Thai-riffic food and epic sandwiches
Where we eat ALL of the thai food, make samosa sandwiches and revel in the London sunshine
Hello friends,
I’m sorry it’s been so long, I’ve been meaning to write, and I’ve been collecting experiences and things to tell you. I’ve got some great London recommendations, and my Mama and I spent three days in Paris, and I have all of the recommendations from there too (although this might come next week). Coco is asleep on the sofa as I type this - her natural habitat, slightly in the sun and on a soft surface. What a life.
I’ve also been doing some major thinking about this newsletter, it’s content and format - so any thoughts or requests, please do hit reply!
London…
I’ve clocked up a few places recently, but I’ll stick with just one today, because I have A LOT to say. The Greyhound Cafe on Berners Street is somewhere you should add to your list asap if it isn’t already on there. It’s a modern Thai restaurant, with a sister restaurant in Bangkok. When I walked in the smells were a familiar hug, taking me back to holidays in Thailand - my last one was 2016, and I’m definitely overdue a visit, particularly as my friend lives in Phuket.
I went with my friend Alex, who fortunately eats everything (although they had a really great looking veggie menu with lots of options).
We started with a cocktail each. I went for the Siamese Greyhound, a grapefruit and vodka based cocktail, which was delicious and arguably dangerous as you could drink it all day. I think Alex went for a Samed Iced Tea, which is Mandarin vodka, triple sec, lime juice, sugar, elderflower cordial and their signature tea.
We ordered for the table and shared everything, which was frankly glorious. The food comes at different times, when it’s ready, so whilst we ordered starters and mains, they came ad hoc.
Starters
We thought we’d begin with complicated noodles, sweetcorn pops and Moo Ping (street food style pork skewers). It was all amazing. I loved the spicy lime sauce that came with the complicated noodles, which we ate with the Moo Ping too.
Mains
Here is where we really leant in. I’d walked past the restaurant a few months previously, promptly added it to my mental list of places to go and half forgot about it. That is until I was listening to Jay Rayner’s Out to Lunch (one of my favourite podcasts), where Jay interviewed Rose Matafeo (watch Starstruck if you haven’t already). They ate at the Greyhound Cafe, and ate both complicated noodles, and one of our mains. When it’s recommended by Jay Rayner, you just have to trust him and try it.
On said recommendation we ordered the (small) hot oil pork knuckle, which comes crispy, slightly fatty with two delicious sauces. Alongside this we went for duck confit in a red curry with pineapples and lychees (the sauce on this was amazing, that I was eating by itself like a soup).
Sides
We obviously couldn’t have had this by itself, we went for the classic egg fried rice, and to be ‘healthy’ some stir fried cabbage.
It was absolutely brilliant, we had a thoroughly lovely time, the food came quickly and we’ll be going back to try more of the menu.
What I’ve been cooking…
I don’t know why but I’ve not been cooking that much recently, so last Friday, on a rare, actually-non-working day, I decided to lean in and make an epic sandwich. I had some Aldi vegan brioche buns (amazing - one of my favourite types of bread), which I lightly spread with iberico pork fat and grilled slightly.
Then comes the real joy one side had some mango chutney, the other a light slather of Kewpie Mayo, then stacked inside was a (cooked) veggie samosa, crispy onion bits (pre bought) and chopped chives.
If you’re looking for a pimped sandwich, that’s so easy to make vegan/veggie - this is the one for you.
Right now, I’m not feeling 100% (and five negative covid tests later tell me it’s probably just a rotten cold), but I have all the ingredients to make this epic looking egg drop soup by CJ Eats. He has SO many incredible looking recipes on his site, and may or may not be why I’m in the process of getting an air fryer…
What I’ve been reading…
This interview with Chris Pratt (heart eyes anyone)
An Italian town where all diaries are welcome…
How to have a side character summer…
Vanity Fair’s Dakota Johnson cover interview
Ever wondered if Catherine the Great ever ate a banana?
The news our bank accounts never hoped to hear - Harry Styles is designing for Gucci…
In my shopping (not cookery) basket…
Keeping with the basket theme, I have strong feelings for this mini straw bucket bag (in green ofc)
I saw this in a River Island in Hull of all places, I’d have bought it there if they’d had my size.
I saw Fran Lebowitz in conversation with Hadley Freeman on Saturday night, she was as always incredibly funny and blisteringly accurate with her observations. I can’t believe I don’t already own her book!