Eat Like Ushi

I've always thought Sushisamba to be the poor cousin (but more expensive one) to Duck & Waffle. After all, D&W has a higher floor, a better view from the inside (I think so anyway) and is open 24hours. On the other hand, Sushisamba offers a Japanese-Peruvian mix culminating in Kobe beef at up to £1000 and sushi rolls with gold and caviar. Whatever it is you're going for I suppose. I'd heard similar stories from friends which had thus dissuaded me to go until recently for a friend's 30th birthday.

The excitement of getting stopped and denied entry by the overly important security staff downstairs is the same. The exhilarating glass lift up is also the same. Both venues have nice drinking areas and it seems SS has a better outdoor one complete with an ornate orange tree. There's also blankets to keep you warm on the outside whilst the alcohol does on the inside. The drinks are definitely on the more expensive side with cocktails at £13-14 to cover the cost of the view.

Pistachio & Avocado Batida (fresh avocado puree, Velho Barreiro cachaca, pistachio orgeat & cacao) served with cone of maize cancha £14 was nice and refreshing without a strong alcohol taste but with only very mild flavours of pistachio and avocado. Extra avocado to make the texture thicker would have been very welcome.

The food hall itself is also interestingly decorated with masses of dangling light globes. I'm not sure what motif it is but I approve.

- Edamame (soybean, volcanic salt, lime) £5 - simple and plain topped with strong black salt;
- Wagyu gyoza, kabocha puree, sesame snow £15 - simple without any benefit from wagyu or any real sesame flavour from the snow;
- Nikkei salmon ceviche, tamarind, sesame, seaweed, macadamia £14 - thick salmon coated by an even thicker tangy and savoury sauce. Really good;
- El Topo samba roll (salmon, jalapeño, shiso leaf, crispy onion, spicy mayo, fresh melted mozzarella) £12 - mozzarella went well with this roll adding extra umami to the layers of ingredients. Good textural contrasts also;
- Tiger Maki samba roll (takuwan, wasabi tobiko, crab meat, tempura prawn, tiger prawn, wasabi mayo, beetroot yogurt, soy reduction) £16 - a good read of ingredients that seemed to blend in together;
- Sea Bass Tempura (heritage tomatoes, beetroot ceviche, aji verde, lime) £29 - a beautifully presented dish with otherwise mild flavours;
- Corazon de Pollo (aji panca) served with Peruvian corn £12 - my choice of dish was my favourite. Chicken hearts excellently grilled with big kernels of corn. Simply excellent method of using an otherwise maligned cut of meat;
- Chocolate Banana Cake (maple butter, plantain chip, vanilla rum icecream) £10 - moist textured cake that was overpowered by the strong syrup sauce.

The food tastes quite good. The ingredients are probably of high quality. But I can't help feeling I'm spending way too much for the view and to be with the cool crowd of people continuously taking selfies. I can see what they are going for and I don't think it is for me.

To celebrate Mr. Hyde's National Burger Day on August 24 (I'm sure it's made up just for self promotion, but I suppose I was suckered in), there was a widespread discount of 20% on burgers throughout London. It made it difficult to choose between so many, but for a year I had my eye on the Mac Daddy at Dirty Bones. Considering I had to be at Liverpool Street Station in the late afternoon, there was no better reason to make it there.

It's an unexpectedly nice pub which contains many soul references including the music to go with it. The food is NYC inspired and nearly everything reads delicious and unhealthy.

The Mac Daddy (brisket & dry aged steak burger topped with pulled beef short rib, mac & cheese, cayenne & coffee-spiked BBQ sauce) £11 was actually smaller than I anticipated but still an impressive sight to behold. The oozing mac & cheeze and BBQ sauce laid contrast to the two textures of beef. The beef was flavoursome and quite seasoned (but not to the typical overly-salted American style) and cooked to medium without request. The rib added a different texture but not much extra flavour. The mac & cheese was similarly so and without any strong umami cheese as you get from the best part of the cheese crust.

I was still a little hungry so opted to finish with the Crispy Lamb Fries (with sweet miso, red chilli & jalapeño) £6.5. The lamb was surprisingly sweet as I expected it to be more savoury as I've never had an overwhelmingly sweet miso before. It has soft texture but was not crisp/charred as I had hoped. The chilli added a very nice touch and the fries were delicious even alone.

Overall it was a decent burger at the upper end of cost and some good fries to accompany it. I will definitely try to return in an evening to take advantage of the excellent sounding cocktails, the old school music and supplement with The Burger (normal one) or Crispy Fried Chicken.

10-2017

On a Tuesday evening at 915pm it was good to see Dirty Bones open, playing soul music and serving good food.

The lamb fries were ordered again and even though they had the same sweet and soft texture, the fries were very good and I enjoyed them more overall than last time.

Buffalo hot wings £10 with Frank's hot sauce and extremely mild blue cheese sauce were tasty and nicely cooked. Beef short rib £16 was extremely tender and flavoured with cayenne & coffee BBQ sauce. Chicken & waffles £11 were exactly as you'd expect, although the chicken wasn't too strongly seasoned. The crisp coating and waffle was complemented by the sweet maple.

It was a good (large) meal for two. I'd happily go back. The Grown-Ups Jaffa (El Jimador Reposado tequila, Mozart dark chocolate liquer, orange syrup, chocolate bitters & marmalade ice cube) £10 was excellent, sweet and not too strongly alcoholic. Next time the Spiked Iced Coffee would be good to start the night (or the day).

Hidden by an unmarked entrance on an otherwise quiet East London backstreet was Bistrotheque. I discovered it's a French cafe/restaurant (I suppose the name is suggestive) and coincidentally or not the wait staff were mostly seemingly French too. There's a piano in the corner and on this morning, a lunchtime musician started playing his melodic version of classics such as Britney "Baby one more time".

The menu reads quite nicely. There's a bit of chaos within the structure and the ingredients belie French upon other influences - souffle, black truffle, foie gras, tartare with labneh, cornbread and chorizo. Suffice to say many of the items sound excellent. The eggs and pancakes seem to be the best value, as the mains do tend to be quite highly priced.

- Bistrotheque Breakfast (sausage, bacon, Boston baked beans, layered potato, eggs, toast) £13.5 - remarkably good layered potato (as a modern version of hash brown), strongly flavoured crisp bacon, some nice beans, and a poached slightly vinegared egg was served with toast. The sausage looked rather wrinkled but was adequate.
- Black pudding £4 - I had this as a side to my breakfast but unfortunately it was below par. The flavour was too minimal and had none of the rich pork meat, fat & blood that it is supposed to;
- French toast, berries, almonds, Chantilly cream £9 - a beautiful dish decadent in sweetness and colour. Not overly sweet with unnecessary syrups but using berries instead for the breakfast treat.

Other than the black pudding and the lack of smoothies/juices (I suppose they aren't typical French brunch items), the other two were very fine starts to the day. I think the only other options I'd consider as breakfasts would be the cauliflower, mojo verde, smoked almonds £17 or tomato tarte tatin, goats curd, crispy shallots £17, whereas heavier lunch options would be more suited to later in the day.

Given the general cost of restaurant food in London these days as well as the quite inconvenient 12.5% service charge, it's nice to find some discount offers online. This one came as 50% off food from Hot Dinners. It's a good way of eating well, eating cheaper and trying places I otherwise would not have heard of or chosen to go to.

It's a nice venue that looks like a beautiful moodlit bar and entrance to a hotel. There's a free pool table to bide time also.

To balance a little of the cheaper food, the drinks are definitely at the higher end of the spectrum. Smoke & Fire (San Cosme mezcal with mixed vermouth, St. George pear & habanero shrub) £13 was a well presented smooth drink with a light smoky touch of mezcal. I was keen to see how much heat the habanero would add but disappointed to find none at all.

Teasers
- Red curry & herb sticky rice balls £5 - similar to arancini with some mild curry but nicely hot sliced fresh chilli added a boost;
- Buttermilk fried chicken, sriracha dip £9 - expected with pieces and ended up with sliced tenders. Quite nice and enhanced with the sriracha and fresh chilli;
- Scallop seared green salsa, lime & wakame dust £10 - a very large scallop wonderfully cooked and with some added salsa. £10 for one scallop is a bit excessive though... (justifiable for half price).

Mains
- Branzino Al forno, leeks, lemon confit, green tapenade £18 - nicely cooked seabass but a bit too heavy on the salt;
- Merguez, homemade harissa beans, poached egg £12 - a breakfast-type dish of crunchy beans, egg and some sausage pieces. The flvaour was quite meaty. Would have been great with some bread;
- Pumpkin & piquillo pepper casserole £5 - minimally seasoned but better for it. The pumpkin taste was the most prevalent.

Dessert
- Lemon, hazelnut & polenta cake, clotted cream £7 - not too sweet and very tasty. It was a bit firmer in texture than I'm used to but fine. A good way to finish.

The food overall was of pretty good standard and I enjoyed the teasers more than the mains. The prices are quite typical for London but I'd probably opt for somewhere else if paying full price. The higher cost of drinks also influences that too.

In order to escape the mess and inflated Edinburgh accommodation prices during the Fringe, we'd booked an Airbnb in Leith, the port suburb in north Edinburgh. It turned out to the a good opportunity to find a new area to explore more bereft of crowds, but at the same time realising that the buses to George Square are quite unreliable and the initial plan of Uber/taxi was limited by availability and constant surge pricing.

Nonetheless it's a pleasant part of town moreso with the river areas particularly when the sun was shining. Food options (other than Michelin star) are not especially renowned but there's certainly options. The Ship On The Shore seemed to be the seafood place with reasonable prices that I considered. However for a casual lunch, The Compass won out.

It's a bar with hidden upmarket upholstery and decoration. The lunch crowd was a man and his baby, a group of young adults and two elderly females. They were serving both breakfast and lunch at 1pm on a Friday but the lunch options seemed clearly superior on paper.

- Cullen skink with crusty sourdough bread £5.5 - this local specialty of smoked fish was a hit. I really enjoyed the creamy flavours and smoked fish pieces;
- Hawaiian poke salad with sesame & chilli marinated salmon, avocado, rice & macadamia nuts £7.95 - in contrast to the traditions of cullen skink, this was the only other entree sized dish that appealed. The flavours married well and the texture combinations were good and varied;
- Shetland mussels in Thai red curry sauce with homemade chips & crusty sourdough bread £12.95 - I had to look up Shetland to discover it's a group of islands north of Scotland. These mussels were a good meaty size and quite tasty. The red curry sauce was decent but had too much fish sauce added. The homemade chips were very good.

Overall the food quality was very good and the options different to those in English pubs. I'd happily go back for the cullen skink and try the fish & chips of pie.

When visiting The Compass the day before, we noticed a very cute and full cafe sitting across the road. Although it was difficult to see the menu, the decoration and general friendly cafe atmosphere was appealing. On a Saturday at 1130am the place was busy but not full. Maybe it is because the Fringe was on and everyone had gone central already or that there are more options around for this quieter part of Edinburgh.

Seating was available to marvel at the old style kettles and kitchen implements, the local magazines to peruse and listen to the cassette player lined with a wall of albums. Maybe cassettes will come back in one day...

The menu is focussed and without the extreme creativity of modern day cafes. But it was certainly suffice. I'm told the coffee was good. I drank the Jackie Chan smoothie (berries, spinach, avocado, dates, goji, almond milk) £3.5. I have to admit it was a bit of a let down without the expected creamy thickness and flavour of avocado nor the sweetness of dates. It tasted like blended berries, which is fine but not expected given the ingredients list.

- Grilled sourdough with blue cheese, bacon & apple £4.9 - an excellent combination of toasty white bread heated and squeezed until the mild blue cheese melted on top of the bacon and warmed apple. Brilliant;
- Fried eggs & oak smoked salmon (with toasted artisan bread & cream cheese) £6.9 - the bread was fine without being special and was really just the vessel for the cream cheese, overcooked and non-runny eggs and ample amount of good salmon.

There's no problem having brunch here but I'd want to try the plethora of other options nearby. In particular Mimi's Bakehouse full breakfast or the cafes such as Printworks, Nobles or Rocksalt.

During the pleasantly warm and incredibly crowded trek through the Golden Mile during Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a friend living locally suggested this would be a good stop for a break and some haggis. I remember eating haggis in Glasgow back in 2005 in a pub on what was the known as the haggis day or Burns night (January 25). Interestingly it was a much more quiet affair but probably because either locals will eat it at home or not especially eat it on that evening.

I remember it being very similar to mince meat from a cheap pie. How different would it be 12 years later?

The place says it is well known for fish & chips. As tempted as I was, I couldn't fit haggis and well as a full serve fish & chips. So I went for the more traditional and less available option.

- Haggis, Neeps & Tatties £4.95 - haggis was a thicker form of mince made from mutton and oatmeal. Others thought it had a strong liver taste but I thought only mild. It was fine to eat but nothing special and nothing I would go out of my way to try again. It was served with a fairly sour swede mash, and some standard but minimally seasoned potato mash;
- Macaroni & Cheese £3.95 - nice and warm with a tasty burnt cheese topping. Very good.

I also tried the vegetable scotch broth which was a warming soup served with quite ordinary bread of soft crust and spongy middle.

The other areas looked like happening pub bits and the upstairs food area was a bit more settled. I'd go back again and try the fish & chips or other dishes.

Every neighbourhood has its local pub. In Mile End/Bow, the Morgan Arms is the one. Sure, there's a few others (which honestly I haven't tried yet) but this one has it all. Reasonable drink prices, nice cosy interior design, English pub meals and games to play (eg. Cards Against Humanity) just in case you get bored of conversation.

The one annoyance is the people who stand in the doorway and smoke. Get away.

It also isn't a building equipped for heat and so on a 35C day in June (or even the 25C day a week later) the inside is quite stuffy. So sit near the door however the point above...

- Smoked ham hock scotch egg, Bramley apple sauce £5 - a nice slightly runny scotch egg with a smokey ham coating;
- Marmite glazed aubergines, baba ganoush, crispy tomato corn bread, tempura fried sage £7.5 - the corn bread is very hard and not very tasty (tastes like salt). There are 2 aubergine halves and 2 fried sage leaves which are fine but a small dish. The pinenuts are a nice touch;
- IPA battered haddock, thick-cut chips, mushy peas, chunky tartare sauce £13.5 - a nicely cooked, crisp coated fish with some decent chips and sauce. Mushy peas were blended to a largely smooth paste;
- Ginger curried cod, coconut & cumin sauce, toasted cashew nuts, coriander, green beans, red quinoa "rice" £16 - a very good dish with an excellent fish sitting on top crunchy beans, slightly toasted quinoa and a mild curry with a good ginger hit.

It's not the best pub food I've had but there's plenty to like, although it does reach pretty high in terms of some of the pricing. I wonder how the others in the area compare...

I've been very disappointed previously looking for Vietnamese food in London. From the expensive banh mi at Broadway market, the doable but average places near Old Street, to more serviceable but only open for lunch places in business areas, Vietnamese just hasn't been done well (or cheaply) here yet. Since my last UK living experience, I've spent a year living in Footscray - one of the key Vietnamese restaurant and localities in Melbourne. Even though London will never be as cheap, there's hope it may one day be as good.

There was a 25% off food deal at Pho & Bun and it's location on Shaftesbury Avenue in amongst the bustle was always going to be against it. Additionally the deal requires a £20 per head spend, which is a lot for Asian street food. Nonetheless the 2 of us persevered and tried enough to justify judgement of the restaurant and also qualify for the discount. It wasn't automatically applied - it had to be asked for even though my booking stated it. I think they were amazed someone had actually made the £20pp limit.

A lot of the Tripadvisor criticism is that the staff are Spanish. Yes they are, but the cooks are old Vietnamese men. So does that matter so much? On this occasion the staff worked hard and were friendly.

After a long while without Vietnamese food, it seemed appropriate to order and judge largely by the classics.

- Rainbow Mango Salad with Tiger Prawn £7.5 - although green papaya salad is more common, green mango is a little different and the option with prawn was more enticing than the beef papaya salad (as both noodle dishes already had beef). The nuoc mam was nicely balanced although I would prefer more of it. There was a good amount of large prawns to justify the dish;
- Pho Bo Tai £10.5 - a nice wholesome soup of the more medicinal flavour of pho. The beef was tender and although it could have used more herbs or some Thai basal, it was a good broth;
- Bun Bo Hue £9.5 - the red layer was authentic and the meaty flavour was good too. The beef was brisket here and not too fatty. It could have used much more lemongrass chilli sauce (aka sate) but I won't complain too much;
- Steamed Bao Burger (with 8 hour Belly Pork, secret soy sauce, pickled cucumber, chilli mayo) £8.5 - so this is far from traditional and very expensive for a single small bao burger. The pork is decent but you are really paying for the coolness. It was nice but I wouldn't get it again, more out of price protest than anything else. But it helped to make the £20pp total.

Overall it was a very good meal in an unexpected place. I haven't tried Cay Tre or Tay Do in 4-5 years, but this left me feeling better than my experiences there.

I don't have a lot of experience with Himalayan food so it was nice to find a place, read through the menu and see what this cuisine is based on. A little way down south of the trendy part of Shoreditch, I first missed the place as there were so many people standing around outside drinking loudly next to a construction area that I didn't realise this was the place. However upstairs led to a nice quiet intimate setting and away from the maddening crowds. Also very lucky was the fact that the upstairs is very small and yet at 7pm on a Friday summer evening I could actually get a table.

Chilly lemonade £5 was a nice housemade version without too much sugar. There was a distinct mild chilli afterheat that was welcome.

- Naga chilli beef puff £3.5 each - this seems to be the house specialty and I was a little wary after India (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/rosang-delhi-01-2015). However this was much milder and easy to eat and quite good;
- Himalayan fried chicken £10 - the chicken was well cooked, quite tender and had a nice crisp bubbly coating. Perhaps a little expensive for £10 given the amount of meat;
- Stuffed aubergine with mushroom £9.5 - a very vibrant red dish with chunky eggplant and a spicy sauce. Not the most complex in flavour but still a one. Would be better with rice next time;
- Tiffin masala lamb noodles with fried egg £15 - my favourite dish of the night with excellent noodles cooked in a cumin lamb sauce. Very reminiscent of mee goreng and Uyghur dishes. £15 is a bit much for a noodle dish but at least it's good;
- Hakka chilli paneer £11 - an indistinct dish of paneer that felt like it had replaced tofu in a typical Cantonese stirfry.

Hopefully next time I get to pick the full menu and would like to try the Kathmandu curry, Tibetan panfried whole duck leg and finish it off with the noodles, aubergine and rice. Now will be a great meal.