Birthday food

Day 2 of Jake's birthday celebrations and I made some rice and beans, since that's one of his faves. To be honest, they weren't great, but Tabasco livened them up (especially when rolled into fajitas as leftovers by Edo and I today), and the vegetables cooked with Fajita seasoning and topped with cheddar were kinda yummy. Pudding consisted of some truly amazing (as in, kinda weird but good) candied satsumas from Granada, brought back by R+J, which were whole fruits that had been sugarised so that they became sort of marmaladey, but in a good way.

Ganapati

Ganapati in Peckham wins both my 'Indian of the week' award and may well also be heading for some gongs in my end of year awards. I went there for Jake's birthday and we ate 'family style' on tables of six, where we shared the main dishes, though we each had a thali plate with rice, poppadom, a delicious chilli salad, and a nifty personalised name badge courtesy of Rebs.

One of the things I liked most about the place was that it was cool, but not in a flash London way, but more like a treasured backstreets restaurant in somewhere like Montpellier in Bristol. It has that nice chilled-out-verging-on-stoner feel to it, with Indian etchings on the wall, relaxed staff and a low-key good-time feel. Of course all this would be for naught if the food was not good and it is just excellent: good daal (if not quite as fine as Wednesday's), a yummy coconut dish, and an absolutely stunning beetroot dish, which was one of the finest things I've eaten all your. I will admit that I was totally seduced by the deep purple of this dish - and quite pissed on some cocktails and amazing beers from London's Meantime brewing company - but there was something subtly moreish about the beetroot and I intend to return to work my way properly through the menu. Any takers?

Nice food, shame about the asshole waiters

To Ravishankar on Drummond St with b for 'Thursday night is saag paneer night' and what a treat the food is: you get a tray, as seen in the photo, with a salad, a mint dressing, three chapatis, a good portion of God's own Indian dish, and some rice pudding (I conformed to type and didn't like the latter). The saag is just bloody delicious, with excellent spinach, lush paneer and a really decent heat to the dish; what's more it combines very well with the chapatis, and by the end you feel you've had a really interesting and filling meal for £6.95.

Yet if the food merits an 'A' the service is grade 'D', pushing towards 'N' or 'U'. B had eaten there before with the Red Devil and they had had problems with the staff, so this was by no means a one off (and external reports have reached our food network of other disgruntled customers). The staff are, at best, offhand, and frankly rather rude in their surliness and the general impression they give off of not giving two hoots about their customers, seeing them only as a bottom line (by which I mean a line of bottoms that come in, sit down, and then file out).

I guess that in the end I may come to view this place simply as somewhere that has famously bad service, and learn to roll with it, but in a town where service is generally pretty good, I don't think I'll be back on any day other than a Thursday.

Delish daal

I was stumped as to what to cook for dinner and followed the doctor's suggestion of rice and daal. I didn't really need to add a salad of red peppers, avocado and feta, because the daal (cooked with cumin, coriander, turmeric and mustard seeds) was one of the yummiest things I've cooked in ages, so much so that Edo and I overate to the point where we needed to lie down. High praise indeed for food. The trick, and a source of much fun, is appara all in the popping of the mustard seeds in a heated pan as you begin.

Masala Zone

Last week saw me eat at three Indian restaurants, so it is perhaps a little harsh on Masala Zone on Upper Street to say that the food was probably slightly weaker than the other two, but I did very much appreciate the distinctiveness of its menu, which includes some interesting dishes featuring fruits and a karahi vegetable selection. B and I had thalis, which come with a variety of vegetables of the day as well as your curry of choice, and before that we shared a street food/puri plate, which was pretty tasty. All the food felt rather healthy and, if anything, I think I would have liked a touch more unhealthiness, but these are small quibbles for it was a very tasty meal and I'd have no hesitation in going back. The fact that it is not your average Indian restaurant is in no way a criticism, and the more I write about the healthy flavours, the more I think I will want to return.

Best dish description of the year

And the award goes to a cafe on Exmouth Market whose name I've forgotten (Ayla's maybe) for one of their many breakfast options which is called 'Fill me up son'. That really amuses me no end, as it did the Merovingian (who liked it so much that he had it) and Edo, who, like me, had a big baked potato. A real no-nonsense, cheap joint with tasty food and chirpy service: what is not to like, apart from my failure to remember its name and to take my camera?

Take me to the border

To Tortilla with Number7 to celebrate a very successful week at work for her after quite a number of months of great effort preparing for an inspection. Some time ago she had noted that a Tex-Mex war had broken out on Upper St as two new places had opened up within months of each other, and last night we tried Tortilla, which is reputed to be winnng the battle of the bandidos.

This was an especially good choice as only this week I was thinking to myself how much I had enjoyed eating at Chilli's in the Emirates, and how nice it would be to have a no-nonsense Tex-Mex diner me. Well now I've got one! It is very much a diner or cafe rather than a restaurant, with utilitarian benches and a fast-food style counter, but it's a far from unpleasant place to be (the walls could lose the red paint I guess), especially once you've started to eat. I had a large burrito (£5.50) full of black beans, Spanish rice, cheese, guacamole, sauteed peppers and onions, and some truly delicious hot sauce. It was a monster dish and went straight to the part of the soul that deals with food. On the side we had nachos, some very good guacamole (you could see the evidence of it having been made with real fruit) and some super sour cream. Drinks were Diet Coke and Sprite, with bottomless cups from the self-service machine, which also had an ice dispenser (fun!). I can't think of much else to say about the food other than that it was just damned delicious and it really is a pretty fantastic addition to the suddenly burgeoning Mexican dining scene in London.

Afterwards we went to see Women of Troy at the National (more on this once b has been) and saw the nifty neon display on the South Bank.