London Bites

St. John Restaurant Smithfield
26 St. John Street
London EC1M 4AY
Telephone: 020 7251 0848

To me, finally going to London meant only one thing: dining at St. John Restaurant. I first heard of St. John while reading about Anthony Bourdain, the head chef of New York City's Les Halles, and his search for the perfect meal around the world in A Cook's Tour. While in London, he stopped at St. John to interview Fergus Henderson, the celebrated chef of St. John, who reintroduced the nose-to-tail eating of "both beast and fowl" to food lovers around London and to the rest of the culinary world.

When I was planning a weekend getaway, London was at the top of the list because of a British Airways special offering a free stay in a 4-star hotel for two nights. To further convince myself that skipping the beach this time around would be acceptable, I made reservations at St. John for a Saturday night first and then bought my airline tickets after I received the table confirmation 24 hours later.

Although I expected to see more offal on the menu, St. John did not disappoint—our meal was one of our favorite experiences while in London. We started with a dish of skate, chicory, and anchovy. The light bitterness of the chicory, highlighted by the mayonnaise dressing, balanced well the strong flavors of the fish. With the seafood out of the way, we could not help but consider an order of either the pressed pig's ear or the roasted bone marrow—the two most seemingly unusual (to the uninitiated, anyway) dishes on the menu that night. The pig's ears were served as a beautiful terrine, lightly salted with gherkins as accompaniment. The terrine was thinly sliced and produced a delightful light crunch in our mouths. Bone marrow was not new to me, as it is also a familiar Filipino dish. We happily dug out every last ounce of blissful fat from the insides. No visitor to St. John should pass up the Middle White pig served with a fragrant brown sauce and prunes. The depth with which we savored the profound flavors of this little animal was sinful.

Let me digress and give you a lecture about pork: Middle White pigs are the result of a cross between two different classes of pig, the Large White and the Small White. They are traditionally bred as the "London Pork Pig" because their carcasses are easily cut into the smaller pieces favored by English butchers. Its highly prized meat has made the Middle White one of the most in-demand types of pork, with orders coming all the way from Japan.

An excellent 2002 bottle of Chateau de Lascaux accompanied our entire meal. I ended up buying an extra bottle to take home (and later a case from a merchant I found online). We finished our meal with a blood orange sorbet served with Russian vodka.

Fifteen
Westland Place
London, N1 7LP
Telephone: 0871 330 1515

If you watch the Food Network, then you know who Jamie Oliver is. He's always cooked with a camera in tow. Perhaps this is the reason why the foodie audience is evenly divided into camps that either hate him (jealousy?) or love him (that accent!). After producing books of his favorite recipes and successful TV cooking shows, he started the Cheeky Chops Foundation to help disadvantaged young adults learn the ins and outs of running a restaurant kitchen. The name Fifteen refers to the number of new staff the restaurant accepts each year from a pool of hundreds of applicants.

We ventured out to Old Street the day we were to leave London for a final brunch. The sun was actually out bathing the restaurant in light. The dark wood and pink highlights stood out as soon as we entered the restaurant. It was the end of February, so I started with the gnocchi and oxtail stew, following an Italian tradition to have pasta at the 29th of each month to usher in good luck. It sounds like a hefty dish to eat at noon, but surprisingly, it was just light enough to whet the appetite rather than satiate it too early. Even after a night at St. John [see separate entry], nothing was going to stop me from ordering the grilled rib-eye steak that had been hung for 21 days. Grated horseradish added a pleasant bite. Some bitter purple sprouting broccoli gave me an excuse not to feel guilty about the porcini butter sauce. My boyfriend opted for a lighter dish of seared yellowfin tuna served with spicy caponata. Dessert was a very pleasing pannacotta with soft rhubarb.

For a restaurant that is always getting media attention, there was a notable absence of pretense amongst the staff. Everyone was extremely welcoming and helpful with their recommendations.

Taro
61 Brewer St
London W1F 9UN
Telephone: 020 7734 5826

We wanted to have lunch at the Carnaby Street Wagamama, a noodle shop franchise, just to check out the interior design. They were unfortunately closed the Sunday we ventured out for food. We ended up eating at Taro after we saw its logo further down the street.

I fretted momentarily about the possiblity that ordering udon or a rice bowl would be like running to a McDonald's while on vacation. Japanese food, you see, is my form of comfort food. Udon with shrimp tempura and rice with unagi (roasted eel), however, are better choices than any super-sized meal. I quickly got over my hesitation as the waitress brought our food.

Sometimes, I like my food simple, inexpensive, and quick.

Clipper Bangladeshi Cuisine
104 Brick Lane
London E1 6RL
Telephone: 020 7377 0022

They say that Indian food is better in London than it is in India. I did not eat anything that was either new or palette-expanding at Clipper. That said, I still enjoyed my dinner of standards like kashmiri gosht (lamb stew), saag paneer (spinach and cheese), and even chicken tikka masala. Just like New York City's 6th Street on the Lower East Side, proprietors do their best to pull you into their respective restaurants. They will offer free papadam and they will plead with you until you eventually end up walking through their doors. The competition on Brick Lane is fierce. But as one local told me, the competition has its function, as no Brick Lane restaurant would survive if it wasn't good in the first place.