Jamón Ibérico de Bellota

Apologies, all, I just needed to share this beautiful slice of jamón ibérico de bellota that I brought back from Barcelona. This is top of the line ham from free range Iberian pigs fed with acorns. We only just opened up the package (vacuum sealed) this past weekend.

Here a slice is presented on a slice of sourdough bread but I ended up picking it off and eating them separately. Oh my goodness, it’s so marvelous. It’s soft and not very salty and oh so tasty. Well, it had better be good for the price I paid! While a small amount (I bought a little under 100g) is still affordable, it’s definitely not everyday ham.

I purchased this ham at El Celler del Pernil, C/ Pi I Margall 71, in Barcelona.

Update: The sister photo (shown below) to the above was featured as Photo of the Day on Serious Eats on Sept 27!

 

Hummingbird Bakery

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

 

Iced Tea at Maison Bertaux

After our picnic, we checked out the offerings at the NFT, browsed through the South Bank Book Market, and then after looking at our watches, decided to find someplace for tea. I had originally suggested gelato and we wandered around the Covent Garden area trying to find Scoop gelato. I stupidly hadn’t written down its address in my notebook and after a disappointing 20 minutes, we gave up and walked towards Soho for one of the cafes where we usually take tea. After taking stock of all the cafes we’d visited, I decided upon Maison Bertaux. They always have the best cakes and you can sit there for hours without anyone disturbing you. You can’t say that for most of the Chinese cafes!

I had eyes only for the sweet treats on offer but Blai pointed out a tray of puff pastry slices topped with cheese, onions and peppers. OK then, our very first savoury item from the window. I was originally drawn to one of the chocolatey delights but finally chose a simple strawberry tart. Thoughts now turned to drinks and while I would have settled for a pot of tea as usual, Blai inquired into cold drinks. “Yes!” said the waiter. “We have iced coffee and iced tea.” Two iced teas, please!

After a bit of gentle persuasion from the waiter (”You never know when the next sunny day will be in London!”), we sat at one of the small tables on the sidewalk outside the cafe. We’ve usually sat at one of the cozy tables upstairs and were really looking forward to seeing how it had changed since the smoking ban. Oh well, the weather was beautiful and most of the tables were in the shade anyway.

Our pastries were plated and brought to us immediately; it took a little longer for our iced teas. They were well worth the wait - tall glasses of cold tea with plenty of ice and lots of fruit! The fruit was an unexpected surprise: strawberries, raspberries and nectarine slices. There was sugar on the table but what would have made it better is some simple syrup - cafes, take note! The savoury slice had a secret layer of mustard between the pastry and cheese and made for a rich first course. It’s something I can see myself making at home in the future…but with ready made puff pastry. The pastry here was flaky and I liked that it wasn’t all air inside; there was a bit of body to it! The strawberries on the tart sat on a thick layer of creme patissiere and whipped cream and the pastry base was delightful and just perfect. The strawberries too were perfectly ripe and it would have been difficult to better this tart. Most of it disappeared before I even knew it.

The total bill came to £13.50 - so while not the cheapest place, I think it’s worth it for the occasional treat. The most delightful part of the cafe is its ability make you utterly relaxed. As mentioned before, there’s no pressure on you to free the table and everytime we find ourselves there, we have the best conversations, something we’ve been missing for the past month or so due to many work commitments. Thank goodness for places like this.

Maison Bertaux
28 Greek Street
London W1D 5DQ

 

A Weekend of Picnicking, Part 1

Or, Where to Find the Best, Cheapest, Picnic Food in the Middle of London.

Summer has finally arrived in London! Most of July’s weather has been dark and humid and absolutely devastating what with all the floods and it felt like summer had been skipped over in favour of autumn. We were not going to let the first warm and beautiful weekend of the season pass us by! Our major objective for Saturday was a visit to the Tate Modern to see their highly commended Dali & Film exhibition.

From west London, we took a series of buses that ended at Piccadilly Circus and then crossed the road to the Japan Centre, which has, I believe, the best impromptu picnic supplies in London. Don’t stay upstairs in the restaurant - go down to the basement where there’s a ready supply of donburi (rice bowls) and chicken teriyaki and pumpkin croquettes and edamame at the supermarket and all kinds of sushi at the separate Yoshino Sushi counter. After perusing all that was available, we chose a long variety pack of sushi from the counter (£3.80) and a spicy cod rice bowl (£3.60), a bottle of cold green tea (89p), and a bag of orange jellies (99p) from the supermarket. Chopsticks and napkins will be deposited in your bags so you’ll be all set to eat!

We decided not to go to the easy option of St James Park around the corner and instead walked down to Embankment and crossed the Golden Jubilee/Hungerford footbridge. We would be closer to our final destination of the Tate Modern. At least, that was the idea. What we didn’t expect was that what seemed like every single resident and tourist in London had descended upon the South Bank. Every bench was occupied and we almost thought of heading into the Royal Festival Hall and commandeering a table.

I don’t remember how we came to walk up the stairs in front of the Queen Elizabeth Hall but at the top, we came across rows of empty picnic tables and benches as if laid out just for us! Most of the tables were in the shade, which may have explained their lack of popularity. Many people we know will happily sit full-on in the sun but we’re not ones to. We selected a table at the end of the row and set to our spread.

Our variety pack of sushi came with three pieces of inari sushi (one of which was stuffed with both carrot shreds and rice) and eight rolls of maki sushi, stuffed with chicken katsu, avocado and cucumber, cucumber and fake crab, and smoked salmon. There’s a more interesting variety pack available for 6 quid that includes eel and tuna and, you know, more expensive ingredients. Our pack passed muster though I have to admit that I prefer the smaller packs of 8 pieces of maki sushi available with more interesting innards. Our spicy cod rice bowl was so delicious - fried pieces of fish in a slightly spicy glaze sitting on a bed of rice. The fish was surrounded by salad with a sesame dressing, purple pickles and half a hard boiled egg topped with Japanese mayonnaise (so yellow, so delicous - and that’s referring to both the mayo and the egg yolk!). I only wish the Japan Centre were close to where I worked - I’d have one of these bowls for lunch every day!

Can’t end such a nice lunch without dessert - time to open up the bag of orange jellies. These are very similar to the little fruit jellies I ate as a child (ok, and as an adult). But these are more special - there’s a little piece of fruit in them, a piece of satsuma in our case. While the satsuma segment looks whole, its texture has all but disappeared, leaving you with an almost homogeneous satsuma jelly mixture. Still, it was the best little jelly cup I’d ever eaten, with almost a pure fruit flavour.

About two and a half hours later, we roused ourselves and set to moving on. The picnic tables had filled up by now and more and more people were passing by and staring at us. Unfortunately, after our lovely picnic, we both admitted to each other that we were feeling a bit lazy to go see the exhibition. And so, hand in hand, we went off in search of more things to eat…

Japan Centre
212 Piccadilly
London W1J 9HX

 

Peyton and Byrne

I had a cupcake, a chocolate and mint one, from Peyton and Byrne last Saturday. I found myself in the area after a fruitless search for camera accessories and thought, what the hey, I’ll have a cupcake. The space itself is very cute, with tiles everywhere and goodies surrounding you as you enter. I was helped by a sullen girl who placed my cupcake into a little paper bag and then tossed it onto the counter. I handed over my £2.50 (oof!) and wandered the streets to find a nice place to sit down and consume it. Never found that nice place and so instead, I wolfed it down while walking back down Tottenham Court Road.

Unfortunately, while the cupcake looked very beautiful with its swirl of green frosting, I didn’t like it. The chocolate cake was very dull and not chocolatey nor moist enough and the frosting, while containing enough mint, was too sweet and there was too much of it. Sorry, Peyton and Byrne, you haven’t won me over yet. They have other tarts and biscuits and slices but this cupcake has put me off slightly from visiting again. Oh well, someone’s just going to have to convince me to go…

Peyton and Byrne
196 Tottenham Court Road
London W1T 7LQ

It’s been a while since I was on Columbia Road but I remember the divine cupcakes from Treacle. Just the right amount of rich buttercream on top of moist sponge….mmmmm. I need to go back.