Nando's Giant Billboard with FREE personalized Sauce giveaway

I was so lucky to be able to attend the free personalized sauce giveaway from Nandos at their popup at Observation Point South Bank.
It was a huge billboard loaded with sauces.

The queue to this popup was quite fast moving so I managed get there before it was all given away.

I thought the sauces would be in alphabetical order but it wasn't so my best bet was scanning from the top line to the bottom line.

There was so many names from John, Joanna, Lee etc.

Sadly I couldn't find mine so I picked up one for my dad under his name.

To personalize your sauce online, it only costs a tenner:

https://shop.nandos.co.uk/products/peri-peri-sauce?variant=39470107328759

Ramen experience by Benny x Junsei

I went to a ramen popup by Benny Sumadiwiria held at Junsei restaurant which was a two day event with two sessions per evening.

Junsei is located just off Edgeware Road tube station on the backstreets on a residential street which seems rather quiet.

Despite arriving around 5:15pm I was surprised there was another customer as early as me so we were sat next to each other at the bar.

The yakitori is done at the bar while the ramen was cooked in the basement kitchen.

As soon as we arrived, the guy behind the bar was grilling the Guinea Fowl which was for the second and third course of the meal.

Started off with the Amuse goma tofu which was a spoon of soft tofu made with peanuts and sesame topped with wasabi and white ponzu.

Overall, very tasty and similar to Okinawa peanut tofu but the texture of this was like a creme.

Next was the Hamachi in miso buttermilk which was really refreshing because the miso buttermilk tasted like a savoury yoghurt.

Moving on, we were served the Tsukemen by Benny which was surprisingly nice because the Tsukemen had a nice firm texture and I think I tasted a bit of Lye which disappeared when you dip it in the broth.

On the side were two slices of guinea fowl which the chef has been grilling on the Yakitori when we arrived.

I would say the colour and thickness is different to the ones I have tried before.

The broth was very salty but the guy next to me drank it all.

Following the noodles, it was soft shell crab stuffed with miso, brown meat, egg coated in charcoal breadcrumbs.

Overall, it was nice and tasted how it should but I felt that some sauce / fresh lemon wedge should be given.

For the fifth course, it was Guinea fowl served in three different ways cooked on the yakitori.

You eat it from left to right.

I found the first piece the tastiest because the guinea fowl breast slices were paired with shitaake mushroom slices pickled in soy (Shoyuzuke) topped with my favourite green yuzu pepper paste.

The middle skewer was grilled guinea fowl thigh with citrus which had a lovely bouncy texture but I couldn't quite taste the citrus anywhere.

(I think I saw them make the marinade by adding Waitrose orange squash/juice to it but I definitely saw the guinea fowl meat was from a vacuum sealed pouch by Gressinghams).

The third skewer was the tsukune which was minced guinea fowl stuffed with a quail egg inside.

The finale was the tan tan ramen which I liked. It was topped with two slices of rolled chicken which was sliced and grilled on the yakitori so it had a nice charred flavour.

As for the soup it was full of flavour but not too spicy but perhaps on the thin side.

The egg which he said was marinaded for three days had a lovely liquid yolk inside but the egg white was strangely sweet in taste.

Finished with the choux puffs stuff with ginger ice cream dusted with ginger sugar powder.

I managed to finish it all but the guy on my left only ate one as he said he was rather full.

In terms of quality, I was glad I dined earlier because the pair that started later had the same food but the grilled items were already grilled which makes it needs a re-grilling that might affect the taste.

Overall, I really liked the ramen and tsukemen as well as the Yakitori experience but I felt that there was too much Guinea fowl in the courses.

More about the chef:

During the dinner, the Japanese lady was really nice and talkative hence I was able hear more about the chef.

The Chef Benny Sumadiwiria is such a ramen lover that he claims that he ate 30 bowls of ramen a week in Japan which works out 5 a day which I believe is possible as I have been crazy before and did something similar.

In a way I am lucky to have tried his food because he admits he is lazy that he doesn't want to work more than 5 days a week but is interested in becoming a ramen chef.

He was in the news in 2016 for the headlines:

[British chef went temporarily DEAF after eating the world's hottest noodles].

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/british-chef-went-temporarily-deaf-8742641

His instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/supercoolben/

Junsei Restaurant:Address: 132 Seymour Pl, London W1H 1NS

Hours: 

Wednesday 6–10pm

Thursday 1–3:30pm, 6–10pm

Friday 1–3:30pm, 6–10pm

Saturday 1–3:30pm, 6–10pm

Sunday 1–9pm

Monday 6–10pm

Tuesday 6–10pm

Tempura Brussel Sprouts & Gingerbread softserve (vegan) at Marugame

Time flies and it is almost Christmas!

Since the opening of the Liverpool Street branch of Marugame, they already have a second branch at the O2 as well as an upcoming branch just round the corner of Oxford Street near Liberty.

For Christmas, Marugame have launched two new festive items: the tempura Brussels Sprouts and the vegan gingerbread softserve.

You either love or hate sprouts, I'm ok with them so I made a special visit to try the tempura sprouts.

Without further ado, I tried the tempura sprouts.

I wasn't sure how they would turn out because normally you have to blanch them for a while or else the texture would be really hard.

Interestingly the tempura sprouts were not that hard in terms of texture but soft with a firmness and they did not have any bitterness so they were quite nice on their own or with some mayonnaise.

I was iffy about getting the gingerbread softserve because the matcha one I had on the last visit wasn't to my liking so I asked if I could get a sample before paying for it and I was given the biggest sample you could ever imagine!

So to conclude with my super taste buds, the gingerbread softserve was quite nice which I will leave for the next visit. 

While I was dining there, I suddenly noticed some similarities between Japanese Tempura and English chippies.

In English chippies, things are battered and fried which is the same as tempura and with chippies they have chip scraps which is similar to tempura scraps!

Then at the chippies we have pickled eggs and gherkins and the Japanese have pickled ginger!

The scraps are a good way of telling if their frying oil is clean because you can tell from the taste.

The best Traditionally inauthentic ramen at Supa Ya Ramen

I discovered this TRADITIONALLY INAUTHENTIC ramen through a newspaper article which aroused my interest to go because of their crazy creations (Shown further down report).

Somehow, I fell in love with their interesting pairings, the logo too because it is inspired by English Pot noodles and the name is also like Batchelors super noodles hence Supa Ya Ramen.

Even though it is not traditional, the ramen pictures look crazily good.

Supa Ya started off serving ramen in his home and finally opened in Sept 2021.

It is located in Dalston (East London) on the high street with not much about.

After seeing that article, I was really excited so tried it on Wednesday.

Got there at 8pm and couldn't believe my eyes when it was fully seated with a queue outside.

The wait was going to be about 30-45 minutes.

The interesting thing, is that they kept the front doors locks, only opening the door to let people in and out.

What surprised me even more was the cramped seating, I saw 3 tables of 2 and there was 9 people in total because it was two people against the wall facing one person.

It was so cramped that the staff did not have much room to stand.

I finally got seated at 8:35 and ordered ASAP as I knew what I want.

Visited the loo and saw jars and jars of their homemade pickles and Laogan ma chilli oil which I believe was used for the spicy beef noodle.

On the table, there were wooden chopsticks, metal fork, spoon and a CHINESE CERAMIC SPOON!!!

Anyway, I ordered the Salt & Beef pickles which was chicken soup, house soy, smoked bacon oil, chilli paste, salt beef, supa ya pickles, green onions and fudgy egg.

The noodles arrived at 20:51.

They looked consistently same as the photos.

Tried the broth first which was really strong and spicy. it tasted familiar just like these Sichuan beef noodles I had at Wanchai Deng G also served with an egg.

I really really liked because of the chilli and then you have the pickles, the salt beef slices were soft and tasty.

The egg was nicely done with a soft starchy yolk inside.

Overall, the ramen was really good and tasty in all dimensions and to my surprise, their ramen is made in house like fresh pasta!

For dessert I had instant noodle ice cream which savoury and sweet with crispy noodles.

queue

the 40 minute queue

Menu creations:

CHEESEBURGER RAMEN, Breakfast Bacon, sausage and cabbage Tantamen, bacon oil ramen, Bacon n Eggs ( a bit like hk chan daan noodle), English Cumberland sausage Dan Dan noodles, Prawn head, miso and iberico pork fat soup etc.

RAMEN night at topcuvee

Shop: Supa Ya Ramen  Date visited: 24/11/2021 8pm