VAGRANT APPETITE

London Uncovered

2005-09-03T20:08:00.000+01:00

On a haunt around London we decided to check out the uncovered bits of London and all the eateries grown out of the ethnic diversity that make this city great. First up - Salt Beef with Mustard 1.90 p. this place is open 24 hours a day and stocks the best bagels in this city, plain, poppy and onion platzelst around the 20p mark and awesome rye bread studded through with fennel seeds for 40p. Beigel Bakery - Brick Lane, Shoreditch

The New Picadilly Cafe. A giant, or dinosaur Is hould say of the classic cafes that you see dotted about London, with E. Pellici's on Bethnal Green given listed status its a wonder this loving haunt with its formica and 50s ringing cash register hasn't succumbed tot he what-must-be-insane rents as the cafe is situated literally behind Tottenham Court Station and sharing prize estate with the Royal Academy of Arts and Regents Street. I don't pretend to know much about the legacy or architectural significance of this place but I found it to be absolutley hospitable and had my request for extra custard on my Spotted Dick pudding graciously and personally recieved, service like that I've never had at more 'modern' places.

This isn't retro 'styling', this is the real, authentic deal.

Original menu, plus nursery/school dinner pudding favourites.

Budapest Eating 2005

2005-07-09T14:23:00.000+01:00

A great trip to Budapest was had, I spent 3 days there and was committed to uncovering some gems off the beaten track more suited to my student budget. Being a poor gourmand is no easy feat and I wanted to try authentic, good food that Budapest had to offer so I emailed a local for some tips. I'm just back from Budapest too. It was amazing. We managed to avoid all the tourist traps and navigated our way round some really good, cheap local restaurants and get a flavour of Hungary without all the cliched stuff.

Don't bother going to ANY restaurant on or near Vaci Utca, its kinda sleazy and you'll be properly ripped off (unless you enjoy that kinda thing). Avoid bars with girls sitting in the entrance of looking bored..

I stayed in the Hotel Taverna on Vaci Utca, right in the centre of the shopping district, the location was excellent and literally 2 minutes away from the riverside. I have to say that they were very accomodating and helpful although it wasn't worth the going rate of 140 euros a night (we got ours via Expedia so we didn't pay even one 5th of the price)I emailed a local in Budapest for recommendations for food and managed to eat incredibly well for hardly anything.

CASTRO BISTRO Address:1090 Budapest, Rádai u. 35. 36 (End of the Raday, go past all the touristy places like Pink Cadillac and stuff)

You would never know that this place does great Serbian Croat food, it looks just like a cafe/drinking estbalishment albeit an incredibly popular one. Very, very busy and we had to wait 15 minutes for a table, but it was very worth it. A few specialites for very cheap prices and extremely large portions. again.
Pork knuckle and bean soup:

Beef and Pork kebabs:

Grilled porkchops with grilled paprika.

STEX HAZ - H-1085 Budapest, József krt. 55-57.
Menu: http://www.travelport.hu/vendeglatas/EVendeg.vd?&session_id=6Jsm257106112091574116JsmN&amp;amp;amp;amp;ed=5&ekezet=0&fp=3&fi=0&lang=en&lang=en&ml=11&ei=0&s=0&mi=2&xcnl30
This is a number of photos from two meals we had at 'STEX HAZ' which is a brassserie that seemed incredibly popular with the locals, great ambience and good traditional national pub food. No tourists, but they do have an English menu. Very good prices and a big menu heavy on meats as to be expected. the international-type dishes we felt were not as successful as the Hungarian specialities.

Beefsteak with asparagus and ham ragu for around £5

Although it doens't look too appetising here and appears to be a heart-attack on the plate, it was supriseingly wholesome, something called the 'poultry plate' which featured a potato pancake smothered with sour cream and cheese and grilled chicken wing and breast.

Here is a layered dish of chicken baked with ham in a metal stove which I can't remember the name of, it included a pouring sauce of dijon and honey that came in a gravy boat.

Goulash (one bowl but like the rest of the portion sizing in Budapest actually enough for 2 people and a child):

Lizst Ferenc area around the Opera House is kind of the 'go to be seen' sort of place, very touristy with a number of cafes that lal look the same and kind of themed-corporate feeling with overpriced international food, although the atmosphere is ok - its mainly tourists checking other tourists out. I overdosed on really high quality espressos (for less than 80p) and the famous Budapestian cakes/desserts to be found in every good Custrazda (dessert/cake buffet).

Reccomendations are Jegbufe and Europa Cafe, although if you stay away from the tourity bits and be a bit more adventourous you really get to uncover good stuff. For quick bites on there are pastry stands at almost every station called Princess which floods the station with an amazing smell. I think Budapest has quite a large Middle Eastern community, try and find gyros cafes (kebab canteens) they often do really quite high quality Greek food/meze which you have to pay extortionately for in the UK.

They're dotted about all over the place and are more family-orientated restaurants than the image of a kebab place in England. Ask for a 'Gyros 'tal' for a full plate of really good food including salad, rice bread and potatoes for around 550 Forint (about £1.50!). Arabic coffee and Arabian sweets like baklava are also sold in these places). The best thing is the lack of the tooth-breaking sweetness that I've experienced with baklava in the UK.
A seletion of baklava with very aromatic Arabian coffee. Very large desserts too.

The Central Market sold an amazing variety of meats, pork and poultry seeming to be transformed into an endless array of speck, hams, smoked and preserved meats. there is also game and fish in the basement (you'll know from the wild smell as you go downstairs!) and also homemade picled vegetables.

There are endless stalls like this on the floor of the market, worth buying is salami to take home.

Desserts etc.

I feel like I need to make another whole post dedicated especially to Hungarian biscuits and cakes and so on. The flavour is definitely different to desserts and baked goods in the UK that I find way too sweet. I think that fructose instead of sugar is used in the pastry and tortas which lends a more subtle sweetness. In any case, a slice of torta shouldn't set you back more than 200 Forint at a stall or around 300 Forint in a cake cafe. That is less than 1 english pound, which astounds me.

SPAGHETTI ICE - Address : VI. Andrássy út 14.Tel : (+36-1) 332 4559 Open daily :09:00-24:00

Italian gelaterie with its signature dish a bowl of ice cream created to look like a bowl of spaghetti, there were amazing flavours including tiramisu, nutella, amaretto and Kinder!
Here are the nutella and tiramisu sundaes.

JEGBUFE
'The Jegbufe was opened by Sandor Flaschner more then 50 years ago and in the rush going on around it, it's almost the only place which gives the feel of continuity. It's just as it was ever. You have to order at the desk, pay at the cashiers and then go back with the receipt to pick up your stuff which at the end you can eat and rink standing in the window watching the life going on outside. Jegbufe is a snack-bar, pastry shop, cofeehouse and ice-cream shop in one! And it's in the very heart of the city, offering a view on the traffic going to and coming from the Elisabeth Bridge, and the people changing means of transport on the square. Don't go there if you are watching for excellence, this place is for a quick snack and to get the air of the past 50 years.
Theme: BuffetComparison: less expensive than averageAddress: 5th district, Ferenciek tere 10.Phone: +36 1 318-6205
Directions: It's just on the corner of Ferenciek tere (if you face the Danube, then on the right side), between the entrance of the underground and the bus stop.'

Very centrally placed canteen-style cake buffet. Pay first by saying the name of the cake you want and then take the reciept to the counter. Very busy and the attitude to cake-eating seems very utilitarian as opposed ot the whole sit-down affair you get back in london, I suppose its because they don't have to suffer the experience of the cost for a slice of very mediocre Starbucks-mass produced stuff.

I couldn't possibly post pictures of all the cakes eaten here, but here are a few worthy of note, below is a passionfruit mousse with chocolate pieces dotted through it. Very light and delicious.

Sacher torte

More banana chocolate torta:

At the Angelika cafe by the Pest Riverside:

EUROPA CAFE
Address : V. Szent István krt. 7-9.
Great little cafe with good cakes/desserts, although they charge drink via militires ccs, which I found a little odd.

Chocolate dessert, brownie like with crispy pieces in the middle.

A biscuit shell with a chocolate mousse interior:

Here is a row of Hungarian biscuits in the Central Market on the left, they looked so jewel-like and beautiful, they were sold by kilo weights nad I bought some to take back to London with me, but unfortunately melted in my bag. I did have fun eating them though.

More pastry for 150 to 200 Forint (around 50-70 pence each for a danish the size of a child's head!)

The top floor is great for authentic Hungarian food which the maket regulars and tourists both frequent, very basic. You just point and ask at the canteen counter and they load of your plate with a gigantic portion of hot food (nothing more than 900 forints for a kilo of cabbage rolls, delicious sausage/rice/potato combo. Crusty white bread is free.

Sauerkraut and sausage..

We had no problems with supermarkets, the most well known chains are MATCH and there's another one called CBC or something but its easy to spot. There is a large MATCH in the basement of the Central Market.Museum of Fine Art was incredibly impressive, if only for the architecture but the number of paintings and sculptures really daunted me, especially the OTT gilt frames.Also worth making the trip is the Communist monument park which the authorities made sure tpo place WELL away from the city, some really crazy stuff.The baths, especially the Szerchenyi ones take thermal bathing to a whole new level with a lot of medicinal ones and its arranged in a warren-like maze. The saunas especially are really hardcore.

Things to buy:Paprika (in both sweet and hot versions - shop around for good prices, they come in dinky little tins as well as procelain souvenir versions)

FOIE GRAS - Seriously, I got 140 grams of premium grade natural goose liver for 2700 Forint (£7.70). I'm now too scared to cook anything with it for fear of messing up such a high quality ingredient...

Here is a mug of mustard that I [picked up from the supermarket, I loved the idiosyncratic packaging and summed up a lot of what Hungarian culture was about. The perfect condiment for sausage, pickle and beer.

I will be updating this some more, but this is Budapest eating for now.

Picnic in Roundhay Park

2005-06-23T20:42:00.000+01:00

Summer is all about eating al fresco. Leeds weather rarely gets above lukewarm, but today was an absolute perfection, I even got sunburnt shoulders...Not something you'd associate with West Yorkshire and the 'grim' North. We went down to Kirkgate Market and picked up a rotisserie chicken and thick roast ribs with fabulous crackling, mustard, a £1 mixed bag of salad from Kirkgate Market (I was expecting a packet of pre-washed green stuff, but the boy handed me a bulging plastic carrier of a whole lettuce, 4 sun-ripened toms, a bag of radishes, a huge, mild whole red onion and half a cucumber), 1/2 lb of cherries all eaten with abandon in Roundhay Park by the lake.

Bodeans BBQ - An American Werewolf in Clapham

2005-06-16T23:49:00.000+01:00

Bodeans

Bodeans BBQ is a place I always wanted to check out, but I'd heard that the Soho branch had suffered in terms of quality and authentic American portion sizes on which it prides itself. I had tickets to see Ornette Coleman perform on his 75th birthday at the Barbican and decided to try it. It didn't dissapoint - will post more about this later. Just wanted to get this photo up for the meat porn watchers..

Summer Berry Trifle with flourless Orange Almond sponge and Creme Anglaise

2005-06-15T14:53:00.000+01:00

Summer weather calls for something cold, creamy, tart and sweet all at the same time. This is my first ever trifle and made up with whatever I had lying around as I'm due to be moving house soon. The layers are made up of a citrussy almond sponge cake with a coarser crumb, which is perfect for soaking up summer berry juices. The creme anglaise made with grated nutmeg (that's custard to me and you) made with some skimmed milk (so I had to add some gelatine to ensure a slighlty more solid set in the bowl) topped off with some fromage frais for the clear, fresh taste, finally dusted with cinnamon instead of the traditional whipped cream. This is best made one day ahead.

Orange Almond sponge:
190C oven celcius
3 eggs seperated
5 tbsp Sugar
1 tbsp Orange zest plus 1 tbsp orange juice
150 grams Ground almonds
Pinch of salt

1. Whisk egg yolks with sugar until it ribbons, add orange juice and zest with the salt. Mix with ground almonds.
2. In a clean metal bowl, handwhisk or machine whisk egg white until stiff and fold in almond yolk mixture. Pour into a 8 or 9 inch pan. Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes. Leave to cool and turn out.

Summer berry compote
100 grams mixed berries, e.g. strawberries, blue/redcurrants, blackberries etc or subsitute with cherries.
2 tsps sugar depending on how tart your fruit is
1 tsps cornstarch/cornflour

1. Heat berries in a pan over medium heat until it starts to bleed and mash with a fork. Add the sugar.
2. Mix cornstarch with 1 tbsp cold water and pour into bubbling berry mixture stirring all the time. The mixture should amalgamate and become thicker. Take it off the heat.

Creme Anglaise

2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
150 milk or cream
2 tbsp sugar
grated nutmeg

1. Heat the milk/cream in a pan until almost boiling point with nutmeg
2. Meanwhile, whisk eggs and sugar. Pour milk into egg mixture whisking all the time to prevent curdling. It should thicken up, if not return to pan and continue whisking over low heat. If you're making this with skimmed milk, add a tablespoon of gelatine crystals to the hot mixture. Leave to cool.

Assemble by breaking up sponge into rough chunks and line the bottom of the bowl.Drizzle fruit compote over sponge, at this point you can add some sherry or sweet wine for a more boozy affair. spoon the custard over the compote and repeat. Top with whipped fromage frais or cremem fraiche and sprinkle some toasted almonds or some roasted, chopped nuts and perhaps for an excessive and indulgent touch, a maraschino cherry. I think its far more charming to do as little as possible and crush a ripe raspberry over the top so its crimson seeds run through the white cream.

"What's the most important thing in the world? Food!"

2005-04-16T18:49:00.000+01:00

I've been reading George Orwell's account of Industrialism and its effects on England in 'the Road to Wigan Pier' published in 1937 and particularly it's affect on the industrialised Northen towns of Leeds, Sheffield and Yorkshire in general. His comments throughout strike so true for the condition of England today, particular with regards to diets and the way that wealth affects the palate and on the industrialisation of food and wastage, its hard to believe that these observations were made in 1937 and ring so true of 2005:

To begin with, there is the frightful debauchery of taste that has already been effected by a century of mechanization. This is almost too obvious and too generally admitted to need pointing out. But as a single instance, take taste in its narrowest sense—the taste for decent food. In the highly mechanized countries, thanks to tinned food, cold storage, synthetic flavouring matters, etc., the palate is almost a dead organ. As you can see by looking at any greengrocer’s shop, what the majority of English people mean by an apple is a lump of highly-coloured cotton wool from America or Australia; they will devour these things, apparently with pleasure, and let the English apples rot under the trees. It is the shiny, standardized, machine-made look of the American apple that appeals to them; the superior taste of the English apple is something they simply do not notice. Or look at the factory-made, foil-wrapped cheese and ‘blended’ butter in any grocer’s; look at the hideous rows of tins which usurp more and more of the space in any food-shop, even a dairy; look at a sixpenny Swiss roll or a twopenny ice-cream; look at the filthy chemical by-product that people will pour down their throats under the name of beer. Wherever you look you will see some slick machine-made article triumphing over the old-fashioned article that still tastes of something other than sawdust. And what applies to food applies also to furniture, houses, clothes, books, amusements, and everything else that makes up our environment. There are now millions of people, and they are increasing every year, to whom the blaring of a radio is not only a more accept-able but a more normal background to their thoughts than the lowing of cattle or the song of birds. The mechanization of the world could never proceed very far while taste, even the taste-buds of the tongue, remained uncorrupted, be-cause in that case most of the products of the machine would be simply unwanted.

Asides from an incredibly interesting social history of English industrialisation, it's very readable and Orwell really casts his amazing observations and captures the essence of what it was like being amongst the coal-miners. However, it pains me and amazes me that they could be about any British supermarket of today. Mechanized 'convinience food'..protein 'shapes'..It's horrific when you really sit down and think about the impact it has on the diet. You can read the extract in its entirety here:

:http://www.george-orwell.org/The_Road_to_Wigan_Pier/11.html

Mid-week Roast Chicken

2005-04-16T18:39:00.000+01:00

They say that a restaurant kitchen stnads or falls on it's roast chicken. Its something that seems fiendishly simple in it's execution, being so humdrum and everyday. Chicken is so much an 'everyday'-ish sort of meat. But it needn't be. This is mid-week roast chicken from a recipe adapted from Meathenge roasting/grilling guru. The roasting method really does matter here to ensure a moist, crisp-skinned bird, I used to roast it under foil and in a tray, which is pretty much the conventional way of doing it, but this method actually allows the meat to steam as opposed to roast. This means that the underside gets all soggy and the skin never really crisps up in the best rotisserie fashion.

Rub: Lemon thyme, rosemary and tarragon, salt and pepper.
Method: Lay the chicken breast side down on a rack, underneath slide a tray to catch the drippings for a great gravy.
Oven: At 220C to start and then down to 190C for around 40 minutes, turn the bird the right way up for the last 15 minutes.

This really was a revelation to eat and made such a difference with rack-roasting to the texture, which remained meltingly moist and firm, but with a delicious crusty skin.

Chicken and Chargrilled Pepper Homemade Pizza

2005-04-07T18:17:00.000+01:00

I'm unable to wax lyrical about the art of pizzas and pizza making in general, having not sampled the range out there to have a good judgement of what constitutes 'good', after all there are infinite categrories, thin-crust Italian, variations amongst the Italian-type crust, the American adaptations, inter-regional varities including the famous Chicago 'pie', deep pan, fast food, gourmet...In anycase, I would reccomend the wisdom of http://www.sliceny.com/ SliceNY has reviews by the slice and I'll definitely be consulting it as a resource for a pizza safari in New York in the future. On to the homemade bit; the dough recipe was adapted from something I found at Epicurious, I halved the ingredients to make just one thin-crust pizza, around 15 inches.

220 grams flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon active dried yeast
200 ml warm water
salt
italian herbs/oregano

Knead until elastic and leave to rise for 40 minutes with a smear of olive oil, then press out with fingertips, or a rolling pin.

Tomato sauce was a simmered combination of chopped plum tomatoes, garlic, 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper in a pot until thick and spreadable.

Toppings of chicken breast fillet in strips, onion, mozarella and chargrilled red pepper.. Admiteddly, the mozzarella could've, should've been of better quality, but I think the supermarket version worked jsut as well but with a different melting point in texture and mouthfeel. It came out tasty, with a crips base and a foldable crumb.

Rhubarb Custard Almond Tarte with Ginger and Lemon

2005-04-03T19:19:00.000+01:00

In pursuit of something sour and comforting at the same time, I decided to muck about with some rhubarb I had lying in the fridge, pre-destined for a crumble affair with creme anglaise but was looking decidedly worse for wear. A disguise was in order for the pink vegetable with fruit pretensions. Soaking the rhubarb before hand in some bicarbonate of soda seems to counteract the tooth-furring quality of rhubarb that sometimes makes you feel as though youv'e sucked on stainless steel straws or have been licking pennies. This is due to the high levels of oxalycic acid present in the vegetable, which cna be successfully tempered by a sweetening or diverting flavour such as orange juice or ginger.
I followed a standard shortcrust pastry omitting flour in place of ground almonds for a richer taste, plus grated lemon zest and mixed spice. I've yet to taste this, meanwhile waiting for Mr VA to get back so we can tuck in.

100 grams ground almonds
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp sugar, pinch of salt
lemon zest
mixed baking spice
ice cold water
1 lb rhubarb
sugar
2 eggs
200 ml milk/cream
2 coin sized pieces of minced ginger
nutmeg

Arrange rhubarb in pastry. Beat two eggs with sugar and heat milk in saucepan with ginger and spices until warm, pour milk into the beaten egg and stir. Pour over rhubarb in into the oven for 15 minutes at 200C or until the custard is set and a knifepoint, or finger(!) comes out clean in the center. Leave to cool, refridgerate and serve with vanilla ice cream or something warm like a raspberry coulis.

A baked custard, following a basic creme brulee custard recipe, poured still hot into the pre-baked crust which meant that the resulting texture was water-tight and not prone to sogginess.

2005-04-02T18:54:00.000+01:00

Asparagus season isn't really yet upon us, but I couldn't resist getting a bunch for dinner. These look ominous but tasted fantastic lightly steamed with hollandaise sauce. A simple supper with some field mushroom baked with pesto and balsamic vinegar. It reminded me of being in Barcelona as an 18 year old and eating loaves of white bread smeared with freshly made basil pesto in the searing heat by the beach.

Friday Supper and Zen: the Art of the Noodle.

2005-04-01T20:06:00.000+01:00

Red-Braised Gammon Shank Noodle Soup with Sweet and Sour Tofu and Mangetout.

I rarely cook noodles. The overriding importance in any noodle soup I find, rests not on the wheat/rice component but on the quality of the stock its cooked in. A great stock can elevate the lowliest of noodles to a major eating experience, of which raises the level of competitiveness between noddle stalls all over SE Asia (Watch the film 'Tampopo'!). I've read of a Vietnamese beef pho noddle stand that has kept its beef stock going for over 40 years. I can't imagine how rich that must taste. But how wonderful for someone visiting the same stand after a decade and re-discovering a taste of the past..

Tonight's efforts began sometime yesterday afternoon when I made Red Cooked Pork Shank, a stew made with the hock end of the pig, an animal much loved by the Chinese. Its very much a comfort food thing for me, the long-cooking time and the subsequent and unfashionable gelatinous nature of the casserole really bring back smells that fill my home with a fragrance of somewhere and sometime else. The key ingredients are: star anise, ginger, chili bean paste, soy sauce (dark and light), salt and sugar and water. All in a pot with the lid on and simmer for at least 4 hours..or 4 days. Its failsafe cooking and the meat falls away from the bone and goes deliciously soft. Its not much to look at, so decorate with some chopped scallion before bringing to the table.

Left over from a pot of shabu shabu the other night, I also made sweet and sour tofu stirfried with mangetout. Chinese cooking and the 'stirfry' seems to be some kind of holy grail of quick cookery, and rightfully so. But the crucial ingredient lies not in MSG or any secret marinade, but more in the use of FIRE. I have an electric hob in the kitchen, being a student and renting means that installing gas would be like waving a red rag at a chip pan fire, this doens't bide well for really great stir-frying. Getting the wok insanely hot and flavouring the oil with ginger and garlic means everything gets chopped and prepared beforehand is pretty much all the secret preparation there is. And as for the mysterious ingredient behind the 'sweet and sour' restaurant flavour? Tomato ketchup. Takeaways often try to replicate 'homestyle' dishes, lemon this, sweet and sour that, black bean everything. Its really not very nice, at least as it is sold in this country where Chinese food really doesn't have the same status as the exoticism of Thai cuisine and you get the feeling that these businesses wouldn't be eating anything like what they sell in their homes.It all comes down to what sells though and I think that attitude rests on basic ignorance of the variance of cuisine within a landmass larger than Europe. Like anything it will slowly change as developments in the East get under way in the next few decades and food knowledge becomes more egalitarian and not just hte preserve of the well-travelled and epicurious.

Fail-safe Sweet and Sour Tofu with Mangetout

Firm tofu, cubed.
Trimmed mangetout
1 tbsp ginger and garlic/spring onion
3 tablespoons of each: vinegar, tomato ketchup or puree, sugar
1 tbsp of water
salt and white pepper
1 tsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp water(optional)

Heat wok as high as it will go with some oil, put tofu into the pan and cook on all sides until brown, the patterns that begin to form on tofu start to go doily like and start to look chintzy, which is your cue to lift it out and put somewhere safe. Re-heat the wok and briefly fry the ginger/garlic/spring onion alliums until fragrant. Chuck in mangetout and stir fry, the colours really come alive at this point. Tip in the cooked tofu and add the mixed marinade of vinegar, tomato, sugar. Mix until everything takes on that reddish colour we all know and love, at this point you can add the cornflour to thicken into a sauce, but I often find that it doesn't need it. But if you must, the longer you cook it, the goopier it becomes with the flour addition.

I love these bowls, they cost around 2 pounds from most Chinese supermarkets and the fish motif always makes me smile.

Young Cheng 22 Lisle Street, WC2H 7BA

2005-03-12T01:21:00.000Z

Young Cheng always comes up trumps in the mire of London Chinatown eating. We always ask for the '8 pound per head dish' menu which includes soup and rice and dessert, which the staff use as a barometer of how well you think you know your food. I don't know whether this is a popular Chinatown tactic, but ordering away from the 'Set Menu', that invariably serves up the over-sugared baby-food sweet and sour glop and 5th rate Peking duck with dried out pancakes is the trick to getting a really edible meal in London. I've come here before with an English friend and the waiters hovered around trying to guage my ethnicity before I had to ask for the 'real menu'. Its offputting at the best of times, being judged, its almost hostlie, but that's classic Chinatown service for you.

And now onto the eating:Red Snapper is something that I don't often see on Western menus, but the colour is breathtaking. Here it is, steamed with hot sesame oil poured over raw spring onion, ginger and corainder. It makes for refreshingly light eating, tempered by the salty soy steamed broth. The fish had been 'butterflied' somewhat to expose the bones, I can't work out quite how they did it.

As you can see below, the trick here is to cram as much of the resulting parcel into your mouth
with a passing regard as to your dining companions views of your evident gluttony,

This is one of my absolute favourite dishes at Young's. Cabbage pork wraps. The mixture is a mix of
diced pork, baby sweetcorn and pine nuts sprinkled with sesame. The effect is one of crunch and munch.
There is a real caramelized taste and is served with rich, thick salty-sweet bean paste.

Chinese New Year 2005 Hotpot mania

2005-03-07T00:52:00.000Z

Blurry quality, but still enough to inspire the tastebuds.

I don't normally celebrate Chinese New Year on my own. This is my final year in Leeds and I felt like this would be good to do everything up North that I would normally do at home with my family in London. It will be a good send off.
I made it down to the frozen food market in the dilapidated Chinatown area and picked up some goodies. Hotpot is something found all over South East Asia, known as 'steamboat' or 'huo guo' (literally 'firepot') in Chinese.I picked up some pe-tsai greens, which I later found to be freighted in from China somewhere (bad), tofu, tiger prawns, Korean, Japanese and thai fish cakes and assorted yummies. Enoki mushrooms and finally a portion of the amazing kim-chee I brought up from London.Ingredients for a winter hotpot They didn't have the paper-thin slices of meat available at only the best Korean butchers in London up here (which are truly amazing when you can see your fingers through the meat - they really do slice it that thin). The thiness means that the meat cooks instantly which you can dip straight into your little concoction of wasabi, soy and chili bean sauce. Everything cooks at different times and dip in freely at whiever ingredient is done. Communal eating at it's very best.

Ingredients for a Yorkshire winter hotpot:

- Sliced rump steak

- Fresh firm tofu
- Napa Cabbage kimchee
- Mustard greens kimchee
- S-a cha Chinese BBQ sauce
- Chili bean sauce
- Soy sauce
- Sliced pork fillet
- Tofu and fish blocks
- Fish balls
- Tofu and seaweed cakes
- Beef balls
- Thai fish cakes
- Various Korean fish products
-Chinese pe-tsai

- Enoki mushrooms

This all turned into an unbelievebly rich stock at the end and warmed us up. You really can't beat a fire on your tabletop.

In Search of Lost Time -Summer 2004

2005-03-06T21:46:00.000Z

This is a series of photos from my yearly visit to Taipei, Taiwan where my grandmother and my mother's family lives. I've never thought to document the idiosyncrasies of the city where I have spent much of my years growing up in, things change very, very fast and like a lot of other people I'm sure, food memories are a way back home.

The Taiwanese/Chinese attitude to bakery and patisserie is interesting, often, bread products are baked primarily as a visual feast with not much of the traditional substantial qualities savoured in Europe and the West. The desirable chiffon-like texture of white bread is an acquired taste for those who prefer their daily bread to be something more than a slightly less sweet chiffon. However, that's not to say that their pastries and purposely sweet-things are uninteresting, in fact this 'fusion' food is the opposite of Pan-Asian/European restaurant fare where traditional Asian elements are tinkered with to appeal to the Western palate. Here, breads, cakes and pastries are tinkered with to appeal to the Chinese taste.

The proximity of Japanese and Korean aesthetic and cultural influences on Taiwan makes for some possibly unintended and new infusions. Very cute dog-bun with raisins for eyes, a 'bo-lo' Hong Kong style chiffon bun with flaked almonds, a glazed variation with a sweet, milk and almond paste inside and a lonesome chocolate tartlett soon to be consumed by my brother.

Hong Kong - Mandarin Hotel buffet

A stopover measure for passport renewal in Hong Kong. City of my birth. I hardly ever go back to Hong Kong, despite living there for a good decade or so, I find that so many things change in such a short space of time that my favourites eateries have long gone andI spend my time trying to capture and re-capture a little taste or evocation of the past.

Hotel buffets, however are another deal altogether. HK hotels are renowned for their sumptuous and extravagent offerings round the clock, the Mandarin hotel had an ambience and attitude many will be undoubtedly familiar with:I Must Beat the Buffet. The unmistakable air of desperation, (despite the fact that the food isn't going anywhere) the hovering at the stations and the general rush to the seafood is a little bit of the unpleasantness at these affairs. What can't be denied is that the chefs at these institutions have to work bloody hard and watch their food go to waste after a few mouthfuls.

Grill and seafood station, which is amazing considering that crustacea in general are the insects/bugs of the ocean. Below, an assortment of fish gratin, chili-tomato dressed scallips, braised chinese vegetables and in the terracotta pot, a Japanese dessert dusted with coconut which tasted inexplicably like mango, sweet butter and marzipan all at the same time.

Mitsukoshi Food Hall Basement, Taipei Taiwan.

The food hall at the Japanese mall Mitsukoshi is a chaotic affair. Imagine a mall with hawkers. Hawkers who yell at you. Its legal. What is clearly not legal is the incredible mixture of smells that coat the air as you walk into a basement of a hotch-potch of culinary wizardry, the crying of babies, running about of school children, the illicit dating of high school kids and unbelivably, students doing their homework amongst the noise and bustle.

I ate here almost every other day and chose the traditional Northen Chinese fare, usually inauthentic, however for 150 NT or 1 UK pound (2 dollars) gets you:

Miso soup, pickled vegetables, sweet plum sauce with scallions, leek and strips of beef marinated in soy and 'velveted'. All wrapped up in a thin, steamed flour pancake. It beats Pret a Manger anyday.

Baked Cheesecakes

2005-03-06T20:55:00.000Z

The idea of 'baking a cake' isn't really something that appeals to me much; the flour, the mess and the expectation at the oven door for something delicious , spongy and light just doesn't hold the same appeal as something more robust. There's a time and a place for a sweet piece of nothingness and I'd like to have it made for me. Cheesecake is the nice in-between a torte and an actual cake.

Here is my first attempt at a baked cheesecake. Using a generic cream cheese works well here, but the addition of sour cream (even yoghurt), ricotta and marscapone adds a depth of flavour and changes the flavour and texture of the cheesecake over time, this seasoning effect isn't as strong with regular cream cheese although it produces a good, dense texture and a lingering mouthfeel. I used half-fat Philly which didn't betray too much of the dusty flavour you often get with 'light' or diet products. After surfing around for an age, I made a mix of directions to produce the below.The nut crust base was a hit, dry frying them in a pan produces a really smoky, delicious flavour. I used a mixture of chopped peanuts, hazelnuts and brazils.

Here is the final cake with a mixed berry glaze.

680 grams or two 8 0z packages cream cheese
17 tablespoons sugar
5 eggs
4.5 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons lemon juice
473 ml sour cream
2 squares of good chocolate
2 teaspoons of good coffee or espresso dissolved in water

Base: 200 grams chopped nuts
2 tablespoons ground almonds

Mix all nuts and almond meal with melted butter and press into a springform pan, trying to line the sides as much as possible about 1 1/2\" up the sides of the pan, set aside to mix filling.

Start by beating the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Keep the mixer on a low setting throughout the beating and mixing process. Add the sugar a little at a time and continue beating until creamy. Add one egg at a time and beat after each egg. When eggs have been mixed into the cream cheese add flour, vanilla and lemon juice, coffee, mix well. Add the sour cream last and beat well.

Pour half of cream cheese mixture into the springform pan. Melt chocolate in a bain-marie or in the microwave and add to the remaining mixture and tip slowly into the tin. Place on the top rack in the middle of a 170 degree preheated oven for one hour and 15 minutes. When time is up, prop open oven door and leave in oven for one hour. After one hour, remove from oven. Let cool enough before the cheesecake is put into the refrigerator for 24 hours.

This recipe was very slightly crumbly, but dense in the middle. The coffee flavour didn't overpower.

Not using a bain-marie in the oven gave me a cookie-like crust which I personally really liked, however, a water-bath would give a bakery-perfect uniform finish.

I added melted 70% cocoa Lindt chocolate to a little remainder of the second batch and poured in circles before swirling with a skewer towards the centre of the cake to get the pattern effect. Pretty, no?

Second attempt with summer berries in the mix and a glace topping.

2005-03-06T20:48:00.000Z

A roast beef dinner

First ever roast sirloin, admittedly a tough piece of meat to get right for a first-time roast-ee. I scanned Epicurious, Delia and Nigel Slater but came up trumps with Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's guide to doing justice to the cow. Mustard, salt and pepper, plus a bay-leaf or two. Roast peppers and broccoli on the side with bearnaise. The collagen dissolved in slow heat and didn't poison Mr. Vagrant.

Christmas 2004 in Leeds

2005-03-06T20:47:00.000Z

Roast Duck stuffed with Apricot, Orange and Stilton

A frugal affair for two this was not. Cheating this was. The duck came from Marks and Spencers, the fine purveyor of 'finishing it off in the oven' meals and other sundries and bringer of garlic to the masses in the UK. Roast potatoes, two types of stuffing, cranberry sauce, brussel sprouts cooked with ginger, glazed carrots and tiny chipolatas, cloudy apple juice and ready-made bread sauce. Christmas away from home, wherever that is, is something worth making special and taking the risk element out of when hungry mouths (well, two hungrey mouths including mine) are waiting. I'm really not ready to do Xmas from absolute scratch until I reach my mardy thirties and this year's did its job and pushed me to bursting point. I would include pictures of the Turkish pastries baklava, made with cardmom, pistachio, filo pastry drenched in honey had I remembered to document the gluttony...

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Not bad for a couple of down-at-the-heel students I'd say!

An overloaded plate.

2005-03-06T20:31:00.001Z

Is there anything loaded with more anticipation?

Christmas 2004, parnsips, roast potatoes, glazed carrots, ginger brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce..mmm

Cafe Emm's of Soho, London.

2005-03-06T20:26:00.000Z

Mr. V and I found this place by chance a few years ago on one of our jaunts to the capital. Finding somewhere cheap and tasteful, but not obscenely unpalatable or a menu displayed in neon grease patina above your head is near-impossible in central London. Cafe Emm's on Frith Street in Soho, London is one of those reliable eateries that delivery again and again. The burgers I have heard on more than one occasion are the 'best in Soho', which I suppose counts for a little something. The draw is definitely thre half-pound burger, which weighs in with a hefty home-made wholemeal bun, chips, salad with a verdant mustardy vinagerette. A choice of toppings for your burger is offered, Stilton, barbeque etc. the menu is priced attractively under 5.95 rising to 7-ish. French cafe art lines the walls, a hustling and bustling line of people lines this place from around 8pm onwards.