My favourite London restaurant is Cambio de Tercio. I think Abel Lusa’s fabulous, often times adventurous and sometimes experimental change of pace to Spanish cooking is the best representative of the cuisine to grace the Big Smoke. This is my most frequented restaurant in London, since my first visit in 2004 (or 05, around then) when I moved to West London. In fact, it was one of the first reviews (the 3rd one if I’m not mistaken) I’d written when I started this blog.

I would like to think that I’ve eaten pretty much everything on its menu; witnessing some of its mainstay dishes – like the oxtail – evolve over time. I remember the days when I used to visit as frequently as my monthly paychecks. Heck, I even remember the days when Tendido Cero – the tapas bar opposite the street from Cambio – was attractive because it was BYO, and extremely cheap, by Kensington standards anyway.

Since I moved to North London last year, my former neighbourhood restaurant, has now become a pilgrimage, and returning to Old Brompton Road to sample the finest in (London based) Spanish cuisine, is ever more a treat. In the time since my move from West London, Abel had opened Tendido Cuatro in Parsons Green – a tapas bar which I will visit sometime in the coming weeks – but for now, it gives me great pleasure to return to Old Brompton Road to visit Abel’s newest venture: Capote y Toros.

This one is a bit of a departure from the serious Spanish cooking, in that the spotlight is shifted to sherries: In the glass, in the cooking and in the pudding. They boast forty or so sherries to choose from by the glass, and even more by the bottle. Sherry bars, appear to be the darling of the town at the moment. A swift google search will return more than a handful of pleasing reports of Capote y Toros. Summer is round the corner after all.

Those of you familiar with Cambio, will have noticed the matador paintings hung on the quirky painted theme of black, orange and pink walls. At Capote y Toros, the owner’s apparent passion for the sport is more pronounced than ever. In place of paintings, the walls are adorned with photographs, strong portraits, some in vibrant colour and others in eerie high contrast monochrome. The reference to the sport is even in its name, Capote y Toros is for Cape & Bulls. The ambiance is rockier, unhinged, raw, raunchous and zero ponce is involved. It’s about a return to the roots kind of thing.

Sherry time!

Flight of sherries, £12.50 for 5 x 50ml.

This was a real treat, and an education! My knowledge of sherry is about as deep as a puddle of water in the desert, but thankfully we were given a nicely summarise sheet explaining the five glasses of sherry which were brought out through the evening to match whichever tapas we were eating. I’ll try to reference them, as I work through the dish descriptions, but the first couple of glasses we started with were the paper dry, golden hued Manzanilla and the more balanced straw coloured fino. Unsurprisingly, the subsequent sherries would get darker in colour, and also more intense in flavour.

Pickled, preserved & cold

Iberico Sanchez Romero C’s ’5Js’ (£14) and assorted iberico charcuterie & cured cecina from Leon (£12).

In Abel’s own words, the Sanchez Romero 5Js are ‘Spanish caviar’ , and the pride of Cape & bulls are proudly displayed hanging from the ceilings wrapped in black cloth adorned with the 5J stamp. The jamon had delicate, olive rich flavours, nutty and genuinely addictive. Then again, any Iberico de bellota is guaranteed to be orgasmic anyway. Even more so when had with the two glasses of quickly diminishing fino and manzanilla. In addition, we also had an assortment of other cured cuts (from Iberico pigs of course) including the lomo (shoulder I think) and also slices of cecina (beef).

Baby anchovies marinated with Palo Cortado Vinaigrette , £4.50.

The next couple of dishes – cold – were accompanied by Amontillado; a fino but which was darker and stronger, and fortified with extra alcohol to a whopping 17.5%. This one was juicy and datey and less papery than the preceding sherries. You can kind of tell the colour differences in the photograph above between the fino (on the left) and the Amontillado.

Carpaccio of Duck Liver, reduced Pedro Ximenez, £6.50.

As the meal progressed, it wasn’t difficult to notice that most dishes were made with a version of sherry, and also how each of the dishes seemed to pair well with a recommended sherry.

Presented as carpaccio of foie, we thought this was the dish of the night. Sweetened with a reduced sauce of honeyed Pedro Ximenez, crusted in rock salt, and with a buttery smooth texture, like a parfait, a cameo appearance of the masterful skill in execution which is such a trademark of the cooking at Cambio de Tercio.

Chilled Andulucian Gazpacho, £4.00.

Decadent slices of duck liver mousse were followed by a bright and zesty cup of gazpacho. Mmm… so earthly and fresh..my palate be cleansed!

Fish

Moving on to the fish dishes, the waiter brought out the Oloroso. Even darker in colour and even more bone dry, I think. Truth be told, by now, I could hardly tell the difference.. I was well and truly tipsy by this point.

Garlic Prawns, £6.00.

Oh right of course, sweet, garlicky and wet prawns – no Spanish meal is complete without prawns.

Galician Octopus, Potato, Sweet Paprika, £6.75.

Exactly like Cambio, the bitter goey flavours, the slithery, oily textures, the smell of paprika, all except for the pureed potatoes. This is one of my favourite dishes at Cambio de Tercio, and I’m glad it’s on the Capote menu as well.

Roast cod in sobrasada, chorizo crust, courgettes carpaccio, £7.75.

Simply well cooked fish, that is only ever so slightly underdone in the centre. While not as deft in execution as CdT, it was still a remarkable plate of tapas.

Meat

With the meat dishes, came the most prized of the flight – the Palo Cortado. This sherry is a rarity in itself, with fewer than 2% of all Jerez production actually maturing into this wine. Slurp, slurp.

Meatballs “Palo Cortado Fragance” from Jerez, £4.75.

The sauce was dizzying good, tasting of roasted peppers cuddling those meatballs.

Piquillo Peppers stuffed with ox tail “Al Oloroso” , £6.50.

This was classy, babyfood textures of oxtail stuffed inside piquillo peppers. One can only hazard a guess that the sauce in this dish is similar to the meatballs sauce. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this one, hardly any chewing was involved. I washed down the oxtail with my glass of Palo Cortado.

Iberico Pork Cheeks cooked “Al Oloroso Dulce” Potato Cream, £6.50.

Really salty, and cunningly intense. The cheeks were pillow soft, all this richness cried out for lots of bread and even more sherry to balance out all that flavour.

Sweets

To finish, a glass of Pedro Ximenez, of course.

Mousse of sweet oloroso sherry, caramalised figs, £4.75.

I have always felt that CdT’s weakness were in their puddings, but on this showing, it would appear that things have changed. The sherry mousse, light as a feather, and sweet like white chocolate. It was an apt way to end the meal, considering the vibrancy of the dishes that came earlier.

Lemon and Moscatel sweet wine sponge and strawberries, £4.75.

But this was the winner. Sponge cake soaked in sweet wine, sinful.

Cambio de Tercio is still the jewel in Abel Lusa’s galaxy of restaurants, but Capote y Toros is an enticing addition to the diffusion of the brand. The quality of cooking is almost as slick as CdT and ultimately gratifying, the atmosphere in this narrow space is gut-bustingly intoxicatingly, and the sherries are deceptively easy to knock back. Picture the kitchen, whiffs of sherry floating in the air, evaporated from the cooking, resulting in merry chefs with opened bottles of the finest Jerez in one hand, and sauce pan in the other, it is no accident then that every other dish is spiked with sherry. How brilliant an idea it is then to use the best of Spanish cuisine as a vehicle to facilitate the appreciation of sherry. Absolutely genius.

The Gist of It

Capote y Toros
Sherry & Tapas & Jamon, £40pp
157 Old Brompton Rd SW5 0LJ
Tel: 020 7373 0567
Tube : Gloucester Road

Sherring: Time Out London ; Metro ; ES ; Jake and Jacki ; Sabrina’s Passions ; 12.5% ; Wine and the City

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Paul the octopus was right all along, Spain are now World Cup winners, and I should have put some money behind his choices. Sorry to have been away from the blog for so long, I’ve been out in the sun you see, chasing sushi dreams. Here’s the first report, a few more to follow in the weeks to come.

Good ol’ Time Out, they’re always on the ball when uncovering the modest little neighbourhood gems across town. With Kappa having been opened for over three years now, theirs remain one of the few reviews floating about the intertubes. I consider this my local sushi dive, situated on the main drag on Earls Court Road, it is about a five minute jog from my place in Kensington. Yes…. my plans for a washboard summer are still hidden behind reams of love handles. The restaurant is operated by a Korean chef whose name eludes, and whose resume boasts stints in Zuma and Nobu. I like this place, I used to come here alot, but had lost interest in the last couple of years. Until very recently, I started using it as a carrot to my exercise routine (It was either this, or Byron, a case of the lesser of evils), and had rediscovered the good things Kappa was churning out, and I thought it worth letting you sushi-heads know about this.

From L to R, the nigiris are two arkshell clams (£4.20) , four otoros (full fat tuna belly) (£13.80) , two sweet prawns (£4.40) and four salmon (£7.00). In the far back, the negitoro & avocado maki (£6.90) and far right are two ‘House Special’ rolls (£17.80 for both).

On the whole, the nigiri is excellent and well priced. It isn’t the cheapest sushi in town, however, it isn’t pricy either. £3.50 for one otoro nigiri is not too bad (…Kikuchi charges £8, Sake no Hana £5…).

The otoro was buttery, however marbling was not quite on par as the sheer melt-away-creaminess at Atari-ya, though the latter is a raw fish supplier. I felt the chef made the most of the ingredients, masterfully butterflying the otoro and the salmon such that it hugs the rice tight, but dissolves as it hits your mouth. Rice maintained a sticky mushiness, well seasoned with just the right balance of vinegar. I don’t think it was koshihikari in case you wondered. On the whole however, it is every bit the disintegrates-in-your-mouth experience one comes to expect of good sushi.

House Special Roll, £8.90.

You’ve been to Dinings to try their truffle ponzu wagyu nigiri right? Well, the Kappa house special roll is along similar lines, albeit cheaper and made with less glitzy garnishing. Inside, the roll was stuffed with asparagus, cucumber, avocado and some beef fillet. Resting on the nori, a thinly sliced beef fillet smothered with their secret creamy chilli sauce. As it landed on our table, we could smell something burning – this we assumed, was from the beef having been blow-torched.

As it hit the lips, the monstrous roll was umami personified. Everything stuck so well together, the spicy creamy sauce was a godsend, it brought out the natural beefiness of the meat, with just a hint of zest which I assume was a dash of ponzu amongst a raft of other ingredients. The beef was only charred on the outside, giving it a flamed flavour, and the rareness of the meat ensures supreme tenderness. If the chef had told me this was Wagyu, I’d have believed it. It is the best thing on the menu.

Negitoro and Avocado Roll, £6.90

I’m a toro fanatic, and I just love the minced marrow-like texture of a toro maki. It seems this roll was made with otoro as opposed to chutoro (half fat belly) which I appreciated. Could have done with some shiso leaves.

Unagi (£11 for four) and Scallop (£4.90 for two) nigiri.

The unagi at Kappa was excellent. Honeyed, really meaty and juicy, plus flavour of flames which I believed was the chef’s blowtorch making another round. I’m always a little sceptical about unagi in restaurants, I’m never really certain if they are the frozen variety (which tastes so good, it’s hard to tell them apart at times) or if they are freshly grilled in house. Whatever the case, the unagi at Kappa is of a high standard.

Crispy Pork Belly, £7.90

One from the main dishes. Personally I feel that this dish epitomises the rather drab quality of the cooked dishes (when compared to my previous meals here) in general. The pork lacked any depth in flavour, or any particular speciality in its texture. The overly sweet salsa, coupled with the tepid temperature at which the meat was served at, made the fatty bits taste weird. Cold fat. It just wasn’t very appetising.

Kappa cake with Green Tea ice cream , £4.70

The sponge was green tea flavoured, the mousse was made from white chocolate. Light and airy, like a typical Japanese sponge cake really. Great with ice cream, it reminds me of an Arctic roll.

Me and Mark ordered just a bit too much food on this visit, the bill for two was £103.40. I usually get away with £35 by myself however.

There isn’t much to look at in terms of decor, the place is reticent (even by sushi-bar standards) but the sushi chef is dedicated, he really takes his time to prepare sushi by hand, and most days, it’s the same fella behind the counter and to me, that is Kappa’s greatest attraction. The sushi is great, the cooked food is so-so, prices are reasonable, and they do cold sake (Junmai no less…at £1.30 each!) by the shot. If you so happen to be searching for a relatively lightweight meal in my neck of the woods, I think you’ll be reasonably impressed with Kappa.

The Gist of It

Kappa Restaurant
Japanese, £35pp
139 Earls Court Road SW5 9RH
Tel: 0207 244 9196
Tube: Earls Court

The Word Out There: Time Out London

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All text and photography on this blogpost is copyright and belongs to Kang Leong, LondonEater.com. If you repost this without my permission, bad things will happen. So please don’t do it.

I finally pulled the trigger. I downgraded my travel card to exclude free roaming in zone 1. I’ll have to pay as I go into central London (I work in zone 4) or use more bus routes, but that’s only a mild inconvenience compared to the annual £600 savings, not to mention the ‘health benefits’ associated with a longer walk home. So my new home station is now Earls Court (again) – probably just about the noisiest street in London. There are plenty of restaurants in the area (I’ve tried most multiple times, including the new-ish Mangosteen), but lately have been frequenting this Chinese restaurant for quick after work bites.

Unsurprisingly, the restaurant is named after the address (no.10 hogarth place). There are also Filipino grocery stores on this very street. Unassuming and somehow seemingly blending into the locale (explains why I’ve missed it for the past four years), or maybe I was staring abit too much at the hairdressers next door at No.8, I blame the well polished glass panels. My first visit to the restaurant was to escape the rain. While I waited, I thought I may as well sample a plate of soya chicken rice (about a fiver… give or take, one of my favourite things in the world). I usually ask for a drumstick, and the waitress informed me that they only do the most tender parts of the chicken. Hmm, I took that as a yes. Anyway, I was quite amazed at how good the chicken was – very tender (that sort of tender..), fragrant, and a good balance of saltiness and sweetness. It tasted like what soya chicken was supposed to taste like. For the record, it’s not Uncle Lims, but is close enough.

Reconnaissance successful, I thought it best to take the big guns for subsequent visits: the One with the knife skills in the house. So the menu is expansive, on the first page, the chef specials signal their specialty in Szechuan cuisine. There’s a lot of recognisable Chinese dishes on the menu as well (which I wont go through) but I’ll point out what I thought was a cracker: the braised pork ribs with rice. It came in a ceramic pot on a bed of rice, with ‘winter’ mushrooms (shitake). As the waitress lifted the lid, the gushing homely aromas were incredibly mouth watering, I kept thinking about my mum’s cooking. Ohhhhh, warming flavours, it bubbled in my mouth as my palate began filling with mushroom and white pepper. The balance of flavour is sound and as the juices soaked into the rice beneath the excellent spare ribs, it made for an incredibly hearty mouthful. The portion was large, I looked around and saw other lone diners savouring the gentle pot as well. £6.50 a steal.

We were glad to find a dependable Chinese in the vicinity, but we were curious about their specialties. So the following visit, we were back to go ala carte, but first, a slight digression from food. The tables at No.10 are so closely arranged that neighbouring personal spaces are on the fringes of encroachment. I saw ‘The ugly truth’ (you’ll see where this is going in a sec) and I didn’t quite believe the situation of the woman trying all kinds of tricks to get her man existed in real life. But funnily enough, a couple (I say ‘couple’) sat next to us, and the woman was so clearly flaunting it, trying to impress her male friend with her vast experience with Chinese food, and was she impressive and then some. She ordered in Cantonese, but with a distinct Glaswegian accent, and her intimate knowledge of good restaurants in Hong Kong even had me tuning in. I know what you’re thinking: “Kang, you are a such gossip whore” . Hey what did you expect, I write a blog.

Hopefully pecking was involved at the end of that meal. Anyway: monk fish in white wine sauce, £7.60. Another warming sensation, steam rising from every exposed area of this dish. First of all, it’s like there is some sort of heat emanating from the core of each parcel of fish. Encased in a batter, just thick enough to absorb the slimey, jelly-like sauce, and which created a unique texture, soggy but still kinda crunchy. Flavour wise, it was a big surprise – there was a lot of sizzly heatiness in the sauce (see wok hei), like a bouncy castle for the tastebuds. Yeah I enjoyed it.

Next we decided on the ‘ma la’ spicy pot, with mixed offals. £12.50

The waitress told us that this was the bona fide Szechuan speciality, ‘mala’ I think means spice your tastebuds to death. The offals included tripe and intestines but there were also slices of beef, pork and spam thrown in for good measure. The broth was incredibly sharp and spicy, to the point where all my my major orifices were watering. Nasal clearing stuff, it’s a tad potent, considering we’re in London.

And the award for eye catching dish names goes to …. Saliva Chicken £6.50.

Not a reflection of the recipe of course, but rather, a suggestion of what it would do someone when eaten. Anyway, this was the aforementioned soya chicken, but bathing in a hot and spicy soya based sauce, with crushed peanuts. I prefer the plain version, less distractions.

All in all, No.10 is a sneaky little gem which really surprised me with its quality. Not everything succeeds, like the dim sum for example, I’m convinced the custard buns are off the shelf. The Szechuan specialities on the other hand are masterful, and you know you’ve chanced upon a good Chinese restaurant when the rice are like fragrant drops plucked from the steaming heavens.

The Gist of It

No 10. £15pp
10 Hogarth Pl
London, SW5 0QT
Tel: 020 7373 7000
Tube: Earls Court

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I‘ve lived in london for six years and eaten some great stuff. But when it came time to start writing my first review, I didn’t know where to begin. And so, I do what I usually do when I’m in full contemplation – I have breakfast at Balans.

A good chunk of those six years were spent in Earls Court. Yes, the exhibition centre in Chelsea’s backyard, sporting an abundance of Australians and vehicular pollution. It straddles between zones one and two, being the confused castaway from the Kensington Boroughs and at the same time, the unofficial gateway to Fulham. I do digress.  

I lived about two minutes away from Balans and it was the perfect excuse for me to escape my final year exam revisions (Twas a time I was young). At 8am (closer to 11 actually) in the morning, there are few places I want to go in order to grab a decent breakfast.   

Decor. Dark wood, burgundy colours and cushioned seats. In the mornings, the music is usually turned down, the staff welcomingly warm and make you feel right at home. My only complaint – it can be abit noisy with the traffic – but it does kind of add to the atmosphere of city breakfasting… if you like noise that is. The place is cosy enough to be safely swimming in your own thoughts, conjouring delusions of granduer, and in my case, attempting a review.

Breakfast Pudding. Freshly squeezed orange and apple juice on offer, a fresh start indeed. A few minutes after ordering – and just barely finishing my scan through the front page of the Times – the waiter brings my order of double ham benedicts. I’m told to be aware of the hot plate. Nice and warm. Hollandaise sauce is tricky, it’s one of those recipes where a little too much can spoil everything. When it goes wrong, it’s taste like sour milk. Thankfully, the chef gets its just right. I can taste the silkiness of the butter melding nicely with the lightly toasted muffin. Coupled with some perfectly poached eggs and quality cooked ham – it produced an elegantly effective way to kick start the day. I finished with a large cappuccino, sunk into my seat and leisurely took in some words with every sip.    

There is little doubt that the chef is a master at balanced flavours. They do daily specials and asian influenced dishes such a thai green curry tuna with cocunut infused rice are a common feature. I’ll save that for another time, however, here’s a sneak preview: dinner is great, the corned beef hash, doesn’t sound like much, however it does do what it says on the menu – ‘appetise’. 

Credits: Image by adactio