Roast Beef with all the trimmings.. Photo: Carmen Kong

Two weeks ago, if you asked me to name a tasty typical British cuisine, I would have said “baked beans”. Sorry, I am not even a big fan of Fish ‘n’ Chips.

Being a serious meat-lover and surrounded by good beer and meat in Germany for three years, I had considered myself doomed on this island, with a lack of good, hearty meat. But after trying the traditional British Sunday Roast, my eyes have been opened and I am dazzled by the prospect of a good life here, starting from every Sunday.

Long-standing tradition

Traditionally, British families gather every Sunday to have a long and heavy feast, consisting of a variety of meat served with potatoes and vegetables—everything roasted. Peas, turnips, parsnips, cabbage, red cabbage, and broccoli can also be served on the side, roasted or boiled. And covering it, a layer of rich, brown gravy or white sauce.

It is believed that the custom started in medieval times, when village serfs served their squires for six days a week and Sunday was the only day of rest. Families would put the meat in the oven before church and after the morning service, serfs would gather and practice their battle techniques. Then, they would sit together and enjoy the rewarding meal they deserved after a week of hard work.

The Taste Test

While I hadn’t been practicing any battle manoeuvres, I felt I needed the Sunday reward as much as the serfs did in the past. So I decided to treat myself and two German friends to one of the local pubs famous for its Sunday Roast.

Once we got to The Owl and The Pussycat on Redchurch Street, we all went for the beef and pork out of an impressive variety of roast dishes, including pumpkin and nut roasts for vegetarians. 15 minutes later, we were greeted with three, king-sized plates filled with succulent, roasted meat, a variety of vegetables and potatoes, and heavy, but not greasy, gravy.

The experience was heavenly. My friends and I did not utter a single word to each other for almost 25 minutes during the meal because we were so emerged in our private paradises, dazzled by the surprisingly rich flavour and volume of the meal.

With roasts this tasty there's no need for a dishwasher... Photo: Carmen Kong

An English patriotic ballad, written by Henry Fielding, in 1731, goes:

“When mighty Roast Beef was the Englishman’s food, it ennobled our brains and enriched our blood. Our soldiers were brave and our courtiers were good. Oh! The Roast Beef of old England, And old English Roast Beef!”

With the Sunday Roast, I might just feel a little more English a weekend at a time.

–

Recommended Pub: The Owl and the PussyCat
Serving from 1pm every Sunday until sold out.
Address: 34 Redchurch Steet, Shoreditch, London, E2 7DP
Price: £14-£16 (May seem a bit pricey, but you can literally forget about dinner after the meal!)

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This beauty was found in a stall in Exmouth Market. Verdict: tasty but soggy towards the end. Photo credit: Kathrine Anker

At best, a burrito is the tastiest tortilla wrap crammed with the freshest and finest beef, beans and rice, accented with that zing of spicy salsa – wonderful gastronomic satisfaction. At worst, it is a galling and messy gourmet ordeal, leaving you with a bloated feeling for the remainder of the day. The First Pint went out savouring burritos at a handful of London’s Mexican eateries – and here’s our verdict:

Chipotle Mexican Grill
Chipotle on Charing Cross Road, the newly opened eatery from the popular U.S. franchise (the first of its kind to open in Europe), boasts an all-round, highly palatable steak burrito, with its fresh, assorted ingredients neatly complementing each other; the chilled and refreshing, lightly crispy romaine lettuce works well with the piquant marinated beef to create a melding of quality and distinctive flavours.

One significant drawback emerges in the course of the eating: the steak is actually more fried than chargrilled, leaving you with less of a delectable, broiled taste, and certainly more of those oily, flowing meat juices pouring all over your hands and fingers.

Burrito: ***
Service: ***
Interior / Ambience: **
OVERALL: ***
Steak burrito £6.95

Chipotle Mexican Grill
114-116 Charing Cross Road
London WC2H 0JR
Mon-Sat 11-23
Sun 11-22
tel. 0207 836 8491

Tortilla
A resoundingly disappointing culinary experience – the water-laden lettuce à la ‘Sauerkraut’ makes the wrap soggy; the risotto-esque lime-cilantro rice fills you up to excess; and, the cube-squared, chewy, fibrous steak mini-medallions are served without any hint of marinade (let alone – of ‘meat’ flavour). You can imagine this burrito feels like meat – but without the meat taste. On a brighter note, the burrito’s price is right, the cosy interior with smart wooden tables and benches inviting – and they sell Snapple, as well as a delightful condiment from stateside named Bone Suckin’ Sauce!

Burrito: **
Service: ***
Interior / Ambience: ***
OVERALL: **
Medium steak burrito £5.20
Large steak burrito £6.20

Tortilla
13 Islington High Street
London N1 9LQ
Mon-Wed 12-22
Thu-Sun 12-23
tel. 0207 833 3103

Burrito Bros.
Purists of Tex-Mex cuisine – not to mention ranch hands from the Wild West – will love the full-flavoured refried bean paste that coats the inside of your tortilla wrap. What’s more, the mildly overcooked, braised, shredded beef provides a unique meaty oomph to your usual burrito fix. But very soon, your taste buds will detect an immoderate amount of salt embedded in your steak. Salt-lovers and Tex-Mex zealots will embrace this bang-up burrito – all others should take a smidgen of culinary caution when approaching this salty, hefty beast.

Burrito: ***
Service: ****
Interior / Ambience: ***
OVERALL: ***
Steak burrito £5.50

Burrito Bros.
17 Clerkenwell Road
London EC1M 5RD
Mon-Thu 11:30-23
Fri 11:30-00:00
tel. 0207 336 0679

Chilango
Your quest for that best burrito this side of the Atlantic ought to end here – what Chilango offers is a wholesome, well-balanced burrito replete with the most succulent chargrilled meat on the market. The steak here is flawlessly marinated, with little in the way of dripping juices compelling you to reach for a new paper napkin every 5 seconds. Good to note that the spicy salsa is not too overpowering. Do be sure your burrito ‘sandwich artist’ on duty doesn’t overload with that essential dollop of sour cream – you don’t want a dairy fest in your meal.

Burrito: ****
Service: ****
Interior / Ambience: ****
OVERALL: ****
Steak burrito £5.90

Chilango
142 Fleet Street
London EC4A 2BP
Mon-Fri 11-21
tel. 0207 353 6761

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The Waterhouse restaurant couretsy of Shoreditch Trust

London is no stranger to short-lived niche restaurants which often pop up and then slowly dissipate only to be replaced by the next gourmet trend. The metropolis’ culinary connoisseurs are fickle creatures but the recent insurgence of eco-friendly eateries is proving that sustainability and educated patrons could translate to staying power.

Acorn House
69 Swinton Street
London WC1X 9NT
020 7812 1842

Acorn House is one of London’s first eco-friendly eateries and boasts a menu full of sustainable produce. The restaurant opened its doors in 2006 and aims to change the environmentally unfriendly restaurant industry.
The menu changes seasonally with unique items such as milk-roasted shoulder of pork, fennel and bay, roast crown prince squash, feta, chilli and pine nut tart, and dessert items such as sour apple meringue and Somerset cider sorbet with fried apple.
Both Acorn House and its sister eatery, Waterhouse, are committed to waste reduction including the reduction of packaging for meat and poultry and reusing food waste to create fertilizer.

Waterhouse
10 Orsman Road
London, N1 5QJ
020 7033 0123

Owned by the Shoreditch Trust, along with Acorn House, the Waterhouse is idyllically situated next to Regent’s Canal. The restaurant was specifically built to be environmentally conscious.
The water from Regent’s Canal is used as an energy source and cooling sails are utilized to cool down the interior in summer months. The restaurant is also the first of its kind to bottle its own water on site.
The seasonal menu includes delicacies such as crab and tomato risotto with fennel, rabbit roulade with fennel salami, bulgar wheat, butter beans and fair trade coffee and tea.

The Duke of Cambridge
30 St Peter’s Street
London N1
020 8986 5384

The Duke of Cambridge is the UK’s first gastro pub to receive the Soil Association’s organic certification. Since 1998, their business model of ethical and organic food has set a benchmark in London’s green restaurant scene with the food being sourced from local and independent producers.

The eatery has won a series of awards for its ethical practices including the 2010 Sustainable City Award and the 2009 RSPCA Ethical Business Award. The menu items are seasonal and boast gourmet gastro pub fare including potatoes, aubergines, red peppers and feta gratin with watercress pea sprout salad and lemon sole with peas, broad beans, bacon and cider sauce.

The Clerkenwell Kitchen
31 Clerkenwell Close
London EC1R 0AT
07989 304795

Situated in London’s cosy Clerkenwell district, this restaurant serves up ethical dishes in North London.

The eatery is committed to fair trade and uses biodegradable packaging and recycles most of its waste. The meat is ethically sourced and the restaurant only purchases produce from fair trade suppliers which meet their ethical standards.

The eatery, which was named Time Out’s best sustainable restaurant of 2008, serves up a daily changing British menu featuring dishes such as free range Norfolk roast chicken, little gem and green bean salad, with a soft boiled egg.

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Does this invite you in for coffee and cake? Photo credit: Kathrine Anker

Islington’s Upper Street is known for its dynamic and vibrant atmosphere. The district is forward looking and in vogue: the greasy takeaway is replaced by a fashionable Ethiopian gourmet restaurant with zebra fur decorations on the wall and the food you grab after 4 a.m. is something different than fish and chips.

These features account for Upper Street’s lively and colourful aura. But it is in this lively atmosphere where it is hard to choose between one restaurant from another. However, the Fig and Olive might be a welcoming choice for anyone in the area.

The Fig and Olive, which proclaims itself as serving ‘modern European cuisine’ is not eye-catching at all and can be easily overlooked by customers. But once entered, the olive-coloured frame of the restaurant makes for a bright and sophisticated establishment.

The furniture is a mix of 17^th century vintage and modern classic divulging a slight atmosphere of glamour.

The Fig and Olive welcomes the coffee-going crowd with low tables and some luxurious armchairs in the front. The middle of the restaurant’s long rectangular space seats groups of two- and four-seated dining tables. Passed the small cluttered bar at the back sits a long, wooden table for groups of ten and above.

The restaurant is a place for every occasion: to pop in for coffee and cake, to have a hangover brunch, or to go for dinner. It is also suitable for a chilled-out cocktail evening with friends as it is open until midnight.

Most people come to the Fig and Olive for a sweet treat. Photo credit: Kathrine Anker

In addition to the traditional lunch, dinner and wine menus you can choose from the variety of freshly baked goods, which are proudly displayed by the window. For example a pistachio tart, decorated with spirals of dark chocolate and a lemon cherry pie for the reasonable price of £3.50.

The Fig and Olive’s two-page wine list covers almost every type of wine and does not focus on particular regions (glass £4.50 and bottle from £12 to £18).

Main dishes (£8 – £12) are mostly meat-based and not extraordinarily unique. The most imaginative one is wild boar with apple sausages. There are also vegetarian options such as the aubergine with sautéed mushrooms and lighter dishes like grilled Mediterranean vegetables with cheese.

Despite the great selection of food, most visitors are there for the pastries. They are the real secret of Fig and Olive and it’s worth trying more than one.

The Fig and Olive
151 Upper Street
London N1
020 735 42605
www.figandolive.com

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Lena says:

Fresh flowers galore at Broadway Market.

Just a footstep in Broadway Market and I’m surrounded by lush peonies and pink tulips, gooey bries and smelly camembert, smoky chorizo, marshmallow-chocolate cupcakes, and heart-shaped berry tarts dusted with powdered sugar.

I am in a foodie’s heaven. The small street in Hackney is dotted with cafes, pubs, restaurant’s and boutiques and the center is crowded with beautifully arranged stalls brimming with the sites, smells, and tastes that I adore about farmer’s markets.

There’s a real community vibe here. It doesn’t have the touristy crowds of Portobella and the stall owners are smiling and helpful—eager to give you a taste of their recently baked chocolate chip cookies or peppered goat cheese. The market not only sells delicious fare, but handicrafts and clothing are also popular amongst the locals.

Lilly and I are beckoned towards a Vietnamese coffee and Bánh mì eatery named Ban Mi11, off the side of the road. When I lived in San Francisco, I used to frequent my favorite Bánh mì restaurant in the Tenderloin district, so my expectations were high. We order two Café Sua das (Vietnamese iced coffee) barbeque pork banh mis, which were served on crusty French baguettes filled with freshly grilled barbeque pork, pickled carrots and radish, cilantro, fish sauce and chilli. I devoured every tender bite and the iced coffee was sweetened with condensed milk to perfection.

I have found yet another spot to return too and yet another place that takes me back to sunny days spent in flip flops and sundresses eating my way from Saigon to Hanoi.

Lilly says:

A musical trio performs to the boho chic crowd.

It’s hard to pin down the style of Broadway Market in Hackney, a neighborhood of East London. Grubby chic? British boho? At first glance, it appears to be the antithesis of Mayfair, yet these hippies have seriously good taste. Cool cafes like Hurwundeki greet you as you head towards Regent’s Canal. Though the market is held only on Saturdays, the everyday gourmet shops lining the street sell quality goods like thick stalks of white asparagus that would make a discerning Parisienne weep.
 
The first of many cute families comes into view adorned with a mix of black leather, corduroy and vintage floral. They remind me of Brooklyn style; in fact, they could’ve been Heath, Michelle and baby Matilda strolling Boerum Hill during much happier times.
 
But like Brooklyn, the word on the street is spreading. Broadway Market opened five years ago and from what people are saying, popularity has recently skyrocketed, despite concerns from some of the more protective stall owners.
 
“It used to be more friendly, more community-oriented and now it’s more touristy,” said one cheese maker who has been a part of the market since day one. He sells his nice-sized blobs of buffalo mozzarella for £3 each.
 
Certainly bigger crowds must be better for business? Looking grim, he responded: “Not for me because I’m selling products. More people are coming for fast food.”

Café Sua das and barbeque pork banh mis.

Lena and I skulk away feeling guilty, as we are clearly some of these people. But I am hungry and ready for some “fast food”. Indian, Moroccan, Persian and Turkish fresh food was being prepared, interspersed with stands selling everything from vintage clothes, fresh flowers, organic juices, coconut cream cakes and mini-bottles of elegantly boxed white truffle oil (gift-giving is a cinch).
 
A stall at the market costs £25 a week plus £9 pounds to the council. You also have to be accepted by the board. Bee Friedman who sells goods from South Africa, her native country, explained: “You have to offer something unusual. You can’t do something highly manufactured.”

What she means is that you can’t sell any old cookie. Cinnamon Tree Bakery sells shortbread owls and cinnamon elephants made with organic ingredients and “no nasty extras.”
 
We finally come to a decision and plop down on one of the numerous porch chairs set up in the center. A trio of musicians entertains us, and we enjoy Vietnamese sandwiches, iced Vietnamese coffee and of course, shortbread owls. Impossibly well-behaved babies bob their heads to the music. Like their parents, they too are dressed in boho duds. (Another unique find at the market are adorable handmade baby clothes.)
 
Broadway Market is open every Saturday from 09:00 – 17:00. The neighborhood will soon offer a Farmer’s Market every Sunday.  I hope the cheese maker is happy.

Broadway Market

Broadway Market, London E8, 07872 463 409

www.broadwaymarket.co.uk

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Tenore's authentic Sardinian cuisine awakens travel memories. Photo credit: whl.travel

Italy conjures up the tastes of pasta carbonara flecked with salty pancetta, soft mozzarella dripping with pesto and layered with basil and ripe tomatoes. Plump figs from a farm on the Amalfi coast are placed in a turquoise bowl on a terrace overlooking the Mediterranean Sea—their beautiful, gooey purple centers oozing with every perfect bite. Warm pizzas bubbling with cheese are lifted from wood-fired ovens as the smell of freshly ground coffee for perfectly concocted cappuccinos wafts through the air from a street-side café.

Italy is food perfection. The fresh ingredients, the vibrant colors and awe-inspiring smells are ones that linger long after your departure. There aren’t many places in the world that you can find Italian food that is any comparison to the real deal. Most major cities have Italian food and London is no exception. Some are sub-par and some bring you back to that Italian vacation with a simple bite from a perfect pizza. Hidden and unassuming—a small yet classy joint on Islington’s Barnsbury Road, just a few blocks from Angel tube station, Tenore restaurant does just that.

One step in and you are greeted with a buon giorno from the friendly Italian wait staff. The walls and floors are a deep oak and photos of Italy in the fifties line the walls. In the background an open kitchen boasts an authentic wood-fired pizza oven. The restaurant is comfortable and unpretentious in a way that screams we know Italian food and we know it well, but don’t need to brag about it with unnecessary flair.

The menu is mainly Sardinian and showcases a wide arrange of choices. From seafood dishes like sa burrida—marinated rock salmon, in white vinegar and walnut pesto—or pasta with baby clams and bottarga in a creamy yet surprisingly light sauce.

The pizza list is extensive and delicious including items like the Sarda pizza with tomato, mozzarella, Sardinian sausage and Gorgonzola. The ricotta pizza is layered with fluffy ricotta cheese, fresh tomatoes, arugula and melted mozzarella with a perfectly accompanied chewy crust. Some of their salad items like the pear and walnut salad with iceberg lettuce could be better executed, but the pizza and pasta more than make up for the lack of ingenuity in their salads items.

The menu, which boasts a vast array of hard to find Sardinian items keeps you wanting more.

The prices are a welcome treat with pizzas big enough for two starting at £6.80 and pastas at an average of £10. Like the reasonable prices, Tenore is a welcome respite in a city which boasts delicious food that often falls short.

Tenore Restaurant
14 Barnsbury Road
London N1 0HB
020 7278 6955
www.tenore-restaurant.co.uk

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'New Seoul' restaurant (above), more recently known as 'Tohbang', brings a bit of Korean seoul to Clerkenwell. Photo Credit: Kake Pugh/Flickr

A great meal begins with authenticity – both in ingredients and the hands that handle them. So when a Korean restaurant is run by native Korean staff, it’s a safe bet that their dishes will be worth your stomach. Tohbang, formerly known as New Seoul, is one such place, presenting traditional Korean fare at affordable prices in the quiet Clerkenwell area.

For what is usually a lively Saturday night anywhere in London, this side of Camden was quite the opposite with hardly anyone walking the streets. Tohbang is one of those spots that doesn’t stand out immediately to a casual passerby. Even its maroon sign with rather large block lettering is pretty unnoticeable if you aren’t interested. But despite its bland exterior, the restaurant sticks out as it seems oddly random on a quiet road.

Word on the street is that Saturday nights are busiest and it was best to make a reservation for guaranteed seating. But the place seemed a bit empty of their so called “busy” Saturday night crowd. The owner of the store was cordial, even personally opening the door, but it was surprising to have to ask for the menu and the waiter seemed a bit nervous.

Prices were reasonable, averaging £7 to £9 per main dish and £2 to £4 per appetizer or side dish.

The menu kept to its Korean roots with a range of classic dishes and minimal, if any at all, fusion-type or ‘foreigner-friendly’ dishes aimed to please the palettes of local Londoners new to the cuisine. From kimchee (pickled cabbage), bibimbahp (rice with mixed beef, vegetables, fried egg), and mee-yuk gook (seaweed soup) to pah-jun (green onion pancake) and bulgogi (grilled beef marinated in sesame oil), it was truly a Korean’s menu. One classic dish I didn’t find, however, was galbi (BBQ beef short ribs) which is usually cooked over a charcoal grill right at the table and eaten in lettuce wraps with a spicy red pepper sauce.

My soon doobu jee gae (spicy tofu casserole) and jahp-chae (stir-fried glass noodles) arrived pretty quickly.  The daen jahng gook (bean paste soup with tofu and vegetables) was also a Korean classic not to be missed.  Portions were just right, not too much and not too little, and the taste seemed the same as or close to what might be called ‘home cooking’. The number of free side dishes/appetizers, however, was on the skimpy side.  These usually come free with the main meal at most traditional Korean restaurants.

Nearly all of the clientele on this particular night were non-Koreans, which may seem like a red flag at first. However, perhaps that is Tohbang’s target market – the unreached, the ‘Korean food virgins’. Despite the initial awkward silence against the sound of classic American tunes, Tohbang offers the comfort of genuine Korean food at a good price to make it worth your visit.

Tohbang

164 Clerkenwell Road

London, EC1R 5DU

Phone: 020 7278 8674

Photo by Kake Pugh via Flickr

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Many visitors to Marylebone High Street wonder why, with so many good restaurants to choose from, there are always people willing to queue outside Le Relais de Venise. There are two possible reasons for this: it is either one of the few restaurants in London which does not take reservations, or it is just very good.

The concept is simple and there is only one menu–salad followed by entrecote steak and chips. The only choice diners have to make is how they want their meat cooked. This system allows Le Relais de Venise to ensure that everyone is served quickly and efficiently before being handed the bill and replaced by the next person in line.

One menu will set you back £20 (not including dessert or wine) which is not bad for this area of London. The food itself is good. The green salad is sprinkled with walnuts and garnished with a mustard sauce which tastes more English than French. The main course, ‘steak frites’ comes rare, medium or well-done as the restaurant refuses to entertain the notion of medium-rare or any other combination of the above. The delicious sauce, which has a buttery, salty taste complemented by a variety of herbs, is one of the reasons behind the restaurant chain’s success in France. The plentiful portion allows you to mop it up with your baguette, chips and steak.

The major gripe people seem to have with the restaurant is the customer service, or lack thereof. The restaurant is fairly small and crammed with a maximum number of tables which makes the work of the tireless servers quite difficult. The waitresses, all female and all suspiciously dressed as French maids, do not have the time or patience to humour customers demanding extra bread or sauce. In this sense the service is not rude but ruthlessly efficient; you will be served within minutes of your arrival and will leave having spent more time queuing in the cold than enjoying your meal.

The desserts are surprisingly varied and prices range from £7.50 for a cheese platter to £4.50 for a Cassis Sorbet. Though the desserts were generally good, there was nothing special. The usual array of espressos, teas and digestives are also available.

In short Le Relais offers a fine steak and chips meal to those willing to wait for up to half an hour in the cold. The food is good, the service is brisk and the bill is reasonable. Those who complain about the staff’s coldness have obviously never crossed the channel as this represents the most authentic part of the experience.

Le Relais de Venise is located at 120 Marylebone Lane, London W1U 4NS. Lunch and dinner are served daily with a set menu costing £20, not including desserts and drinks.

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Good food, great place. Photo Credit: Rijuta Dey

As an Indian student living in London, I had long despaired that I would have to return home to have decent Indian food. Seriously, London is great for all kinds of cuisines and I find myself eating out every other day. It’s just that  the greasy gooey muck passed off as ‘Indian food’ at most places is an insult to any self-respecting Indian with a discerning palette.

Therefore, when my friend chose to celebrate her birthday at Funky Brownz, I could only laugh at the bizarre name and its claim of being an Indian restaurant doubling as a sheesha lounge. At the end of the night, I was still laughing, but this time at my extreme good luck. My Dutch friend had admitted that she was no fan of Indian food as it was too spicy for her. By the end of our meal, we were both controlling the urge to lick our bowls clean!

We had booked a table at the sheesha lounge where the AC Milan v Man Utd game had the (mostly male) testosterone charged audience caught in a feverish frenzy. Our largely feminine group jumped out of our collective skin every time the crowd gave fearful shouts of dismay, anger or joy.

We were successfully distracted by the food : the chicken korma-butter nan combo is the best I have yet had on foreign shores. My vegetarian friends vouched for the paneer butter masala and tarka dal, washed down with sweet lassi.

This place does a good sheesha (my first love). It is clean, crisp and costs  10 quid for a single pipe.  Authentic home-fare , great sheesha and a relaxed ambience. This was no lesser than a match made in heaven.

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Lena says:

Grilling beef tenderloin in preparation for the amazing wraps at Cay Tre. Photo Credit: Lilly LeClair

Memories of Vietnam conjure up smoky street vendors selling garlicky grilled beef, steaming bowls of pho piled with cilantro and fresh lime, and beachside mornings awoken to Vietnamese coffee. I anxiously await the drip of the coffee filter to fill my mug and create a sweet and creamy concoction of condensed milk and espresso.

One step in Cay Tre, East London’s hip Vietnamese eatery, and I am transported back to the smoky streets of Saigon. The room radiates with the smell of grilled meats, fresh mint, and fish sauce playing off of the black and white wallpapered walls and stark white furniture filled with hip Hoxtonites.

At Cay Tre I am in a Hanoiesque heaven overflowing with glasses of never ending wine and plates of grilled beef wrapped in rice paper (Banh Uot Thit Nuong). The table brims over with crispy sea bass and green mango, stuffed sea-crab, tender cubes of filet mignon paired with watercress, savory pancakes (banh xeo), and Vietnamese coffee accompanied by heaping scoops of coconut ice cream.

The taste is so authentic that I could be on any street corner in Hanoi—sweat dripping down my brow from the sweltering heat, drinking the mandatory Bia Hanoi, and relishing in my next culinary adventure.

Lilly says:

I didn’t think it could happen but it did. Under the previous assumption that I could out-eat any chick that came in my path, the title was quickly squashed as soon as I had Vietnamese food with Lena. I knew she was craving Vietnamese (she talked about it incessantly the entire afternoon), but I had no idea how much. There was only one thing to do: Cay Tre called and we answered.

The narrow space on Old Street was busy on a Saturday night – a good sign. We perused the menu while waiting for our table, and I had never seen my usually laid-back friend so wound up and excited. In less than a minute she had already picked at least 10 different dishes to try. We were seated downstairs at a tiny two-top; Lena with a restaurant view and me transfixed with the cool black/white Asian-print wallpaper.  

A bottle of Malbec (£17) was ordered, and we had some back-and-forth before deciding on five, yes FIVE dishes. Soon, a round grill and accompanying plates were set down at our table. After a quick demonstration from our server we used our chopsticks to transport thinly sliced beef tenderloin onto the grill where it cooked until it became a perfect medium-rare. Meanwhile rice paper was loosened with the bowl of water, then toppled with a layer of fresh julienne-cut vegetables, vermicelli noodles, a dabble of sriracha sauce and there it was: the best damn wrap I’d ever eaten (£6/person).

There was no room at the table, yet more food kept arriving. Next came the stuffed swimming crab (£5) and the pancakes stuffed with prawns & vegetables (£6). I had already thought heaven had found us, until the cognac “luc lac” shaking beef filet mignon arrived (£7.50). The meat was seasoned to perfection and so tender that it literally melted in my mouth.  Lena and I both threw out any sense of politeness (not that we really have any) and fought till the end for every last piece like a bad scene out of a spaghetti western.  The last dish to arrive was the green curry sea bass with elephant mango (£9). This dish was tasty, but the curry a tad too mild… or maybe my spice palate had entered new territories having overdone it with the peppers earlier in the evening. Nothing slamming a glass of wine couldn’t take care of.

We were beyond satiated, but had come too far to stop now. Three scoops of coconut ice cream sprinkled with crushed peanuts, and drip filtered coffee poured over sweet condensed milk finished us off. The conversation came to a halt. There was nothing left to say – we had reached nirvana.    

Cay Tre

http://www.vietnamesekitchen.co.uk/caytre/index.html

301 Old Street, London EC1V 9LA

020 7729 8662

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