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London Food: Moro, Ottolenghi, River Cafe

28 Oct

Earlier this year I joined H in london for a few days as part of a week and a half birthday trip to Europe. In addition to seeing a few friends who live there and visiting some interesting cycling, printing/stationary, and sherlock-holmes-themed stores, we enjoyed a lot of good food and drink. I posted a few photos of a St John birthday dinner and exploring local beer separately, but here are the other major highlights of the food:

Getting brunch at Ottolenghi including a delicious shakshuka (eggs, tomatoes, chili, cumin):

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It was a bit of a trek to River Cafe, which I’d personally rate “very good”, with an excellent burrata, but the pasta with chard gets an A++: panzotti (a thin, filled pasta) with chard, nutmeg, a little garlic, and some astoundingly good olive oil. I also loved the amaro (Amaro Montenegro) we had with dessert– slightly bitter, slightly reminiscent of orange peel / dried tarragon / tea.

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We also had a great dinner at Moro, where the menu leaned towards North African inspired small plates. The unpresumingly-named “mixed vegetable mezze platter” was amazing– from lentils to the eggplant to the spicy cabbage– every single component had a beautiful breadth of flavor and seasoning. A lamb plate there was possibly the most perfectly-cooked I’ve ever had. And for dessert, “orange blossom labneh (strained yogurt) with pistachios and pomegranate seeds and grilled apricots” was more interesting than any dessert I’ve had in a long time. And Moro isn’t formal or unreasonably expensive– I’d definitely go again.

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Honorable mention: a 5AM salt beef bagel with pickles and mustard near Shoreditch. I wouldn’t say it was actually good , but it was an experience…

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London: St John (pork, tarragon)

27 Oct

I got taken out (lucky me) to a special birthday dinner earlier this year in London at St John (at the more cheerfully informal St John Bread and Wine space– a bustling open room without tablecloths and various daily pork, greens, and cheese plates coming out whenever they’re ready). I have a huge food crush on them now:

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A plate of simply-named “lamb, bread, green sauce” was one of my favorite dishes in London– the sauce was a mix of a powerful dose of tarragon, mint?, other soft green herbs, maybe capers? And the “courgettes, lentils, yogurt, zucchini” (center of the image above) was another dish we both remember months later (also with tarragon). Lower left above was fried pig skin strips with a tarragon(!) aioli, and there was another crumbled pork and fennel dish I wrote down but can’t remember. All washed down with the intense, earthy St John Claret.

And for dessert, a plate of cheese instead of sweets. The Tymsboro(?– scribbled note in notebook) goat cheese via Neals Yard was euphoria-inducingly good– soft, salty, with a slow-burn spicy/funky/goaty rind.

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London 2014: Beer

26 Oct

In London earlier this summer I sampled about a dozen beers over two days (having people to share tastes with helps), at locations ranging from a unpretentious 19th century English Pub with many 3.5-4% session beers on Cask (at The Wenlock Arms— I highly recommend it)…

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…to a new craft beer oriented bar (Brewdog) carrying the likes of Mikkeller and other unusual beers, in the controversial-in-London Shoreditch…

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…to a range of tiny top-notch modern microbreweries located under support arches in an industrial part of South London, formerly business-oriented but now open to visitors on weekends and dubbed “The Beer Mile“…

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Digging up a worn notebook from the trip, these were my favorites:

  • Beer By Numbers (‘bbno’, Beer Mile) had my favorite beer by far of London.
    • [A] Witbier — slightly spicy, good yeast
    • [A+] Barrel-aged Saison — exceptional. again, good funk form whatever yeast they used, moderately dry, balanced.
  • [A] Partizan (Beer Mile) Quad — intensely strong (and their brewery space was fun to have a drink in)
  • [A] Mikkeller / To Øl collaboration Betelgeuze — I love it — I’d had it once in the US in expensive bottles, but it was on tap at Brewdog. A strongly sour beer without much funk, but not just single-note acidity.

I also enjoyed:

  • [B+] Oscar Wilde from Mighty Oak (on cask at Wenlock Arms) — dark, grain tea flavor, thin but slightly creamy— sort of like a thin session stout
  • [A-] Stroud’s Ten Long (on cask at Wenlock Arms) — session bitter (3.7% ABV),  slightly dark/spicy, slight citrus nose
  • I thought the FourPure beers on the beer mile were all decent, but none were especially memorable
  • [B+] “A Wee Bit” Peated Scotch Ale. A light hand with the peat– present but not too smoky, and a good scotch ale base.

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