Outspoken, 26th January

I go to these spoken word nights and I always think, well, it can’t be better than anything else I’ve seen. But Outspoken knocked my socks off.

It has an excellent blend of music and spoken word and could be just the replacement for Poejazzi I was looking for. (Though I know it has been going four years already so shouldn’t be a ‘replacement’ as such).

I think the first half was the stronger half, starting with a slot earned by a performer at their open mic night who launched into an indictment on the way the media reports murder sprees/terrorism as he recounted his killing bonanza that turned out to be a dream, knowing he’d be reported as just ‘having a bad day’ because he is white.

So the start didn’t exactly pull any punches and so it continued with Nasima Hanif doing several pieces (sometimes with musical accompaniment – different) which centred on the theme of womanhood, especially from the perspective of being a Muslim. She meandered through abuse at home, sexual awakening and the very funny ‘Guide to telling your parents you are dating  a ginger, white atheist’. Fairly hard hitting but also humorous enough to keep it palatable.

Which is something I really like about spoken word done well – it can be humorous, yet more often than not it really makes you think. Most of the acts this night did just that.

Andy Craven-Griffiths followed this up with pieces primarily inspired by his thoughts on Kindness.

There were three musical interludes – the first, Chagall, a solo act who provided her own backing singers and backing music via these programmable gloves (mi.mu if you’re interested). Only two people in the world perform live using these. Some of the songs were straying a little too into Enya territory for my liking, but some of them had a very dark pulse that had my body moving. Of course it was very heavily electronica based.

The other two musical pieces were more traditional by comparison – an instrumental piano performance from Kamar (one of the hosts) and then the evening ended with Royce Wood Junior doing the singer-songwriter thing to piano, and then doing a couple of covers on guitar – one soul number, and one Prince. He had a beautiful, high, RnB type voice that was soothing to listen to.

It was my first Outspoken, as it was for the Meetup crew I took with me – all leaving trying to figure out if we could make the next one (which is on the 23^rd). I am always wary when a night is so good. Can they possibly keep the quality that high every month? Were we just lucky to come on a night when they knocked it out of the park? The fact it has been running so long assuages me somewhat that it was not a fluke and of course I am happy to test that. We shall return...

Joe's Camden, 23rd January

I think it says a lot that in the middle of January when almost the entire population of London had given up on reveling, Joe’s in Camden was heaving.

At first I thought it was just going to be us in the place, doing what we could to fill the dance floor but slowly and gradually the place filled until I suddenly became aware the place was busy as hell. And quite deserved. The place is a bar and does food during the day, but at night the jams are played and people start to jive. Every night is retro night, and they mostly play 50s and 60s rock and roll. So you can expect Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley but also the Jackson 5 and Etta James. We were rockin’ and rollin’ non stop. It’s very much an anyone’s bar – unlike a lot of the retro/vintage nights I’ve been to, the people here weren’t dressed especially authentically, nor taking up the dance floor pulling moves that would intimidate you into just gawping as an onlooker on the side. If you like Rock n Roll or Motown then this is where you want to head.

Camden Crunch, July 17th

I really wanted to go to the Camden Crunch because I knew it would be full of the kinds of people I love – warm and friendly fetish folk, some of which I would probably recognise from my attendance at other events. But I was worried I wouldn’t like it. Why? Because they unashamedly say that, unlike many other events, the music here is on the cheesy side. And I hate cheese. Its purpose is for beered up people who don’t know how to dance to jump around and not have to worry about having rhythm. That is not me.

But it all turned out better than expected. Apparently the DJ normally drifts through several genres so everyone hears something they like for at least some of the evening. But this night he seemed to get stuck in the hair metal phase – when it became apparent he had disappeared (illness). Cue the Crunch attendees to come to the rescue and ensure the party continued – by purely taking requests, only turning things down if they didn’t have it on their phone. And people were mostly requesting things I really like to dance to (RnB mostly). So that all worked out very well and I rather hope it is repeated if I go again!

Apart from that, it was just a fun night at a bar, having a few drinks and talking to several people, both new faces and old from this scene. It would be a really good entry if you are curious about these sorts of things – nothing actually kinky goes on there but there are plenty of experienced people there to chat to about it. Also, there’s no dress code so if you’re wary of getting all latexed up, you needn’t worry. Some people do, for sure, but whatever you feel comfortable in is encouraged – be that going outrageous or in your jeans.

The Crunch host their own pre-meet for anyone who is new or coming along on their own, though of course I went with the Meetup and did my own version of this so can’t report on what that was like.

If you’re interested in this sort of lifestyle, then definitely head along. It’s every month, on the third Friday of the month so the next one is this week – the 21^st August.

Cuisson POPdown and Cherry Cola, 27th June

I went to Cuisson’s Pop-Down dinner at the end of June. Held in a basement coffee shop, it certainly had the transient pop-up feel to it, giving it a slightly guerilla atmosphere.

And the cooking was quite impressive, even if unfortunately most of the dishes weren’t to my own personal taste.

There were six ‘courses’ (if bread be counted as a course??). For each I would say the ingredients and combinations were very well thought out leading to well balanced dishes. They were the perfect idea for a summer’s day – all very light and fresh.

We started with bread and their own made cultured butter. I was so pleased my dining companion was late as it allowed me to eat all her portion as well. It was exquisite. Then came the first real course – described as yoghurt with cucumber and anise, this was served almost as a gazpacho – a very thin soup. I don’t like yoghurt but luckily the other flavours counterbalanced this and I found it did taste quite nice – like a ‘souped up’ (excuse the pun) tzatziki. I couldn’t quite get over the fact I was spooning very thin yoghurt into my mouth however, which wasn’t the most pleasant sensation.

After this was something I could easily tuck into – ratte potatoes with hay, grelot tops and umami, closely followed by duck liver, thankfully served in pate form. This was spread onto a homemade cracker and was a very rich, savoury taste and my favourite (apart from the bread) course of the evening. The chunks of pineapple were a good foil to the deep ducky taste.

Next up – octopus pil pil with mustard and wild rice. Again something I would never order for myself. I think if you liked octopus then this was probably a good example of it. And it was at least sliced and presented in such a way that it was very easy to forget what it looks like in the natural world. It was now we began to realise all the courses so far had been cold, which we thought a little odd. I don’t think this was meant to be a feature of the night, but perhaps had something to do with the facilities available to them. It meant that I felt vaguely dissatisfied with the meal after, wishing I’d had at least one piping hot, filling dish.

Instead what I had as the final flourish was a lukewarm piece of salmon with horseradish cream/mousse. The horseradish was light and fluffy, and, most importantly to me – subtle. The fish was firm yet translucent. An accomplished dish but not one that rocked my particular tastebuds.

The dessert was similarly light and summery with a lychee and mango bavarois. It was so light and airy I felt I practically inhaled it rather than ate it. Very pleasant and a refreshing finish to the evening’s meal.

The aim of the pop-down was to create a relaxed and somewhat interactive dining occasion and it sort of worked. The chefs introduced the meal and you were free to take a wander and have a look at what they were doing, as well as them circulating and checking on you. Service was attentive and warm. As a supper club experience it was quite fun, and we chatted to the fellow diners on our table. Cuisson also do a dessert-only version which I think would be worth checking out, and they regularly change the menu so if the one I have described doesn’t float your boat I reckon it would be worth taking a punt on another evening.

Cherry Cola

After our grown up meal, I went back to Cocktail Trading Co and proceeded to get really quite pissed for the evening. After this we went up to Cherry Cola in Camden to bid farewell to the Purple Turtle. This indie institution was closing its doors forever and Cherry Cola, the indie night were seeing it off. We got there and caught the tail end of the final live band and then they plunged into some very decent indie and indie-tinged pop. Everyone was bopping and dancing and jumping about and I am very pleased to say Cherry Cola hasn't ended with the Purple Turtle - you can find it resurrected in East London at The Macbeth these days. 

Yum Cha, 25th October

The final stop in my quest for soupy dumplings in London was Yum Cha, an age old recommendation from Secret London on Twitter, back when they still did that. Previously I've had good ones at leong's Legens but I wanted to see how these would fare in comparison so we popped there for dinner before the St vincent gig at the Roundhouse. The place is so well known for its dim sum that it serves it all day. luckily for us,

Despite its looks from the outside, this is no cheapo skanky place down an alley in Chinatown. It is tastefully decorated, warm and inviting, even though some of the staff are decidedly less so. 

I was here with the sole intent on having soupy dumplings but they don't make a whole meal so we had a few other bits and pieces too. To my great surprise Stephen had never had shredded duck with pancakes so we got some of those. You can never go wrong with this really and it was a tasty and generous portion of duck with just the right amount of pancakes and trimmings.

Our dim sum arrived in a stack of steamers. We had a perfectly tasty honey roast pork bun each. Nothing wrong with these two dishes but they were pretty much what you could get in any average Chinese restaurant. 

The soupy dumplings were served, unusually, without spoons, making me think there wasn't much soup inside them, and sadly lost quite a lot of it when I bit into one of the dumplings. I didn't make that mistake again and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of broth (and the fact that it didn't burn your mouth). I did miss the ritual of pouring the soup out but they were very tasty.

Even better were our szechuan minced pork and peanut dumplings. Absolutely divine, we wished we were smart enough to keep the sauce they came in to dip our other bits into. Salty, spicy, deeply flavoured. I'd love to duck in here on a cold day for a couple of servings of these.  

I don't know why we do it, but for some reason we decided to order something a little different - 'ribs' from the steamed dim sum menu. Had we given it more thought I think we would have realised that steamed ribs weren't going to be to our taste. The bones were cut into little chunks on the bone and steamed, meaning you had to chew off the mushy meat from off the bone. It wasn't a pleasant texture at all and a total bummer to end the meal on. 

Our dishes were in the 4-5 pounds range, except for the duck whic was a bit more, as it always is. Five dishes got us nicely full for the evening so we ended up paying about 15 quid each for dinner with drinks. Bargain!

Backyard Cinema, 24th July

I first heard about Backyard Cinema when they got in touch with me via twitter to tell me of their existence. They were barely a twinkle in their organiser's eye but I put it on my List as I liked the idea of a cinema with a casual, let's-get-all-our-friends-together vibe. And back then their events were pretty low key. Now they've got bean bags, deckchairs and street food partnerships - the whole shebang! For their latest instalment they've encamped at Camden Lock market where Honest burgers are serving from a stall outside their actual venue, and they have Brewdog on the bar (and slushie cocktails) so you don't have to settle for just popcorn. Though they have that too at only £1 a bag. (Contrast with the Everyman Power of Summer where they’re selling it for £3!)

The movie we went to see was The Lego Movie. We got down there pretty early and I did get an Honest Burger but not from the dedicated Backyard Cinema stall. It was my first - Stephen has been a fan for a while but whenever we popped by one, it was always too busy. You may realise I don't eat actual burgers - I had the chicken version. And it came as standard with their famous rosemary fries. I imagine substantial chips wouldn't get overwhelmed by the salt and rosemary but my portion was full of the scraps at the end of a batch so I found them a little too seasoned. 

We then hung around waiting for the cinema to be built. That's right. When we got there, there wasn't anything - just a hole in a black curtain where the screen would go and some supine deck chairs. It was quite fun to watch it take shape around us - the bean bags were dragged out and the deck chairs were erected. It did mean that we were so early, we completely missed the box office where you had to get your ticket scanned in exchange for a movie pass. It was only when we were about to go in, that they said we needed to get it exchanged, but thankfully they said I wouldn’t have to queue from the back once I did. Must admit, that seemed a bit pointless - not sure why the usherettes couldn't just scan your printout. 

Anyway, we had grabbed a drink from the bar (an absolutely amazing Paloma slushie in honour of National Tequila Day) and waited while the queue to get in to the seats formed. Finally we were allowed in! We had already made the big decision: bean bag or deck chair? Knowing from experience with the Rooftop Film Cinema that deck chairs are way cool and comfortable, we did that and made a beeline for the area we had already picked out as well. They have blankets to hire for when the temperature cools (it will, even if it's warm in the day) and they have ushers/usherettes that will bring you drinks and food pretty much throughout the film which is a nice touch.

Before the main feature, they play some shorts, all of which were pretty cool, but especially the one called Pockets. Check it out.

And then we just settled in and enjoyed the movie. Which was fab. On the whole I would say this was a pretty good movie experience, definitely more enjoyable (though far less grand) than Somerset House, and on a par with Rooftop Film Club (though missing the views). They also have a good mix of 'cult' films that everyone loves (but has probably seen a dozen times) and newer releases like the Lego Movie, or Silver Linings Playbook, for people who want to see something they haven't seen before.

Camden Crawl, 21st June

The Camden Crawl took last year off to reorganize and reposition themselves. One of the original multi-venue festivals in London, they felt there were a lot of events in this space and they wanted to focus on what made them different and come back with a new look.

I almost put this live on Saturday and was going to say the following “And so the Camden Crawl became CC14 and instead of being in October it was held in June. As it was my first I cannot say whether they’ve come back bigger and better than before, I can only say that I had a fantastic day.” But I didn’t, and on Sunday I discovered that the Camden Crawl had gone into liquidation which I guess shows that they did not come back bigger and better. I remember one of my friends saying they were surprised it wasn’t busier and that Camden Rocks (on at the end of June) may have stolen some of their thunder. It seems she would be right. The sad thing is that many bands weren’t paid in advance and may not receive any of their money. I still had a fantastic day, though this post feels rather redundant if it’s never happening again. However, this was what my day was like…

Things kick off a lot later than I thought they did. I imagined it was an all-day festival but really it’s more of a night festival with the majority of the bands not starting until about 7pm. I wanted to head down a bit earlier though to get to as many venues as possible, and the Dig-It Soundsystem playing on the Roundhouse’s terrace (I did not even know they had a terrace) caught my eye, as the weather was wonderful.

And, as it turned out, so was the DJ. Me and my crew felt like we’d been transported to the White Isle, basking in the sun listening to some top notch dance tunes. It really was difficult to tear ourselves away over an hour later to get stuck into what I felt the festival is really all about – live bands. This also meant going inside and saying goodbye to the sun but needs must.

We went up to the Electric Ballroom first to see Dry the River. These guys had quite the crowd so must have a bit of a following. They were fine but not really my cup of tea. They were a little too ‘safe’ for my liking – I prefer my guitar bands to be a little grungier and heavier when I’m watching live music. I was starving by this point so we went to the Lock Tavern to get some food and wait for the next gig. Fatty Chan’s were in the beer garden serving up Vietnamese-inspired food and the pork banh mi I had was amazing. Seriously. It came in a roll rather than a long baguette, packed with meat, topped with crispy onions, I loved it.

And I loved the band, Autobahn, too (not the famous German Autobahn, a younger Londoner band, don’t know why they’ve chosen a name already in existence). I hadn’t been to the Lock Tavern before but it’s a really cool pub with a cool little venue upstairs and another open terrace. The emphasis is on little here. It’s a teeny tiny room and it was packed. We wiggled through the crowd to the terrace and then from outside leaned in, practically over the band to watch them. They were fantastic. Lots of energy, lots of heavy guitars, the singer had a great voice. The sound they made belied their very young years.

And so it continued, with all the bands I saw either impressing me in terms of their music, or at least their performance. The Slaves in Underworld particularly stand out for their showmanship and they also clearly had some loyal fans, intent on making a moshpit in the crowd.

The last place we went to was Belushi’s where the band was set up in the corner. These guys, Bad Wolf, were alright, I liked them, though the singer’s voice wasn’t my favourite of all the bands we’d seen.

I then had tickets to see the 2 Bears and Jarvis Cocker at XOYO but stuff was still going on in Camden until the early hours in a few of the venues where the focus shifted to more dancey stuff such as Mumdance and Mouse on Mars.

I paid about £25 for my day ticket although you could easily have got a ticket for less as there were discounts a plenty. Doesn’t look like I’ll be able to go again, given recent developments, but should they pick themselves up, I would say that, taking place in June, the weather has a reasonable chance of being pretty good and even at 7pm you may not want to spend your evening in dark and dingy rock clubs and pubs. It would be better as a winter’s event. 

Friday I'm in Love, 30th May

Friday I’m in Love is a singalong clubnight. Yes, you heard me. It’s a clubnight that has taken the fact that once everyone gets pissed we all sing along to the songs we know anyway, and turned that into its raison d’etre. They promise indie and pop anthems that you probably know the words to anyway, but in case you don’t they’re either projected somewhere or, in this case, you’re given a songbook as you go in. The music is courtesy of a live band, one or more of which also does a bit of singing so it’s not solely down to the crowd.

Predictably, what with being ‘anthems’ there was more than a little cheesiness to the song selection – more in fact than I appreciated. Stuff like Abba and Queen, and ending with Oasis. But it was as I had expected so I can’t complain too much. The event I attended was a Camden special raising money for Amy Winehouse’s foundation so, again as expected, there was a healthy dose of Winehouse songs throughout the evening (big thumbs up). First, we had a performance by the Drag Queens The Buffalo Girls who started with Valerie, and also did the Sugababes’ Overload. And yes, these were all in the songbook for everyone to sing along to as well.

David McAlmont was also a special guest singing one of his own songs and then an Amy Winehouse and then he came back to the stage later to guide us all through another one later as well. I absolutely loved his and Bernard Butler’s one hit wonder Yes when I was but a girl so I got a big kick out of seeing him. He is such a dapper gent with a great voice.

Then we all just ploughed our way through the songs for the night, singing as loudly as you dared because that was what everyone else was doing. No need to feel shy. You didn’t have to put your heart and soul into it if you didn’t want. There was more than a few (men, mostly) standing practically motionless, almost as if they were paying no attention to the music, but they were mouthing the words just the same. In fact, this crowd singing, I decided, was a little too anonymous for me. I like the attention you get from karaoke! And, in some ways, the night felt a bit like a vehicle for the band members who were miked up and singing along.

Then, after an encore that wasn’t in the songbook, the singing part of the night came to a close, just about in time for people to get the last tube if they ran. For me, this is when the night really came to the fore as they then just played a bunch of indie and RnB songs for the rest of the evening. What an awesome selection. I would come to this night again simply for the afterparty. We moshed to Nirvana’s Lithium, bopped to The Strokes’s Last Nite, and shook it like it was a polaroid picture to Hey Ya! I really didn’t want a late night as I was travelling the next day and kept thinking of leaving, but we were doing that 'oh, after this one we'll leave' thing for at least four songs before I was finally like, I must go home!

A different take on an indie pop night that works well and clearly has a bit of a following. I'd go again.

Q Grill, 23rd March

Reviewing a place while it is in its soft launch might not be entirely fair. But I'm going to do it anyway. However, please do bear in mind that it WAS their first week and so I'm sure any little niggles will soon be resolved.

I hadn't intended on heading to Q Grill so soon after its opening but we happened to be in the area (after seeing the Scene and Heard plays) so it seemed silly not to take advantage of the 50% discount!

Stephen and I did our usual of ordering a couple of things to share. The menu isn't exactly extensive but each of the seven or so choices under each section sound so good that it took a while for us to settle on something.

Eventually the wild garlic sauce on the southern fried chicken dish called to us and of course, choosing to have short rib wasn't a hard decision to make. I knew I wanted beans, and we thought a good measure of a place is its fries so we had some of those as well.

The chicken arrived and I was a little disappointed. Instead of maybe a thigh and a breast a la KFC, what arrived was basically a chicken escalope which had been cut into slices. It really wasn't the most appealing presentation I had ever seen. And no sign of the sauce which had prompted us to order it!

The short rib on the other hand looked delicious and easily fell apart as we portioned it out. It came with a sweet potato (we think) puree and two strands of cime de rapa which were like a cross between brocolli and celery. In layman's terms it turns out they're turnip tops and they were a nice bit of veg. The short rib was beautiful and full of meaty, savoury flavour. I didn't even bother adding any BBQ sauce to it.

We called our waiter over to ask about the lack of sauce with the chicken. He took a look at the menu and agreed it ought to come with some and said he'd go back to the kitchen to ask. In the meantime I decided to give Stephen his share of the chicken and as I moved a strip I saw that the sauce was underneath it all! This seems a bit odd to me as it's such a pretty vibrant green, why hide it? I felt a bit silly and tried to call the waiter back. However when he reappeared it was with a whole pot of the stuff. Must admit, it was wonderful so I was rather glad we'd wangled more of it without meaning to. The chicken was fine – nicely breaded and not greasy at all, though a little pedestrian. I wouldn't order this again, though I might ask for the wild garlic sauce as extra to whatever I did have!

Peekaboo! Hiding sauce

So, it was pretty evident that our waiter was new to the waiting game and the whole place hadn't quite found its feet yet. He checked and double checked our order, and obviously had yet to completely get to grips as proved by not knowing that the sauce was served underneath the chicken. We did notice a little confusion over where orders were going, but like I say, the soft launch is all about figuring this stuff out so they deserve the benefit of the doubt. 

I thought the beans were perfect - a good texture and a nice BBQ taste, and the chips were crunchy and came with a smattering of chip spice on them, which was slightly sweet and very moreish. The only point of complaint I would have about the food is that most of the dishes could have been warmer in our opinion. The chips especially. The prices are average for this kind of food, though we thought the chicken, at 13.50, was a little expensive for what it was. Overall I think they're onto something good here - the josper ribs we saw as we left looked fantastic.

And the restaurant itself is a good-looking place, classy but with the woody feel you expect of a BBQ place. It actually feels like a mid-level New York steak restaurant. And it's huge! I loved that they've really thought about the space you need if you're eating at the bar, not a table. And I got a kick out of my swivel chair. 

A while ago I went to Porky's and wasn't too impressed but said they'd probably do alright as there was no competition in the area. Well, now there is, and Porky's ought to be worried.

Find the menu & restaurant information on Zomato

Smoke n Roll at The Black Heart, 21st February

Smoke n Roll have quite the prosaic name for themselves. They smoke meats, and then they serve them in a roll! And right now they're doing it at The Black Heart in Camden, where we went to check them out last week. 

There are a lot of places doing BBQ right now, but for me, as long as it's good, my appetite does but wax for smoked meats, ribs and sticky wings. 

First - the rolls. You can either get pork or beef, and I expected something similar to what we had at The Joint - buns of pulled pork and shredded brisket. Not so. The meat here is bucking the trend by coming in thick slices, rather than shreds. And it was nice to have something a bit different for a change. The pork had a really good, smoky taste to it, although my first bite was mostly gristle, so not a great start. However, I got over that and enjoyed this sandwich a lot. 

I was especially pleased that the brisket came in slices as that's my preferred method of serving. I remember being disappointed when I first went to Pitt Cue's trailer and instead of slices of melting, smokey brisket, a la Fette Sau in Brooklyn, I had a carton of the pulled stuff. Here they've done a pretty good job, and the pickles with it were welcome, but I have to say that if you want slices of smoked brisket, then Texas Joe's pulled this off better (though I wasn't a fan of the rest of their menu).

There was a big group of us, and the menu is short so we ended up ordering everything on there and sharing it out between us. We had one portion of ribs, and enough wings for everyone to have two. The ribs were pretty bad. They were tough and chewy and this was so overwhelming I can't even remember the taste. It seemed so pointless to have them on the menu if they weren't going to cook them until they fell off the bone. 

Everything, twice 

Chicken wings had a great tangy flavour (I dipped my chips in their sauce instead of the BBQ sauce we were given) but by the time I got round to having mine, they were pretty cold. So I imagine they'd be even nicer piping hot. However, I do wish they'd been separated into their separate halves instead of being served whole and having to be cut apart (I'm squeamish about pulling bones apart).

The grande surprise was the fact that we all loved the sides so much. I mean, who really cares that much about sides normally? Well - these guys. Their baked beans (with carrot!) were some of the nicest I've had, if not the nicest - just the kind of texture I like in a bean, not too 'al dente'. The carrots? Yeah, they worked.

And the coleslaw was really, really good. It's a light touch coleslaw, not the claggy mess many a place gives you. It had a distinct taste to it I couldn't quite put my finger on. Kimchee? It reminded me of the crunchy salad that rainbo do. 

And the chips... actually I didn't love the chips but the others seemed to like their fuzzily-seasoned coating. They did go rather well with the cheesy dip we were given.

Smoke n Roll are making a decent stab at joining the BBQ scene and have managed to do some things differently enough to make them stand out from the crowd, but just don't quite have the wow factor that would entice me back. 

This was all in the setting of the rowdy, rockin' Black Heart which was, unexpectedly, pretty busy on a Friday night. This place is rock kitsch, with weird Mexicanesque shrines everywhere, and rock music playing loudly. They do gigs upstairs. The Smoke and Roll dude food totally suited the place. Unfortunately, we probably would have had to be doing tequila slammers in there to have the motivation and enthusiasm needed to compete with the music in order to have a conversation, so after our food we scarpered to the more refined Craft Beer Co round the corner. Still, I liked the chutzpah of the place, and can imagine if I was 'on one' this would be a fun place to return to.

Ultimate Power Ballads, 1st November

I didn't really expect to be saying this but Ultimate Power Ballads was SO. MUCH. FUN!!! It managed to tap into my adolescent twin loves of being angsty and singing my heart out.

I had a little too much fun in fact as the night quickly descended into a heady haze (I'd been at a free bar before turning up) and so this is not the most comprehensive of posts.

It was only later I thought to look at my photos of the night and my memory was jogged - were there superheroes on the stage? Why? I do not know.

This could be the Riddler?

But what I remember, as I have iterated before, was very good. The night was dubbed Bat out of Helloween in honour of Halloween and lots of people were dressed for the occasion. If they weren't in ghostly guise then they had donned their 80s finest, and some had done a pretty good combination of the two. 

Mullets abounded: the perfect accompaniment to the inflatable guitars and microphones which are the essential accessory for a night such as this. Well, if you're going to be belting 'em out, you need a mic to sing into!

I wasn't sure about the whole concept before I got there but within five minutes they had played Mr. Big's 'To Be With You'  - one of the songs on a CD we had on repeat in my teens: The Best Rock Ballads in the World... Ever! and Def Leppard's 'When Love and Hate Collide', another song we were weirdly obsessed with back in the day, and I was smitten. 

Add to this the fact that they played Whitney's 'I Have Nothing' over the more predictable 'I Will Always Love You' (and my own personal preference), and they cemented my fandom.

I must admit, there was a point where my enthusiasm waned a little - things did get a bit cheesy in the middle (yes, cheesier than the aforementioned) but they brought it back again with the likes of 'Drove All Night' by Cyndi Lauper and 'Think Twice' - allowing me to do my best 'singer in anguish' impressions.

I still maintain that being drunk is the optimal state to be in for such a night - you really need to let your inhibitions go as basically this is just one big singalong. I remember being on the dance floor, but you never do anything much more energetic than sway around a bit. 

The crowd 'dancing'

After confessing my enjoyment of this night, people are now trying to persuade me to go to Guilty Pleasures. But I worry that may be a step too far for me... what do you think?

Porky's, 26th October

I tried to go to Porky's once before but was thwarted by its offputting group booking policy. Porky's is a no reservations place but if there are enough of you (there were about 12 of us) then you can book in advance. Besides having to put down a deposit you are also told that group bookings pay a set £17 per person and for that you can choose any main from the menu and any two sides. This sounded like a good deal so I agreed. But then I had a look at the menu. And discovered that Porky's is so cheap it is almost impossible to order a main and two sides and have it total £17. I queried them about this and they said that they picked that amount because some combinations would be more than £17, some less and so they averaged it out at £17. They didn't seem bothered that only about three items on the menu together would equate to more than £17. Quite a sweet little deal for them if people are lazy with their sums. 

Unsurprisingly, everyone in my group thought the same way and so I cancelled the booking. It does seem a tad odd that when you are giving them guaranteed custom (and therefore money), they should implement a policy that could – for want of a better word – swindle the customer if they make the mistake of ordering based on preference rather than price.

It would have put me off Porky's entirely had it not already made its way onto my List, and the people I spoke to were actually very friendly and nice about the whole thing.

So I found myself in Camden the other Saturday after buying zombie makeup for my night out and thought we'd get an early dinner in there. 

The menu is what you'd expect - pork ribs, pulled pork, half a chicken and a range of burgers, a couple of things to satisfy the pescetarians and vegetarians plus various sides, and also, as I said, pretty cheap. Very cheap in fact when you take into account the amount of food they give you. Stephen ordered the ribs (£9.50) and even after giving me one and a half, wasn't able to finish them all. Having said that, had they been a bit nicer, I daresay he would have forced it all down.

The downside of Porky's being so cheap seems to be that the quality suffers somewhat. My pulled pork (only £8.75) was smoky through and through, which was nice, but it seemed that all they had done was smoke it. No nice marinades or seasoning - just a load of smoky pork. The pork ribs were of quite a nice flavour - the BBQ sauce they came in was slightly sweet and nicely tangy, but the meat itself was quite tough verging on the unpleasant to eat.

Pickles come as standard and I liked those a lot, especially paired with a mouthful of pulled pork and a bite of the cheesy hush puppies I ordered as a side. Hush puppies in case you didn't know are basically cornbread dumplings, but these were very cheesy and dotted throughout with chillies which gave them quite a kick (a plus!). Not great to eat on their own as they had a bit of a bitter aftertaste, their cheesy crunchiness did work well with the other items in my dish. Together they were greater than the sum of their parts, as Stephen remarked.

Stephen ordered the mac and cheese as his side and we both agreed this was rather good - given a much lighter touch than I would have imagined.

I didn't find Porky's offensively bad, and given that the two places I consider top of the BBQ game in London (PItt Cue and BBQWhiskeyBeer) aren't moving into Camden any time soon, Porky's I'm sure will continue to do quite well there. The BBQ market has definitely not been saturated yet so an average place can still be popular. The restaurant itself was a nice place to hang out - it was decorated with posters of Country & Western and Blues stars, was playing similar over the PA and both the beers and cocktails looked good (we didn't try them). 

The final straw for Stephen was the fact that, given two condiment holders - one brown, one red, they had put the BBQ sauce in the RED bottle, leading Stephen to dump chilli vinegar all over his food instead of BBQ sauce. The horror! Clearly unforgivable.