Eat Like Ushi

After 5 months I returned to L'Ami Malo, this time on the back of a Timeout voucher (great value of £19 for 3 courses and a cocktail = £36+ value). As pleased as I was to have a cheap reason to return, it is a bit of a shame that a good niche restaurant in Spitalfields (with a modern twist on the Breton classic) needs to have these vouchers to gain their business. But that's the dining scene...

The glaring omission in my last visit (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/lami-malo-london-01-2018) was not getting to try the chocolate/cherry/pistachio dessert and so it beckoned me.

Kir Normande (cidre bouche Breton, merlet creme de cassis) £8 is a light fizz drink with blackcurrant flavour. Francois Sour (calvados blanche, red wine, lemon, egg white) £10 was also refreshing.

- Roscoff onion tart (poached egg, cider hollandaise) £8 - soft pastry, nice egg, sweet onions, great;
- Smoked salmon maki (capers, shallot, dill, keta caviar, creme fraiche) £8.5 - quite disappointing. The galettes are not thin and crisp and so it just feels too thick and dry;
- Confit duck leg galette (braised red cabbage, caramelised pear, tenderstem broccoli, red wine jus) £14 - as typical of French, the duck is well cooked, quite tender and tasty with crisp skin. Parts of the galette are burnt butter crisp with the characteristic buckwheat flavour coming through;
- Cod wrapped in buckwheat (braised fennel, new baby potatoes, glazed carrot, chorizo sauce) £13.5 - the fish is cooked well but you can't taste the buckwheat flavour in the galette covering. So not a combination or method I want to try again;
- Souffle lemon & blueberries crepe £9 - a very good crepe with an excellent shell, although the souffle in the middle seemed just a strange filling in my opinion;
- Dark chocolate delice (buckwheat nougatine, griottine cherries, pistachio icecream) £6.5 - deep dark chocolate, average pistachio icecream (not strongly nut flavoured and had some freezer/ice texture to it) with sour cherries. The nougatine was sweet and caramel although I couldn't detect buckwheat.

I would go back here. I'm not sure if I'd go to the area specifically to pay full price, but the tart and duck leg galette will make for a good meal.

The service from the gorgeous two waitresses was of high quality and I tipped £10 to them. It's interesting that one told me when using the Timeout voucher alone, they aren't allowed to charge service. Plenty of other places seem to find a way to...

It's been a long time (10/2013) since I ate the wonders of MEATliquor (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/meatliquor-london-03-2012). I still remember the unventilated smell of the original venue along with my first taste of chilli fries, the incredible hotdog and no queues at MEATmarket, and wanting to have the sundae at MEATmission.

With my luck there's a newish branch in King's Cross, where the staff tell me gets busy on Thursday/Friday after work, and otherwise not really without ever any queues. That is music to the ears of my stomach.

These places also have a £10 lunch deal where there is any burger and fries and soda. I went and naturally had to upgrade my fries for chilli fries.

I don't remember thinking that highly of the acclaimed Dead Hippie burger. The meat tastes like meat (slightly cooked too much this day but didn't detract) and I closely analysed the sauce and thought it largely tasted of a cheese-type base. This could be completely wrong and the burger overall was very good. It didn't have the bursting flavour of Bleeker St but had its own place and elements.

The chilli cheese fries were great and as good as I remember, and the reason I use their recipe to make my own layover chilli at home.

I'll be back, for £10 lunch or a non-queue dinner. I'll be back.

MEATliquor gifted me a free burger and side for my birthday. How excellent is that?

Instead of the burger I decided to go for the Chilli Dog as a substitute for the chilli fries. It's a decent frank and of course the chilli remains excellent.

The side was 3 crisp hash browns with a hot sauce and blue cheese.

I washed it down with the Black Forest shake (chocolate liquer, cherry liquer, chocolate, vanilla) £7.95.

I wish I had more birthdays during the year.

I'm a very big fan of matcha and matcha icecream. I probably don't like the original as much as the true aficionados, but a good matcha latte, icecream and mochi will never be lost on me.

Tsujiri is a matcha dessert cafe and everything there is very green to match(a). It isn't the cheapest but I wanted to give it a try.

They have both a matcha and a houjicha (which I've never tried before in any form). Naturally I had to get this as part of a Shiratama sundae £5.8 - the soft squishy mochi balls and red bean were on point. The houjicha has a nuttier flavour than standard matcha. I don't like these to be overly sweet and to have a bit of the tea bitterness discernible, which was present here. It was very very good.

I'll definitely be back. Not sure for houjicha again or to try the matcha, but I'm sure I'll get to both.

Ever since my 30th birthday party at the wonderful Fino (https://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/fino-london-05-2012), I've owned the Barrafina cookbook. I must admit I haven't cooked from it, but it's always been on the cards. I finally got the opportunity to try the tapas sensation that is Barrafina with an early pre-theatre meal before watching The Grinning Man.

Seats are arranged all around a bar setting and so you can see the food being prepared and the activity complete with Spanish frantically spoken here and there.

- Crab croquettes £8 - warm and creamy however the crab flavour wasn't very obvious;
- Ortiguillas frituras £7 - sea anemone fried bits had me intrigued. 4 small pieces had a slightly creamy and mild sea-mushroom flavour;
- Tortilla gambas, ajetes, setas £9.5 - a simple traditional tortilla with small bits of prawn and mushroom. I'm generally not the biggest fan of omelettes, but it was alright;
- Octopus "A Feira" £14.5 - some extremely tender Galician octopus with some smokey paprika;
- Salmorejo, yellow chicory, anchovies Cantabrico "000", quail eggs £9.5 - the most visually stunning dish accompanied by the biggest and best anchovies in the world. These aren't the intensely salty tapas standards, they are bigger fillets with a bit more texture. The soup was light and tangy and all ingredients harmonised together;
- Flan £6.8 - reasonably firm and sweet with a burnt caramel flavour.

The food is good and the cooking shows a modern technique to tapas. It is expensive for the size of each serving though. It would have to be a special occasion for me next time.

The grand opening of Kanada-Ya in Islington included a soft 50% discount. We (foolishly) arrived at 1205pm for the 12pm opening and the queue suggested at least an hour wait. 50% saving is about £5-6 for a bowl, so not really worth an hour of time necessarily. It was nice to see that on a Sunday evening at 8pm there were free tables and only a minimal <5min wait. I'm not sure if that's foreboding for them but it's good for those of us who live a walkable distance to it.

The menu is no different to the others branches (that I remember) and the special Tonkotsu (pork bone broth, chashu pork belly, wood ear fungus, seaweed, spring onion) £10.5 was a thickish, murky, nearly congealing broth with a deep blended pig flavour. It was excellent. My flatmates commented they had thicker broth at Shoryu and in Japan but I don't think I want it much thicker (and I don't remember thinking very much of Shoryu either). The chashu was soft and not too fatty. I could eat the whole piece.

Spicy yuzu ramen (spicy yuzu, pork and corn fed chicken broth, chashu pork collar, wood ear fungus, seaweed, spring onion) £12 had a distinctive yuzu tangy flavour but was more powerful in terms of the umami and salt qualities. I thought it was pretty good and a different twist although not necessarily better than the tonkotsu's relatively less complex flavour. Is it worth the extra £1.5? Probably not but moreso because the tonkotsu is so good. The pork collar is not as soft as the chashu. And the hardboiled egg (£2 extra) is a lovely addition but quite expensive for the luxury.

I had my first set of noodles as hard and the extra serve (kaedama £2) extra hard. I certainly preferred the extra chewy texture of the extra hard and would pick that as my preference next time.

Conveniently located next to Franca Manca is Ekachai, a south-east Asian restaurant chain of 3 or 4 that seems to really specialise in Malaysian with some added Thai. The service isn't overly attentive and so it is fitting that they don't charge service automatically.

- Soft shell crab £6.95 - a relatively big soft shell crab fried with a thick coat until crisp with very juicy meat;
- Seafood curry laksa £9.95 - it isn't very spicy but the curry flavour is the Malaysian style and not the Thai one that most people would probably expect. They are unexpectedly generous with the amount of seafood including green-lip mussels, prawns and calamari. I would prefer thick egg noodles rather than the thin rice ones but that will be the request for next time;
- Char kway teow prawn £9.95 - a fancier serving style but again a good serve of prawns. It was mildly smokey and probably could have used more of it but still good. Lime isn't really standard either but creates some contrast if you like.

Not bad at all and happy that it is closeby. Will definitely come back.

Add-on 11-2018

I've been back a few times and still enjoy the laksa.

However the rendang was a waste of time. It was a generic curry and not cooked down to the thick flavoursome coconut mass that it should be. The roti was alright though.

I looked for somewhere I wanted to eat close to where Chicago had just opened (not worth paying much to see by the way IMO) and Bun House was on my Google Maps. You can't book for the Bun House part but you can for the Tea Room underneath. The Bun House menu is small and cheap whereas the green neon Tea House has more variety and paying for ambiance.

- Brulee tea egg with tea tree nest £5.8 - an egg with some crisp sugar on top and a seaweed (I think) nest;
- Garlicky wings £6.8 - fried wings simple, salty and tasty. They were a good sized piece each too;
- Wok fry black bean duck tongue £7.8 - slim tongues with black bean and some quite hot chilli;
- Lacey dumplings £8.8 - fried until they combine in an impressive lattice. They were delicious with vinegar;
- Oolong smoked quail £10.8 - a wonderful dish of tea smoked quail with the aroma penetrating the meat. Simply divine;
- Iberico char siu rice £14.8 - an expensive char siu on rice. The meat was very soft although not sure could justify the price;
- Lamb shoulder skewers £2.5 each - quite tender and gently seasoned with cumin;
- Pork neck skewers £2.5 each - more tender and with a little chilli;
- Chicken heart skewers £2.5 each - chewy heart pieces that remind me why it's one of my favourite cuts of meat.

Desserts then followed and we ordered one of each to make the process of deciding simpler.

- Ginger milk custard £4.8 - tastes like tofu-fa but much thinner and more watery/mobile;
- Red chocolate bun £2.8 - a really good fried bun with sugar underlay and a searing hot chocolate sauce inside that burnt my finger;
- Butter pineapple bun (no pineapple) £3.8 - like a sweet cake.

The food is good but pretty expensive overall. I would go back for the smoked quail and chicken heart skewers. Also the Bun House menu itself at £2.5 each sounds worth a visit, so I want to try that still.

I'm gradually making my way through the rotating traders at KERB in Granary Square.

- Greedy Khao - these vegan Thai guys were on my recent list to try and serendipity brought them to King's Cross. Roast 'duck' curry £8 was well flavoured with red seitan curry, pineapple, lychee and cherry tomatoes. It could have used a lot more chilli heat though;
- Cally Munchy - Afro fusion attracted me with the suya steak £9 grilled and served on jollof with spinach, red onion and coconut flakes. The kelewele £1 was fried plantains. Overall an excellent dish (albeit kinda expensive) and topped with a good kick of chilli;
- Only Jerkin - the mixed box of nuggets and mango coconut honey fried chicken £9 contained excellent pieces of boneless chicken and the fried chicken tenders had some kind of savoury yellow sauce within it (it didn't taste like mango). The batter were nice and crisp, the chicken very tender and the fries excellent. Jerk ketchup was a nice simple accompaniment to the chicken and fries. The jerk gravy tasted extremely similar to the potato & gravy gravy from KFC. It was good but probably too much of it ended up overpowering the chicken itself.

A long time ago I tried David Chang's bun at Momofuku. A few months later I discussed Yum Bun in the schoolyard at Broadway market. I wanted to setup my own bao place but time, money and life got in the way. And within that year the gua bao's exploded everywhere. My friend gets upset everytime Bao is mentioned thinking that could have been us. Oh well.

I finally tried it many years later at 5pm when there were no crowds queueing. It's honestly pretty freaking expensive for what you are getting, but worth one try...

Peanut milk tasted as you expect - peanuts blended into a milky drink. I liked it!

- Scallop, yellow bean garlic £3.5 - one scallop in shell grilled very well with a tasty savoury bean liquid;
- Trotter nuggets £4 - pig trotter meat and cartilage deep fried into a salty nugget. Not bad;
- Classic bao (braised pork, peanut powder, fermented greens, coriander) £4.75 - wasn't a big fan of the flavours nor feel that the peanut powder went with it. The braise is quite sweet. I'm sure the confit version would have more my style;
- Lamb shoulder bao (lamb shoulder, coriander sauce, garlic mayo, soy pickled chilli) £5 - bits of slightly stringy meat with a more savoury and slight chilli edge, but again not overly exciting;
- Fried Horlicks icecream bao (Horlicks icecream, fried bao) £4.5 - clearly the winner of the lot with fried bun similar (but less sweet) to the glorious fried mantou rolls and a slab of caramel icecream wedged in.

The buns themselves were decent and a lot better than the terrible quality at Yum Bun's new stand in Spitalfields. However they were tiny and just couldn't represent good value. With the ratings either people have no idea and are rating based upon the queue anticipation or the quality has slipped. 

The also clearly forgot about our two savoury baos as we waited 25mins after the scallop and nuggets. A waiter was surprised we were still waiting although expressed nothing over it. It wasn't enough to remove the service charge although tempting...

I won't be back here.

These handmade noodles are very popular in a street so near but distinctly away from Chinatown. My flatmate from China and her discerning husband were praising in the quality and authenticity of the food here.

They specialise in two types of noodles - la-mian which is a thin long and more typical noodle and dao xiao mian which is flatter and cut more unevenly. Other than that I don't know the difference but I'm sure you'll be happy with either.

- Roast duck soup with thick la-mian £8.3 - a very typical chicken/wonton soup broth that didn't scream of MSG. The duck was tender and not too fatty and the noodles were fine;
- Char siew fried dao xiao mian £8.9 - I preferred this thicker and chewier oddly shaped ugly noodle which tasted of typical Chinese stirfry dish. I added quite a lot of the chilli oil to give it an extra layer of depth.

Service is brief and patrons scatter in and out. There's a 10% discount for cash which balances out the 10% service charge you'd otherwise be given.

I wouldn't particularly seek this out but would happily eat here again.