Food finds summer 2009

A couple of months back I went to the Taste of Spain Expo at Borough Market.  My friend and I had a wonderful afternoon wandering about tasting some frankly delicious cheese, bread, hams and olives, and joining in the scrums around the free cava and sherry stalls.  Whilst I was there, I came across some of the best olive oil I've had in a long time, Oleum Flumen.  It's smooth, fruity and fulsome.  I have used it in dishes like paella, and it's great with salads, but where it is supremely delicious is mixed with some of their sweet and sour vinegar and used as a dip for bread.  I have been looking for British stockists of this oil, but without success so far.  I will be sticking a few bottles of these bad boys in my hold luggage after a trip to Barcelona this year, but if anyone knows of a UK supplier, let me know. 


Another ace find has been Maroque.  I would like to take the credit for this, but this actually lies with Yotam Ottolenghi, who name-checked them in today's Guardian. I am a real fan of Ottolenghi's recipes, and I'm very pleased that whilst he is off the New Vegetarian column, he is still writing for the Guardian, having nudged Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall out.  A visit to Ottolenghi is on my list of things to do in September, but his recipes in the Grauniad are very easy to follow and endlessly impressive.  His quesadillas are a firm favourite in the Babelkate household, as is his kisir salad.  Yum yum nom nom.  But back to Maroque.  This is a top website concerned with all things Moroccan (really?), from home furnishings to ceramics to body lotion.  The site has an extensive range of some of the harder to find spices and ingredients, which they'll mail in the UK.  You can also download the Maroque Little Yellow Cookbook, with useful info on North African ingredients.  I'm on a North African and Mediterranean jag at the moment, so views on these recipes to follow as soon as I can get myself to the shops to get the necessary goodies.


I've had surprising success in tracking down rarer spices and blends in Bloomsbury - Waitrose in the Brunswick Centre has a superb range of spices, their own as well as Bart's.  If you are wandering down Drummond Street for a dhosa or veggie buffet, then pop into the Indian Spice Shop (tel 020 7916 1831).  This shop looks tiny, but don't be fooled - it extends back a way.  Emporium is a word that might have been invented just for this shop.  And it is packed from floor to ceiling with every spice and specialist ingredient you might ever need.  Longdan on Hackney Road is another find I've been chuffed to make.  Although there are other Asian grocers in the area, Longdan is bigger, has a good range and also makes sushi, noodles etc to takeaway - I reckons a trip there followed by plonking yourself in Hoxton Square with some lunch and your swag would be a good use of an afternoon.


Good stuff is not just found in Zone One.  If you happen to be staycationing in West Wales, then a visit to a branch of Ultracomida is an absolute must.   I went to the Narberth branch back in April/May.  Narberth is a small Pembrokeshire town which has seen a real renaissance in recent years by supporting the growth of specialist shops and championing local produce.  It pwns the county town, Haverfordwest, from an almighty height, and the town elders could well do with a trip down the A40 to see how it's done: think Ultracomida, guys, not Kingkebaburger!  There are a few delis in Narberth, but some of them have that whiff of tweeness about them that grates on me - I want a bit of knowledge, style and panache with my food, not preciousness.  Ultracomida is a breath of fresh air by having friendly, knowledgeable staff selling their range of Welsh, Spanish and French deliciousness.  Not a mix I'd immediately think of - years of school dinners involving greasy cawl and Welsh cakes that Tutankhamen would find a tad arid make it difficult for me to put 'Welsh' 'cuisine' and 'delicious' in the same sentence.  But Ultracomida could convert me.  Especially if they start stocking Oleum Flumen (hint, hint).  


Moving to the other side of the UK, ye olde garden of England has its foodie heroes.  Faversham is apparently a foodie dream, but I've not managed to get down there for a proper mooch about as yet...  Whitstable I've not fully explored as much as I could, but of course, if you are in Whitstable, then you would be a fool not to get a cup of cockles and winkles when strolling along the seafront.  Canterbury does quite well.  Generally the city centre is full of your usual chains, but there are some gems to keep an eye out for.  The restaurant of the Abode Hotel is run by Michael Caines, who is the chef's chef.  I had a superb evening of self-indulgence at the Abode by having one of their top rooms and chowing on down in their restaurant.  The staff were very attentive to the greedy guts in room 200 and kept a succession of amuse-bouches heading in my direction, along with a series of very delicious courses.  Locally sourced vension (Deer of Kent, not Kentish Deer) was a highlight in an outstanding meal.  Cafe Mauresque is also worth a mention in dispatches.  Great atmosphere, good food.  I shared tapas with about five others, and we had a substantial selection of Spanish and North African food.  All good, but my favourites - things like potatoes with harissa yoghurt - really had some zing.  The wine wasn't great, but otherwise the evening was good.  The Goods Shed farmers' market by Canterbury West station should be a great place to stop, but I think I've been there too late in the day to get the really good stuff.  There's also a cool Asian grocer around the corner from the station (I forget its name), based in what was once a petrol station.  Great range, good prices, and a purveyor of Chinese-style curry sauce, which I often get the joneses for.  And finally, there's a chap on the market on Fridays who sells a wide range of spices and herbs.  So if you are in Kent for a spot of cricket or cathedral-bothering, then keep an eye out for these places.  

The first post...

It's got to be said, food is the significant other in my life, given how much attention I give to it.  My relationship with food could have gone either way - whilst my parents are adventurous eaters, my maternal grandparents in particular were the meat and two veg-boiled-within-an-inch-of-its-life types.  For my grandparents, what was important to them was having sustenance at regular times.  Naturally - they were both from working-class families, and grew up during the lean times of the 1920s and 1930s.  They also endured 14 years of rationing during the Second World War and the reconstruction of Britain in the 1940s and 1950s.  Getting food in you was the priority - not faffing about with flavours and textures as I might.  My parents were the typical postwar baby boomers, who by the 1970s were eating their prawn cocktail and drinking Blue Nun, but also branching out into paella, curry and beyond.  I picked up their journey through food by getting myself down the motorway to London at the first opportunity to go to uni.  


There's something to be said for finding yourself young and impressionable and living with people from all around the world.  After passing out in a flamboyant and dramatic fashion in my uni canteen and a b*ll*cking from my GP about eating properly, I put a renewed effort into learning how to cook.  Gone was the Smash the consistency of Play-Doh, in was making stir-fries from scratch.  Add to this mix new friends from across the globe, and my interest was piqued.  Being friends with South Koreans led to the discovery of kimchi and seafood stews; a Columbian flatmate taught me how to make dulce de leche.  Greek friends introduced me to a world of moussaka and salads I had never even dreamed of.  When we were flush, we'd go out to Greenwich to the Mexican/Tex-Mex restaurants or the noodle bars; and we'd also rustle up stuff at home.  The die was set.


Although it's not the main area I research for my day job, the role of food and its consumption in modern Britain is something that fascinates me.  For many Britons today, food is a fuel, a means of getting yourself from A to B, from B to C and back home.  There are Britons who go hungry in order to feed their kids, and then other people who are malnourished because they don't know how to cook properly or what foods are better for you.  Then there are the likes of me, who have the luxury of living in a city which indulges their desires for satisfying a basic human need with trips to restaurants and buying all manner of weird and wonderful ingredients.  Food is more of a fetish for me - in my world, Observer Food Monthly is to me what top shelf magazines are to others.  Love him or loathe him, Jamie Oliver has done a good job in getting these issues back on the agenda.  And there's another story about globalisation and cultural tourism, in which we in the West are able to have exotic fruit and vegetables all year round and to pick from a wide array of culinary traditions as our whims dictate, perpetually tying people in poorer countries into the capitalist system.  Or just to be in the privileged position in which you can be shown new foods by people from other countries and cultures.  I'm not planning on unravelling this this evening in one little post, but it is a fascinating subject and one I'm going to return to, in amongst reflections on restaurants and what I've been putting together at home...