Pham Sushi

I had a great evening on Friday, after a slightly rushed tube journey to the Barbican, where I tucked into some delicious sushi at Pham Sushi, before seeing some extraordinary mime at the Barbican Theatre - Du Goudran et des Plumes.

I'd never heard of Pham Sushi before, but it had some great food, and was just tucked away a road or two from The Barbican Centre.

We started off with some nigiri - sea bream, mackerel, ebi (sweet prawn), and toro (fatty tuna). They were all great, especially the mackerel, which had a great texture and subtle taste, and the sweet prawn, which was deliciously sweet. The fatty tuna was slightly disappointing - a bit chewy, but the rice was fantastic. It was both sweet and acidic, and of perfect stickiness!

The tempura was also lovely, with a light batter, and tasty veg and prawns. I wasn't particularly impressed with the nasu dengaku (miso and aubergine), which was a bit soggy, and although the presentation of the hot dishes was poor (we went to the bar, so they took the hot dishes from the main restaurant in foil boxes, and served them as that), the soup made up for it.

I had the vegetable tempura soup, with soba noodles, absolutely fantastic. The broth had a great tang to it, and the soba noodles, which I normally don't have (ramen are my favourite), went very well. All in all, it was a lovely meal, and I'll certainly consider going back next time I go to the Barbican.

As for the play, that was also fantastic! The best piece of theatre I've seen for a while, certainly. The skill and acrobats were marvellous - it was even tiring to watch! I also admired the symbolism of human impact on the Earth, and the sounds were gripping and intense!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

I've had a very tasty last couple of weeks, starting off of course with Christmas lunch. As a vegetarian, I didn't have any of the traditional turkey, but chose a recipe from the BBC Good Food website, and made it into more of a tart. It was delicious, especially with crunchy pecan nuts on top! We also decided to not opt for the traditional Christmas cake, instead experimenting with a quite ambitious Chocolate bombe, which consisted of home-made "cheat's" fruity ice cream (frozen cream) surrounded by beautifully buttery brioche bread and enrobed in dark chocolate! Very tough to cut, but also tough to beat!

On New Year's Day, feeling adventurous, I gave my mum a quick crash-course in rolling maki sushi, while she created a delicious aubergine dish from the Nobu cookbook. The sushi was delicious, with fresh tuna and salmon from our local fishmonger's - Moxon's. Unfortunately (or not, depends how you look at it...) I cooked WAY too much rice, and after determining to finish it whilst at its freshest, I could hardly move! The baked aubergine with bonite and dashi ponzu was also a great success. I particularly loved the way that the bonito flakes danced around on the hot aubergine!

Another recent great meal was a squash, ricotta, and sage lasagne, which finished with a wonderful crispy top, which was great to crunch through, and the combination of squash, ricotta and sage was certainly something to try again.

And just this evening, I was delighted by a lovely savoury tart tatin, with goat's cheese, caramelised red onions and chestnut mushrooms in puff pastry. It was so yummy that we polished it off before I could take a photograph! The mushrooms were great in the tart, and not something that I would normally associate with one.