Today Nate and Caro held the first BBQ for 2008. The rain managed to hold off long enough for us to have a late lunch outside in their lovely little garden. Nate and Caro are great hosts and Caro, particularly, always makes sure to have the right supplies on hand to ensure everyone has a nice time.

Nothing can beat a sausage or steak cooked on the barbie. I guess there is just something to that smoke-fed cooking that just can’t be replicated on a grill inside the house.

I ended up staying at their house until nearly late evening. One of the other guests had kindly brough a giant box of Roses chocolates. Hilariously when everyone had left except for Nate, Caro and Nate’s sister Jules and I we dug into the chocolates like there was no tomorrow. To say that I was feeling slightly ill from pigging out on them would be an understatement!

So, I’m briefly back in Ealing today to tidy up some work and of course we all had to go out for lunch 🙂 I was happy that Jon suggested Silom Village Thai because I knew for sure that I wanted to go back and try their Fried Ice Cream!

Silom Village Thai has a large variety of dishes on offer and its almost difficult to narrow the choice down to one. Though it is predominantly a Thai restaurant there are also Malaysian, Chinese and other asian styles of dishes. In the past I’ve tried their Pad Thai and today I thought I’d sample Char Kway Teoh. Both dishes were delicous and very generous in their portions. Beware that when a dish has been marked with a chilli you are guaranteed its going to be hot! Prices at this restaurant are very reasonable so a meal here is good value for money.

Even though I was pretty full from my noodle dish I still had to try their Fried Ice Cream. I’ve had all sorts versions of this dessert (the best still being the very first I ever tasted) but I was happy to be introducing Jon and James to this potentially artery-clogging dessert. You can see how confused Jon was about this strange dessert. You must wonder how ice cream could possibly be fried? Well, in this case it involved the ice cream being wrapped in a very thin piece of bread, crumbed and then fried. Not a bad dish. Could have done with less whipped cream.

Finally, last words are that service at Silom Village has always been friendly though today we struggled a little bit with the language barrier. However, surprisingly, we all did get exactly what we ordered! The atmosphere is also quite buzzy though tables tend to be quite close together and cosy.

Definitely an option for good cheap Asian food in Ealing.

Its not often that I come across a genuine Malaysian restaurant in London. I was a bit concerned that being located in the trendy Sloan Avenue area of South Kensington that it was going to be all hype and no substance. To my delight we weren’t disappointed tonight with our meal.

We started off with some drinks at the nearby Bowler Bar and Grill which had a nice happy hour. Its actually a strange kind of bar – the strangest thing being that all the customers in the bar appeared to be female! The table service was a little slow, considering most of the customers were clustered around the bar anyway, and though my Mint Aero Martini was delicious I was surprised to find that it appeared that the glass had just been washed but not wiped down. Strange.

Moving on to Awana we were surprised to find that it was fairly heaving with diners. Probably something to do with the very good bargain which was 50% off their a la carte menu from toptable (of course an offer we were also taking advantage of.) Awana features a satay bar (where you may want to drop in for a quick nibble) and the restaurant. The room is striking and very appealing with warm colours. The chef at the satay bar was also very entertaining as he swirled around his giant pancakes. And the smells of the food all around us – just right.

From the outset the service at Awana was friendly and efficient. I don’t know how many staff members there were but it certainly seemed like there were a lot of them. Additionally it was pleasing to note that they were very helpful in helping us to interpret the extensive offerings on the menu and helpful in their suggestions of combinations to go for. To be honest there were so many things on the menu that I could hardly narrow it down to just one starter, one main and one dessert!

In the end for starters we mainly went for satays with Sandra trying the sajian laut goreng (basically tempura style fried seafood with sweet chilli sauce.) Not that we needed it but we also got some sides of the roti canai (a traditional malaysian style flat bread) to go with a red curry sauce and a dahl curry sauce. All dishes were cooked to perfection. I was particularly impressed with how tender and tasty the corn-fed chicken satay skewers were.

For our mains Amelia and Pauline went with curries and Sandra and I tried ikan panggang – a chargrilled butterfish wrapped in banana leaf with lemongrass, coriander and chilli served with shallot and cucumber salad which actually, for a dry dish, went surprisingly well with a side of coconut rice. The butterfish was divine – once again cooked to perfection and quite juicy.

Finally I couldn’t really go past the desserts. At 50% they were truly a bargain. I had to go with the chendol – pandan pearls with kidney beans in coconut cream with caramel and shaved ice. The other girls didn’t really like but I’m used to these kinds of desserts. It was tasty but its a shame my shaved ice actually became a block of ice!

Our Desserts:

chendol

pannacotta – sorry can’t remember the flavour!	tiga krim chocolate – trio of chocolate mousses, served on a crisp biscuit with raspberry sauce	dadar – pandan pancake roll with sweet coconut

Awana is definitely recommended for those who want to try Malaysian food. Without the current discount the prices may appear to be a little hefty but actually the food is quite good so its not too bad value for money at full price. Can’t wait to go back and try some more satays!

In the last few days I’ve dragged everyone from the team out to lunch to sample the Ealing offerings. It was kind of a Round the World journey with samplings of Japanese, Nepalese and English food.

Okawari

This smallish restaurant serves a wide variety of Japanese dishes from sushi, noodles, rice dishes, curries and teriyaki dishes. The most entertaining aspect for me was walking in to see that everyone appeared to be sitting on the ground to have their meals tatami-style!. In actuality it appeared that there had been holes cut in underneath the tables so you could sit comfortably at the table though Amelia opted to go the cross-legged sit anyway!

The restaurant was fairly packed when we walked in so you could see that it was quite a favourite for Ealing lunching. They have a lunch special which gets you a main dish, miso soup and green tea (free refills.) Portions were generous and food was fairly tasty so good value for money. Staff are friendly. I would have liked to have sampled their sushi and sashimi.

Monty’s

In contrast with Okawari our experience at Monty’s was slightly disappointing. Though the curry that I had was tasty the portion sizes were very small. D’s was so tiny that I doubt he even felt the slightest bit filled. The service too was a little blah as our waiter was quite indifferent. All the good reviews of this restaurant, however, want me to give it a second chance. I guess time will tell whether I visit again.

North Star

North Star is located right near Ealing Broadway so is guaranteed to be quite the popular hang out. They have a food/wine menu printed on cute browned paper which, we presumed, doubled as placemats. The service was a little bit slow both in placing our orders and in actually getting our food. Unfortunately for Jon the person who took is order didn’t pay attention to his request to remove the mayonnaise dressing from his fish finger sandwhich but that, other than the delay in getting our food, were the main negatives to the lunch experience. Food was quite tasty.

Two things to be chuffed about today – a celeb spot and seeing my brother during his short visit home from Calgary (catching him can sometimes actually be as elusive as a celeb spot – ha ha!)

So, as we making our way through to Covent Garden who should we see quietly having some coffee but Sir Ian McKellen! I couldn’t believe my eyes at first because I am totally rubbish as spotting celebs. He is known for many things but stands out as Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Magneto from the, ironically, X-Men Trilogy.

After this bit of excitement we made our way to Wahaca – a Mexican place so funky that they don’t take bookings. It prides itself on being Mexican Market style-eating but yet being cool and stylish. It was clear that this has been a winning formula for the venue with lines often nearly out the door and the restaurant, tonight at least, very buzzy. Located in Covent Garden the restaurant, once you get downstairs, was surprisingly gigantic.

As with Wagamama the food arrives as it is cooked (which is nice to know that you’re getting it fresh) so you’re not guaranteed that it will come in any order but when it does arrive, and if you order enough of it, expect it to fill your table. You can go for the Wahaca selection which, for £19.50 gets you a selection of Wahaca’s favourites (about 10 various quesadillas/tacos and taquitos plus slaw and salsas) which I reckon would be enough to fill you. We decided to go a la carte as we also wanted to get some other non-standard dishes such as the main-sized Pork Pibil. We ordered what I thought was reasonable for two people but ended up being way more than I could finish. The chorizo, thyme & potato quesadillas were my favourite dish followed by steak taco. I’m sure I would have appreciated the melt-in-your-mouth pork pibil but was too busy recovering from mistakenly eating the hottest chilli I’ve eaten to date to really get into it. I swear that even hours after consuming it I can feel the burn in my throat. Not pleasant but I guess I should have been on the look out for it!

Service, although very friendly and helpful, was a bit rubbish tonight. It was slow and often it was difficult to find where our waiter had gone. More often than not he had disappeared to the other side of the room. We didn’t mind too much but I think if we’d been in a rush we might have been a bit p’d off.

Overall Wahaca is a fun place to come to try Mexican food in quite a lively atmosphere. The offerings are tasty and with fresh ingredients. Price are also fairly reasonable. If someone has hated Mexican food in the past I would definitely take them to Wahaca to see if you can change their mind. Oh – and another thing that differentiates Wahaca is the offering of chilli seeds in match like books. Nice.

One of the benefits of moving around for work is discovering new venues for eating (something which apparently is high on the 2008 agenda for me.) Ealing has a surprisingly wealth of restaurants and eateries to sample – my only concern was not having enough days there to try it all out!

Today’s choice was the English/French restaurant Charlotte’s Place which had an amazng deal of 50% of their lunch menu – so you could effectively have a pretty high quality 2-course meal for £6 or 3-courses for £7.50! Unfortunately we were kind of pressed for time so could only fit in time for the 2-course meal. The course options (or the Quick Lunch Meal) change on a daily basis so you can never be guaranteed the same dishes two days in a row.

We were lucky enough to get a Pork Belly dish (one of my all time favourites as everyone knows) and a crumble option for dessert (again one of my all time favourites!) I guess this was kind of a reward for braving the hail storm which appeared from nowhere to fall upon us as we made it to the restaurant.

I was quite pleased with my selections. Although the serving for the main dish wasn’t huge the quality and taste could not be faulted. The crumble too was delicious though I would have welcomed a scoop of ice cream over the slightly watery custard that came with it.

Service was very friendly and helpful if absent at times. The owner Alex Wrethman even had a little chat to us on the way out. The location was closer to Ealing Common than Ealing Broadway and is a little bit off the main street and seemingly in the middle of a residential area. But according to Alex there are plans afoot to move the restaurant more towards the Broadway which I think can only help it out.

I’ve been walking past Rodizio Rico for the last few years and gazing longingly at all those meats on a stick so finally I decided it was time to take the bull by the horns so to speak and get a group of us together to have, as Jon put it, an All You Can Meat evening.

We started with some quite pricey drinks at Westbourne House, a favourite bar of Mirela’s where, unfortunately for the beer drinks, pints start at about £4. Youch! You kind of get used to paying a bit more in London for drinks but £4 for a pint – ridiculous. Admittedly its a very nice bar and someone has to pay for all those fairy lights! Strangely enough the cocktails weren’t much more expensive than any other bar in London and in fact my pint of pineapple and lemonade was actually cheaper … not sure though if that was because Mirela was flirting with the bar tender!

When we arrived at Rodizio Rico we were directed to a table by the window and seemingly crammed into the corner. At first I didn’t think the six of us (Mirela, Pauline, Sandra, James, Jon and I) would fit but in the end I think it ended up being one of the better tables in the restaurant – there wasn’t a lot of room to move at all between the tables and with the servers running around with their sticks of meat and people moving to and from the hot buffet I think we were quite well placed to avoid the traffic.

I haven’t explained yet the concept behind Rodizio Rico (‘churrascaria de rodizio’) which is basically a rotating barbecue. As I’ve made reference to a couple of times already passadors (meat carvers) move from table to table with their sticks of various cuts of meat direct to your plates. I’ve actually been to something similar before but it was in Manhattan and Rodizio Rico claims to be the only one of its kind in London.

In addition to the sticks of meat there is also on offer a hot buffet and an impressive, and original, salad bar. I was quite impressed with the buffet and could have happily satisfied myself with the selections at the buffet alone!

But back to the meat selections. We got a whole range of meats including leg of lamb, pork, ham, chicken (wings and thighs), sausages (chicken and pork) a large variety of cuts of meat (apparently the one to go for is the picanha but to be honest I probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between one and another!) and finally the Rodizio Rico special: chicken hearts which caused quite a bit of laughter at our table when Wee James, who was willing to try one, ended up with something like six! Jon was the heartiest eater of the chicken hearts but both Pauline and Mirela decided to pass. To be honest the chicken hearts weren’t too bad – more similar to giblets than liver I thought.

So, its judgment time! What did I think?

Well, the concept of the restaurant is sound and makes for a fun night out with a group of friends. Unfortunately it was kind of let down by a couple of things – namely quality and to some extent service. Food quality-wise I think that the meats were quite over-cooked (even the meat towards the centre of the skewer where they are supposed to be rare) and very salty. There was little doubt you would get food poisoning at least! For this reason I didn’t enjoy the All You Can Meat as much as I ordiniarly would have though perhaps this was a good thing because for once, at an all you can eat place, I didn’t over eat. In contrast the hot buffet was actually very good. From a service perspective – what we got was a bit hit and miss. On the whole it was quite friendly but there was one particularly grumpy waitress who we seemed to keep on getting and and they were sometimes a little slow with our requests.

Here are the before and after shots from dinner. Everyone’s still smilin’! Rodizio Rico is certainly a unique experience and worth doing at least once. Branches at Notting Hill and Islington.

BEFORE	AFTER