Graze - Sankara, Nairobi

Walking into the Graze steakhouse in Nairobi changes your perception of restaurants in Nairobi. It's an upmarket steakhouse, that's laid out very well - and an open kitchen makes it all the more exciting!  

The service is on point, and you get a lot of information about the menu. You need that, because the menu looks great, and it'll confuse the marbles out of you! In any case, after much deliberation, I decided to have the smoked salmon.

 The beef carpaccio (pic below) was presented very nice as well.

The dish was well presented with lots of fresh vegetables and herb accompanying the fish. The salmon itself was good - seasoned well, with a mild smokiness. Good starter to get the taste buds flowing before the main event.

Before ordering the main course, the waiter came around with a selection of beef cuts. He set it on the table and picked out one by one and explained the cut, and what you'd expect it to taste like. He advised to what level each cut should be cooked to obtain maximum flavour. I'm a big fan of the juicy, medium rare kind of steak, which inevitable left me ordering the fillet steak.

I asked for a medium rare. And perfectly medium rare it was!! You get the option for a sauce to accompany the steak. I went with the pepper sauce, however it wasn't required at all. The steak was juicy, perfectly cooked, sweet and easy to chew. A slight bit of salt on each bite made it simply irresistible! The little bit of bone marrow on the side of the plate was divine. Perfectly cooked, and enhanced the dish to a new level.

Paired with a great wine selection, it could be classed as an almost perfect meal. Almost because nothing is perfect when it comes to food, but if it leaves you with that amazing feeling in your pants, then it's definitely close to perfection!  

Chotto Matte - a Peruvian-Japanese wonder!

"A new, exciting restaurant with a totally 'out of the box' concept that must be tested out!" That's what I was told about Chotto Matte, a Peruvian Japanese fusion restaurant, aka Nikkei cuisine, that had opened up in London.

Walking into the restaurant, the decor is done very tastefully. It definitely looks like there's been a lot of thought and effort into every little detail of the restaurant. A warm host received us to our table and from then on, it was constant "wow's" and "ooh's".

Looking at the menu, you want to try everything on it, I mean absolutely everything! We attempted to do that by ordering as many dishes as we could. The portion sizes help in that they're perfect to try out as many dishes as you can without turning into a turnip!

Spicy edamame beans was the first dish to be tried. Edamame beans are great, however these spicy ones are something out of the ordinary! A perfect blend of Peruvian spices with a Japanese style edamame will leave your taste buds wanting more!

The Aburi Black cod miso is a tostadita perfectly cooked with tender black cod pieces in a yuzu dressing made with Peruvian chillies. It's cut into bite sized pieces for sharing, although you won't want to!

For 'mains', I ordered the pork belly, which was cooked with nashi pear and a yellow tomato salsa. This pork... This pork, by far one of the best pork dishes I've ever had! Each piece was cooked to absolute divine perfection. Crispy on the outside, melt in your mouth centre with perfectly balanced flavours of the chillies in the salsa. I could've had 3 or 4 of these without realising!

The wild white prawn cooked with Peruvian chillies and barbecued over hot coals was a prawn dish that was kept simple and tasteful. Not too many flavours fighting with each other left a delicate taste on your palate. Again, the prawns were cooked to perfection.

Everything that arrived on the table left us with our mouths salivating! Which meant I had to speak to the chef and pass him all our compliments. Head Chef Michael Paul is a young chef with an abundance of talent. Speaking with him, he told me about how they'd come up with the idea, and spent over a year travelling and learning about the Japanese culture in Peru which inspired the menu. He said he wanted to offer something totally out of the box in a city which offers nearly everything.

Easy to say, he's achieved it! In fact, probably outdone any expectations I had after the multiple rave reviews I'd heard. He mentioned he's now working on other restaurants with new, unorthodox menus. I for one am extremely excited to see what he comes up with next!

Chef Paul - Not sure if you remember me telling you about extra virgin avocado oil. The first batch will be out early next year. I'll be sending a sample over to you, with the hope of a dish on the menu from it! 

12 minute stir-fried noodles with steak!

I thought up this recipe on a lazy Saturday night due to the ingredients available. It's quick, simple and delicious!

Ingredients:

·         Noodles (any type, although I prefer the medium egg noodles)

·         Beef steak

·         Onions (some sliced long and thin, and some diced)

·         Broccoli

·         Peppers

·         Garlic

·         Ginger

·         Soy sauce

·         White table vinegar

·         Chiu Chow Chilli Oil by Lee Kum Kee

·         Sesame oil

To get this recipe down in 12 minutes, you will need to cook things simultaneously.

Method:

Firstly, boil some water in the kettle and then move to a saucepan and boil the noodles. Whilst you do this, place a griddle pan on the hob on medium-high heat. As soon as it has reached the desired temperature, place the steak on and cook. Ideally you want the steak to be medium rare, although it all depends on your preference. Keep turning the steak every minute to ensure an even cook.

Chop the onions, peppers, broccoli and keep to one side ready to cook. 

Grind the ginger and garlic and set aside. Once all veggies are ready, place a wok on the hob to medium high heat. With a little vegetable/sunflower oil, lightly brown the onions. Add in the peppers and stir fry for a min. Add in the broccoli and stir fry for a couple mins. Finally add in the ginger and garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds. Turn the heat down to low, and now add in the noodles. Drizzle in a small amount of soy sauce to the veggies and noodles. Stir fry for a min and take it off the heat.

After steak has cooked and rested, slice it into thin(ish) 1-1.5 cm slices. In a separate bowl, pour in 35ml of soy sauce, a capful of white table vinegar, and some of the diced onions. Add in a dash of water and mix well. This soy onion mix is a sort of garnish over the noodles and steak. Drizzle the noodles and steak with sesame oil. The nutty flavour of the sesame oil will very much enhance the flavour of the steak. The Chilli oil is the joker card here and adds all the incredible flavour in this dish.

Mix as below and enjoy!

I may have lied about the time it takes to cook this meal! It's probably going to take 20 mins or so, however, if anyone is able to make it in 12 mins or less, I'd love to hear about it! 

Seafood Delight!

In Bali's south eastern coast, the town of Nusa Dua is filled with exotic hotels and resorts with expensive 5* restaurants. There is however a street of market stalls and cheaper restaurants that serve up some decent grub for a fraction of the price. We'd decided that this night was going to be a seafood feast seeing as we were by the coast! Walking up the street, we heard live music coming out of this restaurant. Peeking in, the tables were filled, with the diners looking pretty happy, so we decided that this would be the place. The Prada restaurant on Jl Pantai Mengiat.

Looking at the menu, things got rather confusing! It was a fairly large menu with lots of options, and if your eyes are bigger than your stomach (like in my case), then you can see the problem! Finally decided, the calamari for starters, crab in chilli sauce and seafood in black pepper sauce for the mains.

The calamari was delicious. Perfectly coated with breadcrumbs, and fried golden brown. Cooked well enough to ensure the meat didn't go stringy. The tartar sauce which accompanied it was spot on. Good, easy little starter that. (There was meant to be a picture of the calamari, but before I could get my camera out, the calamari had been attacked by my girlfriend's claws!)

When we ordered the crab, we assumed we were going to get one crab in chilli sauce. Instead, there was 3 of them tasty little guys sitting on the plate! The sauce was nice and spicy and the crab was sweet and fresh. It was a bit of hard work getting the meat out of the crab, but that's the beauty of it. It was totally worth the effort!

The seafood dish looked like a bit a sizzler of mixed seafood. That was not the case. In fact, it was stir fried mix of seafood (prawns, squid, fish etc) in a perfectly balance black pepper sauce. The sauce was the kicker of this dish. It was sweet, yet spicy at the same time. The black pepper was prominent, but not overpowering. The seafood was tender and well cooked. It was absolutely delicious!

With a bottle of beer, a glass of wine and some decent live acoustic music, this place was a bit of a gem. Adding to it, when we danced to one of the songs, the waiter came over with a complimentary jug of Arak (a type of local vodka) and proceeded to get us happier!

And all in, the evening cost us US$35! Goes to show, in a place with high end restaurants and resorts, it's not too difficult to find good eats that won't cost an arm and a leg! 

Patty & Bun...Simple as!

I had walked past this place once on a Friday night and I was amazed at the queue outside! Looked like an hour or so wait, for a small, cozy little burger place. With a queue this long, and people willing to wait, must mean great food!

Patty & bun are a small, no nonsense burger joint! The tables are bunched up together so they can fit as many people in there as possible. We queued up, and were told we'd have to wait about 45 mins for a table. This was at 6pm on a Friday! Having read a few good reviews about it, decided to wait and try it out.

The service was top notch, and the menu was small and simple, burgers! Only 6 types of burgers and a few sides. But what more do you want from a burger joint! I firmly believe that a smaller menu means the chef isn't trying to do too much, and does those few things, very very well! In this case, I was definitely not wrong!

I went for the 'Smokey Robinson' burger, which was a beef patty, with cheese, tomato, lettuce, mounds of caramelised onions, bacon, ketchup, smokey P&B mayo and brioche. This is a fast food joint, so they don't waste time with plates and all. The burger comes wrapped like a take away, and its served on a metal tray.

Unwrapping the burger was interesting as the smell of melted cheese on a perfectly cooked beef patty hit your nose and makes your stomach rumble! Burgers are supposed to be messy, and this wasn't any different. The first bite is exciting, with a world of flavours hitting your palette. The patty nice and juicy, with the bacon and cheese providing the saltiness, and the mayo and ketchup bringing in the sweet! The bun very soft and perfectly cooked, there is nothing more you can ask a burger chef to do! Definitely one of the best burgers in town!

Incredible food and great service. I definitely recommend trying out this place, with the wait in the queue an extremely small price to pay for one hell of a burger!

Naga Jolokia hotness!!

This is a little pot of the world’s hottest chilli powder I bought from a stall in Borough Market.

 Now, I consider myself to be able to handle my chilli. I wouldn’t say I can handle ridiculous amounts of chilli, but a fair bit more than your average Joe! This little pot though... this pot is incredibly lethal! The weird thing is that when you open the pot to take a whiff, there isn’t much of a strong smell from afar. Bring your nose closer to it, and it’ll catch your nose and throat like nothing else! It’s a subtle kick at first, but then it just lingers around like smelly fart in an unaired room!

I’ve been using it very sparingly (as advised on the tin) and I kid you not, it really is hot. Using it in a stir fry of vegetables was the best way to get the full effect of the spice, as when you throw it into the wok, it instantly gives your nose and throat that hit of spice. And if you’re sensitive to spice, then your nose will start running too. But I believe it’s worth the few seconds of cooking pain, as the spicy taste in your wok is delicious (if you can handle it that is).

Having said that, it’s definitely worth a try just to test yourself. If you do try it, use it sparingly...very very sparingly! And don’t touch the powder with your hands. And definitely don’t touch your eyes after if you’ve touched the powder with your hands! K

Thai street kitchen...

There’s a place near Southwark tube station called Bangkok Kitchen. A place that’s in an alley way between a pub and what looks like a warehouse! I’d walked past it a couple of times and always got this sweet smell, like being hit in the face by Thailand! The place doesn’t look like much. Just one area laid out with curries and stir fries laid out ready to serve. The other side with 4 wok’s on the burners ready to cook fresh stir fried noodles or rice to order.

  

The cooks are very friendly, and always seem to be smiling! With food this good though, it’s easy to see why!

Fresh pad thai’s, pad kee mao’s and a whole lot of other thai stir fries that I cannot pronounce or remember how to spell! All the stir fries are done with either chicken, prawn or vegetables. You can see what goes in is fresh and wholesome!

This prawn pad kee mao is absolutely delicious! Thick flat noodles, vegetables, and king prawns, all tossed in with soy sauce and magic thai spices with extra chilli to give it that kick! The colours are good, and the taste is incredible.
All Thai women seem to know how to cook. Or my other theory is that they are given a secret ingredient which makes their cooking extremely delicious, that nobody else knows about.
There’s not much else to say except, definitely go try it, you won’t be disappointed!