Sunday 17 August 2008

a food filled saturday

the large window at nordic bakery
i did a walkabout london yesterday with a friend who is visiting from back home. soho revealed a host of new places to sample. in between i had a quick lunch at 
flat white. it’s a tiny café on berwick street with a very distinct vibe and a really dense smell of coffee. lunch was bite sized pieces of baked butternut and grilled mozzarella with a generous amount of caramelized onion chutney, sandwiched between two slices of crusty well toasted white bread. i finished of with the trade mark flat-white which bore a perfect fern in its foam top (just in case a flat white is an antipodean style coffee which is served as a strong shot of espresso served in a small cup with textured milk). a short walk (including a walk-out of maison bertaux) owing to indecision over dessert and my friend’s craving for cinnamon buns we landed up at the nordic bakery.

the nordic bakery has high ceilings and a slightly industrial feel. it is in more ways than one quintessentially scandinavian and has a pronounced ikea feel to it. a point made by my friend who studied in uppsala. the place smells warm like the inside of a bakery with just the right hint of cinnamon. the cinnamon buns are hand rolled, the crevices in the dough lined with cinnamon sugar and butter. the baking reduces the cinnamon sugar and butter to a sticky perfection and encases the bun in a red brown glaze. the centre is heavy and soft and as much as i always mean to finish the bun i land up defeated.

the day closed on leoni have a soft spot for leon possibly because of the medley of color and the warmth of the place. they do make wikked super food brownies, the trick being a marriage of dark chocolate and ground almonds… i landed up having the chicken tagine which wasn’t much to talk about. the hummus (which we ordered as a starter) was a rather disappointing affair. but that’s generally the case with me because i either whip up my own batch at home or go to edgware road to get my hummus fix. it’s always the lack of tahini that gets me going... i must say however that the pilaf of brown rice and leon’s salad are really tasty and for the price that one pays the leon experience overall is worth it… at the conclusion of dinner i have also managed to get myself roped into cooking dinner with a couple of friends on wednesday so watch this space for foodies at home moment.