Simply Korean with a free facial at Assa

October 26, 2010 By 1 Comment

Continuing on my Korean culinary journey I went for my Kim Chi fix at Assa near Tottenham Court Road. This is a tiny little Korean place which seems to be full of students and very busy. On a wet and rainy autumn evening, this was the perfect comfort food, even though it was stinking rotting cabbage as @FoodUrchin calls it. We had a short wait and was seated next to the kitchen. A short while after, we had to share our table with another couple which was a bit crowded, but it’s that kind of a place.

Every table had on it a gas burner and big steaming wok of hot soup. So that is what we ordered too. I did ask for the Korean name but I didn’t quite get it. Our vat of Kim Chi soup came loaded with vegetables like mushrooms, courgettes, spring onions and topped with some potato noodles.

The recipe is basically similar to the Kimchi Jigae but much more soupy and came with a serving of beef bulgogi. We were given complimentary side dishes of bean sprouts and seaweed and a couple of bowls of rice.

Assa Tottenham Court Road

It takes a few minutes for pot to boil and when it does you get a face full of steam.The table is so small, you can’t really get far away enough from the hot pot. So ladies, don’t come in full make up before a night out, it will all be steamed off!

All the food is prepared at the back in this tiny open kitchen. The whole place is tizzy with activity.

Assa Tottenham Court Road

The service is quick and frantic, the food it honest and very reasonable. Dinner for 2 came to £20 with drinks and service. Great value for a quick and delicious Korean meal.

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Transformations at Bombay Brasserie

October 25, 2010 By 5 Comments

Bombay Brasserie in Gloucester Road is one of the first Indian Restaurants that I’ve been to in London and it is one of the original posh Indian restaurants. The decor is elegant but relaxed, with massive chandeliers in the main dining room. It is certainly not your usual local Indian. My memories of it are of the colonial style seating in the conservatory and not a terribly imaginative menu. My last visit was about 3 years ago, with some Gujerati friend who are regulars, where we had a good but rather pedestrian meal.

Fast forward to 2010, a revamp of their menu accompanied by an interior renovation, bringing the Bombay Brasserie bang up to date.

Being a complete chillie addict, I could not turn down the invite to sample their new Chilli Gourmet Menu, designed by Grand Master Chef Hemant Oberoi who oversees the restaurants for the Taj Groups globally. His CV is unbelievably impressive from cooking in Davos to cooking for Royalty and Heads of States to overseeing a banquet for 30,000 people at a Mittal wedding. He jetted into London in time for our dinner and brought with him about 30 varieties of chillies for the new menus and they were used in such interesting ways on the menu.

On arrival, we were tempted with a couple of Chilly Cocktails, the Chocolate Chilly Cocktail and the Guava Juice and Chilli Cocktail, quite unusual flavours with an unexpected  kick from the chillies. These were accompanied by some bite size canapes.

Chocolate Cocktail

As we were led to the new live kitchen in the middle of the old conservatory room, we meet out chef, Silva, for the night. He was busy preparing our meal and we started with an amuse bouche of potato cake with tamarind chutney.This kitchen has the worlds strongest extractor fan as we could not even smell the cooking smells even sitting about one foot away from the hot plate.

Our Chef from Kerala

Silva Our Chef from Kerala

Bombay Brasserie London

The first dish on the menu was Peeli Mirch Ka Scallop with griddled curry leaf, yellow chilli powder and Goan style pan fried goan chillies flavoured halibut on a bed of spicy prawns. Of the 2, the scallops were the favourites, being both very hot but so well marinated with so many flavours, it was hard to identify.

Bombay Brasserie London

Next followed a Rasam made with Pink Pepper and unusually Lemongrass. Rasam is a South Indian lentil soup and this one transcended any other rasams that I have had elsewhere. Certainly did its job in kick starting the appetite.

Bombay Brasserie

Next was a meltingly soft lamb with green chillies on little rotis and it’s really handy to be so near the kitchen as we duly had second helpings.  This was accompanied by crispy chicken strips with guntur chillies and tasted strangely familiar, then it hit me as it was reminiscent of the friend chicken that we get from Nasi Padang shops in Malaysia, which of course has origins in Southern India. So far, all the dishes had been expertly spiced and well balanced which to me means no jarring flavours that overwhelms each dish.

Drama followed with smoking bowls of tamarind, jaggery and chilli sorbet which caught the attention of some New York Foodies on the neighbouring table. In addition to them, we spotted “Desperate Housewives‘ Neal McDonough sitting in the corner. This place seems to be on the Hollywood radar as they have had quite a few big names eating there.

Jaggery and Chilli Sorbet

Jaggery and Chilli Sorbet

Chef Oberoi sat with us which gave us a chance to grill him about the ingredients, especially the use of all the different chillies and how his food takes influence from different regions of India. Most shocking in our conversation was when he said that he was in the hotel in Bombay when it was attacked by the terrorists and saw one of his chefs shot in front of him.

Executive chef Oberoi and Head Chef Prahlad Hegde

Executive chef Oberoi and Head Chef Prahlad Hegde

The chillies that were used in this meal included Ellchipur Sanman, Guntur Sanman, Hindpur, Jwala, Kanthari, Kashmiri Mirch, Mundu or Gundu Molzuka, Nalcheti, Warangal Chappatta, Naga Jolokia and birds eye.

Air Flown Chillies Bombay Brasserie

Just as we were starting to get full, the main event arrived. An Achari Chicken Biryani made with stuffed red chilli and saffron flavoured rice, with Lal Mirch Ka Gosht, a lamb dish cooked in red chilli powder flavoured gravy and Murg Khatta Pyaz which is a chicken tikka with vinegar shallots. To call the lamb dish just a lamb curry is doing it a disservice, didn’t find out where this dish originates from but I want more. It was spiced but flavours are quite unusual and was a complete contrast to the other dishes being served. We were told that this was the size of the main courses normally which is  quite an enormous portion.

Bombay Brasserie

Everyone needs to come and have this Achari Biriyani, a whole tasty meal all by itself and is my favourite dish as it ticks the box of being quite tangy from the Achari/ pickle flavours. The curries were accompanied by a Mirch Ka Slan from Hyderabad, a cucumber raita and crispy and freshly made plain, paratha and peri peri olive naan.

To end this feast, we had a trio of desserts – Narangi Malpua, Kala Jamun Brulee and Chenna payesh. Although beautifully presented, I didn’t really like all the flavours and especially not that stripe on top of the chocolate box, which was a shockingly unexpected smear of black pepper but the brulee was a winner though.

Bombay Brasserie

The service at the Bombay Brasserie throughout the meal was very attentive and I’d like to think that this is how they normally treat all their guests. Am glad to have been reintroduced to this fabulous restaurant and will be back for the weekend brunch soon. They offer a full on weekend brunch where you can sample most of these dishes for £22 and ordering from the ala carte menu could be considerably more.

In addition, Bombay Brasserie are holding some other themed events over the next few months

  • New series of Flavour Masterclasses for consumers – November to March
  • Flavours of Divali 5 November 2010
  • Regional Taste Tour of Chillies Friday 21 January 2011
  • Taste of the Royal Palaces of India Friday 18 March 2011
  • Chilli Celebration Dinner season – 17-30 January 2011

If you want an Indian fine dining experience, you can’t go far wrong eating here, also keep your eyes open as you might even spot some A list celebs.

    Bombay Brasserie on Urbanspoon

    Slow Food Kitchen was a guest at Bombay Brasserie.

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    Les Deux Salons Debuts in Covent Garden

    October 16, 2010 By 9 Comments

    One step into Les Deux Salons transports you to Paris, more specifically an oldy worldy Parisian Brasserie. The team behind Arbutus and Wild Honey, Anthony Demetre and Will Smith have opened a new French Brasserie in Covent Garden. No expense spared to transform this old bar into an aged French Brasserie, with antiqued mirrors, well spaced tables and all. The restaurant is on 2 floors with 250 covers, which is the largest venture for the team in London to date.

    Les Deux Salons Covent Garden

    A couple of Tweets were sent around when bookings opened and I secured a lunch booking on the first day, as it was the only day that my dining companion was free for lunch. On the day, we were the 3rd table to arrive and one of the first customers to be guinea pigs to test out their new team.

    The first thing we noticed was that there were a lot of staff hovering around, looking bewildered. Where we were seated, we couldn’t help but watch the confusion of the staff bringing the food out of the kitchen and staff on the floor working out the table numbers.  We found out later that they were totally overstaffed on that first day as most the staff were new and needed training. As the lunch crowd drifted in, it was surprisingly not full as they kept the crowds down to allow the kitchen to get up to speed. We were told that it was all hands on deck in the kitchen as well with several chefs including Anthony in the kitchen that day.

    Les Deux Salons Covent Garden

    We kicked off with the Lamb sweetbreads, “Bouchee a la reine” (£8.95) and the highly recommended Crisp boneless chicken wings, fresh macaroni winter savoury (7.50). The sweetbreads was a step back in time as I haven’t had one of these since I was working in Paris and it was rich and delicious, rather generous for a starter portion. The chicken wings, in an unusual combination, was nicely crisped and well balanced with the greens and pasta.

    Lamb Sweetbreads Les Deux Salon

    Lamb Sweetbreads Les Deux Salons

    Crisp Chicken Wings Macaroni Les Deux Salon

    Crisp Chicken Wings Macaroni Les Deux Salons

    While the starters  arrived promptly, it took another 45 minutes for the main courses to arrive, after the table next to us had eaten, paid and left. A mention to one of the staff tranplanted from another of their restaurant that the staff were a bit confused got this reply, “That is why there is a 50% discount on food this week”. Unnecessary, as we were totally aware that this is the first service and expected teething problems. Besides that one episode, service was rather enthusiastic.

    Mains were tender, melting Slow Cooked Ox Cheeks with parsnip puree (£17.95), very rich in flavour, totally delicious and Roast Halibut with Razor Clams (21.50), a nice way to prepare razor clams, could have had just a plate of those by itself.

    Slow Cooked Ox Cheeks Les Deux Salon

    Slow Cooked Ox Cheeks Les Deux Salons

    Roast Halibut with Razor Clams Les Deux Salons

    Roast Halibut with Razor Clams Les Deux Salons

    To finish, we had the Glazed Lemon Tart with Creme Chantilly and ordered the bill and coffee at the same time.

    Lemon Tart

    The dessert and bill arrived and was paid and the coffee making guy had still not received the order to make the coffee. It did eventually arrive after much prompting and was very good too. We also spotted this oozing brie on the cheese board on the way out, something to remember for next time.

    Les Deux Salons

    The erratic service is forgivable as it’s their first service as the food is spot on. On the menu are several Plat du Jours (plural?) which I will be back to try – Wednesdays “Pot au Feu”, Thursdays Cassoulet and Friday Bouillabaisse. They also offer a 3 course Theatre Supper for £15.50 which I expect is going to be very popular in Theatreland. Our bill for the meal and a few glasses of wine, came up to about £60 after the 50% discount, and unless they introduce a lunch menu, it is  bit rich as a regular lunch spot.

    Les Deux Salons on Urbanspoon

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    Dim Sum at Golden Dragon

    October 11, 2010 By 3 Comments

    Dim Sum or sometimes called Yum Cha is originally a Cantonese snack which has now been raised to be a full blown meal. Dim sum was usually served as a breakfast or brunch over a leisurely pot of tea, hence the Yum Cha which is to drink tea. One would have just one small dish at a time, slowly whiling away the morning, reading the paper. Dim Sum today is a noisy hurried meal with a whole table laden with almost the entire dim sum menu of a restaurant.

    In Hong Kong and parts of Asia, some larger dim sum restaurants would serve dim sum from heated carts where you can pick the dishes fresh from the kitchen as they come around your table. In London, the New World Restaurant still does this but the food is really is inedible.

    As much of the original Chinese immigrants to London who opened restaurants in Chinatown were from Southern China or Hakka or Cantonese origin. They brought along some expertise in cooking and some respectable dim sum places opened up in London. Dim Sum chefs are usually quite well trained as it requires a lot of skill to make the skins and wraps thin enough to make fine dim sum. Nowadays, much of the dim sum places in Chinatown serve warmed up frozen dim sum.

    Golden Dragon is one of the better ones in Chinatown for dim sum. We regularly meet here on Sundays where you see a lot of big groups of Chinese families. If you are visiting London, don’t expect dim sum to the standards of Hong Kong or Vancouver.

    What to order at a Dim Sum restaurant?
    Some of my non Chinese friends and some twitter friends have asked me for a list of what to order as they can never get the same things when I don’t order for them so here goes. We usually have a mixture of steamed dishes, dumplings and fried dishes.

    XO Sauce Cheung Fun

    XO Sauce Cheung Fun

    Cheung fun is a steamed rice noodle and is sometimes filled with either prawns, roast pork, beef, scallop or a fried dough stick. All quite delicious.

    Vietnamese Spring Rolls

    Vietnamese Spring Rolls

    Har Gau Prawn Dumpling

    Har Gau Prawn Dumpling

    Stewed Tripe

    Stewed Tripe

    I might give this a miss if you don’t like offal.

    Glutinous Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf

    Glutinous Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf

    This is glutinous rice with some meat, chinese sausages and mushrooms. Just unwrap the parcel and dig in.

    Roast Pork Puffs and Yam Croquettes

    Roast Pork Puffs and Yam Croquettes

    There are other fried dishes like prawn toast and spring rolls, or the pan fried radish cake,  the varieties are endless.

    Prawn and Chives Dumpling

    Prawn and Chives Dumpling

    There are quite a few more dishes that are on the steamed menu like beef balls, spare ribs, chicken feet, vegetarian dumplings and snails.

    Salted Fish and Chicken Claypot Rice

    Salted Fish and Chicken Claypot Rice

    This is a very fragrant rice dish which I want to introduce to my Brazillian friends who recently fed me several delicious salt cod dishes. They might like the Chinese salted fish dishes too.

    Sometimes instead of a rice dish, we order some fried noodles or a soup noodle like Rice Vermicelli with Shredded Duck and Snow Vegetables in Soup.

    Crispy Suckling Pig and Roast Duck

    Crispy Suckling Pig and Roast Duck

    Do try the suckling pig as the skin is super crispy with a plum sauce dip.

    Stir Fried Pea Shoots

    Stir Fried Pea Shoots

    We always order a vegetable dish as well and do ask them what veg they have on that day. This is not on the menu usually.

    For pudding, most restaurants don’t have many choices but sometimes have desserts that are off the menu like red bean soup or Tau Fu Fa which is a soft soya bean jelly served sweet.

    Mango Pudding

    Mango Pudding

    Mango pudding has a jelly like consitency and curiously served swimming in evaporated milk. Not my favourite.

    Black Sesame Glutinous Rice Balls

    Black Sesame Glutinous Rice Balls

    If you have never tried these, you should try to order them. Make sure you tell them before the end of your meal as it takes about 20 minutes to make. These are made with glutinous rice flour and filled with a black sesame paste which oozes when you bite into it. Sometimes comes rolled in crushed peanuts of coconut (non traditional). Not many places do this but you can try it here.

    Other Dim Sum Restaurants in London

    Gerrards Corner – Best dish is the stir fried radish cake

    Royal China Bayswater, Bake St – Very average and expensive for what it is

    Plum Valley – Very expensive and not very good food, very expensive tea

    Superstar – Surprisingly, not bad

    Yauatcha – higher quality and much more expensive dim sum

    Phoenix Palace – Busy but really not very good dim sum

    Min Jiang – Totally overpriced but I guess you are paying for the view over Hyde Park

    Pearl Liang – Not bad for West London, nice decor, decent service

    Royal China Putney – Not part of the Royal China group, good dim sum, better than most in London and well worth the trek out there.

    Places to avoid – Ping Pong, New World, Chuen Cheng Ku

    Golden Dragon may not serve the most refined dim sum and the service is the typlical nonchalant Chinatown restaurant service but the dim sum is quite decent by London standards and the prices are very reasonable. Your meal should not cost more than £15 per person, (not including any drinks).

    Golden Dragon on Urbanspoon

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    Street Kitchen At The London Restaurant Festival

    October 5, 2010 By 1 Comment

    The London Restaurant Festival is in its second year and is running for 2 weeks from the 4th October. Restaurants in London are celebrating the festival by holding special events like dinner on the London Eye to having special menus.

    Two chefs who are doing something different are Jun Tanaka (of Pearl Restaurant) and Mark Jankel by bringing food to the people on the street with a Food Truck. Food Trucks are a growing trend in the US and increasingly in the UK, each serving delicious food at reasonable prices and gaining a large fan base through social media, especially Twitter. The best known of the Food Truck is @KogiBBQ in LA, which has the twitter and mass media darling, proving the case that you can build a very succesful food business using Twitter alone.

    Street Kitchen London Restaurant Festival

    Back in London, Street Kitchen has been set up in corner of the Covent Garden Piazza in an imported Airtream Caravan. My friend had this to say about this, “it looks like the catering van on film sets” and expected a cheap menu of the type of food served with chips.

    The menu here is simple, made of locally sourced food and not a chip in sight. As I didn’t have much time, I opted for one of the mains, Salmon with beetroot and horseradish £6.50. It’s not that cheap but simple and delicious. There are 2 other main courses, a soup with brioche and one pudding on the menu.

    Street Kitchen London Restaurant Festival

    According to the chefs, they have been really busy, especially at lunch time. If I had a bit more time, I would have had the Autumn berries Cheesecake but they are around for a few more days so I shall return to check that out. Who knows, the Street Kitchen could be travelling around and you might see it near you soon.

    Mark Jankel and Jun Tanaka

    Mark Jankel and Jun Tanaka

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