Time To Say Goodbye

After exactly four years and three hundred blog posts, I'm calling time on Eat Noodles Love Noodles. Giving up blogging hasn't been an easy decision to make. After all, it's a hobby that's given me great joy, and one through which I've met some great friends, online and off, along the way. Big thanks to you all, especially to those of you who took the trouble to comment on the blog along the way. {Update July 2015 - I've made a kind of a comeback on my other blog - click here.}

Why now? The truth is I've been thinking about jacking it all in for the past year or so. The only reason why I continued was the proliferation of ramen shops in London and my travels abroad. But there's only so much I can blog about ramen, and my mad run of travel this year has come to a halt.

If there's one aspect of blogging I'll miss, it will be writing about food on my travels. I doubt I would ever have started blogging if I didn’t have the kick-start from a trip to China in 2009. And to the end, it's these posts that have given me most pleasure to write.

I won't miss writing about London restaurants so much, though. Despite all the new openings, I've not really blogged about too many places in the capital this year. It's not that I don't take an interest in all the big name chefs and restaurateurs. I do, and I even sometimes eat in their fancy gastrodomes. It's just that I feel the London restaurant scene is a bit like English Premier League football: an exciting and cosmopolitan spectacle, but one where the actuality does not match the hype.

Now I don't want to end my blog on a negative note (although I have been known to shake my fist at crap restaurants, awful food TV and incorrect food grammar), as I've always been passionate about promoting the food I love the most. So with that in mind, I thought I'd end my last post with my fantasy last supper. I've bent the rules a bit in that I've somehow ended up with a ten-course Asian seafood banquet.

My Last Supper
Sashimi selection
I love sashimi and it's the perfect start to my banquet. Of course it's going to be weapons-grade raw fish, with the only stipulation being the platter must include some of my favourite hamachi (yellowtail).

Steamed scallops topped with garlic & glass noodles
This classic epitomises all that is great about Cantonese cuisine: fresh ingredients, simply cooked. This is also the first appearance of noodles in the banquet.

'Chao Tom' - Grilled prawn paste on sugar cane
In this Vietnamese dish the sugar cane acts as a skewer and the prawn paste is eaten by wrapping it with herbs in lettuce and rice paper before dipping in nuoc cham.

Under the Typhoon Shelter pissing prawns
After a relatively healthy opening three courses, the banquet get dirty in the form of fried 'pissing prawns' aka mantis shrimp tossed in a violent mix of fried chilli and garlic. ('Under the Typhoon Shelter' is the poetic Chinese name of this Hong Kong dish more commonly cooked with crab.)

Singapore chilli crab with fried mantou
Things get dirtier still with this Singapore classic where the crab is almost an afterthought. I can foresee much dipping of fried mantou (Chinese buns) into the flavoursome eggy, tomatoey chilli sauce.

Clams in fish soup with rice vermicelli
Asian food is all about balance, which is why this course is a bit cleansing. Having said that, a big glug of rice wine should go into the soup. (Noodlewatch: noodles make a second appearance in the banquet.)

Shanghai-style river shrimp stir-fried with Longjing tea
The comedown continues with a delicate dish of river shrimp, coated with egg white and cornstarch, stir-fried with Dragon's Well aka longjing tea leaves.

'Pla Neung Ma Nao' - Steamed grouper with lime, chilli, garlic, lemongrass & fish sauce
I have to have a Thai dish in my top ten, and this whole steamed grouper (sea bass would do at a push) sat in an aromatic 'soup' is my choice.

Pak choi stir-fried with garlic
Although my last supper is being served banquet style, this simple vegetable dish will be brought out just after the fish. And for those carb lovers, now might be a good time to ask for some rice. Mind you, not too much though…

Lobster fried with ginger & spring onion on a bed of e-fu noodles
So this is it, the coup de grâce. Of course it was going to be Cantonese, of course it was going to have noodles, and of course it was going to be lobster cooked with ginger and spring onion! My apologies to dessert fans, there's no proper pudding but there will be slices of watermelon.

Now I know some of you may be surprised at my choices. For instance, neither dim sum nor Cantonese BBQ makes an appearance. But that's OK, as I had both at my penultimate meal at lunchtime. Being a critic of the concept of pan-Asian restaurants, some may be surprised the feast contains a mix of different cuisines. However, I don't think it's an issue, as all of the dishes are bona fide classics and they will be served 'banquet-style' rather than in a blurry family-style free-for-all. And being a bit of an obsessive, I've also given a lot of thought to the sequence in which the courses will be served.

So that's it. I am now a former blogger, although I will continue to post food photos on Instagram. Thanks again for reading.

PS: Thanks for the good wishes and messages on Twitter - I'm very touched. For clarification, I will be keeping the blog alive but there won't be any new posts. And I'll still be on Twitter.

Eating In Bangkok

Whilst I steadfastly insisted on ordering dishes 'Thai-spicy' at every opportunity during my stay in Hua Hin, I was ready to give my guts a breather by the time I arrived in Bangkok. This could only mean one thing for a good Chinese boy such as myself: a trip to Chinatown.

As darkness falls, the streets of Chinatown come alive with hawkers selling southern Chinese treats such as Cantonese BBQ, Teochew braised duck and Hainanese chicken rice. While the roast duck and wontons in my soup noodles aren't going to win awards, they were pretty good for the equivalent of 75p I spent on them.

The Chinese influence on how Bangkokians eat isn't just limited to Chinatown. This is most evident at breakfast time judging by the gusto at which the locals were tucking into bowls of congee and soup noodles. Naturally I started the day with the latter, which came with loads of goodies including fish balls, fish cake, pork slices, minced pork, some veg and fried wonton skin. I tended to go for the broad ho fun rice noodles (called sen yai in Thai) but most stalls offer a choice of noodles. The soup is often quite mild (ideal for breakfast) but there are loads of condiments on the side if you want to pimp your bowl up.

As you might have gathered I ate lots of noodles in Bangkok, and my favourite came from a stall on the edge of Chinatown. Through pointing and uttering random words of English, Chinese and Thai I ended up with a bowl of noodles that appeared to be the lovechild of Vietnamese pho and Chinese braised brisket noodle. By that I mean the herbs and crunchy beansprouts reminded me of pho whilst the anise-scented, melt-in-the-mouth brisket (with bits of tendon, too) was most definitely Chinese. My only regret was that I didn't order a second bowl.

Away from the soup noodles I also enjoyed eating in small hole-in-the-wall joints serving dishes such as duck red curry with kanom jin noodles and pad kra pow with pork. The latter with its aniseedy hit from the holy basil is one of my favourite dishes (remember to ask for it to be served with a crispy fried egg). In other places I may have baulked at the undersized portions but this isn't a problem in Bangkok's hot climate where it's better to eat small and eat often.

One thing I didn't dabble in as much as I would have liked is desserts and sweet snacks. That said I did enjoy crispy pancakes called mae prapha that were filled with egg, coconut, sugar and other stuff. They do look like tacos but I will resist the temptation to call them Thai tacos!

I wouldn't go so far to call it a disappointment but I expected more from the Soi 38 Night Market in Sukhumvit. The food I ate was OK and I may have been unlucky in my choice of stall, but there's a good buzz and when prices for pork skewers start at Baht 10 (less than 20p) one can't really complain.

By contrast I was more than pleasantly surprised by the offerings in food courts such as the one in the MBK Center. I particularly enjoyed the som tam Thai there; it was a damn fine green papaya salad which left me perspiring heavily as I insisted on Thai spicy.

Thinking about it I preferred the som tam from the food court to the one I had at Somtam Convent in Silom. Thankfully, their larb was a far better offering and it went down well with sticky rice. While I liked this hole-in-the-wall, the food was a mixed bag; the dry and overcooked gai yang (Isarn-style grilled chicken) was particularly disappointing. There probably is better Isarn-style food in Bangkok but I lacked the language skills and radar to have discovered it.

Eating In Hua Hin

Hua Hin is about three hours by road from Bangkok, and as such is a very popular getaway for those from the Thai capital. It isn't, by any stretch, the liveliest resort in Thailand, but I'm an old git so I don’t really care. Besides, who needs full moon parties when there is abundant seafood!

My favourite restaurant in Hua Hin is Lung Ja Seafood, which can be found on a stretch of Daychanuchit Road where the night market is located. On my first visit I ordered a whole red snapper in tom yum soup laced with coconut milk. This was a quite amazing dish with a proper spicy soup (just look at the amount of aromatics they put in it) coupled with tender, just-cooked fish. I wasn't sure about the coconut milk at first, but it made the dish into a kind of hot and sour curry, which is no bad thing in my book. By the way, remember to insist on this dish to be cooked 'Thai spicy'.

On my second visit I went for lobster. Whilst it was perfectly cooked on the barbecue, with hindsight I wouldn't have gone with the sweet tamarind sauce, as there just wasn't enough zing. On the other hand I was very pleased with the morning glory, which was stir-fried with plenty of garlic and chilli.

Of the other places I tried in Hua Hin, Koti Restaurant is probably my next favourite. It can also be found on Daychanuchit Road albeit across the road from where the night market starts. The menu is quite comprehensive with all the greatest hits from the Thai canon along with a smattering of Chinese and Thai-Chinese dishes. I really liked the warm salad of seafood & glass noodle (yum woon sen), which had a pleasing yet powerful, spicy sour kick to it. The wok skills here are also very good as exemplified by dishes like stir-fried seafood with peppercorns.

I also liked the crab sausage, which is to all intents and purposes the Teochew-Chinese dish of ngo hiang 五香 - crab and pork meat wrapped in beancurd skin, then deep-fried. Unlike the Chinese version, I couldn't really discern any five-spice flavour, but it was tasty and moreish nonetheless. Incidentally, versions of this dish are very popular in Malaysia and Singapore.

Hua Hin's night market is great for a stroll although I didn't really eat any proper meals there. However, I did enjoy snacks such as rotee (the local Romanised spelling of roti) and the coconut custard puddings known as khanom krok (thanks to MiMi for letting me know what these are). I think I liked the idea of khanom krok, with its crispy outer and wobbly centre, more than the execution, as the ones I tried weren't that sweet or coconutty. Perhaps they're meant to be like that.

The various guidebooks and online guides often cite Sang Thai and Chao Lay as Hua Hin's 'go-to' seafood restaurants. Both have excellent locations with piers stretching into the sea and serve dishes such as fried mantis shrimp (pissing prawns) with garlic, blue swimmer crab & glass noodle claypot, oyster omelette and mixed seafood platters. Both places were decent enough, but I think Lung Ja Seafood is a better restaurant in terms of value and quality. Next stop, Bangkok.

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.

Thai Curry Noodles @ Vanduke

Thai curry noodles: three magical words that lured me to London's South Bank to check out Vanduke. I know it's very easy to be blasé about yet another street food van, but it's not as if these guys are serving up burgers or hot dogs. In fact, Vanduke offers a type of noodle I've not knowingly eaten before: kanom jin, a northern Thai noodle made from fermented rice.

The kanom jin noodles are available with a choice of three different toppings, and I went for the naam yaa neua, a beef red curry (the alternatives are chicken in wild ginger sauce and prawn coconut curry). This was one of the best bowls of noodles I've eaten in London in a long, long time. The beef curry had a decent kick from the galangal and lemongrass, and was liberally laced with pea aubergines. The garnish of fresh Thai basil and beansprouts offered a contrast in texture and tempered the fire of the curry a little. It also came with a soft-boiled egg whose runny yolk further enhanced this glorious dish (although on a second visit, the egg was sadly hard). And to cap it off, the rice noodles soaked all of this tasty goodness up. Delicious.

Being a street food van, I'm not sure whether Vanduke's pitch on the South Bank (by the Royal Festival Hall, next to Giraffe) is permanent, but it can be found there every day except Friday nights when it decamps to Hackney Downs Studios for Street Feast London. It's probably best to check their website or various social media feeds for their location. Anyway, regardless of where they pitch-up, just go, you won't regret it.

Kaosarn (The New One in Battersea)

Kaosarn first opened in Brixton Village last year, and it quickly gained a reputation for Thai food that's a cut above. So when I heard a second branch was going to open in Battersea, I was excited. I was right to be. I wasn't going to blog about my meal there, but I feel compelled to write a mini-review because I had such a great time.



We kicked off with deep-fried spicy chicken wings, deep-fried spare ribs and some moo ping (grilled pork skewers). These were all good, especially the moo ping. For mains, two of us went for the kao pad kra-praw (fried minced pork w/fresh chilli & holy basil topped with fried egg) while my other dining companion went with gang keaw warn (chicken green curry). Both dishes were a cut above the norm; in particular I enjoyed the refreshing holy basil that combined well with the hot chilli in the kao pad kra-paw. That said, the runny fried egg with crispy edges topped it off for me! My friend was also impressed that pea aubergines were served with the curry as opposed to cheap substitutes.

We also ordered som tum Thai and larb (with minced pork) as sides; these salads were refreshing yet spicy, and acted as a fine foil to the rest of our order. Service was decent enough, and the dining room of the new restaurant is a step up from the Brixton branch. In common with the original, it's great value and you're allowed to bring-your-own booze. In that respect it reminded me of the many excellent casual BYO Thai restaurants found in Sydney, and that's no bad thing.



Kaosarn, 110 St John's Hill, London, SW11 1SJ (Tel: 020-7223-7888)
Nearest stations: Clapham Junction, Wandsworth Town

For a detailed review of the original Brixton restaurant, please click here.

The Golden Noodle Awards 2011-12

Eat Noodles Love Noodles is three today, and there's no better way to celebrate than with The Golden Noodle Awards. The awards are a bit slimmed down this year, but to keep things interesting I've introduced a couple of new awards.

The Golden Noodle
Winner: Phở sốt vang by Phở Thinh, Hanoi
In common with last year's contenders, all of my favourite noodle dishes over the past year are from overseas, specifically China and Vietnam. And it's from the latter that the winner hails. Quite simply, the phở sốt vang from Phở Thinh in Hanoi is one of the best bowls of noodles I've ever eaten. The combination of anise-scented broth, slippery smooth broad rice noodles and stewed beef in wine with a side of fried dough sticks was simply amazing.

phở sốt vang @ Phở Thinh

But as much as I enjoyed the noodles in Vietnam, the silver and bronze medals go to Chinese dishes I sampled in Beijing. Din Tai Fung, better known for their xiao long bao, takes the silver for a rather special steamed chicken noodle soup. While taking bronze is a massive dish of belt noodles in spicy garlic sauce (originating from Shaanxi province) from Qin Tang Fu.

The Golden Dim Sum
Winner: Wasabi prawn dumplings by Phoenix Palace
This Golden Dim Sum is awarded to my favourite dim sum dish in London. There are many contenders for this accolade, but the award goes to an old favourite with a twist: wasabi prawn dumplings. These slightly plumper har gau (prawn dumplings) with a nasal passage-clearing wasabi hit are a must-order at Phoenix Palace. They're so good that I don't mind the £4.20 price-tag that their presence on the specials menu demands.

Wasabi prawn dumplings @ Phoenix Palace

Coming in a close second is Princess Garden's golden cuttlefish cheung fun. This triple textural delight consisting of springy cuttlefish paste, crispy tofu skin, and slippery smooth rice noodle is the best cheung fun dish in London. In bronze medal position is the capital's finest sweet dim sum dish: chrysanthemum custard buns by Pearl Liang – remember to order these deep-fried, not steamed.

The London Gold Award
Winner: Eat St
This award celebrates what I love best about London's food scene. However, it isn't the number of Michelin stars that I want to shout out about, it's the grassroots as represented by Eat St. To the uninitiated, this collective of street food traders most famous for its stalls on King's Boulevard (round the back of King's Cross station). My favourite vendors include The Rib Man, Banhmi11 and Eat My Pies. I visit Eat St most lunchtimes and it has improved my quality of life no end, which is why they win the inaugural London Gold award.

Rib Man @ Eat St

I'd also like to give a quick mention (and joint-silver medals) to Maltby St Market and Brixton Market/Village where the likes of Bea's Diner, Kaosarn and Mama Lan ply their trade. Sadly, there are some contrary voices deeming the various stalls and traders to be too hipster/middle class/gentrified. While we're all entitled to our opinions, I find much of the criticism to be lazy, shrill and self-loathing, and I think all of these places are a welcome addition to the capital's food scene.

Anyway, that's all folks! It's time for my blog to take its summer break - see you all in September!

Lies, Damn Lies and Fish Sauce

Although I was born in the northwest of England, my culinary upbringing was strictly Chinese. I didn't really have much choice. In common with many immigrants, my folks fought off homesickness through rustling up the dishes they grew up with. The food they cooked was typical of their hometown of Canton (now known as Guangzhou) as well as Hong Kong, where they lived before coming to the UK.

In particular, Sunday lunch was always a very special meal. My mum would get up at an ungodly hour to put a slow-cooked soup, made with pork bones and mysterious dried herbs, on the boil. My dad was in charge of the roast. Not beef or lamb, but a slab of pork belly or maybe a whole duck roasted in the traditional Cantonese way. Sometimes, there would be a steamed fish, other times, some stir-fried seafood. And then there were vegetables, which my mum would ALWAYS make me eat. I didn't properly appreciate it when I was younger, but I am forever grateful to my parents for instilling in me a deep love of my native cuisine.

So you can imagine my shock and horror when I discovered my folks have never ever used fish sauce when cooking. This revelation got me thinking what other liberties they were taking in the kitchen? After all, according to no less an authority than Gok Wan, fish sauce is a Chinese store cupboard staple. And it must be true because this rather special TV chef would liberally slap shedloads of crappy Squid Brand fish sauce into most of the dishes he rustled up on his comedy cookery show, Gok Cooks Chinese.

I am, of course, taking the piss. Don't get me wrong, I like fish sauce. Without it, Thai and Vietnamese food wouldn't be the same. However, when it comes to Chinese food, fish sauce isn't really that common. In fact, it is traditionally only used and manufactured in a small corner of southeast China by the local Chiu Chow (Teochew) and Hokkien communities. Even then I'm not so sure how common it is as a Chinese condiment, as the shelves of the shops I visited in London's Chinatown were full of fish sauce from Thailand or Vietnam with nary a bottle of Chinese-branded fish sauce to be seen.

So why is Gok Wan perpetuating the lie that fish sauce is essential for Chinese cooking? My theory is that fish sauce is being used as a shortcut to gain that elusive xian (鮮) or umami taste. The alternatives would be either to do it the old fashioned way, or to use the much-maligned MSG. (I don't really want to go into the MSG debate right now, but scientific evidence debunks the mass of hypocritical borderline-racist bullshit written about this subject.)

Just to be clear, I'm not saying fish sauce shouldn't be used in Chinese food outside of those traditional Chiu Chow/Hokkien dishes in which it already features. What I resent is that, along with a load of other misconceptions, fish sauce is portrayed as a traditional Chinese staple on Gok Cooks Chinese. It would have been more honest if Gok said that he was using fish sauce to give the recipe a twist, or as a bit of cheat. But no, he gave birth to a lie. It's one I want to stamp out.

Dinner @ Banana Tree Soho

Banana Tree styles itself as an Indochina kitchen – offering dishes and specialities from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam amongst other countries in South East Asia. As long time readers of my blog will know, this kind of pan-Asian concept usually brings me out in hives.

Nevertheless, my curiosity was aroused when I was invited to review Banana Tree's new Soho branch. After all, it does no harm to challenge one's prejudices, especially when the first £60 of the bill is free. I know some of you are sceptical of freebie invite reviews, but in this instance I dined anonymously with two civilian mates, and only unmasked myself as a blogger when the bill arrived.

The Legendary Rendang

Like many casual joints, Banana Tree doesn't do starters and mains. Instead, they serve mains alongside a selection of smaller side dishes, and the food is brought out as and when it's ready. I don't usually mind this, but I was a little hacked off that everything, literally, came out at once, with no stagger whatsoever. This meant dishes got cold and table space was at a premium. Anyway, here's what we ordered:

The Legendary Rendang (£9.80) was probably the pick of the bunch, with its melt-in-the-mouth beef and rich coconutty sauce. It could've done with having more zing, but still, it was much better than the rendang I recently had at Tukdin, an ultra authentic Malaysian joint. It's just a shame there wasn't more of it. Sticking with Malaysian classics, the Kajang chicken satay (£8.50/6 pcs) was well marinated and had a nice char. Unfortunately, the chicken was a bit dry and overcooked, which was a shame as the peanut sauce was very good.

Braised Pork Belly

String-tied braised pork belly w/green coconut juice (£7.50) was the other highlight. The pork fell away in juicy tender strands, and the accompanying sauce picked up the flavour of the aromatics such as cinnamon and star anise. This Vietnamese style dish was better than a similar one I had at Viet Grill. But like the rendang, the portion size was a bit mean.

Phad Thai

Phad Thai w/prawns (£8.20) – for whatever reason, this iconic Thai noodle dish often disappoints in London. And this effort didn't buck that trend, as it was bland and unmemorable. As was the green papaya salad (£5.90) – this version of classic Thai som tum, was let down by the absence of chillies, which usually gives this dish a fiery kick.

Roast duck

Roasted duck breast with Pei Pa hoisin sauce (£11.50) is poor value when you consider a whole Cantonese roast duck from Chinatown doesn't cost much more. Cost aside, the meat was tender enough but the skin wasn't well lacquered. It also didn't help that the dish was doused in sauce, which would have been better served on the side. All in all, a bit underwhelming.

The atmosphere was buzzy and the service attentive. Together with some rice, a couple of rounds of beer and service, the bill came to £86 between three, which is roughly £29/head. Notwithstanding the fact that the first £60 of the bill was comped, this is quite expensive for what is a casual dining experience. That said, you can 'combo up' your main course, which makes it better value, although that does discourage sharing.

Despite my deep-rooted antipathy to pan-Asian eateries, Banana Tree wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Nothing was actively bad, and there were signs of promise in the beef rendang and the braised pork belly. Yet there was little va-va-voom (that's a new phrase for Food Blog Bingo) and to be honest, it isn't really my kind of place. Mind you, what I think is pretty much irrelevant, as this casual restaurant was never less than full in the hour or so that I was there.



Banana Tree, 103 Wardour Street, London W1F 0UQ (Tel: 020-7437-1351)
Nearest stations: Leicester Square, Tottenham Court Road

100 Up @ Kaosarn

[Update Oct 12 - a second branch of Kaosarn has opened in Battersea and is reviewed here.]

Assuming my maths isn't wrong, Kaosarn has the proud honour of being the 100th London eatery to feature in my blog. And it's entirely fitting that somewhere like this Thai café gets that accolade. Whilst I really can't be that arsed to write about eating out in London nowadays, I will always blog about inexpensive unpretentious indies like Kaosarn. Especially when they have noodles on the menu!

I did consider going for Kaosarn's signature dish of gai yang khao neaw som tum (£11.50) – but I wasn't hungry enough to take on this combination of half a grilled chicken, sticky rice and som tum. Instead I plumped for soup noodles in the form of kuay tiew tom yum Bangkok style (£6.90).

The most important aspect of any soup noodle dish is the soup. And in this case, the tom yum soup was bang on the money, with deep hot and sour flavours seemingly sans any artificial enhancements. After that, it's imperative that the noodles are properly done, and I'm pleased to report that the slippery smooth kuay tiew rice noodles were.

The toppings of deep-fried king prawns, fishballs and minced pork were also pretty good. My favourite were the prawns, and if you order this dish, do polish them off before the batter gets soggy. The fishballs were bought-in, but don't be put off by that, as few places make their own – that'd be akin to a gastropub making its own sausages. All told, one of the best noodle dishes that I've eaten in London this year!

Not everything was just so, though. For instance, one of my dining companions was less than enamoured by his pad Thai w/prawn (£6.90). Having said that, he didn't mind his starter of coconutty chicken soup aka tom kha gai (£4.90).

My other dining companion plumped for khao pad kra-proaw w/pork (£6.90), a very home-style stir-fry with chilli and holy basil. It was nothing special, but I liked the fact that it came with a runny fried egg – a very east Asian touch.

We also shared a side of som tum Thai (£4.90); this papaya salad is often dumbed-down and disappointing in London. This one, I'm pleased to report, was the real deal with a proper fiery kick.

Whilst not every dish was a winner, there's more than enough promise at Kaosarn for me to return. Ironically, the only thing working against this superior Thai joint is its location in Brixton Village. As any foodie knows, there is so much choice in this complex that it could be a while before you return to the same place twice! For example, in addition to Kaosarn, I've 'done' Elephant, Honest Burgers, Federation Coffee and Lab G, and on top of these joints, there must be another dozen, if not more, places to check out!



Kaosarn, Brixton Village Market, Coldharbour Lane, London SW9 8PR (Tel: 020-7095-8922)
Nearest stations: Brixton

PS: Special thanks to Kay for reminding me that my blog was coming up to a century of London eateries!

Senses of Thailand @ Selfridges

This post is a little late, as the Senses of Thailand promotion at Selfridges ends 30th July. Whilst I don't accept many PR invites, I couldn't resist this one. After all, Thai is one of my favourite cuisines. There's lots of great stuff at this promotion with the likes of Patara and @siam dispensing free samples.

However, the highlight has to be the mash-up (look at me getting down with the kids) between Nahm and Selfridges Champagne and Oyster Bar, where special dishes devised by Nahm's head chef, Matthew Albert are available. My favourite was the oysters with peanut and green mango nahm jim (hoi nang rom nahm jim).

Apologies for the brevity of this post, but I'm going away on holiday – a proper one without the intrusions of the interweb. I'll respond to your comments and e-mails when I get back. The next post will be on August 8th. See you then.

Dinner @ Paolina Thai Café

I can't speak for all food bloggers but a welcome side effect of my hobby is the number of requests I receive from friends to check out different eateries. One such request was from the Mysterious Mrs A to try the Paolina Thai Café. Also joining us was El Greco, and as Paolina does BYO so did a welcome fourth guest, a bottle of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc.

I wasn't over enamoured with the deep-fried starters of wontons and corn cakes, especially as the latter consisted mainly of batter. The garlicky steamed kanom jeep dumplings were better but the pick of the starters was a particularly spicy poh tak soup that came with plenty of seafood. I much prefer this cleaner hot and sour soup to the ubiquitous tom yum.

Moving onto the mains, I thought the kang mussamun (beef mussamun curry) was too sweet, and I preferred the kang dang gai (green chicken curry). The Mysterious Mrs A was a fan of the moo kratiem prik tai (stir-fried marinated pork w/garlic, pepper and coriander), which was very flavoursome. I wonder what they put in the marinade?

However for me, the stars of the evening were the side dishes. The papaya based som tum salad is one of my fave Thai dishes and this zingy version was a real winner. But even better was the pad Thai – one of the better renditions that I've come across in London. Unlike many renditions of this dish, this one wasn't too sweet.

Paolina is dirt-cheap – none of the dishes we ordered cost more than £5.90. Our bill with rice and a generous tip came to around £60 or £20 per head, but that's only because we over ordered – an inevitable side effect of blogging! For normal appetites, you can eat well for between £10 and £15 per head.

This place is tiny and is very much a caff rather than a restaurant, but I think that adds to the charm. Service was efficient and unobtrusive with that customary Thai charm. Whilst Paolina isn't going to challenge to be London's best Thai, it's far from the worse. Should you find yourself in the vicinity, it's well worth a visit, especially as it does BYO!



Paolina Thai Café, 181 Kings Cross Rd, London, WC1X 9BZ
(Tel: 020-7278-8176) Nearest stations: Kings Cross, St Pancras

Off The Blog 5 - Asia in London

I haven't done one of these round-ups in ages, but that's not to say I haven't been eating well 'off the blog'! For example, in this post, I'm checking out posh sushi, authentic spicy Thai and a neighbourhood Vietnamese restaurant.

I don't mind lunching on my own, but I seldom go for anything too fancy. I usually have a fry-up, maybe a burger, the occasional Nando's, or a bowl of noodles. But every now and then, I want to lunch alone in style. Why? To quote the famous French philosopher, L'Oréal – it's because I'm worth it.

Which is why I pitched up at Yashin Sushi, and went for their Hajimeteno Omakase set lunch (£20). This included posh fish such as sea bass, yellowtail and tuna, as well as salad and some miso soup in a bone china teacup. In all honesty, I can't remember if any of the sushi had been blow-torched but regardless, it was excellent. I was particularly impressed by how expertly the chef had seasoned the sushi.

So it was a bit of a shame that the overall experience was marred by one of the waiters, who was extremely unsubtle in his attempts at upselling. In the unlikely event that he is reading this post, I'd like to offer him the following advice:

1) When taking a drinks order, don't open with 'would you like still or sparkling water?'

2) If someone has just ordered a £20 set lunch, don't ask 'will that be all?' - especially if you're not going to offer any suggestions.

3) At the end of a meal, just ask 'would you like anything else?' rather than 'would you like more sushi, or perhaps some dessert?'



Yashin Sushi, 1A Argyll Road, London, W8 7DB (Tel: 020-7938-1536)
Nearest tube: High Street Kensington

Quality authentic Thai food can be hard to find in London, so minutes after clapping eyes on The Skinny Bib's review of @Siam, I made arrangements to meet a friend there for dinner. Following the lead of The Skinny Bib, who incidentally has the inside track on London's best Thai eateries, we ordered the Northern Set (£15.95). This consists of green chilli relish (really hot), herb sausage (the star of the evening), pork curry (really bloody spicy), sticky rice, and posh pork scratchings (dead good for dipping into the curry). A real winner if you like it hot.

We also ordered the E-Sarn Set (£15.95), which consists of spicy minced chicken ground rice (a very tasty Thai basil infused larb gai), Thai papaya salad (a very refreshing som tam), grilled sirloin (sadly overcooked), and sticky rice. The two sets complemented one another well, as the E-sarn set was a cooling counterpart to the fiery Northern set. We also ordered some mhee krob (£5.75) – these crispy rice noodles were a tad too sweet on their own, but fine in the context of the meal.

Overall, dinner at @Siam just fell short of true greatness, as the belly pork in the curry wasn't unctuous enough and the sirloin was a tad overcooked. Having said that, there's a lot to like about this Soho restaurant, from its superior service to its uncompromising stance on spicing. Highly recommended.



@Siam, 48 Frith Street, London, W1D 4SF (Tel: 020-7494-4511)
Nearest tubes: Leicester Square, Tottenham Court Road

I first came across Me Me when playing with the 'fruit machine' on the Urbanspoon app on my phone. You know, the one that randomly selects restaurants when you shake your phone. After a quick look at Me Me's website, I just knew I had to check out this intimate Vietnamese joint.

I ordered off the special lunch menu, which serves up two courses and a drink for £10.50. As I wasn't in the mood for summer rolls (gỏi cuốn), I started with spring rolls (chả giò) and followed with a bowl of beef pho (phở bò).

The spring rolls were OK, but next time I think I'll try the summer rolls. The pho, though, was damn tasty with a strong aromatic stock, bouncy rice noodles and an abundant helping of beef (mainly well done flank with some just-cooked fillet). My only complaint was the meagre size of the side plate of herbs and beansprouts.

On the evidence of their noodles, Me Me is of a decent enough standard for those of us with a W in our postcode not to have to schlep across town to 'The Pho Mile'. To put it another way, their pho isn't as good as what many believe to be London's best but it's a damn sight better than some I've sampled.

Another thing that endears me to this restaurant is their colour-coded menu, which highlights authentic Vietnamese dishes in green. This means you can filter out the generic stir-fries and concentrate on ordering the real McCoy – something that I'll be sure to do on future visits.

{Update 13 May - I returned here for dinner with some other blogger types, and to be honest, it was a tad disappointing. This is more a place for a bowl of pho rather than a big Vietnamese blow-out.}



Me Me, 565 Fulham Road, London, SW6 1ES (Tel: 020-7381-1100)
Nearest tube: Fulham Broadway