Borough Market Finds

One of my favorite places to go for lunch in London these days is Borough Market. No matter the day of the week, there is always a large selection of bites from which to choose. On our second visit, Fitz and I happened upon Rainha Santa, a roast hog stall. You know it’s promising when they actually have an entire pig in a roaster behind the stand. For only 5 quid, you get pulled pork with apple sauce, a touch of spinach, and topped off with crackling in some nice rustic bread.  I would highly recommend this dish for any pork sandwich enthusiasts.

On my third visit (this time with PH), I ventured back to Roast to try their Scotch Egg Butty. Scotch eggs are one of the British delicacies that I will truly miss when I’m back in the “New Country.” Just in case you’re unfamiliar with this morsel, it is basically a boiled egg wrapped with sausage meat, breaded, and then deep-fried. It may sound disgusting, but I assure you they’re tastier than their description. Roast offers homemade scotch eggs that are about the size of a tennis ball. For the butty (i.e. sandwich), they not only slice one in half, but also fry up additional bacon to place in between the slices of bread. It’s breakfast in sandwich form (one of my new loves in addition to all-day breakfast). This thing will keep you going for HOURS. And as a fellow ex-pat mentioned, it's the best hangover cure.

Borough Market
8 Southwark Street SE1 1TL

I'm Back!

After a long hiatus (nearly two years to the date, yikes!), I've decided to come back to the food blogging world. It's been a weird two years considering I've been mostly trapped eating food at my college. Don't get me wrong it's great stuff, but there's only so many meals, in which I can eat potatoes. Oxford has a few good local eateries, but London is the place to go to fulfill your Foodie dreams.

Recently, I ventured out to Shoreditch on a Sunday to visit the Brick Lane Market. It was a hipster's paradise. Not only are their various stalls and stores that offer vintage wares, but there's an equal amount of food stalls! I had mistakingly eaten before heading to the market, but I managed to fit in a snack.  I was pleasantly surprised to find a Takoyaki stall and made my way towards it immediately. The balls of pancake and squid were made fresh in front of me, and the guy slapped on some wasabi mayo, Japanese chili flakes, and seaweed! I sat down with PH on the corner of Hanbury Street (where apparently all the hip kids chow down on food from the Sunday Upmarket). PH started on his £5 plate of Turkish food that resembled Indian food more than anything (it was still delicious), while I started on my Takoyaki. They were a bit gooey for my taste, and each ball only had one piece of squid! It's called Tako-yaki not pancake-yaki for a reason! The sauces were delicious, but only barely made up for the rest of the concoction. I ran into the same issue a couple years ago at Takoyaki Yum. Although I was glad to see that the Japanese treats were gaining an audience, I was slightly disappointed. Perhaps, the vendor didn't want to scare off the public with too much squid? Or perhaps, they're just being way too thrifty.

Brick Lane Market
Brick Lane, Shoreditch E1 6PU

Cone of Snow

Because I know how much you want to see ice in a cup.

It's been freaking hot lately, so frozen treats have been a must. I went to OTG again last week just to pick up something from Skylight Snowballs. Because I'm apparently obsessed with coffee, I had the Four Barrel Snowcone/Snowball/Shaved Ice Thing. It was delicious. Then again, it's just sugar water flavored with coffee...you really can't go wrong. I almost liked it more than the Coffee Pop I got at Ritual last SF Food Fest. But, I also think that the snowcone form suits the coffee syrup better because the popsicle feels like a block of sugar.

Off the Grid: North Berkeley
Shattuck Ave @ Rose St.

The Best Fish n' Chips This Side of the Pond (That I've Had So Far at Least...)

Fish and Chips + Allagash White
(It would be even more awesome if there were Mushy Peas, but one shouldn't be greedy.)

After a whirlwind day with Tob-asco, which included In-n-Out, a car overheating in Santa Cruz, getting the car towed, finally walking to the beach, and being picked up by her parents, we all decided to get dinner cuz we were effing hungry. After much discussion about what to eat, the parentals decided on Martins West. GREAT CHOICE. Three of us ordered Fish and Chips and the other ordered a burger, which Tob-asco and I probably would've ordered if we hadn't eaten In-N-Out. Fish was fried to perfection and actually tasted like fish. Chips were similar. Tasted like actual potatoes. Beer selection was pretty decent, especially for Redwood City (according to natives). Know that this place is a bit pricey, but if you're in the area, then there's probably nothing better to do, so check it out.

Martins West Gastropub
831 Main St., Redwood City

OtG: Berkeley Edition

The "Snoop Dog" from Brass Knuckle

The "Fryin' Maiden" from Brass Knuckle

Burger with Cheddar and Egg + Garlic Fries from Five Ten Burger

Off the Grid recently began in Berkeley, and where is it?! The Gourmet Ghetto of course! I went to the soft opening a few weeks ago, and it was cr-a-zy. I got there around 7ish and waited 1hr 20mins for my food. I actually ordered two items because I was so bitter (saved one for lunch the next day). I went again recently around 5:30, and it was a lot less hectic. Go early if you want to wait in shorter lines and not have half the trucks sold out!

On my first visit, I went to Brass Knuckle. I'm not even sure how to describe their food, other than fatty street food. I got a bacon wrapped hot dog (the Snoop Dog), which was less greasy and salty than I thought it would be. Definitely better than the ones you can get in the Mission at midnight, but not exactly something I'd order all the time. It's also supposed to be fusion-y, considering it's served with "spicy teri mayo, furikake, slaw, radish sprouts, bonito flakes," and they forgot to mention nori on the menu. The nori seemed quite unnecessary, but it's a fun twist on your traditional dog I guess. I also got a fried chicken sandwich (the Fryin' Maiden). Not bad, but I'm pretty faithful to Bakesale Betty's. I wouldn't wait that long again for this truck, but the food was decent.

I waited a few weeks before I went again. This time I was set to go to Five Ten Burger (it was sold out last time). After eating their burger, I realized why they had the longest line and sold out probably the quickest. The burger was delicious. I ordered it with a fried egg on top because everything tastes better with an egg (at least that's what current food trenders would like you to believe). The garlic fries contained just the right amount of garlic, not a punch in your face, but enough for you to notice it. I would definitely pay them another visit to serve my burger needs.

Off the Grid: North Berkeley
Shattuck Ave @ Rose St.
(Kind of near Cheeseboard in the parking lot area next to CVS. Same location as the Farmer's Market on Thursdays.)

Brass Knuckle and Five Ten have their own websites if anyone is interested in visiting them at other times.

O rly? Onigilly?!

To continue with the current Japanese snack food trend, I recently tried Onigilly, the Onigiri Cart that’s on Justin Herman Plaza every weekday (i.e. the area with hella vendors that you have to walk past to get to the ferry building). I’ve kind of put off trying it because I guess I haven’t cared enough. Also, onigiri is what I survived off of during a trip to Tokyo, so no onigiri in my mind could top that experience. Anyways, I went to the Ferry Building on a Tuesday at 12:30pm, which is probably one of the worst times ever. Everyone’s out at lunch and buying shit at the Farmer’s Market. However, there was no line at Onigilly! Usually this is probably not a good sign, but I think it was more due to the fact that everyone was concentrated on the Market.

I ordered the “Geisha,” which is basically three onigiris and edamame. I tried the Miso Tuna, Hijiki Black Seaweed, and Sansai Mountain Veggies. All three were quite delicious. The seaweed was crisp and protected my hands from the sticky rice, and each filling was nicely seasoned. The edamame was actually a bit too soft, but not inedible. I would definitely recommend this cart. It’s light and relatively healthy. A bit pricey and depending on how much you eat, it might not be enough, but for a hot summer day, it was actually perfect.

Cart at Justin Herman Plaza

5 Steuart St/Market St, San Francisco

Check out their website because they're also at Off the Grid!

Pinkerton Food

Takoyanen (Delica)

Takoyaki Yum

Sorry for the dearth of posts lately. Life has been...life. Anyways, I have recently discovered an increased interest around Japanese cuisine. Ramen and Izakayas have been popping up everywhere. The possible new foodie obsession? Takoyaki! Basically pancake batter filled with octopus and other stuff is thrown into a pan with little ball-shaped molds. Sometimes they're referred to as dumplings, other times they're called pancakes. You can decide for yourself. Takoyaki is usually served at festivals and other outdoor type events along with Taiyaki (A fish shaped waffle that has azuki filling. It is also super-noms).

In recent food bloggery, two locations in which to find Takoyaki have been mentioned: the Ferry Building Farmer's Market on Thursday and the Temescal Farmer's Market on Sunday. Surprised that they are both Farmer's Market? I wasn't either. Delica is currently offering the aforementioned morsel on the former day. It's run under the name Takoyanen. I arrived quite early, so the goods were made already, which actually was a slight disappointment, since they were not fresh. However, I enjoyed the fried-ness of the octopus. It tasted similar to the bags of fried squid you can get at any place that sells Asian snacks.

If you're in the East Bay and don't want to make the trek, check out Takoyaki Yum. The funny thing is they're actually not in the Farmer's Market. They are across from it at 491 Cavour St. Although the takoyaki was fresher and made in front of me, it still needs some improvement. They were a bit too gooey for my taste, and the octopus lacked flavour. However, I understand somewhat, since fresh octopus is hard to come by. Points for toppings though. The slurry of sauces (Kewpie mayonnaise, okonomiyaki sauce, wasabi mayo) along with bonito flakes and dried seaweed made a tasty combo, but was it just a way to mask the blandness of the morsels themselves? Idk. Right now, I'm leaning towards Delica's because both the takoyaki and sauces did not lack flavour. That being said, they did lack a bit of warmth.

Takoyanen
Ferry Building Marketplace
One Ferry Building

Takoyaki Yum
491 Cavour St.
(Across from the Farmer's Market, which is in the DMV's Parking Lot)

P.S. Just in case anyone was wondering, the use of Pinkerton refers to the slang definition.