And this one is just in time for Spring! Today, we have Bethany who runs the charming recipe blog Dirty Kitchen Secrets. She’s beautiful, she cooks great food and she’s sharing her recipes with the world. Hope you’re enjoying the sun and run out and get some asparagus. -Kang. I am thrilled to announce that I have come out of hibernation. It’s about time because I was starting to get worried about my peculiar conversations with the weather gods&#

Kang’s note: I have a superior treat for you today. This is Paula Sindberg‘s experience at the latest ‘secret’ restaurant to hit London, at The Loft. Paula owns the Ultimate Wine Company.  I promise you’ll like this melange of food, music and design. Over to you P. Ok, first question – what’s a mash-up? Maybe if you’re under 30, the answer is obvious. However, I’m not and I had to experience it to understand it. From experience a mash-up is where food, wine, art and music commingle to make a perfect evening. But perhaps it’s better to describe it – The Location – The Loft Kitchen in Hoxton, Northeast London, is actually the residence and laboratory of Nuno Mendes, an innovative Portuguese chef in London who is using the lower floor of his loft as the experimental kitchen for his new restaurant (opening in the Bethnal Green Town Centre complex early in 2010). Every Friday and Saturday night he creates multi-course tasting menus to try out some of the dishes he’ll feature in his restaurant. However, Nuno was merely our gracious host on Wednesday night. The dynamo behind the mash-up was actually Rachel Khoo

Lantana Breakfast £10 official blog I finally made a trip out to this much talked about cafe, and it was awesome. I need my breakfast, and this review is now a guest post on the blog A girl has to eat.  [Read the full review there

Kang says: How’s your weekend going folks? Any issues with the clocks going forward? I’m doing a little post exchange with the story of how boys and girls need to eat. In this one, a girl has to eat lunch, japanese style. Hope you like this one, a boy will need to eat, breakfast next wednesday so look out for that. Tsunami Official site Why I decided to wear four inch heels to meet my friends for lunch at Tsunami, a Japanese/pan-Asian restaurant on Charlotte Street, was a mystery to me. Perhaps it was because with the clocks changing, I got a whiff of spring in the air, and felt that they now deserved a new pride of place, that is on my feet, rather than being relegated to the back of my cupboard. But by now, I should know that such ventures are best kept for those times when I do not have to walk too much. So here I was, ambling down to the bus stop, taking 15 minutes rather than the usual 5; stumbling slowly up and down the stairs of the bus, and almost missing my stop in the process; before finally making that long walk down Charlotte Street. To make matters worse, Tsunami is situated past the concentrated stretch of ‘restaurant row’ where most of the eateries are, down the other end of the street

Mark has an interesting perspective about the world. When he contacted me about doing a guest post about food for Global Patriot, I was a little miffed about how a glutinous little bugger like me can ever be a boon to noble causes. Then he explained how he thought that food was one of the ways that connects us all, and through it – the whole economy of the food industry and how the chain is completely interlinked from the producer/farmer through to the local grocers and ultimately the end consumer. It’s the people, ultimately who opt to for ethical farming methods and organic greens and those of us foodies who champion fresh produce and resist homogenisation (and food over packaging) that we are actually fighting a good fight to keep a healthy, thriving eco system going. Hope I inspired you a little there, do join the conversation over at Global Patriot

Hellew peeps, did you miss me while I was away ? My flight back to Blighty was pain-free but coming back to my day job is none the more painful. I think I must have gained at least five pounds while on holiday, yes and yes - to answer your questions, I did photograph all the vacation food (with my brand spanking new Nikon D90) and I will write about them shortly. Getting back into the swing of things is the order of the week and I’ve started making reservations in London restaurants for this weekend so expect the first restaurant reviews to resume normal service next tuesday. In the meantime, the guest posting competition with the super duper grand prize of £50 is now officially done. Over the past couple of weeks, fellow food bloggers have helped me prop up very edible guest posts on London Eater and I am eternally grateful to the foodies who chipped in. As today is finally the 11th of March, all the guests posts will now go into a voting poll. The name of the game is very simple: just vote for your favourite one of any of the eight guest posts  and I’ll pass £50 to the blogger with the most votes via paypal. The poll will be open until 30th of March and the blogger with the most votes on that date will be £50 richer. Not sure which one tickled your fancy? Keep reading for a quick summary of the guest posts

Kang’s Note: This is the last of this series of guest posts for the £50 competition and it comes from Hillary of Chew on that Blog. This is her 2nd entry and it was originally published on her blog – I think it’s pretty cool, especially the fresh guacamole made fresh in front of you! Wowzie, Thank you to all the foodies who participated in this little competition, remember now, if you like any of the guest posts, come back Wednesday, Marth 11th and vote, vote, vote! -Kang. Aside from Texas BBQ, one of the more notable attractions in San Antonio is the Riverwalk. Many tourists like to stay on the Riverwalk (like us) so they’re close to all the restaurants and action. If the weather is right, it’s a pretty place to walk around, take a boat cruise and enjoy a relaxing delicious meal by the water. So in my quest for San Antonio restaurant recommendations, many of you recommended Boudro’s, a Texas Bistro on the Riverwalk. It was definitely one of our considerations but the deal wasn’t quite sealed until the boat cruise tourguide recommended it as well. He said he’s never had a better meal than the ones he has had at Boudro’’s and that the prices were very reasonable, considering. So after a relaxing boat cruise, we headed on over to Boudro’s. (On a sidenote: did

Kang’s Note: Oliver Thring of Thring for your supper! opted to articulate a charming bashing of The Light, a nightclub, bar and restaurant (in that order) trying to do too much and ultimately failing to do any single one properly. I love a good rant ( who doesn’t right? ) especially when one is done with such flair. Take it away, Ollie! – Kang. The Light [1/5] Restaurants invariably disappoint when attached to other things. The Disneyland diner. The burger van at the dogs. Balconies at the Royal Opera House. Of course, the trump card of such places, their snide and snickering victory, is that the trapped customers have nowhere else to go. Out, then, come the elephant foot kebabs or the patties of pulverised gristle, the preheated, lazily oleaginous mess of it all, with an apathetic shrug that seems to say, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ The Light, housed in a renovated electric light station for G.E.R., is a nightclub, bar and restaurant (the proper order, I fear) squatting at the border between the glassy City and the scruffiness of alt.Shoreditch. We’re here on some recession-wrought deal that one of our party found on the Internet. The place tries to do many things, and does most of them extremely badly. Downstairs, the oversized bar and restaurant have Hoxtonish exposed brickwork and high, uncomfortable stools, while the

Kang’s Note: Jude and Rosie are the London Brighton eating duo defined by the distance between the two places. The Fiftyfourfoodmiles are a road less travelled and Jude has brought back the spirit of blogging with a write-up of Brighton’s Food for Friends with nothing but the power of prose to paint you a picture of the meal they’ve had. Ah yes, some good old fashion writing to stimulate those brain cells. -Kang. Review: Food for Friends 17-18 Prince Albert Street, Brighton, BN1 1HF, 01273 202 310. Brighton is an undeniably good place to be a vegetarian: it doesn’t make you a social leper; in fact as a meat eater you often find yourself in the minority in pub-table conversation. Not surprising then, that Brighton (which now boasts nationally acclaimed veggie spots such as Terre à Terre, for example) was a suitable place to open Food for Friends – the city’s first vegetarian eatery – in 1981; a time when ‘I’m vegetarian’ provoked ‘a what?’ rather than ‘what kind?’ from people. Lactose / gluten-intolerant weren’t common phrases in those days of yore. But, Food for Friends, as a restaurant name? For an old cynic like me it forces an eyebrow skywards. Its name is telling me that my experience will be joyous, wholesome, filled with laughter as my close-knit group of friends and I (yes we’ve had our downtimes! Yes,

Kang’s Note: Alright, so Foong runs the great Food site and she makes loads of healthy but delish recipes. There’s two sides to this blogger ( log on to find out why) and she’s gone for a food quirker with this guest post. Yes well apparently they are green worms, it’s tasty stuff , really it is, keeping reading folks. – Kang. You know, we Chinese are a superstitious lot but when it comes to food, almost anything goes. The Chinese are known to eat anything that moves except for vehicles so when we talk about eating worms, whatever the colour, it is not really all that unusual. If the Chinese thinks eating animal penises can make them more virile, you don’t even want to know what else they eat for other so-called unproven medicinal values. Now, lets get back to the green and white worms mentioned in the title of this post. As you well know, I am not Kang but a guest-blogger (you can call me Foong) here while Kang is away so I can blog about any food review I want…bwahahahahah…although only for one post…still, I want to shock his readers: YOU. Who in their right mind would eat yucky green and white worms in mud, right? Well, only in Malaysia and only when it looks like these:  

Kang’s Note: My forth guest post of the write and win fiddy competition is Hillary of Recipe4living and the chewonthatblog fame, she’s contributed her very first texas BBQ experience and if she says the food is incredible, I’m flying to Texas for it. Start salivating folks! -Kang. This weekend I had the pleasure of visiting San Antonio, Texas. A very last minute trip (like most of my travels), I didn’t have much time to plan out every detail in advance. But, since it would be my first ever trip to Texas, I knew I would have to make time for some Texas-style barbecue (especially after just having Kansas City-style barbecue last month!)

Kang’s Note: Today we have the 5 Star foodie blazing a trail of culinary glory to sample some of the best eateries in the US of A. In this post, she is at the Inn in Virginia and it’s one of those posts which evokes a sense of holiday…… – Kang. The Inn at Little Washington There’s a small Virginia country town, called Washington, located near the Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge Mountains, only a few hours away from the busy streets of the capital. It is home to one of the all-time classic restaurants in the United States, the Inn at Little Washington. The Inn, as it is known, has been awarded five stars by the Mobil Travel Guide every year for almost two decades. In 2008 the Inn is celebrated its 30th anniversary. The chef and the proprietor of the Inn is Patrick O’Connell. Patrick O’Connell is a trail-blazer for modern American cuisine, featuring refined American classics with fresh local and seasonal ingredients. Amazingly, he is completely self-taught. His exceptional genius stems from his ability to select just the right combination of flavors and turn these into fantastically beautiful, artistic creations. The Inn has also encouraged the emergence of fresh produce and local farms tailored to fine culinary resources in the Virginia countryside. A true culinary pioneer, Patrick continues to make his own way and pave the

Kang’s Note: Today’s guest post comes from the finance foodie who does numbers by day and eats like me by night! FF blogs about the very best five star establishments to the most modest hole in the walls in search of the proverbial gastronomical high. For this trip, she has landed at Chung Shin Yuan to sample a very Taiwanese Breakfast in Boston. Enjoy it folks! -Kang. Last weekend, I attended a get together at Chung Shin Yuan, a “hidden gem” in Newton, MA known for its Taiwanese style breakfasts. Since the place is about 45 minutes away from Boston, my friends suggested we meet up at 10:30 a.m. in order to beat the weekend crowd (this place apparently fills up faster than my plate at a seafood buffet). When I realized we were meeting before noon on a Saturday (shudder!), I was tempted to feign illness and sleep in. However, my heater inexplicably shut off in the middle of the night, so I was unexpectedly awaken by the bitter cold that drifted into my room at 9:00 a.m. I figured since I was already awake, I might as well go to brunch (plus, I didn’t want to be known as “Anti-Social Athena”). When we arrived on scene, we found half of Boston’s Asian population had already beaten us. Luckily, we bribed an elderly Chinese couple ahead of us in

Kang’s Note: Im in grey italics and on the sidelines for the next couple of weeks on holiday and I have turned the virtual podium to eight guest bloggers. The first of which is Gen.u.ine.ness’s feasting at 1 michelin spot Ambassade. I shall say no more, there are 26 pictures and it’s very delish, enjoy folks! I’ve been asked to write a guest review by Londoneater and by coincidence I happen to have a 2nd visit to Ambassade de L’ile which I had lying around. Rather than publishing another review on my blog. I thought it would be ideal guest columnist write-up. For does who do not know me yet, I am a medical student who happens to be fortunate enough to dine out more often than the average student. I suppose, it is a reflection of the number of years I have spent training to be a doctor that my writing is more concise and to the point than most other food writers. I do tend not to indulge in descriptive prose (not very helpful when a patient is very ill and needs immediate help), although I sometimes can’t help making a medical reference or two. My main focus is on food and food alone. If you want to read about how beautiful the hand dryers are in the restaurant’s toilet I am the wrong writer for you. However, given

Ok, so I think it’s about time I close submissions for my ‘Write for me and win £50‘ competition and start telling you guys about what to expect next week. I received eight submissions from seven food bloggers and this is the tentative plan of release: Ambassade de L’ile (London, UK) by Kian of Gen.u.ine.ness 23rd February Chung Shin Yuan (Newton, USA) by Athena of Forays of a finance foodie 25th February The Inn ( Little Washington, USA) by Nathasha Price of 5 Star Foodie 27th February My Texas BBQ experience at County line ( Texas, USA) by Hillary of Chewonthatblog 1st March Eating green and white worms in mud (Malaysia) by Foong of thefoodsite 3rd March Food for friends (Brighton, USA) by Jude of FiftyFourFoodMiles 5th March The Light (London, UK) by Oliver Thring of Thring for your supper! 7th March Boudro’s Texan Bistro (USA) by Hillary of Chewonthatblog 9th March These guests posts will go into a voting poll on 11th March, so if you particularly liked one of the posts, do vote because I’m giving away fiddy quid to the author with the most votes. It’s me first competition here on LE and I’m hoping it’ll be a pretty entertaining – and interactive – one. Meanwhile, do check out the seven bloggers (all linked up) above, they are all pretty delish too. I’d also like to take

I’ve always had this idea to use the tube map as an eating guide for anyone wanting to sample highlights of London via the underground – I just didnt really know how ( or more like when ) I could figure it onto this blog. When I was approached by Hillary who edits both Recipe4living and the chewonthatblog , she wanted a kind of snapshot of London and I thought wow – what a coincidence we’re on the same brainwave. So I mined the archives and put together an ‘underground eating list on the underground’. I included stuff such as Borough market and sampling some very British crabs on toast at 32 GQS. I also included a recommendation to my personal favourite: Cambio de Tercio. You can download and print this map if you want, just click on the image for a bigger version. Anyway, I thought it’d make for a great guest post and one that can be useful for anyone who’s about to visit London and are looking for a few places to munch up. As with my last few guest posts, I am giving away my best stuff and treating these guest posts as if they were to be published here on LE. To that end, I’m giving away the same quality of pictures too and I do try and make sure they are decent enough. Hope you guys find my stuff both

Eat&Read is a weekly round-up of yummi-news from around london and the blogosphere, every Sunday. I take it everyone had a smashing time getting all loved up yesterday? As for myself, I’ve been a busy bee planning content for London Eater over the next couple of weeks. Yes there are a few announcements I need to make in this edition of Eat&Read and the first one is that your resident London Eater (me) is going on holiday for two weeks (Hurray!) , but fear not, I’m still going to be blogging and I’d like to tell you abit about the coming content so do keep reading (please, please, pretty please.)

This is the second guest post I gave away this week and it is being hosted over at Simply Scrumptious. Scrumptious are a foodie duo writing recipes in addition to reviews in and around NY. It’s a breezy foodblog and I think makes for a great Friday read. As for the guest post: I gathered together some of the more memorable dishes I’ve had as resident London Eater and put together this little entry that focuses on why the dishes were so damn good. We’ve been talking about collabs for months now, me doing London food over at there, and them doing NY food over here. Exciting stuff in the pipeline but for now, do go check out the guest post at Simply Scrumptious now

I’m excited to continue to have my guest posts kindly accepted by fellow food bloggers. This one goes out to a very dear foodie pal of mine – Jessie over at The Hungry Mouse , I’ve known her and followed her blog since my early days and she’s been an inspiration to me over the past few months. The Hungry mouse is the definitive visual guide to good cooking, she’s got a unique approach to recipes in the detailed pictures of everything she cooks from conception to plate up. It’s great for people like me who eat alot but are a mess in the kitchen! You’ll notice I reference some of her recipes in my stuff sometimes and my favourite so far is still her deep fried ravioli recipe. Simply brilliant!    Her blog has gone through a redesign recently and it now looks slicker than ever, I am loving the rotating popular posts thingie. The guest post is a photo tour around the food market in King’s road, bit overdue really as these were taken in last summer’s sunshine, hope you folks enjoy it as much as I had fun writing it!

Folks, this is the first guest post on London Eater, a warm welcome to Gourmet Chick who has written this brilliant review of the First Floor restaurant. The virtual podium now belongs to the Gourmet Chick.  First Floor Restaurant Official website 186 Portobello Road, London W11 1LA Portobello Road Market is famous around the world.   On a Saturday you can wander along between the brightly painted houses and browse the stalls selling everything from antique silverware to fruit and vegetables.  About halfway along Portobello road is First Floor Restaurant, a welcome refuge from the chaos of the market.  Shabby Chic The restaurant is elegant but with a slightly bohemian feel in keeping with Portobello road.  Large picture windows allow a great view of the market sprawled below while crumbling walls and an eclectic mix of furniture is teamed with elegant candelabras throughout the room and fires blazing in the corner (a definite hit on a cold winters day). There was a big group of us there for my friend Suse’s 30th birthday.  Drinks were served and the menus were brought around.  The food on offer is probably best described as modern European with an emphasis on British produce