But doesn’t quite reach the summit. It’s odd watching the city of your youth gradually change and morph, almost imperceptibly, over the years. Commercial Street is a thoroughfare that links Hoxton and Shoreditch in the north with Whitechapel to the south, running right through Spitalfields and parallel to the City as it does so. It was until recently, and still … Continue reading
A review from someone who can tell the difference between chicken and pork tonkatsu Machi-ya is an odd name for a Japanese restaurant. A machiya is a traditional Japanese house that can be very atmospheric and are thus increasingly popular with tourists visiting Japan. Indeed, I briefly considered staying in one during my trip to Kyoto … Continue reading
Jewish soul food reasserts itself in the East End Jewish food doesn’t have much of a visible presence in London to the casual observer. But that’s before you realise that many dishes that we taken for granted in our everyday lives – from bagels and smoked salmon to hot salt beef – have their origins in the … Continue reading
Japanese pork bone broth noodle soup in the capital gets better. And worse. Although the deluge of ramen restaurant openings in London has lessened since its peak a couple of years ago, a bowl of warm, rich and comforting tonkotsu ramen is still rarely far from my mind. Not only because it’s the perfect dish … Continue reading
TV CV only gets you oh so far I have little time for most TV celebrity chefs, but I’ll usually make an exception for Rick Stein. His genteel avuncular charm, childlike wonder and boundless yet measured enthusiasm make him far more watchable than the majority of his arse-clenchingly irritating peers. The big man naturally doesn’t cook in … Continue reading
In defence of the tasting menu. But not necessarily *this* tasting menu. There’s an unspoken rule that reviewers shouldn’t openly criticise each other’s work. This isn’t a conspiracy – we’re too competitive and too inept for such a concerted undertaking – but an acknowledgement that half-arsed writing and lapses in judgement can affect us all. … Continue reading
Quack, quack, honk If there’s one thing that London isn’t short of, it’s Cantonese restaurants. For years it was the only kind of Chinese food widely available in the capital, with other cuisines from the continent-sized country only becoming prevalent in the past decade or so. This increased regional representation makes Duck Duck Goose even more … Continue reading
