Wednesday 16 December 2009

Kaffeine - Fitzrovia


Kaffeine serves amazing coffee. The sign outside states 'We serve the only authentic flat whites in London'. You could call them cocky for saying this, Lantana is after all only a moments walk away, but when the coffee hits your palette you'll agree; they are most deffinately up there with the crema of the crop. They are kinda wonderful. Refreshingly they don't overcharge either - The coffee's are all around the £2 mark and the perfectly moist and flavoursome muffins are only £1.50. I'll be visiting again.


Monday 14 December 2009

Lantana - Fitzrovia

Lantana is the sort of place that will always win awards, luckily it's not the sort of place that treats it's customers differently from the way it treats it's panelists.

I've managed places in the past where the whole place goes crazy when a critic walks in, everything is cooked specially; I've tried to never agree with this practice. All customers should get the same top notch service.

Timeout has awarded Lantana the best Cafe in London - I completely agree. The bacon & egg sandwich is like none you've ever tasted before; sourdough bread gently toasted, just enough of a light aioli sauce on top and a few other surprises that only added to the experience. The coffee is a wonder too.

If this is the norm for Cafes in Australia I may just swallow my sporting pride and jump on a flight.

The English have a lot to learn!

Tuesday 1 December 2009

The Goods Shed - Canterbury, Kent


















Revisiting somewhere that you've loved before is always a tricky thing. The first time I found The Goods Shed I was blown away. On my second visit I was even more impressed!

Outside, on this particular Saturday, they were holding a 'car-boot market'. This is a stunning and simple idea, all the local allotment folk and small holders alike are invited to sell any extra crops they may have yielded. At the far end of the car park was a man with a car-boot full of carrots, closer to the front door a women selling lots of beetroot, in between every hue and type of vegetable one could ever attempt to grow.

Such a wonderful idea - if a little illegal! It is forbidden in England to sell anything from an allotment, the idea being to keep the allotments free of commercial influences. Lets ignore that, as they say 'the law is an ass'.

Once inside you'll find an Aladdin's cave of a store. About a dozen independent farmers, grocers and Patrick the traiteur have come together under one beautiful roof to provide you with Kent's finest wares. You truly could complete a weekly shop here, they even have a man selling ethical toilet roll!

As if this wasn't enough the far wall is taken up by a restaurant where the chefs create delights for the stomach direct from the stalls alongside. Jay Rayner adored this place, he called it 'Gastro-Porn', I agree, although I generally prefer to eat in company and with the lights on.

The food is great and Enzo's bread, leavened within the building, is even better.

The Goods Shed is perfectly executed and a tribute to my home county. I've always been proud to be a man of Kent and now I've another gem to recommend.

I drove home a happy man.

Wednesday 11 November 2009

Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shop - Hampstead

I wouldn't normally get excited about such a naff franchised chain of Victorian themed sweet shops - but I've just let my sweet tooth get the better of me and spent a small fortune on sugar coated memories. How can a grown man resist buying what his Nan used to buy him?
I'm now sitting at home sugared up and smiling guiltily. The hero product for me? A Chocolate Tool Kit. It's made of poor quality chocolate and it's cloying but thirty years ago I'd have happily spent the night watching the A Team and choosing whether to eat the little saw, or the hammer or the chisel first- so that's the plan for tonight. Without the A Team.
They also sell boxes of Wilhelmina Original Dutch Peppermints - lighter than an extra strong mint and already empty.
It's hardly worth a long trek to find this shop but if your passing perhaps you should pop in. My nan certainly would.

Wednesday 4 November 2009

Cocomaya - Connaught Village

I'm not going to spoil the fun and beauty that is Cocomaya by describing it's charms. Just go and visit it today - it's that good!
They make their own chocolates (which surely you've tried by now?) and in this new location, only yards from the old store, they make rather wonderful bread, cakes and lunches too.
This store made me smile. A lot.
Go today.

Monday 2 November 2009

The De Beauvoir Deli Company - Pointless

I've been eagerly awaiting the opening of this new deli for some time now. I got especially excited when I started browsing facebook and saw so many great recommendations from future customers.

The wait is over - It's awful.

They've spent a small fortune on branding and admittedly the signage is rather stunning, yet the window itself, which is over twenty foot wide at a guess, has 5 soggy looking pumpkins and 12 dead leaves in it. It's not a display, it's a sign of worse to come.

Once inside the shop is huge, yet the fit-out seemed to consist of a visit to Ikea for some shelves and a quick call to 'The Bargain Hunters' to see if they have any junk left over from the last series.

I'm sorry but I don't want to hear radio 2 blaring at me and yes I would quite like a 'good morning' when I walk in. The food? Well I can buy half of it from my local supermarket at a better price and the other half I can find at just about every tired deli in the country.

In the world of TV and film they often talk about the fourth wall. This is the imaginary wall that separates the viewer from the actor. This wall should never be broken - unless your Hitchcock.
How does this relate to a deli? We as customers expect theatre and spectacle when we shop; leaving the anchovy fillets in the vacuum wrapped plastic, plus bar-code!, that they came off the white van with and then dumping them onto your chiller, the illusion is smashed. I now know where (and for how much) they buy the anchovies, the chorizo and the pasta. I should never see how a shop works.
This should all have been learnt on the first day of shop keepers school; maybe in De Beauvoir they skipped class to visit the graphic desingner!

Tuesday 27 October 2009

The Quater Grocer - Brompton Road

What I love about the Quarter Grocer, unlike many other so called grocers, is that you could actually do a mid week shop here. Everything you need for a few days is available.

Shouldn't more grocers & delis be like this? Far too many seem to think that people only want to top-up the supermarket shopping with a little trip to them. What's the point in selling jam if you don't sell bread, oil but no vegetables or, my pet hate, cheese but no biscuits.

The Quarter Grocer has it all: breakfast pastries baked next door in the cafe, home made salads for lunch, pasta, sauces and a whole load of antipasti for supper too. Unfortunately what they don't have is space. If you like browsing without chatting to the shopkeeper at the same time this is the wrong place for you.

Lemonmonkey - Stoke Newington

It's rare to find sanctuary in a city like London. I'd usually recommend The John Soane Museum, The British Libary or a certain little bench by a pretty little pond in a park I'm never going to divulge. Today I've found another - the dreadfully named LemonMonkey.
From the street it looks a little unpromising, the usual gastropub fittings of mixed up chairs, mashed up tables and moody lighting. Yet once inside a wave of serenity overcomes you, I'm hooked!

The big treat that awaits you is the delightful little annex at the back of the store, full of cookery books and mixed media art, it's somewhere to hanker down or cheer up - you decide.

The service may be a little sleepy but wouldn't you be too if you worked here? The coffee however was expert and the grocery selection curated with care (although I would urge them not to stack Vacherin Mont D'or on it's side) I would also worry that such a tiny selection of foodstuffs hardly makes it possible for customers to spend enough. The average spend here must be tiny - a coffee, a laptop and a two hour visit will not pay the bills.

Like a famous man at Salisbury's once said 'Retail is easy - but it's bloody impossible to get right'. The beautiful staff at LemonMonkey get it right.

Thank you.

PS After 40 minutes in the shop I started to love the name too!

The Ginger Pig - Victoria Park

Whilst the Ginger Pig is rightly famed for it's meat it's move into deli's is perhaps a little odd.

A few years ago I had an inspirational conversation with it's founder Tim Wilson, he hated independent food shops that lacked imagination in sourcing, he felt far too many grocers took the easy option of buying products from catalogues. It might make things easy to make just one phone call and everything arrives in one van the next day - but in essence you're no different from everyone else.

I completely agreed with this sentiment.

I was therefore a little surprised to find beneath the butchers a small deli and grocers where pretty much everything is to be found elsewhere. I've really nothing against Roskilly ice cream, Stokes conserves or the Handmade Biscuit Company but visit any farmers shop in the middle of nowhere and you'll find them. I expected more. Surely Yorkshires finest meats could be complimented by a Yorkshirecentric larder to match.

On the plus side it's a perfect place to create a meal in one stop. Victoria Park is probably the only village in London where you'll find no parking restrictions, the area has a really tight community who have successfully fought off every attempt to install yellow lines, metres or resident only bays. So pull up near by and enjoy anxiety free shopping.

Within the Ginger Pig you'll find everything you need to spend a cosy weekend chopping and cooking. Sausages, sauces, wines and puddings, bread, fruit and veg. Plus of course London's best sausage roll to guiltily pleasure yourself on the drive home.

What you won't find and it's a great shame, is something you've never found before.

Peche Mignon - Holloway Road

If you do something well - show off about it! It's not rocket science but so many shops fail to show themselves off to their best ability.

Peche Mignon never fails.

To be found on a backstreet just off everybody's most hated thoroughfare, the Holloway Road, this is a food haven for locals and the lost. It's easy to find - it's the only place worth going in.

A window brimming with piles of freshly baked pain chocolat and dozens of little Portuguese tarts draws me in. Inside huge displays of fresh flowers threaten to overpower the tiny store but don't. This is a store that cares about it's appearance thus conveying the message that the owner cares about his food, his large tummy gives a reassuring hint too.

With Dolfin Chocolate, Louse valley conserves and Kusmi Teas (a Russian tea via Paris - try the breakfast tea first, it's a treat among treats) among the grocery highlights it's easy to spend a pound or two and just in case you enjoy the music Peche Mignon has a curated display of very tempting Cd's so you can recreate the charming atmosphere at home. From the deli counter I'm always pulled towards the great Comte and simple cooking chorizo.

The service too is second to none, I was third in line and yet still got a 'hello what can I get you?' from the wonderfully effervescent Aussie barista. My coffee was ready before I'd even got to the front to pay.

Sitting outback in the tiny garden reading my news I felt truly ready for the day. What more can you ask from a local store?

Friday 23 October 2009

Fin & Flounder - Broadway Market

Broadway market has for a long time had almost everything. Today it felt complete. I found the Fin & Flounder

I never know how to start conversations with shopkeepers but seeing a smiling face and hearing a warm "good morning" followed by "what you cooking tonight?" as you walk through the door makes it easier. I had a simple risotto in mind, maybe a little white fish.

It was suggested that I try "a piece of Hake, as it's texture complements the softness of risotto rice perfectly and it's probably more suitable than our cod". After letting slip that I usually add vermouth Mr Happy pulled a free fish head from a bucket under the counter and proceeded to butcher it for me (do fishmongers butcher?) "Making your own fish stock would be fun". While he pulled out the eyes we talked about his 'London Cured Smoked Salmon', something I've not seen in a long time and also about my choice of rice for the evening. Yes I was upsold some rice that I probably don't need and yes I spent more money than I wanted, but isn't that what we all secretly want? Great service deserves reward.

The shop looks great too, on the left of this narrow mongers are gorgeous, almost nautical, pendant lights and simple white tiles, in-front sits a carefully curated and sustainably sourced selection of very fresh fish (deliveries daily from Cornwall and Hastings). On the right, highlighted by a simple wooden paneling, an array of everything else you may need to complement your purchase be it sushi rice, soy sauce, cookbooks or fresh herbs.

Mr Happy loves his job and I loved being his customer.

Tuesday 11 August 2009

Three Quirky Joys - LA


Three of my favourite LA stores. In no particular order .... one pun, one intriging and one simply stunning.

Monday 1 June 2009

Baby Cakes - Hong Kong


I'll admit to not being very impressed by Baby Cakes, it's miles from nowhere and lost within a soulless furniture park plus cup cakes always seem to be overrated to me anyway, who wouldn't prefer a nice crumpet in the afternoon? ... However the toilets were so wonderful they won me over. So cute. Very thoughtful.

Saturday 11 April 2009

De kas - Amsterdam


Probably the most memorable meal of the last five years.
Deciding to rent bicycles for the weekend was an inspired idea. Deciding to Cycle all the way to De Kas was a romantic idea. Deciding to not take umbrellas and get stranded, during Amsterdams biggest hail strom of the last 12 months was idiotic. The night was still amazing.

Friday 10 April 2009

Vlaamsch Broodhuys - Amsterdam

Vlaamsch Broodhuys is probably the finest little chain of bakers I've ever had the treat of feasting in. Quite simply delicious. The croissants, breads and jams are all exceptional, whilst the design of the shop is modern and charming in the same breath - not easy to achieve. Beware of the jams - the apple and pear one I bought is so thick and thin that it's almost the same consistency as Marmite. It tastes incredible though - try it with cheese!