Des was a Bowie fan, 30th January

I don’t know who Des was, and so I cannot vouch for whether or not he really was a Bowie fan. And I cannot say how much Bowie would normally be played, as we went the weekend after Bowie’s demise so there was a LOT of it.

It was an odd night. It took place in The George, which is a pub. Not even a pub converted to a venue the way The Macbeth is. It’s just a pub. But people made do and danced where they could (including, at one point, on the tables – one woman was terrifically hammered). The crowd was mixed – mainly fairly young but with a few of an older generation who maybe group up with Bowie. Again, couldn’t say if this was due to his death, or due to the fact they’d been drinking in the pub the whole day and just found themselves at an indie night.

The music wasn’t completely my cup of tea – I like indie but I like all the stuff I grew up with and this went a bit further back and a bit deeper, playing quite a bit that I didn’t know. I made the most of it and danced along but wasn't left wondering when I could possibly get down there again.  

Basil's Sandwiches and Cruffin, 9th March

Basil’s Sandwiches

I’ve seen Time Out have fallen in love with a place called Max’s sandwiches for its oversized portions. Well, I reckon Basil’s would give it a run for its money. I heard about this place from the lovely Alex at Zomato – their offices are near there and she’d tweeted about her mammoth sarnie for lunch. I was transfixed and put it on my List. The only problem was that they are a City lunch place – only open Monday to Friday 12 pm until 3. I had to wait for a day off before I could give them a try!

They make sandwiches fresh for you and have all the usual – egg salad, tuna, chicken tikka, as well as a LOT of variation and some of their own creations. Alex’s sandwich was a scotch egg and corned beef behemoth. I found it really hard to choose – I wanted something your average sandwich deli wouldn’t do but also something that filled my non-specific craving. In the end I felt I was taking too much time looking at all the options plastered over the walls and went for the first thing that I’d liked the look of – the Chicken Swiss Melt (although the sausage crunch melt also sounded tempting – it has crisps in it!). This was a ciabatta stuffed with Basil’s own chilli chicken mix, chicken escalope strips (there was a lot of chicken escalope on the menu) swiss cheese, mustard mayo and chilli flakes.

I was a little worried that the ciabatta would make mincemeat of my gums but it was perfectly soft, yet sturdy enough to stand up to the overflowing filling. It was served warm and I didn’t want to let it go cold before I ate it so I started tucking in on the tube back to mine. Mistake. The chilli mix was packed with onions and peppers (crunchy and fresh they provided a great bit of bite and sweetness) and it was very saucy. I made such a mess. A delicious mess though. They did not skimp on the chilli flakes and the mustard mayo gave off a lot of its own heat as well, (yet without making my nose hurt the way mustard and horseradish can). I loved the breaded chicken strips. The only thing I would say didn’t quite work was the swiss cheese – it hadn’t really melted properly and was rather superfluous.

And this beast was only £4.90! Fabulous.

Fox and Ginger Cruffin

After that brute of a sandwich you would think I would be too full to eat anything else. And I was. But I’d already bought my dessert so I was sure as hell going to eat it. I’m always up for trying the latest craze. I’ve had a cronut, a duffin, a townie (tart/brownie) and the new cronut – the kouign amann (should be kouign amazinn!). Now Foxcroft and Ginger are getting into the mix with their own invention – the cruffin. This is a croissant/muffin hybrid with various fillings and I have to be honest, I can’t see any need for it. Not as buttery and rich as a croissant, not as doughy and sweet as a muffin, it was just a sort of dry, sugary bread that was very unsatisfying to eat. Not even a filling of salted caramelly cream could save it for me. Not worth making a special effort for.

L'entrepot and Chicken Shop/Dirty Burger, 8th June

Sunday was a rather indulgent day, mostly because we used London Wine Week as an excuse to get out early and make the most of our wristbands. First, we had brunch at L’Entrepot which were participating in London Wine Week, though we didn’t sample anything there as it was a little too early.

Instead, we had coffee and eggs. I had the gypsy eggs and Alison had avocado, fried egg and tomato bread (you may recall she had something similar at Hackney Bureau). But look at it – who could resist that beautiful guac’?

I don’t know much about gypsies, but they make some damn fine eggs. Eggs are baked in a rich tomato sauce and this is studded with chorizo and new potatoes and topped with a herby crème fraiche. You get a large slice of sourdough to scoop with, and I would highly recommend taking along an avocado-loving friend so that they order the other dish we had, and share their avocado with you.

The eggs were cooked perfectly for me – a little ooze but not too runny and the whole thing was just a perfect combination to set you up for the day.

Alison’s egg on toast was great, if a little basic compared to mine. And the coffees we enjoyed were smooth and rich. Perfect!

We then took in the sun and wandered up Kingsland Road to Rotorino where we eschewed their Riesling blend (way too harsh for our first alcoholic drink) for a Barolo instead. Rotorino is on my List but I won’t say much about them now as I want to come back to try their food. It was much larger than I thought it would be though, and hardly anyone was in there! I didn't expect that for such a trendy place.

Perusing our LWW books we saw Sager and Wilde were taking part and couldn’t resist another visit. They were also offering Riesling as their LWW white but it was far too sweet for us so it was red again. That was perfect – a little lighter than I normally like but great for such a warm, summery day.

Chicken Shop

By this time I had an appetite again so I met Stephen for dinner at Dirty Burger/Chicken Shop. We walked right in, no wait and sat at the bar where we were told we had to be out in an hour (seemed a little harsh given the place wasn’t full although we were in and out in no time anyway). I had the quarter chicken, he had the bacon burger and we ordered fries to share.

And then we ordered the butter lettuce and avocado salad because we saw it being made and it looked amazing. Such vibrant greens were too inviting to resist.

That came first and we tucked in. The avocado was very creamy, the greens fresh and crunchy and it had a mustard seed dressing which was very nice though became a little overpowering towards the end.

Stephen thought his burger was up there with the top dogs and I must admit it looked pretty good when it arrived and even better when he cut into it and revealed the medium rare centre. It disappeared in five minutes flat.

For some reason my camera went into 70s porn filter mode

I never liked crinkle cut fries as a child but I’m prepared to reappraise them based on the Chicken Shop’s version. These were nice and crispy, although a lot of them were also very thin which meant you didn’t get much potato. They came with a garlic mayonnaise that was pretty outstanding.

And so, my chicken. It was very good, nice flavouring on the outside, tasty chicken within, cooked really well. They were a little heavy handed with the salt for my personal tastes but that’s my only minor complaint. Otherwise I thought it was a great, fast, cheap dinner. A good informal alternative to Le Coq, although I do think I slightly preferred Le Coq's chicken. If I hadn’t eaten out once already that day I might have stayed for dessert or tried a few other sides but I can only be so gluttonous in one day, so off home we went. 

Rinkoff Bakery (Crodoughs), 25th August

If you don't know that the crodough, or doughsant or whatever it is that third place that does them is calling it has landed in the UK then you're probably not much of a foodie. And you won't know that it's supposed to be a cross between a doughnut and a croissant and was invented in New York and patented (copyrighted? whatever) so no one else can use that exact name. But three places over here have come up with their own version and one of those places is a bakery that I used to live literally down the road from. I would never have pegged it as a place to bring an NY trend to London and feel bad I used to walk past it with barely a glance. 

That place is Rinkoff's bakery and it has been going for something like 100 years and is a proper, traditional bakery that, considering how much I loved bread and other baked goods, really deserved my attention before becoming a crodough seller. But I only heard about it due to the crodough and so of course I had to go and try one,

I got there at about 1 pm when it shuts at 2. I thought they might be all out but there were still loads of them! Perhaps the cronut hasn't caused quite the stir I thought it had. There was just one young guy working who seemed kind of sweet if not a little surly due to being at that age when talking to people is kind of awkward. 

They had three flavours on offer - custard, raspberry and apple crumble. I got one custard and one apple and Stephen and I shared them. They also had an interesting looking onion bread but there was only so much dough I felt I should eat in a day, and the crodoughs are pretty hefty. And not cheap - my two cost me just under £6.

But they were delicious. The outside was ever so slightly overdone I would say, which I liked, and the inside had all the different layers you expect from a croissant. To be honest, I saw someone say on Twitter once that they just sounded like yum yums and I think they have a point! But a lot heavier and more filling. The apple crumble one was by far my favourite. It's going to be hard to resist making these a regular feature, knowing they're only a couple of tube stops away!