Suka it and see...

I've had a couple of quiet weeks following my London outing, mainly in preparation for running the Derby 10k again.  Also because my mother has given up wine for lent (foolish) so I am attempting to abstein in solidarity.  I have now come down with a cold thanks to the healthy lifestyle, which is pretty frustrating as I only have two weeks of training to go!  The plan is to eat lots of vitamin c rich stuff in a bid to get rid of the plague.  To that end I am in the process of making a butternut squash, spinach and feta lasagna, I'll let you know how it turns out.
Since I last blogged the boy and I have enjoyed plenty of tasty meals but generally I've been revisiting old favourites rather than breaking any new ground, so none of it has really been blogworthy in its own right.
We had pancakes on pancake Tuesday, with a very tasty filling of spinach, mushrooms, spring onions and blue cheese.  Every year we say how much we like pancakes and how we should eat them more often....then along comes the next pancake Tuesday.  You'll be the first to know if we eat any more pancakes this year.
We've had tuna steaks with salsa verde, a variation on the salmoriglio theme with the addition of chopped gherkins (and capers but the boy has an aversion to these so we left them out).  See my swordfish recipe last August if you like the sound (and look) of this; it was good, ever so garlicky but that is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

We've had a couple of Laabs, and enjoyed a lovely carvery out in Buxton with the folks.  I've also recreated some of the delectable dishes I sampled at Polpo, namely proscuitto wrapped artichokes, yum!
However on Saturday night we sampled one very different cuisine; Filipino.  This occured because the boy brought home a bottle of Suka Pinakurat, which caught his eye because the bottle is so cool.  It  looks like crazy, cartoon medicine.  He got it from the ever fascinating Chung Wah supermarket, a godsend in Derby which is packed with weird and wonderful foodstuffs.
Suka Pinakurat is a "spiced natural coconut vinegar" which is used a lot in the Philippines as a marinade and condiment, and goes well on just about anything by the sounds of it.  I found a recipe that combined it with soy sauce and honey and used it as a marinade for chicken thighs, served simply with a fresh salad of cucumber, tomato, onion and coriander, and plain boiled rice.  The end result was delicious, if not totally mind blowing, the Pinakurat has quite a chili kick.  I'd love to find some traditional Filipino recipes as it is a cuisine of which I have no knowledge, I have been to the Philippines but I was under the age of 10 and I can't remember much about what I ate there.  (Although I do remember feeding sponge finger biscuits to a mouse in the Manila Holiday Inn!)
Right, off to eat my lasagna, which is smelling divine, will let you know the verdict...and share the recipe.

London Lunches

At the weekend I undertook a long overdue trip down to the big smoke, and tried to cram as much food and booze as possible into a twenty hour long visit.  Rock and roll!  Friday night I arrived about 10pm and was met at King's Cross by the youngest sibling, Sebling, and his girlfriend and housemate.  Seb had informed me that the area was rife with curry houses so I'd thought it might be a good opportunity to use my tastecard.  For those of you who don't know about tastecard, it is a scheme involving a growing number of restaurants,offering two for one on meals or sometimes fifty percent off for groups.
http://www.tastecard.co.uk/
If you keep your eye on their website they often offer freebie cards for three months or so, and reasonable offers to buy them for a year.  I've had a couple now and although it used to just cover London it now covers the whole country, even Derby.  A lot of the Derby restaurants are the usual chains, Pizza Express, Zizzi, La Tasca etc.  However there is the odd independent.  The scheme is much more established in London with hundreds of restaurants partaking.  I found a promising Indian restaurant called, (rather uninspiringly) Bombay Lounge.  The food sounded good and they offered fifty percent off all food for a group of up to four people, a rarity at the weekend. 
http://www.bombayloungeislington.co.uk/
I booked online and we found the restaurant easily, mere yards from King's Cross.  The staff were really friendly despite the fact that we didn't arrive till 10pm and then were too busy talking for about half an hour to order anything.  We commenced with large beers and poppadoms which were lovely and fresh with zingy accompaniments.  I went for crab cakes as a starter and they were huge and flavoured with lots of chilis and curry leaves, not quite what I was expecting but delicious.  As a main I had a slightly disappointing duck dish, the duck being a bit bland and tasteless, however the Peshwari naan I had to go with it was gorgeous, sweet light and freshly made.  The food was a tenner each, a steal considering we all had starters, mains and side dishes.  Good times, we went home and continued the party with lots of wine, and I seem to remember listening to Haddaway , oh dear.  I stayed up far too late considering I had to leave Seb's by 12 the next day, but on Saturday I made it out of Brixton on time, albeit a trifle confused.  (I found myself buying things in Oxford Circus Topshop before I really knew what was happening, oops!)  Next on the agenda was lunch with two good old buddies that I lived with at university in Sheffield, erm, a few years ago now.  Onwards with the culinary whirlwind, breakfast was  a can of diet coke so by lunchtime I was ready for some sustenance.  We met at a place called Polpo on Beak Street. 
 http://www.polpo.co.uk/
It was so exciting meeting up with such dear old friends, it has been quite a while since we have all been together but within minutes the old banter (and red wine) was flowing.  The atmosphere in Polpo really added to the fun, it certainly is a convivial place to lunch.  Polpo is a Bacaro, which is a sort of Italian wine and tapas bar.  The staff were young and trendy and smiley, again we had the problem of talking too much to get a food order in edgeways.  When we eventually did get some food it was lush, little nibbly things such as artichokes wrapped in ham, and arancini, or risotto balls to start with, then a selection of crisp and golden fritto misto, polpette meatballs, more delectable charcuterie (sorry about the French) and a salad of roasted beetroot dressed with a rocket and walnut pesto.  The bill is a bit hazy as two bottles of red were consumed but I think it was about 30 a head.  A fab way to eat, I'd definitely come back here, loved it.
I love knowing native Londoners who know where the fuck they're going and where all the hidden gems are.  After Polpo we headed to a place called Gelupo for expresso and ice cream.  Not just any ice cream, this place is special.
http://www.gelupo.com/
Run by the team behind the restaurant Bocca Di Lupo (another story) this is the best ice cream / sorbet / granita gaff I've encountered outside of Italy.  Blood orange and grapefruit sorbets and deeply flavoured ice creams vy for your attention, and the best thing is you can ask to taste away to your hearts content, before making a choice.
Suitably restored I meandered off to catch the train (okay, don't want to disappoint you, we did fit in another bottle of red on the way), feeling totally uplifted by such culinary variety and sparkling company.  Bon viveur indeed.
I was feeling a little jaded and Mondayish today but got home from work to a nice suprise, my published articles in a brand spanking shiny copy of the Derbyshire Food & Drink guide, first edition.  That's going in the portfolio!