LEFTOVERS: Scandinavian Kitchen, 61 Great Titchfield Street, W1W 7PP

This place is great for a quick light take-out or a speedy sit down. If I'm in the area I pick up selection they do of 5 open-face sandwiches for £7 to share with Mrs. Rajesh for a light dinner alternative.

They also stock pantry/grocery items for home-sick Scandinavian people, you can pick up some Kvikk-Lunsj chocolate (which I dig) or some Caviar Spread that they eat on eggs for breakfast in Norway and Sweden. Fish egg on egg action, don't you love it?

Excellent little Scando sandwiches, and healthy tasting too. My favourites are the meatball and beetroot salad ones as well as the prawn and egg. I started going there when they were fairly new but they've developed a bit of a following so it can get busy during lunch hours and resemble a fishmarket.

Recommended!

5 Sandwiches for £7.00

Fatter,

Rajesh
xx

LEFTOVERS - Frozen Food Review: Unagi

I love eel, especially cooked the japanese way in that rich sweet barbeque sauce. A slab of unagi on rice is absolute heaven for me. I managed to buy some of the unagi sauce froma a Japanese supermarket and then proceeded to hit various fishmongers to score some fresh eel. Most of them, like my local one L. Mash & Sons in Brixton wouldn't stock it, "Too expensive!" they all cried. The estimated prices they were coming up with were extortionate.

Funny because I'd always thought that in London atleast, jellied eel was common place in the old days because it was cheap to acquire? I guess things have changed. Either way, I needed some eel so I hit the supermarket at Japan Centre to investigate the frozen variety, which can be grilled or baked.

This stuff is surprisingly good for frozen food, and tastes very close what you'd get in a small Japanese joint here. I'm convinced that some places do infact use frozen or premaid unagi, I can't think of where but I was once at a sushi place and caught a glimpse of a suspect look package from which the unagi was retrieved.

Bottom line, it's excellent value for money if you want a quick no-fuss Japanese fix at home, serve on some warm japanese rice with some pickles and enjoy.

£6.99 @ JAPAN CENTRE, 212 Piccadilly, London W1J 9HG
(You can get it in most Japanese supermarkets)

Getting Fatter,
Rajesh
xx

LEFTOVERS: M. Manze Pie & Mash House, 105 High Street, Peckham SE15 5RS

Me and my equally brown skinned Cypriot friend known as 'The Moufflon" walked into this place to be greeted by stares, we definitely felt far away from home. They must've laughed at us, two novelty foreignors coming in for some British blue collar gastro tourism.

There's not many of these old fashioned Eel & Pie joints left in London, there's a few east, a few west and some down this way. Surprisingly Manze owns three locations. I've been dieing to try this stuff for ages, and when finally served up this opportunity I found it to be bland, very bland.

The pie pastry was nice enough but the whole plate needed a heavy lashing of salt and vinegar to get some sort of flavour out of it. The filling itslelf was minimal on meat volume. The liquor was flavourless and weak, I'd like to say it was 'subtle', but it was just weak.

I'd still give it another go though, because it's simplicity was kind of comforting.

Yours in Fatness

Rajesh
xx

LEFTOVERS: Maria's Market Cafe, Borough Market SE1

So sometime towards the end of the summer I was hanging out with Doc Simon, we were picking up a rental car to head out to the country side for some secret business. To my pleasure the car was located in Borough so we decided to stop by for some breakfast before we hit the road.

I've been frequenting Borough for as long as I've been in London and I love the place, recently there's been talk of closure or partial closure due to some train line which is sad. Already, part of the market has been downsized and I'm not sure what the plans are for it's future, but I will investigate.

I've passed Maria's for years and but for some reason never went in for anything, I was usually too busy trawling the market to score some rabbit meat amongst other things. I recall it being the only thing open when Doc and I rolled up and were greeted by the very bubbly Maria. She informed us that her family has run this place for a million years and it was originally around the corner in a brick and mortar location. She told us a famous actor ripped off one of their recipes when he opened a restaurant a back in the day, and James Mcavoy apparantly steps in for the Bacon, Bubble & Cheese Bap which is somewhat of a cult classic.

And damn was she right! This sandwich is perfect, I know it's a simple little concoction but I'm convinced that there's some secret alchemy at play in the bubble and whatever she seasons it with. I smothered the little cheesey, salty bap of joy with brown sauce and surrendered to it's beauty.

Humble, honest and comforting, this sandwich is your friend.

Bacon, Bubble & Cheese @ £3.70 - Maria's Market Cafe.

Yours in Fatness,
Rajesh
xx

Footnote: I was so shell shocked with how good the sandwich was that when we returned to Borough to drop off the car off later in the day I raced like a Crack-Head past all the venison burgers, chorizo sandwiches, tourists and rabbit merchants until I reached Maria's again and literally inhaled the sandwich.

Leftovers

Wow, I've been away for way too long and Melvin's been nagging me to get my gastronomic shit together.

So, to bring my posting up to date I'll be putting up what I'm calling 'Leftovers' which are all the posts that have been collecting dust on my harddrive during my sabbatical. Lots of good stuff to come...

Stay Tuned & Stay Fat

x

Rajesh