Ebi Sushi

Ebi Sushi occupies  unassuming premises on Abbey Street, in a part of Derby that feels strange to me.  In the decade or so that I've lived here the area has been completely reconfigured, houses that friends once lived in have been knocked down and new roads added.  It felt like a slightly odd place to have a restaurant but the good things I'd heard about Ebi Sushi overrode my misgivings about the location.

Once inside you might as well be in Japan, it really is that authentic.  There were four of us and we were seated towards the back of the restaurant, which really is quite small, with the sushi bar running down the right wall as you walk in.  When I phoned to book a table I'd tried to book for six, then five, before managing to secure a table for four.  In the front of the restaurant a party of sixteen Japanese were seated, so on a more usual night they might be able to accommodate a larger booking.

The staff were really friendly and very helpful when it came to ordering, they were happy to make recommendations.  They didn't bat an eyelid at our terrible manners or at the amount of sake we drank.

 

We had a selection of sashimi to start with, then a selection of sushi, before moving on to a cooked course of chicken teriyaki, for which I really felt too full.  Highlights were the tuna belly, scallop sashimi and flying fish roe.  This is food as an art form, so beautifully presented I (almost) didn't want to eat it.  All the fish was exquisitely fresh and apparently the owner goes himself to Billingsgate fish market to select it every day.

 

I'd been reading up on etiquette before our visit and had read that you should use the blunt end of your chop sticks if passing sushi to someone else.  I tried to do this when passing a bit to the boy and dropped sushi in his sake which is probably the biggest faux pas ever.  You're not supposed to cut the sushi up, you should eat the whole piece in one go, fish side down, but we all wanted to taste the different kinds of fish so that rule went out of the window.  Apparently you shouldn't really drink sake with sushi as it is rice and rice, but the hot sake is sooo tasty, we got some to begin the meal and then just kept ordering more!

My experience of sushi encompasses a few trips to the conveyor belt gaudiness of Yo Sushi and the odd M & S lunchtime snack so this was really next level.  The one disappointment was that the big party had consumed all the available edamame beans.  Ebi Susi is the place to take someone special for a meal which has an implicit sense of occasion.  This truly goes down as one of my most memorable meals ever :-)

London on the end of my fork...

Today I am sitting up in bed with a stinker of a cold, and bored of watching episodes of Revenge (my media player keeps buffering, how annoying?) I decided to blog my trip to London last weekend whilst it is still fresh in my mind, because it was certainly a gourmet weekend if ever there was one!

On Friday afternoon I arrived in Peckham when I should have arrived in Camberwell, but no bother, this allowed for a trip to a very nice pub in little brother's former hood; The Montpelier:

http://www.themontpelier.net/index.html

This is a nicely renovated back street boozer just round the corner from Peckham Rye tube station and away from the hustle and bustle of the high street, they even have an in-house cinema.

We then had a long walk home to contend with (in the rain, which may have contributed to the current cold situation) before drying off and heading out into Brixton

We had a drink at the new Craft Beer Co. pub:

http://thecraftbeerco.com/location/brixton-london/

right in the centre of new, trendy Brixton, where the farmer's market is held.  If you like real ale and locally brewed stuff this pub is for you, with a mind boggling selection of beers, lagers and ciders on tap, which change daily.  I tried the Bristolian Pheasant Plucker cider which went down a treat.  They also had very tasty looking bar snacks on display but we were saving our bellies for a feast at Negril in Brixton Hill.

Negril is a no frills bring your own booze Caribbean eatery.  The chicken is all free range and for £25 we got a massive platter for two to share with chicken, coleslaw, chips, plantain, salad, saltfish fritters, chili sauce, rice and peas and delicious gravy.  This isn't an upmarket place (there is one toilet which you reach by going  through the kitchen ) but it was friendly, everyone was having a good time and the staff had a smile and a joke with you, we finished our meal with a bottle of Ting and felt positively festive.

The following morning the rain had gone and it was a beautiful sunny autumnal day as I ventured further afield into London to Caravan Kings Cross for brunch and a catch up with my uni girls.

http://www.caravankingscross.co.uk/

We had great coffee, a couple of glasses of the on tap prosecco and brunch.  I went for a cheesey, spinachy french toast concoction which was lovely and gooey.  Served with crisp, streaky bacon, this was everything brunch should be.  The place had a nice New York village vibe, we were there for hours.  I was sad not to have tried the jalapeno cornbread though, next time.

A few hours and a couple of pints later I had worked up enough of an appetite to be ready for a meal at Sagar, a South Indian Vegetarian restaurant in the heart of Covent Garden.

http://www.sagarveg.co.uk/

This was properly authentic South Indian food, I tried some things I'd never had before including a weird and wonderful curry that contained gherkins!

Finally, I couldn't leave Brixton without having at least one meal in the amazing, vibrant market.  In order to regenerate the market the council let some of the pitches for free for a short period of time and it has attracted scores of restauranters, you can get every cuisine imaginable in here!  We decided to give Okan, a Japanese place, a try, as I'd read about it recently, Time Out having named it as one of their top five cheap eats in the capital.

http://www.okanbrixtonvillage.com/

They specialise in  Okonomiyaki ( a sort of cabbagey pancake - sounds weird but trust me) I had pork and kimchi in mine, it was the best comfort food ever and totally filling, I did read later that they are usually for sharing but we all managed to scoff one each!

I did enjoy my weekend, it was lovely to catch up with good friends and relatives over some fantastic food, I'll be back down again soon, once my waistline and wallet have recovered!

The Droste Effect.

Yes, I've been given more chocolate, this time a selection from Droste's range.  Droste are a Dutch company of long standing, they've been around since 1863 to be precise.  They make quite a range of chocolate products but the thing they are possibly best know for in this country are Newberry Fruits, a large, soft, jelly fruit sweet beloved of grandads the world over (well, mine!)

Droste are quite big in Holland and even have a weird visual effect named after them; "The Droste effect" refers to the recursive picture on their cocoa powder tins, which show a picture of a nurse holding a box of Droste cocoa powder illustrated with a picture of a nurse holding a box of Droste cocoa powder illustrated with a... you get it....mind bending.

Droste pastilles made up the bulk of my selection, a pastille being marginally larger, glossier and more satisfyingly "snappier" than a giant Cadbury's button.  The pastilles come in milk and dark chocolate, and also in a range of 'half and half' mixtures.  The dark chocolate pastilles are very smooth and being high in cocoa and low in dairy are good for those who are lactose intolerant.  The dark and milk mixed pastilles went down well, with the addition of milk chocolate softening the edge of the dark chocolate but retaining the richness.
I really liked the milk chocolate but I think it may be too sweet for some, I think my chocolate palate is used to the extra sugar having lived in Germany for many years where they also like a slightly sweeter milk chocolate.  It isn't anything like as sweet as, say, Galaxy though.

My favourite Droste product by far has to be the XXL pastille with milk chocolate and hazelnut.  This is a chocolate and hazelnut button the size of a digestive biscuit, with snappable grooves to divide it into quarters, a joy to absorb with a cup of tea.

Droste's tagline is "Where tradition meets quality" and I'd certainly agree with that, but alongside the tradition and quality there as a pleasing dose of European quirkiness.  You can buy Droste chocolate online, or I'm reliably informed you can pick it up at T J Morris (Home  Bargains) and B & M stores.  I've still got a fair few pastilles to scoff, but I'll certainly be seeking out some more of the XXL pastilles.  With all this free chocolate and the transition from walking to driving everywhere I fear that I'll be an XXL pastille myself soon, see you down at Slimming World in January...