The Joy of Hake

I love fish. I love it so much that if given the stark choice of giving up meat or fish, I'd go pescatarian. It'd be tough giving up juicy steaks and wondrous Cantonese BBQ but it'd be tougher giving up fish, lobster, prawns, scallops, clams, crab and all the other amazing treats from the sea. One of my favourite fish is hake, which despite being caught off British shores, isn't that popular in the UK. Sadly, most of the British catch goes to Spain, a country where hake is revered. (Not for the first time I wonder whether the much-vaunted food revolution in the UK is an illusion when so much brilliant British fish and seafood ends up abroad.)

Steamed hake with ginger & spring onion

Hake's flaky texture is similar to that of cod but the flesh is softer. Indeed, it's great battered and fried as fish & chips. It can also be grilled, pan-fried, roasted or steamed. When I cook hake, I like to treat it the traditional Cantonese way by steaming it, topping it with ginger and spring onion, splashing hot oil over it before adding a dash of light soy sauce. Alternatively, I sometimes give hake a Southeast Asian flavour by mixing up a dressing of fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, garlic and chilli to pour over the steamed fish.

Hake also goes well when paired with meat or seafood. I remember a restaurant in Barcelona that served hake with clams in the most amazing sauce. It was so good, I shocked my friends and waiting staff alike by my new found fluency in Spanish by asking for 'mas pan por favor, mas pan' to mop up the sauce. Alas, I can't remember the name of the restaurant; it was a long time ago, I was on a stag do and it was in the days when I was a civilian.

Anyway, can you guys please eat more hake? For those of you in London, the Furness Fish Stall in Borough Market sells hake steaks from Shetland. I'm sure other quality fishmongers have it in stock and I've seen hake on sale at Marks & Spencer.

Neptune Oyster - Boston's Finest

I was going to do a round-up of the eats on my recent visit to Boston, but in the end I couldn't be arsed. It's not that the places where I ate were bad; in fact they were pretty decent. It's just that they weren't Neptune Oyster. This intimate seafood joint is a truly special place that really captures the essence of Boston.

We kicked off with the steamed Wellfleet littlenecks, an Iberian-inspired dish and one of the best things I have eaten in a long, long time. A perfect marriage between juicy littleneck clams, freshly caught off Cape Cod, and a sharp, tangy Albarino-based broth full of flavour from chorizo and roasted garlic finished off with parsley and lemon. A side order of bread is obligatory to mop up the broth. This dish was so good we ordered a second helping!

Our other appetizer was Neptunes on Piggyback - crispy fried oysters on top of pulled Berkshire pork with golden raisin confiture and pistachio aioli on toast. It sounds a bit ambitious but all the components worked well together. In addition to a second helping of littlenecks, we ordered Cioppino, an Italian-American fish stew served with saffron rice for our mains (or entrees as the Americans weirdly insist on calling main courses). This was good but it seemed a little monochrome when compared to the technicolor littlenecks.

As American portion sizes are that much bigger, we were full after sharing three starters and a main between two. In fact, I think the way to go at Neptune is to order a spread of starters and maybe something from the raw bar as opposed to the traditional starter-main combo. For those weirdos that dislike seafood, I spied burger and steak on the menu but if you're a veggie then you're pretty much screwed.

One last thing, Neptune Oyster is a tiny, no reservations joint. That said, you can put your name on a list at the door and they'll give you a time to return. There's a nearby pub called Goody Glovers where you can savour a couple of pints while waiting.



Neptune Oyster, 63 Salem St, Boston, MA 02113, USA
(Tel : +1 617-742-3474) Nearest station: Haymarket

PS: OK then, you've twisted my arm, here are a couple of other tips for Boston. For lobster, try Atlantic Fish and for steak, try Abe & Louie's. Neither is particularly cutting edge, but they're both comfortable and serve good quality food and wine. Sometimes that's all you need when you're far from home and knackered after a hard day at work.

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

Spanish Breakfast @ Brindisa

Borough Market can be a royal pain in the arse, but that's not to say there aren't some good things about it. Chief among those is Brindisa, not only for its food shop but also for its tapas bar. I've previously enthused about the former's chorizo sandwich, but in this post I want to pay homage to the breakfast served at the latter.

As much as I'm a fan of the full English, this Spanish alternative of ham, egg & fried potatoes is an equally great way of setting yourself up before braving the Borough Market crowds. And then there's the coffee. While half of London is genuflecting in front of the Antipodean flat white, I believe the Spanish café con leche, as served at Brindisa, is superior.

It isn't cheap. The ham, egg & fried potatoes costs £11.90, and you won't get much change out of £20 after ordering a coffee and an orange juice. But unlike some places I can think of, I don't mind spending that kind of money on what is a mighty fine breakfast.



Tapas Brindisa, 18-20 Southwark St, 
London SE1 1TJ
Nearest station: London Bridge

Breakfast is served on Fridays & Saturdays 9am - 11am

Tapas @ Barrica

What is it about the letter B and Spanish food in London? Be it Barrafina, Brindisa, or the subject of this post, Barrica, all the good places seem to begin with the letter B. And true to form, Barrica is bloody good. Of the eleven or so tapas we sampled, there wasn't a single duff dish, which is unusual for a tapas joint.

Jamon Iberico Cebo (grain & acorn-fed ham)

Esparragos frecos (asparagus w/Manchego cheese)

Pierna de cerdo (grilled pork leg)

Tortilla

Albondigas (meatballs) and croquetas pescado (salt cod croquettes) 

Whilst naming a favourite dish is difficult, I can recommend perusing the Tapas del Dia (daily specials), as there's some seriously good stuff on there such as the pierna de cerdo (grilled pork leg w/paprika & garlic) and the esparragos fresco (asparagus w/Manchego cheese). Of those tapas not pictured, the pulpo a la Gallega (Galician-style octopus) and the patatas bravas are must orders.

There's a lot to like about Barrica, with its buzzy atmosphere and genuinely warm service. Although the bill came to £140 (including 12.5% service) between the three of us, it was good value given that we sampled eleven tapas, two bottles of red and a small bottle of sherry. Strip out the booze, and you can eat really well for around £25/head.



Barrica, 62 Goodge Street, London, W1T 4NE
(Tel: 020-7436-9448) Nearest tube: Goodge St

Spanish Fried Rice 西班牙炒飯

As you may have gathered by now, I'm no great shakes in the kitchen. That said I do have a few dishes in my rather limited repertoire, one of which is fried rice.

Usually, I make this with whatever I have lying around. Stuff like leftover chicken might get bunged in a wok with some eggs, spring onion, and rice. Season with soy and finish off with some sesame oil and voila, a quick supper. Bit bloody boring really.

So one day I decided it to give my fried rice, an Iberian flavour with some chorizo, smoked paprika, peppers, onions and a couple of prawns. The end result needs some fine-tuning but I will be making this again.

The Battle of Borough Market: Roast v Brindisa

I don't know about you but whenever I visit Borough Market, I just have to grab a bite to eat. It's the only way to cope with the ever increasingly stressful ordeal of visiting this market on a Saturday. I usually go for a double chorizo sandwich from the open grill outside Brindisa. However, I fancied a change one Saturday, so I wandered over to Roast To Go.

Penélope Cruz, courtesy Wikipedia

Whilst in the queue, I began to daydream about an imaginary battle between these two stalls to decide who is The King of Borough Market. The film running through my mind is a gangland drama with Ray Winstone, exuding his trademark quiet malevolence, playing the head of the Roast mob. Javier Bardem portrays the boss of the rival Brindisa gang boss, for the simple reason that he's the first Spanish actor that popped into my head.

As with most big Spanish films (real or imaginary), Penélope Cruz is in it and it was at the point when her character was abducted by Winstone's that I reached the front of the queue. My screenplay would just have to wait; although I'm pretty sure Pedro Almodóvar won't be calling anytime soon.

Back at Roast, I duly ordered the pork belly with apple sauce sandwich (£6). Unfortunately, it was bland and tasteless. To add insult to injury, the crackling was chewy and not even the apple sauce could lift this poor effort. It really could've done with some stuffing or gravy but even that wouldn't have disguised the fact that it was overpriced and under-seasoned.

In contrast, Brindisa's trusty old double chorizo sandwich (£4.85) shows Roast how it should be done. There was always going to be more flavour, as chorizo naturally has, but it was the sweet piquillo peppers that nearly stole the show. Not even the presence of devil-weed (rocket) could spoil this superior sarnie. It's no wonder that there's always a queue for this beauty.

So, there's only one winner in the Battle of Borough Market and that's Brindisa, which isn't really much of a shock. Anyway, now we've established that, I know you're all dying to find out what happens in the rest of my screenplay, 'The King of Borough Market'.

Bardem rescues Cruz from the clutches of Winstone, who follows in hot pursuit. However, the Spanish gang leads Winstone's mob into a trap at a deserted Borough Market. Bardem has Winstone on his knees but spares him on the understanding that the Englishman will learn how to season pork belly properly. OK then, I guess I won't be giving up the day job anytime soon but I can always dream!

Action Against Hunger @ Fernandez & Leluu

It was my privilege to attend a charity event held at one of London's most renowned supper clubs, Fernandez & Leluu, last week. This event was hosted by unearthed to raise awareness and funds for Action Against Hunger, a humanitarian organisation committed to ending child hunger.

unearthed specialise in continental food and it was with their range of products that Fernandez & Leluu rustled up dinner. Much of unearthed's range has a Mediterranean bent so it was quite apt that Spain was the main inspiration for the menu. And what an inspired menu it proved to be...

To kick off, we had a selection of ham, Spanish potato omelette, oyster mushrooms, duck mousse and my favourite, pork rillettes. This was followed by sweetcorn veloute with chorizo film. So far so good.

Next up were flamenquines, made with pork loin, pepperoni and ham. I was a big fan of these meaty croquette-like tapas and they went really well with the mustard although the other herby dip was good too.

More pork in the form of meatballs followed. These were pepped up with cider and figs and were served with a Russian salad. These must have been good, as I forgot to take a photo of the salad!

By this stage of the evening, much wine had been consumed and if it wasn't for the rest of my table reminding me, I would've forgotten to take a photo of the Serrano ham salad with champagne poached pears. This was my favourite dish not least because of the amazing champagne poached pears. Sadly these are unavailable in the shops, as they are Fernandez & Leluu's own special creation.

There was yet more food to come in the form of baked rice, with chorizo, spare ribs, and probably some other stuff topped with tomatoes and potato slices. It was well worth the wait.

After this, I was quite full and would've been quite happy to call it a night but there was the small matter of dessert. I found some space for churros and chocolate, which was a great way to round off a great evening.

It was a shame that it was a school night, as I had to leave the party early. That said, I had a fantastic time and I'd like to thank Simon and Uyen for their excellent food and warm hospitality. I also feel more than a bit of a numpty for not having previously been to their wonderful supper club.

I'd also like to thank the other Simon from unearthed for holding this event and providing the ingredients. I was very impressed by the standard of the products, especially the pork rillettes, chorizo, meatballs, and Serrano ham.

If you'd like to do your bit for Action Against Hunger and have some fun at the same time, please check out their Fight Hunger Eat In campaign. Alternatively, if you buy any unearthed products in-store, 1p from each sale will be donated to this worthy cause.

Click here For Fernandez & Leluu's take on the evening and here for a recipe for those amazing Champagne poached pears.  

Beijing Snapshots

Here are a few snapshots of the weird and wonderful food that caught my eye during my trip to Beijing.

The last thing you expect to see in Beijing is a churros stall. So it did come as a surprise to see a lengthy queue for these Spanish snacks when strolling along Nanluoguxiang Hutong (南锣鼓巷胡同). I gave these bad boys a miss, as I really couldn't squeeze them in. Proof if proof was needed that the Spanish and Chinese are kindred food spirits.

A Beijing must eat is the humble jiaozi dumpling (饺子). Simply boiled and served with vinegar, they come with a variety of fillings such as the everyday pork & chive, crab, and sanxian 三鲜 (pork, prawn & chives). Should you find yourself in the Xidan (西单) neighbourhood, pop into 天津百饺园 – there's no English signage but the name translates as Tianjin Garden of 100 Dumplings.

You always get more interesting dim sum in China like these baked bbq roast pork buns (cha siu bao 叉烧包) from Modern China (金满庭) in the Times Square mall. I've not seen baked cha siu bao served as dim sum in London but you can get a man-sized version at Chinatown bakeries like Wonderful Patisserie.

Mushroom 'pie' with dim sum? It's not a classic combo but one that you can put together at the Golden Jaguar (金钱豹) buffet restaurant located in The Place mall. In common with the rest of the Western selection, the 'pie' was no great shakes but the Chinese and other Asian food was of a decent standard with many dishes cooked to order.

Le Quai (有璟阁) has a stunning interior and this restaurant, located near the Workers' Stadium, offers a mix of classic and contemporary Chinese cuisine with a fusion touch. It sounds like a car crash waiting to happen but I needn't have worried; fusion dishes like tea eggs filled with foie gras worked just as well as traditional dishes like the steamed Mandarin fish (gui yu 鳜鱼).

Eating Sichuan food in Beijing is another must. We went to Yuxin Sichuan Dish (渝信川菜), which is found inside the Chang'an Grand Theatre. Our selection of old faves such as dry-fried green beans (si ji dou 四季豆) and more unusual dishes like bullfrog in chilli oil was all good. Be warned, Sichuan cuisine in Beijing is a lot more potent than its London counterpart.

Grand Steam (蒸) is a trendy Cantonese joint just off Financial St. As you might have guessed from its name, this restaurant serves mainly steamed food including dim sum and larger dishes. I adored dishes like the steamed cod & beans with garlic soy. Less successful were their wonton noodles (yuntun mian 云吞面), as they didn't use the proper fresh egg noodles (san mein 生面) – sacrilege!

As much as I liked the healthy concept of Grand Steam, it seemed the locals preferred the unhealthy TGI Friday's next door. I have no objections to Beijingers sampling Western food on a night out; I just wish that they had better options to choose from. Mind you, there's not much chance of that when Grand Steam's other neighbour is Pizza Hut with a KFC two doors down.

Tapas y Fideuá @ La Rueda (Spanish), London

I doubt very much if La Rueda on Clapham High St would have appeared on my radar but for the fact that it's one of the few places in London that serves up the Valencian noodle dish, fideuá. This tapas bar is more than a bit old fashioned with a very clichéd Spanish feel about it. It was so clichéd that you could imagine that you were in Spain albeit twenty years ago. Joining me for some tapas y fideuá on a Saturday night out was the Italian Shetland Pony, Dark Side and Miss Bolshy.

The décor wasn't the only thing retro about this place as our selection of tapas lacked the sophisticated sheen that you find in classier Spanish joints. That said what they lacked in quality, they made up for in quantity. Although as Miss Bolshy pointed out, they could afford to be generous with potatoes. Sadly they weren't as generous with the paprika and an insipid sauce accompanied the patatas bravas.

Of the rest, the seafood was the least worst. The calamares and sardinas a la plancha were passable with the pick of the bunch being the garlicky prawns in the gambas al pil pil. The rinones al jerez (kidneys in sherry sauce) was also OK but the accompaniment of chips puzzled me. There was also nothing wrong with the chorizo iberico but it isn't that hard to arrange some chorizo then wait for it to reach room temperature. I can't remember anything at all about the pollo al ajillo (chicken in garlic) or the empanadillas de atun (mini tuna pasties).

Following the unremarkable tapas was the fideuá, a dish that I have eaten just once before about ten years ago in Barcelona. I was therefore a bit nervous at rating this dish without much of a benchmark to measure it against. Thankfully, Italian Shetland Pony who as a frequent business visitor to Valencia was very familiar with fideuá was in attendance to provide expert opinion.

The fideuá de pollo y marisco included plenty of chicken and seafood. If anything our complaint was that there weren't enough noodles in this dish. Otherwise, it was a tasty moreish dish with the short fideo noodles absorbing the rich flavours of the abundant seafood. The lack of noodles aside, ISP thought it compared well to the fideuá, he had in Spain, although it was a good few years since he last ate it. A winner.

For once, there was room for dessert as I acceded to Miss Bolshy's request not to over order (I think she was still reeling from the ordering at 101 Thai Kitchen). Unfortunately, the desserts were the worse part of the meal; they had an artificial taste and feel and were most likely bought in. The low point was the cheap looking yellow vanilla ice cream (for some inexplicable reason, Dark Side thought it was mango flavour) that came with my tarta de Santiago. 

On the plus side, the restaurant was very buzzy and full of large groups having a good time. It was at this moment, I realised that people didn't come here to track down fideuá, they came to carry on partying. In fact being a tapas bar, it's ideal for those groups where some want to carry on boozing whilst others want to eat. 

Service was OK although it did deteriorate as the evening wore on as evidenced by a cock-up in the coffee order that left Miss Bolshy without her cappuccino. The cost was a not unreasonable £25/head including a round of drinks and service.

Verdict: Whilst fideuá is rare in London and La Rueda knocks out a decent version, it isn't that good that you'd pay a special visit to this dated tapas bar.   

Other Stuff: Birthday parties are well catered for here as they do the whole ‘lights off, cake with candles, waiters’ singing Happy Birthday’ routine.

PS: The search for fideuá continues - please let me know if you spot these Spanish noodles in London.