Trade, 29th August

Trade is, I think, a bit of a local’s secret. I was meeting a friend for brunch (my breakast as I had only just got up, his lunch) and had planned to go to Hotbox but just thought I’d check out the menu for Trade and suddenly thought I wanted to try that instead. When I arrived I walked right in and was just behind two other people. There wasn’t really a queue. Two minutes later and one practically stretched out the door!

It was a balmy day so we sat outside. Eventually I made my decision – avocado on toast with chorizo on the side. My friend had the reuben because they are not that ubiquitous over here.

When they arrived I had total food envy. His sandwich was huge! My dish looked paltry! But Trade knew what they were doing. Mine was more than adequate for a breakfast (as indeed mine was, even though it was 1 pm) and it meant I had room to try one of their delicious baked goods at the front.

It also tasted great. The avocado was mixed with feta which gave it a very pleasant tang and the chorizo was a fine example of what is almost always a sublime sausage. My only quibble would be that the toast should have been given more of a grilling as I wish it had been more crisp. This picture makes it look better than it was. 

My friend really loved his sandwich, and a bite from me confirmed it was a spot on reuben. 

I am keen to make this a regular haunt!

Natural Philosopher, 28th August

That Natural Philosopher is a charming, ramshackle little cocktail bar that I liked very much. It’s just a shame no one else seems to. Or perhaps they just don’t know about it. Even though it isn’t hiding itself you could probably walk past it and not quite realise it was there. It looks humble. Inside it is split into three levels with the bottom one being nothing more than a cubby hole where you and a small group of friends could hide away. It’s done by the same people who ran Manero’s (now closed) and it’s just as cool with the same kind of ‘being in someone’s house’ vibe. But as there was only me, my friend and two other people in there when we went at 10pm on a Friday night, it rather lacked atmosphere. A girl and her mum turned up when we were halfway through our drinks but I would hesitate to guess that was it for the night.

It doesn’t help that it’s not near the other bars on Hackney Road – I expected it to be near Mr Buckley’s but it’s very much the Cambridge Heath end. Our cocktails were very nice and the sausage roll menu sounded delicious but we moved onto other pastures after just the one drink. That one drink being the Zabarella, a cardamom-infused tequila with lime juice, vanilla sugar syrup and pomegranate. An interesting blend – I don’t usually like cardamom that much but this was really nicely balanced. My friend had the special (I can't remember what it was called) which came with an ice lolly to dunk into the cocktail!

And I appreciated that the menu was short enough not to cause total choice paralysis, even though every cocktail sounded intriguing.

Halloween 2015

Halloween is probably my favourite time of the year. It’s when all the freaks come out to play, and some of my favourite nights know this and take full advantage, putting on some of their best parties. I’m not going to go into detail on each of tese, but thought I would provide a quick run down of the parties that have taken my eye over the Halloween weekend.

Friday October 30^th

A Curious Invitation's Theatre of Blood

Last Tuesday Society DanseMacabre 

ABQ Gus’s funeral (Dios de la Muerte theme)

Carousel do The Addams Family (burlesque, circus, dancing)

Saturday October 31^st

White Mischief's Heaven and Hell Ball (cabaret, burlesque, steampunk)

To the Lazer Cave Sequin Zombie Lazer Rave (rave, electro, techno)

Regression Sessions Halloween Special (kidult games, all kinds of music)

Torture Garden (fetish, kink, electro)

End of the world party (all kinds of music)

Magic theatre (vintage, electro swing)

Dark Circus (cabaret with a darker theme)

RIP (rave, techno)

The Vaults Raveyard (cabaret, electro swing)

Found Horror Series: MayaJane Coles at Building Six (rave)

Sink the Pink (tranny galore!)

Once Upon a Time in the Afterlife (all sorts, Day of the Dead theme)

I’m going to the Curious Invitation event on Friday and the End of the World Party on Saturday as I haven’t done either of those before. But competition was fierce!

Resident of Paradise Row, 25th August

Just when I thought I was about to have visited every new place under the arches in Bethnal Green, another place opens up. That would be Paradise Garage, from the people behind The Dairy in Clapham and it is too expensive for me to be heading down there soon. So, I was at the other place with Paradise in its name – Resident. On a Tuesday evening it had a few people having a bite but wasn’t by any means busy. I think it deserves to be.

As it was my first time here I wanted to try a few things so we got a few dishes from the small plates selection. All of which sounded delicious but it was the fresh pea arancini with habanero sauce I had been fantasizing about all day so I had to have that. Our waiter told us it was a very good choice. Added to this I ordered the chorizo with rosemary pinto beans and we also got padron peppers, maris piper chips and a pork spring roll.

My date for the night proclaimed that arancini was in his top two favourite foods (along with mac and cheese) and so if anyone could judge whether these were on the money it was him. He declared they were great – very light and fluffy (but with a good crispy coating). I had expected the pea to be incorporated throughout rather than the actual odd pea here and there so was a little disappointed but they were tasty. The habanero sauce was in no way as fiery as I thought it would be but the habanero was discernible and we preferred dipping our chips in this to the ketchup we’d asked for. And the chips by the way were excellent. 

I hadn’t expected the chorizo dish to turn up the way it did but I cut it up and spooned it up with the beans. You can never go wrong with chorizo (or if you do someone is a very bad cook) so this was predictably delicious. 

Most impressive I think was the spring roll which contained actual chunks of pork and came with a really tasty soy-based dipping sauce. I would get this for myself another time.

House cocktails are only £6 but be warned that even though they do have a beer on tap, they still only give you a bottle-sized serving!

This is a great, laid back bar/restaurant that is perfect for stopping in for a few dishes to line your stomach for any drinking along Paradise Row later.

Drink Shop Do Birthday, 12th August

I am no stranger to Drink Shop Do. I used to work around the corner from the place and on my first visit went there for lunch and was back again for drinks that night. When I wanted to celebrate my birthday, they had by that time opened Drink Shop Dance in the old sex shop below so this is where we ended up and had an excellent night. I found myself there again for a vintage hen do, where we all had our hair and makeup done while having afternoon tea. But I had never been to one of their ‘Doing’ events so when I was invited for their fifth birthday party I was quite excited.

They’re famed for nights involving arts and crafts or just being silly – such as Doodle Shop, making Lionel Richies out of Rich tea biscuits, and also having lunchtime discos. On their birthday we had a round of Lego robots and then some Musical bingo. I’ve played musical bingo before (though not with Jess Indeedy) so I knew what to expect and it was just as fun as the original night – she played mostly 90s hits that were as fun to dance in your seat to as playing the game of bingo itself. Prizes were such things as pom poms and fake mohawks – what more could you want?

For lego robots the rules were simple – it had to have a name, a special power, and limbs of some sort I seem to recall. I was quite pleased with my half-truck-half-oven creation but didn’t end up submitting it as it kept falling apart.

We had been treated to some delicious cocktails throughout the evening (as well as some delightful cakes and sandwiches to soak it up) and also, rather magically, bubbles of gin and tonic! Actually catching these was quite difficult but I managed to get a couple in my mouth. 

At the end of the bingo everyone made a conga line to the basement where the party continued and I started sipping on some frozen slushie margaritas and dancing around. Hell of a birthday party. And the perfect excuse to draw your attention to my previous post about Drink Shop Do. Here’s to another five years at least!

Longplayer, 1st August

Longplayer is a ‘melody’ that lasts a thousand years. Hence the name. More of an art project than a composition, it has been designed to be future proof so that it may be played continuously no matter the technology that arises. Since hearing of its creation I have been intrigued and wanted to get to one of its listening posts. You can tune into it anytime online but I thought being at one of the places it was broadcast physically would be a better experience.

It also provided an excuse to discover Trinity Buoy Wharf with all its artistic oddities and take a stroll along the Lea discovering more things along the way.

There isn’t much at Trinity Buoy Wharf but it has become a bit of an artists’ hub and there are strange sculptures and artworks all around which I was delighted by. Longplayer is housed in London’s only lighthouse so I think that is worth seeing as well. As you go in, the strange, ringing sound envelopes you, and in front of you is a set of bowls that were used to play part of the song live. The tune is continuously evolving, never repeating, and is a slightly eerie, but calming sound. You go up some stairs and can take a seat and just listen for a while. It was peaceful yet melancholic.

I decided not to get anything from Fat Boy’s Diner and instead get some exercise by walking to Stratford which took me along the River Lea and through some parks and generally lead me to explore a part of London I would never have wandered through otherwise. An excellent day trip.

Arabica Bar and Kitchen, 31st July

Honey & Co – done. Palomar – done. Arabica also had to be done. So I made a reservation for one Friday night to cross it off the list.

It wasn’t quite what I was expecting. Knowing it was borne out of a food truck I expected a more intimate setting but this is definitely a fully fledged restaurant. Though our slightly clumsy waitress gave it the less polished feel I had anticipated!

Choosing what to eat was a task as pretty much everything made my mouth water. But they had a few interesting-sounding dishes that particularly stood out. To start we had a couple of dips and bread. We ordered the whipped feta with Turkish chillies, toasted pumpkin seens and mit, and the hummus with lamb which also came with pine nuts, hook and son ghee.

The whipped feta was as light as a cloud. I now believe all feta should be flaggelated in such a way to be scooped up and spread on bread. There was far too much of both dips for the bread we were given but we kept them on the table and used them to accompany our mains so that we made sure to eat up every last drop.

For mains, we had chicken and pistachio shish, which we were warned literally came as is, so also had some Turkish style tomato bulgar wheat pilaf to go with it, and we also got some crispy lamb belly, some chicken wings and a fattoush salad. 

The pilaf was the best rice style dish I have eaten and that is not something I would normally get excited about. The salad was as unhealthy as a salad can get, with great slabs of fried crouton in it. I don't normally feel overwhelmed by salad but this was a lot to handle.

The lamb belly is a dish you shouldn't bother trying to share - deliciously crispy and well spiced with the fat all flavoursome and moreish. 

Chicken wings, while I remember enjoying them, were rather in the shadow of the lamb and I'd probably go for something else instead another time. 

Likewise, the chicken shish was a tasty version - coming with cardamom, honey and green chilli, but could have been a bit spicier, and well, another shish for your dollar (they were £10) wouldn't have gone amiss!

I blame the salad for filling me up too much to try dessert, although there was nothing which shouted out to me to try it despite my fullness. I certainly enjoyed my meal here and would happily return though out of the three places mentioned at the start, it was probably the one I least fell in love with.