Restaurant Review: Ribouldingue, Paris

I was so looking forward to going back to Ribouldingue.  Last time I went my main course immediately went on my list of the the best things I've ever eaten.  It was a pig foot parmantier - the meat from the slow cooked foot stripped off the bone, mixed with a subtly flavoured and creamy sauce, covered in mashed potato, bread crumbs and gratinated.  The result was a rich, comforting, deep set of flavours offset perfectly by the two thin strips of pickled red pepper on top.  So hopes were understandably high - which was why my second meal there was a crashing disappointment.

La Cabrera del Norte, Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires smells almost completely of grilled meat.  This is no exaggeration, the odour of grilled cow hits you almost as soon as you get off the motorway.  Steak is where it's at in BA and in most of Argentina in general.  Huge bits of meat are grilled over coal until they're blackened and crispy on the outside, the generous portion of fat they're generally cut with broken down and soft, but with the meat still rare or jugoso as the locals would say.  As you can imagine, there are a thousand different places to eat good steak in Buenos Aires, sadly I have been to nowhere near all, or half or one hundredth but I did go to a few.  So on that basis I'd like to share with you, which was my favourite and also the information that a steady diet of red meat two meals a day for two or three weeks will make you fat, sweaty and very tired.  Mmmm happy days!

The Biggest Pizza Ever?

I just saw these photos and they made me chuckle so I thought I'd put them up.  This was from a pizza delivery place in La Paz, Bolivia.  No moped for this baby, it had to go in the boot of a fairly big car.  I don't remember it being particularly tasty, but it was worth it just to carry it through the groups of wide eyed hostel goers.

Gourmet San Part 2

Last time I went to Gourmet San I said I was impressed, but needed to go back before I made a final verdict.  Sadly that verdict is one born out of  disappointment with what was at best an average meal.  Things were going badly from the off as we were led to a small, secluded room upstairs away from the fun and bustling main room.

St John's Eccles Cakes

Almost everyone in the meat eating world that is interested in that kind of thing already knows that St John's Bread and Wine is the dog's offal.  So I'm not going to do a review of it, I'm just going to talk about what is one of the best bits of baking in the whole wide world, the St John's eccles cake, served with a big slab of Lancashire cheese.  Everything about it is perfect.  The pastry is flaky and crispy and incredibly buttery with a big slug of nutmeg all over the top of it.  The filling is a lovely gooey mess of raisins that is like jam that has been overcooked until its nearly toffee, but retaining just enough sharpness to balance the richness of everything else.  Best of all, the sugar melts out of the bottom and crisps up and turns into a brittle caramel on the bottom.  It's big and it's only £2.60 (cheese not included).

Restaurant Review: Franklins

I've recently moved away from my beloved South London and the lack or recent posts is mainly down not having had internet for the first few weeks, its grim up North...London.  Anyway since I've betrayed my roots and moved to the other side of the river, I thought Mother's Day would be a good opportunity to head back into the blissful paradise that is South London and have a pleasant lunch with my mum in one of my favourite local places.  Said place is Franklins on Lordship Lane, converted a number of years ago now into a great gastropub.  Since then it's gone from strength to strength and even opened a little farmshop next door, which I initially thought was pretty poorly stocked and over-expensive and is now really very good (it sells something called Slider, which is a mix of sloe gin and cider and frankly I think that's all anyone needs to know).  Now winning acclaim for its fantastic cooked breakfasts, as well as its big, bold approach to British cooking, Franklin's has become a real treasure and is certainly worth making the trip for.

Restaurant Review: Masters Superfish

Eric Hobsbawm said that the combination of fried fish, a northern speciality, with chips from the south was a key symbol of the birth of class consciousness in Britain.  A fish supper by the seaside remains an evocative image and it is still one of the top take out foods in Britain - and what visiting luminaries like Clint Eastwood like to eat in pubs (apparently).  Its a shame then that most places do it so badly.  'Most places',  however, does not include Masters Superfish in Waterloo.  By reputation this is one of the best chippies in London and after recently testing it out myself I have to agree.