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Hazelnut fruit cake recipe – Ottolenghi inspired

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The words “Ottolenghi” and “simple” normally don’t go together. Yotam Ottolenghi is well aware of his fame for complicated recipes and hard to source ingredients (as he put it himself in his Guardian column: “I’ve heard the jokes…the one about “just popping out to the local shop to buy the papers, milk, black garlic and sumac”).

He is also a man who moves with the times and recognises peoples’ eternal struggle to find time to cook. This was the inspiration behind his newest cookbook Simple.

If you like Ottolenghi flavours but are put off by the faff, this is the book for you. It includes recipes with 10-or less ingredients, others you can make-ahead of serving, as well as quick meals you can have on the table in under 30 minutes. Within Simple lies one of my favourite cake recipes of all time – a hazelnut sponge with peaches and raspberries.

I’ve tweaked the recipe to give you more options for alternative ingredients because the whole world and his dog are baking at the minute and you’re lucky if you can snag up a bag of flour these days; you can flex this recipe based on what you have to hand.

I also reduced the sugar from 320 to 260 grams – not because I want to make this in any way a “healthy bake” (I think life is way too short for that nonsense). I love the tartness the fruit can provide and don’t want to dim the gloriously nutty richness of the hazelnuts by making the batter overly sweet. It worked really well and I recommend you go for this amount of sugar too.

A note on the fruit: the original recipe calls for 2 large peaches sliced into 1.5 cm wedges + 150 grams raspberries. You could sub apples, plums, apricots, pears…just think, the harder the fruit, the smaller your slices will need to be. For the berries you can use blueberries, strawberries or blackberries, and these can even be frozen. We’re flexing here, but the concept is the same: hazelnut + fruit = winning combo.

Hazelnut + fruits of your choice cake – an Ottolenghi adaptation

Ingredients

  • 450 grams of fruit (I used rhuburb and plum and it was cracking)
  • 260 grams sugar (original recipe calls for white caster, I used golden – either works)
  • 125g hazelnuts (skin off – try to buy them like this as otherwise it’s a bit of a faff, but see here on how to remove the skins if needed)
  • 200 grams unsalted butter (room temperature)
  • 3 large eggs
  • 125 grams plain flour ( if you only have self-raising, half the amount of baking powder)
  • 1.5 tsp baking powder
  • Tiny pinch of salt

Method

  1. Turn oven to 170 degrees and line a 24cm round cake tin
  2. Mix your fruits with 1 tbsp of sugar and set aside
  3. Grind hazelnuts in a food processor and once roughly ground (under a minute) mix with flour, baking powder and salt in seperate bowl
  4. Beat sugar into the butter – easiest if you use a form of electric whisk
  5. Gradually add eggs to butter mix and then add in your flour hazelnut mix
  6. Pour batter into lined cake tin and place your fruit on top
  7. Bake for 70-80 minutes but cover cake with tin foil after half an hour to avoid it overly browning on top

Ottolenghi says this will keep for a day but I found it perfectly edible after three. In fact, I think the hazelnut flavour got richer over time, so if you do for whatever reason have some left after a day or two, don’t despair.

And then you’re done – enjoy with a cup of tea and Netflix

Arepas & Chicharrón recipe

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While there’s much talk of how we should be using our time in isolation, I fully support the school of thought that if we just get through this, it’ll be enough.

So while you are under zero obligation to “be productive” or “try something new”, if you’re curious about Colombian food or share my inclination towards recipes involving any form of fried meat, you could give the below a go.

Today’s recipe is for Arepas con Chicarrón, or corn-cakes and fried pork belly. The arepas require a precooked corn flour called “masa harina”. You can’t sub this out for regular corn flour so I recommend looking in your local cash & carry or international supermarket for this; popular brands are Pan and Goya.

The pork belly recipe is a cracker; the meat pretty much takes care of itself, boiling down in water until the last few minutes when you fry it off in its own fat to get it gloriously golden and crunchy. Give it a bit of attention the night before with some salt and bicarbonate of soda to dry it out for extra crisp.

Chicarrón and Arepas

Arepas

Makes ten

Ingredients

  • 250 grams masa harina
  • 250 ml water
  • Salt & pepper to taste

Method

  • Pour out your water into a bowl big enough to allow you to mix in
  • Shake in your masa harina, salt & pepper
  • Combine ingredients with your hands, forming a dough
  • Cover bowl with a tea towel and leave for 10 minutes
  • The dough is now ready to mould. Separate it into 10 equal sized balls and flatten down to about ½ inch thickness and mould into a round shape, either with hands or use a cup to cut out the shape, like a cookie cutter
  • Lightly oil up a griddle or non stick pan and cook arepas until golden brown, about 6-8 minutes on each side.
Colombian Arepas

Chicharrón

For four people, served alongside arepas and other nibbles

Ingredients

  • 500 grams pork belly, cut into cubes about 4cm x 4cm
  • 1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 ½ tbsp salt
  • Seasonings of your choice (I used sweet paprika, cumin, garlic power)

Method

  • The night prior to cooking, place pork belly out on a plate and rub skin with the bicarb of soda and half the salt
  • The next day, when ready to cook, place pork belly in a pan big enough to fit it comfortably and add enough water to cover the meat completely
  • With the flame on very low, leave meat to simmer, checking on it every half an hour to turn the meat
  • 2-4 hours after you have started to cook the meat, the water will have evaporated off – this is time to turn up then heat and get your meat golden brown and crunchy
  • With the heat on high, carefully and lovingly fry the belly (no extra oil needed as it’s now cooking in its own fat). This should take 3-5 minutes – careful because the fat spits.
  • Once nicely golden and crunchy, remove meat from pan and place on top of kitchen roll laid on a plate to absorb extra grease.
  • Sprinkle spices and remaining salt on top – you can use the suggested sweet paprika, garlic powder and cumin or whatever your preferences are.
Chicarrón

These can be served alongside a whole host of toppings, below is what I went for: some pickled onions (left in red wine vinegar and a dash of sugar to take away the acidity), avocado, grated cheese, some chopped tomatoes with coriander and lemon and coriander to garnish.

Barranquilla in Golders Green, isolation edition

These are two very simple recipes that can serve as base for a whole Latin-American inspired meal. There’s loads of other Colombian recipes on my blog you could use as well: Colombian-style chicken wings, patacones (fried plantain slices, but this recipe does them in the oven), arroz con pollo (chicken with rice). Choices for pudding include a guava cake you could anglicise with jam instead of guava and a passionfruit and dulce de leche victoria sponge.

https://www.instagram.com/bidmeadbites/
Guava cake pulled from the archives, recipe available here

So if you’ve finished Tiger King and are at a loss for what to do next, why not give this a go? Let me know how you get on!

The easiest tomato sauce you’ll ever make

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April 2020 and here we are facing a worldwide pandemic. Well, there’s nothing like quarantine to get you taking up old hobbies again, right? While some are reaching for yarns of wool and knitting or pulling on their leggings and down dogging in the living room, I’ve picked up my laptop and decided to reignite some life back into BidmeadBites.  Enjoy!

Pre-corona, we could wander into pretty much any supermarket and grab essential food items without a second thought (I love the fact that “essentials” at Waitrose covers pate and green lasagne). This is not a luxury everyone can count on and we are incredibly fortunate to have this privilege.

But the bare shelves of the past weeks shocked us all: cue bulk buying of bog roll like it was the end of the earth and piles of pasta packets in everyone’s trolly. And did you hear that they were planning to make a lasagne the size of Wembley stadium?!

Despite the supermarkets returning to some semblance of normality in terms of stock levels, I am definitely rethinking the recipes I’ve been preparing at home. I’ve been digging around in the cupboard more, pulling out cans of chickpeas to roast and throw into things, as well as discovering many different types of lentils to be cooked in a myriad of ways.

As the government’s recommendation is now to go to the supermarket once a week at most and leave home delivery slots for the most vulnerable, it’s a great time to get a bit more familiar with your cans and basic produce. And what could be better than a recipe the requires just half an onion, a blob of butter and a can of chopped tomatoes?

Low and behold the best pasta tomato sauce you will ever make (given the absolute minimal effort required). Called “the most famous tomato sauce on the internet” by Food 52, this is the creation of the culinary goddess Marcella Hazan and is one recipe you need in your repertoire.

How to make Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce

This serves two people with a generous portion of sauce each; to double, just add an extra can of tomatoes and use the whole onion. Increase butter and seasoning as you wish!

Ingredients

  • 400g tinned tomatoes (whole or chopped, we won’t be fussy given the times)
  • 1 yellow onion, cut in half
  • 2/3 tbsp butter
  • Salt (let’s say 1 tsp but it’s really to taste)
  • Black pepper (let’s say 1 tsp but it’s really to taste)
  • A tiny sprinkle of sugar (it really helps bring out the sweetness of the toms)

Method

  1. Peel the onion and chop in half. Place face down in a medium-sized saucepan over a medium heat and add the tomatoes, butter, salt and pepper.
  2. When the tomatoes start to bubble, reduce the heat to a low simmer and sprinkle your dash of sugar. Stir every 10-15 mins until the tomatoes are no longer watery and the sauce has reduced, about 45 minutes depending on the size and shape of your saucepan.
  3. You will be left with a rich, thick tomato sauce. The onion can be removed.

That’s it. Serve with pasta and grate parmesan on top, or any cheese handy, because again, we won’t be fussy.

Enjoy!

Etles – a taste of Northern China in Walthamstow

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My previous visit to Bang Bang Food Hall in Colindale opened my eyes to the massive variety within regional Chinese cuisine and left me curious to try more. Luckily, on a recent trip to Walthamstow I was able to further explore at Etles, a restaurant which specialises in Uyghur food from Northern China. A fascinating mixture of all the influences along the Silk Road (smoky, burnt aubergines, cumin flavoured meat skewers and hand-pulled noodles), Uyghur cuisine is a wonderful mash up of many flavours you probably wouldn’t think were traditionally “Chinese” at all.

When presented with the menu, the inclusion of pictures is extremely useful, as every dish was very new and unfamiliar. This may well be your experience on visiting too, given that Etles was the first Ughur restaurant in London (there’s now one more in Finsbury Park). But don’t worry- the helpful staff are more than happy to give recommendations and make suggestions.

Sharing between three, we chose the Hong Shou Yu (marinated seabass with mixed fresh herbs), the Lagman (handpulled noodles with stir-fried fresh beef and vegetables) and Liang Ban Niu Rou (beef marinated in fresh herbs and spices served with bell pepper and vinegar sauce). The menu is also very offal heavy, so we felt inclined to throw some kidney kebabs in there too.

The lagman (below) is recommended as a must-try on the menu, and it was definitely the stand out dish of the night. The hand-pulled noodles were cooked al dente and made the perfect, carby base for the mix of beef and veggies in a rich, cumin-spiked tomato-y sauce. Ginger and garlic stood out as strong flavours that tied the soft beef together with the various vegetables in the dish.

Lagman: beef with vegetables and hand-pulled noodles

As an offal enthusiast, the beef kidney kebabs were right up my street. Sprinkled with a cumin salt, these were rich in flavor with a pleasantly chewy texture. The seabass, just peaking through in the left corner in the photo below, came in a thick sweet and sour sauce which I really liked, however overall this dish lost points due to the bone-meat ratio of the fish. Lots of small bones and not enough fish = frustrated diners.

The second beef dish with the herby, vinegar-y sauce was good but lacked the delicious hand-pulled noodles and rich sauce of the lagman. 

Top left is the Liang Ban Niu Rou, with the seabass just peeking through on the right. Kidney kebabs and Lagman noodles too.

All these new and exciting plates brought about familiar flavors but combined in a way I’ve never tried before. It’s not just unlike any Chinese meal I’ve ever had but actually unlike any other cuisine; the melting pot of cultural influences on this region make for a great cusine.

All this, and I’ve not even mentioned one of the restaurant’s main draw…it’s BYOB! So don’t delay any further. Pick up your favourite bottle of wine, head on to the end (or beginning?) of the Victoria line and have a meal at Etles. This is Chinese cuisine unlike you’ve ever eaten, and well worth trying.

El Obrero & Pizzería Güerrin – two Buenos Aires institutions

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The food scene in Buenos Aires has changed dramatically since I lived there in 2013. While Asian food was once limited to sushi with cream cheese (ew) and the only beer available was a watery Quilmes, it’s now not hard to get a good bowl of Ramen and a delicious pint of craft beer.

Despite the new flavours and trends that have worked their way into Buenos Aires, the real charm of the city’s restaurants lies in the ones that have been around long enough to witness the country’s history, from dictatorships to economic crashes and whatever else gets thrown at it.

Two Buenos Aires restaurants that have an impressive 150 years of business between them are Pizzería Güerrin and El Obrero. Always on my “must visit” list, I finally got the chance to try them out in my most recent trip to Argentina’s capital.

Pizza arrived in Argentina along with Italian immigration, and from the late 1800s, pizza argentina was born. Pizza al molde is the most common pizza you’ll find over here – expect a thick, doughy base with an otherworldly amount of cheese on top. Pizzería Güerrin specialises in al molde, so it was time to carb and cheese myself up. 

Pizza Argentina in all its beauty @ Pizzería Güerrin 

My boyfriend and I ordered two very Argentine pizza toppings; jamón y morrón (ham and red pepper) and fugazetta, basically an onion pizza with extraordinary amounts of cheese on top.

No room for tomato here. In order to eat our porciones like proper porteños, we chose to add on two pieces of fainá, a chickpea bread made to sit on top on your porción de pizza, in the unlikely event that your mammoth cheese tower on top of dough doesn’t fill you up.

Fainá is weird: spongy and oily with quite a non-distinctive taste. Still, I always order myself one. If I’m going to eat the odd beast that is pizza a la argie, I’m going to do it properly.

Pizzeria Güerrin

You should definitely visit a classic Pizzería when in Buenos Aires – they’re a slice (excuse the pun) of history and a way to sample one of the countries most loved traditions; prop yourself up on a stool, chow down on a porción and watch the city go by.

As it’s near enough impossible to write a blog post about Argentina and not touch on a least a bit of beef, I feel it’d be rude not to mention the meal I had at El Obrero, an old-school bodegón with waiters who may well have worked there since its opening in 1954. El Obrero is next to the port of La Boca, which explains the fish dishes on its menu, a rare sight in cow-crazy BsAs. While the various fish dishes looked appealing four days into a meat marathon around the city, the smell of the barbecue whispered my name, and thus my meal was chosen.

El Obrero – La Boca, Buenos Aires

I ordered an entraña (skirt steak in English), a cut that comes from next to the cow’s chest and is long and thin in shape – best cooked fast and hot to seal in all the flavour. My boyfriend showed his racial origins as he opted for a Milanesa a la Neapolitana – a veal schnitzel with cheese, ham and tomato on top. Meat on meat, which some cheese and veg to soften the blow. You can take the boy out of Buenos Aires…

Argentina…I love you.

I nip to the loo and am met with a look of horror on my boyfriends face when I return…then I see the portions. Really, really, bloody gigantic portions. We could have easily fed a family of five. Never people to be defeated by a meal, we cracked on and chowed down. The meat was excellent and cooked extremely rare, just as I had ordered it, but surprisingly not how many Argentines like their meat – it’s pretty much well done, always. While I’ll never order a milanesa to myself, preferring to deal with the proper meaty bits rather than breadcrumbed and cheese coated, this milanesa was by far one of the best I’ve ever tried.

Washed down with house red and soda water (so good, you should try it), we eventually, miraculously, managed to finish the meal.

Making headway on the ginourmous lunch…

Despite its humble beginnings, El Obrero is now in every guidebook, and while it retains its proper porteño charm, the prices definitely reflect its popularity amongst tourists. Still, I recommend you go and try some traditional Argentine dishes and soak up the ambience of the place, as it doesn’t get more Argentine than this. 

Bidmead in Berlin (again) – German Cheesecake recipe

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BidmeadBites visited Berlin back in 2015 and ate a bit of everything; from the classic Currywurst to Peruvian ceviche. Revisiting recently with my mum and sister, food highlights included some terrific Taiwanese dishes at Lon Men’s Noodle House and traditional frikadellen (meatball-esque German beef patties) back at Markthalle Neun, the cities funnest food market. But what I want to focus on in this post is cake. Oh, do the Germans know a bit about cake.

Cheesecake, to be specific.

German cheesecakes have a soft shortcrust pastry base and a filling which replaces the cream cheese used in typical New York cheesecakes with quark,  a sort of strained cottage cheese which is then mixed in with butter, sugar and whipped egg white. Below are three different slices I tried, with a pastry base/a pastry base and crust/filled with gooseberries. All in the name of recipe research…

Cheesecake no. 1: @ Oliv Caf, Mitte

Cheesecake no. 2: @ Markthalle Neun, Kreuzberg

Cheesecake no. 3: Gooseberry filled at KaDaWe Foodhall

Looking to recreate this recipe at home, I took inspiration from a cheesecake recipe in a wonderfully old retro cookbook named “The Sainsburys Book of Puddings & Desserts” (published in 1980, and still one of my favourite baking books). The use of semolina and ground almonds adds richness to the quark, which is often sold in a very low-fat version. While the traditional pastry bottom in the German cheesecake is definitely a welcome addition, the labour intensive descriptions of handling this dough are less appealing. I anglicised the German recipe to include a traditional digestive base, because biscuits mixed with truck loads of butter is never a bad thing.

Find my tweaked German (ish) recipe below! I slightly overcooked mine, so I recommend keeping a beady eye of for the browning of your cake on the top. Once cooked, do try to wait until it’s fully chilled to eat – the wait is worth it I promise.

Retro German/English cheesecake

Use a 9 inch (23 cm) cake tin.

For biscuit base:

  • 200 grams digestive biscuits
  • 100 grams butter

For cake:

  • 100 grams butter
  • 150 grams caster sugar
  • Grated rind and juice of one lemon
  • 400 grams quark
  • 3 eggs, seperated
  • 75 grams ground almonds
  • 50 grams semolina (if you don’t have this to hand, you can just sub in the same amount of ground almonds)

Method

Before you start….Preheat open to 180 degrees. Line cake tin.

  1. Firstly make your base. Either put biscuits in a big sandwich bag and bash with a rolling pin until you have fine crumbs, or put in a food processor to crush them up. Melt butter completely and mix in with biscuits, then press biscuits into base of tin until you have a nice compact biscuit base. Pop into warm oven for 10 minutes to cook, then remove.
  2. Now for the filling. Cream the butter, sugar and lemon rind together until light and fluffy. Beat in quark gradually, then mix in the egg yolks and beat thoroughly. Add the almonds, semolina and lemon juice and mix well. Whisk the eggs whites until stiff and carefully fold into the cheese mixture.
  3. Spoon into your lined cake line and bake for 50-60 minutes. Turn off oven and leave until cold (if you can manage to wait!).

An English/German lovechild take on the cheesecake

Bidmead back in Barranquilla – Feb 2018

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Nearly three years have passed since I left Barranquilla, where I lived for 12 months while working as a British Council language assistant. As London’s bitter winter intensified, my thoughts wandered to the sun, salsa and downright lovely locura that is my beloved Barranquilla. It was high time I headed back.

Arriving just as carnival was about to commence, I danced, drunk and shook my stuff with the rest of the city, while also revisiting all my favourite Colombian foods.

I’ve published various Barranquilla posts while living there (fried ear and salsa dancing here, how to make your own ajiaco here – just search “Barranquilla” on the home page for more), and in fear of repetition I’ll keep this one brief. Here’s a snappy rundown of my top Barranquilla bites.

First stop was La Immaculada, one of the cities top fruteras, around since 1982. A frutera is the place to head for fresh juices and fried goodies (aptly named fritos).

Frutera Immaculada

Fruit juice and fried goods

What did I eat? A carimañola (meat filed pastry with dough made from yucca) and a dedito (cheesy finger), alongside nispero and mandarin juice, plus the obligatory ají (chilli) sauce.

Mondongo is one of my favourite typical soups and a perfect embodiment of the nose-to-tail approach within Colombian cuisine whereby no meat is left to waste. Made mainly from tripe, the slow cooking of the stomach breaks it down from chewy to smooth, with a rich meaty flavour. Accompanied by yucca, potato and plantain, the flavour is picked up by a sprinkling of coriander and a squeeze of lime.

Mmmm…Mondongo, I’ve missed you (please note my fantastic nails too)

Returning to Barranquilla I realised how things we might consider as exotic at home (huge avocados, fresh coconuts and exotic fruits) are really just everyday alimentation for the costeños. Just look at this coconut lolly I had on route back from the beach – homemade and bought from someone’s front garden, this beats a pre-packaged Twister any day.

Beach life = eating coconut lollies

Or how about this lovely lady, serving half or whole avocados to accompany people’s fish lunches by the river? The sweetness and intense flavour of this avocado has thoroughly ruined any future avo-on-toast I may be tempted to buy while out for overpriced brunches back home.

Best avocados EVER

Want to stop to quench your thirst in the mid-day sun? Why not grab an ice-cold coconut, sold on the side of the road. Sit down, sip the juice, and then ask your coconut vendor to machete open the shell for you in order to enjoy the sweet and creamy flesh.

Casual coco frio on the side of the street

Being back in Barranquilla, I slipped straight into my old routines and felt quite quickly that I’d never want to leave. But as my ten days flew by, London and it’s grey but homely skies were calling. I’ll always have a bit of my heart tied to Colombia’s coast, and now will aim to head back more often. In the meantime, I’ll be looking to recreate some Barranquillero recipes in my Brixton kitchen, so stay posted!

“Quien lo vive es quien lo goza” – offical phrase of Barranquilla carnival

Bidmead Bites in Barcelona

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Whether it’s fried squid in the south or a cooked suckling pig in Madrid, Spain and its cuisine have long been an interest of mine. Escaping London for the New Year, my boyfriend and I headed off for four days holiday in Barcelona, where I had more than ample opportunity to eat and drink the cities edible offerings.

No sooner had we stepped off the airport bus than we were already chowing down on some churros. Expertly fried to be crunchy rather than greasy and generously filled with creme patisserie, this street snack was just a small amuse bouche for the great things to come.

Sugar coated, deep fried things of beauty – Churros

Whoever coined the phrase less is more must have been a fan of pan con tomate, or pa amb tomaquet as it’s known in Catalan. This simple snack is my favourite Spanish breakfast and consists of, as the name might imply, bread with tomato. The addition of olive oil, salt and sometimes garlic bring it together, but all in all this dish is a simple as it gets.

Breakfasting at the beautiful cafe Mauri in the Eixample neighbourhood, I had all the pan con tomate my heart desired (three pieces no less). Washed down with a cafe cortado, I was set to start the day.

Pan con tomate at Cafe Mauri

While the Spaniards love a caña (a little less than half a pint of beer, drunk at pretty much any hour of the day), they’re also partial to a bit of  vermouth. A sweet and aromatic fortified wine which was once the drink of elderly gentlemen, it’s now become extremely popular, with trendy new vermuterias popping up all over the city.

Far from modern (it’s positively ancient), you have Bar Montse, tucked away in the Barrio Gótico. Barrels of homemade vermouth sit opposite walls of spirits and liqueurs covered in cobwebs. Not so appetising to eat in, but wonderfully atmospheric for a quick drink to quench the sightseeing induced thirst, here we enjoyed a little vermouth sat on one of the tables outside.

Barrels of homemade vermouth at Bar Monste

For lunch, we headed to Bar Celta, a small pulpería in Barceloneta which specialises in, you guessed it, pulpo (squid en inglés).

Fish and seafood make up the majority of the menu, but tempting meat options such as my favourite blood sausage morcilla serve to please the fish-fearing customer amongst us. Ignoring the meat (minus some delightful ham croquettes to start with), we honed in on the seafood; grilled prawns, steamed razor clams and of course, squid.

Squid as the starring member of lunch at Bar Celta

Normally served on a bed of potatoes, at Bar Celta this came carb-free, meaning with the focus on the tender squid itself. A dusting of paprika on top served to boost its smoky flavour. The prawns and razor clams both came steamed and then grilled, topped with buttery parsley sauce. Again – sometimes, simple is best. Visit here for some fresh Spanish food and service with a smile.

Steamed razor clams (navajas) and squid at Bar Celta

Race for the squid!

Located in the San Antoni neighbourhood is vermouth bar and all round top snack joint Quimet & Quimet. Don’t expect to find a seat – this is prop yourself up on the bar and eat with your hands kind of venue, serving small tapas and high quality montaditos – rusky rounds of crunchy bread come topped with meat, fish, and often both together (you’ll find veggie options too…if you look hard enough).

Vermouth in hand, I was ready to eat.

Munching montaditos at Quimet + Quimet

The tangy artichoke mixed with the creamy cheese, sweet tomato and intensely savoury caviar was a well-thought out combination of flavours. This savoury and sweet mixture also featured in the meat montadito; a rich pâté with smoked mushrooms, drizzled with a honey dressing.

For when the midday meal calls for something more substantial, a menú del día is the perfect option. Three courses and a drink normally come in at around 10-13 euros, and if you seek them out these can be some of the best meals around.

One such restaurant offering a brilliant menu is Transatlantico restaurant. First dishes varied from traditional Catalan meat and potato soup (escudella) to cauliflower cheese; the options for the second dish range from cod right through to horse.

Eschewing all things equestrian and sticking to more familiar foods, I chose a stuffed aubergine for starter, but quickly got food envy of all the paella that was coming out of the kitchen. Wondering how greedy it’d be to convert my three-course lunch into a four plate affair, I asked about the option of adding on an extra paella. It’d cost me all of 4 euros… I was sold.

Beef ribs & chips, paella and cod and ratatouille

My boyfriend chose beef ribs and chips (because too much seafood is against an Argentine’s DNA), while I had cod with pisto, basically a Spanish ratatouille. Pudding was a wonderfully retro affair, with a flan and a sweet cheese mousse, which was so good it made me think it was probably just pure Philadelphia cheese and whipped cream. Bliss.

Sweet cheese mousse and flan to finish off our menu del dia

During our time in the city, we ate and drink like royalty for just a fraction of the price we would have in London, and were left hungry for more. My love affair with Spain will continue, which is just as well…I’m not full yet, and I’ll be back.

Da Maria, Notting Hill

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Disclaimer: As a North Londoner who’s moved South and rarely visits West, I did not stumble upon this post’s restaurant perchance; it was the review of the great Jay Rayner that led me there. Read his review here.

Italian food is hard to dislike. Pizza, pasta, flavoursome tomatoes and gelato galore, this is a cuisine which can tempt even the pickiest of eaters. It’s seen a bit of a revival of late, moving away from the sea of soulless Bella Italia-esque chain options and into the kitchens of many exciting and trendy small-plate serving central London restaurants (see: Bocca Di Lupo, Polpetto).

Neither a fancy mini-plate affair or part of any kind of chain, Da Maria in Notting Hill offers up Italian food untouched by trends or franchises.

Proper, home-cooked Italian meals made by someone’s Nonna (called Maria, you’ll be surprised to hear) are served on red and white wipe-down table cloths, in a tiny narrow restaurant that seats about 25 people max. The food is inexpensive (the most costly dish is a chicken Milanese at £13, with most main dishes between £6-£9) and the service is full of smiles, strong Italian accents and real Neapolitan spirit.

Eating with a group of Argentines, who if they had it their way would have supper at midnight on a school night, we sat down slightly later to eat. A 9:30pm start meant we had missed the arancini and had to divide the last remaining potato croquette in five. But oh, what a fifth it was! Whipped mashed potato mixed with cheese and coated in a crispy breadcrumb, this starter embodies carbohydrates done right. 

Potato croquette and Aubergine parmigiana

We accompanied this with a aubergine parmigiana to share, which was equally well received; the aubergine was silky soft without being oily, topped with fragrant tomato basil sauce which mixed perfectly with the layers of cheese.

Main courses on offer include Neapolitan pizzas, pasta plates and bakes, with meaty options such a chicken cacciatore and meatballs with roast potatoes. Clearly fans of cheesy pasta bakes, my partner and I shared a lasagna and cannelloni between us. I expected bechamel sauce in my lasagna (and would have been positively upset if it didn’t feature), but was surprised to see it on top of the spinach and ricotta filled cannelloni. Combined with the already rich filling, I though the cannelloni would have benefited more from a slightly lighter sauce. The lasagna, rich but rightfully so, was therefore the preferred dish; glorious, meaty oil oozed out of its layers and mixed into the bechamel sauce (no complaints about its presence here).

Spinach & ricotta cannelloni and beef lasagna

For pudding, sadly the Neapolitan cheesecake had run out (another reason to arrive earlier!), but we were amply substituted with a selection of lemon cake, Caprese cake (chocolate and almond) and tiramisu. The lemon cake was sweet with a counter citric twang, and the chocolate cake, with bashed up amaretti biscuits inside, had a great flavour but crumbly texture, which could have benefited from some cream on the side to smooth it altogether.

Trio of puds: Caprese cake, Tiramisu + Lemon cake

The star of the show was the tiramisu, constructed with delicate lady finger biscuits that held their structure despite the drenching of coffee and booze. Sandwiched together with a mascarpone cream, this was the perhaps the best I’ve ever had. All these puddings were topped off perfectly with complimentary servings of limoncello. This is the kind of hospitality that keeps their customers coming back… along with the outstanding lasagna and tiramisu. And really, why would you go to an Italian restaurant to eat anything else?

Da Maria
87 Notting Hill Gate, Kensington, London W11 3JZ

Bang Bang Oriental Food Hall – the gem of Colindale

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Oriental City, Colindale’s very own China Town in a shopping centre, shut down in 2008, taking with it not only the games arcade where I became a dance-dance machine champion but also its much-loved food court.

While Colindale may seem like an unlikely home to one of London’s newest and most exciting food markets, in what was once Oriental City’s place now stands a newly rebuilt and re-branded food hall – Bang Bang Oriental food hall.

Hosting 33 stalls from all over the Asian continent, Bang Bang is a far cry from its run-down but well-loved predecesor. This newly rebuilt food court is impeccably clean and well laid out, with all the food stalls set on the edge of a large hall.

Buzzing Bang Bang

The variety of stalls include Vietnamese, Malaysian, Korean and a huge mix of regional Chinese cuisine. Visiting for the first time with my family, everyone had a preference: a plate of roast duck for mum, some seafood noodle dumplings for my sister and a beef cutlet katsu for my dad. My requests for chicken feet and tripe noodle soup were sadly rejected, but you can’t blame an offal enthusiast for trying.

As you order from different stalls, you receive a buzzer, which eagerly vibrates once your food is ready. Hold onto your receipt for each purchase, as you trade this in along with your buzzer when you go to collect your plate. The nature of having different vendors means receiving all dishes at once is unlikely, but it’s actually quite nice to go trying each plate as it comes and spreading out the meal.

Squid skewers and beef katsu

My dad felt a little disappointed with his katsu, as the sauce came separately and was more breaded beef fillet than curry. I thought the batter was nicely crispy and not too oily, although the meat was tough.  We ordered cuttlefish skewers which had a wonderfully smokey flavor, but they needed to be eaten quickly before the squid turned rubbery.

Noodle dumplings and deep-fried wontons

These hand pulled noodle dumplings where a success; they had a smooth, gelatinous texture with a fresh and light prawn filling. The fried seafood dumplings were like an oriental-flavored onion bhaji, so had very little about them to not love.  I’d give the star plate badge to the roast duck – deliciously rich with a thick layer of soft fat nuzzled under the crispy skin, this was by far my favorite dish.

Hong Kong style duck from the Four Seasons stand

While all these plates sated our savory hunger, of course we still had our dessert stomachs to fill. My sister and I set off to explore and were lured in by the Wonderful Patisserie stall, which smelled like baked cookies and bread – not a taro or bean curd bun in sight.

We went for a Taiwanese bubble tea, which I insisted we ordered with custard rather than the traditional tapioca balls. My moment of madness paid off, as the chunks of custard went surprisingly well against the creamy yet not overly sweet black tea beverage.

Japanese style cheesecake

Doubting that our parents would share our enthusiasm for this cold, textured tea, we took a chance with a Japanese cheesecake. I’d watched videos of these being made with whisked egg whites to create a cake which is now much loved the world over, so thought it’d be something to try.

With no biscuit base, this spongy, light cake was a perfect end to such a rich and varied meal. Although it was structurally rather sound with minimal wobble, the smooth and airy texture was a welcome change from the heavy and rich traditional cheesecake, and between four this was a perfect pudding.

Given that Bang Bang Food Hall is now a 50 minute commute from my new Clapham North home, the fact I’m keen to soon return is testament to its attraction. If you’ve never had a reason to visit this Edgware-bound end of the Northern Line, you’re in for a treat. So venture into Zone 3 and arrive hungry, and preferably in a large group. Order everything and don’t skip the duck. You can even visit the RAF museum after (and who says Colindale isn’t great?).