Shoreditch Grind

 

A great place for Artisan coffee and homemade pastries and cakes.

Located on the Old Street's Roundabout.

Shoreditch Grind
213 Old Street
London
EC1V 9NR

Tenshi @ Islington

Was craving for a good Japanese simple lunch in Angel one weekend, and came across Tenshi.
A tiny and cosy restaurant located on Upper Street, serving simple and traditional Japanese food. As you all know, there are many restaurants and cafes on Upper Street, with various and different cuisine, however, I think Tenshi is the only Japanese restaurant at the moment.

It is a small restaurant, with limited seatings, however, do not be put off by it. Sometimes, what I find in Japanese restaurants is, the smaller the restaurant is, the better their food is.

Given a busy Saturday lunch hours, I unfortunately was given a seat next to the entrance. We were quickly given the menus but no drinks were ordered. The menu is pretty comprehensive, offering the most popular Japanese food - Sushi, Donburi, Tempura, Katsu, Noodles - pretty standard.

We ordered the Takoyaki (Octopus balls); 2 pieces of Sea Bream Nigiri and Hamachi (Yellow Tail); Chicken Teriyaki Bento and Pork Katsu Bento.

If you want a no fuss Japanese meal around Angel and Islington area, visit Tenshi, as it offers good and traditional Japanese food for a very decent price.

Food rating: 7/10
Budget rating: 8/10

Tenshi
61 Upper Street
London N1 0NY

The Del Rey @ Mulberry

Mulberry has launched a new bag, inspired by Lana Del Rey.

Have you heard of her songs? If so, you will love this bag too!

The Del Rey has arrived in stores and online, here to shop.

The bag

Inspired by singer Lana Del Rey, the Del Rey also pays homage to classic Mulberry detailing and style accents. It is refined and practical, and although it implies structure the leather is soft and tactile, able to hold everything you might need and be as dressed up, or down, as you like.

Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey’s beautiful voice and nostalgic style have captivated us on more one occasion. Creative Director Emma Hill found inspiration in her coquettish elegance and desire to mix high and low cultural references in her music and fashion. Lana has a bespoke Del Rey in White Ostrich, as Emma says: ‘The white with the gold accent suited Lana perfectly – it’s glamorous, and a little bit retro!’

Homemade Dumplings

There is always something comforting about dumplings, in particular homemade ones. I have always made my dumplings with shop bought dumpling pastry, and though they are easy and convenient, I felt that it is missing something in taste and texture. Thus, this time, I have decided to make everything from scratch.

Homemade dumpling pastry is simple, but a word of warning – it is time consuming! So make sure you have a couple of hours to spare and preferably a chair or stool to sit while working on the kitchen table.

This recipe makes 48 dumplings

 

Dumpling pastry:

500g Plain white flour or all purpose flour

250g Cold water

1) Sift the flour into a bowl, and make a well in the middle

2) Pour in the cold water into the flour gradually, while mixing and stirring with a wooden spoon, to form a dough

*You may or may not need extra water, please judge by the texture of the dough*

3) Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, just to bring the mixture all together and to loosen it a bit

4) Leave it to rest for around 1 hour in the bowl

5) Divide the dough into quarters (working with smaller portion of dough is easier)

6) Roll each quarter into a log shape, then cut into chunks (approx. 2-3cm wide)

7) Using your palm, flatten each piece into a disc; Take the rolling pin, and roll out to a circle, about the size of your palm

8) Make sure your work surface is dusted with flour to avoid the pastry from sticking to it

Now for the filling; the most common meat we use is minced pork. I marinated the minced pork (500g) with 3 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp salt, 3 tsp rice wine and 1 tbsp of sesame oil. Then to the meat, I added diced black fungus (黑木耳) (alternatively you can add Chinese mushrooms冬菇), Spring Onions; for a bit of spice, I added some pickled vegetables (榨菜). Give everything a good mix, just to make sure they all stick to the meat. If the vegetables are not sticking to the meat, add a little cold water just to give it a help.

To make the dumplings:

1) Place a sheet of the pastry onto your palm

2) Take about 1 ½ tsp of the meat mixture and put it in the middle of the pastry

3) Wrap the dumpling, starting from the centre, working to the sides, press gently with fingers to make sure the sides are sealed (otherwise the meat will pop out when you cook them later)

4) Dust them with flour

5) Repeat until everything is used up

To cook the dumplings:

1) Carefully place the dumplings into boiling water

2) Cook them until they float on the water

*You should see the dumpling pastry becoming translucent*

 

Best served with vinegar (black not white) and some chilli oil; Alternatively you can pan fry them.

The Jugged Hare (Round Two)

Earlier this month, I wrote of my dining experience at The Jugged Hare on Chiswell Street in the City (review here), and I decided to give it a try again.

Once again, both the restaurant and the bar areas were completely jam packed. And even after 10pm, there were still incoming diners (they had the option of post-theatre menu).

We sat on the side of the restaurant by the window, overlooking the open kitchen. A lovely waiter came to greet us and brought us a bottle of sparkling water following as we had requested. He introduced the specials to us - pie and soup of the day, daily specials on the rotisserie. The daily specials were actually written on the blackboard, but it was not visible to us from where we were sitting.

We ordered the Black pudding croquettes with Guinness sauce to share; as for starters, we ordered the Breaded Skate Knobs with Tartare sauce and Bath chaps with Langoustine.

The Black pudding croquettes were really appetising, and it is certainly a change of how black pudding is usually cooked.
The Breaded Skate knobs were well executed, the fish was meaty and batter was cripsy but not overly oily, the tartare sauce was complimentary.
The Bath chaps - as expected quite fatty, made from pig's cheek or jaw, but it was perfectly balanced along with its golden thin crispy texture; the Langoustine was succulent and its fresh taste helps to wash away some of the chaps' fat.

Both starters were top notch, and I would be more than happy to have them as main; though I did find that the size of the starters were rather generous, in fact, we were pretty full after devouring those tasty starters.

As for main dishes, we had Monkfish tails with cockles and caviar butter and a 350g Rib-eye on the bone steak, accompanied with chips and gravy. We also ordered a green salad and Parsnip and garlic gratin as sides.

 

The Monkfish tail was cooked on the bone so that it remained succulent and sweet. Monkfish is a very meaty fish, some even say it is a cheaper version of lobster. The caviar butter was not as buttery or creamy as I had expected, but the dish needed a sauce. Apart from a few bites of sand while eating the cockles, all in all, it was all right, but I found the dish to be too fishy, from the Monkfish, cockles and the caviar. It sort of needed a kick from something or another texture to complete the dish.
As for the steak, it was just a steak with chips. The highlight of the dish was probably the gravy, perfect to dunk your chips in. However, as for the steak itself, it was average, but of course this is no steakhouse.
The Parsnip and garlic gratin was a yummy sidedish, both parsnips and garlic were cooked right through, but yet still have a slight crunch. 
Usually when we order a green salad as a side, we would expect it as a much healthier option (in comparison to chips or mac and cheese), but there were just far too much salt in this green salad. I could literally taste the coarse salt when I bit into the crunchy vegetables. It was just too salty for anyone's taste.

 

Desserts were Chocolate mint pot and Bread and Butter pudding with vanilla ice cream. The Chocolate mint pot was really rich with a thin layer of mint at the bottom of the pot. The Bread and Butter pudding was much bigger than I thought! Made with layers of pain au chocolats (which is more exciting than plain old croissants!), custard and currants, along with butterscotch sauce; along with the homemade Vanilla ice cream, the dish was complete.

Food rating: 5/10

Budget rating: 5/10

The Jugged Hare 

49 Chiswell Street

London EC1Y 4SA

Dover Street Market Sample Sale

We are pleased to announce the return of Dover Street Market MARKET! Three crazy days of shopping madness, bursting with bargains and exciting products from our archive with discounts of 70% to 75% off everything! A marvellous array of clothing and accessories will be available from past seasons from all Comme des Garçons collections, plus many of your favourite DSM brands. Regular deliveries throughout the three days will ensure that no matter when you come, there will be new items, so for those of you planning to come every day, you'll find something different each time. Friday 11th May – Sunday 13th May 2012 10.00am- 7.00pm Victoria House Bloomsbury Square London WC1B 4DA Nearest Tube Stations: Holborn and Russell Square Click here for a streetmap Only cash and credit cards please. No bags and coats will be allowed into the venue, so to reduce queuing times for the cloakroom, please pack light! We look forward to seeing you there!

Bread Making with the Masters @ Leiths School of Food and Wine

I have always been a big fan of breads, all sorts of bread (literally) and as a bread lover, I am as passionate as one could be when learning to make breads. Thus, I signed up to the one day Bread making class at Leiths School of Food and Wine to master the basics of bread making.

A few tips before the class:
- bring an apron (if you do forget, they can provide you one in class)
- bring a notebook and a pen (trust me, you will need to remember the helpful tips)

Upon arrival, you will be seated in the dining room where coffee, tea, and fresh baked pastries are served as breakfast. This is the 'waiting room'; you will then be given a booklet specifically designed for your course (bread making in my case). Inside the booklet, you will see the schedule for the day, what sorts of bread will be demonstrated and baked, and most importantly, recipes (which you will be following later on).

After everyone in the class has arrived, we were led to the demonstration room. I felt like a student again (and a geek), front-row seat, making sure I jotted down all the notes and tips I gathered from the demonstration. First of all, we were introduced to fresh yeast (my first encounter) and the standard process of bread making (mixing, kneading, proving, knocking back and proving again). The demonstration includes making the doughs for an enriched white loaf, Italian bread (foccacia) and how to make your own starter (for sourdoughs for example).

After the learning and notes taking session, we went to the kitchen, where hands-on baking began.

The kitchen area

First, we had to make the dough for the Enriched White bread. The enriched part is from the butter, egg and milk that we added. Usually, you can make a white bread with just flour, yeast, water and salt. This enriched flavour bring a slight sweetness to the bread, and a yellowy colour as well. Once the dough is done, we had to place them by the ovens to let them prove. Meanwhile, we got on with the dough for the Foccacia - a bit wetter than the white bread dough. Knead, knead, knead and let it prove.
Third dough - we made a Soda bread dough with fruits and nuts, which does not need to be proved (as we used bicarbonate soda as an active agent instead of yeast). We were given a lot of freedom in terms of how to shape our breads. I stuck with the classics, and shaped my Fruit Soda Bread as 4 round rolls. As for my white breads, a small loaf and a plait.

My white breads before and after second proving

Our breads were happily baking in the ovens, while we had our simple yet warming lunch. One of our bread chefs made us a Carrot and Coriander soup and of course breads go best with soup! We ate the breads which had previously been demonstrated to us in the morning. As soon as we tried the breads, we all thought "if only our breads turn out to be this good!"

After lunch, we had to glaze our white breads which have had their second proving. We were given poppy and seasame seeds to decorate our white breads. Then all we had to do was to wait for them to be baked.

The course ended around 2.30pm. Because with breads, it is very time consuming with a lot of waiting around, most of the hands-on baking were done in the morning.

I left the school with some much joy and satisfaction that I felt like I was a little kid who had just made her first art sketch. Oh, and of course with many freshly baked loaves of bread.

I would highly recommend anyone who is or would be interested in learning to make your own bread. Freshly homemade breads are the best, and I can guarantee that you will not be shopping for bread at your bakery shops for a long while!

This is also a great activity for your weekends, afterall, baking is very therapeutic and brings great satisfaction. What is the best thing to do but baking when the weather is just being so unpredictable?

For info on the course, please visit http://www.leiths.com/enthusiasts-courses/bread-workshop-12/

I am now looking at other courses at Leiths for my next challenge!