Fri 24 - CHEWY Fish & Chips at Gilt

Another unexciting yet healthy breakfast of smoothie and banana.

Bit of a nightmare work lunch, at Gilt in EC3.  The occasion was a visit from one of our American counterparts, so this one was on the company.  I should make clear that, like most financial institutions in this age of austerity, we have a very limited budget for these rare happenings.  Probably forevermore in fact, the "good times" have well and truly gone.  Gilt is a restaurant / bar on the site of the former Fenchurch Colony, close to Fenchurch Street train station.

It started badly, being greeted by a clipboard-wielding hostess at the door, who led us to our table upstairs.  On the way up we passed by another employee, sans clipboard, whose sole job seemed to be standing on the stairs smiling.  I found this introduction weirdly disconcerting.  We were seated in the middle of a brightly coloured dining / drinking space, with a bar the whole way along one wall, and booths along the other.  Our waitress was dressed like a low-budget go-go girl.  Or at least how I imagine a low-budget go-go girl would dress, as I've no actual life experience to base this on.  She was friendly, attentive and got everything right, so hats off to her.  I hope that she's not made to dress as she was.  And I thought that my management were demanding . . .

From the description so far it sounds like I'm eating in a brothel.  Honestly, it's not.  Swiftly onto the food then.  It was pricey, which partly influenced my choice of fish & chips, one of the cheapest items on the menu at somewhere round the £10 mark (can't recall the exact amount, damn my non-existent note-taking).  To give you an idea of the price (which is not on their website), they had a kobe beefburger at £16.95, alongside the typical selection of steaks and salads, also priced to the maximum.  So, the chips were fine, served with mushy peas and tartare sauce.  But my fish was chewy.  That's right, MY FISH WAS CHEWY.  This is a remarkable achievement and an unwelcome first for me.  'Nuff said about that fiasco.  For the record, my less austere colleague plumped for the kobe beefburger, which he eloquently described as tasting "like a really shit burger".  I was frightened by the prospect of dessert after this, but several colleagues ordered chocolate fondant, which appeared to be pretty much set through, like several bad Masterchef moments all served up at once.  Maybe Gilt is better as a bar, but as a restaurant it's terrible.  Worst of the year so far, and a good chance it'll remain so.  If they're typically subjected to places like this, then no wonder that the Americans think our food is appalling.

For dinner, a toasted cheese sandwich made from supermarket cheddar, deli Red Leicester and artichokes (leftover from Sunday).  The sandwich was toasted on my beloved griddle.  Out of all the kitchen items I own, the griddle ranks in joint second place (with Creuset pans) of usefulness.  First is Global knives BTW.  Anyway, the sandwich was perfect on the outside but the Red Leicester didn't melt, annoying.  After that lunch though, it was a huge relief.  Even my bad food doesn't taste that bad.

Thu 23 - Good Konditor & Typically Bad Pret

Breakfast was a cherry, yoghurt and granola pot from Konditor & Cook.  I've had this before and liked it, though I'm still not keen on the compote.  Last time I ate this I pronounced, incorrectly as it turns out, that a compote should be thicker and more jammy than the syrup-with-cherries-in found at the bottom of this breakfast snack.  A compote is in fact "made of whole or pieces of fruit in sugar syrup".  Thanks Wiki.  I'm not backing down though, a thicker fruit concoction at the bottom would make this better.  The syrup doesn't really blend into the yoghurt, doesn't work.  Still liking the other components though, especially the sour cherries.

Whilst in Konditor I also picked up one of these bad boys.  It's been a week so unfortunately I can't remember the exact name, but it basically a chocolate brownie smothered in a slightly salted caramel sauce.  Immense, get involved.  Snack of the year so far.

Lunch brought me back down to earth.  A rye-bread sandwich from Pret with cheddar and roasted tomato.  Apparently it "made it past the auditions" which once again begs the questions, who are the judges?  Dry like the Sahara Desert despite the addition of ok roasted tomatoes and a chutney that's scarily reminiscent of McDonalds curry sauce.  Pret just isn't doing it for me at the moment, no doubt their standards have slipped in recent times.

I headed over to a friend's place for dinner, the legendary @rayburst.  Tesco meatballs fried up with a couple of sun-dried tomatoes and something green, then the pan contents poured over semi-cooked spaghetti.  Crumbs, just realised there was something orange in there too, carrot I presume.  Not one of @rayburst's finer cooking moments (of which there have been plenty) but then I was there to see a great mate, not to fine dine.  Good to see you sir!  There, I knew talking about a friend's food would be tricky, and it was.

Wed 22 - Balls Sandwiches & Luc's Brasserie

Smoothie and banana to start, frequently the only healthy part of my day.

We (seven of my work colleagues and I) were taken out for a selection of sandwiches at Balls Brothers, Bury Court, for lunch.  Balls Brother sandwiches are usually excellent, tasting freshly made and being packed with fillings that are usually fatter than the bread, American-stylee.  We had some crispy chips, mini sausages and quails eggs with celery salt on the side.  This might sound a bit perverse as I'm keen on the quail eggs, but does anyone eat egg sandwiches given the choice???  I can confirm that as per usual they remained on the tray once everyone had plundered the good stuff, to be given to the bin via the kitchen.  I guess the mark-up is pretty good for the owners, but what waste.  Still, I like Balls, best place in the City for a casual group lunch.

Dinner was at Luc's Brasserie in Leadenhall Market.  I was taken out by attorneys so did not have to pay, one of the few perks of my job.  Photographing your meal is not generally the done thing in these circumstances, but do it I did.  The starters was so uninspiring that I chose a salad, which if you've been following my blog you'll know is a very rare occurrence.  I was swayed by the offer of goat's curd alongside leaves and artichoke, hence the virtually unique choice.  I wasn't impressed; dressed leaves with a couple of slices of roast pepper, two artichokes, and two clumps of what appeared to me to be goat's cheese.  I've never eaten goat's curd before, but was expecting something smooth rather than the crumbly substance I received.  It resembled cheap, crumbly goat's cheese of the sort that you'd find in a supermarket.  I did inquire about this, and the waitress came back from the kitchen with a small label upon which the words "goat curd" were written, so either I'm wrong (very likely, happens frequently), or someone's being fibbed to (in which case, a shocker of a lie for a restaurant to tell it's customers).  Nonetheless, I could effortlessly make a better salad at home, which pisses me off no end when I'm eating out.  The different parts weren't even mixed together, it was more like leaves and roasted pepper, with artichoke and goat's curd (cheese?), than an actual salad.

For my main, rib-eye steak with bernaise and fries.  The unexceptional meat was pan-fried to a good medium-rare level, and the sauce was as thick as it should be with a noticeable tarragon flavour.

However, the fries were pale and underdone.  Sorry about the picture, I should have just taken one of the fries.  Learning curve.  Served with welcome greenage and the usual unloved semi-tomato.

The restaurant's laid out in an L-shape on the first floor overlooking Leadenhall Market.  It's decked out in wooden tables, surrounded by classic French period posters (i.e. typical French brasserie in the UK look), and served by polite and competent staff.  It's very expensive, kind of like a high-end Cafe Rouge.  I should finish by saying that I came here during the busy lunch period a couple of months ago and received a better meal than this, so perhaps they pull out the stops when it matters, but based on my latest experience I would not visit if I was picking up what must be a considerable tab.

Tue 21 - Uneventful Day, Good Marmalade Though

A really poor food day, so I'll keep it short.  started with a smoothie, banana and another of those Jordan's nut bar things.

Good news!  Marmalade came out great.  Consistency was just right, as was the sweetness.

Top Tip 1 - Most recipes I've used result in exceptionally sweet marmalade.  To counteract this, start off by using two thirds of the recommended sugar, then taste before sweetening it further.  When tasting, try it with a bit of the skin, as this is what adds the bitterness, so you should get a good feeling of how the finished article will taste.  If it's sweet enough, then stop, you're done.

Top Tip 2 - Make sure you use a solid, heavy based pan.  If not, there's a good chance that the sugar will stick to the bottom of the pan, over-caramelise and maybe even burn.  Not good for the end product.

Top Tip 3 - Don't be afraid to use jam or preserving sugar (though it's not necessary when making lemon marmalade as there's an abundance of natural pectin to help it set).  It makes no difference to the taste, and really, do you want to spend a couple of hours of your life chopping and cooking only to find that something's gone wrong and you've been left with orange syrup?  It's happened to me a few times, and believe, it's mighty disappointing.

The three jars above contain, from left to right, blood orange marmalade from Monday, lemon marmalade from Monday, and orange marmalade from the previous Sunday.  As you can see, the marmalade on the left made with non-Sainsburys, non-non-orange-blood-orange oranges, has come out a lot darker, as originally intended.  They all taste fab, you'll have to take my word for it!

Just some deli snacks, salad and home roasted pepper for dinner.  I use MacFarlanes Deli on Abbeville Road sometimes, which is where this most of this stuff was from.  It was decent enough, but my issues with delis are turnover and storage.  I don't believe that the turnover in most delis is high enough, and the storage facilities not specialised enough, to guarantee you the same quality as if you visited a shop that was exclusively dedicated to say, just cheese or cured meat.  But still, it's a decent shop, relatively inexpensive, and I'm glad it's there.

Mon 20 - Pit Cue Co

Well lazy me, I'm exactly a week behind with my blog.

Monday breakfast was a smoothie and a Jordans "Luxury Absolute Nut" cereal bar.  I don't mind cereal bars but didn't like this, it's was too sweet as well as being slightly sticky, getting towards gacky.  There are better cereal bars out there.

Somehow this meagre meal sustained me throughout the rest of my working day - which in truth wasn't quite completed, as I ducked out early to sample the delights one of the trendiest new eateries in town, Pit Cue Co.  The folks who run this place gained great acclaim flogging their American BBQ food from a van last year, and have now set up permanent premises just off Carnaby Street.  I've tried to eat here on a couple of occasions recently but haven't been able to stick out the queues, such is my impatience.  Yes, they have a "democratic" no-booking policy, hence heading out of work a touch early for an "off-site meeting"!  I'm a bit of a sucker for BBQ though have never eaten it in the States, so Bodeans is my benchmark.  Anyway, I'm pleased to report that Pit Cue far exceeded my expectations, and is now my bestest BBQ.  I ordered ribs, sourced from the Ginger Pig, which had been slow cooked in the smoker.  Rather than a whole rack of lean baby-back ribs a la Bodeans, at Pit Cue I received four meaty, fatty, tender and smokey ribs from the top-end of the rack, with a thin coating of homemade BBQ sauce which I thought had a hint of star anise to it.  The impeccable meat was sourced from the Ginger Pig, who seem to be supplying more and more restaurants these days, no problem for me as the quality's so high.  The ribs were served with some pickles and a chunk of sourdough bread that had been toasted on the grill.  I ordered a side of mash with burnt ends - rich buttery potato topped with burnt ends of beef brisket and meaty gravy - pretty amazing.  My second side of Buffalo Wings was the only unsuccessful dish, the sauce being too sweet and fruity, and the pickled celery accompaniment did nothing for me - fresh celery and blue cheese dip would have been preferable.  This was all served on prison-type food-trays by pleasant, knowledgable staff in a dingy basement.  This is not somewhere to come and socialise with your friends, lingering over a few glasses of wine.  It's a place to come, queue, eat amazing BBQ food, and leave - possibly to head home for a shower, as it feels dirty.  Good dirty.

Progress report on the marmalade, looking good but no pictures of it bubbling away I'm afraid, results tomorrow!

Sun 19 - Smoked Eel & Making More Marmalade

I woke late and got to work preparing some blood oranges I'd purchased from the Venn Street market for my second attempt at blood orange marmalade.  The batch I made previously tasted great but didn't have the colour I was hoping for, on account of Sainsburys blood oranges being not bloody coloured at all.  This time, as promised by the stallholder, these were the colour that gives this short-seasoned fruit it's name.  They were cheaper than the supermarket too!

Cutting the oranges into the thin slices needed for marmalade takes some serious patience, and by the time I'd finished was well ready for some bacon, duck eggs and Cafone bread (half a loaf goes a long way).  I flashed the eggs under the grill to cook the despicable snotty white, but this ended up cooking the yolk a bit too, so it wasn't as runny as I'd have liked.  Split the yolk whilst plating up too, grrr.

I finished the day with a smoked eel sandwich, copied lock stock from this Jeremy Lee recipe.  The chef has recently moved to Quo Vadis restaurant after a long and distinguished stint at the Blueprint Cafe, and this is one of his signature dishes that he's taken with him, reviewed here on Helen Graves' excellent blog.  I served it with a tomato, radish and watercress salad as well as the pickled onions in the recipe.  This might be the most delicious sandwich I've ever made.  It sounds like a lot of mustard and horseradish in the recipe, but it warms slightly with the eel whilst the bread's charring, and tastes almost sweet mixed with the oily eel.  The onions are ridiculously simple to make, and are an essential requirement to cut through the rich, smoky fish.  Definitely try this if you can get hold of some smoked eel - which isn't cheap by the way, costing £10 for 200g, about three sandwiches worth.  A treat, of which I have many.

If you were wondering about the marmalade, the skins have to soak overnight.  I picked up some unwaxed lemons for cheap from Tesco so decided to make some lemon marmalade too.  Pictures of prepared citrus below, juice and skins separated.  To be continued tomorrow . . . as always.

Sat 18 - Marmalade, Leftover Beef & Chatkhara

After pizza at Franco Manca yesterday I wandered a few shops further into Brixton Market and came across the Wild Caper Deli, from where I bought half a Cafone sourdough bread for £2.  I had a thick slice of this with some salted butter and the marmalade I made last week.  The marmalade worked out well, just the right consistency, though I'm a bit gutted that the oranges weren't bloody enough in colour to affect the end result.  It just looks like marmalade.  No problem really.  I forget how much I like marmalade for the six months a year when I've run out of it.

Next up, for lunch I made a sandwich from the leftover rump steak that I couldn't finish at Santa Maria Del Sur on Thursday.  I was a bit bemused last week when I read this article in the Evening Standard praising doggy bags as if they're some sort of new trend.  If desired, I've have always requested them and have never been refused, though maybe that's because the kind of places where food I take food away from (i.e. cuisine that's still desirable even an hour after being cooked) are the kind of places that specialise in takeaway food, so they're set up for it.  Who'd want to takeaway a half eaten Eggs Benedict, or the deflated remains of a passion fruit souffle?  Not me thanks.  Back to the sandwich; Cafone bread, thinly sliced clot rump beef, horseradish mayo, watercress, and some dressed cherry tomatoes on the side.As simple and as tasty as it sounds.  The bread from Wild Caper is superb.

Went out to watch some comedy (Daniel Sloss, go see) and consume quite a few beers after this, and to the relief of restaurant owners, waiters and you innocent diners across London, decided against a drunken meal at your favourite haunt / place of employment, opting instead for a Kofte kebab from the Chatkhara Indian casual restaurant / takeaway in Clapham South.  They also have branches at the Elephant & Castle and Tooting, and each branch is equipped with a tandoori oven which I frequently see them using to pre-roast chicken and lamb, and in which they also freshly cooked the naan-style bread in that my two Kofte were wrapped in.  It was finished with crunch cabbage, salad, cucumber, onions, garlic sauce and a smidgen of chilli sauce.  At two in the morning and after consuming my own weight in booze I don't think I can fairly assess this food, but for what it's worth, tasted good and was really spicy.  I don't know if the spice was coming from the tiny bit of sauce or from spicing within the Kofte itself, but it certainly brought me back to life.  I should add that this cost me £2, which is a genuine bargain.  They seem to make all their own food here, which makes me want to go back as much as the price does.

Fri 17 - Franco Manca

A much needed day away from the office, it started out well enough with the usual banana and smoothie.

Having had such an exceptional pizza at Rossomomodoro back on 28 Jan, I decided to head over to the Franco Manca pizza place in Brixton for purposes of comparison.  This small restaurant is situated on both sides of Brixton market's busy thoroughfare, it's a great place for soaking up the local atmosphere but not the sort of place you'd take someone on a first date.  It can also be quite tough to find, and it's likely you'll have to queue if you arrive from between shortly after midday and 2pm.  It used to only open between midday and 5pm but it seems that the closing time has been extended until 10pm Thursday to Saturday.

They also have branches in Chiswick and Westfield Stratford.  I opted for a chorizo pizza, which included both fresh and cured meat, served with the usual cheese and tomato topping on their famous sourdough base.  It's an exceptionally good pizza but I can't say that I enjoyed it quite as much as the Rossopomodoro of a couple of weeks ago.  This is likely only a matter of personal preference as both of the pizzas were cooked to perfection in unfeasibly hot wood-fired ovens, but I was won over by the dough.  The Franco Manca version is softer and more chewy, the Rossopomodoro a little crispier and more sour.  There's not much to choose between the toppings, though I confess to slightly spoiling today's pizza by adding too much chilli oil.  Usually it's milder than this was . . . must remember, you can add but you can't take away!

The small bill, below, is definitely a plus point.

It's too early to call, and further sampling is required, but Rossopomodoro are slightly edging the Best Pizza in London title at the moment.

Thu 16 - Good Bacon Sarnie & Santa Maria Del Sur

A good beginning, the first time I've ever had a bacon roll from Konditor & Cook.  They use streaky bacon (award winning Ayrshire bacon from Carluke), which had been sliced really thinly and cooked so that the fat was slightly crispy and easy to bite through.  The roll was fresh, and also slightly crispy.  The well-meaning waitress was keen to add mayonnaise to the mix, but was thankfully stopped in the nick of time.  A former Pret employee perhaps . . . old habits die hard.  Luckily I had some ketchup in my office drawer.  The portion was fairly generous, this one will take some beating . . .

I skipped lunch, in anticipation of an early evening meat fest at Santa Maria Del Sur in Battersea, famed for it's Argentinian parrillada and for reaching the semi-finals of the F-Word's Best Restaurant Competition in 2009.  For the uninitiated, a parrillada is like a South American version of a mixed grill, usually served at your table on a portable grill to finish the cooking and keep it all warm.  As a prelude to this feast, however, we ordered sweetbreads.  I was expecting these to be cooked on the asado (aka: massive barbeque), but they'd been lightly breadcrumbed and pan-fried, and served with a sprinkling of lemon juice and parsley.  It was surprisingly delicate and light, the meat retaining it's creaminess and subtle taste, a good prelude to the mountain of meat that was to follow.

Next up, we  went with the "Paraddilla Piazolla", which included an 11oz sirloin steak, a 10oz rump steak, two chorizo sausages, a black pudding, and a provolone cheese that slowly melted away as we ate.  The steaks were cut thick and served medium rare as requested.  The Argentinian imported beef, for me, lacks the full flavour of a decent grass-fed British bovine that you might purchase from say, the Ginger Pig.  It's still good quality though, and let's face it, what's not to like?  Steak, sausages, black pudding (particularly good, soft, smooth and slightly sweet), melted cheese.  We had chips (large, crispy, topped with garlic and parsley) and some chimichurri on the side.  Again, what's not to like?

Our waiter was working his second night and coped well, the rest of the staff were smiley and helpful.  The darkly lit restaurant was busy, and whilst there's not much space between tables there was enough of a buzz in the room not to be disturbed by your neighbours.  It's not cheap (bill below), and for obvious health reasons you wouldn't want to eat here too regularly, but a great destination for an occasional blowout.

Wed 15 - Poor Pret & Thai-ish Dinner

I had a banana to start off with.

Then onto lunch at Pret, a mozzarella and pesto toastie.  It doesn't look too bad from the picture but was actually a total disaster.  It contained slices of fresh tomato, which became wet upon toasting, eventually soaking into the "toasted" bread (in fact, toasted top, burnt underside), resulting in serious structural integrity issues which made eating it at my desk an unwelcome challenge.  The tomatoes were pretty rank too.  Does anyone like hot, soggy, watery tomatoes in their sandwich?  Thought not.  Pret surely test their products out before unleashing them on their customers.  But who do they test them on?  It must be either the starving, or their own mothers, as no-one else could have signed this off for public consumption.

For dinner, V (who I must confess seems to be doing most of the evening cooking at the moment, shame on me) cooked chicken with cashew nuts.  This was Thai style as opposed to Chinese, being darker, saltier and spicier, thanks to the addition of soy sauce, fish sauce and chilli.  It was a bit too salty, perhaps said sauces had been over-reduced.  I prefer the lighter tasting Chinese version, with the chicken being fried in a thin batter before being added to the rest of the ingredients.  We had it with white rice and pak choi with sesame seeds and crispy garlic.  The garlic worked well.

Tue 14 - Balls To Valentines Day

I had a smoothie and cereal bar for breakfast.  Then, lunch at Balls Brothers, Bury Court.  I chose a cheeseburger at £9.70.  I wasn't asked how I wanted it cooked, but it came out just the right side of medium.  There was a generous layer of melted cheese, some gherkin, fresh tomato and crisp lettuce.  It was only let down by the focaccia bun, which was unnecessary.  Some things don't need to be messed with.  I'm not really keen on fat chips but these were a good attempt, with a crisp coating and light centre.  The service was excellent.  For me, this is the best Balls Brothers. 

Valentines Day must be the worst night of the year to go out on (that or NYE), for the overpriced set menus and the oddity of sitting in a restaurant entirely taken over by couples.  We stayed in then, and started our meal with the rest of the roast red peppers from Sunday, and some crab from Marks & Sparks.  The peppers tasted better for having stewed in their juices for a couple of days.  The crab wasn't great on it's own, but was transformed into a fine topping for some Torta once mixed with spring onion, lemon juice, seasoning and mayonnaise.  Torta(s?) is a kind of crispy Spanish flatbread, these ones a slight aniseed tint to them.

Our main was linguine vongole.  This was fantastic, sometimes the simple things are best . . . al dente linguine, loads of fresh clams, parsley, butter, chilli, garlic and olive oil.  A heavenly match.  I must confess that I had nothing to do with creation of this masterpiece!

We finished with a couple of pancakes.  Yep, I know it's Shrove Tuesday next week, but V's gonna be away and I've got tonnes of blood oranges to use up!  These worked out well, using a Delia recipe from the BBC website.  Why does the first pancake always go wrong???  And once again, no blood in my oranges!

Mon 13 - At Least Dinner Was Good

I purchased a cheese and ham croissant from the office food trolley for breakfast, but due to business busyness did not consume it until lunch.  It had suffered from the time spent in the plastic bag, becoming limp and flabby.  I was really hungry though.

V cooked duck breast for dinner, with an oriental-style orange (the blood variety) sauce, brown rice, and pak choi with sesame seeds.  As you can see from the picture, the duck breast was cooked to pink perfection.  The slight bitterness of the blood orange added an extra dimension to the sauce, and the sesame seeds gave a satisfying crunch to the veg.  Much needed after the paucity of any other interesting food-stuffs today.  The duck breast was from the freezer, left over from the whole duck that was dissected last Sunday.

Sun 12 - Another Satisfying Sunday

We seem to be doing well on Sundays recently.  Cereal to start again, then a simple sandwich of roast peppers, chorizo and a few salad leaves.  I try to use Romano peppers for roasting, they're a lot sweeter than bell peppers and the skin's far easier to remove.

I'm trying to make the most of the short blood orange season, so prepared this salad of beetroot, goats cheese, hazelnuts and blood orange as a precursor to dinner.  I used shop-bought beetroot instead of roasting my own.  Annoyingly, the oranges weren't blood-coloured at all.  Tasted fine though.

The main course was Iberico pork loin, chickpea stew, with more roast peppers.  The pork was overcooked and a bit dry, despite the use of a meat thermometer.  I fear I may have damaged it buy submerging the probe in water briefly.  Unfortunately, it may take a few more overcooked hunks of meat to prove this!  The chickpea stew was simple and effective, containing only tinned tomatoes, smoked paprika, half an onion, and chickpeas.  I warmed the peppers up before serving.  It's a tried and tested combination that didn't fail me on this occasion - what a pity that the thermometer did!

I also made some marmalade, but as mentioned earlier in this post there wasn't blood in the oranges.  It came out nicely, with a good set, but is not the colour I was hoping for!  I used a seville marmalade recipe and reduced the sugar by 30% to account for the sweeter oranges I was using.

Sat 11 - Pizza Express Takeaway

After the relative excitement of the last two days, nothing much to report on Saturday.  Late start, Dorset Cereals granola for breakfast.  Actually it was lunch really, as it was eaten about midday.

Nothing else until dinner, for which we settled with a takeaway from Pizza Express.  I know, it's not the most exciting eatery in the world, but I like it.  The product and service are consistent wherever you are in the country, an impressive feat that most chains struggle to match.  It's not "proper" pizza so I can't compare it to the likes of Rossopomodoro or Franco Manca.  In fact, it's in a category of it's own - file under: reliable and above average chain.  I was not let down on this occasion, choosing an American Hot (pepperoni & chillies, traditional base) and the fairly new addition to the range, Alba (Calabrese sausage, masacrpone, fennel seeds, parsley, Grand Padano on a thin "Romana" base).  The Alba works really well, it's good to see them trying something different, though I find that the Romana base goes cold too quickly.  American Hot was up to it's usual standard.  Look at the size difference, which is reflected in the price!

I part paid using a voucher.  This is worth mentioning as I think that Pizza Express have made things difficult for themselves with their price increases and use of 2-4-1 offers.  These two pizzas came to £22 before voucher application, which is just too much isn't it?  If we'd have eaten in, and ordered a cheap bottle of wine, it would have come to over £40.  I don't believe this is good value for money, and would no longer eat in a Pizza Express if I wasn't armed with vouchers.  It seems to me as if they've raised general prices to make up for the 2-4-1's they give away.  Also, £1.50 for extra vegetable toppings???  I love extra olives, but will not be paying £1.50 for the seven you usually receive.  Over 20p an olive!  Greedy, and it puts me off one of the few chains I like.

Fri 10 - Bistro Union, Opening Night

A terrible start to Friday - a bacon roll from Eat.  I rarely frequent the place, it's like a poor man's Pret, but was forced to do so today.  Not marched in at gunpoint forced, rather forced by circumstance.  The roll was dry and stale, the bacon also dry, and burnt (quite an achievement, as the roll had been pre-assembled then heated up in their toastie machine).  It was served to me by people who didn't seem to care.  At least the staff in Pret appear to be enthusiastic, and are unfailingly polite.

I missed lunch in anticipation of an evening feast at the newly opened Bistro Union, on Abbeville Road in Clapham.  It's run by the team behind Trinity and has taken over the site that was previously occupied by Cafe Rouge.  A welcome relief (see yesterday's post).  They've made the small space look bigger than it is, and effectively divided it into three sections - the back is for reservations, the front section for walk-ins, with a few seats at the bar for drinking and snacking.  Having a walk-in section is a great idea for a local restaurant, I hope they maintain this policy.  If you're walking-in as a couple don't expect an intimate evening however - the table we were on was pushed right next to another, soon to be occupied, table for two.  Onto the food then, and a good start with a couple of slices of sourdough bread with whipped jersey butter, and a choice between sparkling or still filtered water.  This makes the £1 per person cover charge justifiable.

We started by ordering from the bar menu; a hot-smoked sardine with aubergine puree.  Removing the flesh from the bones was a fiddle, but worth the trouble when paired with the dark, smoky aubergine puree and a squeeze of lemon.

Next, also from the bar menu . . . a "Trotterdog".  A soft mousse of chicken and trotter, shaped into a sausage, lightly poached, and served in a bun with an apple remoulade.  Fun, original, and most importantly of all, tasting delicious.  The best thing I've eaten for ages, a bargain at £3.  I can see myself popping in for a few of these!

Next up was our main course of Guinea Fowl Kiev with a swede mash, chosen from a menu that included cottage pie, whole roast chicken, steak and other comfort foods.  The Kiev was perfectly executed, the garlic and parsley butter completely retained within the golden, breadcrumb coated guinea fowl breast.  The mash had a pleasing chunky texture, and as per the previous courses formed a perfect marriage with the other flavours on the plate.

About 30 seconds after our main arrived, we received our final starter, mussels cooked in perry.  The mussels were plump, and it was served with bread and (I think) some sort of aoili.  Unfortunately I couldn't much taste it between mouthfuls of the strong, garlicky main course, which I felt compelled to eat at the same time in case it went cold.  I don't know whether this was an opening night glitch, or part of the current trend whereby the kitchen just sends food whenever they get round to cooking it, but  mussels and Kiev do not a happy marriage make.  They knocked it of the bill, but only when asked to.  I was too occupied with all the food at my table to get a decent picture of this dish.

We ordered two deserts - a fried cherry pie from the bar menu tasted a bit greasy to me, but V loved it.

Then a cereal milk pannacotta, served a a small slab of chocolate rice crispy cake.  This is another fun idea which didn't quite succeed due to small particles of cereal (which had given the milk it's flavour) rising to the the top, where they set with the rest of the dessert, giving the top half of this pleasant tasting pudding a grainy texture.  It just needs a bit more refinement to be fantastic.

Our final bill is below.  I thought it was a very good meal overall, especially for an opening night.  The place was packed but the professional, knowledgable staff coped well.  A note on the staff "uniform" -  braces form part of their dress code, making them look like they've stepped off the set of Oliver: The Musical.  How humiliating, and how unfair of the owners to hoist this look upon them!  Oh, and the napkins were tiny, barely covering a single knee.  I've no doubt that the minor teething problems will be sorted out quickly, and I look forward to returning soon.

Thu 9 - Cafe Rouge

The obligatory lime & kiwi smoothie, banana on the side for breakfast.

I wasn't very hungry so followed this with a sausage roll for lunch, from Konditor & Cook.  It tasted a bit odd, there was a mystery ingredient that shamefully I couldn't identify.  I tweeted this and received a response from K&C (great to see a chain that cares about what people think of them), listing the ingredients as follows; Moen's free-range pork sausage meat, onion, carrot (to make it lighter), mustard, breadcrumbs, fresh herbs, seasoning.  The mystery ingredient that I disliked was none of the above . . . maybe it was in the pastry . . . I will enquire.  Hats off for K&C's use of free-range pork.

I found myself awash with expiring vouchers (courtesy of Tesco Clubcard) for Cafe Rouge, so we headed to their outlet on Wellington Street in Covent Garden for a spot of dinner.  They've got a tapas-style small sharing plate menu (where doesn't?), so we chose four items from this (£10) as a starter.  Our selections included artichoke dip, smoked chicken & duck rillettes, saucisson & ham, and olives.  I doubt that any of this was made in Cafe Rouge, but it was all up-to-scratch, with the rillettes being our favourite.

 Things went downhill from there.  I ordered ribeye steak cooked medium rare, which after a considerable wait came out with only the slightest tone of pink.  The French would likely call this overcooked, though I suppose in the UK this counts as medium-well.  The overworked restaurant manager immediately offered to bring me a fresh steak, cooked as originally requested.  It arrived within ten minutes, but this time was undercooked!  Or at least half of it was . . . the outside was had black (burnt) lines running across it, whilst the centre was totally raw.  Quite an achievement, but not in a good way!  With our movie viewing time fast approaching there was no time to ask them for a third attempt, so we left twenty minutes later, me with a faint taste of liver (yes, really) in my mouth and strings of un-rendered fat stuck between my teeth.  Places like this really annoy me - a chain restaurant should have procedures in place to ensure consistency in their product, and there should be strong management making sure that these procedures are followed.  There's no excuse for a badly cooked steak, especially when it's one of their signature dishes, and charged at £16.95.