South Indian and Sri Lankan food crawl at West Croydon

If you crave for South Indian and Sri Lankan food, West Croydon is a haven to satisfy all these cravings.

Sri Lankan food and South Indian food overlap so you will find they both have vadas, kottus, hoppers and many more items.

On my recent search for a South Indian/Sri Lankan fix, I discovered that there are so many of these shops plotted on London Road near Croydon Hospital.

Each and everyone is different and unique in their own ways.

I ended up trying Indo - Ceylon Spice Restaurant, Sambal Express, Rotti Mama and Colombo Express.

I tried the chicken liver curry, vada and Pittu from Rotti Mama, 

Onion and Chilli vada from Ceylon, 

Spinach vada, dhal vada and a sweet dessert Watalappam from Colombo Express, 

Spinach vada from Sambal Express.

I was definitely bowled over by the chicken liver curry which was velvety pieces of chicken liver in a fiery curry paste.

chicken liver curry from Rotti Mama

The pittu was basically coconut and grounded rice compacted into a cylindrical shape, best eaten with curries.

spinach vada and red rice pittu from Rotti Mama

The rest of the items I tried was the vada.

You can think of vada as a morish fluffy crispy lentil doughnut which is similar to potato in the middle and there are many flavours available like plain, spinach, spicy, onions etc.

Different shops will have their own recipes and flavours but personally Colombo Express was my favourite for the vadas while the vada from Indo - Ceylon had a nice Sichuan peppercorn kick.

Spinach vada

Vada, Mixed spices vada and Spinach vada

Finished with sweet dessert Watalappam which tasted like custard pudding with cinnamon.

Indo - Ceylon Spice Restaurant, 337 London Road:

Sambal Express, 332 London Road:

Rotti Mama, 341 London Road

Colombo Express, 255 London Road:

A special trip just for shoestring fries

During my food journey and all these restaurant visits, I have not had many shoestring fries in my meals, mainly because not many places offer it.

When I found out that Gourmet Burger Kitchen had them, it was my top priority to go and I only had that to appreciate how delicious they were.

I visited the Waterloo branch where the intangable service could have been better but the shoestring fries were more than brilliant.

The fries were ready and bought over not long after ordering but no sauces were offered nor did they tell me about the sauces so I had to ask for some sauces midway eating the fries.

It was a delight eating these fries because they were fried to perfection, each and every was uniform in width and the colour was perfectly blonde.

The texture was crisp on the outside with a perfectly silky centre.

Overall, I am so glad I had the skinny fries and will definitely come back for them.

Make your own Musubi over lunch at Musubi Hiro

I love Musubi so when I found out about Musubi Hiro it was on my list to try.

There are two different types of Musubis, the Japanese triangle shaped ones and the Hawaiaan ones with spam!

The pairing of spam and rice are so comforting as well as satisfying.

Musubi Hiro is a modern restaurant with a fun twist as they serve this Super mega musubi which is deep fried coated in bread crumbs and the Panupuri pop with an Indian twist filled with minced meat!

For lunch, they are now doing a three course set lunch with free flow drinks!

The best part is having fun making your own musubi for the main course and have it your way and a thirst quenching free flow mocktail.

The omakase starters were basically three different sides: seaweed, pickles and salad.

For the musubi main course, I had the torched eel with teriayki sauce for an extra HKD28 which was really worth it because eels are torched to order so they are nice and hot.

Hence you get to make a musubi filled with lovely and warm eel which is soft, sweet and sticky.

The soft egg yolk was another bonus to go with the meal so overall it was quite filling.

Overall a nice and filling lunch with energetic vibes.

Will be returning for dinner or late afternoon snacks sometime.

MUSUBI HIRO

37 Cochraine Street

中環閣麟街37號地下

Biang Biang Boom at Murger Han

A few years ago there were not many places where you could find Biang Biang noodles but now there are so many restaurants that serve Biang and competition is fierce.

Biang Biang noodles are basically extremely wide strip noodles similar to parpadelle but much wider.

So far I have only tried two places that I can compare with.

As well as biang biang noodles, they also serve roujiama which they call Murgers aka Chinese style burgers with pitta bread.

If you are dyslexic you might see Murders!

Enter Murger Han which fullfills all your wishes with the complete Xian (Shaanxi) fare including Xian breakfasts.

There are currently three branches with its first flagship restaurant which opened in Euston during 2014, followed by Mayfair in 2016 and the latest City location in 2020.

I have been meaning to go so I did my research to see what were the best things to order as well as biang biang noodles.

Sadly, they don't really respond to enquiries on social media yet they are actively on social media inviting influencers etc.

Their website was helpful but hard to navigate and some items were not up to date.

My first attempt to dine there was the Mayfair branch but I didn't like the vibes so I went to the City branch which was more relaxed and welcoming.

The staff there spoke good English and were able to explain the food items.

With the usual 12.5% service charge, Murger Han charges 13% stated on the menu which Thankfully can be offset by sharing photos on instagram.

Without further hesitation, it was the biang biang noodles I was after but there were four options as Murger Han have given it a modern touch.

The regular biang biang noodles usually come with some chilli oil as it was originally part of a poor man's meal in the countryside.

On the menu, you will find that they do offer the most basic spring onion and chilli oil which is vegetarian and they also offer the tomato and egg as a non spicy option.

For those who fancy a bit more, there is the three in one option or the five in one option.

I liked the idea of spring onion and chilli oil as well as tomato and egg which led me to choose the three in one which includes them both plus a meat option.

To be honest, I am not really keen on meat so it would be great if you could choose another veg option or some tofu skewers to make up for it.

In the end I chose lamb as the meat option which was basically the same as English roast lamb which I didn't expect as I thought it would have some cumin being Shaanxi style.

Anyway, when the noodles arrived, it came in a mammoth sized bowl.

I was told to mix everything because the flavours are in the sauce.

You will find that the noodles are topped with the three options: tomato and egg, spring onion and chilli oil, meat option as well as spinach and pak choi.

It was impressive how wide and the length of the biang biang noodles were.

The flavour profile and complexity of these noodles will really blow your mind with its spicy tangy notes.

As for the noodle texture, I would say they were a bit like lasagne with a chew and the quality depends on how well the noodles were pulled.

If they were evenly pulled, you get a nice springy yet al dente chew but if there are bits that have not been pulled enough, you will find it rather chewy.

The beauty is that these noodles really hang and absorb the the flavours because some noodles just don't take on flavour.

Having tried the biang biang noodles, I would love to return for the Murger soup and the terracotta warrior desserts!

Enjoyable toilet moment at The Attendant, Mayfair

There are so many converted toilet bars in London which became a trend in 2018.

The Attendant is my favourite and one that I went to because it is the only one that has kept the existing urinals.

The way the urinals have been converted, they remind me of Ichiran where each diner has their own little space.

You can also sit at the tables if you prefer.

The small kitchen serves a wide range of coffee/teas as well as brunches.

I was hoping to try the vegan Scotch egg but it was discontinued so I had the cheesy polenta waffle.

Tried the waffle on its own and it was actually tasty, the cheese was not strong so it would be great if it had a strong cheddar cheese taste.

Overall, it was tasty but even tastier with the coffee ketchup they gave me which was had tones of marmite, soy sauce followed by a coffee after kick.