London Nom Noms

The Chocolate Festival

2011-12-09T12:16:00.001Z

Just a quick one to let you know The Chocolate Festival is back at Southbank from today until Sunday. No ticket required.

Pretty much every high end chocolate brand will have a stall there, and there is usually some chocolate themed activities and sculptures.

Here are some pics from last year (Easter time):

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Tastecard for £29.95

2011-11-18T14:13:00.001Z

Tastecards are selling for £29.95 until Christmas Day:

Use the promo code 'HOLLY' at checkout!

http://taste-update.com/5JD-LWZX-F02E0DQU90/cr.aspx

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Taste of Christmas 2 for 1 offer

2011-11-09T09:53:00.003Z

I haven't been to this particular food fest before, but I have heard good things about it.

Two standard tickets are £22 if you quote 'TASTECARD' when you book on http://www.tasteofchristmas.com/

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Hayley Fuller's Cakes

2011-10-31T14:51:00.000Z

Happy Halloween everyone! :)

Halloween Barbie Cake by Hayley Fuller- made of 3 marbled cake layers

At our office *chomp* we're rather spoiled by the lovely Hayley and her nomnom-worthy baked goodies. Occasionally *munch*, she brings in a cake and we circle like vultures until there are mere crumbs left. *gobble*

Now, all you lucky people can order your own bespoke cake - Hayley makes custom ordered stuff like KFC-shaped cupcakes, Angry Birds gamescapes, as well as more traditional cupcakes and birthday cakes.

If you've got any questions/requests, her email is im@hayleyfuller.co.uk

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Hangry

2011-10-19T09:45:00.000+01:00

"When you are so hungry that your lack of food causes you to become angry, frustrated or both."
- Urban Dictionary

Experimental Food Society

2011-10-17T14:15:00.000+01:00

Apologies, but I have at least one more post before writing about normal food again!

This one is about the Experimental Food Society. I wish I knew more about it - it seems to be a combination of food and art, two loves of mine. However its not entirely clear if all of what is created is actually meant to be eaten!

They have an Experimental Food Society Spectacular this weekend starting Friday 21st October at the Truman Brewery. I might pop by the exhibition (£5) but alas my budget at the moment doesn't stretch to attend the banquet (£60) which I'm sure will look and taste fantabulous.

If someone does go, be sure to take lots of pics and report back! :)

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Update (28/10/2011):

So, I did end up going on the Saturday for the exhibition! It didn't have quite as much to see as I had expected (I think I went at the wrong time since there was a lot more in the papers than I remember seeing!) but what was there was pretty good. I didn't get to taste any of it since I doubt the artists (/chefs?) would have appreciated bite marks on their works of art so I just took pics instead:

Pretty, edible flowers by Rosalind Miller

Rosalind Miller hard at work

Gothic Chocolate House by Paul Wayne Gregory

Scott O'Hara with his sugar eagle

Look closely in between the two halves - didn't notice that at the time!!!

A fellow food enthusiast poking the Dodo cake by Michelle Wibowo to see its its real

I'd be quite cosy in this! No mortgage required, just a sweet tooth.

Chocolate Train by Carl Warner, photographer - he also had a collection of his 'foodscapes' at the exhibition

My favourite - a Curly Wurly Eiffel Tower by Paul Baker

Teeny tiny cupcakes :)

I'm not actually sure what this is - but it was fascinating none the less!

Hand-shaped baked goods

Other highlights that I didn't get to take a picture of included edible clothes, camel milk ice cream, medicinal marshmallows, and baked goods even teenier than the cupcakes pictured above - they were baked in quails eggs!

I wonder how the banquet was?!

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Insects

2011-09-28T15:59:00.000+01:00

I came across this picture gallery today. Some nutritious snacks reserved for the more adventurous methinks.

The first time I came across insects prepared for the sole purpose of eating was on my first trip ever to Hong Kong. We went to a traditional Chinese medicine shop and stacked on the rows and rows of shelves were a massive variety of stuff I never would have considered edible before. Huge centipedes in jars, dried lizards on sticks and deer antlers sliced and stored in big vats to name but a few.

Now, you may think it is only countries in the far reaches of the world where they munch insects. Not so - it's surprisingly easy to find insects sold as a 'delicacy' in London!

The first time I stumbled upon them in London, it was actually in Selfridges of all places. Walking through the food section, I found scorpion vodkas, worm lollipops and chocolate covered ants. Bit of a shocker among the luxury goods! [Note: haven't seen them there in a while. Possibly not sold there any more, this was a loooong time ago.] I soon learnt that although in other parts of the world it might be medicine, an über-cheap food source, or even a marketing gimmick for tequila; in London's unique little bubble insects are an expensive delicacy!

Currently, insects are being sold in a few of the capital's most uptown shops: Fortnum and Masons are selling what I'm sure are lovely BBQ flavour worm crisps, and Harvey Nichols are selling a wide variety of the stuff I originally saw in Selfridges that time, by Edible.

Of course, there is also a restaurant where you can get crunchy little bugs served to you - Archipelago (which also serves a wide range of meat, including kangaroo and crocodile) near Goodge Street serves a few dishes that will have you crunching away.

Chocolate-covered scorpion @ Archipelago

Their infamous love bug salad is a lovely leafy green salad with fried locust and cricket sprinkled on top; or perhaps their sweet desserts are more to your liking - chocolate covered scorpion or bumble bee brulee anyone??? Somehow I've managed to try them all and they weren't as bad as I was expecting!

How many of you have got your protein fix this way? :)

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Roast Om Nom Nom

2011-09-13T13:43:00.000+01:00

If I said what it actually was, would it kill the magic? :)

@ The Draft House, Tower Bridge. I recommend their Stiegl Radler beer - a grapefruit shandy, mmm...

Thanks to Tinhead for the pic which was better than mine :P

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Lily Vanilli

2011-07-19T09:19:00.002+01:00

Anyone else end up drooling over their Metro today after reading about the goodies from Lily Vanilli?

It just so happens that Groupon are doing a gift box of 8 for £9.50 today!

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Taste Card Offer

2011-07-01T12:09:00.002+01:00

For anyone who has come here looking for a Taste Card offer (apparently much of the traffic to this website is from Googlers who are looking for Taste of London or Taste Card offers!), you're in luck - they are doing a deal until next Friday 8th July for a Taste Card for £29.95, compared to the usual price of £69.95!

Offer code is: SUN

Enjoy!

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Free champagne @ Launceston Place

2011-06-22T21:34:00.005+01:00

Someone told me that I have a weird relationship with food. Perhaps they're right - I did find this hilarious!

Anyway, after thoroughly stuffing my face at Taste of London over the weekend, I've gotten this from Launceston Place:

As a thank you for visiting our stand during Taste of London we would like to offer you and up to five guests a glass of complimentary Champagne when dining with us until 31 August 2011. To reserve your table call 020 7937 6912 or book online and quote "Taste of London".

I say if you're going to splash out soon on a nice meal, might as well have some free champagne to go with it. :)

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Abeno Okonomiyaki

2011-05-04T22:20:00.009+01:00

~~When I was a teenager~~ I read a lot of manga, my favourite being Ranma ½. [Bear with me - this is relevant to food!] The story is a slapstick comedy about a boy who turned into a girl when splashed with cold water. The character studies martial arts and has enemies and prospective spouses of both sexes - one of them being Ukyo, an okonomiyaki chef who's fighting technique is based on cooking techniques. In the manga, the okonomiyaki looks like some kind of yummy fried pizza cooked using giant teppanyaki grills and tossed with a spatula that looked more like a spade - and subsequently splatted into someone's face!

Ukyo, Ranma ½

The reality didn't disappoint - when I visited Japan in 2007 I was on a mission to find it. I was told that it was a bit of a localised cuisine, mainly available in Osaka and Hokkaido. So, in Osaka we asked our hotel concierge where we could find okonomiyaki, and he scribbled down in Japanese the name of the place and told us directions - it didn't have any english on the sign so we just had to compare his scribbles with the shop signs! We arrived at a very dark smokey restaurant with red paper lanterns, noren door curtains, and a massive grill in a U shape with about 3 chefs in red bandanas in the middle cooking for the huddled customers. We couldn't ask for more authentic than that! We waited impatiently as the chef pretty much tossed food around the place which somehow ended up in a perfect circle on the grill in front of us, perfectly cooked and slathered with a few different sauces we didn't quite recognise and sprinkled over with a load of bonito fish flakes. It didn't last long!

Sooo, getting back to London I was disappointed that the only okonomiyaki I could find was a really cheesy/cabbage-y version at the Japan Matsuri they hold every year. Until a friend introduced me to Abeno that is! There are two restaurants. The original, Abeno, is hidden on a small street near the British Museum and has a number of individual tables with teppanyaki grills on each. The staff don't speak much English! The newer restaurant, Abeno Too is located in Chinatown and has both a large teppanyaki grill in the middle and smaller individual tables also with grills. The staff at this one speak very good English!

Brightly lit and very modern, they're very different from the smokey dark place where I had my first morsel of okonomiyaki, but thankfully the food is almost as good. The camera-shy waiters/chefs calmly mix the ingredients and pour it sizzling onto the grill as you sit, watching, waiting, drooling, taking pictures, as if you'd never seen something cook in front of you before. Afterwards, they artfully drizzle on the sauce in a spiral pattern and dash on a bunch of bonito flakes - if you ask nicely they'll give you a little more. It would be a shame to eat something so pretty if it didn't taste so good! I LOVE the Tokyo mix - pork and seafood, yum. Oh they also do a good yakisoba!

Cooking! Thanks to Noodle for the pics.

Abeno Okonomiyaki

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Real Food Festival

2011-05-03T12:52:00.003+01:00

Just a quick one to mention that the Real Food Festival is on in Earls Court from this Thursday 5th of May - Sunday 8th of May.

"About Realfood

If you love food you've come to the right place. Real Food is all about great tasting, sustainably and ethically produced food and we're aiming to connect you to the most extraordinary food experiences you will find anywhere.

From large scale annual food festivals to regular produce markets, with the best of British street food thrown in, you can explore the very best that this nation has to offer."

For today only, Groupon is offering 60% off, so standard entry tickets are for £5.40, or VIP tickets for £16.

Happy eating,

Kitsune

The Brass Rail, Selfridges

2011-04-06T11:19:00.004+01:00

I did warn you that I would be writing about West End lunch places a bit more for the time being!

Sooooo......I stumbled across this place a few years ago, having shopped till I almost dropped - not in Selfridges, mind - I wish!

Located in the food hall section, The Brass Rail is hot salt beef heaven. According to their website, the carver Saj has been with them for over 33 years! That is a dedicated beef carver right there folks.

A bit pricy - I would expect to pay around £8 for a full sandwich & gherkin. However, my stomach is a bit bigger than most, and many people are happy to settle for the half-sandwiches they sell for around a fiver.

Soft and tasty, the foccacia bread is the tried and tested best bread to wrap up the falling-apart-tender hot salt beef with hot English mustard. Having gone there a number of times now I have begun to brave the odd looks from the carver to ask for my gherkin to be put into the sandwich. The final result being the most incredibly juicy and droolworthy sandwich ever, devoured in moments.

Keep up the good work Saj!

Full hot salt beef sandwich with gherkin, The Brass Rail

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Dirt Banquet

2011-04-04T17:40:00.007+01:00

Well........I just read this and I'm not sure whether I'm tempted or disgusted: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2011/04/a-filthy-night-ill-never-forget.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

I usually don't come across food experience related posts in the science blogs/websites I follow and this was too good not to share!

Again, not quite sure if I'll check it out, but for anyone who is interested, according to the article it will be recreated in the Secret Garden Party (near Huntingdon, Cambridge) in July this year. [Info Here]

Happy filthy eating,

Kitsune

Ranoush Juice

2011-03-23T22:17:00.004Z

Having just moved our offices this week to Marble Arch, I've been overcome with excitement about revisiting all the restaurants I used to love going to when I lived much closer to that area. So apologies if my posts are going to be West End themed for a while! God help both my wallet and my waistline.

I didn't think I had favourites really - but since I chose Ranoush Juice on Edgware Rd for the first day of lunch in the area without thinking twice about it, it must be my favourite!

I have only ever got one thing in this place. Nope, not even tried the juice - I have the lamb shawarma to take away. It's pretty much like a doner kebab, but all rolled up in paper. As you eat, you rip more of the paper off. Make sure you start at the twisted end.

The reason I have it to take away is because this is not something you eat in polite company, including the staff there! Layers and layers of juicy meaty goodness smothered in sauce with pickle and salad. Someone pointed out to me while I was vaguely listening that they use 'real' meat as opposed to the processed stuff you often get.

I'm not going to lie; it gets messy. I have never not got some on myself. The sauce and juice from the meat drips everywhere. It also has fresh onions galore in it. Not the place for a first (second, or third) date! But it is so fucking fantastic I have eaten two in a row a few times. NOM!

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Early Bird Offer for Taste of London 2011

2011-03-03T15:16:00.004Z

I've just received an email from Taste of London.

This year it is being held between 16th - 19th June in Regents Park.

There are often many various discount codes and promotions for the event, and this is the first of the year I've come across: 2 standard tickets for £32 (£20 off) or individual VIP tickets for £45 (£20 off per ticket). The offer is valid until Friday 11th March.

Already drooling in anticipation!

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Tea

2011-03-01T23:10:00.007Z

There is nothing like a cup of tea to make everything better, is there?

My younger, sugar-addled self would have scoffed at the thought, having been forced to drink Chinese tea with my dim sum every weekend. It didn't matter to me that the name of the meal (yum cha) literally means 'drink tea' - I was just there for the dim sum! However, they say that your palette changes as you grow and sometime in my teens I actually started liking tea - of all kinds.

/* Confession: last year, about twice I had beer with my dim sum. It seemed.....well wrong! */

London as a whole has a lovely selection of tea's - pretty much anything you could want.

The Tea House in Covent Garden, my favourite tea shop not only sells tea - it also sells all the tea parapharnelia you never knew existed! It's difficult to miss - the windows are positively stuffed full of everything they could think of, in charming contrast to the minimalist displays of the surrounding shops.
Inside, the aroma from the stacks and stacks of tea never fails to remind me of an amazing visit to the tea plantations in Sri Lanka. The Tea House doesn't sell a specific type of tea - it has Chinese, Indian, African and English tea, herbal tea, fruit tea, floral tea and probably many more tea I can't remember. They also have seasonal mixes for Christmas. My favourite from here is a Chinese black/green/floral blend called 'The Emperor's 7 Treasures' which tastes lovely and peachy. It even tastes great cold/chilled. The rooibos tea and spiced tea also come highly recommended.
Upstairs, is teapot land. One-cup teapots, glass teapots, teapot sets and all the matching mugs can be found here.
The assistants here know their stock inside out, and if they don't have what you are looking for, can suggest alternatives or expected stock delivery dates.

If fruit teas are your thing, Whittards of Chelsea do a pretty good brew. I have a love-hate relationship with fruit tea. Disappointed after trying many different types of fruit tea which smell so so different to how they taste, I am on the fence. However, the fruit teas here are much more convincing flavour-wise than many others I've tried. The dark berry based ones here are the only fruit tea I buy these days, and I couldn't live without them.

If you are lucky enough to have a bigger budget to spend on a cuppa, Fortnum & Mason do an amazing selection of high quality tea - mainly traditional English tea, Chinese tea and a few fruity teas.
Beautifully packaged (of course!) in tins to keep the freshness, the tea here makes a lovely gift - and if it's good enough for the Queen.....

Also for the bigger budget, for those who believe tea is much more than the taste and scent there is Sen. A Chinese herbal remedies shop, it also sells Chinese tea which has been used for centuries in China to ease ailments. Much more modern and minimalist than you would expect a herbal remedy shop to be, the assistants can help you find the right teas which may help your ailments. I have never visited the shop while ill though - I am always drawn to the wide collection of flowering (blooming) teas that they stock here. As each ball of tea is dropped into glass teapots of hot water, it opens into a bloom to indicated when it is ready. Some contain a single 'bloom' - a burst of colour from the surrounding leaves. Others open out to a beautiful bouquet of various blooms! They are expensive but surely worth a once-in-a-while treat.

My duckie tea infuser @ work

Happy.....um, drinking,

Kitsune

Happy Chinese New Year!

2011-02-02T14:31:00.005Z

I hope you all have a fantastic Chinese New Year and lots of lovely food & red packets!

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Inamo

2010-10-18T15:00:00.007+01:00

As the monsoon rains washed away many a fun seeking Londoner from the streets one weekend, a group of geeks celebrated the first official D.A. meeting of the London HQ with special guests from Ireland.

Of course, a regular restaurant would not do for such an auspicious occasion and so the group descended on Inamo's in Soho. As we sat, confusion reigned on the brightly lit faces of anyone who had not read up on the restaurant beforehand, as well as fascination. "Where are our menus? What is all this.....stuff projected on the tables? Oooh, what does this button do?!"

The interactive table top @ Inamo

(Many thanks to bluejester for letting me nick his pic)

Weirdly anti-social in a social way, some began a highly competitive game of battleships, while another was spying on the chefs toiling away in the kitchen, and others were experimenting with the projected décor. Food was largely forgotten until our stomachs grumbled their protest and so we began going through the food and drink menus. Cleverly designed to target a hungry and impressionable mob such as ourselves, large projections of delicious food appeared whenever our indecisive fingers lingered on any item in particular.

Finally choosing the unagi nigiri (eel sushi), soft shell crab maki rolls and black cod marinated in miso, I ordered via the tabletop and watched the action in the kitchen in anticipation.

When it arrived I took a little time out to convince the more 'strange food weary' of us to try a little eel, before stuffing my face. The eel was yummy enough to convince them that the strangeness was worth the taste (or maybe they were being polite!), and the soft shell crab was satisfyingly just crunchy enough. The black cod was so tender it fell apart once poked with chopsticks, and delicious.

Coconut Pana Cotta @ Inamo

Remembering the crème brûlée I had there previously, I couldn't leave without having dessert (stuffed as I was) so again I consulted the table and ordered a coconut pana cotta which finished the meal nicely.

Waddling home was made all the more interesting with the massive rivers of water flowing through the streets of Soho, but little more than a squeal of complaint was heard, as we had had good food, good company, and much dossing.

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Bon Appetit!

2010-09-13T14:10:00.002+01:00

Dear fellow food lovers, apologies for the lack of posts lately - I've been moving house/jobs etc. so its been a little hectic. Don't worry, I'll be stuffing my face and writing all about it again very soon!

Happy eating ,

Kitsune

Food Baby

2010-07-22T10:48:00.006+01:00

"When a person, typically a thin one, indulges in a large amount of food which makes their stomach stick out from the fullness as if they're pregnant."
- Urban Dictionary

Food babies @ Trafalger Square, St. Georges Day 2008

TasteCard offer - £40 off

2010-07-21T11:34:00.005+01:00

I mentioned the TasteCard in a previous post - it gives 50% off / 2 for 1 deals in a load of restaurants around London. Now, they have gone nationwide and to celebrate this, they are offering the card at £29.95 rather than their usual price of £69.95.

The promo code is 'TASTECARD' and this offer runs until the end of July 2010.

Enjoy my lovelies!

Happy Eating,

Kitsune

Afternoon Tea

2010-07-14T13:37:00.005+01:00

Just a quick one to let everyone know about an offer the Telegraph are running - afternoon tea for 2 for £10 - £20, bargainlicious! This is available in loads of venues nationally, so you're bound to find one near you in the huge list.

The offer runs until 14th August 2010...

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Taste of London 2010

2010-06-19T22:00:00.017+01:00

Hmm, did I say that the food & wine sellers at Taste of London were not so generous these days? Looks like I'll have to eat my words (if I can fit another thing in!) after I thoroughly abused their abundant generosity this year! I pretty much had to waddle home.....

Well, this year I was much better for taking pictures before greedily stuffing my face - enjoy!:

Good Natured - The lovely lady with red wellies totally spoiled us........and all for free, no crowns needed! Guess they live up to their name!
Pictured:
Cherry tomato with pesto
Cherry tomato with basil
Strawberries with clotted cream
Scones with raspberry jam, clotted cream and strawberries

One of my favourite stands - I would definitely buy ingredients from here, everything was very fresh & amazing!

Gauchos - grilling & prep...

Gauchos - Bife de chorizo - Argentine Black Angus sirloin, humitas and chimichurri. The steak was as succulent as I always expect from Gauchos, and the humitas which I'd never tried before was lovely - some type of creamed sweetcorn wrapped in corn husk.

The hungry mob!

Whole Foods were offering lovely nibbles

Gin Mare - the guy demonstrating was giving shots with an odd addition - the first tub on the left had olive paste, which he put into the solution in the second tub - after a few seconds it formed a skin and then he put it in the water in the third tub to let it set........

Gin Mare - the odd shot. The gin had quite a kick!! The olive paste had an odd texture - the ball burst in your mouth but you could feel the firm skin it had formed in the solution. Pity I'm not a gin person!

Trinity - chef preparing asparagus and tiny quail eggs on the grill. To the side you can see pheasants eggs, quail eggs and some of the other dishes on offer.....compared to the suckling pig dish they offered, the pigs trotters weren't nearly so high in demand even though they were the 'icon dish', so the guy pictured was pretty much shouting about pigs trotters all day! I was one of few who ordered:

Trinity - Pigs trotters on toasted pain polaine, fried quail eggs, sauce gribiche and crackling. My first time trying pigs trotters. They sound odd but to be honest as an Irish person I should have had them before! One of my favourite dishes of the day. The crackling made very satisfying crunching sounds!

Sake no Hana - Quail with sansho pepper. The quail was cooked differently to how I'd ever had it before, and it was very good - the skin was crispy, the meat tender and even the bed of spring onions was devoured hungrily.

Beas Bloomsbury - cupcakes & meringues! I didn't try anything at the time, but it was a very tempting stand. Apparently they do afternoon tea there - must try it sometime.

Beas Bloomsbury

Macsween - Haggis! Very yummy, especially with that dollop of chutney on top

Fino - Cochifrito suckling pig. The meat pretty much fell off the bone, it was so tender.

Asia de Cuba - Jumbo sea scallop with sweet & sour plantains and habanero corn crema. I always seem to get scallops at Taste of London. This did not disappoint! Juicy.

Chapel Downs - actually from a wine stand [I visited the vineyard last year! ], but they looked too good to resist!

Oysters with lemon and a red wine, vinegar and shallot drizzle. The drizzle was amazing!

I must say that food-wise, I didn't have one thing here that I didn't thoroughly enjoy. The drinks were another matter altogether - but since they were all samples, I really can't complain.

Till next year!

Happy eating,

Kitsune

*****Update:
I've received an email about a Taste of London promo where some of the restaurants exhibiting have Taste of London offers, starting from £15: http://www.toptable.com/en-gb/feature/?id=2309

Also, those pigs trotters I had at the Trinity stand were apparently voted 'Best in Taste' for the show! The conchifrito suckling pig I had from Fino came second.

Cheap Nom Noms

2010-06-15T16:06:00.015+01:00

While London has apparently dropped 13 places down to 16th in the 'Worlds Most Expensive City Survey 2009', it is still quite an expensive place for people who actually live here and feel the other side of the €/£ exchange rates of late that the Eurozone take advantage of.

A friend recently asked me how was it that I can afford to go out so much and afford living by myself with all the bills etc., plus have a dependant (just a kitten, mind you, but a dependant all the same!)?

Indeed - I do get cabin fever, especially lately now I've been trying to budget so this topic is definitely on my mind. Thankfully in summer there are plenty of other things to do in London during the summer apart from eat and drink but that's what this blog is all about, so allow me to divulge all my budget wining and dining secrets!

Toptable

When I first moved here, it wasn't long before I heard about toptable.com - this is a website with a huge database of restaurants in London with a good search function so you can choose what kind of cuisine you'd like and what kind of price you're hoping to pay, based on your specific location. Of course, this website doesn't just encompass London restaurants - it also covers other parts of Europe, USA and Africa.

What's good about it is that when you can read reviews other people have left for the prospective restaurants, and to encourage other people to leave reviews you receive points for reviews you leave on restaurants you book through them. These points can then be used for free meals and a few other food related paraphernalia.

They also often have special offers in conjunction with the restaurants - usually 50% off food and the like. My favourite London restaurant Gilgamesh happens to be on Toptable and they always have a 50% the set meal price so I usually book through them.

Taste London

While I haven't actually received my card yet, I can't mention food offers in London without mentioning Taste London.

Basically, Taste London is a discount card which has 50% off the total food bill OR 2 for 1 deals with over 1000 restaurants. Surprisingly, there are quite a few well known chains signed up to this - a few include Barcelona Tapas, Bombay Bicycle Club, Caffe Uno, Gourmet Burger, Henrys, La Tasca, Strada, Pizza Express, The Real Greek and Tiger Tiger.

Of course there are some restrictions and drawbacks - many restaurants you need to book ahead, or you can only have a limited number of guests, or the card cannot be used on a Friday/Saturday - or the main drawback for me which was the hefty £69.95 price tag! But now I really can't complain - currently they are doing an offer with TimeOut: a FREE one month trial (no card details needed) & after the one month trial, the card will be offered to you at a slightly less gasp-inducing price tag of £49.95 - which I personally think will be worth it once I've used it a couple of times.

So those are the two main places I would go to for discounts on a wide range of restaurants and bars. However, there are a few places I like to go to which are either a great price in the first place, or do money saving offers not in conjunction with anyone else.

FOOD:

Hi Sushi (Camden / Covent Garden): Apart from Saturdays, they do a great all-you-can-eat sushi deal for £15 per person. Fresh sushi, mind you; not the conveyor belt kind. You also get other non-sushi food but the quantities of these are limited. I must say I have never managed to finish off all the things I order! I recommend the Camden one.

Sushi for 3 @ Hi Sushi, Camden

Nandos (Everywhere!): Next time you go here, ask for one of their customer reward cards - each time you spend over £5.95 here you get a stamp - if you collect enough stamps, you can get a free quarter / half / full chicken. What I used to do as a student was collect the stamps and keep the full card worth a free chicken for when I was broke. Much appreciated!

Abeno (Holborn / Chinatown): After visiting Japan and trying Okonomiyaki (Japanese grilled savoury pancakes) in Osaka in a dark, smokey restaurant with a massive teppan grill, I was dreaming of finding a good okonomiyaki place in London. After asking a Japanese friend about it, I was brought to Abeno near the British museum. Apparently this is where homesick Japanese people go for authentic okonomiyaki. It is considered 'street food' in Japan, and while the prices in Abeno aren't quite street food price, they are still pretty good - roughly £15 per head for great great food. Warning though - the staff don't speak much english so brush up on your Japanese first!

Okonomiyaki @ Abeno, Museum Street

Crispy Duck (Chinatown): whenever my craving for roast Chinese food strikes, I always seem to gravitate to Crispy Duck on the main street of Chinatown. They do good traditional roast duck, char siu, crispy pork belly and the like for really great prices, with no pretensions.

Dim Sum (Chinatown): Ok, I haven't specified a particular restaurant here (I've been meaning to do a blog post about it which would go into more detail...) but going to yum cha is great when you're on a budget - if you avoid the obviously expensive places of course! In Chinatown I wouldn't expect to pay more than £15 for copious amounts of dim sum and tea.

Camden Lock Market (Camden): You can get a pretty diverse range of food from around the world here at great prices if you don't mind either forfeiting seating or sitting on stairs or by the canal to eat. Some favourites include an Argentinian steak sandwich, takoyaki (octopus balls), fresh orange juice, chicken fajitas and some chocolate dipped strawberries.

Hotel Chocolat (Online): Ok, this isn't exactly eating out. Or just about London. But as I used to work here at one point and totally got addicted to the chocolate (even ate the dark chocolate here - I used to hate dark chocolate!). It can be a little expensive, but there are ways around it - end of season offers and the introductory chocolate club offer = cheap chocolate nom noms!

COCKTAILS:

Dirty Martini (Covent Garden): Happy hour offers are fantastic here - £4 amazing martini cocktails, half price bottles of wine / glasses of champage / bar food and £10 off bottles of bubbly. Happy hour is 5-10pm Monday - Thursday, 5-8pm Friday & Saturday, and all day Sunday.

Martini cocktails @ Dirty Martini

B@1 (Everywhere!): They've got a massive range of cocktails to choose from, and their happy hour (which I think is different depending on which one you go to) offers 2 for 1 cocktails. The staff are ultra friendly and seem to be trained to party harder than the customers!

Browns (Everywhere!): All their 'Signature Cocktails' are £3.50 from 4pm on Sunday to close of play on Wednesday. Warning - some of these pack quite a punch!

Cocktails @ Browns, West India Quay

These are just a few of my favourite budget places - suggestions of more places are very welcome! :)

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Food Coma

2010-06-07T17:32:00.002+01:00

"The feeling of listlessness, bordering on sleep, that one feels after eating a large meal, often caused by a rush of blood to the stomach and intestines during food digestion."
- Urban Dictionary

Taste of London - get your tickets soon!

2010-05-22T20:36:00.018+01:00

Around this time of year every year, my stomach is rumbling constantly - regardless of how much food I have in it - all in anticipation of one event where I pretty much stuff my face for an entire day with a variety of different food: Taste of London.

I first read about it in Tatler in 2005. They basically described it as 30 of London's best restaurants in Somerset House for a day and they gave a code you could use to upgrade your ticket to VIP so you could also get a glass of champagne on arrival. They had me at hello!

Upon arrival we were given our champagne and crowns - no, not the royal kind, but the 'event currency' kind! How it works is this - with each of the tickets we purchased we were given a book of 40 crowns which we could use to get food from each of the stalls that the restaurants set up. Each of the restaurants charged a different amount of crowns for their meals, depending on ingredients and portion sizes, but each was around 4-8 crowns.

It's all a bit of a blur now but I can recall eating food from pretty much every continent and meat of all kinds. No-one worried about the food 'complimenting' each other. Very generous wine sellers were handing out samples of their wares and everyone was lapping it up. All in all it was a fantastic, hedonistic day in such beautiful surroundings.

Since then, I have only missed one year - it did take wild horses for that to happen.

Of course, over the years small things have changed. Due to the popularity of the event more space was required and the venue was changed to Regent's Park. The number of restaurants has increased to around 40. The wine sellers are not quite so generous with their wares. The average dish is now around 9 crowns. Small changes, some good, some bad.

However, the important stuff is still the same - lots of good food, a huge variety, so many people with the same enthusiasm for food, and lots of free nibbles. What more could we ask for?

Words can only convey so much, so here are a few pics from last year / the year before:

A chef from Nipa Thai, Lancaster Hotel prepares a soft-shell crab salad for the hungry mob

Haggis!

Some of the delights on offer:
Roast Aberdeen angus beef fillet with tarragon mousse,
and rhubarb & custard ice-cream crumble

Fruit Carvings

A variety of English sausages

Come rain or shine, we will still stuff our faces!

Don't forget to get your tickets soon - this year the dates are 17th - 20th June. For anyone reading this who is not in London - do not despair! Other places where they run this event include: Auckland, Amsterdam, Birmingham, Cape Town, Dubai, Dublin, Edinburgh, Jo'burg, Melbourne and Sydney.

*rumble*

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Mad Hatter's Afternoon Tea Party

2010-05-08T21:08:00.011+01:00

Originally I read about the Mad Hatter themed Afternoon Tea at the Sanderson Hotel in March - it was timed to coincide with the release of the Alice In Wonderland 3D movie.

Of course it sounded like a lot of fun and since I haven't actually had 'afternoon tea' having lived in the UK for around 8 years now, I rang up straightaway to book. Unfortunately, pretty much everyone else in London reads the same magazine (Stylist - its handed out for free around London on Tuesdays and is pretty good for a freebie) and I was shocked that afternoon tea on the weekends was booked out until May! Sanderson had only planned to run the themed afternoon tea until the end of March but due to demand it is now 'ongoing' and will most likely run throughout summer.

So having waited for almost 2 months for afternoon tea, there were great expectations! We decided to go themed - not quite wearing hats, but we all made the effort to wear fascinators.

In the hotel lobby the group gathered on a lip shaped sofa and pondered whether the hanging egg chair was for decoration or use. Past the bar filled with chairs with eyes which stared as we walked past, we arrived in the courtyard garden and were seated beside the flowers and fountain.

The Courtyard Gardens in the Sanderson

The pursuasive waitress brought us our bubbly to celebrate nothing in particular. A few of us were particularly ravenous so when they brought out our 3-tiered servers filled with themed baked goodies we were ready to pounce but the waitress paused to explain the recommended order to eat the food - it was pretty much eat from the bottom up.

Following the order, we started with the scones. They were crumbly and delicious with a helping of clotted cream and runny dripping strawberry jam. The rainbow sandwiches had a nice mix of fillings - from salmon and cream cheese in green spinach bread to saffron yellow ham and mustard.

The cakes were every sweet-tooth's dream - cupcakes with a surprise tangy jam layer and crackling candy topping, a hazelnut and passion fruit tart with a pocket-watch clockface chocolate topper, and a Queen of Hearts tea cake with a tart foamy filling that melts in the mouth.

To finish, we had not one but two desserts! Quickly scoffed was the peppermint ice cream covered in chocolate on a stick which melted immediately, and a two sided 'hot & cold' pineapple lollipop. [Note - as some particular members of the group *ahem* found, the blue salt holding the sticks in the teacup are NOT part of the food!]

All in all, as well as being a colourful food adventure this was certainly an exploration of what we Chinese call the 'mouth-feel' of food. Not just the texture of the food - the temperature changes, the crackling, the crumbling, the melting - it was a fairly eccentric meal altogether.

We left the courtyard gardens hyped up on all the sugar and decided to test the strength of the hanging egg chair - it didn't come crashing to the ground as we feared!

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Dans le Noir

2010-04-21T17:38:00.010+01:00

Dans le Noir is an experience I will never forget and in all probability never repeat, but I would certainly recommend it.

A friend had read about this restaurant and was curious so we decided on it as our once-a-month 'dining club' venue. This is a circle of a few of my good and perpetually hungry (like me!) friends of mine who take turns to organise restaurant trips to interesting new places we've discovered or have not yet tried. Having such an unusual concept, Dans le Noir was not to be missed.

The translation for 'Dans le Noir' is 'In the Black' - and that is the whole concept - dining in pitch black.

On arrival the four of us had to store our belongings including phones and light up watches into lockers. This is to prevent any light entering the dining area at all, and to prevent people forgetting/losing bags et cetera. We were given a choice of 4 different meals - a surprise meal, a seafood meal, a vegetarian meal and a meaty meal. We were not told what was included in any of the meals. All of us having the same mindset when it comes to food, we all went for the surprise meal.

Led by our blind waiter we walked hands on shoulders in a train through curtains, curtains and more curtains before arriving in what felt like a massive dining area. Obviously we could see nothing but our other senses were certainly heightened. What would normally have been perceived as a huddled conversation sounded like a lively and public debate. My sense of spacial relations was completely distorted - while I felt like I was in a massive room, at the same time whenever we came near any other diners I felt like I was about to fall over them. We had previously imagined that we would be able to see something - at least a persons silhouette or even our own hand in front of our faces - but we were proved wrong. Your eyes do not adjust to absolute darkness.

Arriving at our table, there was a moment of panic. I was told to stand and wait for my friends at the other side of the table to be shown to their chairs but I was antsy - out of my dept, and for reasons unknown I decided to turn around. Such a small movement. I was still in the same place; just rotated around a little. However, I had absolutely no visual measure of how much I had turned and therefore I now had no idea where the table was! Thankfully our friendly waiter finished showing my friends their seats and I was rescued, with no-one any the wiser.

Ordeal over, we went about finding our way around the table. We had to feel for our plates, our cutlery, our glasses. We spoke and figured out where each of us was. Easy. Then the waiter brought over a basket of bread. Then a jug of water. Not quite so easy after that! We had to be careful not to hit each other in the face when passing around the bread basket. And trying to pour water from a jug into a glass, both of which you cannot see, was something special. We had a bit of a giggle and some soggy bread.

Then the proper food came. The food tasted good but what was amazing was the texture! It would seem that not being able to see your food not only heightens the taste but as you try to figure out what you are eating the texture becomes all the more important. Using cutlery to try and pick up things you cannot see is an 'interesting experience'. From what I could tell, more than one piece of food went flying around the black abyss. Most stabs of the fork yielded nothing but an unsatisfying clink on the plate. I learnt a whole new way of holding the fork - I had to extend my finger to the tip of the fork so that I could feel the food I was attempting to spear. Even this method was discarded by the end of the main meal as I just poked around the plate to see if there was anything left! (Thankfully no-one could see )

All the food was pretty good and as we heard each other's guesses we'd have another chomp of our food to try and taste what they were tasting. We tasted a few different kinds of meat which we all guessed differently, as well as some kind of filled pasta. The dessert was a zesty brulee and some chocolates. The conversation never left the food as we endlessly discussed our shared experience.

By the time we were finished and left the room I felt as disoriented as when I entered the blackened room. The light burst into view, and we were greeted by a waitress who gave us the bill and finally explained what we were actually eating. Of course, we cannot be blamed for not guessing the meats - we had eaten guinea fowl, crocodile and deer! Our broad guesses for the other parts of the meal were generally correct.

I could write forever and not be able to describe everything about the experience so I end this story with a recommendation to try the restaurant for yourself, and some friendly advice - ALWAYS OBEY THE WAITER!!!

The reality of Dans le Noir

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Nando's

2010-04-19T19:22:00.017+01:00

Nando's is definitely in my list of top 10 restaurants anywhere.

My love of piri piri chicken actually began in Portugal long before I had even heard of Nando's. I'd gone to Albufeira during the summer before moving to London and was recommended to try the spicy roast chicken over there. Having tried it on my first day I was immediately addicted and had it almost every day - in each restaurant it tasted a little different yet all had the same addictive properties. I was so hooked that I actually made the effort to hunt down a grocers (often difficult to do in tourist areas) to buy some of the marinade to bring home! This is the opposite to how I usually eat on holidays - it's usually 'eat everything in sight and leave with only the good memories'.

A couple of weeks later the two bottles of marinade I'd bought were squeaky clean. Not a drop left! Not having any plans to return to Portugal any time soon, I resigned myself to the fact that it may be quite a while before I ever tasted the tangy, spicy chicken again.

A few months later having finally moved to London to start uni a group of us were hanging around in the halls of residence common room, all hungry. In typical student style we sent out one sucker to pick us all up some food. I tell you, the aroma that greeted us, the group of starved students, was so good it should be illegal! The chicken; quickly chopped up and divided out was devoured messily and speedily. Drenched in the peri peri sauce, it was much spicier than I was used to at the time but even though my face was melting there was no chance I was going to stop eating, not even for water or chips. I recognised it immediately and when I finished eating, thoughts went immediately to how my waistline and wallet was going to suffer on the discovery of peri peri chicken down the road from me!

Thankfully I somehow managed to be sensible and kept Nando's as a 'treat' restaurant. It may not seem so for people who are working but it was pretty expensive food for a student to have regularly. The loyalty cards with a free full chicken upon completion were (and are) hugely appreciated!

As I mentioned in a previous post I was being trained to eat spicy food for my first year in London, and the Nando's spice levels were deemed an appropriate gauge of how I was doing...any excuse! If anyone is interested, I currently am at 'hot' level.

These days even though I earn a proper wage, the 'treat' mentality has stuck and it has become a tradition in our workplace to go there for lunch every pay-day to celebrate. If payday is at the end of the week, we pretty much salivate and fantasise all week!

Don't go if you have an addictive nature...

Happy eating,

Kitsune

Gilgamesh

2010-04-15T00:40:00.009+01:00

I guess the best way to begin is to write about my favourite restaurant.

A few years ago there were a few of us wandering aimlessly through Camden Lock Market. After hours of browsing we were parched and hoping to rest our aching feet. Since it was a lovely summer day the whole marketplace was packed to the brim and there was nowhere to sit down if we wanted to eat the yummy international market food. We were looking around desperately when suddenly we spied two pillars of fire and an escalator to take us up into Gilgamesh and out of the mad, mad market.

Going up the escalators was an experience - all of the surroundings were covered in hand carved wood. Upstairs, the restaurant was unexpectedly massive and part of the roof was pulled back to let in the summer air. All the walls and furniture were also carved wood, depicting interesting scenes from the legend of Gilgamesh.

But onto the food!

It was a weekend afternoon so when we spied the dim sum menu we went straight for that. They had a small mix of traditional and experimental dim sum.

We went for:

Har Gau
Duck Spring Roll
Crispy Squid with Garlic Chips
Siu Mai
Son-in-law Eggs
Another type of roll I can't remember the name of

Now the first 4 many dim sum lovers will recognise - traditional dim sum. They were thankfully done the traditional way and altogether very tasty.
The roll whose name evades me was just amazing. It was served cold and it had some coriander and grapefruit in it - just lovely on a hot day, and very zingy!
The son-in-law eggs (a Thai dish) were covered in a hot chilli sauce and were very moorish. We were curious about the name so we asked our waitress who told us the story with zeal - and it is a great one but I couldn't do it justice here!

The cocktails we had there went down dangerously easy, even if they were a little overpriced.

I've been back many times since that fateful day and I can say I haven't been let down. The food has always been better than expected and the drinks never fail to hit the spot.

I must say though, as they have become more well known since their third birthday party which they invited various 'celebs' to, its been absolutely packed and I don't think its possible to just pop in like we did anymore.
But its definitely worth the effort to book, and often toptable.co.uk have a half price set menu deal with them.

A small glimpse of lunchtime @ Gilgamesh with a live band

Happy eating,

Kitsune

New Blog

2010-04-14T23:42:00.004+01:00

Welcome to my first blogpost!

Soooo, I have after much debate decided to start writing about the food I've tried in London. I'm not going to lie; I eat a lot!

Having been brought up in Dublin - while the food there was absolutely amazing - my eyes (or tastebuds, even) were opened when I moved to London in my teens.
I didn't even eat spicy food when I arrived. I told this to a newfound Indian friend of mine upon arrival and I was firmly warned "We are going to train you!" There began one hell of a gruelling year followed by many, many years of gastronomical adventures.

I hope you will enjoy reading about them and feel inspired to try something new.

Kitsune