Whilst in London, in addition to cooking up a storm, I was lucky enough to try some awesome (and not too expensive!) restaurants around town.

Mr Jerk: Caribbean Cuisine
189 Wardour St
London, W1F 8ZD

Mr Jerk has a few locations across town; the one I visited was just off Oxford Street. I figure it must be really authentic, as my friend and I were the only people in there not of Caribbean descent. You order at the counter first, and either take-away, or sit down and eat it in there. They've also got signed photos hanging up of Caribbean stars, including Sean Paul (or "shawn-aa paul!").

We shared a portion of jerk chicken (the servings are HUUGE), with rice, and an extra serving of hard food (yam, plantain, dumpling).


Jerk chicken

It's hot, it's spicy, it's sour, it's great!


Jamaican hard food

I also had a bottle of juice (from a tropical variety of apple, I think), which I didn't like that much, and a fish pattie (i.e. corn pastry filled with spicy fish), which was delicious. It was so good, in fact, that I ate it before I got a chance to take a photo of it. And it's not often you'll hear me say that. So, head down to Mr. Jerk as soon as you can for some fabulous home-style cooking!


Trojka
Regent's Park Road

I don't remember the exact address of this Russian restaurant, but if you want to find it, it's on Regent's Park Road in Primrose Hill, and here's a photo of it. Primrose Hill is, apparently, a celeb-studded area (e.g. the Oasis ex-wives live there), and Clarice even spotted Rhys Ifans when she went to fill up the meter.


Trojka

They've got this lunchtime deal - 2 courses for 10 pounds.


Bread!


My entrée - cold Borscht


Clarice's Entrée - Blini with Lumpfish Caviar and cucumber salad and smetana


My main: Coulibiak - an old Russian recipe - salmon pie of mushrooms, spinach, rice & kasha topped with smetana, served with fresh tomato sauce. It was absolutely fantastic.


Clarice's main - Pelmeni Dumplings filled with pork


Interior... babushka babushka


Brasil by Kilo
Oxford Street

Again, I can't remember the address of this restaurant, but it is on Oxford street (i.e. big shopping area), right near Tottenham Court Road tube station. It's on the 2nd floor, above a Brazilian electronics store. The window is painted with a massive Brazilian picture, and has loads of flags hanging (or at least it did at the time of the World Cup), so it's not too hard to find.

They've got all the food in bain-maries, all you need to do is get a plate, and pile your plate with whatever takes your fancy. Then, they weigh your plate, and charge you accordingly. This massive plate of food I had was less than 6 pounds - bargainous! - and I was stuffed afterwards.


Mmmm - rice, beans, brocolli, olives, cheesy vegetables

You can kinda see in the background these two little sweet dessert thingoes - they're called brigadeiro. They're made (I think) from chocolate and condensed milk, among other things, and are staple fair at Brazilian kids' parties. Very sweet, but very delicious!


Brazilian energy! A soft drink containing guaraná.


Inside Brasil by Kilo

That's right, more raspberries!

This recipe for raspberry ripple ice-cream comes from Nigella's Forever Summer, and is simple, yet wildly delicious.

To start, you make a basic custard, and churn it in an ice-cream maker.


custard

Whilst that's going, you make up a purée of raspberries, sugar and balsamic vinegar, strain it, and put it in the freezer to cool down and thicken. Then you layer the custard and the purée in a container, and put it in the freezer to set hard.


layering up

The finished product is absolutely delicious! It is more than what you would expect from raspberry ripple ice-cream, but rather a homespun combination of custard and raspberry flavours captured in ice-cream form - in other words, it is heaven.


ice-cream

Nigella's favourite breakfast, as explained in Feast, consists of a boiled egg, Maldon salt and buttered toast fingers.

Naturally, Nigella stipulates free-range, organic, Italian eggs and bread from the pain Poilâne bakery - neither of which is available in Australia. So when I hit London, this simply had to be made.

The bread is available not only at the bakeries themselves, but also at gourmet food stores and larger Waitrose supermarkets. We got a loaf at Selfridges Food Hall, as well as some organic English eggs (sadly, the Italian eggs were out of stock). Combined with soft unsalted organic butter, and deliciously crunchy Maldon salt, it was the perfect breakfast.


Nigella's Breakfast


Egg open

As I've previously mentioned, whilst I was in England, I was fortunate enough to sample some delicious Parisian macarons, which my friend Clarice carted back from Paris for us to eat.

That was about 2 months ago, and my memory has faded a bit since then, but I remember she brought back both Pierre Hermes and Ladurée macarons, and they were both delicious. However, if I had to choose between the 2, I'd go for the Pierre Hermes ones.

Chocolate passionfruit (passionfruit macarons encasing chocolate filling) were the best flavour, closely followed by caramel-chocolate and caramel.


Pierre Hermes Macarons


chocolate passionfruit


macarons


Pistachio filling with rose-macarons, I think - very nice!

As I tuck into a nice warming bowl of Vegetable Soup, let me reminisce about some of the delicious things I ate overseas...

Whilst staying at Clarice's house in London, we decided that, given my obsession with fresh raspberries, Nigella's chocolate raspberry pavlova (from Forever Summer) just had to be made.

It's just an ordinary pavlova, (egg whites, sugar) with cocoa powder, grated chocolate and red wine vinegar added. I whipped up the egg whites by hand!


Whipped by hand - feel the power


mmm... cocoa


raw mixture

From memory, you bake it at a medium low temperature for about an hour. While it was baking and cooling, we prepared a light and healthy dinner - roasted cod and pumpkin, a rocket salad, and a fresh ricotta and cherry tomato salad. (The fresh ricotta came from a fabulicious Italian deli around the corner... yum!)


healthy dinner

So once the pavlova's baked and cooled a bit, (Nigella says to let it cool overnight, but we weren't having any of that), it's a simple matter of piling whipped cream on top, followed by raspberries and chocolate shavings...


Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova

...and then digging straight in!



Mmm... that is a GOOD pavlova. The little chocolate chunks embedded in the soft, chewy pav-mixture are just divine! Combined with the bland and fatty cream, and the tart and juicy raspberries, it's a flavour and texture sensation. I am definitely pulling this one out next summer!

There were a couple of kids (the gorgeous Anna-Luisa and Lucas... see below) staying at Clarice's over the weekend, so on Sunday we all went for a picnic at Hampstead Heath.

We made Nigella's storecupboard chocolate cake (How to be a Domestic Goddess), her double bean and courgette salad (Forever Summer), as well as a random pasta salad, and ham sandwiches made with pain poilane (fab, fab bread) and leftover ham in cherry coke.

The chocolate cake is ludicrously easy - just melt and mix all the ingredients together in a saucepan, and then bake in a lined and greased springform tin. The recipe stipulates marmalade, but according to Clarice, who has made this cake many times before, cherry jam is a much better alternative. (Apparently, sweetened chestnut puree works really well too, so give it a go).

As for the bean and courgette salad - you roast yellow and green zucchini in the oven, boil green beans and (shelled and podded) broadbeans until tender, and then mix them all together with lemon juice, olive oil and basil.





Storecupboard Chocolate Cake
























We had a punnet of fresh raspberries too (of course!), which were very nice eaten with the cake.
















Ooh... you can see all of London from Hampstead Heath!

From my How to Eat Project, gammon (i.e. raw ham) was one ingredient that I couldn't find. When I made the ham in coke and the ham in cider, I substituted Vietnamese pickled pork. It worked well in the first instance, and not so well in the second. So when I came to London, trying out some real gammon was on the top of my foodie to-do list.

Here is the beautiful hunk of gammon that we got at Borough Market.




Gammon










The first step in transforming gammon into ham is to de-salt the gammon. You do this by covering it with cold water, bringing it to the boil and discarding the water. Next, you cover the gammon with cherry coke (we used about 5 Buddy sized bottles), add a halved and peeled onion, and boil it for a couple of hours. (Total cooking time depends on the size of the ham - there is definitely a time guide in How to Eat and also, I think, in the Christmas Ham recipe for Feast, although I can't be sure off the top of my head.)





Cooked in coke










Once the ham is boiled, you remove it from the stock, and can either proceed straight away with the glazing, or leave it to cool in the fridge overnight, and glaze the next day. We were busy, so we did the overnight thing. One of the benefits of boiling the ham in advance is that you can cook red cabbage (mmm... I love red cabbage!) in the stock. For this, you just shred a head of red cabbage, and simmer it in the stock for about an hour.

While it was simmering, we glazed the ham by stripping off the rind and brushing it with a mixture of cherry jam, red wine vinegar and sweet paprika.





Being glazed










Then you need to cook it for 40 minutes at 180C. (If you're proceeding straight after the boiling stage, without letting it cool overnight, then you cook it at a much higher heat for a shorter time).








Cooked - Check it out!! Drooooool!










While the ham was resting, we boiled some green beans and finished off the cabbage. Nigella says to be careful not to let too much liquid escape during the simmering process, but we cooked it for ages, didn't cover the pot, and my cabbage remained very very wet. Not to worry though, it was a simple matter to strain off the excess liquid.





On ze plate with beans and cabbage









The ham in cherry coke is amazing! And this is coming from a girl who hates cherry coke and Dr Pepper with a passion (ew... tastes like medicine!). It doesn't taste overtly cherry-like, but rather, has a subtle cherry aroma, which enhances the sweet and burnished glaze. Similarly, on the page, the red cabbage sounds like it would taste absolutely munting, but it was actually delicious. It was slightly sweet, but not sickeningly so. It went with the ham incredibly well.

So, the recipe definitely gets the thumbs up... and the ham makes fabulicious leftovers, which you shall see in the next few days...

Borough Market is amazing. It's open on Friday and Saturday, and is near London Bridge tube station. It's highly recommended by such super-chefs as Jamie Oliver, and with good reason - it rocks! Clarice and I went there on Friday, and it was a totally exciting and amazing experience for me, because I got to see all these fab ingredients that I couldn't get in Australia during my How to Eat project. They have fresh fruit and veg stalls, fishmongers, butchers, bakers and patisseries, coffee stalls, and BBQ-type stalls selling things like gourmet sausages, burgers and so on. I was in food-blogger heaven.

German Sausage

Chorizo, roasted red pepper and rocket sandwich

Chorizo, roasted red pepper and rocket sandwich - inside