the salt & pepper diaries

The Guardian food blog, Word of Mouth, has just set up a Flickr food group - see all photos here.

Loads of pics of ‘Gastrobury’ (Taste London) at the moment and this one added by Meg Pickard, which made me smile.

Park Avenue Summer as it’s currently named, is truly a restaurant for all seasons. As well as change the menu and perhaps drinks to go with the temperature, it also changes the entire restaurant, knocking it down and starting again. The trend spotting bible, Springwise has reviewed the full concept here.

Park Avenue Summer

100 E. 63rd St., New York, NY 10021
at Park Ave.
212-644-1900

I was desperate to get a shot of one thing in the new Shoreditch House kitchen to post here. On view for all is a sealed meat hanging ‘cupboard’, which is glass fronted and on display with room for three carcasses. However, when the camera came out, the photo police instantly appeared and a polite yet firm request was given detailing that no photography is allowed on the premises. Fair enough, the Shoreditch glitterati have to be able to hide somewhere I suppose, but it’s a shame, as I’d love to have posted it here. For a sneak preview though, check this out.

The meal was very good though. We started with Salmon Tartare - prepared at the table and served how you’d like - a few extra chilies went perfectly. This was then followed by a Steak Fiorentina - essentially a Porterhouse or T-Bone and enough for two. This steak was fantastic - delightfully rich, flavorful rare meat so tender it could be cut with a spoon.

We finished with Tiramisu which was OK - a little bland and in no way fresh and soaked in booze - but, as I say, OK.

So for a ‘private’ evening out and a chance to rub shoulders with the supposed great and the good, track down a member and head down to Shoreditch House.

Shoreditch House

Ebor Street, Shoreditch, East London E1 6AW
Tel: 020 7739 5040 

If you live in NY, I envy you. Maybe not for the fact that in summer there are cooler sauna’s I’d rather hang out in and it feels like just one large construction site currently, BUT, you have the best take-out options anywhere. To illustrate this, we ordered take-out from Rice NY on Thursday. It wasn’t really about the food, which was very good, or the packaging, which made us smile, or the delivery and price, which was prompt and not over the top – it was the combination of all of the above. Simply executed and a great service - why do us Brits find this so hard?

tip - go for the Indian Chicken curry - perfect with banana’s

Rice in Nolita

292 Elizabeth St.

This was one of those gems that we stumbled upon. Not knowing where to go or what to eat in Toronto, we had a loose recommendation from a friend for a small place called Coca. So after being complete tourists and scaling the CN Tour for night views and downing Martini’s at Panorama Bar, we ended up on Queen Street West and found Coca. We were late – 10pm – relevant as the kitchen serves Tapas all night, but finishes the main, larger dishes at 10.30pm.

The bar is owned by a guy called Brad Denton, who seems to know what works – simple bar layout, hardwood furnishings, good looking staff and a top team in the kitchen serving Spanish influenced Tapa’s and good wine. We (two of us) decided to make our way through as much of the Tapas as possible in a couple of hours – it’s fair to repeat here that the tapas aren’t truly traditional and there are a few reviews out there that don’t seem to rate them, but I thought they were perfect, imaginative and very tasty.

The best for me were the Grilled Peppers with chorizo, quails eggs and pork belly and Ducks tongues - after chatting to the waitress, it turns out that the chefs like to butcher the animals they use themselves and use as much as possible. We also went for the house special, Cocas - Catalan flatbreads served with Mahon cheese and various toppings. The honey and wild flowers was superb. Finally, a trout poached in olive oil with a hazelnut crust was amazing.

I wish I’d been able to get more photos, but luckily I found these on Flickr, posted by Andree Lau. Andree also runs a great blog that I have now found – are you gonna eat that.

Stuffed peppers and home made chorizo

Poached trout and hazelnut crust

So if you have a hunt around, you will find some quite negative reviews about this place, but don’t pay attention, it is great and I wish them all the best of luck with the future.

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Coca
783 Queen Street West
Toronto
(416) 703-0783