Donna Cooks

Wednesday morning, we took a short train ride out to the Queen’s favorite place, Windsor Castle.  We were in a hurry to catch the early train out to Windsor, so breakfast again consisted of a pasty-on-the-go.  This time I sampled the steak and stilton pasty from West Cornwall Pasty Co., something that I soon regretted as stilton cheese is an acquired taste that I simply don’t have.

Out at Windsor Castle, we caught a better and less crowded changing of the guards ceremony than at Buckingham Palace:

Then we hopped on the train back to London for an afternoon at the British Museum.  But first we were in need of lunch.  Checking out my trusty Frommer’s guide, we sought out Hakkasan (8 Hanway Place), a high-class creation by Alan Yau, creator of the giant Wagamama chain that we had visited in Bath.  As it turns out, though tucked away in a back alley in a basement, Hakkasan is currently ranked #17 on the World’s 50 Best Restaurant list by Restaurant magazine.  Considering the fact that I have never visited any of the exclusive establishments on the list (only 8 in the US), this was an exciting adventure for me.

Hakkasan exterior:

The sign for Hakkasan is so small at the end of this alley that we almost missed it.  Though the entrance is unassuming (to put it nicely), descend the stairs and you’ll find yourself in a trendy and stylish space.

Hakkasan reception area:

Luckily for us, Hakkasan serves dim sum during lunch hour as we were not travelers with a £60/person/meal budget.  Most small dim sum plates range from £4 to £9, definitely more affordable.  Here are the dishes we sampled:

Mango Spring Roll and Braised Duck Roll with Winter Bamboo Shoot

The crispy mango spring rolls, filled with large prawns and scallops, had a great texture.  However, I found it odd that it was served with mayonnaise instead of a soy-based dipping sauce.  I think I actually liked the shrimp roll with a soy-vinegar shallot sauce at Babe’s Noodle Bar in Playa del Carmen better.  The braised duck rolls were decadent.  Rich, but not too fatty, in a mild, semi-sweet sauce next to flavorful shiitake mushrooms wrapped in a soft and chewey rice-flour shell with the surprise crunch of the bamboo shoot.

Char-Siu and Mui Choi Cheung Fun

This is basically Chinese BBQ pork wrapped in a thin rice-flour sheet.  I did enjoy how the pork pieces were just the right size to manage, not in chunks like they are at most dim sum restaurants I’ve been to.  The sauce was similar to a char-siu roast sauce, but slightly less sweet.  This was my companion’s favorite dish as he is a huge fan of Chinese BBQ pork.

“Creme Brulee”

I put the name in quotes because it’s more like a custard since the dessert is not torched like a creme brulee.  Inside the custard, chunks of fruit like mango slices and melon balls give it some excitement.  The lace basket cookies on top were a nice touch. 

It was a light lunch since we were planning on going to proper afternoon tea that day.  And at £23, it was a relatively economical way to satisfy a fanciful whim.  We certainly didn’t dress appropriate for this outing, though.  Surrounded by trendy Chanel and D&G donners, our request for “the free water” seemed ridiculously out of place (everyone else was drinking beer, wine, champagne, or Voss).  Oops.

We spent the afternoon goofing around the British Museum, which can be exhausting as the place is huge. 

My feet were screaming at me after seeing about a third of the museum.  It was time for a tea break.

Perched on the third level in the middle of the main atrium, the Court inside the British Museum serves their modern version of proper English afternoon tea for £10 per person.  It’s not as ritzy or formal as the version at the Ritz Carlton, but the location and the view are hard to beat. 

Crustless fingerling sandwiches (one with ham, mayonnaise, and tomato, one with cucumber and herbed cream cheese, and one with smoked salmon and butter) and scones with raisins served with raspberry preserves and clotted cream.  You get your choice of teas (I chose traditional afternoon blend) and sugars:

The selection of four different sugars was amusing, though I did find the cubed brown sugar the most easily dissolvable in the tea (available at Central Market).  I found the whole experience fanciful and delightiful, or maybe that’s just the caffeine, sugar, butter, and cream talking (afternoon tea is not exactly a diet snack).

After wandering around the British museum until closing time, we found ourselves having a couple of pints right across the street at the Museum Tavern.  It’s a lovely, low key kind of place, not overrun with tourists as one would expect.

For dinner, we had reservations at Launceston Place (1 Launceston Pl) to celebrate one of our host’s birthday.  We did a little planning ahead and booked a table for London Restaurant Week, meaning that a 3-course dinner with a glass of bubbly is £25.  Launceston Place bills its cuisine as modern British and the Restaurant Week menu certainly followed suit.

Appetizers: Fennel Soup with Fried Oyster or Grilled Sardines with Fennel and Ginger

Of these two, I had the creamy fennel soup which I really enjoyed.  The oyster toppers were another story.  Though the batter was airy and light (similar to the batter used on fish & chips), the oysters themselves were tasteless.  I’m not a big fan of oysters anyway, and this dish only added to my aversion.  I had a couple of bites of the grilled sardines, which had a nice, light flavor, but were difficult to eat because of the hard to see bones (restaurant was dimly lit).

Entrees: Breast of Guinea Fowl with Gnocchi, Mushrooms, and Madeira or Sea-Bass with Mussel and Saffron Relish

My companion and I went half/half on these dishes, so I got a good feel for both.  The madeira sauce was a great complement to the tender, juicy guinea fowl but the gnocchi were hard and flavorless.  I guess there’s a reason why they’re usually served in a thicker sauce.  The fish entree was good, but the saffron sauce didn’t really stand out (tasted almost like the grilled sardines appetizer).

Dessert: Chocolate Mousse or Lemon Cheesecake (not pictured):

The chocolate mousse was decadent and dense, much more dense than one would expect from the “mousse” misnomer.  Dense or light, the intense chocolate flavor was a dream for a chocoholic.  The roasted figs added a great accent flavor.  The lemon cheesecake, ironically, was light and airy and delicious.  Perhaps they should’ve named it lemon mousse.

Our third day in London took us through some fancier fares, all thoroughly enjoyable but none easy on the pocketbook.  After a long day, it was time to get in a good night’s sleep.  Tomorrow we head for Scotland.

Onto Day 6

Back to Day 4

There’s just so much to see in this city!  We got an early start on Day 4 and headed for St. Paul’s Cathedral.  An early start on a Tuesday meant that we were click-clacking with quick footsteps in the Tube stations with daily commuters, marching to the general hurried pace of the city, and frequently running into opposing pedestrian traffic when unsure which way to turn or which side of the tunnel to keep to (sometimes it’s left, sometimes it’s right, I don’t know how these people do it).  When we finally surfaced at St. Paul’s Tube Station and caught our breaths, it was time for some breakfast.

Paul, with its simple and elegant exterior and sidewalk tables and location directly adjacent to St. Paul’s Cathedral (what a coincidence!), caught our eye.  A bakery with 250+ locations in France, Paul now has outposts in the UK, Spain, Holland, Turkey, Morocco, Lebanon, Kuwait, Dubai, Japan, and the US (3 locations in Florida).  Inside, it reminded me of the Dallas-based La Madeleine’s, only smaller.

Everything looked so tasty!  I decided on a quiche Lorraine and a cafe au lait and my companion ordered an apple lattice tart with a hot chocolate.  At a mere £8, this is a much better deal than La Madeleine’s (if you ignore the exchange rate)! 

The quiche Lorraine, with its rich creamy cheesy smoky bacon filling, was perfect for this somewhat chilly morning.

The apple lattice tart was a real winner.  The airy pastry had just the right amount of glaze on top, not too sweet, not too bland. 

I would definitely recommend eating at Paul when visiting St. Paul’s (this one’s for you, Tanya).

We spent the morning touring St. Paul’s Cathedral and then headed south for the Tate Modern Museum.  I love visiting modern art museums because they give you great ideas for DIY art.  I’ll definitely need more wall decor for the new house so the Tate was an excellent place to get some ideas.

St. Paul’s Cathedral:

Wandering around the south bank of the Thames, we found ourselves at Southwark Cathedral, whose history dates back to 852.  The church has been renovated numerous times due to fires and general maintenance since then, but the entire church has never been demolished in any of these efforts.  As a result, the various architecture styles of the historic periods are reflected throughout the different sections of the church (Norman, Gothic, Reformationist, Elizabethan, and Victorian)  Not one of the most grand or beautiful cathedrals in London, but certainly one of the most architecturally interesting due to the haphazard collection of historic styles.

West End of Southwark Cathedral constructed in the mid-1500’s:

On a fair weathered weekday during lunch time, the small churchyard on the south-side of the cathedral seems to be quite the popular gathering place for local office workers.  We noticed many of them had similarly packaged sandwiches that appeared appetizing.  We followed our noses and instincts and found the source:

Tucked under the railway arches on the south side of Southwark Cathedral, Cafe Brood is a small coffee shop/cafe that draws quite the lunch crowd (1-6 Green Dragon Ct, Borough Market).  But their “BBQ” isn’t the smoked sausage, ribs, and brisket that we think of, it’s simply a term for open flamed grilling.

Turns out that the “sandwiches” we saw were actually burgers, at least by Cafe Brood’s definition.  A thin, large patty of lean ground beef is grilled over the open flame, topped with cheese if so desired, then sliced up and placed inside a crusty French roll and topped with roasted red bell peppers, sauteed onions, fresh arugula, and mild red salsa.

My companion’s “cheese burger”:

It’s not a traditional burger by any means, but the infusion of Spanish flavors and the crusty French bread made it a fresh gourmet lunch at a bargain price (£4.75).

Inside the large pan in the grilling photo is paella, which was my choice for lunch (£4.30).

Paella topped with chorizo:

The chorizo was mildly spicy (flavored by mild Spanish paprika), not at all like the fiery loose ground Mexican chorizo we’re used to in Texas.  The paella was well seasoned but had a tad too much olive oil for my taste.

We spent the afternoon touring the Tower of London, which is an exhausting feat if you want to see the entire complex.  It is a worthwhile stop if you’re travelling with children (who seem to be fascinated by the horse statues, armour, towers, etc) but I wouldn’t recommend it to adult-only groups unless you are the type of traveller that absolutely needs to hit up every tourist-must.

View of Tower Bridge from outside Tower of London:

At sunset, we went on the British Airways London Eye.  At £14.50 per person, I would have normally said “no” to this tourist trap, but my feet were so tired from touring the Tower of London that I was willing to pay for 30 minutes of sit-down time with a great view.  If you feel the need to spend the money for this ride, I would recommend going at sunset.  The views of the city were fantastic.

I could tell there was some sort of banner on the Parliament Building from the London Eye.  So we we got off the ride, I went to take a closer look.

Yes, that banner says “Tony Hearts WMDs.”  It’s not actually on the Parliament Building but rather being held by a crane so it appears as such from this perspective, symbol of a Greenpeace UK protest.  Politics aside, it was amusing if nothing else.

In the evening, we headed towards Knightsbridge for shopping (actually, window shopping since the area’s quite expensive) followed by a beer break before dinner.  We ended up at the The Nags Head in the tranquil backstreets near busy Knightsbridge (53 Kinnerton St), a small 300-year-old pub loved by regulars as it was jam packed on this Tuesday evening.

The Nags Head had the title of “London’s smallest pub” until 1970, when the downstairs eating area opened.  It is one of few true freehouses (not part of a chain) left in London and that small number continues to diminish.  In a freehouse, the landlord does whatever he wants.  In this case, the Nags Head bans cell phones and there are no TVs in sight.  All this old world knick-knack charm comes at a price though, a pint of Adnam’s Broadside was a surprising steep £3.30.

The Nags Head was so crowded that we only had chair seating and no table.  So we wandered some more to look for dinner.  If you think The Nags Head is out of the way, The Grenadier (18 Wilton Row), a Frommer’s recommendation, was even more tucked away in the Belgravia mews and even harder to find.  The Grenadier is a small pub with an older, well-dressed clientele that has a formal dining room in the back.  If you want a semi-upscale dinner, head for the formal dining room.  If you just want some casual pub fare and cheaper prices, good luck trying to land a table in the front.

The Grenadier is also rumoured to be a haunted pub, dating back to its military days when the Duke of Wellington’s Grenadier Guards used the upstairs portion as their mess hall.  A young guard named Cedric is said to have once cheated at cards while dining at the pub and subjected to a savage beating by his comrades, resulting in his death in September of an unknown year.  Because of this incident, the pub is known for supernatural activities during the month of September.  You can read more about the Grenadier’s haunted past here.

No suspicious activities were happening at the Grenadier on this March night, except for the two tourists that were far under-dressed (that would be us).  We managed to snag a small table by the door and ordered another traditional pub fare entree for dinner, bangers and mash.

Tender, mild sausages atop a bed of creamy buttery mashed potatoes smothered in a red onion gravy sprinkled with parsley… comfort food doesn’t get any better than this.  It’s not healthy, but it is comforting and goes great with a couple of brews.  At least we cut the calories by splitting the plate?

But then we made up for it by ordering dessert.

Steamed rich treacle sponge pudding served with warm, creamy traditional English custard is the perfect ending to a winter evening.  Too bad it wasn’t quite winter.  The flavor of the pudding reminded me a lot of maple syrup.  Made from everything bad for you, every bite of this entire meal (£17 for entree, dessert, and 2 pints of brew) was a guilty pleasure.

Onto Day 5 

Back to Day 3

After a brief weekend in the English countryside, Day 3 kicked off our adventures in London, the largest city in the European Union and certainly one of the most expensive.  We spent most of the day in central London, hitting up tourist-must spots like Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, etc.

Spending a little bit of time in the morning planning out our day, we got off to a late start and decided to pick up a quick breakfast en route to our first attraction.  I’d been curious about these stands/shops selling pasties (that’s right, pasties, not pastries) that seem to be everywhere, especially in the train/subway stations.  We stopped at one of the West Cornwall Pasty Co. stands (they seem to be in every Tube station) and grabbed a traditional pasty for an on-the-go breakfast. 

The pasty is a lot like a calzone, except the outer dough is flake pastry instead of chewey pizza dough.  Inside the traditional pasty is diced beef, potato, onion, and turnip.  It’s like a portable, hand-held pot pie that tastes like a mild beef stew.  I can see how a piping hot pasty for a mere £3 can be the right fix on any cold, rainy London day.

Inside the pasty:

It looked like a mushy mess, but tasted like mushy deliciousness. 

After a quick tour of Westminster Abbey, Parliament Building, the Prime Minister’s residence at 10 Downing St., and Trafalgar Square, it was time to meet our hosts for the week for lunch.  The destination was the Walkabout at Temple Station, an Australian themed sports bar and grill with locations all throughout the UK. 

The Walkabout was like any other chain sports bar and grill with a standard menu of burgers, sandwiches, salads, and grill entrees with a cheesy Australian twist (as authentic as Outback Steakhouse, I presume).  Playing along with the Aussie theme, I ordered the Outback Beef Pie for lunch.  My suspicions were confirmed, there’s nothing Australian about the beef pot pie.

Served on top a bed of fries (sorry, chips), the beef pot pie was almost a replica of the pasty I had for breakfast, except the pastry shell was shaped like a pot pie instead of a calzone.  The inside was so mushy that it was hard to tell the beef from the onions.  I know there’s the stereotype of British people having bad teeth, but is it really necessary to make every meal dentures friendly?  I didn’t hate it, but I was all mushy-pastry-ed out after breakfast and lunch of the same thing.  At least with a £3.50 pound price tag, the meal was easy on the pocketbook. 

We spent the early afternoon wandering around Covent Garden for some flea market window shopping (booth shopping?)  Then took a break for tea at an unsual spot, Coffee, Cake, & Kink! (61 Endell St near the Theatre District)

This stylish, modern cafe specializes in the owners’ three favorite things (can you guess what they are?)  The shock value of the kinky book collection and gallery aside, the hot chocolate, tea, and cake we had were all quite enjoyable.

An extra large cup of rich hot chocolate with marshmallows and carrot cake with creamy, rich icing:

Rose tea (I don’t think there’s any actual tea leaves in this mix, but the flavor was still nice):

At £10 for the two drinks and a slice of cake to share, Coffee, Cake, & Kink is not exactly a bargain.  We were here to check out the novelty of the place, but it is a very open minded, accepting place for whatever your fetishes are.  The servers are lovely, welcoming people even if you choose to opt out of the kink part of the experience.  Other than the food, I did purchase a few humorous postcards to mail to friends back home (you don’t see cartoons of teddy bears tied up in bondage gear too often).

Then for a complete change of pace, we headed towards Buckingham Palace for another tourist-must. 

From kinky to completely traditional, the area around Buckingham Palace is filled with gorgeous parks which were fully abloom with bright yellow and white daffodils for the spring.  Stunning.

We had tickets for the comedy Boeing Boeing that night, so we headed back to the Theatre District and grabbed a couple of brews in a tucked away pub.

The Lamb & Flag (on tiny Rose Street near the intersection of Floral Street & Garrick Lane) is the oldest pub in the Covent Garden area at over 300 years old.  Its old nickname of “Bucket of Blood” comes from the many bare-fist fights that have happened here (not anymore, thank goodness).  The poet John Dryden was rumoured to have been beaten up here.  Charles Dickens also frequented this joint in his time (with no record of any beating).  The narrow, tiny space played host to mostly men in blazers over sweaters (apparently still en vogue in the UK) on the afternoon of our visit.  Guinness was by far the most popular beverage being consumed. 

Not a big Guinness fan, I opted for a pint of Scrumpy Jack cider instead.  Not as sweet as most other ciders, I easily downed my pint and was ready for some dinner.  We were looking for traditional pub fare but the Lamb & Flag didn’t serve food.  So we wandered around the area some more, and ended up at the Salisbury (90 St. Martin’s Lane). 

The decor inside the Victorian style Salisbury is extravagant and lavish.  Etched glass and rich mahogany sets the tone for the joint, where we decided on sharing a plate of fish & chips for dinner (we weren’t too hungry after having tea break with cake and some pre-dinner brews). 

A trip to London just isn’t complete until you’ve had the traditional fish and chips, and the Salisbury certained served up a solid version.  Traditional crispy flour batter around a giant, tender fillet of haddock served with tartar sauce and a wedge of lemon.  Watch out, there were just a few bones in the fish.  Along with golden perfect chips,  bright green mushy peas gave some color to the plate.  I also had a pint of Old Speckled Hen with my traditional English pub fare dinner.  £16 for dinner, two pints, and tip is right in the middle range of pub prices in the Theatre District.

We picked Boeing Boeing out of the long list of things playing in the Theatre District because we didn’t want to see a regular Broadway show that we could see in New York (a lot closer to home, relatively speaking).  The story is the same as the one in the 1965 Jerry Lewis comedy, a French playboy with 3 flight attendant fiancees on different light schedules.  The light comedy highlights the cultural stereotypes of the 3 fiancees: the bubbly and airheaded American flight attendant from TWA looking for a millionaire husband, the forceful but sensitive underneath German flight attendant from Lufthansa, and the romantic and passionate Italian attendant from Alitalia).  The comments from the American flight attendant about why American men are hardworking but unromantic and her reasoning of what builds a strong economy are hilarious.

We did a lot of sight seeing on our first and long day in London.  We were ready for bed.  But on the way home, an ad in front of McDonald’s caught our eye, it was Cadbury Creme Egg McFlurry season, just in time for Easter.

The McFlurry cup is a lot smaller than the ones in the US (about 2/3 the size).  Unlike the promised mini creme eggs mixed in the ice cream like the ad claims, the Creme Egg McFlurry just has large chunks of chocolate tossed in with a few drizzles of syrup that tastes like the inside of a Creme Egg.  Disappointing.  It is McDonald’s, what was I expecting?

Having consumed way too many calories in one day, we headed back to get some rest before our second day in London. 

Interesting side note: curry is so popular here!  At the otherwise eastern Asian Wagamama, there’s the chicken katsu curry;  At the West Cornwall Pasty Co., chicken balti is a mild chicken curry wrapped in the same puffy pastry dough.  I am surprised that the KFC’s in the UK haven’t adopted some sort of curry chicken twister!  I guess the chicken curry dish is the UK’s version of our Asian chicken salad, available anywhere from fine dining establishments to Wendy’s. 

Onto Day 4

Back to Days 1 & 2

Spring break was a month ago but I just haven’t found the time to write about my food experiences in the UK until now.  In 9 days, we managed to hit up some major cities (London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow) and some countryside towns (Salisbury, Bath, and Roslin outside of Edinburgh).  We spent most of our time chowing down in London, our base for exploring other areas, where, as you can imagine, the food possibilities are endless.

Overall, it was a fun trip for a foodie.  British food doesn’t quite have the kind of robust appeal to me as Mexican food, but there is something to be said about partaking in a greasy meal at a smoky pub or having full, proper English tea.  Onto the journey!

We arrived at London-Gatwick late morning after a long “overnight” flight on Northwest Airlines and what seemed like an equally long line at customs.  By the way, it’s worth noting that Northwest provides complimentary beer and wine to their coach class passengers.  My small bottle of Dona Dominga Cabernet helped me sleep through most of the flight, and we all know what a challenge that is in the cramped economy class seats. 

Upon arrival, we were whisked away in a van by our London resident hosts to Stonehenge.  We were running short on time (Stonehenge is scheduled to close at 4:00pm), so we darted in and out of a travel stop along the highway to grab some quick lunch to go.  There weren’t too many food options at the travel stop, so I ordered a twister at the KFC.  This marks my first experience with sticker shock on the trip (the twister was the equivalent of $6 with the 2 dollar to 1 pound exchange rate), and I never quite got over it.  A twister is a twister, with the exception of the peppered mayo tasting a lot like Miracle Whip, this is the exact same thing you get in the States.

We arrived at Stonehenge 15 minutes before 4:00pm (the scheduled closing time), but the monument was already closed (not sure why).  You can still see the stones from fairly close without going into the site, though.

We headed to a pub in the nearby town of Salisbury (where we spent the night at a Bed & Breakfast) for dinner.  But between the jet lag, the off-track eating schedule (they feed you way too often on those flights!), and a general sense of exhaustion, I just wanted to head for bed.  My dinner consisted of a few fries (sorry, chips) off of my companion’s plate.

I woke up the next morning starved.  Thank goodness the B&B had a full English breakfast waiting for me.

My first real meal in England also marked the beginning of my obsession with English tea.  It’s not a long stretch seeing as how I love sweet tea, green tea, jasmine tea, black tea, chai lattes…  The English tradition of adding sugar and milk to tea really grew on me (and I’m now renergizing with afternoon tea with milk and sugar at work in place of my old Diet Coke habit).  This full traditional breakfast came with bacon (more like Canadian bacon than American bacon), breakfast sausage which has a very mild flavor and semi-mushy texture (mushy is a word that describes practically all British food), steamed mushrooms, baked beans, fried tomatoes, toast (not pictured), orange juice, and of course, fragrant English breakfast tea.  I skipped the egg option with breakfast since I’m not a big fan (except for deviled eggs, oh how I love deviled eggs).  It was a meal that was familiar but different.  Nothing was quite like a Denny’s breakfast (except for maybe the toast), yet nothing was truly exotic.  Despite the surprising and somewhat unfamiliar texture of the sausage, I really enjoyed the mild flavor and its relative low grease factor compared to American breakfast sausage. 

We did some more driving in the beautiful English countryside before reaching Bath.  The grass is truly greener here.  Along with the daffodils abloom in early spring, the countryside was picturesque, serene perfection.

Onto a day of touring in Bath!  Bath is a charming town most famous for its historic Roman baths.

Around lunch time, the group of us searched hard for traditional pub fare.  But as there was six in our group, it was impossible to find sufficient seating in these small, smoky joints.  Instead, we headed to Wagamama for a late lunch, a pan-Asian chain that originated in London and is now all over Europe and Australia.  Wagamama also has 2 locations in the Boston area (only US locations). 

Wagamama in Bath:

Wagamama reminded me a lot of Pei Wei (except Pei Wei’s are never in buildings of any historic magnitude).  It’s trendy fast food that’s tasty enough to draw a large crowd and consistent enough to keep them coming back.  The menu has a few rice dishes but the main focus is clearly on noodles: ramen, soba, udon, etc. 

We started with an order of gyoza appetizers (dumplings).  Just to note, I thought it was really amusing that an English waiter in Bath recommended these ”awesome gyoza” to me, someone who obviously looks Asian.

The waiter wasn’t completely off, though.  The chicken dumplings filled with napa cabbage and chestnuts were delicious with a quick dip in the soy garlic chili sauce.  Not the best dumplings I’ve ever had (sorry waiter, I have been to a few Chinatowns in the US and a few places in China that have turned up better versions), but certainly not bad for a chain, fast food type place either.  However, at £5 for the order, it translates into $2/dumpling… sticker shock sets in again.

I was actually more impressed with my entree, the yaki udon.

The menu describes this dish as “udon noodles with curry oil, fresh shiitake mushrooms, eggs, leeks, prawns, chicken, grilled salmon fishcake, beansprouts, red and green bell peppers, garnished with spicy ground fish powder, black and white sesame seeds, fried shallots, and red ginger.”  That’s quite the mouthful!  Everything in the description was fairly close to what actual came in the dish with the exception of the grilled salmon fishcake.  I expected them to look like small crab cakes but with salmon.  Instead, they were little chewy rings that had a fishy taste but no hint of salmon in the color, taste, or texture.  Hmm… I guess frozen fish rings don’t sound as appetizing as salmon cakes.  Nonetheless, it was a busy, but tasty dish.  I loved the chewy texture of the fat udon noodles with the rich curry oil taste contrasting with the crunchy sprouts, shallots, and bell peppers.

My companion ordered the chicken tama rice, marinated and grilled chicken with fried courgettes (zucchini), fresh shiitake mushrooms, red and spring onions in a ginger oyster garlic wine sauce.

A wonderful, healthy dish (for a restaurant) that was just right in the lightness of flavor.  A thinned, brothy oyster sauce complemented the tender chicken.  A nice change of pace from the thick, viscous sauces we’re so used to in Americanized Asian cooking.

Sticker shock aside, Wagamama is a great value for UK prices.  Entrees range from £6 to £9, and as much as I complain, that really is pretty fair for the quality of food.

Still exhausted from jet lag, I skipped dinner on Day 2 as well (we had a late lunch).  I did snack on some addictive Walker’s Thai Sweet Chili chips (sorry, crisps) that I wish were available in the US!  Interesting to note that Walkers is part of Fritolay and even has a similar logo.  Now if only Fritolay would introduce this chip flavor to the US… I do have a friend who works for the Research & Development area at Fritolay in Plano…

That ends my food adventures for my first two exhausting, jet-lagged days in the UK.  Tomorrow we explore culinary adventures in London!

Onto Day 3

Easter weekend called for another trip down I-45 to Houston.  I wanted to meet up with some college friends while I was in the area, and we picked the original Cafe Red Onion for lunch due to its convenient location right off of Northwest Hwy (half the lunch attendees were coming from the northwest area).  Cafe Red Onion is now a mini local chain in Houston, with 4 locations (1 location specializing in seafood).

Cafe Red Onion emphasizes that its cuisine is Latin fusion, not Mexican, which translates into less use of spicy peppers and more emphasis on milder, sweeter flavors.  The head chef, Rafael Galindo, is from Honduras.  The restaurant was about half full on a Saturday lunch.  Upon seating ,we were immediately presented with chips and two salsas, one mild red salsa and one sweet pineapple salsa.

Both salsas were crisp and fresh, although I would have preferred more spice in my red salsa.  The pineapple salsa was a bit too sweet for my taste, it seemed more fitting as a dessert topping than a chip dip.  But that’s just my opinion, as two of my companions (who usually prefer their foods with less heat) dug right through the pineapple salsa bowls.

I had heard raves about Cafe Red Onion’s End of Summer Chilean Bass Salad and had planned on ordering that at lunch.  However, with the weird weather we’ve been experiencing lately, Easter weekend in Houston meant 40 degree weather with freezing rain.  No longer in the mood for a cold salad, I chose the Chicken Choluteca, two chicken breasts marinated in beer and grilled in an open flame, served with a roasted poblano over habanero peach BBQ sauce, melted Monterrey cheese,  and corn fruit relish (description from actual menu).  Entree also comes with black beans and fried plaintains with sour cream.

Quite the colorful dish!  What the menu doesn’t mention is that every single entree on the menu comes covered with these brilliant red tortilla strips.  I guess that’s Cafe Red Onion’s signature look (you would think it would be something involving red onions). 

Overall I enjoyed my lunch, the chicken was tender and the use of a sweet BBQ sauce in an otherwise Latin dish was interesting if nothing else.  I couldn’t detect any hint of the habanero in the BBQ sauce though the presence of peach was obvious.  The dish sounded more creative on the menu, when it came out it was just chicken covered in BBQ sauce and cheese (and let’s face it, 99% of Texans would be in love with that, right?)  I tried to take breaks from the rich sweetness of the chicken with the corn and fruit relish to no avail.  The relish was also syrupy sweet.  The only low-sugar item on the plate were the black beans, which were richly flavored with cilantro but a bit on the too salty side.  I’ve never paired fried plaintains with sour cream before but found the combination enjoyable.

I don’t think Cafe Red Onion is as mediocre as I’m making it out to be, as most of my dining companions really enjoyed their lunches (other entrees sampled include the Pupusas Revueltas, Chicken Quesadilla, fajitas, and a couple more chicken dishes, Fiesta and Tikal, I think).  Personally, I am just not able to handle that much sweetness in one meal.  When the waitress asked if we wanted dessert, I thought I would hurl.  Next time I’ll know to order something that seems to have less sugar.

Service was friendly but a bit on the slow side.  We weren’t in a hurry though, just sitting around and catching up on what’s been going on since we graduated college.

Rating: 3/5

Cafe Red Onion
12440 Northwest Fwy
Houston, TX 77092