Fitzrovia- Lantana

I like coffee as much as I like tea, and that's quite a lot. I'm certainly no coffee connoisseur, but I can tell the difference between a good cup and a bad cup, and I do enjoy a strong-but-unburned coffee. My favourite has recently been the flat white from Monmouth coffee. After today's jaunt to try something different, I think Lantana's flat white has instantly become a contender for First Place.

Where?

Fitzrovia, London, 13 Charlotte Place (Just off of Goodge Street). Nearest underground station Goodge Street.

What?

An antipodean café-slash-breakfast, brunch and lunch restaurant. There are two ways of going about it: Lantana Out on the left-hand side for takeaway drinks, breakfasty things and cakes, and Lantana In on the right-hand side for sitting-down-and-eating. One day I will try something on Lantana In's delicious-looking menu, but this morning I opted for a Lantana Out and a quiet perch on the bench outside.

So, I know I quite like flat whites because of their strength without the knockout strength of having it black (the way I understand it, a flat white is alike a short, strong latte- I told you I'm not a connoisseur). Lantana's flat white has been long lauded on the interweb, so I knew I had to order it.

Cute foam art!

Well- it was perfect. It was smooth, rich, strong and not at all bitter or burned. Lantana apparently uses Square Mile beans while Monmouth Coffee uses Monmouth beans. Square Mile coffee, Monmouth coffee- I think they're two independent roasters. No idea about coffee bean origin- again, not an expert. I found Lantana's Square Mile a bit tangier than Monmouth's signature roast, but it was a very pleasant tang. I'm not sure I could choose one over the other.

As for breakfast! I *had* to try a friand.

When I visited family in Australia last year, I saw these things in practically every café: and yet I never tried one while I was there. Unforgivable for a dessert nut like me! Thank goodness for Lantana.

A friand is a small cake made with ground almonds, often flavoured with lemon and sometimes with fruit like blueberries. They had several kinds at Lantana, but I chose plain lemon. It was dense, moist, almondy, lemony and mouthwatering.

I also had a small takeaway muesli pot (which I didn't photo because I made a mess when I opened it): at the front counter they had a table with large bowls of homemade bircher muesli, homemade toasted muesli with dates, thick natural yoghurt, poached peaches and pears and berry compote. When the girl at the counter asked me what I wanted in my pot, I tentatively asked if I could have a bit of everything- which thankfully she was happy to do. She also filled the pot very generously, which I was grateful for (even though I made a mess in my eagerness to get into it!) They even made something as seemingly simple as muesli delicious.

I was lucky enough to have today off work, and I visited Lantana at about 10:30am- so it was relatively quiet (although still quite busy in Lantana In- it's a very popular place indeed). Chilling out outside with an amazing coffee, a healthy and wholesome breakfast and a little cakey treat in peace and quiet was nirvana. I know where I'm going again on my next morning off.

For some reason when you Google Lantana's location it often comes up as being on Charlotte Street: but it's in fact on Charlotte's Place, which is a little side street right off of Goodge Street. Just head for Yaki (which I went to later on in the day and reviewed just before this post) from Goodge Street station and turn left into Charlotte Place.

Fitzrovia- Yaki Japanese Bakery

Or 'Yaki' for short.

'Yaki' means 'fried' in Japanese (some say 'grilled', but you don't grill yakisoba or teppanyaki, do you? It depends on if your heat source is coming from above or below I suppose).

Where?

Fitzrovia, London, 53 Goodge Street. Nearest tube station Goodge Street.

What?

A brilliant lunch-y place to go for Japanese food that's not sushi- apart from sushi burgers (the 'bun' is rice). Yo! Sushi would have you believe that they're the first to sell the sushi burger. They are, in fact, not: Yaki is. I can actually confirm this as I noticed Yaki and it's menu months before Yo! Sushi started boasting about it.

Anyway!

I passed by this morning and got talking to a very nice gentleman who was opening up shop- I think he may have even been the owner as he was very knowledgable and keen to tell me a bit about the business. He acknowledged the fact that there are a lot of places to eat sushi in London, and he wanted to offer something different in terms of Japanese food. At Yaki you can buy thing like okonomiyaki (Japanese savoury pancakes), tako-yaki (balls of a flour-based pancake-like stuff with octopus in the centre) and donburi (one-bowl rice meals). They also have sweets like taiyaki (filled pancake-like things traditionally shaped to look like fishies) and mochi (glutinous rice dumplings). Although it wasn't quite lunchtime and I left the area, I actually came back (from Camden Town no less) at lunch time to give it a go.

I love, love love it. The prices are great too, especially when compared with London's more well-known okonomiyaki place, Abeno and Abeno-too. Sure Abeno-too cook the okonomiyaki teppanyaki-style (in front of you on a hot plate), but £10 for a small pancake made largely out of cabbage, egg and flour is bloody ridiculous. At Yaki, my chicken teriyaki okonomiyaki was just under £3.50. And it was delicious, too: just as good as Abeno-too but without the fancy price.

Fluffy but satisfying, savoury with a decent amount of chicken, finished off with slightly-sweet mayo that offsets the savouryness of it perfectly.

I can't wait for the next opportunity to go there. I'd love to slowly make my way through the menu- and I especially need to try the desserts (you guys know how crazy I am about desserts- and how uncharacteristic of me it was to not have one during this visit!)

The guy-that-may-have-been-the-owner mentioned that they'd like to open up more shops in London, and I really hope they do well. This place most definitely has my stamp of approval.

The Food Market at Brent Cross

I've been coming to Brent Cross shopping centre long before they got rid of their giant fountain and the multicoloured glass dome above it- which is for a very long time indeed. I remember being about four or five years old and sitting by that fountain on one of the chairs that circled it, eating an apricot pastry with my mum and scuffing at the red carpet with my shoes. I also seem to remember it always being dark all the time, but in a stylishly moody way. Anybody out there got any old photos of Brent Cross from the early 1990's, incidentally? There seems to be a drought of them on the interweb.

Anyway, enough of my wistful nostalgia. Brent Cross has come a long way since then in its efforts to stay in favour of the general public's ever-changing whims, and I'd say it's done pretty darn well over the years. Twenty years on and I still find myself there several times a month, at least- I'd say that's a good sign.

The most recent addition to the Brent Cross experience is the Food Market, which runs every Friday and Saturday and launched about a month ago. It's no secret that food has become fashionable, particularly home-made cake and street food, and I've always loved street food, food markets and festivals. Usually I have to travel all the way to Borough Market to get my food market fix, so I was thrilled to hear that one was opening virtually in my own backyard. Even more thrilled to hear that a few of my favourite traders from Borough Market would have stalls too, such as Ion Patisserie and Comptoir Gourmand. No surprises from people who follow my baking blog Tashcakes! that two of my favourite stalls happen to be cake stalls...

You can check out a selection of the traders on The Food Market at Brent Cross website, although it's a bit frustrating that it's not a comprehensive list and, from experience, the list differs between Fridays and Saturdays. I'm hoping that with a little time they'll polish the main website up a little more to include this sort of information. I'll go easy on them though, since they still seem to be adding new traders to sell even more tasty things.

On with the photos!

I got talking to Claire of Claire's Fancy Cakes- a fellow North West Londoner, as it turns out- who had some gorgeous cakes, cupcakes and cake pops on offer. I have the greatest respect for people who go for it and open their own food businesses, and Claire's been selling her goodies for a couple of years now. All the best, Claire!

Noted.

You can see why I love Comptoir Gourmand.

And Ion Patisserie.

I also quite like Karantania Deli, which is normally found in the Southbank Centre's weekly Real Food Market. Check out their 8-layer cake on the top left hand corner of the photo! It's made with poppy seeds, apple, ricotta cheese and walnuts.

These looked deliciously moist. Next time, my pretties...

I thought this was a cute name! They sold falafel things.

Of course there was a lot more delicious savoury food such as curry, Caribbean and much more- but you all know where my loyalties lie in the battle between sweet and savoury. Plus I make it no secret that I'm pretty bad at capturing savoury food on camera- I never do it justice. In any case, it looks like I'll be continuing to visit Brent Cross for another good twenty years at least!

Golden Gate Cake House Revisited

It's been a while since I last visited the Golden Gate Dessert House, even though their rainbow array of cakes calls out to me like little sugary sirens every time I'm around in Chinatown. Luckily for me, my friend Siu Yen visited today, and was game for a colourful cake session there.

To the left we have the mango mousse cake that my friend chose, and to the right the strawberry mousse cake I (eventually) decided upon.

Look at how pretty they are! I could make a collage out of pictures of Golden Gate's cake slices. Just like last time, the sponge was so light it was like eating a cloud, and the mousse was refreshing and not too sweet. I was also rather amused that the plastic wrapping around the cake was unchanged from my last visit, which was in December (see my last post about Golden Gate for pictures)- they're still using the Christmas stuff. Waste not, I guess.

To drink, Siu Yen chose iced soya milk, and I chose a matcha smoothie over a milkshake, thinking it'd be lighter. We were served our cakes, which we eagerly started off, and in a few minutes our drinks followed.

This is what I was presented with.

Ah.

There was a moment of horrified silence as the waitress set this monster down and my friend and I stared at it. Had I just been given an ice cream sundae challenge?

Thankfully it wasn't a horrifying pile of ice-cream: it turned out to be snow ice flavoured with matcha latte, sort of like a green tea frappucino with extra ice. But it was still a pretty horrifying pile of snow ice flavoured with matcha latte. I'm also pretty sure you shouldn't have to eat any smoothie with a spoon. It was refreshing, and had it been a hot and sunny day (and had it been the only thing I'd ordered), I'd have quite enjoyed it. Alas, I was having this on top of cake, and it was cold and rainy outside. In the end, I only managed to battle through half of it before succumbing to a combination of liquid overdose and severe brain freeze.

Defeated.

I'll be coming here again for more cake, but next time I'll beware the monster drinks and stick with a cup of tea.

Afterword

I only just noticed something about my matcha smoothie after uploading the pictures. Can you see it?

Look closer.

How about now?

It's a Chinese lion!

Chinatown: C&R Restaurant

Cendol. In London. I'm all over it like orange on a carrot.

... Wait, what?

It was tough to get the whole restaurant in this shot. See the white sign at the top right of this photo? The wall pretty much began at the right hand side of that sign and my back was against it.

Where?

Chinatown, London, 4-5 Rupert Court, Nearest station is Leicester Square or Piccadilly Circus. Rupert Court is a narrow little alleyway that runs from Rupert Street right through to Wardour Street and is pretty easy to miss.

What?

A café offering a selection of Malaysian food, a bit like Rasa Sayang. And like my visit to Rasa Sayang, I chose nasi lemak.

Nasi lemak consists of coconut rice, yellow chicken curry, boiled egg, peanuts, little fried fishies (ikan bilis/ anchovies), archar (picked vegetables) and sambal (mind-blowingly hot chili sauce). Often cucumbers too, to cool off.

As I was eating this, I thought to myself, 'This isn't as hot as Rasa Sayang's... I wish it were hotter.'

Be careful what you wish for.

The heat from C&R's nasi lemak is like a ninja- you don't notice it until it's too late. The heat from Rasa Sayang's hit me instantly and without mercy, but it stayed constant. I don't know what sort of chilies they used at C&R, but I didn't notice how hot it was until I was about a third of the way through- then *WHAM*. It didn't stop there though: it got steadily worse and worse. Well played, C&R, well played.

I liked it. Oh, and if you think you're not a pickles person, you'll find that you're going to need the archar: the sweet vinegar-y-ness will help to balance out the heat of the curry and sambal. Which speaks volumes, because archar has chili in it, too.

Flavour-wise, the curry was weaker than Rasa Sayang's, which was a shame. It certainly wasn't bad- far from it. In fact, I found the coconut rice more fragrant and generally tasty at C&R, whereas it was a bit dry at Rasa Sayang. I can certainly in no way fault the portion size: I could only eat half of the mountain of rice, and only a bit of the sambal sauce... although I admit that in the case of the sauce, it was the chili that defeated me. Next time I'll order the Hainanese chicken rice, which I've heard is pretty good- and devoid of chili.

Now, onto the main reason why I came here: the cendol.

How beautiful is that? (I can hear some people going 'err....')

I've written about cendol before in one of my Australiafiles entries. Just to recap, cendol are green pasta-like noodles made from rice, tapioca or mung bean flour, and coloured and flavoured with pandan extract. Pandan is a plant who's leaves are used to make the green extract, and it's used in Southeast Asia like we use vanilla in the West.

See the green things? That's cendol.

Cendol-The-Drink, also spelled Chendol, consists of these green wormy things, with lots of shaved ice and coconut milk, and sweetened with gula melaka (palm sugar) syrup- which is the brown stuff you see in the picture. It's a bit like dark muscavado sugar in taste, and is very, very yummy.

This is the first time I've seen cendol served like this in the UK, if at all: it's sort of hard to come by, here. Before I'd only ever seen it used with ice kacang in a bowl as a dessert, or has red beans and other things added to it- again more like ice kacang. At C&R, they serve it just how I like it in Malaysia: green worms, ice, coconut milk and palm sugar, in a tall glass with a straw.

C&R put cendol on their dessert menu rather than with the drinks in the main menu, but since it's common in Malaysia to have it alongside or instead of a main meal, the waitress didn't bat an eyelid when I ordered it with my nasi lemak. In fact she seemed mildly impressed that I didn't treat it like a dessert.

The cendol was most definitely my favourite part of the meal: it had just the right amount of actual cendol, plenty of ice and not so much gula melaka syrup that it was sickly. Two thumbs up. As a nice little bonus, the ice and coconut milk helped put out the flames from the nasi lemak, so all was well.

I look forward to coming here again, especially to order the cendol (although apparently they do a pretty mean ice red bean drink too, which I'm also quite fond of- which to chose??) C&R is a great little place for affordable food- and a good portion of it too- in London.

They also seemed to have a bar area directly opposite the café, also named C&R. It was closed, but apparently in the evening when it gets busy you get sat in there. I noticed they also had quite a lot of another one of my favourite drinks too, also popular in Malaysia:

Now that's a lot of Milo.

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.