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.

Bubble - an English Icon?

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

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

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.

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!

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.

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!

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?