Hackney Croissant Watch #1

Weekend breakfast is important. It's the big thing that demarcates the week from the weekend, where breakfast is a leisurely and enjoyable pursuit, rather than just fuel to accompany the Today Programme while you try and wake up.

I love food rituals – the comfort of familiar tastes and sensations. When we lived in Newington Green we had on our doorstop (in the view of many) the best viennoiseries and green grocers for miles around – Le Belle Epoque and NewingtonGreen Fruit and Vegetables. So most weekends one of us would pop out to get some croissants and berries, while the other would get the coffee on.

The croissants at Le Belle Epoque were amazing. I have literally never had such good croissants as those ones, especially their weighty almond croissants – a veritable meal. But now that we've shifted two miles East, it's a bit of a schlepp that you don't want to do every weekend.

Over in E5, croissants aren't so much in the DNA of the area. But there is no shortage of cafes selling them, so I'll be charting my experiences eating my way through the neighbourhood's pastry options.

First up, the recently opened Dreyfus Cafe at the corner of Clapton Square and Lower Clapton Road. Dreyfus Cafe is describing itself as both a cafe and bakery – focusing in particular on the cuisine from around the Baltic Sea. I've also been following their setup and opening on twitter eagerly, and I know they have ambitions of baking their own croissants etc eventually.

For now, they are happy with their supplier – and I am too. We each had a plain croissant and a pain au chocolat – you could taste the quality of the butter and the flour, and were just the right denisty – nicely chewy, not too heavy; substantial. At £1.50 for a plain and £1.80 for chocolate, prices are a little higher than Le Belle Epoque – and not quite hitting that (admittedly VERY high) bar. But still very good, and we've already been back.

They hadn't ordered in almond croissants that day, and I cleared out their last four at about 10.30am. But it's early days and I look forward to sampling the almond next time they have them in.

Peruvian in your backyard

At the start of the year, food pundits looking for 2012's big food trends in London were almost unanimous in tipping Peruvian food to be the big one. Openings of trendy restaurant/cocktail bars in Soho, Noho and (soon) Shoreditch happened, and the joys of pisco sours became better known. But for those who don't need exposed brick and industrial lights to enjoy good food, a good Peruvian option could be enjoyed without leaving North/East London.

Tierra Peru opened early in 2012 on a slightly forgotten strip of Essex Road, the main traffic artery connecting Islington with Stoke Newington, Dalston and Hackney. When I lived in Newington Green this was my main route into town – there were a few interesting looking places on Essex Road  but none ever looked too busy. Busy roads can be unforgiving places to hang out: the traffic discourages street life, the lack of street life discourages interesting cafe life.

But Tierra Peru is busy every night, with it's good value, generous portions of authentic Peruvian food. There are no nods to Lower East Side NYC in the décor here: it's all leather chairs, glossy surfaces, plasma TVs, slightly garish in a different cultural interpretation of 'stylish'. I'd always rather restaurants focused on good value food than instagram friendly interiors.

Ceviche is the big draw – fish and seafood marinaded in lime and chili, effectively curing it and making it edible without losing any of its freshness. Some of my friends were a bit sceptical about the thought, but the plate we ordered was hoovered up in no time. It came with cassava, crispy corn kernels and fried plantain. Mmmmm.



We also shared some potato in a cheese sauce – like the horribly synthetic nacho cheese ala Dorritos – but GOOD. Slithers of black olive and slices of hard boiled egg making for an interesting taste combination. That, and a chicken pastry with a salsa.



The main courses were meat and carb heavy – a couple of us plumped for seafood and rice options, the others had big bits of juicy meat on the bone, with croquettes and plantains. My seafood stew was good – full of fresh tasting seafood, chunky squid, plump mussels and juicy prawns. They didn't skimp on the good stuff and the flavours were nice, but it was less interesting than the first course.





The pisco sours were great – tangy, and frothy from the egg white whisked in.




I think if I was to go again, I would do it more tapas style, sharing a greater number of interesting starters and supping on more piscoes as I went along. But if you want to sample Peruvian cuisine without the queues and hype, and without leaving the 'hood, Tierra Peru is a good start.

Swedish tidings in Hackney

A joy of living Hackney is the constant change – there are always new bars, cafes, restaurants, shops and galleries opening. It is incredibly dynamic, and the frontiers of where interesting places open is being pushed all the time.

While Chatsworth Road in Lower Clapton and Hackney Central have seen a number of interesting openings over the last few years, just in the last month both a gallery and a fancy pizza place have opened on a previously 'untouched' (i.e. slightly grim) stretch of Upper Clapton Road, while the transient feeling Dalston Lane bit on the gyratory have seen a Spanish deli and Scandinavian furniture shop-cum-cafe open in recent months.

Understandably, the excitement for some has been labelled as sweeping gentrification by others. It's clearly a live issue – where an incoming middle class are highly visible in supping 'short blacks' and tucking into open sourdough sandwiches, many live in abject poverty. There is hardly a 'middle' in Hackney, and the worry is that cafes and boutiques will take over and make the long-standing population feel more excluded.

I completely share those concerns, but am sceptical that the process will ever be all consuming – Hackney has one of the highest proportions of social housing in the country, which puts a structural stop on full-on middle class domination. The worry is that the divide therefore becomes more extreme. My personal view – as someone who spends their working days campaigning to make housing accessible and affordable for everyone – is that Hackney Council must ensure they build affordable homes for people on low and middle incomes to ensure that the next generation has a future here too. Not an easy sell, but other councils are finding creative ways of getting lots of affordable homes built.

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That said, I do enjoy frequenting my excellent local cafes (alongside pound shops, convenience stores, Percy Ingles and take-aways!) and would say many are worth making your way over for. A particular favourite at the moment is Cooper and Wolf, a Swedish cafe on Chatsworth Road as it meets Millfields Park.

Cooper and Wolf opened at the beginning of July, and within a week it was packed with brunching and lunching locals like it filled a massive void that nobody (apart from the canny owners) knew existed. I've been three times since then, eagerly showing it off to friends ('look what *I*have at the end of my road!').

The menu includes a range of sizes of savoury dishes – cold open sandwiches, filling and interesting salads, and warming potato-based dishes, freshly baked sweet treats, exceptionally well made Caravan coffees, and lots of fruit juices.

The meatball open sandwich was my first choice – served cold, and to grandma's recipe – the balls were properly meaty and subtly seasoned, served on top of a beetroot and apple salad and lavishly topped with fresh chives.

The most brunchy option is fried potatoes (with or without bacon) and topped with one of the healthiest, yellowest eggs you've seen. That one comes with a bit of beetroot and lightly pickled cucumber- wonderfully fresh.

My favourite dish so far has been the potato pancake with their wonderful, locally smoked salmon by Hansen and Lydersen. The salmon was just amazing, so fresh tasting, clearly high quality and generous in portion. The pancake was very substantial, and topped with crème fraiche, lemon and lots of dill (a favourite herb) it was one of the best brunch dishes I've had. Ever.

I also loved their chicken, bacon and avocado salad – full of fresh herbs and with a remoulade to make it all a little less virtuous.

When it comes to sweet stuff, their cinnamon buns are to die for – especially when they are warm and fresh out the oven. Be warned: they go quickly. The folk running Cooper and Wolf sometimes tweet when they're out the oven – a reason, if there ever was one, to be hooked on twitter.

I think prices are reasonable for the quality - £6 - £9 is the range, but you can save 10% on everything with a Chatsworth Road Traders and Residents' Association – which only costs £1. You can sign up at the stall at the market on Sundays.

The tastiest.pizza.ever

Would you believe me if I said the tastiest pizza in London was...within (literal) spitting distance of the Olympic Park? Or surrounded by desolate streets and light industrial warehouses? And the nearest shop is probably Screwfix?

Tastiest pizza in London is a bold claim. So, a caveat: tastiest, not most authentic.

So where? At the Crate Brewery in Hackney Wick. At the edge of all things. I have an emerging theory that the best places in London are the places which are hardest to reach. That's where the vibe is the most laid back, away from the hustle and bustle of back-to-back diaries enabled by rapid mass-transport systems.

Crate Brewery is at a quiet bit of the Lea Valley, right by the water - only a few joggers or walkers go past on the other side, and you've entered from the other side through a maze of industrial streets and then a car park. The perimeter of the Olympic park is right there - complete with at least nine security cameras that we could see.

Picture the scene: it's a sunny September evening, a mixture of families, older singles and young arty types are set on communal picnic benches by the canal. Lots of interesting, deep colours of beer from their onsite microbrewery are being brought out, every now and then a couple of big pizzas are artfully presented, wafting delicious smells through the air.

Between us we ordered three pizzas - but I basically had a whole one to myself. And it was the tastiest pizza I've had in London. It was topped with griddled courgette, red onion, feta cheese and gremolata. The base was great - thin, but not too crispy, robust enough to hold the dense topping. The flavour combination on the topping was king - the courgette, red onion and feta are natural partners, but the inclusion of the gremolata was what really elevated the pizza - so fresh and zesty and complementing the other ingredients perfectly.



Our other pizzas included a Margherita - simple, but done well with a smattering of halved cherry tomatoes on top, and a more exciting one topped with thinly sliced potato, truffle oil and sage. It was another great combination - much subtler, but absolutely luxurious.





I've barely even mentioned the beer, which is another big selling point about Crate Brewery. As the name suggests, there is an onsite microbrewery, making a range of ales and lagers, which were smooth and delicious. A decent selection of other interesting ales and lagers were on tap, and a yet wider selection were in bottles.

Crate Brewery is all in all a great find for a laid back beer and pizza, away from the madding crowd. For those not in the East, I'd say it's worth the journey. Otherwise, get on your bike and get stuck in.

Who can you trust? Vietnamese restaurants in Hackney

What do you make of 'Trip Advisor' style reviews of restaurants? Have you ever been tempted to go somewhere but put off by patchy customer reviews?

I have. I eat out a fair bit (obvs) and when researching my options I'll find myself trawling comments on Time Out, google reviews or London Eating to reassure myself that somewhere is worth going to. So few places get all out good reviews - and I started to notice patterns of negativity. If it's a hyped, trendy place most of the reviews will be moaning about the waiting time, disappointment that their gourmet fried chicken wasn't more WOW (hello...it's fried chicken, there's only so much you can do to jazz it up). If it's a cheap ethnic eat, commentators will moan about the decor and the slow or chaotic service. If people are in a big group, they'll moan about getting treated like a leper colony and sat separately with an edited menu.

There's a fair number of people whose expectations are way off, who are particularly fussy, or who think the world owes their group of 20 diners a full a la carte menu all served at EXACTLY THE SAME TIME. And it turns out they are all much more likely to write moany reviews on comment sites.

My point? Researching is perfectly sensible, but find a reviewer, blogger or friend whose opinion you trust and go with a good recommendation. Ignore the haters.

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The Huong-Viet canteen on Englefield Road (De Beavouir Town/Dalston) is a place I'd been encouraged to go to by trusted friends, but discouraged by anonymous reviewers. I finally visited last night and it confirmed my thesis - my trusted friend was totally right, it kicked the arses of the Vietnamese canteens further down Kingsland Road.

Huong Viet is set back from the road in a scruffy looking former bathhouse. If you walked past during the day you wouldn't notice it. Inside it's cosily lit for a canteen-y restaurant and a more intimate buzz than its cousins down in Shoreditch. There's a localish vibe, but a nice cross-section of families, older couples, young professionals, as well as the ubiquitous bearded hipsters.

We shared a selection of starters. Dim-sum like steamed vegetable rolls...they came topped with crispy garlic and a fresh leaf salad. They were tastier than your standard veg rolls and a nice halfway house between  summer (raw) and fried. The fish cakes had a wonderful chewy texture and slightly smoky taste. I hadn't had Vietnamese versions before, but they are more interesting than most of the Thai versions I've had before.

The highlight of the starters was their fried squid. It came lightly battered, and the squid pieces were really fresh, chunky and properly meaty. They didn't taste previously frozen - and if they were, it was far better than the chewy, plasticky type you often get.They were topped with crispy chillies and lemon grass, that was perfectly salty and moreish. There was barely a crumb left on the plate.

For mains I had roasted pork and aubergine in a light sauce - it was really good, with decent portions of both ingredients. The sauce was interesting too - quite a lot of dill, which was a surprise, but it's a great herb and went well. Lots of fresh ginger making it really zesty and zingy. My friends shared a sea bass fillet and some vegetables, which came in a really nice nutty sauce.

One of the main complaints by citizen reviewers was the service, but we found it to be relaxed, friendly and efficient. There was one minor slip up - the vegetables came instead of a tofu dish, but it was so delicious (and not too far off) that my friends didn't mind in the slightest. With a drink each, it came to just over £16 with service - very good value in my books. If you were thinking of going - GO! If not - still go. It's a great restaurant and I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Refreshed and repurposed

I've been writing a food blog for more than three years now. But over the last year in particular updates have been few and far between. It's been a busy few years - doing a part time Masters while working full time, a busy full time job (with lots of writing!), and then buying and doing up a flat. I've not been able to give it as much attention as I'd have liked, but I've also found the remit too broad.

Now that I'm settled in my new neighbourhood for the long term everything makes a bit more sense. I'm now living in Lower Clapton, a lovely enclave just north east of the centre of Hackney. The area is brimming with excitement - new restaurants and cafes opening all the time, a bustling bohemian Sunday market, as well as a rich history of waves of immigration bringing with it delicious, authentic and affordable eats from across the world. I've said to friends that I could probably do a blog a week about foodie happenings around here for at least a year without scraping the barrel.

I'm fascinated by the fabric of cities, how they fit together, how people live in them, what makes people decide to live where they do. In the nine years I've lived in London as an adult I've lived in areas across the north east zone two band - Dartmouth Park, Tufnell Park, Holloway, Newington Green and now Clapton, and I swear this chunk of our sweeping metropolis is the best bit. When I'm cycling back from a dinner in town it is the greatest pleasure to hit Clerkenwell and know that I'm back on The Axis.

London in itself as a focus is too wide, so I am now repurposing this blog as North East Eats, celebrating the best restaurants, shops and happenings of this part of London. That's not to say that I will be turning a blind eye to stuff happening elsewhere, or not raving about an amazing place because it's on the Wrong Side of Hampstead Heath. A more defined focus will allow me to guilt-free eat my way through Hackney and the surrounding boroughs, knowing that there are lots of people round here that might benefit from a bit more info about all the exciting options on their doorstep.

Bear with me while I get my blogging mojo back - I promise you more focused, more frequent, more food.

Secret Stockwell Portuguese

Eating out in London can be pricey business – especially if you want quality food, plentiful quantities and nice wine. That's why Time Out's Cheap Eats section is so popular, people queue for hours, sometimes, for some bargainous and delicious lamb chops at Tayyabs. So if I told you about a basement Portuguese restaurant would do you the biggest meal you could imagine, meat, salad, sides, and lots of glorious red wine for £17, you'd think I was pulling your leg, right?

Well, I'm not, but it's so good I'm not going to broadcast here for the googles. I'll tell you about how excellent it is and get in touch if you want the details.

First up, like most cheap eats, don't bother if you want flashy décor, starched tabe cloths and subtle service. We're talking the basement of a shop on a main road in Stockwell. It's canteen like, paper table cloths, charmingly shabby and folksy, and, as is quite traditional for your workaday Portuguese joint, television mounted to the ceiling and on. But unlike many of London's cheap eats, you won't be rushed, table turned and the service is warm and generous.

I was running late so I didn't see whether there was a menu. I suspect there wasn't, and my friend Moira, who lives around the corner and whose Portuguese friends introduced her to the joint, just spoke to the waiter and he said what was available that day. Standard portuguese fare is quite simple – focused on meat, fish, potatoes and greens, all delicious for its freshness and the quality of the olive oil used.

The spread we ordered, between the seven of us, involved two plates of chips, a MASSIVE plate of salad, deep fried madeiran maize and herb cakes – bit like polenta, two sea bass and two hefty long skewers of flavoursome chunks of lamb which had been grilled.

The lamb hung on skewers from the ceiling and the waiter stuck a piece of bread at the bottom of the skewer to soak up all the meat's juice. The lamb was medium rare, but crispy and charred on the outside and so succulent, and just simply seasoned in salt and pepper and maybe a bit of paprika and garlic. It reminded me of distant memories of barbecues with family friends in Portugal, all that smoke and delicious meat.

The fish was, true to form, amazingly fresh. Just plainly presented with lemon, it was perfect with chips and salad. I've had so many meals in Portugal as simple as that, sat by the Atlantic and eating fish fresh out of it. This was up there with the best, although I'd have paid a bit more to be transported to having a seaview in Sesimbra.

There were no puddings, but when we asked about the other food they served, the waiter brought us a bowl of pearl barley soup to give us a taste of what else they did. And the wine was just astounding for the price. Even if I wasn't half Portuguese I'd still say Portuguese wine is some of the best in the world, once you've steered away from the Mateus Rose. Our red was bold and rich, and the quality surprised by not-yet-induced-into-the-world-of-Portuguese-wine-friends - we got through a good four bottles of it.

So yes, all that for £17 a head between the seven of us. I challenge you to find better value high quality food and wine in London. So if you're keen to go yourself, drop me a line on robbie(dot)desantos(at)gmail(dot)com