Lime and Coconut Friands

Patrick Farringdon, Food, UK Life

This weekend’s weather has been very poor though apparently representative of classic English spring weather. Dreary grey skies, moderate to fairly heavy down pours put a damper on wanting to actually get out and do some stuff. Being slightly inspired to do something I thought I’d whip up a batch of some lime and coconut friands I used to make back home, and since I couldn’t find the recipe I previously used, adapted one found on the ABC website.

I had to improvise since I didn’t have a friand tin, though a small muffin tin worked out well. According to wikipedia, friands are popular in Australian cafes though I have seen a few in a number of French stores and cafes here in London.

Lime and Coconut Friands

Read on for the recipe. Read more “Lime and Coconut Friands”

Mulberry Street Meets Westbourne Grove

Patrick Bayswater, Food, Restaurants, UK Life

One of the newest arrivals to the ever evolving Westbourne Grove in Bayswater is the Italian restaurant, Mulberry Grove, serving eye catching New York style 20 inch pizzas. Inside it’s themed like a stylish New York bar under lit with ambient purple lighting, textured brick walls and iconic panoramas stretched across its back walls. One of the only things detracting from the theme was the waitresses, though very attractive, understandably and noticeably not very New Yorkish (is that even a word?).

The menu focuses on their very affordable 20 inch pizzas that range from around £17 to £20 something per pie. Unless you’re a party of four though you’ll be likely to take some or most of it home with you since they are so large. If variety is what you want, you may order your pizza half and half with different toppings, or order individuals slices instead. They also offer a small selection of other non-pizza related main courses but looking around the restaurant does not seem to be the popular choice.

Barely keeping in touch with their theme, the restaurant only serves one American beer, and when we asked, disappointingly was also out of Root Beer, a classic soft drink quite popular and widely available in the States.

We started our meal off with Bruschetta that turned out very well with a nicely balanced toasted bread topped with the lush tomato, basil and basil and olive oil topping. Unfortunately the rest of the meal wasn’t as nice. Sure the slices are large and droopy and topped with a decent amount of ingredients but it was evident that each slice hadn’t been given that second round of cooking to give the base that slightly crispiness – the result a soggy pizza base that you only really tackle properly with a knife and fork. Nowhere in sight was extra parmesan cheese or chilli flakes although they do offer freshly cracked pepper and chilli oil as alternatives.

Overall dinner wasn’t as expensive as it could be at many other Italian places although I think you can do much better quality at the same price elsewhere. The final thing though that makes it unlikely for me to return was the 12.5% gratuity automatically added to the bill and really didn’t equate with the exceptional service we should have received.

Details: Mulberry Street
Found on: 84 Westbourne Grove, W2 5RT
Contactable on: 020 7313 6789
Highlights: Great dining atmosphere, eye catching but only reasonably flavoured pizzas at reasonable prices.
Room for improvement: Service doesn’t meet the gratuity rate and pizzas could really do with that second bake to give it just that more of an authentic New York crisp base.
The Kua Rating: 6 out of 10

Anzac Biscuits

Patrick Farringdon, Food, UK Life

You have no idea how hard it was for me to finally locate a store near me that sold desiccated coconut, but when I finally did I managed to whip up a couple of batches of chewy Anzac biscuits much to the same recipe I did last year.

Anzac Biscuits

I brought a bunch to work and it was nice being able to explain Anzac biscuits, and more importantly Anzac Day and the tribute to all of the people who were a part of ANZAC. Amazingly not many people had tasted these biscuits and even though some people didn’t really like coconut still found them very tasty.

London Beard Papa’s

Patrick Food, UK Life

After I left Brisbane, a new Japanese shop opened very near to Central station called Beard Papa. I think this Profiterole chain has been open in the US for sometime and it’s taken its while to cross any of the oceans to finally land on London’s doorstep. The first store opened up on Oxford Street last year and always seems very popular given the queue inside.

Beard Papa

Right now, all they serve are profiteroles and drinks. Profiteroles are a light crisp food also known as a Cream Puff in the US and are made out of a Choux pastry. The pastry expands so much during the cooking process that the pastry makes an ideal container for some sort of filling, typically a cream or custard one. Beard Papa’s are continually pumped out very fresh, and although they don’t stay warm long because they are so light and airy, they still remain crisp as they hold back filling it with the appropriate custard cream concoctions until they are ordered.

Beard Papa in the UK still seems to be testing the market, with vanilla as their main flavour, and a small number of flavours rotating weekly (green tea was the one when I tried it). On the board you could see that Chocolate, and a number of other standard flavours were still coming soon. The green tea flavour had just the slightest touch of green tea flavour without being overwhelming or as gritty as what some green tea ice creams could be, and went well with the crisp light pastry.

Beard Papa’s is definitely worth getting for a sweet afternoon or perhaps morning snack. They do larger packs as well, making it a perfect thing to bring to the office, though not as cheap.

Details: Beard Papa’s
Found on: Corner of Oxford and Berwick Street, London
Highlights: Fresh crispy profiteroles lightly dusted with icing sugar and filled with a sweet and flavoursome custard cream filling.
Room for improvement: At £1.40, they’re not that cheap to take to a party (but still worth it)
The Kua Rating: 8 out of 10

The Big Easy

Patrick Food, Restaurants, UK Life

The last place you would expect to find an American BBQ and Crabshack restaurant is stuck between Sloan Square and South Kensington tube stations, but even for its odd location The Big Easy restaurant has attracted enough people on a Friday night to be completely packed out. It’s not a short walk from either station but at least it’ll give you a chance to work off all the food options they offer. The restaurant has two floors, the top one with plenty of standing area around the bar for just taking in the vibe, but plenty of noise to keep the restaurant feeling busy and full. We were lucky enough to be early enough to grab a timed table, but if you have a large group I would definitely book ahead so that you aren’t at least rushed through your meal.

The menu offers quite a bit of stuff, from home style BBQ, seafood, burgers, fish, fajitas and deadly desserts (think of a Krispy Kreme with chocolate fondue – probably the equivalent calories for a full meal right there!). They offer plenty of alcoholic drinks including wine, cocktails and beers but surprisingly no milkshakes or other interesting non-alcoholic varieties you might expect to find in a place like this.

Service throughout our meal was not bad with drinks and food orders taken quite promptly and food arriving in plenty of time to escape our necessary table deadline. Our waitress was a little bit harder to get a hold of when we wanted the bill, but nothing that caused too much undue stress. Expect all meals here to have a 12.5% gratuity automatically added.

I ended up ordering the full rack of Baby back ribs which I took quite a lot home in the end. It was served with Baked Beans in a BBQ sauce, corn on the cob and coleslaw – all of which was actually really tasty. The beans sat in a very tasty sauce, and the corn on the cob was both fresh and extremely tasty on its own (I’m guessing a little bit of butter or seasoning had been added). The coleslaw was pretty standard and ended up being slightly overrun from the sauce of the beans towards the end of the meal.

I was very impressed by the ribs, although not as tender as others I’ve had before, had the perfect amount of charred flesh, and smothered in a great well rounded sauce that was neither too tangy, nor sweet. It was a shame they didn’t have a bottle of that sauce at the table. The ribs went down like a treat and was fairly easy to eat without the tacky dining bib our waitress offered.

I’d definitely come back here sometime if I had a craving for BBQ.

Details: The Big Easy
Found on: 69 332-334 Kings Road, Chelsea, London SW3 5UR
Contactable on: 020 7354 4071
Highlights: Busy atmosphere, good BBQ, decent decorations
Room for improvement: It’s not that close to any tube stations. Need to book head.
The Kua Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Too many options?

Patrick Food, Travel

I still find it fascinating travelling to the US how many little choices you have to make at most meals. In the UK and Europe choice comes from the vastly different menu options of one restaurant to another – in the US, choice seems to be dictated by how many variations of the same meal you can order at a place. You see it frequently when Americans visit and want one thing substituted for something else, or perhaps an additional thing on the side.

Take a standard breakfast in America. Most places in the UK would just list the specific items on the menu. In the US, those choices are up to you.

Options at breakfast in the US

Sometimes it’s a good thing but at many other times I found all I want to do is order food and get back to conversations with people at the table instead of the endless choice of how I want my potatoes, or which sauce I want with a steak or a burger, with my idea being that the chef preparing the menu should know what’s best.

It’s Official…

Patrick Farringdon, Food, UK Life

I’m now a member of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.

Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Being a member gives you access to their private tasting room located in the middle of Farringdon as well as invites to their tasting nights. It also gives you discount to rooms and suites available in Edinburgh. Better yet you get to sample a wide variety of whiskies from around the world at very reasonable prices. Let us know if you ever want to visit since it’s a pretty nice experience even if you’re not a big fan of whisky.

Cay Tre – The Vietnamese Kitchen

Patrick Food, Restaurants, UK Life

Surprisingly I haven’t eaten that much at Vietnamese restaurants in London. It was only recently that I found out that a plethora of them exist out east near the Old Street tube station. I ate at Cay Tre (also known as The Vietnamese Kitchen) most recently and was surprisingly impressed by it.

Flaming Hot Pot

The restaurant was busy throughout our entire meal with many patrons cascading into the ground floor. Another good indicator of the quality of the food was the large number of Asian people that were dining. The menu offers a wide selection of starters and mains ranging from soups, noodles, stews, fried dishes and other speciality grilled things prepared on little portable grills at each table. The dishes are extremely affordable with most of the mains averaging £5 or £6.

Chicken Dish

Service throughout the night was non-intrusive and I didn’t feel at all rushed through our meal like you would in many Chinese restaurants. Better yet, if you find Cay Tre busy, it also has a sister restaurant just around the corner.

Details: Cay Tre
Found on: 301 Old Street, London, EC1V 9LA
Contactable on: 020 7729 8662
Highlights: Cheap, fresh Vietnamese food with a huge offering on their menu.
Room for improvement: Nothing too much to note here (for once).
The Kua Rating: 8 out of 10