Taberna do Mercado

Taberna do Mercado
Old Spitalfields Market
107B Commercial St
London E1 6BG

Call it brilliant planning or poor planning, J and I arranged to meet at this Portuguese restaurant a few days before I was going to Lisbon for six days. So I got a taste of what Portuguese cuisine is when interpreted by a chef. The half moons of prawn rissois were found everywhere in Lisbon, though only one place had a version that was as good as Taberna do Mercado's. We also had cheese (Quinta de Veigainha, Terrincho DOP), cured meats (Chouriço vinho tinto), tinned scallops with brown butter and walnuts (oh bejeesus I need to try the whole tinned seafood menu), a salt cod, tomato and bread salad (pictured above), the beef prego (a sandwich with prawn paste and wild garlic, also found everywhere in Lisbon) and finally a stunning cake for dessert, the olive oil Pão de Ló. So stuffed. So good. I want to go back for their pasteis de nata as I got a little addicted to having those for breakfast while we were away.

Morito

32 Exmouth Market
London
EC1R 0

More fun with A's mum! Since the sun was shining and we were thinking about a little snack before a late dinner, A and I brought her to Morito for a few tapas and an afternoon drink. We selected four dishes: salt cod croquetas, mussel empanadilla, crispy aubergine with miel honey and potatos with chilli and cilantro sauce. All of it was lovely but the potatoes were a real revelation. I don't know what they do to those things, but they were perfectly cooked and the verdant green sauce on top made me wish for a basket of bread to mop up every last drop. I will be back and I am always choosing Morito over Moro, no matter what anyone else says!

Camino

3 Varnishers Yard
The Regent Quarter
Kings Cross, London
N1 9FD

P and I have been trying to go to Bar Pepito, the sherry bar next to Camino, for ages. Alas, when we made a Monday night date, we found out that Bar Pepito is closed on Mondays. We consoled ourselves with a sherry at Camino instead, but I'm sure we'll be back on a non-Monday to try some more. The nice thing about Camino is that it's a restaurant as well, though, so we settled in for some tapas feasting. After greedily ordering chorizo, txigorki, arroz negro con calamares, fritos mixtos and some lamb skewers, we started in on a lovely bottle of tempranillo. I think this arroz negro was my favorite - everything was well done, though the chorizo was a wee bit too greasy and salty. The danger with tapas is that the cost adds up quite quickly - still, for an evening with lovely company, Camino fit the bill.

El Rincon

244 Deansgate
Manchester M3 4BQ

A quick weekend in Manchester allowed us to try El Rincon, which H and G had booked for our large group. We went with the party menu which resulted in a quick stream of tapas being brought out. The picture above is disgusting (sorry) but the food was pretty good. Standouts for me were the meatballs and patatas bravas. There was a really odd tuna mayonnaise dish though that I found dubious, and the fried calamari was too rubbery and greasy. I managed to spend most of dinner talking with C about how we both have problems with knowing when to stop eating, especially when there continues to be food in front of us, and what do you know, I left El Rincon way too full. This is primarily because after all of the tapas, an enormous serving of paella was brought out to tip us all over the edge. If you go, may I recommend: 1) not waiting until you are starving to eat, 2) if you are ordering the party menu, order it without paella rather than with; and 3) going with a smaller group and maybe ordering a la carte rather than doing the party menu.

Navarro's

67 Charlotte Street
London W1T 4PF

Navarro's was the restaurant chosen for E's 30th birthday celebration - about 20 of us fit around a large table in their downstairs room. M did a great job of organizing and arranged for us to just have a load of tapas brought around for a set price per head. The picture above is probably only about 1/3 or 1/4 of the different dishes that ended up on our tables - from left, going clockwise, there are prawns (one of my favorite dishes, these tasted fresh and were cooked perfectly), garlic mushrooms (yum), tortilla Española, (passable), patatas bravas (good, but could have been crispier and spicier, I think) and chorizo (always good). Before dishes came out they had already set the table with cheeses, olives and roasted pepper salads (surprisingly delicious, I think the peppers were marinated in a vinegary dressing). There were also skewers of grilled chicken and lamb that were presented in fantastic stands, hanging over plates of vegetables and roasted potatoes. I also really liked the deep-fried calamari, which was tender and in a crisp batter. All in all, a lively and tasty dinner that got us all ready for more partying!

Laguardia, Spain (Part 2)

Lunch at Bar Velar (37 el Santa Engracia, Laguardia) consisted of flamenquines, bocadillo con lomo, tortilla de patata (pictured) and something else unidentifiable - we were just pointing at tapas that looked good. Cheap but a little greasy.

After a siesta we headed out to Marques de Riscal, in the neighboring town of Elciego, an enormous winery attached to a hotel designed by Frank Gehry, hence the crazy twisting metallic shapes. Unfortunately the tour, which costs €10 per person, was in Spanish (oops!). Still, we got a sense of how big this place was and enjoyed the tasting of the 2008 Rueda Verdejo (white wine) and the 2004 Reserva. I never associated Rioja with white wine before but this one was great - really refreshing with some tropical fruit flavors.

Back in Laguardia, we popped into a bar right in front of the church of St. Mary for a couple of glasses of Crianza - the 2006 Decenio and the 2006 Ruiz de Vinaspre. Both were good but we preferred the Decenio.

We later stumbled upon a fabulous wine bar and cellar called Entrevinas y Olivas (12 Cuatro Cantones, Laguardia) where we had some of the best olive oil and bread I have ever tasted. We also tried three wines - the 2004 Finca Valpiedra Reserva, the 2005 Esencias de Varal and our favorite of the three - the one our friendly waitress recommended - the 2006 Cantos de Valpiedre.

We headed back to Mayor de Migueloa to tour their wine cellars. It was in Spanish, though we got a quick English summary afterwards, and we tasted their Joven and Crianza (again).

We had dinner upstairs at the hotel restaurant, where we ordered a bottle of wine, and had our other funny encounter with Mama. She told me I had to order the croquetas as a starter. After some cheek pinching and hugging I agreed. Mama came back with wine, gesturing about how good it was, but when I looked at the label more closely I realized she had given us a totally different bottle (2001 Imperial Reserva) from the one we ordered. At this point, we were loving the wine so much we didn't kick up any fuss, and then the croquetas came out and they were a revelation - I think these are the first proper croquetas I've ever had, with creamy, ham speckled centers and an incredibly thin, crunchy crust. The ox entrecote with blue cheese sauce was delicious and the Riojan stew of chorizo and potatoes was comforting and hearty - this is probably one of my favorite meals in recent memory. The atmosphere in the restaurant was perfect and after we finished dinner, a neighboring table of Spaniards who had also been on the wine tour with us invited us to join them, although conversation was a bit tricky as only one of the four of them spoke English. When we checked out we got a bit of a surprise as the wine that Mama had substituted cost way more than we expected. Still, there was something so charming about the hotel we couldn't help but enjoy our stay.

Click here to read part 3.

Laguardia, Spain (Part 1)

We went on a weekend trip to Laguardia, Spain to try some Rioja wine and eat some tasty Spanish food. We stayed at Mayor de Migueloa (20 Calle Mayor, Laguardia), on our friend A's recommendation, and we loved it, even though there were a lot of quirks. First, we arrived late on a Friday night, and the woman who seems to run the place (let's call her Mama) explained in Spanish that since we had come so late she had given away our room for the next night. My Spanish is really poor, so I basically made helpless noises and looked distressed, and then somehow it was all resolved and we were back in her good graces. The hotel itself is really charming and it contains a restaurant, wine bar and wine cellars that you can visit underground. One more thing happened with Mama before we left, but I'll leave that for later.

We were tired and hungry on arrival so we popped down to the wine bar and tried glasses of the hotel's Crianza wine (aged for a minimum of 2 years, with a minimum of 6 months in a barrel) along with plates of jamon serrano, chorizo and Idiazabal cheese. The wine was lovely but we wanted to relax with a bottle so we tried their Reserva (aged for a minimum of 3 years, with a minimum of 1 year in a barrel) - you can really tell the difference as the Reserva was much more complex and oaky, but I think what you prefer at any given time might depend on the mood you're in.

The next morning we breakfasted on a mix of fresh squeezed orange and grapefruit, a wonderful cake and yummy rolls filled with chorizo. Coffee with milk, raisin bread, butter and jams and a big fruit plate completed the spread. We were ready to start some wine tasting!

We got a bit lost on our way to the first winery and ended up stopping at Heredad Ugarte (A-124 Road, Laguardia). Most wineries require a reservation for a visit, but they were extremely nice and let us do a free tasting when we wandered in. We tried their Joven 2007 (very young wine, no minimum aging), Crianza 2006 and Reserva 2005, but as they had a 3 bottle minimum for purchase, we couldn't buy any wine since we didn't have enough space in our suitcase.

Onwards to Ysios (Camino de la Hoya, Laguardia), which is identifiable by the gorgeous wavy architecture pictured. Again, we had no reservation as they were all full for the tours, but a very nice lady allowed us to try their wine - they only make two Reservas and she poured a taste of the 2004, which we liked enough to get one for home.

Back in Laguardia we went for a tour of one of the few wineries that still exist within the city walls. At Carlos San Pedro (44 Calle Paganos, Laguardia), we got a little history about Laguardia's military past and then were taken down to the caves underground, where they still store their wine in their cellars in tanks and barrels. We found out that only four types of grape are grown in Rioja, the primary one being Tempranillo. The special part of the tour was tasting their 2006 Crianza straight out of a tank before it had time to age in a bottle. It was good, and our tour guide said it would get even better and smoother once it rested in bottles for a few more months. We also tried their Reserva and one of their "special" wines labeled simply as Tempranillo. Really great wines and a very interesting tour - this felt like the most personal place we visited.

Click here for part 2.

National Geographic Cafe

83 - 97 Regent Street

London

W1B 4EW

Haven't seen my old roommates F & A in ages so we arranged for lunch at the National Geographic Cafe. I didn't even know this place existed - it's quite calm, considering it's right by Piccadilly Circus, and it has a tapas menu so you can adjust the size of your meal depending on how you feel. I wasn't particularly hungry so I only ordered one plate of the chargrilled tiger prawns for 5 quid. Four good-sized prawns showed up, complete with their heads, along with a mache salad dressed with a light balsamic vinaigrette. The prawns were delicious, well-seasoned and fresh, and the salad was a nice accompaniment. F had the soup of the day, which was sweet potato with croutons, and A had the seared tuna on rocket with balsamic - they both seemed to enjoy their meals. I'd certainly go back if I was in the area and needed a snack, though I tend to avoid the Oxford Circus/Piccadilly Circus area like the plague...