Eat Like Ushi

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.

I've been a fan of Neil Rankin since the early Pitt Cue Co. days in Soho. That was a long time ago and whereas I feel like PCC has stagnated at the Spitalfields branch (even though I have their cookbook), NR seems to have done well. John Salt wasn't my favourite but Temper Soho sounded like an excellent choice of meats, Sunday roast and mezcal. It's still on my list.

But for now I'm happy to have been to Temper City, particularly during their soft opening with 50% off food. That ended up being a £56 saving for 4 people, which is remarkable. It's nice to be able to eat at a well reputed place without having the wait and getting a discount. Funnily enough even during this early stage the large dining area was half empty on a Saturday night. I guess people don't go to this area much on the weekends. Bad luck to them then.

The seats are arranged around the square/rectangular open kitchen complete with hanging meats next to the charcoal grill to finish them off and propel to the heights of greatness. New Delhi Sour (cinnamon smoke, bourbon, cardamom, absinthe) £12 was an expensive offering but read like a dream. It wasn't as strong as it sounds with smoke, bourbon and absinthe but the overall flavour was surprisingly mild, a little tangy sour and easy to drink.

- Mutton roll £9.5 - it's rather a fried flat croquette rather than a roll as such, but the crisp crunchy coat belies a lovely soft mutton. It's quite expensive for what you get, but it's good;
- Crab beignet £8.5 - similar to scotch eggs but with indistinct crab. Probably the only dish I didn't appreciate much;
- Korean haggis £9 - the thought of heart, liver, stomach, kidney and co. would be enough to put many off, but not me. There is a slight liver aftertaste but nothing compared to foie gras or pate. The different organs have different textures so there's contrast in it. It would be better if extra lettuce was served with it, otherwise it ends up being eaten off the spoon.

The main meals are curry plates served with soft paratha, fresh salad leaves and herbs, jhal muri, potato chaat, turmeric pickles, yoghurt & chilli sauce, peshwari dust. This results in a series of textures and flavours to create a nice set of wraps to eat the meal. The chilli peppers are grilled and served whole with seeds and pith. Consequently they are quite fiery, not to the point of pain but definite hit of searing heat.

Dry goat £17 is the classic meat that an unexpected number of people steer away from. This was a very tender set of boneless meat. Fish head £15 was shredded pieces of fish in a watery slightly more tangy base. Both of these were excellent, full of flavour and made wonderful combinations with the other ingredients.

Finally the Red curry spiced duck £26 was a beautiful sight on the table. This was an exceptionally flavoured smoked duck served with a mild red curry (although this was an Indian curry rather than the potent distinct Thai version I would normally associate with the words red curry). The duck itself was incredibly soft with a red core and one of the best I've ever had, perhaps rivalling HKK from all those years ago (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/hkk-london-04-2013).

I'll definitely be planning for the Soho one to compare.

The first time I had Georgian food was in St. Petersburg (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/khochu-kharcho-st-petersburg-06-2013). Since then I've dreamt of the khachapuri yet never had the opportunity to eat it again. It was only a matter of time before I got around to the Little Georgia cafe in London to relive those memories.

The Bethnal Green outpost is very near Columbia Road flower market which makes Sunday a perfect day to visit. Surprisingly not everyone thinks the same way and so during lunch time on a lovely warm day, the cafe was quite empty. Maybe it was so warm noone wanted to be inside - also possible.

- Ajaruli Khachapuri (with egg & butter) £9 - very similar to the Turkish boat-shaped breads but this one was cheeses in the middle topped with an egg and lots of melted butter. The green condiment mix was a little bit herby and tangy for balance. But the overriding flavour was warm butter and mild cheese. It wasn't as salty/savoury as the one in Russia but nice nonetheless;
- Khinkali x4 £8.5 - beef and pork dumplings with thick dumpling skin, particularly at the top where the edges were squeezed together. It housed a tasty warm filling and meat broth with the Ajika yogurt providing some contrast.

To wash it down, very fresh berry juice and an avocado smoothie were both refreshing and delicious.

Will happily go back go borscht, the traditional khachapuri (see how that one is) and any of a series of meat dishes available.

Kiln has been on my radar since I arrived. It's one of those places that I have to make the special trek to get to knowing that there will be a queue. The first and only other time I tried was a Saturday night with a 2 hour wait. I was surprised to find that Friday early evening was only 30mins quoted (actually about 50 in the end). Maybe the summer and daylight means noone is interested at 615pm.

While waiting for space at the bar, the aromas of grilling meats and hot charcoal stewing claypots filled the air. It's a great sight to behold. Unlike Tayyabs there's no meat body or clothes odour issues to contend with afterwards.

- Aged Lamb & Cumin Skewer £2.9 - a very tender and slightly fatty piece of spiced cumin lamb. Not very salty and good for it;
- Miang of Monkfish £3.5 - a betel leaf with raw monkfish. There were plenty of textures but not nearly enough flavour. It needed more spicy, salty, sweet to it;
- Grilled Razor Clam £6.2 - one grilled razor clam for £6.2. Really? Really;
- Mackerel Dry Red Curry £7.9 - the word curry is deceiving but I suppose the word dry made up for it. The fish was nicely cooked with the flavour covered by the thin curry sauce and some moderately spicy chillis;
- Beef Heart Laap with Makhwaen £6.5 - my favourite dish with a deeply earthern beef heart minced but retaining that little bit of chewy that is so characteristic of beef heart. It should be made a bit spicier and would do well with some lettuce and herbs to eat it;
- Grilled Tamworth £8.75 - a very tender cut of pink pork with excellent flavour. The chilli dipping sauce was very mild;
- Claypot Baked Glass Noodles, Tamworth Belly & Brown Crab Meat £18 - a big bowl of noodles for a big price. The pork was very fatty and had little meat. The crab meat wasn't discernible. And there wasn't enough sauce provided for the large noodle serving. Maybe the smaller £5.75 serves are better value (looking at the sizes I wouldn't think there was more than 3 serves in the bigger one);
- Stirfried Cornish Greens & Soy £4.5 - greens with sauce.

The food was ok but overall I felt the dishes lacked punch. I like strong flavours with my Thai/SE Asian food and many of the dishes just didn't have edge to it. The prices aren't too bad once I think about removing the monkfish, exorbitant razor clam and the noodles. I'd be happier replacing them with the Burmese beef cheek curry and a lot more rice.

I'll go back once more to see.