Café Le Cordon Bleu

Café Le Cordon Bleu.

Bloomsbury, London.

Another quiet, outstanding lunch spot that I will begrudgingly bestow...the Café Le Cordon Bleu.

Le Cordon Bleu is a world class culinary school with its roots originally in France. And, the first of its kind opened by the Le Cordon Bleu culinary school, this café is a patisserie, boulangerie, and viennoiserie headed by Le Cordon Bleu Master Chefs. The concept is vaguely reminiscent of L'Ecole, a Michelin starred restaurant in NYC headed by the students of the International Culinary Center. Either way, the colorful sweet and savory offerings make for an affordable lunch off the beaten path. Quite off the beaten path actually, since the café is tucked away in a hidden courtyard with a Leica specialist store and fine art gallery. Fortunately, the café is very close to the NYUL campus, being right across from the British Museum. Take a nice leisurely walk around the area of the museum and hopefully you will be able to join Le Cordon Bleu students and others in the know for a quick bite.

Tartines from left to right: Crayfish & Tomato Salsa, Quail's Egg Salad, Manchego & Membrillo, Waldorf Chicken Salad

The two-bite tartines may be the best way to sample the versatility of Le Cordon Bleu chefs. For example, the Waldorf Chicken Salad tartine hails from NYC and the Manchego & Membrillo tartine from Spain. While each bite is a symphony of different flavors and textures, the sweet fruitiness of the membrillo (quince paste) against the mild Manchego cheese was especially memorable. 

Fougasse Tartiflette: cheese, bacon, & potato

A combination that couldn't possibly go wrong.
For any sweet tooths, the Café Le Cordon Bleu also offers freshly baked pastries and hot drinks for an equally luxurious breakfast as well!

Goddards at Greenwich

Goddards at Greenwich.

Greenwich, London.

Pie and mash shops sell plates of a history that go all the way back to Victorian London. At the time, the famous Billingsgate Fish Market and the River Thames itself were teeming with eels and many people would sell fresh eels and eel pies from carts lining the banks. Born  from necessity before taste, the crust of savory pies kept dirt and germs away from the wetter filling. 

Later in the 19th century, the first brick-and-mortar shop opened and began to serve mash (or mashed potatoes) for a cheap, hot meal. These pie and mash shops were integral to the nutrition and sustenance of the poorer working classes. Later minced meat was used to fill the pies, first for luxury and then for economy as the price of eels surpassed that of beef.

Alfred Goddard opened the first pie and mash shop in Deptford, London in 1890. With his success, his family opened Goddards at Greenwich and has been serving traditional pie and mash with eels ever since. Since the modern palate doesn't exactly sing at the thought of eel pie, Goddards offers many different fillings both savory and sweet. Just be sure to avoid the barbershop around the corner...

Traditional minced beef pie with mash and liquor sauce.

 Pies are often served with gravy or liquor sauce. The latter actually has no liquor in it but is made from the gravy of stewed eels flavored and colored with parsley. Traditionally, pies are eaten with liquor sauce and copious amounts of chili/malt vinegar and salt.

The flaky pastry crust, mash, and liquor sauce make for the heartiest of meals but with surprisingly tame flavors. Jazzed up with a splash of chili vinegar, the delicate liquor sauce gets some much needed flavor and bite. 

Bloomsbury Farmers' Market

A whole hog roast chopped up into pulled pork sandwiches served with stuffing, applesauce, and a pork crackling.

Bloomsbury Farmers' Market.

Bloomsbury, London.

 There is no way to eat more happily than to eat like a local. So why not take it one step further and shop for ingredients like a local? 

That is exactly how I came across my best find since coming to London, the Bloomsbury Farmers' Market. Every Thursday, dozens of UL students, businessmen, and natives converge on the sunny neighborhood spot for food, grocery shopping, and general lollygagging. I haven't found a more delicious or welcoming lunch spot yet.

Farmers' markets can be a blessing to urban communities; they bring fresh seasonal foods to consumers while increasing farm incomes, keeping money in the local community, and lessening waste/pollution. As part of the London Farmers' Market organization, the Bloomsbury market seeks to connect rural and urban communities, help farmers make a solid living, and supply quality local ingredients to an area filled with supermarket chains. Since there is no middleman, everything goes straight from farmer to Londoner. And so, the produce, dairy, meats, cooked foods, and baked goods, all which comes from within 100 miles of Greater London, are lovingly explained and offered by the people who actually planted the seeds or fed the hog. On top of that, the market supports heritage/heirloom produce and sustainable methods of food production which definitely doesn't hurt.

Festive vegetable and seafood paellas from the Hand Picked Seafood Company.

Expect the unexpected! Even local farmers' markets can offer exotic flavors made with regional ingredients.

Meat pasties!

Or right across the way, The Parsons Nose hawks the very traditional meat pie and mash.

"Might as well take a picture of us too! £2 for a picture and  £10 for a nude" they said.

Never pass up a chance to sample the different wares or ask what/when/where/why/how about the food. Chances are you'll get a lot more info than you asked for but it's still way more fun than reading "Ingredients: garlic, preservatives" on a supermarket label.

A most beauitful display of quiche, made by Popina.

Baked goods from Aston Bakery and Flourish Craft Bakery.

Farmers' markets are a good place to score delicious rarities like oak smoked garlic.

Farmers' markets always look like a photo shoot. The vibrant rainbow of fruits and vegetables is as much decoration as it is food while the heritage (or heirloom) varieties seem to swell with pride at their provenance.

Game sausages, venison and cracked pepper burgers, rabbit legs, and whole pheasant can be found at the Mersham Shoot stall.

Keep your mind out of the gutter...

Giggly Pig Co. usually runs out of spare ribs before noon, but ask to dip your oversize sausage in the spare sauce and you won't regret it.

The abundance of produce and meats also translates into cooked local foods. Mix and match pies, quiches, hamburgers, pastas, paella, and more for a cheap, homey lunch. For me, lunch is an oversized sausage slathered in spare rib barbecue sauce and mustard on a roll washed down with sweet freshly pressed apple juice. 

Raspberry-vanilla brownie sundae and raspberry cone.

There's always room for dessert. Amidst the freshly baked croissants and cakes is the small green Opera Ice Cream cart where you can customize your brownie sundae with two flavors of ice cream.

Bea's of Bloomsbury

Meringues = eton mess.

Bea's of Bloomsbury.

Bloomsbury, London.

A story of serendipi-tea:

Bea's is a bakery cafe that my roommate and I happened upon while walking through Bloomsbury. Little did we know, it is headed by Chef Bea Vo, a Nobu pastry alumna who set off on her own to create this labor of love and found success along the way. It's a humble little spot that doesn't need too many words and is best explained through pictures.

Fruit salad, a duffin, and chai tea.

Come throughout the day and see a magically different display every time. 

Breakfast offers muffins, scones, breads, and pastries along with the curious "duffin".

Duffin!

What is a duffin you ask?

A muffin-shaped cake doughnut filled with tart berry jam.  Breaking it open reveals a buttery, dense cake kept moist by the toasty sugar crust. 

Assam Breakfast Black Tea.

At around 3PM, afternoon tea begins! For something lighter than the "Afternoon Tea" , there is the "Sweet Tea" with all the usual confections minus the tea sandwiches.

Solitary brown sugar cube in white tea cup. Modern art with political undertones?

Nothing is nearly as beautiful as the swirl of milk in tea.

Never take your tea with both milk and lemon because the acid in the lemon will cause the milk to curdle.

Top tier: cassis and caramel cupcakes, walnut brownies, blondies.
Bottom tier: homemade passion fruit marshmallows, brownies, scones, mini meringues.

Scones with clotted cream and strawberry preserves.

And what is tea without scones? Bea's scones are tender and quaint in comparison to the hulking, dry monstrosities sold in some US coffee/tea shops. Served with a little warmth from the oven, they are to be slathered with strawberry preserves and clotted cream, a thick cream with sunny color due to high butterfat content.

Cassis cupcake.

Italian buttercream, you either love it or you hate it. 

Here, the moist cupcakes are hampered by unctuous Italian buttercream. Overwhelming lardy flavor weighs down the cassis even though the frosting is whipped so much it seems almost illusory.

Mini raspberry meringues.

Sweet Tea ends beautifully with ephemeral bites of meringue and wobbly passion fruit marshmallow.

North Sea Fish Restaurant

Now, let's be cliche! Fish and chips for the first UK post, with a complete lack of shame and shoddy iPhone pictures to boot! Happy eating!

North Sea Fish Restaurant.

Bloomsbury, London.

I have an irrational fear of eating the worst version of the best local food. NYC case in point: going to Crumbs when you could be at Sugar Sweet Sunshine or Two Little Red Hens or Butter Lane, etc.

London has an extraordinary food scene whether traditionally British or Indian/Bangladesh/Spanish/or more. None of that "British food is bad" nonsense. Sure, some of their ethnic food may not be spot on but hey, NY doesn't do Mexican well all the time either. Ethnic food aside, there is much traditional cuisine like the characteristic fish and chips to be had. Maybe too much. Hence, my fear of possibly choosing the one "wrong" spot for fish and chips. It happens...I was once a Crumbs devotee.

However, haranguing a few local folk is an easy way to solve this problem. Avoiding the people buying pre-packaged meals, I got exactly what I was looking for from a kind older lady in the produce section of a Waitrose. Brushing off all the chains right outside, she directed us to Marchmont St where the neighborhood eats. The quiet street was lined with small eateries and put us in the right area for a legitimate local chippy/fish and chip shop that my friend suggested, the North Sea Fish Restaurant.

Other than the decor from eons past, the first thing that catches your eye at the restaurant is the crowd. And what a crowd it was!....of white-haired, accented grandpas and grannies. Not a crazy party for us twenty-somethings but always a sign of good eats. The prices are just as high as the age demographic, but there is an attached take-away section that is closer to the usual low price.With the crowd and dusty fish themed decorations, it is obvious that this is a good place to start eating fish and chips.

Fish and chips is a British institution, a simple meal of fried battered fish and fried cut potatoes that goes a long way for wallets and morale. North Sea Fish Restaurant offers many choices of fish although cod and haddock are the more traditional choices. The large portion of haddock is buttery, mild, and firm unlike the intriguingly mushy skate. The crisp golden batter does not have much flavor but holds up fantastically to mounds of horseradish hinted tartar sauce, ketchup, malt vinegar and salt. Not to forget, the piping hot meaty chips that round out this heavy meal. I am sure you understand when I say the fried combination is delicious in the best and worst way.

Looking food coma straight in the eye.