Cheeky little stir fry

Cowie made an amazing green thai prawn stir fry the other night and it was utterly delicious. Can't remember what was in it particularly. But I've got a feeling that Cowie may well have some Thai in her somewhere!

Lokal in Istanbul

Any restaurant that has its own projection screen and transformers on every table has to be worth a visit...



We walked past it a few times and were disappointed by how quiet it was. On Saturday we saw the owner having a coffee on his own and we thought maybe it was past its best.

But we went back on Monday for our last meal in Istanbul and were delighted to see it full of local workers on their lunch break. Our menus arrived on vintage vinyl record covers. Every detail here is quirky as fuck.





It's so much fun. I loved it the moment we sat down. And loved it even more once I had been to the loo!

The walls are covered in black board paint with chalk supplied so that visitors can do doodles and leave notes... Somebody must have had serious tummy issues to give them enough time to draw the entire film stills for the Pink Panther and a great drawing of Jessica Rabbit.





I spied an unusual dish on the menu called "steak with basil and peanut sauce" and couldn't resist! Cowie went for a very tasty stir fried beef dish which was delicious. But I think mine won! Cowie massively disagrees!





I absolutely loved Lokal. What an awesome concept. The kind of place I wish existed just around the corner from work on Marylebone High Street. In fact it's the kind of place I'd like to run and make my own. It'd be the ideal place to introduce my novelty condiment dispensers.

If you are in Istanbul and like things quirky and artistic. Make sure you pay Lokal a visit and make the most of their incredible loo!

What a loo!

Meyra for the perfect Istanbul breakfast

Our Wallpaper and Time Out guides almost insisted that we visited Leyla for breakfast... so we set off on a damp and very hilly Sunday morning to see what all the fuss was about.

Our stroll soon became a hike as we learnt the hard way just how undulating Istanbul is. Cowie soon became frustrated by our progress as I stopped at every turn to take photos of all the amazing stencil grafitti on display on the trendy walls of Biyoglu.

We walked straight past Leyla and spent the next quarter of an hour asking bemused Turkish people to help us with our tiny map! Then a charming woman from a pizzeria laughed and explained that it has changed its name to Meyra and was just around the corner!

Thank God we found it. The place was throbbing with young Istanbulites sipping coffees, reading papers and generally chilling out and catching up with mates. Looking back at it, we're reminded of Central Perk in Friends... but much better!

We sat at the bar and tried to work out what everyone was eating. I immediately spotted what looked like a cast iron balti dish with something eggy in it. Cowie was drawn to the pancakes and muesli.

My Turkish coffee was deliciously muddy and made my teeth look like I had just eaten a mouthful of soil! Perfect!

They have a great range of breakfasts from Norwegian, Turkish, English, French, Polish, Spanish etc... great fun.

I managed to decypher what the balti eggs was and ordered what turned out to be a classic Turkish breakfast egg dish called menemen.





It is utterly delicious, especially when you add a healthy glug of Tabasco. Once spiced up it reminded me of an amazing eggy dish I had in a beach hut in Ghana called Eggs Sambal. Heaven. It was even better when wrapped up in a crepe. Bliss.

We sat at the bar for ages. People watching. Taking sneaky photos. And feeling smug that we had found such an ace place for breakfast even though they had been cunning enough to change their name!

Istanbul Street Food Comments...

I love it when people comment. All this stuff on Istanbul has caused a bit of a stir which is brilliant. The "Paunch" is syndicated on Food Candy where Kinni has written a fantastic response to the post on Istanbul street food. Thanks also to MasterChef champion Steven who has got a great blog called the Urban Foodie who was really nice about the post too. G Barran has suggested the best place for street food in Istanbul is http://www.ciya.com.tr/.

From Kinni:

"I lived in Izmir in '93-'94. I've never had such wonderful food. I have no compunctions about eating from street vendors, and did so at every opportunity-- especially the mussels. The only thing I wouldn't eat from a street vendor are those pretzel like rings in your first pic. We used to call them hepatitis rings. The kids who sell them would take one of the rings, place it on his head, then balance a peice of scrap wood on his head with dozens more rings stacked on top. The overall structure was usually larger than the child, so the whole thing would come crashing to the ground every two blocks. The kid would chase the rings around, restack them and resume his rounds. Who knows how many days those things had been sitting around anyway.

I knew a lot of Americans there who refused to eat local food. They would eat at the McDonald's, which doesn't taste the same as American McDonald's, but I guess the name gave them comfort. They would go to the AAFES (military commissary) and buy food that had been frozen for the past 6 mo.--this includes bread and cereal, or yummy Danish shelf milk, and all of the meats, eggs and cheeses had been shipped from Western Europe. I mean really, these people are in sheep central.

There was no shortage of beautiful, fresh, artisinal cheeses and gorgeous fresh meats. The bread that was brought to the door every morning by the building manager was delightful. The produce situation was a little strange, because you can't always pick your own. They do expect you to take a few items with bad spots, nothing that couldn't be cut off. The only complaint I have about Turkish fare is the limited beer selection-- they have two-- just two, and I'm not sure how much femaldehyde I consumed. No food safety scare tactics will ever diminish my desire to return to Turkey and eat it all!"

The Easton with Trusted Places

I went for dinner with Walid, the genius behind Trusted Places, tonight at the Easton in between Farringdon and King's Cross. I had steamed in from Somerset and Walid had flown in from Berlin which made my measly commute seem pretty pathetic.

It's a run down, shabby looking pub very close to Mount Pleasant Post Office. It's in an area that is awash with gastro pubs. The legendary Eagle is down the road for instance. I had a pint of Red Stripe whilst waiting for Walid and was really keen on every dish on the chalk board menu. Beef and red wine pie, roast salmon fillet, rump of lamb and rib eye steak all sounded great. Classic gastro pub fayre.

Red Stripe is a sure sign of being in a cool pub. Well done Charles Wells. It amazed me that a Carribbean lager brewed in Bedford can have such cache value and say so much about a bar... hell I'm even writing about it!



Walid is a bit of a hero really. He's managed to set up Trusted Places which is a fantastic social networking places designed to enable people to share their views on bars, restaurants, hotels etc. in a way that's fun and allows you to meet like minded people. It's doing really well. Every day sees their user numbers rise and the feeling within the usership is that it's about to reach a much wider mainstream audience. Walid is brilliant at involving his core members to evolve the site and use this energy to keep the site in a state of perpetual beta whilst driving the site forward. He's full of energy and ideas many of which we are due to see soon.

My salmon was delicious. I very rarely have salmon in a restaurant. And I am so glad that I did. It was only just cooked but also crispy on top and really well seasoned. I love it when chefs over season food. It's just have I would do it! The potatoes it rested on were equally well salted and just as awesome! Maybe if salmon was always this good in restaurants I would order it more often.

Walid's lamb looked great too. We were both majorly impressed.

Nu Teras Rooftop Restaurant

We arrived in Istanbul and were driven greeted by a car that had been sent by our hotel which whistled us straight through the old part of Istanbul and onto the doorstop of the secretive Misafir Suites. We had found the hotel whilst trying to book a holiday in Croatia so it was complete luck. The review on Trip Advisor were so over the top that we had to go there... here's a sample:

"We read about Misafir in NYTimes and booked it for our 1 week vacation.The paper mentioned that it was stylish and hip for good prices.First of all it is in the center of the city and I think if we stayed in any other part of the city it would have been a less gratifing experience.There is all this young and hip bars and restaurants in the neighbourhood. The hotel is very well decorated stylish and modern which makes you feel good,with the eastern touch.And the rooms I cannot praise them enough,so big and comfortable. Breakfast, free wireless connection are included in a very humble price.The service is fast, friendly and willing so we will go back and recommend to everyone."

and...

"My husband and i stayed in misafirsuites for 5 days in a trip last month.Is is located in the center of the vibrant istanbul.The service is great and very personalized with sensitive stuff.The room,i dont even know where to begin,is huge and chic and have a lot of soul with every gadget that you could need.Prices are very good when you look to other hotels in istanbul,which is shoking because not only it is better than any huge 5 star hotel it also includes everything in the price(breakfast,internet...).It was a very pleasant experience for us."

How could we not go there after reading that.

Having deposited our kit in our huge suite we had a chat with the charming receptionists who we consulted about all the places to visit and eat at that we had selected as possibilities from our numerous guide books. Out of The Hedonists' Guide, Time Out, Dorling Kindersley and Wallpaper, Time Out and The Hedonists' Guide consistently came out on top. The brilliant staff took on board all of these views and were utterly brilliant at recommending and booking all the restaurants for our 3 night trip.

On the night we arrived we were keen to go to Chenga or 180 but the staff said why not go to Nu Teras which they thought was better than the two we had found in tourists' guide books. Who were we to disagree? According to reviews we've seen now it is the place to be seen in Istanbul!

We arrived and were blown away by the gorgeous view over the old part of Istanbul. Stunning. We had read about how Istanbul is a great place for roof top bars and restaurants... and you can see why. Istanbul's skyline comes alive at night time. A bit like how "celebs" like Britney (in her hey day) and Sarah Harding look ropey during the day and then amazing once the sun has gone down and the booze has started flowing. 2 brilliant G&Ts later and we were in another world from the slog of London. Not a bad way to toast Cowie's 25th birthday.







With the booze keeping us warm as we looked out at the amazing view before heading to a great table where we were treated like royalty. We choose a bunch of small sharing plates to start with which were a bit like Turkish tapas. Wonderful smoked salmon, delicious ceviche of sea bass and some really tasty bread with olive oil and balsamic, all washed down with some refresihing white Turkish wine.



Our mains dishes were small but delicious. My lamb tenderloin, roasted with garlic and rosemary, was succulent and extremely tasty. Cowie's salmon came almost rare and wrapped in pancetta. I'm not sure I heard a squeak out of her for the duration of her attack on her salmon... so it must have been good!

We finished with a strawberry millefeuille and a chocalate and espresso souffle. We both devoured these deserts like we hadn't eaten in weeks. Surely this is the mark of a good meal?





As our meal drew to a close the terrace began to fill up with glamourous young trend setters from Istanbul, eager to show off their finery (and legs and chests). No sooner had Cowie began to shivver than an observant waiter had glided over and covered her shoulders with a rug! What a great place... particularly for a special occassion on a beautifully clear night.

Here's the review in Time Out.

Street Food in Istanbul

Istanbul is a great place to find find cheap, fun food on the street. Kebab shops are two a penny. Street vendors selling barbecued sweet corn and roasted chestnuts are just as prevalent as are shops selling amazing pastries that look so bad for you they must be delicious. Bagel machines and mussel sellers were equally hard to avoid!











Not wanting to return back from the epicentre of the kebab world without having eaten a genuine donner Cowie relented and allowed me to have a kebab on the last day. We did plenty of research and decided that we would eat directly opposite our apartment... just in case. We found a store which had a constant stream of locals walking away stuffing their faces and thought that they must be popular for a reason. The more trade they get the fresher their kebab must be... hopefully!

Here are the action shots... worthy of a chapter in Lonely Planet!











And here's the video, worthy of the Discovery Channel



For a great article about Istanbul street food click here. It's amazing!

Really keen to visit Haozhan

Cowie and I were pottering around China Town the other day getting goodies for Anna and Edwin's dinner party when we stumbled across a Chinese restaurant that we actually wanted to go to in China Town... shock horror!

We had walked from Cowie's office on Hanover Square past the fashionable shops of Carnaby Street and down amongst the cool bars and restaurants around Barrafina, the Ivy and L'Atelier before meandering through the sex shops of Soho and popping out on Gerrard Street. It's amazing what diversity London has to offer. Too often we get taxis or take the tube which means we miss out on all the fun going on!

I've always found China Town a bit strange. Mysterious. Dangerous. Maybe it's from watching Jack Nicholson in Chinatown too often. Or it could be because of last week's Silent Witness where the Triads were smuggling ilegal immagrants into the country and dismembering the ones who couldn't pay in the back rooms of Gerrard Street's restaurants! You certainly can't say the area is dull...

All of the restaurants look the same and none of them are at all appealing. None have really caught up with the times and made themselves desirbale. No doubt they are all fronts for all sorts of dodgy businesses. The one that stands out from this questionable crowd is the very stylish exterior of Haozhan. We then read up about it when we got home to find out that it has had some very decent reviews. Jay Rayner from the Observer said:
"But then there's Haozhan, whose chef, Chee Loong Cheong, used to work at Hakkasan, and where the menu doesn't just tour the predictable Cantonese staples but flirts with the occasional Japanese or Thai flavour. It even looks different: instead of going for decor reminiscent of your auntie's in Penge, like all the others on the strip, this one is modern with lots of clean lines, the walls fitted with mirrors and jade-green panels. And, whisper it, the waiters smile.

The kitchen has a particular talent for deep frying, to produce items that are crisp but greaseless. A starter of crispy quail with chilli and salt, a dish familiar to me from Hakkasan's sister restaurant Yautatcha but available here at two-thirds of the price, brought two whole birds in a light, crisp batter sprinkled with aromatics which managed not to overwhelm the gaminess of the birds. Curry soft-shell crab sounded distinctly worrying (which was why we ordered it) but happily wasn't, the delicate creatures gently battered and sprinkled with shards of a fiery spice mix. My companion and I were divided over the spare ribs with a coffee sauce, which is to say he thought them odd in a bad way and I thought them odd in a good way. Yes, there was a bitterness to the sweet glaze on the thick meaty ribs, but also a certain fragrance which reminded me of rosemary. My friend's uncertainty didn't trouble me. It meant I got to finish them.

We agreed about the star dish, the silver cod with a dry XO sauce of minced prawns and chillies. The generous slabs of fish had first been sealed off, but so sensitively that as you cut through the outer skin, the huge flakes of pearly fish fell apart. The XO part of this plateful simply cut through the richness. I would come here for this dish alone."

So inspired by this Cowie and I are going to pay them a visit soon. I'm dying to try their silver cod in XO sauce and their curry soft shell crab.

Flight to Istanbul

For Cowie's 25th birthday we decided to go to Istanbul. To be honest we only went there because of someone's recommendation on Tripadvisor when we were researching our Croatian adventure earlier in the year.

Somehow we snaffled some cheap flights from BA which subsequently became extortinately expensive and set off for a thrilling weekend of surprises. Cowie was mainly excited about the plane food. Having had to fly with EasyJet recently, who I hate because they stole my camera and refused to compensate me for it, we were really lookig forward to seeing what they fed us. Cowie was insistent it would be chicken. I was just happy to see Cowie's face when it turned out to be a tomatoey beef stew which was delicious, some smoked salmon and a gooey chocolate thing for pudding. Because we were sitting on the right side of the plane we were bathed in beautiful sunshine for the entire journey which made taking these photos rather fun! It gave me a chance to play around with all the new modes on Cowie's mini camera. The macro function is amazing as is the ability to play around with the ISO settings to avoid having to use the flash.









It turns out there is an entire website devoted to aeroplane food called Airline Meals. So I'm now planning to share these pictures with them to see what they think! It documents the evolution of airline food over the decades and looks like a great distraction from work for a few hours.

From the look of the photos I don't think we did too badly! The start of a great trip.

Our food on the way back was less exciting as you can tell from the images below. It was also quite dark and Harry Potter was on the telly so we weren't quite so artistic with the shots! On the plus side Cowie got the chicken she was hoping for.

Countdown to Hugh's Mushroom Foraging

Cowie and I practiced our mushroom foraging technique a couple of weeks ago in Somerset in preaparation for our trip to see John Wright at River Cottage HQ tomorrow!
Next to Cowie's stable (for her horses not her) was a beautiful patch of what I think are Shaggy Ink Caps. Cowie's Mum says they pop up every year. What a sight. I wish I was brave enough to pick a few and see what they taste like.







Inspired by finding a whole family of mushrooms on Cowie's doorstep we trekked off to Alfred's Tower to search through the woods. We had done the same thing the previous year and had come back with a carrier bag stuffed full of different types of funghi - far too many to even contemplate identifying. There seemed to be more mushrooms than grass! This time, however, we only just managed to cover the bottom of our Morrison's carrier bag! A few armour plated puffballs and woody fughi clinging to logs were all that we could find. I guess it has been pretty dry recently and harly conducive to mushroom blooms. Let's hope that tomorrow we will be overwhelmed by mushroom fever and find tonnes!













If anyone can help to identify any of the above please add your thoughts in the comments section... Thanks!