Fri 9 - Abbeville Kitchen

First, the less successful part of the day, being a bacon sandwich from Pardoe & Wood.  The bacon was cold and too thinly sliced; it'd been picked out of large saucepan which I'm guessing had been (unsuccessfully) used to keep it warm.  There was a bit of a wait to get it too, caused by some sort of employee meltdown in the open kitchen bit at the back, which resulted in bad feeling between two colleagues and for some inexplicable reason, my sandwich being remade with less bacon in!  This was at about 10am, with only one other customer to serve.  I'd hate to see what it's like during the morning rush.

V & I headed our for an early dinner at the Abbeville Kitchen, Clapham.  This was our first visit to the recently opened and well reviewed restaurant.  The menu consists of a series of British and European influenced dishes that are designed for sharing.  We started with clams and chorizo, a tried and tested combination that was very well executed.  The cooking liquor was gratefully mopped up with the best french bread I can remember eating.

The next dish was the highlight for me - advertised as leek vinaigrette, it was actually their own non-traditional, pimped-up interpretation.  Three small, tender leeks, topped with a creamy sauce, slices of boiled egg, and fried breadcrumbs.  The herb laden sauce made the dish - I could detect dill, tarragon and parsley.  It was very moreish, the plate wiped clean with more of the delicious crusty bread.

Third, was lamb heart with potatoes and wild garlic leaves.  The individual items were all cooked properly, the lamb heart was a little pink and the potatoes soft but but not mushy.  It was brought together with a couple of spring onions and thin cooking juices flavoured by (unadvertised) mint, which overshadowed the (advertised) wild garlic leaves.  Whilst I enjoyed this course, I'd ordered it because I'm keen on garlic leaves, so was a tad disappointed that I couldn't taste them.

We moved on from the three starter sized courses to a more substantial, and expensive, plate of "Pied Mutton", served with polenta.  Pied de Mouton is a type of mushroom, named so because it's appearance resembles a mutton's foot, not because it is one as suggested by the misspelling on the menu.  This was my least favourite dish.  The mushrooms were fine, but I wasn't keen on the large portion of polenta.  I'd only eaten finely ground polenta before, and didn't get on with this more rustic version, which was reminiscent of porridge.

Our final course was a Barnsley chop served with a green sauce, purple sprouting broccoli, and liver.  I was pretty full by now but the succulent lamb, though not pink enough for my taste, demanded to be finished - except for the liver, which I simply don't have any fondness for, no matter how many times I try it.

We were too full for desert.  A pity, because the tart tatin type creation sitting on the counter in front of the open kitchen looked pretty delectable.  We enjoyed our visit here, which was enhanced by excellent service.  The waiter was friendly, and had good knowledge of the menu and wine list, both of which he was happy to talk us through.  We'll definitely be returning.  It's worth mentioning that I've had my eye on the menu for a while and it changes just about every day according to what's in season, and (I guess) what's available from their suppliers.  Exactly the sort of thing you want from a local neighborhood restaurant.

Thu 8 - Hawksmoor

I started out with a rhubard yogurt pot from Konditor & Cook.  Nice idea, but as I've said before in an ideal world this should have something thicker than a thin fruit syrup at the bottom.  It doesn't sit well with the yogurt, and is too thin to eat easily with a teaspoon.

I was happy to be visiting the Spitalfields branch of the reliably excellent (how few places can you say that about?) steak restaurant Hawksmoor for a late lunch.  I forwent a starter so I could be sure of finishing the 350g slab of 55 day aged D-rump steak that I'd been thinking about all day.

I requested it rare and it was cooked to pink perfection.  The meat, sourced from a Longhorn cow via the Ginger Pig, was of exceptional quality, very tender and full of flavour.

Luckily for me, my lunch partner is on a no carb diet, resulting in a whole portion of triple cooked chips to myself.  Usually I'm a french fry kind of guy, but these were exceptional - reminiscent of large french fries in fact, being crispy on the outside and totally fluffy within.  The highlight of the meal was the stilton hollandaise sauce that I had on the side, which has now surpassed both mustard and bernaise as my favourite steak accompaniment.  An brilliant meal, and whilst the high standard of food and service was reflected in the price tag, I felt it was worth every penny.

Wed 7 - Pizza & Kimchee, K&C Sandwich & Brownie

Nothing to report for breakfast, as I missed it.

I plumped for a salami, mozzarella and pesto baguette from Konditor & Cook at lunch.  It was sooooo soggy that I utterly failed to enjoy it.  And not just soggy on the green bit you can see, where the maker had been careless with the pesto, but soggy all the way through the base.  This is the kind of thing I'd expect from Pret, not K&C, which I view as being superior.  It must have been made hours and hours before I'd bought it.  Disappointing.

From K&C I also purchased a "fudgepacker" chocolate brownie for desert.  It tasted fantastic despite it's shoddy appearance, just as good as last time in fact.

I arrived late back from work and settled for a supermarket Pizza Express "Sloppy Guiseppe" pizza.  Yep, supermarket pizza two nights in a row, the shame.  This was better than the "American" from last night though, the toppings were sufficient and required no supplements.  I had kimchee on the side as I was all out of salad.  In Korea they eat it with everything right?  The bowl of kimchee's not as big as it looks below, it's the perspective.  I heart kimchee, but not that much . . .

Tue 6 - Muffin, Doughnut & Pizza

Whilst I'm not too keen on the baked cream within the Konditor & Cook spinach and cheese muffin, I still chose one this morning as I was in a rush, and it's far preferable to the muck that most other places near my office churn out in the morning.  Satisfactory, but not as nice as the first one I bought back in January, to which the cream had been added afterwards.  I had a kiwi and lime smoothie with this.

No lunch, just a Krispy Kreme doughnut, courtesy of a colleague's birthday generosity.  It didn't taste great, but was somehow still enjoyable.  Must be the vast amount of sugar.

I had a . . . let's just say awkward . . . doctor's appointment this afternoon.  Needed a large chilled glass of this Tesco Amontillado sherry to recover.  It's closer to medium than dry and drinks well chilled.  A good price too, at £6.50 a litre.

 Dinner consisted of a Pizza Express cook-at home-pepperoni pizza.  The machine that made this had been incredibly stingy with the cheese, so I added extra, as well as some olives and jalepeno.  It was a bit soggy in the middle (need a pizza-stone for the oven, even for shop bought pizzas) but I think that the base has a bit more flavour to it than most supermarket offerings.  The toppings were decent enough, pity I had to add most of them.  I had a simple salad of avocado and tomato, balsamic dressing on the side.

Mon 5 - Jose

The day started with a smoothie and a banana.

I found myself heading to Eat for lunch, God knows why because it's usually appalling.  I chose a cheese and pickle baguette.  It wasn't terrible, except for the rubbery cheese - unfortunately a major component.  And I'm sure the baguettes used to taste fresher than they do these days.  So, the salad and (Branston) pickle were fine.  Eat used to be ok didn't it?

On Monday evenings I've started taking a wine course at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust which happens to be on the same street as Jose Pizarro's eponymous tapas bar, Jose.  I've tried to visit twice before, but on both occasions the wait's been more than i can stand.  It's a tiny space, with the kitchen / bar area taking up about a third of the space, leaving room for perhaps 25 visitors.  You'll either be standing or sitting on a high stool, it really is a proper tapas bar, and not a restaurant (though he does have a sit-down place further down the road, named Pizarro).  The menu includes classic tapas fare and some more original creations and daily specials, priced at between £3 (tomato bread) and £9 (Jamon Iberico).  We chose tomato bread (a touch soggy), smoked beef (thinly sliced like ham, delicately smoked so that you could still taste the beef), ham croquettes (creamy, one of the best examples I've eaten), hake allioli (fish perfectly cooked, garlic not overpowering), pumpkin salad (with almonds, young white cheese, spinach leaves and a sweet dressing - V's favourite dish) and Morcilla with roast peppers, apple and mint dressing (my favourite).  So, an almost universal success.  I'll be visiting again soon to sample more of the menu, and to take better pictures!

Sun 4 - Rack of Lamb

Toast and marmalade for breakfast, didn't take a pic.

I made some smoked fish canapes for a mid-afternoon snack.  I had some smoked eel left which was made into mini-sandwiches (with pickled red onion on top), all else pictured are combinations of Wild Alaskan or Scottish smoked salmon on different kinds of bread, blini and toast.  The Wild Alaskan salmon from Tesco is a bit bland and rubbery, but went well with kimchee.

Next up was a starter of orange, black olives, red onion and avocado, which would have worked had I not forgotten to add the onion.  Bit of a disaster, onion's definitely needed to bring this salad together.  The olives particularly stood out until V noticed my silly mistake.  Doh!

For the main, V cooked rack of lamb with celeriac puree, creamed leeks and carrots.  The lamb was cooked perfectly pink (for me at least), though it extremely fatty.  Not V's fault, more the lambs.  The actual meat was delicious, but the rosemary breadcrumb crust was wasted, as in order to eat it you needed to take a big bite of fat too.  The accompaniments were all well executed, once it had been realised that celeriac is too fibrous to push through our plastic ricer - must be pureed in the processor.  The whole plate was a bit too fatty, in an ideal world it could have done with something to cut through all the milk, butter, cream and lamb fat.

Sat 3 - Iberico Pork

V kindly made a smoked salmon sandwich for lunch, with butter, pepper and lemon, not bad.  The salmon was from Tesco and was surprisingly acceptable, not over-smokey nor slimy as cheap salmon can be.  It's this one.

An early dinner followed, of Iberico pork with mashed potato and roast red pepper.  The pork was just right, juicy and a little pink toward the bone.  I dusted it with smoked paprika, and salt & pepper, before griddling.  I used (semi) Heston method for the mash (semi because I used skins and ricer then sieve but no thermometer shenanigans), and Romano peppers for roasting.  Easy and satisfying.

Had eleven'o'clock munchies, so lined up some gravadlax on toast for dinner.  The gravadlax was from Tesco.  The sweet mustardy sauce helped it slip down fine.