Hello out there. Yes, I’m still alive and well. Thanks for checking on me. Often.
I realise it has been the longest I have ever left between posts and I am noticing an interesting pattern in my traffic statistics – the longer between posts the more often you visit. Not a particularly good incentive to keep posting, but it really is about time.
May has been a busy month. My friend, Ray, arrived from Australia on 5th May for a month, my Mum arrived on the 10th for the summer, the same day my friend Geraldine (the one with strong opinions on bolognese) arrived from France with brother and boyfriend in tow and I had an exam. All lots of fun except the last part.
So if I’m still alive I must have been eating stuff. Yes, lots of it. To get things moving again I thought I’d share some photos of some of the things I have been eating in May.
Yipin
I had been wanting to go to Yipin Hunanese restaurant in Islington for several years and I finally made it at the beginning of May. What took so long? Well, the menu is largely made up of offal so I had a hard time convincing friends to come with me. Then I remembered my friend, Andy, who I hadn’t seen in a while. He used to be game to try new things. Used to. Turns out he wasn’t so keen on offal, but we had a lovely meal there anyway. Here are two of the things we ate:
Mandarin spare ribs
Dry fried green beans
Caravan
The night my Mum arrived we had dinner with some family friends at Caravan. I’m sorry to say it was disappointing. It wasn’t that it was bad, it just wasn’t especially good and it didn’t help that I had heard a lot of good things about it. Some dishes were fabulous, such as these ham croquettes with creamy, mustard mayonnaise:
But others were trying too hard – taking fusion too far with too many confused flavours. For example, these razor clams with fennel, parsley, orange and capers – sounds great right? Yeah, until you add nuoc mam dressing.
Two out of the three mains we ordered were fine, but nothing special. The other, crispy lamb shoulder with braised gem lettuce was delicious, I’ll give them that, but that was mainly because deep fried anything is usually a good idea and I’d never had deep fried lamb shoulder before.
Still, it was lovely evening with great company and copious amounts of wine, but we could’ve done that at home.
Shakshuka
I was anticipating a hangover after Caravan, so I had breakfast ready to go on Saturday morning. I just had to chuck it together in a pan:
Shakshuka is a recent discovery for me. I saw it first on Ottolenghi’s Meditteranean Feasts. I’d had similar things in the past, for example Eggs in Purgatory, but I’d never had the Israeli version. I have been making it a lot since, both the traditional one that is demonstrated by Dr Shakshuka on the programme and Ottolenghi’s modern, meaty version.
This was the traditional shakshuka. I’ll post both recipes soon.
The Engineer
Later that day we met my Mum, Geraldine and some friends at The Engineer pub in Primrose Hill. Since Geraldine is likely to read this post and since she is, like me, a pendant, I feel I ought to admit that I am cheating with the photos here. I didn’t actually take my camera to the venue on this occasion. I’ve been several times before (it is in my North London suggestions). These are two photos of things I have eaten on other occasions there:
What I actually had was a starter of crab, apple and avocado followed by a burger with smoky bacon jam and bone marrow. The starter was just what I wanted – light, fresh and delicate – but it wasn’t as good as Geraldine’s cured salmon. I rarely order cured salmon as I am usually disappointed, but I really wished I’d ordered it this time after the little mouthful Geraldine was kind enough to tease me with.
The burger wasn’t so good. The smoky bacon jam sounded really interesting and on its own it was, but along with the bone marrow and a huge beef patty it was overkill on the meat front and I ended up scraping most of it off, which left a bog standard and rather boring burger.
Smoked salmon recipe
The next day, Ray and I were feeling in need of fresh vegetables, so I made a smoked salmon salad with lots of greens, including broccoli, asparagus and edamame, among other things. I’ll post the recipe for this one of these days.
Charlie Chan's, Cambridge
Ray was staying in Cambridge for most of the time she was here, as her PhD supervisor is based there (smarty pants). I have lots of family friends in Cambridge and she was staying with one of them so I went to stay for a weekend.
I can’t go to Cambridge without visiting Charlie Chan’s for dim sum. It is a small menu, but what they do they do very well. They must just get old Granny Chan in for the day shift cause the dim sum is deliciously light and fresh, unlike the rest of the menu. I have probably chosen the worst picture to illustrate this point, but even the fried things are not overly greasy.
Parkholme Supper Club
For an early birthday treat, Ray and her boyfriend, Wade, took me to the Parkholme Supper Club. I thought it would be a nice thing for them to do whilst in London and I hadn’t tried this one before. I liked the fact that it was a small number of guests (14) all sitting round one big table and also that all the proceeds go to MSF. The house was gorgeous – a huge terrace with a lot of care taken on the interior decoration (check out the bathroom if you go).
The food on this evening was done by a guest cook, a Spanish girl whose family are from Morocco. There were lots of lovely mezze to start, followed by chicken, lamb and vegetable tagines and the best baklava I’ve had in London.
Tomyumpkin soup
After a month of mayhem, I needed something simple for tea (not least because of a depleted bank balance) so I made one of my favourite staples, which I like to call Tomyumpkin soup. It’s pumpkin soup with tom yum paste and its amazing. I’ll post the recipe eventually.
