Congo (DR & Rep of) - The Bash

Restaurant:  The Bash

Location:  71 West Green Road, London, N15 5DA

Date of visit:  12 March 2016

Time of visit:  8pm

For the first time since this project began in 2009 we have combined two countries in one visit, for fairly obvious reasons. I have tried desperately to find out if the cuisine of the Democratic Republic of Congo is at all different from the food of the Republic of Congo. Nothing suggests that they are anything but identical. And as they both come together on my reference list of sovereign states (under C for Congo) I decided this visit would cover both.

There are a handful of Congolese restaurants in London. I settled on one of two on the same street. I actually decided to go for the option further along West Green Road, called Okapi, as they seemed to have more traditional Congolese dishes on the menu. I texted the restaurant to book a table a few days in advance, and received a confirmation. However, on the day of the planned visit I received another text informing me that due to refurbishment they were unable to open that day.

A little disappointed, and slightly suspicious, I decided we'd just go for the other, closer, restaurant on that street. Again, I tried to book a table for two on their website but never received a response.

We arrived just before 8pm on a Saturday night, and instantly doubled the number of diners when we walked in. No need to book then. The waiter saw us to a table, and quickly presented us with the menus. Straight away we could tell this guy was a courteous professional, and this remained the case throughout the visit.

The menu itself was fairly limited in variety - a handful of starters, a little more in the way of mains, and about the same choice of side dishes. The emphasis for main dishes was on meat and fish, with little in the way of sauce in accompaniment. The sides consisted of different types of potato, plantain or cassava bread.

As for drinks, I couldn't see any evidence of local African lagers, although Nigerian Guinness and Dragon stout were on the menu. Most lagers had two prices, but it was unclear if those were different measures of draft, or bottle sizes. Wine was pricey - £7 a glass.

As we looked through the menus, we took in the environs. The decor in this place was incredible. Huge faux-crystal chandeliers, detailed patterned wallpaper, silver wall decorations, elaborate fixtures and fittings. There was a Congolese music performance displayed on many TVs and pumped into the restaurant. The same performance lasted our entire visit and was actually quite entertaining. At times it was so loud we felt like we were directly in front of the stage. Unfortunately the mic feedback during the performance was often piercing in the restaurant!

We got to ordering. Elle and I both went for lager - Heineken for me, Bud for Elle. We didn't specify which size, just leaving it to see what we got. As for food, I ordered half a chicken and Elle went for the "barbecue (taba)", which was lamb, on the suggestion of the waiter. For the side dish we went for the "3 in 1" - a plate of roast potato, roast sweet potato and plantain.

The waiter left the restaurant. Then came back with the drinks. We're almost certain he bought them at a nearby off-licence. Impressive markup at a resell price £6.50 for a 660ml bottle!

Shortly after that, he returned from the kitchen to advise that my chicken would take at least 25 minutes to come. I got the impression he expected that I would just go for something else, but I was happy to wait. I was getting pulled in by the music on TV!

As we waited, the restaurant gradually got busier. It is open until 2am, so I dare say this was still very early for most. 

The toilets are worth mentioning, and that is rarely the case. You needn't miss any of the performance on the main restaurant TVs, as there is a TV in the bathroom while you sit and do your thing. Or if you are standing, doing another thing, you're also covered with a TV above the cistern. Green LED lighting illuminates this single unisex facility. Mind the remote control perched on the sink as you wash your hands...

In reality, the food took almost 40 minutes to come but this wasn't an issue. Elle's BBQ lamb came first - a large plate very full of bitesized pieces of dry lamb on the bone, topped with fried onions and a small pot of mayonnaise. My chicken was also barbecued, clearly with some kind of coating, and also topped with fried onions. The side dish of potatoes and plantain was decently sized. The waitress who brought the food returned to ask if we wanted chilli sauce. If only she knew how much we wanted this! She returned with a small pot full of oily chilli sauce. 

The half chicken was a good size, and cooked absolutely perfectly. No pinkness at any point. But absolutely not overcooked anywhere. The skin had a great seasoning and grilled taste, and the meat was succulent and plentiful. The onion topping was welcome touch, and offered a contrasting flavour. 

Elle's lamb was very impressive. The portion was more than generous, and each piece of lamb was full of meat, albeit fairly fatty. Each piece needed a good bit of attention to eat around the fat and bone, but the meat was really tasty. It's fair to say there was more than a hint of cooking fluid (read: paraffin) which infused itself in the taste of the meat, but it wasn't too off-putting! 

One of the most impressive parts of the meal was the side dish. The plantain was absolutely perfect. Not at all greasy or oily. Just beautifully done - the best we've ever had. The potatoes were done to similar perfection.

Overall, this was a really satisfying meal. Maybe a little pricey for what it was at just over £40 overall, but the portions reflected the price. The service was exceptionally good and very attentive. And the overall atmosphere and presentation of the restaurant really added to it.

Comoros - home cooking

After a good run of restaurant visits, it was back to obscurity with the next country on the list: Comoros. The islands are nestled between the south east coast of Africa and the island nation of Madagascar. The history of Comoros sees many different settlers from many parts of the world - Africa, Indonesia, Portugal for example - and each group of people left their own mark in many parts of the culture, including the cuisine. As such, the country is rich in culinary options.

One of the most common national dishes is "le me tsolola", which essentially is a simple stew with a regional slant. For instance, it contains a staple of the region: bananas. And coconut milk. And combines meat and fish. This was sure to be interesting!

The choice of meat and fish seemed to be left up to the chef, and traditionally was no doubt determined simply by what was available at the time of cooking. I decided to choose what I'd guess is the most commonly eaten meat, lamb. Tripe was an option. Technically, an option. I was never going to choose tripe. Ever.

As for the fish, I wanted just a simple, white fish so I opted for a couple of fillets of river cobbler - Tesco's cheapest. It does the job.

Also involved were two green bananas, two onions, four tomatoes, a tin of coconut milk and seasoning (salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper).

Already the first step seemed odd to me. The fish and meat - cut into pieces - were to be fried together in oil until well browned. And rather predictably at this stage the fish began to cook and break up very quickly. Into tiny flakes, as fish does. To this I added the chopped bananas, onions and tomatoes, poured in the coconut milk and brought this to a simmer. The seasoning was added at this point, and the stew left to simmer for an hour or so.

As the time passed, it became clear that somehow there was too much liquid. It became more of a soup than a stew. And the fish was gone. Disappeared. It essentially became part of the soup/stew/sauce/liquid. A stock.

The meal with served with white rice. On eating, it was actually really quite pleasant. The flavour was sweet with a little kick from the cayenne pepper. The lamb was cooked beautifully, maybe a touch too much (probably as I tried to boil away some of the excess liquid!). The fish flavour was less than delicate. Barely noticeable. What *was* noticeable was the occasional sweet mush of banana. The texture was as unusual as was the contrast in flavour from the fruit.

Overall, it was an enjoyable meal. A pseudo soup-stew with a very different combination of flavours. And no tripe.

Colombia - Donde Carlos

Restaurant:  Donde Carlos

Location:  143 Goldhawk Road, London W12 8EN

Date of visit:  6 February 2016

Time of visit:  8pm

It was nice to approach a country and have the choice of several restaurants. There is a sizable Colombian community in London, with the majority of restaurants servicing that community based around the Brixton area. However, there was one restaurant that was much closer to home for Elle and I. And judging by the exceptional reviews, it wasn't a choice of convenience over quality. Rather, it looked to be the best of both words.

We tend to aim to arrive at our restaurants around 8pm on Saturday nights. That way, we tend to experience a restaurant at it's busiest, most vibrant. Best staffed. In full flow. That is exactly how we found Donde Carlos when we arrived. It was a wet and wild night in West London. The second we walked through the main door into what was essentially the front conservatory, we were transported in a warm, vibrant, electric atmosphere. People talking, the sound of cutlery against plates, South American music filling in the gaps. First impressions are everything. We knew this was going to be good.

It didn't take long for one of the waiters to notice our arrival. He instantly grabbed two menus and asked if we would rather sit at the front of the restaurant, or the upper level at the back. Elle and I clearly had an unspoken agreement to get as far away from outside as possible, so up the stairs we went.

The restaurant was one big space, but two tiers. The front tier was made up partially of what seemed like a conservatory. Certainly some kind of extension onto the original building. I could imagine they opened this up in the summer time. The place would have been destroyed had they done that tonight. What also helped the hustle and bustle atmosphere was the semi-open kitchen, and all the associated sounds. 

Donde Carlos doesn't seem to have a website. However, I did have a sneak peak of the menus thanks to the restaurant's entry on the Zomato.com and their full scan of all the pages. The menus handed to us were identical.

The menu has a fantastically wide choice of different parts of Colombian cuisine, with different types of hot and cold appetisers, breakfasts, arepas, mains, daily specials, tapas (Fridays only!), drinks and deserts. I knew to anticipate a generous portion for the mains (It's an Americas thing!) and advised Elle of the same. So we didn't order any starters. For the main dish I went for the Bandeja Paisa, and Elle chose the Bandeja Montanera. Both are essentially regional Colombian takes on a mixed grill. But much better.

And to drink, we both went for a Colombian beer. At first the waiter seemed a bit surprised at that choice, but with hindsight I think that may just have been a language barrier issue.

There was a good bit of team work going on with the service, as a completely different waiter came to set our table. And the beer came promptly - Club Colombia dorada - with little napkins tied around the necks of the bottles.

The food came surprisingly fast, despite a warning on the back of the menu stating the wait could be as much as fifteen minutes (God forbid!) on busy nights.

I was right. The portions were great. I was presented with a large plate of chorizo sausage, sliced plantain, sliced beef, deep fried pork belly, cornbread, a fried egg, boiled rice, fresh salad and a separate bowl of very saucy red kidney beans.

Every element of this plate was fantastic. Many parts surprised me. Anytime I've had plantain in the past I've never really enjoyed the texture. It's been sloppy, greasy and not very nice. This time it was grilled, not fried. So it was firm, but moist. The most I've ever enjoyed plantain. The chorizo was full of flavour, and itself quite filling. The beef was lean, tender and delicious. The pork belly was something I wasn't really sure about before I ordered. I've never really had it before, and never liked the look of it. To the extent that on a previous restaurant visit (see the China review) I didn't even sample someone else's portion of pork belly. It never appealed. Looked too sloppy and... well, fatty! But I loved it this time round. It was deep fried. It was dry, firm and superbly tasty. Lovely big chunks of firm, salty pork with a rind that was essential pork scratchings. I was so pleased this didn't put me off ordering this dish. The fried egg was a really nice touch, and made it feel all the more like a mixed grill. Or even a breakfast!

On the plate it looks like a really dry dish, especially with the rice and cornbread. But the full bowl of red kidney beans and associated sauce balanced off the dryness and made it all into a really wholesome, ridiculously filling dish with so many flavours, perfected by the fresh vegetables.

Elle's plate came looking a little more crowded than mine, but then there was no accompaniment like there was with my bowl of beans. Her meal was more meat-heavy, with the addition of sliced pork (rather than belly) and chicken fillet. The chicken had a lovely seasoning to it, and was melt in the mouth tender. The same could be said for the pork and the beef. Her meal was definitely drier than, which is maybe the only tiny drawback of the meal.

However, we were also provided with two small pots - one of garlic mayonnaise and one with what seemed like a coriander, garlic and chill sauce. Looked like guacamole but had so much more flavour.

We were fit to burst by the end of this meal. Dessert simply wasn't a thing tonight. Despite being a busy night in the restaurant, there was absolutely no pressure on us to order any more or to ask for the bill. We were very respectfully left alone, but there was absolutely no issue in calling for the attention of a waiter when needed. This was really impressive.

As was the cost. £32 for two fantastic mains, two beers and wonderful service.

As we were leaving the restaurant, the waiter who served us most of the evening asked if we had enjoyed it. He didn't specify if he was asking about the food or the experience. Either way, the answer was "exceptional" for both.

Chile - El Vergel

Restaurant:  El Vergel

Location:  132 Webber Street, London SE1 0QL

Date of visit:  30 January 2016

Time of visit:  2.15pm

Without going back and checking all the previous reviews, I think this was the first visit that took place at lunch time. Every previous restaurant visit for the blog was a dinner visit. The reason for the early visit this time is that El Vergel is the only permanent establishment in London which serves Chilean food, and the latest the restaurant opens is 4pm. And that is on Saturday only.

A Chilean lunch it was. El Vergel is hidden away in a myriad of small streets between Southwark and Borough stations. The restaurant itself makes up part of the ground floor of what looks like a fairly new residential development. From the outside, the restaurant is easy to miss. There is no real signage. It also doesn't look particularly big.

But once you get inside you find yourself in a large, spacious high ceiling room with many long rows of tables, and a fair bit of hustle and bustle. The restaurant was surprisingly busy this Saturday afternoon, with many families (complete with screaming kids) and a large number of staff. Only a few tables were free.

We made our own way to a table, clocking the attention of a waitress on the way so she knew we would need serving. And this she did right away, with two Saturday brunch menus and - surprisingly at 2.15pm - the breakfast menu.

All menus are scanned and available on their website, so we had a good idea of what to expect and what we wanted to order in advance. We chose from the Saturday brunch menu, which was a collection of meat and vegetarian appetizers, traditional Chilean steak sandwiches, tostadas, tacos and a great selection of salads. The back of the menu offered a selection of soft, hot and alcoholic drinks, and fruit juices and smoothies.

Not too long after we received the menus the waitress came back to take our order. Elle and I went for identical options - an empanada de carne to start, followed by a traditional Chilean churrasco queso. And a glass of Chilean Sauvignon blanc. The waitress also offered salsa and chilli with the order, which we accepted.

Looking around the restuarant, the interior was quite impressive. Spacious, rather rustic in appearance - lots of unfinished-looking surfaces, written graffiti on pillars, stone floor. The restaurant was clearly family friendly, judging by the cluster of parents and children at one side of the restaurant, the provision of beanbags and the likes. The decor was vibrant and colourful. The kitchen was open and busy.

We didn't have to wait long for the wine, which came in small glass tumblers (the likes you used to get at school).

Shortly after this, the empanadas came. And as expected, they appeared as most meat pasties would. The pastry was nice and soft, with a good filling of great tasting meat and onion. It seemed quite fresh, but clearly heated up. We topped the empanadas with the contents of a small dish of chilli salsa, which added a nice kick. The one downside with the empanandas was the addition of olives, which Elle picked out (and I ate).

The restaurant was well staffed. They were attentive, but not in your face. Our waitress came back after the starter to ask if we had received our steak sandwiches yet. Which we hadn't.

Five minutes later, they came. Not massive in size, but what was inside looked fantastic. The bread itself was billed as "home made village bread" - a round, thin but doughy sliced roll. Firm on the outside, lovely and soft on the inside.

The beef was thin, lean and beautifully cooked. It was surround by generously thick wads of soft, melted cheese sprinked with fried onions, topped with fresh sliced tomatoes. There was a thin spread of chilli paste inside the bread, which gave the sandwich a serious kick.

The sandwich was hugely satisfying - lovely flavours, and just the right size. One of the best steak and cheese sandwiches I've ever had.

A fantastic two course meal with glass of wine each for less than £14 each. Definitely worth revisiting if we are in the area.

China - Yipin

Restaurant:  Yipin

Location:  70-72 Liverpool Road, London N1 0QD

Date of visit:  21 November 2015

Time of visit:  7pm

Only once before on this project have Elle and I been joined by anyone else, when Miles and Jen came for a Brazilian meat fest last year. This time round my friend Laura and her boyfriend Ian came down from Glasgow and near enough insisted they became part of the project! Of course they were more than welcome. 

This time round it was time for China. One of the many countries which takes a bit more thought than the rest. I'd imagine there are probably more Chinese restaurants in the UK than those of any other country, maybe after India. So I wanted to make sure we went for something more specific than a generic Chinese restaurant that does a regular looking menu, and those familiar Chinese chips (almost as consistently similar as McDonalds' fries are, wherever you go!) 

China is a huge country, made up of many distinct provinces all with their own quite unique cuisine. Most of the four of us are quite into our spices, so it came down to choosing Hunanese or Sichuan food. Thankfully, there is a highly rated restaurant in Islington which specialises in both. Yipin China, near Angel station, was listed in a Time Out list of top ten Chinese restaurants in London, and judging by the menu on the website I could see why that would be the case. 

It's quite a nondescript looking venue, off the main road, with fairly reasonable prices which made me hopeful that it would be a quite authentic experience. We arrived just after 7pm and were greeted at the door by a waitress, and taken to one of many free tables. The restaurant was very quiet at this point, maybe surprisingly so for a Saturday evening. 

Menus were brought to the table very quickly, and looked similar to the website menus, including the pictures, but the selection on the printed menus was much larger. Each dish was illustrated with a photograph of the meal, which was very helpful in helping to gague what appealed to us the most. The selection and variety of dishes on offer is hugely impressive. 

The waitress returned quite quickly to take the drinks order, which consisted of three Tsingtao lagers and a soda water and lime. Unfortunately they didn't have soda water, so sparkling water came instead. After some deliberation, the food was ordered. I went for numbing and hot sliced beef to start, Elle opted for the ribs, Ian chose spiced black fungus and Laura decided not to order a starter but eat most of Ian's. For mains, I went for the fantastically titled fragrant chicken in a pile of chillies, Elle picked the boiled beef slices in an extremely spicy sauce, Ian went for seabass topped with salted fresh chillies and Laura opted for the roasted crispy pork belly. All this, plus three portions of egg fried rice. 

Oddly, all the food - appetisers and mains - came at the same time. We didn't contest that, but it did lead to a bit of a crowded table at the start! The fact that an additional dish that no one ordered appeared didn't help this, but I'm glad to say the waitress quickly took this dish back with no fuss when we flagged it up. 

The appetisers section in the menu mentioned "cold starters" synonomously, which I wasn't sure was true or not. Maybe something lost in translation? Nope. Two of the starters came cold. Much of China is intensely hot in the summer, and despite ever prevalent spice in much of the food, it is served cold to help aid dealing with the hot weather. The effect was lost on us on a bone-chillingly cold Saturday night in North London, but it was a new experience nonetheless. 

My sliced beef was incredible. A heavy pile of beautifully tender thinly sliced beef, topped (and on top of) a massively flavoursome selection of chilli, salt and garlic. The whole taste experience was magnificent, and it was my favourite item on the table. The fact it was cold took nothing away from it. In fact, I couldn't imagine it being any nicer if it was warm. I was so glad with that selection. 

Elle's starter was the only one that came warm. The pieces of ribs were much smaller than she was used to, meaning slightly more difficult eating, but the meat and flavours were excellent, and no fattier than normal ribs.

Ian's black fungus also came cold, but looked the part. Again, I couldn't have imagined it warm. The fungus itself had a really good texture, soft but slightly crunchy at the same time, which would have been lost if it wasn't cold. The flavours of the chilli complimented the fungus well, with a real garlic punch too.

Onto the mains. I think my chicken and chillies won the award for the most impressive looking dish. On first glance, the volume of meat and chillies looked a bit ridiculous. Particularly the chillies. However, on further experience I started to realise that the chillies weren't really for eating. The were very tough, almost dried. They clearly played a part in the cooking process, but now they were just for decoration. It was all about the pieces of chicken in between. The bowl was full of quite small pieces of seemingly deep fried chicken, which had taken on the heat of the chillies fairly well but was nowhere near as intense as I had expected. In fact, the meal was quite dry so I was quite glad I had a good bit of the chilli and garlic sauce from my starter, which I then worked into the main. A really nice meal, but if I had known what it was in the end I may have gone for something else.

Elle's beef looked quite impressve, with a lot of oily sauce. The beef, having been boiled, was very soft but this also left a lot of the fat around the meat. I've watched Elle sit for ten minutes peeling the fat from a bacon sandwich leaving just a thread of meat, so I can understand it when she said she found it quite chewy and difficult to eat. Despite that, the flavours were nice. Almost too intense though when it came to the number of peppercorns, which she also discarded.

Laura's pork belly was the only one I didn't really try. I've actually never tried pork belly before. She said it was very authentic, and was really happy with it. The texture was extremely soft, "like fatty panna cotta" according to Ian! I did however try the sauce that the meal came with, which itself was also full of meat. We think it was little lardons of pork which had a slightly firmer consistancy but led to a really wholesome meaty dish.

Ian was the only one to go for seafood. The menu had a fantastic seafood selection. The seabass was laid out in two fillets, topped with the chopped salted chillies and sauce. The fish was extremely delicate in consistancy and taste. It almost melted in the mouth. Despite the delicate flavour, the chilli sauce and other flavours - although stronger - didn't overpower the seabass.

As we worked our way through the dishes, the very attentive waitress was very quick to remove empty dishes and plates from the table, without getting in the way. The service overall was some of the best we've received for some time.

Unfortunately there was a fair bit of wastage. Not to do with the quality of the food, but due to the very generous portions and the fact we completely overestimated how much rice we needed.

As the evening went on the restaurant got busier, maybe just more than half full by the time we left.

All in all three starters, four mains, three sides and four drinks, plus service, came to just under £100. £25 per head, which is more than reasonable for the quality of the food and the service. We left very full, very happy customers. This restaurant is highly recommended.

Chad - home cooking

Another African country, another trip to the kitchen. As far as I can tell, there are no restaurants in London that cater for Chadian cuisine. So it was back into the kitchen.

I felt I had to do a fish dish this time around. It's rare that I cook any kind of seafood, and fish is in plentiful supply in many parts of Africa. Lake Chad is a recognisable feature in the west of the country, on the Nigeria and Niger border. As such, communities around the lake reap the benefits of the fish from the lake. Tilapia is commonly found here, and as a result I thought broiled tilapia cooked in a local style would be appropriate. But in the end this was quite a simple, almost generic solution, so to add authenticity I decided to serve with a side of Chadian salad.

As a result, the meal with prepared in two parts. Salad first, fish second. The main reason for this was to allow the salad to chill in the fridge while the fish cooked. Yep, a meal of hot and cold.

So, for the salad. It was made up for 150g long grain brown rice, 1 small cucumber, 2 bananas, 50g raisins, 2 tablespoons of chopped almonds, 60 ml olive oil, 1 lemon, and some salt, ground coriander, ground cumin, cayenne pepper and honey.

The first step was to cook the rice and set aside to cool. During this, it was time to slice the bananas and cucumber and add to the raisins and almonds. 

Then, to bind this together, the dressing which consisted of the rind and juice of a lemon, mixed with olive oil, salt, ground spices and honey. Add this to the rest of the salad, and the rice, and mix softly but well, then put in the fridge to cool for at least half an hour.

With that out of the way, it was time to cook the fish. An important stage for preparation was to pat dry the tilapia fillets before coating in flour on both sides. I then pressed two sliced garlic cloves into both sides of the fish fillets. To be honest though, the cloves didn't really stay in place at all and fell off at all the future stages of this recipe.

I then flash fried the fish in hot oil, on both sides, before placing two halved tomatoes on top of the fish, topped with a sprinkle of salt, pepper and chilli powder, and a splash of water. I covered the pot and simmered for 40 minutes.

Both the fish and salad were served together.

The verdict? A real mix of different flavours which shouldn't really go together. I can't really say they did, but it wasn't unpleasant at all. The fish was lovely, with a great infusion of garlic. Even though it was difficult to keep the sliced cloves on the fish, they still cooked together and the taste was definitely there. As for the salad, for me the raisins made it. Words I never thought I'd say. The raisins made it. The big hits of sweetness with every few mouthfuls somehow seemed to compliment the rest of the flavours. This coming from a man who once upon a time refused to eat any fruit with food.

The banana was thankfully not too flavoursome after the cooking process. The texture and slight flavour played a big part. The cucumber was really fresh and gave the dish a good bit of refreshment. Elle and I aren't big fans of cucumber but we still managed quite well with it this time round.

In the end there wasn't a single grain of rice left. It was all gone within 20 minutes.

I think it gives me an extra appreciation for this type of cooking. Certain meals are based on blended, complimentary flavours. But recipes with distinct, contrasting flavours can be just as, if not even more, interesting and enjoyable.

Regardless, time for some restaurant visits!

Central African Republic - home cooking

After a nice run of restaurant visits, it was time to go back into the kitchen for a dish from the Central African Republic. Before even looking at recipes, I already had an idea of what to expect. Meat. Peanut butter. I didn't approach the recipe research with this in mind, but I ended up settling on a dish called kanda ti nyma. Which was meat with peanut butter.

Kanda signifies meatballs, and is a meal in its own right. Kanda ti nyma is the aforementioned meatballs in an okra and peanut sauce. Although not a massive fan of peanut butter in a dinner, this seemed to be the more authentic, common option of the two.

The recipe is quite simple, in all honestly, although I've been known to make a complete balls up - no pun intended - of meatballs, which just end up being mince and onions again.

For this meal I used 750g of minced beef, 2 large onions, 1 1/2 eggs, 2 chilles, 3 cloves of garlic, 9 okra and 5 tablespoons of unsweetened peanut butter.

First stage was to make the meatballs. As expected, this was done by combining the minced beef, 1 chopped onion, chopped chilli and chopped garlic along with 1 1/2 beaten eggs. Once this was well mixed together, it was time to form the meatballs which I moulded to be just bigger than golf ball size. I ended up getting 18 meatballs out of the ingredients.

Next up, the sauce. I fried the other chopped onion until it started to turn translucent, then added the chopped okra and fried for another minute or two until the mixture started to combine. Then set aside.

At this point the meatballs were browned on all sides in another pan. I didn't have a pan big enough so I had to do this in two batches.

The next stage was to mix 360ml of water with the peanut butter, add this to the onion and okra mix, and simmer for a minute or so. Then it was time to gently place the meatballs into the pot. It was a bit tight for space, but I managed to fit all 18 meatballs into the base of what essentially is a soup pot. The sauce came up to just over halfway up the meatballs, but I was quite confident they were going to cook well, especially turning them round halfway through cooking.

After 25 minutes, they were done.

The meat and sauce were served on a bed of rice. I served 6 meatballs topped with sauce for the main dish, and left the rest to the side for later.

The verdict. The meatballs themselves were fantastic.Of any of the previous times I've actually successfully made meatballs which stayed ball shaped, they haven't ever really been particularly flavoursome. This wasn't the case this time. There was a really nice kick from the chilli. The garlic and onion came through fantastically, and the meat itself was perfectly done. 

As for the sauce, the peanut flavour was definitely in evidence. Certainly not overpowering, but definitely there. This ended up being an issue for Elle, who isn't a peanut fan generally anyway. She actually did quite well considering, finishing the meal but leaving the extras.

I cooked okra once before, and it was an absolute disaster. It was like eating little pieces of hard plastic. I have no idea what I did wrong then, but this - the second time I've cooked with okra - was much more successful, and there was no doubt it plays a role in bringing the sauce together and giving it substance. A good bit of onion in the sauce helped to make the sauce quite familiar and probably helped counter the peanut taste.

All in all, a very filling, satisfying and surprisingly tasty meal, even if the individual tastes don't suit everyone's palate. 

Cape Verde - home cooking

Although I do pride myself on my geographical knowledge, especially when it comes to countries and borders, I wasn't initially sure if Cape Verde was going to be the next installment of our restaurants project or not. I had never been sure if the territory was an autonomous country in its own right, or a dependency of another. 

But it didn't take much research to realise that Cape Verde is indeed a nation, and as such has a national dish. It also didn't take much research to ascertain that there are no restaurants in London that cater for Cape Verde's cuisine. So it was back to the kitchen.

During the aforementioned research one uniquely national dish popped up again and again. Cachupa - a stew of corn, beans and meat. Going a little deeper than that, cachupa rica added a few more ingredients than the simpler version of the meal. All ingredients that sounded bloody good to me.

There are many variations of even this version of the dish, and I think there is also permitted use of creative licence when it comes to adding even more. I ended up using a recipe of a Cape Verdean student in London, guessing that this was as authentic as I was going to get.

The first ingredient I attempted to buy was dry corn or hominy. No luck. So I took the easy way out and went for sweetcorn, to add later in the process rather than cook with from scratch. I used dry kidney beans as red beans. Also in the meal was olive oil, onions, bay leaves, vegetable stock, garlic, chorizo, pork, chilli powder, potatoes and a sweet potato, white cabbage, carrots and tomatoes.

As I used dry beans, and bought them on the day of cooking, I flash soaked them for an hour to soften them up. After sauteing one chopped onion with a bay leaf I added the beans (and usually the corn) followed by one litre of both vegetable stock and water. This cooked for 40 minutes.

While this was on the go, in another big pot I heated four tablespoons of olive oil and to this added the other chopped onion, four crushed garlic gloves and one bay leaf. Once the onions started to soften I added one sliced ring of chorizo, half a kg of diced pork, and a tablespoon of chilli powder. This all cooked together on a low heat for around 20 minutes, stirring often as the mixture was quite dry.

Both pots were ready at pretty much the same time. One was added to the other, and at this point the rest of the ingredients - 4 small potatoes (quartered), 1 sweet potato (quartered) half a cabbage (sliced), 2 carrots (sliced), and 2 tomatoes (peeled and sliced) - were added, mixed together thoroughly and cooked for another 20 minutes. This is also the point where I added a drained tin of sweetcorn.

A word of advice. Use the biggest pot you have for this. The recipe used here was to feed six, and I would even say that was a bit of an underestimation.

When serving, I was careful to leave as much liquid in the pot as possible as ideally it should be served on a plate. And it was hugely enjoyable. I always want to use the word "wholesome" when it comes to cooking a stew like this, and wholesome is a good word to describe it. I love cooking with rich items like chorizo, as the flavour really soaks into everything else in the pot in the best way possible.

The potatoes added some real substance to the meal, as did the pork. The beans and corn made this a thoroughly filling meal. I'm still not really sure what bay leaves do in cooking, and the chilli powder seemed to have negligible effect. Still, this was a fantastic dinner that also became lunch a couple of days later.

Elle also enjoyed the meal, but it contain three things that she doesn't really eat - kidney beans, chorizo and carrot. She gave it a good go though, and discarded only the kidney beans. She actually was complimentary about the chorizo such is the positive effect the spicy sausage has during the cooking process.

Canada - The Maple Leaf

Restaurant:  The Maple Leaf

Location:  41 Maiden Lane, London, WC2E 7LJ

Date of visit:  23 August 2015 

Time of visit:  7pm

Canada was always going to be a fairly simple, non-exotic affair. We were already familiar with the Maple Leaf after a couple of visits for a drink and some pool (I swear there was once a selection of pool tables, although they seem to be gone now). I also assumed this was the only real option when it came to Canadian or Canadian-themed bars/restaurants, which seems to be the case.

As for Canadian cuisine... I don't even know what to write. One of the top "national dishes" of Canada in a recent survey was the "Kraft dinner" (macaroni cheese from a box). 

On checking the menu ahead of the visit, the selection was fairly standard. Burgers. Steaks. And one single dish on the menu that looked uniquely Canadian. Poutine. Chips, cheese and gravy. Off we went.

We arrived on a Sunday evening and the venue was fairly busy. It's definitely much more of a pub that does food, than a restaurant. Actually, I think this was the first time we had visited such a venue since the project began. Nevertheless, we felt quite at home.

After a little mulling over the menu, Elle approached the bar to order. She came back a few minutes later with a story of how the barmaid was hungover, finding this out after her colleague joked about it behind the bar. She got confused taking the order, but got there in the end. Despite the hangover, she still tried some upselling, including upgrading fries to "criss cross fries". We politely declined.

For starters we went for a couple of dishes to share. Poutine and six ghost chilli chicken wings. For mains we both went for the "Maple Leaf" burger, one with ghost chilli pulled pork (Steve) and one with peri peri pulled pork (Elle). And a pint of Fosters and Aspalls respectively.

As we waited, I spotted live Spanish football on the TV's around the pub. I guess there were no live ice hockey games on in Canada at the time (is it even ice hockey season?).

The food arrived in fairly good time, the starters first. The poutine looked and tasted exactly like it was described. Chips, cheese and gravy. But it was *just* chips, cheese and gravy. There was nothing particularly unique about it. I've seen the cheese in poutine described as "cheese curds". This was almost certainly grated cheddar. And a "light brown gravy-like sauce" in this case was definitely simply beef gravy. Don't get me wrong, to this Scotsman and Black Country girl, it was absolutely as good as chips, cheese and gravy should be! Maybe we just expected some kind of twist.

The starters may have lacked twist, but certainly made up for it in kick. The ghost chilli wings were pretty special. I've had hotter wings (namely the Orange Buffalo stall near the Truman Brewery in East London - ridiculously intense!!) but these were pretty good too. Good size of wings too. It's too easy to be served budgie wings these days. We also received 8 wings instead of the advertised 6. Bonus!

At this point I was hugely annoyed with myself. This blog has recently included photos of the food. Yet I neglected to take a picture of the starters! As for the main...

There was no forgetting to take a picture of the main, for it was served on a slab of tree. For some reason this instantly irked the both of us. All I could think was that this burger was going to get messy. And this plank of wood wasn't going to help contain it much. Plus, I've had it somehow instilled in me that wood is unhygienic for preparing and serving food. The wooden chopping board effect. 

Elle very politely asked for two plates instead, which seemed to confuse the staff who asked "Don't you like our wooden boards?". He seemed more amused than anything else. I think I decided that this wouldn't even have been an issue were we at least ten years younger. Anyway, let's not dwell on that.

Oh, and another thing. When I read "pulled pork mixed with sauce" I expect "pulled pork mixed with sauce". Not "pulled pork with no sauce, with a small pot of sauce for you to somehow mix into the pulled pork on top of a burger". I can't even say I'm nitpicking now. I wanted minimal effort, and all of a sudden there was effort involved! How hard would it have been to do, in the kitchen, what it claimed in the menu?

I don't even think I want to read those three paragraphs back. I'm already disappointed in myself for writing them. I don't really know what I've become. Let's just say, when all was said and done, it was a really good burger. Freshly cooked, maybe a little lightly. If you don't like your burgers pink, this might not have been your thing. It was a little worrying that Elle's was fully cooked and mine wasn't, so I can't be sure it was the house style. Just undercooked.

This review will either read like an awful experience, or make me sound like a moany wanker. Neither are true. Honest! The menu is really decent, and the food was good. As was the service. It was a really standard meal, experience and night.