Old Town 97

A recent disappointing meal at Hong Kong Diner had us looking around for another restaurant in Chinatown that served good Hong Kong style cuisine. I came across a lot of positive reviews for Old Town 97, the year being significant as that was the end of British rule in Hong Kong. We had a late lunch there one Saturday not too long ago.

They have a great lunch deal – £4.80 for a dish of rice or noodles with a free bowl of their daily soup. We chose the char siu on fried hor fun which came out looking quite plain but turned out to be some well fried hor fun topped with a generic Asian brown sauce and some quite good sliced char siu. A bit of chili oil (excellent stuff) and it was a great dinner. The accompanying soup (pork bone, carrot and tomato) was a bonus.

I wanted to try a dish that I’d only heard about online – ‘LSE fan‘ (or ‘LSE rice’, about £9.50); the story goes that the dish was either invented or made famous by an LSE student. On our queries, our waiter informed us that it was a honey and black pepper pork served with egg fried rice. It turned out to be more of a triple eggy delight – egg fried rice, fried egg and the honey and black pepper pork was topped with an additional eggy sauce. It was definitely over-the-top, excellent and certainly almost enough for two.

Their drinks are very good there – here’s a milk tea and an iced lemon tea.

Sadly, a second, more recent visit wasn’t as good. One of their specialties, Hainan chicken rice (£7.30), had overcooked chicken breast but tasty enough rice and accompanying chilli sauce. A little more care, though, could have been taken over the presentation of the rice.

I wanted to try their crispy noodles. Fried noodles with mixed seafood (£8.00) turned out to be mediocre noodles in a wading pool of gloopy (albeit well-seasoned) sauce.

It all seems to be a bit hit and miss. While it’s likely we’ll be back to try their beef brisket (thanks for the rec, Lizzie) and their hor fun in eggy sauce (two dishes I’ve heard good things about), as in most places in Chinatown, service left a lot to be desired. Depending on which waiter you get, service can be acceptable or miserable. Why do they do that? And poor Blai is extremely upset that by default, they gave him a fork when he sat down!

Old Town 97
19 Wardour Street
London  W1D 6PF

 

Breakfast at La Boqueria…in London

Last weekend, I headed down to South Bank to the Streets of Spain festival to try a free Spanish breakfast masterclass courtesy of the Spanish wine brand Campo Viejo. The Spanish wine company was sponsoring the event and holding a number of free masterclasses on both food and wine that long weekend. They had even brought over a number of stalls from the brilliant La Boqueria market of Barcelona and there was even a pop-up tapas restaurant.

At the masterclass venue, we were welcomed by Òscar Ubide i Marcet, the general manager of La Boqueria, who explained what happened at various hours of the market. And how the working hours for many at the market started early and ended with a breakfast – a breakfast that we’d experience at this masterclass.

Each place had been set with a glass of Campo Viejo cava…apparently the tipple of choice for market traders having breakfast!

Soon, a plateful of scrambled eggs cooked with mushrooms was set down before us and we helped ourselves to the roving bread platter to mop everything up. The only downside was the amount of salt in the dish; it was just a bit too salty though the eggs and mushrooms were cooked to perfection otherwise.

To my surprise, the chef responsible for our breakfast turned out to be El Quim de la Boqueria, of the stall of the same name – I’ve been wanting to taste his food for some time but never managed to make it there. But next time I’m in Barcelona, I’ll try to get there again! Anyway, that morning he explained how he made the dish with its five different types of mushrooms and a sweet wine reduction (yup, made with a Campo Viejo wine).

It was quite a treat to walk out again and encounter stalls from La Boqueria and we may have ended up spending quite a bit on Catalan pork products (my latest thing is the secallona, a dry thin cured pork sausage)! It was a great way to top up our Catalan supplies.

Thank you very much to Victoria at Weber Shandwick and to Campo Viejo for the invitation! Please do bring La Boqueria back to London again!

 

Two Colombian Restaurants in London

One south-east and the other west! These were my first experiences with Colombian cuisine and I’m intrigued by all their meats and seafood and I need to try more!

The first restaurant was La Bodeguita, situated inside the Elephant and Castle shopping centre. I visited with my friend Roxanne for lunch one Saturday and bizarrely, we had to wait for them to open (much later than stated on their website) and then we had to eat our lunch in a freezing cold dining room (they didn’t seem to have their heating on). Still, we pressed on.

Of course we had to try the Colombian national dish of Bandeja Paisa (£12.10). This was a huge platter of rice, pork belly, spiced minced meat, sausage, fried egg, fried sweet plantain, avocado and a small arepa. This was accompanied by a giant bowl of beans cooked with pork.

I would have been happy with just the rice, delicious minced meat, egg, plantain and avocado. Sadly, both the pork belly and sausage were overfried and much much too tough. The arepa (corn cake) was small and too dense but I would learn later that this seems to be typical of this kind of small Colombian arepa (unless all Colombian arepas in London are rubbish). The bowl of beans were fine but was much too big and we barely made a dent in them.

We also tried their recommendation of Cazuela de Mariscos (£11.20), a creamy seafood stew served with rice and fried green plantains. This was very good, all creamy and flavorful – the only downside was that the dish was distinctly cephalopod heavy. There was the occasional tiny morsel of fish and then the one grilled prawn on top and then lots and lots of what was probably a default frozen “seafood mix”. With some carefully chosen seafood, this could have been a glorious dish.

At the end of our meal, the staff did notice that we were freezing and kindly gave us some shots of aguardiente to keep us warm for the rest of the day!

La Bodeguita
Elephant and Castle shopping centre
London SE1 6TE

In the west, Donde Carlos is a recently opened restaurant on Goldhawk Road (I’d heard that previously they were in the back of a shop nearby?). It looks a bit like a conservatory in the front, which is great for those of us who like lots of light with our meal! Blai and I visited for Sunday lunch and we were surrounded by lots of Colombians who already all looked like regulars.

Jugos (£2.20 each) – one blackberry and one passionfruit – were delicious fruit juice drinks blended with water (optionally, milk). I had tried one in La Bodeguita but they had not asked me if I’d prefer water or milk and just gave me the default milk (I don’t like milk!).

Unlike La Bodeguita, there were no seafood dishes at Donde Carlos. There are main courses, empanadas, arepas, desserts and even a Colombian breakfast. We tried again the Bandeja Paisa (£11.00), here served with rice, fried egg, salad, pork belly, steak, chorizo, arepa and yellow plantain. Like at La Bodeguita, the little arepa was very dense and not very exciting (I need to try their other larger arepas – perhaps those would be more moist). However, the rest was very good – the fried pork belly and chorizo were significantly better than those at La Bodeguita. The salad was also delicious though I missed the avocado. And that steak? Yum.

Sobrebarriga (£9.50) was the most delicious beef stewed in a homemade sauce and served with rice, salad, fried yellow plantain and another small arepa. The meat just fell apart at the touch of a fork and was utterly fantastic. Oddly, while the rice served at La Bodeguito was a long grain white, that day at Donde Carlos, they chose to serve a very short grained sticky white rice; I can’t seem to determine online what is the norm in Colombia.

We were again stuffed but perhaps because of the more reasonable portion sizes or because I was with Blai or because we said, heck, it’s Sunday lunch, we opted for a little dessert too. Brevas con arequipe (£2.50) were candied figs (brevas) served with a dulce de leche (arequipe). Both were excellent but the combination was tooth-achingly sweet – perhaps brevas with fresh white cheese would have been the better choice. Next time, I’m definitely trying their tres leches cake.

Donde Carlos
143 Goldhawk Road
Shepherd’s Bush
London W12 8EN

Good stuff. We’ll definitely be back to Donde Carlos (filled large arepas! Empanadas!) though I’d have to think twice about La Bodeguita. I do want to explore the Elephant and Castle area a bit more however as there are a few other cozy Colombian and South American restaurants in the area.

 

Lunch at Bibigo

When the Korean healthy restaurant chain Bibigo opened in London last year, critics slated it but mainly for the very high prices they were charging. I had crossed it off my list a while ago but someone recently said that they had had a good meal there and it was enough to pique my curiosity again. I see now that they’ve addressed the price issue with a £9 lunch special (the “lunch club menu”) and a £12 early dinner set menu in addition to the usual expensive a la carte options. We tried the latter one recent Saturday afternoon (yes, also available on weekends!) and were pleasantly surprised.

For £9, you get a starter and a main course. Of the starters, there was a red chicken (I suspect crispy chicken pieces in a gochujang hot sauce) and a seafood pajeon; I chose the latter. To my disbelief, this appears to be a full sized order! I really enjoyed this pajeon; unlike many heavy greasy ones I’ve had in the past, this was light and crispy.

My friend chose the third available starter – the Tomatofu, a salad made up of soft tofu, tomatoes and rocket leaves. From the way she cleared her bowl, I’d say she liked it!

For our main course, we both went with the Traditional bibimbap with beef bulgogi. The healthy outlook of the restaurant meant that it wasn’t topped with a fried egg (boo!) but it was still tasty with their accompanying ‘Kohot’ sauce (like the traditional gochujang based sauce). I liked that other sauces were also available – some were mild and would suit those fearful of heat.

Other main courses available in the set menu were the bulgogi, bo-ssam, baby chicken, grilled scallops or the jjigae of the day (that day, it was a pork and kimchi jjigae). I notice online now that it was supposed to include a tea or coffee but we forgot to get ours!

Overall, the food at Bibigo was pretty good – sure it’s not perhaps the most authentic take on Korean food but I don’t then that matters so long as it’s delicious. The lunch set is a great deal with very generous portions and I’d certainly recommend that. The only catch is that you’ve got to sign up for their “VIP club” but this does get you a card that also gives you 20% off their a la carte menu.

Bibigo
58-59 Great Marlborough Street
London W1F 7JY

 

Şömine in Dalston

It was back to Dalston a couple weekends ago to try more Turkish food in that hood. It was snowing that day and we hustled our way up Kingsland High Street and I eventually pulled Blai into Şömine. I’d been wanting to try some of their homestyle food for a while though the waiter who greeted us first warned that we couldn’t get kebabs there! They must get that request a lot.

While still choosing between the five or six dishes on the steam table by the window, my attention was drawn to the back of the restaurant where I noticed two women folding pasta. Turkish manti! It was decided – an order of manti had to be part of our lunch as well as a dish from the steam table that came highly recommended by our waiter.

A huge basket of bread and a generously filled pickle plate came immediately to our table which I nibbled on while I watched the women make manti. Roll out the dough, slice it up into little squares, a dab of seasoned lamb mince on each and then press press press to form the unique little star shaped dumplings.

Their homemade manti came slathered with garlic yoghurt and chili butter and was fantastic. The bread came in very handy to mop up the butter and yoghurt and the pickles gave a welcome refreshing acidity to counter the rich yoghurt.

From the steam tray came the highly recommended vegetarian dolma. Peppers and courgettes had been stuffed full of seasoned rice – delicious but a little bit of minced lamb wouldn’t have gone amiss. Perhaps we’ll try one of their lamb dishes next time.

Our bill for this fine lunch came to £13. I hear that this can be brought even lower if we had stuck to their soups (I saw a man at the next table slurp up a delicious looking lentil soup) which still come with all the bread and pickles. And if you’re lucky enough to live nearby, they’re open 24 hours!

Şömine Restaurant
131 Kingsland High Street
London E8 2PB