Finishing the He Who Knows Challenge

Patrick The 'He Who Knows' Challenge, UK Life

When I first arrived in the UK, a friend, referring to himself as “He who knows” challenged me to complete a series of tasks. I never really got around to finishing it, so with a day off in London I tried doing a few of those that proved too difficult to do during the weekend when the whole city pretty much shuts down.

The new Baltic Exchange

The New Baltic Exchange

I have to admit that this part of the challenge was the shortest of them all, with the old Baltic Exchange being replaced with the Gherkin, and the new Baltic Exchange inaccessible to the public. You can’t say that I didn’t try though as I went into the building, and quizzed the security guard about what was really possible – asking about London Open House days, private tours, public tours, any way of obtaining membership in order to get access to the rest of the building. The best I ended up with was a photo of the outside.

The G&T at the Finsbury Circus Lawn Bowls club

Firstly it’s easy to get the lawn bowls club found in Finsbury Circus confused with the Finsbury Bowls Club located only several blocks away. After all, they’ve got almost the same name. After doing some research, I now understand the lawn bowls located in Finsbury Circus actually belongs to the City of London Bowling Club, and has no association with the former one.

Unfortunately none of the pictures I took that day really did much justice to the beauty that is the Finsbury Circus Gardens. I also can’t believe that I had never found this green treasure trove in the middle of the city, especially since I’ve walked around it only a few blocks away when walking between Farringdon and Liverpool Street. The actual lawn bowls green is a small part of the entire gardens, and they have a tiny restaurant and bar on one side looking back out on the green. This is where I sat down to have my Gin and Tonic.

In many ways, it was strange to be here on a day when everyone else seemed dressed up to the nines in suits and all I ever heard was business talk. Even amidst the credit crunch, I couldn’t but help and smile when I heard people taking about certain companies being overvalued, or the request for a certain amount of equity being too high.

I’m glad He Who Knows recommended this place. Compared to the grey stone facades on the buildings surrounding it, the bright green gardens literally stand out as a true oasis from the rest of the city’s hustle and bustle. You can find the Finsbury Circus Gardens in the heart of Finsbury Circus, EC2M 7AB with the closest tube station Moorgate.

Only one more on the list to finish the challenge!

Torino Salone de Gusto 2008

Patrick Food, Travel

Last weekend, I ended up in Turin, Italy with a couple of friends to visit the Slow Food Festival (Salone De Gusto). Appropriately located in Italy, the birthplace of the slow food movement, the festival represents all of the movement’s values and a showcase of many local (and not so local) ingredients and products.

Turin
The city reminds me a lot of what I remember of Milan. Between all the cross roads, the tall ceilings and just as tall windows, to the small amounts of graffiti. I do remember seeing distinctly less scooters around though that probably has more to do with the phenomenal Fiat presence in town and the fact that Turin simply has less people. Outfitted with plenty of piazzas to sit and lounge around, Turin seemed like a nice place. We didn’t really see many of the attractions that Turin had on offer, other than the outside of several buildings since most of the day we spent at the festival grounds.

Getting into the middle of town was pretty simple with a €5.50 bus ticket getting us into town in about an hour. On the way back, we decided to book a taxi (approximately €40) as it was easier than trying to find the bus in the morning.

The Festival
As far as food festivals go, Salone De Gusto has got to be on the largest that I’ve seen. Hundreds, if not, thousands of stalls and exhibits line a large exhibition ground and even in the two days we didn’t really cover all of it in great detail. The festival is split into different areas all focusing on different ideas. One part, all paid for, additional workshops offer people an extended experience either learning about a particular food, region or cooking technique with a local guide. Another area represents all the foods that the Slow Food movement protects, introducing unique and special regional foods whose unique attributes make it difficult to mass produce, and at the same time make it all that more appealing.

We spent a lot of our time in the maze of stalls where many different regions offered their wares for purchase and sampling, even including international representation from many other countries including England, France, Austria, Sweden and Norway. To give you idea of what sort of things they offered, some of the sections they labelled included Fruit, Vegetable and Spice Lane, Cheese Lane, Cured Meat Lane, Oil and Condiments Lane, Meat Lane, Fish Lane and Sweets and Spirits Lane. Of course, there was a special tent for beer (and wine) where small samples started for about €2 per glass.

Other than finding out about interesting ingredients and even more interesting ways of using them, the best part about this area had to be samples that a lot of the stalls gave out and I can easily say that I’ve probably never eaten so much cheese, meat and bread with olive oil (alongside many other small bites) in one day. We all enjoyed contrasting the sharp, salty harder cheeses with the softer cheeses from different regions, the subtle spices and saltiness of one cured meat to another. Many places also offer a small selection of tables to sit down and have a small meal (for an additional price of course) or small tapas like plates for a few euros.

Running over four days, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had one million people visit over the entire duration of the festival. Combined with the amazing experiences and the rare opportunity to see so experience so many different flavours in such a short time, it’s no wonder there just seemed to be a constant stream of people wherever you went.

The lifestyle
I have to say it’s hard to dislike the Italian way of life – after all it means having decent coffee available at all hours of the day, a cappuccino at breakfast, an espresso after lunch at a bar, or maybe while sitting in a piazza and another one to finish off a meal. It also helps that many cafes front onto a pedestrian square where you can sit, have a chat and watch the world go by. In the evenings, it means having a aperitif at a bar, nibbling on a few bites and a glass (or two) of wine before heading out to a dinner with lots of conversations.

Places I’d recommend
We were lucky that Luca had a friend who’d recommended a number of different places to eat before arriving, and with his handy Italian mobile rang up early to book these more popular restaurants. Of the two that we booked in advance (the others ended up already fully booked), the first had to be my favourite. Named Trattoria Dai Saletta, it’s a bit more of a homely restaurant complete with chequered tablecloth and a casual, bustling dining atmosphere. They even had a course specifically for the Salone de Gusto with wine and Castelmagno cheese sponsored by Asti. We started with a sampling trio of pasta with the best being the ravioli stuffed with truffle and the soft gnocchi in a creamy Castelmagno cheese sauce and followed up with a course that involved meat (I had a very soft veal served with a hazelnut butter sauce). We finished this meal off with a few glasses of their house dessert wine, served from a small glass keg they brought around from table to table. Time flew by so quickly that we ended up as the last people in the restaurant.

Lavazza 10 San Tommaso

Home of the original Lavazza coffee house, this is a must visit for any coffee or foodie aficionado since they offer more than just great coffee and pastries, also offering the unique creation instrumented by Catalan chef Ferran Adria (of Il Bulli fame) named “espesso” (no, that’s not a typo). The espesso range of drinks are mainly foam based creations to provide a very different texture to coffee.

The Details

Trattoria Dai Saletta found at Via Belfior 37, 10125 Torino, and contactable on 011.688.78.67

Lavazza 10 San Tommaso found at San Tommaso, 10, 10122 Torino, and contactable on 011.534201 or see their website: http://www.santommaso10.com/

Check out the photos from the weekend here.

Kaiser Chiefs at The Forum

Patrick Music, UK Life

To celebrate the launch of their latest album, the Kaiser Chiefs played at The Forum on Monday night and I managed to get a couple of tickets. It was cold and wet outside, so I was thankful that we had standing tickets for downstairs that made heading out after work completely worth it. We managed to get fairly close to the front, bordering on the edge of all the more energetic people who jumped around most of the night, or pushed their way in for at least some of it. Other than a couple of, rather excessively drunk and, agressive people, the audience was rather quite friendly. Compared to the last concert I went to, the average height of the Brits made me need to weave in and out between the flowing gap between shoulders.

We caught the end of the first support act, The Hair and didn’t really hear enough to be able to give them any fair review. The second support act however was much more memorable with four really young looking kids called Late of the Pier. Energetic doesn’t even begin to describe them, each member playing several instruments throughout their set and the lead signer managing to knock over a couple of pieces of their kit on stage, to the point we would have bets what piece would be next to go. They still impressed me with their passionate performance, crazy antics with some decent beats and riffs to boot. I think that we even signed up to their mailing list.

The set changes came quickly and it wasn’t too long before the Kaiser Chiefs came on stage. With dazzling lights and tonnes of energy, they played a mix of all the songs from their previous album with a handful of ones from their recently released one.

In terms of entertainment value, it’s obvious the band cares about their audience having a good time, to the point where the lead singer ran through the crowd a couple of times, making sure everyone seemed to have a good night, and the lead signer encouraging the small number of crowd surfing antics with his own deeds.

I can’t remember how long they playted but they continued to impress all night, even getting the audience involved singing Happy Birthday to one of the band members. I don’t think I’ve been to a gig where the band have had such consistently high energy for all night and it really shows in their excellent performance.

TheKua.com Rating: 8 out of 10

Introducing a new blog

Patrick Food, Website News

This blog originally started off being a catch-all, representing most of the different aspects to my day to day life. After some time, I realised some readers didn’t want to hear about all my work related posts, so I carved off another blog called TheKua At Work.

I now realise that not all of the visitors to this site care about all the different journeys I have with food as well, particularly when I travel overseas. I write about restaurants to help other people out, to provide better information about an experience at a place that I’ve eaten at, or where to find an unusual ingredient, or some other random topic about food. I search other people’s blogs when travelling to find out local places to dine at when travelling and only want to return the favour.

As a result, I’ve started another site, TheKua Does Food, where I will post all the food related entries you would normally find here. Feel free to add it to your RSS feed aggregator (if you have one), or just drop in for a visit now and again.

Birthday Drinks at the Dovetail

Patrick General, UK Life

What better way to spend a lazy Sunday that at a Belgian pub serving great organic produce, and with more than a hundred types of beers? That’s exactly what I got up to this Sunday with a whole bunch of friends to celebrate that yearly event that won’t be going away any time soon.

We headed to one of my favourite pubs in my neighbourhood, also home to many a frequent work social occasion, The Dovetail. With glimpses of sunny skies, we grabbed the set of tables near the front of house and stayed there at least until the early evening. With the strength of some of the belgian beers, it wasn’t too long before I started to feel the effects, and eventually headed home.

Thanks to all the people who came along and made it such a great day! You can find the small numebr of photos I took of the day here.

Hackney’s Broadway Market

Patrick UK Life

This weekend had such great weather that I couldn’t but help but walk around, and so I headed out to Broadway Market where I would be going for the first time (at least during the day). Given the area is mostly known for its dodgy parts, Broadway Market is a street that, like it’s name, also holds a market during the day on Saturday, otherwise home to a hodge podge of art galleries, a number of cafes, pubs, and some notable restaurants including Buen Ayre, and The Dove. They even had a floating Thai restaurant by the water, with a live BBQ was really tempting to stop and have a bite to eat.

You had the usual market stall suspects, ranging from various forms of housewares, clothing, food stalls and all those knick knack places in between. Disappointingly I noticed a number of stalls manned by, what I would call, the market chain – a company tapping with a franchise-like presence at all of the different markets. It’s not such a bad thing but I can’t but help feel like they’re commercialising the unique elements that make markets fun to go to.

Much like Sunday Up Market, and less so Spitalfields, Broadway Market attracts a wide variety of locals, and I could picture many of them fitting right into the east end’s Shoreditch scene. It’s particularly busy around the several cafes along the way, with many just wanting to hang out and take in the atmosphere, or stand outside gossiping with a coffee or tea in hand and since I was there around lunchtime, very busy around all the food stalls as well.

The entire area of the market is not well served by public transport, with the only option really a set of buses that drop you a few streets from, but not immediately near the area. Perhaps there was a better way but I ended up for a leisurely stroll from Bethnal Green tube station, taking in all the grafitti (like the picture below), the small, probably family owned restaurants and cafes, and the rest of the atmosphere.

Broadway Market is great if you’re in the area, or a good reason to go out and see more of that area. Of course, you can also head to the other many markets around London better served by public transport. See the rest of the pictures here.

Subsonica at The Forum

Patrick Entertainment, Music, UK Life

My Italian friend, Luca had a spare ticket to see a band from his home country called Subsonica at Kentish Town’s The Forum on Wednesday night. It’s probably the first time that a thousand or so Italians descended upon the area and, at least, the first time I’ve been to a concert with so many of them. I couldn’t help but notice several differences in the crowd such as when, in the early part of the evening, heaps of people sat themselves down on the ground near the stage (apparently it’s a habit when waiting for a concert to start on all those lovely summer evenings). I always find that strange since most venues in the UK have seen more spilt beer, empty plastic cups and (formerly) cigarette butts than they had the underside of people attending.

People also didn’t seem to have any difficult pushing their way in, or out, of the crowd without so much an an ‘excuse me’. It didn’t really bother me, with the only noticeable impact being that I was slowly moved away from the front of stage by the audience as the more energetic people shoved their way to the front. I think I ended up at least a metre or two behind where I was standing by the end of the night. This may sound stereotypical, but even being moved back, I was still amazed that I had a pretty good view of the stage since most people were not significantly taller than me for once!

Subsonica

It was obvious that Subsonica meant business and that they only wanted to play for the audience – they didn’t have a support act and played a decent set of around an hour and a half. I listened briefly to their stuff on LastFm, although I can’t say I recognised any of the tracks they played. Either way, most of the people seemed to know a lot of their lyrics and jumped and danced alongside their upbeat riffs. Interestingly I found they drifted back and forth between different genres, and yet it all seemed to work out. They pulled out some trip hop stuff, sounds I’d classify more jungle, some pop rock and dance tracks and even a ballad or two throughout the night.

After a bit of confusion about whether or not they should perform an encore (it’s one of those things that don’t really happen in Italy apparently), they came back on stage obviously unprepared asking the audience and talking amongst themselves about which songs to play. They played probably two or three more songs before the lights came on one more time, though this time signalling the end of the evening.

TheKua.com Rating: 7 out of 10