TheKua Does Food

I’d heard of wine tasting, whiskey tasting and cheese tasting events but I’d never heard of a coffee tasting event so I was definitely intrigued. Can it be done? Of course, and the folks over at Taylor St Baristas did a really outstanding job at it this weekend. Organised by the folks over at Qype, a group of about ten people gathered at Taylor St Baristas’ Liverpool Street location fairly early on Saturday morning. Everyone seemed pretty upbeat considering no one had yet consumed their caffeine fix.

That was soon not going to be a problem with a selection of five roasts ready to be tasted in both their filtered and espresso forms. Before the tasting began the baristas gave us the quick low down on how to do the tasting introducing the different aspects of taste (sweet, salty, bitter, sour) combined with the aroma, flavour and mouth feel. It initially took us some time to note the different aspects that became slightly easier as we moved back and forth between the different coffees and having something to compare and contrast the different aspects.

As you can see from the picture above, we didn’t consume *all* of that coffee although maybe that explains my sleeplessness for the entire weekend. After all, they did recommend to spit, not swallow but some of them were just too good to have just a sip. Between the filtered and the espresso coffees we had a croissant to help absorb the big rush of caffeine and listened to the just-as-passionate roasters from Union Coffee talk about why they selected the coffees that they did. We heard the heart warming story about where the coffee beans came, and I certainly appreciated how the coffee industry has changed the lives for the coffee-growing communities for the better in an, everyone wins situation.

With the espressos rolling out at a ridiculously fast pace, we got plenty of opportunity to watch the skill that goes into making the perfect shot of coffee. The guys at Taylor St make it look particularly easy but I’m guessing that it’s much harder than it looks. The final coffee they introduced us to was a bit of a speciality, from what I remember, named the “Naked Espresso”. You can see it drip out into the cup below, producing an even creamier, richer brew sure to give you that satisfying hit.

I unfortunately can’t remember all the coffee blends (and my picture of the tasting board ended up too blurry) but I do remember thinking that the Rwandan Gashonga roast was definitely one of my favourites, with a rich chocolate malt base and, what I thought of, hints of cinnamon and cloves that reminded me slightly of Christmas time.

Thanks again to the people at Qype for organising such a great event, the people from Union providing such excellent quality coffee and the amazingly hospitable and down to earth guys from Taylor St Baristas (go have one of their coffees!)

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Yet another day, and the discovery of yet another great coffee place. Unfortunately it sits in a place where I don’t really get to go that often, and plenty of other decent coffee stores surround it. Nevertheless that didn’t really stop me from trialling Nude Espresso. I noted this place down the last time that I went along for Brick Lane’s Sunday (Up)Market, though I’d already had my coffee for the day from Taylor St Barista’s, located closer to Liverpool Street Station.

Nude Espresso is pretty hard to miss with its bright red paint declaring its presence. Much like many other decent coffee stores around London, they have a couple of benches outside that would be nice if the weather stayed as nice as it was a couple of weeks back. Fortunately this store seems to have quite a lot of seating, since it stretches pretty deeply with plenty of table and chairs to accommodate groups of many sizes.

I only really wanted to get a coffee, so I ordered the flat white (£2.20) though they of course serve all the classic drinks. I noted a few people simply sitting having a cup of coffee and reading a magazine and newspaper. The insides did look pretty inviting. Unfortunately I’d just had lunch so wasn’t feeling hungry at all despite the wide variety of sandwiches and pastries did look very tempting as you can see from the photo below.

The verdict. Very good. I asked where they got their beans from and they told me it was the espresso blend from Monmouth (it really could have only been one of two answers). The flat white was creamy, strong and certainly kept me going as I continued my walk around the area. I’m well chuffed to have found yet another great place to recommend to people. My only dilemma now though is which one I’d recommend now that there is a handful of decent ones in that area. Nevertheless this is a very good problem to have.

Name: Nude Espresso
Address: 26 Hanbury St, Spitalfields London E1 6QR
Website: http://nudeespresso.com/

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Even though it’s literally just around the corner from me, it was only recently that I sat down for a dinner at Hix Oyster and Chop House. I’d heard a lot about it, and plenty of very positive reviews. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera so this is one post you’ll just have to believe me.

Clerkenwell isn’t exactly full of life on a Sunday evening, so I was surprised that the restaurant filled up quite quickly. It definitely has an amicable charm to it, and the tables had plenty of space to give us lots of privacy. A lovely Scottish waitress seated us and helped guide us through the menu as they had a number of items I wasn’t particularly familiar with. Being true to its name, they had plenty of fish and steak with a meat board full of impressive looks cuts of beef (and lamb). I felt like some seafood so I ended up ordering the “Roast Dorset gurnard with brown shrimp butter”. Our waitress described it as very sad looking but a very satisfying fish.

I decided not to have any starters, as appealing as they looked because their desserts look just as appetising and I thought I’d only have room for one of them. They brought us a small loaf of crusty bread with some creamy butter, the perfect size for the three of us. Most breads are pretty average, but I have to admit that this one was particularly remarkable.

I’d never had a gurnard before but it was certainly a very meaty fish with plenty to fill me up. Combined with the rich tasty shrimp butter, I almost thought that I wouldn’t be able to have dessert. Almost. Oh, and the waitress was right. The fish did look pretty sad looking.

On the waitress’ recommendation, I ordered the blood orange and gin jelly with ice cream for dessert. It was a lot lighter than I imagined and the gin flavour wasn’t an overwhelmingly alcoholic flavour liked I know some jellies can be. Its only let down was really the ice cream that seemed more like an ice confection the way that it crumbled, rather than the creaminess it should really have.

Hix really impressed me. The entire meal including 1 starter, 3 mains, 2 desserts, tea, coffee, still water, and a bottle of wine cost the three of us £48.54 each. I think there would have been a 12.5% service charge as well but definitely worth it with the nice, friendly service our waitress gave us.

Name: Hix Oyster and Chop House
Address: 36-37 Greenhill Rents, Cowcross Street EC1M 6BN
Website: http://www.hixoysterandchophouse.co.uk/
The good: Great menu. Tasty food. Great service worth the 12.5%.
The not so good: Nothing that I can really think of.

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After coming back from Japan and having had some Korean food, I was particularly craving some more of it, particularly their hot stone bowl dish, dol bibimbap. I headed out for a Sunday lunch but it seemed like all the Korean restaurants in central London were shut so I kept walking around until I stumbled across Azzi, a fusion Japanese and Korean restaurant.

Its entrance makes it appear quite small restaurant with only four tables visible. A bunch of Korean ladies catching up occupied one of them while another group of Swedish tourists took another, apparently umming and ahhing over what to order. They had a couple of small tables by the main counter so I took one of them. They do have some tables out back as I saw plenty of people head out back but I have no idea how many. Their menu was interesting, less fusion that advertised and more just serving both Japanese and Korean dishes. It didn’t really matter to me since they had what I wanted, the dol bibimbap.

I ordered the dol bibimbap and a lemonade that, with the 12.5% service came to just over £10. I thought it was fairly reasonable since the dish came with miso soup and a side of kim chi, something that many other Korean restaurants charge extra for. The hot stone bowl soon arrived accompanied by the distinctive sound of sizzling rice and vegetables. It certainly looked impressive with a semi fried egg on top soon to be mixed in to the rest of the ingredients with chilli sauce.

Overall I was pretty impressed by it. Tasty, crispy rice and plenty of flavour throughout it. Although the service was friendly, I don’t think it was super prompt as I had to wait for the bill and not really worth the 12.5%. I’d still probably return though and try a few other dishes.

Name: Azzi
Address: 47 Poland Street, London, W1F 7NB
Website: None that I could find
The good: Reasonably priced dol bibimbap with soup and kim chi included in the price
The not so good: 12.5% service? Hmmm…

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Patara is a series of several Thai restaurants around London. Apparently they are very popular as we could only get a very early 6:30pm that had to be back for 8pm at their Soho branch. It looks like any sort of modern Thai restaurant you’d imagine that does very well in South Kensington – moody lighting, nice decorations and plenty of tables with minimal space in between. Nevertheless they also have a very nice cocktail list and plenty of different things on offer on their menu.

We ended up ordering the Slow braised beef in aromatic coconut reduction with fresh lime,lemongrass and chilli, as well as Veal osso buco braised in massaman curry with lotus seeds accompanied by cucumber salsa and pita bread, with a side of Thai long aubergine sautéed in spicy yellow bean sauce with sweet basil. Admittedly all of the dishes were fantastic. Beautifully presented, complex flavours and all the dishes full of flavour. I really enjoyed the aubergine although I wouldn’t really say it was a very spicy yellow bean sauce – perhaps a bit more on the sweet side than anything.

I had the coconut ice cream for dessert (although the rice pudding is pictured above). Both were just as tasty as all the main dishes and certainly would have been happy with any of the other dishes as well.

I enjoyed the dinner at Patara, although considering what we had, the price added up very quickly. It’s not a place you’d want to go to every night, but every once in a while it’d be quite reasonable.

Name: Patara
Address: Different locations. We went to the one in Soho (15 Greek St., London W1D 4DP)
Website: http://www.pataralondon.com/
The good: Continuous top ups of tap water. Fairly unique Thai fusion with classic flavours
The not so good: Fairly pricey and tables crammed pretty close together.

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It’s nice to see that some parts of Chinatown are stepping out a bit and not just simply being replaced by cheap, nasty, buffets. Little Lamb is therefore a welcome addition to the other restaurants in London’s chinatown offering the unique hot pot dining experience. Also a popular dish with the Japanese (called shabu shabu), hot pot dining is definitely not like your normal Chinese fair.

Ordering hot pot is easy. Choose what sort of soup base you would like, and then order a wide variety of dishes to cook. They even have a £20 deal where you can order a soup base and five different plates of ingredients for each person dining which really equates to a large number over all. We didn’t intend of getting the deal but the waiter suggested we may as well being only £1 away and able to order three more plates. We decided to go with the three flavoured stock pot, not actually realising it would be an urn separated into three different parts, each complete with a different flavour. The induction cooker in the middle of the table also gave us very good control over the soup, without actually turning the table into a danger zone.

As you can see from the picture above, one of the three soups was a spicy, peppery soup, that was definitely one of my favourites. The other two were clear broths, both very flavoursome in their own different ways. The ingredients come on plates and I’m glad that there was just the two of us because those plates soon filled the table. We ordered a huge variety of different items, with at least one dish from the separate sections such as mushrooms, tofu, seafood, meat, noodles and vegetables. I’m particularly surprised at the size and number of the seafood dishes as we’d ordered crab and prawns and they were definitely generous serves considering the price.

If you do plan on having a meal at Little Lamb, make sure that you leave plenty of time with the ten plates taking us almost two hours to consume. Part of the fun is cooking it in small stages and then scooping hot the freshly cooked ingredients, dipping it into the sauce or just enjoying the whole experience. Eating the crab was definitely most challenging with the combination of tiny bowls and just chopsticks leaving us with little choice but to use our hands.

If you find yourself running low on soup, it’s easy enough for them to fill it with additional hot water. Also make sure you leave some space to enjoy the soup broth that becomes infused with all the flavours from the freshly cooked ingredients.

Name: Little Lamb
Address: 72 Shaftesbury Avenue, Chinatown, W1D 6NA
Phone: 020 7287 8078
Website: None that I could find

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In my last post, I eluded to visiting another good coffee store. I was fortunate enough to work out of our main office instead of client site for a day. I had stumbled across Wild & Wood on a Sunday and noticing how new it was and a big sign that says “We serve Monmouth Coffee!) Colleagues in the office confirmed rumours that Monmouth had put up their prices, so that made it easy for me to think about trying somewhere new. I mean, fresh organic Jersey milk and the same Monmouth beans had to have some potential right?

The cafe is best described as wide but shallow. A table by the window tempts you with some wicked looking cakes, biscuits and pastries while a whole pile of sandwiches and baguettes called out to be bought. I was a little surprised when I entered because they don’t have the counter that most places have, and so it feels like you’re confronted by the two attendants there. Of course, they were helpful and friendly so it wasn’t really a big deal. Just a bit surprising instead.

Like most serious coffee stores these days, Wild and Wood serve a decent flat white, though they only charge a measly £1.90 for it. I feel a little bit traitorous to Monmouth because I would definitely go back if I had another day near the office. It was really that good.

Name: Wild & Wood
Address: 1 New Oxford Street London WC1A 1BA
Website: None that I could find

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