Search online for the best fish and chips in London and you’re sure to find several first-page references to The Sea Shell of Lisson Grove. Rarely is the praise on review sites so unanimous. [Read more...]
Is The Sea Shell London Legend or London Myth?
23 April 2012 By 12 Comments
What’s Better than Toast & Jam?
On a Sunday? Nothing.
Nothing is better than toast and jam, if it’s slices of the hand-mixed pain de compagne from Ben Mackinnon’s E5 Bakehouse that go in the toaster and nearly any combo from Lillie O’Brien’s London Borough of Jam spread over ‘em.
22 April 2012 By Leave a Comment
Evening Standard on Days of Young&Foodish
The days of the young&foodish week were the subject of a feature written by Victoria Stewart for the TRENDS section of the London Evening Standard on March 26th. BurgerMonday and SpagWednesday are apparently as fashionable as Mad Men-era plaid jackets; WichThursday and FryFriday, as up-and-coming as Satnav systems in supermarkets.
27 March 2012 By Leave a Comment
Is it Kosher for Mishkin’s Not To Be Kosher?
Most of the grievances from the kibbitzers of Covent Garden boil down to Mishkin’s authenticity deficit. The latest theme restaurant to get the Russell Norman touch (think da Polpo, Polpetto, Spuntino) is less the great Jewish deli they wished it to be than the Jewish-themed cocktail diner the big cheese of small plates willed it to be. Forget gefilte fish: the most criminal oversight, given the concept, is a drinks menu with no borscht martini. [Read more...]
8 January 2012 By 7 Comments
The Artisan Bagel East London Is Waiting For
If you already found it next to hopeless to graze through all the must eats of London Fields on a single Saturday, from Banhmi11 Vietnamese baguettes at Broadway Market to Lucky Chip burgers and Home Slice Pizza at Netil Market, your life just got a lot more complicated: The not-to-be-missed bagels at e5 Bakehouse, Ben MacKinnon‘s exceptional bread bakery under the railway arches beside London Fields station, are only baked on Saturday afternoons. And good as those bagels are when carried home for toasting at the next day’s Sunday brunch, topped with a schmear of creamed cheese and draped with fat-glistening Scottish smoked salmon, they are at their pristine best when consumed plain and hot – not more than 5 minutes and 5 metres from the e5 Bakehouse’s ovens.
The name “e5″ may come from the bakery’s Hackney postcode but I take it to mean “eat within five”. [Read more...]
20 November 2011 By 1 Comment
My 15 Minutes with Macaron Maestro Pierre Hermé
Suspense was the flavour on my tongue as I approached the London Hilton at Park Lane for a short interview with Pierre Hermé. I knew I would have to broach – and therefore answer to – the tongue-in-cheek blog post I’d composed in July as an open letter to the pastry legend.
During my visit by invitation to his London boutique I’d taken issue with his UK area manager dictating what I could and couldn’t photograph. My letter to Hermé concluded with a statement of acquiescence: all content for my website would henceforth be subject to his approval.
Had Hermé read the blog post? If so, had this rendezvous been arranged in response to it? All I knew was that Hermé had travelled to London from Paris for Valrhona Chocolate to help promote its new book, Cooking with Chocolate. Andre Dang, the ace food PR who’d arranged this brief meeting (but not the July visit to the boutique), had said nothing about the letter to me – nor had I, to him. [Read more...]
15 November 2011 By 4 Comments
Alternative Views of a Deli Sandwich
In Beautiful Pastrami Spotted on London Pavement I wrote of having to photograph The Deli West One pastrami on the sidewalk after someone in charge at the new kosher deli stopped me from taking additional photos of its meats. He suggested I download and use photos posted on the deli’s website.
Two photos may offer visual clues as to, (A), why I might have been prevented from taking pics at The Deli West One and, (B), why I might have thought it a bad idea to use the deli’s own images.
15 November 2011 By 4 Comments
Beautiful Pastrami Spotted on London Pavement
The passing pedestrians on Blandford Street in Marylebone, an affluent area of central London, were all asking themselves various forms of the same question: What is that man doing taking photos of a pastrami sandwich left out on the pavement? [Read more...]
7 November 2011 By 5 Comments
