Eating the A to Z of London

Canada: Maple Leaf

2012-01-08T16:59:00.000Z

We have actually been slowly progressing through "C", but I have been particularly slack at writing up the blog. We actually visited Canada back in November....

Ahhh, The Maple Leaf, a blast from the past. Again, seemingly the only place in London badged as Canadian, I can't say this place is new to me, it was frequent haunt during the mid 90s when I used to work out of our Embankment office. But it's a memory I associate more with the beer than the food.

Because of the strong links with days gone by, I decided to invite along a few of my pals from work. Ian also brought along his fiancee, Erin, who just so happens to be Canadian! I wanted her view on whether it was anything like authentic cuisine

Let's start with the beer. I went expecting it to be a Molson and Labatts shop, but Sleeman's was actually the main beer on tap. Here is a shot of 3 lovely pints of the stuff.

And the happy drinkers tucking into the first round. The first of several...

But before we get carried away with the pints, what about the food? Overall, it seemed like standard North American fare - burgers, ribs etc. But the one thing we did have to try - the famous Quebecian dish of Poutine! A plate of chips smothered in gravy and melted cheese. Looks revolting, tastes devine.

Not to be confused with/pronouced as Poutain. Which means something else entirely.

The ribs were also pretty good (if a bit fatty). Here's Brendan tucking in to a plate of BBQ'd meat.

After many more beers, we still had room to squeeze in dessert, and dessert in Canada usually means something swimming in maple syrup. We opted for a couple of these whoppers:

Choclate sauce, ice cream, nuts, cream, chocolate brownie, marshmallows and of course maple syrup. Tasted good. But after 6 pints of Sleemans, most things probably would.

It's fair to say, an excellent Friday night out was had by all. Erin thought the poutine wasn't bad, not the best ever, but fine for a Covent Garden tourist trap. And although the food wasn't quite michelin standard, it was quite cheap. Atmosphere-wise, The Maple Leaf was as rammed as ever, thankfully I'd booked a table. It still had that air of a Friday night cattle market, ice hockey on the many screens and a wide ranging mix of music loud enough so that it was difficult to hold a conversation. After the second round, that didn't seem to matter.

Food: ***
Value for money: ****
Atmosphere: ****

Cameroon: Maestro Bar and Restaurant

2011-11-27T21:03:00.002Z

I freely admit, we'd been putting Cameroon off - slightly unfairly, merely a reluctance to spend an evening in Deptford. But given that we had Canada already in the diary, it meant squeezing this one in on a chilly November Wednesday evening. Straight from work, James and I trained it to Deptford, I'd managed to misread the map and we ended up at the wrong station, we should have actually headed for the DLR Deptford Bridge, but no matter, it wasn't more than a 5 minute scuttle along Deptford High Street to Maestro Bar and Restaurant.

We found it easy enough, although on first glance it looked shut. It might as well have been, really quite a sizeable place, but no sign of any other diners. Still, we'd made it here without incident, so headed inside. There were a couple of people propping up the bar, the waitress and a friend, chattering away in French. They turned and gave us some very puzzled looks but after asking for a table for two, were allowed to choose our seats. We sat where we would have a prime view of MTV Base, blaring out in poorly dubbed French.

No Cameroonian beer on the menu, unfortunately, so we settle for a couple of Kronenbourg 1664 and perused the menu.

This was the only Cameroonian restaurant I could find in London and admittedly, the menu was true to that claim. James chose pepper soup to start and I had a plate of Ntaba (grilled goat). Mine was a generous plate of chunks of meat, heavily spiced with little dishes of more spice to dip them in. James's soup.....hmm, well it definitely had pepper in it. But it also had a mountain of TONGUE. No mention of that on the menu. Although, he did say that it was perfectly edible, and better than the tongue we had tried back in Bulgaria.

For main course, I chose a traditional dish of Ndole (little bit like a spinach curry) with some very tasty alloko (fried plantain) and James had Soukouya de mouton (a very similar looking dish of goat chunks as my starter).

After the mountain of meat and a couple more beers, there was no room for pudding (I can't actually remember being offered any). We settled up and scuttled back up the High Street to get a train back to James's.

Overall, it was a very odd evening. I think we completely confused the waitress as to why we were even there, almost felt we were a nuisance. It wasn't a particularly cheap meal either, for what were some very scraggy cuts of meat. Maybe on a weekend, the place is buzzing, but this isn't one we'll be hurrying back to.

Food: **
Value for money: **
Atmosphere: *

Cambodia: Lemongrass

2011-09-22T22:20:00.000+01:00

It's taken an age to get here, but at last we are onto a new letter "C". First up, Cambodia, and luckily we found a restaurant that had pretty good write ups on several sites and blogs. It's called Lemongrass (not to be confused with our favourite lunchtime haunt in Docklands of the same name). This one is in Camden Town.

After quite horrendous journeys on London Transport, we met up in Camden early on a Thursday evening, to try out some Cambodian tucker. The restaurant is a 5 minute walk from Camden tube, on Royal College Street, situated in a parade of slightly run down Georgian style townhouses.

Although empty when we arrived, we were there early and Lemongrass, being a bijou place, the tables soon filled up. The decor is plain but it did have a few strings of fairy lights to give a little atmosphere. What did stand out was the open access to the kitchen, with a "noodle of woks" on display (couldn't find a collective noun for woks!)

Lemongrass does suffer from being understaffed. One very busy chef appeared to be doing all the prep and all the cooking, one very busy waitress doubling up as table clearer and washer-upper. Although our beers and starters appeared in reasonable time, when we got to the main course, the restaurant was full and the staff were obviously struggling to cope.

There were a few dishes on the menu labelled specifically as Cambodian, so of course we had to try those. Mixed starters, including golden triangles, and some Cambodian Prawn Soup for first course.

This was by no means the best platter of Asian starters I've ever eaten. I felt they were somewhat bland and being a self confessed connoisseur of spring rolls, the pastry was a touch soggy and stingy on the filling. However, the soup was good, and enough for us all to have a couple of ladles full.

The mains were a step up, we had Phnom Penh chicken, Lok Luk steak, with some rice, noodles and the intriguingly named "Buddhist Cabbage". The steak was particularly tender, the chicken a bit too sweet for my taste buds.

I may stir up some alternative opinions from my friends and family with this post....I hate to admit it but I was slightly disappointed with Lemongrass. It wasn't bad....but it wasn't excellent either. Given the favourable reviews I'd read, my expectations were high, and Lemongrass just didn't cut it. Perhaps it's blasphemous to compare, but I have had significantly better meals at the tiny Thai restaurant at the end of my road. And given this purports to be the only Cambodian restaurant in the UK, I'm going to have to visit Cambodia to make an informed decision as to whether I like this cuisine or not. What a chore.......now, where are those travel brochures?

To the scores. Middle of the road:

Food: ***
Value for money: ***
Atmosphere: ***

What a lot of "B"s

2011-09-06T22:24:00.000+01:00

18 in all. 6 restaurants and 12 home cooked meals. It took us a while, but we're now at the end of B and raring to get onto C. Now for a look back over the B highlights and lowlights.

First the restaurants. We have a tie for first place with Brouge (Belgium) and Arda 2 (Bulgaria) both scoring 12 out of 15 points. Brouge scored consistently across all 3 categories. Another worthy mention for Reema Balti House (Bangladesh) just off Brick Lane, certainly the best value for money of our B venues. No real disasters for eating out in B countries.

Of the kitchen experiments, I particularly liked some of the early B fare - one pot chicken dish from Bahrain and a mushroom pork cutlet recipe for Belarus.

And the worst dish, one I won't be repeating - boring rice and beans from Belize.

I'm very much looking forward to the first of the C restaurants, we've picked out a restaurant in Camden called Lemongrass, representing Cambodia that gets some good write-ups. Might well take a trip up there Saturday evening if anyone fancies joining us.

Burundi: lourobbo's kitchen

2011-09-02T22:00:00.000+01:00

Woooo! Finally we're on to the last B and it's Burundi. I've been looking forward to this for a few weeks now, as there are a number of restaurants lined up for the start of C.

Burundi cuisine is heavy on the beans, but I did manage to find an appetising looking tuna recipe to go with them.

The tuna was marinaded for an hour in a red wine/garlic/herb mix and then grilled and served with a mayonnaise aioli.

Black eyed peas, potatoes, dessicated coconut together with a variety of spices made a tasty accompaniment.

Not a bad way to finish up B for Burundi!

Burkina Faso: lourobbo's kitchen

2011-08-11T22:18:00.001+01:00

On a roll again, merely days after getting back on the A to Z eating trail, I'm in the kitchen, cooking Burkinabe recipes.

Burkina Faso is a small land locked country in West Africa, once known as "The Republic of Upper Volta". I'd never heard of it until I started reading The Travel Book for this eating tour - James had, as it hosts one of the better known cycling events.

On the menu, we had a main course of Munyu Caf Couscous followed by afters of Banfora. The munyu is another recipe that has peanut butter as a core ingredient, so as I started to cook, had high hopes of it being a winner. Other key components - MEAT (non-descript), tomato purée and cabbage.

I decided to try and counteract the vast quantities of peanut butter with at least some nod to healthiness, using turkey as the meat. I'm sure this would normally be lamb or beef, but the turkey worked well and it was reasonably tasty dish. The couscous was a bit bland, the recipe didn't call for any additional spices, but together with the saucy dish, it wasn't bad at all.

For a little sweet dish to follow, I made a batch of Banfora. These are a very similar to Welsh cakes, except with pineapple pieces rather than sultanas. Again , very simple to cook, the hot plate was perfect for frying them up. I think I made them a little thick, but they certainly tasted fine.

Overall conclusion on Burkina Faso - perfectly acceptable. But I can't see it taking off as the next big cuisine to hit London.

Bulgaria: Arda 2

2011-07-29T08:59:00.000+01:00

We're back on the trail! Sorry for the short delay in proceedings, not sure what happened other than time ran away with us, but we return with a trip to Bulgaria on the Seven Sisters Road.

There were 3 restaurants that came up on a search for Bulgarian delights in London - one quite near Sue in Willesden that had some dreadful reviews, a second place in Harringay and Arda 2, which we settled on based on a recommendation from Allison's Bulgarian neighbour.

Suzanne rang ahead for our Wednesday evening jaunt. The nice man who answered the phone was most apologetic, unfortunately there would be no live music tonight, but he was very much looking forward to seeing us!

Allison, Paul and Umbreen accompanied us to Finsbury Park, a short walk from the tube along the Seven Sisters Road to the garish orange of Arda 2. It proved to be a good indicator of the decor inside - the most glorious bright green illuminated bar, stage with stacked synthesisers, glitter ball, orange walls, the must have Bulgarian flag and TV tuned to Europap satellite channels. Marvellous.

Having been given a prime spot in the middle of a reasonably sized restaurant, thoughts turned to beer. Two Bulgarian varieties to choose from. But alas, none in stock. And no Bulgarian wine either, the guy who delivers to Arda 2 had apparently decided to stay in Bulgaria a couple of days extra and they were low on the authentic alcohol. So we reverted to type, ordering Peroni and Corona (and a couple of Perriers). The menu was extensive but with help from our waiter, we opted for a couple of large salads and a Pepper Burek to share.

The salad with eggs was the Ovcharska, and another plate very much the same without the egg and pieces of salami, was Shopska (or Shepherd's salad). The pepper burek was very tasty, a roasted red pepper, smothered in feta and then deep fried.

These starters would have been perfectly adequate for the 6 of us, but then the extras started to arrive, our waiter was keen to ensure that we had the full Bulgarian experience, bold claims of this is the best food in London. Ok, well, we'll give it a go. Two plates of fried cheese arrived of the yellow and the white variety, I'm guessing cheddar and feta. Very tasty, who can argue with melted cheese in batter?

And to finish off the course, a lovely plate of beef tongue.

It wasn't as revolting as it looks, but the only way I can describe it, shredded tender beef with a fuzzy coat. I don't think we discovered any life long fans of tongue amongst us that night.

By this stage,we were starting to feel full. Little did we know, the main course, the Arda special, would make sure of it. Again, we left it to the discretion of our host to bring us food. And boy did he deliver. Two ENORMOUS platters of meat arrived. Pork in a multitude of forms (burgers, kebabs, steaks, ribs) on a bed of beautifully sauteed potatoes. And a second dish of lamb meatballs, ribs, steaks etc with chicken (in case we were still hungry) with mountains of roasted vegetables. The true meaning of a meat feast, all nicely cooked, seasoned well and tasty. God knows how a vegetarian would cope in Bulgaria with this typical fare, fried cheese I suppose!

Think that's the end? Oh no. I didn't think we could actually fit any more in our stomachs, but our waiter then appeared with a platter of desserts. Homemade cake, which looked very much like wholemeal sandwiches but tasted good. Watermelon, berries, grapes and the familiar creme caramel which seems to be prevalent across Europe. Pleasant way to finish what had been a fantastic meal.

Bulgaria turned out to be a real surprise, more meat than we could possibly eat (please, no more, I don't want any steak for at least a week), great value for money (£18 a head including tip!) and a very attentive waiter. An excellent night all round!

Food ****
Atmosphere ***
Value for money *****

Brunei: lourobbo's kitchen

2011-04-24T22:23:00.000+01:00

A quick post for a quick meal. No restaurants that we could find for Brunei, so I cooked "Mee Goreng" for James and I on Saturday night. Brunei cuisine has a lot of Malaysian and Indonesian influences, lucky for us as we're both partial to noodles.

This recipe for Mee Goreng had chicken and shrimp as the main ingredients but there seemed to be several different ways of cooking it. I liked this one as it used spring onions and fried shallots for garnish.

A great success, speedy to make and clean plates all round.

Brazil: Comida

2011-04-24T21:39:00.000+01:00

We've been looking forward to Brazil ever since starting this challenge. James's sister, Faith lived in Fortaleza for 5 years and was keen to see whether London could offer anything close to the real deal.

There were a couple of restaurants to choose from, but we settled on Comida, a Churrascaria restaurant in South Molton Street and booked ourselves a table for Friday night. It was an unseasonably warm evening for April, people were sitting outside, but we took our table inside. The decor was nothing to write home about, fairly basic with small formica tables for 4 and a buffet along one side.

But at the heart of the restaurant, what we'd really come to experience - the flaming grill, chock full of skewers of meat.

We started with a round of drinks - Brahma beers, Caipirinha cocktails and a fizzy Guarana drink, popular in Brazil:

We unanimously opted for the "all you can eat" buffet, the waiter took our order and then wandered off. It wasn't immediately obvious what to do next, but after a few minutes trying to work out where to get the plates from, caught sight of another table starting to help themselves to the BBQ accompaniments - various carbs: rice, beans, potatoes and some limp salad leaves. Faith warned us not to load up too much on the buffet sides. It turned out to be good advice.....as the meat had started to arrive.

Let's start gently, with a couple of chicken legs and some chorizo style Brazilian sausage. So far, so good. Tasty with a very distinctive BBQ taste. Then our waiter started bringing out the big guns....large skewers with beef and lamb joints, which he sliced onto our plates at the table.

By this stage of the meal, the waiters had worked out that Faith can speak fluent Portuguese and this broke the ice for some high jinks. I'm sure he was joking with that knife....

You really can get your money's worth at a Churrascaria. The meat just kept coming until we couldn't face another morsel. Next time I go to one of these...I probably won't bother with any of the side dishes, and also make sure I'm ravenous. That steak was gooooooooood.

Now for some scoring:

Food: ****

Value for money:****

Atmosphere: ***

Botswana: lourobbo's kitchen

2011-04-05T22:52:00.000+01:00

James and I spent a lovely week in St Ives and I was all set to catch up on the Eating the A to Z of London project having some time on our hands, we'd been on a go slow recently. Botswana was next and no restaurants readily available to try their cuisine. Then James reminded me of one of the key points of the challenge....it was supposed to be within the boundaries of the M25. Doh!

So I cooked a bolognese instead.

Home from holiday, I wanted to crack on with Botswana. I had another scout around for restaurants, but to no avail, so then back to some favourite sites that I've been using so far to source the recipes.

On the menu, Botswanan Chicken Groundnut Stew. It sounded revolting - chicken casseroled in a sauce of peanut butter, tomato puree, ginger, sugar and chilli flakes. With some fried onion and peppers in the mix. Served on a bed of mashed rice, shaped into balls.

But how wrong could I be, it was scrumptious and definitely one for the recipe book. Here's the preparation and cooking:

The sauce can only be described as a salmony pink colour. The chicken was browned with the onions and green pepper and, and then covered with the sauce, brought up to a simmer and allowed to cook away for an hour. I served it with rice balls - rice "overcooked" mashed and shaped into balls.

The whole thing was really quite good. A rich sweet nutty sauce, warming comfort food.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: lourobbo's kitchen

2011-04-05T22:32:00.000+01:00

Hello foodies...taken me a little while to get round to writing up Bosnia. It's a couple of weeks ago now, I've almost forgotten what I cooked.

Let's look back at the photos:

To put it simply, Bosnia is about pies! Filo pastry pies. I made two types - Burek (spiced mince meat) and Krompirusa (potato, carrot and onion) served with a simple feta salad. They were quite straightforward to make, although I think I might have overfilled the rolls and the filo can be a little temperamental to roll into the "snail" shapes. A tasty meal however, and I'd do this one again.

Bolivia: El Rincon Quiteno

2011-02-24T23:40:00.000Z

This was actually our second attempt at a Bolivian night out. Last week, we took the 21 bus from London Bridge down the Old Kent Road to search out Parrilladas del Sur. We found it. It looks like it's still in business, but that rainy Tuesday night, it was most definitely shut.

There was a second restaurant choice coming up on search, El Rincon Quiteno, on the Holloway Road. We decided to give this place a try, handy for meeting up with Sara as it's North of the river (shudder). The plan was to meet early and then head to the cinema afterwards. One slight drawback, it's actually an Ecuadorian/South American restaurant, so we've already knocked this place out as an option for Ecuador (when we get there!)

A fairly unassuming place from the outside, El Rincon Quiteno is about 100 yards from Holloway Road tube, a stone's throw away from Arsenal's Emirates stadium. The lights were blazing when we got there, a fair few people standing outside smoking and it certainly had the feel of a greasy spoon.

But a warm welcome by the friendly maitre d', we sat down and ordered the obligatory beer. Ecuadorian beer, Biela, but at least we're in the right vicinity.

Using our trusty smartphones, we managed to pick out the Bolivian dishes from the menu. James had the one starter we could identify as definitely Bolivian, a South American take on the Cornish Pasty - Saltenas. This was a pastry, slighty sweet soft texture with a chicken and pea filling. It was served with a punchy tomato salsa.

Tasty and a generous portion for a starter. Sara had a sizeable slab of spanish omelette, Suzanne had delicious beef empanadas. And I had a cheese melted on bananas (ok, plantains). Surprisingly good.

Our host turned the lights down at this point, add to the dining atmosphere and turned up the tunes. I'd hazard a guess at Ecuadorian music and we did manage to pick out a cover of "Don't mess with my Toot Toot". Marvellous. Complete with trumpets and maracas.

For main, three of us opted for silpancho. This was a beef escalope, fried in breadcrumbs, served with rice, salsa, saute potatoes and topped with two fried eggs. And banana. Sorry, plantain.

Hugely filling and although it looked an odd combination and heavy on the carbs, again it was good eating.

Finished up with some strong coffee and then staggered out of the restaurant, feeling very full. We binned the cinema, we would probably have missed the start of the film. But no loss, Bolivia a successful night out, second time round

Ooo, don't feel like I've done ratings for a while has there has been a spate of country cooking. But here are the scores on the doors for El Rincon Quiteno:

Food ***

Atmosphere ***

Value for money ***

(Blow your head off) Bhutan: lourobbo's kitchen

2011-02-04T22:06:00.000Z

The main ingredient in any Bhutani meal is chili. I like hot....but this was at the blow your head off end of the scale.

I chose two recipes for dinner tonight, Ema Datshi is the national dish of Bhutan. A strange concoction of sheep's cheese, tomato and chili. You can't get the real deal cheese over here, so most recipes suggest feta as a suitable substitute.

This was surprisingly tasty (once the roof of your mouth had calmed somewhat). I didn't put nearly enough jabaneros in, as per the traditional recipes....but it was plenty hot enough.

For "main", I cooked spicy pork with potatoes, kewa phagsha. And yep, it was spicy. Look at the chillies!

Stew the pork in some salty water for about 20 minutes and then add potato slices, onions, chillies, garlic, ginger, lots of chili powder and coriander. Bob's yer uncle, a tasty, if hot "curry". Goes well with beer too.

Despite it looking pretty unappetising, it was actually not a bad meal. Suzanne had seconds, it can't have been too awful. I've got a lot of time for the Bhutanese, they are trying to provide a safe corridor for endangered tiger species. And now I've sampled the food, maybe it's somewhere to add to the travel destination list.

Bermuda: lourobbo's kitchen

2011-02-03T21:12:00.000Z

What do you associate with Bermuda? Blue skies, turquoise seas, big boats and rich leathery sunseekers? The mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle?

I would hazard a guess that it's probably not "Poor man's kedgeree".

But that's what I decided to cook for Bermuda. I may come back and add to this country if I manage to find some Gosling's black seal rum to make dark 'n' stormys (Santa's suggestion, thanks!).

Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to source some nice fresh ingredients for a chowder, the more traditionally recognised recipe from this island. But a quick search of the internet came up with a few other common dishes....and kedgeree seemed to hit the spot for our Sunday brunch.

The main components - rice, peas, smoked haddock and eggs. It was extremely simple to cook and assemble. Overall, this was a lovely hearty filling dish and I'd definitely make this again.

Benin: lourobbo's kitchen

2011-01-15T11:28:00.000Z

I hate to admit it but I'd never even heard of Benin (pronounced buh-NIN), geography was never my strong point. And so it wasn't an enormous surprise that finding a Beninoise restaurant in London proved fruitless.

We had a short hiatus over Christmas, but now into 2011, let's get back on track with eating the A to Z. Benin's cuisine certainly has some French influence, I used this great website, Celtnet Recipes again to choose 3 dishes.

For main, Crabe Beninoise - a hot spicy gratin of crab, served with rice and hot sauce.

It had quite a strange texture, almost a bit too dry with the breadcrumbs. However, if you like spicy food, this is one for you, the dish itself had a heap of chili, and then topped with hot sauce (I didn't have any African sauce, but used Mexican as a stand-in), it certainly cleared the sinuses.

For pudding, we had Flan au citron. Effectively, a creme caramel with a tinge of lemon. And here the saga begins. It took me 3 attempts to get this right. The recipe calls for the mixture to be baked in a flan dish in a bain marie. So I merrily poured the creamy eggy soup into what I would consider to be a flan dish. Put it on the hob, in my biggest pan and poured some boiling water round the edge, bain marie stylee!

And then the loose flan dish bottom floated up and the boiling water flowed in. Disaster.

I'd also used up all the milk in the house, so had to leave it for the evening. I'd try again on Sunday.

Sunday morning - thought about the usual creme caramels you often come across in family run Italian restaurants (and trust me, I've eaten a few of these), and went for the pyrex bowl option.

Mixed up the creme, poured into the pyrex bowl and on the hob (liked a steamed pudding I thought) for 45 minutes. Made myself a cup of tea and sat down to see if flan au citron take 2 would be any better.

An hour later, still liquid. Two hours later, still liquid. I give up.

I was determined to get this right and not to waste the lovely creamy mixture. This time, turned to the internet and looked at various creme caramel recipes. Consensus seemed to be to cook in the oven, in ramekins.

And here we have the results. Third time lucky! Tasted good too.

One more Benin recipe was on the menu for last weekend - Confit d'Arachide, a sweet snack of candied peanuts (I'd call it peanut brittle). Not healthy or good for your teeth in the slightest. But when was eating the A to Z ever about being good?

Benin, a mixed bag really. I learnt some things - how to pronounce Benin, and what not to do with bain maries. And we had a pretty decent meal.....eventually.

Next week, Bermuda!

Belize: lourobbo's kitchen

2010-12-19T19:11:00.000Z

Boring, bland, Belize, I'm afraid. The first of our ventures into the world of Rice and Beans. Of which, I think there are many still to come.

No joy with finding a restaurant, I settled on a couple of recipes which seemed common across several web sites. Rice and Beans, to accompany a fish tea. (Unfortunately, not a patch on the fish supper available from Adam's fish bar at the end of my road).

I'd not go as far as saying this is the worst we've eaten since starting the challenge (that definitely sits with Caribbean coconut goo to date), but it won't be one for the recipe book. Too much effort (those beans take some time to cook), for what wasn't a memorable meal. Sorry, Belize.

Belgium: Brouge

2010-11-28T19:22:00.000Z

What a find! We had struggled to find anything other than Belgo's for our Belgian session but were keen to find somewhere new. James remembered a place that used to be in Smithfields, but that seems to have closed.

We did however find various references to Brouge, a "chain" of 2 restaurants in Twickenham and Richmond. Being fairly close to home, we booked for Sunday lunch at the Richmond branch. It's right on the high street in Richmond, slightly tricky to find as it's actually a basement restaurant, so reached by some well hidden steps. A lovely Belgian Beer bottletop sign marks the spot.

There are plenty of typical dishes you associate with Belgium, and Brouge had them all. We started with beers and canapes, a selection of meats and pickles. Suzanne sampled the Brouge Pilsner and I had a glass of the Delirium Tremens, a blonde beer. Delicious.

Then moving on to the mains. Suzanne and I both had moules frites, with different sauces and James had slow cooked French rabbit (not strictly Belgian but hey, that's what he fancied).

The mussels were fantastic, plump and juicy with plenty of sauce. And a generous helping in a smart moules pot too.

We were feeling quite full by this stage, but how can you go to a Belgian restaurant without finishing with some waffles (washed down with some cherry beer).

A beautiful end to what was a particularly good stop on this world eating tour.

I hadn't been to the centre of Richmond for a long while, when we do go, we tend to end up at the Dyshart pub out towards Petersham. But Brouge may now become our favourite stop if we're over that way. I would certainly go back. It wasn't completely packed while we there, although did get busier as the afternoon wore on so is probably worth booking a table to ensure you're not disappointed.

Excellent effort from Belgium!

Food ****

Atmosphere ****

Value for money ****

Belarus: RealJimBob's kitchen

2010-11-28T18:33:00.000Z

Belarus really is all about pork and mushrooms. No restaurants found (although maybe there are some lurking in London somewhere......just no web presence).

Sunday lunch for us was Country cutlets with mushrooms. A breadcrumb coated pork dish with a mushroom filling, served with mashed pumpkin and potatoes and savoy cabbage.

I don't really have much to say about this dish, other than it tasted delicious and was relatively easy to make (finding cocktail sticks in Sainsbury's to pin the pork together with the mushroom filling was a significantly harder challenge)

Barbados: Cottons Rhum Shack and Restaurant

2010-10-30T11:12:00.000+01:00

Wooooo, we're going to Barbados! Finally found a Caribbean restaurant that had some (albeit tenuous) link to a specific island. In that it had a named Bajan dish on the menu.....and a Barbados room (although we were actually seated in St Lucia, they only open Barbados when it's full). But hey, no cooking coconut pudding for me this week!

Suzanne, James and I took a trip to Chalk Farm to Cottons Rhum Shack and Restaurant on Thursday. It's situated right on the main road between Chalk Farm and Camden, a few yards away from the Roundhouse (where Elton John happened to be playing as part of the Electric Proms series that night).

We started with a selection of cocktails from the "rhum" shack. Cottons serves over 250 different rums in a bar area that certainly did resemble a shack on a Caribbean beach . If it hadn't been for the constant rumble of London traffic and plunging temperatures outside, instead of gently lapping waves, white sand and hot hot heat, we could have been in Barbados.

The restaurant is actually quite a jumble, in that there are 3 separate rooms named after different islands and they are all on different levels. A tight squeeze to get in there, it was relatively busy for a Thursday, but not packed, so we didn't get to sit in Barbados. It was quite a relaxed atmosphere, but I wouldn't say there was a huge buzz about the place. The mood was marred for me by the constant R&B droning on in the background. Urgh. Still, we're here for the food for the most part.

The starters were, it has to be said, outstanding. We shared a West Indian Meze and Cripsy shredded pork between the three of us. The meze had some tasty morsels - Bajan fish fritters which were lovely and crunchy, a sweet yet highly spiced chickpea and pumpkin curry, with roti, jerk chicken, creole prawns and tabbouleh. The pork, also delicious, had a hot sweet glaze. Starters, a hit.

Moving on to the mains, James opted for a mixed jerk meat grill, Suzanne had Cottons beef pepper pot and I chose a whole sea bass, served with saute potatoes and a paprika cream. All the dishes were good sized portions, tasty and very filling. Suzanne particularly liked the pepper pot, the sauce was extremely rich.

Now, how much of this meal was actually traditional to Barbados is debateable (perhaps even just the fish fritter starter), but I needed a change from cooking Caribbean, so am mighty glad we found this place. Overall, I'd really rate the food, filling and yummy. This may well be somewhere we come back to before gigs at the Roundhouse.

Food ****
Atmosphere **
Value for money **

Bangladesh: Reema Balti House

2010-10-27T22:38:00.000+01:00

There was no real decision to be made for Bangladesh, where else would you go for a curry but to Brick Lane? Together with a group of work pals, we headed off to Shoreditch on a Wednesday night. Originally, we'd planned to try a restaurant that Umbreen had been to a few years before for her sister's wedding breakfast....but alas, it had closed down and been replaced by a Chinese.

We ran the usual gauntlet of waiters trying to tempt us in, eventually settling on Reema Balti House, actually on Hanbury Street, a side street off Brick Lane. It was probably the £10 deal that settled it - a starter, main, rice, naan, sides and 2 beers (yes, I'll say that again, 2 beers! Although admittedly small ones) all for a tenner. Originally quoted £12, magically it dropped to £10 as we got nearer the restaurant. We know a bargain when we see one!

Oops....I actually forgot to take any pictures of the food. But here are a couple of the happy diners:

Overall, the food was pretty tasty, certainly excellent value for money. I had what was described on the menu as a traditional Bangladeshi dish - chicken tikka ureebisi gatta. The atmosphere picked up as the evening went on and more people were dragged in off the street, initially it was pretty quiet.

If you're in the area and looking for a reliable place to stop for a ruby, I'd definitely recommend the Reema. And don't forget to haggle...

Food: ***

Atmosphere: ***

Value for money: *****

Bahrain: lourobbo's kitchen

2010-10-17T21:31:00.000+01:00

More home cooking this Sunday. On the menu today, a traditional dish from Bahrain, Chicken Machboos (or sometimes written as machbous). Effectively, that globally recognised combination of chicken and rice

I like one pot cooking, and that's what we have with chicken machboos. It took some time to prepare, starting with the trawl round Wimbledon supermarkets for cardamom pods and rose water. Eventually, I ended up at the fabulous Spiceways Supermarket on the Kingston Road, opposite South Wimbledon tube. I love that shop, you can find every type of spice/vegetable/paste imaginable and it seems to be open 24 hours a day. It's proving to be essential for the A to Z eating tour.

A key ingredient in the machboos is a complex mix of spices called Baharat. I had to make this from scratch, and now have enough to make this dish for about 50 people. Maybe I should have a Bahraini themed party sometime soon?

The actual cooking isn't difficult, but takes a while for all the flavours to permeate the chicken. I swapped in fresh limes for the dried limes mentioned in the recipe and that didn't seem to detract from the taste.

Very happy with the outcome and this is certainly one I'll be adding to my recipe book. Besides, I'll have to make it again to use up all that Baharat spice mix!

Bahamas: lourobbo's kitchen

2010-10-17T20:50:00.000+01:00

Here we are at the start of B, and it begins with another 700 Caribbean Islands, the Bahamas.

I chose a quick dish to make for a Friday night in at mine - Fettucine Nassau. I'm not entirely sure this is an authentic Bahamian dish, but it does use ingredients found in abundance in the Bahamas, lobster and crayfish.

It was extremely simple to make and there were clean plates all round.

Stop the press! I've just been looking ahead at the next few countries. Looks like I might have found a restaurant for the next Caribbean "B", Barbados. At last, someone can show me how those coconut puddings are really done.

Looking back on "A"

2010-10-14T21:59:00.000+01:00

It's been an exciting start to our 5 year journey eating round London and before we move on to the thrills and spills of "B", I thought I'd summarise the highlights of country cuisines beginning with "A".

Let's look at the scores on the doors. Overall, out of a total of 15 (5 for food, atmosphere and value-for-money), here's where our "A" restaurants landed:

Afghanistan   11
Albania           6
Algeria         13
Argentina      14
Armenia         8
Australia        10
Austria          12

Top marks for food - Khamsa (Algeria) and Santa Maria del Sur (Argentina)
Top marks for atmosphere - The Tiroler Hut (Austria)
Top marks for value for money - Afghan Kitchen (Afghanistan) and Santa Maria del Sur (Argentina)

Overall, the winner for me had to be Santa Maria del Sur. That steak just blew me away.

Looking at the cooking experiments.....a few dishes were a real success. Think my favourite had to be the lobster cakes from Anguilla. But I also really enjoyed the Dolmasi of Azerbaijan.

It was a complete thumbs down for the disgusting Antarctic Old Fashion. And the same has to be said for any coconut based puddings. It might take me all the way to the end of the alphabet to get these Caribbean sweets right!

We've really enjoyed "A", but now to "B". I'm most looking forward to Faith hunting out a Brazilian gem, although there are a fair few cuisines to fit in before then.

Azerbaijan: lourobbo's kitchen

2010-10-02T10:48:00.000+01:00

I'm quite proud that we have got this far.... we are at the last of the "A"s, Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, the one and only Azerbaijani restaurant in London, Azeri, closed up last year, therefore we finish with another home cooked meal.

Suzanne is on holiday, so I took the opportunity to use lamb, given it's appears to be a constant in Azerbaijani cuisine. Found a great website that detailed an extensive range of recipes for Azerbaijan. For mains, I opted for Cabbage rolls stuffed with lamb mince, rice and fresh herbs (Kelem Dolmasi)

The dish was extremely tasty, the filling made with handfuls of dill and coriander, giving the dolmasi plenty of zing. The little parcels cook for over an hour, plenty of time for the lamb to soak up all the flavours. The only thing I might change if I cooked this dish again, would be to add more sun-dried tomato paste to the filling.

For afters, I chose Easy Baklava. Although I followed the recipe to the letter, I seemed to have ended up with a bit too much filling, so when I cut through the slices, it all oozed out. Baklava on steroids, certainly not the dainty little pastries they are meant to be. Still, first attempt, and they don't taste at all bad! Plenty left for office buddies next week.

Next week, we'll be onto the "B"s. There are loads of them and it begins back over in the Caribbean with the Bahamas. But, before then, a roundup posting on the highs (and lows) of "A".

Austria: The Tiroler Hut

2010-09-30T22:13:00.000+01:00

This is the perfect place for a work Christmas Do (if we get one this year). What laughs we had on Thursday at The Tiroler Hut in Bayswater. Big thanks to Anke and Kat, Suzanne's pals from choir, for recommending the restaurant and for accompanying us on our Austrian night along with their other halves. This place needs a party crowd, it's not the venue for a romantic dinner for two (although one couple did announce their engagement half way through the evening). You must book well in advance - it was packed all night and it is a full evening's entertainment.

The restaurant is in the basement of a large property on Westbourne Grove. It's decked out as an alpine lodge, complete with corrugated "snow" roof, and a fake window with views of the Alps. The walls are covered with photos and pictures of typical Tyrolean scenes. Straight out of the 1970s. To complete the look, waiters wear cord lederhosen and our waitress was dressed in a traditional dirndl. The tables are squashed, no room to swing a cat. (But maybe a goat...I'll explain later).

The food was of a good standard, our German friends were quite impressed. We chose a variety of dishes, but tried to stick to typical Austrian fare. The highlight of the starters had to be James's "Mir ist alles Wurst", a mixed fried sausage ensemble. I tried Champignons, Tiroler Hut. Huge dish, very tasty.

For mains, I felt I must try the Wienerschnitzel (see right) which was certainly a good choice. Suzanne had a Jagerschnitzel (pork) and James opted for a roasted knuckle of pork, Gebatene Schweinshax'n.

The portion sizes were excellent and the beers so enormous, you could barely lift them

Once we had finished the mains, the fun started. Our host began with some jangly tunes on his clarinet, interspersed with karaoke Austrian style. One particular favourite had to be "The girls in the woods, they got the goods". Snort.

More clarinet and hammond organ (although no Charlatans covers) including Edelweiss, Do-Re-Mi and My Favourite Things.

And then the piece de resistance. The Singing Goat. No idea what he was singing, but is obviously a hit at the Tiroler Hut.

Last on the bill, a very entertaining set of "Extreme Cow Bellringing"

We finished up our meal with a lovely slice of Apfelstrudel. Flaky pastry with generously cinnamoned soft juicy apple slices.

It's a shame we all had work the next day, we had a few beers but I'd have liked to have finished with schnapps. Although maybe not as many as the people on the table next to us managed to consume throughout the evening. Birthday drinks for a girl with 6 of her best male friends....go figure.

It was a terrific night, we thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the fabulous subterranean Austria of Bayswater. Here's to many more years of the Singing Goat at the Tiroler Hut!

Food ***

Atmosphere *****

Value for money ****

Australia: Lantana

2010-09-19T23:10:00.000+01:00

I'm disappointed. Given the number of Australian friends and colleagues I have living in London, and having visited Down Under a couple of times and witnessed first hand their obvious passion for good food.....there really doesn't appear to be a great deal of choice for Australia on our journey round London eateries. I refused to resort to Walkabout (or is that Billabong now?). Square Pie... hmmm, just doesn't seem authentically Australian. This could be a problem, I might have to track down some kangaroo steaks.

However, a little bit of searching uncovered one place that featured on several other foodie blogs, a newish cafe in Fitzrovia. Lantana was set up by a girl from Melbourne a couple of years ago and fills a big breakfast and lunch gap in the area North of Oxford Street.

Owing to the limited opening hours, we decided to make a trip for brunch on a Sunday, thinking it might be quieter than a Saturday morning. Mistake, big mistake. As we turned into Charlotte Place, we knew immediately where we were heading. Everything else shut around it, Lantana had a sizeable queue snaking out the door. We joined the back and started our wait, no alternative if we were going to fit in Australia before our trip to the Tiroler Hut for Austria this week.

Thankfully, despite the compact and bijou nature of the cafe, the owners have packed in as many tables as is humanly possible, so the wait only ended up as 25 minutes. There were also a limited number of tables on the pavement and the weather being sensational, these were also in use.

Once inside, we quickly got our drinks order in and browsed through the brunch menu. Coffees turned up quickly. And I drank mine in one go, as although it looked delightful and quoting James "This is a good coffee", it just wasn't hot enough for me. Luke warm at best.

The food was hot though. James chose "The Bert", closest thing to a fried egg and bacon sandwich. Unfortunately, they had run out of the black pudding side he would have liked, but he added extra sausage to make up for it.

I had an unusual corn fritter dish with a lime aioli. Topped with an extra poached egg. This was a huge plate of food, very filling and tasty too.

Suzanne had poached eggs on sour dough with a Sicilian ratatouille, the only complaint being far too many olives.

Suzanne and James ensured their future weekend breakfasts at home by claiming the poached eggs were good....but not as good as mine. Right answer.

This was a very pleasant breakfast experience - generous portions and tasty food, although with Fitzrovia prices to match (who can blame them when the place is so packed). I'd like to try their lunch menu too, but would have to have plenty of time on my hands, I suspect this place is busy all week long.

Although it was a nice change to be eating in the morning on our tour, I do wonder if this really is the best Australia can offer in London?

Food: ****
Atmosphere: ****
Value for money: **

Aruba and Netherlands Antilles: lourobbo's kitchen

2010-09-19T21:36:00.000+01:00

Urghhhh..... another Caribbean island. A trawl of the internet found no specific Aruban establishments (in fact, I don't think we'll get to eat in any Caribbean restaurants until Jamaica) so it was back to the kitchen. A great site provided me with a long list of recipes to choose from but I really couldn't face attempting another failed coconut pudding, so this week stuck to a main: baked sweet and sour beef.

It's a throw it all in the pot type recipe with a multitude of ingredients. Even used a bay leaf from my enormous tree in the back garden (I could supply the whole of Wimbledon with bay leaves). Here's everything bubbling away.

Overall, it was a hit. Served with plain rice, pineapple chunks provided the sweetness and the beef was tender having been stewed for a couple of hours. Yep, I'd cook this one again.

Armenia: Erebuni

2010-09-11T16:55:00.000+01:00

We are nearing the end of the "A's" only a few more weeks to go and this Wednesday we went in search of Armenian. Erebuni in Lancaster Gate came up a few times on other food blogs and there didn't seem to be a great deal of choice again, so we headed West to sample the delights of Armenia. The restaurant is actually in the basement of a fairly unassuming hotel, right on the Gate and serves a mix of Russian, Ukranian and Armenian food.

Suzanne was quite excited, as the restaurant website suggested that the film Eastern Promises had been shot there. She's a huge Viggo Mortensen fan, and oddly we'd only seen the film a couple of weeks ago. (Don't go in the sauna!). However, it looks like the cast might have eaten at Erebuni or the restaurant provided the food for some of the scenes....the eating area certainly bore no resemblance to the grand Russian dining room shots in the film. Rather disappointingly, owing to it's basement location and low ceilings, the restaurant felt dingy and the ambiance was not helped by the Eurovision trash blaring from from the TV. "Nil points" for atmosphere

The redeeming feature of the evening was the food. Handily, the menu clearly indicated which dishes were Armenian in origin and was fairly extensive. The service was also friendly and efficient. The waitress gave us a buzzer for when we were ready to order or needed more drinks which seemed like a neat idea. We drank Viru beer, actually brewed in Estonia rather than Armenia.

James started with Basturma (cured beef), Suzanne chose Karmir Bibar (marinated pepper) and I opted for Emanbajady (vegetarian dip). Sara was also with us, but we let her off the Armenian requirement, so she plumped for a Russian salad. All good.

The main courses had a heavy lamb bias, so Suzanne chose Chicken Tapaka, James went with lamb mince stuffed vine leaves (Dolma Echmiadzin Style) and I had Ischkan, an Armenian trout dish, baked in a tomato based sauce, which was very tasty. Sara went Ukranian with a large portion of Chicken Kiev.

For dessert, we shared cake - Armenian Honey & Walnut and Armenian Chocolate (they were out of Baklava). A nice little extra with the bill - cranberry vodkas.

Erebuni was quiet when we arrived with only one other table occupied. But by the time we left at about 10pm, the place was filling up. Armenian's obviously like to eat late compared to us Brits.

Overall, this was not the worst restaurant experience so far on this A to Z of Eating in London... but nothing special either. So from a former republic of the Soviet Union, we're now travelling back for another visit to the Caribbean - Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles

Food: ***

Atmosphere: **

Value for money: ***

Argentina: Santa Maria del Sur

2010-09-05T11:22:00.000+01:00

I can categorically state that tonight I ate the best steak in the world, ever. Fact.

Caroline, having spent several weeks in Argentina on her travels last year, hunted out the best restaurants in London serving up the cuisine. She recommended Santa Maria del Sur to us - a spin off restaurant to the original London Argentinian steakhouse in Hackney - Buen Ayre. It's about 5 minutes walk from the station, on Queenstown Road in Battersea.

You definitely need to book. It's not that tiny, but fairly cramped and there aren't many big tables. We ended up taking a table at 6.30pm on Tuesday night on the proviso that we were out by 8.30pm. The place was already buzzing when we arrived. Top marks for decor and atmosphere, the walls were painted a dark rustic red and adorned with lots of paintings of cows, just to remind you what you're eating. Staff were friendly and efficient and there was no problem eating a 3 course meal and coffees in our two hour slot.

On to the food. To start, we sampled all 4 types of Empanadas - chicken, beef, spinach & cheese, sweetcorn. They were delicious - hot, sizeable portions and lovely light cripsy pastry. If I had to pick a favourite, it would probably be the chicken. Nicely minced up with a good kick of chilli. We also ordered, a portion of chorizo, again very spicy and made a good precursor for the meat to come.

Then for the main event, STEAK. All 4 of us went with the fillet, 3 medium rares, James went the full hog and opted for rare. This was 10ozs of pure delight. Great thick slab of meat that had been cooked perfectly, juicy and velvety, with the richest, darkest colour.

We added a couple of sides that were equally good - rocket and garlic salad, tomato and red onion salad and a bowl of superbly cooked chips. All washed down with the must-have of wines from Argentina to match steak, malbec.
We didn't have a great deal of room for dessert after the meat feast, but they sounded so yummy, we had to try and squeeze them in. There's a theme based on dulce de leche - that delicious runny toffee you get from boiling cans of condensed milk. James had it with pancakes and in his espresso, Suzanne had the ice cream version, I had mine with creme caramel. Caroline just stuck to the chilled port, malmado malbec (which of course, I had to taste too). All good. Now we were bursting at the seams.

This really was first class steak. I've eaten quite a lot of the stuff - plenty in exceptionally good restaurants in Texas, that at the time, I thought couldn't be beat. But this was in a league of it's own.

It's interesting to see Santa Maria del Sur has quite a mixed set of reviews on Urban Spoon and from other food bloggers. Maybe I'm not fussy, but I would struggle to find fault with the entire experience.

If you are craving the perfect steak....you must take a trip to the south and Santa Maria del Sur. In the aid of research and for completeness, I think we need to do a compare and contrast with Buen Ayre Hackney. Wrong to have a double helping of Argentina?

Food *****
Atmosphere ****
Value for money *****

Antigua and Barbuda: lourobbo's kitchen

2010-08-30T22:23:00.000+01:00

Owing to the lack of Antarctican recipes in wide circulation, I decided to combine the repulsive Antarctican Old Fashion cocktails with food from Antigua and Barbuda.

Another Caribbean country, another browse of the internet for a suitable menu. I settled on a one pot recipe - Antiguan seasoned rice for the main. This dish has a vast quantity of ingredients, some quite obscure such as pigs trotters and snout, which I substituted with bacon. It was also a bizarre combination of meats - chicken, salt beef and flaked smoked haddock. as well as the pork influences.

The pot was easy enough to make, and looked good enough to eat. But for a meal with so many ingredients, I was a tad disappointed, it was too bland. James and Suzanne seemed to like it though. I'd made loads - plenty left over for lunch the next day and I did think it actually tasted better reheated and with a large dash of habanero chilli sauce on top. It definitely needed that extra kick.

I attempted a very traditional dessert for Antigua - Ducana. And served this with a tropical pineapple salad.

The pineapple was great, no doubt because of the lashings of rum it was marinaded in. The Ducana, however, wasn't such a hit. I'm really struggling with these coconut puddings, never seem to achieve the right consistency. I imagined it to be far more of a biscuit/cake, but whether I didn't cook it for long enough or had too much coconut in the mix, it fell apart in the bowl. It was overly sweet too.

So all in all, Antigua and Barbuda from lourobbo's kitchen isn't going to make the top 10.

We're all very excited about the next A on the list - Argentina. Caroline suggested Santa Maria del Sur, in Battersea. Luckily I've booked ahead, it's extremely popular. Bodes well for some decent steak washed down with a glass or two of malbec.

Antarctica: lourobbo's kitchen

2010-08-30T21:06:00.000+01:00

This was always going to be a tough one. Penguin and seal steaks are not readily available in Sainsbury's, the best that I could come up with for recipes was an Antarctic BBQ "on the ice". But no food specific to the region, I guess that's unsurprising with a population of just over 3,600.

The Travel Book did however make one suggestion for drinks, an Antarctic Old Fashion. Developed in the late 1950s and perfected at Camp Michigan on the Ross Ice Shelf, it's a bourbon-based concoction.

Take some bourbon, mix with snow (err...in our case some chilled water) and throw in a couple of lifesaver sweets, preferably the cherry flavour ones. Shake until they dissolve. Serve on a slice of glacier. Not being aware of any glaciers within the M25, I settled for serving it on the rocks.

Couldn't find any penguin burgers either, but they did have the classic McVities penguins, so duly bought a packet to have with our aperitifs.

The chocolate biscuits were significantly better than the cocktails. Not being a bourbon drinker at the best of times, I found it truly disgusting. If I ever have the fortune to get myself a time machine, I won't be visiting 1950s Antarctica with this as the drink of choice.

But big thanks to the Whittens for kindly sending a couple of packs of Lifesavers over from the States to make this experiment possible, the one essential ingredient in this revolting cocktail.

This week was cheating really, but the Argentinian steak is so tantalisingly close that combining Antarctica and Antigua has got us through this cooking spell and back on the restaurant scene.

Next up - Wednesday night at Santa Maria del Sur in Battersea. Nom nom nom.

Anguilla: lourobbo's kitchen

2010-08-22T22:45:00.000+01:00

I LOVE LOBSTER.

So lucky for me that we have reached Anguilla, as lobster is a main stay. We're on a run of home-cooking at the moment and not likely to find a restaurant in London until Argentina week. But I have stumbled across an excellent website Caribbeanchoice.com that has loads of recipes, all categorised by island. This is going to make the A to Z task significantly easier - lots of islands, not many specific London restaurants! The Caribbean is going to involve a lot of cooking.

I've never actually cooked lobster before, but Waitrose came up trumps with some fresh lobster tails. Easy to pop in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes and they turn that lovely pink colour.

I decided on lobster cakes for the main course, mixing the chopped lobster meat with the rest of the ingredients which included peppers, spring onions, a white sauce, breadcrumbs with a large pinch of cayenne pepper to give it some heat.

Fried the cakes on the hot plate until they were golden brown on both sides and then served up with a tartar sauce and a green salad.

Warm Chocolate Pie for afters...more breadcrumbs in this recipe and no flour. I started to worry when it didn't look as though it was rising. But the end result was very brownie-like, great with vanilla ice cream. The leftovers will be making their way to the Docklands office tomorrow!

I thoroughly enjoyed cooking from Anguilla, and it's certainly given me the confidence to cook with lobster again. It looks like a fabulous place to visit, the beaches are some of the most beautiful in the Caribbean and if they serve lobster by the pot load, seems like a good reason to add it to the holiday wish list.

Next stop - Antarctica!

Angola: RealJimBob's kitchen

2010-08-13T10:10:00.000+01:00

Another night in, this time at James's place in Greenwich. And the food I'm attempting? Angolan.

There are plenty of recipe choices for Angola, and the Portuguese influence is clear in that many of the main dishes include hot chilli and spices. I settled on two savoury plates, served with some plain rice.

Camaro grelhado com mohlo cru (grilled prawns with raw sauce), quick and easy to make, brushing the prawns with a marinade of spring onions, cumin,white wine vinegar, salt and water. These should really have been shell-on king prawns, skewered and cooked on a BBQ. But overall, plenty of flavour and a recipe keeper.

The second main, a typical Angolan chicken dish, Frango Grelhado Piri Piri. This was very basic grilled chicken with a spicy rub of lemon juice and what should have been habanero chillis. I couldn't find any in Sainsbury's, but they did have some rather powerful scotch bonnet peppers which did the job. Again, tasty and quick to make.

So main course a relative success...on to pudding. A quote from my beloved...."it looks like someone has thrown up in a bowl". Actually, it's Cocada Amarela (yellow coconut pudding). A concoction of coconut, sugar, egg yolks and spices. The first problem, how to get to the coconut flesh. James's first attempt pictured here, tapping along the coconut seam with a knife handle. No joy. Second plan, take coconut down to the street and whack it on the kerb. That worked.

It was described as a coconut egg custard but mine separated and ended up more like sweet scrambled egg with coconut bits. I'm sure this is not how it was supposed to turn out. I blame it on the tools (not my kitchen, guv) and chef's impatience in waiting for the sugar syrup to reduce down. Not the worst thing I've ever tasted, but too strange a texture. This isn't one for the recipe book.

Overall, Angola not a great success, but the blame here lies with the cook, not the recipes. I'd do the prawns again, they were good and hot (although I'd make sure I used shelled king prawns next time, and leave to marinade for longer).

Photos this week courtesy of RealJimBob.

More home cooking for the next country, Anguilla. And I'm thinking lobster...

Andorra: lourobbo's kitchen

2010-08-08T19:26:00.000+01:00

The next few entries in the Travel Book are verging on the obscure. Andorra has proven to be our first "fail", after much trawling of t'interweb and reading other blogs and restaurant sites, I couldn't find anywhere claiming to serve authentic Andorran cuisine. Maybe not surprising, the place is tiny, boasting a population of approximately 84,000, it seems unlikely that even one lone crusader would have moved to London to open a restaurant?

But on the bright side, I get more use out of my newly rebuilt kitchen, we save a bit of cash and I can probably catch up a few weeks on the overall timeline to complete this marathon eating session, as I don't feel the need to wait a whole week to move on to the next country.

So, on the menu Chez lourobbo, this fine Saturday evening? We have Pan con tomate to start. Errr...bread with tomato. The Andorran cuisine is characterised with Northern Spanish influences and this is clear here with Seranno ham. Lots of garlic rubbed into the crusty bread, with tomato pulp and topped with the ham and dash of olive oil. Mmmm.

This was followed by Trinxat, a traditional potato, cabbage and bacon cake. I served it with some grilled pork steaks. Most of the recipes I found for mains focussed on veal, which I'm not overly keen on, and Suzanne certainly wouldn't have touched, so pork seemed a suitable substitute.

Clean plates all round, so gather it was a success. The potato cake was very easy to make, savoy cabbage mashed up nicely. I'd cook this again.

On Tuesday, I shall mostly be cooking Angolan... better go and search out a recipe.

Algeria: Khamsa

2010-08-04T23:23:00.000+01:00

Jackpot! Khamsa, situated in an unassuming corner plot on Acre Lane, half way between Clapham Common and Brixton, is a real find.

This week we had substantially more choice. London has it's fair share of Algerian/North African establishments, but we decided on Khamsa, based on consistently good reviews and the fact it wasn't too far from home.

We hadn't booked and were early enough to get a table for 3, but I wouldn't risk turning up without a reservation later in the week. It's not a huge restaurant, but was pleasantly busy for a Wednesday night. A rainy dreary evening in London, but the inside of Khamsa was warm and colourful. The walls are decorated with bright throws and there are plenty of cushions and candles to add to the atmosphere.

So down to business....the food. We started with some drinks: freshly squeezed juices of apple & mint and pear & basil. Khamsa is not licensed, but you are able to BYO. To be honest, I didn't really want any alcohol (yes, yes, I know, you don't often hear me say that!), the food is so tasty, it would have detracted from the dining experience.

For starters, we selected a number of small dishes to share - hummus, couscous and ajhroum di felfel (pepper and tomato salad). These were served with some freshly baked bread for dipping. All delicious and generous portions.

We then opted for 3 different tagine (in Algeria, djwaz) dishes. I had an unusual salmon and couscous foil wrapped parcel that had been cooked in the djwaz, nice tang to it with lots of spiced aubergine. Suzanne had a chicken, sweet potato and spinach dish and James went for beef with chickpeas, served with almond & pomegranate flavoured couscous. These were all served in individual tagines and were extremely filling.

We left just enough room for pudding and coffee. And thank goodness we did, as this is where Khamsa really comes into it's own. The chef/owner is rightly proud of the bakery, everything cooked on site and with a wide variety of ingredients. To finish up our meal, some spiced and rosewater Algerian coffees accompanied by a plate of 5 different pastries to taste. The date and basil morsel was to die for.

This is definitely a restaurant I'd recommend if you find yourself in Brixton/Clapham. We'll certainly be returning, probably when we're next on the way to the Academy and looking for something good to eat before the gig.

Great night, Khamsa! Will "A" end up being for Algeria??

Food: *****

Atmosphere: ****

Value for money:****

More photos of the evening at Khamsa at my lourobbo flickr account.

Albania: Alba Grill

2010-07-28T23:27:00.000+01:00

Week 2 and we're in Maida Vale. Actually, more like West Kilburn. Today we visited the Alba Grill for a spot of Albanian. Sue came along for the giggles, it's just down the road from her house.

A 15 minute walk from Maida Vale tube, we arrrived at a reasonably smart restaurant (compared to the neighbouring establishments). We needn't have booked, we were the only diners. Possibly the only diners for quite some time. The waiter showed us to our table, seated downstairs in the basement, after he'd turned on the lights and switched the telly to Alsat TV, treating us to the current top 10 of Albanian folk music videos while we ate. Classy.

Another limited menu, but luckily the Albanian specialities were available. We chose a selection of kebabs, grilled chicken and beef steaks, accompanied by a mixed and greek salad. No obvious Albanian drinks, so we stuck with bottles of beer.

The nosh was perfectly fresh, if a little unappetising to look at. The steaks had a spicy kick. Sue liked her chicken. The sheep's cheese in the salad was very tasty although not sure if it was feta or a creamy alternative.

No Albanian dessert! :-(

Overall, a pleasant enough dining experience, but I wouldn't rush back. There is not a plethora of Albanian restaurants in London to choose from, in fact this was the only one we could find....but to be honest, there are plenty enough Greeks to cover off the menu.

Food: **
Atmosphere: *
Value for money:***

More photos at my lourobbo flickr account.

Next up - Algeria.

Afghanistan: Afghan Kitchen

2010-07-22T22:18:00.000+01:00

Tuesday night, we began our quest, with a trip to the Afghan Kitchen in Islington.

This restaurant is tiny. Minute. But we'd found a little gem. We arrived early, about 6.30 on Tuesday night, but that was probably fortunate as it soon filled up and we hadn't booked. They do market themselves as eat-in and takeaway. This is not a place to come if you want to linger over your food, we were in and out within about 40 minutes.

For dinner, we chose the following from the limited menu

Lamb with potatoes
Lamb with spinach
Chicken in yoghurt

washed down with green tea (supposedly a popular beverage in Afghanistan according to the Travel Book), a yoghurt and mint concoction (a bit like drinking tsatsiki) and diet coke (well, I guess you can get it anywhere!)

All three dishes were excellent. We had some nicely cooked, fluffy plain rice to accompany the mains. And the highlight of the meal had to be the fresh bread (only cooked for the evening session). Similar to a naan, but slightly crustier texture and smothered in poppy seeds. Absolutely delicious.

Then a portion of Baghlava for pudding...honey and pistachios, always a good way to end a meal.

Like all good food review sites, we need a ratings system. Out of 5 stars for each category, Afghan Kitchen scores as follows: (Happy to be challenged, fellow diners!)

Food:****

Atmosphere: **

Value for money: *****

More photos available at my lourobbo flickr account

I had an idea for a new challenge

2010-07-21T00:03:00.000+01:00

....and I don't think it was necessarily an original one. But it seemed like a good idea anyway. And I had probably had a few glasses of wine when I decided to give it a go.

Using the Lonely Planet Travel Book as a definitive list of countries, I wanted to attempt to sample the cuisine from each of those places, without leaving London. Actually, without leaving the confines of the M25.

Hopefully, this would mostly be in restaurants. Say, once a week or so. But, in the event that no such establishment could be found for a particular country, I'd attempt to cook something traditional at home. And just to add another dimension, let's do this in alphabetical order. From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe

Everyone said "Great idea.....could I come along when you reach Vietnam?". That should be sometime around the end of 2013.

Pictures of our foodie expedition will be posted here on my flickr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/louiserobinson/sets/72157624546815866/

There are a mere 231 countries/principalities/constituent parts included in the Travel Book! The culinary journey round London starts here...