The Phene

All seriously food obsessed people have their favourite food critic. Mine (and I think I may not be alone in this) is Marina O'Loughlin who writes for the Metro. I have decided she may just be my ideal dining companion as our likes and dislikes are spookily similar. Giles Coren may praise an eatery which I then visit and think is pretentious and stuck up or Jay Rayner may bag a restaurant which I quite liked when I ate there. The chances are though, if Marina like's a place I am going to like it as well so I do everything I can to get a booking. Similarly, if Marina slams a restaurant the likelihood of my dining experience there being enjoyable do not bode well.

Ricotta pasta

So, it was with some trepidation that I visited The Phene, a newly opened gastro pub in Plimlico following Marina's damning with faint praise in her weekly column. The pub was opened two months ago by Lily Phene, a 23-year-old fashion designer who can now add the title of pub manager to her bow. Lily's parents do own the excellent French restaurant Cheyne Walk Brasserie, just around the corner so it doesn't seem unfair to assume she got a little help from Mum and Dad. The Phene certainly has its own girly stamp on it though from the Phene branded scented candles on each table, to the upstairs clothing "boutique" (which is really just a clothes rail) to the menu which appears to be designed for diet conscious females.

Sea bass

There's nothing wrong with being careful about what you eat but I did find the references to "egg white only omlette" and the description of ice lollies as containing "0g fat and 70 calories" rather depressing. It's not the sort of thing I want to think about when I am enjoying a meal at a pub. Ignoring the healthy options, the pasta with ricotta, marinated tomatoes and basil (£11) was good while not being transcandental. The pasta was cooked well to an al dente state but the dish was bland and boring. A better option was the plump fillet of sea bass (£16) which arrived on top of a spinach and mushroom risotto with a little sprig of tomatoes on the vine. The risotto was creamy although again a bit uninspired.

Chocolate fondant

The apple and blackberry crumble appeared to be some healthy take on a crumble as it was light on the crumble and heavy on the fruit. While I would have liked more crumble, the fruit had achieved a lovely state of stickiness and the dessert came with a pot of creme anglais to smother the fruit in (£6). The chocolate fondant (£6) was rich and velvety with a gooey store of chocolate sauce in the middle just the way the Master Chef judges like it although it had collapsed on itself a little. The Phene also offers the rather excellent option of having "shot glass puddings" for £2.50 which are small versions of all the desserts on offer so it is possible to eat a small selection of all the desserts on offer if you are feeling indecisive.

Apple crumble - where's the crumble?

The Phene is not a destination for foodies but it does have a fun and buzzy front bar, a handy deli for salads, sandwiches and cakes along with a lovely outdoor terrace for sunny days. As is usual I find myself in agreement with Marina who found the food "peculiar" but noted The Phene was not without its own shambolic, girly charm.

Essentials

Details: 9 Phene Street, Plimlico, SW3 5NY (Ph 020 7352 9898)

Damage: Reasonable

5/10

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in my review of the nearby Cheyne Walk Brasserie or the excellent gastro-pub The Pantechnicon.

Eat, Pray Love and eating gelati in Italy

Is it possible to walk out of Eat, Pray, Love without craving a gelati? The movie opened last week in the UK and is set to be the foodie movie of the year, taking the mantle from last year's Julie and Julia. The story follows Elizabeth Gilbert in her travels to Italy to eat, to India to pray and finally to Bali where she happens to fall in love. The eminently watchable Julia Roberts transforms the narcisstic and sometimes annoying central character of Eat, Pray, Love the novel into someone who it is at least possible to have some degree of sympathy for.

Julia does gelati (picture courtesy of Sony)

Sure the plot is light and fluffy but the scenery is stunning and if you can see Javier Bardem as anyone other than the serial killer in No Country for Old Men, the movie is quite entertaining. However, it is the food which is the star of the show in the Italian part of Elizabeth's journey and I defy anyone to watch the lingering close ups of spaghetti twirling or gelati licking without fighting the urge to hop straight on a plane to Italy. This made watching a preview of Eat, Pray, Love thanks to Sony along with fellow bloggers American in London, Maison Cupcake and Cook Sister the perfect precursor to my holiday to Italy last week.

Gelati from Colletti gelatari - hand modelling by MTV boyfriend

Inspired by the movie (well really who needs inspiration) our trip was a bit of a gelati eating frenzy. So that all my research does not go to waste here is a list of my top three gelati shops from our travels in Umbria and Bologna.

1. Gelataria Gianni

A prince among gelati shops. The gelati here is the best I have ever eaten. Gianni has a huge array of flavours with at least 40 on display at any time in the shop. My favourite was the Il Signore Degli Anelli which combined cream, milk niocciolatte (a Lindt chocolate flavour) and a mystery ingredient entitled "Happy Hippo". Italians if you can tell me what Happy Hippo is do please let me know! It had a rich buttery flavour with an almost caramel creaminess. I also loved the Delizia della Nona an incredibly rich and creamy confection of white chocolate and nutella. The queues out the door tell you all you need to know about this amazing store.

Details: Via Montegrappa, 11 Bologna, Italy (Ph 051 233 008)

Damage: €2.50 for a small cone or cup with two flavours

Gelati inside the shop at Gelataria Gianni

2. Gelatauro

This shop has a cult following among foodies because of its use of organic ingredients and using top quality ingredients from small producers. Besides gelati the store also sells lots of jars of jams and other goodies that all looked delicious. Gelatauro offered plenty of unusual flavours including some with approval from the slow food society, think pumpkin, mascarpone or apple and cinnamon. Smooth and perfectly textured the rich, organic egg yolks really shine through in this gelati. I loved the ultra rich and luxurious Brownice flavour which was made from chocolate, wholenuts and hazlenuts. Think of it as a chocolate brownie in gelati flavour. Special mention should also be made of the pistachio flavours which didn't have that strange luminscent colour and actually looked like pistachios were used. The Regno Delle due Sicile was an inspired combination of pistachio and almonds with sponge cake for a nutty but fluffy flavour hit. For more details on the store David Lebovitz has written a great review of his visit to the shop and kitchen.

Details: Via San Vitale 98, Bologna, Italy (Ph 051 230 049)

Damage: €2.50 for a small cone or cup with two flavours

Gelatauro gelati

3. Colletti gelatari

A simple gelati store in the small town of Umbertide the shop stocks fruit based flavours along with a few traditional favourites. MTV boyfriend liked the strachiatelli (his standard gelati order) although I found my chocolate was a little icy and lacked the smoothness of the superior Bolognese gelati.

Details: Via Bremizia 3, Umbertide, Italy (Ph 075 9413 540)

Damage: €2 for a small cone

Eat, Pray, Love - Italian style

In the movie, Elizabeth visits the San Crispino gelati shop in Rome, but I think these options are just as good, if not better than the official Eat, Pray Love gelati.

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in my review of as close as you can get to Italian style gelati in London at Dri Dri Gelato or more about travels in Italy in the Cinque Terra region.

How to make lamb chops with a tomato and red onion sauce

My parents are visiting from Australia this week and I have had a hard time convincing them that although it is officially still summer in England, the weather is likely to be a little on the chilly side. Yes, the seasons are turning but it is not all doom and gloom as lots of great produce is coming into season. September to December is the season for Welsh lamb, a meat I developed quite a taste for during my trip to Snowdonia last year. So, I was delighted to recieve a package in the mail from the nice people at Eat Welsh Lamb containing some lamb chops and other accompaniments even if I did get funny looks from other people at work when the parcel arrived.



I decided to make something quite autumnal and comforting using the chops so I kept things simple and grilled the meat leaving it plain. I served the chops on a bed of a rich tomato and red onion sauce and a dollop of creamy polenta. To add a little luxury I stirred some blue cheese through the polenta giving it some extra depth and richness.

Making the tomato and red onion sauce

Ingredients
4 lamb chops
1 red onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
200g can of diced tomatoes
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 handful of flat leaf parsley, sliced
25g black olives
100ml water
250ml vegetable stock
60g polenta
60g blue cheese
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to season

1. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a pan over low heat then add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion starts to colour and become soft.

2. Add the tomatoes, rosemary, parsley, olives and water and turn up the heat until the mixture starts to bubble and boil.

3. Bring the stock to the boil in a separate saucepan then remove from the heat and gradually add the polenta, stirring as you add it. Stir through the blue cheese and cover with a lid to keep warm.

4. Once the tomato mixture has started to boil, turn the heat back down to low and cover and simmer for a futher 5 minutes or until the sauce starts to thicken.

5. Brush the lamb chops with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook on a BBQ or grill pan over a high heat for 2 minutes on each side.

6. Serve the chops on top of the tomato sauce and polenta.

Serves two

Links
If you liked reading this you might be interested in these travel tips and restaurant reviews for Wales or if you are looking for more lamb recipes, try this one for lamb cutlets.

Bill Granger at La Fromagerie

It wasn't a waiter who was standing at the door of La Fromagerie, welcoming diners and fetching them a drink of champagne, it was Bill Granger himself. He may be a celebrity chef in Australia and now the UK but that did not stop Bill from making sure he spent time with each and every diner at the special dinner, one of a series of events to launch his latest book, Bill's Basics. Bill is a man who knows how to work a room, he did not stop for the night, making sure he got time to chat with everyone and sign people's books with personalised messages. I was keen to find out when his new restaurant is opening, although it will not be for a while as Bill said he was still searching for a site. He did say he was looking in West London and the restaurant could be in Marylebone or my stomping ground of Notting Hill.

Bill Granger at the La Fromagerie dinner dressed in his trademark white jeans and even whiter teeth!

I was invited to the dinner which was a chance to meet Bill and sample a menu of recipes from Bill's Basics cooked by La Fromagerie's chefs. It certainly made me go home and flag up more recipes that I am keen to recreate from the book. The first one to get a post-it-note in my copy of the book was the caramelised onion dip. We tucked into the dip along with flatbreads as we sipped our champagne before sitting down to dinner. The dip is Bill's take on that 1970's classic of French onion dip traditionally made using powdered French onion soup mix. Bill's contemporary interpretation was much more appetising, bursting with sweetness from the slow cooked onions.

Bill's Basics the book

I wasn't as enarmoured with the lentil salad which was served with more flatbread, creme fraiche and slow roasted beetroot. I thought the salad was a little bland, although (whisper it) I am not such a fan of lentils anyway.

The verging on bland lentil salad

There was no danger of starvation though because the next dish was Bill's version of coq au vin which was made from the most enormous chickens I have ever seen. It is hard to appreciate the scale of this dish from my photograph as the accompanying mound of mashed potato was equally over proportioned. Francophiles may find the dish sacrilegious since Bill swaps the traditional red wine for white wine and makes numerous other adjustments but the benefit for home cooks is that cooking time is reduced from several hours to one which is certainly a time saver. The dish had a lighter taste to it than coq au Vin usually does but resulted in really moist and tender meat on the chicken. The only issue was it was a little underseasoned (Bill was looking for salt on the tables as well).

Coq au Vin

Prior to the dinner, Bill spoke about how much he has enjoyed working with British produce and introducing a more seasonal element into his cooking. This was certainly evident in the dessert of plum tart made using deliciously ripe in season plums. The plums were slow cooked to a state of jammy, sticky perfection and served with La Fromagerie's amazing vanilla ice-cream. Although I probably could not have fitted it in, I was a little disappointed there was no cheese on the menu given we were eating at one of the spiritual homes of cheese in London and literally surrounded by the stuff.

Plum tart

Ever the genial host, Bill was still going strong at the end of the evening when I left, personally farewelling everyone. Although some of the food on the night was a little uneven, Bill's skill as a host and genuinely friendly, outgoing nature really made the evening. Unfortunately most of the book events he is doing are sold out, but there are still tickets left for the event at John Lewis on Oxford street in London which takes place tonight (Monday 20 September). Turn up for a lesson in charm school from Bill.

Essentials
Details: La Fromagerie, 2-6 Moxon street, Marylebone, W1U 4EW (Ph 020 7935 0341) Tube: Baker Street
Damage: £70 for all food and wine
8/10

Gourmet Chick was a guest of Quadrille

Links
If you liked reading this you might be interested in my review of Bill's Basics or my review of La Fromagerie.

Bill's Basics is currently £15 on Amazon.

Caravan

Australians like to claim New Zealand's best and brightest as their own. Take Russell Crowe as an example, when he is winning Oscars he is Australian but when he is throwing phones at hotel receptionists we quickly describe him as a Kiwi. Continuing on in that grand tradition I would formally like to claim the New Zealand owned and staffed restaurant Caravan as being Australian. What a shame it is not as I would have great patriotic pride in such a cracking little restaurant.

Almond cous cous and aubergine (£12)

Caravan is right on the corner of Exmouth Market with large windows looking out perfect for people watching and being watched. It's moodily lit at night-time with lights dangling by wire from the ceiling like microphones and there is a general feeling of bonhomie with a random stuffed peacock surveying the dining room with a beady eye. I went there for a catch up dinner with my friends Claire and Mike and we immediately felt relaxed thanks to the no-nonsense but friendly service.

Char-grilled whole gilt head bream (£12)

The menu is a virtual tour around the world embracing the current zietegist of "small plates" dining. There are a handful of "large plates" on the menu but ordering from the small plates gives the best experience of chef Miles Kirby's fusion style of cooking which he honed at that other great London Kiwi run restaurant, Providores. As most of the small plates came in servings of three we fortuitously had the perfect amount of people to share the food, so if possible I would advise eating at Caravan with three or six people to save arguments.

Chocolate and espresso pudding (£ 7)

Here's what I would order again: Goats curd with butternut squash (£5.50)was a great pairing with the creamy curd cutting through the sweetness of the slow roasted squash. The peppered tuna (£8) was seared and then thinly sliced to reveal the delicate rosy pink flesh of the fish and the dish had a contemporary almost Japanese feel to it. Cured salmon (£7) was draped in delicate slivers across the plate and was teamed with some sesame cucumber and rye crumbs which gave a bit of texture and bite. The gypsy bun (£6) was the stuff of fast food dreams. Filled with spiced pork it was almost a riff on a dim sum style pork bun but with a honey glazed crispy bun. The knock-out dish though was the oxtail (£7.50) which had been slow cooked to the point it almost dissolved at the slightest touch and was served on top a pool of creamy polenta.

Ginger loaf

Here's what I would avoid. The falafels (£4.50) which were dry and fairly uninspiring and the gypsy potatoes (£3) were drowned in an overwhelming creamy coleslaw. The dessert of ginger loaf (£6) had a great ginger kick to it but I felt it needed a sauce or jam to accompany it to stop it being too dry. The Gruner Veltliner, an Austrian white wine (£29.50) that we drank to accompany our meal was dry and crisp but a little uninspiring so I would probably choose another bottle if I returned

There's not really much to complain about though and a lot to get excited about including the complimentary soup amuse bouche (delicious and a nice touch) and the coffee roaster in the basement of the restaurant which means that a return visit to check out the brunch and coffee seems inevitable. Caravan serves exactly the sort of light, sunny, modern food that I love to eat. If you are a Kiwi it will make you feel very proud indeed.

Essentials

Details: 11-13 Exmouth Market, Clerkenwell EC1R 4QD (Ph 020 7833 8115) Tube: Farringdon

Damage: Pricey

8/10

Links

If you liked reading this you might like my reviews of other Exmouth market restaurants - Moro and Dollar Grills and Martinis.

Gourmet Giveaway and Gourmet Chick Sponsors

A new giveaway on Gourmet Chick today - a virtual plethora of food and wine shows from BBC Good Food. There is the BBC Good Food Show Scotland, The Good Food Show Winter and The Wine Show. Tickets for all three shows are on sale now, but I have five pairs to each show to giveaway. The tickets are worth £20.50 each (the Scottish tickets are £16.50) and you can use the tickets on any day of the show except for Saturdays.

Big sweary - picture courtesy of BBC Good Food

The Good Food Show Scotland is taking place at the SECC Glasgow from 22- 24 October and kicks off the shows with its showcase of Scottish produce. There will be lots of big names there including Gordon Ramsay, James Martin, John Torode and Greg Wallace.

For wine aficiondos in London The Wine Show will be held at Olympia from 12-14 November with tasting sessions galore from Tim Atkin, Oz Clarke and others. Wine show tickets will also get you into Masterchef Live featuring Celebrity Masterchef winner Lisa Faulkner and the amazing Dhruv Baker winner of Masterchef.

Finally, there is the Good Food Show Winter which is taking place at the NEC in Birmingham from 24-28 November. The Supertheatre here is starring Gordon Ramsay, James Martin, Rick Stein and Gary Rhodes and there is also a Masterchef event.

The darling of Saturday morning TV, James Martin. I bet you he never eats omlettes at home.

To win a pair of the fifteen tickets on offer just leave a comment below saying which show you want to attend - Scotland, Wine or Winter. Remember...

• Competition closes at 5pm UK time on Wednesday 29 September 2010;
• The competition is open to all ages and world-wide although obviously there is not much point entering if you can't attend;
• Make sure to leave a contact email address if you don't have a blog I can contact you through - otherwise I won't be able to get in contact with you if you win. Otherwise you can email me your email detail at missgourmetchick[at]gmail[dot]com.
• The winners will be drawn using random.org; and
• The winners will be announced on Gourmet Chick on Friday 1 October 2010.

Good luck!

COMPETITION CLOSED

The River Cafe

The River Cafe is one of the must go restaurants in London. An institution which created a new wave of simple, seasonal cooking it was also the restaurant that launched the careers of Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Theo Randall and Sam and Sam Clark amongst others. Despite a fire in 2008 ago that forced the restaurant to close for six months and the death of co-owner Rose Gray in Feburary this year the River Cafe is still going strong.

The River Cafe is on the bank of the Thames in Hammersmith

The restaurant started as the canteen for the architectural practice of Ruth Roger's husband, Lord Rogers which explains its tucked away location down a residential street in Hammersmith backing onto the Thames. The location is so discreet that one poor staff members sole job appeared to be to stand on the street and direct diners towards the restaurant. Once inside the restaurant it is all brightness and light. The place still has a utilitarian feel which is reminiscent of its canteen days with unfussy wire chairs, paper topped tables and a huge bar that runs down the entire side of the room leading to the open kitchen where the chefs beaver away in full view. Right next to the large white-washed wood fired oven Ruth Rogers still mans the pass carefully inspecting every plate of food as it left the kitchen on my visit. It's a reminder that open kitchens may be par for the course these days but when The River Cafe first opened the concept was revolutionary.

Char grilled squid

The seasonal menu that changes twice a day was also ground breaking when The River Cafe first opened, on my Saturday lunch time visit with MTV boyfriend it had a distinctly summery feel to it with lots of seafood and lighter options. Chargrilled squid (£14) was bouncy and wriggly, complete with tentacles and had a fabulous smoky taste from the grill. It sat on a simple rocket salad with a fresh red chilli jam to add some kick.

Inside the River Cafe with the wood fired oven at one end of the room

In true Italian style it was the "primi" or pasta course that stole our hearts. The honesty of The River Cafe's style of cooking was at its best in the tagiatelle con pomodori crudi (£13), a simple dish of pasta tossed in sweet, juicy raw tomatoes, a few judicious basil leaves and a splash of red wine vinegar. The mix of ingredients achieved a magical equilibrium where the finished dish was greater than the sum of its parts. The ravioli (£15) was similarly under-played featuring a a couple of fat discs of pasta stuffed with fresh girolles and buffalo ricotta and drizzled with a little sage butter. The al dente pasta was just right and if food could actually sing each of the ingredients would have been in total harmony.

Ravioli

The wood fired oven was put to good use to cook the whole Dover sole (£33) which was roasted over rosemary branches and then teamed with some swiss chard and roasted beetroot. The fish had a subtle lemon flavour and virtually popped with freshness. Leg of lamb (£32) had been char-grilled to a state of rosy pinkness and was pepped up with a vibrant salse verde and a sprinkling of girolles. Once again this was simple stuff but the top notch ingredients made it a dish of rustic beauty.

Leg of lamb

To finish the restaurant's chocolate nemesis cake (£8.50) is almost obligatory. The recipe for the cake in The River Cafe's cook book is famously impossible to replicate successfully but I could see why people have kept on trying after I took a bite of the cake. It was light while at the same time being incredibly moist and straddled the line between chocolate mousse and chocolate cake. The cake was a much better choice than the cheese plate (£13). Despite the revamped restaurant having its own cheese affineur room the selection of three Italian cheeses served were sweaty and warm. The suggested pairing of a glass of lageder riesling (£8) was also a miss as the wine lacked the sweetness I expected to compliment the cheese.

Dover sole

We would have been better off sticking with the wine we drank over the course of our meal, the Carmigano (£51) which was a blend of sangiovese and cabernet sauvignon. It was recommended by the sommelier who guided us through the entirely Italian wine list. He was relatively helpful in pointing out a variety of wines at different prices that he thought paired well with our food but not so helpful at actually discussing the wine with us. This was the only part of the service that was in any way lacking, our waitress was very helpful and attentive while maintaining a laid back attitude that fitted in well with the casual informality of the restaurant itself.

Chocolate Nemesis

The food at The River Cafe serves as a complete explanation for why Italian food is as its best when it is at its most simple. High quality ingredients, punchy flavours and a relaxed atmosphere mean it is no surprise that the restaurant has become such an institution.

Essentials

Details: Thames Wharf, Rainville road, Hammersmith W6 9HA (Ph 020 7386 4200) Tube: Hammersmith

Damage: Budget breaking

9/10

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in my reviews of some alumni of The River Cafe - Jamie Oliver's Fifteen and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage.

Pix Pinxtos

The array of "pinxtos" or small plates lined up at the bar at Pix Pinxtos in Notting Hill can add up to death by a thousand fiscal cuts. That's the problem with tapas, and particularly small tapas that aren't really very filling, you end up eating so many of them that you could have gone to a decent restaurant and ordered three courses for the same price.

Peppers stuffed with goats cheese

Pix has been open for less than a year on the site of the old Tea Palace and the formality of the tea room is gone and replaced by white tiled walls, a long marble topped bar and an ecelectic collection of well worn wooden tables and chairs in all shapes and sizes. Pinxtos is pronounced pinchos but spelt with an x in the Basque region of Spain. Whatever pinxtos are being served that day sit at the end of the bar where you can help yourself. Each dish is skewered with a little wooden stick and when it comes time to pay, you are charged according to the number of empty sticks you have at £2.50 a stick. The concept is admirably simple and one I have experienced in Spanish tapas bars but in Pix what you get for your £2.50 a stick varies wildly.

The bar where the tapas are displayed

£2.50 was quite good value for a skewer of fresh calamari rings perched on top of a wedge of lemon and served with a dollop of alioli. However it was not so great for not particularly fresh pan con tomate bread topped with a sliver of jamon, or for a thin wedge of Manchego cheese skewered onto a tiny piece of chorizo. It was certainly too much to pay for bland and flaccid salt cod goujons. You can't actually order food, instead the plates are brought to the bar as they are ready so it is really a matter of luck and timing as to what will be on offer when you visit.


Of course the concept of tapas is also to drink so to that end there was quite a good Spanish influenced wine list along with a selection of Spanish beers and cavas and cocktails which are not particularly Spanish at all but seemed to be popular on our visit. Wine is served in orange coloured tumblers which may annoy serious wine aficiondos.

Salt cod goujons

Service was helpful and Pix has free wifi which the staff helped me connect to as we were doing some holiday planning with friends over a bottle of wine. The only problem was that staff whisked away the little skewers from time to time which made it hard to keep track of the bill and how many pinxtos we had eaten. I suspect that may be the intention. If you use Pix as a snack stop on your way to an actual meal then the prices are not too bad, but if you actually tried to eat your fill here it would be quite a shock to your wallet.


Essentials
Details: 175 Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill W11 2SB (Ph 020 7727 6500) Tube: Notting Hill Gate
Damage: Pricey
5/10

Links
My favourite restaurant for tapas in London is Barrafina, but just down the road from Pinxtos a better option is El Pirata de Tapas.

Bergen (Gourmet Chick in Norway)

"Reaching Bergen we fail to find it particularly attractive. Everything is fishy. You eat fish, and drink fish and smell fish and breathe fish." Lilian Leland, Travelling Alone A Woman's Journey Round the World, 1890.

Brightly painted houses on the quayside

Yes everything in Bergen is fishy, but for this traveller it only added to the attraction. The traditional brightly coloured wooden houses of Bergen with their crooked laneways that run between them line the busy port where cruise ships and fishing boats still ply their trade. The focal point of the town is the fish market, an open air affair that still functions as a place to buy fish for Bergen's citizens as well as offering various lunch options for visitors.

Crab claws for sale at the Fiskertorget

Bergen Fish Market (Fiskertorget)

The stalls at the Fiskertorget are piled high with huge crabs, fat, juicy prawns and gleaming pieces of fish. Friendly stallholders dressed in flourescent overalls offer a series of dishes that you can eat at tiny tables and chairs. Buns topped with smoked salmon or cooked prawns (30k or £3 each) were typical Scandinavian fare according to my friend Anna who we were travelling with and delicious to boot as well. Salmon steak and prawns cooked on a BBQ that imparted a lovely smokey, charred flavour were served in a "meal deal" with a drink and some salad (150k or £15). For the total Bergen experience though it is hard to go past the Bergen fish soup (70k or £7), a local speciality that was traditionally made using the bones of coal fish to form the stock and given some extra oomph with pickled purslane and whatever vegetables were to hand. The modern version is more likely to feature haddock as a base which is blended with vegetables to give the soup a creamy, thick consistency. Pieces of fish were flecked throughout along with carrots and celery for some texture. It was really packed with flavour although a bit overseasoned for my taste.

Details: Bergen Harbour, Bergen, Norway (Ph +47 55 55 20 00)

Damage: Pricey

7/10

Fish wasn't the only thing on offer at the fiskertorget there was also fresh berries and fruit and jams

Baker Brun

Norway is also famous for its cinnamon buns so we could not resist the opportunity to try them in Baker Brun, a small cafe on the wharf that had come recommended. The cinnamon buns were huge scrolls with copious amounts of crunchy sugar sprinkled over the top. Baker Brun's version verged on the side of being too dry so if you visit it may be worth trying Grodt Baker instead for buns which is also nearby and looked to be a better bet.

Details: Torget 2, Bergen, Norway (Ph +47 55 31 51 08)

Damage: Reasonable

4/10

Cinnamon bun

Sott og Salt

Restaurants in hotels are often best avoided but with a recommendation from a local to try Sott og Salt for contemporary Norwegian cuisine I ignored the location of the restaurant in the Radisson Hotel. Sott og Salt offers a set menu each night with a choice of three, five or seven courses. We opted for five courses (645k or £65) although MTV boyfriend said confidently "this is a posh restaurant so we will get lots of little free courses". Sure enough, an amuse bouche of a kindler jar filled with delicate scallop foam swiftly arrived.

Lobster with apple and pea shoots

Next was sweet, meaty lobster teamed with slices of apple and pea shoots in a confection that was so pretty it was a shame to eat it. We opted for two "main" courses, the first was a fillet of exquisite Norwegian ocean trout topped with roe which tasted like a more intensely flavoured version of salmon. It was served with a smear of pureed parsnip and red onion that had been slow cooked until it was soft and sweet. The second was lamb which was cooked to a tender blush pink and smothered in a thick dark sauce with chanterelle and oyster mushrooms scattered over the plate. As with Icelandic lamb, I felt the Norwegian lamb had a distinctive, light flavour which must come from surviving in such a harsh climate.

Norwegian ocean trout

The only miss on the menu was the dessert of blue cheese with Norwegian plums. The plums were slow cooked to a sweet, soft state of jammy perfection but the cheese was served as a foam littered with tiny pieces of oatmeal biscuit. This was the case of a foam to far when the actual cheese would have been much preferable. The dessert was really the only fault I can find in what was otherwise cutting edge food. Service was fairly slow and more work is needed to give the restaurant some atmosphere and make it feel less like an extension of the hotel lobby, but the food itself was stunning. If what I ate at Sott og Salt was representative of contemporary Norwegian cuisine then it is certainly something I want to try more of.

Dessert of blue cheese and Norwegian plums

Details: Radisson Blu, Hotel Norge Nedre Ole Bulls plass, Bergen 5012, Norway (Ph +47 4000 3713)

Damage: Budget Breaking

8/10

Gourmet Traveller Tips

We spent our time in Bergen wandering around the fish market and quaint wooden buildings then we walked to the lookout which gives you a view over the whole of Bergen. If you are feeling lazy you can take a funicular to the lookout.

Bring a rain jacket and umbrella - it rains a lot in Bergen and stock up on alcohol at the airport duty free as it is highly taxed in Norway. The duty free at the Bergen airport is open for every incoming flight and is priced similarly to the UK.

We stayed at Sandviken apartments which were pretty basic but clean and centrally located. They charged k3,500 (£350) for six people for two nights which is a bargain for Bergen.

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in my other travels in Norway in Flam and Sognefjorden.

Dishoom

Most people's favourite Indian restaurant is the one at the end of their street. There are lots of decent enough Indian restaurants in London and so convenience usually wins over heading to a destination restaurant (with the exception of Tayyabs which is strictly speaking Pakistani anyway). This makes the opening of Dishoom right in the middle of Covent Garden just over one month ago, a pretty brave move. Indian food that isn't just about cheap, cheerful and convenient curries can be tricky to pull off. The now defunct Urban Turban comes to mind.

The interior of Dishoom

The name Dishoom comes from the equivalent of "kapow" gun shooting in old Bollywood movies, immediately invoking a sense of nostalgia for any Indian diners. The nostalgia continues in the interior of the restaurant which is a modern take on old school Bombay cafes, never having been to Bombay I have to take the owners word on this. Authentic Bombay cafe or not, the place looks great. There is a sense of history to the cosy black booths, black and white checked floors and old photographs hung on the walls. Dangling old glass lamps illuminate the tables and there is a large open kitchen with all sorts of interesting looking equipment in it like the metal dome for stretching roti on and the vats of hot oil with naan bubbling merrily away inside.

Crisps and accompanying sauces

Dishoom is another of those too-cool-to-take-bookings restaurants but MTV boyfriend and I skipped the queues by eating early in the evening. We had St Martinis (£5.50) to begin, Dishoom's take on a martini which features pomegranate and chilli syrup shaken with the gin to give a strong, but dirty twist to the drink. Cafe crisps (£1.90) were thin and keenly spiced making them the perfect drinking snacks and very moreish. They had a serious kick to them but came with a cooling mint sauce, a sweet and sour chutney or a fiery chilli accompaniment, depending on how masochistic you were feeling.

Chicken biryani

Service was incredibly swift, to the point that we felt a little hurried. Almost as soon as we placed our main order it all came out in a rush, so it is probably advisable to order in stages if you want a more leisurely dining experience. Although quickly prepared, the food was good. The keema pau (£4.50) of minced lamb served with hot, buttered bread that looked like a hamburger roll was nicely spiced and dry. Deep fried calamari (£4.50) was perhaps a bit heavy handed on the batter and light on the calamari. The chicken berry biryani (£7.50) came in a pot sealed with pastry with light, fluffy rice and sweet berries, although there was not much of the tender shredded chicken in the serving we got.

It was the spicy lamb chops (£9.20) that were utterly transfixing. They had a thick charred crust of black pepper and chillis which were a great foil to the pink meat. Cooling yoghurt raita (£1.90) was flecked with diced cucumber and fresh mint and we could not resist mopping it up with the fresh naan bread (£1.70). I could eat naan all day, every day and never get tired of it and Dishoom does a great naan.

Calamari

Dishoom may not replace my local curry house in my affections, it is a little too slick and too far away from the end of my road for that. Still, when I feel like Indian food with a bit of a difference it will be hard to go past. Despite a few food wobbles, all the early indicators point to a restaurant that is going to be a raging success.

Lamb chops

Essentials

Details: 12 Upper St Martins Lane, Covent Garden WC2F 9FB (Ph 020 7420 9320) Tube: Covent Garden

Damage: Such a bargain even my mother would approve

7/10

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in my reviews of other Indian restaurants Aladin and Urban Turban.