Morito

Exmouth Market is one of those places where when it's sunny, I'm sure it's lovely. On this particular May evening, it was hammering down with rain. Equidistant by about a mile from any tube station, it is what is known as a right pain in the arse to get to. When you walk inside Morito though, you can't help but feel immediately happier, from both the smells coming from the grill and the sunny orange tones that decorate an otherwise quite spartan room.

The baby sibling of Moro next door, couples are invited to sit at the bar (my preferred spot for dining, if I'm honest) while larger groups huddle around small tables that line the wall. Space is at a premium here; music is lively but the hum of conversations is at a decent level. 

It is described as a tapas and mezze bar; to me it was more familiar as tapas, with a few Middle Eastern touches thrown in. We were given samples of various sherries to taste as we had uhm'd and ah'd over the selection, the padron peppers a decent accompaniment. Alas, not a hot one in our batch, they'd have benefitted from a hotter pan but were otherwise pleasant enough. 

Salt cod croquetas were well fried and light, their insides flavoursome and nicely accompanied by the lemony mayonnaise. Spiced shreds of lamb with pine nuts and pomegranate was served on a creamy bed of mashed aubergines, and I wish we'd ordered some of the delicious-looking flatbreads to scoop it up with. Forks sufficed. 

Fried baby squid, called puntillitas, were perfectly crisp and tender, sometimes juicy in their little bodies. Sprinkled with sumac, they cried out for some sort of aioli or sauce to dip them in. Palermo prawns (below) with mojo verde were pretty stunning; sweet flesh and grilled with garlic, it was livened by the sprightly coriander sauce. A Mexican stand-off of hungry eyes met over the plate for the remaining fifth prawn. We begrudgingly shared.

Seafood seems to be a strong point of theirs, as demonstrated by a pretty plate of octopus salad and incredibly sweet tomatoes. Capers and red onion were boosted by fronds of dill and monks beard. An accomplished dish, it was a nice change from the usual paprika-dusted octopus you often see at tapas bars. 

Meat dishes, on balance, were less successful. Duck hearts and gizzards (back dish) sounded interesting on the menu but sadly weren't up to much on the plate. While the pork belly was well cooked with tender flesh and crackled skin, it was unbearably salty. The waitress gave me a shrug when mentioned. The morcilla that arrived atop the vibrant braised peas and orange was largely ignored, though we scooped up the vegetables hungrily. We were revived with meaty grilled asparagus spears, tarted up with chopped egg and dill. 

A meal of ups and downs food-wise, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. It might have been the bottle of Txakoli, poured at a height to emphasize the fizz, that did it. More likely that was the seafood dishes that really were very good, and the staff friendly and engaging. Oh, and that boozy finish of raisin ice cream drenched in sticky Pedro Ximenez to send us off out to the gusting rain. That helped too. 

Not cheap, as decent tapas rarely is for those of us with appetites. When I was approached by Match.com (who sponsored this post) to eat out at a date venue with an £80 budget, my research suggested that these days, £40 a head doesn't get you far unless you're teetotal. And no one wants to be on a teetotal date now do they? We smashed that budget with our £125 bill, but really a couple dishes less wouldn't have killed the mood. 

Morito

32 Exmouth Market

London EC1R 4QE

(No bookings. We turned up at 7:30pm which was fine - any later and it was packed)

Malaysian Deli

One of the more vivid memories I have of my time in Malaysia in 2011 was a lunch prepared by my friend's aunty. In preparation for our 23 hour train from Penang to Bangkok, curried prawns in their shells were packed into plastic tubs along with rice, a boiled egg and some vegetables. Hot at 7am when we set off, it preyed on my mind that the rice was cooling, sitting in the Malaysian warmth for a few hours before it would be eaten. Some would call that dangerous - see bacillus cereus - but no one else seemed fussed. I threw caution to the wind and, some hours later, wolfed down my incredibly delicious lunch. No doom befell me.

I bring this rather gnarly story up as the food at Malaysia Deli, a new place in Crofton Park, reminded me much of the lunchbox Aunty packed up for me in its composition. For only a fiver, you get a box of rice with a meat or fish, some vegetables and whichever sauce you choose. I uhm'd and aah'd over each one, asking the nice lady behind the counter which was which while she patiently explained the choices. I finally settled on salmon with sambal sauce; when asked if I wanted it heated up, I elected not to. Hot rice was layered into the box, two crisp salmon pieces next and that fiery sauce. On the cycle home, the hot rice heated up everything else in there, making my lunch perfectly warmed and ready to eat. 

It doesn't look like much (I went over a few speed bumps...) but it was lovely - tender salmon, crunchy beans and perfectly cooked rice. But HOLY MOTHER that sambal. I wish they'd sell it as a jarred sauce. Sweet and spicy, I started off feeling a tingle of heat; by the end of my lunch I was sucking air through my teeth while my housemate laughed at me. Worth it, and I'd do it again. Though I might try the percik next time - described as a mild, sweet, tangy coconut sauce. 

Cute and colourful inside, they sell ingredients as well as meals. They have a few tables and open 12pm - 8pm Tuesday - Saturday, 12pm - 6pm on Sundays; I'm looking forward to revisiting, especially for the nasi ulam, a dish I haven't come across before. 

Malaysian Deli

338 Brockley Road, London SE4 2BT

Grilled Salmon Head

Admittedly a fish head isn't exactly top of many people's lists of tasty things to eat but actually, once you can get past eating something that's watching you, you'll be richly rewarded. Cheap too, as if you ask your fishmonger nicely for it, they'll probably give it to you for free. 

I've made fish head curries with white fish like hake before, but with a salmon head I prefer to grill them until the skin is crisp and the meat around the collar has rendered some of its rich fat. Some make soup out of it, but I find it too strong a fish to slurp on its broth. I went down a Japanese route instead. 

Marinated in a bit of soy and stuffed with slices of lemon, hacking the head in half to cook more evenly was tough and gruesome work. Once done though, it is rubbed with a little oil and grilled on a medium heat. Get stuck right in there with some pointy chopsticks and ferret out the meat; the most flavoursome and juicy bit is the cheek, just under the eye socket. Dipped in a ponzu sauce (that's soy with yuzu juice), I ate it with some rice and nasu denaku (miso aubergines). I jazzed up the rice by scattering over some enoki mushrooms once the rice had cooked and was steaming quietly; topped with ikura for a little decadence and some shredded shiso leaves for fragrance, it's not strictly necessary. A little spring onion garnish will do. 

Grilled Salmon Head 

Serves 2 with vegetables

1 salmon head (ask your fishmonger to split it in half) 
3 tbsp light soy 
3 slices of lemon
2 tbsp ponzu for dipping (or use soy sauce with a little lemon juice and zest)

Wash the head thoroughly and rub with the soy sauce and stuff the lemon in any crevices. Leave for half an hour.

Preheat the grill to medium and rub a little oil on the skin of the salmon. Grill for 15 to 20 mins, until the skin is crisp, the eyes are white and the flesh cooked through. 

Serve with steamed rice, spring onion garnish, and the dipping sauce. 

Bright Courtyard, Baker Street

Siu Long Bao - soup dumplings

The dim sum restaurants on Baker Street are often said to be the best in London - Royal China Club (or is that Royal China?) are held in high regard. If I'm honest it is laziness that's prevented me from getting there; similarly, it's awfully close to where I work and no one wants to be going anywhere near that at the weekend. 

But Mr Noodles is a man in the know, and when he says a dim sum place is worth visiting, well, it's time to make the effort. Bright Courtyard was startlingly posh and I made every effort to hide my scuffed trainers from view. The room is hushed but bright, monotones and clean lines, pretty flowers decorating lazy susans. Serving staff are well turned out in suits and - gasp - very cordial. The a la carte menu is on an iPad, but we were there for the dim sum alone. 

There's no paper tick box here, and the dumplings are translated to English; siu mai and har gao aren't immediately obvious to spot. We snacked on complimentary spicy cucumber, reminiscent of the smacked type you get from Sichuan restaurants, as well as edamame. Once we'd ordered, the dim sum came thick and fast and before long our table was packed with dishes. Perhaps a little too much so; I like to take my time and make my way round as they come without fear of things going cold. 

Prawn & Mango Dumplings

Siu long bao (top photo), those sought-after soup-filled dumplings, held their broth well but the filling could have been more flavoursome. Prawn and mango dumplings were a bit left-field, at least in my experience; bouncy prawn meat held mango sauce inside (photo), to be supplemented with additional mango sauce. I enjoyed the the fruit and seafood combination. Others found it too weird. 

Hong Kong Cheung Fun

Cheung fun with cuttlefish

Hong Kong cheung fun was plain rice rolls dressed in peanut sauce and hoi sin. Cheung fun also came wrapped around beancurd skin that incased cuttlefish - this was one of my favourites. Obviously someone knows what they're doing in the rice roll department as these were both very well made. The silky noodles were fine and delicate, without any stickiness or stodge. The mixture of soft and slippery textures with crunchy beancurd sheet and springy cuttlefish was very pleasing indeed.

Chilean Sea Bass in Sichuan Sauce

Chilean sea bass with Sichuan sauce was one of the pricier dishes at £5.90. The fish is thinly sliced and lightly fried, wrapped around sticks of cucumber and vermicelli noodles and then bathed in a spicy, numbing sauce. Lovely balanced flavours - slightly sour, salty, spicy and a tingle on the tongue. 

Pork & Preserved Egg Congee

Pork and preserved egg congee was delicate, the rice grains just broken into the light broth. Served with some chopped up fried dough stick, these were added at the table with spring onions before our waiter served us all individually. Heavy on ginger flavour, a little soy sauce was needed to pep it up a bit, but otherwise soothing and tasty. 

A few venison puffs and siu mai later, we decided we needed noodles and vegetables to finish us off. 

Crab Meat E Fu Noodles

Crab meat E Fu noodles tasted way better than they looked - again, our server persisted in serving us all individually which I suppose means there's no fighting over the few prawns that were lurking in there. Elastic noodles were deeply savoury; there was no discernable crab meat there, but a definite seafood flavour. Lots of enoki mushrooms and crunchy vegetables, this was well worth the £11.50 price tag.

You wouldn't have thought a plate of vegetables would be very exciting but this gai laan (Chinese broccoli) with ginger was amazing in the fact that they bothered to peel the stalks of the gai laan, making the eating of them immeasurably better. My teeth cut through them cleanly without any stringiness or toughness, especially when cooked just right as these were. Cubes of deep fried ginger weren't especially pleasant to chew on but perfumed the dish nicely. 

We browsed the dessert menu, more lengthy than other dim sum restaurants but were unfortunately priced out of our decisions as most were around the £6 - £7 area. Not uncommon for a restaurant dessert, but more than we're used to at our other haunts. I was glad we'd ordered the custard buns from the dim sum menu, eaten in between savoury bites, dipped in condensed milk. 

I was quite the fan of Bright Courtyard. The service is quite formal but it is friendly and pleasant, the food well executed with a hint of something a bit different. They obviously have good attention to detail, demonstrated by the vegetable dish, and I liked the accessibility of it - an extensive tea menu in English isn't something you get at my local, Dragon Castle. It's on the more expensive spectrum - we paid £27 a head without booze but including service - but in the grand scheme of things, it's not really that much at all considering the delicacy of the things we ordered. Having had a browse of the iPad a la carte, it seems their speciality lies in Shanghainese food; judging by the prices it's one for pay day... 

Bright Courtyard

37-67 Baker St, 
London W1U 7EU

Tel: 020 7486 6998

Hot & Sour Tofu

There aren't may British people I know that like tofu. Complaints that it doesn't taste of anything are then reinforced with a texture problem which in turn is ballasted with the hippy-dippy-health-food-barefoot-vegan-meat-replacement notion. 

Well, you're all wrong. 

Tofu has a delicate flavour, but that flavour's definitely there and besides what's the beef with flavour anyway when you usually put it with something nice and punchy? As for the texture, if you don't like the wobbly, delicate jelly-like feeling of soft tofu, there's nothing I can do about that except feel sad for you. Or suggest you chow down on deep fried tofu puffs - you can stuff them or braise them and both ways they are lovely. 

Once you get over the wibble fear, you should make this. The sauce that drenches the warm tofu is addictive and spicy, slightly sour, quite salty and a little sweet. A hint of Sichuan peppercorn makes the tongue tingle, while the crunch of preserved vegetable and spring onions is a nice contrast to the smooth and silken tofu. A dish of stir-fried greens and another of stir-fried chicken completed the meal nicely, though I found myself abandoning the latter dishes and smooshing the tofu and sauce into my rice alone. 

Hot & Sour Tofu

Serves 4 with other dishes

1 box of silken soft (not extra soft) tofu
1 tsp dark soy
1 tsp Chinkiang black vinegar 
1 tsp caster sugar
2 tbsp light soy
1.5 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp water
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tbsp chilli oil (2 of the oil, 1 with sediment)
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 spring onion
2 tsp Tianjin preserved vegetable, rinsed well 
1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, toasted and ground into powder
A small handful of coriander

Drain the tofu and place it carefully on a plate. Steam for 15 minutes. 

Meanwhile, roughly chop the coriander and slice the spring onions and leave to one side. Heat the cooking oil and fry the garlic on a low heat, taking care not to burn it. Drain the garlic and place in a bowl. Mix in the soy sauces with the vinegar, sugar, chilli oil and oyster sauce with a tsp of water. Mix well and pour carefully over the freshly steamed tofu. Garnish with the preserved vegetable, Sichuan peppercorn, spring onions and coriander and serve with rice while warm.

Spicy Seafood Ramen

I've always been obsessed with noodle soups. My noodle of choice is that wide flat noodle, hor fun - soft and slippery, filling and comforting. My heart has been stolen recently by another though. Ramen noodles, now so trendy in London at least, so elastic and thin. Emma of Tonkotsu gifted me a bundle of fresh ramen noodles, made in-house by their beast of a noodle machine. I knew I had to rustle up something special to make the most of them. 

I didn't have time to be simmering tons of pork bones long enough to make a tonkotsu. I decided instead on a seafood ramen, a spicy one at that to blow out the cold I had picked up. 

I'm lucky enough to live near an excellent fishmonger; their raw shell-on prawns have heads that give you a vividly orange and intensely prawn-flavoured, sweet stock. They threw in a sea bass head and carcass for free after I asked for one; if you do the same, don't use oily fish for this - white fish only. A piece of kombu seaweed went in as well, to really deepen that flavour of the sea. Once strained, garlic was softened in a little oil and then gochujang, that sweet fermented Korean chilli paste, to flavour the broth. A handful of Korean chilli flakes, famous for their colour but mild heat, went in too. 

And then it's really just quick cooking and assembly. Mussels, cleaned and debearded slip into the broth - just as they're about to open, some raw prawns. Warmed bowls are filled with freshly cooked noodles, vegetables placed carefully on top. A couple squares of nori followed, then ladles of hot stock and seafood. To finish, fish skin crisps - yup, crisps made of fish skin - carefully placed so that they're half in the broth and half out. That half crispiness, half floppiness is one of my favourite texture contrasts. It was a comforting bowl, spicy but deep in flavour. Inspired by Bone Daddies' seafood kimchi special, some kimchi would have gone in had I had any but actually the broth benefitted from being subtle and spicy without the fermented cabbage tang. I wish I had been bothered enough to make nitamago (that gooey, marinated egg) to nestle on top. 

I won't lie. All these ingredients are pretty specialist, but you'll find them in Oriental supermarkets or online. 

Spicy Seafood Ramen

Serves 4

4 bundles of ramen noodles (or use fresh wonton noodles from the supermarket)
4 raw prawns, head and shell on
1 fish carcass, like a sea bass or hake head
1 large handful of mussels, cleaned and debearded
3 coin-like slices of ginger
400ml chicken stock
1 square of kombu seaweed
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 heaped tbsp gochujang
1 handful of Korean coarse chilli flakes
1 handful of beansprouts, blanched
1/2 tsp salt
A small handful of mizuna or rocket, roughly chopped
2 leaves of Chinese cabbage, roughly chopped
2 sheets of nori, quartered
1 spring onion, julienned
A bag of fish crisps (optional)

Simmer the chicken stock with the kombu, ginger, prawn heads and shells, salt and the fish carcass for 45 mins. Strain through a fine sieve. 

Fry the minced garlic in a little oil, then add the gochujang. Fry until fragrant. Add a little of the stock to the pan and mix well so that there are no lumps. Add the rest of the stock. Add the mussels for a couple of minutes, then the prawns. As soon as the prawns have turned pink, sieve the stock into another pan, reserving the mussels and prawns. 

Cook the noodles for 35 secs or so, until tender. Drain and add to the bowls. Meanwhile, bring the stock up to the boil and add the Chinese cabbage. Arrange the mussels, prawns, beansprouts, and nori neatly in the bowl. Ladle the broth evenly over the noodles. Garnish with fish crisps, rocket / mizuna and the spring onions, then serve immediately, with chilli oil for everyone to add in themselves.

Pick n' Mix: Part 3

3-Cup Frogs Legs

Bao London has, as yet, no permanent home but they've been appearing all around the place. Serving Taiwanese snacks, I first came across them when I went to a dodgy old pub in Dalston. There, we ate the best pork buns I've come across (better than Momofuku's, even). Braised pork belly is shredded and stuffed into a soft bun, garnished with pickled vegetables, coriander and crushed peanuts. The second time round at Pacific Social, they even had their own holders. 3 cup frogs legs are inspired by a traditional Taiwanese dish, the three cups being soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine. These ones (above) had the lightest, crisp batter and an intense sweet and savoury sauce. 

Pork Bun

Someone is obviously very good at frying as the soy milk fried chicken was light and greaseless. A salad of pomelo and other crispy bits was a good palate-cleanser and kept the scurvy at bay. They will be at the Gherkin on the 25th (lunchtime) and King's Cross on the 26th, with Kerb. Keep an eye on their twitter stream for other pop-ups: @bao_london

Tozino jamon

It was hammering it down with rain the first time I ducked into Bar Tozino on Maltby Street market. Looking something like an abattoir, huge hams hang from the ceiling, slightly swaying and the wood-heavy room is lit with red bulbs. Hams down one end are set up to carve from, and a black board lists their price. We spent a very enjoyable half hour slurping on sherry and gulping down expertly sliced Iberico jamon with a couple pieces of pan con tomate for good measure. 

Bar Tozino, Lassco Ropewalk, Maltby Street, London SE1 3PA. (Cash only)

Chicken kara-age burger

I was invited down to Tonkotsu on Dean Street to try out the new chicken kara-age burger. These are currently only served at sister restaurants Tsuru Sushi (Bishopsgate, SE1 and Mansion House - see link for address details) and are priced at £4.95. Sweet, sesame seeded brioche buns encase juicy fried chicken thigh meat. The meat has been marinaded in something magic as it is so flavoursome. Some lettuce and a smear or three of mayo complete the burger, but I strongly suggest you add some of Tsuru's famous 'eat the bits' chilli oil. Fairly mild as chilli oils go but so tasty nonetheless.

Soho Ramen

If you can't get to a Tsuru in your lunch break then Tonkotsu's Soho Ramen is pretty sexy too. This is a clear chicken and pork broth, served with a marinated egg and a gorgeous lightly smoked piece of haddock, topped with a little lumpfish caviar in a bed of properly springy, home-made ramen noodles. The above was a baby bowl (I had just eaten a burger...) - full size is £11.

Tonkotsu, 63 Dean Street, London W1D 4QG (no reservations)

Gizzi's Cottage Pie

I went to Gizzi Erskine's dinner at The Drapers Arms last week. A huge dinner for 60-odd people, Gizzi cooked recipes from her new cookbook, Skinny Weeks and Weekend Feasts. Happily it was the latter side she was cooking from. Looking completely unflustered despite cooking for so many (and served all at the same time!) we were treated to salmon tartare with chilli and rocket, amazing beetroot-pink devilled eggs, roasted chicken with truffled gnocchi and this cottage pie with bone marrow chimneys. Rich and indulgent, had I not stuffed myself so silly on the starters I'd have stolen the whole lot. We all got a copy of the book to take home with us and I immediately got stuck into making the tuna tartare on crispy rice recipe. 

Tuna tartare on crispy rice

It's a terrible picture - my housemates were not keen on waiting - but it basically consists of sashimi-grade tuna minced up with spring onions, mayonnaise, sriracha (a Thai garlicky chilli sauce) and sesame oil, left to marinate for an hour. You cook up some seasoned sushi rice and leave it to cool, then pack into blocks with oiled hands and fry in butter until browned. You're left with crispy rice blocks that you pile the tuna on top of (once cooled a bit). I went left-field and additionally topped it with ikura as I bloody love ikura. Crispy rice is a  beautiful revelation. The book is really great - you can buy it here.