Invisible extras - Hawksmoor chips to service tips!

When and why is it acceptable to add service charge to a restaurant bill?

The subject of countless debates... Why should service be charged as an extra? Why isn't it covered by the restaurant staff's wages? How much should it be? Do the staff receive it? Is it better in cash? Why is it so much?
So here is my starter for ten...
1) 'Why is service charge extra?' We are a nation of non-tippers (unlike our friends in the US) so we find tipping very uncomfortable.  The easiest answer is to say 'it just is'. Restaurant staff work very hard and are paid very little. When you look at the margins that most restaurants work to, you see very quickly that there's not much left for wages. Service charge is the staff's incentive to do a good job.
2) 'How much should it be?' If service charge wasn't automatically included on your bill, how much would you honestly leave? More or less than if it had been included at 10-12.5%? At least if it's already included, it's a simple decision
3) 'I don't think the service was that great - why should I leave a tip?'
If you have bad service, you are entitled to not pay the service charge based on having a good reason for doing. But if you have decent/acceptable service, don't be stingy.
4) 'Should I leave it as cash?' 'Who gets the service charge?' There's no easy answer as this can vary enormously - always ask your waiter/waitress who will be exceptionally grateful to you.

When is service charge WRONG?
1) When you sit at a bar and someone passes you a glass/bottle/cocktail from the other side - that's just wrong and should be stopped with immediate effect!!!
2) When the prices are extortionate to start off with
3) When the service is dreadful - and I mean, really bad

Food for thought...

Restaurant of the Week
I had the pleasure of visiting Hawksmoor Seven Dials this week. I'd heard the hype and called to book a table on a Monday night for 8.30pm. Not a chance so a reservation was made for 9.30pm. Fortunately, true to form, my Italian friend was very late so it didn't make much difference BUT it did allow me to check out the bar which is beautiful!

The Bar

I earwigged the bar staff's conversation about the bar manager who knows more about cocktails than the rest of them put together (praise indeed as these guys knew their staff) and is obsessed by great glassware with lots of weird and wonderfully shaped glasses to suit both customers and the drinks. After a while, the chat became a little nerd like as they obsessed over cocktail trivia so I focused on a mint julep that used gin instead of standard bourbon and came in its own shaker. Delicious! When the Italian eventually arrived, I was forced to try their 'fancy gin cocktail' which they had kindly warned me was a little strong. And yes it was so that's the last photo I took!

The Food
We ordered our food quickly and picked a 900g Porterhouse steak. The food here isn't cheap. At £6.50 per 100g, this came to £58.50 and whilst it sounds big, there's a big bone in the middle which reduces your portion size to adequate as opposed to generous. The steak was beautiful but what really grated was the fact that everything else costs extra...from sauces like bearnaise or stilton at £2 a pop, through to triple cooked chips and buttered greens at £4. OK to the buttered greens but sauces and chips should be thrown in at prices like that.

A saving grace is that on Mondays, corkage is reduced to just £5 a bottle (usually £25) so we splashed out on a great bottle of red to make the most of the deal and thoroughly enjoyed it.

For once, we also had a pudding - peanut butter shortbread with salted caramel ice cream. I don't normally have puddings but this was AMAZING! And even better with a dessert wine and an apple brandy!

In summary
I still think that the rib of beef at Great Queen Street/Anchor & Hope is exceptionally good value...and it comes with chips. BUT the experience of Hawksmoor Seven Dials is definitely worth a visit...on a Monday when the corkage deal is on!

Dotting the i's and crossing the teas

I don't often venture out to the wild west of Chiswick and rarely visit landscaped gardens but this week made an exception to see the new cafe at Chiswick House

You're probably looking at the pic on the left thinking that I've uploaded the wrong photo but actually no, this is the new cafe that opened on 1 Feb 2010, designed by architects Caruso St John (who I am assured are big in the world of architects) and is run by Company of Cooks

What's great is that it has plenty of seating, inside and out, and even outside under a jutting piece of roof to keep you sheltered from the elements. And combined with the surrounding gardens and free (yes really) parking, it's an unexpectedly good location.

The cafe has a simple food offer with good value stews (just £5-£5.50) and toasted sandwiches leading the way with a good selection of British produce sprinkled across the menu. I thought the stew might be just gravy and bits of carrot at that price so was pleasantly surprised to see a good mix of chunks of chicken, big shallots and  other veg. Gravy could have been a bit thicker though to make it less 'soupy'.

So everything was going swimmingly well for Chiswick House cafe until the fateful moment we ordered a cup of tea. You would expect such a cafe to offer a good range of afternoon teas and to take a bit of pride in what they do but no, the pictures speak for themselves - this was British tea served at its very worst with the cheapest teapots, grubby teacups and soggy teabags. At least they didn't put out UHT milk portions.

I'm really quite impressed at the teapot as it's been a while since I've since anything quite so revolting.

They must have spent a fortune on the architects - surely they can get some decent teapots!

So I'm on a mission to do something about the state of tea in London - and I'll tell you some more over the coming weeks...

From black gold to golden goodness!

I WON TIME OUT LETTER OF THE WEEK THIS WEEK!!!

And midsummer's day came and went, as ever in sub zero gloomy weather and prompting the predictable comment 'can you believe it's midsummer?'

And in the same way as England's footballers each get paid the same amount as the GDP of the smaller nations that beat them and in the same way there's a near first round coup at Wimbledon and in the same way we're all going to be stung by huge tax rises at today's budget, 'yes, we can believe that it's midsummer!

n.b. why didn't we set a deal with the England team that for every World Cup match they fail to win, they pay back some of their extortionate unjustified earnings to refill the nation's empty coffers...

Midsummer also marks the end of the British asparagus season so...

This week's Food of the Week is Oil (...and not the BP variety)

Did you know 95% of the world's olive trees are found in the mediterranean region and Spain accounts for over one third of the world's olive oil production?

If you ever travel to Andalucia, drive through the area close to Baena and you'll be blown away by a polka dot frenzy of olive trees as far as the eye can see in every direction. Alternatively, the best olive trees I've ever seen were in Puglia (the heel of Italy and biggest region for italian olive oil production) where the trees are ancient and gnarly, looking as though they're about to come to life!

Extra Virgin Olive Oil doesn't make you fat

True or false?! I don't have clinical evidence to prove this but I was once told by a very slim Sicilian Mamma who was merrily sloshing oil over every foodtype possible that I shouldn't worry as good oil goes straight through you and doesn't make you fat. Fast food and processed food make you fat.

I'll leave the math to you!

There are huge numbers of olive oil varieties - from different olive types to different methods of extraction to just basic industrialised olive oil made up of any old olive. The million dollar question always remains...

How much should you spend and is it worth it?

...and as always the answer is 'depends'

For day to day use in cooking, I think it's fine to have a good quality cheap-ish oil that's not specialist

For salads, or dishes where you will really taste the oil, I think you should spend a bit more and have an oil which adds to the dish rather than takes a supporting role

How much you spend is up to you but £12-15 for one litre of excellent olive oil is a good investment as you'll only use a little at a time.

Where can I find good olive oil?

Taste is subjective so you need to try different oils. Personally, I like Brindisa's choice of Nunez de Prado oil (helped by the fact my big sister helped the old men put the labels on the bottles) but my favourite by a long way is Giuseppe at Borough Market's Calabrian extra virgin olive oil.

Beautiful oil, beautiful flavours from varieties that I've never seen anywhere else and oil that is clear in warm temperatures and cloudy and thick in midwinter. Put this oil on anything and you'll love it AND it's about £12/£13 a bottle!

Giuseppe has funny hair and a strong Italian accent. He is passionate about the food from his home town selling all sorts of beautiful produce from n'duja to wild oregano to jars of olives so jampacked with herbs they ooze the wild aromas of Southern Italy.

Sometimes Giuseppe disappears for a siesta but you'll probably find him under the counter of his stall!

Normally, you can find him in the Jubilee section of Borough Market on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Note to tree huggers
If you want to reduce your food miles, try RAPESEED oil that is produced in Britain. Great for frying anything as it has a really high smoke point (better than olive oil) with lots of health benefits and now becoming more widely available. I haven't found one that is as tasty as Giuseppe's for use in salads yet but I'm sure it won't be long

Note to gourmets

Walnut oil (France) or Pumpkin seed oil (Austria) are beautiful oils with amazing flavours that make something really really special. They're expensive though but you can find walnut oil off the side of the road in Dordogne (see pic) or pumpkin seed oil cheap as chips from the supermarkets in Austria if you have holidays planned!!!




Restaurant of the Week

No restaurant of the week this week. It's World Cup and Wimbledon so everyone's staying in!

GOOD LUCK CLAIRE AND FEDERICO WHO ARE GETTING MARRIED THIS SATURDAY!!!

Just one Cornetto...

I'm so disappointed that I missed out on Tyrrells Chips political potato chip flavours for the General Election.

Amazingly, rhubarb and waffle flavour wasn't on the list but a competition between Cameron’s Crunchies (Eton Mess), Gordon’s Gourmet (Scotch egg and brown sauce) and Clegg’s Cocktail (hummous and roasted veg) would probably NOT have resulted in a coalition government!


This week's Food of the Week is Ice Cream

so being topical, I'll guess appropriate favourite flavours for the aforesaid three musketeers

Gordon would go for golden butterscotch flavour (if he doesn't sell it off cheap first!)
Dave probably wouldn't get any as Mrs C will scoff his true blueberry scoops during a pregnant craving
Nick Clegg will struggle to choose between Gordon's and David's and then add in some Seville Orange sorbet (to keep his Mrs C happy) with Dave's true blueberry 

Who first had the idea to make ice cream?

According to the ice cream website, the Chinese got in there first again somewhere between 618 and 950 A.D.  It didn't get to Europe until 1503 where it was seen as a chemist's party trick (eat your heart out Heston!) and didn't get used as a sweet delicacy until 1660 when it hit Naples, Florence and Paris. Us Brits were close behind with it being first recorded at a Royal Feast in 1671. And the Americans were last, not tasting the stuff until 1800!
So the Italians started singing ice cream songs early on and travelled in their gondolas to Northern Europe where there was a lot of ice to be had. Huge ice house pits were built to store Norwegian ice near Kings Cross and you can still see them at The London Canal Museum. And at some point, the Cornetto was born.

Where can I find good ice cream?

Tricky. My favourite ice cream in the world is Chocolate Extra Noir and Pistachio from GROM based in Turin and I've never found anything to match it.

Closer to home, good places to go include Marine Ices - a legend in ice cream parlours that has been at its current location in Chalk Farm since 1947; Amorino on Old Compton Street is pretty good too but the coolest (!) is Freggo on Swallow Street (just off Regent Street, Piccadilly end) an Argentinian style late night gelateria where you can make yourself sick on very sweet dulce de leche ice creams or malbec and red fruit sorbets in a very swish environment

On the move, look out for Jude's ice cream with great flavours and the Choc Star van that travels the country laden with frozen treats.

Restaurant of the Week

Bincho Yakitori on Old Compton Street, Soho
http://www.bincho.co.uk/

Despite feeling I was in an episode of Tenko as I walked through yet another pair of Japanese curtains, Bincho is a very cool, modern and simple Japanese eatery. Bincho is a Japanese word for the finest charcoal to be used on a barbecue - apt given that it specialises in grilled skewers! It's a great place to pick lots of small sharing dishes ranging from the seven samurai of 7 types of mini kebab through to more substantial offers of tofu (I was forced to try it by a veggie friend and grudgingly admit that it was actually very nice!), all accompanied by a great range of sake. And perfectly located in central Soho! What more could you want?
Nearest tube is Leicester Square - expect to pay £20 per head although the pre theatre menu is a steal at just £10

Muskets and Spears

It's my birthday! Well it was on Saturday actually and I spent it climbing up two beacons in Brecon without a cloud in the sky - a rare experience. I also had a conversation with someone who does Civil War re-enactments and had just bought a new musket. Always wondered who does those things.

So this week's Food of the Week ISN'T cheese!!!

The weather has finally warmed up and everything green is sprouting which means that the first of the English asparagus is now appearing in the shops n.b. make sure you buy British and not the inferior Spanish or Peruvian options!

So this week's Food of the Week IS asparagus!!!

Supposedly the highlight of the foodie calendar, the asparagus season usually lasts from St Georges Day through to midsummer but I've given you a week's notice to start preparing. In England, we eat the green asparagus but in continental Europe (particularly France, Germany and Netherlands) they eat the thicker white asparagus (n.b. ours is nicer). They eat it with tons of hollandaise sauce, pancakes, hard boiled eggs and ham. For those countries, sales of hollandaise sauce go crazy for two months - just because of the asparagus season or 'Spargelgala' .

Back in Blighty, we treat our asparagus spears like precious jewels and tend to eat them with parma ham or with butter and parmesan. Maybe even in a risotto with fresh summer peas as they come into season.

However you eat your asparagus, two things are certain.

1) it's very good for you as it's low in calories and has lots of vitamins
2) it's a diuretic and within 15-30 minutes of consumption, it makes your pee smell. Now some people say that this only affects some of the population BUT I HAVE CHECKED with Wikipedia and apparently this phenomenon affects EVERYONE but only 22% of the population have the ability to smell the  'odorous compounds'. Now you know!

Where can I find good British asparagus?

The home of British asparagus is in the Vale of Evesham. That's just round the corner from Broadway in the Cotswolds. The asparagus festival kicks off on 23 April with lots of events in May and June. You can be involved in everything from an asparagus auction to an asparagus run to a trip on an asparabus. You can even have your fortune predicted by an asparagancer and I expect there will be plenty of Morris Dancing too

See http://www.britishasparagusfestival.org/ for more details and if you need a good B&B then go to my big sister's place just down the road at http://www.oldstationhousebroadway.co.uk/

n.b. If you want to get asparagus in London, I suggest you visit the biodynamic stall at Borough and Maltby Street markets where you'll find excellent produce that hasn't seen a chemical but has been cultivated in harmony with the cycle of the moon and natural fertilisers.

And to go with your asparagus, get delicious parma ham from the affable and informative Philip in Borough and now Covent Garden market on a Saturday, and excellent parmesan from Alison in the Jubilee Market section of Borough

Restaurant of the Week

One place you are always guaranteed good seasonal British produce and who will definitely have loads of asparagus is...

The Anchor & Hope, The Cut, Waterloo

The Anchor & Hope is a sister pub to The Eagle in Farringdon and Great Queen Street in Covent Garden, all of which are great places to go.

The Anchor & Hope is different from the others as it isn't a beautiful pub from the outside. When you enter, you find two sections; the drinking area and the eating area. You can't book so to get a table in the eating area, you have to run in at 6pm and put your name down on the list with all the other pre theatre eaters. Alternatively, you can put your name down for around 7.30/8pm when the theatre crowd all disappear off but whatever you do, expect to wait a little bit. It's worth it as the food is very fresh, reasonably priced and very well prepared in a casual and unpretentious environment

You can also eat in the bar area if you can find a space. They also have lots of good wines in carafes which means you can have a bit of good white wine to start followed by a bit of good red wine without having a bottle of each. Very clever.

Anchor & Hope is very close to Waterloo tube/station and will probably set you back around £35 per head

 

Le Grand Fromage

Week 12 - sorry no post last week as I was a bit busy


This week's Food of the Week is more of a Food Shop of the Week!

La Fromagerie on Moxon Street, off Marylebone High Street, is [to everyone's great surprise] a cheese shop. But it also sells beautiful charcuterie, chocolates, cakes, wines, butters and just about every 'nice' food thing under the sun. You can even have lunch or parties there
So what's the difference?

Unlike a standard deli, it sells a few really good things and there is practically no deli clutter of gimmicky things that no one really wants hanging around. It's all about quality. It also has a tasting cafe where you can choose examples of the foods that are on sale in the shop.
Be prepared for one very strange thing though! The cheese area is kept closed by a sliding glass door and you're asked to make an orderly queue (I wonder if a Brit is responsible for this novel idea) to take your turn inside the inner sanctum.

Where can I find La Fromagerie?

Moxon Street just off Marylebone High St. Helpfully it's next door to Ginger Pig butchers and round the corner from the very nice Sunday farmers market (10am-2pm) so there's plenty of other things to see



Restaurant of the Week

The Providores, Marylebone High Street (a short walk from Baker St or Bond St tubes)
http://www.theprovidores.co.uk/
So whilst you're in the area, go and visit The Providores. It's one of the few restaurants that made fusion work and produces great twists on Pacific Rim food so it's really quite different from other restaurants. My favourite is the downstairs tapa room which is all about casual dining on benches or little tables. I've never made it to Sunday brunch here but have been told that it's excellent and well worth a short queue.

Upstairs is more about fine dining with white tablecloths - great if you're looking to impress someone!

The genius behind Providores is Peter Gordon, a very nice New Zealander who produced the most amazing canapes at a young chef event I attended a long time ago. I was fortunate to be talking to a larger than life chef who had a great knack for attracting the canapes over to our end of the room and it goes down as one of my best food experiences!!!

If you're in the area, just find a reason to pop in and you will be sure to have a great meal and you won't break the bank as it's about £20-40 per head

n.b. one of the founding members of The Providores, Anna Hansen, has gone on to open The Modern Pantry in Farringdon where you will find more fusion style cuisine..

Is Life Ever Fair?

Week 9

Finally, it's stopped raining and the world is a beautiful place.

Or is it? We're now in the middle of Fairtrade fortnight (22 Feb - 7 March) - a topic that is so important yet so often misunderstood.

Fairtrade has become the generic word for produce that 'gives back' to the producer. Or should that just be 'fairly traded'? Other certifications include Rainforest Alliance which is perceived to be about saving the rainforest (take another look at what they do!) and organic apparently means no chemicals added. So what's biodynamic? What's Soil Association? What's Red Tractor? What's Freedom Food vs Free Range?

We've all come to look at different seals as 'safe' badges without really understanding what they mean. Are they all good for the producer? Maybe. Are they all sustainable? No. Is one better than the other? Depends.

Is it better to have a Fairtrade biscuit made in Malawi than a flapjack from a small producer in Kent?
Is it better to pay a fixed premium for a product that is in little demand or to encourage farmers to diversify?

Are organic green beans from Kenya better than non-organic green beans from the farm down the road?

Ultimately, it's about knowing where your food comes from and understanding what all these certifications really mean - and no one is making it particularly easy. Exploitation isn't the answer. Neither is shipping products thousands of miles when you can get better from round the corner. And ultimately, if it's not commercially sustainable, then there's no point at all. Food for thought...

So, on a slightly different note this week's Food of the Week is...

Meat!

It's taken me a lifetime to work it out but finally I've realised that
a) good meat usually comes from a [good] butcher

b) it's better to buy hunks of meat rather than specific cuts because it's much cheaper and less likely to have been interfered with.

Ginger Pig is my favourite butcher of the moment. It's not just about pork (although that's where it all started) and you will find all meats from traditional breeds as well as charcuterie products in their shop. It's always busy so there's a big turnover of meat which assures me of its freshness (vs other butchers who have little on show and get things out the freezer). Ginger Pig's meat is tender and full of flavour and everyone notices the difference when they eat it.

So what's the difference?

Ginger Pig refuses to feed their livestock bought in artificial foods containing unnecessary proteins. Instead they grow their own barley, wheat, oats etc which is fed to the animals. Because everything is natural, the animals grow slower and are slaughtered between one and three months later than those reared on industrial farms.

Overall, Ginger Pig oversees every element of the rearing process from planting the seeds for the fodder, through to breeding, feeding, slaughtering and butchering right through to selling the product in their shops, and apparently no one else does that in the UK.

Best Way to Serve

Depends on what you're eating! Their butterfly lamb chops are beautiful, as is their beef fillet (great for a carpaccio) and their ham (pinker than any other ham I've seen!)

Where can I buy them and what's it going to do to my bank balance?

Price: tbc according to what you purchase

Ginger Pig has shops at Marylebone, Hackney, Waterloo (at Greensmiths), Borough Market and Pickering in North Yorkshire

www.thegingerpig.co.uk

Restaurant of the Week

Sacred Cafe

This week's choice is Sacred Cafe, with branches on Ganton Street and Kingly Court (near Carnaby Street), Westfield and Torrington Street.

It's actually more of a bar than a restaurant but the reasons for including it are as follows:

Why is it good?

It's possibly the best place for a decent cup of tea in London that won't cost the earth! Apparently it's Antipodean style.

As well as fresh brewed ice teas and the usual chai lattes, Sacred Cafe has a range of long leaf loose teas as this is a teabag free zone. All served in a 'so chintzy it's cool' teapot!

Ways to make your dough last longer

Week 8

Firstly, I stand corrected that a pancake is generally tossed and not flipped. Unfortunately tossing just didn't sound right at the time so I stuck to flipping. Hope you understand.

In preparation for the Great British Bake Off which is soon to hit our screens, I have taken up baking (much safer than flipping or tossing) my own bread. It's very cheap (about 60p a big loaf) but so far my results would be better used as weapons of mass destruction. So until I've cracked the light and fluffy thing, I'm happy to pay for the privilege of having it ready made so this week's Food of the Week is...

Bread!

For years and years I'd been happily buying supermarket bread until one day when I splashed out on some bread from The Flour Station.

Initially I thought it was really expensive. But then I realised that I didn't need to eat as much of it as supermarket loaves because it had substance to it rather than big bubbles of air. It also tasted really good (rather than of air) and remarkably, lasted a lot longer.

I've since discovered that The Flour Station was born out of Jamie Oliver's Fifteen project and was designed to bring new standards of baking to London. Which I would say they have achieved.

So what's the difference?

Their breads are sourdough or 'levain' and use a massive 24 hour long fermentation process with wild yeast (clearly where I've been going wrong as packet yeasts state just 30 minutes fermentation). I'm a big fan of their multigrain bread but recently tried their rye bread which is delicious - apparently their master baker is Polish so knows what he's doing with rye. Whatever your taste, they have loads of different breads so if you normally buy supermarket bread, try one and make your own decision!

n.b. they use some organic ingredients but focus on locally sourced so aren't always 100% organic. What is important is that they don't use anything artificial so you know it's good for you.

Best Way to Serve

With butter! Also good with jam, soup, cheese, scrambled eggs and just about anything else.

Where can I buy Flour Station bread and what's it going to do to my bank balance?

Price: £2.50-£3.50 for a big loaf

Flour Station is sold at a number of markets across London including, Wimbledon Farmers Market (Saturdays), Queens Park (Sundays), Parliament Hill (Saturdays), Borough Market (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) and the new Clapham Market (Venn Street, by Clapham Common on Fridays and Saturdays)

It's also available through Selfridges, John Lewis Food Hall, selected London based Waitrose stores and a number of delis

Restaurant of the Week

Dehesa

This week's choice is Dehesa, a charcuterie and tapas bar inspired by the cuisine of Spain and Italy (but more Spain than Italy in my opinion). It's website says that it is the sister restaurant to Salt Yard in Fitzrovia, offering sharing dishes served in a relaxed environment
www.dehesa.co.uk

Why is it good?
1) Great location - just off Carnaby Street so Oxford Circus tube is a stone's throw away
2) They have an unusual menu that mixes the best of Italian and Spanish food and wine from stuffed courgette flowers to fino sherry to iberico ham.
3) It's around £20-£40 for a meal so you get great food in a really central location for a reasonable price

Originally you couldn't book tables but this has now changed which helps as it's not the biggest of restaurants and was often packed out. It's intimate but you can also end up sharing tables so check when you book to ensure your table is suited to the occasion you are planning.

Hot & Cheesy

Week 6

Is it me or is retro the one thing that never goes out of fashion? From Abba to flares to Dynasty style shoulderpads, it's always the rage. Depending on how long her new husband will last, maybe Katie Price's next target will be Peter Stringfellow, so she too can be on trend. Do we care?!

And apparently the retro thing is happening in food too. From the ubiquitous prawn cocktail (slightly updated to include crayfish now) to the comfort food of fish fingers (but this time made of real fish) to the nostalgia of jam roly poly, it's all back in vogue.

So in keeping with that retro theme, and in response to a request, this week's Food of the Week is...

Cheese Fondue!

For anyone lucky enough to be able to go skiing, this is a fairly predictable menu choice. Apparently it was also fairly predictable on dinner party menus in the 70's (as was throwing your keys in the middle of the table) and is back in fashion once more (key swapping non-obligatory). So dust off those skewers and get melting.

Like anything, the final result will depend greatly on the ingredients that go in and the official recipe for a fondue is a combined weight of 600g made up of three Swiss cheeses (important to be authentic), about half a bottle of white wine (leaves plenty for the cook), a bit of cornflour and a few tablespoons of kirsch. Plus some pepper, garlic and accompaniments (Abba compulsory). Full recipe below



Three really good Swiss cheeses to use in a proper cheese fondue are gruyere (6 parts), vacherin fribourgois (2 parts) and bergkase (2 parts). The best gruyere that I have found in London is at KaseSwiss. With the best balance of salty/sweet/creamy/nutty-ness, I am officially addicted. And after two weeks' additional storage due to snow delayed flights, friends still raved over the vacherin fribourgois from the same supplier.

n.b. for those who can't get to London, Waitrose's gruyere is acceptable - it's just not nearly as good as this one!

So what's the difference?

KaseSwiss sources the best quality traditional cheeses from Switzerland by working with small owner operated cheese makers. Because of this, the flavours are much more distinct than those of cheeses large supermarkets can source on a large scale.

Really, you have to go and try some and then you'll know what I mean!

Best Way to Serve

Once your fondue is bubbling, serve with pickled baby onions, gherkins and chunks of white bread to dip into the cheese

Health warning! Don't drink water with fondue as it doesn't mix well with the cheese. Stick to the white wine! (A Swiss person told me that)

Where can I buy them and what's it going to do to my bank balance?



Price: £25 for 1kg
You can also get a fondue mix so you don't have any of the faff which costs £12.

KaseSwiss is in the Jubilee part of Borough Market on Thursdays. Fridays and Saturdays

Restaurant of the Week

Brindisa

This week's choice is Brindisa, now at three locations at London Bridge (Tapas Brindisa), Soho (Tierra Brindisa) and South Kensington (Casa Brindisa).
www.brindisa.com



You may recognise the Brindisa name as the makers of La Chinata paprika which I mentioned a few weeks ago. Their restaurants are great - don't waste your money on big commercial chains when you can eat here!



I've only eaten at the London Bridge branch but everyone I know who has eaten at the others says that they are even better so I would have no hesitation in recommending them. Cost-wise it's medium spend at about £30 per head

Why is it good?
1) The food is fresh, you can see it being made/carved/chopped and it's a great atmosphere
2) They have interesting and more authentic tapas than any chain could offer
3) They have a good selection of wines by the glass

A must is the pimientos del padron (watch out for the 1 in 15 which blows your socks off), the tortilla and any of the hams.

n.b. you can't book at London Bridge

Fondue
Cut a clove of garlic in half and wipe around the inside of the fondue pot
Add the white wine and heat, then gradually add the grated cheese. Mix some cornstarch and kirsch into a paste and add in slowly.
Keep stirring and add more wine if the mixture gets too thick.