Ecuador - El Inca Plebeyo

Restaurant:  El Inca Plebeyo

Location:  162 Essex Road, London, N1 8LY

Date of visit:  7 May 2017

Time of visit:  8pm

London has a handful of establishments that are Ecuadorian, or specialise in Ecuadorian cuisine. A stumbling block I came across with this country was the cuisine itself. Most of the restaurants seemed to specialise solely on ceviche dishes. Raw fish dishes. Most of the other non-ceviche dishes weren't particularly Ecuadorian, but more general South American in style.

But there was one establishment that stood out. El Inca Plebeyo in North London offered an horndo. An Ecuadorian roast dinner. There was absolutely no reason not to do this.

A couple of weeks before our visit I emailed the restaurant for clarification on the hornado. Their menu online stated that it was available at weekends only. I knew the answer to this question already, but I thought it was worth asking if this included Friday nights. And generally, as it was a special dish and quite pricey, I wondered if we had to order it in advance. Unfortunately, I didn't get a response to my email.

We went ahead with the visit anyway. Earlier in the day I reserved a table for two using Quandoo. We actually ended up arriving 15 minutes earlier than the time we booked.

Which was fine, as went entered to find a restaurant completely bereft of customers. As such, we were greeted straight away by the waitress. She asked if we were Taste Card customers, which we weren't. But she then confirmed my name from the booking I had made hours earlier, so at least that worked.

We took our pick of the tables, and the waitress brought the menus over immediately and ran us through a small list of the items on the menu that were not available. This was actually really appreciated. I can't remember ever having that before, but it makes ordering from the menu a whole lot easier for all involved!

We already knew what we were going for, but we still took time to look through the menu which had a great selection of Ecuadorian ceviche dishes, South American meat dishes and traditional sides. As we looked through the menu, we were offered a warm bowl of freshly cooked vegetarian sweet potato and plantain chips with large baked corn kernels.

We ordered fairly quickly - two hornados, and two bottles of Quilmes (Argentinian lager).

As we sat enjoying the snacks and the beer, one by one people started to come into the restaurant. Some for takeaway, some staying. Upbeat Ecuadorian music was playing throughout the visit.

The food came in good time. My very first impression was that the plates quite a little on the small side - just a little smaller than a normal dinner plate. But what a bloody plate it was - literally piled up with so much goodness!

You don't really get a sense of it from the picture, but buried under all that you can see is a mountain of pulled pork. So much meat. The pork itself wasn't seasoned or mixed in with any kind of sauce, but it was hugely tasty and very tender. Seriously substantial. There was one plantain on the dish, cooked to perfection. Rich, sweet, almost caramelised. But nice and firm, not by any means sloppy or greasy. Exactly how it should be.

The menu described it as "potato dumplings", but essential the plate contained two good scoops of mash potato. There were massive, dense corn kernels - similar to those that were served dried in the complimentary bowl when we arrived.

I have a love-hate relationship with pork crackling/scratchings. But this was, I think, the first time I had ever tried it fresh, in a restaurant. It was really tasty, and very easy to eat. I managed to eat quite a bit of it before the reality of what I was eating hit me, as it always seems to do!

Finally, to top off the plate, the green sauce - no idea what that was, but it was very fresh, very herby and really quite spicy. Not a drop of gravy to be found, but the green sauce was a nice alternative, serving a very different purpose. And it was all topped with some kind of shredded pickled onion.

It was a Sunday roast unlike any I'd ever had. And at £18 it was also one of the priciest. But it was unique, and exactly why this restaurant project exists. It's clear that many Ecuadorians eat very well on Sundays!

East Timor - home cooking

East Timor is one of the newest countries that we can expect to encounter during this project, as it gained independence from Indonesia in 2002. (Although God only knows how many new countries will be formed by the time we actually finish the whole thing!). And it was fairly clear quite quickly that I wasn't going to find a restaurant in London serving food from this country specifically.

I opted for a recipe that I found in various places: a lamb and tamarind stew. The dish was an East Timorese twist on a traditional Portuguese dish, usually with fish instead of chicken. East Timor is a former colony of Portugal.

This looked like a fairly simple dish to make, with the majority of the cooking time set aside for the lamb itself, to ensure maximum flavour and tenderness. Like any other stew, really.

Rather than use a block of tamarind to create a paste, I skipped this part and just bought tamarind paste. There was also an option of adding lambs liver and tripe. I opted not to.

I started with about 600g of cubed lamb shoulder and browned this on a high heat, then removed and set aside. In the same pan I then fried two chopped onions for a few minutes until it started to soften, added 3 crushed garlic cloves, some chopped fresh ginger, three sliced lemongrass stalks, 6 chopped red chillies and some turmeric powder and cooked this all together for another couple of minutes. Already the kitchen filled with a fantastic aroma!

This is where the meat was returned to the pot and topped with around 650ml of water mixed with a substantial amount of tamarind paste. Once simmering, the pot was covered, heat reduced to low, and this was left to simmer away for two hours. 

I didn't need to top up the water at any point, and once two hours had passed I removed the lid, turned the heat up to medium and boiled off some of the excess water in the sauce. I then seasoned the pot with some salt and pepper, and finally stirred in some chopped fresh mint.

This looked and smelled amazing. The sauce looked really rich and the consistency was perfect.  It was served up with boiled rice.

The result? A seriously tasty meal. The sweetness of the sauce from the tamarind paste was so good! The lamb was gorgeously tender. The addition of fresh mint at the end really set this meal off, and worked so well with the tamarind. Overall, despite there being a good number of chillies in this meal, the spice was ever-present but nowhere near overpowering. It has to be said the lemongrass ended up being quite chewy and a little too abundant. It made difficult eating at times, but overall this was a seriously enjoyable meal.

Dominican Republic - La Tropical

Restaurant:  La Tropical

Location:  85 West Green Road, London, N15 5DA

Date of visit:  5 March 2017

Time of visit:  6pm

This is one we were looking forward to. Elle and I have visited the Dominican Republic twice. Once in 2005, and again ten years later. Neither of us would profess to have sampled a large amount of traditional Dominican food, as most of our time on both trips was spent within the grounds of a gigantic multinational hotel complex. Still, we spent a lot of time with the local people, listening to the music, and getting a feel - as best we could - for what life was like in the Dominican Republic.

As it happens, this restaurant was just a minute away from a previous restaurant on our quest - The Bash - which we visited for Cameroon. We headed to La Tropical on a rainy Sunday evening. As it seemed a bit more like a cafe in nature, I didn't feel the need to book ahead. Which was warranted when we arrived to find only a few tables occupied.

The table tops were clear. No menus. No cutlery or condiments. There was no greeting when we arrived, but we made our way to a table and Elle approached the counter to ask for some menus. She was greeted by a reaction which is quite a common occurrence for us on this project. An air of confusion. Almost like the restaurant worker was expecting to be asked for directions to the nearest pub, or if we could use their toilet. Certainly not "Could we please have a couple of menus". The primary purpose of this establishment was obviously for Dominican expats! 

Of which there is clearly a sizeable amount in this part of London, given the number of people who came and went, and almost everyone seemed to know everyone else well! 

I haven't mentioned the first thing that hit us as soon as we walked in. The music. Loud Dominican vibes. For some, this might have been off-putting. For me, it was what I was hoping for.

The menus came to our table and we inspected the selection of starters and mains. The menu, like the restaurant in general, was on the whole generally Caribbean in nature, but with a particular focus on the Dominican Republic. This latter point is validated by the several national flags dotted around the restaurant, and slogans on their Facebook page (La Tropical does not have a website).

The menu selection was fairly vast, with a large number of the mains taken up by various different meat, rice and beans dishes. Strangely, a large number of those were in a section described as "starters and mains" although only one price was quoted.

Elle and I decided to go two dishes in a different "Meals" section anyway. Elle opted for the "pica pollo" - four pieces of fried chicken with plantain and salad. I absolutely could not resist the "yaroa de papa y pollo". That's chips topped with fried chicken and cheese. A ridiculously unhealthy Dominican speciality.

For drinks - which weren't on the menu - I was really hoping for a bottle of Presidente, a lager that sustained me on both holidays to the country. Unfortunately, they only had pretty much what the off-licence next door sold. Two bottles of Heineken it was then.

It was interesting to watch the comings and goings in the restaurant, and to listen to the music as we waited. My eyes were often drawn to the Dutch football on a Portuguese TV channel in the corner. As we waited, a waitress - who continued to serve us for the rest of the visit - brought us a small dish of sun-dried tomato stuffed olives. I love olives these days, and these were really good. Elle's mind still isn't made up on olives generally, but she also managed a good few with no problem!

We didn't have to wait too long at all for the mains to come out. They brought out Elle's fried chicken first, and it seemed that they weren't going to bring out the second dish until we had finished the first. Which then made us question whether they thought we were sharing both dishes, or had ordered one as a starter after all. Either way, we decided we'd split both meals anyway. This was a fantastic idea, for reasons you'll discover shortly.

The chicken was really very well fried. Not quite overcooked, but there was certainly no risk of it being undercooked. But this also meant that the spicy coating was really nice and crispy, and really quite tasty. Really nice big portions of chicken thigh, rib and leg which had loads of meat. Despite being deep fried, the chicken pieces weren't greasy at all. Really quite dry, but not in a bad way. The same goes for the plantain, which in the past has often been sloppy and greasy elsewhere. Not in this case. Consistency was fantastic. Cooked perfectly, and very enjoyable. Not very sweet, which - with the consistency - made me question if it was actually potato. It wasn't.

Just look at that. That is a plate piled with chips and fried chicken, topped with melted cheese, tomato ketchup and mayonnaise. A beautiful beautiful horrifically unhealthy beautiful thing. It's exactly the kind of thing I'd expect to be able to get from a chippy back home on the west coast of Scotland. And it was exactly as you would expect it to be. I don't really know what else to say about it! It was a beautiful thing. If anything, the coating on the chicken seemed to disappear underneath the bed of melted cheese, but it was still there somewhere. Lots of a lovely pieces of chicken breast. And lots of lovely chips and lovely melted cheese. A beautiful beautiful thing. I would have had absolutely no hope of finishing this on my own. Just as well Elle and I split the dishes between us!

It's fair to say we were absolutely stuffed after this meal. Just after we had asked the original gentlemen who served us for the bill, the waitress was walking around with a large bottle stuffed with herbs and liquid. I can only imagine it was mama juana, which we had tried often in the past when in the country. She poured us a couple of shot glasses of this liquor. Minutes later, we felt it. Strongly! We suddenly felt quite merry. And very very chilled. At this point we started to question exactly what herbs were in this stuff! Absolutely not complaining though, especially as it appeared this was a freebie.

That was a really nice touch. And that coupled with the buzz, the music, the vibrant atmosphere, and how relaxed we were feeling, made me realise that this was starting to feel quite similar to the experience during our famous Angolan restaurant visit in Stratford, still the absolute finest experience we've had on this project. Not quite as good, but it felt similar.

We did have to ask for the bill again. And were pleasantly surprised when it came. Two good substantial meals and two bottles of beer for £20! Plus two free shots, and a complementary plate of olives. 

I had high hopes for this visit. While I won't be telling the story for years to come (like I will about the Angolan restaurant), this really didn't disappoint. A great visit.

Dominica - home cooking

The first issue I had here was searching for cuisine from Dominica. Search for "Dominican restaurants" or "Dominican cuisine" and the vast majority of results come back relating to the Dominican Republic - an entirely different country.

Unsurprisingly, there are no restaurants in London which serve the food of Dominica. Weeding out relevant recipes to choose from for home cooking was tricky due to the point raised above. I found myself with a very short shortlist in the end. Including mountain chicken. Which I considered, until I realised it was bits of frog. Other recipes I came across were mostly regional, Caribbean-wide meals. But one of these popped up from a few different sources, with what seemed like a unique Dominica twist. So I set off on cooking tuna bakes.

And almost instantly regretted it. Once again, I was going against my self-imposed rule of never cooking anything which involved flour, eggs, or any eventual mandatory ideal consistency. And here I was embarking on a mission to fry balls of flour in hot oil.

Preparation was in two stages. Prep for the scone-like bakes and prep for the filling. I started with the latter, and it was incredibly simple. In a large bowl I mixed 3 tins of tuna in brine (drained), 1 chopped onion, 4 tablespoons of mayonnaise, 1 tin of sweetcorn (drained), the juice of one small lime and some salt. Once well mixed, this went into the fridge.

Next, in another large bowl, I mixed 600 grams of self raising flour with 5 teaspoons of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of salt. I was supposed to add 1 tablespoon of soft dark brown sugar at this point, but the sugar I had seemed really moist and I was concerned it was just going to create difficult clumps of floury sugar. So I decided to dissolve the sugar in the water that I would ultimately add to the mix. This water was added gradually until I ended up with a soft dough. Too soft. I was at this point somehow supposed to roll the dough into balls which I would then fry.

I ended up with a bowl of loose, sticky gloop. I tried to take it into my hands, but it just stuck to my fingers. There was no rolling into balls here.

My first thought was just to bin it, go to the shop, buy some potatoes and use the tuna filling in baked potatoes. But in desperation, I decided to heat the oil in a pan anyway and somehow just try and spoon the mixture into the pan. Within seconds of doing this, I realised this was going to work! As soon as the mixture hit the heat, it stayed together really nicely, and turning each bake several times to brown on both sides wasn't a problem at all. Before I knew it, I was frying four at a time!

I was a little concerned that the inside of each bake was still too soft, so each load I removed from the pan then went into the oven for 5 minutes or so, just to ensure the bakes had fully set. I think this was a really good idea, and didn't impair the bakes at all. In fact, I think it may even have helped accentuate the crisp of the outside of the bakes.

I ended up cooking 12 decent sized bakes, with a little mixture left over. I ended up serving three per plate, sliced in half and filled with the tuna mixture.

The verdict. First of all, I was ecstatic that I was able to pull this off at all. I had the lid off the bin at one point, about to dump it all. As for the eating, it was actually really very good. The bakes were a little greasy, but they *had* been fried and had taken in a good bit of oil. (Drying off with a kitchen towel before serving is a must). This did add to the flavour and the texture. They were nice and soft, with a crispy outside, maybe just a little bitter to the taste. There was no real impact from the sugar, but I expected the sugared water helped as a binding agent. The filling was no real surprise, as the ingredients were pretty simple and obvious. The bakes were good to eat with the hands, but again kitchen towel was at the ready! It all went really nicely together.

There was enough left over for a substantial lunch the next day. Elle and I both agreed that the bakes were even *better* the next day! Yes, a little less crispy, but much more set and firm. I thought, as the bakes were quite greasy, that it would be a good idea to warm them in the microwave before filling with the tuna mixture, and I stand by that idea.

Essentially we had what would be considered street food as a main dinner and a lunch on consecutive days. Very tasty, actually quite simple, and - for me - a bit of a personal triumph!

Djibouti - home cooking

After a good long run of restaurant visits, it was time to get back into the kitchen due to the lack of restaurants in London serving the food of Djibouti. And it wasn't difficult to decide which meal I was going to cook. Very quickly, during the minimal research I ended up having to carry out, I came across what is said to be the national dish of Djibouti. Skoudehkaris. It was also a prospect that really appealed. An easy, hearty, stodgy one-pot meal which took the best parts from a lamb stew and a lamb biryani and combined them. I was sold.

It had the makings of a simple meal from the short list of ingredients. The fundamental elements were lamb, spices, onion, tomato and rice. I started by frying a mix of ground cumin, cloves, cinnamon and cayenne pepper in ghee. Unfortunately, I was unable to track down ground cardamom and rather lazily added crushed cardamom pods instead. This was later going to taint the dish a little. After 20 seconds or so I added a chopped onion to the mix. Instantly this ended up turning everything really dry, as the spices coated the onions. Rather than risk burning the spices, I only fried this for a couple of minutes until the onions started to soften. 

I then added 600g of diced lamb, and browned the meat with the spiced onions. Thankfully, this added some moisture into the pot. Once browned, I tipped in a can of chopped tomatoes, followed by about 250 ml of water. And this is essentially the basis for the meal. Lid on and simmered for 45 minutes.

After the 45 minutes had passed, there was still a good bit of sauce in the pot. I then added 100g of long grain rice, stirred well and covered the pot again, simmering for another 20 minutes. I checked regularly to make sure the rice hasn't run out of moisture to soak up, but this never happened. In fact, if anything I probably could have added a touch more rice to help the general consistency.

But 20 minutes later, much of the sauce had been soaked up by the rice and the rice was done to perfection. It was time to serve.

Being a pot dish, this meal was clearly best served in a bowl and eaten with a spoon. A healthy portion was served, leaving about another quarter of that again in the pot for afters.

As hoped, it was a lovely, filling and very flavoursome meal. The lamb was absolutely perfect - melt in the mouth soft, with much of the fat having disappeared to help thicken the sauce. The sauce itself had some fantastic flavours - a very earthy, distinctive spice to it, with a sweet tomato base. The cardamoms were annoying. Rather than pick them out before serving, I tried to endure them. They had been cooked for so long that they were definitely soft enough to consume. An acquired taste, for sure. I'm usually quite happy to eat a couple in curries, but there were a good few in this dish. It didn't ruin the meal, but it created a slight annoyance which wouldn't have been the case if I had sourced ground cardamom. Still, the cardamom flavour is important in this meal.

Generally, this was a good hearty meal with a lovely flavour. Really simple to make, and really enjoyable to eat.

Denmark - Snaps + Rye

Restaurant:  Snaps + Rye

Location:  93 Golborne Road, London, W10 5NL

Date of visit:  Sunday 11 December 2016

Time of visit:  2.30pm

At one point a visit to a restaurant was looking quite doubtful for Denmark. One option appeared to be a Scandinavian shop that maybe sometimes did some kind of sandwich. Then there was Snaps + Rye. An initial look at the website raised two questions. Was I really going to pay that much for a set menu full of food that I didn't think we would enjoy very much (i.e lots of seafood)? And secondly, was this menu particularly Danish at all?

When I looked closer, I saw that there was also a breakfast / brunch / lunch option. Still fairly pricey, but much more reasonable. Then when I looked more into what Danish cuisine consisted of, I realised that this place was right on the money.

So off we went one Sunday lunchtime a few weeks before Christmas to what was a lovely little cafe in Notting Hill. I guessed it was a good idea to book ahead, and this was absolutely the right thing to do. First of all, this place is really small. Pleasantly so. Snug and intimate. And also completely full at the time we arrived, which admittedly was ten minutes before the time we had booked. We were greeted straight away, but were advised we would have to wait. Rather than give them the inconvenience of us going elsewhere for a short while, and them subsequently keeping and empty table free for us, we gave them the inconvenience of just hanging around by the door, while another couple of diners finished their meal and got their things together!

Finally, the table was vacated and prepared for us, and we sat down to study the menu (some of which is also online). The menu is separated into "Small/Medium Plates", "Plates" and "Sides". Most of the dishes in the small/medium section were available in both sizes. There was also a specials board.

Ten minutes later, the waitress came to serve us. This was quite a feat, as she was extremely busy. To drink, Elle asked for the only bottle of cider on the menu. Of which there was none. The waitress was quick to suggest an alternative of Danish mulled wine, delightfully named "glogg". Glogg it was to be. I ordered the Tivoli IPA, from the Danish brewery.

As for food, I opted for the first dish on the main "plates" menu, titled "Sun Over Goldbourne". This is their version of the Danish dish "Sol over Gudhjem", with Gudhjem being a part of the Danish island of Bornholm known for its smoking houses. And it is smoked mackerel that is the centrepiece of this dish, with egg yolk, rye, pickled beetroot, capers and radishes on a bed of rye bread.

Elle struggled too choose something from the menu, and the waitress did spend some time with her trying to help the decision. In the end, she went for the pork veal frikadeller meatballs, served with artichoke, apple puree, sauted potato and onion.

There was a really nice Sunday vibe to this place. Busy but relaxed. No one was in any real hurry. The service was quick but attentive. This was clearly a well run business, run by a very proud team.

Every now and then toilets are mentioned in this blog. And they have to be mentioned here. I've never really seen anything like it. It was like someone's personal bathroom at home. Very comfortable. Beautifully decorated. I stopped myself from taking a photo! Only just.

After 15 minutes, the food arrived. And straight away the presentation was striking. Quite stunning.

The general, non-fussy, easy to please diner in me was quite taken aback at how small my portion seemed. Especially for the price. But the experience of eating this meal was quite special. Two strips of smoked mackerel were placed next to a lovely salad. All of this on a bed of rye bread topped with a lovely creaming dressing. The egg yolk was delightfully placed inside a ring of red onion. To the side, an array of pickled beetroot and sliced capers. This was a gorgeous meal. So many fantastic flavours, which went fantastically well together. The mackerel was fantastic. Smoked to perfection. The rye bread and dressing provided some real substance. I wouldn't say I was full after this meal, but I was certainly satisfied. It was one of the most enjoyable lunches I have had for some time.

Elle also thought, at first glance, that her portion looked quite small. But she too ended up being satisfied with the amount of food on her plate. She also mentioned the array of many different, interesting tastes. Not all particularly welcome, especially the blue cheese sauce which covered the potatoes. The three substantial meatballs were really nice though, and worked well with the apple sauce.

One thing that really did make Elle's afternoon was the glogg. Her remark was that it made her the "happiest girl on the planet". It was full of hot, juicy berries. Definitely 10 out of 10 for that. Probably just as well they had no cider.

A tiny blot on the customer service copybook is that the waitress forgot to come back and take payment after we'd asked for the bill. But that isn't a gripe in the slightest, because generally the service was fantastic, especially as the restaurant was at capacity.

Overall, this was a fantastic experience. Quite pricey. Quite different. But definitely worth a visit.

Czech Republic - Czech and Slovak Club

Restaurant:  Czech and Slovak Club

Location:  74 West End Lane, London, NW6 2LX

Date of visit:  16 October 2016

Time of visit:  6pm

The Czech Republic restaurant visit was always going to be another one of those cases where it was going to be difficult to find a restaurant dealing solely with Czech cuisine. This is fairly obvious, due to the formation of what we now know as the Czech Republic. By which, of course, I mean the breakup of Czechoslovakia. I'm sure there must be tiny differences, but generally traditional meals in Prague are almost certainly going to be the same or incredibly similar in Bratislava.

As such, the only real restaurant I could find specialising in Czech (and related) food was the Czech and Slovak Club. If we ever get to the letter "S", and the Slovak Republic, I reckon we'll be here again, eating the same thing!

On researching this restaurant, it was instantly clear that this wasn't any normal straightforward restaurant. This was more of a community centre. A meeting area for Czech and Slovak expats. All within a large Victorian house. Expecting it to be quite busy on a Sunday evening, I called the day before to book our table for two in the restaurant.

From the outside, the only sign that this wasn't another private home set back off a busy road was the Pilsner-Urquell sign next to the gate. Once you walk through the gate, and are able to see through the main front door, you can now tell that this is a different kind of establishment.

First impression: a house. Second impression, for me at least, was that this is a hotel. As soon as you walk into the building you are presented with various doors at both sides into other large rooms, and a small reception-like counter in front of you. After giving our names, I was asked if we wanted to dine in the restaurant. I wasn't really sure of the options, so I confirmed this and he led us past a clearly loud and busy room, with a real buzz, into a cold, completely empty, silent room with over a dozen "reserved" tables. Straight away we both knew this wasn't where we were going to spend the next hour or so.

I asked the waiter if we could eat next door instead, and he seemed almost relieved that I asked. We could eat there, absolutely. But we would have to order at the counter rather than at our table. And we'd have to order our drinks separately at the bar (avoiding a service charge). Sold! Into the busy room we went.

And busy it was. In fact, we couldn't find a free table. Although at the back of this room - which I discovered was the "Meeting Room" - were a few long tables which sat at least 8 people. We joined a couple at their table - those two at one end of the table, and Elle and I at the other. Neither of us imposed ourselves on the other.

The laminated menus - which we picked from up from reception on our way into the Meeting Room - was identical to that on the website. One side is in English, and the other in Czech. The menu was excellent. No starters, per se, but a selection of "bar bites". Plus main dishes, schnitzel and other fried main meals, meat salads, "floury" dishes (mostly potato pancake dishes), grilled dishes and several options in between.

We both ordered main dishes only, with Elle going for the "Czech Club" chicken schnitzel and myself choosing the traditional Czech dish of svickova - roast beef in a creamy vegetable sauce with dumplings. I ordered at the counter (£20 altogether) and then popped next door to the small bar to order our drinks. There was a handful of people in the bar, with about the same number of people outside in the garden (smoking area). The bar was more like a tuckshop that you'd find in a community centre or youth club. A little hatch in the wall. I ordered a glass of white wine for Elle (no options were offered - wine is wine here) and asked for a pint of Pilsner Urquell.

Back to the comparison with a community centre, the whole venue had that feel. Wooden floor. Wooden tables. A loud and echoey room. A pool table in the corner. But I was really relaxed. It feel like a really comfortable environment. We felt welcome. Not out of place at all. I was already really enjoying this experience.

No more than twenty minutes later, the food arrived.

My first impression when my meal came was one of lots of sauce and "bread" and not much in the way of meat. I was quite hungry and couldn't quite see how this was going to satisfy. How wrong I was. This meal was exceptionally satisfying and hugely enjoyable. The camera lies. This meal consisted of two slabs of thick, soft, tender and beautifully tasting braised beef. No fat. Just pure soft beef. The sauce was more like a wholesome, sweet cream of vegetable soup. Thick and creamy. I actually think a bowl of this alone would have filled me up, with hindsight! And the "bread" was actually dumplings. Soft but dense, sweet dumplings which were perfect for mopping up the sauce, the flavours of which really complemented that of the dumplings. Looking at the picture, there is an addition I've yet to describe. Yes, that is cream. It is indeed on a bed of jam. Which is actually sitting on a slice of lemon. I certainly didn't expect that, but I rolled with it! 

It's not very often that I don't finish a meal, but this was a tough talk. One of the most deceivingly substantial meals I've had in a long time. 

To the eye, Elle's meal was more familiar. Schnitzel is common across Central Europe, but each country adds their own unique twist. In this case, the schnitzel was topped with cheddar cheese and spicy BBQ sauce. The chicken itself was beautiful. Hot and clearly very freshly cooked. The coating was lovely and crisp. The BBQ sauce worked really well with the cheddar cheese, which in turn went perfectly with the raw onion and pickled vegetables on the side. The cheese and onion made the meal what it was. Elle wasn't too keen on the pickled veg, was was mostly small sliced gherkins, so those ended up on my plate! Elle's only other slight complaint was that it would have cost 50p extra for tomato sauce. She declined. The chips were chips. Good chips. Nothing special. Nothing unexpected. 

We started to realise that we actually appreciated the fact that, other than the food being brought to the table, there was no table service. This meant there was no waiting around for the plates to be cleared. No frustrating wait to pay for the meal. It was already paid for. Ideal.

Rather than leave the club, we decided to pop back into the bar and have another drink. This time we both opted for a pint of Budweiser. The proper Czech stuff. The bar is very decently priced, especially for the lager all being imported.

Overall, this visit was a lovely surprise and very unique. Highly worth a visit.

Cyprus - Kolossi Grill

Restaurant:  Kolossi Grill

Location:  50-60 Roseberry Avenue, London, EC1R 4RR

Date of visit:  17 September 2016

Time of visit:  7.40pm

Having just returned from a week in Corfu, we were expecting more fine Greek food during our next restaurant visit, as we headed for a Cypriot restaurant. There are a handful of Cypriot restaurants and takeaways in London, including a couple of Turkish establishments (of course the northern part of Cyprus is controlled by Turkey) but I opted for one of the higher rated and more authentic looking Greek Cypriot choices.

We arrived just after 7.40pm, without a prior booking. This didn't cause a problem as the restaurant wasn't too busy. That said, there was already a nice little bit of a buzz in the restaurant, which was helped by the cosy interior and decor.

We were seated by the waiter straight away and the menus came quickly afterwards. We didn't have to wait long at all before we were served. The menu itself is quite extensive, and reads pretty much like any Greek restaurant's menu would. Indeed, I couldn't quite be sure if there were any exclusively Cypriot dishes on the menu. Nothing stood out as such.

To drink, I opted - naturally - for a bottle of the Cypriot beer, Keo. Elle did the same.

For starters, I picked the dolmadakia - vine leaves stuffed with minced beef, tomatoes, rice, herbs and tomato sauce. Elle went for the haloumi (sliced then char grilled).

I asked for the lamb kleftiko (slow-cooked lamb shank) for my main dish, something I really enjoyed earlier in the month in Corfu. Elle opted, surprise surprise, for the mixed kebab. I might actually go back and count how many times she has gone for the "selection of mixed meats" option so far during this project. I reckon at least 40% of the time!

We were upsold some pitta bread too. Usually we would politely decline, but the waiter's upselling tactics, although subtle, were effective!

The interior of the restaurant was quite quirky. But seemingly authentic. Vines and hanging baskets adorned the walls and ceiling. Lighting inside the restaurant was modest - not invasive but also not too dark. Greek music played.

As we waited for the first of our two courses to come, a complimentary dish of carrots, green olives and green pickled chillis (like those you get on the top of a doner kebab) arrived at the table, which was a very nice touch.

The starters arrived promptly. My vine leaves were steaming hot and clearly very freshly prepared. The meat was beautiful and not too dry at all. The flavours were fantastic, as was the tangy tomato which was poured above and below the vine leaves. This was an appetiser in the truest sense, as I really anticipated the main meal as soon as I had finished the starter!

Elle's sliced haloumi was well grilled, which really added positively to the flavour. The texture of the cheese perfect. Not too rubbery or squeaky. No gimmicks or fancy stuff with this dish. Just four generous slices, and some fresh cucumber and tomato on the side.

It has to be said at this point the bread, which we were pitched earlier, was fantastic. Clearly freshly baked on the premises and a great addition to the starters.

To the mains. And one of the best lamb dishes I have ever had. And this was after saying the same about the same dish in Corfu just a few weeks prior to this. The lamb was incredible. Just fell off the bone into gorgeous melt in the mouth chunks. The shank is roasted for at least four hours, and you can tell. So amazingly tender. It didn't really come with any gravy or sauce, but the lamb was so succulent that there was nothing dry about this dish. The chipped potatoes on the side were also very enjoyable. Really tasty choice of potato and delicately salted, which went perfectly with the meat.

Elle's main was, as always is with her regular choice of grilled meats, very dry. Something which didn't help this was the fact that half the plate was rice. Dry rice. But the dish is what it is. The selection of meat was very good. The meatballs were very very tasty. The grilled pork was smoked and very flavoursome indeed. The small spicy sausages were excellent. The chicken kebab was standard. Nothing special. The slice of lemon with this dish was a good touch. It was certainly a very filling selection, with no surprises.

By the time we had finished dinner, the restaurant had filled quite nicely. Despite there only being one last table available, the waiting staff were in no real rush to clear our plates. With hindsight, they were probably being run off their feet. Otherwise, the service was generally excellent. I'll forgive the fact that they didn't wish us goodnight as we left!

Overall, this was a very good experience. One of the most pleasant restaurants we've been to recently, with friendly service and fantastic food to match.

Cuba - Escudo de Cuba

Restaurant:  Escudo de Cuba

Location:  20 Stoke Newington Road, London, N16 7XN

Date of visit:  29 August 2016

Time of visit:  6.30pm

With the aim of trying to build a bit of momentum again with the project, Elle and I took advantage of Bank Holiday Monday to make our next visit to an A-to-Z restaurant. This time, Cuban. Of the handful of Cuban restaurants in London, I could only find one that was not part of a chain and had an authentic menu. Escudo de Cuba was our destination.

Or at least I thought it was. The website suggested as much. As did my booking via a third party service. But a check on Google Streetview showed the previous "Escudo de Cuba" signage covered up a large "CUBA LIBRE" sign. Had the restaurant changed name? Changed hands? Was it even still a restaurant? We took the risk.

On arrival, the same menu from the website was displayed outside the restaurant, which put my mind at ease. It was a warm and sunny evening when we arrived, so some drinkers and diners were outside the restaurant. As we walked inside, we found it three-quarters full. We also found no one around to greet us or take us to a table. So, despite booking ahead, we just found the next free table and sat down.

With that said, the menus were brought to us almost instantly, so our arrival didn't go unnoticed. Shortly after that, two complimentary small bowls of fried plantain chips and green olives arrived, which was a very welcome touch.

One thing this place did have was atmosphere. You could almost believe, if you didn't look out onto Stoke Newington Road, that you were in Havana. The decor. The smells. The music. We spent two weeks in Cuba some years back, and were recognising much of the music that was being played, which helped take us right back there.

After some mulling over, we decided on what we wanted. We certainly had plenty of time to do that, and change our mind. And change our mind again. It took quite a while for anyone to come and take our order. Well actually, not strictly true. Almost always, when we go for a meal and the waiter/waitress comes to take our order, Elle is generally not ready yet and sends them away "for a few minutes". The issue with her doing that is that the waiter/waitress tends to take ages to come back to us. And that's exactly what happened here!

Eventually, we got to order. To start, we picked three empanadas to share. For mains I ordered the Ropa Vieja a la Cubana (shredded beef in red wine sauce) and Elle went for the Plato Cubanito (chicken and pork in cumin and orange marinade). To drink, Elle opted for a glass of Chilean sauvignon. I was really looking forward to a bottle of Cristal lager, after living on the stuff in Cuba. They had none. I was offered another Cuban beer, "Cubanisto", which I agreed to, as it was also on the menu as "Cuban". I was dismayed to find it was actually the creation of the largest multinational brewery in the world. It was as Cuban as a bottle of Irn Bru. Genuine mis-selling.

We already guessed that we'd be waiting a little while for the empanadas to come, and we weren't disappointed. Well, we were. You know what I mean! It was a fair while before they arrived, which made me hope that they were fresh rather than reheats from earlier. And fresh they were. Piping hot, but lovely a crisp crust around the outside. The fillings were chicken, pork and vegetable. They had a lovely spice to them, and were served with a green salad and spicy salsa. (Picture above is of each of the empenadas, and portion of salad, halved!)

Time to wait again. This time, for 45 minutes which was verging on ridiculous. The restaurant remained around three-quarters full for our stay. It certainly didn't appear to be understaffed. I also noticed that for as long as we didn't have food, no one else really did either. Then ALL the food started coming out at once, which to me suggested potential issues in the kitchen.

Additionally, for the entire duration of the visit, I noticed the bar was 90% covered with what must've been close to 100 dirty glasses and plates, that never seemed to get cleared. Leaving the barman with a tiny patch of remaining surface area to mix his cocktails and pour drinks.

Like with the starter, I hoped that the quality of the mains made the wait worthwhile. Before we even got to the quality, the temperature instantly let us down. Elle's entire meal was lukewarm at best. The meat on my plate was hot, but the rest was barely warm. This was really disappointing, on top of the general experience up to this point. We debated with each other whether we were going to raise the issue. But God only knows when we'd ever see our food again if they took it away. We opted to simply deal with it.

I have to say, my shredded beef was really lovely. A fantastic portion, with generous amounts of herby red wine sauce which added to the really juicy helping of meat. It was served with herbs, tomatoes and peppers, and a side of rice and black beans which helped mop up the sauce.

Elle's chicken and pork had good flavours, with obvious orange coming through. It was served with black beans, rice and vegetables. But she found it difficult to enjoy fully due to the now cool temperature of the meal in general.

Just after we finished our meal, the couple beside us had started to complain about how long they had been waiting for their food. They received an apology, and were told their drinks were on the house. Part of me, clearly, wished we had kicked up a fuss. But that isn't our style. We just won't be back.

Which is unfortunate, as the food was really good. It was probably even better than it seemed. But the way the food was treated didn't do it justice. There was clearly something amiss when we visited. I can't imagine it is always like that, as it is clearly a popular restaurant. But I'll be off to one of the chains next time I fancy a Cuban experience.