January is not an exciting month in the British food calendar. Everyone’s being healthy, nothing is really in season and there aren’t any good festivals to get excited about. The only logical option is to gatecrash someone else’s party.

For many countries in Asia – the lunar new year is the biggest party of the year, a chance for families to get together and celebrate unity and prosperity. When I heard tell of a one-night-only Korean party in Tooting market I was definitely interested. Busan BBQ are a husband and wife team who run a food-truck serving American-Korean fusion.

The venue was lovely (if a little chilly) – rows of tables set-out in the deserted market with live music and later a DJ (Korean Hip-hop is an under-appreciated genre). On arrival we were greeted with a Soju cocktail and some table nibbles. “Jinro Soju” is the most popular alcoholic drink in the world – this sweet Korean wine sells more by volume than any other brand. The average Korean will drink nearly 90 bottles a year! In a mojito it was just pleasant, but it really shone in the mule, with ginger and apple.

The starters arrived as sharing bowls. The kimchi was sharp and slightly fizzy, a good deal stronger than many of the versions you get in the UK. Mooli (a kind of radish) was lightly pickled and still had a pleasing crunch. The chicken skewers were tender and full of flavour, the pork meatballs were outstanding – covered in a gorgeous sauce, well seasoned and full of piggy flavour. Each component was very nice, but when you got some radish, kimchi and meat at the same time the whole thing sang. It’s a flavour combination you don’t get anywhere outside Korean cuisine.

After the starters there was a short interlude for a traditional Korean game (think hacky-sack crossed with darts) before the mains. More kimchi and a surprisingly hot slaw accompanied the star attraction – a beer bulgogi philly cheese steak. Thin strips of tender beef in a rich, sweet sauce, covered in cheese and served in a really good bread roll. Proper comfort food. The sweet potato fries were wonderfully crisp, while the slaw and kimchi allowed you to spice up your beef as much as you dared.

Dessert was a yuja cheesecake with plum syrup. This tiny citrus fruit has a lovely mandarin tang and works really well with the creamy topping. A little ginger from the base and the sweet plum syrup make by far the best “Asian” dessert I’ve tried in years.

The whole evening was great fun – it’s not a slick restaurant service, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s a communal experience – complete strangers brought together by a shared love of food. Busan BBQ are doing something different – their passion and enthusiasm shines through, and the fact that it’s delicious doesn’t do it any harm!

If you’ve never been to a pop-up, I urge you to give it a go. If you’ve never tried Ameri-Korean fusion, you’re missing out, track Busan BBQ down and order the entire menu.

Busan BBQ: www.busanbbq.co.uk @busanbbq

Pop-up Dining Club  @popupdiningclub

The Reuben is an American institution. Hordes flock to the jewish delis of New York to dive into the king of sandwiches. Tender pastrami, sharp mustard, soft bread. It’s a magical thing. Katz’s Deli is legendary, and with good reason – it’s one heck of a meal. But where can you get your fix in London?

Monty’s Deli shot to fame after featuring on Tom Kerridge’s TV show. Situated in Maltby Street market, a short walk from London Bridge they’ve become a South London landmark. The queue has to be seen to be believed. They open at 9:30am and regularly sell out – this is not for the faint of heart – we must have waited for the best part of an hour…

So is it worth the hype? Absolutely. This is one of the finest examples of British street food you’ll find. It’s got a beautifully simple menu, there’s no messing around choosing condiments and customising everything. You order it plain; as a reuben; or with extra salt beef. It’s a great sandwich, made with top ingredients made by people who care. The meat is acheingly tender and packed full of flavour, the pickles are beautifully sharp and the bread is top notch. The sauerkraut really adds something special – it’s a great experience. Struggling to fit your jaw around it while containing the copious filling is half the fun. On a drizzly winters morning it touches places other sandwiches can only dream of.

They’re about to move just over the road to a new premise on Druid Street, with more room and hopefully shorter queues. If you love comfort food, you owe it to  yourself to give this a shot. There’s also the added bonus of being able to pop into St Johns and pick up a doughnut for the walk home – what more could you want?!

Barbecue has become mainstream in the UK, I don’t mean the half-cooked chicken and plastic sausages of summers past, but the rich and vibrant world of slowly smoked meats. Pulled pork is on every menu, it’s available in Sainsburys, everything’s getting ‘smoked’ and there are an array of top quality restaurants in London. Three of the best are Pitt Cue Co, John Salt and Smokehouse – one thread joins them all together and that is Neil Rankin.

Neil really made his name on the London foodie scene with Pitt Cue Co – brilliant barbecue in a tiny location off Carnaby Street. He then moved north to John Salt, cooking stunning food with more of a British/Asian twist. His latest move is to Smokehouse – a stunning little pub in Islington, I’ve been desperate to go for ages, so a friend’s birthday provided the perfect opportunity!

We popped in on a quiet Saturday lunchtime, the inside is everything you’d expect of a modern gastropub/restaurant- lovely aged wood and big bright windows. An enormous chalkboard lists their very impressive beer selection – definitely worth a sample.

They were serving their brunch menu, but no limp pancakes or watery yoghurt here. They offer a wonderful selection of sharing dishes with which you fill the table and proceed to eat far too much – it’s marvellous.

The Islington charcuterie was nice, if a little sparse – for £7 I’d have liked some hams or olives as well.

The chopped brisket and pulled pork were heavenly – fall apart meat, lovely potatoes and unctuous spicy sauce. All topped with a perfectly cooked duck egg.

Foie gras, apple pie and egg yolk was a decidedly classy way to start the day – generous chunks of the liver worked beautifully with the tart apples and creamy, custard like yolk.

The bacon chop was spectacular – moist, tender and full of piggy goodness.

For dessert I had a very good toffee apple cobbler – rich doughy sponge atop alocholic apples with just a hint of crunch. Beautiful stuff. My glamorous dining companion had their chocolate tart – coco pops, nougat and pistachios.

Smokehouse cook excellent food – there’s big flavours but all handled with a deftness and a refinement that is all to rare. The service was bright and friendly and there was a lovely chatty atmosphere. If you’re looking for something that’s a step above your average gastropub – this is the perfect solution. It’s smart, fun and best of all – British. I can’t wait to go back and give their evening menu a full working over.

With only a few days of holiday left before the usual work routine started up, I was determined to make the most of it. A fleeting visit from America by some lovely people was the perfect excuse to throw a dinner party and give myself a nice culinary challenge.

I wanted something that was British, seasonal and with a cheeky nod towards Christmas. Tom Kerridge’s Proper Pub Food is definitely my cookbook of 2013 and it really came up trumps this time.

Crayfish and Watercress Salad

This was a great starter to prepare – once you’ve go the poatoes in the oven there’s nothing else to do until a few minutes before serving. The crayfish and smoked trout work really well together, the fresh apple providing texture and acidity. I served it with a really nice dry white from Camel Valley – all the better for being from England!

Venison, Peppered Sprouts, Squash Puree and Chocolate-Red Wine Sauce

This is a lovely warming winter dish – the sprouts are sweet and hot, the squash buttery and smooth. The chocolate sauce is very subtle and full of blackberry and redcurrant flavours. Cooking six venison steaks at the same time was a bit of a challenge, but I think I managed to judge it okay.

Orange Cake, Plum Sauce and Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

The orange cake is a fat-less cake which makes it a little tricky to judge when baking. The end result is a lovely moist cake without the richness of a traditional sponge. The plum sauce is a lovely colour and sets of the orange nicely. The real star is the christmas pudding ice cream – rich, creamy and with a lovely spice.

No dinner party would be complete without a cheeseboard and this was no exception. We had a lovely selection from Neal’s Yard as well as a few interlopers including a stunning french washed rind.

It’s been a great year for Rob’s Food Blog. I’ve met one of my culinary idols, cooked for some great people and eaten my way around the city. There have been over 30,000 visits to the site and I’ve managed to stay within the Urbanspoon Top 30 for London. I’m sure 2014 will be just as exciting!

Food Trends

2013 has been a great year for food. Burgers have continued their ascendancy, Byron changed hands for £100m, Honest Burger expanded and two American rivals, Five Guys and Shake Shack, opened within spitting distance of each other. If there’s any justice In’n’out will be arriving shortly…

Barbecue has become entirely mainstream – even my regular work hotel in Bristol offers pulled pork. An idiot proof version is available in Sainsburys.

Where are we headed in 2014? I’m not really sure – top quality pizza has been ticking along in 2013, with pizza pilgrims and Franco Manca leading the charge, they certainly both have the potential to expand. After 2012’s ramen explosion, Chinese food is due a comeback. Personally, I’m hoping for more great quality modern British food. There’ll be sprout tops on every menu…

Tom Kerridge has really broken into the mainstream with his cookbook and tv series. Hopefully we’ll see more of his work next year, I’d love to see a no holds barred ‘Hand and Flowers’ cookbook. A new series of Masterchef and Great British menu will no doubt spark a few trends, salsify has got everywhere recently as a result of the last series!

Top Restaurants
I’ve been incredibly lucky this year and eaten in some of the best restaurants in the world. Three meals really stick out :
The Hand and Flowers – I adored the Hand and Flowers, they whole heartedly deserve their two stars. The food is exquisitely cooked, beautifully presented and full of passion. Pub food as an art form.

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal – Heston is a culinary hero of mine, his precision, appreciation for our heritage and fearless innovation are epitomised by the menu at Dinner. They were awarded their second star this year and rightly so. Britain has a fantastic food history and Blumenthal and Palmer-Watts are doing an fantastic job of telling people about it.

Le Gavroche – This is a culinary institution, a landmark on the foodie landscape. The roux dynasty has transformed British food and continues to do so. Meeting Michel Roux Jr was an incredible experience and looking round the kitchens before their refurbishment in the new year was the icing on the cake. Every serious foodie owes it to themselves to go.

Happy New Year!

I’ve blogged already about my brewing exploits here, but this is the first time I’ve mentioned my cider. My parents garden is blessed with a single enormous apple tree which produces tonnes of fruit. It’s an unusual variety – close to a Bramley but much, much sweeter. It makes gorgeous apple pies, but when I inherited a fruit press I knew I need to try something a little more alcoholic.

Cider making is very easy – people have been doing it for centuries. Simply take some apple juice, add yeast and let nature do it’s thing (you can even leave out the yeast if you’re feeling adventurous!) In reality it’s a little more complex, but not much.

As with anything involving fermentation, preparation is key. Everything the juice will touch needs to be sterilised and it’s important to keep your work area tidy. Get everything clean and laid out ready to go.

Next up is juice extraction – you can use a centrifugal juicer or if you’re lucky enough to have a fruit press, it creates a more authentic result. I find the press gives much clearer juice with less bits and a cleaner flavour. It’s worth checking the sugar content with a hydrometer – this is a natty little gadget that looks like a thermometer, but floats at different heights in the liquid depending on the density. If there isn’t enough sugar for the yeast to work on then the cider will be too sweet and won’t have enough alcohol to preserve it. There are plenty of websites to help you convert the reading into an alcohol by volume. I always aim for about 6-7%ABV. If it’s too low you can top it up with some caster sugar or just add a sweeter variety of apple juice.

To give your yeast a helping hand it’s a good idea to make sure nothing else is trying to grow in your juice. Simply pop one crushed campden tablet per gallon in, stir and leave for 48 hours. Next up is ‘pitching’ the yeast – you can’t use a bread yeast as it won’t tolerate the environment. Buy a specialist homebrewing yeast. You can get cider yeasts, but I like using champagne yeast to create a Normandy-style cider.

The length of time it takes to ferment will vary depending on all kinds of things like the temperature, cleanliness, yeast variety etc. I had a very good run and was finished in about two weeks. You can judge the progress by the amount of “bubbling” in the airlock. I always double check with the hydrometer, you want almost all of the sugar gone.

Once the cider has fermented it needs bottling. If you want it still, simply sterilise the bottles and fill them up. To create a sparkling cider just put about half a teaspoon of sugar in the bottom of each bottle before you fill it and gently swirl to dissolve. The extra sugar will wake the yeast up and while it ferments again the gas will get trapped inside the bottle, dissolve into the liquid and make the cider fizzy.

Waiting is by far the hardest part. Once bottled the cider will clear and mature for several weeks – look at the difference between the freshly bottled cider above and the aged, labelled bottle below. I try and wait at least four weeks before opening a bottle.

So after all that – what does it actually taste like? Funnily enough, a lot like Cider. This year’s batch is gorgeously clear, with a delicate golden colour. It’s still got quite a yeasty smell, but that will ease with time. There’s only a gentle sparkle (last years was a little too bubbly) and you get a wonderful medium-dry apple flavour. Because it’s a single variety there’s far less going on, it’s a very clean drinking cider.

Overall i’m really pleased! Next year i’ll dedicate a little more time to it and borrow some eating apples from next door to do a traditional 50/50 cider.

Hawksmoor is one of my favourite London restaurants. Take the best ingredients you can find, cook them very carefully and serve them in an environment that is both smart and relaxed. I’ve had phenomenal dinners and the best breakfast I can remember – but i’ve never been for Sunday lunch.

A roast dinner is a British institution – it uses the best of our native ingredients and every Sunday will bring families together to eat rather more than they should. I’ve had some truly excellent roast dinners around London – The Orange, and it’s sister, The Thomas Cubitt stand out particularly strongly. How does Hawksmoor measure up?

Really rather well – I’ve waxed lyrical about the staff and atmosphere before so i’ll chop straight to the food. We had starters (which turned out to be a bit ambitious) the pork ribs were as stunning as ever – rich, fall apart tender and delicately spiced. A beetroot salad was lovely – though I’d have preferred the beets warm.

The main event was the roast – a towering yorkshire pudding the size of a small football played host to some really marvellous roast potatoes. A slab of beautifully pink roast beef is draped elegantly across a pile of lovely veg (tender carrots and great sprout tops) along with a roasted shallot and some wonderful garlic.

The meat is stunning – well aged and incredibly moist. Most roasting joints would be inedible this thickly cut, but theirs falls apart. The bone-marrow gravy is rich and unctuous and helps tie it all together. This is an enormous plate of food – I have a pretty serious appetite and I barely made it out the other side.

Dessert was never going to happen so we settled for some salted caramel rolos – little hemispheres of dark chocolate with a lovely smooth caramel inside and just the slightest hint of salt.

Hawksmoor does the best breakfast in London and it’s certainly no slouch for dinner, and the Sunday roast certainly doesn’t let the side down. It really is an excellent restaurant – a temple to simplicity and provenance. You are going to have to do something very special to find a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon – though don’t make any plans for the rest of your day – find somewhere comfortable and have a well earned nap.

In the last few months Tooting has seen a veritable cornucopia of exciting new places. Tooting’s always been known for it’s great curries and friendly pubs, but this is different. There’s a new burger place, a great independent coffee shop and now one of Kentish Town’s finest has ventured south of the river.

Situated a stones throw from Tooting Broadway, it’s decidedly trendy – faux wood panelling, fancy stools and a simple menu. We sat at the bar which stretches around the open kitchen. Watching the slowly rotating chickens is strangely hypnotic. The wine list is almost spartan. They have three categories of wine (house, decent, good) all available by the glass or jug. We chose the red good which was reassuringly robust and peppery – a lovely match to the roast chicken.

Let’s get this straight right from the start. This is not Chicken Cottage, KFC or Nandos. These are really quite enormous free range chickens, marinaded for 24 hours, gently cooked in a steam oven, covered in a spice rub, roasted on a rotating spit over applewood and charcoal and then seasoned generously. It’s phenomenal chicken – crisp on the outside, moist on the inside and wonderfully spiced. Two sauces are available, a seriously hot chilli and a deliciously smokey one.

We tried most of their sides – the chips are excellent – hand-made and crispy – the coleslaw has a nice tang and the salad was well dressed.

If you can find room after hoovering through a mountain of poultry – the apple pie is absolutely gorgeous. Served straight from the dish there’s crisp pastry, cinnamon and industrial quantities of butter. Autumnal heaven.

Chicken shop is my kind of restaurant – unpretentious and friendly. It picks one thing and does it incredibly well. It’s fantastic value with half a chicken coming in at £8, I can see myself spending quite a lot of time here. Grab some mates – knock back a couple of jugs of wine and enjoy the best chicken this side of the channel.

Lebanese food is seemingly everywhere these days – no street food market is complete without a falafel stall and hummus has become a middle class staple. But despite this – I can’t remember the last time I had a phenomenal lebanese meal – at least until I visited Meza.

From the outside it doesn’t look that special – but the number of people who were turned away during our visit is testimony to their popularity. It’s a simple restaurant – a handful of tables and a bar overlooking the open kitchen. Booking is by a mobile phone, they don’t take cards and the menu is wonderfully short – a handful of hot and cold meze and a few mains.

The hummus and moutabal were excellent and the lebanese wine we ordered deserves a special mention. At £17 a bottle it was very impressive – rich, gamey with lovely peppery notes.

We ordered most of the menu – which was definitely the right decision. The lamb sausages were richly spiced and wonderfully juicy, minced lamb parcels were moist and crisp and their cheesey/minty brothers even more so.

Spiced potatoes were lovely and crisp and some chicken livers were utterly spectacular – creamy, rich and with a wonderful peppery note. The mixed grill was just that – generous chunks of meat, beautifully seared and very tender.

The whole meal was very impressive – the food was cooked with a care and precision you don’t often see in middle eastern food. Spices were well balanced and varied and the meat beautifully moist. The staff were very friendly and the bill scandalously low. If you can manage to bag a table – I can’t think of a better cheap night out, just make sure you head to Little Bar afterwards for a few cocktails.

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