The best place for us to eat in Oxford – the Old Parsonage

Posted on November 19, 2016 by Jack Shamash

A good place for posh grub

We wanted to go to Oxford to see my daughter, who has just started a course there. And my mother wanted to come with us and buy us a nice lunch. So I started to look for somewhere nice to eat.

I did look online, but the internet was pretty useless: it provided us with a huge number of recommendations among which were a branch of Subway the sandwich bar and some suburban Indian restaurants with names like ‘Star of India’.

So I emailed my friend Andrew. Andrew is a professor who has worked at the university and still lives in the town. He emailed me back. ‘I’d suggest the Old Parsonage – I haven’t been for years but it’s always been good, traditional, on the pricey side and the sort of restaurant you’d imagine from all those films they set in early 20th century Oxford’. So I booked.

Anyway, we went along for a meal. The restaurant itself is about two minutes walk from my daughter’s college, which is very handy.

My children after a good meal

It is a lovely building, and is part of a hotel. It is made of old stone, and looks very rustic and historic. The dining room is hung with oil paintings – most of which appear to be from the first half of the twentieth century.

Now the menu isn’t cheap. Most of the starters are seven or eight pounds, while the mains range from £15 to £50. For starters my son and I had a wonderful French fish soup with aioli (garlic mayonnaise) and croutons. This was done really well done, very authentic – lots of great flavours of fish. My wife and daughter each had beautifully fresh smoked salmon.

The main courses were similarly good. My wife had some very good fish cakes, which were a relative bargain at £15. My mum and son had fillet steak – £32. I went absolutely mad and had a veal chop and kidney cooked in garlic and rosemary for £49.50. My chop was extremely expensive, but immensely tasty. It was cooked beautifully – and it was a big chunk of meat. OK, it wasn’t cheap, but it was a real treat. Oh, and because it was lunchtime, we didn’t drink very much. My daughter and I each had a very acceptable glass of Languedoc rose.

The portions were big, so we weren’t really in the mood for pudding. My son had a very nice pear and apple crumble. Anyone can knock out a reasonable crumble, but what was particularly nice was the delicious custard, which was made of real eggs and was flavoured with fresh vanilla. Add a couple of coffee and the bill for the five of us came to £250.

It was a lovely meal. Not just because of the food – which was very good. It was just a nice place to sit, the staff was helpful and it was pleasantly busy – but not packed.

And in the front there is a sort of bar, which had a stone floor. As we were leaving we got talking to a very nice academic, who had brought his dog and was having a drink with a friend. We were just remarking what a lovely dog he had, when the animal produced a great spray of yellow diarrhoea. My daughter and I fell about laughing. I’m not sure that this is a regular part of the entertainment offered at the Old Parsonage, but it meant that we left with a smile.

A Bonfire Night Treat – Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Posted on November 3, 2016 by Christian Gott

Early Autumn is one of my favourite culinary times of the year, root vegetables are becoming abundant, it is the season for game, hearty stews and fiery curries and it is when soups really come into their own. As the expected cold spell descends from the Artic just in time for Bonfire Night I thought I would pass one of our family favourite recipes. There is nothing as comforting after walking on the beach or kicking up some leaves up in the park with the children as a nice bowl of soup.

We love creamy chowder, spicy sweet potato with cumin and chilli but in my house the girls love roasted red pepper best. This is a really easy, comforting recipe that freezes exceeding well so could be made in advance, it is a fantastic thick tasty potage full of sweet, smoky flavours and great served in a mug as you stand to watch the fireworks. Passed through a sieve it can be dressed up as a lovely lunchtime treat or simple supper dish. So for the perfect fifth of November feast make sure you have some crisp-skinned jacket potatoes freshly baked in the oven, a plate full of toffee apples for the children and a big, big pan of this delicious soup.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup serves 4 to 6

2 large deep Red Peppers, halved & de-seeded.

1 large Onion, peeled and sliced

3 cloves of Garlic, peeled.

2 sticks of Celery, washed and thinly sliced

1 large Carrot, peeled and thinly sliced

2 x 400 gr tins of chopped Tomatoes

1/2 litre of Vegetable Stock

100 ml quality Olive Oil

50 gr Tomato Purée

1 heaped teaspoon dried Basil

1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika

Juice of one fresh Lemon

A generous pinch of dried Chilli flakes

Sea Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 200 C / 360 F / Gas Mark 4. Place the pepper halves and garlic cloves on to a baking tray and drizzle with a little of the olive oil. Bake at the top of your oven for thirty minutes until the vegetables are roasted and nicely caramelised. In the meantime, heat the remaining oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan, over a medium heat, and sauté the chopped up onion, carrot and celery for about ten minutes until soft.

In a second pan heat up the vegetable stock and add the tomato purée and the chilli flakes. Whisk and then add to the onions, celery and carrots. Peel any very dark, burnt spots from the peppers and add them, the garlic and remaining ingredients to the stock and vegetables. Bring the soup to a low boil, turn down the heat and simmer for twenty to twenty-five minutes.

Remove from heat and allow to completely cool then using a hand blender or food processor blitz the until the soup is smooth. You can pass the soup through a sieve if you want a more refined dinner party finish. To serve, reheat and season with salt, pepper and lemon to taste.

Great Turkish food in North London – and it’s cheap!

Posted on October 27, 2016 by Jack Shamash

Aksular in Green Lanes

For many years Palmers Green and Southgate in North London have been the centre of the Turkish community. Turks, who started off in areas such as Dalston in Hackney, got richer and moved northwards. Many of the more affluent ones ended up in the area around Southgate and Palmers Green. All of which means that this is now a great place for cheap Turkish meals.

Anyone who has travelled through Turkey will know that the country is huge and that the roads are punctuated by gigantic service stations with huge restaurants, where you can buy excellent food at rock bottom prices.

The new restaurants around Southgate are very similar. They have lots of tables, fast service and they are very cheap. It’s not the place for a romantic first date, but if you have a hungry family, you’ll get a very good meal.

Aksular is on the Green Lanes. It’s so popular that the restaurant has recently doubled in size and they’ve opened another branch in Enfield Town. The restaurant is a bit like the road houses that you find in Turkey. It is cheap, clean and functional and is full of families. It has lines and lines of tables and the service is friendly and brisk. As soon as you’re seated, you are given salads, hummus and aubergine dish imam biyaldi. These are free! If you want, you can order other starters but you have to pay for them– I chose a chicken soup which had lots of shredded chicken;. My son had some prawns, nicely grilled with garlic..

My daughter tucking into the starters

The main courses are basic but very good. I had grilled chops, my brother had a mixed shish kebab (with cubes of lamb, chops and meatballs) and my mother had chicken kebab. My son had some sort of donner kebab which was served in bread with a sauce on it. And my wife had fillets of sea bass. The dishes came with rice or potatoes. There’s very little to say about the food. It is good, plentiful and very tasty. And it’s all cooked in the traditional method over a long tray of charcoal.

The staff are delightful. After the meal, a couple of us ordered Turkish coffee. The waitress insisted on giving everyone else a glass of Turkish tea – free of charge. We also got pieces of baklava – the traditional pastry with syrup and nuts. Again, this was free.

We didn’t have any alcoholic drinks -although the place sells a reasonable range of beers and wines. But we’d effectively had a three course meal and for six of us the price was £72. I’d describe it as a bloody bargain!

On similar lines, a restaurant called Kervan Sofrasi has opened about half a mile away in Southgate. It occupies a building which used to be a large pub called ‘The Waggon and Horses’ in the main road, Chase Side. Again lots of tables, big crowds, simple food and lots of it. It’s very popular with the local Turkish community and with anyone else who enjoys good food with lots of flavour and not too much

Kervan Sofasi in Palmers Green

embellishment. Again, there are other branches of the same restaurant – including one in nearby Edmonton. Kervan Sofrasi is slightly different to the Aksular because it tends to cater to parties of slightly younger people – including office workers and birthday parties. But there are still plenty of families enjoying a meal together. And again it’s cheap. I went out with four friends and we had a huge pile of charcoal grilled lamb, chicken, meatballs and even a quail. There were salads and dips to start and we all had beers and coffee. The price including service was £100 – again extremely good value.

Gastronomic splendours of Canvey Island – good eating in Thames Estuary

Posted on October 13, 2016 by Jack Shamash

Labworth Cafe – based on the bridge of HMS Queen Mary

Canvey Island is one of those places that Londoners have heard of but never visit. An island in the Thames Estuary, it was popular as a resort – primarily for caravan holidays – between the wars. In the 70s it attained a sort of fame because blues bands such as Doctor Feelgood emerged from the area. There are some lovely houses by the sea front, but the area has always been seen as a bit common. Last week I went there, and I can tell you it is worth the trip.

The only famous restaurant there is the Labworth Cafe. This was built in the 1930s in the modernist style. It was designed by the famous engineer Ove Arup and was intended to look like the bridge of the the liner – The Queen Mary. It’s now a sort of bistro. You can buy a full English breakfast, but we ordered the grilled skate and chips and salad. And my son had roast pork belly.

Actually, it was very nice. I won’t go any further than that. After all, you don’t go to Canvey Island for cordon bleu cookery. It’s the sort of place where almost every house has a St Georges flag – largely because of the football – and where Asian women in saris go paddling in the sea. It’s not upmarket, but it’s not completely chavvy.

My skate was well cooked – a little more than I’d like. The chips were obviously out of a packet and salad was fresh and well dressed. My son’s pork was very soft and tasty and his roast vegetables weren’t overdone. It was simple food and cost us about £12 each – including soft drinks for my son and a beer for myself. It was very good seaside fare.

And if you’re feeling in the mood for a snack in the afternoon, can I recommend The Welcome Cafe – a snackbar on the seafront. Tea is made in a pot and the locals buy cooked chopped up sausages to feed their dogs. The only thing I didn’t like was the mugs. These all carried headlines from the Sun newspaper. Mine had the delightful headline: ‘Elton takes David up the aisle’. Canvey is a lovely place to visit, but it’s not exactly a centre of high culture.

Mugs of tea at Canvey

My son attacking a plate of pulled pork

Wong Kei – the most famous Chinese restaurant in London!

Posted on October 6, 2016 by Jack Shamash

Wongkei restaurant in Wardour Street Soho

My friend Roy at the Wongkei, which has been frequenting since 1979

I was having a chat with my friend Roy, when I mentioned that I’d never actually been to Wong Kei Chinese restaurant. He was astounded. After all, Wong Kei is hugely famous. It serves incredibly cheap food, but has a reputation for having rude waiters and for not accepting any kind of credit cards – cash only! It is in the lower end of Wardour Street, in the heart of London’s China Town and seems to have existed forever.

It has entered London folklore. Many people will tell stories of having arguments with the waiters there. And I remember at one poetry performance, a woman reading a poem about the drunks who used to come to Wong Kei late at night.

Because it is such an institution, I suggested that Roy and I should go there for lunch. Roy is a regular at the restaurant – he first visited in 1979 – and he says it has hardly changed in all that time. When we visited it was mid-day and at that time of day the restaurant seems to operate as a sort of cheap canteen for the local Chinese community.

It is absolutely basic in its décor. Lines of Formica tables, sturdy restaurant chairs, no table cloths and a pot of chilli sauce on every table. As soon as we arrived someone brought a pot of tea – which is free.

Roy admits to being a creature of habit and generally has beef with fried noodles. I had roast duck with soup noodles, which is my favourite Chinese lunch.

The food arrived fairly promptly and it was very pleasant. I felt that the duck was slightly overcooked and I’ve had better noodles- these lacked the sort of bite that I enjoy. The broth was rich and tasty and there was plenty of chilli sauce to spice things up.

Wong Kei at lunchtime – serving seriously cheap Chinese food

Likewise Roy’s beef was perfectly nice. I found it a bit blander than I’m used to.. Again the noodles weren’t as crisply as I’d have liked. But the point of the restaurant comes when you ask for the bill. The price for two meals was £10.50. In the West End of London, it’s probably the cheapest meal you can find.

It is busy, it is bustling, the waiters put food on the table and take it away. The food isn’t top class, but it is ridiculously cheap. It’s not a place for a romantic meal, but as an alternative to a lunchtime sandwich it makes a nice change.

Where do congressmen go to eat? The best steaks in Washington!

Posted on October 4, 2016 by Jack Shamash

Capital Grille - Washington-steaks-pricey

The Capital Grille in Washington DC – a great place for upmarket steak

Washington DC is the home of Government in the USA. As a result it has a number of restaurants where the Presidential staff, the congressional staff, the senior lobbyists and all the congressmen get wined and dined – at great expense. So when I visited Washington, a friend of mine insisted on taking me to one.

When it comes to feeding congressmen, there are a couple of places that fit the bill. We tried to book the Caucus Room, but it was closed for refurbishment. So we decided to go to the Capital Grille. This is part of a chain of restaurants – but a particularly plush one. When you eventually stagger out, filled with good food and drink, you get a great view up Capitol hill to the Capitol building: the big place with the dome that you’ve seen on all the postcards.

If you are a lobbyist, trying to get a congressman to see things in your way, this is the place to go. It is all oak panelling and very plush. And yet it is also very American: there is a large head of a bison behind the bar.

The place absolutely shouts money – but in a restrained way. It is designed to look like an exclusive gentlemen’s club. The carpets are very thick, the flooring around the bar is marble. When you sit down you are given huge steak knifes which must cost around $30 each and the table napkins are of the finest linen.

As in some private members clubs, where members have their own bottles of whiskey in a locker, this one also has lockers for the private supply. But this is obviously done in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. One of the lockers had the name of Frank Sinatra (the singer who died 18 years ago) and another had a brass plate with the name Strom Thurmond. Thurmond was probably the best known Senator in Washington: he lived to 100 and served in the senate for 48 years. But as he died in 2003, his name plate was probably an in-joke for the Washington crowd.

So what do you eat? Well naturally you eat steaks – and the very finest steaks that money can buy. But as we were splashing out, I decided to start my meal with half a dozen oysters. They were lovely little things – very fresh, juicy with a choice of toppings. I dressed mine with shallots and vinegar. I thought the horseraddish, which I was offered, would have killed the taste of the oysters. My wife had asparagus dripping with butter.

Oh, the bread was very good – crispy and incredibly fresh and yielding. It was quite perfect. In fact it was so good that we asked the waitress to take it away, lest it should ruin our dinner.

So how should I describe the steaks. They were wonderful. I ordered a ribeye with porcini mushrooms and balsamic vinegar. It had that lovely crust that you get when you fry a well aged steak in butter. And the meat was wonderfully – marbled with just a tiny bit of fat. And the meat hadn’t been trimmed, so I got to eat a slice of that full, rich fat, which is probably dreadful for cholesterol levels, but which tastes so good.

We ordered two bottles of Dutton Chardonnay – at $70 a bottle. We had brought two bottles of our own red wine. Normally we’d have expected to be charged for corkage – opening the wines – but when we looked at the bill we hadn’t been charged. And for dessert, I shared a superb creme brulee with my wife.

The meal costs $550 for four, which I have to admit is the most I have ever paid for a meal. If we had had four starters and four desserts (rather than sharing them), and bought all the wine at the restaurant and a rounded off with a decent brandy, the bill could easily have been $1000.

Stir-fry Beef in Black Bean Sauce

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Christian Gott

So you may have guessed from a previous article I love Chinese food. When I fly from the Channel Islands to the mainland it is difficult as I want to try every new restaurant, well that is a bit of an exaggeration my waist line is bad enough as it is, but I always hanker for a fantastic Chinese extravaganza, and that is always a rather greedy feast I am afraid. My absolute favourite was I recall eating a delicious Chinese meal in Oakham, Rutland, see I once lived and worked geographically about as far from the sea as you can get in England. In particular, one dish, crispy chilli beef served in a deep-fried potato nest was fantastic, it was from over fifteen years ago however, so I cannot guarantee that the restaurant even exists now, just a fabulous memory.

Next I crave the moist, oh so flavoursome steamed scallop wantons and prawn and pork dumplings from Hakkasan in Hanway Place, London, for which I would almost give anything to learn how to make, and is cooking at it’s best. Finally I would have an awesome crab with ginger and scallions ( Spring onions fellow English readers ), in East Harbor, New York, with a mind blowing Chinese and Japanese menu. It is rather sad that I have yet had the opportunity to go to China but it is on my list to do, perhaps one day.

What I have done was an inspiring course in London with Ken Hom, equipped myself with numerous books, woks, steamers and ingredients from quaint little Asian speciality suppliers and set to work as only a chef can and chopped, pounded, crushed, fried and ate my way through the Chinese canon. Cantonese, Shandong, Hunan and spicy Szechaun cuisine with noodles, rice, black beans, bok choi and lots of seasoning; garlic, chilli, cloves and ginger, and the wonderfully pungent star anise. Am I giving my little local take away a bit of a run for his money what do you think? Enjoy.

My Top Tip – Add splashes of water or vegetable stock occasionally while stir frying – this aids with steam-cooking the vegetables and prevents sticking.

Beef in Black Bean Sauce serves 4

750 gr quality Rump Steak

2 Carrots, peeled and cut into thin strips or julienne

2 large Onions, Peeled and cut into thin slices

1 Green Pepper, cut into slices

1 Red Pepper, cut into slices

75 ml neutral Oil for stir frying

50 gr Fermented Black Beans

3 Cloves of Garlic, peeled and finely chopped

3 cm piece of Ginger, peeled and finely grated

1 small Red Chilli, seeds removed and very finely sliced

1 tablespoon quality Toasted Sesame Oil

For the marinade

3 tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce

3 tablespoons Rice Wine or Dry Sherry

¼ teaspoon Chinese Five Spice

1 Clove of Garlic, peeled and finely chopped

2 teaspoons Corn Flour, mixed with a little cold water

For the sauce

100 ml quality beef Stock

1 tablespoon Caster Sugar

1 tablespoon Corn Flour, mixed with a little cold water

2 Cloves

Place the rump steak in the freezer for thirty minutes, this firms up the beef making it easier to slice thinly. On a secure board slice the beef with a sharp kitchen knife into thin strips and place into a glass bowl. Add the marinade ingredients, mix well to combine together and fully cover the steak strips.

Cover and chill in the fridge for a minimum of two hours. Meanwhile, prepare the black beans by first rinsing thoroughly in cold water then soaking in fresh water for around half an hour, changing the water once. Drain thoroughly, chop finely and set aside.

When ready to cook, drain the meat from the marinade pouring any remaining marinade into a small, heavy bottomed pan. Add the sauce ingredients to the marinade and heat gently to thicken, stirring occasionally to prevent lumps forming. Heat the oil in the wok until smoking and carefully add the meat. Stir fry until cooked, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside on to some kitchen paper.

Heat a little more oil then stir fry onion over medium heat for five minutes before adding the carrots and peppers, continue cooking for a couple more minutes until they are just starting to go soft. Add the black beans and cook for two more minutes stirring continuously, be careful not to burn, then add the garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for a further two minutes. Return the beef to the wok, strain the sauce through a fine sieve and add as well. Mix in the sesame oil and cook for one more minute stirring all the time to heat the beef through and serve immediately with egg fried rice or noodles.

Old wines in interesting bottles at Winerack

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Jack Shamash

Borgo Magredo – great wine in an attractive flask

The big wine retailer Conviviality, which includes Bargain Booze and Wine Rack, is offering a series of wines which are veering towards the unusual.

Their autumn wine tasting, held last week (7 September 2016) had a wide variety of wines from unlikely countries. A Slovenian 2015 Gomilla Sauvignon Blanc (£10.99) was being offered alongside a Chinese2015 Chateau Changyu Moser XV Cabernet Sauvignon (£10.99). The Slovenian wine was light and fruity. The Chinese wine was slightly too dry for my palate, but it is the sort of thing that guests would be keen to try..

There are some really pretty flask-shaped wine bottles from Italy. The 2015 Fruliano Borgo Magedo, Friuli Grave was fruity and slightly floral with notes of grapefruit. It’s a nice wine and – it might sound a bit shallow – but when you are having a dinner party, it’s nice to have something on the table that looks interesting.

It’s worth checking out the South African wines. There are some good chenin blancs and I particularly rated the Julien Schaal Mountain Vineyards Chardonnay (£13.99) – light and slightly fruity with citrus tones. A nice thing to drink with fish, chicken breasts or just by itself.

And there are even wines with celebrity links. The 2016 MT Pinot Noir Rose (£10.99), is made by McGuigan/John Torode. John Torode is the Australian celebrity chef who does Masterchef and looks severe when contestants burn the apple crumble. Pinot noir is more normally used for Burgundy style wines and it is found in rose Champagnes. So this is a slightly unusual wine, but it would go well with prawns or a tuna salad and it is reasonably priced.

An exciting Slovenian cabernet sauvignon

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