Book Review – The Hedgerow Hand Book

I recently purchased The Hedgerow Hand Book by Adele Nozedar. It is a really good guide to wild edible plants in the UK. Clear illustrations are used to help identify plants. I like this feature as I think that illustrations are better at aiding you to find the key features of a plant.

A number of recipes are also included, as are medicinal and some folklore. I generally never use recipes, I find them too faffy. However for I followed the recipe for crab apply jelly – it came out pretty well.

All in all a good buy and small enough to throw into your backpack.

Review: Hi Sushi (Covent Garden)

The Place. Hi Sushi as the name suggests is a Japanese sushi joint. It has an informal canteen style. One feature I quite liked was being able to watch the chefs at work. We hadn’t planned our trip so weren’t able to get a bar seat – I’d recommend it, although ensure you don’t get the chairs near the door, as you’ll get a draught every time a customer walks in.

The Grub. We ordered a number of nigiri and maki dishes. The salmon ISO maki were pink, fatty and paired with avocado. Like all their fish, it was excellent quality. The salmon had a lovely firmness which quickly melted in the mouth. My only gripe was that the avocado could had done with an extra day of ripening to get that luscious creamy texture I love.

The cucumber maki were well made, having the cucumber finely shredded added a delicate crunch, which showed their attention to detail. The nori that encased it was still crispy and crackled when I bit into it – a sign of freshness, more please!

Similar statements can be made about the tuna and yellow fin maki, although the hot sauce added was a bit over-powering.

You can’t discuss sushi without mentioning the rice. I was quite jealous. As any amateur sushi chef will tell you, rice is the key ingredient to good sushi. Their rice was spot on, firm, sticky but still allowing the nori to keep its crispness. It was also served at the correct temperature, warm, which contrasted with the chill of the fish. Superb. I wish similar places would serve their sushi this way.

In addition we ordered a selection of nigiri. Again delicious. I would recommend the scallop. Lovely, sweet, they melt in the mouth with the warm rice adding a bit of chewy texture.

On a previous visit we ordered some squid skewers and vegetable tempura. The squid was good, although the portion was very small. The tempura was a disappointment, it lacked that very delicate crunch.

However the tobiko (fish roe) just dissolved in your mouth and was uber fresh. Another excellent dish.

So, all in all, the nosh is very good quality, although I’d stick to ordering the sushi, you won’t go wrong.

The Service. Not the friendliest of service, but the informal nature of the restaurant makes up for it. On our first visit they forgot our orders. However free beer was added as compensation!

The Pricing. Mid level, but good value. Expect to spend £15 – £20 per person excluding drinks(which are reasonably priced for central London). Your best bet is the eat all you can option, although there are various set menus to choose from. If you order item by item instead you will notice many pricing inconsistencies. For instance nigiri is about £2.20 for just one piece, while you can get five generous pieces of sashimi for £5. So the all you can eat option is best, especially if you’re a nigiri lover like me.

The Location. Close to Covent Garden tube station. There are many pubs etc. in the vicinity, so its easy to make a night of it.

Abeno Review (Okonomiyaki Part III)

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Last weekend I took a jaunt to Abeno, an okonomiyaki restaurant here in London.  Lea and Gareth came along to ensure complete objectivity.

In terms of decor, it was clean Japanese. The waiters and waitresses were very helpful and explained the menu to us silly Gaijins. We were sat at  a table with its own built in grill.

We ordered a couple of starters, ika itame (grilled squid with garlic and soy) and an unsual dish of pickled carrot and burdock root.  Both were very good, the squid soft and the burdock was almost sesame in taste. I think it makes good drinking food – a bit like Japanese meze, no wonder the Kirin was going down so well.

Of course the main event was the okonomiyaki. We ordered three:

 Kimchi with pork,

Squid

 Cheese, mushroom and lotus root

All were topped with bonito flakes and an assortment of sauces.  The kimchi was quite spicy with the bacon givng it a good saltiness. Of the three Lea and I think that the squid was probably the best, Gareth rekoned the kimchi was more his style. However, the cheese et al version I wouldn’t order again.

My home cooked version compared quite well. There were some differences though:

1. The cabbage was finely diced as oppossed to finely sliced, giving it a crumblier texture

2. They used a sweeter sauce, tonkatsu sauce is good but the authentic okonomiyaki sauce is better

Altogether a good night out.