The Curry House and James Bond

Tayyabs

When: 21st July 2012

Another Saturday, another trip to East London.  Today however, would be different as I was able to spend my time enjoying two of my favourite British exports, the curry house and James Bond!  For the second week in a row I wanted to dodge the chains and thought we'd try the institutional curry house Tayyabs.

A good old fashioned curry house experience is one of my favourite things.  It brings back memories from my childhood and the novelty of being given a small chocolate at the end of the meal which to me was the height of luxury fine dining.  It was also special being able to have a good meal out whilst being vegetarian.  Anyway, times change, tastes change but the curry house remains as good as ever.

Tayyabs is famous for its tandoori cuisine, which is one of my favourite cooking styles.  We meet our friend and make the short walk from Aldgate East to the restaurant which is hard to miss from the large neon signs out front.  We took the advice to book a table as apparently it can get very busy so we were a little surprised to find only 1-2 other tables in use when we arrived.  Within five minutes of being given our menus our side of the restaurant was full to bursting, it was a good job we booked after all!  We had a table near the kitchen where I could take a good look at the action.  Service was brisk and polite but nothing to get excited about.  We ordered some starters to share:  delicious giant cubes of Paneer Tikka and some Lamb Chops straight from the tandoor in a lovely acidic marinade.  We also had some very tasty Pakoras.  Our starters were accompanied by some Popadoms and chutneys.  There wasn't much wait for the food and we were off to a great start with that addictive acidic tang of the marinated meat, I was enjoying this meal.

Before we'd even finished our starters our mains came along filling up the table.  I had one of the specialty curries, Karahi Lamb Tikka Masala, my partner also had an identical looking, but totally different tasting lamb curry.  We shared a couple of amazing buttery Tandoori Naans and some Karahi Bhindi, which to my taste was the only imperfect item we'd ordered.  This was a really great meal let down only by the rushed and less than perfect service.  It seems they have only one pace of working irrespective of how busy the restaurant is.  I would come back here to eat again, though not without trying one of the other local grills in the area and as good as the food was I would not make a special journey to come here when I have the good old Star of Bombay just a short bus ride away!  Though they did present the bill with two Union Jack chocolates (for the three of us!) to complete that famous curry house experience.

Designing 007: 50 Years of Bond Style

Where: Barbican Centre, London

As much as I love a good curry, it's no match for anything to do with James Bond.  So after some gentle persuasion we attended this exhibition at the Barbican.  There were 14 separate areas of the exhibition, a perfectly themed entrance and the opportunity to have your photo taken with the classic Aston Martin from Goldfinger.  The exhibition was divided into the various themes that has made Bond iconic over the last 50 years and each was filled with film props including gadgets, guns and the various outfits worn by Bond, the villains and the many Bond girls from the 23 films.

The first room of the exhibition was themed around gold and included the original Ken Adam sketches for Fort Knox from Goldfinger, Oddjob's steel-brimmed hat as well as Scaramanga's golden gun.  So far so good as we squeezed into a small room documenting the colourful life of James Bond's creator, Ian Flemming.  Flemming is just as interesting if not more so than the character he created.  He was a key influence in the cinematic appearance of James Bond in terms of his dress and background.  Also a number of the characters that appear in the books/films were named after Flemming's friends.  The idea of James Bond came from Flemming's time in the military and has passion for travel writing and journalism.

The next section was one that I particularly enjoyed, M's Office.  This section contained a number of Bond artefacts including passports, ID cards, credit cards, dossiers as well as a bit about the characters of M and Moneypenny.  The level of detail in these props are one of the things I love about Bond films.  Despite all the fantastic and often ridiculous elements to these films there is always a strong authenticity to the props used.  Of course once you have been briefed it's time to pick up your supplies from the Quartermaster or Q Branch as we know it.  Here we are treated to a selection of briefcases, watches and other "ordinary" items that can be transformed into lethal weapons, listening devices and escape routes at the flick of a switch.  There was also an extended section on the boat used in the opening sequence of The Wold is Not Enough.

After this was another James Bond staple, the casino.  In this section there was a full scale mock-up of the table and gamblers from Casino Royale forming the centre piece of the room.  In addition there were numerous mock ups of the various casino outfits and clips projected of many of the famous Bond casino scenes.  There was also a dress from the forthcoming Skyfall which was exciting to see.  After the excitement of the casino there was a section on the various countries and exotic places that Bond has visited over the years and how the look of these places was created.  The main focus here was on India as seen in Octopussy and the fabulous space base from Moonraker.

There were two main sections left after this, the next being Villains.  This room was filled with the costumes and props of many of the Bond villains, such as Rosa Klebb's spiked shoe, Jaws' teeth, the "bomb surprise" and Boris from Goldeneye frozen solid with liquid nitrogen.  There was also a section on the Bond girls that help Bond out in the films including Solitaire with her card table and Jinx in her bikini.  Alas it was time to move downstairs in the Bond lifts to visit the final room, the Ice Palace which celebrated Bond and all things snowy from the famous ski stunts to the magnificent Ice Palace from The World is Not Enough.  There was also the famous cello (with skis attached!) that Bond and Kara use to escape in The Living Daylights.

If I had one complaint about this exhibition it would be the lack of any interactive display areas, it would have been amazing to have been able to go hands on with some of the Bond gear as well as take some photos of it, though from reading about the lack of available items it is perhaps understandable.  This exhibition is clearly a must for suckers like me who can't wait till Skyfall later this year!  After finishing up at the Ice Place it was time to go home and reflect on a wonderful day of famous British exports, the curry house and James Bond.

Tayyabs - 83-89 Fieldgate Street London E1 1JU
020 7247 6400

Designing 007:50 Years of Bond Style - Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS Until 5th September 2012

Best of British

Best of British
St John Bread and Wine
When: July 2012
I planned this day with one idea in mind, "Think like a tourist." although my day did not turn out in quite that fashion I had planned it was still a lot more fun than my usual unplanned wanderings.  Sometimes it is easy to take living in Central London for granted.  My original plan was to start the day with a filling breakfast at St John Bread and Wine followed up with an exhibition, then a nice early dinner with a good film to round off the day.

The first key difference between think like a tourist and act like a tourist is getting up.  I had planned to get up for breakfast, but after a hard week at work (or in my case half a week of work and half a week of PS3) it's hard to get up, get ready and go get some breakfast on the other side of town.  Also the inertia of there always being another time to do this starts to kick in.  Anyway, by the time we made it out the house and on to the tube it was approaching lunch time.  Liverpool St is around 25 minutes away on the tube and Spitalfields is only a few minutes walk from the station.  Taking the scenic route along Commerical Street we arrived at St John to take a look and see if we felt like lunch and also like spending good money on lunch.  After some debate, a quick circle of the market and some persuasion on my part we ended up back at St John Bread and Wine and settled in for lunch.

The restaurant is sparsely decorated despite its smart white and black exterior, there are simple tables and chairs inside with wait staff decked out in all white chef-style uniforms.  We were seated and quickly given menus, a jug of fresh water and a plate with some very tasty slices of brown and white sourdough bread.   The crowd inside was pretty mixed, not fitting a particular scene in terms of age or dress but erring on the casual.  I washed down my food with some Meantime lager, our other drink was apple juice.  The food menu changes daily depending on what is available and today we both went with rabbit after I was talked out of a 40 minute wait for the pigeon.  There was a short wait for our food, a full plate with two large pieces of rabbit each, some nice greenery, baby carrots and some aioli on the side.  The food was really good with everything complementing the rabbit.  The only negative was having to watch out for bones in the rabbit but the food was delicious and filling leaving us with the debate of dessert.

The debate was short lived, though in hindsight we should have had one dessert to share rather than one each.  We had the brioche with apricots and the chocolate cake with crème fraiche ice cream.  The brioche was fresh and buttery to the point of almost tasting like a good croissant, they contrasted well with the sweet, yet sharp apricots in their juices and a little bite of the crème fraiche ice cream to cleanse the palate and set off on another round.  The chocolate cake was almost brownie like and tasted like it was made with good cocoa or chocolate and again the ice cream acted as a cleansing respite from the intensity of the chocolate.  At this point we were stuffed to bursting after enjoying some great food.  Despite the quality of the food with the bill at just over £50 it was not a cheap lunch and perhaps would have made a much better dinner.  Anyway, St John certainly lived up to its Internet hype and is somewhere I'd like to dine at again.
 
Damien Hirst

We then began a brief and much needed walk through the city of London and across Southwark Bridge towards Tate Modern.  We had mixed expectations of this exhibition, which I have to admit I was keen to see after reading some of the reviews.  Not having booked we joined a fairly long queue for tickets as there were only two people issuing tickets for a fairly significant queue.  We made our way upstairs to the exhibition which thankfully was not too crowded.  The exhibition is divided up into 14 rooms displaying Hirst’s work largely in chronological order.

The first room had a rather striking picture of a young Hirst posing with a head from the anatomy department of Leeds University, there were also some pots and pans stuck on one wall and some rather attractively placed coloured boxes in the corner of another wall.  In the next two rooms there were some spot paintings and medicine cabinets.  We also had some   animals suspended in formaldehyde, in this case the famous shark, sheep, fish and sheep's head.  This room was a bit like a larger than life museum exhibition and was quite fascinating to look at.  You can spend time out staring the shark, watching the fluffiness of the sheep's coat and the tranquil but dead eyes of the fish suspended in time and space and strapped to the walls.  My highlight of this room was A Thousand Years, a large glass cabinet with a fresh cows head in it, the cabinet is used to breed flies and you can see them flying around, lying dead or resting.  Somehow it all feels very human when you talk about it, the fear and fascination of the bloody head stuck on the floor and the distance the glass casing gives is quite un-nerving.

Room 4 looks like the kind of thing you might see in a museum on 20th Century life 100 years from now.  The large glass case with the empty office chair and desk.  There is also a cabinet in the style of the pill boxes but filled with various cigarette butts.  Do we see ourselves like this now, or is this how our great grandchildren will see us, in a museum display case much like we now see life in the mines or on a traditional farm today?  Room 5 was overshadowed by Room 6.  In this room butterflies are living their lives in a controlled environment, in the room before they are stuck onto painted canvas to make works of art.  Who is the artist running our lives, it doesn't feel like God/a god.

Room 7 was a giant pharmacy which made me feel quite uncomfortable, the giant floor to ceiling cases filled with medicine and the lack of humanity made the experience of walking around the room in silence with strangers quite unusual.  Being an observer rather than a participant in what is otherwise a familiar domain makes it take on a whole new perspective.  After taking our pills in Room 7, Room 8 gave us the hypnotic Spin Paintings.  Room 9 I found much more fascinating, walking between the halves of a cow and its calf suspended in time and the huge white ashtray filled with the stench of cigarette butts was truly an unpleasant sensation.

Moving into Room 10 we entered a giant supply cupboard for a hospital with wall to wall cabinets of beautifully organised, spotless pieces of metallic medical equipment.  We were being prepared for death and now that science has failed to preserve us we head back to Religion and Room 11.  In this room there are beautiful stained glass style butterfly paintings and a marble statue of an angel, however one that is distinctly and fatally real with its organs and insides on show.  In Room 12 maybe we head one step closer to hell with a 70s shag rug made of flies and a beautiful sheep in a case to keep the neighbours talking.

Room 13 offers its own vile conclusion as we are offered a selection of recent Hirst works which feel like horrible blinged our parodies of his previous work.  All the mysticism of life, death and beliefs have been replaced with cold, hard cash.  Items sold for auction and private consumption rather than placed in a gallery for all and everyone to see.  What's left after you buy into consumerism, maybe just death or perhaps an inner peace from selling all your things and a more simple life?  The serene beauty of the dove frozen in time feels like the right way to end this journey.

This exhibition throws up lots of questions on the nature of art.  For me the exhibition was like walking through a museum depicting the last 50 years of life on Earth in abstract.  The emotions gained from the experience though are quite different from walking through the National History Museum, looking at the animals in London Zoo, or wandering through a prefab house at the Science Museum. 
In all we had a day that was much more than the sum of its parts, things we could feel, taste and experience but that felt familiar and close to home and try as we might to break our patterns and do, feel or behave in a different way we ended up exactly the same.
 
St. John Bread and Wine 94-96 Commercial Street, London, E1 6LZ.
Tate Modern  Bankside,  London, SE1 9TGDamien Hirst till 9th September 2012

Found In Nostalgia

Tokyo Diner

When: June 2012
Where: Chinatown, London and Odeon Covent Garden


I think this combination was a match made in heaven, simple delicious Japanese food with a heartwarming, nostalgic romance to follow.  We started going to Tokyo Diner as an alternative to Okawari, a Japanese/Korean restaurant a few doors up the road.  However, as Okawari has now changed name and possibly owners at least twice in the last few years we now are left with Tokyo Diner for cheap Japanese food.  The restaurant is supposed to be authentic Japanese complete with Japanese staff, small chairs and tables and a no tips policy.  The owner is authentically eccentric English.  A perfect combination indeed.

As we sat over green tea debating whether I should join my partner whilst visiting her family that weekend I realised how much I missed coming here and how long it had been.  The menu had changed a little and the prices had increase but once my Katsu Don arrived with steaming hot rice, freshly scrambled egg and pork in breadcrumbs I felt right at home.  As such a simple please was devoured with a cold can of beer and a warm glass life felt really good right down to the last grain of rice.  The one thing I really love is how fresh the food feels, though maybe one day I'll try something else on the menu that isn't Katsu Don!

Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012)

After a filling and tasty meal it was time for the film.  We finally decided on Odeon Covent Garden, I can't remember exactly why.  For some reason they had three films starting at the same time and whilst I'm sure it helps with staffing costs the small lobby area was totally over-crowded and it was quite unpleasant to wait for the doors to open.  I was glad we got there early as the surprisingly (even though it was a Wednesday) the screening was completely full bar a few of the Premier seats.

I liked Moonrise Kingdom, the casting, acting and atmosphere was great but in particular it captured a world in transition where the outcasts become the wanted ones and the wanted ones become cast out a little, yet through human decency we all pull through.  I loved the nostalgia of the scout camp and of being 11 years old and taking your fist steps into an adult world.  In the case of our hero it is love and responsibility.  For our scouts it is acceptance of those different from yourself.  Bruce Willis' character is able to start a family and give someone a home.  For Ed Norton his Scout Master saves the day in the face of disaster after he overcomes his own mistakes.

The film is tied together with some Coen Brothers style narration that somehow made me think of the Big Lebowski and adds a layer of distance to the film that we often forget about.  We are watching a re-telling and not the story itself.  I think it also fits well with Wes Anderson's nostalgic images that look like a cross between a fashion shoot and a glossy magazine from the 1960s with a nice dose of exaggeration that comes from re-telling a story.

So in all a perfect evening of warm nostalgia from the copy of an authentic Japanese restaurant in the heart of London to the re-creation of small town (or in this case island!) American life in the 1960s.

Dinner and a Movie

Dark Shadows, Dark Dinner
When: May 2012
Where: Imli (SoHo) and Empire Leicester Square
Imli

Dinner and a movie, for me two of the things that make my world go around.  If I were to make a film it would be in the style of Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes.  This night out was a way to escape the dreaded nail biting Champions League Final.  Last time in 2008 I shouldn't have been watching, we should have been out doing dinner but the Roman weather forced us to stay in the hotel and everyone suffered...  This time round it was dinner and a movie, two of my favourite things to enjoy and then I could check the scores at the end of the film and celebrate or commiserate depending on the result.  Things started off well as the bus got us to the West End in record time.  Our driver was not a patient man and beeped and swerved his away through town taking no prisoners, it was just like being in India all over again but this time with a little more restraint on the horn.  This set us up nicely for Imli, a modern Indian restaurant.  I really like Indian food and as my partner had been before and quite liked it my expectations were fairly high.  However, our first problem was that she liked the set meals but these were only on at lunch time and we had arrived in the evening.  Secondly our friend booked online and after looking online I noticed you could get a free dessert if you booked online, she hadn't noticed...  Oh well, things can only get better.

We were shown to a nice quiet and decent sized table at the back corner of the restaurant and ordered some drinks.  One of our friends seems to have got into cocktails which is nice as I'm now not the only one to order an alcoholic drink when we go out.  I wasn't feeling too hungry so I shared the Tandoori Mixed Grill  -  Chicken, Fish, Lamb and Paneer with Dal and Naan Bread. This looked like being more than enough and it was.  I love good tandoori food and after having an amazing Tandoori meal in Orchha in India I am hooked for life.  Our friends ordered a mix of dishes from the menu.  Service was good and our waiter was trying hard with some "money saving" upsells.  The food arrived and I was a little disappointed, I think in part because my eyes are greedier than my stomach.  We had one piece of each of the dishes and a bowl of thinish and difficult to share Dal.  The lamb was very good, but was really only a bite as it was a tandoori lamb chop.  The chicken was bland and only just cooked, the paneer was ok, the bread was ok and the dal was ok.  I don't really eat fish but my partner enjoyed it.  The meal was at least filling and we washed it down with some coffees and Masala Chai.  I think I've now become a little stuck in my ways with Indian food.  I find a place I like and keep coming back, again and again and again...  It will take something special to prise me away from the Star Of Bombay on Westbourne Grove or Nayaab off Parsons Green.

Dark Shadows (Tim Burton, 2012)
It seems these days every Tim Burton film is the same with Johnny Depp playing some kind of ageless monster trying to claw back a life that cannot be lived anymore.  Sometimes you have to grow up and move on, Scorsese manages this in Hugo, albeit leaving America to do so as we watch someone who has hit rock bottom get built up and given one last day of glory, rather than be spat out by the American Dream gone bad.  Anyway, getting back to Burton, at his best his creepy Depp led films are fantastic pieces of fantasy with amazing performances and a believable world portrayed well enough for you to completely suspend your disbelief.  At worst there's Alice in Wonderland, worse than that is Alice in Wonderland in 3D...

Dark Shadows is a simple love story with a nice contrast in the narrative.  The Collins family escape Victorian England for a better life in the new world where they see their fishing business go from strength to strength.  The young Barnabas will one day inherit the family fortune which is not only the business but the town where they landed which is named Collinstown in their honour and the large family house filled with wealth and secret passages.  However, life is not so easy as Barnabas has an affair with Angelique who's family are servants to the Collins family.  Barnabas likes her body but doesn't love her as a person and in a fit of jealousy she turns to magic forcing Josette, his wife to be to commit suicide and turns him into a vampire who is locked away in a coffin as a freak of nature.

Time passes and Barnabas is dug up and is very much alive but he does not fit well with the modern world.  He fights to restore his family to their former glory but finds Angelique through various guises has made sure to do everything in her power to thwart the Collins family and their business out of revenge.  The two battle it out as Barnabas wants to move on in his personal life whilst rebuilding his family to what it used to be and find true love again and Angelique who whilst moving on professionally has not moved on personally and is still, 200 years later unable to accept that Barnabas might want to have sex with her but doesn't love her.

History repeats itself but this time Barnabas is ready and although he doesn't manage to stop his new love plunging off the cliff, she becomes a vampire and they live quirkily ever after whilst Angelique ends up a broken woman (literally).  Although it may not be the greatest story of all time the acting and casting in Dark Shadows is fantastic and for me made it all worth while.  It was nice for the day to finish on a high.  An enjoyable night at the movies followed by a Champions League victory on my phone to read about on the journey home, whilst my ears rung from a THX induced evening.

BBC Studio Tour

This is the BBC!
When: April 2012
Where:  BBC Television Centre, White City

Sometimes it's easy to forget about the things close to home and as the old song goes, "You don't know what you got till it's gone".  With that in mind we decided to book a tour of BBC's Television Centre before it is sold off and possibly shut down.  On a rainy afternoon we made the short journey to White City and began the tour.  I was looking forward to see a live, living, breathing workplace filled to the brim with memories and perhaps a show being filmed.  We were one of the last to arrive at the reception area where we were warmly greeted and handed our BBC Tours identity tag.  We were met by two bright young guides who led us back out into the rain to go through security and then up to a nice little photo op if you are a fan of either Dr. Who of The Voice. I am not a fan of either but it was still a good ice breaker.

Our first stop proper was the news room area.  Most of the filming is no longer done in London but is instead done in Manchester and the majority of the journalists don't work in the news room at the weekends as news rarely breaks at the weekend (mostly it's just sports headlines like Chelsea spanking QPR - YAY!) I did enjoy watching the news tickers they had and I was also unaware that the BBC is the largest news gathering agency in the world ahead of CNN and Reuters.  It was also interesting to know that the BBC only used fully paid up journalists for their news shows rather than TV presenters and this meant that those who read the news could also interview (or often interrogate) their guests to a high and critical standard that was not possible in the past.

We then walked over to the original main entrance to Television Centre where we learned that the circular design of the building was both to compensate for the odd shape of the land and also that it made it very easy to walk from one studio to the next across the atrium in the middle.  The entrance is a listed building and will be preserved in someway when the building is eventually sold.
After that it was on to an actual studio, this studio was the one used to film Strictly Come Dancing, however on this occasion it was empty.  The most interesting part of this section of the tour was that for reasons of cost they would build the set and dismantle it weekly for this show due to the cost of renting out the studio.  The level of detail that goes into setting up a studio is quite frightening and even as someone who likes to think they know a bit about film and TV, from the lighting, soundproofing, flooring and the reason why the walls are painted black!

It was then time to visit the MOTD studios, except it was just a replica as Match of the Day was now shot at the Manchester studios, you could sit and have your photo taken but it didn't feel quite right to do so with a replica set.  Interestingly it seemed as though Channel 5 now shoots its football show here instead.  In fact from walking around it seemed most of the shows shot here were not for the BBC.

Up next was the weather area, this was actually pretty interesting as the studios for the forecast are fully automated and the presenters are all fully trained meteorologists who write and present their own material.  Also they are standard civil servants rather than private employees of the BBC and have contracts and a working day that reflect this.  The forecasters also work across media (TV, Radio and Online) as well.  We got to watch a forecast being delivered and had a little fun with a green screen!

The penultimate stage of our tour was visiting some of the green rooms or dressing rooms where stars are kept before a show.  There are different types of dressing room depending on the star's status, apparently Prince, Jennifer Lopez and James Brown had some of the most interesting demands.  The stories were more exciting than the dressing rooms which were a little crowded for a group of 20+

The final stage was where we got to see the magic happen, four lucky (or unlucky) souls got to participate in a spot of Weakest Link and a News Broadcast for the rest of us to enjoy and watch.  After this it was time to say our good byes as we exited through the gift shop.  In all a fun but slightly underwhelming way to spend a few hours.  At least there was a trip to Wahaca to follow which as usual did not disappoint.  In all the tour did not quite meet my expectations.  I was hoping to see a little more action, but it seems everyone has moved up to Manchester where the new Media Village is whilst Television Centre was cutting edge in its day, HD, the Internet and 24 hour TV have slowly made it obsolete.  Whilst it was not the most exciting afternoon out ever it was worth it to see what would soon be a piece of history.

Frisco Food

Dining Delights in San Francisco
When: April 2012
Where: SF, California

Somehow food keeps tasting better away from home and this trip was no exception.  Following on from my top five ingredients for a good meal out, there were a couple of places from our recent trip to San Francisco that fit the bill of getting my ingredients just right.  Best of all the first two were a five minute walk from one another!  Thanks to the Internet it seems the days of needing a guide book for visiting the USA are well and truly numbered with Trip Advisor, Flyertalk and Chowhound all giving a range of bespoke and up to the minute options that guide books cannot compete with.

Bodega Bistro

This Vietnamese restaurant is located on Larkin and Eddy and from the outside doesn't look overly enticing.  However, once through the doors it became evident we were on to a winner.  Service was warm and friendly and seemed to be even warmer and friendly to the regulars.  My beer was icy cold as was the table water, just the way I like it.  The speciality here is Pho, which is a noodle soup with various toppings.  We started off with some spring rolls and then I went for the Pho Bodega sur Demande - rare steak fillet slices, well-done brisket and beef meatball combination in a rice noodle soup.  This was both refreshing and filling and by the end I was too stuffed to think about dessert.  I found this place on Chowhound and I certainly would not have found it on my own with it being tucked away from the main tourist areas of San Francisco.  This meal was a great start to the trip, perfect company and a relaxed atmosphere.  The food was tasty and slightly exotic, fitting perfectly with being on holiday and the service to go with it was just right.  Bodega Bistro was also a bit of a bargain and quality wise was at worst on par with other reasonably priced restaurants and made a nice change of emphasis from the usual Chinese/Japanese Asian food that we normally have back home in the UK.

Bodega Bistro 607 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA.


Brenda's French Soulfood

Just across the road from Bodega Bistro lies Brenda's French Soulfood restaurant.  Another reasonably priced restaurant serving food that is not often seen in the UK.  We ate here for brunch on our first morning in San Francisco and it was truly amazing.  There was a small queue and to save your place in line you write your name and number of guests on the chalkboard by the door and wait for a free table.  Service felt warm and welcoming to the first time visitor as well as the regulars and we were soon sat down with menus and coffee. I went with the Egg & Bacon Tartine:  Bacon, scrambled eggs, gruyère & tomato-bacon relish on toasted french roll, with choice of grits or hash.  I ordered the hash but I ended up with the grits.  The food was really, really good and probably the most interesting of the many cooked breakfasts we had on this trip.  I still don't know what to make of grits, they feel/taste like mashed potato meets rice pudding and I ended up layering mine with tomato ketchup.  My partner went with the butter milk pancakes with fruit.  The best tip I can give for eating here is to allow for the fact that the food is tasty and filling, if you come for breakfast you won't want lunch.  You could probably just do brunch here and be full enough to see you through till the end of the day.  I wish I could open a version of Brenda's near me just so I could go whenever I wanted.

Brenda's French Soulfood 625 Polk Street, San Francisco CA.


Pied Piper Bar

At the time this place was a bit of an afterthought and a way of maxing out AMEX's Fine Hotels and Resorts program benefits.  The reviews were pretty mixed but the gamble paid off.  The Pied Piper is located at the Palace Hotel just off the financial district in San Francisco and they looked after us really well, an amazing room upgrade and a lovely breakfast in the beautiful old world Garden Court.  The Palace is famous for  "old world" luxury and is one of the oldest hotels in San Francisco.  The Pied Piper Bar is famous for the multi-million dollar Maxfield Parrish painting that hangs above the bar telling the story of the Pied Piper.  The rest of the bar is all dark wood, low lights and big screen TVs showing sports.  The crowd contrasts as much as the TVs do with the art work, this is my kind of place to sit and have a drink.  Seeing as we had $100 to spend we started with some cocktails which were excellent, fair play to anyone who can blend absinthe and whiskey into a martini glass and make it both refreshing and easy to drink.  As we had spent the last few days getting bloated on the best beef Las Vegas has to offer, it was time for something a little lighter and certainly less rich.  I ended up with a club sandwich which was filled with freshly cooked warm chicken breast, my partner went with the signature Pied Piper salad that was overloaded with King Prawns.  Service was perfectly in tow with the surroundings, casual in conversation but executed with formal precision.  Whilst this may not be to everyone's taste it was the right place at the right time and as we found out the next night that's a really important thing.

The Pied Piper Bar 2 New Montgomery Street  San Francisco, CA 94105, United States


Campton Place Restaurant

Just up the road from the Palace we spent our last night at the Taj Campton Place for a luxurious end to our trip.  The problem with that is that the more you spend the higher the expectations.  Campton Place recently won its first Michelin star, so added to that was the expectation that the food would be good too.  Service here is very formal, though the staff try to enjoy themselves and bring some personality to their work, but with a little fine tuning they could get the balance perfect, though maybe this is hard given the type of restaurant and the ever-changing clientèle.  We ate here for breakfast and dinner.  The sad thing to see was that the restaurant was barely half full on the Saturday night we were there.  I imagine this is due to the wealth of dining options in San Francisco.  I think the issue I have with my limited experience of higher end restaurants is that many aim for perfection and don't quite make it with every aspect.  There normally seems to be one course that's not quite right, or the atmosphere of the place that takes something that would have been perfectly fine in a slightly cheaper restaurant and ends up amplifying the imperfections.  Unusually it was not the starter that was the let down here.  My spicy lentil soup with crab was delicious, lightly spicy but not so much as to overpower the crab.  My rabbit three ways was good, though the rack of rabbit looked like it could have been cooked a little longer and I actually enjoyed the rabbit kidneys, which I was not expecting.  I cannot remember my dessert, it was good and it was not chocolate which is rare for me, but it doesn't stick in the mind like the pistachio soufflé I had at Castle Terrace in Edinburgh that nearly caused a "wafer thin mint" style explosion from over-eating.

Breakfast the next morning was great.  The service was a little over the top but the food was first rate.  Fresh juice, fresh coffee and a really tasty cooked breakfast, just far too much of it.  It was a shame there was not British style bacon, I really don't go for the American bacon the same way that I like bacon back at home.  In all for the money spent, our meal at the Taj wasn't quite worth it, though I'm sure for others it would be. Perhaps trying the tasting menu or getting a special offer which from reading online seems like something they do from time to time would be the way to go.

Campton Place 340 Stockton Street, San Francisco, California 94108, U.S.A.

The Perfect Meal?

The Perfect Meal? - Le 7 
When - March 2012
Where - Le 7, Valence, France


There are a number of ingredients to my perfect meal but it is rare they all come together at the same time.  However, a few months ago whilst in France that was just the case.  We were celebrating my girlfriend's birthday with her family.  That meant ingredient one was already here, the right company.  As this was a big birthday we ended up going somewhere a little fancier then we would usually go and it was a really great choice, Le 7.   My second ingredient is of course the right place for the occasion.  Le 7 is famous for being the less costly sister restaurant of the famous three  Michelin star Pic located next door.  A pretty good choice if I may say so!  The third ingredient is service, we were warmly welcomed and shown to our seats, service was friendly, though perhaps a little brisk but it was also flexible enough to accommodate a vegetarian meal for one of our party despite the restaurant not offering one on the menu.  The fourth and often the most important ingredient is the food itself, which I will discuss shortly.  My penultimate ingredient is value for money, did you get what you pay for?  How did this restaurant compare with others at the same price point?  My final ingredient is how memorable the overall experience was.  Will this meal be forgettable, remembered fondly, or am I hoping to never return again?




Le 7 is a modern French bistro restaurant with tables packed closely together and a fast paced service.  The menu follows the theme of a culinary road trip across France from north to south.  After being seated on a nice table in the corner of the dining room we were given some complementary bread in a paper bag, which was very tasty.  After all no good French meal is complete without fresh bread on the side!  We followed the 30 Euro per person three course set menu which we washed down with a bottle of Argentinian Malbec that I sadly forget the name of.  Lunch started off with an amuse bouche of bread and hummus which was delicious. We then moved on to our starter of Pumpkin Soup with Coffee.  



The soup was smooth and velvety with a nice hint of coffee running through it, everything was just right with this course.



To follow the soup I had the Shoulder of Lamb with Seasonal Vegetables.  The lamb was soft, tender and slightly pink in the centre.  The vegetables were finely diced and melted magnificently in the mouth together with sauce.  There were some quiet complaints that the sauce was a touch too salty, but for me it was perfect. 



After that perfect main I had a feeling of contentment inside.  We had a short rest from the food and then it was time for dessert.  I went with the Chocolate Finger which was a sweet, dark, reinvention of the Black Forest Gateaux with a scoop of refreshing raspberry sorbet served on the side.

All good things must come to an end and lunch was sadly over. I have to say all the ingredients had mixed together nicely.  We had good company and a great place for this special occasion.  Service was a little brisk but it did not hamper our lunch one bit.  The value for money was excellent, it's very easy to spend £20-£25 per person on lunch/dinner and end up with an underwhelming meal.  At Le 7  the food was great across each course and I only wish I could eat this well and at this price so close to home here in London, hopefully my quest will not be in vain!  I won't forget this meal any time soon and hopefully we can go back again.  If you ever happen to be in this part of France than a visit to Le 7 should certainly be added to your itinerary, unless of course you can afford the three star restaurant next door!

Pic Valence - 285 avenue Victor Hugo, 26000 Valence - Drome
              Tel. +33 4 75 44 15 32