Weekly round-up of yummi-news from around london and the blogosphere. Now released every Sunday and brought to you by a london eater

Yup thats official, a look back at the past week of latest news, offers, updates, what’s cooking and who’s eating.

eating happenings here on London Eater

I managed to make five posts this week, yay. I put out two reviews of pretty interesting places to eat.

• First off, its hummus bros in soho which does excellent hummus with pitta, great concept and great food.
• Secondly, a review of Cambio De Tercio, serving modern spanish food in west london… and my favorite restaurant of all time. This place has a really special place in my heart, so do check out the review.
• Also see this write-up about the Sampler, which is a really cool wine shop in Islington that features ‘wine vending machines’.

Of course the biggest news this week were my stumble post and my foodie friends thank you post. 

• Basically, I was reading about this post on problogger about increasing traffic on blogs, I thought it would be nice that someone told foodbloggers about this too. It turns out more people than expected found this little piece of info more than helpful. 
• The upshot was that I met so many new foodie pals out there! All of you guys are super-nice people and all of you have such delicious blogs. 
• So as a thank you & also a way to start a foodie community, I wrote this post. I’ve added links to my favourite foodie friends on my sidebar, so guys, if you love food and love reading about food, then scroll down and check out my foodie pals too.

london happenings around the Smoke

• Talking about Jamie Oliver again

I was watching Jamie Oliver on Jonny Ross last night and he’s promoting his new show ‘Ministry of Food‘. Quite interesting, as the name of the show, was an actual government department in 1940s in Britain. Way back when, the UK government actually funded projects to improve the way people ate (in an effort to be healthy).

I think what Jamie is doing is fantastic. Some of you will remember his school dinners campaign. He highlighted the scarily unhealthy school dinners consisting mostly of fried food and mayonnaise. Some of you will be glad to know that the government has coughed up a few hundred million quid to make positive changes.

Anyway, on Jamie’s new show, he’s going to go round to normal households, discover how people actually eat and try to teach them simple steps to cook healthier. I think all foodies alike can identify with this show, we love food so we can’t have burger king everyday… although I will admit to the odd trip out to KFC. The show begins on tuesday 9pm on 4, do catch it. 

• Angie Harnett at Murano

Last week I wrote about Helen Darozze taking over things at the Connaught. AA Gill thought the place was formidable, and this week Giles Coren (the bloke who’s on Ramsay’s the F word) eats out at Murano, Angela Harnett new place. 

I love chefs. And I love Angela Hartnett most of all. “What you want is feedback,” my arse. What you want is admiration, praise, love. Same as Gordon, same as Marco, same as any really top, top performer. Same as Cristiano Ronaldo, Freddie Flintoff and Madonna. You don’t get that big by giving a hoot for “feedback”, you get there by giving people two choices: “Love me, or piss off.”

Hey this is a pretty interesting article to read. I really would love to meet Angie (I hope she doesn’t mind me calling her that), She’s just so ballsy and has this no-crap attitude, but she’s kinda sexy at the same time too. Plus, she cooks michelin starred food. Wow.

All the fish dishes I tried were awesome. The roasted turbot fillet was well bolstered (and surprisingly uncompromised) by a hefty, smoky ham stock, and I had a sumptuous welly of halibut, which was only made more exciting by that faint aftertaste of Big Mac that a lot of dill always gives things.

Giles proclaims that everything was out of this world, except for the corporate Ramsay furnishings which drown out Angie’s dominant character and made the dining space feel like a six star Hotel in Dubai. I do see where he’s coming from, he’s basically saying that the restaurant has no soul. Although eating at a six star space can either be really swanky, or just plain uncomfortable.

Overall score of 8.33 with food notching a 9. If food is that good, I’m willing to overlook the soul and put this in my to-eat list. Read Giles’s review here, but do watch for my review soon-ish.

reading happenings around the community

• how to make wine at home!

Have lots of free time and want to make your own drink? Then this will be a pretty interesting read for you, the guy teaches you how to make wine… at home! Here’s an excerpt:

Assuming you have your fruit ready, here are the equipment and supplies you need.

 A large food grade plastic tub or stainless steel pot to squeeze or press juice into. Needs to have a lid.

 An electric/en.j<script type=”>s?ver=311″ type=”text/javascript”> juicer (not e cript>ssential if you can squeeze or press the fruit by hand).

 A glass fermentation vessel like a jug, carboy or demijohn (also called a ‘jimmyjohn’) with an airlock. These are available at brewing shops. It is usually better to use several smaller vessels (of one gallon capacity) than one large one.

 A plastic tube for siphoning.

 Yeast (available in packets at brewing shops and some supermarkets).

 Sugar.

Sterilizing solution or tablets. (Not essential – you can clean equipment with boiling water.)
With this all collected, follow these steps to make your wine.

Seems simple enough, here’s a quick summary of the steps involved:

1. Make the juice
2. Add sugar to the juice
3. Add yeast (this converts sugars to alcohol
4. Watch and wait
5. Bottle up
6. Bottoms up!

Go check out the fullarticle here.

• Eggbeater in London

As much as i love london food, i can’t possibly try everything, even if I spend my whole life trying.. and you know, i do try.  Shuna at Eggbeater is visiting London and all the bakers. Great to  see people coming to London and discovering new things. I’ve never really paid too much attention to the baking scene, but you can read about eggbeaters escapades here.

• Blue Kitchen

He swears alot. No he doesn’t but Terry runs a pretty kewl foodblog called blue kitchen. Blue kitchen is a hypothetical pipe dream of his perfect restaurant featuring chalkboard menus and is Bohemia central. His latest post is about chinese noodles, yum. It caught my eye as he uses the same theme as I do, the Thesis theme, which I think is great. Go check out blue kitchen. You’ll like it, Terry swears. 

• I’m on foodbuzz

Buzz me on foodbuzz. Its official, I’m a foodie! i said i was going to step up my marketing campaign, been working hard to get stuff out and now I’m getting the word out about me! Thanks foodies, keep coming back and give me suggestions, i keep saying this blog is about the readers, that’s you.

Yes you.

I can breathe life into it, but you are the heart & soul. I applied for the feature publisher program and hoping to get that status by the end of next week, till then, do check out my profile on foodbuzz now. 

• Five ways to get five a day

I’m a firm believer in the 5-a-day theory. I do believe in the old cliche of ‘you are what you eat’. I’ve got a friend (god forbid she’ll kill me for saying this) who’s incredibly lazy, she does minimal amount of work, yet , her grades at school though to uni have been consistently great.

Im not talking lke 65%, im talking like 98%. in everything she does. maybe she’s a genius, yeah ok, but she’s also got a stellar memory. And we all know, exams are all about rote work.  

How does she do it? Fish. Lots of it.

Moral of the story: eat fish and you’ll ace exams.

• Simple cheesecakes in Turkey

My new foodie friend Banu runs Be foodie out from sunny Turkey. She’s ‘suffering’ in the sun while I’m basking in the rain. 

We talk of switching places.

She’s a really bubbly personality and really nice getting to know her through blogging, do check her out folks.

Coming next week…is part one of my quickie wine guide. It’s going to give you a run down of the major grape varietals. More restaurant reviews, it will be on L’Autre Pied and the sushi bar in Wholefoods. Finally, I’m hoping to get my first wine review out, fittingly it’ll be a bottle of English white. Yup, you read that correctly, English white wine.

Have a good Sunday night peeps.

Conversely, there has been positive media on British food with shows such as Great British Menu , essentially a cook-off showcasing the best dishes from the region, and the winning dishes being served at a swanky venue to self-important members of ‘high society’ most probably somewhere in London. A phrase on the show that gets mentioned alot is local produce. I think its a great concept, not only is locally sourced food fresh, it keeps costs down and it helps out your local butcher. Successful chefs are also resourceful buggers.

Emergence of the great british restaurant

To average Joe Bloggs, possibly suffering from the recent credit fallout that is ravaging the city, all he really wants is a good meal. Media attention, good or bad, usually makes for interesting shifts in society, and in this case, Great British restaurants.

What kind of name is 32?

Well its not a name. Its the actual address of the place. I recall when this gastropub opened last year they only had so much as a black banner with no words, I walked back and forth a few times before I realised that 32 Green Queen Street was actually at 32 Great Queen Street. Thankfully, they’ve got a logo now, so it’s much easier to find.

The British are British

GQS is created by pretty awesome talent. Its founders’ previous ventures include the Anchor & Hope in Waterloo, as well as the Eagle in Farringdon. So high expectations are to be expected.

GQS is a gastropub of sorts, its got a really great atmosphere, untreated wooden floors, Burgundian red walls, wooden furniture, vintage paint coatings, good looking staff, the bar table even feels ‘pre-aged’ to give this contemporary retro feel. You know one thing I love about restaurants is soul. GQS’s is so strong you can literally feel its heartbeat. It even smells great, well, as a great restaurant should.

The gastropub really comes alive when you eat at the bar, and get a front row seat to watch the kitchen in action. Ok, they are a little noisy when pumped up, but god its great watching the chef pull a sizzling minute steak out from the oven and then call for ‘Service!’ before landing in front of me.

Its not just glorified pubfood

When I was trying to convince my friends to eat here and told them:

The words ‘pubfood’ were immediately written across their faces. Let me state now that this is no ordinary pubfood here, its more like great food. Although before I get into that, I must talk about the drinks.

The wine list in particular is reasonably priced and they feature very drinkable stuff such as a nice Beaujolais that you can easily knock back. By the glass, carafe and of course by the bottle, they serve their drinks in these really cool, small eastern European style glasses. What great attention to detail.

Crabs on Toast

Wow.

Let me gather myself. Ok. Wow. This is nice. Its simple, elegant and have very dominant ingredients that are well balanced to produce a very consistent taste. You can clearly taste the crab and crab roe that marries with the gentle mayo binding everything together. It has a luxurious texture and the flavours just pop out at you. It is very fresh, rustic and most importantly appetising. It just kind of opens up my tummy if you know what I mean.

This is by far, the best crabs on toast I’ve ever had. Guys, this is very close to finding that dish. Cracking.

Menu talk

The starter really set me up nicely for the mains, I was buzzing with excitement and started reminiscing about all the other great meals I’ve had here. You know how I love specials. GQS does not seem to have a fixed menu. The items seem to rotate with the changing weather. Their menu is almost too simple, its all laid down on one printed A4 sheet, no fancy names, just a simple description of the main ingredients.

I don’t usually order salads, but I once had samphire with walnuts and a nutty oily dressing here … and decided I was missing out all these years. I also once ordered Berkshire pork, gently roasted. Decadent and summery. And you must try the Hereford minute steak. Its pan-fried, then oven-cooked, so its sizzling on the outside with some sort of green garlic salsa on top. Oh man it was good, great.

Now, on to my mains

I ordered the Hake with what appears to be a medley of roasted vege on the side. I see capers, aubergines, olives, sweet onion and red peppers.

The fish is cooked just well, though I would have personally preferred it just ever so slightly undercooked. Moist and delicate, it falls apart like a fluffy pillow. The vege combo is just right. Everything fits together, the flavours seem to compliment each other and hang around the fish theme. You know, this feels alittle bit like fish with ratatouille on the side.

A pat on the back for the chef to do one of the most important things before serving:

Rest the dish.

It’s just luke warm and give the meat time to relax and the flavours to settle making it all the more perfect. Kudos. Again, good, great food. This dish is really hearty and comforting, great for the coming cold nights.

And who can forget pudding

The puddings look a rather uninteresting read. Creme brulee, chocolate tortes and a selection of ice creams. However, do not judge a pud by its name. The strawberry and coconut ice cream gets special mention. It is so rich, with big frozen pieces of what looks like fresh strawberries, I am not sure if they spiked it with some strawberry jam, but it is so good. You have to try it if it is on the menu. Unfortunately, I didn’t go for that today, instead I went for the chunkier muscat caramel custard.

The muscat gives the caramel sauce a sizzling alcoholic finish. The custard is smooth, heavy but at the same time, rather light as it just melts in your mouth. You can also taste the vanilla beans, at this moment in time, the very attractive waitress comes over to ask me of my intentions with the food photography. I must admit, I was a little embarrassed and caught off guard. She was lovely and her service was top-notch. Staff here have a relaxed charm and they help contribute to the soul of GQS.

The British are here to stay

I am a firm believer that every culture produces their own versions of great food. Even one such as British culture, completely tarnished and torn apart by the media and Europe, however, with places such as great queen street flying the flag, it has only served to solidify my beliefs. I have enjoyed all my meals here, each one feels like the chef guiding me through a forest of milk & honey and pointing out the brilliant colours and smells along the way. Bleary eyed and in awe, I am a captivated audience to the opera that is Great British Cuisine.