Walluc, 1st September

Well, that was the worst meal I’ve had in recent memory.

I didn’t think you could go far wrong with dipping things in melted cheese but Walluc is here to prove otherwise. I had high hopes – suspecting that it might be a rather overlooked gem on Redchurch street, being forsaken for all the hipster places springing up all around. 

It is a ramshackle kind of place, and I’m never entirely sure of its opening hours so I suspected a quirky personality that I could really bond with lay inside. We walked past in June on a First Thursdays walking tour and it was rammed and buzzy, further adding to my hope. However, when we went, we were the sole customers.

There is only one option on the menu to eat – fondue. This is served with boiled potatoes (undercooked) and bread (comically stale and hard). Four tea lights were brought out and a stand set over them. Then the pot of cheese was placed upon it and given a stir. Stirring was essential as it was so lukewarm to begin with it started to set almost immediately. We ate as quickly as possible but still ended up with basically a lump of gooey cheese in the bowl before too long.

The best I can say about this is that at least it is not expensive at £13 for two. And to give them some benefit of the doubt, perhaps, for two people, they just couldn’t be arsed to make an effort with the food and looked upon us as an opportunity to get rid of their leftover product. Androuet, however, is similarly priced and is streets ahead in terms of, well, everything. 

Motown Desserts, 1st February

Cakes in the window and a glittery sign attracted me to Motown Desserts a very long while ago and one balmy winter’s day I decided to pop in, having walked back from the Annual Clown Service and feeling like I’d walked off some calories. It was bigger inside than I imagined meaning I could sit in the back and ‘take advantage’ of one of their house specials rather than nabbing a piece of cake to take home.

This I regret. I think a piece of cake to take home would have been far more pleasurable than the mess I had. I wasn’t really sure what I fancied – mainly cake and ice cream but they didn’t have that exact combo so instead I had the Cloud Nine. This was lady fingers soaked in coffee with coffee and chocolate ice cream, whipped cream and a wafer. Sounded like a different take on tiramisu. But it was pretty horrible. The lady fingers seemed to have been soaked in warm coffee, and unevenly. Some of them were still rock hard, others had turned to complete mush which was an awful texture in the mouth, especially coupled with being warm. I didn’t expect the ice cream to reach Gelupo standards and it didn’t. It even had slightly chewy bits which I’m not really sure were intentional. I ate about three quarters of it until all that were left were the awful lady fingers and then I got out of there, paying £7 for the privilege.

The one thing I liked about the place was its main feature – a section of glass floor from where you can look down on sacks of coffee beans and records. Otherwise it was a swing and a miss for me. 

Dark Sugars, 12th October

Dark sugars is an Aladdin's Cave of chocolate delights, with a slightly exotic flavour to them. Spices such as cardamom and cinnamon make an appearance, as well as stem ginger and the now fairly standard chilli chocolate. The way the chocolates are laid out in earthy buckets from which you scoop them up, and the fact that many are irregularly shaped, not perfect spheres of glossy ganache, but dusty and rough, makes you think of prehistoric Africa rather than the traditional pretty chocolate box. Although they do have an area where the chocolates are all laid out prettily as well. 

Such rustic setting doesn’t mean that the prices aren’t similar to other high end chocolatiers however. I bought 9 of these beauties and it set me back £9.45!

I treated myself to the following:

Irish kiss with pipette

Pink champagne

Morello cherry

Stem ginger and honey

Milk chocolate nougat

Chilli chocolate

Overdose

Cognac

Liquid sea salt caramel

The Irish kiss came with Baileys in its pipette and I was pleased with the alcoholic hit in my other boozy chocs. The chocolate is definitely of good quality with a very rich taste – they’re not kidding when they call their pure chocolate truffle an Overdose. It’s nice to see some unusual ingredients being used - even if I played it pretty safe in my selections. 

It's also nice to see a bit of a different aesthetic to the traditional chocolate shop, and I'd happily go back and trough a lot more of these when I fancy giving myself a treat!

Chez Elles, 14th August

Chez Elles couldn’t be more charmingly French if it tried. It already looks delightful from the outside but inside it gets even better, with a little boutique parlour feel to the place and French touches everywhere, complete with a little stack of books by the stairs which of course includes Asterix.

The ‘Elles’ of the place are indeed French and it seemed we weren’t the only ones in the place happy to converse with them in their native tongue (except me, I’m too shy). We kept things light – having just a main and some bread with our picpoul de pinet. The food here is classic French so not as 'exciting' as some restaurants that offer fusion foods or a lot of exotic spices. Appetisers include a lot of charcuterie and cheeses, and the mains have such things as steak tartare, confit duck and moules mariniere. I was very tempted by the duck but I have it so often I thought I’d go a little leftfield and ordered the lamb steak, which came breaded a la escalope and served with parmesan lemon, rosemary and a vierge sauce. Alison had the moules mariniere which came with frites but also some more bread to soak up the creamy, garlicky sauce that the mussels were wading in.

The lamb was cooked very well, tender and pink in the middle and while I enjoyed my meal I can’t say I was too excited by it. But it’s nice just to have a cute little, no frills, no fuss meal and if you’re ever hankering after a bijou French experience then head here without delay. And while we didn’t have dessert, from the front it looks as if they do some lovely patisserie which would be worth dropping by for.

After this we went up Brick Lane and ended up in Monty’s Bar where they have a happy hour until 10 pm! This means 2 cocktails for £12 instead of the £17 they would normally cost. I’ve always thought the place looked kind of cool from the outside, but actually, in comparison to the many other places in this area, I would say it really isn’t, which might explain why there were very few people in there. The music was pretty good though – they were playing a lot of R n B and hip hop.

Sichuan Folk, 4th May

When Stephen told me about a new Sichuan place in Brick Lane, I was in no hurry to go. I don’t know – I guess I just felt that there were a few places doing good Sichuan and did I really need to try another one... would it stand a chance of bettering places like Ba Shan or Silk Road?

Well, I’m not saying Sichuan Folk was necessarily better but it is definitely worthy of a visit. The place itself is really nice – the exterior doesn’t give you an accurate impression of the peaceful, tasteful décor inside.

Service was warm and just lovely. Our waiter asked us if we’d been before and when we said we hadn’t (and that we liked it spicy) he went through the menu and picked out the best dishes from each section for us. He highlighted way more than we could actually eat so we narrowed it down to two mains and a starter but there were plenty of choices that I thought sounded really good and that I’d like to come back and try, not least the cumin lamb.

So, in the end, we had their signature pork dumplings, the twice cooked pork and 'beef in a spicy and lip-tingling sauce' with some steamed rice. Each dish had a varying element of spiciness to it, but none of them were overwhelmingly so – they weren’t so spicy that you couldn’t make out the unique flavours of each one. The beef had, as you might expect, a deep, meaty flavour and hidden among the broth of chillies were bean sprouts and bok choi as well as tender pieces of beef. It was, indeed, lip tingling.

The pork I think might have been my favourite. It was thinly sliced pork belly with onions and peppers and was served with four hirata-style buns for you to stuff with filling. Despite the oil this had an almost dry taste to it, the meat being practically crispy it was so thin.

As our dumplings arrived, our waiter, up to the very moment he set them down, continually spooned the soy and chilli sauce over them to be sure they were completely coated. They were a decent size too – big enough to take a bite then spoon some more sauce into what remained before finishing it off.

I was holistically impressed with this place – really good food, a lovely setting and helpful, friendly service. I think this place will get a lot of custom from us.

Caboose, 11th April

Bloggers often lament that it is much easier to write a post about somewhere you loved, or somwhere you hated, but somewhere that's just middling is much more of a challenge.

And so it is with Caboose, a little shack in Dray Walk off Brick Lane serving up smoked meats either in buns or boxes.

They were already a little in my bad books; I've tried several times to get down there only to discover they're not open, and they aren't always great about keeping you informed on Twitter. Finally, I got there and the hatch was open. I took several minutes eyeing the short menu before deciding that, what the heck, I'd go for the Derailer - a combination of 10 hour pulled pork and 12 hour rib of beef, and gosh darn it, I'd have cheese on it as well.

The guy before me had a similar idea but was told they were all out of beef because they'd had an event earlier that day. I almost flounced off in a fit of pique, annoyed at being deprived even when they were finally there for once, but Mother Clucker had too long a queue and I didn't fancy Orange Buffalo again so I just settled for The Fat Controller – pork on its own. Actually, I did add the smoked cheese. I'm not normally a pork and cheese proponent but seeing them melt it with a blow torch decided me.

The sun was out and I hadn't yet eaten anything that day so I sat on the curb and had my breakfast. And yeah, I liked it. It was a touch too sweet for me – probably as a result of the pork being smoked over fruit wood chips, and being served in a sweet brioche bun, with quite a sweet BBQ sauce. It came with pickle but that was marooned in the very middle of the bun – I would have liked the vinegar tang with every bite. I craved some hot sauce on it. The cheese on it, however, was pretty good – I hadn't been sure I would like cheese with pork but I was converted.

It wasn't incredibly filling either, but then, it was only a fiver.

So yeah, I enjoyed it but it's not one of the big-hitters in the pulled meat and bun arena. Maybe the Derailer or the 3:10 to Yuma (beef on its own) would have set it apart from the crowd but I can only judge it on what I had. Pleasant enough. I'd go back if in the area (and if the Rib Man wasn't around), but I wouldn't make a trip for it all on its own.

The Redchurch, 18th July

I confess I had a predisposition to loving the Redchurch bar before I even went. It has been on my List since 2007 when I first moved down here and from its facade just off Brick Lane, it just oozed shabby chic loveliness. When I would go by at night it always looked busy and I was convinced if I ever did go I wouldn't get in because the place looked so small and so popular.

And then I recently made friends with someone who is something of a regular at the place and said that Thursday nights are where it's at. After Musical Bingo, he took a few of us there and I'm happy to say he was right. We were greeted very cheerily by the bouncers as we entered and I discovered that the front of the bar is deceiving - it actually goes quite far back where there was plenty of room for dancing. 

The whole place has a bit of a red brasserie type feel with tables at the front, and a smallish bar at the back. Next to this is the small DJ booth where the DJ was spinning some excellent music - Motown and 70s funk. James Brown got us all grooving. We were in there at about 11 and it had an atmosphere but there was still plenty of room to move. I thought this was how it was going to stay, then about an hour later there was a massive influx of people! Clearly everyone knows that when it's closing time elsewhere, this is the place to head to. Yet it still remained not too overcrowded. Apparently they do have a habit of not letting the place become too squished to be comfortable. There is something romantic about the place as well. Something clandestine in its red-hued decor and ambient lighting decor. I could understand why there were so many snogging couples. With a tall and exotic-looking mojito - I think there might have been an orange slice in it -  I was perfectly at home and stayed much later than I had planned. 

I'm glad to have finally made its acquaintance and I am sure I will be back. 

The Well and Bucket, 10th May

I'd been to the Well and Bucket once on a Friday night but I felt like it didn't give an accurate picture of the pub so I decided to go back again before writing about it. So this is a tale of two visits.

The first time
I thought we might have a drink or two at the Crown and Shuttle but in fact, after buying our Field Day tickets from the Owl and the Pussycat (so excited!) we decided to try out the new Well and Bucket at the top of Brick Lane.

This is quite a large pub capitalising on the trend for craft beers. It looks like it would have a large beer garden at the back in which to enjoy them but, in fact, all it basically has is a little patio for people to cram into to smoke.

The inside is impressive though and I think I would like this pub if I went to it on a weekend. On a Friday night it was packed and packed full of the people who work around there who I'm rather pleased aren't so prevalent on the weekends. O! where were the hipsters?

Downstairs was another world (and a world I didn't venture into in the end) which is where the cocktails are served. This was an darker, more intimate and plush area. It looks like it needs exploring further from me. 

The second time

I was rather worried we'd be in for a repeat performance as the sun was blazing and I thought surely there would be loads of people wanting to have a pint in the sun. But it wasn't like that, perhaps because there isn't much of a beer garden to speak of. And I did like it more than the last time we were there. We sat in a corner booth and the place had a much more relaxed, less frenetic atmosphere. It felt more like a proper pub. We marveled at the number of beers on the menu, or should I say the prices. One beer was 20 pounds! But, I should point out that it was a 75 cl bottle and almost as strong in percentage as a normal wine, so through those lenses the prices seemed quite reasonable.

I ordered a house white which was very pleasant - a chenin blanc I believe, it had a little depth and fruitiness to it. And wasn't badly priced at 5.50 for a 175 ml.

We were heading off to Feast (my third time and just as good as the others) so we didn't try anything on the food menu. Just another excuse to go back. 

I love the mix of traditional pub and macabre graffiti they have covering the walls, it's all a bit Edgar Allan Poe/Dia de los Muertos, which I get a kick out of. 

Franze and Evans, 3rd May

Franze and Evans made it on to my list simply because I'm in the Brick Lane area and whenever I walk past it just seems to embody the kind of place I want to love. It looks cute and homely and people sit outside eating brunches of eggs that look tempting. When my friend and I decided to have dinner and drinks recently, this seemed like the kind of place that would fit the bill.

And it was pretty good. It does have a neighbourhood feel to it, there are several larger tables that you can end up sharing with other people and some smaller ones as well. The black and white tiling on the floor reminds you of a continental cafe. Apparently they do good cakes but we didn't really take a look at these.

It took us a long time to choose what to have as almost all of the dishes on the menu appealed. There's a good number of dishes as options - and it caters very well for vegetarians. It's Italian in cuisine but more about the pasta than lots of grilled meats. 

We ordered a fairly basic bruschetta and some squid to start. I really enjoyed the squid - much more than any other squid dish I've tried. It was battered and deep fried with a light touch and was a little chewy but not overly so. This was topped with spring onion and chilli (although it was very light on the chilli).

The bruschetta wasn't much to write home about - we'd got the probably least interesting one on the menu so perhaps the fault lay with us. It was a bit like a small overly bready pizza. 

My friend ordered the spaghetti with clams and mussels. While she thought the pasta was delicious and really commended the portion size on the whole, we both rather thought they'd been a bit stingy with the number of molluscs - we counted all of two clams and she had about four mussels. They're hardly the most filling on seafood anyway. I think you should get a little more bivalve bang for your buck.

My main was a total showstopper though and worth going back to the restaurant for alone. It was artichoke tortelloni with wild garlic, lemon zest and butter and I do believe I'm salivating as I write. Five well-sized pieces of tortelloni drizzled with lemony butter and well stuffed with the delicous filling. The pasta was cooked so that some of the edges were a little crispy. I could have eaten another portion (although the size was perfectly adequate for a main dish). 

With our meal we ordered a house white which was only £18 and outstanding value for money. A very pleasant wine to accompany our meal (making the wine we supped at Brewdog all the more unpleasant).

This is the sort of place you could easily make your 'local' neighbourhood restaurant - where you pop to when you are taken with the urge to eat out and want something reliably fresh, tasty and that won't break the bank. 

Great Spitalfields Pancake Race, 12th February

Taking place in the daytime on Shrove Tuesday, as it does, and me not willing to take time off to attend, I only this year managed to be a spectator of the Great Spitalfields Pancake Race. 

The whole thing lasted barely half an hour - it's really for the people who work in that area, or who are students hanging out in the Big Chill anyway, as it takes place in Dray Walk off Brick Lane. 

I actually got down there a little later than planned so missed the beginning of the race and probably all of the rules and regulations being set out. However, it was fairly easy to surmise what was going on. Each race was between four teams of four. It's a relay race with the first person racing up to the other end, pausing at two intervals to flip their pancake, and then passing the frying pan over to their teammate, and repeat. 

It really is quite silly fun to watch people running the short distance bearing these unwieldy cooking instruments, with the crowd lining the track cheering them on or groaning when a pancake ends up on the floor. To add to the merriment, many of the teams dress up in fancy dress, often to reflect their silly team names. The 'referees' are also dressed somewhat exuberantly. I wouldn't quite call them clowns, but their garb wasn't far off. Colourful, with bits sticking out of everywhere, only minus the over-sized shoes. These guys were there to make sure participants did their two flips at the allotted points (although I did notice that some of these flips didn't quite make it all the way over). 

At the end of the race there were prizes for the first three teams, plus a prize for the best team name, best costumes, and, rather bafflingly, best behaved team! 

And of course, there was a crepe stall set up right by the event, to take advantage of it being Pancake Day and seeing all those pancakes sprint past you making people want one of their own.

I wouldn't advise taking time off to go and watch the event, but if you're in the area, it's definitely worth a look. 

Orange Buffalo, 17th November

To be honest, I am not much of a hot wing aficionado or even their greatest fan. I don’t really go in for the skin on chickens and wings are always a bit fiddly. But I’d been hearing good things (understatement) about Orange Buffalo and I wanted to give them a try. After we had finally roused ourselves on Saturday, past midday, Stephen and I decided to go down to brick lane and have hot wings for breakfast!

I was expecting it to be busy and was prepared to queue but, whether it was the drab weather that had kept people away, or whether we had missed the lunch rush, it wasn’t busy at all and we walked right up to the counter. We had a portion each, which gets you 8 wings for £6 but we both chose different sauces. There are four to choose from – Original, Woof Woof (spicier), Vincent (Man Gogh – even spicier and with mango) and one with naga chillies, the name of which I can’t remember. I had the Woof Woof, Stephen had the Vincent. We also had a side of curly fries with buffalo ketchup. This was a good decision as even though you get eight wings, they are a little on the slight side, especially when you get the part of the wing that's not attached to the torso.

As Stephen said ‘these are the first wings I’ve had here that actually have crispy skin’. And they sure did. They were deep fried and then doused in the slightly thick, rather orange (the name has to come from somewhere I suppose) spicy sauce. And they were delicious.  If all hot wings are like this then I’m definitely a convert, but of course, all hot wings aren’t like this and even from my limited experience I recognised what Stephen said about the skin being crispy – all too often the wings you get are almost soggy, having sat in their sauce for too long, or not fried properly in the first place. These really do crunch when you bite into them and it’s incredibly satisfying.

Both sauces were yummy and there was much literal finger licking so as not to waste any. It was spicy but it wasn’t all heat – the flavour was there too. Stephen and I swapped wings so I could try the Vincent as well. It was definitely a bit hotter than mine, but you could be forgiven for thinking it wasn’t at first because it is also sweeter than the Woof Woof (that’d be the mango) which fools you  into thinking, initially, that there isn’t so much heat. It’ll catch up with you though and by the end of our wings we both had the telltale 'chilli sniffles'.

You got a pretty generous helping of blue cheese sauce, and also some celery sticks which were good for a break from the heat, but otherwise went untouched. The blue cheese sauce wasn’t particularly cheesey, which for us was a good thing, but might disappoint others.

The curly fries were fantastic, and really made me feel I could have been stateside. Properly crunchy and properly curly, rightly seasoned, and the ketchup wasn’t bad neither.

Gorgeous!

We felt cold when we sat down to eat, but by the time the chillies had worked their magic, we had a little bit of a sweat on. I could see these becoming a regular habit. 



Find food stall information on Zomato

Mason & Taylor, 17th March

Mason & Taylor is a reasonably recent addition to the Redchurch Street area at the top of Brick Lane, which is becoming decidedly more upmarket lately and I’m a little confused as to what Mason & Taylor are trying to be. You enter upstairs into a bright room, which is mostly full with tables and chairs. Very little room for standing at the bar. One wall is pure glass. It feels like a trendy wine bar. Or a restaurant. Yet it isn’t either of these things. They do provide food (they are part of the small plates/tapas renaissance) and of course they also have wine. But the real raison d’etre of Mason & Taylor is craft beers, which is why my friend had chosen to go there to celebrate his birthday. Unfortunately I don’t drink beer at all, so I cannot comment personally on whether or not this is a decent place to go for craft beers. I would guess that it is, as this particular group of friends are all into their beer (even a couple of CAMRA members among them) and this was at least the third one of them to choose to come here for birthday celebrations. So they must be doing something right in this regard.

I can categorically state that it’s not so hot when it comes to wine. I hate to pay more than £5.00 for a normal sized glass of wine (175ml) which left me with two choices – one oaky (yuck) and one not (which also turned out to be not so great). And is it really that hard to make sure that the wine you serve is chilled instead of, at best, just below room temperature? It makes a big difference!

So yes, upstairs feels at odds with what Mason & Taylor is all about. It feels soulless. It’s like they’re trying to ‘posh up’ beer and I don’t hold with that at all.

However, there is a basement bar. And this is where we spent most of the evening. Being a basement, it’s dark and feels much more exciting and intimate. They have a DJ down there who was playing a pleasing mix of slightly retro music (Talking Heads, Hall & Oats, some 60s soul). And it’s large. This is the part of which you can hire out certain sections for things such as birthdays. There’s a lot of room for standing, or dancing, but also quite a few comfy seats for anyone who has reserved an area. This is where the party happens.

You can also order a selection of food for your guests if you so wish. This was good in the main, with a special thumbs up going to the mini toads in the holes they provided, and the sweet potato wedges. English rarebit was less successful – it had pickles, did that make it English? – definitely overcooked and dry as a bone as a result. Pate, potted crab, mackerel pate and quiche were all fairly good too. The basement bar stays open until 2 so you can easily while away the whole night in there. Or, if you’re silly like me, you can then easily head into Shoreditch, to Ye Olde Axe, for example, to continue your night.

In conclusion, I did not fall in love with Mason & Taylor. I suppose I’m not who they’re aiming for, though I’m a bit surprised that people who are seriously into their beers and ales are looking for a place with this sort of atmosphere. It feels more like a place for people who think it’s fashionable to be into their beers and ales (previously mentioned company excluded of course). I wouldn’t be surprised if I was back here before long though. It’s size is a real bonus which means it would make a great meeting place for a large group of you. And I’d like to come back to give the ‘proper’ food a try. 

The Rib man, 9th December

The meat to bread ratio. I'm going to say that again. The meat to bread ratio. It is all important. How many times have you had a pulled pork sandwich, a burger, or one of those hog roast sandwiches, stalls of which can be found at every festival and market and ended up vaguely disappointed. And I can tell you for why - the meat to bread ratio is all wrong. And sometimes the bread is of the wrong type as well. As a bread lover, you would think the more bread the better for me, but I'm quite particular in how my sandwiches are compiled. The bread should not drown the filling and unfortunately it too often does.

Someone who clearly understands this is The Rib Man. Normally to be found on Brick Lane on a Sunday, this guy has taken one of everybody's (I use the word everybody here liberally) favourite foods and made it a gazillion times better. Ribs. Ribs are great. But what is the annoying thing about them? That they're on ribs. They're messy and annoying to eat, you have to make loads to get a decent haul of meat off of them. If only there were some other way...

Well, The Rib Man has provided the answer. He goes through all the trouble of marinating these ribs from outside reared Norfolk and Suffolk pigs and then slow cooking them. He then takes all the meat off the bones and serves it up in bread rolls or wraps. Actually, you can also buy them in their natural form on the bone as well if you so wish. 

Ooh saucy! And possibly as big as my head

I went up to Eat Street again today and he was there. That's why I went - to try him out. I saw that there were a few wraps already made and keeping warm but I wanted to try out the roll. The wraps looked good - pretty stuffed and the meat looked great, but I just had the feeling that the real test would be in the roll. So that's what I asked the lady serving for. They had a couple ready made in some paper bags but the guy 'in back' (who I can only assume is the Rib Man himself) said, wait a minute - I'll make a fresh one. And he grabbed a roll and scooped in the meat, grabbed a bunch of kitchen roll with which to hold it and handed it over. My eyes probably did a cartoon bulge at the sight of it. It was massive. The lady then asked me if I wanted any sauce (which the Rib Man makes himself). I went for some BBQ and of course some of the hot stuff. Apparently there is a second hot sauce you can have but it's so hot you have to ask for it specially. I believe it goes by the name of Holy F**k. So I figured the mainstream stuff would be enough for me.

It wasn't all that busy in that area so I found a seat and began to tuck in. 

This is the view halfway through - I'm attempting to show
how juicy the meat is without sauce

I've got to say, it was pretty special. The roll was hefty, and soft - it was the perfect roll in which to encase some shredded meat. He had also packed it so full, he had managed to attain the perfect B to M ratio (see above). At last! This almost excited me more than the taste. I had quite a bit of sauce on the meat, which I tried, sort of unsuccessfully to spread evenly across all the meat, but to be honest, the meat is so juicy, sauce isn't essential. But it tastes good so whack some of that on too. The BBQ sauce is sweet and smoky, the hot sauce is bloody hot. It seriously made my mouth, tongue and I think even teeth tingle. 

I would say I couldn't get enough of this sandwich but it is so huge, that would just be a blatant lie. At about three quarters of the way through I thought a decent person would probably stop, but I'm not a decent person - I'm a glutton so I ploughed on to the end!  Just wonderful.

ChocStar Van, 21st October

It was pure coincidence that I was able to cross another thing off my list today. Stephen and I bought tickets to the Experimental Food Society’s exhibition at the Truman Brewery. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I thought some food may be on offer, but I knew it was more about showcasing the different things you could do with food, rather than eating it. They were hosting some kind of feast on the Saturday night where clearly eating would be the main aim but that was £60 – a little out of my price range. The exhibition was a fiver – much more like it. We walked up to the first entrance and were directed to the building where we could get our hands stamped (the exhibition was across three close together sites). I think the exhibition made a bit of a schoolboy/girl error in the set up. The place where you got your stamp was also, by far the best room. It was filled with cake, chocolate and sugar. This in itself is normally good enough to get my seal of approval but even better was what it all looked like. There were actual structures, sculptures and models made out of the stuff. The first thing to greet you was an Eiffel Tower made out of Curly Wurlies and raspberries, then The Flying Scotsman made out of a variety of candy bars, and a candy cottage made out of penny sweets. Giving only a brief glance at the gluten free veggie cakes and brownies (the only thing there offering any samples) the next thing you came to was a magnificent dodo made out of cake. I was mightily impressed with it from my first impressions. This was elevated when I realised that all the delicate little feathers that I thought the baker had taken time to stick in, were in fact made out of sugar. Stupendous! There were also grand owls made entirely out of sugar, and a house and head sculpted out of chocolate. Appropriately awestruck we were looking forward to what was in store in the next two buildings. But first, we needed food. We decided to get a salt beef bagel from The Beigel Bakery as we were pretty much on Brick Lane and as we walked up Dray walk to get there, we passed the ChocStar Van.

The ChocStar Van is on my list. It serves up chocolatey treats, from a van and as it is a mobile establishment, it turns up here and there. You can look up online where it is likely to be on a given day, something I have been meaning to do for over a year now, so I was very pleased when I found it without even looking for it. But we hadn’t even had lunch yet so we couldn’t have dessert and went up to get our bagels. I’m sure everyone knows about the Brick Lane Bagel places. We always go to the Beigel Bakery for our salt beef as I think they’re a tad more generous, but I think they’re run by the same people so they’re both much of the same high quality. And amazingly cheap. They were offering chicken bagels for £1.50 when we went in. We scarfed our bagels down (with just the right amount of mustard for me – just a touch) and eagerly went back to the Exhibition.

Where we were a little let down. The second building we went into was massive but had only a few things in it. One being the only place in the exhibition to sell food. Food I had no interest in eating. They were snackboxes prepared by Stefan Gates, author of The Extraordinary Cookbook and you could sit down and listen to him give a bit of a talk and explain to you what was in the snackboxes and why, as you ate them. Considering the snackboxes contained things like mealworms and cochineal bugs, I was not interested. 

Otherwise, in that room, were some tea infusion things, and some coffee, and the little area where talks etc were being given. On to the next one.

The next one was marginally better than the second but nowhere near as impressive as the first. There was an artist there who does ‘foodscapes’ and I really enjoyed them. There were also a couple of people with samples tucked into dim little corners – one person showcasing unusually flavoured marshmallows, and another with unusually flavoured liquers that also glowed in the dark. We had one of those and it was a bit sweet for me.

There was also some camel milk chocolate you could sample and I had some of that as well. To be honest, thought it tasted like that cheap chocolate you get at Easter or Christmas. And then, finally, there was some edible clothing on show, which was impressive because of the idea behind it and what it was made of, rather than the actual appearance of it.

It was now about 3:00 and we went back to building number 2 to see what was termed half talk half gameshow, presented by some woman’s new incarnation of Miss Mertle or something like that. She was supposed to be a 50s housewife character with upper class pretensions – throwing the odd word in a French accent out there every now and then. I thought she was amusing enough. The format was strange – she got two people out of the audience to be contestants and their job was to dress a scantily clad woman with food that could be found in the fridge and see who made the better outfit. It was surprisingly entertaining. After that was done we went back to the first room for one final look round – people had been hanging up a deconstructed cake on wires that I wanted to see the final result of. It wasn’t yet finished but still looked quite good. And then, what I had been waiting for… ChocStar!

It was pretty cold so we were put off the ice cream sundaes and my boyfriend was with me so I was also put off prevented from ordering lots of different things. He even vetoed my idea of buying a chocolate truffle in addition to the brownie – that we shared. As far as brownies go, though, this was one of the best I’ve had in a good long while. Dense and chewy, but with the delicious crusty top and sides that I think make a proper brownie. I’m not exactly making a list of best brownies, but if anyone were to ask I would recommend this one, the one that can be found in the Hull Library café, and the caramel one from Konditor & Cook.

I really want a brownie now.