The author and broadcaster on a burger obsessive in Cambridge, a Jewish-style deli in Hoxton and a “phenomenal” Chinese supermarket
EATING OUT
Steak & Honour
4 Wheeler St, Cambridge CB2 3QB, UK; www.steakandhonour.co.uk
“Leo [Riethoff] makes a brilliant burger. He’s a true obsessive and their food is fantastic.”
Seven Days
66 Regent St, Cambridge CB2 1DP, UK; Facebook
“I don’t think anybody realises just how good this place is. It’s still run by the same Chinese family doing Szechuan food in a way that’s really quite outstanding. It’s very, very good.”
The Punter
3 Pound Hill, Cambridge CB3 0AE, UK; www.thepuntercambridge.com
“Cambridge has some very good gastropubs, and this one’s our local. It’s a great gastropub. The chef changed recently and the portions are a bit bigger and the spicing is a lot better”.
Monty’s Deli
227-229 Hoxton St, London N1 5LG, UK; www.montys-deli.com
Recently-opened Jewish-style deli on Hoxton St. “Lib [Tim’s daughter and regular reviewing partner] and I loved Monty’s Deli. The brisket is pretty much indistinguishable from jelly: you just need to wave a piece of cutlery at it. There probably isn’t quite enough salt for the traditionalists, who might also raise an eyebrow at sukemono pickles, but it’s bloody good food”.
St. John Bread & Wine
94-96 Commercial Street, London, E1 6LZ, UK; www.stjohngroup.uk.com/spitalfields/
The second branch of Fergus Henderson’s iconic restaurant. “I have to include Fergus in here somewhere. Bread & Wine just does the informal brasserie thing so perfectly for me that it has to my preferred choice. And they do a great breakfast too”.
Andrew Edmunds
46 Lexington St, Soho, London W1F 0LP; www.andrewedmunds.com
A 30-year-old Soho institution. “What’s special about it? Nothing, really. But it’s my favourite place to eat in London. It has a perfection that’s evolved slowly, but there it is: they don’t have a star chef, and the staff have been there for years.”
BUYING IN
Cho Mee Supermarket
110 Mill Rd, Cambridge CB1 2BD, UK; 01223 354399
“It’s phenomenal Chinese supermarket. It’s as good as anything in Chinatown in London.”
Al-Amin
100A-102A Mill Rd, Cambridge CB1 2BD; www.alamin.co.uk
“This is a wonderful, old-fashioned sort of place: what they used to call a continental deli. I guess it’s North African or Levantine, and it’s got the best spice rooms I’ve ever been in. Excellent fruit and veg too.”
The Gog Magog Hills Farm Shop
Heath Farm, Babraham Rd, Stapleford, Cambridge CB22 3AD, UK; www.thegog.com
“A lovely, posh farm shop, with all the organic produce you could possibly want looking glossy and beautiful.”
The Art of Meat
45 Arbury Rd, Cambridge CB4 2JQ, UK; 01223 350950
“This is hands down my favourite butchers, anywhere in the world. It’s run by a lovely bloke called John West, who was a brilliant microbiologist (he’s also a champion French stick fighter, so goes to all these competitions and jumps into the ring with Spetznaz commandoes).
One day, he quit the lab and bought an old working-class butcher in the corner of a local council flat court. I can go in there and chat about a piece of meat he’ll source, or 300lbs of meat I want for the restaurant, or something I’ll want for some really obscure Peruvian dish, and he’ll do it, and it will be done brilliantly. At the same time, a little old lady will come in from the estate and she’ll open her purse and buy a single slice of ham.
He’s got a rack in the front window of value-add products that he creates, like minced pork made into a patty with a piece of bacon around the outside stuffed with an apricot. And he’s made that out of leftover material, so he can afford to do it.
The art of being a great butcher is the art of knowing how to cut for your audience in an economical way. I used to go to the Ginger Pig in London quite a lot, and I remember them once literally giving me belly pork. They couldn’t sell it, because everything they were selling at that point in Marylebone was finished, fatless, in tiny portions. And he’d have kilos of other stuff.
So that’s what John does. He has excellent apprentices who he is training, and the original owner still works for him as a master butcher. He’s such a humane and brilliant and enthusiastic nerd: an absolute profound nerd, and I love him.”