tapped and packed no. twenty six rathbone place

no.26 rathbone place

i passed by no.114 tottenham court road recently and was instantly taken by the large windows and the decor of the space. i also instantly connected the dots between it and no.26 rathbone place which i had seen on a recent walk through goodge street with o. unfortunately it has taken me a little while to get myself over to tapped and packed, the blame for which falls squarely on the fact that i am not located very near it. also, since o and i have freshly ground coffee at home (mostly monmouth) we don't really frequent coffee shops as much as we used to. nonetheless i think of myself as a collector of coffee places and cafes. i love unusual coffee shops with comfortable seating that lend themselves to extensive and lazy sundays with the observer newspaper. 

federation coffee

if you want a caffeine fix in brixton village go to federation coffee. there is much to love about federation coffee. the brightly stenciled sign board, the menu that is constructed in a colourful scrabble tile fashion and the flat whites and mocha's themselves. however, there is a slight problem and that is the lady who served us. now i know we all have bad days and i don't expect people to be perennially good tempered. but this lady, she looked like she would bite our heads off. so impatient and disgusted was she that i was almost afraid to tell her that we had changed our mind and wanted to stay and have our coffee in rather than take it away. 

the carrot cake tasted more like a carrot bread with an excellent frosting so we won't be ordering that again. the cheese cake on the other hand was just perfect. cheesy, not too creamy with a buttery biscuit base. the mocha's were excellent, with a really deeply roasted coffee complimented by the sweetness of chocolate. now, if we could just have better service next time, the experience would be perfect. 

but i have a feeling that i'll go back anyway, only because the coffee is really very good!

nude espresso

i spent an afternoon with a walking around bricklane and spitalfields. the more i visit this end of london the more i fall in love with its quirky character. in particular i love the street art and the changes in personality of the space as you walk through spitalfields to bricklane. we had lunch at nude espresso that afternoon. a had not tried a flat white so i figured that she must try one. for lunch we settled on a wild mushroom omelette with goats cheese and rocket and a slice of quiche with salad. 

tangerine dream café, chelsea physic garden

o and i love gardens. i had been counting on a sunny day to take him to the chelsea physic garden. sunday twenty sixth june saw the mercury at a real high in london and turned out to be the perfect day to go. founded in the sixteen hundred's the chelsea physic garden was an apothecaries garden and was meant to train apprentices in identifying plants and continued to be just that until the early eighties when it was opened to the public. i first heard of it from one of my yoga teachers in relation to the garden of world medicine whilst chatting about natural medicine. 

kipferl

kipferl, angel

it has been a while since macondo closed its doors in angel. i quite miss the huevos divorciados. in its place we now have kipferl - an austrian/viennese cafe. o and i met a there for a quick lunch on a sunday. both o and i had sausages - his was porky and mine was a plain old beef frankfurter. o's came with a side of sauerkraut, rye bread, mustard and grated cheese. mine came with the days salads - cucumbers and dill, potatoes and grated carrots. there isn't anything special about the food here. it's cheerful but in a very basic manner with the most minimal of seasonings. 

cafe vintage

hibiscus tea

we have a quirky new addition to our neighbourhood and it's called cafe vintage. o and i went there the day after we arrived back from pakistan whist nursing a particularly bad case of homesickness. in addition our first grocery had not arrived so there wasn't really anything to eat at home.  cafe vintage has a selection of sandwiches and some tea and cakes. i settled on a rare roast beef sandwich with horseradish and o had a tomato and mozzarella one. the bloomer with a oat crust was really good as was the quality of the ingredients. i wasn't able to finish the whole sandwich as it was quite large so o did the honours for me.

o had a filter coffee which he said was very good and i had a pot of hibicus tea. afterwards we split a scone with jam. i love the vintage crockery! i think it would be nice to come to cafe vintage on a warm sunny day and sit outside with a cup of tea and the newspaper. 

good for food

good for food

o isn't a huge fan of blackstock road at its finsbury park end. i have to admit that it isn't particularly savoury. it smells un fresh and looks rough around the edges. but there is a gem of a little cafe called 'good for food' which i really like. on this grey sunday o and i headed up to finsbury park to get the two five three to camden road. we were on our way to the camden garden centre to get ourselves a cactus. and before doing that we had brunch at good for food. for me it was the the tomato, mozzarella, rocket and pesto panini and for o a similar one but with the addition of salami. 

lemon monkey after a fruitless cactus shopping expedition

eighty one o six

o and i went to stokey's aptly named 'flowers n sixteen' in search of a cactus. o's had a cactus on his mind since a mishap with my mini-cactus last year. i had been in mourning for it (i suppose it was kind of a delayed mourning for eight-one-o-six) and the dessert in general. i had over time come to love scottsdale, az and our house there. it had been a gradual transition from hate to like to love. and then in twenty-o-eight everything changed as the recession bit into our family business. my parents moved back to pakistan and my brother followed after graduating from asu. my mother had bought me two mini cactus from az on one of her trips to london - one of which didn't survive the journey. the other one thrived quite happily until o decided (with all good intent) to re-pot the cactus. it died shortly after and remained on my window sill for quite a while in some crazy hope that it may just revive itself. it turned out in the end that british soil was too moist for the cactus. 

whitecross street market

go was in classes second week of march to prepare for his cfa (chartered financial analyst) exam. his version of the acronym is much less kosher as it involves expletives and rude terms. his classes take place in the city near moorgate. the monday that he started was commonwealth day. as this is a privilege holiday for me i decided to meet my other half at whitecross street market for lunch.  by half past noon the street was full of professionals standing in long queues waiting to be served for lunch. there is quite a wide choice - vegetarian, indian, mexican, italian, spanish and middle eastern to name a few. i was quite tempted by the venison steak sandwiches. although i told o he should go ahead and get whatever he wanted to he decided to have the same. i sometimes don't understand why he lands up having things that he isn't very keen on. he doesn't like sandwiches or anything un-toasted. he much prefers hot things. 

latte art at foxcroft and ginger

caravan

o and a and i met at caravan in exmouth market for brunch on sunday. as is the trend these days we couldn't make a reservation so we waited at the bar. it was very busy and we did have a considerable wait. what was nice though was that we were kept updated on the progress on our table. o ordered a filter coffee to start with. the bar was a wonderful place to wait at. the centre of the counter had a little structure which held ceramic coffee filters. every time a filter coffee was ordered hot water and a cup would be added to the structure and you could watch the coffee drip its way through. caravan is a family friend place as well and the music does well to mask the ruckus of children. 

foxcroft and ginger

soho seems to be the post code of choice for flat whites. the newest addition is foxcroft and ginger which interestingly enough is just a couple of yards from flat white itself. the milk bar is right around the corner.  foxcroft and ginger is quite different from the milk bar and nearby flat white. it's more open and spacious and is slightly brighter too. it has a slightly industrial feel on account of the high ceilings with exposed pipes. the sitting space is more comfortable and lends itself well to sitting around. so much so that i spent two hours alternating between reading, writing postcards and bbm-ing virtual flat whites to a in pakistan and s in dubai which was followed by a rather long description of flat whites themselves. if you don't already know see my two beans worth coffee blog for a fantastic description including latte art.

to return to foxcroft and gingers flat white, it's probably not the smoothest one i've had. the coffee here is sharp and robust and very strong. there is no doubt that the milk adds a very creamy and round note but it isn't mellow like at flat white or the milk bar. nonetheless, it's very good. and i loved the quirky manner of serving. a delicate porcelain cup with a gold rim sitting on a mismatched saucer with blue and white patterns. 

as i was heading to ashtanga post coffee i had to forgo the goodies on display but i am definitely coming back for the chelsea buns. the man at the table next to me was having one that was sliced thickly and smelt of cinnamon and citrus peel and was dark with currants. 

kaffeine

it’s a sunny friday and i’m not working. it’s too good a day to stay in doors so armed with a book, my moleskin and a pencil i set out to explore foodie london. there is kaffeine on great titchfield street, one of london’s new square mile serving coffee shops. aussie/new zealand owned/run coffee shops have remarkable similarities in the way they are done up. sharp angular wooden furniture, clean lines and the colour black as an accent. my long black comes served in a black cup. the coffee smells nutty and fresh with a lingering note of summer. i have it with a splash of milk and some brown sugar. it’s actually really really good. i drink it slowly as i read… and while i do so the smell of warm spice and baking wafts through the air…

square mile coffee caff's

so, square mile’s coffee seems to be all the rage in london right now. independent caff’s seem to be hooked onto square mile coffee beans. i happened to try tina, we salute you and the espresso room this week both of whom use square mile coffee. here’s what i think…and should you be wanting a list of more caff’s serving the same you can find one on the square mile blog. 

the espresso room which is in the heart of the bloomsbury, london’s leafy and literary borough is literally the size of an average sized room in a london flat. it’s high ceilings however, give the space depth and openness and the illusion of being much much bigger than it really is. there are shelves along one wall, quite high to reach that stock bags of coffee. there are also long slim wooden benches lined up against the wall and window. and you can breathe the coffee in the air. t and i were there friday afternoon at lunch between work… quite keen on trying this relatively new place i went with the flat white and she with a double macchiato. the coffee blend here is a bit like a lazy sunday. not hard edged but rounded and warm. its good on a friday afternoon in preparation for the beginning of the weekend but i’d probably need something stronger in the morning on weekdays. the barrista there recommended a piccolo if i wanted something stronger and t advised on a double shot of espresso in my flat white. in its perfection of coffee the espresso room’s service is a tad bit slow – so you should either be willing to wait in the interest of good coffee, or try and come at a time when there isn’t too long a queue.

saturday found o and i at tina, we salute you. i have to confess, what drew me to going here is the name. i was curious about tina. turns out tina is the woman on a poster who the owners of the café have a soft spot for. this place has a slightly grungy vibe. the music is loudish and there is a cacophony of voices. on this saturday afternoon the communal table is over run by mothers and their children. assorted bottles of preserve, runny honey, peanut butter and squeezy marmite sit around the table. o and i spent a considerable chunk of our afternoon here, reading the newspaper and running through some forms – along with coffee [a long black for me], a flat white for o, a slice of vicky’s sponge and some crumpets too. the coffee was very good and so was vicky’s sponge. it was a pity that we were so full because the sandwiches looked damn good. they were made with extra thick sliced bread. too sad tina’s isn’t nearer to me, but i may just be tempted to make my way there again.

yumchaa

i and i tried yumchaa yesterday. on the counter, there is a small army of white jugs which hold a small quantity of tea, waiting to be smelt. no doubt a tea lovers heaven and despair simultaneously. with so much to choose confusion reigns supreme. the trick therefore is to refrain from smelling too much. yumchaa's teas have innovative names. regent's park didn't do much for i and the chelsea garden smelt too pompous to me. soho spice was a tad bit too spicy. i chanced upon chai black and was taken. it is a strong black tea with notes of clove and cinnamon. meanwhile i had reached notting hill. once again a black tea but with notes of summer, flowery and fruity. 

green and fortune

 we’re sitting at green and fortune at king’s place – a space which is home to the guardian newspaper as well. my fiancé will have you know that this is the mecca for north london liberals who are in his words guardian reading snobs (aparently i am one of them). the seating is comfortable; dark chocolate leather sofas and low circular stools flank most of the atrium. a long table runs across the further end with black mesh chairs. there is also outdoor seating that looks out onto the regent’s canal. sitting out there it is easy for one to forget that they are in the heart of a bustling city as it is so uncannily quiet, save for a noisy solitary duck. 

the food is very reasonably priced. my free range chicken, bulgur wheat and seed salad, for all its simplicity has a lovely summery taste. the leaves are fresh, substantial strips of chicken, pale yellow flecks of bulgur wheat finished with poppy seeds.

coffee came in a tall mug. i decided to test the filter coffee, which to me a good indication of how the rest of the more dressed up coffees will be. the filter coffee was remarkably good. it was a strong blend with a slight dark almost treacle like taste. o’s sweet-tooth gave us a toffee cupcake with a very heavy swirl of icing, the taste of which was reminiscent of the icing my mum would make to ice cupcakes or spread thickly of cakes. lots of sugar creamed with butter and then flavoured in this case with toffee. the cupcake was moist, and tasted of brown sugar and a hint of cinnamon and vanilla. i’d definitely recommend coming here to unwind, with the views either of the canal or the brightly coloured modern offices of the guardian. while you are at it, it’s well worth checking what’s on display in the gallery space below.

eating around soho

mum was in london for seven days. only a foodie will understand my frustration that seven days in london isn't enough when there are so many places to dine at and so many cafes's to drink coffee at. so aside from our usual suspects i made sure that i added some things to our gastronomic adventures that even i hadn't done before. thursday evening turned out to be a real melange with three up notes and one down.

there was coffee at the london review of books – it was very rushed because it was near closing time but i wasn't going to let go of a monmouth opportunity. and that too with elegant biscuits. 

there is a veggie in london blog post that is a work in progress that prompted a visit to beatroot and although i liked the food it was nothing much to write home about. somewhere in between mum had her first visit to princi [the first one sans food and the second one with cannocini all on the same night].

i took mum to fernandez and wells the wine bar on lexington street. i'd only been here once before and really wanted to return and this time try not just the wine but the bar menu too. so with our red wine came cuttlefish marinated in its own ink and olive oil and served with a crusty white bread. fernandez and wells isn't for the faint hearted. carcasses of cured meat hang in the window and give the place a pungent smell of cured meat. add to this the strong cheeses stacked neatly one on top of the other behind the counter. the bar itself is tiny and almost always packed like a can of sardines. but somehow the wooden walls and the smallness of the space contain the decibels and allow for a comfortable flow of conversation. after a comfortable couple of hours and mother and daughter catching up we both decided to brave the london cold. moments later, we found ourselves at the doorstep of princi in a bid to add a sweet note to the end of our night out.

mum had her heart set on the pear and almond crostata but i personally wanted her to try the cannoncini which i know to be really scrumptious. this however required a fair bit of coaxing and i discovered several bites into her dessert and a second order later that her reservations arose out of bad experiences with american executions of the said dessert. in true american style cannoncini had been appropriated and jazzed up to give birth to the american cannoncini. mum ended up liking it so much we had to go for seconds. along with this i ordered a hot chocolate which was meant to be a sample experience as a good hot chocolate is hard to find. i have to say princi's hot chocolate was like velvet with a strong sweet chocolate flavour [it is made with valrhona drinking chocolate]. the only thing i can fault it for is that it isn't very thick but other than that it tasted very good.

our perfect sunday

sunny days in september are a prized rarity for any londoner. last sunday, it was sunny and warm, i needed to reconcile myself with the comforts of london after a month spent travelling around india and my best friend was happy to join me for a lazy day of art, shopping and, naturally, food explorations. i couldn't have asked for more...the perfect day was served. 

we started at fernandez and wells in beak street, a lazy and empty road on the borders of soho. i walked in dreaming of a classic italian breakfast, a simple croissant or a slice of cake, but the artistically arranged display tickled my appetite. after much debate, i went for an extra-large croissant filled with comté cheese, tomatoes and thickly-sliced ham, my best friend being slightly braver with a montgomery cheese and leek toast. as we waited for tea, coffee and food we found our spot by the window and soaked in the sunday morning atmosphere, uncluttered white walls behind us, sunlit pavement in front of our eyes, the smell of good food and a newspaper on the table. everything called for a slow pace and we were more than happy to indulge in girly conversations over excellent food. 

as the day moved on, we felt the need to feed our brains with some art at the photographers' gallery and some people watching around covent garden. a lot of walking and chatting later, we felt we deserved a reward...so we headed to scoop, back in the heart of covent garden, for a proper italian ice-cream in honour of the last summery day of the year. i had been looking forward to trying scoop, as it does appear to offer the most authentic italian ice-cream in london. the nocciola tonda delle langhe and pistacchio puro di bronte are flavours that remind me of classy gelaterie at home and i was therefore eager to see if the taste would live up to the names. walking into the shop was already an italian experience, the colours and the decor credible, the selection of cones and waffles familiar. only the orderly queue signalled the central-london location. overall, we could have been on a busy italian street, but in that case it wouldn't have been the best ice-cream parlour in town. the ice-cream turned out to be a bit watery, lacking the creaminess i was craving, but i'll suspend my judgement til my next visit (and therefore the next summer), as that might have depended on my slightly unconventional choice of flavours. 

while heading back to my best friend's old neighbourhood, if only to pop in our favorite kennard's and have a chat about the impossibility of meeting eligible bachelors in london, we realised it was still too early to part and put an end to our perfect day. so we enjoyed the luxury of a bus and returned to where we had started from, finally ticking a meal in china town off our “list of 101 things to do in london”. as we were trying to keep it classical, we went straight to gerrard street and quickly picked golden dragon, which we had never tried before but had heard about. having to wait five minutes to be seated in a half-empty restaurant seemed slightly bizarre, but wasn't such a big deal. the atmosphere was old-style china town, big rooms, plain decor, stained tablecloths and loud customers. which is exactly what we were hoping for. the dinner satisfied all our chinese food cravings, with the right balance of greasiness and spiciness, big plates who didn't make us feel ashamed of mixing prawns, chicken and noodles in the same meal. 

perfect days cannot be repeated, but london offers so much that i'm sure we'll find another fantastic selection of cafes and restaurants to sit in on our next lazy sunday. in the meantime, menus do tend to be repetitive, so i'll soon be going back to fernandez & wells or golden dragon for some more good food and relaxing times.

fernandez and wells: coffee bar

i’s return from india was christened by a hasty lunch at ‘the clock’ – a local café located on highbury grange. come the weekend we had chalked out a full day the beginning and closing note of which was food.

(we were supposed to indulge in jo’s cakes at tea-time at the photographers gallery café but were too sated from our fernandez and wells experience and had to forego it)
fernandez and wells has two branches just round the corner from each other. both are small spaces, constructed in a way that maximizes on natural light giving the spaces an open feel. the walls are white and the large shop windows allow natural light to flood in as well as a view of soho street life. we happened to visit on what in england is known as an indian summer day when large panels of sunlight threw itself into the café.
the closer to brunch timing of our breakfast excursion complicated the choices available. the muesli with dried berries and roasted almonds was as inviting as the greek yoghurt with heather honey and nuts… eventually i settled on a toasted poilâne sandwich which when presented itself oozed montgomery cheese accompanied by leeks and red onion. the choice dilemma extended to coffee as well. i ordered a stumpy (what to me is a new-fangled coffee) – the description offered was of a coffee that is stronger than a flat white, a sort of complex latte served in a small glass.

when it was served i was not disappointed. it had a dark nutty flavor with full cream milk and a flourish of fern in its foam. it was a real coffee treat.

the photographers' gallery cafe

i collect cafes. especially independent ones that don't have replicas sprouting up on every high-street. the photographers' gallery cafe has high ceilings and a linear seating made up square tables joined together to form a rectangle that cuts through the centre of the room. the walls, spotlit always have something interesting to offer. i am here to write my dissertation. i love writing at cafes. it gets my creativity going. it's got to do with the people and the space as well. there is the sporadic sound of the coffee machine. i had tea, not the best earl grey ever but my thick slice of lemon cake was sheer perfection. there was the sharp clean scent of citrus, a hint of grated zest and the whole thing just melted on the tongue. there is a nice selection of cakes (which made it hard to choose), apparently all supplied by Jo's who makes them at home. and there are also sandwiches which i haven't tried yet. however judging by the cake it's unlikely that the experience will be disappointing.