Super Thai food: Supawan, Kings Cross

I recently read Marina O’Loughlin's review of Supawan, and like many other people I suspect, decided I'd like to try their Thai food for myself. A catch up with my friend Ed last night provided the perfect opportunity.

Marina was universal in her delight at Supawan. We had two awesome dishes and two a bit more average, although the highs definitely outweighed the lows.

First, the highs. The neua yang (grilled beef) is described on the menu as coming with a grounded rice and mint dressing. What they didn't mention on the menu was the amazing sauce that had us both spooning it over our rice to make sure we ate every last drop.

The second excellent dish was the Thai squid (pictured). At first glance it looks like any other deep fried calamari, but the chili and tamarind coating took this squid to a whole different level. I could have very easily eaten another plateful.

The two dishes that slightly missed the mark were two staples that I love ordering on my visits to Thailand. The first was som dtum (papaya salad). In Thailand this salad is ferociously hot and it is a dish that just doesn't work without chili and our just didn't have enough. Phakbung fai deng (stir fried morning glory) universally comes in tasty garlicky sauce, but this one was just a little bland and without enough punch in the sauce.

The beef and the squid were definitely enough to make me want to go back. Hopefully I find some more highs from the menu. At £25 a head it was excellent value and our lovely server even tolerated my poor Thai.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure the bathroom tiles are the same ones as we have in our bathroom too.

Supawan
38 Caledonian Rd
Kings Cross
London
N1 9DT

Palma Pintxos, Mallorca

Pintxos at Tast Union

We checked out a few restaurant options for the Saturday night of our trip to Palma, but with none of them appealing, we decided to do some bar hopping instead.

The first place that we visited was Tast Union. Grabbing some seats at the counter we were a little unsure of the etiquette, but the form seemed to be that you helped yourself to plates from the pintxos counter (that either came in single or double servings). We also ordered a couple of dishes from the tapas menu.

Prawn, whitebait and salmon

The pintxos at Tast Union were really, really, good. Not only did every plate look amazingly appealing but there were also so many tasty combinations of flavour in every single bite. I particularly remember the courgette, jamon and garlic mayo pintxos (photo below) and an anchovy and jamon number with basil oil.

Chorizo in cider and cured sheep's cheese

Slightly less successful than the pintxos, for me, were the tapas that we also ordered. The chorizo in cider wasn't a patch on the version from L'Oculto. I'm usually a big fan of manchego style cheeses, but here it was easy to be eclipsed by the pintxos.

Courgette, ham and garlic mayonaise

Realising that we were somewhere very good we had a couple of extra pintxos rather than moving in case we ended up somewhere disappointing.

Tast Union
Calle Unio, 2, 

07001 Palma, 

Illes Balears,

Spain

When we did finally tear ourselves away we crossed the road and headed up a small side street and straight into La 5a Puñeta, which was equally great but in a completely different way. Where Tast Union on the main drag was polished, this place felt a lot more like an authentic local bar that hadn't changed a bit in the last ten years,

The small restaurant was filled with families and young locals looking to get their pintxos hit. Plates of food were brought out from the kitchen and placed on the bar. The crowds then descended to help themselves and if you didn't get in quick you were likely to miss out!

I remember trying the tortilla from the photo above which was really salty, but it worked very well.

Payment seemed to almost be on a honesty system where you went up to the counter on your way out of the bar and showed them the number of cocktail sticks that you had and told them how many glasses of wine that you'd drunk. Proving that honesty system do work when I realised I couldn't have paid enough, in my faltering Spanish I asked them if they'd charged us for the carrot cake (which they hadn't).

Carrot cake

I was pretty surprised both places charged the same for their pintxos at 1.75 EUR a pop. They are absolutely both worth a try. Tast Union won on presentation and just edged the flavour combinations for me. La 5a Puñeta wins on atmosphere and the fun factor.

La 5a Puñeta
Carrer de les Caputxines, 3
07003 Palma
Illes Balears
Spain

Palma, Mallorca: a civilised boys' weekend

Palma's cathedral

A few weekends ago Ed, Mike and I jetted off to Palma for our first boys' weekend since our adventure in Lyon at the end of 2015.

Friday was a complete washout with torrential rain all day. We made the best of it by hopping between a few nice bars, but I was beginning to wonder what we'd done. Had we chosen a dud destination?

Parc de la Mar / Lagoon in front of the cathedral

Ed and I woke up early(ish) on Saturday morning and headed out for a run along the coast. The sun had come out and a beautiful walled city was revealing itself. Any thoughts that we'd come somewhere duff were completely dispelled.

Palma has a compact centre with lots of narrow streets and small squares. It was perfect for exploring on foot and we were never far from somewhere that we recognised so it was easy to get back to our apartment any time that we wanted to.

Inside the merchants hall

We started Saturday off by walking down to the cathedral and then doing a loop of the Parc de la Mer / lagoon. We continued our drift west and stumbled across the Lonja de Mallorca, the beautiful merchant's hall with its spiralled columns and high ceilings. I saw a sign saying that there were great views from the roof, but unfortunately none of the corner stair cases were open to enable us to get up there.

After a coffee stop in a pleasant little square near the merchants hall we found ourselves in the Santa Catalina area and when we saw the local covered market I immediately wanted to go inside. There were lots of locals shopping at the stalls selling meat (fresh and cured), fish and fruit & vegetables. There were a few places to stand around and eat and drink at stalls preparing some of the fresh produce.

Mercat de Santa Catalina

After a lazy, and incredibly good value fixed priced lunch, we spent the afternoon drifting round more of the historic centre of Palma and checking out the few bits of Gaudi architecture that we stumbled across (below).

On Sunday morning Ed and I repeated our run along the coast on an equally bright and sunny morning. We saw people setting up for what we guessed was a local 5km or 10km race and quite a few other people out exercising on the path along the coast.

Gaudi designed opticians

Having pretty thoroughly explored the centre of town on Friday and Saturday we decided to head north from the centre. We had breakfast in Plaça d'Espanya and then continued north through the Parc de les Estacions. We were drifting without too much of a plan and came across the bull ring in the backstreets. There were high fences all the way round the ring and it had the look of somewhere which might be abandoned, but it was a very impressive structure so hopefully it doesn't fall into disrepair.

Bull ring

We made our away across to the San Juan Gastronomic Market for lunch before making our way back into the centre to grab our bags and then to take the bus back to the airport for our flight back to London.

Thanks Palma for the great weekend!

Colourful streets of Palma

Christchurch Part 2: the family influx

Port Hills looking down towards Lyttelton Harbour 

After our couple of days down in Frankton we flew back up to Christchurch, on what was thankfully a lot smoother flight.

We had a pretty lazy day on the Thursday hanging out in the suburb of Ilam where Becks' parents live. During the day we popped next door to see their longtime neighbours. Last time Becks was at home she received a thermomix demonstration when she visited and was keen for me to have the same evangelical experience so we can buy one! The ice cream that was knocked up in seconds was very good, although the price tag is a little eye watering.

Views out to see

On the Friday Robin had most of the day off work so we drove out to the Port Hills which have sweeping views over Christchurch and Lyttelton Harbour. We did a short walk after parking the car to take in the views of the harbour.

On the Friday afternoon my family all arrived in Christchurch, in time for the wedding lunch we had planned on the Sunday. Mum and dad arrived first, flying in from Napier in the North Island and then Ruth and arrived arrived on the train from Kaikoura in the early evening. It was must first time at Christchurch train station and it is quite a smart little station considering it is only a single track line. The two trains we saw looked like they were catered squarely at the tourists.

On the Friday night we all had dinner at Dux Dine in the away leg of the family meal we had in London on the night before our wedding back in May.

Family dinner in Dux Dine

On Saturday lunchtime we met up with the Unwins who had all flown in from Australia to come to our celebration lunch the next day. Becks and I had had dinner with Bruce and Di a couple of years ago in London, but I hadn't seen Brad, Chel and Elizabeth since leaving Australia and had never met their son Mark before. It was lovely to have a proper catch up with everyone over lunch. It was also nice for mum and dad to meet the Aussies that had looked after me while I was in Oz.

Le Sud Restaurant, Lyon

Bread and olive at Le Sud

One of my early thoughts when we decided to go to Lyon, the culinary capital of France, was to do a spot of Michelin star collecting. The only problem was that everywhere we looked at were very expensive. My usual trick of looking out for the cheaper lunchtime set menus didn't yield any results so we started to look for alternatives and decided upon Le Sud a brasserie owned by Paul Becouse, who also runs the city's only three star restaurant.

Even though it was 'only' a brasserie Le Sud still felt like it offered the full silver service. My linen napkin had a button hole with which you could use to attach it to your shirt, which of course I did.

A pot of Côte du Rhone - we had two

Having discovered that a 'pot' of wine was the Lyon equivalent of a carafe we decided to order a pot (or two) of Côte du Rhone. They were exceptional value at 12.60 EUR. The quality of the wine was easily on a par with anything else we'd drunk on the holiday was considerably cheaper than the rest of the wine list.

Ed loved the concept of the pot so much he bought one to take home with him.

Pumpkin and chestnut soup

I started with the pumpkin and chestnut soup. It was a lovely autumnal soup although I didn't get huge amounts of chestnut.

My main was a pan fried fish with light curry sauce, a choice inspired by a similar dish Mike had ordered the day before. The fish was delicately cooked and paired well with the curry sauce.

Fish with a curry sauce

For dessert I had the poire belle Hélène. A poached pair, fanned out to cover a ball of vanilla ice cream and surrounded by a pool of dark chocolate sauce. I loved the poached pair and vanilla ice cream but found the thick dark chocolate sauce a little too intense for my taste.

The service was discreet, efficient and friendly when required. The only oddity, in what was a very pleasant evening, was my trip to the gents. While the femmes and hommes cubicles were complete separate, le urinoirs were only a small partition away from the unisex hand basins. I couldn't help thinking everyone's modesty needed a little more protection.

Poire Belle Hélène

On the way home we stopped in at the Mama Shelter hotel for a final bottle of Côte du Rhone of the holiday. The hotel has a great bar with good music. It was pretty busy, but we were able to secure some seats at the bar in which to enjoy our bottle of wine.

Another bottle of Côte du Rhone in Mama Shelter

Le Sud
11 Place Antonin Poncet

69002

Lyon

France
+33 4 72 77 80 00

Lyon weekend: Les Confluences and lunch Les Sept Péchés du Plateau in Croix-Rousse

With the lion of lyon

On the final day of our trip to Lyon we decided to head over to the Les Confluences area of the city, an island in the middle of the river where the Rhône and Saône meet. I'll admit to not having looked into the history of the area, but I suspect it is very similar to London's Docklands. An area which has suffered industrial decline and has recently undergone huge regeneration (although probably not finance led).

Orange building - Les Confluences 

The area felt quite subdued on a sleepy Sunday morning, like an area which hasn't yet become fully self sustaining. (A bit like Canary Wharf on weekends 10yrs ago). Initially it felt like just us an a few joggers enjoying the riverside paths and autumn colours. There were a few families out promenading too.

There were some wonderfully modernist buildings like these orange and green ones I photographed. They somehow seemed very French.

Green twin - Les Confluences 

At the tip of the island is the Musée des Confluences, another modernist building. We decided not to go into the museum as we didn't have a lot of time left.

Musée des Confluences

After walking round the outside of the museum we hopped on a tram and then changed onto the metro to whip up to the Croix-Rousse part of the city in search of a late breakfast / lunch.

There was a fun fare taking place which had brought out the crowds. Being France on a Sunday the majority of places were also closed. I was beginning to become a little despondent in our search for a final meal of the trip and then we spied Les Sept Péchés du Plateau which was just opening up in the Place des Tapis. We took a seat on the terrace. This would do nicely.

Goats cheese quiche

We opted for one of the mid-range set menus (I can't remember the price, but I think it was around the 27 EUR mark).

The food was all good, but it didn't quite hit the heights set by Comptoir Chabert where we'd eaten on the Friday night. It felt like the kitchen was suffering from being too busy and in an attempt to keep up things were slightly fraying round the edges. My duck was served well done rather than the pink order and the accompanying gratin dauphinoise had been singed round the edges.

Duck with red berries

However, I'm probably being unnecessarily harsh. The service was very friendly, the food was definitely still good, it was highly pleasant sitting out on the terrace in the autumn sunshine and lunch was immeasurably better than the soggy sandwich I thought we might have to settle for just an hour before.

Tarte au citron

Les Sept Péchés du Plateau
3 Place des Tapis

69004

Lyon-4E-Arrondissement

France

Lyon Day 2: Markets and Vieux Lyon

Granola bowl at Le Kitchen Café

Our first, and only, full day in Lyon started with drift round the market in Place Jean Macé only a few minutes walk from our apartment. It was a classic French market with lots of cheese, meat and vegetable stalls. The complete opposite of the trendy markets we have here in London, it was centred on produce and people actually do their weekly shops. As well as all the food there was the obligatory stall selling pants.

After the market I was in need of some breakfast so we head to Le Kitchen Café only a five minute walk away. Both Mike and I had read a review of the place in the Guardian and were keen to check it out. I've no idea what the modern food trends are in France, but the café felt like a departure from a traditional French breakfast spot and not dissimilar to a breakfast spot in Sydney or London.

Their menu was pretty small and we all ended up with the granola, which actually turned out to be a bowl of yogurt, covered with a sprinkling of granola and some sliced nectarine on top. I had a herbal tea infusion as well. It was a lot lighter than what I'd usually have for breakfast, but that was probably a good thing considering the weekend we were having!

Outside Les Halles

After breakfast we walked up to Les Halles de Lyon - Paul Bocuse the famous covered market. The market is house in a modern glass and steel box and filled with high end food stalls. It's the type of place that in London would be a mecca for tourists, but everyone seemed to be French and I didn't hear many foreign accents as we wondered round.

About a third of the stalls in the market were small eateries, busy with the lunch trade. We meandered up an down every aisle gawking at the food without actually buying anything. (Flying back with only hand luggage ruled most things out.)

After the market we popped into the mini shopping mall next door to buy a birthday present for Becks.

Opera cakes inside the market

After buying Beck's birthday present we decided that we were in need of some lunch. We headed towards the island thinking we'd see somewhere to stop along the way. We didn't see anywhere which took our fancy before reaching the island so ended up at the touristy Café La Manille in the pedestrian heart of the island.

Lunch was solid, if unspectacular, but it we were getting pretty hungry by the time we found it so it met our needs nicely. It also provided me with the opportunity to have my only oringina of the holiday. It was also the only meal time (breakfasts excluded) where we didn't have a bottle of Côte du Rhone!

Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière

Suitably fortified we head off the western side of the island to the historic Vieux Lyon area of the city. We followed the crowds and climbed the steps up to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière. We decided against going inside the cathedral and just admired it from the outside and then stood on the terrace soaking in the panoramic views over the city.

Ed and I with Lyon in the background

Having enjoyed the views we drifted back down the hill stopping briefly in the square outside the Cathédral Saint Jean Baptiste to take a photo along with lots of other tourists.

We then crossed back across the island, passing through Place Bellecour, and headed back to our apartment for a short rest before heading out for a night in Lyon!

All of the places I visited in Lyon have been added to my European adventures map.

Le Kitchen Café
34 Rue Chevreul

69007

Lyon

France

Café La Manille
33 Rue Tupin

69002

Lyon

France

Lyon Day 1: London to Lyon and lunch at Brasserie des Brotteaux

My favourite drop of the holiday 

On Friday Ed, Mike and I took the Eurostar to Lyon for a long weekend in France's food capital.

It was an early start and there was a bit of a scrum at check-in, but the train really is a pleasant way to travel. We had a half hour hold up when we emerged from the chunnel as they checked the tracks for a suspected sighting of people on the line. As we were stationary we could see refugees on a bridge above the tracks looking down and, at one spot, blanks flung over barbed wire at the top of the fences. It was all a bit sobering.

Back underway the French countryside glided past at speed, although we couldn't make up the time lost and we arrived in Lyon forty minutes late.

Mike and Ed inside Brasserie des Brotteaux

Our first stop was Brasserie des Brotteaux a 100yr old brasserie located ten minutes walk north of the station. Due to the train delays we were late for our reservation, arriving just after their  kitchen closed at 2pm. However, they still welcomed us in an offering us a limited menu, presumably of dishes that they could knock out quickly.

We all opted for the lamb and shared our first and best bottle of Cote du Rhone of the holiday. The brasserie had a classic interior with tiled walls. I'm not sure if they were original tiles added 100yrs ago, but they were certainly classic.

Lamb

Lunch was definitely enjoyable, but the high standard of food we ate during the weekend and the fact it was on the first day, meant it slightly faded in the memory.

The mille feuille I ordered for dessert was a modern interpretation served on its side. I definitely enjoyed the créme patissiere that was gluing it all together. Mike's tarte au citron looked a picture.

If I remember correctly it was 30 EUR per person including wine and service which we all thought was great value.

Mille Feuille

After lunch we headed to the AirBnB apartment we had rented for the weekend. From the restaurant to the apartment was around a 40 minute walk through some of the more modern, and less interesting, parts of Lyon. However, we did get to see some brutalist concrete architecture. Some of which had held up better to the test of time than other parts...

Our apartment was better in real life than the photos and proved to be an excellent base for the weekend. All of the rooms had shutters, which I always love, as it means you get to sleep in the complete darkness.

Tarte au citron

After an hour or so relaxing in the apartment we headed down to the river to meet up with Catherine, a family friend of Ed's who lives in the city. She very kindly bought us all a drink at one of the river side bars and we sat and chatted about Lyon and her recent visit to see Ed's mum in London for an hour. Catherine speaks excellent English and has a witty sense of humour, very dryly destroying Ed's pronunciation. I'm just pleased she chose not to pass comment on my French!

Catherine had very kindly made a reservation for us at what she thought was the second best bouchon in Paris (the best being already fully booked). Thanking her for our drink we headed off to find the restaurant for what would be my favourite meal of 2015 so far.

La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière

Brasserie Brotteaux
1 Place Jules Ferry
69006
Lyon
France
www.brasseriedesbrotteaux.com

Wokingham Half Marathon: Race Notes

Rich charging towards the finish

On Sunday I ran in the Wokingham Half Marathon after last years race was cancelled due to flooding on the course. It was my first build up race for what I hope will be a crack at the Berlin Marathon later in the year. I don't think I have enough 'race craft' so I'm keen to slot in a few more races before Berlin so that I have a bit more practise before the day.

Before the race I knew that I'd mentally psyched myself out of putting in a good performance. I'm hoping to run two half marathons this spring and I thought this first race would be a training run and the second was where I'd aim for a PB. In training recently people have been commenting on how well I've been running, but I just had no self confidence I could turn in a good performance. Becks gave me a bit of a talking to the night before, which is what I needed.

Conditions on Sunday morning were pretty much perfect being cool, sunny, still and dry. It was a little chilly on the start line, but apart from that it was ideal.

(My watch is set to record, and I generally think in, kilometres but the course had mile markers and I actually thought about the race quite a lot in miles, so the below is a bit mixed.)

Mile one
The start was possibly the most civilised race start I've ever experienced with no pushing or crowding. We lined up at the 1hr 20min marker, but there were barely any runners before us so we (a bit reluctantly) walked forward to the 1hr 15min mark as the start time approached.

Surprisingly considering the cold start and the fact I hadn't done a warm up, I felt really relaxed off the start and got into a flow quickly. I realised that I was going faster than I planned to go, but it was a slight downhill and it felt pretty easy so I went with the flow.

I completed the first km in 3min 37sec, when I was aiming for 3m 45sec even splits.

Miles two to six
At the end of the first mile Rich appeared on my shoulder and told me to get onto the group in front. It was a kick that I needed as one of the bits of race craft I wanted to practise was running with a group. Even if the group is running a bit more quickly than you want to go is it worth latching onto them?

The group was already starting to fracture slightly. I slowly made my way through three people who were being dropped and got onto the back of the 5 / 6 runners that were working together.

I free loaded at the back of the group and didn't help with any of the pace making. I wouldn't say I found it comfortable, but it was do-able to keep with them. Remembering the Marathon Talk interview with Kiwi Rod Dixon I straight lined all the corners and tried to run the minimum distance between bends. It was something the rest of the group weren't doing and it helped me to save a few meters. It was a good psychological boost and much needed respite from the pace.

A few times I dropped a couple of meters from the group, but put in a surge to stay with them. I was going to stay strong.

I had a mild stitch which I suspect came from taking an energy gel fifteen minutes before the start. I also had a low level desire for a wee.

Mile seven
As we started mile seven, a Newbury AC runner who had been hanging at the back of the group with me worked his way to the front of the group and raised the pace. He only raised the pace by 4sec / km, but it was too much for me.

As we hit the seven mile marker I cracked. Another one of the group pulled over at the side of the road. It looked like he needed to retie his shoe lace.

Miles eight to ten
As the group pulled away they ran through a couple of runners ahead of me who were beginning to fade.

I had a decision to make on whether to try and push through those runners as well or to try and join one of them and hope they weren't fading too much. I decided to latch onto a tall guy and hope for the best as I didn't have the legs to do much else.

I ran tucked up behind for a km and then he slowed slightly so I led for a km.

I then began to really struggle. It was a feeling I haven't had since the Abingdon Marathon. I started to slow and couldn't drive myself on. It was a lot worse mentally than it was physically. The thought of not running a good time after a positive start was, at that moment, crushingly depressing. I wanted to stop and walk. I was never going to run another race again.

I was still just about hanging onto the tall gentlemen that I was following. As we approached the ten mile marker the guy who had stopped to tie his shoe lace caught back up with me. As we crossed the mile marker he cheerily commented it was a 10mile PB for him. I was far from being in a similarly happy place.

Mile eleven
It was grim. I was dropped as soon as we passed the ten mile marker and I was trudging along on my own. There was no longer a prospect that I'd catch up with anyone in front who I might be able to draft.

I still hated running. I still wanted to stop and walk. The only rays of light were when I looked at my watch my pace wasn't too bad. In fact it was the pace I'd originally said I wanted to run if I was going to run an even pace for the whole race. It just felt awful.

Mile twelve
From somewhere I got a second wind. I managed to pump in a relatively quickly km, but more importantly the fog had lifted and it felt easier. I didn't gain any ground on the runners in front, but they didn't seem to be getting any further away from me either. It probably helped that the course was slightly downhill.

I wasn't able to calculate a predicted finish time, but I suspected I was still on for a reasonably good time.

Mile thirteen
It started to hurt again as I entered the final mile, but it mentally wasn't as hard as there was no point giving up this close to the finish. I slowed again and the gap to the runners in front began to widen. Four runners, who had judged the race better than I had, powered past me as they finished strongly.

I mustered a small sprint finish as I crossed the line. It was excellent to be only five seconds slower than my PB when I was expecting to run around two minutes slower. However, it's a frustrating to get so close, but not better my time!

I felt shattered and stumbled over to the kerb for a sit down to rest. It didn't take long to realise that my quads were complete shot.


Reflecting on the race there were a lot of positives to take from it. I wanted to run some more races to get a bit more race craft and try a few different things out. I certainly think I had the opportunity to do that. Things I'm going to take away:
- I'm not going to take another energy gel on the start line. I might however, have a bigger breakfast 3hrs before the race and maybe throw in some sugars

- Getting with a pace group was a good move. It was easier to run the pace when someone else was doing the hard work for you.

- However, this pace group was a bit too quick. I wouldn't join a group this far above my target pace in a marathon.

- I need to think of some strategies when the going gets mentally tough to drive myself on.

- Running the corners and thinking how to straight line the course was a good move.

- At a couple of the water stations I grabbed cups of water. I didn't drink, but just put a couple of sips in my mouth to freshen up. I was pleased that I could grab cups without spilling them even though I was running at quite a pace


I feel that I should also say that the event was really well run. Lots of friendly and helpful marshals, plenty of toilets and well organised bag drop etc.. The course was pretty good too.


The official results are here. I came 58th out of 1,673 finishers in a time of 1:18:12

The data from my watch is here.

The group that left me at the seven mile mark finished around a mile ahead. I'm not exactly sure, but I think the couple of runners who left me at the ten mile mark finished around 30 seconds ahead.

Hanging out at The Speakers House in Parliament

On the green benches (trust me, it was dark)

On Wednesday night I was lucky enough to be invited to an event at The Speakers House inside Parliament. Sadiq Khan, MP for Tooting, was holding an event for 'Community Heroes', celebrating the work of charities and community groups in his constituency.

I was there in my capacity as 'official photographer' for the hyperlocal social network Go Earlsfield.

It turned out to be an excellent evening. The Speaker has some beautiful official apartments which John Bercow has actively opened up for such events. The highlights of the apartment had to be the grand staircase and the Monarch's bed (below). Apparently the Monarch used to stay in Westminster the night before the State Opening of Parliament.

I got the impression that John Bercow is the first speaker to open up the apartments to public events. It was mentioned a couple of times that he felt it was his duty to allow us tax payers in.

The Monarch's bed

The evening was designed as a networking event for local community activists, culminating in speeches and a short awards ceremony. I really enjoyed John Bercow's speech. He and Sadiq clearly get on well and their was quite a few jokes around who was the shortest of the pair.

There were also some presentations and inspiring stories of what some people are doing in the community. 'Official Photographer' for Go Earlsfield really doesn't take up much time and I felt challenged to do more.

Restaurant Review: Anjappar, New York

Chilli Onion Uthappam

One of the best things about going to NY is the chance to catch up with friends while I'm there. Sadly the number of people I know the city has dwindled in the last few years, but good friends Rohit and Priyanka (whose wedding I went to in India back in 2010) still live there and we arranged to meet for dinner on the Thursday night.

Rohit chose the restaurant of Anjappar located in 'little India' at the bottom of Lexington Park. It was a 'fresh' minus fourteen degrees celsius as I walked down Lexington avenue from the office. I had to pop into the hotel for an extra jumper on my way as I wasn't prepared for it to be sold cold!

Kulipaniyaram

Anjappar specialises in food from Chennai and is one of Rohit and Priyanka's favourites so I let them order from the menu.

We started with a dish of Kulipaniyaram, small fried idli served with coconut and a coriander chutney. The kulipaniyaram themselves don't carry much flavour and I found that the chutneys didn't carry as much punch as I hoped for.

Masala Dosai

After the kulipaniyaram our three main courses arrived to share a chilli onion uthappam, masala dosai and vegetable kothu parotta.

The chilli in the uthappam had quite a kick which I felt justified in picking out after I saw Rohit doing the same. The potato filling in the dosai was fantastic, but there wasn't enough of it for me, being concentrated in the centre of the triangle.

 

Vegetable Kothu Parotta

The kothu parotta was the only dish of the night I haven't had before, a popular street side snack from the state of Tamil Nadu. It's a dish chopped parotta (a type of bread) which was served a with curry sauce on the side.

To my uneducated palate, I found the food similar to that served at Saravanna Bhavan which I tried last year, and whose NY branch was just round the corner. I didn't think the food lived up to the heights of Saravana Bhavan or Dishoom, both of which I've enjoyed in London, mainly because the accompanying chutneys and sambals weren't as good.