Abeno Okonomiyaki

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

Inamo

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

Cheap Nom Noms

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!

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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.

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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.

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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

Gilgamesh

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