origamicrane

evening all Thanks to the kind generousity of CarolineLD I got to go to the taste of London again. Thanks Caroline is was lovely meeting you and I hope you found the present you was looking for. ok! so here are the photos from the morning session today. Allium's Coriander scented tuna tartar. Pretty isn't it? tasted ok too but very small for £4. Bank's Foie Gras Meille feuille with beetroot chutney Bank's Schezuan belly of pork Bank's Scallop and green pea puree. One scallop for £4!!! I got 3 from Roka!! Nahm's Chili Soy Chive cakes. Both Caroline and I thought this was crap that after one bite we binned it. The soy chilli sauce had no chilli flavour. The chive filling was sour with no real distinct flavour, very bland and the pastry was terrible. I think it wasn't made properly as it was powdery!! the pastry should be like a grilled gyoza skin chewy yet non-sticky and definitely not powdery. tut!! tut!! Cinnamon Clubs Char grilled guinea fowl with fennel and coriander. Nice flavour but i think it was a little over cooked or is that the normal texture of guinea fowl? Sketch's Raspberry Macaroon. yummy! but!! the macaroon as you can see doesn't have a perfect dome or the skirt at the bottom. Its probably the best macaroon in London but no match to La Duree or Pierre Herme in Paris, well they're not called the best for nothing Le Gavroche Pigeon Pie. Looks like a very simply ordinary pie, in fact looks like a jaffle pie from Shepherds Bush and on first bite tasted like any other pie. But then the flavours starts to flow and they are deep and meaty and peppery had a lovely meaty lingering after taste. beautiful. Club Gascon's Foie Gras Oceanic. Foie wrapped in seaweed served with black squid ink bread. Lovely foie and very thin swispy type crackers. Although couldn't detect any seaweed taste or squid taste from the crackers. I asked how the bread was made and was informed it was a normal bagette dough mixed with squid ink and shaved very thinly and baked. Seems like a lot of work to get black crackers It was really hot today and felt a little sorry for the kitchen staff working at the fair and also felt sorry for one of the chocolate stands as they had a sign up saying all their chocolate had melted Just an observation here, for the 2 hours I was at the fair today I must have walked passed the north side stands 4 or 5 times and every single time I walked passed AWT's Notting grill stand I didn't see a single person buying food from there. Also BlueBird were giving free samples away. Draw you own conslusions Anyway throughly enjoyed taste of london and look forward to it next year and maybe even have a stall there myself.

← double did you snap up those spare tix already?? ← yep! Thank you mostly kindly CarolineLD although i think she might have more!!!!!

you are right and i did. ok your starter for 10. Under what circumstance can one be considered an authority of dim sum? in fact what qualifies any restaurant reviewer to make any comment about any restaurant? Do you really want me to qualify myself? as if i did then it really would look like i am being arrogant. Can i make it clear for once and for all i was not being arrogant!!!!! i was being sarcastic/humourous!!!!! If my unique sense of humour is not to everyone taste then as they say you can't please all the lumberjacks all the time. guys give me a break !!!!!! this is starting to feel like a visit to the dentist!!!! say arrrggghhh!!!!! its only a restaurant review !!! its only a restaurant review !!! its only a restaurant review !!! its only a restaurant review !!! means i love you!! means i hate you so much right now!! means that its meant to be humours!!!!! when the recipe say take with a big pinch of MSG, please do!!!!! If your doctor says you got a case of "funny walk" you are allowed to get a second opinion.!!!!!!! my review is only an opinion!!!!!!!!!!! You liked it. I didn't. I hate cheese. I like McD fillet-o-fish I hate bettroot. I like traffic lights but only when they're green!!!! lighten up don't take everything so seriously !!!! its only food!!!!! If you really want to complain about someone being arrogant write to Michael " calm down its only a commercial" Winner!!!! can we please have this sub thread dead as a parrot!!! as dead as an EX-PARROT!!!! and now for something completely different!!! hopefully!!!!!! or i will have to get out my holy hand grenade!!! spamety spam!!! spam! spam! spam!!! spam!!! i am spam, spam i am, i do not like green eggs and spam!!! i do not like them spam i am!!! calm down its only a restuarant review!!!

really?? thought they would have been snapped up gimme!! gimme!! gimme!! please

the squid was from zuma yeah pretty sure it was a tempura batter just a very good and very light one. although can't be completely sure if it was potato flour or arrow root flour in the mix. hmmm.. seriously considering going down again tomorrow just to eat eveything else. so wanted to have one of those rasberry macroon cakes from sketch just had no space left.

It's tempura Tempura batter 1 large egg yolk 1 cup ice cold water 1 cup tempura flour (or plain) 1/4 cup potato flour 1 teaspoon ground sea salt Sift the dry ingredients together whisk the egg yolk and water together then mix with the dry ingredients. Clean the squid and pat dry, coat each squid in flour then the batter and deep fry in very hot oil (200C). garnish, green chilli and lime give it a go it

sackville great pictures that crispy squid is really good isn't it!!!

you would actually pay to go to a commercial food fair?

hehe! its cool made me smile

exactly the same its the same thing

actually on reflection The restaurant food there were really good. but i would have like to have seen some more new and unusual food stuff. There was a stand called Ariba that was selling smoked duck and smoked lamb and cans of pestos i had a few samples of each and they were really good and also a stand called AVA with some really lovely strawberries, really sweet, juicy and big! I would really like to see more of those type of things next year Or maybe i should just stick to the commercial food fairs hmmm... i wonder how much and how to get a stand there? or is it invite only? if its not ridiculous I could get a stand next year might be worth a laugh

yes definitely worth going, everything i tried was spot on. favourite dish of the night was Roka's lamb cutlets followed closely by zuma's crispy squid. skip the tiramisu and the lamb ciabatta. Wish i had space to eat more but 8 plates was my limit. The portions are starter size so definitely skip the bready things. This weekend going to be hot and that means its going to be packed lets see if others have the same experience. Just wanted to add the chef demo theatre was poorly designed Went to watch Zilli give a demo but the pot and pans are below the counter area so you cannot see anything!! and they don't have any mirrors or any monitors to show whats he's doing. its like listening to an audio cookbook.

so i went, i saw, i ate BURP!!! I thought it was quite good but wasn't worth the £45 ticket but looking at the tickets option the best choice would be the £30 ticket as you get £18 worth of food vouchers most of the dishes were £3 or £4 ( or 6-8 crown vouchers). There wasn't that many restaurant/ food stands really as 50% of the stall were booze another 25% were cutlery, crockery, furniture?, cloths? and car stalls. anyway definitely worth going if you want to eat heck i'm posting on egullet of course you want to eat!! one little irritation was you can only by food vouchers in £10 denominations and they ran out of vouchers at one of the vending stalls after i had queued for 10 minutes! ho hum all in all you eat your moneies worth. also big up the martini stand as they were serving free drinks all night!! anyway you want to see food !!! crispy squid with lime and green chilli tiramisu lamb cutlets paella black glutinoous rice with caramelised coconut butterflied leg of lamb in ciabatta tuna tataki sear scallops with yuzu mayo, wasabi schimi and shiro cress all of it was really good and nothing was more then a fiver althought the butteflied leg of lamb was a bad idea as the bap was really filling. I would have eaten more but after that little lot i was pretty stuffed. and to see more click here Taste of London 2005 photos

morning moby no problem no need to be formal just call me sam what qualifies me? hmmm... think you will have to ask him hehe! but if i was to hazard a guess , I think it would be the fact that everyone on the table was Chinese and fleunt and my parents were there and they are about the same age as the manager. Please read my previous posts to get a handle on his reasoning. I think he would serve this type of meal to Chinese and to his regulars. Morning Jon in a word yes. Half the courses were the same as our neighbouring table but other half all different especially our mains. But this isn;t all that surprising as we were a table of 5 and all our fellow diners were middle aged IC1 couples. They had the same starters but for mains they got a a very tasty looking steamed fish and finished with the obligatory crispy aromatic duck. There is one thing I should have asked the manager has he always done business this way? as its really only the last few years that I have heard about Hunan and he's been open 25 years. In fact Hunan is pretty unknown in the chinese crowd or at least my one. I have only really heard about Hunan via websites and guide books never via the chinese grapevine What about you Jon when did you hear about Hunan and was it through the chinese grapevine.

So I have read and heard about this restaurant for like years now but for some reason never managed to drag my ass down there. So tonight as a early fathers day pressie for me pop's I finally got to go there and my review is below. Context: You see I always find it necessary to give some context when I write a review of a restaurant, why do i need to do this, you ask? Well because I’m a Leo and that means I’m self centered and egotistical but beyond that obvious statement I believe that you have to know if i know what i am jabbering about do you understand? So context is high expectations of this place as I have heard very good reviews. The people that had dinner tonight included my parents and we have been in the Chinese restaurant trade for 30 years. My Mum and Dad have been cooking for most of that period and I was literally bought up in the kitchen. What does that mean? Draw your own conclusions. Restaurant: Hunan 51 Pimlico Road London SW1W 8NE Date & Time: Wednesday evening 7:30pm Cast: Me, Mum, Dad, Sister and Partner Decor: Very plain and simple, white walls, a bar in the middle, looks like a 40 seater on the ground floor. I believe they have a second floor too but I didn't go up. Menu: What menu? this is quite strange for me, this is actually the first time that I have had a restaurant meal where I did not order anything or look at the menu. The manager came over and said "Well what you want?" Me: "err... seafood?" Manager: "what? You only want seafood?" at this point my mum says something and then the conversation slips in to Cantonese and I will have to transcribe or provide subtitles. Basically after a very quick chat the manager very brusquely says "so you will eat anything" and walks off. At this point we are all rather bemused at his attitude as it’s not the kind of service we were expecting. He wasn't rude just very blunt, anyway more on him later. So we order: well we didn't order anything but here are photos of what we ate. Well pictures do say a thousand words. I'm not 100% sure what each dish was as I was busy taking photos and eating:raz: Little plates of nibbles to start with are pickled cucumbers and roasted nuts, very nice that we ask for more then some peppery kimichi carrots, cucumber, mooli, chilli and peppercorns this was pretty hot and for some reason we got another plate Told you i get free stuff. Soup in a bamboo cup. Pork broth with minced pork, ginger, spring onions and shiitake. Very hot and very tasty broth there was a tasty gelatinous layer of slimy stuff just under the surface that we identified it as solidified pig blood and egg white yummy!!! Steamed salmon wrapped in seabass. The problem with salmon is that if its overcooked its so obvious, the salmon unfortunately was a little overcooked but flavour wise this was very fresh. Beef spring roll again very well cooked and very interesting flavour, although the bottom of the roll was a little soggy. Duck feet with mange tout and pickled greens. This was again something I have never tried before and i was trying to work out what was in the sauce, my parents said it was a mix of mustard and aniseed. Personally i didn't like it but my dad really likes it (but my dad like eating deep fried bugs back in china hehe!) Salt and Chilli tempura beans!! yummy!!!! i am so gonna cook this at my next dinner party!! So simple yet so tasty this plate was gone in a flash spring onion and oyster omlette with a sweet and sour sauce. ohmigod!! this was sooooo good!!!! Oysters were so fresh!!! Like little bubbles of bursting sea thingies!! and the sweet & sour sauce went so well with it. Aubergine and pickled water spinach ( i think as I wasn’t paying attention to what the waitress said) I don't like aubergine but the rest thought it was ok. Cold cut of grilled pork neck, this reminded me of the Thai dish moo ping one of my favourites actually, this was similar. Some grilled chicken thing i think in mandarin sauce, good, lovely. Steamed something wrapped with prawns. Very fresh prawns with a kinda of seafood mince filling thing, had the texture of soft cheese. We couldn't completely identify the filling but it was definitely fish. Beef with ginger and spring onion. Great beef, very tender. spinach sesame roll. interesting, similar to a shanghai spring onion and lard bun but with spinach instead. Deep fried frogs legs with a pork mince sauce. This was great the frog legs where like tiny miniature chicken drumsticks in a bbq mince sauce. Cold cut of marinated roast duck, standard fair but very good. crab "tom yum" noodle soup. This was amazing!!!! a massive bowl of soup noodles with a light tom yum like soup with a super, super fresh whole crab!! The meat was so fresh you could pull out the entire claw meat from the shell! Superb!!! There was also a zoong ( glutinous rice and dried meats wrapped in bamboo leaves) tasted fine but they didn't wrap it tightly enough so it was a little soggy, but very seasonal! and a dessert of almond agar agar and red bean pancake, but i forgot to take photos of that. ho-hum! Drinks: £38 for a 1979 bottle of saint emilion grand cru 4 bottles of still water. Total Bill: £250 Service: Interesting. The manager Mr Pang I would best describe as a blunt and fiery Chinaman. If you are the sensitive sought you might even be offended by his tone and attitude. My initial reaction to him wasn't favourable at all as he came across far too Won Kei's style, very blunt and brusque but as the night progressed he warmed up. After dinner he spent a good 15 minutes chatting to my dad and we found out he been open 25 years and he is a good friend to the manager of golden palace who is a friend of my fathers. It also turned out that one of the chefs in the kitchen is a member of my dad's Chinese society that he's planning to move to north west London near were I live and he teaches cooking to private students! He also admitted to not like serving Chinese customers as restaurant owners ourselves we perfectly understand what he means but maybe a little too honest! By the end of the night I came to the conclusion that he is just a very blunt and honest person and also that the locals like him ( he was hi-5ing several customers as they left)so this might be a case of a "local shop for local people" hehehe! Value/Quality/Quantity ratio: very good. It wasn't cheap for a chinese meal but it was very high quality and we had 15 dishes. Complaints: none Nit picks: not really a nit pick more of an observation Mr Pang basically wants to let you know that he is the boss and he lets you know right from the start. So basically if you are the type that wants to have it your way he will tell you to go to burger king. It’s basically his restaurant his rules. Arrogance? Oh yes! But he's got the skills to back it up. Conclusion: This is probably the most interesting, original and memorable Chinese dinner meal I have had in London. Virtually all the dishes were new to me and everything was fresh and perfectly cooked. Also I didn't detect any msg in their cooking. Simply the best Chinese food in London. nuff said! edited to correct some typos and to add the best Chinese food is actually my mama's!!

so can i assume that if i (or anyone else) have/has been, then it isn't very good? ← yeah but! no but! yeah but!

hmm... i wouldn't say no the roe is lovely if its nicely seared.

hehe!

nevermind i'm just being silly!! so the shu mai also came in 3 ??! i'm shocked!! yeah i didn't think new world would have improved greatly as it is very much a tourist attraction now. although i went to cheung cheun ku a few weeks back and it was pretty ok stuff nothing earth shattering but acceptable. btw have you been to golden palace in harrow ? its very good if you haven't

btw did the shu mai come in a 3 or 4? how did you rate New World? good or bad?

context. respectively. capice? mama mia! what a mistaka to maka!! hehehe!!

does instant noodles count? or boiled egg? I think the first thing i made by "recipe" would be in primary school those pink colour peppermint sugar sweets you get a school fairs. They are just mostly icing sugar and pink dye rolled out and then using cookie cutter to make diamond and heart shapes out of them. or maybe it was rice krispies cakes hmmm....

carbonara 2 eggs 250 ml single cream 200 g cheese pecorino or parmesan or cheddar 1 white onion 1 pkg bacon or pancetta 1 c mushrooms parsley black pepper 1 pkg pasta 1 T olive oil 1. let all ingredients stand at room temperature for an hour. 2. mix eggs, cream, cheese, parsley and black pepper together and set aside. 3. Cook the pasta until al dente. 4. Fry onion in olive oil until just soft 5. add the chopped mushrooms, cook until done (remember to continuously move the mushrooms round the pan to cook them all evenly 6. while still hot pour the mushrooms and onions into the cream sauce and give it a quick stir the heat from the mushrooms will cook the sauce and melt the cheese. 7. Finally fry or grill the chopped bacon, drain off excess oil and pour into the sauce. Giving it a good stir to let the smoke bacon flavour permeate the sauce. 6. And then mix the sauce into the pasta. Keywords: Main Dish, Easy, Pasta, Dinner, Sauce, Italian, Cheese ( RG1301 )

carbonara 2 eggs 250 ml single cream 200 g cheese pecorino or parmesan or cheddar 1 white onion 1 pkg bacon or pancetta 1 c mushrooms parsley black pepper 1 pkg pasta 1 T olive oil 1. let all ingredients stand at room temperature for an hour. 2. mix eggs, cream, cheese, parsley and black pepper together and set aside. 3. Cook the pasta until al dente. 4. Fry onion in olive oil until just soft 5. add the chopped mushrooms, cook until done (remember to continuously move the mushrooms round the pan to cook them all evenly 6. while still hot pour the mushrooms and onions into the cream sauce and give it a quick stir the heat from the mushrooms will cook the sauce and melt the cheese. 7. Finally fry or grill the chopped bacon, drain off excess oil and pour into the sauce. Giving it a good stir to let the smoke bacon flavour permeate the sauce. 6. And then mix the sauce into the pasta. Keywords: Main Dish, Easy, Pasta, Dinner, Sauce, Italian, Cheese ( RG1301 )