Tender beef lips

As I sit and type a long overdue post (I've been on holiday) on my new Blackberry Bold (it's sick) I find it hard not to salivate about the topic of this tale: tender cuts of beef, lovingly served with expertise in exclusive surroundings. Yes, I am writing about Gauchos.

Any of you who know me may be shocked at this point - not a fan of style for style's sake, I usually consider places that I lovingly refer to as (s)wanky as exactly that, but with the brackets and their content removed. But somehow someway, Gaucho bowled me over. Perhaps it was the company, perhaps it was the superb waitress, or indeed my excellent selection of New Zealand red, but something changed my thinking toward central London dining.

A shrine to beef consumption, Gaucho Piccaddily is high end class and value to money to boot. 50 quid per person delivered beer, wine, perfectly cooked steaks and delightful sides, cheese and port...well of course it would be rude not to old boy. The seductively dark decor made any sense of time disappear and my dining comrades and I were lost in a hedonistic black-hole of rare meat indulgence, but avoided any unfortunate anti-matter (except for a family introducing crying babies at the end).

So the tide of the Pond may have been turned. There is, however, a Gaucho in Hampstead - if that's up to par, I'll be able to consume cattle without leaving the North London raunch. The only down side is the planet. Cows are one of the most ecologically unsound animals to breed. Perhaps I'll offset this environmental injustice, if only I could do the same for my gut.

Not a wack job.

On Friday night, my good self and side kicks, the monster, the pixie and the attorney, went to Sushiwacka, the most excellent Japanese restaurant, located on Parkway in Camden.

I can not praise this marvellous establishment enough. By far and away the best sushi I have had in London, this place is small, cosy, super-friendly and authentic. The fish was amazingly fresh, the tempura was light yet crunchy and the udon soup tasted just like it did in Japan.

A small family run operation, this place is focused on delivering quality, at a fair price. By far and away my favourite restaurant in north London.

Curry in Camden, the battle of wet and dry

Curry. Umm curry. I like curry in my tummy, but only curry that does not make your bum runny. So, where to have curry in Camden?

Camden has a dearth of curry establishments, fine or not. Why this is, I do not know - presumably because it isn’t a traditionally South Asian community and therefore few businesses were established. In fact, I can only think of two Indian restaurants in Camden Town and one is a Masala Zone - a chain restaurant. This disappoints me muchly, especially as I used to live in East London and had Mirch Masala under my flat, and the world famous Lahore was across the world.

So can anything in the fine shire of NW1 compete? In short: no. There are three restaurants I shall discuss: Camden Maharani (on the High St), Masala Zone (Parkway) and Bangalore Brassiere (just off Camden road). The first and last are independent establishments and therefore preferable to a chain. The Maharani is nice inside, has good, friendly and efficient service, and serves very stylised curry. But perhaps this is where my issue with is resides - the food is a little too flashy; it just does not seem authentic enough. But on a scale on one to ten of Camden curry spots, I'd give it a seven.

Next up, Masala Zone. Despite the fact it is a chain, it does good curry. In fact, I recently had the butter chicken and it was comparable to a dish I had in Goa - and that is saying a lot. But where it lets itself down is with the dry dishes - starters, kebabs etc. They are just not good, they are bad. In comparison, Bangalore Brassiere is a master of kebabs, meat tikkas, samosas, but can not make a gravy dish to save its life. Well it can, but on a basis of multi-coloured paint that you could use to paint a badly coloured wall. This Indian restaurant is my local so I won't slate it; all I will say is don't go out of your way to visit it. Unless you want the 'traditional' UK curry experience i.e. somewhere that has not changed since 1970.

And so we come to the title of this email: can any Indian restaurant in Camden do both kebabs and gravy dishes to a high standard - as far as I can tell, the answer is no. Postcard responses please....

One last thing on this issue. I am launching my inaugural pub crawl this Saturday and had planned for Masala Zone to be the lunch spot. Here's what happened: I call them, I'm told that I can not reserve unless I have 10 or more people - no problem - I am super popular and hundreds will attend (not) - I am then told that a minimum of 90% of the reservation number must attend, order from a fixed menu starting at £14 per person, or else no booking can be made and I will be liable for the cost difference. The Pond thinks this is ridiculous. On a previous visit, I got annoyed with this restaurant and questioned their actual desire to sell food and make profit; the same thought springs to mind regarding reservations. So I shall book the Maharani and support local business - I should have done this in the first place.

One last thought on this issue - the Halal curry vendor in stables market is excellent for £5. But only wet and no dry. Shall I cry?

Pub review - The Flask

A short bus ride on the 274 takes you from Camden town to Highgate village, via a lovely, windy uphill road that the bus often struggles with. Highgate is a top spot, not just because of its village picturesqueness, not just because it makes a great starting point for a Heath adventure, but because Minty from Eastenders can often be spotted - hoorah! And aside from that, there are a number of top drinking and dining spots.

The first I shall start with is the Flask, which is a charming, hobbit-like pub with low ceilings, dark wooden beams, real fires and nooks and crannies. The only downside to this place is its popularity, which makes an impromptu visit difficult, and a telephone reservation worthwhile. This is especially the case in the summer, when the awesome beer garden gets flooded with north London nobility and Heath hikers alike.

The food is both excellent and very fairly priced - a rare combination, especially in this part of town. I've been twice recently and was pleased both times. For the first meal, I had a steak, which was massive and yummy. My only problem with it was that I ordered rare, and rare indeed it was. This was no error on the side of the establishment, in fact, it simply reflected that they cook properly whereas the majority of venues don't, and hence I tend to order one cooking level of beef lower than I actually desire. On the second trip, I had some perfectly cooked seabass on a bed of root vegetables and potatoes. Yum. Both meals were less than £15. Steal.

So there you go, the Flask, it's great. The problem is everyone knows this. Oh, and I should have mentioned, the selection of beers, guest ales and ciders is truly impressive. Undoubtedly one of the best reviews you'll read on the Pondspot.

Pub review - the Lord Stan

The Lord Stanley on Camden Park Road has been my local since living in the shire and it's a good pub, on the whole. The Stan is a gastropub in the true sense of the term: an old-school boozer that serves great food in relaxed surrounding. Sure, they played with the idea of table service for a while, but they realised it did not work and scrapped it. Good on them. Other checkered experiences with it include the switch from San Miguel on tap to Kronenberg, but the move was explained to me by the senior managers as being based upon SM having increased in price so much from the manufacturer's side that the Stan would have had to sold it at a price unacceptable to all. Fair enough.

My other gripe with the Stan is its Sunday Roasts. They are good value at £12.50 but just do not compare in quality to the rest of their cooking. I think this is because the main kitchen, which is within the pub, only has hobs and grills - so I assume the roast has to be cooked upstairs at the start of the day and is then plated up in the 'show' kitchen during the day, resulting in sometimes over-cooked meat and always over done Yorkshire pudding.

But, order anything that they can cook in a pan and you'll be smiling. Lamb steaks, beef steaks, fish, cutlets all are delicious. Matched with a great wine list, and weekend lunch offers (spag bol for £6 last week), this pub is a winner. And having the kitchen in the middle of the pub is a great move - it gives it energy and buzz, and of course an amazing smell that gets you salivating.

And if this review is not enough to tempt you, try this: it's Chris Martin's (ColdPlay) favourite pub.

Peace.

From Liberties to Camden Head - death of a local boozer

A fear that has been niggling away at me for sometime was confirmed today, and I'm feeling sad. The Liberties, Camden High St, is completely dispensing with its previous guise and is reverting back to the pub's original name, the Camden Head.

At first glance, you may think this is not necessarily a bad thing, in which case I would recommend you click here. Now let me set out my stall. My friends and I have been drinking in Liberties for the past two and a half years, never a glamorous boozer, never a shit hole, it was completely fit for purpose: a pub where you could usually get seats, chat to your mates and enjoy a good range of beers, and should the night take you in a messy direction, it was always accommodating. This is not to say it was always like this - it was originally a bit rough around the edges and you'd probably only have a drink or two. But then the ownership changed, they made some nice decor amends, introduced good music on the stereo, and the place became more comfortable. This is where it should have stopped. But it didn't. In an attempt to broaden the crowd, the volume of music increased night upon night and the atmosphere changed. We boycotted for a while, but out of love, I returned. On a school night, it was passable, but no longer made the cut as a weekend venue.

Reading the new website, the target audience for the pub is no longer locals - it's aiming to be a 'destination pub' - and this was the niggle that had been niggling me. Note how the home page particularly welcomes pre or post giggers, or Camden market shoppers. Are they trying to fill it with 15 year olds? I think the premise is fundamentally wrong - it is not a destination venue in Camden, and neither will it be. There are so many pubs in Camden, it is difficult to differentiate. Landlords should be consolidating their existing clientele whilst gently trying to expand their market, not throwing the baby out with the bath water. Camden has enough destination venues: Hawley arms, Gilgamesh, Underworld, Edinboro Castle, Good Mixer (and I'm sure there's more) - let the tourists go there.

I wish them luck but I'm afraid they've lost me. I'll pop in from time to time, for sure, but it will no longer be my preferred venue. And that's a sad state of affairs.

Train services in Britain, they're great they are

Why, why, why British rail service?

I had to go up to Oxford today to talk at the University and was very surprised to find that the train was only marginally more expensive than the bus services (X90 and Oxford Tube, both wonderful), so I thought I'd treat myself to a train journey and save at least half an hour. How wrong I was. Firstly, I had to wait nearly ten minutes for a tube from Camden to King's Cross, which is ridiculous considering it was mid afternoon and the total time for that leg of the journey equated to the time it would have taken to walk. Then, I had to get the tube to Paddington and all of the westbound trains were delayed. Hump.

Now, this is fairly normal for the tube and wouldn't have inspired a post, so I shall continue. I arrived at Paddington, went to the self collect ticket machine, which proceeded to only vend me my outbound journey, claiming a printing error, and instructing me to speak to the ticket office. The fine gent at said location told me firmly that it wasn't possible for the machine to have said such a thing, and proceeded to infer that I was lying (let me add that I was dappered up in a suit and looking quite the full-fare paying gent). I politely told him that this was not the case, so he had to go confer with his colleague. For 15 minutes. He then made me go out to the machine and double check that I had not dropped the missing tickets, like some mal-co mongoloid. After half an hour of tomfoolery, and missing my intended train, he gave me a 'right to travel' piece of paper.

This fine document clearly stated that it was a replacement ticket and contained all the standard ticket powers. So I finish my job in Oxford, return to the train station, give the bit of paper to the man at the gate, who instructs me to go to the ticket office. Aaaggh. I queue at the ticket office, where the assistant proceeds to tell me that my piece of paper is a replacement ticket. I tell him I know this. He writes me another bit of paper. I go back to the gate. The pig-man gate guarder laughs. I go to the platform. The train is 15 minutes late. I freeze.

So here I sit on the train, firm in the knowledge that the ticket saga is not yet over - I still have to get out at Paddington.

I'm not a man of the world, but I've been on a few foreign trains. They are good. Really good. So why can't the fucking country that invented trains get them to work properly?

Next time I'll take the bus, or walk, or skip, or cycle, or use a space hopper, or maybe even a pogo stick....

slow night, even slower day

I was struck with the most awful headache at about five yesterday. Returning home, I did not know what to do with myself. And then the shivers started. Wrapped in my duvet, I was pinned to the sofa and unable to move, and so looked for two options to entertain myself: posting from my Blackberry and finding a film on the 'on demand service'. Both failed me.

Virgin's service proudly boasts to have '500 films at your fingertips', but this is not much help when the majority of the films are shit, and you've seen the only good ones already. So I spent half an hour browsing the options and found nothing, and then a further half an hour watching the Virgin preview channel in the hopes of finding something to watch.

I finally came across the recent, animated Star Wars release and proceeded to watch it. It was ok, but I was damn glad to have not paid to see it at the cinema. Following my time in a galaxy far, far away, I proceeded to bed, where I then burned up with a fever.

So I couldn't go to work today, and I was damn bored. Bored, bored, bored, which explains the title of this post. On the upside, I managed to access my blogging account from the Berry, so am now entertaining myself by boring any readers I might have.

I'll be in better form tomorrow and am very much looking forward to the release of Watchmen, which I shall be seeing in the Imax.

Toodle pip

Beats, rhymes and life

A very impromptu Fabric outing on Friday lead me to see the world famous, my favourite, DJ Craze, and he did not disappoint. Always a master of the decks, this guy's showmanship is legendary - not just banging out the dirtiest beats and scratching like the DMC master he is, he flips records, spins around and is basically like a highly skilled cocktail maker, using vinyl instead of mixing jugs.

So wanting to relive the experience, I logged in to my FabricFirst online account to see if the live mix recording had been uploaded. Of course not, but what I did come across was Riz MC. I very, very, vaguely knew this guy at university, and through small worldness, we have current friends in common. Whilst his acting career is currently blazing, I was impressed by his MCing session. His lyrical content had the intelligence you'd expect of an Oxford grad, and I particularly liked his acapella, "Losing my religion to tomorrow's headlines." The spit was all about the misplaced fear in the modern media of Islam, and the failure amongst many leading politicans to realise that much of the frustration amongst this community comes from social deprivation, lack of opportunities and the capitalist system failing. Cilvaringz is another intelligent rapper who discusses similar issues, you can check him out on Wu Tang records. Riz also has a track called, "Radar", which explores ingrained stereotypes and how they create barriers within communities. I look forward to his album dropping and wish him luck.

The weird world that is Swiss Cottage

I went to Swiss Cottage last night for a friend's birthday party and went for a drink in 'The Olde Swiss Cottage'. I knew it was going to be a tad bit weird, but I expected tacky rather than peculiar. And peculiar it was. Blessed be the fact that it is a Sam Smith's pub - £2.14 a pint - nice, but full of strange old drunk men propping up the bar, not so nice.

One of the old geezas had written a poem, which was actually ok - look out for the thorough bred dogs on the wall, but there was a wiff of uninformed racial prejudice to his chat, which was not nice. As we left the place, I noticed a load of 'youth' lurking outside, undoubtedly skinning up. The contrast between the inside and out of this venue was stark - each were equally troublesome. So we left, and returned to the wondrous shire of NW1, and that was that.

Lesson: buildings that look like cute little ginger bread cottages are not always what they appear.