The world is fully awake — roused from this winter’s slumber and two years of hibernation — and we are caught in a whirlwind. It’s wonderful. Occasionally overpowering, essentially wonderful.
We’ve been cooking simply and eating well, meals to nourish comings together again. Of friends from halfway around the world, back for the first time in years. Friends who arrived in part-formation (two out of three) — spectres of the pandemic still occasionally palpable. Friends who are like family, just across the park. We cooked for them, and with them. Slow-roasted salmon with outrageously expensive early Jersey potatoes smothered in home-spun wild garlic pesto. First-of-the-season English asparagus and spring onions, briefly pan-seared (recipe link below). Steaks on the grill, more than once. Spectacular whole turbots under thin blankets of potatoes …
Everyday, in between, there were leftovers and anything-that’s-in-the-kitchen improvisations. Quiche. An Easter lamb deferred (again this year!), thanks to a last minute invitation. Sometimes just an egg and avocado.
More unusually, noticeably, we’ve been out! Quite often. When choosing a restaurant, the right question isn’t just how good, but ‘what is the occasion?’ In London, this often includes the variable: where? As it happens, these past weeks have been a happy succession of good restaurant choices.
We went to Andrew Edmunds to meet old friends. It is the closest thing to being in someone’s living room, the food is simple and delicious, and perfectly executed. Crucially, it’s halfway between Islington and Notting Hill. | We rode our bikes up the road for Tenmaru ramen and (Norwegian) cinema — a new favourite combination for an unplanned Saturday evening. Are we going to the cinema for the ramen, or are we having ramen to go to the cinema? It doesn’t matter, they are now indelibly entwined. | We saw William Kentridge’s unforgettable SIBYL at the Barbican centre, then walked a short way for house negronis and dinner at Brutto. It was even better this time. | As on many a weekend, when idling between Clissold and Abney Park cemetery with young kids, we stopped for lunch at The Good Egg. Though this time we took the time to sit down rather take away. The sabich is also excellent this way, of course, though (weirdly) much harder to eat! | We went back for dinner at the Plimsoll. Any excuse.
And there were a some new discoveries — Koya when looking for lunch in the City; Mr Ji on a touristic stroll through Soho; Lisboeta barely a week after it opened — couldn’t resist! The Abade de Priscos (egg yolk and pork fat custard with port wine caramel) is one of the best things I have ever eaten; and Mangal II, finally. So good!
I’m not sure I can keep up the pace, but it has been so, so good.
Things to make and cook
The season for asparagus is brief, we’re taking advantage every minute, and I make this all the time at the moment. The method is so simple!
But in some ways (food wise) winter is not yet completely gone, and we are still eating cabbage, particularly when prepared with a miso ginger dressing.
Our in-house teenager is cooking more and more regularly these days, with a strong leaning toward chicken liver mousse! No one is complaining.
For something sweet, rhubarb is the ingredient right now, and this rhubarb almond cake is one of the best.
[All N&Q]
Things to read and listen to
A fascinating article on why it does matter that Borscht be recognised as Ukrainian rather than assumed to be Russian. [Financial Times]
The smile-provoking story of Kitty Tait and the Watlington Orange bakery. [Guardian]
‘Sometimes taste is more important than tradition’ and the discovery of ‘rot chaat dee’ —such a good article about the elements of cooking Thai food outside Thailand. [NYT]
And any episode from This Cultural Life on BBC Radio 4 (not food related!). Each one I’ve listened to so far (Akram Khan, Kwame Kwei Armah, Bernardine Evaristo) is brilliant. So thoughtful. [BBC Radio 4]