ferdiesfoodlab

 I've been a fan of London supperclubs for a couple of years now, with my favourite one from the past year being the excellent Fernandez and Leluu in Hackney. Uyen (from leluu.com ) still runs the supper clubs and Vietnamese cookery courses from her flat as I previously mentioned here . Simon, the other half of what was Fernandez and Leluu, is about to launch his own dining venture, ferdiesfoodlab, from next Saturday. Jon and I were lucky enough to be invited along for the soft launch night last weekend for an evening of foodie fun.

About 30 intrepid food lovers from across London congregated at Toynbee hall in Aldgate, a beautiful historic building with a spacious main hall set out with a long banquet table. We were served 6 courses, all beautifully presented on large serving platters to be shared with the people around you which made for a great informal and sociable atmosphere which got the whole table talking to each other. One highlight for me was a course of King Crab and samphire, the huge crab legs looking particularly impressive as a table centrepiece. Another fantastic dish was huge slow-roasted shoulders of lamb served in antique copper pans, we were practically fighting each other to carve off the chunks of tender meat and perfectly crispy roast potatoes.

All-in-all a great night out for food lovers looking for something a bit different to your usual Saturday night restaurant meal.  

You can find out more information and dates for the upcoming ferdiesfoodlab nights here.

Liquorice marinated beef fillet

Seville zebras and chocolate olive ganache

Girlfriends - Rose and Crown

The Rose and Crown on Hoe street ranks pretty highly among my favourite places in Walthamstow, now flourishing as a well established theatre pub. Their comedy nights have recently started to attract some bigger names, such as Richard Herring who will be appearing in July for a preview of his new Edinburgh Fringe show. The theatre-group-in-residence, All Star Productions, can also be relied upon to put on a great performance and I try and make it along to as many of their shows as possible.

On Friday, we went along to see the new musical offering, 'Girlfriends', originally a 1986 musical by Howard Goodall, following the lives of a group of female Airforce base workers during World War II. In this version we saw the story focus on two best friends involved in a love triangle with an RAF pilot 'Guy', in a mostly lighthearted show which also touched on the heartbreak of waving goodbye to someone each night, never knowing if they would return safely or not. of  The highlights for me were a masterful performance by Aaron Clingham on the piano and great all-round performances from the cast in creating a set of believable and engaging characters The lyrics, whilst cheesy, were deliberately so and laugh-out-loud funny at times.

You can read more about the theatre company All Star Productions and book tickets for their shows here: www.allstarproductions.co.uk  Girlfriends is on until 1st July 2011.

Windmill, 18 High Street Walthamstow

On Saturday night Robin, Jon and I went along to Windmill, the Portuguese Tapas restaurant in Walthamstow. The restaurant is 10minutes walk down the far end of the high street from Walthamstow central station, tucked away in a rather unassuming location alongside the Poundlands and Lidls that make up our rather dingy and dismal town centre. I always seem to visit on a Saturday night, where you have the added pungent bonus of navigating past all the street sweepers cleaning up the remains of cabbage and rotten fruit from the day's market. But I think it is well worth the trek! The phrase 'hidden gem' may be slightly overused but I can't think of a place more deserving of the title.

The menu is delightful - a mouthwatering selection of tapas style dishes all coming in at around £4-5 each. They are all bursting with rich flavour so two or three dishes each is more than enough! It is very hard to choose what to try, but after visiting 7 or 8 times now I have tried most things on the menu so I would pick out the following as my favourites:

Clams in hot and sour sauce - A generous portion of clams in a delicious spicy yet acidic sauce with red peppers and capers.

Grilled Chorizo - a whole chorizo sausage served on a terracotta griddle over a pool of flaming alcohol, a real show piece to impress the table!

Lamb cutlets - I often find lamb too fatty to be palatable, but here they serve perfectly lean lamb steaks on the bone in a rosemary and herb rub.

Feijoada - Chinks of melting slow-cooked pork in a rich tomato sauce with beans.

Custard tart for dessert - so good!

Two dishes each and dessert came to £12 each. We brought our own bottle of wine which is charged at £2 for corkage which helps to keep the price down, or often in the summer I have seen jugs of sangria on offer which are extremely drinkable and refreshing.

Windmil contact details: http://www.windmill-tapas.com/

Review - Tenshi Sushi Bar, Islington

Ever since my favourite sushi restaurant - Zipangu in Leicester square - closed down last year I have been on a mission to find a suitable replacement. Zipangu had that perfect combination of great location, good food and cheap prices that kept me going back whenever I was in the area, and I was devastated when I walked past one day to see that it had been taken over. However, this has given me the perfect excuse to try out loads of new Japanese restaurants! I remember discovering Japanese food for the first time when I moved to London, and it has been a bit of an obsession of mine ever since, so much so that we chose to spend two weeks travelling around Japan for our honeymoon last year.

I had heard that a new 'cheap and cheerful' sushi restaurant had just opened in Islington, and decided I had to give it a try. Tenshi is located on Upper street, near to Angel tube station, or a ten-minute walk from Highbury and Islington. It was a Thursday night and the restaurant was pleasantly busy, with room for about ten diners downstairs and another twenty or so in the upstairs seating area. The delightfully friendly japanese waitresses all chorused out 'Helloo!!' when we walked in - definately a warm welcome! We ordered Chicken yakitori, edamame and crunchy tuna rolls for starters, then Jon had the sashimi set main course while I had the tempura Udon. I have never had crunchy tuna rolls before but I have to say they were fantastic - they are basically a tuna sushi roll that is fried until the outside layer of rice pops and takes on a rice krispie texture. My Tempura udon was also excellent with two huge and perfectly tender king prawns on a bowl of noodles and tempura vegetables. Jon was a little dissapointed with his sashimi set, for £9.50 he got three rather small peices of tuna and another three of salmon. All in all with two beers the bill came to £33.

The verdict - A very friendly little restaurant. we will definately be back but for now the search for my favourite japanese restaurant continues!