Big British Food Map Capital cooking

Date Published:

15/09/2008

Andrew hit the big smoke on the hunt for some capital cuisine

One careful owner

A sad day this morning as I handed the keys to the Focus over to Kevin from the Ford Demo Centre. They say London's no place to keep a dog, and it's also no place to keep a car, what with Islington council's expensive visitor parking permits. No, far better to set him free.
There was 11,536 miles on the clock and a weird sense of loss when it was driven away, after all that car's been my home for the past seven months. I hope the next owner of ACO8 RAU realises what adventures it's had.

Cakes - yum

But enough of that, London's waiting. And how better to throw yourself back into the cultural maelstrom that is the capital than an afternoon trip to China town. Ileana added the Kowloon Bakery to the Map saying: "The cocktail buns, I can't describe these things adequately. Just go try one!" Well I did, I got a small selection - red bean curd ones, a coconut one, and a meat-filled one. The latter wasn't all that, but the others were rather good, very filling too.

The place was busy, mind, and difficult to have a chat with the lady on the till, so I asked her to make me a selection of ones she liked. This seemed to confuse her at first - it was like she'd never been asked her opinion before. I wandered round the rest of Gerrard Street in the rain and picked up some bits for tea. It's good to be back.

Anyone for glow-in-the-dark jelly?

How to sum up the food of London in just a week? Is it even possible? After all Fay Maschler's been at it for over 30 years. So I've tried to pick a few places that you've suggested that are a little bit different, a bit special, a bit... only in London. The first of which I visited yesterday - London's (if not the whole of Britain's) only Jelly mongers. It was great fun, everyone loves jelly right?
In other news there are 1,985 places on the Map. Now, can we get 15 more in three days and break the 2000 barrier? Only with your help, so please add a place now.

Chop, chop

Today I went to The Kitchen in Parson's Green, added to the Map by Alexa. It was great fun, the concept is that you log on during the day, pick which dishes you want to cook, turn up and all the prep work is done. You then have all the joy of making them - enough for the week - and a glass of wine, before taking your creations home to the fridge or freezer.
Actually, cooking for myself was one thing I missed when out on the road. Even though I had my pots and pans, knives and spoons, and a portable gas cooker, I never got to do as much as I'd have like. Here's me in my Channel 4 pinny. You have to be special to get one of these.

The plates were designed by Will Broom at Wedgewood

Today is the penultimate day of the Big British Food Map and so I fancied celebrating a little. With that in mind I invited Douglas of London blog, Intoxicating Prose, to lunch at Flash. We're always keen to meet food minded people here at 4Food, and eating on your own is a bit dull. Douglas' top lunch tip by the way, which he was most loathe to give out, was the set menu lunch at Langtry's in the Cadogan Hotel, London. Three courses and unlimited champagne for £35 a head - that's excellent value in these wallet watching times. And here's a factoid - the Cadogan was where Oscar Wilde was arrested.

Anyway, back to Flash. It's a pop-up restaurant set up within the Royal Academy as part of the GSK exhibition. The people behind it are David Waddington and Pablo Flack, who did The Reindeer a few years back. In charge of what ends up in your mouth is exec chef, Tom Collins, and me and my mouth found his creations superb. Afterwards he gave me a tour of the state-of-the-art kitchens.

Cheers

That's it! Apart from a few bits and bobs tomorrow my seven month tour around Britain has come to an end. All that remains is to say thank you to all of you who added a place to the Map. By sharing our knowledge and tips we enrich our communities and ultimately the country. Don't let anyone tell you that British food is of a poor quality, there are wonderful people doing great things with food up and down the UK. I'm only sorry I couldn't visit them all. But you can dear reader...so over to you.

Check out Andrew's Big British Food Map round up next week

Last week Andrew was in the Home Counties.

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