The Big Easy
332-334 Kings Road, Chelsea, London, SW3 5UR
Megan’s first turn to choose a restaurant, and she picks a place that is definitely more up my alley than hers (I’m a meat-and-potatoes gal, Megan likes, well… vegetables): The Big Easy in Chelsea. This place is something of an anomaly, and I’m not really sure what it’s trying to be – a self-proclaimed BBQ and Crab Shack… that’s also won a Wine Spectator award! Now, I love BBQ and seafood and wine, but I’m not sure I can recall the last time I had all three at the same place! Oh yeah, and they’re known for their tasty margaritas too! Weird…
Anyway, we started with a couple of margaritas – clementine & ginger for me, passion fruit & chile for Megan. Megan’s was painfully sweet, and mine was OK, but I generally like to taste my booze instead of being tricked into drinking it, so these weren’t really a huge hit with either of us. We opted for bottles of Dos Equis to go with our meals.
The menu is huge – there must have been 75 items on it. The best way I can describe this restaurant (and everything about it) is that it’s Dock’s (a well-known seafood mini-chain in NYC) meets Brother Jimmy’s (another NYC mini-chain which has the same motto as the Big Easy, “put a little South in your mouth”). The décor definitely swung the way of Brother Jimmy’s – Christmas lights, US license plates, plank walls, etc. I think the desired effect is to make you feel like you’re in a Cajun crab shack (albeit one that serves BBQ… and huge steaks… and Alsatian wines), but it felt a bit contrived to me. An added bonus – this place played great music. During the first part of our meal, they were piping in southern rock: CCR, the Black Crowes (!!!) and a little Tom Petty for good measure. Later in the evening, a cover band started playing upstairs; they were pretty good, and were definitely playing crowd favorites like Oasis, Jack Johnson, U2, the Foo Fighters, etc. The place is clearly catering to American expats looking for a bit of home.
We started our meal with the Voodoo chicken wings. I was hoping for Buffalo-style (these weren’t), but these did not disappoint. Fairly spicy and a homemade bleu cheese dressing on the side. The chicken was breaded though, and that didn’t go over great with either of us. Overall, they were pretty delicious. After we polished off our order of 5 wings, the waiter brought over hot towels – a nice touch, especially considering that we were both covered in wing sauce.
For our entrees, we decided that we would order baby back ribs and a half of a roasted chicken and share. Big mistake. The portions were HUGE, and I suspect that we were fed some genetically modified, mutant (though delicious) chicken. I thought the ribs were good, but Megan thought they were a bit overcooked. Both featured the same BBQ sauce, which was pretty good, but a little sweet for my liking. On the side of both plates (really platters) were huge portions of coleslaw and BBQ baked beans. The coleslaw was just OK, but the beans were great, if for no other reason than they weren’t of the Heinz canned variety that are ubiquitous here. Everything made for delicious leftovers on Wednesday night!
Total damage: £66. We don’t think that we would hurry to come back here, but it could be a fun place to catch a baseball or football game (they have NASN too!) and hang with some expats.
Thursday 25 September 2008
Thursday 18 September 2008
CUBS WIN!
The Cubs win! They beat the Brewers this afternoon to chip 2 games off of their magic number! Geovany Soto is my hero, hitting a 3-run homer with 2 down in the bottom of the 9th to send it into extra innings. D-Lee hits a blooper into shallow center in the bottom of the 12th to send... wait for it... JASON "I'm a baseball player, not a pitcher" MARQUIS home for the game winning run. The magic number is 2!
Best part of the game: Megan and I watched this amazing game LIVE. Yeah, I finally convinced her to subscribe to the North American Sports Network (NASN), the ex-pat's saving grace in the land of no ESPN. This station gets MLB, NFL, College Football and Basketball, and other sports that only folks from the US and Canada care about.... like curling! :) The Cubs making their post-season run was reason enough for me to subscribe. Watching the game live was almost as good as spending the afternoon at the Friendly Confines... except without the Old Style, sunshine, or post-victory dance party at Sluggers!
LET'S GO CUBS!!!!
Best part of the game: Megan and I watched this amazing game LIVE. Yeah, I finally convinced her to subscribe to the North American Sports Network (NASN), the ex-pat's saving grace in the land of no ESPN. This station gets MLB, NFL, College Football and Basketball, and other sports that only folks from the US and Canada care about.... like curling! :) The Cubs making their post-season run was reason enough for me to subscribe. Watching the game live was almost as good as spending the afternoon at the Friendly Confines... except without the Old Style, sunshine, or post-victory dance party at Sluggers!
LET'S GO CUBS!!!!
Wednesday 17 September 2008
New Restaurant Tuesday: The Ledbury
This week’s NRT is a special occasion treat as it’s our anniversary and it only comes around, well, once a year. Even though it’s my week to pick Meg makes a recommendation of The Ledbury and I haven’t thought of anything to top it so we go for it.
For the second week in a row, I get there on time. Even early. I’m not sure the world isn’t coming to an end. They show me immediately to the table and I ask for a vodka gimlet (say that with a soft “g”!) and then Meg gets there too. Unfortunately since we’ve arrived separately we never hear the specials, which is actually ok since the regular menu is hard enough to choose from. It’s prix fixe.
Big open room and on a Tuesday night not completely packed, but the patrons are weirdly congregated around the edges. Lovely recessed lighting punctuated with low spots and weirdly beautiful chandeliers. Lots of windows with heavy luxe drapery (black with blacker embroidery) combine with tables covered in white tablecloths to give the room a real feeling of luxury.
The patrons are an interesting group, mostly our age and older, mostly couples. There’s one younger couple that appear to be on the “let’s get engaged” date but they’re a course or so behind us so I don’t get to see the outcome of that.
Staff is clearly professional – not a lot of “I’m doing this while I work on my degree” here. They all had responsibilities for different parts of the meal/service so I think we saw everyone in the restaurant at our table at some point. The hostess, who was also in charge of close-of-meal stuff (petits fours and bill). The order-taking drinks and lead waitress, who described some of the courses. The sommelier, who described some others of the courses. The bussers and food runners, who described some the rest of the courses. All very good but I do admit I like having someone “in charge” of our table to rely upon.
No pictures tonight as it really didn’t seem the place. I liked that, despite the quantity of food you’ll read about below, I left not completely stuffed, as the portion sizes were very reasonable given the whole of the menu.
On to the food…
The Ledbury, 127 Ledbury Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 2AQ
Date: 16 September 2008
On the table: mini salt and pepper grinders (I think – we never used them as everything was perfectly seasoned) which are even better than last week’s s/p wells.
Drinks: Vodka gimlet with a lime rind garnish – a little sweet for my taste (when I make them at home I use just straight lime juice rather than Rose’s) but I think it’s made to contemporary recipe standard. Hendrick’s martini with (bar) olives – Meg wanted a place like this to serve it with nicer olives instead of the “Oscar Meyer” of olives.
Canapé: spiced flatbread with pate mousse piped on in two long snakes.
Water: we’re the only people in the room drinking tap, as far as I can tell. When we ask for it, our water goblets are removed leading me to fear we’re going to get kiddie cups but eventually the goblets come back filled with icy tap water and a couple of lemon slices, and are kept filled all night from a pitcher also holding lemon slices. Definitely passes the tap water test.
Wine: The list is really a book. Too much to choose from, so we ask for a recommendation. The sommelier knows most of what we’ve ordered and takes Meg’s “we like Cabernet Franc” suggestion and flips through the book. He comes up with three different suggestions, all under £40 – quite a feat when you consider that about a quarter of the book is in that price range. We settle on Domaine de la Chevalerie Busasrdieres Bourgueil (1998 ) which he says is “quite different.” On this we concur, but overall find it to be too fruity for our tastes.
Amuse: Courgette puree w/parmesan creme and sourdough croutons. Delicious.
Bread: a basket of choices: bacon and onion brioche (Meg), sourdough (Megan), brown roll with black pepper (neither). Meg likes the brioche, I find it a bit much. I like the sourdough, especially with the addition of a little butter – served in a cylinder on marble with a small sprinkling of sea salt on top.
Apps:
Dessert:
Damage: £205 inclusive. It would be possible to eat (not drink) well in this restaurant for £112.50 for two if you just ordered the menu and tap water.
For the second week in a row, I get there on time. Even early. I’m not sure the world isn’t coming to an end. They show me immediately to the table and I ask for a vodka gimlet (say that with a soft “g”!) and then Meg gets there too. Unfortunately since we’ve arrived separately we never hear the specials, which is actually ok since the regular menu is hard enough to choose from. It’s prix fixe.
Big open room and on a Tuesday night not completely packed, but the patrons are weirdly congregated around the edges. Lovely recessed lighting punctuated with low spots and weirdly beautiful chandeliers. Lots of windows with heavy luxe drapery (black with blacker embroidery) combine with tables covered in white tablecloths to give the room a real feeling of luxury.
The patrons are an interesting group, mostly our age and older, mostly couples. There’s one younger couple that appear to be on the “let’s get engaged” date but they’re a course or so behind us so I don’t get to see the outcome of that.
Staff is clearly professional – not a lot of “I’m doing this while I work on my degree” here. They all had responsibilities for different parts of the meal/service so I think we saw everyone in the restaurant at our table at some point. The hostess, who was also in charge of close-of-meal stuff (petits fours and bill). The order-taking drinks and lead waitress, who described some of the courses. The sommelier, who described some others of the courses. The bussers and food runners, who described some the rest of the courses. All very good but I do admit I like having someone “in charge” of our table to rely upon.
No pictures tonight as it really didn’t seem the place. I liked that, despite the quantity of food you’ll read about below, I left not completely stuffed, as the portion sizes were very reasonable given the whole of the menu.
On to the food…
The Ledbury, 127 Ledbury Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 2AQ
Date: 16 September 2008
On the table: mini salt and pepper grinders (I think – we never used them as everything was perfectly seasoned) which are even better than last week’s s/p wells.
Drinks: Vodka gimlet with a lime rind garnish – a little sweet for my taste (when I make them at home I use just straight lime juice rather than Rose’s) but I think it’s made to contemporary recipe standard. Hendrick’s martini with (bar) olives – Meg wanted a place like this to serve it with nicer olives instead of the “Oscar Meyer” of olives.
Canapé: spiced flatbread with pate mousse piped on in two long snakes.
Water: we’re the only people in the room drinking tap, as far as I can tell. When we ask for it, our water goblets are removed leading me to fear we’re going to get kiddie cups but eventually the goblets come back filled with icy tap water and a couple of lemon slices, and are kept filled all night from a pitcher also holding lemon slices. Definitely passes the tap water test.
Wine: The list is really a book. Too much to choose from, so we ask for a recommendation. The sommelier knows most of what we’ve ordered and takes Meg’s “we like Cabernet Franc” suggestion and flips through the book. He comes up with three different suggestions, all under £40 – quite a feat when you consider that about a quarter of the book is in that price range. We settle on Domaine de la Chevalerie Busasrdieres Bourgueil (1998 ) which he says is “quite different.” On this we concur, but overall find it to be too fruity for our tastes.
Amuse: Courgette puree w/parmesan creme and sourdough croutons. Delicious.
Bread: a basket of choices: bacon and onion brioche (Meg), sourdough (Megan), brown roll with black pepper (neither). Meg likes the brioche, I find it a bit much. I like the sourdough, especially with the addition of a little butter – served in a cylinder on marble with a small sprinkling of sea salt on top.
Apps:
- Terrine of Foie Gras and Pain d’ épices with Mango and Cabernet Vinegar Caramel. Again Meg goes for something I don’t like. I try a bite but, nope, still don’t like foie gras. Maybe she’ll tell us about it.
- Scallops Roasted on Liquorice with Fennel, Cepes and Roasting Juices. Liquorice is used like a skewer to make scallop lollipops. Very meaty and flavourful.
- Confit Suckling Pig with Spiced Peach, Salsify and Ham Beignet, Baby Onions Pickled in White Beer. Again, Meg goes for bacon for dinner. The peach is quite amazing, and the baby onions are really sweet.
- New Season’s Lamb Roasted in Balsamic with Spinach Purée and Aubergine Glazed with Miso and Garlic. I generally consider aubergine to be a reason not-to-order but the seasonality of lamb win me over. The dish arrives with both the regular bits of the lamb and sweetbreads in the form of pancreas. One of my clients at work is a diabetes product, and they try to be all science-minded so I look at pictures of pancreases (pancreii?) all day so this bit is fascinating. It’s really rich tasting. The juices are definitely a hit. Aubergine is roasted so much I thought it was a banana/plantain, and it’s actually nearly that sweet, so better than expected. Spinach puree is a little flat but with the addition of the juices and/or lamb I’m quite happy.
Dessert:
- Three Small Brûlées with Ice Cream and Madeleines, and a glass of Tokaji. Arrives with a cocoa brulee with basil ice cream (glad this is a small one, though I think the basil ice cream would serve as a nice palate cleanser); an Earl Grey brulee with an ice cream flavour I can’t remember – Meg’s 2nd favourite; and a brulee I can’t remember (Thai?) with olive oil ice cream. Clear winner. Madeleines are, of course, too chocolatey for Meg but I enjoy one.
- Terrine of Strawberries with Sour Cream, Hibiscus Consommé and Warm Vanilla Doughnuts, and a glass of Riesling. Very strawberry-flavoured. The hibiscus really adds to the complexity. The vanilla doughnuts are filled with jelly, and a little unnecessary.
Damage: £205 inclusive. It would be possible to eat (not drink) well in this restaurant for £112.50 for two if you just ordered the menu and tap water.
Tuesday 16 September 2008
Happy Anniversary
Hard to believe that 2 years have passed since Megan and I got married in Chicago. Things that have changed since September 2006:
- Sold our house on the LES.
- Bought a house in Park Slope.
- Got married.
- Went on a honeymoon to Costa Rica.
- Moved to Brooklyn.
- Meg got a promotion.
- Megan got 2 promotions.
- Meg got a job offer to move to London.
- Megan found a job in London.
- Moved to London.
- Moved from corporate housing, to an apartment, then to a house in London (in the span of 4 months).
- The Megz combined flew 40,000+ miles in the month of December 2007.
- Turbo moved to London!
- Megan ran a marathon.
- Traveled to Spain, Belgium, France, Scotland, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, and probably some other places too.
- Partied at Glastonbury with 180,000 of our closest friends...
- Bought bikes.
- Still madly in love with my wife... :)
Monday 15 September 2008
Madonna at Wembley Stadium
On 11 September, Megan and I went to go see Madonna at Wembley Stadium as part of her Sticky & Sweet tour. Not that either one of us are huge Madonna fans, but it is hard to deny the fact that she's a cultural icon, and that of all places, the London show would be notable if for no other reason than it's the Material Girl's adopted home (she lives somewhere near Hyde Park, and allegedly has adopted a British accent which I find hilarious for a girl from Michigan!).
The production of the show was amazing - Unfortunately, we forgot our camera so I've only got this crappy photo taken with my Blackberry from our seats about a half a mile from the stage. The stage seemed to be constantly moving and changing - an effect achieved largely through moving video screens of various shapes and sizes, platforms that moved and also changed shape, and an extremely talenteed troupe of dancers with intricate costumes.
The show lasted 2 hours, and was non-stop. However, the sound sucked and we had to sit quietly to just be able to hear what was being played - hardly conducive to the Madonna dance-party I was planning on having! I don't think I would be eager to see another show in the Stadium, especially if the roof was open. My theory is that, since the roof was open, a lot of the sound was escaping.
Given the Stadium location, I was surprised that tickets were such a hot item; my boss was visiting from the US and expressed interest in going to the show. I did a bit of research on the day of the event, and many brokers had no tickets available - those that did have tickets were selling them for up to £650 each (more than 10 times what we paid for our seats)!!!
All in all, I was glad we went, but I don't think I would run back to see another Madonna show.
Songs played:
The production of the show was amazing - Unfortunately, we forgot our camera so I've only got this crappy photo taken with my Blackberry from our seats about a half a mile from the stage. The stage seemed to be constantly moving and changing - an effect achieved largely through moving video screens of various shapes and sizes, platforms that moved and also changed shape, and an extremely talenteed troupe of dancers with intricate costumes.
The show lasted 2 hours, and was non-stop. However, the sound sucked and we had to sit quietly to just be able to hear what was being played - hardly conducive to the Madonna dance-party I was planning on having! I don't think I would be eager to see another show in the Stadium, especially if the roof was open. My theory is that, since the roof was open, a lot of the sound was escaping.
Given the Stadium location, I was surprised that tickets were such a hot item; my boss was visiting from the US and expressed interest in going to the show. I did a bit of research on the day of the event, and many brokers had no tickets available - those that did have tickets were selling them for up to £650 each (more than 10 times what we paid for our seats)!!!
All in all, I was glad we went, but I don't think I would run back to see another Madonna show.
Songs played:
- Candy Shop: with a video version of Pharrel from the Neptunes
- On the Beat Goes: during the song, Madonna and her dancers drive out onto the stage in a white Rolls Royce, video version of Kanye accompanies her
- Human Nature: Madonna plays the guitar... badly
- 4 Minutes tease to Vogue: with super-hot girls in bondage outfits
- Die Another Day: featuring a boxer theme, Madonna changed from her bondage-style outfit into short shorts and boxing boots
- Get Into the Groove: with Madonna doing double dutch - and kicking ass! - and dancing on a DJ booth that had a stripper pole! This was my favorite number... :)
- Feel it in my Heartbeat: Madonna and crew dancing on a Jamiroquai-style moving track
- Borderline: with more crappy guitar from Madonna
- She's Not Me: with a montage of stills from her videos, also several of her dancers were costumed to look like her from the videos... and then Madonna beats them up
- Last Night a DJ Saved my Life tease to Music
- Devil Wouldn't Recognize You: Madonna performs from behind a video screen with rain projected on it
- Spanish Lesson: with dancers dressed in latin-style ninja costumes that become more traditional flamenco outfits
- Miles Away: more flamenco dancing
- La Isla Bonita: backing band is a mariachi band, who performs a song without Madonna after the conclusion of "La Isla Bonita"
- You Must Love Me: from "Evita", performed with the mariachi band
- Get Up: played over the PA system while Madonna had a costume change, featured a video with a montage of terrible images of starvation, genocide, and leaders that history has not looked kindly up including Hitler, Lenin, John McCain, etc.); the second half of the song featured "good" images: Desmond Tutu, Ghandi, Bono, Oprah, Barack Obama, etc.
- 4 Minutes: Madonna's new costume featured her wearing American football shoulder pads decorated with sparkles and other flair, Justin Timberlake "performed" on small video screens that moved around the stage as Madonna "danced" with him
- Like a Prayer : sung in tandem with a video featuring lots of Kabbalah images and Hebrew and English text
- Ray of Light: featuring more crappy guitar from Madonna and dancers in Daft Punk-style helmets
- Express Yourself: sung a cappella with the crowd
- Hung Up: with LOTS of crap guitar from Madonna, complete with Pete Townshend-style shredding and amp humping, played in tandem with a strange video featuring chess pieces
- Give It 2 Me: Madonna's new single, performed by herself on stage, featuring a crazy-good solo dance party from Madonna
Wednesday 10 September 2008
New Restaurant Tuesday: The Clerkenwell
Meg and I decided that we're starting a new tradition called New Restaurant Tuesday. It's not hard to understand: (nearly) every Tuesday we'll go someplace we've never eaten before and write about it. Meg picked last night, so I get the honors of writing the first NRT post.
After a crap day at work, I arrive on time for our 8:30 reservation at The Clerkenwell. We wait a few minutes as our table isn't quite ready. There's a bar, but no place to sit at it - you just have to sort of hang around in the hallway by the toilets. We decline a drink and idly peruse the menus.
We bring our menus with us when we get seated. We've left the wine list at the bar but it arrives promptly when requested. The staff kindly leave us alone while I have a good cathartic cry. I pull myself together and we order. After a long wait suddenly everything appears nearly at once: tap water, amuse, wine, bread. The staff are alternately attentive and absent. Nicely spaced courses.
The space itself is beautiful and (with the exception of the odd rendition of "Happy Birthday") quiet enough to have an intimate conversation without being so quiet as to inspire a feeling that everyone will notice if you, say, happen to clang your knife against the plate. We agree that we would definitely return, and it would make a nice business lunch location.
The Clerkenwell, 69-73 St John St, London, EC1M 4AN
Date: 9 September 2008
Wine: Solabal Rioja (2005). Pleasant without being overpowering. Goes with nearly everything we order.
On the table: my favourite, salt and pepper wells. The pepper isn't quite ground enough, though.
Water: tap water brought quickly when requested. Arrives with lemon slices in a pitcher just for our table, which I think is a nice touch
Bread: Warm from the oven, more slices than we care to eat in a basket. It's crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside, just as it should be. White bread is a little bland for my taste, especially when there's no butter (even though the bread plates have butter knives).
Amuse: a surprise from the chef! Not sure if this happens for everyone, or if it's to make up for the long-ish (but not bad at all) wait to order the wine. It's a creamy soup with a basil oil on top. I ask a bunch of times and can never understand the name, but it's delicious.
Apps:
The ricotta gives the cheesecake a nice grainy-ness. Lemon flavor is not too strong. Pine nuts, and especially the raisins, feel a bit added-on. It goes nicely with the Tokaji dessert wine, though.
Damage: £145 inclusive, which sounds crazy until you consider that the dessert wine set us back £40 alone.
After a crap day at work, I arrive on time for our 8:30 reservation at The Clerkenwell. We wait a few minutes as our table isn't quite ready. There's a bar, but no place to sit at it - you just have to sort of hang around in the hallway by the toilets. We decline a drink and idly peruse the menus.
We bring our menus with us when we get seated. We've left the wine list at the bar but it arrives promptly when requested. The staff kindly leave us alone while I have a good cathartic cry. I pull myself together and we order. After a long wait suddenly everything appears nearly at once: tap water, amuse, wine, bread. The staff are alternately attentive and absent. Nicely spaced courses.
The space itself is beautiful and (with the exception of the odd rendition of "Happy Birthday") quiet enough to have an intimate conversation without being so quiet as to inspire a feeling that everyone will notice if you, say, happen to clang your knife against the plate. We agree that we would definitely return, and it would make a nice business lunch location.
The Clerkenwell, 69-73 St John St, London, EC1M 4AN
Date: 9 September 2008
Wine: Solabal Rioja (2005). Pleasant without being overpowering. Goes with nearly everything we order.
On the table: my favourite, salt and pepper wells. The pepper isn't quite ground enough, though.
Water: tap water brought quickly when requested. Arrives with lemon slices in a pitcher just for our table, which I think is a nice touch
Bread: Warm from the oven, more slices than we care to eat in a basket. It's crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside, just as it should be. White bread is a little bland for my taste, especially when there's no butter (even though the bread plates have butter knives).
Amuse: a surprise from the chef! Not sure if this happens for everyone, or if it's to make up for the long-ish (but not bad at all) wait to order the wine. It's a creamy soup with a basil oil on top. I ask a bunch of times and can never understand the name, but it's delicious.
Apps:
- Salad of crab and avocado, chilled gaspacho. Meg loves this. I don't even like the ingredients, but even I agree that it's quite good. It's a log of crab salad on top of sushi-style avocado slices in a log, in a bowl of gaspacho. Meg tries to take a picture but it comes out terribly.
- Beignet of courgette flower, provencal vegetables and buffalo mozzarella.
They appear to have stuffed some delicious mixed veg into the flower of the courgette (zucchini) before dipping in a light batter and frying. There's a fan of mozzarella and surprise tomatos (grr) next to it. A strange combination, but it works. I think it would have been more successful if they'd used just the flower part - not the stem - and put both the mozz and veg inside. Perhaps 2 flowers on a plate? Still, quite good.
- Crisp confit pork belly, fricassée of coco beans and new season garlic.
Meg likes when there's bacon for dinner, so this was an easy sell for her. I only had one bite so don't remember much about this, but I do remember thinking it was good. - Seared salmon, crushed new potatoes, watercress and beurre rouge.
Um, yum! I had forgotten the potatoes were "crushed" so wasn't really expecting the pile of mash but it was so good. Actually I don't think they really did make mash, I'm pretty sure it was just crushed potatoes with maybe a little salt. On the plate is the buerre rouge sauce, and a lightly herb-y green sauce as well. The salmon is perfectly done, flaky and moist, and well seasoned.
The ricotta gives the cheesecake a nice grainy-ness. Lemon flavor is not too strong. Pine nuts, and especially the raisins, feel a bit added-on. It goes nicely with the Tokaji dessert wine, though.
Damage: £145 inclusive, which sounds crazy until you consider that the dessert wine set us back £40 alone.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Subscribe
