Cuba Libre

Located between a string of bars, restaurants, and boutique stores is this little taste of Havana with its promises of authentic food and relaxed atmosphere.


Cuba Libre gets a thumbs down and a major complaint is the significantly high price for sub-par food in small portions. Items on the menu were varied, but hinted more toward Spanish than Cuban cuisine. The Platano Maduro con guacamole or fried ripe plantain gratin served with guacamole at over £5 had a small side salad with a simple, tasteless vinaigrette, a small slice of fried plantain, and a big dollop of guacamole thickly spread across the thin plantain. The plantain was lovely, the salad plain, and the guacamole tasted of unripe, flavorless avocado. £2.60 per individual tapa was overpriced for the sparse serving you get on a wooden plate the size of an ashtray. The calamares were overcooked resulting in a rubbery texture and the sauce for the "patatas bravas" equivalent was not enough to balance the potatoes. The mushrooms with spinach mousse had potential, especially if served with rice. However a side order of rice was £4.45. How much rice are you actually getting for a fiver, especially since rice is a cheaper commodity?!?!? You should expect to get the whole pot! The only redeeming quality of the menu is the way the meat is cooked - incredibly tender and practically falling apart, but unfortunately bland and lacked the excitement commonly found in Cuban cuisine.

Perhaps better for happy hour or other drinks, dining at Cuba Libre is highly advised against unless you want to risk the chance that the day you dine the food will actually be worth its high price.

Cuba Libre. 72 Upper Street, Islington Green, London N1 0NY. CubaLibreLondon.com

Manze Pie & Mash Shop

To sample a traditional London meal of pie and mash, a visit to Manze - the oldest eel and pie shop in business today - is a must. The menu is simple of pie, mash (or mashed potatoes), jellied eels, and a choice of liquor or gravy. You can order a single pie and mash (single serving of pie and a single serving of mashed potatoes) for £2.80 for a satisfying meal or go as far as double pie double mash, which will quell even the most extreme of hunger pains.

The mashed potato is scraped onto the side of the plate, pie set next to it, and a generous pouring of gravy or liquor ladled on top of the pie, dammed in by the mash. The pies are made with minced beef, but for vegetarians, a soya based pie filling is used. The meat inside is very tender and flavorful. Liquor is actually a type of parsley sauce with a lightly starchy flavor from the roux. It is traditionally made from the water kept from eel preparation. The subtle flavor of the liquor goes well with the potato mash and the pie. You can also add your own chili malt vinegar as desired.

Manze is worth a visit south of the river for lunch, as it is a short distance from major tourist destinations. Celebrities including David Beckham are said not to be able to resist a pie from Manze's when in the area. Pie and mash from Manze's could be said as a notable requirement to complete your London experience.

M. Manze: The Noted Eel & Pie Houses. 87 Tower Bridge Road, Bermondsey, London, SE1 4TW. www.manze.co.uk

Traktieris

On a quiet street in the Art Nouveau District on the outer rim of the Old City centre and main tourist area is Traktieris, a friendly Russian restaurant playing Russian folk music and adorned with extensive wall murals. Outside, the menu is listed only in Russian and Latvian, but inside, the menu has been kindly translated to rough English. The servers were very kind in explaining the dishes to those unfamiliar to Russian cuisine.



Portions are huge and the prices are even better for its value. On the menu, you can choose from a large variety of Russian specialties. The notable item for the vegetarian is the eggplant salad with fried cheese. The dumplings were not too starchy and the meat inside flavorful. The food tastes homemade to match the rustic interior, but the highlight is in the extensive vodka list to sample from. All the shots fell around the 1.00LVL range enabling you to try simple vodkas up to the more unique flavors like cucumber and cowberry.

Popular with locals and Russians alike, Traktieris is definitely worth visiting while in Riga.

Traktieris. 8 Antonijas, Riga, Latvia

Double Coffee

So far, the best place where the food that is served actually matches the food pictured in the menu - even down to the design of the plate!

Double Coffee offers international cuisine suitable for a budget. The menu is presented in the format of a small, glossy newspaper with pages of dishes and coffee drinks with their respective photos and notes on item variety (sandwiches or clubs, for example). The portions are satisfying and tastes as good as it looks. Really. Service is not exactly the speediest as food arrives about 20-30 minutes after you place your order. For lack of decision of a destination, Double Coffee is always a dependable and reliable choice for good food and drinks. The franchise has extended to Lithuania, Estonia, and Ukraine.

Double Chorizo

Among the numerous and crowded stalls in the Borough Market is the outdoor grill connected to Brindisa, the local purveyor of Spanish foods. During lunch hours, especially on Thursday and Friday with City workers migrating south of the river for a tasty and hassle-free lunch and even moreso on a sunny day, the Borough Market is a madhouse. People are milling about eager for samples or debating which stall will best satisfy their hunger. The decision already seems outright near impossible with each stall offering something almost entirely unique to the rest of the market at extremely high quality. But if your mood is for a simple taste of Spain and easy to get to, then perhaps the grill at Brindisa standing slightly on the outer rim of the market with a queue significantly shorter (or moving quicker) than those more inside the building will be the best choice. It is the minimalist and meaty chorizo roll attracting a crowd.


The queue at the stall moves quickly with the assembly line of grill, pay, and serve operating at full steam. The roll is toasted drizzled with olive oil before piled on with a single or double serving of chorizo, argula / rocket, and roasted red peppers and handed to you in a napkin. The combination is beautiful with the spicy richness of hot chorizo, peppery hints in arugula, and the sweetness of the red pepper. In addition to serving as a vessel, the roll is a great sponge to soak up any of the extra oils from the chorizo and peppers. As a mobile choice, you can easily enjoy the chorizo roll while browsing the other stalls at the market.

Brindisa at Borough Market. The Floral Hall, Stoney Street, Borough Market, London SE1

Mandalay

The unassuming and informal interior should not serve as deterrence from entry to the exotic cuisine prepared within at Mandalay. The Burmese cuisine has flavors likened to Chinese, Indian, and Thai expressed mainly though stir-fry and curry dishes. Although small, tables fill up quickly with diners, especially towards the weekends so reservations are recommended.

One of the most recommended items by word of mouth is the coconut curry, which goes very well with the coconut rice. The coconut flavor is more savory than sweet with a hint of spiciness. As the curry is has less viscosity, it is best absorbed in rice as the noodles do not take in as much of the liquid.

Portions are satisfying and accommodate your budget. This is an excellent place to have a relaxed, informal meal on a budget and embark on a Burmese gastronomical adventure.

Mandalay Burmese Restaurant. 444 Edgware Road, London W2 1EG, England

Csirke Paprikás

You could argue that the national spice of Hungary is paprika because it is present in about every dish. The favorite Hungarian expression of the spice is in csirke paprikás, a chicken stew with a lot of sweet paprika, cream or sour cream called tejföl with nokedli or a sort of gnocchi-like noodle. The chicken is served cut on the bone and very tender. The paprika flavor is more sweet than spicy, but not overwhelming with the sour cream to complement the pungency of the sauce. You can mix the paprika sauce with the noodles at your leisure, but it is also good with rice.


The dish was sampled at Stex Ház, a restaurant popular with locals and internationals alike for good and traditional national food at good prices. On weekends, you might have to wait about 10 minutes to be seated at a table. The wide menu selection covers traditional Hungarian food as well as international favorites. Beers on tap include the Dreher, Pilsner Urquell, and Paulaner Hefe-Weissbier. If you feel the need, there is also a casino at the back where you can try your hand at winning.

Stex Ház. Budapest VIII., József krt. 55-57. a Baross utcánál. www.stexhaz.hu

Manzara - Borek

En route to Portobello Road, the window displays at Manzara catch the eye with its varieties of pide and borek lining the window shelves. Turkish borek at Manzara is a pastry made of phylo dough filled with spinach and feta cheese. Outside, borek may be found with a number of differnt fillings. It is a simple food made for take away for easy consumption while walking.

£2.95 will get you an order of borek for take away. They will stick it back in the oven for you to heat up nicely and put it in a paper bag with a napkin. The filling is adequate and tasty, though the dough is not necessarily cooked the way through (the least bit soggy or uncooked closer to the filling) while delicately flaky on the outside. Very tasty and light.

Manzara. 24 Pembridge Road, Notting Hill, W11 3HL

Spicy (Hot) Chocolate Cookies

In celebration of all that is good (or bad) about Valentine's Day, you need a good cookie to match. Commercial Valentine's Day has put so much emphasis on chocolate that it would be an obvious flavor option. The cookie needed something hot to mirror the the burning desire of love or the fire of fury from love turned to hate. Not just a spicy flavor, but heat. You should taste the sweet richness of chocolate ending with heat drifting up the back of your throat. Thus, the hunt for a spicy hot cookie began.

Most recipe searches resulted in a spiced cookie rather than one with real heat, best done by chili, peppers, or infused oil. Keep in mind that the aim is heat and not the flavor of something hot. As a fan of the chewy cookie variety, the recipe was altered to replace some of the white sugar with dark brown sugar (in this case muscovado). The extra heat added at the end is to remind you of the fires burning within your own heart. This cookie with its lovely chocolate goodness is slightly chewy with a consistency inside reminiscent of a fudgy brownie followed by subtle heat creeping up your throat and...Success!!!

Spicy Hot Chocolate Cookies
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1 big pinch crushed red chili flakes
2 dashes ground cinnamon
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 bar chocolate, chopped - or - 1/2 cup chopped chocolate
Sprinkles (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter with electric mixer or whisk until creamy. Add sugars and beat until light in color, 3 to 4 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add egg and beat 1 minute. Add salt, cocoa powder, chili powder, chili flakes, and cinnamon and mix in gently, a few stirs. Mix in flour until dough is made before adding chopped chocolate.

Put some sprinkles on a plate. Make balls of about 1 1/2 inch diameter and press ball onto sprinkles to flatten dough and adhere sprinkles. Place onto ungreased baking sheet and bake for about 11 minutes. Cool on racks.

Ginger Cookies with Lemon Icing

After testing out a chewy chocolate ginger cookie recipe, the chocolate chunks made the cookie a little too rich. Perhaps something lighter to go with the gingery cookie instead. What else does go well with ginger? Maybe something light like lemon? With the afternoon cuppa, sometimes a nice biscuit is enjoyed with the tea. Twinings has a popular tea selection that would also go well with the cookie: lemon and ginger or "LG" as it is affectionately called. Let's get on it.

Molasses is not a common commodity in the UK so a substitute had to be made. Substitute 1 cup of molasses with 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar and 1/4 cup water. Better than using dark brown sugar (though containing molasses) is muscovado sugar, which has a stronger molasses flavor due to the addition of sugar cane juice. Varities sold in stores include "light muscovado" and "dark muscovado" and tends to be darker than its respective sugar relatives.


Reviews of the original recipe used declared that the ginger flavor was too strong and overpowering, which was most likely due to the fresh ginger. Fresh ginger was omitted and replaced with slightly more ground ginger. The subtlety of a ginger cookie should not overwhelm the palate as you sip your tea. You are trying to enjoy both at the same time. Thus, the chocolate chunk aspect was also removed and replaced with a lemon royal icing.

The cookie is very light and refreshing, but sweet enough to satisfy the sugar tooth. The lemon icing also gave the cookie a nice zing.

Chewy Ginger Cookies with Lemon Icing (adapted)
7 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3 somewhat heaping teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses (or substitute)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa. In a separate bowl, beat butter and grated ginger until whitened, about 4 minutes. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add molasses; beat until combined.

In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water. Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in baking-soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats. Roll dough into 2-inch balls and roll dough balls in granulated sugar. Put on baking sheets about 2 inches apart and bake until surfaces crack slightly, about 18 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Drizzle lemon icing over cookie.


Lemon Icing
Confectioner's Sugar
Lemon Juice
Slight splash of milk

Combine confectioner's sugar, splash of milk, and a small squeeze of lemon juice and mix to desired consistency. The less liquid you use, the thicker the icing will show up and the quicker it will dry.