Edgware: The Kitchen

I don't actually often visit the restaurants that are local to me, which is a shame when I think about all the choice there is available- and really I should be supporting my local businesses more. Going out for me is usually more like Going Out: into central London, different cities, even abroad. So it's a nice change to be reviewing a place in 'my territory'.

Where?

Hale Lane, Edgware- literally on the corner of a street called 'The Drive'. Nearest underground station is Edgware Station.

What?

It's a Kosher restaurant with meat dishes and parve (dairy-free) options. Relatively new to Edgware, The Kitchen looks quite unassuming from the outside: grey and brown signs that are too small or coyly placed to be noticed at a distance- almost like the Hollister of the restaurant world (but without pulling it off quite as well as Hollister, I daresay).

Funky fibre optic ceiling- fun, but the overall lighting was a tad too moody.

Nevertheless, it does have enough of a sleek, modern look to it to attract interest- and it must be doing something right because the place is always packed and tables often need to be booked in advance (although this goes without saying for any good, well-known Kosher restaurant). And although The Kitchen is new on the block, it seems word of mouth has given it an instant kick start in popularity with Edgware's Jewish community. In fact, even though I often drive past this place on the way to work, I only really considered visiting it after a recommendation from my grandparents- so my mum, dad and I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

If you've read my previous posts and are now a bit confused about my ethnic background, then yes, I am in fact Jewish, as well as being half Chinese. An unusual mix, granted, and indeed when with either side of my family I feel neither Jewish enough nor Chinese enough- but at least that makes me exotic and interesting (at least I like to think so!)

The menu is very eclectic, from boasting Jewish classics like schnitzel and and salt beef, to general staples like fish and chips, to sushi and even donburi. I instantly knew what I was going to order though: a Caveman Burger. Even the name sounds epic. The menu describes it as: 'Two Prime Beef Burgers with Smoked Goose Breast and Pickles. No Bun.'

Oh, hell yes.

I was even given an epic knife for the epic burger.

This sounded pretty much perfect for me: plenty of protein for me to recharge (I exercise six days a week and Sunday is my resting day), and no bun- which suits me just fine as I often can only manage one half of a bun with burgers these days. When I, a small-ish young woman, ordered it, I could see the silent 'are you sure?' in the waitress' eyes. Portion-wise, when it came, I was not disappointed.

Each burger was nearly the size of my hand.

Remembering Adam Richman's advice from the (awesome) TV programme Man vs Food, I attacked the meat first, knowing that the carby chips would slow me down. Maybe I've picked up one too many tips from that show, because I made the whole thing disappear in record time.

Tash: 1 | Burger: 0

The burger itself was fine- not the best burger I've ever had and not comparable to the burgers of say the Gourmet Burger Kitchen, but then again Kosher meat does have a slightly different texture and taste because of the way its prepared. It was an okay burger none the less, if a bit on the dry side, and packed full of chopped onions for flavour. The goose breast was good- I've never had it before, and I'd describe it now as sort of like pastrami- I cut away the fat though, as you can see in the above picture (as if  that would make any notable dent in the final calorie count...).

The real star of the show, it turns out, happened to be the chips. I chose sweet and sticky chili chips, and they were wonderfully sticky too- but still managed to be crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, with no sogginess whatsoever. Overall it was a good meal and one I'd recommend for the keenly carnivorous- my only real gripe was the serving plate itself, which slid around the table so much I had to wedge my napkin underneath it so I could cut the burger without the whole meal escaping.

I also decided to go American-style and order a chocolate milkshake with my burger. I was a bit apprehensive because I've had some pretty feeble milkshakes in the past, but The Kitchen did not disappoint.

Frothy, chocolaty (despite the pale hue the lighting in this picture makes it look like), not overly sweet and blended with ice-cream while not being too thick. Anyway, back to the food!

Dad had a real Jewish restaurant classic: hot salt beef.

As you can see, they don't skimp on portion sizes here.

Coming with chips, pickles, coleslaw and oodles of sauerkraut, this was another Meal To Be Reckoned With. Feedback from my dad deemed the salt beef good, if again not the best he's ever eaten. But again, on the whole, the meal itself was 'okay', and the chips again were stellar.

Mum ordered Pad Thai. Both mum and I love our noodles and I think we both felt somewhere in our hearts that this was going to be at least a bit of a letdown, Mum being Chinese, born in Malaysia and used to authentic Oriental food. Alas, we were right.

Pad Thai is usually made with flat rice noodles, for a start.

Feedback from Mum deemed it 'okay'. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. She ordered it with chicken as an extra, and having tried a bit I have to say the chicken was lovely. I can't speak for the other Asian-inspired dishes served here, but if you're visiting this place and more experienced with authentic world cuisine, I'd say it's safer to stick to the more classic Kosher restaurant dishes, because it's these that The Kitchen really does justice to. Again, portion size was very generous.

When we were done (Mum and Dad staring at my empty plate in disbelief), the waitress came over with the dessert menu.

(I had to fight my copywriter instincts and not mark accents and an extra 'e' on 'Brule' with a pen)

...

Challenge accepted.

I (and Dad, not being one to be outdone) chose the soufflé. I've never actually eaten a soufflé before, so I was quite excited to try one.

Well, I still haven't eaten a soufflé yet, because what came out wasn't a soufflé.

However I'm willing to let it slide just this once, because it turned out to be something just as awesome: a chocolate fondant.

Chocolate fondant is also known as molten chocolate pudding- a chocolate pudding with an oozing chocolaty centre. Combined with the extra chocolate sauce running into it, the strawberries and the ice-cream, it was perfect. I haven't eaten chocolate fondant in years- I used to make it so often I got very thoroughly sick of it (this was back when I lived with my ex, who was quite a particular eater). I've been meaning to post my recipe for it to Tashcakes! now that I've had a bit of a rest from chocolaty bakes, so if you check back in a few weeks I'll show you how to make them. Anyway, presentation-wise the icing sugar could have been done with a little more care, but aside from that it all looked very pretty on the plate as well as tasting amazing, too. A great end to the meal.

After all of that I probably won't need to eat for another week or so, and I'm suffering a bit for it now as I type. Was it worth it? It most certainly was. Would I do it again? You betcha.

Overall experience:

I generally had a good experience here, but for a few niggles: we'd booked a table for three a week ago, but when we arrived there was no record of us. It took us about ten minutes to be seated, and although we tried out best to be understanding, it got increasingly difficult as we were asked by three different serving staff the same questions ('What name did you book under? When did you book? How many did you book for?') One even asked my dad 'Are you sure you didn't change your name?'

Now I'm sure what she meant to ask was if we'd booked under a different name, on behalf of someone else or something of the like- I hope so anyway- but she phrased it in that more unfortunate manner. Dad, who's always been quick off the mark with quips, remarked 'I'm pretty sure my name hasn't changed in the last fifty or so years.'

There was also an incident at the end of the meal with payment, where something happened with the card machine that ended up with the card being repeatedly rejected- which is fair enough, these things happen- but it took four separate members of staff flapping around and absolutely no explanation as to what went wrong and what was going on before it was decided that using a different card would be quicker.

Having said all of that, the staff were very pleasant, quick and efficient in all other respects. Since it's such a popular place they do have to be on the ball to ensure efficient turnover, so once we were seated we didn't have to wait around to order, for our food to be served and for our plates to be cleared- but at no point did we feel rushed, either. In terms of value it was average leaning towards the pricier side, but at least the portions reflected this.

To conclude, I'd probably visit this place again given the right opportunity- maybe next time I'll take on the massive mixed grill. However I can't say I'd go out of my way to visit again since the food wasn't stellar for the price we paid- I'd say the best things going for this place are the portion sizes, chips and dessert.

Chinatown: Longji

Or Long Ji. The character for the 'long' part I know is 'dragon', but I wasn't so sure about the 'ji' part. I looked it up and apparently it's 'remember' or 'note down', so maybe 'longji' means 'remember dragon'? 'Dragon's memory'? Please tell me if you know.

This is where Vicky and I went before visiting the Golden Gate Dessert House.

Where?

Chinatown, London, 47-49 Charing Cross Road. Nearest station is Leicester Square.

What?

Formerly Cafe de Hong Kong until relatively recently, It's a Hong Kong café that offers various noodle-based and rice-based one plate meals, as well as many fun icy drinks like bubble tea and ice red bean drink (the latter of which I had this time).

What, no bubble tea this time? I've actually mentioned this place before in previous posts, and usually to say that they do the best taro bubble tea (which is, as you may know by now, my favourite flavour for bubble tea). However ice red bean drink happens to be one of my favourite fun iced drinks, so I'll just as often order it instead.

Ice red bean's basic ingredients consist of red beans boiled until tender, then served with a glass with plenty of ice, along with sugar syrup and a milky substance (often evaporated milk- which is what I got here). Plenty of versions have coconut milk and/ or condensed milk instead, though. Sometimes it's mixed with cendol (the actual cendol, not the whole dessert), sweetcorn, other things... but then with a lot of other stuff it becomes ice kacang.

Longji is awesome in terms of portion size verses what you pay (and it's one of the more affordable places to eat in Chinatown). It's not haute cuisine, but don't forget you're in a café rather than a fancy restaurant. In any case, it's a good place to sit down and grab a bite to eat. Back to portion sizes though: usually I order their ho fun noodles, but I knew that having ice red bean drink along with a main would kill me (there are beans in ice red bean drink. Beans are pretty filling, y'know.) So I went with an appetiser.

Sticky steamed glutinous rice parcels with chicken.

Even the portion size of this appetiser was quite substantial! I was quite happy.

I was a bit of a noob and tried to eat the leaf wrapping at first. Don't eat the leaf wrapping.

These tasted amazing, sort of like a chicken baozi but with sticky rice instead of a bread bun. With two of these parcels it was more than enough for me, along with the ice red bean drink. Vicky went for the ho fun, and even without a fun iced drink it nearly defeated her.

Don't be caught offguard by the 10% service charge added onto your bill- I've seen one review where someone's been incensed by it and gotten into a hot disagreement with the staff about paying. Personally I think it is a bit awkward to say it's an optional charge but stick it on anyway (which would instantly make you look like the bad guy if you wanted to opt out): then again, I always tip anyway unless service is actually bad, and I've found the staff of Longji nothing but helpful. Maybe it's also because I used to be a waitress, and I know what I long-houred, messy, exhausting and often thankless job it can be. Also, a lot of places put on an automatic service charge on the end of the bill, so it's not just Longji. I'm not saying it's right, but I'm not saying it's unforgivable.

I recommend this place because the food is decent for a café and not too pricey, there's a great selection of Fun Iced Drinks (which I shall capitalise from now on since I seem to be constantly going on about them), and I've always found the staff to be pleasant. It's probably more of a lunch-y place, but I have no problem with going there for dinner in the evening (as I did this time).

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I'll be doing some Japanese food posts soon, for a change!

The Australiafiles: Part 1- How a Chinese Family Eats

Family food time. <3

For the past two weeks I was in Sydney, Australia, having made the long journey from here in the UK for a cousin's wedding. I took the opportunity to document some cool food experiences, from aeroplane food to fancy restaurants. I think I'll start with the latter!

Quick background: My mum's side of the family is Chinese, and scattered over Malaysia (where her generation was born and raised), the UK, the US and Australia. The only place I haven't been to is the US, and all others I've either lived in or visited a number of times to see family (luckily this time around my relatives in the US made it to Oz for the wedding so I got to see them too). A high percentage of Australia's population is Chinese or otherwise East Asian, so that will probably reflect in the food I post about here.

Now, onto Chinese eats, and with a very traditional type of food: dim sum.

See that round thingy in the middle? It's called a Lazy Susan: the multiple dishes are placed on it and the diners at the table can spin it around to try a bit of everything on offer (which is quite a traditional Chinese way to eat, rather than Western-style where stuff is plated up for you). In the case of dim sum you order what you want off of trolleys of food that are pushed around, and it's added to a tab thingy that's added up at the end of your meal. You often also get a pot or two of green tea.

The gold sparkly thing in the middle was because we were celebrating my jia po's 80th birthday.

You can get all sorts in dim sum: jiaozi dumplings, baozi dumplings, egg tarts, choi sum, beef balls, noodles... and, of course, chicken feet.

One of two things I find too fiddly to eat: the second being cherries without a pitter.

I'm not grossed out by chicken feet (more poetically called 'phoenix claws' in Chinese), but I find them so damned difficult to eat. You're supposed to just pop them in your mouth and (look away if squeamish) suck the skin and sinew off the bones, spitting the bones out, but this is a way of eating I just haven't inherited from that side of my family. (Noodle slurping I can do, though.)

A beef ball: tender and flavoured subtly with things like ginger, garlic and spring onions

Mum and I, with me showing off my mad chopsticks skills.

Afterword: We went to a really nice restaurant for dim sum on this occasion, but dim sum isn't usually a formal thing. I've also noticed that a lot of Chinatown restaurants in London only do dim sum at lunchtime to 5pm (and it was indeed lunchtime when we went to this place)- so I guess it's more of a lunch/ brunch thing.