London Restaurants

Despite being Japan's second largest city, Yokohama isn't high-up on most tourist itineraries. This is probably due to it being perceived as a suburb of Tokyo as well as lacking traditional tourist attractions. That said, if you're staying in Tokyo then I reckon it's well worth making the short trip to Yokohama. But I would say that, as Yokohama is home to the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum!This homage to ramen opened in 1994 and is spread over three levels. The ground floor is taken up mostly by a gift shop (more on that later) but the main part of the museum consists of a recreation of a 1958 Tokyo street scene spread over two subterranean levels. It's all a bit kitsch but I don't really care, as there are no less than nine ramen shops - all outlets of famous ones from all across Japan - to check out. After a quick scout around the various joints, I decided to visit Ganja to check out their dipping ramen. Ordering is by machine and with some help from a waitress I selected one of the taster portions (these smaller portions are available to enable punters to sample more than one shop). To be honest, this wasn't really my cup of tea. I didn't mind the noodles being cold, but I would've preferred the dipping tonkotsu-shoyu broth to be hot, not lukewarm (by the way I have no idea what the 'correct' way should be). On the plus side the toppings, especially the belly pork, were top notch and the broth was packed full of flavour. It's just that the overall combo would have been better served all in one bowl. By the time I left Ganja, the museum was starting to get busy and queues were forming at some of the shops. Taking a punt on the wisdom of crowds I joined the longish queue for Kamome-Syokudo, which I thought was a tonkotsu joint but in fact served shio ramen (this just goes to show that I can't read Japanese, especially when hungover). This time I went for a normal size portion and while the toppings were abundant and of good quality, being a shio-based broth it wasn't really what I was after. That and the fact the broth was far too salty for my liking. I may have chosen badly, but neither ramen shop I went to in the museum was as good as those I'd visited in Tokyo. Mind you, there were seven ramen shops at the museum I didn't try.Feeling quite full I left the year 1958 behind me and popped upstairs to the gift shop. I went over to the design-your-own-ramen section where you can pick out your choice of soup, tare (seasonings) and noodles to take home in a souvenir box. I plumped for a mixed broth consisting of a sachet of tonkotsu (pork bone broth) and a sachet of rich chicken stock. For the tare I went for shoyu (soy sauce) with a pack of shrimp oil for good measure. And last but not least, I chose some thin ramen noodles to complete my ensemble. I then had to suffer the humiliation of having my photo taken that was then stuck on the top of the box. The end product tasted better than anything out of a packet had any right to, although it is clear that my egg boiling skills need honing.If you do decide to go to the ramen museum then I also recommend you visit Yokohama's Chinatown (Japan's and some say Asia's largest Chinatown). Save for a cheeky skewer of siu mai, I didn't eat there but from what I could see the eateries serve a wide range of food from authentic dim sum to Japan-ified Chinese dishes. However, Yokohama's Chinatown is more about walking around and savouring the atmosphere than the food. That and, if you're of Chinese-descent, topping up the Chineser points. I enjoyed my day trip to Yokohama and with its ramen museum and Chinatown it can boast two attractions that Tokyo can only envy. In other words: Yokohama 2 Tokyo 0.

Words & Photography by Felicity SpectorHolland Street, W8, is one of those roads where everything is just so: a branch of Ottolenghi. A rather smart gallery. A cobbled, winding pathway leading to a small mews, strewn with climbing roses. And now, a new neighbourhood restaurant; itself so bijou and beautifully turned out it could have come straight from the pages of Vogue Living.The Terrace on Holland Street has been transformed by Leith’s graduate Sara Adams – the cooking talent behind the highly regarded Kensington Square Kitchen – and her husband Chris Hodgkinson, a former chartered surveyor who has clearly had a big hand in the stylish refurb.Image courtesy of The TerraceThe kitchen is run by head chef James Kelly, who is aiming to put together a small but seasonal menu of “British inspired” dishes – it will change frequently, although customer demand seems to mean there will always be a place for a properly done steak and chips.There are just 20 covers at The Terrace, although if there is any warm weather there’ll be double that, thanks to a rather lovely outside terrace. Chris told me there had been one outside lunch service so far, on the single day the sun managed to drag the temperatures to more springlike levels.But on the night we visited, on the invitation of The Terrace team, it was definitely a night for sitting indoors. Everything was very comfortable, the decor a tasteful dove grey, and as I arrived, slightly late, my niece was happily enjoying a glass of sauvignon blanc. “This place is lovely!”As we looked over the menu a waiter arrived with some slices of warm treacle soda bread, with some deliciously creamy butter: one of the best breads I’ve had for ages. A very good start indeed.The starters all looked so tempting I decided to have two instead of a main: asparagus with an eggs mimosa style topping, followed by seared mackerel fillet with a smoked mackerel bonbon (and who could resist one of those?) with a little beetroot and blood orange salad.My niece went for the crab on toast, with a twist of apple and fennel salad, and then sea bass with asparagus and crushed potato, mainly because she liked the sound of the blood orange hollandaise it came with.I loved the asparagus: cooked just right, with a scattering of chopped roasted hazelnuts on top of the finely diced egg, to add a bit of texture. The crab on toast was just right, generous without being too rich.When my mackerel arrived I wished I had taken up the waiter’s offer to upsize it to a main course portion. It was really well balanced, with a sharp tangle of beetroot and orange to cut through the oily fish, and as for the bonbon, soft, fluffy in a crunchy crumb – if only all fishcakes were as well made.My niece made short work of the sea bass and especially loved the much-anticipated blood orange hollandaise, resolving to try making it herself at home.I couldn’t resist a chocolate fondant for pudding, which came with a ginger creme anglaise and some honeycomb, although I prefer my chocolate pure and simple, so I asked for the fondant on its own.There is that moment, when a fondant arrives, when you wonder if this is one of the ones which works: will there be that essential ooze when you cut into it? This one certainly didn’t disappoint: the centre spilled out onto the plate in a reassuringly liquid pool, the chocolate was dark and rich. My niece, who fancies herself a bit of a cocktail maven, asked for an Old Fashioned instead of dessert, which kept her happy.The team take great care sourcing the best produce, much of it from local suppliers – and as much attention goes into the wine list, which they promise will be updated regularly.All evening, we were surrounded by a sort of contented hum: the other customers, many of them locals, seemed more than happy with their new neighbourhood gaff. Service was friendly and relaxed, and prices seem reasonable for the area.I normally only head for High Street Ken to hang out at the big Whole Foods Market down th

Best-selling author Olivier Magny’s newly released “Into Wine” has something for everyone who’s “into wine” Paris native Olivier Magny is a true entrepreneur. And, as a sommelier, wine educator and TV host with his own Parisian wine bar, he’s got quite an impressive wine résumé. But somehow I don’t think that’s what he really wants you to focus on. I believe his true aim is to pass on his boundless enthusiasm for the richly diverse world of wine to anyone who wants to listen, and to make sure they enjoy themselves along the way. Hence his newly released book, entitled Into Wine. It serves as a wonderful gateway into the often confusing and complex world of wine. And I recommend anyone with even a passing interest in wine to read it, and take its contents seriously. For although the book comes across as simple, there’s quite a bit of thought hiding behind its playful diction. Even so-called ‘wine experts’ are sure to find some useful information within its pages (take note particularly of the detailed appendices). Into Wine is written in a colloquial style and broken into tasting-size pours — with interesting, and often provocative, statistical and anecdotal call-outs sprinkled throughout. The book brims with energy, enthusiasm, an unmistakable joie de vivre and a somewhat boyish sense of humor. You could say it pulsates with life. And that’s just what Olivier believes that soil should do … because this is what leads to complex, unique, interesting wines that reflect their local cultures. Yes, you see, Olivier is a self-proclaimed Terroirist. Now terroir is one of those French words that don’t translate well into other languages. But if you had to approximate it concisely, you could say it means “a sense of place.” And many people believe that certain methods of farming and winemaking can lead to wines that actually express the “place” they come from in your glass. The starting point for someone looking to craft such a wine (well, actually, any wine at all) is the vineyard. Today, there are strongly held beliefs and feelings on both sides of the fence about organic and biodynamic farming, and the so-called ‘natural’ wines that such methods often help to produce. No matter what side you tend to gravitate towards — and especially if you’ve never thought or heard about any of these things in the first place — the best policy is to let everyone have his or her own say. And that’s exactly why I asked Oliver to do via the below questions. So I invite you to listen. And if you have comments, please use the comment function below on this post or contact Olivier via his own website. Chin-Chin! ———————————————- Q: Why did you decide to write Into Wine and who is your intended reader? Anyone with an appetite for wine and an open mind should enjoy Into Wine. The idea behind it is not only to share knowledge and insights, but also to take a step back and look at the bigger picture of what wine teaches us, far beyond wine. Q: Your book comes across as refreshingly direct and down-to-earth, and is injected with enthusiasm and humor. Indeed, this seems to be the point: to write a wine book that doesn’t talk down to the reader or use unnecessarily flowery terminology. How do you strike the delicate balance between (a) retaining this attitude at all times, while (b) conveying what is often necessarily a lot of complex information that people will need to learn about the subject(s) at hand? Thank you very much. I’ve perfected this art for ten years at O Château. Every day, I have people in front of me that come from all walks of the wine life. Your wine pro will be sitting next to a complete novice, and my job is to make sure both have a great time and learn a lot. My daily challenge for ten years has been to strike that delicate balance between informative and fun, for everyone. Keeping things factual and genuinely

After making our wishes with our coins at the beautiful Trevi Fountain, it was time for dinner. Not far from this large Baroque fountain was where La Locanda del Tempio was located. Even though it was the evening time, we were able to sit comfortably outdoors due to the big outdoor heaters. There were a couple of small tables, but as there were a few of us dining, the waiters happily rearranged the tables to make one that accommodated us. We dined by candlelight! The staff at La Locanda del Tempio were jolly and gave us good service. Toasted slices of bread flavoured with garlic and topped with fresh, juicy chopped tomatoes made up the starter of the Bruschetta. A few main dishes were ordered including pasta, pizza and vegetables. The Fettucine ai Funghi was pasta with mushrooms. The ribbons of pasta were really fresh and this made for a simple but tasty dish. Cheese and spinach ravioli with fresh tomatoes was what the Ravioli Amalfi was. The pasta was a bit heavier and we were slightly disappointed with the portion size. It looked more like a starter than a main dish. Two pizzas were sampled. The Ham and Mushroom pizza and the Diavola pizza both had great crispy bases. The toppings were more generous on the Ham and Mushroom pizza. The Diavola pizza was tomato, cheese and hot salami but it only had two slices of salami on it. A dish that went down well was the Melanzane alla Parmigaina. The soft baked aubergine slices with the tomato sauce and cheese was really delicious and cooked to perfection. Now onto the sweet endings of the meal! You can never go wrong with Tiramisu, as long as it is done well! This was the case here at La Locanda del Tempio! The tiramisu was fresh, creamy and had a good strong coffee flavour. The Cannolo Siciliano was a wafer tube filled with ricotta cheese, chocolate drops and candied orange peel. It was nice enough but it would be too rich for one person. So we were glad that we had shared it! La Locanda del Tempio does fresh, authentic, great tasting food. We were glad that our first meal in Rome was a success and it made us look forward to sampling more Italian delights on our trip! La Locanda del Tempio, Via di Pietra 85, Rome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

‘SPEEDY seasonal suppers are Donna Hay’s specialty, and these fresh taste combinations are perfect weekday solutions...’ A food and wine feature for Red Magazine »

We visited Cyprus to review some of the island’s best hotels. Here we start with our favourite, the Anassa Hotel. Undoubtedly the grande dame of the island, Anassa has a majestic position on the shore of Asprokremnos Beach, one of Cyprus’s most beautiful beaches. The property was designed to resemble an ancient Byzantine village: white washed building with clay roof tiles and pretty duck egg blue doors and shutters are scattered around a stunning landscape with mesmerising views of the coastline. A traditional Cypriot church and a central square where, in peak season, a weekly Cyprus fair is held with traditional music, food and dancing, add to Anassa’s connection to the country’s history and offer a taste of its culture for visitors more inclined to relaxing around Anassa’s three outdoor pools. For those who prefer to immerse in the local traditions and landscape, Anassa offers daily activities such as a jeep safari to the surrounding Akamas peninsula, a visit to a Byzantine monastery or a boat trip to view the regal sunset. Anassa features a total of 176 rooms, all of which have a balcony or terrace, many with private pools or Jacuzzis. Our junior suite was located on the quiet side of Anassa’s village, where you found yourself stopping to smell the plants and flowers of the manicured gardens. A spacious room with a large bathroom, sitting area and walk-in wardrobe, the highlight was sitting on the terrace with an aperitif watching the sun set behind the mountains while trying to hide the occasional longing glance at the private pool of the suite below. Anassa’s three restaurants mean that you could spend a week here without getting bored of the food, but we found ourselves at Basiliko on each night of our visit – the hotel’s gourmet restaurant focuses on Asian flavours set in a stone cavern that feels hidden away from the rest of the hotel. The Thalassa Spa focuses on all things organic and holistic whilst also offering the QMS Medicosmetics range of treatments and products. My holistic jasmine and olive treatment including an invigorating full body scrub followed by a massage that both hydrated and healed. Translating to Queen in English, long may Anassa reign over Cyprus. If you would like Bon Vivant’s travel concierge team to book your next trip to Cyprus, contact us now to enquire about our Luxury travel services. If you liked our review of Anassa Hotel Cyprus, sign up to our blog below as we visits some of the world’s best hotels: Enter your email address: The post Anassa Hotel Cyprus – The Queen of Cyprus appeared first on Bon Vivant Concierge Service by Emyr Thomas - if you enjoyed this post you can read more at Bon Vivant or follow us on

I was going to have tacos. Of course, a lack of good corn tortillas in this country was a bit of a limiting factor but I was determined to try making my own at home and I pictured myself wrapping them around tender pork, lots of delicious salsa and definitely some chopped fresh coriander. Oh, just the thought of them has me thinking of making them again this weekend. However, the process didn’t go entirely smoothly at first. I made the amateur mistake of confusing masa harina and masa arepa. Both are corn meals made of precooked corn but only masa harina is made of corn that’s undergone nixtamalization (it’s cooked in an alkaline solution) and is the correct one for making corn tortillas. Just to confuse things, the side of the package of masa arepa that I purchased first (PAN brand) states that it can be used for tortillas too. I bought my masa harina from the Cool Chile Co. (Maseca is also a famous brand). On our first go at making corn tortillas, we pressed them using a heavy pot…quite painfully and tediously. The next day, I went straight out and bought a proper cast iron tortilla press (again from the Cool Chile Co.). Oh, how it makes life easier! Fresh corn tortillas are pressed so quickly and without any effort whatsoever! I can’t believe I’d been buying corn tortillas (sometimes taking up precious space in my suitcase when I was travelling back from the other side of the Atlantic) when they’re so easy to make at home! Corn Tortillas Take 2 cups of masa harina and mix with a little less than 1.5 cups of warm water. Mix together to a dough – it shouldn’t crumble (too dry – add water) or stick to your hands (too wet – add masa harina). I read somewhere online that it should have the texture of play dough and that’s truly how it felt. Let sit for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, heat a cast iron or nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Take a plastic freezer bag and cut two circles of plastic out of it – they should be big enough to line each side of your tortilla press. Take a small golf ball sized nugget of masa dough and roll it into a ball. Place in between the plastic circles and flatten in the tortilla press (I like mine quite thin – it’ll be about the size of the palm of your hand, I think). Peel off the tortilla and slap into the hot pan. Cook for about 30 seconds on the first side, flip and cook for a minute on the other side, flip again and cook for another 30 seconds. On the final side, the tortilla should start puffing up – pressing down on the tortilla can encourage it. Take out of the pan and cover with a clean dish towel. Repeat with all the masa. You can eat tortillas with any meal, of course, but it’s most fun to make tacos at home. I slow cooked a lot of pork shoulder the first time I made tortillas, shredded the results and used that as a very simple filling for tacos. Slow Cooked Pork for Tacos 1.5 kg pork shoulder, cut into chunks juice from a large orange 2 bay leaves 1 chopped onion 2 minced garlic cloves 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp dried oregano 2 tsp salt Mix all the ingredients together in a slow cooker and set on high for 4 hours (mine only is set to high – it’s a rice cooker – though I reckon perhaps low on a regular slow cooker for 8 hours is also ok). Take out the meat and shred with two forks or your hands. A lot of liquid would have come out of the meat – I used some of it to moisten the shredded pork. Serve with corn tortillas. The pork is a bit plain on its own. Better is topping your tacos with some pico de gallo. Or if you’re pressed for time/ingredients, just chopped onions pickled lightly in lime juice. Pico de Gallo 1/2 a small onion, chopped 1-2 medium sized tomatoes, seeded and chopped a very small handful of fresh coriander, chopped finely juice of half a lime salt Mix all the ingredients together and then chill until ready to serve (give it an hour, I

I have become rather partial to a ‘train picnic’. Everything is more exciting when there’s a meal involved and train travel is no exception. Obviously I’m not talking about the shite they sell in the buffet car (gin in a can obviously excepted), but a carry on home made effort. Nowadays I look forward to these picnics as much as I do reaching my destination which was, in this case, Bristol. The picture above shows what we decided to call breakfast. The Joselito ham was pretty special (if it’s good enough for Ferran Adria it’s good enough for me); the gran reserva in particular had fat packing the kind of complex flavour which makes heart disease seem like quite an appealing option if this is the way to go about acquiring it. We also ate a banon goats’ cheese that tasted stunning but totally honked (sorry coach C), all washed down with beer. What do you mean cheese and beer aren’t for breakfast? Pffft. But what about the eggs? We couldn’t have a full breakfast without eggs. Thankfully Mr. Egg Obsessive had thought about this the night before. Could we scramble them in a Thermos flask? Only one way to find out. A vac pack bag was first filled with a silly amount of butter because that, as any good egg scrambler knows, is an essential foundation. Six eggs were beaten, seasoned highly and poured into the bag, before it was sealed using my nifty vacuum sealing machine (I think a good quality sandwich bag may suffice if you’ve not yet signed up to the Food Tosserati). Smear the bag with butter… Add the eggs  Into the flask (a thermometer is useful) The cooked eggs looking very appealing in their bag The Thermos was filled with boiling water at 7.30am, and then topped up from the train buffet car at around 9.15. In went the eggy bag (a messy business best done away from your seat for the obvious reason of water displacement) for 20 minutes, which we thought would be long enough to cook them. It wasn’t. Another top up and a further 20 minutes however and they were good to go. In fact, the were really rather fine. I was half expecting the kind of solid yellow lump one finds lurking under the polystyrene lid of a Maccy D’s breakfast (serves you right for not ordering the sausage and egg Mcmuffin) but what came out was soft, loose and genuinely well cooked. A pretty good result! Having been optimistic from the get go, we’d packed chives to garnish, extra black pepper and a packet of really rather good smoked salmon, which had been sent, fittingly, as part of a ‘Best of Bristol’ food hamper*. We scarfed the lot with a slice of (pre-toasted) sourdough. That is how to make a train journey fly by. We were full of very good things, slightly drunk and had mastered the art of guerilla scrambling. Not bad for a morning’s work. *To win your own hamper, go here. Hurry, the competition ends today.  Thermos Scrambled Eggs Let’s face it, the results here are going to be highly variable. You all know what eggs look like when they’re cooked, right? If you’re going to be making scrambled eggs in a Thermos flask on a train, then I’m guessing you’re not too hung up on health and safety issues anyway. 6 eggs Butter Salt and pepper Some kind of bag for sealing the egg mixture A Thermos flask full of boiling water Fill the flask with boiling water before you get on the train. We waited an hour and a half before we put the eggs in to cook. Put an indecent amount of butter in the bag. Beat the eggs, season them well and tip them into the bag also. Seal the bag with whatever means you have. Obviously if you don’t have a vacuum sealer (what? Really?), then you’re going to want to keep that bag upright. It’s worth topping up the bag with extra boiling water on the train if you can. Lower the eggs in before you do this, to avoid getting water everywhere. After twenty minutes check the eggs and give them a smoosh

“LIFE – you’ve got one shot,” says Éric Chavot. The fast-talking, Vespa-riding, Gascon chef says he wanted to captain a grand brasserie since spending every July admiring them in Paris as a young teenager. Finally, aged 45, with decades of craftmanship at fine dining establishments under his belt, including 10 years at The Capital Hotel where he gleaned two Michelin stars, and recently, a season as private chef at Vero Beach, enclave of Hilary and W. Galen Weston, owners of Selfridges, Chavot achieved his goal. “This is not my first rodeo,” he says.Read at Harper's »

An Italian Restaurant aptly named 5 Pollen Street previously occupied the address of 5 Pollen Street. The cooking was good, but the portions were miserable and the prices were exorbitant. I remember my meal there as being one of the worst value-for-money that I had ever had in my life and I left the restaurant feeling wracked with guilt that my friends had to fork out so much money for so little. It is therefore unsurprising that the restaurant closed down last year. On a Saturday night not long after I had eaten at 5 Pollen Street, I walked past it to discover that it was bordering on empty. Clearly, the restaurant had gotten its pricing formula wrong. The address of 5 Pollen Street has since been taken over by Jason Atherton and he has taken to converting it into a charming French bistro endearingly named Little Social. It sits across the road from Pollen Street Social, Atherton’s flagship restaurant that he established after leaving Maze and the Gordon Ramsay fold. Pollen Street Social registers on the upper end of the scale. It’s fine dining through and through with a one-Michelin star to boot. A pork head and foie gras terrine starter (£11.50) packed a meaty, rustic flavour, but was also strangely a little tangy. The piece of foie gras holding centrepiece in the middle of the terrine was delicious, but meanly portioned as it was quite small. In fact, the slice wasn’t particularly generous. The tea and prune purée was a good match for the pork, and the sourdough was springy and tasty if a little burnt. As our second starter, half a dozen oysters (£15) from Cornwall were fresh and delicious. Pork head & foie gras terrine Oysters A main of roasted Cornish cod (£19.50) was moist and pleasant but a touch small compared to what you could get at other restaurants for the same price. It came with cockles that were robust and tasty but which were unfortunately gritty as they had not been cleaned properly. Rounding out the plate were some fantastic butterbeans, a beautifully cooked soft spring cabbage and a cabbage pesto that really worked with the fish. Cornish cod Roasted halibut “BLT”, portabello mushrooms with a sauce bois boudran (£22) was ‘the’ most ‘Jason Atherton’ of all the dishes on the menu and it reminded me of the ‘deconstructed’ full English breakfast dish that I had at Pollen Street Social. The size of the fish was passable but again a little small (recurring theme?). Nevertheless this was a beautifully made dish. The fish was nicely cooked, and the “BLT” consisted of some crispy bacon, gently braised lettuce and a delicious tomato confit that completed the dish nicely. The mushrooms were meaty and flavoursome, and the sauce added a lovely piquant touch to the dish. Roasted halibut “BLT” A steak bavette (£15) was impressively chunky. It was cooked to the requested medium rare but the steak remained a little chewy. Crispy French fries and a well-made peppercorn sauce accompanied the steak. Steak bavette A brown sugar tart (£7) was absolutely glorious. Its texture was creamy and smooth, and the accompanying crème fraiche sorbet was a great match against its subtle sweet flavour. A black sesame crumble was also fabulous and provided a light crunchy texture to the dessert. This was a really classy, high-end dessert. Brown sugar tart A pink peppercorn meringue (£7) was tasty with a crunchy exterior and a soft, gooey interior, albeit badly cracked. There was a hint of the peppercorn flavour coming through the meringue that gave it a nice little kick. The centre of the meringue had been filled with a lime curd and some passionfruit, both of which were good, but which were slightly too acidic for the dessert. Pink peppercorn meringue An apple and blackberry crumble with mascarpone and cinnamon ice cream (£7) sat a little flat. The flavours were fine, but the apple was too soft and mushy for my liking, and the crumble did not crumble. All in all, this dessert was a bit dull. Apple & blackberry crumble Th