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

 

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.

 

Hap-Hmm, Amsterdam

We had had a mostly good first full day in Amsterdam. The morning had been spent wandering the old canals as it snowed on us but the afternoon was full of disappointment as we learned that the Rijksmuseum was still closed for another 2 weeks. We’re still not over our disappointment but what helped dull it was our very fabulously Dutch meal that evening. We headed to Hap-Hmm, where I’d read that we’d be able to get a very typically Dutch meal at very typically Dutch hours (the restaurant is only open Monday to Friday, 16:30-20:45 – and the kitchen closes at 20:00). The place has been running since 1923 and that’s got to be a good sign!

We dropped in quite early – about 6pm – and we found the cozy restaurant absolutely packed. We didn’t have to wait long for a table though. Customers were a mix of tourists (very few), young Dutch people out in groups, and older bachelors and widower (the largest group that early in the night). That last group was made up of regulars who went around from table to table socializing. I loved the cozy atmosphere, the hum of chatter from the regulars and the friendliness of the waitresses.

Prices are definitely in the budget region and we decided to push the boat out by first splitting a calamari starter (€3,75). These were from frozen but were excellently fried and the remoulade sauce alongside was also very good.

We split a Grandmother’s meatball (€7,50) and a pork schnitzel (€8,50) (after seeing it on someone else’s plate!) and substituted fried potatoes in place of the usual boiled (€0,50 per order). Apparently we had our choice of vegetables but we didn’t know and so were served the default boiled carrots and potatoes. Around the room, we also saw boiled spinach, beetroot and broccoli.

The meatball was fabulous with plenty of gravy for the accompanying chips. The schnitzel too was well fried and tender. You couldn’t ask for a more honest homely meal.

Desserts available were recited to us and even though our stomachs were strained after eating so many of those fried potatoes, we chose a pancake (€3,60) and a serving of pistachio ice cream (€2,60). The pistachio coupe was full of the old fashioned kind of pistachio ice cream which went down surprisingly easily. The pancake was surprisingly fabulous, being filled with a slice of vanilla ice cream before being covered in chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

I loved the place and wouldn’t hesitate to return the next time we’re in Amsterdam (and there must be a next time to see the Rijksmuseum!). Gosh, I’m so hungry now.

Hap-Hmm
Eerste Helmersstraat 33
1054 Amsterdam

 

Rijsttafel at Blauw in Amsterdam

Easter time was Amsterdam time for us! I’d been looking forward to our first visit to the low country city and I’d been really looking forward to a rijsttafel meal. This Dutch-Indonesian meal is made up of lots of different dishes that fill up entire table and which are served with rice (the name itself translates to ‘rice table’ in Dutch). While there are similar rice and lots of dishes meals in Indonesia (see nasi padang or tumpeng), rijsttafel is truly Dutch-Indonesian.

While researching Indonesian restaurants in Amsterdam, I eventually decided to skip the usual places and go somewhere a little more modern. Blauw seemed just what I was looking for and had great reviews too. On the evening we arrived in the city, we ended up hustling to make our reservation due to a tram jam but luckily they held our table for us. The restaurant is made up of many layers of levels; to reach our table upstairs, we first had to go down then up!

Our table was already set with a generously filled basket of prawn crackers and two chilli-based dips. The chilli sauce was fine but it was the sambal that triggered childhood memories, despite the ingredients needing a longer cooking down. As we were absolutely starving after our journey (we took the Eurostar and changed at Brussels for a Thalys train to Amsterdam), we made short work of these.

Of course we ordered the rijsttafel (€31,25 per person) and after a while our table was set with a plethora of dishes (there were so many that our waiter had to come to our table twice to fill it up). (Do click through on the photo below to see all the dishes labelled in Flickr.)

It was made up of 18 different little dishes of a good variety of things. On the warming plate were pork, beef, and fish dishes – I loved the babi ketjap on the far left and the fish dishes on the right. The rendang served was also very good. And at the bottom right was the original Indonesian version of sayur lodeh and despite it looking all white and insipid, it was full of flavour – fantastic!

There were two types of satay – a chicken one with peanut sauce and a lamb one coated in a thick sweet kecap manis sauce (the latter is traditionally Indonesian and a variety I’d not come across before – I want to learn more).

Fried bananas, the famous Indonesian gado gado and sweet and spicy fried potato sticks (sambal goreng kentang) all made great accompaniments.

There were a pair of bergedil (fried meat and potato patties), a refreshing pickled cucumber salad, a sugared toasted coconut accompaniment called seroendeng, eggs in a spiced nutty sauce and fried tofu in a kecap manis based sauce. Two kinds of rice  - putih (white) and goreng (fried) - to eat with everything completed the meal.

We doubted our abilities to finish it all but we shouldn’t have worried! That’s not to say there wasn’t enough food – we were utterly stuffed! If anything, it just shows what pigs we are. While we could tell that the flavours of the dishes were muted (under the assumption that Indonesian food can be as highly spiced as Malaysian food), this didn’t stop us from having a grand time at Blauw.

We even managed to fit in a dessert. Es ketan hitam is the traditional black rice cooked with coconut milk and here served with a pandan ice cream. The dessert portion was a little on the small side for €7,75 but it was just right for two who had stuffed themselves on rijsttafel.

Service was excellent with everything explained to us, waiters happy to answer our questions, and our never feeling rushed. So, yes, I’d recommend Blauw for Indonesian food if you’re ever in Amsterdam. If you’re not up for all that food, you can order a la carte and each dish comes with the two types of rice, seroendeng, sayur lodeh, sweet and spicy fried potato sticks, and pickled cucumbers.

Blauw
(Restaurant Blauw Amsterdam)
Amstelveenseweg 158-160
1075 XN Amsterdam
Netherlands

For Indonesian food in London, I’ve only tried the Indonesia Mini Market. Does anyone else have any other recommendations please?

 

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