Oxford farmers' market

Farmers' market
Gloucester Green
alternate Thursdays every month



Apostrophy madness aside, the market is a great place to buy fresh meat from farmers, giving better choice than the usual weekly Wednesday market, and with a few interesting stalls that outstrips the usually excellent covered market.




The hog roast man is usually there, and aside from excellent roast pork baps, he also sells fresh bacon and pork ribs.



Fresh soup is always to be had.



Local ales.



Masses of crackling: the hog will usually come to 200-250 portion.



This lady sells amazing goats' cheese. Garlic, herb, pepper, it's all excellent.



Small batch farm-made dairy products.



Not being a sucker for meaningless adjectives like 'farm made', these cheeses spoke for themselves. The smoked cheddar was singularly outstanding.





The pork man (one of many) sells excellent tongue.



Blue veined brie.



By 12 noon the doughnuts have all sold out.



The mushroom man sells interesting varieties: shiitaki, shimeiji, oyster and the best giant portobellos we've tasted.



We took home one of the cute little punnets of beets. Watch this space for our beet-growing antics!



All sorts of vegetables I never thought to grow at home: including sweetcorn!



This man sells brilliant mutton, and also game when in season as well as grain-fed duck, smoked chicken and also venison.











Mmm, smallgoods...



Little Whittenham lamb, as well as beef from a local farm every alternate market.



The breads aren't my favourite: I prefer our local baker at Gatineau.

A return to Inn Noodle - Bayswater

Inn Noodle
106 Queensway
London
W2 3RR



Having previously mistaken the place as being called 'Noodle Inn' (a far more sensible name), we return to Inn Noodle with the fabulous V in tow on a wet spring evening. Wine was on the cards, and probably shenanigans too. Definitely shenanigans.



Orders took a while to arrive, which mattered not, as we had much to catch up and understandable as there was a long queue for takeaways by the door. A's only adamant choice was the gai lan sauteed with garlic. This was almost perfect, with a sweet crunch and soft wilted leaves, the dish could only have been improved by having garlic cooked with it, instead of being topped with the pre-fried garnish. Not even close to haute cuisine, but why should it be? This is probably the most delicious way to inject green into your day.



Having texted V earlier in the evening to let her know of our imminent arrival, she had responded: "you know I have a one tracked mind", further inquiry on what that track might be, elicited: "prawns!"

Ok, in a 'real' restaurant with table cloths and menus without photos, I might have quibbled about the prawns in chili and garlic. A certainly didn't care for the slightly doughy batter, and we wondered if the gluten to starch ratio was too high. However, for a simple eatery, the prawns were big, tasty, and doused in fiery fried chili: grease+salt+spice = happy.




Wontons in vinegar/soy and chili oil. Delicious. These were actually incredibly good wontons, and superior to the ones we tried at the excellent Baozi Inn.



The highlight of the evening (overshadowing even the effervescent V), was the Cantonese roast duck. Not realising there was a choice, we received the boned version. Ever a gnawer of bones, I was disappointed to be deprived of my usual entertainment, and doubly so when I tasted the duck. The meat was plump and juicy, and tasted of soft yielding duckiness. The skin was crisp, oh so crunchy, with a melting layer of fat below. The soy sauce was savoury and salty, but balanced the sweetness perfectly. This is, without doubt, the single best Cantonese duck I have had in the UK so far, since I moved over in 2003.



Some shanghai siu mai, just out of interest. Unlike the yum cha cousin, the filling is made with glutinous rice. This version wasn't like mum's; the filling was almost entirely rice, soaked in sauce. Good, but not great.



Pot stickers - like the wontons, the filling was exceptional. The wrapper was thick, but in a good way, holding together the filling and a pocket of juice akin to xiao long bao - soup dumplings. We actually queried whether these were pot stickers or simply jiao zi, as no evidence of frying was apparent. On the underside (not pictured), a light brown surface had been achieved, but not to our satisfaction.



The damage: an eclectic selection of the weird and wonderful for distraction while chatting to a good friend. Add a bottle of wine and it came just shy of £50 for three. Given that the local pub in Bayswater (a horrible place) was charging close to £20 for house wine, this seems like a pretty good deal. Plus, the duck can't be praised enough.

Four Seasons - London

Four Seasons
12 Gerrard Street
London
W1D 5PR



Apparently once the home of the best roast duck in London, we try the menu at Four Seasons.



Seated upstairs, we were in close proximity to their slop buckets. Although no noisome odour was apparent, the leftovers of many an other meal wasn't the best appetiser we could wish for.



Tea was duly served.



Aubergine hotpot - braised aubergine with minced pork. The aubergine was nicely braised, losing all of its 'raw' taste.



The sauce was savoury and generic, but certainly tasty. A good rendition of a memorable comfort food.



Braised (twice cooked) pork on taro.



There were two versions of this on the menu: taro, or mei gan cai (a dried fermented cabbage) - both being very traditional. The pork is usually cooked at least twice (but in actuality in several steps involving blanching, frying, stewing and steaming).



This version needed a lot of work. The pork wasn't as tender as hoped, and tasted like it might have been too old to serve. The sauce was sweet but lacked any defined or depth of flavour. The taro was chewy and had failed to pick up what little flavour there was in the sauce. A terrific dish done very poorly.



'Monk's vegetables' - a medley of bok choi and Chinese mushrooms. This was our favourite stir-fry of the set. The bok choi was tender and sweet, and the mushrooms juicy and full of musky xiang gu flavour.



I never know if they are just superior at soaking dried mushrooms, or if they use fresh or tinned. The texture is very fresh and bouncy, but I always think that the taste is superior to fresh mushrooms.



The crispy roast pork was one of the better versions I've tasted in the UK, and this was an improvement on Gold Mine's rendition.



The skin is highly crispy, and the meat salty and flavourful. Our only quibble was that it had been served somewhat cold.



The roast duck was disappointing - lacking real flavour and served tepid.



Patches of skin had been burnt, and the meat itself was slightly chewy without substantial duck flavour.


The damage: lunch for 5 not-so-hungry eaters came to £45. This could have been less had we passed on the entirely forgettable duck, or could have more if we'd ordered more substantial dishes involving seafood instead of vegetarian alternatives. The service is not prompt, and the usual heavy handed routine found in standard Chinese restaurants. Would we go back? almost certainly not.

The best falafels we've ever had!

Nameless little shack
Gloucester Green
Oxford



This nondescript little shack, with no branding and no fanfare, is almost always crowded with Middle Eastern customers.



Sandwiched between a shoe repair place and a dodgy fried chicken shack, we'd passed but never been adventurous to try it, until a friend gave it her highest recommendations.



Riffs on a theme: we were told to try their falafel - the best in town.



A tiny but immaculately clean cooking area within the shack. The metal container contains the chickpea mix, which is made into falafel shapes and deep fried to order. The proprietor told us that falafels simply don't age well, and that all these place serving days-old falafel were cheating their customers.



A range of shashlik kebabs were also offered via colour photographs, but everybody was ordering the falafel wraps.



Additional fillings: salad, pickled gherkins, pickled chillies, fried potato; as well as spinach and halloumi for other dishes that they serve.



Hummous, and the shashliks.



Our falafels are wrapped in turkish bread, dense and chewy but thin so that they aren't too heavy.



Doused with a little garlic mayo and chili sauce, this was actually heaven - even though it was vegetarian.



The falafel are tasty, with a distinct nutty flavour from the chickpeas. Not at all dry, the falafel itself would have been great with dips, but wrapped with a crisp salad of contrasting savoury, sharp and zingy flavours, this was a total winner.



The entire wrap had been toasted quickly in a panini press before serving, so that the flat bread had time to warm up and crisp slightly.

The damage: £2.80 for a falafel and hummous wrap, 20p more if you want some crispy potatoes. Better than any baguette you will find in town, and definitely the best falafel we've so far tasted.