Matt Chatfield (Kernow’s own Ryan Gosling) and a team of kitchen-bound heartthrobs, which includes Michelin trained chef Jim Thomlinson (swoon), have teamed with Sharp’s brewery for a mollusc led weekend of culinary debauchery.

Kicking off at Street Feast this Friday, the team will be serving four original mussel dishes, each one thoughtfully paired with a delicious Sharp’s beer. This one night stand in a Hackney merchant’s yard (we’ve all been there) is followed by a three day love-in at Notting Hill’s The Clarendon pub. Complete with sand, surfboards and hopefully a sun drenched terrace, this is one for honeys and hotties alike.

In addition to the knee-weakingly good sea food on offer, there will be an old school oil drum barbecue cooking gorgeous underblade fillet steaks and sausage buns from award-winning Cornish butchers Philip Warren.

Mussel Beach is shaping up to be the first smash hit pop-up of the summer. Whatever you do, don’t get attached…

Menu

‘French‘ paired with Sharp’s Special (5.0%)
white wine, garlic & parsley
‘Sicilian‘ paired with Chalky’s Bite (6.8%)
fennel, preserved lemon & saffron
‘Spanish‘ paired with Cornish Pilsner (5.2%)
chorizo, piquillo pepper & tomato
‘Thai‘ paired with Chalky’s Bark (4.5%)
coconut milk, lemongrass, kaffir lime

‘Mr. Nice’ – a nickname adopted from one of his many aliases in the 80s, Donald Nice – has had a varied career, forging a path from drug baron to best-selling author to DJ and crime novelist, generating a wealth of stories along the way. Used to recounting these tales to packed-out theatres, Marks’ quiz night offers a unique opportunity for music buffs and ‘high-minded’ hedonists to enjoy quality time with one of Britain’s most engaging humorists. 

With room for just 12 teams of four, guests are advised to pick their teammates wisely. The winning team will be awarded £100, while the top runner-up will receive a signed copy of one of Marks’ books. Tickets are £140 per team (£35 per head), which includes a special four course menu influenced by Carl and Howard’s shared interests. An honest twist on the Italian American inspired rose veal parm sandwich (a favourite of The Sopranos) and an ‘edible spliff’ are sure to be talking points for all the right reasons.

Tickets go on sale at 10am Friday March 8, and must be reserved in advance by calling the restaurant on 07850 630 129 and leaving a deposit. Please note that due to the high demand for this event teams comprising of fewer than four members commit to paying the full £140 entry fee.

Tip: add the Applewood smoked cheddar slowly and taste regularly, we’ve all got different tolerances for cheese. Mine is particularly high.

Frazzles are a bacon-flavoured corn-based snack sold in the United Kingdom. TAKE THAT AMERICA.

Frazzles Mac and cheese:

Ingredients:

• 200g macaroni (penne or fusilli are acceptable substitutes)
• 35g butter, plus extra for greasing and a *bit* for finishing
• 25g plain flour
• 1 pint whole milk
• 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
• 120g mozzarella
• 150g Applewood smoked cheddar (not the artificially flavoured stuff. Waitrose do a proper smoked version)
• 3 bags of Frazzles (23g bags)

Method:

1. Cook the macaroni in salted boiling water until tender.
2. While the pasta is cooking blitz one bag of Frazzles in a blender then add the milk and blend again. Frazzles milk!
3. Make a roux by melting the butter in a pan, and stirring in the flour. Stir for a couple of minutes on a medium heat before gradually whisking in the Frazzles milk to make a smooth sauce. Continue stirring for a few minutes until the mixture thickens. Turn the hob down to a low heat and add the mustard.
4. Tear the mozzarella into smallish pieces and add to the mixture. Stir until the mixture is smooth again. Add grated Applewood smoked cheddar to taste. I topped out at 150g and don’t feel guilty in the slightest.
5. Pre-heat the grill. Drain the macaroni and rinse under cold running water. Grease a baking dish with butter, then combine the pasta and cheese sauce and tip into the dish.
6. Pop the dish under the grill for five minutes and blitz the two remaining bags of Frazzles. If you haven’t got a blender you can just use your might to crush the frazzles to a fine crumb. Melt a bit of butter.
7. Take the dish out from under the grill and brush the melted butter over the top. Quickly sprinkle the crushed Frazzles all over the top of the mac and cheese and return to the dish to the grill for five minutes or until the topping gets nice and crispy and the cheese starts to bubble.
8. Leave the mac and cheese to stand for a few minutes otherwise you’ll burn your mouth bits and that will RUIN EVERYTHING.

Frazzles Mac and Cheese

NB: pedants will notice I used penne in the image above. Pedants.

© Thomas Bowles

Poached rhubarb

Ingredients:

• 500g Yorkshire forced rhubarb
• 500g water
• 300g sugar
• Juice of half a lemon

Method:

1. Peel most of the stringy skin off the rhubarb stems, bring the peelings, sugar, water and lemon juice up to a simmer, cook on low heat for 10 minutes to allow the pink colour to infuse into the syrup.
2. In the meantime cut the rhubarb into even sized batons, put then in a casserole dish.  When the syrup has cooled down to around 60C, strain it over the rhubarb batons, cover the casserole with clingfilm and put into the oven at 60C for 3o minutes.  Take it out and leave the fruit to cool in the syrup in the fridge for a couple of hours, preferably overnight.

Rhubarb jelly

Ingredients:

• 250ml of the rhubarb cooking liquid
• 2 leaves gelatin soaked in cold water

Method:

1. Heat the pink rhubarb syrup without boiling it.
2. Dissolve the soaked gelatin in the liquid and set the mixture in the fridge for a few hours to form a medium soft jelly.

White chocolate miso mousse

Ingredients:

• 250 ml milk
• 25g pearl barley
• 25g sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 25g cornflour
• 100g white chocolate
• 25g white miso
• 200g double cream
• 2 leaves gelatine

Method:

1. Toast the barley in the oven at 180C until brown and fragrant, around 15 minutes.
2. Infuse the barley and milk on low heat for 30 minutes, do not boil.  Strain this liquid, discard the barley.
3. Whisk together the eggs, cornflour and sugar, slowly whisk in the warm milk.  Cook this mix over medium heat, stirring constantly until it thickens and starts to bubble at the edges, this will take at least 15 minutes.  When it has finished cooking, remove from the heat and stir in the miso, chocolate and soaked gelatin.
4. Pour this mix into a container, cover the surface with clingfilm to prevent a skin from forming, allow it to cool.
5. Once the custard has set, briefly blend it in a food processor or with a hand blender until it is smooth and pliable.
6. Softly whip the cream and fold this into the custard, then set the mix in the fridge for an hour or two.  The resulting mousse should be just firm enough for a scoop of it to hold its shape on a plate.

Buckwheat cake crunch

Ingredients:

• 50g sugar
• 2 eggs
• 40g buckwheat flour
• 15g rice flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 20g butter
• 50g white chocolate
• 20 g white miso dried overnight in a warm place and ground into a powder

Method:

1. Whisk the eggs and sugar on full speed in a mixer for 10 minutes, gently fold in the sifted flours and baking powder, followed by the cooled melted butter.
2. Bake this mix on a lined sheet tray in the oven at 160°C for about 12 minutes.  Once it has cooled, break up the cake into rough pieces and dry them out in a very low oven or other warm spot until dry and crunchy.
3. Melt the white chocolate in a bain marie, stir the powdered miso in the chocolate, then add the dried cake pieces, gently fold them unil they all have a light even coating of chocolate, making sure they don’t get crushed.  Set the cake pieces in a single layer on a tray, ensuring they don’t clump together.

To serve

1. Using a spoon dipped in warm water, scoop a generous dollop of mousse onto the centre of a plate, surround it with a few smaller scoops of rhubarb jelly.
2. Stack some rhubarb batons against the mousse and jelly, and finally scatter the plate with some of the chocolate coated cake fragments.

Nick gets his first taste of horse meat © Matt Writtle

Before we get to the recipe there are a few things to consider:

• The Standard article, although prompted by the Tesco horse meat burger scandal, is quite far removed from that argument. That was clearly an issue of broken trust and I’m not going to undermine it by prattling on about how horse meat is fine etc.
• Horses are beautiful, useful creatures capable of instilling great happiness in human beings. Breeding horses for food is a waste of an animal that has so much more to give than its flesh. However, there are undoubtably situations where it would be a wasteful to recommend not eating perfectly good, readily available meat. Horse meat is an affordable source of protein for much of Europe.
• If you really want to eat horse meat – do the animal justice – don’t turn it into a burger. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about ‘exotic’ meats it’s that they all taste like a burger when you add mustard, ketchup, diced onions, a slice of gherkin and a sesame seed bun.

Spot the root beer © Matt Writtle

Horse meat burger recipe (works with any lean red meat):

Ingredients (makes four burgers):

• 500g horse fillet steak
• 150g smoked bacon fat (trim off the fattiest back bacon you can find)
• 4 sesame seed buns (like Ol’ Dirty said)
• 4 Dairylea Singles. Dairylea cheese slices have the got the perfect balance of milkiness and saltiness. Don’t get the own brand versions. They’re all awful.
• French’s American mustard
• Heinz tomato ketchup
• 1 tsp Lea & Perrin’s Worcestershire sauce
• 1 pickled gherkin, sliced by hand into discs about 2mm thick. Just like you get at McDonald’s.
• 1 small onion, diced
• Salt

Method:

• Hand chop the steak(s) to a fine mince and place it in a large bowl. Mincing your own meat might seem daunting the first time but your homemade burger game is about to earn 500 EXP. 
• Cut the bacon fat up into pieces small enough to be easily incorporated by the mince and place that in the bowl on top of the horse meat.
• Add 2 tsp of ketchup and a tsp of worcestershire sauce to the meat and bacon fat and lightly mix together. Take care not to overwork the mix as this will result in dense patties, which are hard to cook perfectly medium and have a poor mouth feel.
• Shape the mix into four patties. If you have time, cling film each patty individually and leave in the fridge for a few hours. If you haven’t don’t worry. The most important thing is that the patties are at room temperature by the time they hit the pan.
• Toast your sesame seed buns, ya big dummy!
• Season the sides of the patty with a pinch of salt just prior to cooking. Seasoning the patty mix too early will result in an inferior burger.
• Get your frying pan really hot and add a tiny – really tiny – drop of cooking oil before setting the patties down. It takes a few seconds for the bacon fat to render so you need a drop of oil to stop the patties sticking. Any excess fat will stop your burgers from achieving a good Maillard reaction. If you’re making regular beef burgers with an ideal 80:20 visual lean (20% fat) you won’t need this oil. Cook patties for 2-2.5 minutes on each side, turning once.
• Place the patties on the toasted bottom half of your buns and top with (in this order): 1 cheese slice, a ring of ketchup, a ring of mustard, two slices of gherkin and a tsp of diced raw onion.
• Add the top half of the bun to your burger and give it a little squish.
• Enjoy, my little greasemonkeys.

Ahead of Friday’s event, Carl sent me off to meet the Soho ramen joint’s co-founder Emma Reynolds to get the lowdown on the cult Japanese noodle dish…

Tonkotsu’s ramen © Paul Winch-Furness

How long have the Japanese been eating ramen?

Ramen was introduced to Japan from China in the early part of the 20th century and spread across the country over the course of a few decades. It’s now one of Japan’s national dishes from the very north to the southern most island, Kyushu and counts for 25% of meals eaten outside the home. After Momofuku Ando invented dried noodles in the late 50s it became even more popular.

Can ramen be made from any kind of meat?

Traditionally, ramen is made with pork, but there are new ramen bars all over the world serving different kinds of ramen from fish to chicken.

Does ramen have to be made with lesser cuts to be considered authentic?

Lesser cuts tend to have more flavour and stand up to longer cooking and marinading times, so are perfect for making ramen, where often meat is cooked for hours and marinaded for longer. That said, there’s a Michelin-starred ramen restaurant in Hong Kong, which probably has some premium ingredients…

Is it acceptable to eat ramen for breakfast?

You’ll find people eating ramen at all times of day in Japan, it’s a post-drinking, post-clubbing kind of dish, so eaten in the early hours and there are a couple of ramen joints near Tsukiji, the fish market, in Tokyo that are busy with people breakfasting on noodle soup from 6am, so yes, it happens!

Is it true that ramen makes for a terrific hangover cure?

It is. There’s a good level of protein from meat and eggs, liquid form soup and lots of flavour to bash awake booze-addled taste buds.

You’ve created ‘smoky London ramen’ for Tonk the Disco, what’s that all about?

Fresh noodles in our shoyu-based chicken and pork stock soup topped with smoked haddock, spinach and an egg. Kind of breakfasty.

Are there any good vegetarian street food options in Japan?

In Japan, very few, but as far as London restaurants go, most offer a vegetarian version so a Shiitake and Miso Ramen at Tonkotsu for example…

MSG good or MSG bad?

Ramen was introduced to Japan from China in early 1900s and has been honed and adapted to the Japanese palate with the Japanese flavours in mind. Although, it could be classed as a game-changer in Japanese cuisine, facilitating the use of oils and chills that would usually be absent from Japanese cooking.

And finally, how do you slice those boiled eggs so perfectly?

Ah ha, we can’t tell you that!

Tickets for ‘Tonk the Disco’ at Disco Bistro EC4 this Friday are available here, priced £35 per person.

Follow @NoshableAdamFollow @tonktotsulondonFollow @discobistroec4

Selina’s supper clubs are always a hit © Mondomulia

Yummy Choo’s Tropical Christmas pop-up at Ben’s Canteen hopes to retain the look and feel of one of its supper clubs, meaning large-sharing plates, easy-drinking cocktails and intimate lighting. It’s perfect for groups of friends wishing to have a special festive catch-up and for those looking to meet new people and socialise with fellow foodies.

First up is a spirit-lifting rum punch — come in from the cold, you! — and a quick mingle at the bar. Once seated, guests are served a trio of street food inspired Mauritian morsels known as ‘gajacks’. The main course follows, which is a spiced goat curry, fish vindaye (a welcome corruption of its ancestor, the vindaloo, made with pickled white fish, mustard, chilli and onions) and sweet pumpkin fricasse.

All your major food groups there! © Mondomulia

Those with room for dessert will be treated to pain perdu (French toast) with caramelised rum bananas and coconut ice cream (my all-time favourite flavour). After which, a hot toddy toast will be called to celebrate a night well spent with food, friends and perhaps a bit more of that Mauritian rum… *hiccup*. I hope to see you there!

That menu in full:

Visit Yummy Choo’s blog.

Impeccable Tabor manners

A couple of weeks ago I was invited by James Tabor, linchpin of London’s pop-up scene and man behind Feast Anglia, to attend a run-through of his latest project, The Wine, The Feast and The Wardrobe. The event takes place in historic Kevington Hall, just 17 miles from London, in which James is overseeing an unorthodox restoration.

Push the gravy boat out this Christmas

For a two week spell in the run up to Christmas, Kevington Hall will become a portal to worlds previously unknown outside the realms of imagination. On weekends the typical clientele are local families with young children, but for one night only, on Friday 21 December,  Feast Anglia is opening the wardrobe door exclusively to London foodies, for a night of food, high fantasy and Christmas frolicking.

Narnia awaits…

Tickets cost £63 and are available via the Feast Anglia website. The ticket price gets you a five course Christmas dinner with all the trimmings, three drinks and a street food ‘evacuation pack’ from Egg Boss.

Say cheese

A private bus will be leaving Giant Robot — just five minutes from Farringdon station — at 7pm sharp. Evacuees (hint, hint) are to receive their evacuation pack and a sustaining libation upon boarding, when festivities will commence with Mr. Tabor as master of ceremonies.

The bus will leave Kevington Hall for London at 1am, dropping revelers off at a series of central London points. Discounted taxis are available for those wishing to see the night through to daybreak, priced at £12 per head. For full details please visit the Feast Anglia website and if you have any questions please direct them to @FeastAnglia via Twitter.

All your Instagram friends will be well jel

Competition Time! [NOW CLOSED]

For your chance to win a street food hamper full of treats from the best producers and free drinks for two all evening (tickets must be bought separately), all you have to do is create an original scotch egg, which will be served on the evening as part of the street food evacuation pack. You can choose any ingredients you like, the only caveat being that you will have to be willing to consume the creation yourself! Mr Egg Boss Sean Lawson will be choosing a winner on Wednesday 12 December. Enter your scotch egg ideas in the comments box and go down in street food history!

Here’s some Sean made earlier

Carl’s first solo project, housed within The Rising Sun pub on Carter Lane, is a restaurant of two halves. Downstairs, in what still retains the feel of a ‘proper boozer’, is a bar which serves creative yet sustaining ‘trash food’ to the working lunch and after-office drinks crowd. In the dining rooms upstairs, however, simplicity is the key. A daily changing menu features rare breed meats and day boat fish, all cooked over wood and charcoal on a robata-style grill, paired with seasonal wild and foraged greens.

© Paul Winch-Furness

The pub bar sees the return of some of the staples that have put Carl and his collaborators on the ad-hoc dining map. There’s the lobster corn dog with gooseberry ketchup created by Glyn Gordon (ex-Roganic and L’Enclume), who remain’s Carl’s right hand man, and the French-dipped burger that caused more than a stir at Daniel Young’s Burger Monday. Upstairs expect marginally more decorous pairings of 50 day aged Dexter (one of the smallest breeds of cattle, with a concentrated beef flavour) and smoked stuffed bone marrow, and roe deer and raspberry stout pudding, with spiced pumpkin and pickled elder.

It’s not all about the kitchen though, with general manager Michael Donnelly (ex-Admiral Codrington, Groucho Club, God Save the Clam) heading up a crack front of house team. The wine list has been picked with the help of experienced sommelier and man-about-town Zeren Wilson (Bitten & Written), and features just four reds, four whites and two sparkling numbers, starting at £17 for house bottles.

The main dining room has been designed with the help of British artist and lighting designer Alex Randall, who has adorned the stark, white-washed walls with taxidermy squirrel lamps and the ceiling with a gramophone chandelier. The second, smaller room, is kitted out as a quirky Georgian pantry, made possible thanks to a partnership with architectural salvage company Lassco.

Head on down from 12 November for a heady mix of food, art, punk swagger and most of all, fun.

Win two tickets to the opening night* – just tell me in the comments box the sample dish you’re most looking forward to seeing on the menu. Winner to be picked at random on Friday 2 November.

• Saddleback lardo (pork charcuterie), black treacle & buttermilk
• 50 day aged Dexter beef & smoked stuffed bone marrow
• Roe deer & raspberry stout pudding, spiced pumpkin and pickled elder
• Rose hip jelly & brown bread custard
• Wild sea trout cooked over wood, crispy onions, lime & lavender vinegar
• Crispy lamb breast, sheep’s curd dumplings, black peas & cucumber broth
• Cornish bream, kale and Marmite turnips
• Cheddar & rye doughnuts, quince ketchup

*date subject to change. Prize valid throughout November.

While the opening ceremony of the Paralympics plays on a projector screen, complete with a re-imagining of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Jimmy is cooking up a storm in the kitchen, delivering the British five-course tasting menu in a couple of food-filled hours. First up is the canapés: quail’s egg and baby asparagus spears are the pick of the trio. The prawn and mango salad on cucumber slice is fresh and delicately balanced. Thankfully, Leifman’s Fruit Beer is on hand to combat the dryness of the otherwise tasty blue cheese and pine nuts on granary toast.

Salmon three ways

Salmon three ways is quickly served next; a course possibly too large for some appetites; not however for a greedy growing (outwards) boy like me. The gravlax resembles smoked salmon, but rather than cooking by smoke, the Scandinavian method cures through burying the fish in salt, sugar and dill and the resulting flavour is like eating raw fish fresh from the catch. The confit salmon provides similarly delicate textures, while the crispy skin offers a contrasting crunch. The side of beetroot salad provides a peppery balance. My partner in culinary crime opts for the lighter option of tomato, honey and chilli soup with garlic croutons. Clean fruity tomato pulp with some heat from the chilli is the order of the day here, which in truth would be a little lacking in seasoning without the smoky paprika provided by the drizzled chorizo oil.

The hours of athletic precession up on the projector screen was little distraction for the fish course, and it wasn’t going to interfere with the main course, of which griddled meat smells waft to my kitchen-side placing. While I was tempted by the interesting sounding mushroom brioche and butter pudding with whisky jus, the Barbary duck breast was too good to pass up. Cooked to medium-rare perfection, the fatty bird juices run into the orange and tea jus to mouth wateringly create a gravy to cut through the powerful gamey meat, while the bed of sautéed Savoy cabbage ain’t bad either. The sides of new potatoes and glazed carrots are served separately, and unfortunately there isn’t quite enough sauce to mop up with the dry spuds. The sweet potato puree gets lost on the plate somewhat, clashing with the sides and not offering enough power on the palate for the duck.

Barbary duck breast with orange and tea jus

A pudding of iced white chocolate parfait is divine – rich and sweet - served with a tasty crisp hazelnut tuile to scoop up the creamy goodness. The accompanying caramelised cherries were too bitter for my taste, needing a touch more sugar. Petit fours finished the menu – perfectly airy light meringue with dried blueberries, served with strawberries in whipped cream. We all attempt to run out to watch fireworks after a brief interlude to let the huge feeding digest, but the delay means we emerge into the cool night only to see the resulting smoke. Chatting to the amiable Jimmy and slightly sizzled guests we decide to wait for the main fireworks spectacle with glasses of red wine on the streets of industrial Stratford, and our wait is not in vain, as the sparks fly around midnight. Seems a fitting way to mark a fine British food event.