Finest wine words, 27th August

Me, my best friend and 100 wines. Carnage right? Well, not quite. For I was at a wine tasting, not just an all-you-can-drink extravaganza and I wanted to take it seriously. The reason for the wine tasting? To forget for a while all the professional bottle descriptions listing fruits you might never have even tasted, let alone discern in the wine you’re drinking, not to mention references to minerality and silt. And instead invite some people to just say whatever popped into their heads when they drank different wines. To get the lay person’s perspective. Having spent hours doing a similar thing in Sampler of my own accord in times past, I was absolutely delighted to be invited to such a wine tasting, on a grander scale, and wanted to make sure I did it properly. And that meant not just necking as many glasses as possible, but being considered with our measures so we could taste a wide variety, and being considered in our drinking so we could really decide what we thought we tasted and felt with each mouthful. We were asked to describe each wine we tried with at least three words and submit them, and we had a notepad to also keep tasting notes for our own reference.

Not that I want to give you the impression I didn’t get drunk. I did. I mean come on, we’re not going to waste all that lovely wine, swilling it about our mouths and spitting it out. We’re going to drink it. But we managed to not get properly drunk until the end, and in the course of doing so we tasted some very wonderful wines. They were all from Tesco’s Finest range, and the majority were in the £6 - £10 bracket so pretty affordable. My favourite was a Chablis. I think Alison was particularly struck by a Muscadet. We definitely drank more whites than reds, and then alighted upon the champagnes and much posher wines at the end of the night. A rioja was a particular celebrity of the night, and there had also been a very lovely rioja blanco. The range was quite overwhelming.

When I was invited to this I hesitated - Tesco? How corporate! But let's be honest, I pop in to a Tesco practically three times a week on my way to work so to turn it down simply for not being an independent's wine tasting was a bit hypocritical. Of course I would much rather buy all my wine from places like Sampler or Bottle Apostle on principle but the truth of the matter is that good wine is good wine and I'm more likely to end up buying it from Tesco (or Sainsbury's) as my local independet isn't all that local to me, in my non-gentrified area. 

I drink enough wine now to know what I like, and this tasting didn’t really change my mind, but it was a good way to know that if that’s what I want, I can get it easily from my local supermarket, and it was a fun way to really think about what I'm tasting when I drink it. I thought the set-up of the event was really good - the opposite of a stuffy, serious tasting, they had divided the wines into different categories such as 'Maverick', 'Outrageous' or 'Classic'. In the end we probably tried 16-18 different types, some of which were very drinkable on their own, others I could imagine pairing well with food. Food for thought. And speaking of food we had some lovely canapes to make sure those of us actually drinking the wine didn't get too tipsy (well, it helped). 

More (and better) photos to follow!

Regression Sessions, 24th August

So the idea behind Regression Sessions is to let you regress back to your childhood while having adult fun and getting your dance on. So as well as rooms of house, techno, drum n bass, hip hop and R n B, they have a ball pit, space hoppers, big cards for card games and - best of all... yes I'm not kidding... a bouncy castle!! They also gave away those incredibly creepy face masks which I must admit I do find hilarious as much as I find them disturbing.

All of this is truly tremendous fun. I've done the ball pit thing before, but the space hoppers and the bouncy castle were the height of finding your inner child and letting it run rampant (and the height of lads perving over all the bouncing boobs).

The problem was, for most of the attendees, their inner child had barely been lost, let alone needed finding again - the whole crowd was so young! I honestly think the average age was 20, and it probably would have been lower if my Meetup group hadn't been there to skew the numbers!

The music was really good - they had at least three rooms and the genres changed between rooms which kept you on your toes and meant you could almost always find something you wanted to dance to. In some ways it was my ideal party - great music and a healthy dose of fun. I just don't know if I can handle a clubnight that reminds me so starkly of my age! We shall see - I may yet be tempted back...

Loves Company and Manero's, 23rd August

Loves Company

Loves Company is a funny little bar… that turned out to be quite a big bar. It’s on the corner of City Road and seems to be divided into two, rather snug areas. When we got there at 9, no-one was in there apart from the staff, so we said hello and collected the menus and had a few ‘bants’ over the frisky ingredients of the cocktails such as purple passion and tears of ecstasy, and went and sat down in the other half. There were only about three tables. Soon enough a rather boisterous (too boisterous) group came long and transformed the place from what I would have said was a classy drinking den to something approaching a Wetherspoons. They were just too loud for such a small space.

And then I went to the loo and discovered they have a whole downstairs area, which sounded like it was getting ready to be a pretty jumpin’ place to be. Either we, or they, should have gone down there! We only had the one cocktail, but they were well executed, lovely tipples (I think I had the Blossoming Kiss). We then had a very decent glass of wine before heading off for further adventures.

Canvas

I had been thinking of taking us to Portside Parlour or White Lyan but we passed the newly opened Canvas bar and thought we might as well see what it was all about. It was moderately busy for a Saturday night, but not too busy to not get to become a little friendly with the bar staff. We could smell popcorn and asked where that was coming from. The bar girl disappeared and came back with a glass full of it – all fresh and warm. And that glass was replenished no less than four times during our two drinks there!

The inside is dark and sleek, with wooden touches in the form of barrels to sit around or wooden-topped high tables. They have a wide selection of cocktails and all three of the ones we tried were accomplished, especially the Gentlemen’s Reservation (I think) – an old fashioned with maple syrup (y’all know how I have a weakness for whiskey and sweetness). I then had a version of Long Island Iced Tea but cola was replaced with something much fruitier that I now can't remember!

The location of this place, very prominent when you come out of Old Street Station, and opposite Aquarium (which has a Carwash night on Saturdays) means it’s definitely prone to being overtaken by hen nights, and there was indeed one that made an appearance, though luckily just the one and they didn’t stay long. I think this is a great new bar, but you might want to pick your moments as to when you go.

Manero's Private Members Club

We had one quick wine (bottle) in Electricity Ballroom and then went to our final destination of the night – Manero’s Private Members Club. We arrived at about 1:30. Plenty of time for the party to have got warmed up we thought. And, according to the bar staff, ordinarily we would have been right, but on this occasion, the place was more or less empty. We were prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt though, and settled in to await other attendees. It must have got to about 3 before there was a sudden explosion of activity, clearly when the other bars had all shut down. We hadn’t minded not having very many people there – it gave us a chance to chat with the DJ, request our favourite songs, and make friends with the bar staff. But it was even better once a few more people turned up. Manero’s is one room, with a bar at the front, some mismatched furniture in a couple of corners and an area where people dance at the back. I thought the place was excellent – just like stumbling into a house party where you don’t know anyone but the host. Some people’s idea of hell maybe, but it worked for me. Intimate, friendly, I don’t think there was anyone there we didn’t talk to!

Riding House Cafe, 23rd August

I can’t remember where I read such good things about the brunch at the Riding House Café that I put it on my list, but I kind of wish I hadn’t bothered.

Not that it isn’t a nice set of surroundings to eat in with its rustic/deco furnishings. Considering we just about made it in, and had to sit at the bar, plenty of people clearly really like it. But I was underwhelmed. Both Alison and I ordered the lobster benedict, which sounded gloriously indulgent. Instead, on two dry, unbuttered muffins were a few flaky, dryish bits of lobster, two smallish poached eggs and some hollandaise. I don’t often say this about lobster but – ‘meh’. It was alright. Not the decadence that you expect when you order lobster. And not cheap either, two eggs were £16!! I had also ordered some mashed potatoes with olive oil. Tasty enough but strangely dry considering the amount of oil it arrived in. 

Alison’s chicory salad was nice and fresh though, and I really enjoyed my bloody mary. Alison had a Prosecco which doesn’t require much remarking upon except to say that our bartender forgot to bring it to her and we had to remind him.

I fear we have been spoiled for brunch places of late with the likes of 100 Hoxton, L'entrepot, the Ginger Pig and Caravan, all of which I'd return to in a heartbeat.

Stokey Stop and Etcetera, 22nd August

I had a rare weekend night where I’d not made plans with my Meetup or with Alison or found myself with other commitments so Stephen and I headed up to Stoke Newington. There were several places I had on my list or had heard were worth a visit, starting with the Jolly Butchers where we also ate.

The Jolly Butchers

Outside it proclaimed itself an ale and cider house which sounded good to me as I like to see ciders making a big appearance. They only had three on draft which seems a little meagre for such a declaration. I had a Kingshead to start which I didn’t really like – a bit too musty with a weird aftertaste, but for my second I had the Ginger Cider, which wasn’t merely a silly name but meant that it had ginger in it. This was lovely – like having an alcoholic ginger beer but without all the sugar.

The Jolly Butchers seems to be straddling pub grub and trying to cash in on the Dirty food craze, and judging by what we had, it isn’t doing either one very successfully. I had fish and chips, and Stephen had the pulled pork bun.

My fish had ‘crispy Weiss beer batter’, a batter that was in fact incredibly thick, and soft, not like other lighter, thinner and crispier beer batters I’ve had before and much preferred. The chips, however, are worth the trip alone – they were fantastic specimens of chunky chips.

Stephen’s pulled pork burger was firstly, rather small but also, not very nice. It came with a beer mustard, a mustard that Stephen said just didn’t go well with it at all.

For a pub this place was great and I’d go back but I’d stick to the chunky chips and stay clear of anything else.

Stokey Stop

On to the next one then, where we realized what an epic food fail we had made. As we sipped our cocktails, the next table over was tucking into some seriously tasty-looking grub similar to what we’d just had – burgers and pulled pork sandwiches. Must come back here to try them.

Stokey Stop is a really lovely place actually – it has quite a casual café vibe to it: even at night as it is brightly lit with wooden tables. I thought it deserved to have more people in it than it did. And the cocktails were ace. I swear the espresso martini I had made me actually get a caffeine high, which I have never had before, as well as being seriously boozy. Not only did it have Kahlua but it had a shot of espresso patron! Oomf!

The rest of the cocktail menu focuses on the classics – cosmopolitans, mojitos etc and they’re doing a good job of them. They’re also priced at a very tasty £7.50. The downstairs basement hosts different clubnights, mostly offering electro music, and some with a Sapphic leaning so bear that in mind when you head up there.

Definitely somewhere I would return.

The Prince

Next we moved off the High Street and down Kynaston road to the newly reopened The Prince. This is a place that caters for the people of Stoke Newington who can actually afford all those gorgeous townhouses that the side streets are lined with. It’s a pub but firmly the uppermarket end of the spectrum – not somewhere to get too rowdy. It’s also pricey – two drinks were more than a tenner and I only had a small (for me – it was 175ml) wine. Stephen proclaimed it ‘full of people you would find in Clapham’ and judging by some of the chino shorts he was probably right and we probably won’t venture into it again, preferring to slum it a little more, where we belong.

Etcetera

Having said that, our next stop, Etcetera, was a pretty classy joint. But still the kind of place I want to call ‘a joint’. It had low lighting, was playing some smooth jazz in the background. Something about it reminded me of Hopper’s Nighthawks painting. Maybe because there were, again, so few people in here. There was an air of loneliness to the place. It must have been around 11 by this point so there was no excuse for it not to be busy. Perhaps it was just a little too New York for this area of town.

The Hunter S

Our final place, the Hunter S, was the sort of place I feel the Dalston/Shoreditch area does so well - a comfy pub with a load of weird shit on the walls (mainly taxidermy, ever popular among the hipster crowd). We got a couple of shabby chairs and had a couple of drinks (beer and wine, this ain’t no cocktail bar) until the place closed and we were guided out its doors. This wasn’t actually in Stoke Newington but down in Beavertown where there is already the likes of The Haggerston and The Fox. An evening spent in all three would be a very pleasant evening indeed. 

Hip Hop Karaoke, 21st August

Oh my word, I had such a fun time at Hip Hop Karaoke at the Social!

It is what it sounds like. Karaoke, but all the song choices are rap songs. All of them. They've got loads to choose from, and if they don't have your jam, you can request it in advance. They have crowdpleasers like Jump Around and Baby Got Back to Biggie and 2Pac and they're all online with difficulty ratings so you can get an idea for what you want to do (and practise!) before you go if you want. 

The MC is pretty fly for a white guy – he’s a mix of hip hop/ironic nerd and drops the MF bomb like it’s going out of style. He doesn’t partake of the karaoke himself, but is there to make the evening even more entertaining and ensure that everyone gets at least one cheer during their set, even if they’re failing miserably.

For that’s one of the great things about it. Yeah, there are definitely people who go every week, who don’t even need the words and who are mini rapper superstars in the making. But there were also plenty of people who’d never been before, and plenty of people who were just rubbish.

It’s actually trickier than normal karaoke, even with the easiest songs because all you have is a piece of paper with the words on it and then the DJ drops the background track. It’s up to you to figure out when to come in, and if you lose your place it can be pretty hard to catch yourself up again. But the crowd is really supportive, and most of them will know all the words better than you do if you’re not feeling that confident so can kind of keep it going until you get back into it. Having said that, there were at least two performers that just couldn’t even get through half of it, and a couple more that did finish, but I don’t think you could call what they were doing throughout the song ‘rapping’.

But that makes it funny and that’s why it’s so popular. It is on every week and every week it reaches capacity. We got there at 7 and already most of the good tables had gone. By 9 there was a queue outside and some of my friends couldn’t even get in. If you are thinking about doing a song – sign up early. The karaoke doesn’t start until 9 which gives you plenty of time to drink enough to muster up some courage. But if you wait until you’ve got enough alcohol in your system to sign up, you’ll find that they’ll run out of time before they get to you. Sign up early, and then just trust that you’ll be pissed enough to get on stage. I think I signed up to do my song at about 7:30 and I didn’t get to do it until just after the interval at gone 10pm!

So, they have one interval, and before and after they play top notch RnB and hip hop tunes. If you like nights like Supa Dupa Fly or Juicy, but maybe crave a bit more interaction with your dancing, then this night is for you. Hell, if you love this kind of music this night is for you. Or if you just like watching people make fools of themselves in a friendly place, this is for you. Loved it! One of the best weeknight activities out there.

CHICK and Victus & Bibo, 21st/22nd August

I am lucky to work in close proximity to Leather Lane, which has dozens of food vendors as well as permanent places lining the street from which to choose a lunch. Some of these are markedly better than others. Daddy Donkeys started off as a van and often had queues snaking down the lane. Now it has its own shop and the queues have not diminished. Tongue and Brisket, a permanent place, does sandwiches of carvery meats and chicken schnitzel. However, if you want that kind of thing, seek out Monty’s Deli or the Beigel shops in Brick Lane rather than here. So it's full of ups and downs. Two places recently caught my attention – Chick and Victus and Bibo.

Chick have done what Pilpel do but instead of only choosing between falafel and falafel, you can have chicken (hence their name) instead. They say it’s schnitzel but really it’s just breaded chicken fillets – of which you get two in a pita – but they're nice so I don’t begrudge them the false description. My first few bites of this were good – warm chicken, crunchy pickles and onions, a layer of hummus underneath it all. A pinch of chilli heat with each bite and the tahini mayo was liberal. I wasn’t too sure about the pita itself, it seemed a little too soft and so it proved. Within a few bites, the wet salad that they put in first had disintegrated the bottom of the pita so that there was a gaping hole. If I hadn’t been holding it in the bag in which it was served, there would have been salad all over my lap. This is such a shame as I was enjoying it until the pita continued to completely deconstruct and the chicken had all been eaten, leaving me with a sorry, claggy mess of bread and wet red cabbage and saurkraut, which is now my lasting memory of it. Next time I fancy similar, I’ll just head to Pilpel again.

And I probably won’t revisit Victus and Bibo either. What I had was actually quite nice for what it was, it just wasn’t my thing. They served ‘diced’ lamb and halloumi wraps and lahmacun. Only they never seem to serve the lahmacun, so finally I decided to just go for a wrap. This place is pretty popular and always has long queues but the service is quick. I discovered 'diced' means 'minced', which isn’t my favourite way of presenting meat and is my sole reason for not going back really. It is grilled in front of you with lots of spices and onions and tomatoes and is then wrapped with salad and fresh tomatoes. I find mince meat to be quite dry and coarse, and this was too, in essence, though what it was cooked with gave it a juiciness and a really nice flavour. The whole thing got better as you worked your way down to the leaves and fresh tomatoes. They sprinkle some chilli flakes on it but these are negligible in taste. So yeah, nice, just not for me - had it been shredded, or, indeed, diced, I'd be back again in a shot.

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