Ah Norway. Good times. I spent some time in Haugesund a couple of years ago, for work, and I will always remember the amazing Norwegian rice puddings I stuffed myself with nearly everyday. When I first met Njål Solland and Arild Bringeland in January last year, their plans for sushi domination in Norway were still limited to studying packaging. They hail from a conurbation at the heart of the Norwegian oil capital – Stavanger and Sandnes – embedded within the southern most fjordes of Norway. They’d been conducting these extended sushi binge tours to European cities with ‘mature’ appetites for Japanese food, and as fate would have it, got in touch with me when they arrived in London. I soon discovered that we shared a fervent passion for raw seafood and vinegar-ed rice, and I was impressed with their enthusiasm of wanting to bring quality sushi to Norway. They opened their first Sabi Sushi in April last year, primarily a takeaway, with their third partner and head chef Roger Joya. Unlike us lot, Stavangerians prefer to eat in the comfort of their home. Success followed and before long, they’d open their 2nd outlet in Forus, outside a gas station, this time with a seating area (decor not unlike a Little Chef) and dubbed it a Japanese diner. It’s the KISS philosophy, super-fresh fish in a minimalist environment. To digress a
So you’ve been to every one of the coolest ice cream parlours in town and you need an alternative scoop to Scoop. Well here’s one for your list. Chin Chin is London’s (and Europe) very first nitrogen ice cream parlour. Yes that’s right, instead of freezer-stored ice cream, these guys make theirs by cooling with nitrogen vapours instead. The best part is that it happens right in front of your eyes… while you wait!
“The Doctor will see you now.” Last weekend I went to a one-off special billed as a “an exciting walk-through dining experience and multi-course meal charting key revolutionary periods in food history.”. It was put together by Bompass and Parr, the pre-eminent purveyors of wobbly
…Tim, the editor, told me the Faller figurines were going to be 9mm high. I thought to myself that my macro lens was only 60mm and not really fast enough at f2.8. Thank god for high
Long before supperclubs started popping up all over the capital, a certain door 83 had already been inviting strangers round for Sunday dinners, and the door has remained open for nearly three decades. Jim Haynes, 77 was born in Louisiana, relocated to Edinburgh where he opened a theatre, after which he moved south and swang it like the rest of us in London. For the last quarter of a century, he has been a Professor of Media Studies and Sexual Politics with the University of Paris, occasionally entertaining and elbow checking the odd guest at one of his Sunday dinners. To date, he estimates that roughly 130,000 people have joined his party over the years. You might have even seen him on TV recently in an after eight advert. One of the true pioneers in supperclub terms, I suppose he had long been part of social networking albeit the old fashion way rather than through the intertubes. Jim came to London for a one-night-only at one of the hottest tables in the supperclub circuit – Fernandez and Leluu and I was fortunate enough to get on the list to meet Jim, as well as Simon and Uyen – the brains behind F&L. I was really happy with it, met lots of people and perhaps ingested too much liquid courage. I have put together a photo essay to give you a
This is what food blogging looks like. Today, he is trying an experiment, by training his antiquated film camera on a plate of cheese and fruit all the while bobbing to tunes streamed from the internet to his touch sensitive media device that can also make calls, sometimes. Once he exhausts his roll of C41s, a 19th century design, he will digitise the developed negatives, ready then for digital publishing. Welcome to the 21st century. The freedom and availability of the world wide web has encouraged a whole generation to express themselves and it has given rise to the consummate amateur in a bid to announce his average punter’s opinion to the anyone who cares to listen to the broadcast. And boy, did he shout at the top of his lungs. With the advent of Web 2.0 architecture, it brought cheaper and sleeker tools to this very amateur publisher who sometimes thinks of himself as an independent voice, raging against the very system which had chewed him up for so long. The 21st century has also opened up the world of photography and decoupled the learning curve and the burden of developing costs to endow the end user with more image processing capabilities than ever before. Respect for good light is essentially a thing of the past now, as a sleuth of new cameras, equipped with highly capable digital sensors
Merry Christmas all and hope you are all now gearing up for New Year celebrations! So I trust everybody had a healthy and hearty Christmas dinner and got everything you wanted in the morning? Myself, I indulged in a very lovingly whole roasted, waitrose bought chicken, made with Lambrusco, I kid you not. I didn’t take pictures cos you know, I’m on ‘holiday’. As for Christmas presents, Santa was very kind and gifted me two pairs of my favourite trainers which I have wanted since I was 16. It took Nike about 10 years to re-release the Air Jordan spacejams, they eventually did on wednesday… and I’m happy. Take a look at them here. On my extended absence from food writing, I have been beavering away at my latest online property and I’d like to formally introduce it to you guys now. It’s called Kang : Photographer at kangphoto.com. So what is kangphoto.com ? it’s my online portfolio, it’s a fullscreen website powered by wordpress, I’ve selected my best food shots over the years, in addition to restaurant shots, some street photography and of course, some of my black & white stuff too. Like all my work, it’s about as close and dear as it gets. I have poured my heart & soul into it, and I will continue to pour my all into my online projects. Consider this a
Yup, I was there and it was brilliant. The first UK based food blogger connect conference saw 70 food lovin’ guests descend upon Levant restaurant right here in London, all of whom have a vested interest in the phenomenon that is food blogging. Most already have their own blogs, some were interested in starting up and many came from all over the world, some as far away as India, it truly transcended all kinds of boundaries and I was so glad I was there. So what are you waiting for? Let’s all be witnesses
Not everything gets publicised on the internet these days, especially the hyperlocal events, like this Taiwanese Food Festival which took place at Westminster Academy last weekend for example. I heard about it through my special Taiwanese counterpart. I love food fests, time for another photo essay me thinks.
In between my kitchen waltz (see Part I), I was alternating with the parallel of events at the front of house, and of course, the two are completely different worlds altogether. I had arrived early at 5.30 pm when most of the staff were only just starting up. I stood at the front door, nervously waiting to be greeted by the owner. I hear the clacking of heavy leather shoes coming down the stairs behind me, before the man extends his hand. “I’m Walter, welcome to Gazette.”
I was given the opportunity to spend a Saturday evening service at Gazette - a neighbourhood French brasserie in Battersea - and they gave me the chance to observe a busy London restaurant at work. It's about time this restaurant goer stepped behind the stove to watch the action from the other side. A personal project of sorts and a bit of a labour of love, I hope you'll enjoy this two part series folks
I was very recently part of a foodblogger daytrip to Lille, fully sponsored and put together by Eurostar’s PR bods to help promote their current ‘little break, big difference campaign’….. yup, it was fun, lots of pictures inside
The spoils from my recent travels continue to pile on, and this time I have returned from Brugge looking much rounder and feeling much richer – chocolately speaking. I hope you chocolate lovers out there will enjoy this post
So this is the summer box. Faultless presentation, the box is so shiny, you can actually see the distorted reflection of my arm in it. Years ago when he began, Pierre Herme actually opened his first boutiques in Tokyo, before coming back to his motherland to satisfy French sweet teeth. I settled on a bench outside the nearby St Sulpice church to break open the box.
The things I do for food. Sunday and I’ve signed up to the Nom Nom Nom Cooking Competition, and amazingly, was one half of the final nine teams. My cooking partner in crime is Billy of Cowfish, and we face-off against… lots of bloggers, with the grand prize of a dinner at Tsuru. I didn’t win, I can’t cook, I almost made a fool of myself, but I did eat alot. Photo essay time folks, follow me behind the scenes to learn what made Team Cowfish+Eater tickle like clockwork. And so we go, into the kitchens of The Cookery School&#
Held at a ‘secret’ location somewhere in London called ‘The Loft’, The Mash-up is the brainchild of Paris-based Gastro-Architect Rachel Khoo. And LondonEater brings you all the sumptious action, from behind the camera
Let me start by saying John is alot better looking in person than on masterchef. Here’s me, reporting on the relevant action which took place at the Toast Festival – Australia Day
I was a little torn about whether to blog about this here, or to put the pictures up on my other photoblog. In the end, I thought you might enjoy abit of cake porn on a Monday
The queue was terribly long, and while I was in it, the barista came out with paper cups and a marker pen, taking our orders along the way. Such was the spectacle of Monmouth, I was rather surprised that the queue was quick and free flowing as I didn’t even have time to think about what to photograph at this legendary London institution. If you haven’t had a Monmouth yet, well, you need to apply now
I am really excited to introduce my newest online venture… NOIR. Its a food photoblog that doubles as my online photo portfolio. The aim is really simple: to present the best things to eat in the city in really really nice light; think LondonEater with no words and the visuals taken to the max. Noir is an extension of the whole restaurant blogging shebang and its also a way for me to sink my teeth into photography – I really want to learn more about it, and I suppose the best way to do it, is to really do it. SO, please go and visit Noir at http://photography.londoneater.com . If you love food, visit Noir, if you love London, visit Noir, if you love photography visit Noir. Visit Noir and leave some comments on any of the photos. Finally tell all your mates about Noir and do spread the linklove to Noir
LifeDonk says: I didn't mind it, but I do read most of your stuff. I would be interested to read more about why you...
Kang L. says: Bunface - damn, that bad huh? Haha, whats wrong with the nose?? Gotta smell that stuff man! You're p...
bunface says: it feels a little like you're trying to be one of those guys who knows abou wine without the experti...
“..surrounded by the greatest wines of the world..” The dining room is relatively small...
A Prologue The first of a new series of posts I intend to write on a weekly basis. Not reviews per...
This is my 3rd visit to the fabulous Admiral Codrington in as many months. By now, you’ll have...
No doubt you’ve already heard about Ceviche, the first of a trio of Peruvian restaurants to...
Ah Norway. Good times. I spent some time in Haugesund a couple of years ago, for work, and I will...
I have asserted in the past that Bryn Williams is the most underrated chef in Britain, and that...
Rob & David’s eponymous restaurant has only just toasted its ten year anniversary. A...
Ah …Easter weekend. We drove all the way to the Sidmouth coast, to marvel at the bronze...
