Did you know that even the word billion means different things to the UK than it does in the US? A UK billion is a million million, where as the US billion is a thousand million. I know which one I’d prefer if I won the lottery 😉
Food at 52
For my sister’s birthday, I had organised for a day session with home chef, John Benbow with Food at 52. His kitchen is located somewhere between Angel and King’s Cross (giving you the exact location would like giving away a trade secret). Each group he organises is small with up to ten people (we had nine during our) to join him in a four hour cooking course with some titles like Flavours of Italy, Authentic Moroccan and the one that we did, Stress Free Dinner Parties.
Given that the day we went ended up overcast, it was a pleasure to be indoors in a bright, spacious and well designed kitchen where we stood at personal workstations working together to put together an outstanding meal. The four hours literally flew by as we prepared some of the dishes, occasionally grazing before preparing some more and finally sitting down to eat the fruits of our labour. We split into about two groups to work on the same recipe, each person doing a little bit to split out some of the preparation.
I have to say that I really enjoyed the entire four hour experience. The combination between the homely kitchen setting, so different from what you would think of a perfectly sterile commercial kitchen, the warm welcome of espresso coffee, and plenty of personal touches, this course is definitely worth the money. I’m pretty sure my sister enjoyed her birthday present, and even though you effectively end up making a large set of food, you learn so much in the process. See the pictures from the day here.
London Hong Kong Restaurant in London
It’s strange to find a Chinese restaurant in the middle of a shopping centre, particularly one in England yet that’s exactly where you’ll find this one (actually in the O2 Centre). True to their name, this place apparently serves dim sum on the weekend, and other Cantonese and Peking dishes the rest of the time.
At first, their prices surprised me, with most main dishes being £2-£3 above many other restaurants. Part of it probably comes from the fine plates and dishes they serve it on as well as their large spacious dining room. The other part probably comes with the small little things that come out of the ordinary like the plate of coated peanuts while you peruse the menu, the small plate of char xiu while you wait and the fruit plate at the end of the night. Fortunately they still only charge 10% unlike many other places who would either use it as an excuse to bump up their service charge, or automatically add it as side dishes to the final bill.
My meal was simple, with a small bowl of wonton soup followed by prawn chow mein. The soup had three or four large meaty dumplings in a salty, flavourful broth. It was a good start to the meal although the noodle dish really disappointed. It looked impressive, with six large prawns nestled on top of a bed of crispy noodles and accompanied by brightly coloured Chinese greens. Unfortunately the crispy noodle was just too crispy and the sauce that came with it was too watery to the point it was just disappointly flavourless.
Although this restaurant sits on the pricey side of London Chinese places, I’d be tempted to return to the lobster and crab special they have right now (£14 and £10 respectively) on Monday through to Thursday evenings.
Milk Bar in London
I just got back from lunch there today and was overall very impressed. They don’t have a huge variety of food with today’s offerings limited to a number of sandwiches and stuffed croissants, ranging between £3.5-£5. A toasted vegetarian sandwich with some brie/pumpkin and sweet chilli sauce went down a treat with a creamy flat white coffee.
Like their sister restaurant, Milk Bar has a couple of benches outside and with their wide awning makes it easy to sit outside, regardless of the rain beating down (though the wind might get you). Inside they have about ten or twelve tables in a dark, modern and sparse interior only decorated with a handful of small hangings.
The attendants were warm and courteous, telling us what they served and patient as we made up our minds. Most importantly, the coffee was extremely well made with the decorative leaf pattern drawn into the top with the rest of the creamy foam. A flat white sitting down costs £2.50 and they have different sizes with difference prices if you decide to have it to go.
I wonder how busy this places gets in the morning as I’m not confident they’d be much standing space for ordering and picking up coffees. Highly recommended for a great place and a decent coffee.
Thai Square Strand in London
This location of a chain of Thai restaurants welcomes people into its bright and airy surrounds. Although not being as busy as I would’ve expected a place so central for a Saturday night, small parties of people continued to constantly arrive throughout our stay.
The menu offers a very standard selection of Thai dishes, everything from the classic fried starters, soups, salads to the noodle, rice and curry dishes. We tried the mixed starters and for £9.95 it offers very good value with enough to actually be probably satisfy a light meal. The other dishes aren’t too expensive with most of the curries between £6-£8. Where they do get you though is the small bowl of rice at £1.80 per person.
Personally I was disappointed with the Pad Kee Mao (Thai drunken noodle) that, while typically spicy, seemed to have a bit of an off flavour from other places I’ve had it. Fortunately we had the Penang curry to offset it.
Most of the attendants gave us reasonable service – nothing too in your face, although we did have to ask for more water and the bill.
Thai Square is a reasonable place to go out and dine with a large group of people, though it’s probably not the best Thai I’ve had around town.
What country did I return to?
London’s had brilliant weather in the last week and a bit. It’s been quite warm (to about thirty degrees celcius), slightly humid and all accompanied by plenty of sunshine. The weatherman has been wrong for the last four days, predicting heavy rain. I feel that even though I may have missed most of London’s summertime, it’s nice to catch the tail end of it and still indulge.
Here’s a picture from my office this morning, showing how nice London can be.
Phoenix Palace Dim Sum
One of the rituals I’ve developed since living in the UK is a Sunday bout of dim sum to catch up with my sister. I have my list of favourites, yet there is always room to try something new, and something new we did today. Hidden around a back, quiet side street of Baker Street tube station is Phoenix Palace, one of the more upmarket Chinese restaurants I compare to places like Royal China, or Princess Gardens. Upon entry, I was a little suspect of the place with the entire reception filled with anyone but Chinese people (not a great sign), and was relieved walking into the larger dining area in the back that it wasn’t just the latest in westernised dim sum restaurants.
Both standard and dim sum menus appear diverse, and even though wasn’t particularly thrilled by some of the prices on the dim sum menu, the interesting combinations of unique dishes definitely mean a repeat visit for dinner another time. Other than a listing of very standard dishes catering for both Chinese and non-Chinese tastes, they had a whole other section devoted to game meats with everything from ostrich, wild boar, kangaroo, springbok, hare and more. Some of those dishes with very exotic sauces, others just combining with a classic Chinese sauce. With our dim sum, we tried the pan fried kangaroo in black pepper and honey sauce (£14.80).
For dim sum, we indulged in our favourites as well as a few new twists including prawn dumpling with wasabi paste, garlic spare ribs with cheung fun and liquid gold custard buns. Overall prices in this place are much higher than other Chinese restaurants, and the serving size on the less generous scale. As you can see, the highly sought after BBQ pork buns are on the extremely small size. As you can see from the picture above, the wasabi-infused prawn dumplings really stick out with their iridescent green skins. Unfortunately they lacked the kick that I’ve had before with this variation (I think it has to do with the wasabi being over-steamed at some point)
Admittedly, my favourite dish of the day ended up being the kangaroo. It’s sauce was light enough not to be soaking into everything yet not thick that it coated everything too thickly. Its honey flavour did not have an overpowering sweetness you might expect typical of a Chinese restaurant with the tiny bits of pepper creating a good contrast with the kangaroo meat, and its very distinctive flavour. It also impressed me that a Chinese restaurant on the other side of the world can cook kangaroo in such a light delicate manner than biting off small mouthfuls was an easy affair – not an easy task with a meat that is easily overcooked to a leathery texture. Although I still question it’s value at that price, I would definitely recommend it again.
In contrast, the garlic spare ribs cheung fun was a staggering £5 for what ended up being a combination of two dim sum dishes without any extra effort. The garlic spare ribs seemingly poured over four small doughy cheung fun, that whilst fresh, easily could have been so much better and definitely not worth the hefty price.
We ended our meal with their special liquid gold custard buns, one that I had guessed would be steamed rather than baked. We ordered these at the end, unsure whether or not we could depend on the restaurant to keep it hot and served only at the end. Unfortunately that seemed to backfire a little and they took their sweet time getting it to the table (but at least it was fresh). At £1.80 per dumpling (that’s right, the two-bun dish costing £3.60), we treated each as its own little pot of gold. Unlike other custard buns, the insides were slightly runny though calling it liquid is a little bit extreme. Each bit also seemed to have a slightly scratchy texture as if the sugar in the custard had not completely melted. Not bad overall though.
The total damage came to a startling £42.20 (when we normally spend about £25), something that we guessed by ordering so many unique dishes. Service remained decent throughout the meal, although I definitely wouldn’t say that it exceptional service. I wouldn’t recommend this place for a regular dim sum, although I would return here to try a more unique Chinese dining experience.
Details: Phoenix Palace
Found at: 3-5 Glentworth St, London, NW1 5PG
Contactable on: +44 (0) 20 74863515
Highlights: Unique dishes in a fairly busy yet comfortable dining scene with bright lighting and modern décor.
Room for improvement: Even standard dishes seemed more expensive than other Chinese restaurants.
The Kua Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Why I love being back in London
I ended up near Victoria by the end of day today and despite not wearing the most comfortable shoes ever, the crowds around the manic tube station easily made the choice for me of walking home. Here’s how it went:
