What's that you're eating?

Been on a diet recently, thus the lack of posts.


NOT.


Just been very busy the last few weeks, though I have been busy eating as well, so when that thing called Free Time comes along, I'll be blogging again.

Mirch Masala, 111 – 113 Commercial Road, London, E1 1RD

Whenever we go to Lahore Kabab House (and then invariably miss the turning to get to it), we then go by Mirch Masala and think to ourselves how we’d like to try it out. After doing this about 3 times, we decided to make an actual trip there instead of just imagining it.

While waiting for our friend who was making his way from Clapham, we decided to look through the ENTIRE menu. Not just waft our way through it, no, but look through it in entirety, understanding every word as though revising for an exam. A fun exam.

Having had a look through the entire menu, memorised the spelling of the dishes, completed a quiz on the prices of the dishes, and then decided what to order on behalf of said friend from Clapham, said friend still hadn’t turned up.

When you have nothing to do while waiting for your food, you play with whatever food you have. Can’t do anything with chilli sauce and yoghurt? You’ve been proven wrong.

The table setting here is pretty much wooden table with some red napkins, nothing jazzy, but nice and purpose-befitting. When our friend finally turned up the day after (kidding), we told him what we;d be ordering and what he’d be eating. Thus, the dishes you see below were decided upon entirely by us, which is what happens when you’re late for dinner.

Mixed frill (3 grilled chops, 3 seekh kebabs, 3 pieces chicken tikka, 3 pieces lamb tikka, 4 pieces tandoori chicken wings) £14

With 3 of us dining (2 of them being hungry man-types), the full works had to be ordered. After a quick mathematical assessment of price vs quantity, we decided that this was the best option for starters if we wanted variety, quantity, and lots of meat.

Suffice to say, it didn’t disappoint as it looks like half the farm was served up on the sizzling plate. With a bit of seekh kebab to lend to the texture of pure meat, the blend of spices, the mixture of tastes, and the sheer quantity of the dish made this very enjoyable.

Trust me to always prioritise quantity over quality.

Karahi ginger chicken £7

It’s not often that I see ginger in my curry. Ginger is more often than not a vegetable (?) I associate with steamed Chinese dishes, so when I saw this on the menu, I thought it might be worth trying out.

When the dish arrived with the ginger bits on top, I felt slightly disappointed as just from looking at the dish, it seemed as though it was a typical curry dish, just with extra ginger garnishing on top of it.

Pleasantly enough, the curry actually tasted of ginger, so this is a dish I’ll order again.

Paneer naan £2.50

Due to no other reason than pure greed for food, we decided that 3 portions of rice between the 3 of us wasn’t enough carbs, so we ordered one more portion of naan for good measure, just in case we hadn’t ordered enough already. The cheese used in the bread is not as strong as the usual Cheddar variety, and I could actually taste the milk used in the cheese, with a nice stringy chewy texture in between the layers of bread.

Karahi fish £7

Typically ordered to see how a new restaurant fares on our weird and non-scientific benchmark list, this dish proved to be a winner. I’m not sure what white fish they used, but it was tender without being too flaky, and because of that, it managed to retain all the spices used in the curry. Kinda like a sponge with ovely texture.

This was the first time we’d been to a Mirch Masala (it’s a chain restaurant), and it won’t be the last as the quality of the food and service was really impressive. Reasonable prices, more than decent portions, and a creative (but not big) menu made this meal very enjoyable.

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The 50% off Mille Miglia extravaganza (Part 1)

The problem with having a blog is the urge to blog about anything and everything. For example, I could be going by a shop when I see a fabulous piece of cake, and I’d want to blog about it. Nevermind if I actually ate it or not, I’d want to take a picture of it, post it up here and talk about it.

Like how I saw the guy selling the most ginormous watermelons I’d ever seen.

Which is why I have about a thousand pictures from Italy, and no clue what to do with them (as in do I blog about ALL of them, or not at all).

Last month, we decided to do a 50% Mille Miglia race (sort of) in Italy. I say sort of because:

a) We only did about 500 miles of the 1,000 mile long race (re: 50%)
b) We didn’t have a vintage car for the journey (actually, it started off looking brand new, and the condition of it 5 days later wasn’t that pleasing)
c) It wasn’t much of a race, as we had to focus on keeping to the right (wrong) side of the road, while going anti-clockwise on the roundabout, and adhering to all sorts of weird and wonderful speed limits (for example, 30km/h on a straight long road; 70km/h on a winding, steep angular road going up a mountain)

The actual Mille Miglia race involves vintage cars ‘racing’ (inverted commas as these are after all, vintage cars) along a 1,000 mile route starting off at Brescia, with Rome being almost the mid-point of the race, and back again to Brescia. As we don’t have the dough for a vintage car (you might have guessed by now, from all the complaints about expensive restaurants), and neither did we have the guts to do this left-hand drive thing for a full 1,000 miles, we decided to go half-way instead.

Better half-way than no-way, hey Jose (no reason, just rhymes).

Thus, the journey began with a Ryanair flight from London to Verona-Brescia airport, where we picked up our little white Fiat 500 which was to be our mode of transport for the next 5 days. From the conversations we heard from the people in front of us in the queue, it was almost nerve-wracking to see if they had our car or not.

‘What? You don’t have the 7-seater I booked weeks ago? I have to call England to get it sorted out? The other rental agencies don’t have it either?’

When the guy at the back of the counter handed over our keys, I nearly jumped over the glass / plastic divider to hug him. Nearly. It was a full divider, so that would have been impossible.

After getting to grips with the whole being on the wrong side of the road concept, we headed off (first gear) into the sunset. Aside from a slight panic at the roundabout (which way do we look, do we keep in the inside lane if we want to turn left, do I even want to turn left, what if I just stayed on going round the roundabout), it was all OK as we whizzed our way on to Desenzano del Garda.

This place looked like Monaco in a James Bond film (ie luxurious settings in a yacht-filled lake). With little more than excitement squealing out our mouths, we parked the Fiat in the nearest parking space and scrambled out of the car, eager to take pictures of our first ever, quaint, Italian sunset.

Until the taxi driver told us that the Polizia were just kinda in the parking lot next to ours, we couldn’t park there, and that we should probably move from the space, pronto.

Next destination – Verona.

Verona, as we know it, was the setting for the Baz Luhrmann film, Romeo and Juliet (or Giulietta as the Italians call her). As such, we had to go find the balcony which (at this point the facts get slightly fuzzy):

- she spoke to Romeo from (I thought she was fictional?)
- inspired William Shakespeare to write the play
- someone similar to Juliet spoke to someone similar to Romeo from (possible also)

Anyhow, off we went to find this balcony of inspiration, and when we got there, there were about a thousand other similar tourists looking for said balcony. It must have been some Verona tradition or something, but people who posed with Juliet’s statue tended to pose with one hand over her bust (I asked why too).

In case some of you are wondering where the food was, and was under the impression that this was somehow an actual road trip (and not merely a gastronomical excuse for an extravaganza), this is what we had for breakfast in Verona – lots and lots of ham (or what was left by the time we got to breakfast), with some jam and croissant (not very Italian, I know, but we’re not Italians, not in Rome, and so, won’t do as Romans do).

Question of the day – When the road in front of you is very narrow, and you have to choose between your left wing mirror or your right, which one do you choose?

Answer – With the Fiat 500, you don’t have to choose. Both mirrors fit through comfortably, with enough space for a tango sideways if needs be (note: I am not sponsored by Fiat; merely, bowled over by the impressive capabilities of the little vroomer).

Next destination – Chioggia, city of fishing boats and a boat-ride away from Venice (to be continued, like a Matrix film)

Tay Do (third review), 60 Kingsland Road, London, E2 8DP

Choosing a Vietnamese restaurant from the Old Street / Kingsland Road area is pretty much like trying to find something cheap in Harrods. Impossible (though not technically true, as the Krispy Kremes in Harrods are still within affordable limits).

Which is why there has to be a certain technique applied in choosing the location for dinner (always something that inspires hours of pondering and contemplating time). My method is this; when I’m with my friends who’re in the know (CV and JC), we go to Tay Do. When it’s me and the bf, we go to Viet Grill.

Why, you must be wondering (or not). This is because Tay Do’s menu is what I’d consider to be a proper local Vietnamese person’s menu, ie authentic. Which also means that I don’t have much clue about what is what, what is not what, and will most probably end up ordering 10 of the same noodles in different serving sizes.

So, when I have a person in the know with me, we immediately let them do the ordering, and sit back to enjoy the rewards.

The menu here is a shiny, hard-papered type book with dishes in local names as well as English descriptions (not that it’s any good when you don’t know what roasted rice powder is, anyone?).

Lotus roorlet salad with prawns (Goi Ngo Sen Tom Thit) £5.50

(I might have spelled roorlet incorrectly, as I don’t know what a roorlet is, don’t know what the alternative spelling of it could be, and this is what the menu said so here it is.)

Taste-wise, wonderful. Slightly sweet, slightly sour, and so refreshing; perfect as a starter to the meal to jazz those tastebuds up for what wonders are to come. Each bite of the vegetable was crunchy, slightly chewy, and the prawns were fresh and crunchy.

Beef salad (Bo Tai Chanh) £7

Another wonderful, refreshing little zing of a dish, with rare beef slices marinated in a combination of fish sauce, lime and something else (don’t know what but it was delicious). With each bite of beef balanced by a zesty bite of minty coriander, and then quickly washed down with a bite of the roorlets (refer above), pure enjoyment of the buds (taste).

Vegetable sour soup with seafood (Canh Chua Do Bien) £7.50

The better version of a tom yum soup, I’d say. Where tom yum soup is pretty much just sour and spicy (of course more than that, but you know how I am), the Vietnamese version has a combination of sweet, spicy, fishy and sour. With lots and lots of seafood, ladies fingers, and some other unidentified vegetable in the soup, this could be a dish in itself, eaten with steaming hot rice.

Chargrilled pork chop (Heo Cot Let Nuong Than) £5

Of all the dishes ordered, this was my least favourite, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as all the dishes we ordered were delicious. The reason I didn’t like this very much is because the meat was quite chewy and hard, perhaps it was the cut of meat? The marinade was tasty enough, it was the texture which ruined it for me.

Chicken with chilli and lemongrass (Ga Xao X a ot) £5.40

The ingredients used in this dish made it really tasty, really fragrant, and the best bits in the dish were the things left at the bottom, ie the crunchy, chewy bits which were slightly burnt. The chicken itself was only OK, though tender enough for chicken breast, but not surprisingly tasty or anything.

Aubergine with pork (Ca Tim Xao Voi Heo) £5.40

Comparing the Chinese (fish-fragrant style) version to this Vietnamese one, I prefer the Chinese version, simply because the Chinese version has more depth and flavour to the taste. This one tasted quite bland, like a plain stir fry with not much more to it, though the ingredients were fresh, well cooked and tender. Just slightly bland unfortunately.

Would I recommend this place? We usually come here when we have someone who knows what to order, as there is just too much to choose from. Saying that, yes, I would recommend you to come here, the atmosphere is good, the service is efficient, and most of the food is very tasty.

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Peninsula Chinese Restaurant, Holiday Inn Express, Bugsby Way, SE10 0GD

Restaurants within hotels evoke a sense of wariness in me, one usually associated with leftover microwaved food and the sound of silence in the dining area. This wonderful Chinese restaurant quashes all those worries, and is definitely one of the gems in the Greenwich area.

Although it has to be said that their lunch-time dim sum is yet to impress (click here).

With our group of 4 wanting to eat lots, and fast, we decided that the best way to go would be down the hotpot route, with lots of rice.

Stir fried kailan with beef £9

This was not something on the menu, as the main choice on the menu was kailan with scallops (too much of an extravagance, really). Going down the beefy route, we thought that would be more value for money, but it turned out to be only 50p cheaper.

Braised beancurd and fillet fish hotpot £10

For those of you wondering why this dish seems to be a permanent feature on this blog, it is because this happens to be one of our favourite items, so we have made it our mission (such a tough one) to go round all the restaurants comparing how this dish fares in each restaurant. So far, this dish is best done in this restaurant.

With lots of generously sized pieces of white fish, deep-fried, and stewed with tofu and vegetables in a lovely, thick gravy, this is perhaps the best dish to have with rice. Or on its own, whatever, it is that nice.

Braised beef flank – ordinary traditional recipe with mooli £9

Wow this was one impressive dish. We’d had it once before when we ate here with a group of friends, but at the time, the meat was quite stringy and tough, so while the taste was impressive, the texture of the meat did nothing much to impress me.

This time, however, the bits of meat were perfectly cooked, each one almost melting in the mouth with such loveliness, and so much taste that it made me want to down the whole pot at once (but for the sake of social decorum, I didn’t). The gravy was slightly sweet, with bits of ginger in it giving a hint of spice, and cooked so well that the beefiness was so well immersed throughout the dish. Really, really liked it.

Would I recommend this place? Definitely so for the dinner menu.

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