The USP: Vietnamese street food, but prepared so beautifully that what you get is a pick of wonderfully slurpy Pho soups or burgers sandwiched between buns so soft, they’d float away if they could.

The Food: So about those steam bun burgers. Apparently they’re the first of its kind in the food world, served in a steamer and available in three varieties: beef, pork or prawn. I could have eaten the prawn burger twice over, filled with a brill combo of with coriander, mango and wasabi Mayonnaise. And even though I’m not the biggest fan of Pho, a fat bowl made with rare sliced beef (PHỞ BÒ TÁI) surprisingly won me over. The sweet potato fries also deserve an honourable mention. Crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle? They could do no wrong. 

Budget:  Super friendly on the wallet, with the burgers a delightful eight quid and the Pho coming in at just under nine. No wonder there were queues.

Good for: Those hitting up a West End show, after work eats and maybe a cheap date (but the food’s so good, no one would mind).

Visit: vieteat.co.uk/pho-bun

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It wasn’t a great moment.

I distinctively remember the struggle to wrap my tastebuds around the sour, spongy injera bread that doubles up as an edible plate covered in all sorts of stews (tasty stews, to be fair) – not to mention the fact that, being the bougie chick I am, I resented having to eat it all with my hands.

So since then, me and Ethiopian food haven’t been on the best terms and I always assumed if I had it again, I wouldn’t like it.  But since getting serious about my foodie credentials, my palate has matured considerably – and I actually enjoyed an Ethiopian meal I shared with a friend last Saturday at Mesi’s Kitchen in Holloway.  We went for a platter, topped with a combination of lamb stews, mixed veg and fried beef pieces – and I didn’t even mind the whole hand eating (although in Nigerian culture, you get a little bowl of water on the side to keep your hands spick and span when you’re eating fufu with our stews #justsaying lol) Anyway, it was a worthwhile re-introduction – so here’s a few pics from my visit:

Have you tried Ethiopian food?  Or do you have any recommendations for places to go in London?  Let me know in the comments. 

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The USP:   Eggs, obviously.  But not your typical scrambled, fried or poached to break the morning fast, but as the tasty star to mouth-watering trimmings like mushroom ragu and crisp polenta or  hearty fried chicken / shrimp / braised beef / pork belly buns that you can imagine is a whole lot sexier than a fried egg sandwich.  Although they do one of those too – with sweet corn salsa – and it is quite sexy.

Having a break… At Egg Break

A photo posted by Matilda (@mstillytilda) on Sep 17, 2015 at 11:37am PDT

The food: Generous and no doubt, Instagrammable. The shrimp with green chilli, tomato and pineapple salsa was a joy to wolf down, with french fries and smoked bacon, one of their many breakfast-y sides. I also polished off the very naughty but nice baked salted caramel custard with creme fraiche for afters.

Budget: The prices here are my kind of cheerful for West London. A full English is a tenner and the buns range from £6-10, while sides are £2-4 and sweets roughly £4-6.  So three courses for 20-ish quid? Bargain. The £7 cocktails will bump that up, but I’d happily splash out on a few Aperol Spritz’s or their Pisco sours come pay day.

Good for: Brunch, lunch or dinner after a Portobello stroll.

Visit www.eggbreak.com for more details.

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• Steak tartine sandwich – For the carnivores like me! Sourdough bread sounds delish, along with the garlic aioli and caramelised onions. Courtesy of Chef Spike Mendelsohn
• Open prawn sandwich – Came across this on the Jamie Oliver recipe network and liking the idea of zucchini (orcourgettes), rocket, mushroom and prawns.
• Arugula and goat’s cheese tartine – My best friend is a vegetarian, so I think she’d love this. You can’t go too wrong with goat’s cheese either in my book.
• Hot tartines – This is less of a recipe but more ideas for tartines, from the New York Times

  Do you love tartines too? Any recipes you recommend?

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East London Liquor Company Gin Cured Salmon

Serves 12 people

Ingredients

• 1 side of Salmon Fillet – skin on and pin boned (1kg)
• 300g Rock Salt
• 100ml of dry gin (preferable East London Liquor Company)
• 250g Caster Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Juniper Berries
• 1 Teasp Black Peppercorns
• 35g Dill – Roughly Chopped
• Zest of 2 Lemons
• Zest of 2 Limes

To serve

• Crusty Sour Dough
• 250ml Crème Fraiche
• Cornichons – small jar
• 1 Tbsp Fresh Dill – finely chopped

Method

1. Toast the peppercorns and juniper berries in a dry pan for 1-2mins.
2. Once toasted then crush them in a pestle and mortar. You don’t want to grind then to a powder, only lightly crush them.
3. Then in a large mixing bowl place all of the ingredients (except the salmon) and mix so everything is incorporated well.
4. On a clean work surface, then lay cling film for the salmon to sit on. It’s best to use two lengths and overlap so they make one sheet. I like to let the cling film overhang the work surface to its easy to roll up, and you want to roll around 50cm in length.
5. Place the salmon fillet onto the cling film and pat dry using kitchen paper, and then spread the curing mixture over the fillet evenly.
6. Then carefully wrap the fillet up. Once wrapped, re-wrap in 3 more layers.
7. Place this into a roasting tin or something of similar size, and then place another roasting tin on top of the salmon to weigh this down. You can use tins/jars for added weight.
8. Then put this into the fridge and leave for 2-3 days. After this time remove from fridge and unwrap, and then discard cling film and rinse under a cold tap to remove the rest of the cure. Pat dry using kitchen paper.
9. To serve, slice the salmon into thin slices and serve with toasted sour dough and crème fraiche.

Natalie’s cookbook Winning Recipes: For Every Day comes out on 2nd October.  For more info, visit: www.nataliecolemanchef.co.uk/book. 

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Nowadays it seems the capital can’t get enough of pop-ups and American food – so put the two together and unsurprisingly, you get a sellout weekend like Dante Fried Chicken’s Weekend London Cookout. Hosted over two days (with only two dinner and a lunch service on Sunday), a select number of attendees paid £25 for a gorgeous three-courser courtesy of LA’s Dante Gonzales, the award-winning chef behind Dante Fried Chicken and  the Taco Shack that swept into London last September (2011).

Dante’s philosophy is to trot the globe and celebrate good music, art and food – and he didn’t disappoint with this latest ride or fry event. Check out our snaps and thoughts below; we particularly loved the moreish smoked cheese grits with shrimp,  the sock-it-to-me-chicken and coconut spice waffles with Apricot glaze – delish!

Starters:
Black Eye Pea Hummus Endives
Andouille Cinnamon Corn Bread with Honey Butter
Shrimp with Smoked Cheese Grits

The andouille twist masked an obvious cinnamon tang we’d hoped for in the cornbread – but the cheesy grits were absolutely superb, while the black eyed peas and hummus combo worked a treat.

Mains:
Sock-It-To-Me-Chicken or
Warning-Tastes-Like-Chicken Tofu
On top of Coconut Spice Waffles served with Apricot Crack Glaze
With Cucumber Corn Ginger Salad & Crispy Leek Deviled Eggs

The fried chicken was excellent and the obvious highlight of the main, followed closely by the coconut waffles and devilled eggs. The flavours were distinctively Asian too which worked superbly.

Dessert:
21MC Choco Cherry Pie

This conclusion was a little modest – but who were we kidding? We were stuffed after the main, and appreciated such a sweet treat to call lunch a wrap!

For drinks, we also enjoyed Hennessey ice tea slushies… £2 for non-alcoholic, £4 for the original.

For more info about Dante Fried Chicken, visit www.dantefriedchicken.com

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