#19 Yauatcha, Soho (*) & #20 Medlar, Chelsea (*)

I really wanted to post about both of these restaurants when I went to them as I was really impressed. Also it had been so long since I clocked up a star. Sadly, it's just going to have to be short and sweet.

Yauatcha
Way back on May 8th I venture to Yauatcha as a work dinner with our service provider. I had always wanted to go here but they don't publish their prices on their website so it was far too risky for someone with my wage. Let's just say my fears were confirmed on seeing the menu and I was so very glad that it was on them!

Knowing me rather well (afterall, the first time I went out formally with them I ended up at the senior manager's house playing with his pugs - not a euphemism, I was actually just playing with his dogs), I am always being plied with cocktails. Glowing on lemonberry martinis, the array of starters we got were amazing. But my favourites were the mushroom dim sum, especially the wild mushroom dumpling. Then it was followed by cripsy ducks and pancakes. And then ridiculously, some mains. One of the waitresses came over and told us we ordered too much food and decided not to bring out two dishes. We could have eaten it all. It is a beautiful restaurant, it was no wonder it was a backdrop to a scene in that (terrible) film I Give it a Year (I was on a plane, there was nothing to do!).

Having got a brief glimpse of the bill, I suggest you come here with someone with deep pockets or a good credit card. That or get your service provider to take the hit.

Medlar
I had been dying to go to Medlar since it opened and prior to it getting it's star. This is because I madly fell in love with The Glasshouse in Kew when I venture there in January 2011. The great thing about Medlar and her sisters (La Trompette and Chez Bruce) is they have a set menu. There's no worry about breaking the bank and calling in a mortgage here for your dessert.

My sister and I dined here on a quiet Sunday night for £35 for 3 courses. Yes. I'm serious. I'll let the food do the talking.

And don't think for that £35 that you are going to get tiny dishes. These were the largest dishes I've seen ever at a Michelin star restaurant. So many of those bright beautiful petit pois to bed my beautiful lamb! And I thought having scoffed that main I'd get something lighter for dessert...but that serving of macadamia cookies and luscious sorbet had other ideas.

Just don't ask what the weeds on the wall are because you feel like a dick when they tell you it's medlar.

--

I was supposed to tick off number 21 on my 29th birthday but writing myself off a 9:30pm the night before meant I spent my actual birthday getting acquainted with the new flat's bathroom.

But if anyone wants to go on a foodie adventure, I'm ready!

Vegetarian Classics

A few years ago now - wow, okay 2009 - I decided to try do better myself through healthy eating and the environment by reducing meat. This was by introducing several vegetarian dishes into each week. A couple times in 2010 I managed to eat fully vegetarian for a few weeks (yeah I know it's not much but I came from a town where it wasn't considered food unless it meat and three veg). If anything, it's just a good way to think about new ways to cook. That and that's how I fell in love with mushrooms.

There were two favourite dishes that resulted out of this and in the last two weeks I've managed to revive them after long absences.

Bean Burgers

The only reason I haven't cooked my bean burgers in a while is that I always make quite the mess I make them. I always think I should cook double the recipe so I only get beans fragments on the floor and in my hair every few months. But I kept only having one lonely tin of Sainsburys Basic Kidney Beans in my flat and one day I just couldn't resist anymore.

1 Can Kidney Beans
Half an Onion
Olive Oil
1 tsp of ground cumin
1 tsp of ground coriander
1 tsp of curry powder
1 tsp of grated/cut ginger
Good splash of soy sauce
Handful of bread crumbs (blitz one slice of bread)

Heat the oil in a pan and toss in the onions until soft. Throw in the spices and mix around. Take off the heat.

Blitz your kidney beans in a food processor - this is the fun part. And is why it doesn't matter how cheap your kidney beans are. They're gonna end up mashy mushy beans anyway. You can also mash them like potatoes but I love my food processor. Keep them a bit chunky at this point.

Put the onions in the food processor along with the soy sauce, ginger and bread crumbs. You can add in chilli at this point if you like - fresh or flakes. I sometimes sprinkle flakes in if I'm feeling spicy. Blitz until it's a kinda disgusting looking mincey paste. I will not deny that this mix looks absolutely disgusting.

Roll out and separate into equal sized balls. Flatten with your hand. With a little more oil in the pan, fry on both sides until warmed through and cripsy on the outside. Again at this point, still not attractive.

I like to serve mine in a bun with the other half of the onion fried up with some mushrooms, rocket salad and garlic aioli and ketchup. Oh, and of course kumara chips.

These patties freeze really well. No, they still look very unappealing that way too. But trust me, these things are super tasty and will up any beef burgers (or is it horse...?)

Curried Parsnip Soup

Parsnips are one of my favourite smells. I could peel parsnips for hours just to have my hands fragrant with their sweetness. There's nothing that says autumn/winter more than parsnip. This is a great creamy and warming soup. The only drawback is that it will stain everything it touches that curry yellow.

2-4 large parsnips chopped in 2cm pieces
Half an onion
Teaspoon of chopped garlic
1 teaspoon of curry powder
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
2.5 cups of vegetable stock
Half a medium potato sliced
200ml coconut milk

Fry the onion and garlic until soft. Put in the parsnip and fry briefly before adding the spices. Then add the potato and stock. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until the parsnip and potato are soft. Take off the heat and blitz either in a food processor or with a hand blender until smooth.

Return to the heat and stir in coconut milk. Season with crack black pepper. The best touch is to serve it with fresh coriander on top but I didn't have any. Also do I need to mention crusty bread with butter?

Both these recipes take minimal time really. Especially the parsnip soup. If you've got 25 minutes, you'll have a nice yellow soup to brighten those dark England winter evenings.

Chinese style chicken noodle soup

I thought since Nicki asked me for this recipe I might as well blog about it (since it's been such an unbelievably long time). I started making this in the winter of 2012 and it has been a staple ever since. Well, when Sainsbury isn't thwarting my attempts by not stocking pak choi.

Chinese Style Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:


2 Chicken breasts - cut into strips/chunks

1 Clove of Garlic - crushed

Small piece of ginger

750ml of chicken stock

1 Green Chilli - sliced thinly

4-5 Brown Mushrooms - chopped

2 Spring Onions - chopped

1 Pak Choi - chopped

Handful of coriander - chopped

1 tsp of soy sauce

1 tsp of rice vinegar

Pack of preferred noodles (I used Amoy Medium Straight to Wok)


In a large saucepan, add a small amount of oil and stirfry the garlic and ginger together for 1-2 minutes. Add the chicken and fry until it is coloured white on all sides. Add the chicken stock (I used Kallo's organic cubes, I think with stock in a soup you don't want to go cheap and always check the sodium levels of your cubes. One day I'll make my own stock...), green chilli, and mushrooms. I keep them sliced chunky because I love mushrooms cooked in stock like this. Also I used only half a green chilli as it was burning for me as it was. These days I'm usually lazy and use those pots of lazy chilli, ginger and garlic. Blame on this on being single and cooking for on.

Bring to the boil and then set to a simmer for 5-10 minutes until chicken appears cooked. My stock always turns it a funny yellow but don't let that put you off!

Add the chopped pak choi, spring onions and coriander and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Prepare the noodles per their instruction (the Amoy ones I microwave for 60 seconds with a tablespoon of water to loosen them up) and add to the saucepan. Add the soy sauce and rice vinegar, taste to see if you should add more or salt/pepper. Serve in a large bowl.

That simple! Please excuse my mobile phone quality photo and lack of presentation. When it comes to my food I'm in the camp of if it tastes good, who gives a fuck what it looks like.

Coriander dahl

I was sitting at work this afternoon trying to think of something different to do with the two fillets of salmon that needed to be eaten in my fridge. A bit of sly googling later, I found a BBC Good Food recipe for Salmon with coriander dahl & rice

I altered it slightly and this is how it ended up:

1/2 cup of split red lentils

600ml of chicken stock

Half medium onion chopped

One large tomato chopped

1/2 teaspoon of tumeric

1 heaped teaspoon of garam masala

Small handful of chilli flakes

6 springs of coriander

Salmon fillets

Lemon wedge

Rinse the lentils under cold water. Add to a medium sized pot with the chicken stock, chopped tomato and onion and bring to the boil. Add in the spices and stir. Allow to simmer and add more water if it gets too dry before the lentils are soft. It takes about 20 minutes.

Add a small slice of butter and half a teaspoon of garam masala, when melted, put the salmon in skin side down. Rub in a bit more garam masala on top of the salmon. Fry on each side for about a minute.

While doing this, stir in the chopped coriander into the dahl and season with black pepper. Make a bed of dahl on a plate and rest the salmon on top. Squeeze the lemon juice all over, including on the dahl. Eat!

I enjoyed it so much I forgot to take a bad quality camera phone photo before eating half of it.

I definitely think this will be an easy dinner snack without the salmon in the future. The lemon adds a nice kick because lemon and coriander are just such a beautiful pair.

Been reading up on Indian dishes and next I definitely want to try a rajma (kidney bean) curry.

#18 The Ledbury, Notting Hill, London (**)

On Thursday I took a half day from work to meet my old flatmate Fritha at the Ledbury. A few months back I told myself that I finally had to do The Ledbury since Masterchef had made me want to go several times over. Also during the August Riots last year, there was a lot of rumours on twitter about rioters attacked The Ledbury which seemed far fetched at the time but were actually true!.

The Ledbury is the second two star Michelin restaurant I've been to, following L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon which I have graced twice with my presence and both times been seduced by their dessert choice of a selection of five tarts (always order this, it is amazing). But anyway, yes The Ledbury. It's a lot smaller than I expected and is basically one big square room with big glass windows to make it very light and airy. As I had to book more than six weeks ahead, I would have expected it to be packed and noisy but it was perfect. It buzzed with other guests but nothing that distracted you and there were plenty of staff floating around.

The reason I picked lunch at the Ledbury was because they have a set menu of 3 courses for £35. Brett champions having a seasonal menu so I knew it would be a bit of surprise to what we would get. While perusing the menus we were given a delightful little canape. After a bottle of wine the night before, I wasn't much in the mood and was happy to see a decent beer selection on the menu that wasn't overpriced. Frith and I both selected the 500ml £6.50 Notting Hill Blonde by Moncada, a West London brewery that seems to have passed me by. The staff were very apologetic when they revealed they had only one bottle so we ended up sharing it which I was happy with. It was a foggy golden colour with a quite smooth taste, it didn't detract from our food at all.

We made our choices and were given a selection of three breads from a huge basket. We both chose this bread that was in the shape of a a small muffin or mushroom with a long stalk. I think it was malted caramel, but whatever it was, it was delicious. My only criticism would be they seemed to be a bit withholding with the bread but then maybe I'm used to Gauthier, their 7 amazing breads and their knack of offering it to you constantly.

Frith and I chose the same starter - a warm partridge salad:

We both declared this our favourite course. For the main I decided to be a bit adventurous and get the fish, which was a brill topped with black quinoa on a bed of crab with a broccoli stem! The fish and crab were stunning, fish was cooked to perfection and melted in your mouth. Also it was so pretty I didn't want to ruin it by eating it!

Then for dessert, we both had the mille-feuille with mango. Pastry was perfect and the vanilla icecream perfectly favoured.

The table beside us made me well jealous with their cheese plate and I delighted in watching the waiter explain all the different cheeses. They also got the passionfruit souffle which when served had the vanilla icecream dived into the middle by the server. This was enough to make Frith and I promise to return to try the a la carte menu one day.

My verdict on the Ledbury - I really enjoyed the food but there wasn't a lot to me that distinuished it from a one star restaurant. With L'Atelier, the service was completely above anywhere else I had been, with The Ledbury it may just have been because we didn't have the a la carte and missed the full experience. It's well worth the visit for lunch at any rate for £35, the only drawback being you'll have to think well in advance and have your credit card handy for your reservation.

#17 Hakkasan Mayfair, London

I have been really uninspired to write about this experience. I went on Saturday 28 July as a slightly belated birthday present to myself - that and I just don't have any friends at the moment who are interested in Michelin star dining.

I was thankful when I woke up in the morning that I wasn't too hungover from the night before.

I arrived at half one and walked right past the building. The entrance is quite easy to miss and when I did enter I was greeted by a dark dimly light hallway. This is just a bit intimidating when you are dining alone! Halfway down there is a woman sitting in a coat check and then there is a door that you can't really see, that another woman opens up to let you in.

I was placed at a very strange table, it was originally set up for two diners, an oval table with a curved seat. I'm not sure that you could really fit two people at this table without being awkward, let alone one. The leg position on the table meant I couldn't even cross my legs which was quite uncomfortable. They gave me the menu opened to the a la carte section which obviously was a very sly move to make me look at the expensive menu but I knew there was a set lunch menu on the front page so flicked back one. I wasn't offered water at any point and had to ask for it! This really was the theme of the service for the lunch, it really was just terrible, even without taking into account that this place has a Michelin star. There was a lot of staff but none of them seemed interested in me at all. I'm not sure if this was because I was alone? It certainly wasn't because the restaurant was packed as it was quite empty, likely to be a side effect of the Olympics. There were 5 tables at most.

Anyway, while service was just dismal seemingly desperate to get me in and out as quickly as possible for no reason, the food was quite delicious. Hakkasan have a set lunch menu of £35 for three courses.

My starter

Steamed dim sum selection: scallop shumai, morel mushroom crystal dumpling,
Chinese chive dumplingI absolutely adored this starter right from the moment it was put in front of me. I liked that I was given both chilli and chilli oil. The scallop was perfectly cooked and the presentation of the bright green dumpling was gorgeous. But the highlight was the morel mushroom dumpling which tasted absolutely amazing.

My main

Mongolian style lamb chopServed with baby pak choi (so cute) and sticky rice, this lamb was beautifully pink and spiced perfectly. The mushrooms again were the highlight. I have to say this main while really tasty, was just quite...average. Really nothing to write home about other than I do love when my lamb is cooked pink like that.

My dessert

I don't have a description for this as it's not on the website, but it did contain the words chocolate and cherry and it certainly lived up to it. When it came out, the bowl was sealed with a chocolate lid and the waitress poured a hot cherry sauce over it that melted my entry into the middle. I don't think this crappy phone photo does it's size justice, it was massive. I have never seen such a big dessert in this sort of restaurant and I couldn't finish it. Yes me, the person who always has room for desserts. There was a lot of textures in there, cherry sorbet, brownie bits, meringue bursts and pop rocks. The cherry sorbet was an absolute delight, I think I would have been just as happy with a few scoops of that.

The only highlight of the service was that I didn't have the usual impossible task of getting the staff to give me the bill. But then I couldn't find my way out because of the mystery door to the darkened hallway and the staff were quite slow in helping me. Overall, Hakkasan is probably one of the biggest disappointments I've had with Michelin star restaurant. I had been told so much of how it was such a great restaurant and I'm not sure if I hit it on a bad day or if I just noticed all the bad parts of the experience because I was alone for the first time? Although the service really was just utterly inexcusable. I definitely think this restaurant is more of a shared experience, I watched others eating their mains and it was definitely one where you taste lots of different dishes.

My final opinion would be, if you want to go out for a set lunch at a Chinese Michelin Star restaurant, go to Kai instead. While their set menu is £39 this includes matching wines for 3 courses and you get an amazing pre starter broth and a palate cleanser between the main and the dessert. It's right up there with my favourites and I would definitely go again (and the set lunch is available Sundays).

I am booked to go to The Ledbury, which holds two stars, in September for a set lunch at the same price as Hakkasan so I really hope this one lives up to the high expectations I have thanks to Masterchef!

My first Tabouleh

Lamenting the woeful contents of my refrigerator today, I decided to go spend lots of money at the local supermarket and get a whole bunch of fresh food in. As it was a boring wet Sunday, I thought it was time I satisfied a craving I had for tabouleh and thought no better way than to make it myself.


I took a recipe off Channel 4 for inspiration and made it as follows:

150g of bulgar wheat
1/4 cucumber diced
4 cherry vine tomatoes diced
3 spring onions diced
1 packet of mint leaves
1 packet of flat leaf parsley
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tsp of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 juice of one lemon

1. Prepare the bulgar wheat by covering with boiling water in a bowl. Cover the bowl with a plate and leave for 10-15 minutes to swell.
2. Strip off any large stalks of the parsley and mint and put into a food processer with the spring onions. Blitz on a low setting to still allow decent sized pieces of the herbs.
3. Check the bulgar wheat, add more water if it is still a bit firm to the bite. When soft, drain into a sieve and use a spoon to push out excess water. Fluff with a fork.
4. Combine bulgar wheat and green mix in a large bowl with the cucumber and tomato.
5. Mix the lemon juice, garlic and olive oil together in a small jug. Pour over rest of ingredients while mixing.
6. Season as required (I squeezed a bit more lemon and some cracked black pepper).

And voila!

Tabouleh is such a fresh summer dish, the mint gives it a real kick. I plan to eat it for lunch for the next few days with kumara and houmous but it can also be served up as a side to things like grilled chicken.