The Accidental Guide To Enjoying Life While Unemployed – Part 2 – Eating & Drinking

Now that we’ve covered the basics of coping with unemployment, it’s time to move on to life’s visceral pleasures: eating & drinking. In this post, I’ve chosen to focus on cooking, dining out, coffee and wine, all of which I enjoy.

As I mentioned in Part 1, this isn’t intended to be a comprehensive guide to be followed step-by-step, and should be regarded as a supplement to help you enjoy life a little bit more than you may have been. An aide de vivre, if you will.

Feel free to spread the word to anyone whom you think would benefit from this. I’d also appreciate it if you would leave a comment, either sharing a tip or letting me know what you think.

Part 1 – The Essentials
Part 2 – Eating & Drinking
Part 3 – Keeping Fit
Part 4 – Expand Your Mind

Please note that I do not benefit from any of sites I have linked to unless explicitly stated.

Argentina: Eating & Drinking

Seeing as a number of people have asked me for Argentina recommendations recently, I thought I would cut and paste my long list here for future reference. I'll be looking to add more detail over the next few days, but, if you have any questions, feel free to comment or e-mail.

One Night in Bangkok

So far!

We'd only been here for six hours and we've managed to try out Bangkok's best pad thai (Thip Samai), a very heavy and starchy local dessert one stall down and toasted bread with condensed milk from Mont, a place which has been around since 1964.

In a rather fortuitous moment, my travel companion has brought along a guide to Bangkok's best 50 street food stalls, which will make this trip even better for us. I am also planning to get a new suit or two tailored, at least one massage, dinner at Bo.Lan (at Tom Eats' recommendation), meet up with a friend and work on my speech and wedding playlist.

I know, that's why I tweeted that I'd try to relax this time around. I really do need someone to rescue me from myself sometimes.

Incidentally, the solemnisation went well, and the music was largely approved of by the bridal couple. Now, just on to the rest of the things I need to do, such as planning the wedding games!

Best Brownies in London

I have a major weakness when it comes to food, and that's baked goods. I love brownies, apple pies, cinnamon buns, bagels and freshly-baked bread. Suffice it to say that it's almost impossible for me to to go on a carb-free diet.

Over the past few years, I've been on the quest to find the perfect brownie. Well, on and off, as if I've been on it continually, my waistline would be much larger than it is today. As it is, I haven't escaped unscathed entirely, so... well, let's not go there, shall we?

Until yesterday, my top three brownies in London consisted of:

1. Konditor & Cook's Boston Brownie, 
2. Wild & Wood's brownie (sourced from Sally Clarke), and
3. Flour Power City 

Review: Franny's Pop-Up in Soho

I haven't done a restaurant review in a long time, so I thought I'd jump right back in with a review of Franny's in Soho.

Franny's is a pop-up Italian restaurant located at 11 Frith Street, very near Mooli's and Ronnie Scott's. It was due to close at the end of January, and be replaced by Giraffe, but through some stroke of luck, their lease was extended by another few weeks, and the restaurant is now due to be closed in March.

The first thought I had upon walking in was that it looked nothing like how I expected it to. I'm not sure what I expected, to be honest. Possibly cheap furniture made out of cardboard and graffiti all over the walls. But, no, there's clearly been a lot of thought and effort put into decorating the place in spite of the fact that it's pretty much just temporary.

Service in the form of Matt the waiter was nice and friendly. He was very smiley throughout, which is always a nice quality to have.

Given my slight health kick, and the fact that I was out on a first date, I found the menu a little limited. I don't do pizza and pasta so as to minimise the possibility of mishaps, but, it was my own fault for suggesting an Italian restaurant, so oh well! I opted for a seafood risotto which also had chunks of pumpkin for my main, while we shared a bread basket and an antipasti platter to start. I must say that the homemade bread with chunks of garlic baked in was incredible and scoffed it down. Clearly, I wasn't at all concerned about the unwanted side-effects despite the occasion. I didn't like the sourdough so much, but, then again, I've never liked sourdough anyway.

The risotto was pretty good. I haven't had a bad risotto in a long time, so I guess it must be difficult to mess it up. My date didn't enjoy his pasta too much, although he said the sauce was nice.

All in all, the bill for all of that plus dessert and coffee came up to £40 inclusive of service. Best of all, if you keep the bill and present it on your next visit, you get 25% off your food order.

Franny's will only be open for a couple of weeks more; if you're looking for a nice, affordable, chilled out place to eat and relax in central London, I'd definitely recommend Franny's. Drinks are 50% off during Franny time from 4 pm to 8 pm.

Reservations can be made via Twitter (@frannys_soho) or by calling 020 7494 3491.

P.S. Apologies for the lack of photos. As I was out on a date, and wanted to preserve my blogger-nymity, I chose not to take any.

Met my former dua tao for dinner this evening. He's been really good to me ever since the day I met him, so it's always a pleasure to catch up with him when I'm in town. And he sure does know his food. He picked Osvaldo for dinner, in part because it's close to my old office, and, I suspect he remembered that I really love Italian food, even though I didn't mention any preferences when we arranged to meet up.

However, because he's my old big boss, I didn't take any photos. After all, I didn't want to annoy him, or cause any embarrassment by taking loads of photos like I tend to do. And I probably would have annoyed the rest of the restaurant too, as it's not that brightly-lit, which would have led to my using the flash for each of the dishes we ordered.

I'm a little sad I didn't do so though, as the food was incredible, both in terms of taste and presentation. I opted for a full-size burrata appetiser to share (the waitress offered to halve it if I was the only one eating it, but we decided to share) while my old boss chose the asparagus with poached egg. The burrata cheese was incredibly fresh and delicious, infinitely better than mozzarella, while the parma ham was very tasty. But, man oh man, the portion was huge. I'm sure a half-portion would have been more than sufficient for the two of us. The asparagus appetiser was good as well. Nice and crunchy, and good for getting the taste of cheese out of my mouth.

Both of us opted for the tagiatelle with wild boar ragout as our mains. Thankfully, the portions weren't as monstrous as the burrata appetiser. In fact, the size was just right. The ragout was soft and tender, and incredibly tasty. The pasta was nice and al dente. In short, perfect.

I was initially thinking about skipping dessert, but chef and owner Osvaldo came over to speak to us both, and recommended us peaches which had been grown on his farm in Italy. There'd been a good harvest this year, and his mother had taken the peaches, boiled them in sugar and water, and sent over 650 jars to Singapore for him to use. It sounded interesting, and, as any regular reader knows (if there are any!), I am incredibly attracted to anything new and interesting, so, of course, we had to try them. The other thing is that I love peaches - not fresh ones - but those in syrup, so this was right up my alley. And, man, they were really nice and juicy. I probably shouldn't have slurped up the syrup as well, but, hey, you only live once.

So once I'd sated my longing for Italian (yes, so what, I love Italian even more than I love Singaporean food), I took a look around. Osvaldo's is really nicely done up as a rustic, homely Italian restaurant. And it's clear that the staff are dedicated and incredibly friendly as well, with Osvaldo and his wife walking around and talking to various customers. It was amazingly busy for a Monday night, and very heartening to see as well, as I love it when people who have put all their heart and soul into something are rewarded.

There you have it. My first restaurant review in a long, long time. And no pictures. You'll just have to imagine it. Or perhaps check out these blogs for some photos.

Osvaldo's
32 Maxwell Road
#01-03 Maxwell Chambers
Singapore 069115
Tel: +65 6224 0978

Lunch: 11.30 am to 2.30 pm
Dinner: 6.30 pm to 10.30 pm
Closed on Sundays

Always as ever busy as a whole entire hive of bees whenever I return home. I touched down yesterday afternoon. Since then, I have gone to a colleague's farewell drinks, partaken of several favourite local dishes including ngoh hiang, prawn mee, bak chor mee and curry bee hoon (with some of those dishes being shared among others), had my usual iced Milo, had Singapore's no. 1 barista's coffee entry for the World Barista Championship (chili chocolate mocha at Oriole Cafe & Bar), purchased a skirt from local brand Saturday which I first saw on cate.com.sg just a couple of days ago, and consumed a scoop of Awfully Chocolate's hei ice-cream combined with a truffle. I've also seen the massive number of tanks which will be featuring in the National Day Parade, and tried out the Circle line.

I don't know how much more there is I can take of doing all of this, but, fortunately, I have loads of friends to catch up with, and I'm staying here for a longer time than usual, so, hopefully, this time, I'll manage to fit everything in for once!

It's good to be back.

Chocolate and whisky hangover after a delightful pairing session organised by Artisan du Chocolate and Macallan yesterday night. 'Twas great, and thanks very much to the wonderful Mostly About Chocolate. Photos, etc. to come later.

But, for now, recovery beckons.

On March 30, 2010, I was fortunate enough to get to sample The Ship's wonderful barbecue menu. The Ship is a cosy little pub owned by Young's and run by Oisin Rogers for the past four years. Given it's right by the river, the views are great. It's not the easiest place to spot if you have not been there before. It's off a side road near Wandsworth Bridge, with the closest train station being Wandsworth Town station, about 15 minutes on the overground from Waterloo. It's definitely not a place you'd happen to walk by.

Now, on to the food. This was the menu for the night, consisting of ten dishes from the Ship's full barbecue menu.

While we did get the opportunity to try out lots of food, I'll just highlight my favourite dishes here. Otherwise, this could turn into an incredibly lengthy post, and we all know I blabber way too much under the best of circumstances.

The intriguingly-named 'pig in a jar' was fantastic. It was similar to a rillette and  tasted really good spread on the large slice of toast that accompanied the dish. It was delicious... and given that it already comes in a jar, it's definitely something The Ship should think of selling for people to take home. A great way to start off the meal, for sure.

Next up was The Ship's specialty: the chargrilled beef and lamb burger. Head chef Dave and his assistant whipped them up for us right on the spot, turning the mixture of one third lamb and two third beef and various other assorted ingredients from this...

into this.

The burger was, in a word, awesome. It was, by far, the best burger I have ever eaten in London. Just for the record, yes, I have eaten at Byron's and Lucky 7. The meat was succulent - no gamey lamb taste - the tomato chutney delicious and the bun was pretty good, though to be honest, I didn't really notice the bun amidst all the delicious meat. If you only have space for one dish, I'd recommend this.

Well, I would have, if it weren't for the next dish Dave served up: rack of pork ribs with coca-cola barbecue sauce (Dave's secret recipe). Tender, fall-off-the-bone meat combined with tasty, tangy, sweet sauce. Yummy. After my first bite, I declared I'd challenge anyone eating to a knock-down, drag-down fight for the last one.

 

The wine which was served along with the food - You, Me and the Gatepost, Shiraz, 2008 - went very well. Nice and smooth. At the risk of sounding snooty, albeit in a very strange way, the Shiraz didn't give me a headache at all, not even when I drank it on an empty stomach. Usually, red wine - especially if it's of poor quality - gives me a headache pretty damn quickly, so that's how I judge whether a wine's good.

At this point, I was getting very full. The rest of the dishes were good as well, but I was so full that the taste was just getting lost on me.  The barbecued lamb was a definite favourite with the crowd, and the mozzarella got quite some praise too.

In addition to the good food, The Ship is also a remarkably nice pub. Aside from the river view, the pub has a fireplace which had a roaring fire the day I was there, which was very good because I was freezing from the cold weather after standing outside watching the chefs at work (our choice, nothing to do with The Ship). By the time we'd finished our meal, there was live music going on in the bar - an Irish band, by the sounds of it.

When I commented on the music, marketing manager Emma told me that the best day to come was Sunday, when there was a live band and dancing on the tables (!). Definitely a sight that'll have to be seen to be believed, for sure.

It was most definitely a great night. I've commented on the fact that it's not too near my place, but, heck, it's a place I really do want to come back to, particularly when the weather's warmer!

Many many thanks to Qype and the wonderful people at The Ship for such a great night!

The Ship
41 Jew's Row
Wandsworth
London SW181TB

Tel: 020 8870 9667
Mon – Sat: Lunch 12 pm - 4 pm, Dinner 6 pm - 10 pm
Sun: Lunch 12 pm - 5 pm, Dinner 7 pm - 10 pm

Try as I might to take photos of dishes before they are consumed, there’s a group of friends who simply refuse to wait for me to finish taking photos because they’re just impatient. I think Westerners would probably think of us as incredibly rude (seeing as there’s a friend who just swoops in even before the dish hits the table sometimes) but we’re all so familiar with one another that I just don’t even think about it. In fact, it always makes me laugh when my friend ninja-attacks the food, simply because she’s so quick!

So why did I start off with that? Simple. We went to Tierra Brindisa (part of the Casa Brindisa family, and from Borough Market) yesterday evening for that friend’s belated birthday celebration, and the food was incredible… even better than the tapas I had in Seville at the end of February (including Cerveceria Giralda). The grilled Leon chorizo was tasty beyond belief, and the prawns cooked with garlic and chilli – whoa! I was even sipping the oil after the prawns were finished. The octopus served Galician style (something I’ve loved ever since going to Santiago de Compostela last year) was great too.

We also overdosed a little on the wine. Two bottles for five of us, though for four of us, it was our second (and for me, my third) stop of the night, so I was already a little over my limit for a weekday.

All in all, we had eleven tapas dishes (including two of the chorizo) and two bottles of wine for £29 per head (including service).

But, yes. No pictures. You’ll just have to go there and try it for yourself!

Happiness, among many other things, is discovering that the block of San Simon cheese I purchased from Santiago de Compostela last May is still edible. It's got a semi-hard cheese which has a mildly creamy smoky taste, somewhat similar to Applewood, and doesn't take too well to being nuked in a microwave.

Its unsmoked equivalent is called Tetilla, so called because it resembled a nun's breast.

Popped into Paul A. Young today on my way home. On a sleety day like today, a good cup of hot chocolate was in order. I chose cinnamon and chilli as my spices, and it went down well. Mmmm-mmm. Pure thick chocolate-y goodness, uncomplicated by impurities such as water or milk. Heh.

I also picked up a bar of TCHO Fruity. I'd read about this some time back - something to do with a scientific approach to chocolate or technology being used for this - and the saleslady told me that the brand was founded by the founder of Wired. It wasn't cheap at just under £5 per 60 g bar, but, again, with CNY coming up and all, it just felt like a good time to try new things out. I haven't opened the bar yet though; I sampled three truffles at the shop - chocolate, nutmeg and chilli, chocolate and winter spices and one other - and I'm completely chocolate-d out now.

And I wonder why my no-red-meat diet and new exercise regime haven't resulted in my losing any weight yet. Damn.

Godzilla

Ever since I started work, I haven’t gone back to any of my student haunts save for Young Cheng and Kam Fung. On Monday, however, this changed. I wanted a place which wasn’t too expensive (on account of going out with CG whose spending capacity is somewhat constrained) and wasn’t too grubby to be completely date-unfriendly (on account of going out with CG). This pretty much ruled out all of the Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, so we ended up at Stockpot on Old Compton Street, a place I’d been to only once or twice at the most, and that was close to ten years ago.

To my delight, neither the décor nor the prices seem to have changed. It’s pretty much like a slightly cleaner and brighter English caff and the sets were still under £7. I had a serviceable minestrone soup and a massive serving of penne with salmon and avocado for £6.20. I also had a decent (small) glass of house red for £2.50. Honestly, I didn’t expect to be able to get a meal and alcohol for £10 (including service). Awesome. And CG seemed to enjoy it as well. He finished up his entire dish, much to my surprise. I mean, I was incredibly hungry, having gone for a run in the morning and hadn’t had anything substantial to eat throughout the day, but even I couldn’t finish my main.

And, after that, it was off to another budget-friendly place: Prince Charles Cinema for the screening of the original Godzilla in its undubbed glory. I have vague memories of a late-night viewing of Godzilla vs. Mothra with my family when I was a teenager, but, now that I’m considerably older, I’m able to appreciate the historical context in which the movie is set, and not just think, “Cool, monsters! Rawr!” (I loved playing Rampage when I was a kid.) The movie has definitely dated a bit, but Godzilla still looked incredibly realistic (in the sense that it moved like how I'd imagine a big lumbering reptile would move) and the effects are very good to watch. The acting was good as well. The fear and terror, especially on the part of Akihiko Hirata who played Dr. Serizawa, are well done. To those unfamiliar with Japanese culture and history, it may have seemed overwrought, but, as I said, I'm older now, and can understand why the characters behaved the way they did.

All in all, it was a really nice night. It made me feel younger, even if I was with someone who's very much younger than I am!

Although a seemingly odd combination, I am incredibly fond of popping candy and chocolate. I first came across this at The Grove hotel, where I had taken a large piece of the chocolate but didn't realise what it contained, until about one minute later when I realised something was going on in my mouth. (Hey, I was hung over, give me a break.)

Montezuma's now offer up their version, called Zwickies, which I bought just yesterday. The first two pieces were disappointing; all snap and crackle, but no pop. But the third piece was incredibly satisfying. Plenty of fizzing, popping candy for your buck.

One could probably make some based off Chubby Hubby's take on Heston Blumenthal's Popping Candy cake. I knew I should have spent my last ten Norwegian Kroners on a bag of popping candy when I was there a couple of weeks back!

Last weekend, we were all set to have a barbecue. Then it started looking a lot like rain, so, in the end, after I finished working out, I met up with friends at Lucky Seven, this totally awesome American-style diner which serves up great burgers. Apparently, Sally Clarke (maker of some of the best brownies in London and, possibly, ever) hangs out there with her kids, so if you don't trust my taste, surely you'd trust hers, yes?

Cheeseburger (£6.75)

Lucky Seven also serves up some of the most amazing shoestring french fries. Yum!

Lucky Seven 

127 Westbourne Park Road

London W2

Sunday marked my maiden visit to Misato. I'm not sure why I've never been there, considering that it's definitely one of the more student-friendly places I've been to, and that all of my friends have eaten there at one time or another. Maybe it was just because there are so many other restaurants I preferred to eat that are around the vicinity... or that, as a student, I preferred to cook rather than eat out, even if my university was located very near Chinatown.

In any case, if you ever find yourself in Chinatown, and you only have a tenner to spare and you're incredibly sick of Chinese food (which can happen), then I'd strongly recommend you give Misato a try. I mean, just check out the portions that were served.

Tofu steak (£4.20, I think)

Katsu-don (£6 to £7)

Teriyaki chicken (less than £5)

There was more than enough rice, and I wasn't able to finish my teriyaki chicken, instead foisting four generously-sized pieces of chicken onto P.'s plate, who himself was not able to finish the pork and egg on his katsu-don. As for the taste, I found the teriyaki sauce a little too salty after a while (which is normal for me), and quite enjoyed the egg which accompanied the katsu-don.

The entire bill came up to £20 inclusive of two glasses of iced barley tea and service. I mean, seriously, given the size of the servings, this place is a bargain. No wonder there are queues out the door every time I've walked past. Sure, Misato is pretty much a no-frills Japanese canteen, but, at that price, really, one can have no complaints.

Meanwhile, on our way to the tube station, we came across this creepy little bugger.

Apparently, it's some sculpture which was erected in April 2009 and will remain up there for ten years. It's not terribly pretty if it's meant to be a reflection of Chinese culture, and I'll bet that there are plenty of drunks who have stumbled this way late at night only to get completely freaked out.

I mean, look at it!

Another shot so that you can tell how big it is.

Misato
11 Wardour Street
London W1D 6PG
Tel: 020 7734 0808
Credit cards not accepted

Redchurch Street is a little street just off Bethnal Green Road and is unexpectedly filled with the most adorable little shops. I wandered down it the other day looking for the Swanfield Pop-Up Boutique only to find that everything had finished by 6 pm. Tired and thirsty, and desperately trying not to ruin my freshly manicured nails, I popped into Franzè & Evans, a newly opened Italian deli near the boutique.

Franzè & Evans was set up by art lover Nicolas Franzè, lawyer Clare Evans and beauty therapist Theresa Lococo with the aim of serving up quality Italian home-cooked food. As their web site puts it, you'll find Theresa cooking in the kitchen, Nicolas at the counter, and Claire overseeing the cafe, doing the things the Italians can't or won't do.

What first drew me to the cafe was the display of Bialetti Moka Express espresso makers in their window. Also, the cafe was nice and bright, the perfect antidote to the dreary, grey rainy weather that East London had just experienced. And, there was a can of brightly-coloured tulips on every table, which was definitely a nice touch.

Check out the Moka display in the window

The stacks and stacks of Italian food on the shelves was also a major pull factor; I just love delis, even if I never buy anything from them, as I generally feel they're priced a little past the point of reasonableness. I didn't check the prices of these guys, so I can't comment on whether that's the case here.

Small cappuccino (£1.90) and biscotti (£0.25)

I ordered a skinny cappuccino and a biscotti; I wasn't very hungry, and as I mentioned earlier, I was incredibly tired - a nail session lasting over two hours will do that to you - and just wanted some place I could sit down before I caused further damage to my nails.

The cappuccino was decent. I don't think I paid too much attention to it, as I was very thirsty and I was also engrossed in reading Zoe Heller's short story in The Observer magazine.

And seeing as I've mentioned them twice already...

Freshly manicured nails

Freshly pedicured nails

All in all, Franzè & Evans was a good place to chill out and just luxuriate in the pretense of being a tai tai for a few minutes. It's located conveniently near Brick Lane (it's less than two minutes walk from where Bethnal Green Road meets Brick Lane), but just far enough away that it's not too noisy, it's large enough (unlike most coffee shops which don't have much space for more than five people to sit down), it was nice and bright and, best of all, it opens till late-ish. What more could you ask for on a lazy Sunday evening?

Franzè & Evans
101 Redchurch Street
London E2 7DL
Tel: 020 7033 1910
Open Mon to Sun from 8 am to 8 pm

As a result of bellaphon's comments that he felt Loong Kee was better than Cafe East, my friend and I made our way to the former just to check it out. My friend is an ardent fan of Cafe East, and was the one who'd introduced it to me, so who better to check this place out with than her? We were joined by P. and A. who was visiting for the week.

Our first impression was perhaps not the most flattering one of the place. After all, who on earth distributes menus when the restaurant name is so obviously incorrect spelt?

That being said, we decided not to judge this particular book by its cover, but rather, by the taste of the food.

There were a lot of items on the menu. In the end, I whipped out my Blackberry, scrolled through a few reviews, and settled on the crispy squid and bahn cuon thit to share.

I quite enjoyed the squid, as it was nicely chewy, while my friend confessed she preferred her squid to be soft and a little mushier, so we had to disagree on this dish.

Crispy squid

As for the bahn cuon thit, we felt this was rather disappointing. It tasted nice, sure, but there was very little meat inside. In fact, when we commented on this, one of our other friends who'd just eaten one said, "Oh, there's meat inside? I didn't notice!"

Bahn cuon thit

Still, these were just the starters, and we'd been told that what Loong Kee was really good at is its pho. So all four of ordered the pho with raw beef. This is what arrived.

Pho tai with 'raw' beef

Now, unless the soup was incredibly hot - and I'm not saying it wasn't - I don't think my beef should have cooked that quickly. When my friend ordered the same dish at Cafe East, the pho arrived with the beef nice and rare. Over here, all four dishes came with the beef already cooked, even though we'd all ordered raw beef.

I thought the soup was above average, although I preferred the one at Cafe East as it had more flavour. In fact, I tried to replicate the spiciness of the Cafe East soup by adding chilli sauce to my soup but to no avail.

On the plus side, the serving was of a good size. I couldn't finish the beef or the noodles, and managed to drink about 2/3 of the soup.

The bill for four of us came up to £32.50 excluding service. I ended up tipping a little less than I'd normally tip as I was a little put out by the pho, and, more importantly, by the fact that Loong Kee charged £0.50 for a glass of tap water (free refills, apparently). Yes, it's on the menu, but the waiter never came by even once to fill up my tiny glass of water. It's not a posh restaurant, that I get, but there's still something to be said for a basic level of service.

Would I return? Maybe. It's easier to get to from where I live compared to Cafe East, but with other places like Song Que, Cay Tre and Viet Grill equally nearby, I think this place would be my fourth choice at best. The one instance I might go for Loong Kee would be because this place is BYO, which is always a handy option if you're looking to limit the damage done to your wallet but still have a bit of a boozy night out.

Loong Kee
134G Kingsland Road
London E2 8DY

Read bellaphon's review of Loong Kee here.

I'm a big fan of Mexican food, and an even bigger fan at anything considered a good cheap eatery. Wahaca is supposed to combine the two, having been The Observer Food Monthly's pick as being the the Best for Cheap Eats in 2008.

Now, I've walked by the original on Chandos Place many a time but never at a time when I had the time to kill, or when I was hungry. On Saturday, I happened to be at Westfield, having somehow found myself there after meeting with some people I'd met via Meetup.com, and figured that I might as well grab dinner there, rather than starve on the journey home.

So I wandered into Wahaca by myself, had to wave at one of the waiters so that I could be seated - I guess not too many people dine solo at Wahaca? - and tried to figure out what I should eat without going overboard. That's the real problem with eating by oneself - variety's not on the cards if you don't have the mouths necessary to justify ordering a selection of dishes.


While reading the menu, I was startled by someone plunking himself into the seat opposite. It turned out to be my waiter who took me through how the menu was structured. While I appreciated the gesture (he repeated it with every other table that came in), I was a little taken aback by the fact that he'd sat himself opposite me to explain this. To be honest, it felt like a tiny invasion of my personal space (this being my table, after all). Tiny, but an invasion nonetheless.

In any case, I ordered two small dishes of street food: pork pibil tacos and chorizo and potato quesadillas. These were served with a selection of mild and hot salsa.

A selection of sauces

I really enjoyed the pork pibil, as there really isn't any slow-cooked pork dish out there that I don't enjoy. And, coming after the halal lunch I had earlier in the day (which involved, horror of horrors, a dish of chicken char siew, a dish I thought I left behind after Singapore began importing pork from anywhere other than Malaysia aka the Japanese encephalitis period), the pork was most definitely welcomed.

Pork pibil tacos (£3.75)

The chorizo and potato quesadillas, on the other hand, weren't so great. The menu described the filling as as being made of Wahaca's "special organic, homemade Mexican chorizo, fresh thyme and steamed potato" but there was no taste whatsoever of chorizo. I doubt there was anything more than a few bits of chorizo, although there was certainly a lot of cheese.

Chorizo and potato quesadillas (£3.75)

Now, the main reason I'd ordered two small dishes was because I wanted to leave space for dessert: chocolate y churros. I'd obviously had some when I want to Santiago de Compostela and was a little disappointed (the churros tasted very much like you tiao, and I thought they were supposed to be cinnamony and sweet), and thought I'd give it another go even though I was now back in London.

Churros y chocolate (£3.40)

While I liked it - it's hard not to like anything that has molten chocolate as a dipping sauce - there was not a trace of cinnamon nor sugar on the churros. Wahaca's web site describes churros as being coated with sugar and cinnamon, so what happened?!

All in all, Wahaca's definitely a cheap decent place to eat at. The staff were generally okay; I definitely can't fault the friendliness of my waiter, who confessed to the American-born Indian couple next to me that he, as a Mexican, loved Taco Bell (which I do too, even if I've only eaten at the ones in Singapore, but then again, I also think Carl's, Jr. makes the best burgers, so maybe I'm just a junk food addict). I was a little disappointed by the food though. The next time I have a Mexican craving, and if I'm not on a budget, I'll head to Green & Red rather than Wahaca. This being the credit crunch times though, Wahaca will have to do.

Two weekends ago, we capped off my best friend's hen weekend with the finest of Singaporean traditions: a good South-East Asian meal. This hadn't been on the cards initially, but as the best friend's fiancé was away, and as we were finally allowing her to go back to her home and her beloved car (the rest of us can't or don't drive), she suggested heading out to Cafe East in Surrey Quays for dinner.

We didn't mind. It's not the easiest place to get to from most parts of London, but if she was driving, who was I to disagree? Besides, the rest of my girlfriends seem to like the place, and that was good enough for me.

So off we went to Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, a place I used to frequent while I was in university many years ago, as I lived in the area. I don't think Cafe East was around while I was living there, although being a poor student, it's not as if I ate out all that often.

This photo's for you, bellaphon, so you know what it looks like when you finally get there!

The place was quite crowded when we arrived, although we got a table pretty quickly. It probably took about 15 minutes for us to get a table for five.

We started off with the coconut cream drink my friend swore was "to die for", and was the main reason we had all been dragged to this part of East London in the first place. While the waitress serving us told us rather apologetically that the kitchen had run out of the green jelly (apparently my friends' favourite part of the drink), they took the risk and ordered it anyway, only to discovered that the green jelly was indeed still in good supply. I didn't try the drink. After a weekend of pure decadence, I had to go back to watching my weight.

The meal proper began with with two orders of Vietnamese rolls. Each serving had nine mini-rolls, which resulted in a bit of a battle as there were five of us so one or more of us would end up eating less. Fortunately, my friend's boyfriend didn't like this (to a chorus of "why??" from my friends) and the battle was resolved. The sweet and tangy sauce which came with this was really nice, and is probably the main reason why I like Vietnamese food.

Pretty much everyone other than myself ordered the rare beef pho. The beef arrived admirably rare, as can be seen in the photo, and while I don't generally go for pho, I thought the soup was fantastic. If I hadn't been having such a bad throat following the weekend's antics, I would probably have ordered this just based on my friends' recommendations.

Instead, I went for the dry option: vermicelli with pork and non-spicy sauce (on account of the bad throat again). I really liked the pork and the sauce, but not so much the spring roll (unsurprisingly because while I don't hate spring rolls, I'm not a big fan of them either).

As you may have guessed by now, I can't remember any of the dish names, although I think the one I ate was 8a on the dry menu. I thought Cafe East had a website, but haven't been able to find any hint of it via Google, so you'll have to make do with my descriptions and the photos!

The bill came up to about £55 for the entire meal of two starters, five mains and five drinks. As with everyone else who's eaten there, I am in complete agreement with how affordable the place was, particularly given how good the food tasted.

The only minor quibble we had was with the service; while friendly, the waitress seemed to forget of our existence after we had been sat down. I didn't really have any issues with this, as I'm quite used to such service from restaurants in Singapore. However, as a friend pointed out, this would be a major issue for people choosing to dine al fresco. If you can't remember we're there when we're in plain sight, how much worse could it get if we're not anywhere near the cashier or kitchen?

Cafe East
100 Redriff Road (Surrey Quays Shopping Centre)
London SE16 7LH
Tel: 020 8691 7777