25 Feb 2014

STREET KITCHEN

London, UK

I went to the Bike Shed Motorcycle Show in Shoreditch, and had no idea the day would lead to an amazing culinary discovery. Within the premises of Shoreditch Studio I saw an airstream emitting smoke, and I immediately queued up as I hadn’t had breakfast. It was Street Kitchen, an amazing gourmet street food concept that serves simple, but delicious dishes around London. I had a Buffalo Bill, an aged beef burger with pickled red onions and cheddar served in a brioche bun. After the first bite I was sold. I don’t know if my judgement was clouded because I was so hungry, but I think this is the best burger I’ve had in London. The meat was cooked to juicy perfection, the onion had the ideal level of crunch to it, and the rest of the garnishes were impeccably balanced. It was the kind of burger that isn’t overpowered by the garnish, yet the pickled onion in particular brought something special to it. Looking back at the pictures now, it does look like a beautiful burger, so I don’t think it was just my hanger talking. At £7.50 it is great value for money, even including the entrance fee to the bike show. Street Kitchen is unfortunately tricky to find, with short time frames in permanent spots, so I haven’t been back for the burger yet. I downloaded their app in order to find out where they are at what time, but it wasn’t functional yet. It showed me that their nearest location was somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, so I uninstalled it. For now they are serving lunch in Finsbury Avenue Square from Monday to Friday, and at The Hatch in SW11. They also use The Miller’s kitchen by London Bridge to serve up hot dogs, BBQ wings and burgers. I hope I manage to go again soon.


     


Street Kitchen on Urbanspoon

16 Feb 2014

HONEST BURGERS

London, UK

Not new to the London burger scene, Honest Burgers serves one of the freshest burgers London has to offer. 'Fresh' and 'burger' are not usually words one would associate with one another, but this burger oozes with original flavours and great textures that make the honest experience quite novel and refreshing. With a growing fad obsession, what has started as a burger shack in Brixton Market, Honest Burgers now operates five locations across London. My latest trip to Honest Burgers was to their Soho outpost, located just off Dean Street. It came as no surprise that there was an hour-long queue for a table for two, which didn’t bother us as my friend and I had to run some errands around the area. Exactly sixty minutes later we got a call telling us our table was ready. Once seated, we browsed the chalk board with all the burgers available and we both opted for the Honest Burger minus the bacon. The burgers arrived quickly and came served with their signature French fries made with rosemary. The delicious burger surprisingly felt light although it left us comfortably full. Free of any fat, the meat was perfectly cooked to medium and tasted of quality, while the sesame bun was toasted to the right degree offering a good amount of crunchiness without being dry. The fries were also a big winner; the rosemary provided a stimulating uplift to the taste and made eating French fries seem a bit healthier. The hype surrounding Honest Burgers is not an exaggeration and it definitely goes down to be a contender as one of the best burgers in London. 

5 Feb 2014

THE KITCHEN

Boulder, CO, USA

I only had two days to spend in the charismatic mountain city Boulder in Colorado, and thus had to pick my meals carefully. After doing a lot of research, I settled on a recommendation from the Boulder-based blogger Use Real Butter, and went to The Kitchen. This community-based, non-profit restaurant uses locally sourced produce, and even recycles cooking oil to power the car of one of the employees. Located on the lively pedestrian Pearl Street, the interior follows the typical homey look of exposed brick and simple wood furniture. After some delicious bread and butter, I chose tomato soup as my starter, which was very simple, but tasty. There were many exciting choices on the menu, but one that stood out to me was the Hand Rolled Gnocchi with bacon and summer vegetables. This was a beautiful looking dish with unusual but brilliant flavours. I wish the bacon had been cooked for slightly longer, but apart from that the dish was perfect. My friend had a tomato salad and the steak, and he was reasonably content, but not as excited as I was about my food. The service was friendly, but they didn’t seem too happy with me taking pictures with a huge camera, which I guess is understandable. I had to eliminate a lot of photos from use in this post because there were angry faces staring right into the camera. I’m very happy I got to try the delicious The Kitchen while I was in Boulder, as I really feel like the restaurant’s philosophy exemplifies the attitudes of the town.








The Kitchen on Urbanspoon