Souvlaki Street, 5th October

I came across Souvlaki Street in a blog post by Little London Observationist where she said she regularly indulges in their souvlaki when she rarely visits the same place twice. I am much the same – even if I really like a place, there’s always somewhere new to try! With this high recommendation I thought I should seek them out forthwith, so I had a look at their Twitter and figured out when they would next be popping up near me.

They grill skewers of pork or chicken, sprinkle them with herbs, and wrap them in thick pittas with tzatsiki, plus a load of fresh tomatoes, paprika and onions. We added halloumi to get the ‘special’. And they are very tasty. I’m not a huge fan of tzatziki so I found mine a little too heavy on that – it was oozing out the sides all over the place. But I have to say, I could have easily eaten one that was twice as big! One skewer is not enough!

Dusty Knuckle and SK London Fields, 30/31st August

Two days off mid-week meant getting lunch from places I wouldn’t ordinarily be able to get to. First up – Street Kitchen. I’ve tried all their different places I think – the airstream, the sandwich place in Broadgate Circle, plus when they’ve popped up in other places. Of course I had to try their hatch in London Fields.

They were predictably good. The special was lamb with crushed potatoes and roasted veg with pesto. They offer 'slow food fast' and this was as good as I have come to expect. Slow cooked lamb that broke away easily when nudged with my fork. Plenty of potatoes and roasted carrot and courgette providing sweetness. Not exactly the most summer-centric meal to have on what was a lovely sunny day but plenty tasty nonetheless.

On day two, I went over to Dusty Knuckle in Dalston and had porchetta in brioche. While it tasted nice, the experience of eating it wasn’t that pleasant. It was absolutely stuffed with different things, which made the bread horribly soggy and all just seemed to fall out all over the place. There was fennel, kohlrabi, red cabbage, plus the tomatoes the pork was cooked in and some ogleshield cheese. The bread didn't really stand a chance against all of this, and as a result it was hard to get a mouthful that contained most of the ingredients. I was mainly picking individual bits out, or scooping them up where they fell. Which isn't the ethos of a sandwich. 

Earl's cheesesteaks, 26th February

As has been noted before, I am willing to travel for food that has potential. So when I saw Earl’s cheesesteaks had a regular base at Liverpool Street I knew I’d have to give up a lunch hour to get over there and try them out.

When I arrived they offered me a loyalty card and seemed a little taken aback when I said I would probably not be returning too often because I work in St Paul’s and had only come down to try them!

Unlike Liberty Cheesesteaks they make no claim to authenticity, they’re just doing a cheesesteak the way they see fit. And let’s face it, you can’t go too far wrong with meat and cheese. Earl’s use bavette steak and provolone (a classic melty cheese) and give it a twist with pickled chillies and their own sauce. At first bite I was worried it would be a little dry but I soon got a mouthful of sauce which did its job. Towards the end I had a bit of meat that was a little gristly but mostly it was nice and tender. So it was a decent sandwich but I don’t know that I would use my precious 60 minutes in order to have it again. 

However. 

While I was there I perused the rest of the menu and my God, When Mac Pulled Pork looks like something special. It’s pulled pork with a deep friend mac and cheese patty and scotch bonnet sauce. I have to have it. So, Earl’s, I will be back! 

Bao, 13th June

It happened. I queued for a food place. For almost an hour. It could only be Bao. But was it worth it?

Well, firstly I would like to say that queuing was never our intention. I knew it opened at 5:30 and we got there at almost 5:30 on the dot and were about to waltz in when we were directed to the people lining up on the other side of the street. We had actually thought we were the first to arrive and we were not the only ones who mistakenly tried to circumvent the queue because they didn't see it. I knew there weren't many spaces inside but it was hard to tell from the line how much of it would fit in one go so we joined. And slowly... very slowly... they started taking people in and filling the place. This whole process took around half an hour in itself until finally the final two people of the first sitting were lead in. Leaving Stephen and I first in line! Of course, we couldn't just leave then, not when we knew only two people had to leave for us to get inside.

So we waited another 30 minutes, fielding the curious questions of those passing by (people cannot help but wonder why a queue has formed for something) and feeling sheepish for saying it was for a restaurant. We were then beckoned across and scurried excitedly in. Bao has definitely been one of the hottest openings in recent months and my Instagram has been full of photos of their dishes. It didn't take long to decide what to order. We obviously had to have one of their famous bao - for me the chicken, for him the pork, and we both tried the lamb. He was desperate to try the blood cake, and I wanted the guinea fowl chi shiang rice. We also shared some trotter nuggets which I'm going to say right now were just too fabulous. Do not bother sharing these. Just get a whole plate for yourself. And we had some sweet potato chips for good measure.

Unsurprisingly, we were fans of the place. I'd already has BAO's baos from their street food stall/various street food markets and I knew they were good. The chicken one especially, in my opinion, was out of this world. 

The sweet potato fries were crunchy and came with a drizzling of sweet plum ketchup which was very nice. 

I did not partake of the blood cake but Stephen was not disappointed. We both enjoyed the glistening globule of egg yolk that accompanied the cake and the rice, mine I broke and mixed in, it coating thickly the items in the bowl with its egginess. The guinea fowl was quite fatty and made a nice change from darker chicken meat.

I really have nothing bad to say about the place. Would I risk a queue again? No - it was good food but not food worth over an hour's wait. However, if I *happened* to be walking by just before it opened and there was no one around, I'd "hang around" a bit to get the chance to try the rest of the menu.

Kappacasein, 18th April

Kappacasein may be the original grilled cheese street food trader, touting his wares in Borough Market for 15 years now but I’m afraid the new kids on the block are showing him how it’s really done.

I didn’t think my toastie was that great, but this I am willing to put this down to them being victimes of their own success. There is so much demand, this little food stall is like a factory producing them via a conveyor belt, rather than each one lovingly made to order. Your order is taken in the queue, they have two people grilling and one person shoveling the cheese between slices. They’re trying to serve as many people as possible as quickly as possible and it’s not surprising if quality suffers a little. In my case I felt there wasn’t enough cheese and it was too overdone. I still liked it, but I wouldn’t bother with them again when there are much better offerings out there.

After this I thought I'd better burn off the cheese and went for a marathon of a walk across London. I wanted to see the Tweed Run. I was just a bit too late to catch their pit stop in Red Lion Gardens but I managed to catch up with them at Hyde Park corner. Quite the spectacle to see all these men, women and children all spiffing in their tweed, and sometimes with penny farthing bikes to boot!

From here I hopped on a bus to Shepherd's Bush and from there continued my walk. I wanted dessert after my grilled cheese and I had a destination in mind - WA, the new Japanese bakery. I knew I would probably get there too late in the day to sample their specialities, and so it proved. No curry doughnut for me. But I did get a mont blanc and a pear tart. I didn't know what a mont blanc consisted of when I got it and I still couldn't tell you afterwards but it was a buttery, sweet little pastry of deliciousness and so was the tart. Too much of a schlep for me to visit again but if you are local to it, I would absolutely check them out.

Liberty Cheesesteak, 11th October

The humble cheesesteak gets a few outings in London but it's not anywhere near as ubiquitous as the burger or hot dog. And it deserves to have a little more fame for it is quite delicious to eat.

I was alerted to the fact that Liberty Cheesesteak were doing their own authentic versions from a stall at various markets by one of my favourite blogs, the London Review of Sandwiches. This sounded amazing. And it was rather good - I blame my eyes being bigger than my belly on the way I began to flag and consequently not enjoy it to the full.

These guys are doing it right. They have ever so thin cuts of beef which they grill and chop up before your very eyes, mixing it all up with grilled onions. You then have a choice of three cheeses - their home made cheese whiz, provolone or American. I chose the whiz for authenticity's sake, and then they stuff it all into a proper, US-style sub. You can have a half or a whole, and as I hadn't eaten anything yet that day I went for a whole one. I shouldn't have. There is a surprising amount of meat put into that thing and I got barely over halfway before I reached saturation point. There was too much meat, the cheese had got a bit overbearing and claggy as it cooled. I had to admit defeat. But not total defeat as I saved the rest of it and had it for dinner later and enjoyed it all over again.

For it is very enjoyable. The bread is soft and squidgy, the meat has just a tinge of pinkness in parts and is delicious even on its own. The cheese whiz I wasn't completely convinced by. It did go well here with the meat, but I think I would have preferred the provolone which is a classic melty cheese, rather than one that begins in a melted state. I also probably would have liked to add some hot sauce but my sub was all wrapped up in foil before I had the chance.

But apart from those minor quibbles I commend them for doing a real US favourite, in no-frills proper style.  

Ribstock, 27th September

I have wanted to go to a Ribstock for about three years now but things beyond my control, rather than inability to get a ticket have always got in the way. Not this year though. I was there, at noon, finger on the mouse, ready to get my ticket, and before 12:01 I was one of the lucky 200 to have nabbed one. They did things a bit differently this year – previously tickets are around £50 and that entitles one person to try all the competition ribs  and cast their vote for their favourite. Being a Tweat Up event, they normally throw in a free drink or two with that, and I think there’s normally about ten competitors.

This year, the ticket was a whopping £79!! BUT, it was a plus one ticket – so you could go on your own and eat ALL the ribs, or you could bring someone with you for ‘sharesies’. And believe me, doing ‘sharesies’ did not mean losing out. There were only three competitors who served up a single rib, and these were gargantuan examples of a rib. Otherwise you would get at least two ribs, or, where they were baby back (by Roti Chai) we actually had four! I was stuffed by the end of it, and we had to seriously slow down our eating after four servings to make sure we didn’t ruin our judgment by being too full to enjoy them.

On top of this each ticket got you a pint glass which entitled you to unlimited refills of Frontier lager. I’m not a beer drinker myself, but Stephen made ample use of this and got through five pints in the evening before we called it a night and headed off at 9:30. Had we stayed until the end he could easily have made that seven.

On top of this – yes, there’s more! We got a free old fashioned, and a free shot of tincup whiskey – lovely stuff – smooth and sweet. But wait, there’s more!! With each ticket you also got a free bottle of The Ribman’s Holy Fuck Bacon sauce, plus some pork scratchings.

But wait, there’s EVEN more!! Some of the stalls had other freebies they were giving away with the competition ribs. Roti Chai had an apple and cinnamon whiskey shot, Breddos had a pickleback (love them!) and Texas Joe gave away packets of his fruity, lip tingling, chewy jerky (seriously – it’s delicious). Yeah, I did the math and we got our money’s worth that day that’s for sure. (I literally did the calculating as we were going along and we easily ate and drank £80 worth.)

Roti Chai's baby backs with apple and cinnamon whiskey shot

So. The Ribs. There were seven traders taking part and I won’t go into detail on them all or this post will last as long as it took to eat them. For Stephen and I there was a definitive Top 3, and we were actually split between our two favourites, it was such a close call. We enjoyed all of the ribs but there was something we couldn’t quite define yet which we knew we were looking for when it came to choosing the best. It couldn’t be too much like any old slow-cooked meat. It had to have some BBQ char, flavour and texture to it. A bit of bite, a bit of its own unique taste, not relying simply on its sauce. For us, Smokestak and Hotbox ticked all these boxes. I slightly preferred Smokestak with the rib tips it came with and a very good hot coleslaw and pickled chillies.

Winning ribs from Smokestak

Stephen preferred Hotbox, which came with some delicious pickled onions and also chillies. In the end, I voted for Hotbox in the name of romance.

Our third choice were Breddos tacos, although the public chose otherwise, with Roti Chai coming in third. We both liked the Roti Chai ribs but we felt they were more about the sauce than the rib – a lovely satay-esque sauce with a good hit of chilli. I really loved the Breddos boys’ short rib offering though, topped with the best mole I’ve ever had. I had thought I was running out of room and yet I got that in my stomach without pausing for breath. What kept it from the top spot for us was that it seemed more like a slow cooked pot roast than a barbequed beef rib. Damn tasty though!

We began our feasting at 6 and it took us three and a half hours to get to the final rib, and I’m sad to say we were far too full to try any of the other porky offerings for sale as part of PorkLife which was running concurrently. The pork belly croquettes from Breddos looked delicious, and I think Stephen was sad he couldn’t fit in a Bleecker burger. But what an amazing event. I’m now in my semi-non-drinking month so apart from all the free shots, I didn’t buy any drinks, and Stephen had his beer refills so we didn’t spend any money the whole night. Tweat Up, I salute you (again).

Here are the rest of the competitors’ ribs:

The Ribman's with Holy Fuck 'slaw

Texas Joe's beast

Q Grill's sticky ribs

Smokestak's pig

Grill.My.Cheese, 10th September

When I was a child, I loved eating grilled cheese sandwiches. And non-grilled cheese sandwiches too come to that. But I must have overindulged because I went through a long phase of being so put off by melted cheese that I didn't even like pizza. 

I know.

Happily I have overcome that difficult time of my life and now embrace melted, gooey cheese, on pizza, in fondue and best of all in between toasted bread. And it looks like London is doing the same. There are so many places doing grilled cheese sandwiches these days (or 'toasties' if you want to be all British about it) that there are even features about where to get the best ones in Londonist and Time Out.

I of course consider it my duty to work my way through them all. I finally had the one at Sager and Wilde a while back, and went up to Morty & Bob's quite recently. The first one I tried, but didn't write about was the chorizo one from The Cheese Truck. Spotting that Grill.My.Cheese were at Leather Lane, I thought I'd best try them while they were around.

Their USP is mac n cheese toasties. And the big mac daddy comes with pulled pork besides. Yes. Sounds insane doesn't it? Insanely bad for you. In a good way.

Actually, I have to say, that I didn't find it as bloating or as 'Diners, Drive-ins and Dives' as I thought it would be. Perhaps because a lot of the space is taken up by pasta with holes in it rather than cheese, it doesn't feel as heavy or as greasy as others can. The one I had from Morty & Bob's for example, was far more filling, and my boyfriend ate about a quarter of it!

They also add BBQ sauce which is a trifle too sweet for me - I'd have preferred the punch of a chilli sauce (Ribman - when is that collab going to happen?) but it was still a mighty fine toastie and I enjoyed eating it immensely. Behold.

Morty and Bob's, 30th August

So, you guys know I love bread and cheese right? And melted cheese and toasted bread are a combination made in the very belly of heaven itself. And luckily, quite a few street food places seem to agree. There’s the Cheese Truck, and Grill My Cheese, and these guys... and counting.

Now, I love street food – you can get some fabulous food for reasonable prices but it does have its drawbacks. They can be kinda flaky and a dedicated trip to get to their stall/van can lead to disappointment if you don’t check ahead. Such was the case the other week when I decided I wanted to finally try Morty & Bob's cheesy goodness only to discover the stall was shut and they were at Wilderness or something. Instead I had the worst banh mi of my life from Caphe VN. It was a bad day.

But I went back, and got treated to a supersized toastie with cheese lava cascading down its sides. I decided to try their ‘straight up’ and see what it was like unadulterated by bacon or pulled pork. I didn’t even get any jalapenos or add any hot sauce. They use a cheese mix of three cheeses plus their own secret sauce and they add some spring onions and regular onions and to be honest, this is all you need for a hearty breakfast. Stephen practically ate half of mine and I was still sated. Mmmmm. I think they should quickly go away to some more festivals to stop me going back every weekend! I could practically feel my arteries turning to cheese. *happy face*. A couple of pickles could be found hiding round the back in case to give you a palate cleanser partway through in case the cheese became too much at any point. 

The Joker of Penton Street, 12th April

My first visit to the Joker was on a balmy Thursday before heading to Smokehouse and we just had one quick drink sitting outside, which meant I wasn't really able to assess the place.

I had the chance to come back three days later with some friends for some early evening drinking on a Saturday. We got there at about six and were practically the only people in the place. It's not on the 'strip' of Upper Street's bars and restaurants so if you don't know it's there, you wouldn't know it's there. Luckily, I do.

It's a cool pub with a modern style. Definitely a pub not a bar, but light and airy with a few quirky decorations thrown in. I loved the huge wooden comedy/tragedy masks and the 'Be Here Now' clock.

They also currently have Tongue 'n' Cheeks in residence serving up their famous heartbreaker burgers (so-called because beef heart is mixed in) but they've got a few other things to choose from as well if you don't like burgers, offal, or the idea of them both combined. I would fall into this camp so I had the picchiapo fries - chips topped with some fantastic, juicy pulled brisket that had been cooked with peppers and onions in a tomatoey sauce, a take on a traditional Roman dish apparently. And the chips this was heaped on weren't bad neither. They also do a philly cheesesteak which one of my friends had. This was a pretty hearty serving of meat and cheese overflowing from a hoagie-type roll.

Two of my friends did order the burger and loved them (I don't think they actually realised any heart was involved and I didn't want to tell them!). We then settled back and had more than a few pints and bottles of wine between us, before leaving at around 9.

It was a really chilled out place, perfect for a bunch of friends to catch up, and actually be able to hear each other - no din of music or crowds. In that respect it shares elements in common with an 'old man's pub' but this is definitely for the younger pub-goer. They also have gigs and quiz nights on in the week if you want to do more than just sit and drink. An excellent haven from the hustle and bustle of 'Supper Street'.

The Craft Beer Co is also just around the corner and doesn't get too rowdy, so we went there for a couple, before making our way to Dalston for Scared to Dance, which I'm pleased to say was much livelier and rocking than the first one I went to!

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.