Stag Part 2: The Banana Store

So, at the end of Monday's post I left you with the question: what does one do with an entire deer's worth of (relatively inexpertly) freshly butchered meat?  Well, the answer, of course, is to eat it.

Farmer Sharp's operations in Borough Market are generally run out of a restaurant called The Banana Store, which is housed in the former Borough Market Trustees Building.  This means that, once you're done hacking up your carcass, there is a trained (and talented) chef on hand to turn your carnivorous experimentations into something edible and delicious.

But before we even got to the meat we were availed of a host of starters. 

First out was gravadlax.  The Banana Store's chef, Jens, is Swedish, and his skill in curing the fish shined through– dry initially, but still with plenty of oily moisture and flavour.  
 

 

Also, we were treated to smoked eel, served with fennel.  Now, eel is not something that I'd ever order but I have to say it was absolutely first rate. 

Our fishy starters were also kept happy with a duo of salads, one of heritage radishes and the other of mixed beetroots and samphire.  Very good indeed. 

But the main attraction was the meat.  I've never eaten muntjac before, but I wouldn’t hesitate to eat it again.  It's a lovely gamey meat, but not too gamey – not so metallic, high, which I find slightly off-putting in game like grouse.  It's a rich meat and terribly tender.  It was also cooked to perfection.  It was also an absolute pleasure to be able to try the different cuts and have Farmer Sharp talk us through each piece and identify where they came from on the animal.

And these little pieces?  Why, they're the fillet steaks, of course.  Sure, they're a bit smaller than you'd find on a cow, but did you see the size of this beastie?  Anyway, you know how you hear people say that their steak was so tender it could have been eaten with spoon?  In this case it was actually true.  I could have spread these steaks on toast.  Fantastic. 

Now, I've walked past The Banana Store hundreds of times – I went to college just around the corner – but barely noticed it.  I had never heard anyone speak of it.  So I wasn't sure, if I'm honest, whether the food would be up to much.  I needn't have worried – it was fantastically done.  Each dish was exciting, imaginative, and (crucially) excellently executed.  We had expected the meat to be grilled up and served, perhaps with some potatoes.  What we received was a feast.  If I found myself in need of a quick meal in the area again, I'd definitely drop in.

- GrubsterBoy -

 

PS – I gather that The Banana Store does a rather interesting line in Borough Market eating called 'Eat What You See'.  Basically, the premise is this: You go to Borough Market, have a mooch around and pick out some food.  Then you bring it along to The Banana Store and they'll cook it up for you for £15.  Check out their website for details.

Tommi's Burger Joint

Our first visit to Tommi's Burger Joint was slightly accidental.  We had to be up in town midweek during the day, for one reason or another, and so it made sense for us to plan somewhere decent to have lunch.  Somewhere, perhaps, where there would usually be a queue, but it being (a) a school night and (b) lunchtime we might not have to wait outside for ages (if at all).  So we headed to Patty & Bun.

Except Patty & Bun was closed for refurbishment.  So we wandered to Meat Liquor.  Except there was a 45 minute queue (no, really, how absurd is that?!). 

And so we came to stumble upon the utterly unprepossessing frontage of Tommi's Burger Joint.  I had never even heard of Tommi's before that day, but it got good hits on Google for burgers so I thought we should give it a try.  Also, by this stage I'd have gone anywhere given that I was pretty sure GG was about to start tucking into my right arm.

Basically, the concept (if you can call it that) is this: you go in, go up to the bar, and order yourself a burger / accoutrements / drink then scramble to find somewhere to perch.

Then you go hit the best condiments counter I have ever seen.

We both ordered ourselves a Texan Burger, the special of the day, which was comprised of a glorious medley of pulled pork, slaw and chipotle mayonaise.  To go with it we had fries and a couple of milkshakes. 

 First up, the shakes.  Bloody marvellous.  Pure Americana in a glass, they were thick, creamy, rich, sweet buckets of joy. 

Then the burgers arrived.

 

The patties were cooked to absolute perfection, pink in the middle, nicely juicy, very tasty.  You can opt for something called a 'steak burger', which is rib eye, fillet and rump steaks minced together and burgerified.  Our burgers were their standard fare, and bloody good they were too. 

The filling was a great little combo.  There was some fear (from GG only) that it could have been a bit of a spice fest, but it wasn’t at all.  It was very well balanced, in fact - and not nearly as sloppy as I thought it might be.

I heartily recommend Tommi's.  In a very crowded field, they've managed to put together something that, whilst not original, seems somehow to feel one of a kind.  Well done to them for that, at the very least.

- GrubsterBoy -

Thai Feast, Kata, Phuket

Grimly aware that it was our last day on the island, before the slog back to the City and (for Astrid at least; I was still on holiday...) a return to work, we set out to get ourselves a bang up meal before heading to the airport.

 

We had had our sights set on a rather swish place we'd discovered earlier in our stay.  Sadly, however, it was closed for lunch so a roadside canteen had to suffice.  In hindsight, I am jolly glad.

 

We ordered ourselves up a great big feast, starting with a mound of pad Thai  For those who don’t know, it's a dish of rice noodles stir fried with eggs, tamarind, shrimp, chilli, palm sugar, fish sauce and whole lot else.  Ours came with crumbled peanuts and raw beansprouts on the side, and a lime wedge for drizzling, which is pretty standard.  All in all, it was damn good and didn’t last long.

Next up we had chicken wrapped in pandanus  This is a kind of leaf that gives the chicken a delicate aroma and, crucially, keeps it from drying out during the cooking process.  The result is beautifully soft, tender meat.

And to keep it company, we had a plate of morning glory (which in Texas they call swamp spinach...). 

Finally, we treated ourselves to a duck red curry. It being our last day in Thailand I was reluctant to miss out on it. I just absolutely love Thai curries and - for some inexplicable reason - I never seem to eat them that much at home.  There's something intoxicatingly good about their hot, punchy spiciness combined with the cooling flavours of the coconut cream and the lemongrass.  For me, it's heaven.

This example was good, there's no denying it.  Sadly, the duck itself was a little disappointing – tough and a touch flavourless.  But otherwise, the curry was great.

Our whole feast was washed down with fresh watermelon juice, beautifully served.

I was sad to leave Phuket, in the end.  It was a wonderful escape from the day-to-day desk job of life at home, and a great way to kickstart a week's holiday in Asia.  Not a bad looking island, too.

- GrubsterBoy -

Taverna Kouloura

I feel like I'm going on about this a lot of late, but the weather at the moment is just gross.  Time to think of happier, sunnier climes.  To the shores of Corfu we go!

GrubsterGirl and I went last year and had a very enjoyable week that largely involved lying around on the beach and eating.  Yum yum yum. 

Greek food is fantastic in hot weather (which is hardly surprising, given the blistering climate) and only really works when the sun is shining, you're sat outside (preferably within stumbling distance of the sea) and you're completely at peace.  It should be a long, slow meal of sharing plates and knick-knacks and fresh-as-a-daisy seafood and meats and cheese.  All washed down with Mythos beer or fierce retsina. 

Which is why Taverna Kouloura is such a star: it hits bull's-eye on each of those points.

Situated above a picturesque little stone harbour, with the cicadas chirping in the surrounding cypress trees and olive groves, the setting could hardly be nicer. 

The food is also incredible.  Whether its run-of-the-mill chicken souvlaki...

...the little nibbles, like tirokafteri (a kind of feta cheese and chilli dip, which they make with red rather than more popular green chillies and roasted peppers)...

(Note particularly the friend courgette crisps – once a speciality of Kouloura, these have now become ubiquitous throughout – but they're still the best where they're the original, here.)

...or baby squid cooked simply with lemon and olive oil, it can hardly be beaten. 

They also do a mean line in fresh fish, which you can select from a counter indoors and which they'll then whip up for you – simply fried or baked or served with the infamous Corfoit red sauce, it's always a winner. 

And the puddings are spectacular too.  Baklava to die for, all crisp on top and chewy inside, laced with honey and cinnamon and walnuts and pistachios.  Greek coffee comes with its own little lump of Turkish Greek delight. 

- GrubsterBoy -

The Anthologist

Based round the back of Bank Tube Station, The Anthologist is an all-things-to-all-men bar, one of a whole host of other bars and pubs in the city that aim to cater to the causal drinker, the client luncher, the cocktail enthusiast, the bite-to-eat-between-meetings worker – in short, the majority of the chattering professional classes that make up the local working populace.

I stopped in for lunch.  I have drunk there in the evening, but only ever in a pint-after-work kind of way – sadly, because their cocktail list looks wicked.  But I was in the are visiting a friend for lunch, and so suggested it. 

Lunch was spot of for what we wanted.  Ben had the market fish, which came in a big basket full of battered bits of haddock, cod and salmon, on a mound of chips.

I settled in to the Southern fried chicken burger.  This was pretty epic – an entire chicken breast filleted and fried, stuck in a bun.

As you can see, some thought evidently went into presentation.  Ben's big basket was a sight to see, and my burger, served up in an army mess tin, was a playful piece of exhibition.   

I think presentation is important because it shows that the chef really likes his/her food and wants it to come out looking good and whetting your appetite.  But it's also often a symptom that the joint is pretty mediocre – that perhaps the chef has tried to hide his/her shortcomings with a big song and a dance about how it looks. 

Fortunately, The Anthologist's chef falls into the first camp.  The food was great, easily matching the lengths that had been gone to to make it look fun. 

 - GrubsterBoy -

GrubsterMummy's Spanish Lunch

A couple of weekends ago I was summoned back home to clear out my old room. My parents have decided that it's high time it was redecorated, and that entailed me spending a weekend emptying it of a quarter of a century of stuff that I had managed to accumulate.

 

The upside of this was that GrubsterMummy offered to make one of her epic Spanish lunches as compensation.  It was difficult to refuse.  Some few years back, when I was but a wee bairn, GrubsterMummy and GrubsterDaddy went to Barcelona for the weekend, leaving me with GrubsterGranny.  The upside being that they came back complete converts to the Iberian way of cooking – and eating, too – resulting in a slowly developing retinue of Spanish-y tapas treats every time a big lunch has to be produced.

 

We kicked off affairs with olives and piquillo peppers.  The olives were from Tierra Verde, a little place up on Webbs Road, near Clapham / Battersea's notorious Northcote Road, that opened up not so long ago peddling a fantastic selection of Spanish deli treats.  Well worth a try – especially good if you can grab the table (the one and only table) and settle in for an evening of cheese, ham and wine.

Piquillo peppers, for the uninitiated, are a kind of sweet, heatless chilli pepper with an intense, fruity flavour that are just mind blowing.  Not cheap, but you don’t need many of them, given their flavour.

 

Then it was on to meats, cheese and tomato bread.  A staple of any Spanish meal. 

The tomato bread is as easy peasy as it is a classic.  Just toast a bit of ciabatta (or any bread, really) under the grill then rub it with a raw garlic clove then a raw, halved tomato.  Drizzle with olive oil and plate up.

We also had some treats ready-made Spanish treats, including chickpeas and salt cod (barcelona's infamous bacalao) and some butter beans. 

GrubsterMummy worked her magic on the beans, stewing them with tomato and garlic into another great little tapa. 

After all that, who needs a main course?  Obviously, we did.  A quick tortilla followed.

To polish it all off, torrone, a kind of hard, brittle Spanish nougat. 

Oh, and what's that lurking in the background, eh?  A glass of Pedro Ximénez, a kind of ultra-sweet, treacly sherry made from PX grapes that have been allowed to dry in the dry, hot Spanish sun, concentrating the flavours. 

A fantastic meal.  But then, what would I expect from GrubsterMummy, who is a truly magnificent chef and who is responsible for all of my interest in food. 

 

 - GrubsterBoy -

 

PS – After lunch had ended, I went back to clearing my room, and what should I find?  Or, rather, who did i find?  Edward, that's who – my old bear.  Happy days indeed.