Restaurant Review: Medlar, Chelsea

Rack of lamb with confit shoulder, tongue, 

petit pois à la française and jersey royals

There's something a little ironic about taking tips from a Sydneysider on where to eat in my home town of London, but I couldn't help picking up a few ideas from Trina's visit to London last year. NOPI turned out to be one of my highlights of 2012 and Medlar was another one of Trina's suggestions that caught my eye.

They have a fantastic value dinner menu (£42 for three course) for Michelin starred food. It just had to be done as a birthday dinner.

Crab raviolo with samphire, brown shrimps, 

fondue or leeks and bisque sauce

I'd seen on Medlar's website that they had some fantastic looking booths, but sadly we weren't seated at one of those. The tables for two are small and close together, but thoughtful positioning means you don't notice your neighbours too much, even if they are only inches away.

Once we said we were happy with tap water a jug was brought to a table with a glass of ice. Both were kept constantly topped up during the evening. I thought the ice was a nice touch.

New season’s asparagus with jamón ibérico, goat’s cheese 

mousse and broad bean vinaigrette

The menu has seven starters, main and desserts so there is plenty of choice even though you are paying closer to prix fixe prices. As a starter I went for the crab raviolo with samphire, brown shrimps, fondue or leeks and bisque sauce and if I'm honest I was a little underwhelmed.

I was hoping for knock your socks of Michelin starred birthday meal special, and it just wasn't there. I'd run a crazy hard half marathon that morning and I couldn't quite decide if it was me or the food. I feared that I was in for a meal I wasn't really going to enjoy.

I'm still not quite sure if it was me or the food. However, after the starter the meal built and built. I definitely didn't leave dissapointed.

Under blade fillet with café de paris snails, salad, triple 

cooked chips and béarnaise

I wasn't sure about ordering steak and chips in a fine diner, but if you can't order what you fancy on your birthday when can you? The under blade fillet with café de paris snails, salad, triple cooked chips and béarnaise was pretty awesome.

The tripple cooked chips remained crunchy to the last even though they were sitting in the sauce. Both the sauce on the plate and the béarnaise were rich, but they somehow complimented and cut through each other rather than becoming overwhelming. I'm not really sure what the snails added, apart from making the dish sound more interesting on the menu.

Cannelé with camp ice cream and molten 

Congolese chocolate

When it came to the dessert menu we didn't know our chibousts from our cannelés or our croustads, but we were ably assisted by our waitress who explained all.

I went for the cannelé with camp ice cream and molten Congolese chocolate. If, like me, you haven't had a cannelé before I can definitely recommend them. The custard batter is baked in a special mould to give an almost caramelised exterior and a soft, almost brioche texture, vanilla custard flavoured inside. The Congolese chocolate sauce was spoon lickingly good as well.

Pear and almond croustade with cocoa nib ice cream

Becks wasn't too happy at having to give up the croustade half way through and to be fair I don't blame here. The soft and sublte pear innards of the croustade and the cocoa nib ice cream were pretty fab.

Cheese board

All through the meal I had been staring at the cheese trolley, and despite all the food, I was still a bit hungry after my running efforts that morning. I asked my friendly waitress to give me a pause and then dived in.

I wasn't quite sure of the form and how many cheese you were allowed, but the server seemed a bit disappointed when I stopped at three so I asked for an extra two. It seemed like the polite thing to do. One of my favourite cheese was the Oxford Isis.

We couldn't help comparing Medlar to our other fine dining experience of the year, lunch at the Ledbury. It was difficult to compare and a close run thing. The Ledbury possibly edged it in pure terms food, but Medlar probably gets the nod in terms of value it. We paid a similar price for both meals, but the Ledbury was a lunch special and you'd pay a lot more for dinner. As Trina said, Medlar is the value hunters Michelin star.

Medlar
438 King's Road
Chelsea
SW10 0LJ
 

England v New Zealand at Lords

On Sunday I went to watch England v New Zealand in the first test match of the summer at Lords. I haven't been to see a game at Lords for at least for summers and it was great to be back in the ground on match day.


I like wearing my members tie when I go to Lords as the stewards seem to give you a bit of extra respect. The flip side is that I live in fear of unwritten rules and etiquette that I might fall foul of and should really know about being a member.

Sunday brought one such challenge with the picnic area behind the Pavilion. In previous years I've seen people reserving spots with their picnic rugs and hampers before the start of play. I've never had a picnic blanket or hamper with me before and been far too late even if I had as all the spots had gone.

This year we had a picnic rug with us and there were quite a few benches and patches of grass available. I nervously approached one of the stewards asking what the 'form' was. When I was given the all clear to reserve a spot we selected a nice looking bench in the shade. It was great to experience something new.

 

After bagging our picnic spot we headed off in search of the Jamie Oliver £20 Steak Sarnie that I'd heard about the day before on Test Match Special. According to Phil Tufnell they'd sold less than twenty during the first two days of the Test Match which isn't really surprising at that price.

I didn't try one, but I couldn't resist a picture of the menu.

The cricket itself was a case of blink and you'll miss it. There were fourteen wickets during the day and the match was all over before 3pm. During the second innings the Kiwis lost a wicket at the rate of one every other over. It was almost too easy with an air of inevitability and no tension or excitement.

However, after a late night the day before I wasn't complaining too much about the early finish.

Restaurant Reviews: Thai 101, Ravenscourt Park

Som tum sua

Every now and again I search for 'the best Thai restaurant in London' hoping to find this city's answer to Chat Thai in Sydney. My most recent search discovered Thai 101 Kitchen in Ravenscourt Park. I sent the suggestion across to my friend Ed who grew up in West London and I thought might be my best bet as a dinner companion.

The idea was left hanging for a couple of months and then an opportunity arose; dinner to plan our upcoming trip to Malawi.

Prawn crackers

The restaurant was pretty busy when we arrived and there were lots of Thai voices buzzing round the dinning room. Definitely a good sign.

Not long after we ordered some pork crackling arrived at the table. It's unusual for cheapy Thai restaurant to give away complimentary snacks, but we weren't going to complain. As we finished the crackling a bowl of prawn crackers arrived. Another welcome addition, to our hungry table. And then the penny dropped, the kitchen was struggling to keep pace.

Morning glory

With two pages of my favourite salad - som tum - on the menu we had to order one. I love the classic som tum Thai, you can't beat the classic in my book. What actually arrived at our table was the sum tum sua (£7.25). We had dived in before realising the mistake and were scared to send it back for fear how long the replacement might take to arrive!

At the end of the night our waitress apologised for sending us the wrong dish and it didn't appear on our bill. A nice touch.

Duck laab

Ed is a big lover of laab so we ordered the laab ped (£7.50). Laab is an economical dish in Thailand and quite frequently consists of liver. The offal is usually omitted outside Thailand, but this dish was heavy on the liver. A little too heavy for my taste, in almost equal proportions to the duck meat.

It had great flavour and a fair kick of chilli too.

Isaan sausages

The Isaan sausages (£6.95) are another street food favourite of Ed and mine. The sausages were accompanied the salty pad pak boong / morning glory (£6.50) another one of my favourites.

Shaved ice

We decided to chance or arm with the slow service and order a couple of desserts to share. The shaved ice was a sweet bit of fun. We decided to try some of their homemade ice creams as well. Ed selected the durian and taro ice creams. I enjoyed the taro, but the durian was a little over powering for me.

Homemade ice cream - durian and taro

I was a little over hungry to fully enjoy the food at Thai 101. It would have been better if the dishes all came out together, and more promptly, so that we could have enjoyed sampling them all at the same time. I'd be prepared to give Thai 101 another go, the only problem being that it is quite a long way away.....



Thai 101
352 King Street
Ravenscourt Park
London
W6 0RX

Hand Made Food in Blackheath and a trip to Oxleas Wood

 Oxleas Wood

Over the Bank Holiday weekend I had the yearning for brunch and Becks wanted to see some bluebells. We set out on the Sunday to satisfy both cravings.

My hunger won out first, and with Blackheath on route to Oxleas Wood, we decide to try breakfast at Hand Made Food a café we've visited once before. The concept at Hand Made Food is to have the attractive looking dishes laid out next to the window and along the counter allowing you to choose what you'd like to eat. It's a style buffet and feels a world away from food being kept warm in bain maries. (Although in my book, dodgy looking food courts where the bain marie rule, definitely have their place too.)

The window display at Hand Made Food

As good as the food on display looked, I fancied something brunchy, so ordered from the board displaying breakfasts and selected the scrambled eggs on toast with a side of bacon. I'm so used to breakfasts being served on sourdough these days that it took me back to have a couple of slices of granary bread instead. Once I'd adjusted my thought process I didn't mind the sliced white, I just would have preferred it a bit more toasted.

The eggs were nothing special, but the smoked bacon was fantastic. Easily the best bacon I've had since breakfast at Revolver two years ago.

Scrambled eggs with bacon

Becks went for the full English, which came with the same awesome bacon, sliced white and roast potatoes. I didn't have roast potatoes down as a classic full English ingredient, but they were apparently the menu clincher when Becks ordered and turned out to be one of her highlights.

The Full English

After brunch we jumped on the bus and headed out to Oxleas Wood. Part of the Green Chain the woods really aren't that far away, but somewhere I haven't visited before.

We jumped off the bus on Shooters Hill road and walked, rather umpromisingly, into the wood following a bridle path. Neither of us had a clue where we were going, but resisted the urge to look at a map and drift through the trees. We were both amazed how long it was before we bumped into anyone else. On one of the warmest spring days so far we thought there would be a lot more people out and about.

Relaxing on the lawns in Oxleas Wood

It wasn't too long before we'd found our way to Oxleas Meadow which seemed to be where all the action was. The action seemed mainly to involved screaming kids so we quickly set off in search of the bluebells we'd come to see.

I was beginning to worry that we'd spend the afternoon searching in vain until we found Shepheadleas Wood. It would be a bit of an exaggeration to say there were carpets of bluebells, but we did manage to spot quite a few.

 Bluebells

On our way home we walked through the more 'formally' (I use the term loosely) laid out section of Oxleas Wood with a few man made terraces and a rose garden waiting for the summer to arrive. We also walked past the slightly sad looking Severndroog Castle which appears to be a building without a purpose and frighteningly large crack running up one side.



Hand Made Food
40 Tranquil Vale,
Blackheath,
London,
SE3 0BD

A night in Deptford: Viet Rest and Little Nan's Bar

Showing my pinkie at Little Nan's

While watching the London Marathon we hatched a plan for a night out in Deptford. I suspect that Deptford isn't the top of many people's list for a night out, and I can't remember ever visiting before I went to Australia, but since I've been back I have enjoyed the daytime economy. Now it was time to check out what the nighttime economy had to offer.

Vietnamese seemed the obvious choice for dinner and we decided upon Viet Rest close to the station. Armed with a few suggestions from my friend Angie we set about ordering a feast for our hungry mouths.

The summer rolls looked bright and fresh, perfect for the early summer vibe which was taking over London last weekend. They tasted pretty good drenched in the accompanying dipping sauce too.

Summer rolls at Viet Rest

The favourite dish of my dining companions was the special steamed rolls. The rice noodle rolls were filled with pork mince, covered with crispy shallots and served with sliced meat balls.

My favourite was the braised BBQ pork which came served in a tasty broth. It's hard for pork belly to ever go wrong. The noodle soups were solid, but not the best I've tried, while I definitely prefer the Thai version of stir fried morning glory (although this was the first time I've tried the Vietnamese version so perhaps we had a bad one).

Dinner for four was excellent value at £45 including (non alcoholic) drinks. We tried to live a £5 tip and it was handed back to us indicating we shouldn't over pay. Is it offensive to tip in Vietnam?

 Special steamed roll

After dinner, and once we'd resolved my geographical incompetence, we visited Little Nan's Bar for some cocktails. The small bar is arranged like your nan's living room, with comfy chairs and drinks served in tea cups. All of the cocktails have excellent names like Queen Victoria, Mojito of Kent and The Paddy Ashdown.

We tried three tea pots, which serve 4/6 cups and are amazing value at £12 each. While enjoying the retro sound track and having a good old natter. It was just a shame I forgot my knitting.....

Cocktails in tea cups

More food porn from Viet Rest:

Stir fried morning glory

Braised BBQ pork

Pho Bo

Duck Vermicelli Soup

Check out all of the places I've eaten at in London on my map. My top choices are marked with pink pins.

Viet Rest
113 Deptford High St
London 
SE8 4NS 

Touching the Olympics (almost)

On Saturday I took part in my first Southern League race at the Mile End Athletics track. The running track was re-laid last year in time for the US Olympic team to use it for training during London 2012. It was springy, fast and is probably the best running surface I'll ever experience.

I was running on the same track that Justin Gatlin and Galen Rupp (who?) would have blasted round. Surely that would be enough to inspire a personal best? Sadly no.

Since joining Kent AC last year my running has been going from strength to strength and I've become used to setting personal bests every time I've run. The script didn't quite work out that way on Saturday. I was running in the 5,000m, off went the starters gun (quite exciting) and by the end of the first bend I was already quite a long way behind!

I just didn't feel like I could push and had to trudge round for twelve and a half laps on my own. I really wasn't a fan of count down on the finish line telling you how many laps you had to go, or the men with stop watches telling you your splits. I just wanted to to be over.

I got lapped too. Thankfully I also lapped a few other people, including one person twice, so wasn't the slowest out there.

I finally crossed the line in 17m 50sec, fifty seconds slower than my PB.

UPDATE: I was pretty disappointed when I finished the race and wrote this post. However, when I looked at the data on my watch, and checked my previous PB time, it really wasn't that bad. 17m 50sec is an average speed of 3m 33sec per km which is pretty good.

My PB is 17m 18sec, not seventeen flat. It wasn't the margin slower than I thought.

Cooking: Comté soufflé

Comté soufflé, it rose and then deflated again

before I could take a photo

I was given some comté cheese last year and it has been sitting in my fridge ever since waiting for a special event or recipe to use with it. Indecision had left it sitting the fridge for far too long, so a couple of weeks ago I decided to make the comté soufflé from Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets cookbook.

At first look Raymond's book seems incredibly complicated with lots of steps and detail. However, having cooked a couple of recipes now, the instructions are easy to follow and have both produced excellent results.

We were so obsessed with cooking soufflé that we hadn't noticed the recipe served six. It only dawned on us that we had far to much soufflé on our hands as we gently slid them into the oven. A few quick phone calls produced another hungry mouth to help us demolish the soufflé.

The soufflé was deliciously light and it was easy to miss the fact that it consisted largely of full fat milk, cheese and butter. We certainly didn't miss the cheese sauce that we decided to skip serving on the side.

I can't remember the last time I ate comté cheese, but its strong, slightly nutty flavour worked well. We served a salad on the side, but something more able to cut through the richness would have worked even better.

The recipe can be found on Raymond Blanc's website here.