The wife and I have been meaning to check out Sweetings Fish Restaurant for ages, so on a rare morning off from Brick House last week we went and did just that.
Sweetings is one of those rare restaurants that’s delightfully trapped in time. It’s the kind of place that you wished you’d been going to for years, where all the staff know your name and where you have your own tankard behind the bar. I can totally imagine my dad having a boozy lunch here when he worked in The City.
Sweetings really reminded us of one of our favorite places to eat in San Francisco, The Swan Oyster Depot. It’s got that kind of American generosity you don’t see in many restaurants in the UK. When you sit down the table is loaded with all the sauces and condiments you could ever want (including Tabasco, which always gets points), there’s a big gravy float full of the house tartare sauce, a plate piled high with buttered brown bread, and a load of lemon wedges.
Antipasto & Pasta is a gem. Known affectionately as ‘the half price Italian’ by the residents of Battersea because it halves it’s prices on Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday nights, it’s probably the restaurant I’ve eaten in most often over the course of my life. After returning from the US, we decided not to live in SW11, and despite having lived there for years, I have to say I mostly don’t miss that part of London. In fact the only thing I really do miss is Antipasto & Pasta.
I think the reason I love this place so much is that it’s a real rarity. It’s the kind of good quality ‘mom and pop’ neighbourhood restaurant that you find in the States, but don’t really exist in this country. It’s brilliantly unfashionable, the menu hasn’t changed in the 15 or so years I’ve been eating here, and the food always tastes the same. And I mean that in the best kind of way.
It also has real atmosphere. Not the kind of atmosphere that you get at the latest ‘hot’ eatery where everyone’s frothing over the food and fawning over the genius of the chef, but the cozy, welcoming, buzz and chatter of people really enjoying themselves and their food.
I’m going to keep this Local Hero short as I’ve got a shed load to do, but I’ve been meaning to pay homage to Lahore in Whitechapel for ages, and now is the time. I know a lot of people prefer Tayyabs around the corner, but I’m not one of those people. I’m not going to deny that Tayyabs is good, but its just not one hour queuing good.
I first, rather nervously, went to Lahore when it was just a ramshackle upstairs dining room, complete with loos that didn’t flush properly around I guess five or six years ago. It’s a very different place now. Three big, blinging dining rooms bedecked in marble, tile and flat screen TVs. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but the food is still as good as it ever was, if not better.
Last Sunday I was invited to take part in Big Apple Hot Dogs food blogger meet up / competition Blog Eat Blog. The brainchild of BAHDman Abiye, the idea is simple. Food bloggers create their own topping for his dogs, they bring them down to the Vibe Bar, eat dogs, drink beer and somehow a winner is chosen. Having played a small part in Abiye’s story, and a as a lover of dogs and bit of a challenge, I couldn’t resist.
Now, you’ll think I’m bragging when I say that I SMASHED it and won my heat, but I should probably mention that the other three competitors didn’t show up, which is a bit of a shame (lazy buggers whoever you are ). This being the case, it was a bit of a hollow victory. But a wins a win, right? Right??
Anyway, it was a good afternoon of dogging and boozing, and my Turkish inspired slaw seemed to go down pretty well with the punters. There are three more heats over the next few Sundays, so why not get yourself down to Brick Lane and beat off the Sunday blues with a Pimp Steak.
I’m not 100% sure when the final is, but I’ll be there with my Turkish Slaw, and if you want to make some of your own, here’s how its done (NB. this makes a pretty large quantity, so scale back as required).
Whilst road tripping in the Deep South of the US last year, we got pretty excited about the Southern food. And when you look at the evidence, there’s a lot to like. Barbecue, shrimp & grits, shrimp boils, fried pickles and green tomatoes, boiled peanuts, fried chicken, corn bread. Not the kind of thing to be writing about when you’re hungry like I am now.
Anyway, one of the many memorable meals we had was at a place called Dante’s in New Orleans. I mentioned it before in this post, but as an ‘amuse bouche‘ we were given something called a spoon bread. A close relative to corn bread, it had a softer, spongier texture, was deeper in colour due to the inclusion of molasses and as the name suggests, was eaten with a spoon. It was totally sweet and delicious, a bit like eating a desert before you’ve even started your meal, and I thought it was great. I asked our waitress if I could have the recipe, and before we left the chef handed it over, of which this is a slightly re-worked version.
Like they did at Dante’s, I baked mine in cast iron corn bread skillets (16 x 3 cm) that we picked up from the Lodge factory store whilst we were over there. But you could bake them in any oven proof dish, or do mini ones in a muffin tins.
A couple of notes before we begin, I’ve switch the molasses in the recipe for black treacle for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I find that molasses has a slightly bitter aftertaste which I personally don’t like, and secondly black treacle is easier to get hold of. Similarly, if you can’t get your hands on stone ground grits, just use polenta. Finally, the original recipe also calls for buttermilk. Again, this isn’t that readily available in the UK, but you can just switch this up for plain low fat yoghurt.
I saw this video about New York based Mast Brothers Chocolate about a year or so ago, and have desperately wanted to visit their shop ever since. As someone who’s interested in starting their own business, I found the approach they discuss really inspirational. I love the romantic idealism of treating their business like a boys own adventure, and striving for something that feels nostalgic and hand made, as opposed to mass produced and uniform.
Anyway, yesterday afternoon I managed to satisfy my desire by paying their Williamsburgh shop a visit. I was hoping to take the factory tour they mention on the site, but alas they aren’t doing them at the moment as they are in the process of expanding their operation. However, when the lovely guy behind the counter saw we were a bit bummed out about not getting to do the tour, he snuck us in to have a look at their new space. It’s a really lovely big, open brick walled warehouse unit, but what hits you first is the smell. It’s like being in a chocolate cloud. I’m pretty sure I started to drool almost instantly. The room is filled will sacks of cocoa beans, a roasting oven, ‘conching’ drums (these heat and grind the beans for 3 days until the chocolate is beautifully smooth), and this awesome mad scientist-esque glass vacuum pump device that separates the cracked beans from the husk. It’s very cool, and feels really nicely old fashioned.
From Nashville we headed for the ‘Low Country’, with a quick overnight pit stop in Atlanta to break up the journey to Savannah. In the short time we were there, we didn’t get much of an impression of Georgia’s capital, but it seems like a modern city that’s expanding pretty fast.
One thing we did get to check out was Varsity, which is (apparently) America’s largest drive in. I was pretty excited about visiting as it’s one of those old school places where they have people bring out your food and do the whole tray on the window thing. Unfortunately we were disappointed. Definitely go and check it out for the spectacle and atmosphere, but don’t go for the food. It was average at best. The burgers were no better than a basic McDonald’s hamburger, the fries were limp, and god alone knows what was on in the chilli on my chilli dog, but I’m not sure it was of this World. Bit of a shame really, because it’s a pretty cool set up.
We’re ‘enjoying’ some the South-East coast’s famous storm season weather, so you’re going to get to read another post.
From LA we flew to New Orleans. After seeing all the news about Katrina and subsequent storms and floods, I really didn’t know what to expect, but I’ve got to say we were really impressed. Aside from Bourbon Street which is a bit of an abomination, it’s really cool and interesting place, that literally sweats music and good times from ever pore. We arrived with a fist full of recommendations of places to go from my mate Graison who I met on the SFBI course and who used to live there, so we set about munching our way through town.
We had three really memorable meals in ‘The Big Easy’. The first was at Dante’s Kitchen. It kicked off in style with some stellar ’spoon’ bread, which is a kind of corn bread, and was absolutely delicious. So much so that I had to know what was in it, and the chefs kindly printed me out a recipe. This was followed by fantastic shrimp and grits and then ox tail. Small dishes, really nicely done. I’d go back in a shot.
Hand To Mouth is a blog about food. Eating it. Cooking it. Reviewing it. Reading about it. And everything in between.
I’ll be regularly posting recipes, reviews of some of my favourite places and opinion about anything food related that grabs my eye. Hopefully there’ll be a few laughs along the way, and I promise not to cut the cheese.
If you like what you see please let me know, and equally don’t be afraid of throwing a few rotten tomatoes my way if you don’t.
BIG thanks to Tom Hardcore at Nation for the blog design.
). This being the case, it was a bit of a hollow victory. But a wins a win, right? Right??
