Morning Lane ‘Fun, funky and fascinating’ I am partial to a big night. I should probably be growing out of them at the great age of 30, but in reality they have become less frequent, and certainly altered in style. I maintain that painting the town a garish colour is a human right. Hackney as a borough has become synonymous ...
Molten chocolate cake, also known as chocolate lava cake, is a decadent dessert loved for its rich, gooey center. Here’s a recipe to help you enjoy this indulgent treat at home: Ingredients: 4 ounces (115g) of high-quality dark chocolate: Roughly chopped 1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar 1/4 cup (50g) packed light brown sugar 1/4 teaspoon ...
Kingsland Road, ‘The meat outdances the veg’ We are always told in the city history lies beneath us, that daily we are traipsing over the Victorian and Roman ruins mouldering away. But we never think that it might be above us, and no, I am not talking about the steel rooftop pleasure gardens of the 1980’s. I am talking about ...
Three Colts Tavern Where once the Roman Empire extended its iron-clad fingers over these isles (admittedly a long time ago), a modern wave of Italian influence has swept into our culture. Pizza, my friend, is a big deal, with many pubs offering a variety, chains popping up like villas all over Britannia, and the internet awash with smug garden owners ...
49 Hackney Rd, London E2 7NX As I balanced delicately on a window sofa, waiting for my “promptly” arriving friend, I pondered as one does. In a market so flooded with cocktails, how does a venue stand out from the crowd? Especially if they are Shoreditch-proper adjacent. Of course, East London’s party-high street has gone downhill, purely from a quality standpoint: Hawking watered-down ...
141 Commercial St, London, E1 6BJ Are you a bustling Shoreditch type? Trendily clad in black with a Mac under one arm and a bag made from recycled bottle tops swinging from the other? Rushing from meeting to meeting to end up trash-talking in the cold night air on Shoreditch House terrace? Well, if so… do I have a spot for you. Taco ...
41 Broadway Market, London E8 4PH In my halcyon, and rather hazy youth, I travelled around Peru and Bolivia, admittedly seeing more of the inside of hostel bars than walls of venerable temples. But what sticks with me, after all these (many) years, is the range and breadth of the culinary diversity in that enchanted strip of South America. Robert ...
Oslo Hackney, ‘I want to eat arepas and to hell with the bloat’ Photograph: courtesy Arepa & Co On an unseasonably hot day, I sludge my way to Hackney Central for a pop-up. A Venezuelan restaurant on a tropical night like this? Okay, I’ll bite. Oslo Hackney, the live music venue permanently squatting in the burrowed-out shell of the old ...
143 Strand, London WC2R 1JA Sunday the 17th was a particularly sad day, marking the passing of a true icon. Not a celebrity, but arguably something far more important (joke), a restaurant, nay cultural phenomenon. As food writers we have a habit to flap and flutter over the new, and don’t take time to appreciate the old. As Joni Mitchel says ...
199 Cambridge Heath Rd, London E2 0EL Is there any greater experience than the smell, taste, and radiating warmth of fresh dough? If that is made by the owner’s own dexterous hands in an unusually decorated pub just down the road from Bethnal Green station, mores the better. Hannah Drye’s has popped up all over the city, starting trading in Brixton ...