The Market 1: Olives

The Olive Guy

It's hard not to find a good deal on something tasty down Portobello Market on the weekend; every vendor is screaming the price of their wares at the top of their voices as I walk by the stalls.

"Grapes! Pound for a pound!"
"Sweet strawberries! 60p a box!"

The Olive Guy isn't quite so raucous, but luckily, his stuff speaks for itself. He's got every possible combination of mediterranean goodness. Dark olives. Green olives. Olives with sweet chilli and garlic. Olives stuffed with peppers. Olives stuffed with anchovies. Feta cheese in olive oil and peppers. Peppers stuffed with feta and chilli. Focaccia. Artichoke hearts.

I buy myself 10 stuffed vine leaves (£2) and a small box of sweet chilli black olives (£2.70). The vine leaves are soft, without any stringiness. The olives are fantastic with a just a little spice. With not a hint of anything remotely greek or italian about him, the olive guy accompanies my purchase with a terse "Cheers, guv. Have a good weekend."

A charming stand that magically appears with the rest of Portobello Market on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays on the Portobello Road. A one-stop-shop for all your olive needs and cravings.

A Cliché Above the Rest

Books for Cooks

Do not commit the meta-sin of judging this bookshop by its façade. The quaint exterior belies a treasure gastronomic in magnitude. Eating is believing.

We set out early: 11:40 am. We walk up to the welcoming red shopfront, and push open the door in anticipation. As usual, we're greeted by a room jampackfull of people and books. The place simply oozes character and charm. Books fill the shelves, shelves line the walls and overhead beams. The slender, bespectacled shopkeeper, head down, looks above the rim of her glasses, and gives a wry smile. She knows the eight of us are here for one reason alone. And it isn't to read about anything.

The Demonstration Kitchen is where the action is. As we walk through the shop, the smells waft from the back. The kitchen is absolutely tiny. The eight of us quickly stake out our territory. Everyday, the kitchen produces a set menu from a couple of selected books that take their place on the counter on a "now playing" book stand. Other customers are mainly women with too much time on their hands, filling their time until their afternoon bookclub meet. The two chefs behind the counter do it all. They seem to have just about
finished preparation as we turn up. So they offer a smile, and point us to a couple of tables in the corner. One steps out from behind the counter, and asks us if we're having all three courses. I nod at her with a wide-eyed grin that only a schoolboy in a candy store can pull off. A few of us also ask for a glass of wine. They only serve one kind; the Frenchman on my left assures me of its pedigree.

Today's menu:
Pea & mint soup with cherry tomato focaccia (freshly baked. That's right!),
Overnight shoulder mutton,
Cake selection: Blueberry sour cheesecake, almond something, citrus something, and


CHOCOLATE, all displayed on cake stands.

Let me allay your concerns now. This is a tiny bookshop with a small kitchen, but servings are generous. The soup nearly takes it out of me. I wonder if I'll even be able to finish the main course. Swiftly, a chef pops back out from behind the counter to take our empty dishes. The mutton arrives. The chef tells us that it's been cooking for the last 9 hours. It takes about 15 minutes to devour. I start to feel the struggle. All that passes when the chef comes back with a glint in her eye. "Dessert?" Feeling instantly peckish again, my hand shoots up when she announces "Chocolate cake?" A few others choose the other offerings. Fools.

All said and done, the food came to a wallet-friendly £7. Glass of wine was £3 (that's the standard price, but we bought a bottle, reducing it to £1.50 each). I notice as we leave that there are more people in the queue than there are places to eat. Suckahs. The early bird catches the worm.

Payment is made at the till at the front of the store. Of course, this will tempt you to finger through the wordy morsels lining the shelves. There is your standard selection: french, italian, mediterranean, vegetarian, fish. A few books from the celebrity chef du jour can be seen. Jamie Oliver is so last year; Gordon Ramsey makes a prominent appearance. By the till is some quirkier material. I find among them a short, hard back book with a cartoon about women and the meaning of chocolate. I won't give away the ending, but it's a deep story about a bar of chocolate trying to fulfill its destiny.

To eat at Books for Cooks is to have gourmet food thrust upon every sense. Understatement of the month: I can't wait till next time I eat there.

Dumpling Fever

Some have an “extra stomach” for dessert; no matter how stuffed they may be, there is always room. I completely understand that state of mind –except, for dumplings! My mother and friends will attest to my insatiable appetite for dumplings (remember when we ate four servings, prits and shri?), so you can imagine my joy when I discovered “The Dumpling House” during my first stint in New York.

The Dumpling House is a little hole-in-the wall Chinese joint that is the stuff of New York’s urban-legends. It’s (super) cheap, good, and practically impossible to find in the depths of Chinatown. The menu is limited –a variety of soups and dumplings with a few sesame sandwiches (beef and tuna) thrown in, and the staff speak practically no English. However, they sure know their dumplings, and there is always a line the length of the Yangtze to prove it. For $2 you’ll get some great steamed or fried dumplings. The hot sauce and kimchi also gets a special mention. Everything on the menu is worth a go, especially since you could buy it all for under $10. Personal favorites are the steamed pork dumplings with chives, and the dumpling soup. Don’t give up if you don’t find it on your first try, the Dumpling House (118 Eldridge Street) is definitely worth the trek!

Entertaining Yourself 1: A Quick Snack

Soya sauce avocado

It's not often that I find myself with the right ingredients to make this quick, moreish snack. No, it's not just a clever name; yes, I keep a very poorly stocked kitchen. So, drum-roll please; the ingredients are:

1 ripe avocado
1 portion soya sauce
1 pepper mill, fully loaded

You can tell your avocado is ripe when it yields to gentle pressure when held and squeezed (thank you Google!). Cut the avocado down the middle in to two halves and spoon out the stone. Slice it up in to coarse hatches. Dollup in some soya sauce, and grind a sprinkling of pepper on top.

Take your spoon, and gently scoop out a bite-size chunk, depositing it in to your open gob. Using your tongue and teeth, proceed to chew the

What? Oh right. Yes, you get the general idea. It's tasty, it's quick, it's not totally unhealthy. Have one now!

Quickie Mexican Soup

Nothing about this recipe is particularly fresh- its just quick, and uses all kinds of canned/frozen produce.

Ingredients
Cream of Tomato Soup / Trader Joe's Roaster Red Pepper and Tomato Soup
Roasted Salsa (10 tbsp, depending on whether you love spicy soup!)
Black Beans (1 can)
Frozen, cooked Meatballs (10-15)
Jalapeno (1 whole, chopped)
Rice (optional)
Sour Cream

Heat the soup in a saucepan on high, adding the jalapeno's and salsa. Drain and add the blackbeans and frozen meatballs when the soup gets really hot, and allow it to simmer. You can add some boiled rice to make it even heartier.

Serve garnished with coriander and a tablespoon of sour cream!

Kebabeque

This recipe is classic and amazingly easy to make! When I was about 9 years old, my mom invented it for us to take on picnics: the Tandoori Chicken Pita Pocket ! It requires a bit more preparation time than most foods, but is totally worth it.

Ingredients
Chicken breast
Ginger
Garlic
Tandoori Masala
Yogurt
Onions
Cucumber
Pita Bread
Olive Oil
Vinegar
Salt

Cut the chicken breast into small pieces and marinate it overnight in the yogurt (with ginger, garlic and tandoori spices). Tandoori chicken recipes will vary depending on the spice mix you get, so its easiest to just follow the directions. The longer it marinates, the softer and spicier the chicken will be.

Grill the chicken in an oven at 350-400 degrees, until the sides of the meat start to char. Remove and allow to cool.
Cut the pita into half, and stuff the inside with the tandoori chicken and sliced onions. As a dressing, you can either make a yogurt topping (yogurt+water+shredded cucumber) or a nice french dressing (olive oil+garlic+salt+vinegar). Add lettuce, tomato and sliced cucumber as per your taste.

Tanjines and Bluberry Mojito's

A few nights ago, I went out for dinner with my ex-boss and a co worker to 'Cafe Mogador', a Moroccan/Mediterranean eatery in the East Village. I'd never had Moroccan food, and was quite the excited gimp! But, other than the cool blueberry mojito, the food here was just way too expensive and not that great. The resto was bustly and had nice atmosphere, but the waiters were rushed and inattentive. The decor was also just your standard 'small table cloth-covered tables with a candle in the middle' type deal, with no interesting or even ethnic touches.

The menu was the usual mediterranean food offerings, like hummus and grilled kebab. I had heard good things about 'Tanjine' so decided to order the vegetables with couscous. Tanjines are moroccan foods cooked in a clay like vessel (also called a tanjine). They basically work by trapping steam and all the evaporated liquid in the pot, so that the meat or veggies cook in their own condensation. Kind of like a pressure cooker. So the vegetables I got with my couscous(carrot, pumpkin, potato) were very soft and tender - but also quite bland, despite adding tons of the provided red chilli sauce. And even though I was starving, and demolished everything on my plate, I was still left quite hungry! So all in all, i will probably never go back.

But - back to the blueberry mojito! Now, these mojito's don't actually taste all that different from a standard mojito, but the heaps of colorful berries in the drink look and taste beyond awesome! Imagine the possibilities: blackberries, strawberries, or even raspberries ! Quite cool. Its like bubble tea, but a bajillion times better.

Unfortunately, I lack a hi-tech cell phone and own a broken camera, so for now this post must subsist without pictures.