The Sugar Bar

On my days off, I am faced with mountains of readings, seminar prep work and the banal job of tidying and cleaning my apartment. That’s just dead boring. Academia has turned me into a boring fool so of course, I turn away from the books, humour myself and my tummy with one day of absolute food whoring. What that entails is travelling through London for ingredients (rain or shine – that means I gotta have a wet weather plan ready), quick coffee stop to rest shopping-bag-tired me with extra time factored in to browse some interesting shops I find along my way, journey back home to cook up a storm (or not) before the sun sets and all hopes of decent food photos are dashed.

A very long sentence that was. But it aptly reflects how much I do within the space of about 2-4hours zipping back and forth via bus or tube with a gianormous shopping bag. Pretty much a whirlwind of things happening, to do and yet-to-do, which is probably why slow walkers and confused tourists with huge suitcases frustrate me a little when I’m rushing against time (the sun set remember?). And when some hoity toity lady with a Louis Vuitton bag decides to squeeze past me onto the tube, nearly trodding on my toes with that knife-like stiletto heel and catching the wire of my iPod earphones resulting in me having to discreetly follow her until I can safe dislodge that caught wire from her handbag WITHOUT appearing like I’m trying to pickpocket her, I’m just that close to giving up and jumping into a taxi like a true diva. But that I don’t do. I bite my lip, pull my cap lower and blast up the rock music. Simply have to live within my means, don’t I?

I love going out for sushi but unknown to many, sushi is a bit of an occasion food. It’s a treat and unless it’s bento-style, we don’t really have it unless there’s something to celebrate or someone to reward it with. But it’s also a very tasty, clean food that’s popularly marketed now as a ‘health food’ or an ‘on-the-go’ kinda snack. Sometimes, I have sushi for lunch at work or if I’ve had time to prep it the night before, that goes into my bento as well. It’s not messy to eat, looks great, tastes great and cheap to prepare as well (depending on your toppings of course). And because it’s a very special treat-food, it makes me feel like I’m taking care of myself well. But what with the cold, I’ve found myself sticking to hot soups and stews of late and therefore neglecting any cravings for sushi. I can safely say my day off is now very productive – I food-shopped, I made sushi enough to feed me for 2 meals and I totally whored it out.

Was watching something the other day and this sentence stuck with me: “Food is medicine for your body.” That’s very true as food is what feeds your body, repairs the muscles, looks after your bones and organs, etc. It is essential and something that shouldn’t be avoided like the plague but celebrated and enjoyed. Of course, don’t overdo it and become a million stone baby. A good balance is what should be had. So anyway, here my post dedicated to bringing some colour/happiness (despite the grey) to the kitchen and to enjoying the simple pleasures of food which should be an occasion in itself!

In a previous How to Prepare Sushi post, you might have seen my plain inari sushi, naked but for a humble sprinkling of black goma seeds. This time, I opted for a blast of sunshine in the form of 2 types of egg topping.

Recipe yields 8 sushi.

Two Egg Inari Sushi
Ingredients
sushi rice (recipe here)

8 inari age wraps (from abura-age – deep fried tofu)
ikura (salmon roe)
wasabi tobiko (wasabi-laced flying fish roe)

Tobiko roe is a lot smaller than ikura roe with a bit more of a crunch. Plain tobiko has a lovely bright orange colour but you can find them coloured with wasabi, squid ink and yuzu orange – the first two being my most favourite.

Ikura roe has a salty, oily flavour. If you’re a first timer to it, you might be put off by its strong taste of the sea and aftertaste. Gari sushi pickle will help remove that aftertaste and cleanse the palate.

Have used these lovely Burford Brown eggs for a denser flavour and colour

Ingredients for Scrambled Eggs

2 large free range eggs
1 tbs caster sugar
1/2 tbs sake
salt, for seasoning

To cook scrambled eggs for bento or sushi topping I recommend using a pair of chopsticks to get that fluffy scrambled texture. Japanese scrambled eggs will differ from the usual British grub scrambled eggs which tends to be a little wetter, milkier and held-together rather than beaten and fluffed up to resemble minced meat.

Beat the eggs in a bowl. Add the sugar, sake and a little salt to taste. Beat. Pour into a heated saucepan which has a few drops of vegetable oil in it. Cook initially on a medium heat.

When the outer edges starts to cook and pull away from the sides of the pan, turn the heat down to low. Using your chopsticks, stir quickly and continuously as though whipping the eggs. When you can see the eggs quickly losing its wetness (this cooking process can happen quite quickly depending on your cooking hob), you may want to pull the saucepan away from the heat but still stir the eggs until its all cooked through and has lost all wetness. Be careful not to expose it to too much heat or cook for too long as the eggs can start to colour from being fried and become too dry.

To assemble the sushi:

Have age wraps, sushi rice, scrambled eggs and fish roe neatly prepped in front of you from left to right respectively as you’ll move from the first ingredient onto the next left to right. I use a wooden chopping board to make the sushi on as well before transferring into a bento box or plate.

Gently split open the prepared age wraps down the middle. If you’ve made these age wraps from scratch, slice them down the middle and open it carefully from the sliced side. Don’t open them all the way or you’ll split the bottom of the age ‘bag’. Spoon about 2 tbs of sushi rice into the bag and gently press and mould into the bag. As I fill it, I give the bag a gentle tapping against the chopping board to give it a nice flat bottom so that it doesn’t topple over. Ensure your rice is evenly filled so that the inari sushi can stand fairly stable on its own.

Using a pair of chopsticks, fill half the inari with scrambled eggs. Make sure you fill round the sides of the scrambled egg half so that none of the rice can be seen. If there are any empty pockets between the age and the rice, you may fill it with scrambled egg as well.

Using a spoon for the ikura and chopsticks for the tobiko (I find chopsticks are easier to handle the smaller roe), fill the other half of the sushi and make sure you’re careful to fill the sides as well so that the age doesn’t end up pulling away from the rice or have any empty pockets showing.

Fill the rest of the age wraps and you’ve got 8 yummy two egg inari sushi.

Who doesn’t love carbonara? It’s on virtually everyone’s (everyone I know at least) list of comfort food and there’s a reason why it’s there. Because it’s bloody good. Period.

And what I love so much about it is that it’s quite so easy to make and you don’t really have to fuss about with a recipe at all for this one. It’s pretty much turned into a sort of mantra in my head – 1 egg yolk, 20ml cream and good grab of parmesan per person for the sauce. Seriously easy. The cooking process is a bit tricky as you need to be coordinated and quick or something might go wrong. Frankly speaking, I wasn’t quite quick enough this time as I was texting on the phone and cooking at the same time which you should absolutely not be doing when making carbonara. Hence, my carbonara was a little overcooked and the sauce got a little egg-cooked. Another reason why the sauce ain’t as glossy as it should be! Tasted wicked nonetheless.

I don’t suppose this is the most authentic carbonara dish. And I certainly have never ordered this in a restaurant where they’ve served fresh thyme (it usually is just a creamy calorific mess on a plate) with it but I just love the flavour of fresh thyme, especially with anything pork. Also, thyme is said to aid the digestion of fat so not only does it give this dish another dimension of flavour, it helps cut through all that bacon and cream fat! Score.

The weather’s been pretty dreadful lately. It’s the beginning of winter and so the grey’s here. It’s wet, it’s starting to get really cold; at least, I noticed it more when I was further up north this week. And when it starts to get like this, all I want is something filling, creamy, hot and delicious. This has been in the making for quite some time now and after twittering with Bossacafez about carbonara and pasta alla vodka, it was time to put some work aside, cook myself a proper meal, let the hair down, put my feet up and damn well eat myself happy in front of the TV for a couple of solid episodes of Friends.

And here we have it. One smooth operator. It always goes down so well and chases any chills and blues away. Yummy.

If you want a recipe with instructions, I recommend using Jamie’s as it’s one of the easiest I’ve come across thus far. It’s a Courgette Carbonara recipe but it’s just Jamie’s little twist on the original. Click here for his recipe. Or you can simply remember these proportions per serving (I noted this down when I was watching one of Jamie’s cooking shows on TV and he pretty much cooked it all by eye and to taste. Hence, the estimates in measurements for the ingredients):

Penne Carbonara
Ingredients according to 1 serving

1 serving penne pasta
2-3 slices smoked bacon/pancetta, sliced or cubed
1 large egg yolk
20-30ml double cream (I have used single cream as I’m slightly lactose intolerant)
heaped 1/4 cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
olive oil, for cooking
some pasta cooking liquid
sea salt and cracked black pepper

This is really straightforward to make and not rocket science. But it does require your full attention as a little distraction can cause you to burn the pasta or carbonara sauce, etc. Cook the pasta and have all other ingredients prepared and ready to go into the frying pan. Use a large frying pan as you’ll need quite a bit of space to toss the pasta.

In a mixing bowl, mix the egg yolks with the cream and parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

Once the pasta is nearly al dente, heat some olive oil in the pan and fry the bacon til just about golden brown. Once pasta is cooked, drain but don’t forget to save about 1/4 – 1/2 cup cooking liquid. Immediately pour the drained pasta into the cooking bacon.

Toss. Toss. Add the yolk cream mixture. If too dry, add a little of the cooking liquid. Toss toss real quick. At this point, you should have turned the heat down to low as you don’t want to burn or cook the carbonara sauce much. Keep moving the pasta so it coats everything nice and glossy. Season if need. Add the herbs and toss.

Remove from heat quickly and serve (with a generous sprinkling of parmesan if you like).

So, it’s that easy. You just gotta be alert and quick. 

What’s your favourite or ultimate comfort food?

Breakfast is the best meal of the day. Fiction or fact? FACT. 

Are we quite particular with our eggs for breakfast? FACT.

Is the English breakfast fry-up quite the classic morning pick-me-up? FACT.

And is The Breakfast Club simply one of the best places I’ve eaten at for breakfast/brunch? FACT. again.

So what’s on the menu? Obviously a proper English fry-up but besides that, there are a classic selection of sweet and savoury pancakes, eggers (I’ll explain), sandwiches and wraps. Not too worry, TBC is open for lunch and dinner as well so it isn’t simply a hangout for breakfast goers only.

Normally, I’d choose the fry-up or the pancakes but because everything looked all too good and the egg cravings were too overwhelming, I went down a different path this time. But before I go into what I’d ordered, let’s just say be prepared for very large portions at TBC. You can get a good Full Monty fry-up here with bacon, sausage, eggs, black pudding, hash brown, mushroom, beans, tomatoes and toast. It’s the works. And a real effort if you’re not a big eater. So be hungry if you intend to do the full monty. There is a downsized version, not so much in portion though but in the amount of ‘works’ you get and that’s the Half Monty. What you get are the cool kids that make the fry-up – bacon, sausage, eggs, beans and toast.

Even talking about it now is getting me all hungry and excited so definitely saving the full mont and the pancakes for TBC trip no. 2. And certainly worth the trip if you’re one of those particular with eggs for breakfast. These guys at TBC know what they’re doing with them and know how best to serve ‘em eggs. Can I say, the Eggs Benedict (£7.00 – picture above at top of blogpost) are too lush for my own good? 2 eggs poached to perfection, sat on top shredded ham so succulent and tasty it reminds me of hot roast pork, on toasted and buttered English muffin. Not forgetting the healthy serving of fresh hollandaise that goes all over the eggs and the crisp fresh salad drizzled with an olive oil dressing served on the side. Seriously people, the eggs were cooked the way I love. Not too yolk-drippy, so firm but not all cooked through that it’s all crumbly and powdery. The ham, which was given a bit of a golden-brown once over in a frying pan, totally made it. These guys know their pork and it’s no wonder they’ve a sign outside the restaurant claiming they did not see your missing pig!

My new fellow foodie who lives across the hall from me ordered the Eggs Royale (£8.00) with an extra order of mushroom (and boy was her mushroom a big one!). The same gorgeousness as the Benedict but with smoked salmon instead of ham. Her verdict? So very scrumptious and satisfyingly good that she needed a bit of recovery time. I was jealous of that giant mushroom on her plate. It was all oozy and juicy, just the way I love mushrooms but could definitely not have fit that in my stomach what with the uber generous portions at TBC.

I admit paying 7 or 8 quid for a breakfast might be a little bit stretching a student budget, especially when you could get the same classics for half the price at say a Scream pub or even a quarter of that if you decide to jump into one of ‘those’ good greasy hearty breakfast cafés like a certain famous Cafe Face in Birmingham. You’ll be singing a different tune once you’ve tried TBC though and you’ll understand why I’m waxing lyrical over some fairly uncomplicated breakfast dishes. The quality of the ingredients (and gosh, the ham and bacon) certainly shines through and shows how TBC can afford to name itself that as one of the big players in the breakfast scene. 

Not only was the food fantastic, the atmosphere and furnishings were exactly up my street. If you’re not that much of a morning person, you want to have breakfast somewhere comfy, not too loud, welcoming and friendly enough (in terms of both interior and waiting staff) to just completely absorb you into the scene whilst you soak up some energy and caffeine? Go to TBC! I loved how there were different rooms to choose from and relax in, so much so that you felt like you were in a dream house, with a bit of time before your breakfast is served to wander about and explore. The quirky collection of memorabilia like a Mickey Mouse telephone, and random photographs of rugby or football teams made for a quietly gentle way to lure you out of your morning grogginess.

We loved the sparkly room. It’s the prettiest. Kinda like a cross between a disco room, a student pub and a Victorian-themed tea house. Well, sorta. If you’re sat outside this sparkly room by the windows facing the street outside, or by the open-concept kitchen, you’ll feel like you’re in some sort of 80s diner with the black and white tiled floors, except of course you ain’t getting the little diner tables. Here, you’ve got a collection of cute wood furniture or awesome comfy sofas, long canteen style tables and even a section that mimicks a beach side fish bar. Eclectic. Just like East London. Quirky, wacky-fied, old school and modern at the same time – just really cool. And it really helps that the waiting staff are very quick to bring you your coffees, that the food is just spot on and so deliciously satisfying.

It really looks like there’s nothing to complain about. But if I had to say something negative about it (and I’m really pushing it here), it would be that the various rooms sometimes meant the waiting staff forgot you were there which made getting the bill a bit of a tricky one. Seriously though, we didn’t care at all!

The Breakfast Club
2-4 Rufus Street
Hoxton
London
N1 6PE
Tel: (020) 7729 5252