Previously on The Blog About Nothing... in London!

  • stamaria Santa Maria
    Best Pizza in London
  • tapcoffee Tap Coffee
    Coffee time in Warren St
  • exmouthespresso Bean Review
    Exmouth Espresso Blend
  • kurobuta Kurobuta
    Japanese Tapas
  • oddonos Oddono's
    Gelato in Chiswick
  • smokehouse Smokehouse
    Mouthwatering Burgers and BBQ
  • firehouse No 197 Fire Station
    Complete disaster
  • irisandjune Iris & June
    Independent Coffee Shop in Victoria
  • coffeeguide The Not Official London Coffee Guide
    Humble take on the independent scene
  • dumdum Dum Dum Donutterie
    They don't have Cronuts but they do Cros
  • bonanza Bean Review
    Bonanza's Espresso Blend
  • moo Moo Cantina
    Lomito Time
  • chorbizarre Chor Bizarre
    Restaurant with personality
  • squaremilebelen Bean Review
    Square Mile's Belen Espresso
  • ottolenghi Ottolenghi
    Not as good as usual!
  • quantus Quantus
    European cuisine in Chiswick
  • pearlliang Pearl Liang
    About Time for a Chinese
Showing posts with label jewish cuisine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jewish cuisine. Show all posts

Coffee Enquiry XVIII: Craft Coffee + Late Morning in Maltby St Market

Elaine, the guy's Jewish two days, he's already making Jewish jokes
Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld episode “The Yada Yada") 

You have to go to Ropewalk. That was a sentence a couple friends of mine have been telling me. The Maltby St market is open only on Saturday from 9am to 4pm. A good selection of vendors with a couple highlights I wanted to try, and some one off pop up style vendors and events. Even at some point Jose Pizzarro had one stall there. 

The market
I went for two reasons, the first one to finally try Kimchinary’s tacos and to see what all my friends have been telling me so far. 

Let me start with the coffee. A small trader just by the entrance of the Ropewalk arch is Craft Coffee. Single origin coffee, they change it every week to keep the customers surprised. Beans supply by Has Been. The coffee is served three ways, espresso based extraction, filter, and if by luck is sunny enough you will be able to get a cold brew. 

Coffee Time
The drinks
Sadly Craft Coffee is only on Saturday’s in the market, so you have only about 5 hours window to get there and try an amazing flat white or a lovely macchiato. All the trimmings including nice latte art either by Jamie or Emily. 

Macchiato
Espresso Machine: Nuova Simonelli
Beans: Has Bean
Score: 5/5 

Great coffee I would love to see around more of Craft Coffee in London. 

Now back to the food part. I browsed around and two things caught my attention, the obvious one Hanna’s stall Kimchinary and the second one the biggest queue of the market Jewish soul food by Monty’s Deli. 

Kimchinary's stall
Monty's
Kimchinary is Hanna’s project. Former blogger, Jämtlad native, foodie, and Kimchi lover. The proposal are some amazing kimchi/Korean tacos, and some sort of kimchi arancini (kimchi fried rice or Kimchini). 

Kimchini
I got to the stall, never revealed who I was, had a lovely chat with Hannah while waiting for my pork belly tacos. I have to say they are amazing. Good balance, every single component well presented, as it is fine dinning, and the flavour spot on. Who would have said that Korea meat Mexico works! Superb, if you want to try her food just check her twitter (kimchinary) to track Hanna down. 

The great Korean Tacos
My last treat of the day was Monty’s Deli. Mark gives us Jewish food prepared from scratch, chicken soup with matzo balls, and either or both Pastrami and Salt Beef hand sliced sandwiches. The beef brisket is brined for 6 days in a secret recipe, then a blend of spices and seven hours in an outdoor coal smoker seal the deal. 

Monty's menu
Pastrami craving in action
I got the Reuben, no special as they ran out Salt Beef when it was my turn. In case you don’t know the special is adding Salt Beef to the Pastrami making a monster sandwich. The size of the normal Reuben is big, plenty of extremely flavourful pastrami, really good. Just my kind of sandwich. 

Reuben time
The sandwich is heavy loaded New York style for sure so you have the flavour and the size. Similar to Craft Coffee it would be good to see Monty’s Deli around more. Only Saturday folks hope this limited appearances aren't becoming a trend.

Maltby St Market
T: 020 7394 8061
Street Food
Area: Bermondsey
Borough: Southwark
Twitter: MaltbySTMkt


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Russell Norman Strikes Back

The new venture for Russell Norman small dishes empire is Mishkin’s. Yes the same Norman that gave us the magic of Da Polpo, Spuntino, Polppeto, and Polpo is back looking for rebel forces on the planet Covent Garden. Loose Jewish comfort food, nothing too kosher about that, would this be the place that Ezra Mishkin envisioned? Not so crowded as his brother Spuntino, Mishkin’s has a unique atmosphere, a definitive mix between Manhattan and London, big bar just at the entrance and tables at the back, wooden and brick walls, and their now classic rustic décor. 

Mishkin's
Inside
My friend first comment after studying the menu was I don’t understand it, who cares? Order one of each and make your life easy, if it’s as good as Da Polpo or Spuntino you will be fine. Good cocktails, I haven’t been feeling too good so I ordered a milkshake which was pretty good, but my friend ordered a Diamond Fizz (gin, prosecco, and lemon) which actually loved so much that couldn’t resist to tweet about that. 

Diamond Fizz
Plenty of options I knew I wanted to try the Reuben, pastrami on rye with sauerkraut, Swiss melted cheese, and Russian dressing. It was awesome, huge portion, full of flavour, the dressing, the sauerkraut, and the melted cheese in perfect balance with the pastrami, definitely my favourite Reuben in London, I can compare it to the one of Grahamwich in Chicago. I want it more so I ordered a special fried sprouts with garlic dip, the battered was good, nice flavour, good dip, but I think it felt a little bit short. Finally I was between meatballs or the traditional matzo ball soup, at the end decided to try the Lamb and Pistachio meatball, good spicy kick, nice flavour but a little bit dry, nothing serious that can be easily fix as the flavours are there. 

Reuben
More Reuben
Meatballs
Fried Sprouts
Highly recommended, nice atmosphere, R&B music out loud, I recall Otis Redding version of Satisfaction, a different and unique menu, and great cocktails, I wonder why it wasn’t as packed as Spuntino during my visit, probably Jewish cuisine is a hard sell for Londoners, not sure, time will tell, but for now I will go for my Matzo Ball and another Reuben when nearby Covent Garden. 

A view of the bar
Jewish cuisine reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Fatigues” 

George: What are you doing here? 
Kramer: Well, he came by to pick up his check for the banquet hall. You know I got a hundred and eighty-three responses? Oh, it's going to be a ragger 
Jerry: Kramer, how are you going to cook Jewish delicacies for a hundred and eighty-three people? 
Kramer: Yeah, you're right. That's a lot of pupkitz. Hey Frank, you know anybody who can help me cook? 
Frank: Cook? No, I don't know any cooks. I don't know anything about cooking!

Mishkin's
T: 020 7240 2078
Jewish Deli
Area: Covent Garden
Borough: Westminster
Twitter: MishkinsWC2
Mishkin's on Urbanspoon


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