Tag: Food

Spotted

We had dinner with Simon at the Spotted Pig. Had to wait an hour for a table which was okay as we found a wine bar we visited last year a block over called The Other Room on Perry St near Washington. I had some a nice meal of fried sweet breads, seasoned southern style somehow don’t expect to see the colonel offering this up anytime soon. Followed up with slow cooked shoulder of lamb wrapped in cabbage leaves with pan cooked lambs livers. Offally good.

Simon had a beet salad and tongue of beef.  We were really surprised by the texture nothing like an ox tongue. The muscles were kinda stringy like a slow cooked piece of beef.  Sam had a rich ricotta gnudi with butter sage sauce (think she had this last time too but it was a winner then as well). A giant mess of shoe string fries accompanied. Wine was an Italian carmignano not a variety we’d come across before provided nice company with our meals.

A precession of fancy cars rolled up as we were leaving, a few burly security guards and Jay-Z wandered in. I was almost accosted by said security as I wandered down the stais a few minutes after the others. Pretty good celebrity spot.

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squidfingers

Cleaning a squid can be tough and smelly work. It’s some good eating cooked on a hot griddle pan (better over charcoal but what isn’t?) and dressed with chilli, olive oil and lemon juice. On a geekier note there’s always some great patterns available for use over at Squidfingers site

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Saki

Saki is just opposite Smithfield market, it was surprising how quiet it was on a saturday evening. I’m sure the area is heaving with suits and media execs during the week. There’s a little deli upstairs closed weekends though so i couldn’t have a nosy through the goodies on offer. There’s a fair sized dining room with some benches around a sculpture that looks like a stalagmite and a bar downstairs.

Some deliciously fruity saki based cocktails didn’t make the menu easier to deal with so we opted for the 6 course chefs menu with flowers (it was Chelsea flower show week). The little morsels were damn tasty, i’m such a glut and feel cheated by the small portions. The vego was well catered for with an equivalent vegetarian dish and the sushi was suitably creative. A “main” of miso baked black cod nods to the chefs time spent in Nobu kitchens but the little prawn balls were probably the highlight of the night. Sam’s aubergine risotto was a delicate dish of aubergine and some small grains we couldn’t make out. Deserts were a bit of a let down whilst green tea ice cream can never go wrong the cake it was served with just didn’t inspire.

It got rather noisy when a large group of americans descended on the venue. Food was pretty darn good, amience was lacking but the cocktails were absolute winners. Small selection of wines, saki and umeshu. Not a cheap meal but good quality and you might get better mileage chosing a la carte i was incapable of making any decisions this night (just for a change). It’s around the corner from Fabric not that it’d be a winning combination for a night out though!

Saki Bar & Food Emporium
4 West Smithfield
London  EC1A 9JX
T:  +44 (0)20 7489 7033

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Pho

Pho Great Titchfield opened recently, i was quietly hopeful for a decent bite near Oxford Street. It was quite full, the menu looked promising. My initial impressions were it looked a bit smart, too many whitie staff and it looked like chinese chefs so was a tad skeptical as to how authentic the food would be.

We started with some Banh Xeo Chay. It was far too oily and the batter consistency was wrong. Personally i want these golden and crispy on one side and soft and fluffy on the inside. I was later told that they were shallow fried explain the greasiness and the crisp like texture of these anyways.

Sam followed up with the Goi Ngo Sen (lotus root salad). It was a tad lacking in lotus root and herbage and far too much iceberg lettuce. I had a Bun Cha Gio Nem Nuong (vermicelli with springroll and pork meatballs). Sam pinched my spring roll so i can’t comment on that. The meat balls were okay and interesting take on Nem Noung and the seemed fried rather than grilled. My real issue is with the noodles in the dish. They were not vermicelli noodles as i know, far too wide more like a thin spaghetti. Also i asked for the spicy nuoc cham and it wasn’t very spicey i don’t even recall fresh chilli in it.

Table placement: Fish sauce, chilli sauce, hoi sin sauce. No tissue box or help yourself chopsticks.
Herbage: Poor. Lacking variety (mint and coriander) and poor representation on sides and in the dishes.
Nuoc cham: A bit thin and watery but passable.

Should i have gone for the dish which is the restaurant’s namesake? maybe but i did spy a bowl going out and they used the same noodles i had in my Bun so it’s lost marks already. Maybe i’m being overly critrical? Would i return? possibly to give the pho a go befoe i write the place off completely and its a handy location…

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