Friday 28 October 2011

Bodeans

10 Poland Street, W1F 8PZ

Bodeans is an American restaurant specialising in BBQ and good old southern food. When you arrive, you can opt for the diner upstairs where you order your food at the counter and collect it when your number is called or you can go for the waited service downstairs. We went downstairs where the restaurant is styled in an American sports bar style with the low lighting, wooden interior,green leather lined booths, fully stocked bar and a large TV exclusively showing sports.

Both my friend and I decided to go for a ginger beer and the combo of pulled pork and baby back ribs. It came with fries and coleslaw and I ordered some extra BBQ beans for good measure. The pulled pork was lovely, good texture and flavour. It was a little dry but nothing an extra dousing of sauce couldn't help! Luckily as, besides the usual condiments, Bodeans also gives you the option of putting extra BBQ sauce on your food - Smoked hickory or hot chipotle. Both are nice. The ribs were tender and it was easy to pull the meat from the bones. The fries were nice too, especially with the yummy BBQ sauce but I found the coleslaw a bit hard for my liking. The BBQ beans had bits of meat in it which was a nice touch.


Pulled pork and baby back ribs combo

Bodeans BBQ sauce
For dessert I decided to have Eli's original cheesecake. It was nice and creamy but extremely rich. The type of cheesecake that really sticks to the roof of your mouth! It came with a mixed berry compote and its sharpness contrasted the cheesecake well.

Eli's original cheesecake


My friend decided to have the dessert special which on that day was a double layered chocolate fudge cheesecake. This also tasted good.

Double layered chocolate fudge cheesecake
Overall, the meal came to about £40 for two people including drinks and service. I liked the atmosphere of Bodeans and getting my hands dirty (they expect this, with a roll of kitchen paper on each table). The food was good and I wouldn't mind coming back to try the rest of the menu. The portions are generous but I actually expected them to be even bigger (thus not ordering a starter)!! Or maybe I was feeling particularly hungry that day. Either way, I would happily have another plateful.

Atmosphere: 6.5/10
Service: 6.5/10
Food: 7/10
Recommend?  Probably



Bodean's on Urbanspoon

Thursday 27 October 2011

Del Aziz

Westfield Shopping Centre, Upper Southern Terrace, W12 7GB 

Del Aziz serves middle eastern and mediterranean style cusine and has several branches around London. We decided to check out the one in Westfield (White City) as part of a family meal. The restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating, with seating outside on the terrace mainly reserved for those who want to smoke shisha. As the evening was relatively warm when we went, the glass doors seperating the two areas were opened.

Restaurant exterior

Inside, the restaurant is decorated with pink hues and earthy browns to compliment the middle eastern theme. The tables are all wooden with large benches running down the centre of the room for larger parties. At the back of the restaurant is an impressive display of the wines they offer which, according to their wine list, encompasses around 90 different varieties from a range of regions.

Restaurant interior
Restaurant interior: Wine display

Once we were seated, we were given complimentary appetisers to nibble on as we mulled over what to order. Included were black and green olives, pickled turnip, jalapenos and preserved lemon.

Appetiser: Olives, pickled turnip, jalapenos and preserved lemon

For drinks we has a classic Caipirinha, a Morohito (one of their classic cocktails and two non-alcoholic cocktails, a Virgin Morrocan Mint and a Berry Island. The Morohito was meant to be a twist on a mojito with lychee juice and purple basil and although it was nice, I couldn't really tell the difference if it was a classic mojito. Overall, the drinks were nice but nothing special.

For starters we decided to share a mezze platter between the 4 of us and opted for the mixed version which included hummus (chickpea based dip), tabouleh (cucumber and yoghurt with herbs), lamb boreck (lamb wrapped in pastry), keftas (cinnamon lamb meatballs in tomato sauce), merguez sausages (spiced lamb sausages) and tzatziki (parsley, mint and tomato salad). A waitress also served us with a selection of breads but didn't seem bothered to explain what types were on offer and when asked, mumbled and seemed unsure herself. In the end, we took some sun dried tomato bread and cracked pepper (?) bread. Overall, the starter was a let down. None of the flavours in the bread came through and tasted like a standard white loaf and the mezze did not have much taste or depth of flavour. Very disappointed.

Mixed mezze platter: Hummus, tabouleh, lamb boreck, keftas, merguez sausages and tzatziki

After the underwhelming starter, we were hopeful the mains would be better. They were not. One of the dishes were ordered was the Tagine of Chicken with Preserved Lemon & Green Olives, a firm favourite whenever we go to middle eastern/morrocan restaurants. The dish was very disappointing with very little lemon flavour and tasted more like a casserole that needed extra seasoning than the delicious dish we were expecting.

Tagine of Chicken with Preserved Lemon & Green Olives

The Tagine Of Duck and Apricots was also distinctly bland. Similarly, the Tagine of Lamb with Prunes and Almonds lacked the strong flavours and spices expected and instead of melting in mouth, the lamb was tough and there was no almond taste whatsoever. All the tagines were served with a side of couscous.

Tagine Of Duck and Apricots

Tagine of Lamb with Prunes and Almonds

The last dish we ordered was the catch of the day which was pan fried seabass on a bed of rice and broad beans. Again, it lacked much flavour.

Pan fried sea bass

 Needless to say, we did not finish our meal and left not feeling hungry but not feeling satisfied either. What was most disappointing was the lack of the flavour and spices. Everything just tasted the same, of nothing much really. Whilst the restaurant looked lovely and it was nice to have live entertainment in the form of a bellydancer, it was let down by the authenticity of the food. Having been to other restaurants serving this type of cusine, we were really looking forward to trying Del Aziz. If we were blindfolded we wouldn't be able to tell it was middle eastern food. Indeed, we wouldn't think otherwise if we were told this was served in an english pub. A bad english pub. Extremely disappointed.

Atmosphere: 6/10
Service: 5/10
Food: 4/10
Recommend?  No

Del' Aziz at Westfield on Urbanspoon

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Victoria Sponge Cake

The humble Victora Sponge cake. A great british classic.

Victoria Sponge cake by Toastkey


Recipe

1. Beat 220g butter (room temp) until creamy. Beat in 220g caster sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Beat 4 eggs and slowly incorporate into the sugar/butter mixture. Then incorporate 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence and mix.

3. Along with two teasooons of baking powder sift 220g of self raising flour into a bowl.

4. Using a metal spoon fold in the sifted flour into the egg/butter mixture until all the flour has been incorporated.

5. Divide the mixture into two 9-inch baking tins lined with grease proof paper.

6. Bake for 30 min in a pre-heated oven (gas 5)

7. Allow cake to cool on a wire rack.

8. When ready, spread raspberry jam on one cake. Whip some cream and layer ontop of jam. Add some fresh raspberries on top of the cream (optional) and sandwich with the second cake layer. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

Yummy! <3

Enjoy :)

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Chlopskie Jadlo

świętej Agnieszki 1, Kraków, Poland

Chlopskie Jadlo (apparently) means 'countryside cuisine'. This is a chain (well turned into a chain due to its popularity). There are approximately 6 restaurants within Krakow. This restaurant serves traditional polish cuisine. This restaurant isn't that cheap (according to Polish standards) but is reasonably priced (compared to London!) and cost ~ 50 PLN (£11) for a two course meal.

When you first enter the restaurant, what stuns you is the wonderful wooden decor. Some chairs/tables (or sledges!) have layers of sheepskin, and the restaurant overall presents with a very rustic feel. The waitress was very nice, although not very informative (possibly her English was not great). There was a lot of choice to choose from on the menu - which is exciting - except we ended up ordering too much, but we took a doggy bag and had it for lunch the next day :) so no complaints.


Cosy


Buffet salad



Condiments

To drink, I decided to be slightly adventurous and order water with homemade jam - which turned out to be cherry jam topped with mineral water. It taste a bit like diluted squash - with minimal taste. But when you eat/slurp the actual cherries with the water (using the spoon provided) it actually taste quite good - slightly sweet - but not overly. Other interesting drinks on the menu included a bread drink or a sour milk with sprin onion drink - although I wasn't adventurous enough to pick those (anyone who is, please let me know how it taste!).



Water with homemade jam
Water with jam (mixed)

Complimentary bread is served if a main is ordered. The bread came with two spreads: cottage cheese with chives or ..lard with onions. The lard was actually quite nice - so worth a try.
Bread: with lard & onions or cottage cheese & chives

For starter I ordered a soup taster - which consisted of 4 x 100 ml soups: rye flour, mushroom, tomato & noodle, and red beetroot soup. The rye flour soup and mushroom soup were delicious. The rye flour soup had a sausage taste to it - very yummy!! The mushroom soup - was similar to the the rye flour soup, but instead of the sausage meat taste, mushroom was the predominat flavour. The beetroot soup was slightly sweet - it didn't taste bad, although I don't think I can drink more than 100 ml. My friend also ordered a red beetroot soup, but with cream and poatoes - the bowl was huge*, too much in fact. The tomato noodle soup was dissappointing - tasted just like Heinz spaghetti letters - slightly thick with a tomato tang - not good.


4 soups: (from the left clockwise) rye flour soup, mushroom soup, beetroot soup and tomato soup with noodles

Beetroot soup with cream and potatoes

A lot of Polish food is based on pork - so not ideal if you can't eat this meat. Now onto the mains...

We ordered the stuffed cabbage leaves. This was OK, but I probably won't order this again if I had the choice, the pork inside the wrap was a bit too porky or 'piggy' and the tomato sauce was just too tangy (maybe the mushroom sauce would have been better..).

Cabbage leaves stuffed with rice/meat, in a tomato sauce

Stuffed cabbage leaves (opened)

Next was the potato pancakes in a 'spicey' sauce. The sauce for one thing is not spicey. I envisiged something quite hot somehow. To me paparika is not hot.  This dish was in essence, a hash brown topped with a goulash sauce. This dish was hugeeee and would be enough for two people to share or for someone with a big appetite. It was very yummy. The gerkins complimented the dish very well.

Potato pancakes with a spicey stew: with pork, gerkins, carrots and cream cheese

Potato pancakes with a spicey stew


A friend of mine ordered the pork casserole. She described it as 'bacon fried with potato'.

Pork casserole

Pierogi topped with onions. I didn't try this as I had one too many dumplings during my trip in Krakow, but my friend said it was yummy.
Perogi topped with pork fat fried onions

For sides we had boiled beetroot and sour cabbage. Polish sour cabbage is soooo nice! Not too sour/tangy - just right. The beetroot was nice, but I had quite enough of beetroot after all the soup.

Boiled beetroot

Fried sour cabbage

I really wanted to try the Polish dessert pancakes, but we were so stuffed, we just couldn't do it to ourselves to eat more :(

Overall, I would say I had a fantastic time. The food was cheap (compared to UK standards) and the portion sizes are reasonable/large. The staff were nice and attentive.

Service = 7/10
Atmosphere = 8.5/10
Food = 7/10
Recommend? Yes

Saturday 1 October 2011

Bitter melon braised with pork (苦瓜焖猪肉)


Bitter melon or bitter gourd (苦瓜) is an acquired taste and, as the name suggests, is bitter. However, once the harsh bitterness is removed, you are left with a delicious vegetable which can be cooked in a variety of ways. Whenever we prepare bitter melon, we never aim to get rid of its distinctive flavour, but to remove the acrid taste so that the pleasant bitterness remains (this pleasant bitterness is similar to that found in many other foods such as dark chocolate and tea). As children, we were never too keen on it, but have grown to love it. This dish is one of our favourite ways to cook it. The bitter melon is braised with pork on a low heat for a long time, so both become wonderfully tender and delicious with a steaming bowl of rice.

Bitter melon braised with pork (苦瓜焖猪肉)

The recipe
1. Marinate 500g chopped pork ribs with 2 cloves of crushed garlic, a heaped teaspoon of cornflour and a tablepoon and a half of light soya sauce.
2. Split the bitter melon in half lengthways and remove the seeds (a teaspoon can be used to quickly and easily remove them). Slice into 1.5cm pieces.
3. Place the bitter melon slices into a bowl and pour over a generous amount of salt. Mix well and leave aside. After 30 minutes, you should notice the juice from the bitter melon has been drawn out. Rinse it well in cold water so all the salt is removed and repeat the process 1-2 more times.
4. Once the salt as been removed, place the slices into boiling water and allow to boil for 15 minutes or until the bitter melon has softened slightly. Drain and set aside.
5. In a clean pan, fry the pork in some oil, mixing in a teaspoon of black bean sauce.
6. Once brown, pour enough water or stock to cover the meat and place a lid over the top, before lowering the heat and allowing the pork to simmer for around 25 minutes.
7. Add the prepared bitter melon in with the pork and simmer until both are tender.