More 'Up the Holloway'!

In search of a quiet Saturday lunch-time feed I went to the Masterchef Cafe on the Holloway Road, a place I know well. The cafe was virtually empty, but within minutes of sitting down, ordering a mushroom omelette, chips and beans, 2 slice and a tea and contemplating the Guardian crossword, my relative peace and tranquility was shattered!

The waitress, a loud 50 something fellow Scot, yelled something to her daughter, who was sitting in the cafe with her two kids, who both started to scream.

Her daughter yelled something back and it continued! Then things took a turn for the worst, the daughters friend came walking in, she then started yelling and then her mobile phone rang and she started yelling in to that.

By this time I was truly rattled and trying to finish my lunch as quickly as possible, finally suffering from indigestion I escaped.

Bexley or bust!!!

Ventured into deepest darkest south-east London recently to do the 'Cray Riverway' walk, 10.5 miles from Foots Cray Meadows to Erith on the Thames.

It was a lovely day and the walk was flat and easy.

An hour into the walk I stopped to have breakfast in Old Bexley Village, no bubble on the menu but I did have a passable veggie breakfast. Old Bexley has a nice old fashioned High Street and a lovely church and church yard.

From here the walk led to Crayford, 'the land that time forgot!!' and then on to Crayford and Dartford Marshes, the River Darent, and Erith on the Thames, which looked quite spectacular with the 'Queen Elizabeth II' bridge in the background. Can't say much for Erith, depressing and full of scaffolders!!!

'Old School' cafe in Boscobel Street

It was a lovely bright autumn day so I decided to walk along the canal from Camden to Portobello Road. It's amazing how quickly you can cross London by way of its waterways.
I came off the canal at Lisson Grove and walked to an old favourite cafe of mine, the 'Costella Cafe', formerly 'Mario & Mike's', on Boscobel Street. The owner is Italian and does a mean 'bubble & squeak'. Nothing fancy but a classic.

Just come back from a week in Deal, a lovely seaside town in Kent.

A place full of character, with cobbled streets lined with Georgian houses and some nice Shepherd Neame Pubs.

I would recommend the 'Prince Albert, and 'The Ship' also the 'Royal Hotel' bar with its terrace overlooking the sea.

The only criticisms I have are the expense of eating and drinking out, London prices and dearer! also I couldn't find a proper cafe, loads of paninis etc but no greasy spoons.

I did manage to find the blue plaque for Charles Hawtrey, the 'Carry On' actor who spent his last years in Deal "In "retirement" in the seaside town of Deal, the pathetically broken, profoundly alcoholic Hawtrey lived in squalor: aggressive, unpleasant, banned by every pub and cab firm for miles around." (Roger Lewis)

Well done Son!!!

A Sojourn around Southwark on a Sunday with a Scouser!

My scouse mate Mark is an avid walker, so with both of us having nothing better to do and the sun shining we decided to head of towards Tring and meander towards Wendover. But alas, we missed our train from Euston and the next wasn't for another hour. We decided to walk down to the Thames and into deepest Bermondsey and Rotherhithe, a fabled land home of the scaffolder!
We stopped at the 'Angel', a Sam Smith's pub on the river and then at the 'Mayflower' in so called Rotherhithe Village. This is a lovely part of London, very calming and evocative. We then walked to 'Stave Hill Ecological Park, a great place with a man made hill with a view across docklands. From here we walked to GreenLand Dock and stopped for a pint in the 'Wibbley Wobbley' floating pub, a gem of a place full of locals and other eccentrics.
A lovely walk and a great day out.

Bubble - an English Icon?

Is 'Bubble and Squeak' an 'Icon of England'? vote at:

http://www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/bubble-and-squeak

Bubbleboy's guide to eating cheaply in London

London is generally regarded as one of the most expensive places to live, work and play in the world, but there are still a plethora of cheap places to eat. I will grant you that a fair majority are of poor standard, but a good few shine out as beacons for the skint and hungry.
Here are a few of my favourites:
'Tai' Veg Noodle Bar, 10 Greek Street, W1 - one of many 'Tai' veggie and vegan cafes in London - an unlimited buffet of 'mock' meats, noodles, rice and veg all for a £5 (approx)
'Leon' - there are now 8 branches in London serving cheap Mediterranean style wholefood, the sweet potato falafels are lovely. The Spitalfields branch is my favourite, is has a great outdoor area.
Any of the Indian restaurants on Drummond Street, especially 'Chutney's'
'Wetherspoons' - for their ultra-cheap veggie breakfasts for £2.49 (and they use free-range eggs!)
'Jai Krishna' - a brilliant cheap Indian veggie restaurant on Stroud Green Road, Finsbury Park (now has another branch on Turnpike Lane)
Any of the Indian cafes on Turnpike Lane, especially 'Salim's'
'Mega Bite Cafe' - a very plain ordinary looking Chinese cafe next to the Emirates Stadium which serves mountainous plates of very good, cheap Chinese grub (also 'Green Jade' on Holloway Road, another great cheap Chinese cafe)

and last but not least, the thousands of cafes and 'greasy spoons' in London, with their 'Set Breakfasts' and 'Roast Dinners'.

Cafe Musac

"any recorded background music; (more widely) light, bland music of a kind regarded as easy to listen to, whether recorded or live" OED Definition

No! Cafe Musac is not another new Hampstead eating establishment, but refers to the incessant stream of drivel that is played in most cafes nowadays.
All I want to do in the morning, before tackling the horny beast 'work' is to sit quietly in my local cafe, eat my usually mediocre breakfast and struggle with the Guardian crossword, not have 'House' music or some moronic radio presenter booming in my ear.
We are bombarded by noise pollution everywhere we go, is nothing sacred?

The healthy Scottish breakfast!

My brother is in Edinburgh, well Portobello to be precise, and is scathing about his B&B's full Scottish breakfast, "swimming in grease" was one of his comments. He also says that Edinburgh etc is incredibly expensive for eating out, everything is geared towards the tourist industry.

So in the interest of scientific research I googled 'Scottish Breakfasts' and up popped the picture on the left. What the hell are slices of orange doing on the plate, is this an effort to try and make it healthier?

'The Decline and Fall....'

You know sometimes when you get a craving that just won't go away, like for a tin of curried baked beans or in this case a chip roll!

Well I had to have one, so I went to my nearest chippy, placed my order and stood back aghast when the man put his hand into the 'roll box' (a technical term!) and brought out a soft seeded burger bun!! Before he could fill it with chips I remonstrated "haven't you got any crusty rolls?", but he hadn't, so I withdrew.

I mean what is the world coming too? Standards are slipping, once you knew where you stood, now things are hazy!

More 'Up the Holloway'

The Green Jade, 219 Holloway Road is a great place for Chinese food, take-away or sit down. It is more of a cafe than a restaurant but the quality of the food is excellent and very cheap.

I have lunch there quite often and on one of my recent visits overheard the following discourse between a customer and the woman behind the counter.

The punter had been standing looking at the menu for a good few minutes and then said "I don't like chinese food", the counter woman replied "well this is a chinese restaurant", "yeah but haven't you got anything else", "no, you will have to go somewhere else", "don't be so rude", "i'm not being rude, this is a chinese restaurant"
- at this point she walks out complaining loudly!!!

I wonder if she goes into her local Fish & Chips shop and asks for a Chicken Tikka Masala???

Do you want bacon with your vegetarian breakfast?

Having braved the pea-souper that hung over London on Sunday morning, I ventured along the rubbish strewn streets of Harringay looking for a cafe that was open at 8.30 am. Unfortunately I found the Corner Cafe and Deli on Green Lanes.

I ordered a Set7 which was one of the veggie breakfasts on offer, egg, beans, tomatoes, hash browns, mushrooms, 2 toast and a tea, all for the princely sum of £4.50. I was going to try the bubble but decided against it, mainly because it was spelt 'buble' on the menu!

The breakfast came a little too quickly for my liking, but looked adequate untill I noticed that hiding under the beans were two rashers of bacon. I called the waitress over and pointed the mistake out to her, she said that she would remove the bacon and give me the breakfast back. I responded that I didn't want to eat the breakfast as it had been contaminated with bacon residue and asked for a newly cooked breakfast. This caused a lot of discussion between her and the cook and after much head scratching, and 10 minutes, another Set7 arrived. There was no apology or refund offered.

All in all a very poor experience and one I definitely wouldn't recommend.

Sam Smith's

There are 36 Sam Smith's pubs in London, and every one of them is an architectural gem, how does the company do it? They've managed over the last few years to take over some of the most beautiful victorian pubs in London.

I've been in few, and it's my ambition to try all of them, but my favourite has to be the 'Cittie of Yorke', 22 high Holborn, it has a wonderful vaulted beamed ceiling and 'confessional' like snugs.

There are also a number of huge wine vats near the entrance, said to hold 1000 gallons each!

The 'Pure Brewed' Lager is only £2.88 a pint, which is nearly Weatherspoon prices!

"Can I get..."

'Friends', the frankly 'vomit-inducing' American TV programme, has a lot to answer for. The main gripe being the introduction of "can i get..." into the British/English vocabulary, "can i get a pint of...", "can i get a packet of crisps" etc etc etc
It drives me bloody crazy, so much so that I can quite reguarly be heard muttering obscenities whenever I hear it used.
If you ask to get a pint, by any reasoning, you're asking to come (a)round to the other side of the counter and pour it yourself. Surely it should be "can/may i have" or "I would like", "can i get" is and sounds rude, pushy and self-centered.
Maybe it's indicative of the dumd-downed, US dominated popular-culture that is all pervasive nowadays!

Gone to 'Paradise'!

I awoke very early this morning, due to a mixture of a restless night with a hangover and the 'monsoon' that swept through London this morning, so I decided that I would have a 'fry up' in the 'Paradise Cafe' on Holloway Road before venturing to work.

I went for the 'Veggie Breakfast', hash browns, veggie sausage, egg, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, 2 toast and a tea, all for the measly sum of £3.95. I substituted the veggie sausage for another egg as I am not fond of the 'Dalepak' version on offer here. If you didn't know already, 'Dalepak' veggie sausages are an abomination, fingers of potato with diced carrot, peas and sweetcorn.

The eggs were cooked to perfection, firm whites and runny yolks; the hashbrowns golden and crispy, and the remaining items tasty and hot. I can't abide lukewarm baked beans!

Suddenly my hangover dissipated, the rain stopped and the sun broke through. All was well with the world!

The 'Mary Celeste' of restaurants!

For the past five years I have been passing the 'Standard Tandoori' on Holloway Road, the one with the sign outside which proudly announces "One of the best restaurants in London", and in all this time I have never seen anyone entering or leaving it!
How does it survive? Is it a front for something?
If you know something then please tell me.

More 'Up The Holloway'

Overheard in a Holloway cafe; man to woman 'how's your son?', woman "oh he's fine, just come out (I assume this means means out of prison and not that he told her he was gay), lost his job and he's skint, but he's alright"
I suppose everything is relative but I would hate to meet him on a bad day!

Gone to the dogs! (or not as the case may be!)

I have just read in The Guardian that a rescue bid is being put forward to save Walthamstow Dogs, I hope it succeeds.

There used to be 33 dog tracks in London and now there will only be one left, Wimbledon.

Whole swathes of working class culture are being lost in London, either through gentrification or re-development, look at what we have already lost to the Olympic fiasco!

Everything seems to be geared around expensive sit down meals, gastro-pubs, deli's, coffee chains etc.

Do we need another block of expensive, designer, lifestyle flats for the metrosexual urban elite?

Up the Holloway!

Ah the joys of Holloway Road!
Sitting in one of my many local cafes on the Holloway Road today I overheard the following snippetts of conversation;

between an 11/12 year old boy and his beloved mum, boy to mum "stop fuckin' hasslin' me, you know I don't use a knife and fork".
Three men to the waitress, after ordering and receiving 3 plates of fish & chips, "have these been cooked seperately from the other food?", waitress "what do you mean?", one of the men "we are muslims and will not eat anything that has been cooked in the same oil as pork etc", waitress "why didn't you tell me this before you ordered?", men "it's ok we'll pay anyway", which they did and left.
I left shortly afterwards to go back to work only to find a certain Mr. Behan, of pissing on the Oxford English Dictionaries in the Central Library fame, lying on the pavement, with urine soaked trousers, cursing and swearing.
And people say they are bored of London!!!!

Piss Poor Pints in Paddington!

The pubs just off Praed Street in Paddington are a strange brew! Maybe its because of their proximity to the railway station that makes them on the whole, characterless, soulless and bland.
The first, the 'Rob Roy', as you may have guessed a scottish theme pub, was virtually empty at 5.30pm on a Friday. I had a pint of Holsten Export which tasted slightly sour, the barman replaced it with another that tasted slightly better but I ended up leaving half of it and moving on.
The next one was 'The Sir Alexander Fleming', full off white van drivers and staff from the nearby hospital. Ordered a pint of Grolsch which was flat, asked the barmaid to top it up or replace it and she replied "it's my first day, what do you expect". Drank up and left.
Lastly, visted the 'Fountains Abbey', another characterless pub serving bad beer. The only interesting thing about this pub is the lovely green tiled victorian fireplace.
I've heard that the 'Royal Exchange' on Sale Place is a gem of a place, must try.

Bubble the same colour as the walls!

Recently I had what I can only describe as the worst breakfast I have ever had, which is quite an achievement as I must have had thousands.
This award goes to the 'Arsenal Cafe', 25 Blackstock Road, N4.
I had 2 eggs, bubble, mushrooms, tomatoes, 2 toast and a tea, £4.60 for the lot. Lets start with the bubble which consisted of fried mashed potatoes, peas, diced carrot and onions, it was a lurid bright green colour, which incidentally matched the colour of the walls. The eggs weren't cooked properly, the whites were still runny and the 'fried' tomatoes were raw.
I mentioned these shortcomings to the young waitress and she shrugged her shoulders and said that she didn't see what the problem was, even though I had left nearly all of it uneaten on the plate. I paid up and gladly left.
What a miserable experience!

Lunch, a beer and English Longhorn Cattle!

Last Sunday we, that is me, the missus and the little one, decided to head up to the wilds of Chingford for lunch.

Near Chingford Station there is a pub called the 'Royal Forest', as near to Harvester hell as you can get! The food wasn't good and came in very mean portions, but the beer garden leads onto Epping Forest and on one side you have Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge, built by Henry VIII in 1543. So all in all a very nice view and place to sit in the sun and quaff a beer or two.
Also there are some very nice walks in the forest. The little one was fascinated by the Longhorn Cattle, which have recently been re-introduced to Epping Forest

Dodgy Deptford!

Deptford used to be one those places in London that was stuck between other places of interest, a hinterland, somewere that you passed through. But now I must admit it is one of the areas that I visit quite reguarly. There's a bustling market and some interesting new cafes and bars , there are also some very old fashioned boozers, like throw backs to the 70's, drunk old men and carpet on the floor, which is no bad thing in this age of gastropubs.
Anyway on one of my recent visits I popped into the Deptford Cafe, one of the many in the market, for sustenance. I had my usual, bubble, eggs, beans, 2 slice and a tea. The bubble was by far one of the worst I have ever tasted, fried packet mashed potato, with no cabbage, onion, no nothing! In fact it was like eating burnt wallpaper paste. The bread was economy class and on it was the normal industrial spread we have come to expect in most cafes.
The only redeeming feature of the place was the clientele, a curious mixture of local characters, one woman's false teeth fell out of her mouth and into her tea, how quaint!

Borough Bubble!

Maria’s Market Café, Borough Market, SE1

I had bubble, 2 eggs and beans, 2 slice and a tea.

Re-incarnation of the much missed ‘Borough Café’ formerly in Park Street. Wonderful traditional bubble cooked in its own pan. Hailed by many as serving the best bubble in London. A great place to sit and watch the world go by, especially when the market is on.

Unspoilt Gem!

, beer

I met a good mate of mine in 'Ye Old White Horse' , an unspoilt gem near the LSE, the other night for a drink or two. We then meandered through the back streets behind the 'Old Bailey' skirting past our beloved 'Seven Stars' and ended up in the 'Old Nick' in Sandland Street, had a pint of HB, a strange hoppy lager. A nice enough pub with a very friendly landlady. From there we moved onto 'The Duke' in Roger Street, just off the Grays Inn Road, a great 30's art deco pub with a lovely little dining room. And lastly onto the 'Queens Head' in Acton Street, Kings Cross, a classic little victorian pub with a lovely bow window at the front and some original features inside.
All in all a pleasant crawl.

In The Bailey!

Getting away from breakfats for a moment!
I have tried thai food in pubs all over in London since it became the in thing well over 10 years ago, and I must say that most of it has been mediocre to say the least. My favourite used to be the 'Coach and Horses' in Stoke Newington. But!I have just had a thai lunch in 'The Bailey', which I think is probably one of the best pubs on the Holloway Road, and it was bloody lovely. A large portion of king prawns stirfried with peppers, onions, fresh pineapple and chilli with rice, £6.95.
I would thoroughly recommend it, if the Arsenal memoribilia doesn't put you off!!!

Armin's Arse Rippers!!!

On one of my rare forays outside of London, last weekend I went to Whitstable for their Oyster Festival. What a brilliant place and a great festival. The seafood and fish was some of the best that I have tasted and the beer, produced by the Whitstable Brewery Company, was excellent.

Whitstable is also home to the 'Ship Centurion Arminus', a wonderful pub, run by a loud and charasmatic German named Armin. They have Bitburger, Erdinger and Dark Budvar on tap, aswell as a good selection for the CAMRA lot!, and chilli pickled eggs nicknamed 'Armin's Arse Rippers'. What more can I say!!

I stayed at the Duke of Cumberland, an imposing victorian pub slap bang in the middle of the high street. The room was nice and the view even better, but the breakfast left something to be desired. I had the veggie option, which consisted of 3 small veggie sausages, 2 eggs, 6 mushrooms and a small grilled tomato. The sausages were overcooked to the point of being crunchy!

The Breakout!

Opposite Pentonville Prison on Caledonian Road there is a cafe called 'The Breakout', a nice play on words!

What is proper bubble?

Ingredients that should never be added to or served as ‘Bubble & Squeak’ (in my opinion!)
Peas
Mashed Potatoes (they should always be whole potatoes ruffed up!)
Frozen Diced Veg
Frozen ‘Bubble’ cakes
Turnip or swede (though I have got a friend that thinks this is acceptable!!)
Sour Cabbage (believe it or not I have been served this on numerous occasions!)

It should always be fried in its own pan and should never be oven-baked, although I believe that the 'Olde Cheshire Cheese' in Fleet Street serves it from the oven.

Obviously there will be a difference between the ingredients used at home and in a cafe. At home you can throw in any old leftovers, then again I think that some cafes do aswell!

Veli's Cafe, Drayton Park, N5

Just had bubble, two eggs, beans, 2 slices of crusty bread and a tea at Veli's Cafe in Drayton Park, opposite the big letters that spell out 'ARSENAL' at the Emirates.

Bubble was fried mashed potato with peas, carrots and cabbage, not proper bubble but not bad.

The eggs were cooked properly, not in one of those round moulds!, but the yolks were tasteless and anaemic.

A good cafe with friendly staff and full of builders, so plenty of loud banter about football, tits etc. Not for the faint hearted!

French Toast during the Renaissance

The best quote about breakfast, in my opinion, was by the American comedian Steven Wright.

"I went to a restaurant that serves 'breakfast at any time'. So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance."

The demise of good 'bubble'!

There isn't a shortage of cafes in London but there are very few who serve good 'bubble & squeak'. Maria's in Borough Market and Terry's in Great Suffolk Street are two exceptions but on the whole the standards have dropped.
I have my own opinions on what should and should not be in 'bubble', the shoulds are potato, cabbage and maybe onion? the should nots are peas, frozen mixed veg, mashed potato. I have recently been served fried packet mashed potato (in a cafe in Deptford Market) and frozen 'Birds Eye' bubble cakes! (in a cafe in Holloway Road), but the worst I have ever had was in a cafe in Finsbury Park, the cabbage was sour!!
What has happened to a classic, traditional dish?