Aside from Dishoom that serves reliable roomali roti and chicken tikka, there are several nice eating and drinking spots near Seven Dials. We could only sample a very small subset.  Monmouth coffee was one. According to a reliable local source, while tea shops are on the decline, coffee shops are on the rise in London. Monmouth may have been the one that started (~1978) the micro roasting trend. Being perhaps the grandaddy of the business, they didn’t seem quite the coffee police as Blue Bottle or Four Barrel, very few coffee shops are. But they have a large selection of single varietals and brew a good espresso to make a coffee lover happy.  The one at Seven Dials attracts a hipster crowd, there is always a long line, tables are shared, and you can get a croissant to go with your coffee. I do think they need some chocolate-y stuff to go with their coffee, say crepes or biscotti.

Neal’s yard dairy has excellent British cheeses and they import Poilâne bread. Like Cheese Board, they let you taste before buying and the staff is super friendly. We bought a variety of cheddars and even some Stilton. You really can live on Poilâne, Stilton and Monmouth coffee if you so wish.

Neal’s yard salad bar serves up health food. On our first day, we got a large bowl of organic lentil and carrot soup which was dairy free, fat free, and salt free. I do prefer a balance between taste and health so I am afraid I stayed clear of the salad bar during the rest of my stay. But it is worth going to if there are dietary concerns or if you are overcome with guilt with days of heavy duty eating.

Then there is Kopapa cafe that appeared very popular with the locals.  They had a boiled orange cake on the menu that we just had to try.  Clotilde, of Chocolate and Zucchini fame, had introduced us to her version and as a result, we are fully appreciative of the power of boiled oranges. Kopapa came a distant second to Clotilde but even so, it was most satisfying after a Poilâne and Stilton dinner.

Neal's Yard Salad Bar	Neal's Yard Dairy
Cheeses at Neal's Yard Dairy	Monmouth Coffee Shop
Croissant at Monmouth	Boiled orange cake at Kopapa

Great Queen Street Pub, an easy walk from the British Museum

British food, for the rest of us outside Britain, brings to mind fish and chips or bangers and mash. But if like me, you have grown up with Tuppy Glossop’s midnight adventures with steak and  kidney pie, you wish a cook as good as Anatole who can make you just such a pie. Now with the revival of British cuisine and gastro pubs, someone just may serve you one.

Lobster bisque	Heart and Kidney Salad
Tongue and lentil with horseradish gelatin and pickled vegetables	If I knew they were going to be so good, I would have ordered the lamb neck ...
Pickle shelf	Buttermilk panna cotta

One such pub is Great Queen Street. They do head to tail cooking. We ended up going there twice and tried a variety of fares – lobster bisque, gizzard salad, tongue with lentils, wild rabbit with blood pudding and turnip mash, and a very special buttermilk panna cotta. I am convinced that if I had stayed in London longer, I would have worked my way through their entire menu. I am particularly sad that I didn’t try the braised lamb neck and mint sauce, it would have made a good comparison against my local favorite, Incanto. The food was delicious and light. The tongue stood out because it came with the furry edge that made my better half squeamish. Trying to joke about the texture of “tongue on tongue” only aggravated matters in a hilarious sort of way.

Inside Applebees, a quiet shelter from crowded Borough Market

Poppy seed battered fish served with mushy peas and chips

We went to Applebees in Borough Market in an attempt to eat at the market without having to deal with the crowd. They have a Mediterranean menu that would make an excellent meal anytime. But if  you are on a British food mission, they offer a fantastic poppy seed battered fresh turbot with chips and mushy peas. The fish at Applebees is very fresh indeed, the battered turbot is crispest I have had and it was deliciously flaky and moist inside. The mushy peas is a keeper. They also had a smooth tomato soup with smoked fish, mackerel or haddock if I recall correctly, which was very good.

Rabbit Pie at St. Johns, the buttery crust and melt in your mouth rabbit	Doughnut with berry ice-cream filling, the berry had a very unique tropical fruity flavor
Treacle sponge, a buttery caramel-y tart	Chestnut cream, roasted grated chestnut suspended in cream custard, served with drunken prunes

London night life is vibrant. In Soho and Covent Garden, the streets are full of people and completely undeterred by cold and rain. The restaurants and pubs spill over. The crowd is mixed age, dressed fashionably and loud. This is noticeable coming from San Francisco where the recent years of economic downturn has had a discernible cooling effect on the restaurant culture. Our visit to Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant in St. John’s Hotel only confirmed the difference further. For a world renowned chef this restaurant is surprisingly cheery with bright lights, friendly staff and rapid turnover of tables. Perhaps theater goers are the primary clientele. We ordered a fried pork skin starter, wild rabbit pie (the closest I was going to get to steak and kidney pie on this trip), and doughnut filled with a local berry ice-cream.  On a separate occasion, we came in for just the desserts and got steamed treacle sponge and chestnut cream. The pork skin, my first, reminded me of rice pappadoms from South India. I couldn’t stop wondering if pork skin is any tastier in New Orleans. The rabbit was delicious and rich. I reckon it could have easily served four. The treacle was a little too buttery and sweet but the rest of the desserts (they sound lovelier when called puddings) were excellent. I wasn’t as impressed as I was at GQS and I suspect that with growing age, my preference is now leaning towards lighter fare.

Outside Lamb and Flag, this is an easy walk from National Gallery

A well frequented, well loved bar at L&F

Bangers and mash

Finally, Lamb and Flag. They are the what you expect of a traditional British pub. Like Fuller’s Victoria, it transports you to a different era with its gleaming dark woods, narrow stairs, stained glass and tiled floors. It smells of age, wood polish, ales and sweetness of pork fat. And like a good pub, serves a healthy portion of bangers, mash and steamed peas. British pubs do serve decent beer but these days craft breweries in US can compete with the best of the best. So I was unhesitatingly conserving my beer budget in favor of Dog Fish Head back home. More recently, Bottlecraft in San Diego is on its way to becoming my favorite place to drink. If I want to drink good British ales, I will be doing so at Bottlecraft and will be keeping you posted.

Dishoom, dishoom ...

Dishoom with its seventies look

Fried calamari with a set of spicy sauces

Shish Kababs and roomali roti, what else ...

Chicken tikka

Naan with Keema

A few blocks from Seven Dials, is an Indian restaurant named Dishoom. The sound of a punch landing on your opponent in Bollywood movies has the sound “Dishoom“. Kids when mimicking fights do it with the sound effect “dishoom”, “dishoom”, … So there is indeed something endearing and playful in the name. The restaurant exudes hipness, although like any other Indian restaurant the service is a bit languid.  Walls are decorated with an old world charm of mirrors and pictures of Bollywood movies and stars. You can watch the tandoor in action while waiting for food. We ate here a couple times and really enjoyed the “roomali” roti with the shish kababs. Roomal is Hindi word for handkerchief. Yes, sir, these breads are indeed as thin as the handkerchief. The dough is similar to naan/pizza and they are hand rolled like pizza, swirled in air to get the thinness and briefly cooked in the tandoor. I haven’t seen roomali rotis served in Indian restaurants in US. I found the food to be competent but the menu is limited to typical North Indian dishes that westerners associate with Indian food.

Sampler platter at Moolis

Chutneys for the rolls

In the Soho neighborhood, Moolis was very highly rated. They offer an array of rolls that can be best described as extension of your typical kathi roll. All their rolls sounded so mouthwatering that we ended up ordering their sampler. The meats were high quality, perfectly cooked, and spices were distinctly different. We were expecting to be impressed and instead found the tastes to be timid. Given the competency of the chef, I suspect it was timid by choice, result of some “market survey” perhaps. Or a false sense of association between “healthy”and “muted spice expression”. However, I wish that was the only problem. I found the rolls themselves somewhat stale as well as if they were rolled 1/2 hour ago and kept warm, an absolute no-no in my book. I read sometimes that best Indian food is to be had in London. Perhaps we will find those restaurants on our next trip.

Next, a gastro pub that served up some of the best food we ate in London.

Pret a Manger sandwich and crisps

It is now a little over two months since our London trip. I hadn’t meant to slip so far behind in my writing but it has happened. I can only hope that the memories have aged like cheese! We had stayed in a tiny but super-cute apartment in London, which was practically on top of the Neal’s Yard at Seven Dials. I am pretty sure that on a summer afternoon, an open window in the apartment will bring in the mingled aroma of aged cheeses from Neal’s Yard Diary. We didn’t open the windows  on account of the cold but we did breakfast on their cheeses and their imported Poilâne’s bread.

Soup bowls at Wagamama	Stir fried noodles at Wagamama
Sushi box at Itsu	... perfect for inflight meal too

What else does one eat while in London? Indian tikka masala,  game meats at the gastro pubs of course. Fast food? Fast food in western nations is like street food in developing nations, food for the masses, food for the ones who are rushing about. London’s fast food include Pret a Manger, Wagamama and Itsu.

Pret a Manger has sandwiches of various kinds where pickles form a significant ingredient, otherwise they are equivalent of McDonald’s. Adequate but nothing to write home about. Wagamama Noodle Bar in spite of its hip canteen like setting was perhaps the most disappointing of all with its bland big bowls of soup and doughy noodles. The best of the three turned out to be Itsu. The selection at Itsu are boxed sushi, and sashimi, noodle cups and Japanese curry flavored kedgeree like concoctions. Their collection looked healthy, felt healthy and tasted pretty darn good. We liked the food enough that we picked  up a few meals for the return flight to US.

Next up, Indian food in London.

While navigating Old Delhi is never easy, some of the food shops here have been serving generations of loyal customers. For a walk with a group of foodies this summer that includes Jalebi, Kheer, Stuffed naans and parathas click here.

Mini cakes at Miette

Chocolate ganache cake

Ferry Building at San Francisco is perhaps my favorite spot in the city when I am feeling lazy or when the weather is not at its best. They have everything to cheer you up – good coffee (Blue Bottle), good food (Slanted Door), good chocolates (Recchiuti), good bread (Acme), good cheese (Cowgirl creamery), the Farmer’s market and excellent views. This time, I found another reason, Miette Cakes. We picked up a chocolate ganache cake and it was delicious. The chocolate was intense (Scharffen Berger). The size was big enough to share with significant other and small enough to disallow fat/sugar overdose.

Four Barrel Espresso Station

Four Barrel on Valencia is a well reviewed coffee mecca in Mission District of San Francisco. The queues are long but is a good opportunity to watch city fashions. The space has a modern warehouse look with a coffee bar at the entrance, the main coffee station in the middle and stock at the back. Seating is somewhat minimal but if you hang out long enough, you are bound to find a table. The coffee bar is akin to a wine bar where you pay to sample their brews. My husband was very excited about the coffee after having sampled 4 varietals! The music is played in an old fashioned way where a real person selects a record out of the collection and plays it on a record player. Unless you want a caffeine kick that makes you want to dance a jitterbug, I recommend picking their brew of the day, grabbing a seat and watching the  extensive and non-hurried ritual the baristas follow.

Our brew of the day was a varietal from Burundi. The brew style had heightened the acidity of our double espresso which made every sip like the first one. We picked up half pound of beans on our way out but couldn’t quite reproduce the acidity on our home espresso machine. Unfortunately, they have no chocolate but I happened to have some Tcho bites on me.

Other coffee/chocolate shops of interest in Bay Area:

• Chocolatier Blue in Berkeley (more)
• Fog City News on Market (more)
• Recchiuti at Ferry Building (more)
• Tcho at Pier 17 (more)
• XoX in North Beach (more)

The smaller "bubblegum" variety

Immature seeds of palm fruit

Summer in Kolkata is typically not hotter than 100F but your skin feels like a dripping faucet, each pore that is. After a while, you don’t even want to wipe off the sweat. It is cooler to not have to make that effort. At times like this, the only remedy is to take a cool shower. As the cooling begins, feel free to sing aloud in bliss. After the shower, move as quickly as possible to the nearest air-conditioned room. Switch on the ceiling fan at full speed and sprawl on a bed – maximum surface area for the skin-air contact. When you need to be out in the heat again, do so and repeat the cooling regime.

Prying open the shell of jackfruit to reveal the golden edible cocoons

Picking up the cocoons

Palm fruit

Prying loose the seeds of palm fruit

For food, I suggest that you forego the thought of cooking. Instead survive on mangoes, jackfruit and young palm fruit seed. Mangoes are now familiar everywhere in the world but if you haven’t eaten one from the tropics, you haven’t really eaten a mango. Sindoori, Langra, Desheri, Begunfuli, Himsagar, Alfonso and various other varieties flood the markets, each with its characteristic fragrance and taste. Start with soaking the mangoes in water for an hour or so. Summers are so hot that even the fruits need a bath! OK, the actual reason is that some of the tropical varieties can make you mouth itch, presumably for more mangoes, and to prevent this itchiness soak the mangoes near the stem-end. Refrigerate. When ready to eat, peel the skin which is about an eighth of an inch thick. Some say that the best way to eat a mango is standing on the beach with waves swirling around you. But if you don’t want to get out of that air conditioned room, drag a bathtub in your air-conditioned room or air-conditioner in your bathroom. Alternately, cut the flesh in 1/2 inch pieces avoiding the seed and eat.

Jackfruits are perhaps not as familiar as mangoes. This fruit looks similar to durian without the ill-famed odor. Give the fruit a good wash, slide in a knife by an inch towards the stem end and then start to peel open the 1/4 inch thick skin. Inside, you will see golden yellow 1.5-3 inch long fleshy cocoons that come off easy. Set these aside and cool them in the refrigerator. Once cool, discard seed and the membrane adjacent to the seed and eat. In kolkata, one finds two varieties. A juicy variety with a small coccon which tastes like vanilla custard but upon chewing further results in a loose bubblegum textured masticated remain which some people may find somewhat hard to swallow or spit out. The other variety has longer coccons that are crisp textured and not juicy or custard like but without the bubblegum effect. It is practically impossible to tell one variety from other from the outside. If you can tolerate the effort, juice the first variety and use the juice to make shakes, custard or pudding. It has come to my notice that children often treat this variety like a bubblegum, interspered with playtime they chew on a cocoon until all flavor is lost. A tip for green minded folks – the remainder of the jackfruit fed to a holy cow makes them estatic and earns you some brownie points.

Young palm fruit seed is terribly seasonal, perhaps the peak lasts for a week or so. Fruit seller will crack the palm fruit with a machete and carefully take out the three seeds. At this point, the seeds are about 2 inches across and 1/4 inch thick with a thin, creamy colored skin. Take home, rinse and refrigerate. When ready to eat, peel the skin with a paring knife to reveal a translucent lichi colored soft interior. Why all this care you wonder? This soft flesh is a pocket containing coconut water like fluid inside. The flesh isn’t too sweet and is loved for the texture and coolness. As the fruit ages, the water dries up and the flesh becomes stiffer to form the mature seed. One of the popular varieties of Bengali sweet captures the ephemeral nature of this fruit by mimicry – the outside is made of cottage cheese and the pocket is filled with cane syrup.

Related posts:

• Walking along the banks of river Ganges (more)

Fresh caught fish

Bengalis are enthusiastic fish eaters. We eat fried fish in rich curries. We steam fillets papillote style. We fry fish heads with rice or slow cook them with lentils. The fatty fish entrails are fried and eaten with rice. In dhabas, bones from large fish are added as flavoring to vegetables. Small bait are fried whole and eaten as snacks with tea. Fish eggs are made into fritters.

I am sure I eat a pound of fish a day when I am visiting Calcutta. So when father offered to take me fishing, I decided to follow the fish trail from source to plate. Unlike the last fishing trip, this was a visit to the a nearby village where father has friendly access to a pond. From the comfort of my metropolitan and cosmopolitan city lifestyle, I sport a very romantic view of villages in Bengal with their dirt roads and banana trees, and little kids playfully swimming in ponds lined with lotus and lilies, a vision born out of watching Satyajit Ray movies. Our air conditioned car landed us within a couple of blocks of the village pond in question. A recent windstorm had shredded the leaves of the banana plants lining the dirt path. Otherwise it was picture perfect village.

Picture perfect village

Dragging the pond

Cleaning up the fish at the village fishmonger

Our hospitable pond owner had placed a couple of wicker chairs underneath a palm tree. By the time we had exchanged pleasantries and were served the customary cup of tea, a couple of village lads were in the waist deep water with a net between them. They dragged the pond a couple of times and we were richer by four fish weighing a total of 12 lbs or so. I could see myself sitting under the palm tree for a few more hours, perhaps reading an Hercules Poirot and sipping some more hot tea but in that time, the two boys would have caught the entire fish population in the little pond. So, we left  with the fish writhing in a little plastic bag. I also bagged a banana leaf in preparation for a papillote recipe, one of the few that hadn’t shredded in the storm.

On our way back home, we went through the village market where a fishmonger scaled, gutted and chopped the fish in exchange for about 15 cents. Perhaps I left the fishmonger amused, the 15 cents were routine but being photographed was not. Upon reaching home, the fish were cleaned and marinated in a mustard sauce for an hour. Then the pieces were wrapped in banana leaves and cooked and served promptly for lunch. From swimming in water to served hot on plate in less than four hours!

Fish marinating in mustard sauce

Wrapping the fish in banana leaf

Steam/bake/slow cooked banana leaf wrapped fish