7ish Hours Smoked Short Ribs at Holy Smoke

Who doesn't love tender rib meat, this is what Holy Smoke does.
It is located under a railway arch in Bow where all the other kitchens are.

Holy Smoke is a little isolated from the other kitchens but directions are clear and there are a few benches nearby.

I had the 7ish Hours Smoked Short Ribs which is described as British breed Short Ribs (half a kilo including the bone) smoked roughly for 7 hours with a side of Homemade Pickled Cucumber & Coffee BBQ Sauce on the side.

Unfortunately, the meat was a bit dry and burnt that day so I may have got a dud portion that day.

What annoyed me was that I got the quantity but not quality.

It was so different to the one someone I knew posted a weekend earlier where the meat was moist and pink.

When I pulled the bone out, there was some blue kitchen towel so I hope there wasn't any more stuck in the meat where I pulled it out.

The thing that baffled me was the guy at the shop said it was edible butchers wrap but it definitely looked more like kitchen towel to me.

The pickles were on the sweet side.

@holy.smokesbarbecue

New Pride Shake 2023 at Shake Shack

While at Camden, I spotted the new Pride Shake 2023 which comes with pretty rainbow sprinkles in a limited edition paper cup so I had to try it.

The new Pride Shake is made with cookie butter frozen custard hand spun with rainbow crispies and topped with whipped cream and sprinkles according to their website but their instagram and print say biscoff.

For every shake sold, they will be donating £1 to their nominated charity. 

As always, their shakes are expensive priced at £6.40 but it was one off as I only get it when they have some captivating new flavours.

Overall, I really liked it but found the crunchy things annoying.

#ssgshakeshack

#shakeshack

@shakeshackuk

Camden Tea Bar

If you are a serious tea lover, this is the place to go.

It is conveniently located in Camden and with a nice seating area inside or al fresco by the balcony over looking Camden Market.

At the far end, there is an Aroma station where you can smell all the teas they offer which you can buy or have the teas there.

There are eight different types of tea bases ranging from herbal, white, black, rooibos, pu er, green, fruit to oolong.

They also have cold drinks like Green Vietnamese matcha, strawberry basil cucumber etc in the fridge.

I had the milky pudding oolong which did not disappoint, it was like oolong with a sweet rice aroma to it.

Overall, it was time well spent there and I also bought a pure chocolate tea which I have been looking all over for because other tea companies tend to mix other things like chilli or mint with it and they have plain here which was what I wanted.

Queen Mary Cafe University of London

Every university/educational institution will have a canteen or coffee shop but Queen Mary Café is unique in the sense it is literally named Queen Mary Café.

This café opened in 2021 serving drinks and food with a lovely area where people can chill or study there.

I had the vegetable soup served with a roll which was not bad.

The Ice Cream Project by Anya Hindmarch returns for the third year with more exciting flavours

I am so glad the The Ice Cream Project by Anya Hindmarch returns for the third year with more exciting flavours this year!!

Twelve new flavours have joined with some favourites from last year like Kikkoman soy sauce, Maldon Salt, Birds Custard and Heinz Baked Beans.

The new flavours are:
Branston Piccalilli
Sarsons Malt Vinegar (strawberry with vinegar)

McVities Penguin

McVities Jaffa Cake

Tropicana Orange

Tiptree orange

Perello Olives

Filippo Berio Pesto

Kenco Coffee

Sunpat Peanut butter

Robinson Lemon Barley Water

Maldon Salt

Heinz Baked Beans

Birds eye Custard

Kikkoman Soy sauce

A big well done to Amanda and the team at Granny Gothards!

My tasting notes.

Branston Piccalilli:

This was my favourite which turned out to be a surprise.

The taste of the mustard and chunks of pickle were lovely. 

Sarsons Malt Vinegar (strawberry with vinegar): 

This was interesting and it was good you got the smell of the vinegar as well as the taste.

The vinegar taste was definitely bold. 

Perello Olives: 

I was expecting a little more for this as in saltiness but it was more like vanilla ice cream.

Saying that quite a few restaurants in London serve olive oil ice cream. 

Filippo Berio Pesto: 

For pesto lovers as you can really taste it but in a sweet ice cream form.

Kikkoman Soy Sauce (Toasted sesame ice cream with umami-rich naturally brewed soy sauce)

Great soy umami saltiness.

The kikkoman soy sauce ice cream was really nice.

There is so much potential with savoury ingredients like bacon,  salted caramel and miso etc.

The taste was really nice because somehow that saltiness was really moreish.

I'm glad they did this but why didn't they have Marmite. 

Heinz Baked Beans

Interesting experience with crunchy frozen baked beans.

This is probably the only Western ice cream with beans unlike the Asians and South East Asia where they like to add beans to desserts and ice cream.

Bird’s Custard

Another nice sweet ice cream with a creamy custard flavour

Tripe soup at Mahala, Croydon

Mahala is restaurant on the corner of a busy road that I pass all the time.

With a name like that I definitely wouldn't associate it with being Romanian which is what it was.

I was expecting it to be Indian.

This place is so strange as the are no menus outside.

Only found out it was Romanian because someone went there so I had to check it out as I am always eating Eastern European foods.

Visited on a Sunday afternoon and there was a bouncer at the door which is interesting.

Went in and walked over to the bar as all the staff were there so requested a table for 1 but they all seemed perplexed why I wanted to dine there.

Anyway, as an aggressive fearless foodie nothing will stop me!

I already knew what I wanted so had the tripe soup to see how it compares to the ones at mleczko, sadly the chicken livers with mash were sold out.

Also had a roll with the soup which I regretted because it was just a brioche bun.

The tripe soup was ok but lacked depth as all you could taste was garlic and lemon.

Just for fun, I paid the bill in cash to see if they would give change or even the full change, it turns out they gave partial change and felt guilty so gave me the full change! 

Overall, would not return but just to tick the box.

Light Lunch at St Johns

I have heard so many good reviews about St Johns but it is one of those restaurants that you can't really dine alone.
The only item I have tried from them was their doughnut from the Bakery however recently I got hyped on Calves liver because it was done right so found out that St Johns had it too hence went there to have a nosy at the menu.
It turns out they also have a Wine bar which is casual featuring smaller plates tapas style which was perfect for me.
They also had Ox liver which made my day so I dined there.

As well as that, I had the Nettle and Ham soup and the Roasted Bone marrow with parsley Salad.

Roast Bone marrow and parsley salad.

I ordered this by impulse and definitely do not regret it but looking around everyone else's bones were taller and bigger than mine!

Anyway, it was probably for my own good as I wasn't sharing especially all that cholesterol.

It is really good how they just baked it like that and did not cut the bone horizontally as you lose a lot of the good stuff like that.

This was the best bone marrow experience I have ever had because it was not ruined by garlic or herbs.

The parsley salad was a match made in heaven as it was literally soaked in lemon juice which makes it appetizing on the sourdough with the marrow and its grassiness.

It would have been nice if the toast was not so burnt because the edges were not edible.

Ox Liver, Chicory and Anchovy.

After tasting some amazing Calves liver that was done right, I have been trying to go somewhere that also delivers.

Most restaurants that I wanted to go mainly do liver and onions or bacons using Calves Liver or Ox.

I stumbled upon St Johns which serves this and found out that it was on the daily specials menu so how could I not try.

I had the Ox Liver, Chicory and Anchovy which was from the wine bar. 

It really made my day as it was something different from liver and onions yet it was so tasty.

The Ox liver was sliced and tossed with chicory in a creamy sauce flavoured by the anchovies and chopped parsley.

It was simply delicious and the texture was beautiful a it was soft and velvety just like pigs liver when it is done right but it does not have that offal taste like pigs liver.

I was expecting the Ox Liver to not be as good as Calves but it was just as good.

Overall, I was really impressed to try another liver dish served so differently to liver and bacon.

Nettle and Ham soup!

This was my second time having nettle and again it was blended.

The first time was nettle pasta as a sauce and now soup with ham.

Basically the nettle was blended.

I kept finding white cubes which I thought was potato but it was the fat from the ham which was horrific.

There were tiny pieces of ham here and there though.