reservation... although their website says "afternoon tea every day."

"Tea to-morrow and tea yesterday - but never tea to-day."

But enough with the references to classic BritLit. Thanks for the outstanding report & pix!