Nopi for brunch



Black rice, coconut milk, banana and mango


I love a good brunch. Nopi is probably better known for its small plates of colourful vegetables, burratas and other Middle Eastern and Meditterranean fare served at lunch and dinner (here's my earlier review). However, it's a lively place for a gorgeous brunch too (it's just not strong on the coffee - we went home for a plunger after - and I reckon £2.50 should buy you a whole pot of English tea rather than a mug). These gripes aside, some good looking food with exotic flavours is a pearler of a way to kick start the weekend.

 Here are some pics of our brunch at Nopi this morning. The pastries and the fruit salad with yoghurt and granola looked great, and how good do the the doughnuts with orange yoghurt and blackcurrent compote sound? (I'll be sure to report back.) And it's easy to get a table.




Shakshuka - North African dish of braised eggs with pepper and tomato





Safer to stick to the tea than the coffee here



Nopi, 21-22 Warwick Street, London, W1B 5NE (About £25 for 2 for brunch)

St John Hotel, Chinatown

I'm quite partial to the bacon sandwich at St John in Spitalfields, as a lazy heart starter to the weekend. It's not on the breakfast menu at the new St John in Soho, but its enough to know that they do the simple stuff well.

Mushrooms on toast are divinely rich and beefy, while the pretty basket of buns is shiny and sweet, with cinnamon, raison and simple plain buns in the mix.

The coffee's not bad either - although at £3.75 for a not warm enough flat white or a cafetiere, it's expensive.

The menu is short but has several serious tempters - like the ham, eggs and fried bread, or the boiled egg and anchovy toast.

But at just over £25 (including service) for the above small and simple breakfast for 2, we leave feeling slightly flabbergasted at how we just spent so much on so little. And TPG is hankering for a local supply of the pikelets and madeleines we love so much at Spitalfields and Farringdon (ooh - the madeleines are available at lunch).

Fortunately, we're in zen mode. The crisp, white room surrounded by windows is a calming little morning oasis in the otherwise hectic surrounds of Chinatown. And the waiters are the friendliest (by far) that I've experienced at any of the three St John establishments - with that gripe gone, I'll happily be back to try the traditional St John nose-to-tail dinner menu soon (where perhaps the prices might be more easily justified).


St John Hotel, 1 Leicester Square, Soho, London, WC2H 7BL (Tel: 0203 301 8069)

Kopapa, Covent Garden

Coconut sticky pork ribs

I absolutely love The Providores - its flat whites and sweet corn fritters have saved my life on many a (slightly hungover) Sunday morning. I love Peter Gordon's creativity and his skillful ability to show why "fusion" food, in the right hands, is anything but a dirty word. So I was sure I would be equally enamoured with his newest restaurant, Kopapa, in Covent Garden.

Kopapa is an all day cafe and restaurant, specialising in small dishes and sharing plates, but with some mains thrown in. And Kopapa is interesting and different. And good value. I quite liked it. But more in a slightly-luke-warm-and-lacking-in-the-expected-raptures way, at least for dinner. For me, Kopapa's brunches hold more appeal.

At dinner, I was certainly in fabulous company. I visited on a blisteringly cold winter's evening last month with Gourmet Chick and An American in London - both of whom have beaten me to the punch with their reviews. [Star Award for the biggest holiday period lazy-arse goes to the GD. On the other hand, I was extremely efficient at sleeping in and reading recipe books on the couch with a constant supply of chocolate at hand - thanks again, Mum for the Haighs.]

The menu is extensive - not only does each item sound exotic and enticing (sometimes more than it actually is), but there are so many pages of items to consider that it took us some time to focus our thoughts. 

The duck liver parfait - although
for some reason, I've focussed on the flat bread

Butternut squash

Duck breast

We start with a dense, creamy duck liver parfait, cleverly caramelised on top, with sweet and sour chutney and billowy sheets of grilled flat bread (£5.00). Wedges of butternut squash are crumbed in spices and cumin, deep fried and topped with a generous splodge of coconut cucumber raita (£4.20). A slightly bland smoked magret duck breast was saved by some tangy goats curd, beetroot confit and diced pickled pineapple (£6.50).

Exotic aubergine

If you weren't told what the above dish was, you'd never guess it was plain old aubergine. Here it's chargrilled and turned into exotica with tamarind caramel, coriander, pickled ginger & za'atar (£4.80). It looks the part, but the fact I can barely remember what it tasted like exemplifies some of my reservations about Kopapa - I love the sound of everything, but I'm not sure all the effort is coming through in the taste and textures in any memorable way.

Tuna tartare

Parmesan & bone marrow on toast

A delicate arrangement of sesame infused tuna tartare is livened up with soy wasabi tapioca, crispy lotus root and shiso (£6) - it's lovely. Parmesan and bone marrow sauce on toast with horseradish (£5.20) was also good - indulgent and rich, with a neat little punch. Glistening, tender coconut pork ribs are sticky and gloriously messy - one of my favourite dishes, and the most gluttonous.

Pork belly

Although our waiter wondered whether we'd get through it all (are you kidding?) we decided to share one main dish and, if you're only having one, of course you make it the crispy pork belly, right? (£15.80). It comes with a smooth, thick almond skordalia and buttered kale with salty moromi miso and a tarragon dressing. Keh? Never mind - the pork belly is pleasingly fatty with crispy - to the point of hard as marble - crackling, but nothing extraordinary.

Chocolate brownie

Orange and almond cake

The desserts were, for once, contenders for my favourite dishes of the evening. A warm chocolate brownie with "golden crunch" ice-cream is decadently creamy with crispy honeycomb bits (£5.80). And if you ever doubted our enthusiasm, see An American In London's fork diving for the pud before the photo shoot has commenced - a delectable, uber moist orange and almond cake with passionfruit custard is a cheeky mix of tart and sweet (£5.80).

Like at Providores, there's a good wine list to work through. With a bottle of red wine, our bill for 3 came to £109 (or £36 each) - a very reasonable price for the quality and volume consumed. And the "small plates" bear decent portion sizes too.

Soft boiled eggs with Vegemite soldiers

I felt the Kopapa love a lot more when I visited for a lazy Sunday brunch this weekend with friends Mr and Mrs P. The breakfast/brunch menus are very similar to those at The Providores - including such famed staples as the Turkish eggs from changa restaurant in Istanbul - 2 poached eggs with whipped yoghurt and hot chilli butter (£6.50), as well as the interesting sounding chorizo hash and rocket with fried egg and salsa verde (£7.80).  The fry ups look and smell terrific - and Mr P claimed it was some of the best scrambled eggs, bacon and tomato he's had in the UK.

My oozey, soft boiled eggs with long, buttery Vegemite soldiers (£5.20) were the perfect salty remedy for a big night previously. So simple, but they do it perfectly. However, TPG and Mrs P, who thought they were going for a healthy option with the porridge, blueberry compote and creme fraiche (£5.00) were disappointed. So creamy and sweet, this was more like a buttery pudding with all the creme fraiche already mixed in (and there was loads of it), and too much sugary compote on top. They would have preferred the compote and creme fraiche were on the side to add to taste.

While this could have been a downer, the Kopapa staff quickly turned the situation around completely by impressing with their perfect handling of the issue - when they noticed these dishes had barely been touched and enquired if all was ok, TPG and Mrs P explained politely why the dish wasn't what they had been expecting and the Kopapa staff promptly took it off our bill (which we didn't ask for) and said they really appreciated the feedback. Faultless customer service in a week when this has been a hot topic in restaurant circles (thanks to a thoughtful article by restauranteur Russell Norman, of Polpo and Polpetto) - and for that alone I feel all loved up and more likely to return. Oh, and for the terrific Monmouth coffees - my flat white was just as good as at The Providores (high praise) - and you don't have to queue for it! (yet).

The fit out at Kopapa is simple, but certainly held more charm when it was buzzing over our Sunday brunch than it was over dinner in earlier days when it was still drawing in customers and battling grizzly weather. Hopefully, Kopapa benefitted from being one of the few decent places open for a casual bite over the Christmas period and picked up some extra custom. I have a feeling it will be popular, and will probably only improve with time.

I love Providores and the work of Peter Gordon so much, that I lament writing anything that's not completely raving mad about this new venture. I may not be in a huge rush to go back for dinner just yet, but for breakfast or brunch, it's a great addition to the neighbourhood and I welcome another well made Monmouth coffee to fold.

Kopapa, 32 Monmouth Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HA (Tel: 020 724 06076)



You can see my earlier review of Providores here.

New York - Pullinos, Egg, Balthazar

With so many big lunches and dinners to squeeze in on our trips to New York, it's tempting to skimp on breakfast. But then sanity kicks in and we gorge ourselves anyway.

Eggs on cocotte at Pullinos

Pullinos - Nolita

Pullinos is a charismatic, bar-pizzeria-restaurant with a checkered floor, high ceilings and oodles of charm. It's widely reputed to be great for lunch and dinner (and the pizzas are apparently excellent). But TPG had a waffle here on his previous trip and I haven't stopped hearing about it since (he puts it in the "world's best waffle" league) - so we stopped by for brunch.

First in the door at Pullinos - TPG sleeps on the doorstep

And the waffle had just gone off the menu! Poor, crestfallen TPG. But not matter - the buttermilk pancake with huckleberries and ricotta is baked in a heavy skillet and is thick and fluffy, with good vanilla ice-cream ($11).

My eggs en cocotte with fettunta ($12) are to die for - a rich, creamy eggy joy with eggs, spinach, ham, fontina and thick, toasted bread for shovelling from skillet to mouth . And it might sound boring but the half grapefruit baked with muscovado sugar and mint is a fab little side. We had this at a couple places in New York (I'm yet to see it in London), but Pullinos does it best - and I love the way they segment it for you.

Pullinos, 282 Bowery, New York, Ph: 212 226 1966  



Egg - Brooklyn

Eggs Rothko - before the new camera

It's worth venturing over the bridge to Brooklyn every now and then to witness the flurry of edgy, new places that seem to be popping up each year. Despite its reputation as the up and coming destination for the New York cool kids, I'm still not completely sold on Brooklyn - so many skinny jeans, so much eyeliner (and that's just the men) - but it does have some gems.

Egg is one of them. It's open every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner - and that doesn't stop a small waiting list forming for Sunday breakfast. It's worth it.

Never ending donuts

Egg has a small farm in Oak Hill, New York which provides a healthy growth environment for the plants which end up on your plate. Sit down and be greeted with a plate of fried donuts - which is constantly replenished as you continue to devour them. Be careful to save some room for the massive plates of food that are coming. My Eggs Rothko ($9) is an easy cooked egg inside - INSIDE - a slice of "Amy's brioche" and topped with a considerable amount of oozy Grafton cheddar. It's served with broiled tomatoes and a side of meat or seasonal vegetables - I go for Col. Bill Newsom's country ham, as well as a scone like "biscuit" served with fig jam. It's a heart attack on a plate and it's fabulous. TPG had the excellent steel-cut organic oatmeal with dried fruit, toasted almonds, brown sugar and cream ($7) - and another half grapefruit with muscovado sugar and mint.

There's a country ham biscuit (with fig jam, cheddar and grits), organic grits and eggs, biscuits and gravy, and duck leg seared with potatoes and green onions and served with eggs. This is unlike any breakfast you're likely to have in London right now. The coffee's not bad either - we had pots of it American style. I love Egg.


Egg, 135 North 5th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11211, Ph: 718 302 5151 



Balthazar - Soho

Well, of course Balthazar. For us, no trip to New York is complete without a visit to Keith McNally's beautiful, buzzy French bistro. I've written about Balthazar before. On this trip, we visited once for a takeway coffee and one of their miraculous donuts at the small, takeaway bakery and coffee shop next to the main restaurant, once to have a coffee with a friend in the fun bar area, and once for a leisurely croissant and coffee with the papers. I still haven't ever been for dinner despite raving on about the place for years.

Open early til late.

Balthazar, 80 Spring Street, Soho, New York, 10012, Ph: 212 965 1414


Happy Christmas, everyone!

Hawksmoor: The new brunch & weekend roasts menu. And THAT infamous Hawksmoor burger

"We almost didn't put that on the menu - we thought "who'd have steak and half a lobster for breakfast?""

Will, co-owner of Hawksmoor, and I looked over in unison at TPG, a man up to his elbows in rib eye and lobster meat. There's always one in every crowd.

Hawksmoor is a steak house in East London famed for serving up great quality British beef, grilled on charcoal to blissful perfection. All meat is sourced from the Ginger Pig, and steaks are, patriotically, from Longhorn cattle, reared in Yorkshire and aged for around 35 days. On Saturday, we were there to test out the first trial run of Hawksmoor's new breakfast menu. Thus, the need for TPG to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the hefty surf 'n turf option.

The weekend brunch menu revolves around quality meat products and bears the usual array of Hawksmoor's staples - the steaks, the infamous burger - and some fabulous new additions such as my Sausage and Egg HK Muffin (£8) or (for £30) the full English for two - comprising a bone-in bacon chop, sausages (pork, beef and mutton), short rib bubble 'n squeak, grilled bone marrow, trotter baked beans, Bury black pudding, roast tomatoes, grilled mushrooms and endless thick slices of dripping toast... all with an onion and bone marrow gravy.

The HK muffin had wooed me from afar, practically wolf whistling from across the room on someone else's plate. It tasted as good as it looked. Two runny fried eggs are piled into a lovely thick grilled muffin bun with a spicy flat sausage made from pork, beef and mutton, all topped with Ogleshield cheese. The only slightest critique I can offer is that the sausage was slightly too "spiced up" for me. I added Ginger Pig bacon, which is the closest thing I've had to the best of Australia's mouthwatering bacon in this country.

TPG's steak was so sublime it made us seriously weak at the knees. Perfection. He had it medium, as recommended by our helpful waitress for the rib eye cut, to really get the fatty marbling melting through the meat. If you're a steak and eggs man, this one's for you. TPG saddled it up decadently with a half lobster (add 12 quid), which was slightly overcooked and rubbery. Still, nothing could detract from our adoration of the rest of his plate.

We teamed up our selections with some of HK's renowed fabulous drinks. I was feeling fiesty so opted for the Bloody Mary #10 - made with a refreshing cucumber hit and the bite of horseradish. Loved it!

TPG, predictably, could not go past the cornflake milk milkshake. That's right folks - the cornflakes are soaked in milk overnight, drained (there are no "bits" in it) and then the milk is used to make the ice cream for what is undoubtedly THE BEST FLAVOURED MILKSHAKE in the entire universe. It's even knocked Shake Shack's salted caramel from the top of the perch. This seems to be some variation on similar shakes offered at my beloved Momofuku Bakery in New York - an ingenious addition to the breakfast menu.

We eventually retired, content and bellies full, to the bar to watch the masterful hands of Shaky Pete at work. Pete is not only super friendly, but a cocktail guru. He whipped me up a refreshing ginger brew in no time - ginger, lemon, beer and other secret ingredients giving it a sassy sorbet texture. It's like the best shandy you've ever imagined. Highly recommended.

TPG obviously felt he needed to show his sophisticated side after the milk shake, and chose a superb armagnac. Layers of chocolate, toffee and other delights wafted up to the nose and romanced the palate. Gorgeous. We are hunting down a bottle for home (if only TPG had not washed since he wrote the name on his hand).

Pricing on the new day time menu seems fair. It's not a dirt cheap breakfast, but you're getting top quality ingredients, perfectly executed at a very reasonable price. It's good value. Even better was the pricing on Saturday since we were trialling the menu at a 50% discount to allow any kinks to be ironed out before the official launch this week on 13th March (although I've quoted the full prices here).

The worst thing about the new weekend brunch menu is the complete inability to decide what to have - what can't you live without? Other new lunch options include the roast beef (roasted on charcoal and finished in the oven to achieve that "roasted on a spit flavour") with dripping roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, carrots, greens and bone marrow & onion gravy. My stomach just rumbled while typing.

And, of course, there's the Hawksmoor burger. We had devoured one recently (Valentines Day doesn't get more romantic than this) and it certainly lives up to its reputation.

Gloopy, loosely packed meat from Longhorn cattle (a range of cuts) is enriched by globs of fatty bone marrow in the mix. A simple salad, pickles, mustard mayo and simple brioche bun are, idyllicly, the only distractions from the main game. On this occassion I was surprised to find the bun a little too much on the dry side (while some dryness is required to stand up to the juices, the bun seemed to lack freshness). However, flavourful, rich and decadent, the burger was up there with my all time favourites, and can only be rivalled in London by Goodman's (which is of a completely different style, but similar quality, as reviewed earlier here).

For £15, the burger comes with a choice of triple cooked thick cut chips or a gem salad. A no brainer, surely. Although, this time we went for one of each. I'm a fan of thick cut fries, and not afraid to say it. These were expertly cooked - crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. The salad was the real surprise here - there were no regrets for forgoing the second serve of chips. Fresh and mixed with chopped spring onion and zesty herbs. It was a tasty refresher.

So now I have an embarrassing schoolgirl crush on 2 London steak houses - Hawksmoor and Goodman (reviewed here). Service at both is super friendly and knowledgable. Hawksmoor feels more laid back and breezy, and a little less like a gentleman's club - although I've only been during the day. Its breakfast rocks, its burger is divine, its steaks are pure heaven from a grill. And it serves a white hot cocktail to suit any occassion - that's my kind of place. I can see myself becoming quite the regular here. Shaky Pete, save me a seat at the bar.

The weekend breakfast menu officially launches on 13th March 2010. It's going to be a winner. Bloody Mary #10 with your steak and eggs, anyone?

Hawksmoor, 157 Commercial Street, Shoreditch, London, E1 6BJ

Greedy Diva Gets Her Noggin on a Cereal Box - Jordans Country Crisp Appreciation Society

If you've been paying attention, you will have noticed this is largely a blog about restaurants.

However, I reserve the right to muse whimsically about any food related moment that comes my way. That includes my recently attempted one night stand with a dim sim.

And now it shall also include the fact that I recently had my grinning mug put on on a box of cereal. (A lovely Christmas present for the The Peanut Gallery, without the need to hit the shops - things were looking up.) Unfortunately, the folks at Jordans did not see fit to put said box in wider circulation than my own kitchen. What a kick in the guts. (Although, "understandable", The Peanut Gallery tells me consolingly as he stares at the box with a slightly freaked out expression.)

I never ate breakfast at all until I started working in an office, and now it has simply faded into the first part of my standard "cannot think, type or make any kind of decision unless chewing" routine. There's a breakfast window - don't put anything near me before 9am (unless I'm still on my way home, in which case make it a souva), and anything after 12pm becomes lunch.

However, during the breakfast window, I'll eat like a lion with a hangover. Give me pizza, burger or last night leftovers - I'll take them. Even cold. I just stop short of mouldy. As a standard/lazy position at home, it's hard to beat warm toast or crumpets with loads of melting butter and a smattering of Vegemite, but I might branch out wildly and mix things up a bit with some avocado on toast, or (on health kick days) granola and muesli. Or porridge (plain, with yoghurt) or mushy Vita Brits (baby food consistency is best). Anything that's not too sweet - unless it involves pancakes or I am in France, in which case I'm sure to have a craving for pain au chocolat or an almond croissant. And I haven't even started on my favourite breakfasts around town.

So, when at home, I like a nutty, crunchy, not too sweet cereal that's got a bit of a granola character about it. Which brings me to my point. Before Christmas (yes, I've been a little tardy), I was invited along with some other fine food bloggers to attend Leith's School of Food and Wine for a Jordans Country Crisp Appreciation Society food fest. There, Jordans and the lovely gang from the Wild Card PR company fed me up with coffee (very wise at such an early hour - someone must have warned them), juice, cereal and fresh fruits, and entrusted me use the rather professional looking utensils to bake a pear and cereal cake (not an innate GD skill - they make nice cakes at Princi, afterall. Think the Swedish chef on the Muppets let loose in a professional kitchen, and you'll have caught my drift.)

To my intense shock, I found the whole baking saga surprisingly therapeutic, and managed not to fling too many bits of stray pear onto the winty woolies of my accomplices, Ginger Gourmand, Kavey Eats and Food Urchin. I became at one with that mixer, as I chopped, mixed and whirled like a Japanese iron chef. So inspired was I, that I even bought myself a new pair of beaters leading up to Christmas - although it may be telling that they have since been used only to make alcoholic beverages (a lovely Christmas eggnog).

I enjoyed an enlightening speech by Bill Jordan on the ethos and family history of the company. Jordans is committed to producing its products without added salt, unseemly amounts of sugar and in a conservation friendly manner. Its oats are grown by British farmers who subscribe to a Conservation Grade scheme. (See more on Jordan's mission here in this week's article in The Telegraph).

An educative session from Kirsten (Head of Taste - love the title) on the complex making of cereal followed (seriously - who would have guessed there was so much to it? I've been taking my cereal makers for granted), before we rolled up the sleeves and dug in to create our own cereal blends. And I must say (ahem) I believe I may have uncovered a new GD talent. The mix of 9 parts nuts to 1 part cereal (no dried berry bits or chocolate flakes), was an award winning combo.

For more on the day, you can check out some other posts here (by Kavey Eats), here (by The Muesli Lover) and here (by Apple and Spice).

Thanks to Jordans and Wild Card for your hospitality, a great day and a lovely stash of cereal which I've been munching on since, as a fine accompaniment to my daily Vegemite fix.

So. What do you like for breakfast? Is my leftovers habit really that disgusting (I already know what you think, TPG). C'mon admit it - you sneak in a bit of cold curry in the mornings, don't you? Don't you?