Restaurant Review: Donya

Living by a few hundred Turkish restaurants and having done a lot of research into burgers recently means that I have been eating a lot of meat, too much meat in fact.  Mainly I've been eating too much grilled meat with not too much added, certainly not vegetables.  So, much as I love all that kind of thing, I was feeling like something a bit different, something fresh and zingy.  My friend Tom and I therefore decided on a Burmese restaurant at the top of Edgeware Road so that I, having liked it before, could review it and have a lot of heavily spiced tangy South East Asian food and so he could say things like; 'this was much better when I had it in Burma' or 'oh no no no that's not how that comes in Rangoon', etc.  Sadly being Sunday night, it was closed.  Panic briefly ensued, until Tom pointed out to me and another friend that their was an Iraqi/Kurdish restaurant next door at number 436.  Good, lots of meat it is then.

London's Burgeoning Burger Scene

Burgers in London have long been pretty disappointing and there's still a long way to go.  Nevertheless, the London hamburger scene has come a long way since the days when Wimpy was one of its key exponents (Wimpy has also gone a surprisingly long way, managing to open up as far away as Mongolia, where the Mutton burger is one of the most popular items).  There are now a plethora of so called gourmet high street options, gastropub interpretations and high quality vans, not to mention any number of blogs dedicated to the art of the perfect burger from London and beyond.  From sliders, to southern slammers  London is starting to catch on so here's a rundown of some of the best and most disappointing burger related fun to be had in the capital.

Recipes: Two Things to do With Butternut Squash

Autumn means squash and if you grow them in your garden it means a lot of them so here's a couple of recipes that will help use a lot of butternut squash.  The base of both recipes is a butternut squash puree that is easy to make and takes a minimum of prep.  It stores well and is pretty versatile, so you can make it up in advance.

Restaurant Review: Leong's Legends II

I used to love going to Chinatown.  When I was little I used to go their for dim sum with my dad.  Sadly Chinatown often gets a pretty poor rap.  This is often deserved, with a lot of places serving up fairly poor gloopy food.  Just as often, however, reviewers will say that if you stick to a particular set of regional specialities which reflect where the chef's are from you can eat very well.  Leong's Legends  (II was built later to cater for demand) is just one of those places.  Leong's specialises in Taiwanese food, though  looking at the menu gives little initial indication of this as it spans the gamut of regional Chinese cuisines There is for instance a heavy focus on Sichuanese, which is perhaps unsuprising given the success of places such as Bar Shu.  However, the Taiwanese items are easy to spot as they correspond to the recommended starred items and we stuck almost completely to these.

Restaurant Review: Rosa's

I don't like writing bad reviews, which is why it's taken me so long to get around to writing this one because its going to be really bad.  Time Out gave Rosa's, a small Thai restaurant in Spitalfields four stars, saying it was almost up there with Busaba Ethai for fast high quality Thai food.  I can only assume that the review was an old one and that Rosa's has changed beyond all recognition, either that or it's the classic Time Out syndrome of saying everything in East London is great because someone told them it was trendy once and they need to look like they know these things.