Dinner for 6 people with poor impulse control and plenty of beer: £180

There is no need for 6 people to order 14 dishes at a Chinese restaurant.  Tapas maybe, but Chinese no. But this is what happens when my friends give Jenelle and I permission to order for everyone.  Never ever a safe move for those who wish to be able to breathe at the end of a meal.

Sichuan is a small, unimpressive looking restaurant on a fairly generic side street in a pretty boring part of London (Acton).  I am surprised we even found it or that anyone thought to recommend it. If you do manage to make it out there and of you also happen to show up with a lot of people, don’t fret, the basement has a nice big table with a very 80s lazy susan in the middle that is great for a group.

Sichuan restaurants are not all that common in London for some reason and if you love the food (as Jenelle and I do) then it’s very hard to resist the temptation to order one (or in some cases two) of all of your favorites.  I wondered why the waiter was giving us funny looks when we ordered.  Then I looked through the tally.

We ordered:

If I described every dish in detail you’d get bored and fall asleep.  And to be honest there’s no way I could remember how all of them were.  So I’ll stick with the highlights.  The sour and spicy potato threads (threadlike on the menu) were good.  The ma po tofu was just so so (I make it better at home).  The kung pao was pretty damn good but for some odd reason only came with cashews (I prefer it with peanuts).

Eggplant Dragon

The sweet and sour eggplant dragon – which we ordered simply because of the name – was fabulous.  It was an entire eggplant sliced, battered and deep fried with a sauce of minced pork, chilis, spring onions and other good things.  It was ludicrous to look at but absolutely delicious.

Hot and pepper Sichuan fish

My other favorite is a dish that is just so excessive that I will probably never attempt to make it at home. It requires about a gallon of oil and a few tons of dried chilis and Sichuan peppercorns to make a braising broth.  It’s not as spicey as you might expect given all of the ingredients.  The fish has a mellow smokey flavor.  One of my favorites.  The last time I had it was at Bar Shu where it was just as delicious but also nearly 4 times the price.

And here we come to why you should come here.  Yes it’s in the middle of nowhere, yes it has little atmosphere to speak of.  But the staff are lovely, the food is very good and even if you go with friends who seriously over order you won’t go bankrupt eating here.

Sichuan
116 Churchfield Rd
Acton, W3 6

It has been pointed out that there are two entries for it on Urbanspoon!

Dinner for 4 BYOB: No idea because Lee paid – but certainly worth every penny

Not surprisingly my friends are always recommending restaurants to me.  I could probably write this blog based upon these restaurants to me alone.  Often these places are really good, sometimes they’re pretty mediocre. Every once in a while they are really special.

My good friend Lee has been telling me about his favorite Thai restaurant for a while now and last Friday night we finally made the trek out to visit it in Leytenstone of all places.  Leytenstone in East London is not an area renowned as a culinary destination.  The insane number of fried chicken places packed into the area gave me a real sense of the options available to most area residents.  It was no surprise then really that Singburi was full of diners – both local and visitors on a Friday night.

A small family restaurant with mom running the front of house and dad in the kitchen Singburi does not at first seem like a restaurant worth mounting an expedition to get to.  But a quick look and sniff around the dining room at the other punter’s meals was encouraging.

Som Tam

I started with Som Tam – papaya salad.  For some reason you can’t see the generous pieces of chilli or dried shrimp in the salad, but believe me they are there.  I like my food hot – seriously hot – and this salad was eye melting.  It was also absolutely delicious and refreshing.  I was wide awake after eating it.

Pork belly with chilli and basil

We ordered a ludicrous amount of food – all of it spectacular.  My favorites were the pork belly with chilli and basil. This was just so so good.  Salty, porky, spicy and fragrant.  I was unable to finish it and I have to admit that I woke up the next morning and finished the leftovers for breakfast.  It was one of the specials but if we’re lucky it will wind up on the regular menu.

Chuchi fish

Another favorite was the chuchi fish.  We liked it so much we oredered it a second time.  There was also a yummy squid dish, stir fried morning glory and all manner of other utterly scrumptious dishes.

Singburi is cooking authentic Thai food without watering down the flavors or heat for a western palette.  If it it had a more accessible location I am sure that every food mag would have it on its best cheap eats list.  I am already planning another expedition to the far reaches of Leytenstone to try their curries which I am sure are going to be marvelous.

Practical notes: You’ll probably need to grab a taxi or bust to get there and back.  There is a mini-cab company just a few doors down to get you back to the station (if you’re coming into Stratford) .  Also bring your booze with you as it is BYOB.

Singburi
593 Leytenstone High Road
London, E11 4PA

Dinner for 4 (no alcohol served): £60

I have a friend Jenelle who, like me,  is utterly and completely obsessed with Malaysian food and she and I have developed a bad (good) habit of going out and ordering an absolutely stupid amount of food together.  She mentioned that she had walked passed a Malaysian restaurant near Paddington but couldn’t remember the name or exact location.  After a 30 minute wander around the neighborhood and just before we were about to give up and go to some horrible chain we did actually manage to find Bonda Cafe.

Its not an obvious choice for the passerby.  It has a sign outside which hints that there might be a restaurant in the basement of the building, but when you look down into the windows the harsh florescent lights make it look rather uninviting.  The interior itself also lacks any charm.  Luckily this is usually a good sign in a Malaysian restaurant.  For some strange reason a Malaysian place with really nice decor often indicates dummed down, westernized food.

We invited Jenelle’s boyfriend and another friend along so that we could pretend to justify ordering enough food for 16 people and started out with what they called popiah but which were really just blah fried spring rolls – not even worth showing the photograph – just imagine the last spring rolls you had anywhere and that will suffice.

Satay Ayam

Next we ordered satay ayam.  The chicken satay was served with nasi imput (rice cubes) which the boys thought were weird but Jenelle and I loved.  Very good satay indeed.

In addition to the satay we ordered a roti canai which was interesting for me as the dipping sauce was dalcha – which is lentil based and tastes much more of its Indian roots then the Singaporean version I am used to which is a coconut milk based curry.  It was yummy.

Kari Ikan

So after the 3 starters we ordered 4 mains and 2 sides.  I had the kari ikan which was brave of me because though I like a good fishy fish I really really do not like mackerel.  And unfortunately even though the kari ikan did its best to help me learn to love the fish – it simply did not work.  If mackerel is your thing though I bet you would just love it.

We also had kari ayam – a homey, comforting chicken curry and beef rendang – a slow cooked curry beef.  But my absolute favorite of the evening was the sambal ikan billis.

Sambal Ikan Billis

Its made from tiny crispy chewy fried anchovies swimming in a spicy sambal sauce.  If this sounds gross to you – then Malaysian food might not be your thing.  The dish is the essence of my one of my favorite Malaysian flavors – a mix of hot, sour and fishy.  Even though this dish belonged to someone else I am pretty sure I ate most of it right out from under him.

Because we are insane we also had a side order of okra which was nice and a fairly bland telur dadar – omelette with chilis.

I know you’re thinking what pigs how could they possibly have split 8 dishes?  But I haven’t gotten to desert yet.

Pandan Pudding and Mango Cheesecake

Bonda does several steamed milk puddings which change daily.  Both the pandan and cheesecake were very nice.

As we were enjoying our puddings and were slowly slipping into unconsciousness a girls choir from Denmark came in with their choir master for dinner.  We’re talking 30 teenage girls from a singing group who were visiting London.  How this group ended up in this tiny out of the way restaurant is beyond me and in my food coma I completely forgot to ask why the choir master chose this particular place for a big group dinner or for them to sing us a song.

Bonda is a great place to go for truly authentic Malaysian food.  Jenelle and I are planning a trip back on a weekend which is the only time they serve their Laksa.

Bonda Cafe
190 Sussex Garden
London, W2 1TU

Dinner for 1 with wine:  £19.00

I have never had a bad meal with my friends Inge and Jackie so I always look forward to eating with them.  On this evening Inge has just flown in from a business trip so instead of cooking one of her fabulous meals they’re taking me out to one of their favorite neighborhood restaurants.

Cirrik is on a strip filled with other Turkish joints on Stoke Newington High st.  It is a fairly nondescript place that gets most of its atmosphere from the open grill at the back.  Its not the kind of place that would jump out at you over any of the other similar restaurants on the block but Inge and Jackie have tried quite a few of them and this is their current favorite.

Tamara

We start of with tamara and lahmajoun.  The tamara is not the best I’ve ever had, just ok,  but it is creamy and comforting and the warm pita it is served with is quite fresh.  The lahmajoun on the other hand is great.

Lahmajoun

It is a good blend of herbs, spices, garlic and lamby goodness.  I am pretty sure I end up eating more than my fair share of it.

For my main I have Beyti – spicey minced lamb grilled and served over rice with a selection of grilled and pickled onions.  Jackie had the same dish wrapped in lavash and served with a yogurt sauce.  They were both fantastic.  The grilled onions with pomegranite served on the side were the perfect accompaniment to the heaviness of the grilled lamb.  Inge had lamb ribs which were also delicious, tender and falling off the bone.  Such a good comforting meal.

Beyti Kebab

We drank a decent Turkish red wine the name of which I forgot to write because I was to busy stuffing myself with food.

I definitely have plans to go back.

19 Numara Bos Cirrik
194 Stoke Newington High St
London, N16 7

Dinner for 1 with beer: £20.00

Since I spend so much time in the UK I figured it was about time for me to get over a big fear – driving on the wrong side of the road.  I had a long weekend to Devon planned which required me to break free of public transportation and to make sure I would be a complete menace to the motoring public I scheduled a 2 hour driving lesson in London.

Turns out driving in the UK is really just not a big deal.  I managed just fine driving around central London in a stick shift – no stalls, no wrong turns.  And strangely I can parallel park like a pro here – which is something I am a total failure at back home in New York.  So to celebrate my not having damaged the car or any pedestrians I wanted to treat myself to something really spicy and fantastic.  I couldn’t get string hoppers out of my mind so I looked for a Sri Lankan restaurant reasonably close to my flat.

Sekara is located near Victoria station on fairly deserted section of Lower Grosvenor pl.  This was probably not the best neighborhood to look for quality Asian food but I just did not have the energy to travel farther South or East so I figured I would give it a go.

The interior is pretty ho hum with the exception of the spectacularly cheesy mall art on the walls – apparently all for sale.  I considered a few velvet paintings while mulling over the menu.

Vadai

I started with the vadai which are lentil patties were described on the menu as succulent.  I’ve had them before and they can be excellent.  These awful little nuggets were so dry that I really did nearly choke on them.  Not something I would order again here.

For my main I ordered white potato curry with sting hopper and pol sambola.  For those who have no idea what it was that I just wrote string hoppers are made from rice noodles and pol sambol is a mixture of fresh coconut and chillis that is pretty commonly served with Sri Lankan food.  I also had an order of okra.

White Potato Curry with String Hopper with Pol Sambol

The potato curry was so unbelievably bland that I dumped the entire dish of sambol into it.  Unfortunately the sambol was also utterly without flavor.  The okra was the highlight but its not a good meal when your side dish is the main event.

In a town with many excellent options for Sri Lankan food I will be looking elsewhere the next time I have a craving for string hoppers.

Book I was reading:  A History of Japan

Sekara
3 Lower Grosvenor Place
London, SW1W 0EJ