Offbeat Eats

After we returned from Gloucestershire, my brother was craving Persian food, so we went to Mohsen, which is walking distance from the Earls Court tube station. Mohsen (I had to look at the reviews on the wall to find the name of the place, since the sign outside only has Persian writing and the words “Persian Restaurant” on it) is your typical Middle-Eastern place, a nice cozy little restaurant with a bunch of tables crammed into a fairly narrow storefront, Persian decorations, and some travel posters that look like they date from the Shah’s era.

After returning to London (via an unanticipated extra night’s layover in Madrid, courtesy of Iberia Airlines), my brother and his wife decidd to celebrate our return to the UK by taking took us out to Roast. Nestled nicely above Borough Market in what used to be the portico of the Flower Market, it’s a really pleasant and open dining space, and a restaurant known for high quality roasted meats, including game meats (“warning, may contain shot”). Their motto is “Deliciously British,” and they pursue this with classical British cooking (think roasts, games, and classic British desserts) using the seasonal produce and locally-procured meats.

After a day of trekking about London (this time visiting the Imperial War Museum and the Tate Modern), we met up with my sister-in-law at The Founders Arms pub, and walked to dinner at The Table café in Southwark. The Table is a modestly sized café that focuses on making meals with as many locally sourced meats and organic produce as possible, particularly from Essex, Surrey and Mersea. They are well known for having quality meats for dinner, and supposedly for having a great breakfast as well, although I haven’t yet taken that opportunity.

While I mostly focus on the truly offbeat eats here, every once in while I encounter a chain restaurant that is notable for its quality, its novelty (especially chains in regions outside my normal travels), or both. One chain that I’ve enjoyed for many years for many trips to London is Wagamama. For those note familiar with it, Wagamama has been around since the early 90s, primarily in London, and is based upon a somewhat loose interpretation of the Japanese Ramen Bar concept: serving up fresh bowls of noodles or rice on long bench tables to customers, focusing on quick but good food.

On last month’s trip to London, we decided that at least one fancy dinner with my brother and sister-in-law was in order, and my brother got reservations at Amaya, an Indian place in Knightbridge. Indian food in London has gotten to be almost a cliche, with all sort of little takeaway curry shops open serving out such dishes as Chicken Tikka Masala and various Baltis. But there are a few places that really stand out from the crowd, including The Punjab (in Covent Garden, one of London’s oldest Indian restaurants), and the more recent efforts of Masala World (of which Amaya is one).

Earlier this week, we went walking through London with my brother and sister-in-law, ending up at the Tad Ocakbasi Meze Bar in Hackney Central, meeting up with my brother’s brother-in-law and family for Turkish food. Tad is a modestly classy Turkish place in Hackney Central sporting both eat-in and take-away service, based around classic Turkish grilled kebabs and meze dishes. What really shined here was the meze. Meze is the cornerstone of Turkish cuisine, an assortment of appetizers or small dishes served before a main meal.

As the correspondent responsible for introducing the proprietor of this fine blog to such London culinary delights as the Regency Café (home of the world’s finest bacon roll) and the well regarded St John Bread and Wine (ditto Queen of Puddings), I feel it is my culinary duty to write about my latest culinary adventure in London. The experience demands a review in this blog, even if I am a bit prolix. My wife and I were part of birthday party group dining at the curious and peculiar restaurant Dans le Noir.

For our last major meal in the UK this trip, my brother and his wife took us out to Zeret Kitchen in Camberwell, which is a nice Ethiopian place that Sophie discovered through work. I’ve always enjoyed Ethiopian food, and was lucky enough when I lived in Minneapolis to have several Ethiopian places to choose from. Unfortunately, after moving to New England, I haven’t seen one in ages. Apparently, they aren’t all that common in London, either, but Sophie knew about Zeret.

This July, my brother got married in London, and since his father-in-law is a member of the House of Lords, part of the wedding reception was held over at the Palace of Westminster (to quote a random tourist we overheard, “You know, that big place with the clock that looks just like Big Ben.”) It was rather nice, since we got nice tours of both Houses of Parliament, and got to roam around a completely empty and tourist-free Westminster Hall. The wedding dinner itself was in the Strangers’ Dining Room, the function room in the House of Commons apparently reserved for such affairs.

One of the great joys of visiting England is the ability to enjoy the masterpiece of English breakfast cuisine: the “Full English”, also known as a “fry up”. Many philosophical discussions revolve around the ingredients constituting a proper “Full English”, but this is basically a dish built upon a combination of English-style bacon rashers and some eggs. However, bacon and eggs alone does not a “Full English” make…