Chocolate dosa at Crispy Dosa, Wood Green

For South Indian food you will find the usual treats like dosa, vada, idly vada etc which are the signature items for restaurants serving South Indian food.

In the dessert section, you will also find chocolate dosas which are the dessert version of the savoury Dosa.

I have always wanted to try this as a few restaurants have it.

Finally tried it at Crispy Dosa along with some other dishes.

For the mains, we had the masala noodles which were basically instant noodles jazzed up and topped with coriander and all that.

I had the mixed vegetable uttapam which is made by soaking rice and lentils which is ground to a batter and fermented.

The uttapam was crispy and tasty with vegetables with a lovely tartness.

Now to the star of the show, the chocolate dosa was crisp with a tartness just like Ethiopian injera pancakes.

It was definitely to my liking as the tartness of the crisp dosa went really well with the sweet chocolate hence it wasn't too cloyingly sweet.

For drinks had the Masala Jeera by Kashmira which comes in a can.

It was ok but nothing like the freshly made ones because it just tasted like sprite with spices and a kick of savouriness to it.

Crispy Dosa: Wood Green

18 High Rd, London N22 6BX

Mastic, Stretchy and chewy ice cream at SOHO Creamery

It's been ages since I had chewy thick ice cream, the last time I had it was from Mado Ice Cream in Hong Kong and then I managed to spot it at some Turkish grocery store which I regretted not buying.
Anyway, on a recent visit in Camden, we spotted SOHO creamery which claims their ice cream is just like Mado.

On closer inspections, some of the ice cream boxes say MADO where as some are covered with the words SOHO.

Tried the orange and pistachio in Camden which was ok but I feel that the nutty flavours were nicer.

Having tried SOHO creamery in Camden, decided to try the SOHO branch actually located in SOHO however the range and shop is smaller than Camden.
On this visit tried the ice cream bar which you can either eat with the spoon included or put the spoon in the ice cream and eat it like a lolly.
It was fun jabbing the spoon in the ice cream but you have to use quite some force which bends the ice cream hence it looked like a banana.
The Box version is quite nice because it looks more like a skincare product than ice cream!

 

Zheng Malaysian restaurant

This was not a planned visit to Zheng as the place we wanted to go was full so went here instead as it was raining.

Looking at the menu, they serve Modern Malaysian and Chinese dishes at a finer level being in Chelsea and for that price tag.

I was not too keen on having Malaysian dishes that day so opted for Mapo tofu with rice and Admiral Zheng's wasabi prawns.

For drinks, we had Jasmine tea and Sirap Limau.

The Sirap Limau tasted like lipsticks and was very syrupy but I expected that hence my choice was Jasmine tea.

The Jasmine tea was actually ok but the first cup poured by the staff just tasted like water because the tea leaves had not steeped properly.

Moving on to the food, the Wasabi prawns delivered as they were delicious, although it was a simple dish, the prawns were big and bouncy with a crispy coating smothered in a sauce which tasted of wasabi with salad cream mixed in.

The Mapo tofu was to my liking because it was chicken and not pork with a Sichuan peppercorn kick that has that tingling sensation in your mouth.

However, the Roti seemed to be the frozen ones that you reheat.

But overall as a foodie, I am glad I tried.

ZHENG, Chelsea

Halal dim sum at Bonda Kitchen (Malaysian Food)

Bonda Kitchen in Paddington specializes in Malaysian food hence its Halal dim sum offerings.
What makes their dim sum good is that it does not contain lard which causes bloating and indigestion in my case.

The dim sum offerings were a little different and unique like the duck shao mai which we ordered.

Also ordered roast duck with rice and some blue coloured Smurf crab and prawn dumplings.

The crab and prawn dumplings were pretty much how I expected them to be, the duck shao mai was a bit different to how I expected it to be.

Shao Mai filling is usually minced meat mixed with some flour but the duck shao mai was literally chunk of pulled duck meat which made it quite meaty and a little dry.

Last but not least was the roast duck which turned out to be sliced pieces of aromatic duck served with rice and not roast duck.

Anyway, the duck was quite dry that I felt that it was either left over duck that was refried or duck fried twice as the meat was literally quite crispy and dark brown.

In a way it reminded me of Indonesian smashed duck.

To summarize, I felt that the dim sums fared better.

Tesco Cafe experience

Obviously the Tesco Cafe isn't new but I had to feature it because supermarket cafes are disappearing quickly and getting replaced by Costas etc.
The menu was really impressive and they even have a majority of what you would find at M&S Cafe from scones with clotted cream to modern items like Shakshuka.
The Halloumi Rice Bowl which I really wanted was not available but listed on their site.
Anyway, I had the Mushroom and Emmental Croissant which was quite nice but the croissant was on the sweet side
The carrot cake, although quite small was in fact a good size as it was quality with lots of raisins in it.
Overall, the cafe was really good and I intend to come back.
The only thing, I did not like was the self ordering kiosks because the only human touch you got was when they brought over the food to you which is off putting to the elder generation.

Mantu at Watani Box

I made a trip to Ilford to try Afghan ice cream so I thought I would have Mantu as well from Watani Box which is their neighbour.

It is not the first time I've had mantu but just like dumplings every place makes them differently so you might find them different in terms of shape.

At Watani, you get a box of nine neatly arranged dumplings topped with yoghurts, split peas and all that.

Compared to the previous place, I found it quite spicy.

As well as dumplings, they have many other options which I will try on my next visit before having ice cream.

Moule frites enough for two for £12.50 at Del Boy’s Salt Beef Bar

I was at Tooting Market to get something when I spotted someone having Moule Frites which turns out to be from Del Boy’s Salt Beef Bar which specializes in meats.

Anyway, decided to give it ago after my shopping.

Priced at £12.50, I didn't have any expectations but the mussels the person had looked good and the portion looked good enough for two and to be precise it looks like a 1kg pot!

The mussels took quite a while to arrive compared to other places I've had it.

When it arrived, there was so much mussels in the pot, the sauce was beyond piping hot.

I felt that the mussels were a bit over cooked as they could have been springier, normally I don't complain about food being too hot but in this case, the sauce is so hot that while you eat, the other mussels in the pot are getting cooked further by the latent heat.

I think I can hazard a guess that they just boiled the mussels in the pot hence the reason it took so long.

Usually, the mussels are tossed about until the shells open.

To be fair, the sauce and mussels were not bad, quite a few of them had a beard (byssus) and there are quite a few cracked shells which you have to be careful but £12.50 is seriously good if you are not fussed and better than some places.