Tamarind and Thyme

Molly over at Orangette has got married and, of course, the food is extremely impressive! Congratulations to both Molly and Brandon!

EatingAsia has a blog post on kiam chye boi, a Malaysian-Chinese stew of pickled vegetables and leftover pork. My mother used to make it from fresh ingredients because it’s just too good to wait for leftovers!

Another great recipe at Milk and Cookies - this time for gozlemes, Turkish grilled filled flatbreads that seem to be quite popular in Australia but I’ve not seen them in London yet.

Going to Paris anytime soon? David Lebovitz has put together a list of 10 insanely delicious things to eat in Paris. Well, he goes on to name 14 further yummy things…

I was in Soho this past Saturday and thought I’d combine lunch with my excursion. I headed straight for Olly Olson, a Scandinavian hot dog shop that I’d been meaning to try for a while. Unfortunately, I’ll never get that chance seeing that the shop has already closed down. Slightly annoyed, I then made my way to the Beach Burrito Cafe, hoping to try a little Tex-Mex food. Oh dear…that shop was boarded up. By this time, I was extremely frustrated and just decided to visit a tried-and-tested place for their noodles.

Jen Cafe sits on a prominent corner on Newport Place in Chinatown. You know where that little pagoda like structure sits? It’s right by it…with a big green sign. You’ve probably seen the woman working furiously, folding dumpling after dumpling, in the window. There are large bowls of various fillings, both pork and vegetables, laid around her, as well as lumps of dough and snowdrifts of flour everywhere. The ever popular dumplings, which can be ordered boiled or fried, are made a little in advance (though we’re talking minutes rather than hours) in anticipation of the demand. If you order the handmade noodles, like I did, she’ll take a lump of dough and roll and cut them, ready to be boiled, right there and then. Likewise, ordering a bowl of wonton soup, as my neighbour did, results in a small lump of dough being rolled out extra, extra thinly and the wontons filled and formed immediately. These are not the usual yellow wonton skins made with egg, but just made with a dough of water and flour.

Drinks seem to be another of their specialties. I had a lovely cold lemon tea but their bubble teas appear to be more popular. They also offer sandwiches as well as other rice dishes and non-handmade noodle soups - the menu is what I’d expect from a Hong Kong style cafe. I ordered a spicy pork noodles, which turned out to be handmade noodles with a salty pork mixture on top. There were some chilies in there but nothing to take your head off. Eating the pork mixture by itself is not advised as it’s quite salty but mixing it with the bland noodles and julienned cucumber makes it all quite tasty. I think I still prefer their dumplings though.

Jen Cafe
4-8 Newport Place
London

During a lunch break recently, I made my way to the relatively new branch of the Hummingbird Bakery, the American-style bakery that’s made quite an impression on Portobello Road. I’ve been to the original store once before and had a very impressively fudgy, chewy brownie there. This time, it was to get one of their cupcakes.

The space is quite large, with tables both inside and out, a counter lining the left side and cake stands topping a large table at the far side of the room. The cake stands were beautiful with large, layered cakes within - slices can be purchased. All along the counter are rows and rows of cupcakes and a panful of brownies at one end. There’s a cupcake-of-the-day, flavours are listed on their website, and I’m tempted to return on a Friday for their black bottom cupcake.

I chose a red velvet cupcake, their specialty, I believe. It’s a red-tinted vanilla sponge with a bit of chocolate flavour and frosted with cream cheese frosting. And as you can see here, it’s very pretty! They are £1.85 each - so significantly cheaper than the ones at Peyton and Byrne. Vanilla and chocolate cupcakes are even cheaper at £1.55 each. I wanted to eat my cupcake at home, that night, and so I asked for a box when I was first offered it in a napkin. A Chinese takeaway box was then produced for 10p. I accepted - I’m a sucker for those adorable boxes with their little wire handles! Normally, I wouldn’t have…I think.

The cupcake was much better than the one I had from Peyton and Byrne, even after the long wait between purchasing and actual eating. The cake was more moist (though it could be even more moist) and the cream cheese frosting was delicious, not too sweet. And there was just the right frosting to cake ratio. I’ll definitely have to go back to try their vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, available everyday.

Prices listed on their website are the takeaway prices - expect a slightly higher price for eating in.

Hummingbird Bakery
47 Old Brompton Road
London SW7 3JP

I woke up Saturday morning thinking about bibimbap. It had been a while since I had this Korean dish of rice topped with various seasoned vegetables, sometimes beef, and always a fried egg. If you were lucky, you’d have it at a place that served it in a dolsot, a stone bowl that would be heated up to crisp the bottom layer of rice. And so, that search was the catalyst for my second trip to New Malden, a month after my first. I went in search of bibimbap!

Online, I’d seen mixed reviews for You-Me; however, I’d previously read some very good print reviews for You-Me and so it was to that restaurant that I went to eat my bibimbap. They’re not located on New Malden high street but further down Burlington Road (take a left at the roundabout at the far end of the high street from the train station). I’d heard a bit about the adjacent bakery, Hyun’s bakery, but they were on holiday! Aw shucks!

Actually, the less said about my experience at You-Me, the better. Service was atrocious - the look on the waitress’ face when I had to flag her down to let her know that I had no utensils with which to eat my meal…well, let’s just say that I suspect she thought that I had pocketed the chopsticks and spoon she believed I already had in my possesion. The dolsot bibimbap (£6.90) I had was quite average but it did come with three kinds of namul (vegetable banchan) and Korean tea came to my table when I sat down; many of the Korean restaurants in central London charge you for tea and banchan.

After lunch, I browsed a number of the local Korean markets and found that a few were selling plastic containers of cooked beef and various vegetables. Toppings for bibimbap! For one or two people, it’s probably more cost and time effective to purchase one or two of these boxes and cook your rice at home. You’ll be missing out on the crusty rice if you don’t have a dolsot, and I don’t, but it’s perfectly fine without it. Oh, and don’t forget to fry an egg too! Of course, I purchased a box for myself at Manna Mart on the high street - bibimbap for me later this week again! If you’re not close to a Korean supermarket, here’s a general recipe for bibimbap though many other vegetables can also be added. Top the lot with gochujang (hot red pepper paste) mixed with a little rice vinegar and sugar. Mix mix mix and eat!

You-Me
96 Burlington Road
New Malden, Surrey
KT3 4NT

Manna Mart Ltd.
71-73 High Street
New Malden, Surrey
KT3 4BT

…to eat for the rest of my life, it would be the mangosteen.

I’ve had this fruit as a child in Asia but never had it again in Canada. I don’t actually remember whether the fruit wasn’t available or whether it was available but was prohibitively expensive. Anyway, I got another taste of the fruit when I was an undergrad in London when I found a small basket of them at a small local Thai shop. They’re sold by weight and damn the things - the skins are extremely thick and heavy! So much is thrown away to get to the sweet, juicy flesh. I still remember that one tiny fruit cost me 75p and that I still remembered the flavour and I loved it.

Now I’ve found slightly more affordable packs of the fruit at Oriental City where 6 mangosteens sell for about £2. They can also be found in Chinatown but I prefer the quality of the ones at OC. Do try them if you can find them - perfectly ripe ones are a delight to eat and slightly less ripe ones have a slight tang to them. Many have compared their flavour to other fruit but I think they’re unique.