The Hardwood Arms, London

For awhile, I never understood the appeal of the typical English cuisine? Last I check, Chicken Tikka Masala was the national dish of England. And if the English has no proper cuisine, then why do people love Nigella, Jaime Oliver and let people like Gordon Ramsay abuse them? Surely there must be something more than the occasional fish and chips?

To answer all this questions and more, my brother in law who happens to know a thing or two about food and restaurants decided to educate me. You see, my brother in law is cool. In an Asian crew cut, "I know what I am talking about," kind of sophisticated way. I told him I wanted to have some good English food and guess what, on the last day of my trip in London, he brings me to The Hardwood Arms in Fulham and spoiler alert, I was bowled over not just by how good the food was but how excellent the quality and thought process the dishes were - supremely well crafted and reasonable in price.

Again, like the premise of the other good restaurants I liked, we didn't have time to take the pictures of all the food but lets just say I had to eat fast in case my dear sister would steal food from my plate.

The Starters:

Herefordshire snails braised in stout on toast with crispy shallots, parsley salad and pickled red cabbage. Excellent. I love escargots myself but this brought it to a new level. It didn't taste like snail because it didn't have to. The matching and garnish were perfect combinations

The next 2 starters were on the specials board:

The pumpkin soup with a side of toasted bread with mini shrimps. This was odd at first when you think about it but together the soup represented creamy goodness (and I hate cream) and awesome toast with mini shrimps! What? You must be thinking. But it was good. In a unusual way.

The ox tongue tasted more like luncheon meat to me. This is not a slam of sorts but I really liked it. I never had ox tongue before but it was delicious. It came together with a croquette which was devilishly creamy and complemented with the greens on the side.

Crisp potatoes with garlic butter, salad of leaves . We ordered this as a filler and boy did we make a mistake. The potatoes were excellent but we couldn't finish it!

Slow roasted old spot pork belly with ribs glazed in ginger beer, onion squash, pearl barley and greens. This was the dish that really didn't fit on our table. Probably because the pork was too gamey and the flavor of the pork overpowered everything else in the plate. It is different from the Chinese version of the Roasted pork but similar in appearance and cut but the taste of the marinate was rolled over by the pork.
This was ordered from the specials board again. Jelly ordered the Salmon on a bed of greens. It was obviously named in a more sophisticated way but I can't remember the exact title. The salmon was a lovely pink and sumptuous. Jelly loved it.

Rib of Red Ruby beef for two with field mushrooms, greens, smoked bone marrow, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and horseradish cream. I shared this with my brother in law and I have to say this was the best pudding I have had. The steak was excellent, it came medium rare, the potatoes, were great. Have I ever said that I love meat and potatoes together? Drool. the sauce was romantically drizzled on the meat and the watercress with steak always gives the meat more edge. Love it!

At the end of the meal, what could I say? One of the best English meals I have ever had. The finest and freshest English produce were used, alot of dedication and thought went through the menu. This isn't just a gastro pub that served burgers and chips anymore. But would other restaurateur's follow suit?

Excellent. Will go back again for sure.

El Fornet D'en Rossend, Barcelona

Sandwiches. I love sandwiches. I love good sandwiches. I just had subway and I have to say they were bad. So bad that just by writing this review, I am drooling.

Jelly and I were in Barcelona and we're hungry. We walked by this bakery and it looks awesome. 3 days later, the counter person at our hotel tells us that the bakery 2 blocks from our hotel is awesome. Coincidence? I think not. I have an eye for good food and these sandwiches, when I walked by them the first day were already calling out to me.

It was so good that before I went back to London, I bought a whole bag worth of sandwiches to eat.

El Fornet. Mi Amor.

Inopia is now called Lolita - Barcelona Edition

Jelly and I went to Barcelona on a dare and wanted to enjoy tapas like how the locals have it. We were warned by people of the inter web that the people in Barcelona were not very friendly, favored locals and dangerous. Boy, are people on the interweb wrong.

Barcelona is lovely. Men - charming. Women - hot. Food - Fantastic. La Sagrada Familia - Epic.

We did some research and decided that we head to Inopia after watching my man Mario Batali with pals Paltrow and Stipe eat their face off and boy did we do the same.

First off, we had the awesome olives stuffed with anchovies. They were the best Olives I have ever had and they came from a can. So good that we bought a can to try it ourselves and guess what, it was still as awesome.

We also ordered the Iberico Sandwich. Now this is a play on what is available around many of Barcelona's bakeries around town but this was the best Iberico sandwich of them all. The Iberico was smooth, fatty, and luscious. Not gamey, thick or difficult to chew like those served in Singapore at all. Olive oil drizzled on the freshly baked bread made this sandwich simply heavenly.

The Con Tomato was what we expected. Toasted bread with tomatoes smudged onto the bread. I don't know why anyone would serve it any way else but this simple and delectable dish made me love bread even more.

This is the signature dish. The Inopia. The dish that best signifies Inopia previously. Grilled fresh tuna with tomato and olive oil. The best tuna I have had in a tapas bar ever. The fish was smooth and the olive oil added a nice complement to the acidity of the tomatoes.

The white bait was a mystery order for us. Why? We ordered it and I expected pieces of fish and not the entire piece of fish. It was fantastic tasting though. It was salty, alittle briny but very smooth. Jelly was uncomfortable as to how I was just throwing the fish down my throat (and how it was staring at her) but I enjoyed it.

Truly. Let me just say it now. THE BEST CROQUETTES IN THE WORLD! Okay, that might have been an exaggeration but it was a mixture of drinking hot soup inside this crispy shell and it was magnificent. I also chose to drown my happiness with a nice glass of undersized Moritz beer.

The potato bravas were also the best I have had. If you were to say the red sauce is a barbecue sauce, I would be willing slap you because that would be a big insult. The cream used for the potatoes were lovely. The blend was terrific.

We hit a wall with this order. We didn't what else to order and thought that a sandwich with the best sardines would do the trick. Problem is Jelly didn't like the sardines but I loved the sandwich. It was slightly dry but the bread and fish were good together. Not my cup of tea necessarily. But still good.

I am not a vegetarian. But I tell you what, you serve me these ground beans with vinaigrette and quail eggs and I will bite your hand off. The mixture of sourness of the lemon vinaigrette as well as the eggs make this a vegetarian delight (depends on how you define your vegetarianism).

We were greedy and ordered more shoulder ham after seeing the group of Japanese men ordering it. It was some awesome smoked shoulder ham in my opinion.

The coup that stole the night was the dessert. The pineapple with molasses and lemon zest and the Lolita dessert alcohol beverage. The pineapple tasted like a mojito drink. The sweetness of the molasses and acidity of the pineapple was cut and matched very well by the sourness of lemon zest which made this a great dish to end all dishes. The drink was mildly sweet and addictive and summed up my experience at Lolita.



All in all, a wonderful experience. The server was non English speaking but lovely and polite. She gave us lots of ideas on what to order and was patient.

There are other things we ordered as well but we were so busy stuffing our own faces that we forgot to take some of them!

Best part of it all, this meal only cost 80 euros. A price worth paying for the best tapas in town.

LEON

While in London and shopping around Liberty, I finally discovered LEON!

I always thought Leon was a name of a pimp who turned out to be a chef who turned out to be a writer who found out he could write about cooking. Maybe I was wrong then, but I am right now.

Leon @ Regent Street was excellent. Food was cheap. Falafael delicious. Bottled Coke was thirst quenching.

Why doesn't Singapore have one?

Flying B Class.

Recently, I had the privilege, nay, the honour of flying on B class on Thai Airways. I have to say I was not too impressed. Yes, the seats were awesome. Service was great. And they finally let me listen to my ipod while the pilot takes off because I'm in B class darn it!

But the food? Oh, it was just like sitting on any other part of the plane, the hull, the wings, the engine room where we poured the coal into the fire ...

I thought the single serving food was pleasant. It was also pleasant to have a napkin and proper utensils on a flight! While Jelly was easily amused, I took all this into consideration, that if the plane had crashed, I would only be alittle more comfortable than the others on the plane.

Result? Food was pleasant.