Kiraku - Ealing Common

I love living in Ealing – not just for its lovely parks, down-to-earth people and great pubs - but for its plethora of superb Japanese restaurants. We really are spoiled for choice. 

We’ve got cheap and cheerful Hare & Tortoise for a quick, healthy takeaway; Okawari for authentic and inexpensive Japanese canteen classics, such as really good Teriyaki, and Atariya for some seriously excellent sushi and sashimi. It’s Kiraku though, just opposite Ealing Common Station, that stands out to me as somewhere really special that’s worth a trip out West.

Kiraku is a friendly, bright place run by Japanese sisters who take pride in customer service. Although food can sometimes take a while getting to your table, after the chorus of "Irasshaimase!" when you arrive and the warm smile from the waitress, you really won’t mind a bit.

The menu at Kiraku can seem a bit daunting at first glance. There’s a huge number of dishes to try, many of which you would be hard-pressed to find in the average high street Japanese place. This is definitely the place to try something different from your regular katsu curry, yakisoba or ‘sushi set A’.

On my recent visit, I went for the salt-grilled salmon with a sake onigiri (rice ball), a delicious miso soup and the most amazing Nasu Dengaku (grilled aubergine with sweet miso).

Oh my GOD that aubergine was good. One half was heavily coated in black miso, the other half was daubed in white miso - the latter of which is so sweet and caramel-like, but still rich with umami. I honestly don’t think you get depth of flavour like this in any cuisine outside the Far East.

The salmon was treated like a piece of pork belly – it’s skin scored and salted and grilled until blistered and crispy. The pink flesh was yielding and pleasingly fatty. Combined with generous rice ball with yet more salmon and a strip of chewy nori, I was very satisfied indeed.

M stuck to sushi as usual and also took a chance on the tempura, which I find is almost always bad in the UK – either not crisp enough or too greasy. Here it was standing so proudly on the plate, you could tell the prawns and vegetables would be perfectly cooked and the batter bubbly and crunchy.

Central London has some fabulous Japanese restaurants (Dinings is a favourite with me for a special occasion) but Kiraku offers a very authentic and accessible taste of Japan AND it’s right in my own backyard!
http://kirakulondon.wordpress.com/
8 Station Parade
Uxbridge Rd
W5 3LD

Dinner at Art of the Table - Wallingford, Seattle

Our final blow-out dinner at the end of our two-week tour of the Pacific Northwest was at Art of the Table, which offered a truly unique dining experience. I’d never been anywhere with such a relaxed approach and an informal setting that served such exquisite food.

The restaurant’s website urges you to take the full nine-course tasting menu with wine flight option and who were we to argue? After all, this place started life as a supper club run by brothers Dustin and Derek Ronspies, so it seems fitting to let them take control of what we eat. It also felt like we were eating in an extension of chefs’ living room, which added to the supper-club atmosphere.

It all started out with a 'hidden course' of cured local salmon and a crisp cava. This course was enough to make me stupidly excited, so much that I was actually barely able to sit still.

Sensing my anticipation, our incredibly affable waiter quickly followed with a refreshing golden beet and melon gazpacho - a gorgeous combination of sweet and tart flavours, set off with chili oil and a chive crème fraiche.This was paired with a beautifully fragrant Gewurztraminer from Oregon.

The next course was The Big Salad - a wonderful salad course of heirloom tomatoes, chevre, olives, rocket puree and other yummy fresh things. Divine.

The Big Salad - it was very dark...

The dish that followed was described as a ‘flan’, which is the term commonly used for a set custard in the US. The corn-based savoury custard was topped off with a deeply flavoured lobster mushroom broth and a parsley Parmesan pesto. This was an extremely interesting dish, but mine was slightly lacking due to the absence of the smoked pork consommé, which, I’m told, really made the dish.

The fish course was the star of the show for me. The wild king salmon was served with a ratatouille, olive-oil poached tomatoes, olive puree and preserved lemon vinaigrette. The salmon in this part of the US is by far the best I’ve ever eaten. It has a dense texture and a mild flavour, making it very different from the flabby farmed fillets I often cook at home.

The King Salmon

Other courses included a haddock and dill fishcake with homemade pickles and rye bread and a moist olive-oil cake served with poached peaches and huckleberry compote.

It’s hard to criticise a place like Art of the Table, and this could be why it currently has 100 per cent on its Tripadvisor reviews. The restaurant's ethos is clear and it never compromises on its mantra of local and sustainable. These are terms bandied around a lot here in the UK, but these guys really prove that it’s possible to have ethical sourcing dictate a menu and still offer the ultimate fine dining experience.

Art of the Table
1054 N. 39th Street
Seattle, WA 98103
www.artofthetable.net

On a ‘Mission’ to Find a Great Veggie Burrito in London

I recently ate several really great burritos at End of the Road Festival, where the lovely people at Luardo's had a van. I ate one every day I was there because I quickly realised their burritos were unique in that they were incredibly tasty, not too unhealthy and you could eat them one-handed (leaving the other hand free for beer!). They reignited my love of the burrito in all its drippy, oozy loveliness and I really couldn’t wait to get my mitts on an ultimate Mission-style burrito when we visited San Francisco on our recent road trip.

I had ONE opportunity to get a burrito while in San Fran and it needed to be good. I spent far more time researching the best places than I did actually eating the thing. I chose The Little Chihuahua Mexican Restaurant just off Haight Street and I wasn’t disappointed. Check out their menu.

I went for the fried plantain and black bean burrito. This burrito weighed as much as a newborn baby and there was no way I was going to do it justice. Nevertheless, I found a spot where I could eat without fear of drippage and tucked in. I managed about half, minus a few larger bits of the plantain, which were a little too much like plain old bananas for my tastes. Weird. 

A good spot for some quality burrito time

Since getting back to London, I’ve had a go at making my own burrito at home, with some success. It’s difficult to get tortillas that are big enough to keep everything in place and I didn’t make the essential watery pico de gallo, which left my slightly sad burrito wanting for some depth of flavour that hot chilli sauce alone couldn't deliver.

So...the next step is to try to find the ultimate London burrito experience. I’m going to start with the following list from Time Out and will report back on my findings. 

Blue Water Café – Vancouver

Having spent the past two weeks travelling up the Pacific coast of the US gorging ourselves on some of the freshest, most sustainable seafood in the world, the pressure was on to avoid disappointment north of the border. We needn’t have feared though, as Vancouver was eager to defend its foodie reputation  - serving us up some of the best seafood we’ve ever eaten.

The Blue Water Café is a hell of a lot smarter than it sounds. There’s nothing café-ish about it at all. In fact it’s fine dining all the way, with lovely soft lighting, glam clientele and a perfect view of both the open kitchen and raw bar chefs from every table.

 The menu was quite typical of many we saw in the Pacific Northwest – divided into raw bar dishes, smaller starter-style plates and larger main courses. We ordered a selection of raw bar dishes as starters, including generous sesame-encrusted chunks of local albacore tuna and torch-seared hamachi with jalepenos, ginger and soy. Both types of fish had the subtle flavour and firm texture that only comes with the very freshest fish. The addition of simple Japanese seasonings (and the little leftfield heat coming from the slithers of jalapenos) made these dishes really sing.

M’s main was miso-glazed Sablefish (or black cod to non-Canadians) with Japanese veggies and a delicate dashi-based broth. The cod was incredibly soft and the unmistakable caramel-miso flavour was evident through the entire gorgeous chunk of white fish.

My scallop dish was much more generous than you would see in the UK – when do you ever really even see scallops as a main course option over here? – They were served as perfectly caramelized as the bitter-sweet endive that accompanied them. A very memorable meal indeed.

www.bluewatercafe.net

1095 Hamilton Street

Vancouver

BC, Canada