Taste of London – Scandelights

Taste of London 2016

Published on June 27, 2016June 27, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

The week before last, Taste of London, the restaurant festival I visit every year, was on in Regents Park. It was nice like always, but I was still a bit disappointed. Some of the restaurants were not as exciting as previous years and didn’t deliver amazing dishes. Previous years it’s been a higher standard on the whole, so I hope it gets better again last year. With that said, I still tried some great dishes, but also a few disappointments. Reviews below.

Parmesan and polenta croquetas with truffle dip from Duck & Waffle: crispy, seriously cheesy, far too rich and not enough truffle flavour. Pretty dull actually.

Fettuccine with broad beans, Grana Padana and black truffle from Sartoria: nice pasta and generously ~~sprinkled~~ covered with black truffle it still didn’t impress.

Barbecued lamm cutlet from Roka: really nice!

Grilled pork belly with miso marinade, also from Roka: very nice!

Soft shell crab taco from Champor Champor: not very nice, but like the idea.

Baked scallop with mustard, chilli and cheese, covered with puff pastry from Mr Todiwala’s Kitchen: nice and different! But very filling.

Raw red prawns with black curry and coconut crème from Restaurant M: nice flavours but the curry slightly overpowered the lovely sweet prawns.

Bao with duck from Chai Wu: alright but now wow.

Hotdog with truffled mac ‘n cheese bites from Bubbledogs: nice hotdog but couldn’t really taste the truffle (oil).

Lamm meatballs with sheep’s curd from Seacontainers: OK, but nothing spectacular.

Fried chicken burger with Asian slaw from Chicks ‘n Sours: nice!

48 hr short rib with lovely trimmings from Restaurant M: absolutely lovely and in a class of its own!

Bacon and cheddar burger from Shake Shack: nice enough but it doesn’t beat their Shackburger.

SASA roll from Sushisamba: really nice! I’ve had it lots of times already, but it’s still great!

Restaurant M was a nice acquaintance, and having had the (two) SASA rolls I can’t wait to go back to Sushisamba soon, but some of the other restaurants were a bit disappointing. Hope it gets better again next year.

Taste of London, Regent’s Park – annual restaurant festival

Taste of London 2015, Regents Park

Published on June 19, 2015 by Hanna1 Comment

It’s time for my favourite festival again and I visited Taste of London last night after work with my fellow foodie Caroline. It was a lovely evening with sunshine (!) and lots of good food.

My favourite over-all restaurant was Club Gascon, they had some fun and different dishes executed to perfection. Plus the head chef was there handing out food and chatting away with the customers.

My favourite dish from Club Gascon was this sweetbread popcorn dish with iced Worchestershire sauce. The sweetbreads were delicious and the iced sauce cut through the richness perfectly.

Another fab dish was this tartine of foie gras and glazed strawberries. Fun and different, this combination worked really well as the strawberries weren’t too sweet.

Caroline tried their prawn burger primavera which was really nice too. It didn’t taste that much of prawns though, but was all in all a nice burger!

At Clove Club we couldn’t resist the buttermilk fried chicken with pine salt. Very tender and juicy chicken with perfect seasoning. Yum!

Roka had a nice selection of dishes and the one we both went for was this teriyaki eel sushi in a choux bun with avocado. Very nice!

We also went back to an old favourite; the SushiSamba sasa roll which I love. It’s just such a great combination of textures and flavours.

Chop Shop were also serving up some inspiring (and nicely presented) dishes.

I had the short rib with smoked cream corn and some crunchy corn bits and it was fantastic!

Caroline had their very tender hanger steak with dijon and parmesan sauce which was equally fantastic!

Caroline tried Modern Pantry’s crunchy prawns with pineapple ketchup but it wasn’t a dish that wowed us. But they won the gold medal for another dish called ‘mince & tatties’.

One of the trends seemed to be steamed buns because they were everywhere and I couldn’t resist one. The BBQ pork belly one with peanut soy sauce I had from Kurobuta was nice but not wow either, maybe the demand was too high for the kitchen to be at the top of their game.

We were very full after having eaten all of this and although I would have been happy to go back another day and eat some more, I only wished I had had room for one more dish and that was Duck & Waffle’s iconic ‘duck & waffle’ dish with waffle, duck leg and fried egg. Another time.

Taste of London 2015, Regents Park is on until Sunday 21st June.

Taste of London 2014

Published on June 19, 2014 by Hanna1 Comment

Last night was the preview of my favourite festival (on until Sunday); Taste of London in Regents Park. The sun was shining, the barbecue smoke was thick and there were plenty of great food to sample.

I’m not sure how I managed to eat as much as I did, but I thoroughly enjoyed most of it so it was completely worth it.

I started with Roka’s dumplings with black cod, crab and crayfish in a chilli dressing and they were great. The filling could have done with more seasoning because the dressing took over but it was still delicious.

At Club Gascon I had the truffled crackling duck egg which was absolutely amazing! One of my favourite dishes of the evening. The egg was nice and creamy, the truffle cream underneath absolutely delicious and the crackling gave a good crunch.

The clam chowder from Avenue was probably the poorest dish I tried. I liked the way it was served in a sourdough roll but it was completely under seasoned…

Ametsa with Arzak Instruction served different tapas and were really good at inviting people to their stall. I had the most amazing Jamon Iberico – best I’ve ever tasted – with fluffly bread cushions and tomato oil. Simple but excellent produce!

I had a Po Boy at Bar Boulud; a soft shell crab burger with Harissa mayo and cucumber and mint salad. It looked so nice random people stopped me and asked what it was and where it was from. Great flavours!

Before it was time for Massimo Bottura to go on stage in the Taste Theatre I caught the last minutes of the chefs at Honey & Co cooking a three course meal. It looked fantastic so I’m dying to try the restaurant and have a look in their cookbook which is being released today.

I also had a summer truffle risotto from Tartufo which was wonderfully creamy and tasted properly of truffle. I adore truffle and can’t wait to try this restaurant with plenty of truffle dishes on the menu. The tortellini was also very popular!

I also love burrata and pappa al pomodoro and L’Anima’s version with anchovies was great. Maybe not as amazing as Zucca’s but very close.

Then it was time for Massimo Bottura (three Michelin star chef and owner of Osteria Francescana) to take the stage. He explained how he came up with the two dishes he was cooking. That he likes to look in the past to create dishes for the future but that he doesn’t look at his grandmother’s cooking with nostalgia because then he would never change anything. Instead he takes the best from the past and creates it into something even better for the future. Massimo was absolutely charming and very passionate about his work – a joy to listen to!

Him and his sous chef cooked two dishes. One with a sous vide Italian sausage with a biscuit and a zabaione with Lambrusco and a deconstructed lasagne with a ragu with bone marrow but no tomato, thin dried and burnt pasta and a bechamel foam. Four happy people got to sample each dish but sadly I wasn’t one of them.

Monica Galetti was in the audience and got invited up to stage for some group pictures. Also Nuno Mendes was in the audience and he was one of the lucky ones who got to try the zabaione.

Before the next thing on my list I had a green tea sundae from Bone Daddies/Flesh & Buns. It was quite good and served with berries, honeycomb and marshmallows. I really like that it wasn’t too sweet.

I also tried sushi from Sake No Hana which I’ve been wanting to try and their spicy tuna roll was really nice and had a proper kick to it.

Then it was time to listen to Rene Redzepi from the world’s best restaurant at the moment; Noma in Copenhagen. He was also very passionate when he talked about fermentation for half an hour and was surprised time was up when he had finished.

The presenter at this Chef Skills Theatre was chef Valentine Warner but it was Rene who did most of the talking.

We also got to try a real umami bomb that Rene had brought with him, then he showed a video of Lars making the liquid. It was blended grasshoppers that had been fermented for six months. And it was really delicious! Tasted like a very strong soy sauce with a real deep flavour.

Rene also showed us mouldy rye bread, but with a good white mould. As we were all geeks in the audience he sent it around so we could smell and touch it.

What a great evening!

Taste of London part II

Published on June 26, 2012 by HannaLeave a comment

There were 40 restaurants represented at Taste of London, offering 3-4 dishes each, and I did my best to try as many dishes as possible.

The first dish was from Jason Atherton’s Pollen Street Social; avocado purée with crab and sweet corn mousse. Very nice, but the texture made it feel very heavy, so the small taster size portion was the perfect amount. I like that the dish seems simple, but still different. I mean, I would never dream of inventing sweet corn mousse.

Next up was La Gavroche‘s smoked salmon stuffed with ricotta and chives and served with a truffle sauce. Great produce, an easy dish to make but that truffle sauce just made it delicious.

The man behind La Gavroche; Michel Roux Jr, posed happily for photos. Here with a random girl.

One restaurant I was curious to try was Bar Boulud, from the team behind Daniel in NYC.

Their ‘hotdog’ with brioche bun, lamb merguez, sour cream, harissa and coriander was amazing and I can’t wait to sample more from their menu. This hotdog was also one of the most popular dishes at the festival.

Above is the spread that was available from Gordon Ramsay’s Savoy Grill.

I couldn’t resist the sirloin with mashed potatoes and café de Paris sauce. Pretty old school but delicious of course, although the steak was not the best I’ve ever had…

At Gordon Ramsay’s Maze I couldn’t resist this fun looking pudding;
pineapple and black pepper Bacardi slushy with raspberry jelly and vanilla yogurt. It was very refreshing and nice, although it didn’t seem that popular among others.

This pudding from Corner Room is amazing, and I have had it in the restaurant before. It is not supersweet and consists of many interesting elements; goat’s caramel, goat’s curd, crunchy biscuit, blueberries and shiso granita.

The last pudding was from Cinnamon Soho, Cinnamon Club’s newest edition. This mango and cardamom crème brulée was delicious with the little fruit salad on top although I did miss the caramelised sugar on top.

The festival offered lots of slowcooked meat and although I love it, I cook it al lot myself but it also feels more autumnal than summery, and I think that impacted the way I chose my sample dishes.

Taste of London part I

Published on June 25, 2012 by Hanna1 Comment

I spent Saturday afternoon in Regent’s Park at the Taste of London festival. As most vendors were the same as on the Foodies Festival, I mainly looked at the different restaurants. Each restaurant (40 in total) offered 3-4 dishes where as one was usually a signature dish with more expensive ingredients.

I tried lots of dishes which I will tell you all about tomorrow, but there are still more I would like to mention.

Jamie Oliver and Adam Perry Lang’s Barbecoa, their meat restaurant in the City was very popular and their burger looked really good.

Opera Tavern were there with their mini burgers but I eat there often enough anyway, so no need to try it out here.

The cheap thai chain Busaba Eathai were there too, and I have eaten here enough times to know it is good.

The Savoy had both Gordon Ramsay’s Savoy Grill and the River Restauant represented.

Swedish cider from Rekorderlig Cider was there too, but I can’t understand why this sweet cider has become so popular in the UK at the moment as I prefer dry cider myself.

Of the more exotic vendors Trinidad and Tobago had dancers with sequins and feathers and there were a whole Thailand village.

Club Gascon won the best dish this year and it is pictured above. It was a cheesy and marmite-y spread served in a Marmite jar with thick slices of sourdough bread.

Heston Blumenthal had his Bray pub, Hinds Head here and although the food looked good it seemed very simple compared to most resturants and that is probably why I didn’t try it.

L’anima’s signature dish was fettucine with truffle which I would happily have tried if I wasn’t so full at this stage. The trends this year was definitely truffle, pork and slowcooked meat. No surprises there.

Every slot has different chefs speaking and during my Saturday afternoon slot it was among others Jason Atherton, trained by Gordon Ramsay and known for his London restaurant Pollen St Social. It was good fun listening to him. He prefers natural flavours and does not compromise on produce. He even told us how much everything cost. Also two lucky people from the audience got to cook with him!