Brunch at The Modern Pantry

One drizzly morning back in March I took my parents out for a Mother's Day surprise meal in Clerkenwell. Much hemming and hawing over various Google, TimeOut and newspaper reviews had led me to The Modern Pantry. And guess what? Turns out Asian-tinged brunch in an airy Georgian town house was exactly my parents' cup of tea. Mum was bursting with compliments about her choice - the much-raved about prawn omelette - and my parents even had a little explore of the place, heading upstairs to nose around the Modern Pantry's function room for future dinner parties. But anyway. You must be wondering what we had to eat...

For the table, a Cornish crab, smoked mussel and endive salad drizzled with a brown crab, umeboshi and seaweed mayonnaise, garnished with garlic crisps. Perfectly light, utterly delicious and practically a magnet to seafood enthusiasts like the Lims.

For my mother, the sugar-cured New Caledonian prawn omelette with toast, green chilli, spring onion, coriander and what I am assured was an incredibly authentic, powerful smoked chilli sambal. (Trust her, she's Malaysian). I had a mouthful and oh my, the combination of sweet prawn and smoky chilli was seriously addictive. 

For Papa L, a spartan choice of poached eggs and toast, accompanied by pan-fried halloumi, slow-roast tomatoes and wilted spinach. Can't go wrong with the classics.

And for me, the most delicious brunch I think I've had in my life. Coconut and cassava waffles accompanied by a pineapple and thyme salsa and a mound of coconut yoghurt, sprinkled with peanut brittle. The only adequate adjective for this: divine. 

I ate my waffles with a sneaky side of bacon. So worth it.

Seeing as almost all the food at the table had an Asian twist to it, it was only right for me to order a matcha latte to chase it down. A striking colour, but a tad on the chalky side for me. Next time I'll stick with my trusty chai latte.

For my mum, a Lalani & Co oolong brewed to perfection thanks to this little hourglass, housed inside an antique bobbin. I often find oolong quite bitter, but the strict measurement of brewing time produced a beautifully subtle, slightly smoky flavour.

A perfect Mother's Day experience - with excellent food and attentive service with special touches, like the little box of truffles presented to my mum at the end of the meal. She was definitely won over, and so was I!

St. John's Square is officially one of the coolest areas of London in my eyes. It's home to the Zetter Townhouse, the Bistro Bruno Loubet, the Museum of the Order of St. John (think I'm going to have to indulge my inner medievalist with a visit pretty soon)...

...and now, a favourite brunch spot!

 Thank you to the Modern Pantry for making this year's Mother's Day such a special one. I can't wait to return to sample your Malaysian-inspired rendang mince on toast...oh, and to get some waffles to go!

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Hawker House Closing Night

Last night, I finally got myself down to east London for a glorious night of street food at Street Feast's Hawker House. (And yes...this has got to be my all-time record for celerity of blogging after an event. I'm so proud of myself right now.)

Grazing at places like Kerb and Street Feast makes me very, very happy. It's fussy, unpretentious, and usually cheap, and I was practically raised on a diet of hawker-style food on childhood trips to my mother's hometown in Malaysia. Familiarity breeds content. So I love that Street Feast has been running with this Asian theme at their Hawker House set-up over the past few months. This year it was housed in an old office block in Haggerston. Okay, so not strictly adhering to the al fresco rules of 'street' food, but it's still pretty cool -  the ugly office fittings have been ripped out and replaced with neon typography, candles and three levels of achingly delicious food. And, to my delight, arrows on the stairs dictate the rules of walking in classic Angry Londoner style - keep to the left, this way up, this way down, etc.. I'd actually love it if we had signs like this spray painted on the actual street, just like on this New York sidewalk.

Street Feast know that feasting isn't just about the comestibles, it's about the beverages too. The crowds of young London hipsters make Hawker House so warm that jackets must be quickly divested and drinks ordered. The family (including Alex) and I sipped on spritzers, mojitos and juices of all colours and flavours, which made me long for summer. 

For those seeking a stronger tipple, there's the opportunity to indulge in a little whisky roulette. For £8 you can spin the wheel and have the chance to win a dram worth up to £22 - though you might also get something worth £7...

Since our idea of hawker food is solidly Malaysian in origin, we made a beeline for the Sambal Shiok stall for a chicken satay rice box and beef rendang slider. The taste was pretty authentic and I'm so on board with the idea of Malaysian flavours in a burger. Nasi lemak sliders next time lah! 

After my sister guzzled down a tray of Breddos Tacos and pronounced them muy bueno, Alex and I headed down a level to check out their offerings.

Al couldn't resist this fried buttermilk chicken beauty...

And you know what they say. A thing of beauty is a joy forever... in my mouth.

And after a little stalk of Lisa's blog I knew that I absolutely had to get a cone of Duck 'N' Roll's 'mussels popcorn' with black garlic aioli. 

Rendered in black and white to try and offset my inexplicably mauve face. 

The fried mussels were definitely the most interesting thing I ate last night. The dark creamy aioli complemented them perfectly, and came in what I'm assured is some sort of nut shell...can anyone enlighten me on its origin? Back at the table, my mother and sister took one bite and sent me right back to the stall for another cone. I love my family.

I also finally got to try Bleecker Burger's Angry Fries, drenched in piquant chilli and blue cheese sauce, which I imagine would be the perfect drunk snack. Next time I'll be diving headfirst into their sweet potato fries.

And Alex and I ordered a couple of Yum Buns: a savoury one bursting with slices of sticky, crispy pork belly and cucumber, and a sweet fried one stuffed with Vietnamese coffee ice cream. We tucked into them before I could remember to take photos, but trust me - both were incredible and I could have subsisted off them alone all evening, they were so filling. I'd like a vat of Vietnamese coffee ice cream for when the weather heats up please - it packs such a kick!

The Hawker House season finished last night (you know me, I'm all about jumping on the bandwagon at the very last minute...) but I'm sure they'll reprise the Hawker love for another year in 2016. 

Meanwhile, Street Feast will be back in the blink of an eye, with Model Market in Lewisham re-opening on 17th April and ventures at Dalston Yard and Shoreditch Yard opening this spring. I for one can't wait to get my street food fix again!

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Return to Cambridge

After graduating last June, I vowed that I wouldn't be one of those grads who sneak back on a regular basis and basically never leave. And although homesickness - uni-sickness? - did set in around October as idyllic punting and college snaps returned in force to my various social media feeds, I somehow managed to put off my own triumphant return until this month. (We're not going to mention that afternoon back in February when I caved and went back to see my friends for tea and cake in between various freak-outs in the Careers Service Library. Shh.)

One of my very first ventures on this blog was a post about my college's annual formal to mark International Women's Day - a particularly special event as we're a women's college. When the invite for this year's formal landed in my inbox, I didn't need much persuading. And neither did my best friends.

Roxy and I arrived back in the 'Bridge just as the sun was beginning to set, casting a golden glow over King's Parade and Market Square. This is the thing about Cambridge. Even on a rainy day it's stunningly pretty, and an unsuspecting visitor would never associate it with the agonies its students go through (I'll just put it out there: two essays a week and at least five or six 3-hour exams in one week at the end of each year.) I actually felt my chest start to hurt as we arrived in town, which I'm going to chalk down to residual stress palpitations (!)

I'll probably never get over how gorgeous King's College is. I mean, look at it. Ridiculous.

On your left, ladies and gentlemen: Senate House, the scene of my graduation last June. Time and its tendency to fly really does scare me sometimes!

Although when we gathered for formal in the Dome, it felt as if no time had passed at all.

Murray Edwards has stepped up its formal game. And I'm not complaining. (Free alumnae dining rights, y'all.)

Photo courtesy of Clare Cotterill

To start...a salad of purple potatoes, sprouting broccoli and polenta with an avocado dressing.

And for our main, sweet grilled red mullet with chakalaka. I personally thought chakalaka was the part of the egg Norman from the Great British Bake Off advocated removing, but apparently it's an African spiced bean and pepper compote. Yum.

The day before International Women's Day also happened to be Japan Day. Our college is partnered with Tokyo's Kaetsu University and has a Japanese cultural centre attached to it, so we were treated to a brief interlude of Japanese hip-hop dance while we waited for dessert. The dancing definitely brought out my inner East Asian fangirl, nurtured during my Oriental Society days at school and something of a secret since then...

And finally, dessert! Continuing the Land of the Rising Sun theme, we were served honey Castella Cake, a type of Japanese sponge, with mango and passion fruit sorbet, coconut cream and grilled mango slices. This one knocked it out of the park. Easily one of the best desserts I've had at Murray Edwards formal (or any other college formal), the flavour combinations were right up my street. It reminded me a little of a refined version of Thai khao niao mamuang, minus the glutinous rice.

No trip to Murray Edwards is complete without a visit to see the resident college beetles.

In first year Imarin and I got in a tiny bit of trouble for running down here after dinner and taking selfies astride the beetles (endless hijinks with the college art were had through our years at college, I tell you) - totally unaware that there was a CCTV camera fixed on us.

Photo courtesy of Clare Cotterill

We're obviously waaaaay more mature five years down the line...

Photo courtesy of Ran Huo

Cambridge, it's been fun. Let's do it again soon? 

Thank you to Murray Edwards College for providing a delicious New Hall Society formal! It was so lovely to have an excuse to see some of the ladies from my matriculation year group and run around college like an undergrad again. I'm already looking forward to next year! 

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Shackfuyu

There's a new kid on the block in Soho. The Bone Daddies-owned Shackfuyu is a welcome addition to Old Compton Street, and with its hybrid Japanese-American-Korean-inspired dishes, it epitomises the flavours of the melting pot for which central London is known and loved.

It was the scene for my dinner with a Cambridge friend who I had managed to not see for three years (seriously, time, where do you go?) I'd picked it because I've loved all the other Bone Daddies offerings: the eponymous noodle bar is one of my favourite hangouts, while Flesh and Buns has been privy to an excellent sake-tinged girls' night out. And it turns out that Shackfuyu do the best catch-up food: small plates to fuel the protracted 'tell me what you've been doing for...er, the last three years' chats, as well as providing easy conversation hooks centred around the unusual combination of ingredients on offer. 

My friend is well renowned for his love of spice (in fact, Chili is one of his nicknames...), so one of our dishes had to be the hot stone rice. Quite literally - rice, sweetcorn, piquant chilli and beef mixed up in a giant hot stone bowl, the heat from which causes the rice to take on a crispy texture. The big steaming bowl and the theatre of the mixing reminded me of a traditional Chinese hot pot or Japanese shabushabu! 

Also brought to the table: sweet, unctuous miso aubergine slices that smacked of umami, sprinkled with bubu arare (puffed rice) and seaweed. The kind of dish that makes your knees metamorphose into jelly.

A classic mac and cheese given a Japanese spin with mentaiko (fish roe), plus bacon and cock scratchings. The latter is always bound to provoke giggles, and is particularly brilliant with Bone Daddies' ramen...

My stand-out dish - the 'prawn toast masquerading as okonomiyaki', which also wins best plate name of the evening. I have fond memories of both elements of the dish - I chomped my way through many a prawn toast triangle in the various Chinese restaurants of my childhood, and tried okonomiyaki for the first time on the street in Tokyo. As soon as this plate was set down I knew it was special - the heat from the food makes the bonito flakes on top curl up and dance like Chinese fortune-telling fish. And they weren't just pretty - biting into them produced a 'so crispy I could die' moment.

Fried Korean chicken wings drenched in a thick, spicy sauce. Orange sauce EVERYWHERE. My guest lapped them up, but I think I prefer my wings slightly less spicy and accompanied by blue cheese sauce, celery and curly fries, à la Orange Buffalo. Dammit, I'm hungry again...

And to go with the food, we rolled with a couple of Bone Daddies punches. 

All the dishes were right up my street, but unfortunately, I couldn't eat as much as I would have liked and had a horrible headache, which I initially chalked up to the alcohol. Upsetting, and of course, my dinner guest chided me for not living up to my reputation for hoovering up everything on the table. The confusion was cleared up the next morning, when I realised that I'd caught a nasty infection that had been doing the rounds at work. Fun times! Despite my lack of appetite, I managed to develop food envy over a neighbouring table's kinako French toast with green tea icecream and have since seen it plastered all over Instagram. Which means I'm going to have to do a Bone Daddies and make this pop-up my new Soho go-to. Life is hard, guys...

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