The Best £1.50 Steamed Burger in London
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...]
Belgian Chef Viki Geunes Lays It All Out on The Table at Galleria Illy
“Spain,” Belgian chef Viki Geunes told a group of London foodies at the Galleria Illy, “is more technique and less product. Whatever I do must add value to the product.”
By evoking Spain the two-star Michelin chef at ‘t Zilte in Antwerp was asserting his opposition less to the contemporary cuisine of an entire nation than that of its most famous chef, Ferran Adrià. And by aligning himself instead with “the Nordic kitchen” and its obsession with exceptional vegetables from local producers and small farms he had one particular Nordic kitchen in mind, Rene Redzepi’s Noma. [Read more...]
For Galleria Illy Tea Talk, Didier Jumeau-Lafond of Dammann Frères Brews Cup of Anti-Snob Snobbism
“There’s no good tea, there’s no bad tea,” Didier Jumeau-Lafond of Dammann Frères, the exclusive Parisian sellers of 3,500 fine teas, told the 13 September gathering at the Galleria Illy pop-up. “There is just one tea, the one you like.” [Read more...]
Duke Ellington: King of Jazz & Gluttony
The three-part profile of jazz great Duke Ellington written by Richard O.Boyer for The New Yorker in 1944 isn’t just one of the greatest musical portraits ever written for a magazine. “The Hot Back“ is a classic in food and travel writing, too, a tell-all from a then 45-year-old legend who liked to eat it all and was always worried about keeping his weight down.
Princess Burger Transformed Into Prince Meatloaf
Come mid-August I welcome a glass of pink wine or pink lemonade for cool refreshment. But oddly I’m no happy camper when my Provence rosé tastes like old-fashioned lemonade, or when my freshly squeezed lemonade is no sweeter or pulpier than a dry rosé. I’m funny that way.
Same with burgers and meatloaf sandwiches: At their best I love them both. But give me a burger patty with the mealy, mushy consistency of moulded meatloaf and I’m transformed from young&foodish to young&moodish. How fortunate that no one saw this side of me when I, seated solo with no one to the left or right, tried the squashy Aberdeen Angus beef shin burger with foie gras and white truffle mayonnaise (£10.95) at the handsome Princess of Shoreditch pub in London. [Read more...]
Wimpy Mega Burger an Endangered Classic in Fast-Food Design
The genius of the Wimpy Mega Burger may not by immediately apparent to those of you grew up with and later grew weary of that national chain of fast-food hamburger bars.
But to an American introduced to the uncertain charms of Wimpy 57 years after its launch on Coventry Street in London and decades past its sell-by date this Mega achievement stands out like yellow mustard on a white shirt collar. Behold a monument in modernist fast-food design: The cheeseburger hot dog cohabitation. [Read more...]
My Open Letter to Pierre Hermé
15 July 2011
Dear Pierre Hermé,
Imagine my delight when on the first of this month I received an invitation from your public relations representative in the UK to visit your Pierre Hermé Paris boutique in London (map), sample some of your incomparable macarons and share the experience with readers of youngandfoodish.com. [Read more...]
