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...]
Is it Kosher for Mishkin’s Not To Be Kosher?
8 January 2012 By 7 Comments
Chucked from Borough Market, De Gustibus takes salt beef to the street
When the old hall of London’s Borough Market was shut a month ago to facilitate construction of a new Thameslink train line into London Bridge station, the baker De Gustibus was one of four traders suddenly forced to give up their stalls. That was a devastating development both for the DG employees who would likely lose their jobs as well as devotees of the salt beef sandwiches they assembled with thick, tender slices of house-brined, hand-carved brisket. At first I felt angry and disillusioned. But when, during a visit to the food market last Friday, I observed that the DG meat carvers Genti and Andrea had been thrown out on the street I no longer felt sad. Truth be told I was elated. [Read more...]
22 October 2009 By 4 Comments
Is August the cruellest month for salt beef?
Is August a bad month for salt beef? I certainly hope so. For if the drop in form at two of London’s very best salt beef purveyors is not due to seasonal disruptions, it isn’t only my list of the top 5 salt beef sandwiches in London that will need to be overhauled. I’ll have to rehabilitate my good name among those who’ve acted on these recommendations. The distance between youngandfoodish and youngandfoolish can be as short as a rubbery strip of salt beef. [Read more...]
15 August 2009 By 2 Comments
Top 5 salt beef sandwiches in London
Salt beef, like New York-style corned beef, is a Jewish deli meat made from beef briskets cured in brine. The salt breaks down the tough brisket meat while letting its flavours emerge. Salt beef ought not be an exercise in aerobic mastication, as some London purveyors would have you believe, nor should it be stringy and dry. (The residual salt is already enough to build a two-pint thirst.) In a proper sandwich the meat surrenders instantly to the chew, melting in the mouth and flooding it with flavor. [Read more...]
8 July 2009 By 30 Comments
Best hot salt beef sandwich in London?
UPDATE: VERY SORRY TO REPORT THE NOSH BAR HAS CLOSED FOR BUSINESS.
UpTHE NOSH BAR is back in lights on Great Windmill Street and that alone is cause for celebration, if not a detour from New York, Newcastle or even New Oxford Street. But wait: surprise of surprises, this is not just another West End revival looking to cash in on the imagined nostalgia of gullible tourists or Londoners too young to remember the dearly missed Soho institution. The brand new Nosh Bar, opened on the goodest of Good Fridays by Paul Jonas and his sons Billy and Jody, began by serving the very best hot salt beef sandwich in London. Although the consistency has slipped some since the opening, The Nosh Bar remains a must stop on every food tour of London’s West End. [Read more...]
19 April 2009 By 19 Comments
Beigel Bake’s salt beef as rubbery as ever
If I can prevent just one of Brick Lane’s nocturnal foragers from yielding to the temptation of a Beigel Bake hot salt beef sandwich my move from New York to London will have proven a success. I appreciate that the Beigel Bake is a London institution, a revered relic of the Jewish East End and a valued 24/7 resource. But the thick slices of salt beef layered on its sandwiches are so rubbery and springy you would think the beef briskets were sourced from Michelin – its tyre/tire division, not its restaurant guides. Taking on that sandwich is an exercise in chew-aerobics, with precious little support from the sadly limp rye bread. The few molecules of moisture remaining in the congealed meat are instantly sponged by the bread. In this instance a beigel is better, preferably without the salt beef. [Read more...]
3 April 2009 By 5 Comments
