Jerk (Chicken) Off, Brockwell Park 2010

Crude puns averted, so far so good.  Sunday the 15th of August saw London's jerk cookery competition take place in Brockwell park having moved from the Horniman gardens.  There were at least thirty to fifty different stalls all competing for the honour this year and Caribbean.  A portion of jerk (or curry goat, etc) was yours from between £5-6.  Sadly though I queued to get some jerk lamb from the people I found out were last years winners it wasn't ready and the chicken I got somewhere else was okay but not mind-blowing.  It serves me right really I should have looked up the previous winners.  Strangely I was too full to have seconds, a cause for concern in itself.  Next year I won't make those mistakes.  Good foody event in the sunny outdoors and if you go with loads of people you can sample a whole host of delicious wares, highly recommended.

For more info and good photos look here, here and at my new favourite London food blog (except mine obviously) here.

Strange Food News: Man Grows Pea in Lung

BBC news reports that a man who believed he had cancer found out that his respiratory problems were actually down to his having inhaled a pea, which, in the way of peas proceeded to sprout.
Read the full story here.

Restaurant Review: The Old China Hand

There's not many independent pubs around these days.  Even less with a list of around thirty different beers from around the world.  And certainly basically none with a ping-pong table.  Well the Old China Hand has all of these things and it serves dim-sum along with all that beer.  Sadly no one's going, which is a shame because it's a nice place.

Restaurant Review: Fryer's Delight

I don't have fish and chips very often.  It's unhealthy and since I like cod pretty much unjustifiable as anything else than an occasional treat on sustainability grounds.  So when I get fish and chips I like it to be really good.  Fryer's Delight is really, really close to being fantastic.  But seeing as I've been basically equidistant between this and Master's Superfish, I think Fryer's is likely to miss out.  If your closer to this place, however, it's more than respectable.

Restaurant Review: Viet Grill

I suffer from a very difficult and compulsive gastronomic affliction.  It's commonly referred to as food envy.  Its one of my main reasons for over-ordering, if I see nice food going past I want it.  You can, therefore, imagine my dismay when I couldn't go with some friends to Viet Grill on Kingsland Road because I was working.  It got even worse when I saw one of them for lunch at the Charles Lamb a few days later.  'Oh it was AMAAAAZING!  We had this delicious fish in dill and then a great beef...' and so on.  Thankfully after a couple of days of pacing around and waking up in cold sweats muttering to myself about pho I was in area and in need of dinner. 

Restaurant Review: The Charles Lamb Pub

Sunday's are difficult.  You have to work the next morning.  You're hung over from the night before.  You're tired and irritable.  You wanted a lie in and some idiotic birds woke you up with their tuneless warbling.  All a bit rubbish really.  But, there is one thing that makes Sunday's great and that's Sunday lunch.  Given the aforementioned problems, however, not everyone feels up to making one.  The promise of going out instead is tempting, but often disappointing.  Not so the Charles Lamb in Angel!  This lovely pub has a great selection of Meantime beers on tap, good cider and great hangover smiting Bloody Marys at only £4.50 (only in London prices, overpriced in the rest of the world).  Most importantly they have board-games!  No that's not right, sorry. I meant to say most importantly they do a brilliant roasts lunch.