"Empty chairs at empty tables" ... Beef wrap and beyond

Here comes another strange beginning of a post ... after a few days of silence. Don't be disappointed, if you are not able to grasp the full meaning of what I'm going to say. I try not to stir up too much confusion ...

"There's a grief that can't be spoken.
There's a pain goes on and on.
Empty chairs at empty tables
Now my friends are dead and gone."

Well, to clear things up right away: no one of my friends died. I simply didn't want to tear the strophe apart.
While it may be of advantage to have it quiet and enjoy some peace, under other circumstances the same situation could be a cause for grieving. When all the chairs at the tables in a restaurant would be empty for a long time that would be very disadvantageous.
Fine, I don't have a restaurant, no worries! There might be empty chairs at empty tables, but no one pays me for my food anyway.
It's only I have to manage to eat up all the amounts of food by myself. 
Along that line it happened to be the case there were still some unused wheat tortillas left that needed attention. Therefore it was only natural to have some wraps. I went to buy some minced beef and then the story begins to unfold ...

Beef wrap:
A bit of oil
300 g minced beef
1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
1 tbs tabasco ... or more (?)
1 tbs tomato puree
300 g kidney beans
Salt and flaked chili
Some wheat tortillas
Red onion, in rings
Iceberg lettuce
Grated cheese (hopefully)

Go for it:

Start frying the beef in a bit of oil until it takes on colour. Then add the tomato puree and tabasco and stir.
It's time for the beans to join. Just do it! Let it warm through and season with salt, chili and the crushed fennel seeds.
A bit more on the fire and the meat is ready.
Now heat up the wheat tortillas somehow. After that it's time to wrap it up.
Take some of the beef, a bit chopped iceberg lettuce, a few onion rings and some grated cheese. If you like you can add a bit of your favourite sauce.
Sadly I forgot to add the cheese, but originally I wanted to use it.

As you see, though, such an amount of beef and bean mixture would be just too much for one person in one go. So I had to come up with something else.
No worries! Have some pizza, I thought. While preparing the dough I got confronted with other ideas. I prepared too much dough anyway ... good for two pizzas.

A not so cleverly taken photo doesn't reveal, what happened to the beef and bean mixture, but you simply have to belief me that it is inside.
What about the other half of the dough?

Bacon and egg pizza. Can you imagine to eat those two alone? Or what about pizza for breakfast ...

... you wouldn't do that, would you?

Back now to were we began our journey of this post. For those of you who have a bit of interest in music or musicals, to be a bit more precise, may have already noticed those lines at the beginning ...

While roaming the streets of London on my own, suddenly I had the idea to go and see it. I wasn't disappointed.
Afterwards, it wasn't too late, I still needed some food. Nearby I found an empty table with empty cairs at the Cafe España. Altough the food wasn't looking too fancy, I enjoyed some good tapas.

Some patatas bravas, bread with garlic cream and some aubergine. There was also some chicken with a lemony sauce. However, that was last year and I didn't manage to take some nicer photos.
Now it happened to be the case that they managed to make a musical movie of Les Misérables behind my back. Nevertheless, I noticed it finally. So I have no chance, but to see it on it's own and see how it is.
At least, the music is already in my head and ... "Empty chairs at empty tables" ...

City Càphê, phở and trouble in the kitchen

With many things in life you have many choices – usually. Let’s imagine you want to go to the supermarket and buy some strawberry jam. Do you get the one with fruity bits or the smooth one? The standard one or the organic? Reduced sugar? With 70% fruit or more or less? Premium? Special brand or brand of the house? … Sometimes, having too much choice can bring you to the point of not wanting to choose anymore.

This, however, has nothing to do with the now following, has it?

If you would like to have some Vietnamese food (well if you live in Vietnam, this of course is no point) you can either go to a restaurant or do it yourself.

If you happen to be around London you could try the City Càphê at Ironmonger Lane near the Bank of England.

I don’t want to use the term fast food in this connection, but I got my food quite fast, although when I went there at lunch time, there was already a long queue that reached even outside of the restaurant. However, it was worth waiting for it.

The original plan was to get a Báhn Mì, a filled Vietnamese baguette. However, I didn’t succeed. I came to late, all the baguettes were already gone. So I went for some phở.

It brought quite some heat (OK, you can’t see the chillies on the photo, but they were there). Judging from the weather, though, this was not necessary, since the sun had already decided to bring some heat to London (it didn’t last too long).

Well, if you happen to be around London, near the Bank of England and you fancy some Vietnamese food, you can try the City Càphê. I liked it. If you manage to come at the right time, you may even be able to taste a Báhn Mì.

Now you could also go and do some cooking for yourself. This is always good. As I mentioned in a post earlier, I had a taste of Vietnamese food before at a Vietnamese lunch with Uyen at the Fifteen in London. She also taught us to make Vietnamese summer rolls.

It also happens to be the case, that Uyen has a recipe for phở on her blog.

 

First of all you have to get the ingredients, and here again it applies, depending on where you live, you will get things quite easy or have some trouble. I had to do some driving around to get at least most of the required items. I thought I could omit the few things I couldn’t get (yes, it was no problem).

The other thing is, you need some time to put all the things together. There is absolutely no need to get hectic though. I wonder, when I will learn this myself. So I managed to pour some boiling water over my hand (I survived – it wasn’t that bad).

Then I was ready for simmering – two hours (the stock of course was simmering, not I myself). 

It could be a problem, when you are already hungry at this stage. However, while shopping for the needed ingredients I got myself also some rice paper to prepare summer rolls. So, I thought, why not have some summer rolls in between.

I must admit the they were a bit short, stubby looking. Well, the rice paper was too small. Next time I use bigger ones or more than just one.

Finally, though after more then four hours, nearly five, I was ready to have my own phở. 

 

First go the noodles, meat, coriander, onion, spring onion and then pouring the hot stock over it. Then finish it off with some Vietnamese basil, beansprouts, chili, and juice from a lime wedge.

Summing things up (blog-post-recipe-tester), I was very much pleased with the results. The recipe was good to follow and everything worked out as expected. Where was the trouble then? There only will be trouble, if you start it yourself (like not concentrating or being hectic).

If you are not having some visitors, by following this recipe, you end up with quite a good supply of stock for phở. Well, I will have some of it today again, another day this week again and there is also a lot stored in the freezer. I had a look at Wikipedia as well. There it says that phở is traditionally something for breakfast. So ... why not!

What’s next? Who knows … there are always so many options.

Breakfast at Brixton

"This is a Victoria line train to Brixton." Quite a few times I have heard this on the tube, but not made it that far. Recently, though, I stayed a few days in Brixton.

Somehow it seemed there is market every day. Why shouldn't it be. Brixton market and Brixton Village is especially build for that. Therefore if you want to go for food shopping - that is the right place. I didn't though, because I was not cooking on my visit - what a shame!
One day I went shopping to a supermarket. It was earlyish in the morning, even before most other places open. Well, I had kind of breakfast with bread and cheddar cheese, which I assembled then loosely on the way. Then there was this Cadbury Cream Egg ice cream. I simply couldn't resist, don't know why. Ice cream for breakfast - great - is was very very sweet.
You can go for English breakfast early in the morning as well. I forget, though the place I tried on one morning.
Another place you could go for breakfast is "seven at brixton". It is a tapas and cocktail bar at Brixton market, but you can get a coffee in the morning, and, well, of course breakfast.

The coffee was first. I thought I could have a cappuccino. The menu card itself wasn't in such a good shape anymore, but who cares.
I decided to go for a chorizo omelet, which I enjoyed very much with some Tabasco.

The picture might not be the best, but you get an impression. Some rocket on the side, well, I like that as well.

All in all I can say, after this hearty breakfast I was ready for the day and some more exploration.
What other nice place is there in Brixton to go for breakfast. I don't know so much. I always left the house so early and didn't have too many days to try.

Rosie's deli cafe is also very nice. Maybe Rosie herself is in. She is a nice and friendly person as well. You may even like to get her cookbook right there. The opening times, however, in my case were too late for breakfast. So I just went for a good coffee and some delicious cake. Just thinking about it makes me wanting another piece of it. It was so creamy and tasty (it also convinced me of getting Rosie's second cookbook - it's a good one). If I wasn't just passing through, I for sure would have tried some more things from the deli.
This nice little cafe has a good atmosphere and if you take the table near the bookshelf, you have plenty to leaf through and read.
For sure there are many more interesting and delicious places around Brixton. If you have any recommendations, let me or us know.
You never know if you don't go ...

Jamie's Italian Islington - London

During my last visit to London I took the opportunity to dine at Jamie's Italian. There are several ones in London, like for example at Covent Garden and Islington. When I was near Covent Garden I checked the one out, but since I had not reserved a table and it was packed, there was no chance for me to have dinner there.
Another day then, while being near the Angel building in Islington I had a go at Jamie's Italian there. 

The restaurants has a lot large windows so you can have already a peep inside. Besides that it makes it brighter on the inside. I preferred that more, when comparing it to the one at Covent Garden.
Well, inside I went then. The personal was all young and friendly - at least as far as I could see. I had no chance to see or talk to any of the kitchen personal.

 
Concerning the liquid part I stayed with water for my lunch. I wanted to concentrate more on the food and I wasn't in the mood to have some wine.
The waiter informed me about a special dish they had on offer for the day: a stew with mussels, squid, tomatoes, and herbs. I went directly for that one.

I didn't have something like that before. I was satisfied with it. Since this was not so filling I had enough room for a few other things I wanted to try.

Fried polenta - I tried to do this at home once, but failed totally. I guess something was wrong with my polenta itself. Those here were great and now I'm sure at what to aim, when I try to make them again at home. I simply have to.
Additional I had a simple salad with rocket and tomatoes - standard one. I do it at home quite often. So there was no big difference here compared to that.
I felt a bit greedy. Therefore I had no choice, but to have a dessert as well.

The peach and almond cake was absolutely delicious. I was so glad I still had some room for it. Well, desserts go to the separate stomach anyway. I only can recommend to try this one.

Altogether I can say it was a very good lunch. I was satisfied. On top of that I didn't have to pay a fortune to get all this nice food. The prices were quite reasonable.
There were also some other things on the menu I would have loved to try like for example the prawn linguine, but obviously I already had enough food.

At the time of my visit the place was not too packed. When I was nearly finished a larger group arrived.
Well then, if you like Italian food, and are somehow near Islington, I would see nothing wrong with trying Jamie's Italian there.

Food Revolution Review Borough Market

Time is flying, as I always say. My trip to London is over and I'm home again. 
Food Revolution Day is also over a few days already. A summary you can find here. A lot was going on that day, over 1000 events in 62 countries. Well, you could say around the world, although you could say, there were over 100 countries without something going on. However, Food Revolution Day 2013 is already in the planning. Next year it could even be bigger, though it is not only something for just one day. Constancy is important, to make good food choices every day, well as far as it is possible of course. Everyone has different possibilities. 
Whatsoever, I'm going on to cook myself around the world.
Let us go back then to May 19th 2012, Food Revolution Day. Location: London - Borough Market.
Borough Market in itself is already a great thing. If you around on Saturdays and have some time, have a look, you will not regret it. On that Saturday, though, there was a slight problem, foodwise there are so many lovely things to see, try, eat, and/or buy, that you simply cannot do it. The choice you have is really overwhelming: bread, fruit, vegetables, cheese, meat, fish, chutneys, cakes, ice cream (with goat milk for example - couldn't resist), herbs, spices, and so on and many more things. The best way is to have a look for yourself.
For Food Revolution Day the apprentices of Fifteen turned up to bake pizza and sell it. Well, turned up, it's not so good an expression. Already very early in the morning they arrived at Borough Market to get ready and set up the wood fired oven. 
Then things were ready for going for the pizza.
Two kinds of pizza were on offer then: mushroom and stilton and the other one was brisket and horseradish. Although I like stilton very much (other may think it's a bit strong), I went for the brisket and horseradish one. 
How was it? Couldn't have done it better myself. After all I don't have a wood fried oven in the garden. For pizza I always have to turn my normal oven to full. After getting the perfect recipe for pizza dough and doing it that way, doing pizza at home has improved very much.
Oh, getting distracted again. From what I saw that morning on Borough Market, things went very well for the Food Revolution Event. The response was good. A great event at a great market.
It was really a pleasure to visit the market. There are many more markets were you can buy good food. The five days I have been in London I stayed in Brixton. Every single day there was market. How great is that? Really a good way to do your food shopping.