I love - Burger & Lobster

If you are on this side of the pond, you will know that Burger & Lobster has been a very popular place for the last couple of years. It's been my top 1 to try in my wish list. With my foodie cousin visiting this week, it felt like a great opportunity! Off we went!

B&L now has five locations in London and we went to the one in Soho. The decor is very American, wooden panel and red diner style couch. The place is pretty big but quickly filled up due to its popularity. We went there for lunch. The menu is simple, burger, whole lobster or lobster roll, all of the same price. We both opted for broiled lobster with lemon and garlic butter.

Wow, wow, wow, we are hugely impressed by what we got. The lobster was of a good size, sweet and succulent, and tasted very fresh with just a faint smokiness. The lemon and garlic butter is to die for. I scrape clean the serving bowl! The thinly cut chips and a bowl of salad dressed in reduced balsamic vinegar (I think) nicely complemented the lobster. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and will go back next time!

After that, we went to Maison Bertaux for dessertS (yes, in plural). Not that we were still hungry, but dessert is for another stomach, right? Wink. Have a good weekend, everyone.

What's been serving on this side of the Atlantics

Yogurt dill potato salad, garlic tomatoes with balsamic vinegar glaze, cucumber slices in dill vinaigrette

Best potato salad I've had. What a revelation to use yogurt instead of mayo in the salad. Not only does it add the tang and the flavor to the salad, but also it is much healthier. No more mayo in my potato salad!

Brown butter and raspberry muffin cake (adapted from Baking Bites). 

To tell you a secret, I am muffin shy. It just never works for me. Not sure where the problem stems from, but a muffin recipe baked in individual muffin moulds always turn out to be flat (dome-less) and dry for me. That's why I always bake it whole in a cake tin. I replaced 1/2 cup of flour with ground almond and topped the muffin cake with raspberries. The cake is tender, moist, not overly sweet, just the right balance for me as    a breakfast cake.

 Raspberry tiramisu (adapted from Nigel Slater).

I soaked the lady fingers with Earl Grey tea, instead of booze. The citrusy note of Earl Grey goes pretty well with raspberries and lifts up the good old tiramisu. My kind of summery tiramisu!

Afternoon tea at Connaught

My birthday tea, with Picasso exhibit to finish. Both marvellous. My ideal day!

d'Arry's, Cambridge

First dine-out of the year. Have spotted this restaurant for a while which seems another "local" restaurant (hallelujah). After watching The Artist, it's just a short stroll away.

Here is what we ordered:

Starters: Deep-fried Whitebait and Mezze Platter
Mains: d'Arry's fillet burger and Fish & Chips.

Wow, we were very pleasantly surprised. Although d'Arry's mentions seafood to be their strength (freshly delivered everyday), their burger is possibly the best I've tasted in Cambridge. Tender, juicy, flavorsome and it comes with a healthy portion of salad, nicely dressed. And yes, both Whitebait and Fish & Chips were all expertly made. The light tempura coating on my sea bass remained crispy while I ate and this is the first ever Fish & Chips I've had where the coating does not separate from the fish. That shows you the fine craftsmanship this restaurant has.

Overall, our first visit of d'Arry's is very satisfied. Fresh ingredients, properly prepared, generous portions, tasty all around, cozy ambiance, attentive but non-intrusive service. What more can I say?

Will come back.

Food: 7.5/10
Service: 9/10


d'Arry's
2 - 4 King Street
Cambridge CB1 1LN
Open everyday
Live music on Sundays

October's bits and pieces

Whitechapel Gallery

London is so full of little treasures dotted here and there. It never fails to surprise me. I visited Whitechapel Gallery recently for its Wilhelm Sasnal exhibition. After I went through all of their special exhibits, it turned out that it's their Government Art Collection (GAC) which I like the most. In GAC, you can see 70 selected paintings covering from ceiling to floor displaying colors of rainbows. They were once hung in British governmental offices, here or oversea to promote British art, hence the title. You can find a portrait of Queen Elisabeth II by Andy Warhol from the British council residence in New York, a bright yellow Poor Thing by Gary Hume humorously from HM Treasury, a Monet-like Venice at midnight by Robert Buhler from British Embassy at Buchares and Print for a Politician by Grayson Perry. Here are just a few of my favorites and I can go on and on. It's a wonderful collection which captures the humour and thinking behind why those art work were chosen in the first place. I absolutely love it.

By the way, do you know that they have a Rothko too?

London buses

Tubes tend to be better known and used by non-Londoners but recently I have become to like the extensive London Bus network. It does some preparation, like printing out the route maps centered on intended stops, if you are not familiar with the system. Once you have the route map at hand, just sit back and relax. Let the double decker take you around the Metropolitan.

Fab.

Beigel Bake

I first tasted them many years ago and I tried them again this year. Nothing has changed. It continues to be one of the best bagel shops I know on this side of the Atlantic. Simple, chewy and flavorful. Their Salt Beef Beigel sandwich is divine.

Chilli Cool

I have recently become besotted with Szechuan cuisine. It all started when my friend Stephanie took me to one of her favorite Szechuan restaurants in New York city. I was hooked from the beginning. Chilli Cool is one of the places in London which get rave reviews. I've got to try!

Cooking discoveries

• Lorraine Pascale's Lamb Shanks in Rioja and Balsamic vinegar. Fantastic.
• My very first Salmon en croute. Apart from that the whole salmon parcel was too big to fit into my small oven initially, the taste was nice. I will work on it for a few more times before I share the result.
• My favorite apple cake. Recipe to come.
• Red wine poached pear and plums. Delicious on its own or with yoghurt.

Looks like my cooking bug has come back. Welcome.

See you all in November.

Alimentum, Cambridge

This is the second new restaurant we tried this month. Alimentum has caused quite a stir since it entered the Cambridge restaurant scene in 2007. It is not short of praising reviews but also pulls in some opposite opinions. This has been on our list to try and we did last Saturday.

Here is what we tasted:

Amuse-bouche:

Mushroom and porcini veloute

House bread with butter

Starters:

Mackerel encrusted with thin bread, horseradish and mooli

48hr lamb with anchovies, olives and broad beans

Main:

Sirloin beef, corn, warm lettuce salad with ranch dressing and potato mash

To finish:

Passion fruit tart with coffee ice cream and meringue

Assortment of British and French cheese from a cheese cart

The first thing that caught our attention is their nice décor, modern and elegant. We were seated comfortably with a table of plenty space. Live music was on all night during our visit. Lovely.

Shortly after we ordered, we were treated with porcini veloute and house bread. I have never tasted veloute before. The version from Alimentum consists of tiny fine bubbles, i.e. foamy. Sorry to say that this is not my cup of tea. The flavor was nice, with a deep earthy porcini taste. I would love it better if its texture were silky and creamy. The butter which came with the bread was very good. It has a hint of caramel when you eat it. The house bread was well made. Good start.

The Mackerel starter was very popular as it kept coming out from the kitchen. Hubby ordered one and he loved it. The combination was full of contrast and complement. Like crispy bread skin of mackerel contrasting with softly poached horseradish, or the rich taste of mackerel with the freshness of mooli. The whole dish is a brilliant design. My 48-hr lamb was less spectacular. It was tender all right but not stunning.

As for the main course, we both ordered sirloin beef, cooked to rare. I had great expectation before it's served but my heart sunk half way when I saw it. First, the presentation needs to be re-thought. The green skid mark in the middle of the plate was not very appetising for me. Secondly, our beef was presented in cubes of 2-cm, i.e. pre-cut. The carnivore inside me was howling already. Why on earth would you pre-cut my steak?!?! As a steak lover, I take pleasure in every second I spend with my steak. It starts from smelling its aroma with my nose, examining my whole steak from all angles with my eyes, cutting it with my knife to my desired size and savoring it in my mouth with all my senses united. That's the full process for me to enjoy my steak and now the process is broken. S.C.R.E.A.M.

Ok, let's try to stay positive.

The beef was tender. The warm salad with ranch dressing was delicious. The sweet note from the corn kernels was a nice complement to the whole savory dish. The concept was good but we probably won't order it again if the beef remains pre-diced before serving.

The highlight of our dinner was the cheese plate from their nicely presented cheese cart. The person who served us the cheese is knowledgeable and friendly. And their cheese selection is fabulous, with good representations from British and Continental providers. My passion fruit tart did cheer me up after seeing my beef diced without my consent.

Food aside, the service staff from Alimentum were a bit let-down. They are individually courteous (if feeling a bit pretentious) and that's the problem. The whole service staff should work as a team, not as singletons. And that's exactly how we felt during our visit. Getting someone's attention was not easy (the restaurant was not full during the 3-hr we were there). It took us a long time to complete the bill paying process. However, the menu is unique and creative. We like the food enough to come back again to see how the restaurant matures. Probably not with friends though.

food: 8/10
service: 6.5/10

Alimentum
152-154 Hills Road

Cambridge CB2 8PB

Oak Bistro, Cambridge

There are many wonderful things living in Cambridge. The youthful energy, the many colleges of historical importance and architectural allure, great adult education system and the opportunities to listen to many great scientists whom you have only heard of their names before coming here. I enjoy every minute of living my life here.

Unfortunately, eating out is not one of them. Most restaurants are either boring chains or simply not good. Maybe I have become picky over the years but really nowadays we are out of ideas as where to go for a quiet Friday night dinner or a relaxing Saturday lunch.

That may be about to change. There are few new independent restaurants popping up over the last two years. We decided that we will try them all this year.

We paid a visit to Oak Bistro last Friday. Right across the landmark Catholic Church (of Our Lady and the English Martyrs), behind the wooden door and warm light coming through the window panes is Oak Bistro. It is a Grade II listed building, nicely maintained. When you walk inside, you see the bare brick walls and big wooden (oak?) beams on the ceiling and dividing the dining area. With a lively atmosphere and warm candle light, I like it already.

After being led to our table, we ordered a bottle of still water and started to read the menu. Wow, it's been a long time since I read a restaurant menu which excites me. I want to try almost everything on the menu. Here is what we ordered:

Starters: 

Pan-fried scallops with mixed leaves, crisped pork belly with mustard and apple compote

Mains: 

Cajun sword fish with potato, tomato&green bean salad and guacamole, pan-fried calves liver with red wine shallot jus and potato mash

Desserts: 

Coconut panna cotta with brandy flambée prunes, Blackberry and apple crumble with custard.

Everything was cooked flawlessly and nicely presented. More importantly, they all tasted delightful. The juicy and plump scallops are lightly seared on both sides and dressed lightly with pesto, just enough to bring out the savory and sweet notes of scallops. The mixed salad on the side, I was told, was nicely seasoned and a great companion to the scallops. My crisped pork belly got my attention back to my plate. Crisp outside and tender inside. I only got a tiny smear of yellow mustard on my plate which didn't last long. A bit more would have been nice. Apple compote was a bit too sweet for me but a nice contrast to the pork. Now we couldn't wait for our main courses.

My Cajun sword fish came sitting on top of mixed salad and with a dollop of guacamole on the side. Mine oh mine oh mine, how did they get the sword fish so juicy and tender? Very lightly seasoned with Cajun spice, the fish steak was grilled to perfection. Firm without being chewy, the fish remained fork tender. I felt the luscious juice coming out from every bite I took. Really, this must be the best fish I have had for the past 10 years. The bed of salad which sat underneath consisting of crushed potato, blanched fine green beans, tomato dice and mix leaves did support the overall American southern style well. The guacamole bit was an interesting one. Before I tasted it, I thought that it was an odd combination to mix sword fish and guacamole. After tasting it, I realized that without avocado, the whole dish would have been too light. Guacamole brought the note of richness and creaminess into the mouth which made us feel satisfied. It still feels a bit odd to see sword fish and guacamole but it does work for me. As for calves liver, a liver aficionado did say that it's also one of the best he has tasted in a long time.

Lastly, dessert. You always have to have dessert, don't you? I absolutely loved my coconut panna cotta with brandy flambée prunes. The brandy flambée part was a genius stroke from Oak Bistro. It not only provided an elegant twist for the prunes, but also complemented the panna cotta perfectly. Even the hubby usually not the dessert type ate up all his crumble. I think that said it all.

All in all, Oak Bistro is certainly one of the best restaurants I have tasted in Cambridge. The service earned a top mark for me too. Attentive without being pushy. Every dish was served and taken away in a good rhythm. You will definitely see us go back for more and even with friends too.

food: 8/10
service: 8/10

Oak Bistro
6 Lensfield Road

Cambridge CB2 1EG
Closed on Sundays