Bone Daddies

If you haven't heard of Bone Daddies yet, it's not a rib shack or a steakhouse as the name might immediately suggest; it's a newcomer to London's burgeoning noodle scene. However if you're a foodie then you'll already know that Aussie Ross Shonhan, formerly head chef at Zuma and Nobu, has combined his love of Japanese food with the party-hard vibe of Soho and opened a no-reservation ramen restaurant where the pork bone broth base is cooked for 20 hours.

This place is also nothing like the exquisite, temple-food calm of nearby udon restaurant Koya; Bone Daddies is loud and kicking, with classic rock blaring and conversations buzzing from Soho's finest, squashed together at communal tables and knocking back the sake and cocktails. The tiny interior is stripped back and decorated with pictures of Japanese rockabillies; you're not going to want to perch on one of the stools for an entire evening but it's a perfect place to start a night out, or to end one.

We started with the soft shell crab. This was an immediate winner; deliciously crisp with a delicately soft interior, served with a punchy green chilli and ginger dip. Now is probably a good time to tell you that if you're not a fan of spicy food, let the staff know and ask for recommendations as the flavours here are big, bold and in your face.

The staff, on the other hand, are incredibly friendly and chatty and will happily help with anything you need. To drink we had some warm sake, served in a flask sitting in hot water, plus a fresh carrot and ginger juice; both were good.
For mains we went for the T22, a chicken bone broth base with soy ramen, chicken and cock scratchings - don't worry, they are in fact little nuggets of crispy fried chicken skin and add an interesting crunch to the dish - and the Tantanmen, dan-dan noodles piled in a chicken bone broth with pork mince, sesame, chilli and bok choy.

There are lots of options for customising your food; you can order extra meat, vegetables, egg or noodles from the menu (we did try an extra egg in the T22 but I doubt you'd want extra noodles) plus there is a fabulous range of condiments on the table including garlic and presses, and a sesame grinder. You can even order a pipette of pork fat to add flavour but I honestly don't think it needs it; my Tantanmen was wonderful, a rich and creamy sesame  base and a big chilli kick, perfectly cooked egg and spicy pork adding taste and texture.

Bone Daddies is a welcome addition to a part of London already blessed with some of the best restaurants around; my visit was an early evening pre-drinking stop, but I can see this becoming a staple for late night hangover prevention. If you start with the homemade pickles or miso soup and stick to tap water you can slurp your way through any of the warming noodle dishes and be on your way for less than £15 - just what you need at this time of year.
http://bonedaddiesramen.com/

Yours, rocking the ramen,
Girl About Town xx

The Phat Phuc Noodle Bar

Worth visiting for the Facebook check in alone, Phat Phuc is apparently Vietnamese for 'Happy Buddha'. That may be so, but the fact that they have t-shirts for sale indicates that the implications of the Western pronunciation (and its financial opportunities) are clearly not lost on the owners!
http://www.phatphucnoodlebar.com/index.htm

Located in a small courtyard down a flight of steps at the beginning of Sydney Street, just off the King's Road in Chelsea, the Phat Phuc Noodle Bar is a welcomingly affordable spot to grab lunch. Seating is outdoors on chairs and benches with plenty of umbrellas to protect you from whatever elements the British weather feels like throwing at you. The seats are a tad rickety, the cushions worn and the food is freshly prepared in a beautifully-decorated hut that their Chelsea neighbours probably wouldn't countenance as garden storage - all utterly perfect for a Vietnamese noodle bar. Phat Phuc has really friendly staff and a relaxed, unpretentious feel that on a hot, muggy London day made me half believe I could feel sand between my toes.

We had prawn summer rolls and dim sum to start, followed by Bang Bang chicken noodle salad and Duck Pho (a Vietnamese noodle soup with duck and vegetables in broth). Each of the main courses was under £7, perfect for a frugal foodie in a very pricey part of town - although we did choose to match that price in drinks with a couple of beers at £3.50 each! I've not been to Vietnam yet so I can't comment on the authenticity of the dishes but I am a big noodle fan and I enjoyed my meal. The summer rolls were chunky, bursting with freshness and flavour; there maybe could have been a little more prawn in the filling, but then again these were twice the size I was expecting them to be, so perhaps that is churlish - the portions here are generous.

 My Pho was good; a nicely balanced broth base with plenty of noodles, several slices of moist roast duck and accompanying vegetables. There are a couple of chilli sauce options on the table so you can customise the spiciness ( beware the oil - it's HOT!) but it's perfectly fine without any if you prefer. My companion's salad was refreshing and flavoursome.

I wouldn't necessarily say the Phat Phuc is somewhere you should immediately rush your noodle-loving foodie friends to (that would be Koya in Frith Street) but the food was great, the staff lovely and I would absolutely drop in again if I was in the area. I fancy trying the Prawn Laksa next. Anyone out there know if it's any good?

Yours,
Girl About Town xx

Saatchi Gallery: Korean Eye 2012

The Saatchi Gallery is in the beautiful and perfectly proportioned Duke of York HQ building on the King's Road in Chelsea, less than five minutes' walk from Sloane Square tube, and entry is free. Membership to the gallery is also free and gets you invites to special events, talks and members' evenings as well as advance notice of exhibitions; get proactive and sign up in the online room on the second floor.

Korean Eye is the largest exhibition of new Korean art to date and the first time these artists have been shown as a group. Thirty-three artists were chosen from around two thousand applicants, providing a huge range of influences and styles in the works on show. Here are some of my snippets, pictures and highlights but I strongly recommend you go and wander round yourself and make your own choices (by the way, the gallery is fiercely air-conditioned - bliss on the muggy day I went, but you might want a warmish top).

I found shapes crafted from the porcelain deliberately broken and discarded by ceramic masters when the finished piece is not up to standard; Yeesookyung has taken these unwanted, destroyed pieces and made them into something new and desirable, covering the joins with gold leaf.

One room shows huge pictures with embedded photographs on acrylic like holograms that change as you walk past; people (and clothes) appear and disappear, details change, your interpretation of the work alters.

I loved the mesmerising portrait of an elderly Mother Theresa by Hyung Koo Kang painted in oils on aluminium, and pictures of braided hair painted using a single-haired brush.

Huge, photo-realistic pictures of cacti by Lee Kwang-Ho flank a delicate latticed sculpture in one room, and a selection of vases atop packing crates in another.

Cho Duck Hyun's apparently traditional portraits force their way into the present and trail fabric over the gallery floor, contrasting with Kim Buyoungho's wall-mounted bursts of twigs or aluminium.

The lower floor houses 20:50, a site-specific installation by British sculptor Richard Wilson and my favourite piece in a very rewarding visit. The viewer looks down on the piece from a gallery on to what appears to be a drop of several feet and white rectangles on the floor. As a fan of - but no expert in - contemporary art, I dutifully kept looking and awaiting enlightenment; it was the distinct smell of oil that dropped the penny for me.

The rectangles on the floor were in fact reflections of the ceiling lights, there was only one row of windows, not two. In one of the moments I love in art, when you suddenly have to reassess everything you thought you were looking at, I realised that there was an almost impossibly smooth reflective surface over the whole room, and that it was one of the least glamorous (Chris Ofili aside) substances possible; used sump oil. Deceptively simple, disorienting, genius.

Really, go. If you like contemporary art, I'm betting at least one thing there will make you catch your breath.





Yours, impressed,
Girl About Town xx

Cabaret Mechanical Theatre

If you were one of those kids who used to fight with your brother or sister about whose turn it was to push the button for the green man when crossing the road, then you're going to love this exhibition.

This was pure nostalgia for me. These automata used to be downstairs at Covent Garden where, being fun and free, they were an intrinsic part of a teenage day out along with buying hand made silver earrings from students at the market and hanging out by the street performers before filling up on cheap and fabulous veggie stir fry at Food for Thought.

If you're making a special journey, be aware that the selection here is quite small; the exhibition space is basically the size of a shop and you'll be here fifteen to twenty minutes tops. However, size isn't everything. These wonderful and ingenious contraptions are great fun and guaranteed to raise a smile; there is something about pressing the buttons and making them whizz into action, be it rowing pirates, kissing couples or a lion-tamer retrieving his head from the lion's mouth just before the jaws clamp shut, that is very satisfying in a toddleresque kind of way.

I can't decide if my personal favourite is the man eating spaghetti from his bathtub or the waving Queen, but I marvel at the imagination and workmanship in them all.

I didn't have time on this particular visit. but if you are trekking out to the area, Dulwich Picture Gallery is a short bus ride away and is on my hit list, so watch this space. There are plenty of places to grab a bite or a caffeine fix in the nearby High Street, which incidentally has some very nice charity shops worth browsing for a pre-loved bargain or two.

One word of warning; I nearly pitched up at the Kennington branch of Space Station 65, which doesn't have an exhibition on at the moment, having glanced at their website and just seen a tube station within walking distance. This exhibition is in the East Dulwich site - check their website for details.

http://www.spacestationsixtyfive.com/

Delightful, amusing and free. What more do you want? Go push some buttons.

Yours, making things happen,

Girl About Town xx

Randomness at the South Bank

I confess it freely, I do love the South Bank. The stretch of riverside from the London Aquarium up to the Tate Modern is so chock-full of options, from culture to cafés and markets to mojitos, that you can just wander around until inspiration strikes. Another quirk of mine is that I love randomness - odd, unexpected, intriguing, inspired things - and as you already know, I'm a Girl About Town on a budget. So here, faithful readers, is my hit list of free randomness at and around the Southbank centre this summer.

Get lost in books - literally - at aMAZEme. Two Brazilian artists have created a maze of 250,000 books in the shape of writer Jorge Luis Borge's fingerprint on the floor of the Clore Ballroom in the Southbank Centre. You are invited to browse the top layer (as long as you replace the book) and wander in the labyrinth with fellow bibliophiles as literary quotes are projected onto a huge screen. Over two metres tall in some places, and with one section topped with books in Braille, all the books will go to charity when it is dismantled.

Take a ride in a singing lift. Right next to aMAZEme is a glass lift. Wait until it's empty then hop in and press Level 6. When you get there and you've stopped laughing, press Level 1 (it's more fun if the lift doesn't stop in the middle). Now you know what to expect, hang around on Level 2 until someone gets in genuinely wanting to go up a few floors, and watch their faces. Thank you, Turner Prize winner Martin Creed, this is genius.

Find yourself. Head out to the Riverside Terrace and you'll see a large map of the world on the floor. That wouldn't be enough to qualify as random for me, but it's made out of one million Lego bricks. That qualifies.

Muse under a baobab tree. As part of the Festival of the World a giant baobab tree has been created by Pirate Technics and Textile Design students from Chelsea College of Art and Design. Traditionally the baobab tree is a centre of community gatherings or quiet contemplation; this sculpture has been made from rings of fabric from across the world, with each ring representing a different community, so there's plenty to think about.

Down a tequila in a shipping container. Wahaca have brought their award-winning Mexican street food to the South Bank with this quirky pop-up restaurant built from eight shipping containers and offering some pretty awesome views over the river. Okay so it's not free, but I was thirsty. Oh, and the food is great too.

These are some of the reasons that I love this city.





Yours, randomly

Girl About Town xx

Ice-cream worth shouting about

It's a scorchingly hot English summer's day (What?? A girl can dream . . . ) and your public transport advisory bottle of water just isn't cutting it. You need real refreshment - and fast.

As a self-confessed foodie, I like to seek out the most carefully-sourced, freshly-made, high quality dishes available and am always intrigued when respected tradition is gilded with an imaginative, contemporary gleam. Sadly, such ambitions are frequently more than my purse strings can bear - until of course we start talking gelato.

Ice-cream is relatively cheap, which makes top-quality gelato eminently affordable. One of the many advantages of London's vibrant multiculturalism is that we have experts in all manner of culinary disciplines, armed with traditions and skills learned at their grandmothers' aprons in regions across the world, all a short stroll or a few tube stops away.  Here are a few of my favourite gelateria and why I think you might want to give them a try.


Gelupo   http://www.gelupo.com/
Sister restaurant Bocca di Lupo's hot young chef Jacob Kennedy delivers traditional smooth gelato in some innovative flavours - think ricotta, chocolate and black pepper.


Gelatorino   http://www.gelatorino.com/

Recipes from an award-winning Turin gelato master and top-quality ingredients. Try the Breakfast in Turin coffee/chocolate chip flavour in an Affogato with espresso - the perfect pick-me-up.


Oddono's   http://www.oddonos.com/
One of the first to bring real Italian gelato to London and still going strong - flavours vary all the time and I know I should try something other than the pistachio, but it's just so darn good. Apparently Gordon Ramsay is a fan, and I'm  not about to disagree.

Scoop   http://www.scoopgelato.com/

Now with a new store on the Old Brompton Road, Scoop are hosting a Signatures special over the weekend 14th-16th September (see their website for details). Go along, and see what ordinary ice-creams want to be when they grow up.

Chin Chin Laboratorists   http://www.chinchinlabs.com/
Okay, I confess, this one is not about Italian heritage but pure showmanship - although the ice-cream is surprisingly good (especially the chocolate) and the special flavours can be imaginative, it's really all about the liquid nitrogen. Ice-cream making as a spectator sport anyone?

See - you can be cool and sweet at the same time.





Yours, with sympathy for the brain-freeze,

Girl About Town xx

Postman's Park - get Closer

A hop and a skip from the bustle of St Paul's is a tranquil little park next to the General Post Office, built in 1880 for their staff. Philatelists may be interested in the statue of Sir Rowland Hill, inventor of the postage stamp, but of a more general appeal is the intriguing and beautiful glazed tile memorial inside the park. The Watts Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice was set up in 1900 by the painter George Frederick Watts to commemorate unsung heroes, often young people or children, who gave their lives to save others.

The loftily dramatic Victorian language may make the stonier-hearted amongst you (and me, to my eternal shame) feel an initial twinge of dark humour: 'Sarah Smith, Pantomime artiste at Price's theatre - died of terrible injuries received when attempting in her inflammable dress to extinguish the flames which had enveloped her companion.'

Read on, though, and I defy you to remain unmoved. If nothing else, you are transported back to a time when Herberts, Harolds, Ellens and Georges, stationer's clerks, schoolboys and passers-by, unselfishly went to the rescue of those in distress.

The park had a brief moment of celluloid stardom in 2004 when a film was made of the Patrick Marber play Closer; early in the film, Jude Law and Natalie Portman's characters walk in the park and she subsequently assumes the name Alice Ayres.

I like to think that the memorial has achieved its aim; that Watts, who believed so strongly that 'the national prosperity of a Nation is not an abiding possession, the deeds of its people are' that he set the memorial up himself when he was refused support from the government, has given us a reminder of ordinary, everyday heroes and a renewed faith in our fellow man.

No man is an island - even in London.





Yours, optimistically,

Girl About Town xx

Traditional Sunday lunch - with a twist

If you're a frugal foodie feeling like a change, why not go for a traditional Sunday lunch Cantonese-style? Dim sum is a tapas-esque selection of small dishes either chosen from a selection wheeled round on trolleys or ordered from a menu, and is available in most Chinatown restaurants daily until late afternoon. My personal favourite is Lido - just look for the blue awning near the end of Gerrard Street.

http://lidochinatown.com/index.php?page=welcome

Ask for the dim sum menu and don't panic about the Chinese-only tick sheet - the separate menu has corresponding numbers with both pictures and English descriptions. Simply find the number of the dish you like on the tick sheet and write how many you want (usually one) in the brackets. (Don't include the menu in your Facebook check-in pic and everyone will wonder how you managed it!)

 We tend to order seven dishes between two people, but I may well be greedier than you: for dim sum virgins, may I suggest a selection from the following:

Har gau* - called 'dumplings' but actually prawns steamed in a light translucent wrapper a bit like very thin pasta. Served in a steamer, these will be HOT so be careful - but then don't leave them too long, they are best eaten as fresh as possible. I like mine dipped in a dash of chilli oil, but soy sauce or just as they are is fine.

Siu mai - again, steamed 'dumplings' this time wonton wrappers filled with minced pork and prawns, open at the top.

Cha siu bao - steamed savoury buns filled with Chinese barbecued pork. Light, fluffy and delicious, but very filling!

Cheong fun - flat rice noodle wrapped around a filling of your choice, a little like slithery cannelloni. I'm a seafood girl, so I normally go for the prawn ones, but that's me.

Spring rolls - prawn and yam, or Vietnamese for a change.

Steamed glutinous rice in lotus leaves - this looks very exotic! A little package of sticky rice filled with mixed meats and Chinese sausage, all parcelled up in lotus leaves and steamed. Simply unwrap and enjoy (and don't eat the leaves!).

Turnip paste - yes I know it sounds very Baldrick, but it's actually made with daikon, a Chinese radish/turnip, and finely-chopped meat, cut into slabs and fried - kind of like a very mildly-flavoured Cantonese bubble and squeak, with a comforting texture. Do consider it - I am addicted to it dunked in fiery chilli sauce, I know not why.

Noodles - I'm a big fan of the flat, wide Ho Fun rice noodles with beef, stir-fried dry or with sauce, but these are fairly self-explanatory so take your pick. This will be a big portion, a meal in itself!

To finish - I love the little bite-sized custard tarts, but the coconut pudding is also good.

Some words to the wise. Don't wait for everything to arrive before starting; dishes will be brought to your table as and when they are freshly-prepared by the chefs, so just dig in and make room for the next set of plates and bamboo steamers to appear. Given this, remember the staff will be visiting every table at least five or six times so don't expect them to hang around and smile and shoot the breeze - they are lovely people and the service will be very efficient but you're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Traditionally dim sum is served with Chinese tea; if you plump for this option, refills are free and you will probably pay around £15 a head or less, depending on your dim sum choices. If you've over-ordered, just ask for some take-away boxes and there's your midnight TV snack sorted.

* PS: the English spelling of these dishes varies, so I have opted for the most common - not necessarily the ones Lido uses.

Have fun and share nicely,







Girl About Town xx

Bunhill Fields - honouring literary giants in an oasis of calm

In an uncompromisingly solid and practical City landscape, Bunhill Fields Burial Ground is an unlikely but welcoming oasis of green and tranquility for harried Londoners. It may sound odd to recommend a picnic in a graveyard, but I do; the obvious history of the trees and the tombstones seems to make time pass more slowly, and perhaps make our earthly troubles seem less severe - and where better to contemplate the vagaries of life than lying on soft, sun-dappled grass underneath an ancient oak?

'Bunhill' Fields comes from 'bone hill'; around 1550 this was a marshy stretch of fields outside the old City wall owned by St Paul's and they dumped the contents of an old charnel-house here during a clean-up. Apparently so many bones were bought here that it raised the level of the ground - hence 'bone hill'.

In 1665 it was set up as a burial ground for dissenters - those Protestants opposed to state interference in matters of religion and who as a result were refused the right to hold public office, attend certain universities - or be buried on consecrated ground. Bunhill Fields became a popular resting place for non-conformists including such literary giants as Daniel Defoe (author of Robinson Crusoe), John Bunyan (author of Pilgrim's Progress) and visionary poet and artist William Blake.

'To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower . . . '

When I visited I was charmed and moved to find Blake's gravestone adorned with small gifts and tokens from visitors: flowers, trinkets, beads, shells and coins. If you go at lunchtime on August 12th (the anniversary of Blake's death) you can join members of the Blake Society and commemorate his life by reading from his work and then repair to the local pub for further discussions. Check their website for details:
http://www.blakesociety.org/events/event/hear-the-voice-of-the-bard/

Cramped and disorderly, Bunhill Fields is a striking image of what London's graveyards would have looked like in the seventeenth century. Now a carefully maintained Grade 1 listed park, you can download a useful little map from here:
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/green-spaces/city-gardens/visitor-information/Pages/Bunhill-Fields.aspx

Remembering Blake's words:

'A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent'



Be nice to each other,

Girl About Town xx