Something for the weekend

Brunch. The ultimate wake-up treat on a Sunday, right?

It would seem so judging by the line of bruncheries down my high street and the rise and rise of places like Lucky 7 in Notting Hill.

But the answer is no. The best start to a Sunday can be found tucked away in a few select locations around the centre of London – big dark rooms, often with mirrors and lots of gold.

Yup, my Sunday treat is a good serving of Dim Sum. I love it so much I even have Dim Sum mates, with whom I go to Dim Sum. We were friends before, but we now only meet in Chinese restaurants.

The Ping Pong chain is making a good fist of sticking a Dim Sum restaurant on every corner. They are good, and I’m glad they are spreading the word, but you can’t beat Royal China for a good Sunday lunch.

I tend to go to the Queensway branch, though they also have restaurants atBaker Street, St John’s Wood, Canary Wharf and Fulham. The company also owns Satsuma on Wardour Street but ignore that for now, we’re talking Dim Sum.

The beauty of Dim Sum is that you pick loads of small dishes – steamed dumplings, spring rolls, pork buns – so you get a huge variety, the food just keeps coming, and you still only pay about £10-15 a head, depending on how greedy you are and whether you go for the egg tarts for pudding (we do).

So, find some of your own Dim Sum friends and block out your Sunday lunchtime now.

On the list: Unpackaged

Don’t need three layers of packaging around your apples? Think you can cope without a couple of bags to protect your bananas? Then you might be interested in Unpackaged (walkable from Farringdon or Angel tube). Opened last year, it appears to be a bit of a ‘back to basics’ idea – bring your tupperware containers and fill them up… with rice, seeds, flour, muesli, toilet cleaner..

It reminds me of those discount shops that used to exist where you scooped up all your shopping into plastic bags, though I reckon the goods there were anything but organic and wholesome. In any case, we tended to scoop up our family shopping from Tesco.

I’ve been meaning to pop along to Unpackaged for a while now. I’ll report back if/when I make it.

> The Camden New Journal covered the opening last November

> Monocle has a picture 

I am loving… Nusa Kitchen

It’s a bit of a trek from where I am, but Nusa’s soups always brighten up my lunchtime. Everywhere sells soup, but this isn’t just soup. Yesterday I had Mexican borracho bean soup with salsa and rice; the other week it was a South Indian tomato-ey thing.. and each time served with freshly baked flat bread. The menu changes every day too.

Nusa is based just up from Barbican and they’ve just opened a second shop near Bank. WestEnders can only hope that they branch out a bit more.

In the meantime check out Nusa’s recipes section.

All you can eat

This blog is about eating. Specifically, in London. But it is also about the bits that come before and after – the search, the anticipation and the savouring.

From food stores to sandwich shops and pubs to restaurants, I will be using this blog to flag up the best and slag off the rest.

This blog isn’t just about reviews or tips though. I will also be blogging about foodie things I come across that might be of interest.

London has got loads of places to try out. If you come across somewhere or something that I should be writing about, drop me a note.

Joe

March 2008