Missing America

A little note to homesick Americans in London who may be craving Lucky Charms or Mrs. Butterworth's smothered pancakes for breakfast, mac 'n' cheese for lunch, corn bread and root beer for dinner (boy, I love America) and Big Red to refresh your breath should look no further than the Z Punjani American Food Store located in Holland Park at 2 Ladbroke Grove , W11 3BG (about a 2 minute walk from the tube station).

Despite the small size, this newsagent is packed floor to ceiling with American imported goods. Find your twizzlers and hot tamales here and if they don't have something you're after, that one thing which would make life in london just a little bit greater, tell them. AND THEY'LL ORDER IT IN IN FOR YOU!

One more thing, here’s a paragraph extracted from spectator.co.uk:

"And if you live in London, here's a tip; not for nothing does Z. Punjani Newsagents, 2 Ladbroke Grove (Tel 020 7727 4394; punjani@talk21.com), announce itself an American Food Store: buy your Reese's peanut butter cups and pumpkin purée, pancake mix and pickles, perhaps even the final issue of Gourmet, from W11 and get in the mood to create your own authentic Thanksgiving feast."Lovely.

Gingerbread Pancakes a la Homesick Texan

So its Shrove Tuesday aka Pancake Day. Whilst the simple pancake is adored by many (eat london included!) sometimes its nice to 'think outside the box' and whip up something a little different. With that in mind, may I introduce to you Homesick Texan's gingerbread pancake recipe. Discovered in Austin, you can now enjoy these in your own home.

Bringin' the taste of the US of freaking A to London, here it is:

http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2007/02/gingerbread-pancakes-for-shrove-tuesday.html

ENJOY!

Happy Pancake Day!

Here at Eat London we like to mix things up a bit, and nothing's better mixed up than eggs, flour, sugar and butter baby! That's right - we're sharing our favourite American Style pancake recipe with you in honour of this fine Shrove Tuesday, with video courtesy of our good friends over at Betasaurus.

So here's the video - watch it to see our very own Kim whip up a batch of pancakes and deliver a little history regarding this delicious day!

Fancy a Snog?

I know what you're thinking. "Michelle, where have you been? I've been starving here, two long months, trying to work out a route to eat my way through London on my budget, and you've just gone off and left me. I'm not sure I can forgive you. You bastard". There's only one way I can say it: I'm sorry. It's nothing personal, I'm still eating new food for you, still going out of my way to track down the best culinary treats on a shoestring, but somewhere along the way I got sidetracked in the process of eating, and forgot all about the writing. Can you ever forgive me? Because if you do, we've really got a treat for you...

See that cup there in the picture? Notice the little white chocolate stars, chunks of delicious brownie and mouthwatering mochi? That's for you, baby. Let's make up for my blogging hiatus the passionate way. Let's talk Snog.

Starting in South Ken and spreading their reach to Soho (yay!) and Shepeherds Bush's notorious shopping mall Westfield, Snog is a frozen yogurt place with a difference. Choose from three base flavours, plan, bittersweet dark chocolate or green tea then top your snog with a handful of fresh fruit or naughty treats (did I mention the brownie chunks... mouth... watering) and you're good to go. Fat free and naturally sweetened, the clever chaps in PR note it's "tart tasting and not too sugary sweet". But what does this mean for you, dear readers?



Well, fittingly for such a place, I'm not going to sugar coat it. Kim and I had the green tea Snog, and I was looking forward to seeing how that worked with some pretty sweet toppings, hence the chocolate brownies, stars and mochi. The answer? Meh, not so much. The mochi, perhaps understandably, worked the best with the eastern scented green tea, but the overall flavour of the fro-yo was a little too sour for my palate. The choice of toppings is pretty good and the fruit looked fresh enough, with a selection ranging from pomegranate to blueberries; as a low fat snack it's certainly a better option than hard crackers or rice cakes. My biggest regret is that I didn't go for the dark chocolate flavour - for the sake of maybe 30 calories more I lost out on taste. Gutted. But, I'm an intrepid type and I know I have a lot of making up to do so don't you worry - I'll be heading back to Snog, and next time, I'm not leaving till I'm full.

Till we eat again,

Michelle

Masala Zone - get some Punjabi in you!

As a Camden cruiser, I wonder to myself how on earth this Masala Zone passed me by. Sister to Chutney Mary, Veeraswamy (the oldest surviving Indian restaurant in the UK) and Amaya, everything I have to say about this Indian restaurant is good, great, excellent.

The waitress (who wasn't Indian) asked us if we'd like to have anything of the menu explained. I was very impressed but, obviously, said no. This was just the first episode in a lunch filled with lovely staff; more on that later!

Decor: I could live here. The walls are adorned with retro Indian advertisements, Indian Gods and Goddesses and old-school soap posters. There are Masala Zones in Soho, Islington, Earls Court, Covent Garden, Bayswater and Camden each with their own style and if you want to find out more visit their site. The space in the Camden branch is vast and downstairs there is a beautiful banquette / dining hall area. Despite the big space, they have filled it very well and the space affords friends or couples just the right amount of privacy.

Food: Ok, here's the good bit. They have a great menu, very well priced. Michelle and I both thought their street food starters were amazing (having grown up in India and sneakily eating street food on my way home after school, I am a great judge when it comes to gol guppe, tikkis and the like). I am amazed at the lack of Indian restaurants offering this kind of starter so you can be certain that when you find one that does, it will be good. Who needs a bhaji or samosa (boring and so generic) when you can have chickpeas and yogurt smothered with sticky sweet tamarind stuffed inside crunchy hollow pillows with vermicelli sprinkles? Heaven.

We were there during lunch time and they have some great deals on, so we both chose the £8.50 regular thalis plus starter deal. For starters we picked dahi puri (hollow gol guppe pillows filled with chickpeas, yogurt and chutney) and sev puri (flat wheat biscuits piled with a chickpea mash with yogurt and three chutneys plus lots of sev sprinkles).

For the thalis (basically a platter with lots of little dishes and one centerpiece served with some rice or roti and chutneys) I had chicken mangalore and Michelle had the butter chicken; both curries proudly displaying one chilli on the menu. My only negative comment would be that the curries were a tiny bit hotter than expected, though being Indian I didn't have a problem with that! I love thalis as Indian food is never about just one dish, there should be a party on your plate and that's how we do it at home! Our thalis were utterly delicious, consisting of:

Rice

Crispy spicy masala potatoes

Daal

Coconut and cream brocolli sambhar type dish - new addiction

Popadom (a proper one, not the type which remind me of giant prawn crackers)

Coriander and mint (I think) chutney

Mango chutney (although it was quite pineappley - in a nice way)

and of course....the chicken

Oh, and to wash this treat down we had masala cokes (consisting of chaat masala and mint leaves jazzing up your standard cola) which rounded our meal off perfectly. Once we had finished, the very friendly manager Karen came over to our table and had a little chat (shout out to Karen) and we talked about the food which was very informative and a fun way to finish our meal.

I can't really recommend this place enough for a budget curry, though no doubt Michelle will tell you one day about the amazing spinach puris she got for 50p each in the market! Just go to Masala Zone, speak to Karen and I am so certain you will enjoy your meal that I'll pay for it myself if you don't!

They deliver, they do parties, check it out at: http://www.masalazone.com/

4.5 stars out of 5 (0.5 star lost because there was no toilet paper)

Meal for two with soft drinks: around £20 for lunch, bit more for dinner