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© 2003-2009 Michael C. Berch
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Mon, 31 Jan 2005

London

As many of you might know, Berch on Food has been doing a bit of traveling lately, which is one of the reasons for the woefully sporadic updates, but also has permitted me to "lard in", as they say, material for a number of future pieces. I spent the last half of December in Nebraska (and more about that later, including the mystery disappearance of the best barbeque joint in the whole state), and spent the last half of January abroad, in London, Switzerland, and Paris.

Treating London first, I was handicapped by the fact that the UK portion of my trip was in fact for client meetings at a London law firm, which is to say, I was unable to spend all day trying to sniff out good chow, and had to take things as they came. Nevertheless I managed to both drag my colleagues off to some good meals, and break away from them when opportunities presented themselves.

First, let me put in a good word for beleaguered and oft-criticized United Airlines. The food on my flight over (business class) was pretty good, with the sole exception of an overcooked filet mignon. They started us off with smoked salmon lox with creme fraiche, prosciutto, a nice salad, followed by the filet in a tarragon sauce (not bearnaise), scalloped potatoes, and carrots. The wines were an interesting minervois from Robert Skalli (not often seen in North America), and a claret that called itself Chateau de Grand Caumont Corbiéres Cuvée Special 2001, which is a mouthful, but it was a great wine. We finished with Sandeman's (non-vintage) Founder's Reserve port with Stilton and English cheddar.

So after that, and the usual airline breakfast omelette, the trip into town, and so forth, I wanted something a little different. I don't typically suffer from jet lag, and one thing I like to do on arrival is get out into some fresh air (even in the rain, as in London) and get some exercise, ending up with lunch or dinner. First I popped into Selfridge's food halls and snagged a crayfish and avocado salad and a slice of saffron crab quiche for lunch, then went out walking.

Dinner turned out to be a lovely Lebanese place called Fairuz, in Blandford St., next door to the Blandford St. Restaurant (my intended destination, but it didn't look appealing -- no knock on the place, but just not what I was in the mood for), just off Marylebone High St. At Fairuz I opted for a first course of minced lamb baked in a flatbread -- I failed to record the Arabic name but it's sort of a Middle Eastern-spiced version of the Indian keema paratha. This was followed by the main course, a mixed grill of sea bass, trout, calamari, and prawns with a spicy tomato sauce. Instead of wine, I drank a small glass of arak, a potent anise-flavored, milky-white liquor which is the national drink of Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.

Since I was staying in a rental flat with full kitchen and not a hotel, I stopped at a nearby of Tesco and laid in a stock of breakfast and snack foods. (It's amazing how much better even a modest British supermarket branch, at least in central London, is than most American markets. Ours in the U.S. are bigger, but Tesco/Sainsbury are surely better. Of course, I've heard the opposite from British people, so it just may be a case of "greener grass".)

Off to work and then I joined my colleagues at lunch at Shampers, a popular restaurant in Kingly St., just off Regent St. (near the Apple Store), which was best known originally as one of London's first wine bars, and started with the grilled spicy prawns, served in the shell (and while delicious, a little tricky in suit and tie), followed by a grilled sliced filet of lamb, perhaps marinated, tender and flavorful, one of the best I've had, served on a bed of planchada beans in some sort of reduced stock-based sauce. This set a pretty high bar for things to come. As my companions opted mostly for fish, we had a sancerre (Les Perrieres, 2003) which was crisp and complex.

After the afternoon meeting I sprinted for the TKTS half-price ticket booth in Leicester Square, and was rewarded with a ticket to Jerry Springer: The Opera (highest recommendation, but only if you enjoy the transgressive and profane, as I do). So: where for a pre-theatre dinner? I wandered by the theatre to get my bearings on the local neighborhood, and ended up at Belgo Centraal, which is an enormous Belgian underground beer hall with long tables, an incredible din, and I was lucky to get a seat immediately. I shared a table with a local couple, who had come into London from Oxfordshire for their third wedding anniversary. I wanted to give them a private moment for their dinner, but the husband was a gregarious sort, and when he found out that I was in a somewhat similar line of work we chatter pleasantly. They, too, were attending Jerry Springer and we made plans to meet for a drink.

In any case, the specialty at Centraal is giant pots of steamed mussels and Belgian frites, which is what I had. There are various formulas for the mussel pot, and I chose the white wine and cream version. Tasty and filling, and I made the curtain with plenty of time to spare.

We worked through the next day's lunch (with tasty catered sandwiches, though, including one with chicken tikka), but finished up early and I was able to meet several friends from The Well at a pub, followed by dinner in Drummond St., which is near Euston Station. There are a number of Indian, Pakistani, Middle Eastern, and Greek places in the area, and we went to Diwana, which is a vegetarian south Indian restaurant, basically specializing in bhel puri and dosas, and I had a chance to sample real bhel puri for the first time, having read about it in various books, especially those by Salman Rushdie writing about the beaches of Bombay. I had a thali dinner of several vegetable curries, and sampled others' dishes including a dosa, dahi vada, idli, and sambar. These dishes -- excepting bhel puri -- are typically available in the Bay Area, but are not nearly as common as what my friend Andy calls "indifferent Punjabi food". (I'll make it back to Veeraswamy next trip, or maybe Red Fort.)

Since we finished up in time for a late lunch the next day, I headed for Knightsbridge for some window shopping, and to Harrod's Food Halls for dinner take-out, and lunched in Beauchamp Place (an exceptionally precious shopping street a block or so from Harrod's) at a Portuguese restaurant, O Fado. One specialty of Portuguese cuisine is cod which is salted and cured in the open air, and then rehydrated and incorporated into various dishes. I had A Ze di Pipo, which is salt cod mixed with onions, seasonings, and mayonnaise, and baked in the oven with a crust of mashed potatoes. Every bit as good as it sounds, though more than I could finish, having started with a seafood-stuffed crepe with a brandy cream sauce.

My final dinner in London, by tradition, was catering brought back from Harrod's Food Halls. This varies from season to season, but I ended up with a few treats -- cold shrimp in garlic and dill, matjes herring with apples, two "artisanal" concoctions (a peeled tomato stuffed with caper salad and topped with a giant prawn and an avocado stuffed with salmon mousse, lobster, and an olive), shrimp toast topped with salmon roe, and a slice of beef Wellington. Not bad for "take-out"!

I had a flight to Zurich in mid-afternoon from Gatwick Airport, and managed to squeeze in lunch from the local branch of Chez Gerard, a chain of French-style brasseries in the UK, and had a quite decent salad and a plate of Toulouse sausages in bearnaise sauce. Not real French food but acceptable for airport eats.

All in all, a pretty successful trip to London. My work schedule prevented me from hitting any of the temples of Modern British gastronomy for which London is now justly famous, but perhaps next triphttp://www.berchonfood.com.!

Posted at 22:31 | permanent link

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