The Joy of Instagram

I love Instagram, the photo-sharing app with the quirky filters, and I'd even go so far to say that it's my favourite social media. That's because it's the most fun and, in general, it's a better place to play than, say, twitter. I use it mainly to share photos of food, and it's where I increasingly chat to others about what and where I'm eating. For those of you not yet on Instagram, here's a taste of what you've been missing.

Exmouth Market - one of my favourite streets in London, where the joys of pecan pie at Medcalf and duck egg with morcilla at Caravan can be found.

Japanese yakitori - two places where I enjoy eating it are Soho's Bincho, which serves a good value set lunch, and Sticks 'N' Sushi in Wimbledon, where they also knock out a great seaweed salad.

Chinese patisserie - these exquisite pumpkin pies and walnut buns (named for their appearance) were the most memorable dishes from a meal at South Beauty, a Sichuan restaurant in Beijing.

Eggs - an oozy Scotch egg and the eggy heart of a Gala pie from Egg Boss and Eat My Pies respectively. Incidentally, these guys are two of my favourite street food vendors.

Northern Chinese food - I adore the multi-coloured buns from Datanghong in Beijing, but northern Chinese food, like the dumplings by Mama Lan in Brixton, can also be found closer to home.

Street food - I love snacks from all over the world, and I'm lucky to live in London where I can sample Indian pani puri (from Horn OK Please at Eat St) as well as Spanish tortilla (from Jose at Maltby St Market).

Fried dough sticks - known as you jaa gwei 油炸鬼 in Cantonese, or you tiao 油条 in Mandarin, these treats are eaten for breakfast, usually as an accompaniment with juk (congee), and increasingly so with noodles.

Vietnamese treats - I love stuff like green bean cakes or a take-away bowl of pho. But you don't have to travel all the way to Vietnam to get this stuff – the pho is from Banhmi11 (various London stalls)

If you would like to see more photos like these then please check out my Instagram feed on your iPhone or Android smartphone. My Instagram handle is @eatlovenoodles

The Lunchtime Legends of Eat St

[Update Oct 2012 - Eat St is no more, but in its place is Kerb. Pretty much the same traders are operating under this banner, and they continue to operate on King's Boulevard.]

Those of you that follow me on twitter or instagram are probably already fed up of me forever banging on about how great my lunch from Eat St is. For those not in the know, Eat St is a collective of street food traders that can be found on King's Boulevard (round the back of King's Cross station). It's quite a loose collective; the various stalls come and go, and don't necessarily always operate on the same day of the week. So it's best to check out their website to see who's on when.

I'm hard pushed to name a favourite, but I think Bánhmì11 just edges it. After all, I was pretty gutted when they took a break from Eat St earlier this year. Not only do these guys knock up great bánh mì (Vietnamese baguettes) but their beef pho noodle soup is pretty damn tasty, too. If you're going for bánh mì, I recommend either the Fish Q (grilled catfish marinated in turmeric and galangal), or the Imperial BBQ (grilled pork marinated in caramel and lemongrass).

On another day, I may have chosen The Ribman as my favourite. In a short time, this fella has become a bit of a legend with his ribmeat rolls (or wraps for the lightweights) topped with a bit of smokey BBQ sauce and/or the notorious Holy F**k hot sauce. Being a northerner, I like to playfully mock southern portion sizes, but The Ribman doesn't skimp. In fact, the only fault I can find with him is that he's a devoted West Ham fan.

I also like Homeslice, who knock up fantastic pizzas, despite coming from a small country located somewhere in the south Pacific called New Zealand. Seriously though, the ribmeat pizza (with ribmeat provided by The Ribman) is a must-order. Otherwise, the chorizo & rocket is a top choice. The pizza can be ordered by the slice or whole.

Recently, I've become a big fan of Eat My Pies, who knock up pies and pasties (both hot and cold) as well as a range of Scotch eggs. But as much as I like the occasional rabbit pie or smoked haddock Scotch egg, the custard tart eclipses all of their savouries.

Other stalls that I like include the much-underrated Tongue 'n Cheek whose ox cheek with polenta is a favourite of mine, and the new kid on the block: Mother Flipper with their signature double candy bacon burger. And if you have room for something sweet, the salted caramel whoopee pies from Kookybakes always hits the spot.

In fact, such is the diversity and quality of the food found on Eat St, I've only just remembered that the likes of Big Apple Hot Dogs and Yum Bun (both big names in the London street food scene) are Eat St regulars. And I have no doubt that there are other favourites that I haven't mentioned in this post!

I don't want to get too preachy, but in my opinion Eat St is far more important than the multitude of high-end Michelin-starred restaurants with big name, big bollocked chefs that operate in London. And that's because I believe that the richness of a food culture is defined by the quality of everyday food from the bottom-up rather than posh food from the top-down. And while the street food scene in London won't be troubling the likes of Hanoi anytime soon, we should treasure the lunchtime legends of Eat St.

PS: All of the traders mentioned in this post are not exclusive to Eat St's site on King's Boulevard. They also work other pitches across London such as Brick Lane Market, Broadway Market and Brockley Market.

London Classics 1: Lisboa Patisserie

New. Hip. Happening. I haven't been any of these things for a long time. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever been hip or happening, although I was new, sometime in the 20th century. While I appreciate that much of London's foodie appeal is based on it being trendy, it does no harm to revisit some of the capital's old timers. Places like Lisboa Patisserie, where they have been quietly doing their own thing for many a year, away from the hyperbole that so often surrounds shiny and new London openings.

When I pitched up there the other week, it was jam-packed to the rafters, so I did what any sane bloke would do; I ordered my pastries to go. It goes without saying that the pastel de nata, the iconic Portuguese egg custard tart, is the calling card of this joint. And my God, it was bloody amazing with its flaky pastry and burnt eggy custard. There were other treats such as the other tart (on the right in the photo) whose name I've forgotten. It was pretty good, but it was no pastel de nata.

So, by all means chase the new, hip, happening joints in London town, but don't forget the old favourites. They've lasted for a reason. It's because they're good, damn good, so do yourself a favour and visit them.



Lisboa Patisserie, 57 Golborne Road, London, W10 5NR (Tel: 020-8968-5242)
Nearest tube: Westbourne Park, Ladbroke Grove

Memories of Little Horse 馬仔

After my recent dim sum feast at Croydon's Tai Tung, I popped into the adjacent Wing Yip supermarket to do some food shopping. Whilst stocking up on bits and bobs, I clapped eyes on an old childhood favourite: ma zai 馬仔, which roughly translates as 'little horse'.

It's also known in Chinese as sha kei ma 沙琪瑪 or saat kei ma 薩其馬, and there are various English translations such as 'Soft Flour Cake'. Ma zai consists of little bits of 'batter' made of flour, egg and sugar binded together in squares with maltose syrup. The end result is a sweet chewy sticky eggy snack.

It's been a while since I last had ma zai, and I was overjoyed that this version was a good 'un. I was at once transported back to the 1980’s when my Mum would buy it as a treat for us pesky kids whenever she went shopping in Manchester's Chinatown.

Nowadays, ma zai comes in cellophane-wrapped individual portions, but when I was little, it would come as one giant cake from which you tore off a square. Inevitably, there would be much sibling bickering as to who snaffled the last one. Hand on heart, it was never me. Honest.

Chinese Bakery

I was first introduced to the delights of Chinese bakery sometime in the last century when my mum would occasionally buy treats from Ho's Bakery in Manchester. By Chinese bakery, I guess I mean the cakes, pastries and buns that were developed by the Cantonese through exposure to western influences in Hong Kong and Macau.

There are couple of places in Chinatown that I go to for Chinese bakery; the first is Wonderful Patisserie on Gerrard Street. The photo below shows a couple of my faves pineapple bun (bolo bao) on the left and baked bbq pork bun (cha siu chaan bao) on the right.

The pineapple bun contains no pineapple and is so called because it has a crispy almost biscuit-like topping that looks like a pineapple. The soft bread in both these buns have a slightly sweet taste which is very moreish.

The baked bbq pork bun should not be confused with the steamed cha siu bao that is served as dim sum although as you can see below the filling is very similar. I could have sworn there was more filling when I was little !

Other faves include banana cake (hong ziu gou) pictured left and wife's cake (lao pao beng) on the right. The banana cake is made of glutinous rice flour, banana and the red bit is red bean paste – it's very fragrant although it is an acquired taste.

The wife's cake is a flaky pastry traditionally with a winter melon and almond paste filling – sounds weird but I love it. There are some faddy versions with red bean paste or lotus seed paste but I'm firmly of the view that you shouldn't mess around with the original.

I sometimes visit the Golden Gate Cake Shop on Macclesfield Road (off Gerrard St) where I sampled their cocktail bun (gai mei bao) and coconut roll. Both consist of the slightly sweet tasting soft bread featured in the bbq pork bun and pineapple bun.

The coconut roll (pictured right) is a new one on me and had a shredded coconut whirl - I was largely indifferent to this roll. The gai mei bao (pictured left) is one of my all-time faves with its dense sweet coconutty filling – the 1st photo below is Golden Gate's version but I prefer Wonderful’s version in the photo below that.

On a recent visit to Wonderful, I sampled a couple of new pastries - sesame red paste pastry (left) and green tea pastry (right). I guess I'm a bit old school and can't say I'd buy either of these pastries again although the green tea pastry was OK.

Of the two places I prefer Wonderful Patisserie as the baking is of a higher quality and the staff are more helpful. Now when writing this post, I thought it was an original idea but I should've known better. After drafting this post, I see that Bellaphon (come back soon old boy!) had already written about Chinese bakery. You can check out his thoughts here - he went to different places and tried some different stuff.

Lastly, I'd love to hear from you about your favourite Chinese cakes, pastries or buns and any tips on where to buy them from. And yes I know I've omitted egg tarts (dan taat) - it's not that I don't like them but these are best served warm as dim sum.

Almond Cakes

Whilst traipsing around Chinatown doing a bit of food shopping, I came across a packet of 'hang hen beng' or almond cakes (although they're actually biscuits). I try not to eat too much sweet stuff nowadays as I have to make some sacrifices for my six-pack but I couldn't resist popping these in the shopping basket.

I'd love to say that these were a childhood favourite but truth be told McVities were more common in the Noodles household. Although that's not to say we didn't have the occasional treat of Chinese cakes and biscuits when I was little. My favourite was sachima but I do remember almond cakes with their crumbly texture and fragrant nutty flavour.

I couldn't wait to rip open the packaging when I got home but when I did, I was disappointed. The biscuits were too crumbly and the almonds had been ground to obliteration. They were also too sweet with a synthetic taste probably from the preservatives that stretched the shelf life to a year.

Sadly, these were a pale imitation of the almond cakes, my Mum brought back from China a couple of years ago. If anyone knows of a better brand of almond cakes then let me know. Otherwise, I'll have to wait 'til the next time I see my parents when they'll mock me about my inadequate Chinese biscuit buying skills.