Stepney City Farm, Stepney Way, London, E1 3DG

Stepney City farm is a working farm covering 4 acres of land in Stepney Green in the London borough of Tower Hamlets.  4 acres may seem small for a farm but in a city like London, where prices of land and buildings are frankly ridiculously high to the point of not being long-term sustainable, local people  are lucky to have a farm of this size they can visit.

 

Many people in London literally never go outside London and the M25 so Stepney City Farm, and the handful of other city farms in London help children and indeed adults who ought to know better, see and understand that lamb chops come from real living animals.  They are not created pre-wrapped and ready for the supermarket shelves!

 

Pigs, ducks, goats, sheep and other animals are reared on the farm.  Salad crops and other vegetables are also grown but for the purposes of this blog, the main focus is the shop and café.

 

The café is open on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday  between 09.30 and 14.30 and on Saturday and Sunday between   10:00  and 16:00

 

This café sells food that is either produced on the farm or produced locally in London and the surrounding area.  Generally the salad and vegetables are grown on the farm with meat brought in from the Ginger Pig which is a well-known butcher and supplier of top quality meat in London.

 

I’ve had a lot of food at the farm over the last 18 months or so as it is only a 10 minute walk from where I live.  Among my favourites are the home-cured bacon sandwich which includes thick bacon and homemade door-stop bread with homemade tomato  chutney.  If I remember correctly, it costs around £4.50 but it’s a big sandwich and the bacon is far thicker than that which you buy in a shop.  I also highly recommend the home made cakes.  There’s usually flapjacks, brownies and a really nice vegan  banana bread which comes with Almond butter.

 

Sunday is brunch day and the bacon is home cured, and the black pudding and sausages are home made.  The breakfast also comes with homemade baked beans, potato roti, egg, mushrooms and homemade bread with tomato jam.  It costs £7.50 but it’s a good big plate full.

 

Tea and coffee are also available.  My only criticism here is that the cups are rather small.  This is understandable as space in the café is quite limited and the cups do stack easily if required.  In an ideal world though, I’d like to have the choice of a mug.

 

In general this is a really nice café and it’s well worth combining a visit to the café with a look round the farm.  Sometimes popular dishes do run out quickly so what’s on offer can be slightly unpredictable.  Given the space available though, and the need to conserve   rather than waste food I think the chef and other staff do a good job and I would highly recommend a visit.  Being a city farm, there are lots of activities for children.  This is probably not the place for you if having any crying child within 10 metres of you makes your hairs stand up on end and causes you to start screaming!

 

On Saturday there is a farmers market between 10 and 4.  There are stalls selling vegetables, meat, bread and cakes.  Often there is also a stall selling precooked food also and the café generally does food too.

 

It’s hard to mark the food here as it is very good but visitor numbers are unpredictable so you may have to wait a while when it’s very busy.  Due to size the range is quite small so if you are a very fussy eater, check to see what is available.

 

Over all I would give the café 8.5 out of 10 and I think most people will find a visit to be quite enjoyable.

 

For more information visit

http://stepneycityfarm.org

or telephone 020 7790 8204

 

Ink restaurant, Suttons Wharf South, Palmers Road, London E2 0TA

I visited this restaurant last night with my friend tabor who bought a voucher which gave us champagne,  canapés and 3 courses for £20.

 

The food tasted lovely with some really interesting and indeed unusual flavours  but this is easily the smallest meal I’ve ever had in a restaurant.

 

I realise of course that presentation of food is important.  Many people eat with their eyes so taking time to consider how food should be laid out and what it should be presented in is of some importance.  However, it is the food itself that should take centre stage and one important function of a meal out is that it should replace a meal you might have at home or somewhere else.  As you are eating out, you might well try something different but when all is said and done you are going out to eat so the food should at least provide the average eater with a decent meal.  I’d be surprised if we got more than 150 grammes of food for the whole meal at this restaurant.  It was a pitiful portion of food served in a pretentious way.  The restaurant was visually I am told pleasing but minimalist. 

 

When we first got to this restaurant, we were the only ones in but by the time we left there were 2 other tables.  At this stage service was still friendly but somewhat slow.  This was not helped, particularly for my friend, by the inadequate heating.  There was only a portable oil heater.

 

Below is a section taken from the About part of the website.  Feel the bullshit!  There’s nothing here about being full or satisfied or any such thing.

 

Here at Ink we’ve stripped everything back, focusing on simplicity and pure aesthetics.

We combine the beauty of nature, with distinct flavours and rich textures, sourcing fresh produce locally within the East End of London.

Headed by Chef Martyn Meid, Ink was established in April 2014.

Originating from a small port town, Martyn  has mastered the craft of  Nordic cuisine, having a unique approach to curing, pickling and smoking meat and

fish.­­­­

The menu is developed along with the season, Martyn’s uses of ingredients create exceptional dishes both in taste and presentation.

Celebrating the  true beauty of ingredients Martyn manipulates them to create enticing dishes found on the menu, including 148h salted cod topped with

tomato textures, in which he dehydrates and smokes the tomatoes, served alongside confit potatoes drizzled with lemon oil.

The true concept of Ink lies in the definition, each dish has an artistic element to it,  Martyns philosophy in his approach to each dish is to connect

people with space, plate and emotion. 

 

After leaving this restaurant I went for a full 2 course Thai meal and I told the staff at Ink that despite some really interesting food, the portions were insultingly small.

 

There are some audioboos (or audio booms as they are now called).  To hear them visit http://www.audioboom.co.uk/mcbird

 

First then the canapés.  We got a tasting spoon  with 1 piece of what they called leek ash which is leek burned to a crisp with some salt added (or that is what it tasted like).  I’d rather call burnt leek something other than leek ash if possible.  It was about half a centimetre square.

 

The one mushroom was one of those with a long stem and a tiny head.  I don’t know what they are called but just having one is pathetic.    This was such a small amount of food that bringing it out at all felt like an insult, a bit like forcing a prisoner to take food by licking up the crumbs off the table mat of a prison officer!

 

Next came the starter.  I opted for the cured venison described on the menu as Cured Venison with Beetroot textures and Cranberries.  There were 3 tiny strips of dried cured venison which was tasty and salty.  Beetroot of various kinds was served including pickled and shredded and there were 3 cranberries. Again, this was tasty but tiny.  The price for this on the menu was £10.  I only hope you get a little more for the  starter at that price.

 

 

Next came the main which was little bigger than a decent sized starter.  I’d guess there was a couple of ounces of salted cod with various vegetables.  The menu description is:

148h Salted Cod With Tomato Textures, Confit Potatoes, Tomato Oil and Leak Ash 

 

This tomato textures seems to mean smoked tomato, dehydrated tomato and oil from the tomato.  The confit potatoes were  mixed with herbs such as thyme and cooked in butter but they were just whole baby potatoes and there were only 2 of them.  I can again only hope that if you go for the a la carte menu you get more food.  This main dish actually cost £16.50.

 

The pudding, Salted Chocolate, was the most interesting of the lot.  It was very thick and slightly rough textured chocolate mousse with salt and bits of  pork crackling ground up in it. This sounds wrong but I assure you it actually worked.  There were only about 2 teaspoons of this pudding.  My friend thought this was enough as it was certainly very rich and chocolaty, but I’d have liked a much bigger portion.

 

 

Drinks are very expensive but not absolutely stratospheric, though nearly so!.  House wine costs£18 a bottle. Beer is £3.50 for 330 ml bottle and jack Daniels is £8 a shot.  It doesn’t say whether this is a 25 mil glass or a 50 mill glass.

 

In conclusion, food tasted lovely but the portions were insultingly small and I only hope that those on a la cart get bigger portions.  Despite offering some interesting food, this restaurant is very pretentious.  I’d stay well away unless you have plenty of money and you feel you need to be seen eating something but don’t really want to eat.  Despite reasonable service, I can’t give this restaurant more than 2 out of 5.  It’s expensive, but with decent sized portions I’d give the restaurant a 6 for trying something different though some of the language is vague and as I say, pretentious!!!

 

 

Cristina's Steak 8-10 north street, barking, IG11 8AW

This restaurant is tucked quietly down a side street not far from Barking Market.  Arguably it’s a little off the beaten track, but the food is generally of high quality and it’s only a 10 minute slow stroll from the station.

 

At the time of writing, I have only been to this restaurant for the Christmas menu in recent times.  I have written a trip advisor review about this and I will post a link to it once the review has been published.  For now, I will briefly discuss the Christmas dinner.

 

Firstly, this is in general a fairly traditional Christmas dinner though carrots are glazed, the peas are cooked with parcel and a little mint and the sprouts are cooked with walnuts.

 

roast potatoes are soft on the inside and really crispy outside.  The beef I had was tender and I am told by friends who were with me that the turkey is also excellent.  For my starter I had sticky  apple and raisin winter salad  which was a little sweet but plentiful in size.

 

The main course was huge.  There was plenty of tender slow cooked beef and mountains of roast potatoes and vegetables.  The pigs in blankets were clearly homemade and the sausages used were of very high quality.  All of us were full to bursting and I can think of very little that I would change though I do have a few suggestions.

 

Firstly, before the starters, we were given pretzels    and nuts in their shells.  Unfortunately, the nut crackers were not up to the job so we largely ignored the nuts though my friend Andy was able to crack them with his hands.

 

Secondly, there is no fish option for the main course.   This does not affect me but many people I know eat fish and vegetables but do not eat meat.  There is a Vegetable Wellington available as a main course but I don’t know anyone who has tried this yet.

Graham Page

 

Mobile: 07753 607980

Fax:  0870 706 2773

 

Email: gpage@useit.plus.com

 

Skype: gabriel_mcbird

 

Twitter: gabrielmcbird

 

tinned fish restaurant

This is taken from the Propel newsletter dated 16/09/2014 and anyone at all who eats here must truly have more money than sense.  I know nothing more other than the information printed here, but if the restaurant is successful I’m thinking of setting up a Japanese pop-up selling only pot noodles made up and poured on a plate with a bit of salad round them.  There’s a rather ugly side to the food industry in Britain that is involved in making people think they are eating something better than they really are and charging the earth for it.   The prices here look outrageous but at least they are not trying to hide the fact that they are selling tinned fish.  If people are stupid enough to throw their money away at this place then arguably they deserve a wage cut as they don’t have the brain power necessary to deal  with the amount of money they have.

 

Tinned fish restaurant opens in London: A pop-up restaurant selling only tinned fish has opened in Upper James Street, Soho, London. The restaurant, Tincan, is the brainchild of the architecture company AL_A (sic), whose team apparently came across a similar restaurant in Lisbon. The menu at Tincan features 28 different types of tinned fish, all of which are served with bread and salad. Prices start from £7 for more common tinned fish, and rise to £28 for a tin of wild red tuna, or blue-fin tuna. Other tins include anchovies, baby sardines, calamari in ink, clams, cockles, cod liver, mackerel, mussels, octopus and scallops. Everything from the tables and chairs to the light fittings has been specially designed for the restaurant by AL_A, which describes Tincan as “bringing the culture and sensibility of an architect’s studio to a restaurant”. The restaurant is open for the next six months from midday to 11pm Monday to Thursday, and 11am to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

 

 

Remoli Pasta 14 fresh food, Great Eastern Market,Westfield Stratford City shopping centre

Most shopping centres are unpleasant and full of chain stores.  Westfield Stratford City is, at the time of writing, the largest in Europe I believe and in general, I really am not keen on shopping centres.

 

If you can look past these undoubtedly negative aspects of all shopping centres, Westfield Stratford does have something going for it.  For blind people there is the roaming concierge.  If you go to the   helpdesk at the front and ask for assistance to the store you want to go to, someone can generally help.  As always, Westfield Stratford is largely made up of expensive shops with the odd cheap clothes shop thrown in. the only supermarkets are Waitrose and M&S and shops stocking odd and expensive fashion brands are very much in evidence.

 

The main purpose for this blog though is food.  There are some quite unusual places in the shopping centre which are not chains.  There’s Caribbean Scene and rhythm Kitchen for Caribbean  food for example and there is tap east the shopping centre pub that brews its own beer. 

 

Today I am reviewing Pasta Remoli which is a stall in the Great Eastern Market which is at the other side of the market to the underground.  There are tables to eat, but they are in the shopping centre just next to the shop.  The shop does in fact offer take away pasta dishes as well as pasta, sauce and ingredients that you can take home.

 

I was looking for a place to eat with a friend who is a Gourmet Society card holder and this seemed to be the only restaurant offering the gourmet society deal in in the area that wasn’t a curry house.  When reviewing where to eat I was struck by the number of ;positive reviews on Trip advisor.  Out of 75 reviews, 51 were excellent, 20 were very good and 4 were average.  I needed to try this place out and in fact I wish I had done so much earlier.

 

The menu on the website is a bit tricky to view so I’ve included a sample of the pasta dishes available here  so you can get an idea of price.  I had the

 

Ox tail Agnolotti in its juice(Agnolotti is a kind of ravioli ). £7.00

Ham & parmesan tortellini in chicken, mushroom & pea sauce £7.00

Pappardelle in Italian sausage ragu £7.50

Tagliatelle with Bolognese £7.50

 

Fish dishes

 

Seafood Spaghetti£12.90

Spider crab ravioli in spicy cherry tomato sauce £8.95

 

Vegetarian dishes

 

Fusilli with Arrabbiata sauce (spicy tomato sauce with chilli) £6.00

Potato Gnocchi with Basil pesto sauce £6.80)0

 

Pasta with seasonal vegetables sauce

Chili, garlic, parsley, courgette, cherry tomato & buffalo ricotta £6.50

 

Black truffle mushroom ravioli in cheese sauce £7.50

Spaghetti tomato & mozzarella £6.00

Spinach & ricotta ravioli with butter, sage & parmesan £6.90

 

I had the Ham & parmesan tortellini in chicken, mushroom & pea sauce with mozzarella   and parma ham  on bread as a starter.  My friend Miss S had the Black truffle mushroom ravioli in cheese sauce and the Spinach & ricotta ravioli.

 

Both of us agreed that the pasta was fresh and not dried out and that the quality  of the ingredients was generally high.  There are various chain stores claiming to be authentic Italian.  Carluccios is probably the most well known but I have found that some of the food from this chain certainly  has a bit of a left lying around feel to it.  This was really not the case for Remoli.  My mozzarella and bread was fresh   and the pasta was cooked in a tasty sauce full of flavors with a rich consistency.    The portion of pasta was also quite generous and for the money the food was excellent.

 

This may not be the place for a romantic dinner but if you are out and about and you want some really high quality pasta at a competitive price then I would say you need go no further than Remoli pasta.  They will also sell bottles of wine. These hold about half a pint and there are no proper glasses so you have to do with a large plastic cup.  Still with food such as this I have no complaints and the staff were friendly and helpful.  I think most if not all were actually Italian as well.

 

I’d like to eat in more comfortable surroundings I suppose but the food is great and prices are very reasonable.  There’s little not to like and I give this restaurant a score of 8/10.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TianTian Chinese restaurant, 166 mile end road, London E1 4LJ

this is a new Chinese restaurant which opened on Mile end road about 3 weeks ago.  It replaces an eatery called the spice rack which generally sold rather poor quality fried chicken and curries in my opinion and it used to be called the spice cottage.

 

The new owners sell both pork products and alcohol so it's not halal.  I have nothing against halal  food but it's nice to have a food outlet where the range of products sold is not limited  by the wish to only sell hall food.

 

This restaurant is quite new, so it's not on places such as 4Square or Trip Advisor at the time of writing.  It is one of a reasonably new Chinese restaurant which has become popular in London, selling more spicy dishes which I am told are associated with northern china.  they also sell more unusual parts of animals such as pig intestine or sliced tripe  as well as dishes more  familiar to those visiting Chinese takeaways and restaurants in the UK.

 

The menu is not online yet so as I have no sight, I needed to ask staff to help by reading  the menu to me.  In general, the staff were helpful though some limitations to English made deciding what  I wanted to eat a little tricky.

 

On my first visit I had cold beef which came with preserved Chinese vegetables and a hot chilli pork dish with rice.  I had been told that the cold beef dish was a starter but it was as big as a main meal.  I also therefore ordered lamb barbecued on a skewer.  The 2 dishes with rice cost me about £15 but they were enough for 2 meals. and I also had a cold Chinese green tea which came in a can as well as a tiger beer.  The total came to just under £21. 

 

In general, I thought the meat was a little processed but the vegetables that came with the pork dish were good and fresh.  both dishes were also spicy and I quite enjoyed the preserved vegetables that came with the cold dish which were pickled and spicy.  In general, both dishes had plenty of spice and flavour.  The barbecued lamb was tasty but rather fatty though at the price I can't really complain.

 

On my second visit I had a portion of vegetable spring rolls.  they were a little bland, but they came with a sweet chilli sauce.  for main I had beef in chilli sauce with mixed vegetables which included broccoli, carrots, cabbage and peppers.  the vegetables were lovely and crunchy and the beef, while being a little spongy, was still very enjoyable.  the food was not too greasy and it was well spiced.  I also had a tiger beer and this meal came to £16.  I ate it in one meal, but I was very full.

 

Not having access to the full menu, it's hard to rate TianTian with any accuracy but the 2 meals I had were promising and they suggest that this is easily the best Chinese restaurant within easy walking distance of me.  Ingredients  were of acceptable to good quality, with vegetables standing out and it was pleasing that the food was not greasy.

 

 

Great Times Chinese restaurant, Lancastria House, 77-79 Lancaster Road, Preston PR1 2QJ

This is a Chinese restaurant that has existed in Preston for 30 years.  It has recently set up a website  at http://www.greattimes-restaurantpreston.co.uk/

and it has also recently started accepting credit and debit cards.

 

I visited this restaurant as part of a group out for a meal to celebrate a friend's birthday.  There is an  A La Carte menu  and a fixed price 2 courses for £11.95 menu.  Both can be viewed on the website and they are both accessible.  On this particular day we  chose the 2 courses for £11.95 option.

 

I had the duck spring rolls for a starter which tasted of the aromatic duck generally offered with pancakes.  they were well filled with duck and some of the best I have ever had.  Other people in the group had the Lucky Lettuce, the salt and pepper pork chop and the pork spring rolls and everyone seemed happy with their starter.

 

For main I had beef  sirloin in hot and spicy sauce.  Beef Sirloin with various other sauces was offered on the 2 course menu but they only offered chicken in hot and spicy sauce.   Still, they were happy to cook the beef in this  way when I asked.  The beef was of high quality, they were prepared to spice it up a bit and there was plenty of it.  It's always nice when staff are prepared to adapt food slightly to the wants of the customer.  Others tried beef in garlic sauce and  Szechuan pork.  Everyone seemed happy with their food.  there was a big bowl of fried rice in the middle of the table to share and there was plenty to go round.

 

There is the usual range of bottled beers and wines, with some lager available on draft.  Nothing amazing that stands out here, but it's good to have a range of drinks to go with your meal.

 

Great Times may not be the most amazing exciting and varied Chinese restaurant I have visited but the food generally  consists of high quality ingredients and staff are very helpful.  I found that staff generally spoke a reasonable amount of English and they were happy to help explain any parts of the menu required.  they are also happy to accept guide dogs.

 

In general then, this is a good restaurant for an enjoyable hassle free meal out with friends  I give it an over all score of 8 out of 10.

 

Graham Page

 

Mobile: 07753 607980

 

Fax:  0870 706 2773

 

Email: gpage@useit.plus.com

 

Skype: gabriel_mcbird

Twitter: @gabrielmcbird

 

Anima D'italia, 114 mile End Road, Stepney E1 4UN

This is a restaurant that claims to be Halal  in Stepney Green.  I'm not sure who runs this but it's not the most authentic Italian restaurant and, unless you choose to limit yourself to Halal food, this restaurant is not worth travelling to.

 

I have visited this restaurant twice and I must admit I was happier with the food second time than I was with the first time.

 

I first visited this restaurant in late December and I had Risotto rice balls with bolognaise sauce and cheese as a starter and a main dish of Italian sausage and prawns with roast potatoes.  The Risotto rice balls were made with basmati rice rather than risotto rice.  other than that they were tasty enough but using the wrong kind of rice made a mess of the texture.

 

On the main course, the prawns were fine but the Italian sausage turned out to be a cheap beef breakfast sausage and I refused to eat it.  to be fair to the staff they did agree a £5 discount because of this.  I was left feeling very disappointed but, as I usually do where convenient, I did go back to the restaurant last Sunday to give it a second try 2 months later.  A group of students I passed on the way told me the restaurant was very nice and friendly.  I was disappointed to find that I was not even allowed to bring in my own wine.  It's meant to be Italian after all!

 

This time round I had Brochette as a starter.  It had tomatoes and onions with it on bread that was rather lacking in garlic but it was not bad.  The main was A dish of Penne pasta with minced beef, beef slices, mushrooms and cream.  this turned out to be a very pleasant rich dish that did have an Italian vibe to it at least.  there was also plenty of it.  for pudding I had a Panna Cotta which was actually pretty good, though I don't know whether it was bought in or made on the premises. the person serving did not know.

 

I asked for black pepper and parmesan cheese.  it turned out that the pepper grinder was broken and I was told no one had asked for it.  Very odd!  I've never visited an italian restaurant and not been offered black pepper.

 

Given that there is a strong possibility  that this is local bangladeshis playing at being Italian, this restaurant is not bad.  I paid £17 for 3 courses and 2 glasses of lemonade which is not a bad price.  Saying this, it's very very far from authentic and I wouldn't go there for a special occasion.  if you insist on Halal food though, it may be worth a try if you want something different.

 

Staff were friendly enough, so I'd give this restaurant 5 out of 10.