Offbeat Eats

Our last full day in London, we decided that it would be nice to go on another London Walks tour, this time choosing a tour of the River Lea and the canals, ending up at the Olympic Park site by the Pudding Mill Lane DLR station. But on the way out there, we decided it was a good opportunity to grab some Vietnamese food, primarily since Carol and I don’t get a lot of good opportunities for Pho (the nearest Vietnamese restaurant to our house in New Hampshire is 45 miles away) at Tay Do…

We celebrated Boxing Day in London by doing some more wandering about town. One of the places we checked out was London’s Chinatown. While a lot smaller and more compact than the Chinatowns in San Francisco, New York, and Montreal that I’ve recently experienced, it does sport a quite impressive number of Asian markets, and more importantly, restaurants. So we used this as a good opportunity to check out New World Chinese Restaurant, one of London’s better-known (and older) Dim Sum restaurants.

A bout of last-minute shopping resulted in another trip to Marylebone High Street, and for lunch we decided to duck over to Baker Street and have a Jewish lunch from Reubens. Reubens is your basic Jewish Deli, not really all that different from it’s counterpart in, say, New York. The biggest difference is in the terminology: in Britain, what we would call “Corned Beef” in the US is called “Salt Beef” over there (the term “Corned Beef” in England implies the pre-cooked nasty stuff in the tins). The difference goes a little deeper than that as well, since the spicing is definitely a bit different as well, with UK salt beef definitely having a lighter spice and more beef flavor than the US counterpart (not unlike the subtle difference between a Montreal “Viande Fumee” and a New York “Pastrami”). Now that you mention it, I feel like I could probably do an entire book comparing the pickled and smoked beef products of several Jewish communities…

On our recent trip to London, we decided to take a day trip out to Greenwich. After we were done with the Greenwich Tunnel (walk under the Thames…), Maritime Museum, and the Observatory, we went back down the hill to downtown Greenwich. One of the features of downtown is the Greenwich Market, which is filled with all sorts of art vendors and food stands. A bit touristy, we did like the place. I ended up buying a ring made of a recycled one-shilling coin, and Carol bought a nice felted wool coat, so it was also a shopping success.

While out and about doing some last-minute Christmas shopping on Marylebone High Street, we decided to divert a little bit and check out The Golden Hind for some fish and chips. While a seemingly simple task (in fact, we’re lucky enough to have a decent place for fish and chips back in New Hampshire), to do it right is actually somewhat difficult in London. Despite Fish and Chips being one of the national dishes of England, there aren’t a lot of places in London itself that serve it (“Chippys” seem to have been replaced with an almost uncountable number of bad fried chicken joints), and fewer that do it well (most serve some sort of half-assed product geared towards tourists). Finding a good one that is generally well-regarded is a bit of a challenge, and the list is short. One that we had an opportunity to try, due to our location, was The Golden Hind.

(Closed) After a few days of our touring around England, my brother returned from his trip to Finland, and we decided to go out to dinner to The Gay Hussar in Soho. Around since 1953, the Gay Hussar has a long history. It’s the oldest Hungarian place in London. And for most of it’s history, it’s been a stomping ground for various liberal politicians and VIPs (indeed, at the table next to us was Labour’s Lord Borrie, talking with his colleagues about his upcoming second reading of some bill on passenger security and travelers’ rights). And the the walls of the Hussar are lined with caricatures of the various liberal VIPs that dine here (being American, I only recognized a single caricature that I could see from my seat: Jon Snow). So the place has some air of authenticity, even if it isn’t due to their culinary abilities: the place has been bringing in customers for 50 years

My brother, being an expat, often found himself craving a proper hamburger. Which is difficult, since Britain is notoriously bad for their burgers (doubly-so since the Mad Cow period, since most burgers here are cooked to oblivion). But in the interest of keeping my brother from going crazy, I asked around, and several reliable sources of mine (primarily from SeriousEats) recommending Byron Proper Hamburgers.

(Closed) After a walking trip through some fairly heavy blowing snow, we decided that we’d try to gamble and see if we could get into Hawksmoor in Seven Dials for a lunch (they were out of reservations, but sometimes I’ve gotten lucky at busy places). However, this time luck was not on my side, so we needed to find someplace else good in Seven Dials to eat. Luckily, my sister-in-law pointed us to World Food Cafe.

(Closed) One of the fine English culinary traditions I embrace is that of the Full English Breakfast (you can read my previous article on the topic). Every time I come to London, I try to accomplish two things: (a) another trip to the Regency (it’s a 5 minute walk from the flat), and (b) get a Full English someplace other than the Regency. This time, we decided to try out Canteen. Canteen’s motto (and the name of their cookbook) is “Real British Food”, and their menu reflects it, with your basic selection of roasts, fresh fish, and poultry dishes. They also serve breakfast, so we went so I could try out their Full English (which, oddly, hasn’t been on their menu long, they recently added it “because you asked for it!”).

One of the things I really like about London is that the immigrant population over the many years has led it having a really good cross section of ethnic restaurants, many of which are quite good. One place that I’ve been meaning to try for quite a few years is Thai Cafe, since (a) I don’t get a lot of Thai Food back home (I have to drive to Montpelier or Concord to find decent Thai food), and (b) it’s pretty much right across the street from my brother’s flat. It also gets rather good ratings.