What we've been eating - March

A sudden cold snap in the air meant one thing: pies! What could be better on a cold winter's day than a hot mince and cheese pie?



Having made our own demi glace a few days earlier, we were keen to try out a good Kiwi mince pie. Rather than a pastry top, we decided to made a buttery potato-top: that mainstay of a good Kiwi school lunch.



The gravy was absolutely luscious, with a thick, unctuous texture made velvety by the home-made demi glace. We ground some lean topside roughly for the mince filling, and topped it with sharp cheddar and mashed potato.



Absolutely divine.



Golden crust. I'm drooling as I type this...



We've also been experimenting with smoking duck on an outdoor bbq. The result is a rich, aromatic duck breast. Absolutely delicious.



Cured for a day in kosher salt, then washed, dried, and hot (warm) smoked for two hours over apple chips, these two pieces of duck came out almost slightly roasted. A quick sear to render the fat, and we achieved pink, moist, and extremely flavourful duck. No exaggeration, this was the best duck we'd tasted.



These photos weren't actually of our best attempt - which we had scoffed up before managing a single snap.

A return to Guest Night at New

New College
Oxford



Having raved about our steak at a guest night in a previous post, we took the leap and signed up for the end of term dinner - promising to be a fancy affair.

New was going 'Japanese' with the above menu promising... well... probably too much.



Condiment platters arrive: sweet chili sauce, gari (pickled ginger), and little fish filled with soy sauce.



First up, H's vegetarian platter. Vegetable tempura in the far distance (pumpkin, we think), vege maki roll, rice topped with half a quail's egg, cucumber and gari.



Non-vegetarians were served the above: prawn tempura, prawn sushi, smoked salmon, cucumber roll and what we think is a tuna maki rolled in shredded nori.

The rice was hard and bland, while the fish was... oddly flavourless. The attempt at tempura was admirable, but was probably closer to fish & chips batter.



An unplanned middle course arrived: vegetarian soup. Surprising, as college are known to cut costs where ever possible, so unannounced courses tend not to occur. It turns out that they probably had dishwater that they needed to dispose, and we were the recipients. A medley of random vegetables combined with shiitaki mushroom stems (tougher than jerky, and much less tasty) came in a thin vegetal broth that was most likely made from boiling carrot together with cabbage. Totally inedible.



The main course of tonkatsu, yakituri [sic] and rice. What can I say? the rice is of the Uncle Ben variety - bland and hard, and as no sauce-based food was served, impossible to swallow. The 'yakitori' was just grilled chicken with no sauce, and no seasoning. Chewy, bland, hard. The tonkatsu was more similar to a poorly executed schnitzel - no real complaints, but again dry and bland, although it was about all that we could eat.



The vegetarian option - an udon casserole (heaven help the man who thought of that idea) was declared a mess. Gloopy noodles sat in essentially the same mix that had previously been served as soup, topped with an egg. As H doesn't like egg, this was pretty much declared inedible as well.



The side servings of boiled pumpkin and spinach added some texture, and (thank goodness) a tiny amount of moisture to the meal.



Dessert turned out to be a surprisingly edible 'cheesecake', which was in fact more like a baked cottage cheese mix topped with a lychee.



Served with mango sauce (read: canned mango pulp), it was surprisingly good.

All in all, this was worse than the first effort documented here. For £17 per head, this is not good eats.

Edamame

Edamame
15 Holywell Street
Oxford
OX1 3SA

Edamame is a tiny little home-style Japanese restaurant in Oxford, with a cult following and odd opening hours.

Run by a couple with children from the downstairs conversion from an apartment, the hours are short, and the places closes early. Serving cheap and cheerful Japanese cooking with a simple menu and Sushi every Thursday, this place is a hit with the local student population: as evidenced by the length of the queue that winds out into the street.



This fateful Thursday, we were joined by C and M, for our first ever sushi night at Edamame's in the 5 years I'd been in Oxford.



A and I initially ordered a selection of tamago (egg), amaebi (raw sweet shrimp), squid (raw), octopus, tuna, salmon and poached shrimp.



C had the salmon and tuna set.




Our order of salmon roe gunkan maki were delicious. The little pearls of slightly salty salmon eggs bursting deliciously when pressed on the palate.



Tuna and salmon sashimi. Thinly sliced, but so fresh and sweet it was definitely worth it.



More salmon: although the knife work does not match professional sushi chefs in specialised restaurants, the cuts were good and the flavour of the fresh fish delicate and creamy.



More sushi! a repeat of the sweet shrimp, some tuna, salmon and unagi (grilled eel).




Edamame serves real wasabi for a small price (50p), but our host dissuaded us from it, telling us that they had replaced the powdered wasabi that day with 'wasabi with bits' - a new product that they were trialing. This turned out to be pungent and delicious. Definitely better than the usual bright green and chalky mess that's served in large pyramids.



We always love our miso soup...



A brief swirl and the spring onion, wakame and tofu cubes appear.



C had the Asahi black, which he likened to a light porter, but declared to be weird coming out of a can with funny writing all over it. He's a bit like that.



The damage: a fairly heavy dose of sushi and sashimi for A and me, with C and M being more sensible with their orders (not being gluttons like us), with two beers and a large sake came to just over £70 sans tip. Steep for this little joint, but not bad for what we were served. Their usual dinner menu is cheaper, and well worth a visit.

A return to Paddyfields

Paddyfields
39-40 Hythe Bridge Street
Oxford
OX1 2EP



Having been to Paddyfield's only moments (it seemed) earlier, we return with an eclectic group of friends for a long-overdue meet up, and some greasy, greasy duck.



Tuesday night is buffet night. Everything is prepared when ordered - no troughs here - but the selection is fairly euro-centric, and the majority is deep fried.



First up - three ducks were sacrificed to the team of around 17. Deep fried into a crispy caramelised nugget and ceremonially shredded at the table betwixt fork and spoon, the duck turned out to be a surprisingly good rendition of a dish unknown in China. The skin was crisp and the fat was rendered. The duck itself had retained moisture and was totally delicious. Greasy - but of course, it was deep fried! - even though a fried dish, it didn't overwhelm. Wrapped in thin pancakes and doused in sweet sauce, this could certainly be healthy if consumed in moderation. Did we consume in moderation? Ha!



Next came the assorted entrees. Not my favourite under any circumstances, and not my favourite here. The satay skewers were edible, but salt and pepper chicken wings were over salted, greasy and tough. The ribs were coated in some impenetrable good, and the spring rolls lacked filling. Boo.



Mains were devoured with gusto, so the photoset is incomplete. My favourite dish, and it often is at Chinese restaurants, is the 'monks vegetables': a collection of whatever greens are hanging around the back of the fridge. Crisp, refreshing, and totally what I needed after the earlier grease fest.



A passable fried noodles in soy sauce. But this is a buffet! Don't get bogged down by the gratuitous starch!



Beef in black bean sauce. Where would westernised Chinese cookery be without this stalwart offering?



Ahhhh, sweet and sour pork. I spoke too soon. This is truly the keystone to Chinese food.



Mongolian lamb. This confused me, somewhat, as outside of Britain I had never come across deep fried lamb belly served on fried rice vermicelli. It was actually rather good, and on a day when I hadn't previously consumed my monthly allowance of grease, it would have been excellent. Flavoured with cumin and soy, it was crisp and crunchy - utterly delicious, but far too rich given the preceding dishes.

A short aside: Mongolian food is often marked by quick-fried meats and veges (probably true), as a nomadic lifestyle meant scarce fuel, leading to quick, hot applications to cooking, such as flash stir frying. Large vats of boiling fat was probably not available to them (imagine trekking across Asia with vats of grease in tow), putting a lie to this dish being remotely Mongolian.



Mystery meat and vegetables. I think it was pork with selection of vegetables in a black pepper sauce, or something. Ho hum.

The damage: at £12 for all you can eat grease, this was a fairly good offering. The food is not as good as Pink Giraffe's £16 deal, but if you're looking to stock up on three day's worth of calories for as cheaply as possible (which is exactly what some of us wanted), while retaining some dignity (which none of us managed), this is the way forward.

Paddyfield

Paddyfields
39-40 Hythe Bridge Street
Oxford
OX1 2EP



One of the better (read, more authentic) Chinese restaurants in Oxford, Paddyfields has an eclectic menu of Chinese favourites, celebrating all the pieces of meat only normally seen inside a sausage (where it is safely hidden from sight), interspersed with a few British favourites such as 'deep fried pork ribs in sticky sauce', 'deep fried pork in sticky sauce' and 'deep fried chicken in sticky sauce' for those who believe that cod suffocated in batter and fried into submission is the height of cuisine.



Returning from a successful weekend away, we pass Paddyfields at around 5pm, and break the cardinal rule of morning tea by having it at dinner time.



The obliging host assured us that they would still serve dim sum at this late hour, and within moments of us being seated, tea was poured and a menu was pondered.



Taro puffs stuffed with pork. Unfortunately, without the flash this steaming, crispy, pork-filled and flaky ball of goodness is impossible to see. Basically, it's a croquette of sweet pork filling wrapped in mashed taro and fried. The taro expands rapidly leaving crisp tendrils of caramalised starch - think the finest fries imaginable.



The steamed ribs with black beans were tender, chewy, and flavourful. Definitely made to be savoured, the meat itself is hardly worth the effort, but the self-sauced pieces of pork rib are a delight to work on.



Beef manifolds in black beans. A similar presentation to the ribs, but with a slightly sweet sauce that translates to BBQ on the menu, but not in reality. The manifolds retain their sweetness and crunch, despite being cooked long and slow, evidenced by its tenderness.



Prawn dumplings - a staple - turned out large and juicy with whole pieces of prawn. One of the better examples in Oxford.



Similarly the siu mai were freshly prepared for us, despite the late hour, and were a chewy and bouncy texture that both A and I love. The pork was fresh, and not overwhelmed by other flavours.



Beef cheung fen - a departure from our usual prawn option. The fen was a good texture - not at all heavy, while the beef was that slightly curious, but (to us) pleasant crunchy texture. How do they get beef to become crunchy? I shall never know.



The phoenix claws (ha!) in black beans was very good, but slightly cold by the time it was delivered. Our rather pleasant host joked that we were addicted to black beans - although this a tad unfair since they served everything with the little fermented rat turds. The sauce for each was different, despite the beans, and this was served in a sweet and slightly sticky 'BBQ' sauce.



The damage: around 8 dishes with tea and service for a total of £25. Not bad for an afternoon meal to perk oneself up.