Mien Tay, Battersea SW11

After an interminable age of mouse-gray sky, yesterday the sun made a cameo appearance over Sarf London...
..

While dosing up on seratonin in Battersea Park, my thoughts turned to another, metaphorical ray of sunshine lighting up SW11 - a decent, affordable restaurant. For an area suffused with yuppies and Australians, Battersea has an inexplicable lack of good cheap eats. There's a clutch of decent gastropubs (The Westbridge, The Bollingbroke, Masons Arms) but as far as budget restaurants go, if it doesn't serve fried chicken, or have the word 'King' somewhere in the title it 'aint happening. That was until Mien Tay opened last autumn. One of Shoreditch's Vietnamese stalwarts, the owners clearly took pity on us pho-deprived South Londoners and opened a second branch on Lavender Hill. I've eaten there at least four times since it opened and think I could order from memory now..

Let's start with the salt and pepper tofu. Always start with the salt and pepper tofu. The coating is so crisp and judiciously seasoned, it almost doesn't matter about the firm, gentle bite of tofu underneath. Except that contrast is so perfect, especially with all the chillies and garlic scattered about the plate. Hubba hubba.

And we've got to have the green papaya salad with prawns. They serve it with mini prawn crackers on top, which doesn't really work with all the fresh, zesty flavours going on underneath (oh dear, I sound like Gregg Wallace), but what the heck - just add them to the basket of complimentary crackers and get stuck into the good stuff. It's just a cute touch, like the orange cut into quarters they bring you at the end of the meal.

(green papaya salad left, salt and pepper tofu right)

And even though we're probably going to be full before we've finished the starters, we've got to have the grilled quail. If Mien Tay has a signature dish, this is definitely it. It's so sticky and sweet with its marinade of honey, garlic and mystery spices giving way to rich meaty pickings, one can't help but turn Henry VIII - pick up with your fingers and devour it rapidly and messily, Tudor banquet-style.

We're full already, but the hits just keep coming. You should probably wear your eating trousers. You know the ones I mean. If you're brothing it, the pho is decent, but not standout - the soup lacks a little welly - some more chilli and lime on the side plate, and a touch more cloves in the broth would do the trick. Try the hot and sour soup instead - it's got the hot, sweet, salty, sour balance going on. The chilli packs a clear-the-pipes punch and the hunks of pineapple take away just enough sour edge of the tamarind. The seafood version is heaving with meaty prawns, mussels and scallops. And it is this sense of generosity which really sets Mien Tay apart. Gratis prawn cracker hats, munificent portions, oranges with the bill. Welcome to the neighbourhood.

Ps I'm clearly suffering from order-rut at Mien Tay now, for a great review of other dishes on the menu check out this thorough post from Cheese and Biscuits.

Mien Tay, 180 Lavender Hill, London SW11 5TQ; tel 020 7350 0721.

http://www.mientay.co.uk/

Nigel Slater's very good chocolate brownies

Midwinter malaise has set in. Among my girlfriends there are bruised hearts in need of salving, livers in need of resting, and wallets in need of hiding in the freezer for several months. I know but two surefire cures: brownies and teen movies.

So...I'm bringing back the sleepover. No, not that kind of sleepover, but the pyjamas and face masks, lusting after Patrick Swayze balancing on a log, cackling over the advice pages of More! magazine, contraband cider and lashings of sugary snacks kind. Sleepovers were a staple of my early teens - a safehouse from the hothouse of witchery, eating disorders and one-upgirlship that masqueraded as our single-sex school. Sleepovers washed away the pain and the pretence along with the Rimmel pink shimmer lipstick and racoon eyeliner. And oh, the snacks. A sleepover is, to steal a line from restaurant critic Marina O'Loughlin, "a mouth-brothel for carbophiles." Pizza, popcorn, nachos, ice cream, salt and vinegar Chipsticks: all have their place here. But the reigning sleepover snack is, and always was, the brownie.

Making the sleepover brownies was a mother-daughter ritual in our house. Mum in her bees apron, me in my frog one (good job the hard girls at school never saw that). Sometimes the recipe came from mum's well-thumbed 70s edition of the Dairy Book of Home Cookery, the cookbook sold by milkmen right up 'til the early 90s. I have the 90s version, and despite the stylist's unfortunate devotion to the unholy trinity of gammon, pineapple chunks and glace cherries, it still holds up as a stalwart of British cookery. Looking at it now, the brownie recipe reads rather disappointingly - just 100g of plain chocolate (Bourneville flashback!), plus the fairly unorthodox additions of 'curd cheese' and orange juice. But my memories of making and devouring them are entirely fond.

But more often than not, the brownies we made were from Green's packet mix. Food snobs may recoil in horror, but Green's made for awesome brownies, with a proper crust and fudgy inner. They were one of the first things I can ever remember making, as a really small child, with a tea towel around my neck and a spatula in hand, ready to just add milk and water. They may be a sacrelligious shortcut to some, but to me they were gateway cake - stirring the brownie batter and folding down the lip of the red & white gingham carton paved the way for every baking experiment that followed. Over the years I've flirted with the good, the bad and the fugly of brownie recipes - brownies with walnuts, with pecans, with cherries, with bananas even. Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, blondies. But recently I met the one. Thumbing through The Kitchen Diaries, looking for another recipe entirely (something to do with pumpkins and lentils), I came across brownie el Dorado. How could I have missed it? The particular joy of a Nigel Slater recipe is that through the clarity of his instructions, and his kind, gently nudging descriptions, you can almost taste the dish before you've made it. Read this, and you just know: 

"No nuts, no flavourings, just a 24-carat brownie recipe, as dense and fudgy as Glastonbury mud."

I cannot recommend this recipe highly enough, especially if, like me, you are the kind of baker who likes fulsome praise and your friends to make appreciative 'auuuugh noises' like a troop of Homer Simpsons. It is a soothing pleasure to make, the voluptious springy batter bouncing back as you cut through it with your spoon. The crust crackles on your tongue, giving way to a giddily rich and fudgy cake underneath. Just add pjs, white wine, the collected works of Zac Efron, and a group of friends in need of some sugary salvation and you've got yourself a sleepover. It worked for us, even if we're old enough to allegedly know better, and haven't been near a Rimmel lipstick for a decade.

"Very good chocolate brownie recipe"
adapted from The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater

golden caster sugar - 300g
butter - 250g
chocolate (70% cocoa solids) - 250g
eggs - 3 large, plus 1 extra yolk
plain flour - 60g
finest-quality cocoa powder - 60g
baking powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Line the bottom of a 23cm baking tin with baking parchment. Put the sugar and butter into a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer for several minutes, till white and fluffy. You can do this by hand if you have to, but you need to keep going until the mixture is really soft and creamy.
Meanwhile, break the chocolate into pieces, set 50g of it aside and melt the rest in a bowl suspended over, but not touching a pan of simmering water. As soon as the chocolate is completely melted, remove it from the heat. Chop the remaining 50g into gravel-sized pieces. [I like to interpret this as large gravel pieces as they turn into substantive chocolate treasure in the finished brownies.]
Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat them lightly with a fork. Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix in a pinch of salt.  With your mixer running slowly, introduce the beaten egg a little at a time, speeding up between additions. Mix in the melted and the chopped chocolate with a large metal spoon. Lastly fold in the flour and cocoa mixture, gently, firmly, without knocking any of the air out.
Scrape the mixture into the prepared cake tin, smooth the top and bake for thirty minutes. The top will have risen slightly and the cake will appear slightly softer in the middle than around the edges. Pierce the centre of the cake with a fork; it should come out sticky but not with raw mixture attached to it. If it does, then return the brownie to the oven for three more minutes. It's worth remembering that it will solidify a little on cooling, so if it appears a bit wet, don't worry. Leave to cool for at least an hour before cutting into squares.
Enough for 12.

Michelle Obama & Nigella Lawson on Iron Chef

Holy mackerel fillets! No sooner had I declared my love for the Food Network and its flagship show Iron Chef America, than this press release crosses my desk -"Iron Chef America takes on The White House." Ace.

"Michelle Obama sets the Iron Chefs their toughest challenge yet."
Double ace.

"Nigella Lawson guest stars."
 At this point I begin frothing at the mouth.

It's not often I get this excited about food TV - Come Dine With Me makes me want to stick forks in my eyes just to relieve the embarassment, but come on, how cool is this? Chefs Mario Batali, Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagasse compete alongside White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford. Their challenge, a direct edict from the First Lady, who greets the chefs as they arrive at the White House kitchens, is to cook a menu using produce fresh from the White House's vegetable garden. Nigella, who rarely makes TV appearances these days, guests as a judge, as does, in a feat of supreme but nonetheless excellent randomness, Dr Quinn: Medicine Woman, aka Jane Seymour.

You know it's what the Americans term 'event television' when the promos and press shots feature the participants strutting. Preferably slo-mo strutting. So here, they are, striding purposely across the White House lawn, from l-r: Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay, presenter Alton Brown, Cristeta Comerford, Mario Batali.


 

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Readers, I have used a cropped photo to avoid upsetting any delicate sensibilities - trust me, you don't need to see Mario Batali's fluro-orange surgical socks and matching Crocs. Honestly, it's the White House Batali - smarten it up a notch.

Iron Chef America: Super Chef Battle airs Sat 27 March, 9pm, Sky channel 262 or freesat channel 405. Can't wait.


http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/

The Hart & Fuggle

Glee (noun, orig US)
1.Trashy new teen show currently airing on E4. Already hopelessly addicted, I can feel its spangly claws drawing close, pulling me in.

Glee (noun)
2.Feeling of childish excitment. The open delight in watching a friend achieve something after months of hard work and planning, which you know is going to be a rip-roaring success.

Given that this blog isn't intended to be a confessional about my love for teen dramas (see also, Gossip Girl), it's the second definition of which I now write. Whatever your plans for 5-14th February, make sure they include popping along to The Hart & Fuggle on Brick Lane - London's hottest new pop-up restaurant. For ten brief, shiny days The Rag Factory will play host to a series of imaginative suppers cooked by food writers and stylists Alice Hart and Georgie Fuggle. That's these lovely ladies here...

Thurs 11th is Vietnamese night - fresh crab rolls followed by braised caramel pork. The girls recently got back from a big gastro-recce of 'nam full of ideas, so that's bound to be a goodie. Larder Lout James Ramsden is doing a guest chef stint on the 8th, infusing the Factory with some Moroccan flavours -chestnut and chorizo soup with saffron cream followed by lamb tagine. But hurry - Tues 9th and V Day are already sold out.

The Hart & Fuggle, The Rag Factory, 16-18 Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ. £30 per person.

http://www.thehartandfuggle.com/.

Oh, and briefly back to the first kind of Glee - the choir of loveable geeks just sang Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. There's nothing not to love about that.

Dock Kitchen

The Moveable Kitchen is standing still. For now at least. Cook Stevie Parle wrote to members of The Moveable Kitchen Facebook group this week to say IN CAPS:

 "PEOPLE ARE STILL ASKING ME IF WE ARE A POP UP RESTAURANT, THE PRESS CAN'T SEEM TO WORK OUT, THAT WE WERE, BUT NOW WE ARE NOT. WE WANT TO STAY. WE LIKE IT."

A quick recap: first came The Moveable Restaurant, River Cafe chefs' Stevie Parle and Joseph Trivelli's travelling supper club. Then came the Dock Kitchen, a lunch and tea pop-up at the Portobello Docks project in Ladbroke Grove. There are also one-off suppers and events with guest chefs like Tommi Miers at The Dock Kitchen, but they're called The Moveable Kitchen. Confused? Don't be. Just get your butt up to the upper reaches of Ladbroke Grove quick smart. It's a semi-permanent pop-up now, but these chaps are clearly destined for big things.


Dock/Moveable Kitchen is an utterly charming space to waste a grizzly winter afternoon - contemporary but cosy with its bare brick walls and communal tables. The open kitchen is at the entrance, Stevie and his small brigade chopping away behind a counter bearing a three-tiered Victoria sponge with damson jam and whipped cream, and a serious-looking chocolate, espresso and hazelnut cake.

The daily-changing menu bares the hallmarks of the chefs' River Cafe heritage - very seasonal, lots of well-sourced Italianate ingredients and fresh produce. But there are plenty of their own touches. As well as the cakes, puds on our visit included a Valrhona and rough Spanish brandy sorbet and, delightfully, a pass-me-the-napkins-ripe comice pear and a Tarocco orange from Scilly, 50p and 80p respectively. Nothing has cost 50p at the River Cafe. Ever.

Honourable mention must also be made to these plump fellas, deep-fried English anchovies with a primrose-hued, fluffy mayonaisse. And to this, soft and tender slow-cooked rabbit slow-cooked in a Kashmiri way with almonds, ginger and cumin and a crisp flatbread hat.

The weather outside is (seemingly, endlessly) frightful - if you get the chance, hunker down in the delightful Dock Kitchen for the afternoon instead.

The Dock Kitchen, Portobello Docks, 344 Ladbroke Grove and Kensal Road, London W10 5BU.

http://www.themoveablekitchen.co.uk/.

Reasons to be cheerful

January sucks, however you slice it.


We’re all colder, poorer, fatter and grumpier. But keep calm and carry on, because the new year promises a bounty of treats for food lovers. As it’s the official season of lists, here’s a subjective list of 10 things to look forward to in 2010…

10. The Food Network on Freeview

I LOVE the Food Network. Last time I was in the US, I got sucked into a 4-hour candy castle-making contest. You've not lived until you've seen someone whittle a sugarcraft dragon against the clock. The Food Network has Iron Chef, which is the ER to Masterchef's Casualty. It has a fabulous Southern broad called Paula Deen, who stomps around the country putting butter and cream in everything. In short, it's trashy genius. And now it's over here. Currently biding its time in the Sky high numbers, I'm reliably informed it's moving to freesat in the spring.

http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/

9. Hix at Selfridges

The chef's chef continues with the empire building - adding a restaurant and champagne bar collaboration with Terrance Conran at Selfridges to his portfolio. Topshop, Louboutins and Hixy's Scotch eggs all under one roof? Very heaven. Opens March.

Photo copyright Jason Lowe,
http://www.restaurantsetcltd.co.uk/

8. Nigel Slater's  Tender V2: A Cook’s Guide to The Fruit Garden

If you've worked your way through the 400-odd recipes in the sublime Tender Volume 1 and are wondering what's for afters, you'll soon be able to find out. The sequel, featuring the spoils of Slater's fruit trees and berry bushes, is out in May.

http://www.nigelslater.com/

7. Vietnamese - everywhere

Alright, so it's hardly news to hungry Londoners who've been trekking down Hackney's Pho Mile, Kingsland Road, for years, but 2010 looks set to be the year Vietnamese food goes mainstream. A branch of Hackney stalwart Mien Tay opened in Battersea in Autumn 2009, Viet Grill in Shoreditch is reopening  this week with a 'French colonial' refit, there's even pho on the menu at Eat. Expect more openings across London.


6. St John Hotel

The trotters are going up west. Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver of St John are opening a 16-room hotel and restaurant just off Leicester Square. A St John hotel! In Leicester Square! Scheduled to open late summer.


5. Sophie Dahl's TV show

Sophie is a wonderful food writer. Her niche is linking food with memories and the emotions they evoke - joy, melancholy, nostalgia, homesickness - the lot. The phrase 'the new Nigella' is chronically overused, but if anyone's ready to take on the crown, it's Sophie. Dates tbc.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/comingup/sophiedahl/


4. Real British Food (Ebury)

AKA the Canteen cookbook. Loving everything about this - the rationbook cover,the sturdy recipes for treacle tart and pies, pies, pies, and the quirky photography. It's out in March.

3. Festivals

It's hard to believe it when there's icicles on your nose, but one day, one sweet day, it will be warm again, maybe even hot, and there will be festivals. Remember them? For food lovers, festival offerings are getting better and better - ecoli falafel still abound, but now there's another way. Leon showed up at a few festivals last year and hopefully will again in 2010. And then there's the events that wear their foodie credentials on their sleeves - Taste of London, Harvest at Jimmy's which will feature Mark Hix and Tommi Miers this year, and glorious Port Eliot down in Cornwall. Anything to erase the memory of this giant yorkie pud as consumed by my friend Tom at last year's V. Shudder.

2. Hakka Berkeley

A sister restaurant to Hakkasan. In Mayfair. Bling o'clock. Start saving now, and fingers crossed for less of the table turning nonsense. Opening dates tbc.

1. Heston Blumenthal and Daniel Boulud at the Mandarin Oriental

Restaurant openings don't get more exciting than this: Heston's bringing his ipods, savoury ice creams and all manner of yet-to-be unveiled culinary genius to the heart of London. And  if that wasn't enough he's bringing a mate - Manhattan superchef Daniel Boulud, who will be opening a franchise of his NYC brasserie Bar Bolud. Getting a table is going to be a ruddy nightmare.

Well that's my subjective list - do let me know what you’re looking forward to in 2010, and remember, it’s only two months ‘til springtime. Chins up.

The Good Life

The Garden Museum in Lambeth is one of those places you read about in Time Out, think 'ooh I should go there sometime, sounds quite good', file away on your neverending London to do list...and then promptly forget about.

Well it really is quite good, and here's just two reasons why...

1) The cafe. AKA everyone's secret no.1 reason for visiting a place of culture. Lets face it people, museum visits rise and fall on the strength of the cake offering. The flapjack at The Garden Museum is a sterling example of the genre - squidgy and syrupy but with a good oaty crunch. For those of the savoury persuasion there are Ottolenghi-style large white platters of grainy, salady goodness - think Puy lentils with toasted seeds, braised fennel, that kind of caper.

On our visit the rain was of the turn-your-brolly-inside-out variety, but in clement conditions, apparently the 17thC garden is a delight. "There cannot be a prettier outside table in Central London" says Giles Coren, and he doesn't strike me as a chap to bandy around the feminine adjectives freely.

2) The Good Life: 100 Years of Growing Your Own exhibition.

The Good Life marks the centenary (plus 1 & a bit years -ssh) of the 1908 Small Holdings & Allotments Act. Through photography, diaries, certificates, newspaper cuttings - enough primary sources to make an A-Level History teacher swoon - it charts our national love affair with allotments and veg patches over the last century.

Unsurprisingly the golden ages of grow-your-own coincide with times of hardship - both world wars, the 70s austerity years, and the current recession. There's a particularly striking image of soldiers  in WW1 growing veg in their Western Front trenches. The WW2 Dig For Victory Campaign features heavily....

Once we reach the 70s there are great pictures of the flares n'sandals brigade and a fun section on the Tom and Barbara effect.

But the exhibition's greatest strength is the questions it asks about the current trend for growning your own. Features from the lifestyle sections contrast with poignant first-hand accounts of the fight to save Manor Gardens allotments in East London -  bulldozed ahead of the 2012 Olympics. Is the current craze for giant marrows and knobbly carrots born of necessity or fad? You can join in the debate by writing your thoughts on a piece of paper and leaving it for others to read.


The Good Life: 100 Years of Growing Your Own runs until March 7 2010. Tickets £6, children go free; gardenmuseum.org.uk.