Bolivia: El Rincon Quiteno

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)