Contrary to popular belief, I don’t spend all my time eating jerk pork and barbecuing things in the rain. I do other stuff, okay? No really. Here’s some things I cooked, ate and felt happy about in the past couple of weeks.

Firstly, a little tooting on my own trumpet as I point you in the direction of The Independent’s ’50 Best Food Websites’ article. They said nice things about Food Stories and 49 other sites, including blogs, online suppliers and all-round giants like Chowhound. I’m flattered to be included.

And while we’re talking about ME, I’ll take a moment to point you once again, this time in the direction of my recipe column at AoL Lifestyle. The latest recipe is a very easy smoked mackerel ‘pâté’.

I’ve been out on the town too, as per. Sometimes a woman has to step outside of Peckham you know. Last weekend I made what was frankly a humongous schlep up to the wild wilderness of Seven Sisters to the Akhaya Cookery School, for a Nigerian cookery class. What with Peckham being ‘little Africa’ and all, I wanted to find out more about the ingredients I see in local shops every day. During the 3 hour class we made egusi (a soup thickened with melon seeds), jollof rice (rice cooked in a spicy tomato stew) and akara (black eye bean fritters). The akara were my favourite; very light, savoury fritters, which are incredibly easy to make. I’ll be experimenting with those so expect a recipe soon. The classes cost £75 per person, you cook 3 dishes per class and take home more than enough food for 2 people. Here are some pics:

The bright and airy classroom.

 Very familiar ingredients for the Peckhamite; dried shrimp; chilli flakes; black eye beans; palm oil.

Egusi soup. The white stuff is the egusi (ground melon seeds), mixed to a paste with water then added to the soup. The green dried stuff is afang (a dried leaf which is a little like Spinach). 

Fried plantain chips. You can’t hear a thing when you’re eating them – that crunchy.

I’ve been eating out too. Last night I perched very happily for several hours around the bar of the Maille Mustard Pop-Up in Spitalfields Market. They kindly invited me down to try the ‘mustard menu’ cooked by Kerstin Marmite Loving Rodgers. I had rather too much fun; the market was buzzing, the wine was flowing and the food was great. It’s on tonight and Sunday too. Here’s the lowdown in pics:

If it’s mustard you’re after…

A ‘Mustardy Mary’  = the best ever bloody Mary. I can’t ever drink one again unless it has wholegrain mustard in it. A brilliant idea.

Steamed artichoke with mustard mayonnaise.

Smoked haddock with mustard and cheese and Asian mustard greens. The fish was umami-packed and delicious. The name of the yellow flower in the middle escapes me but Kerstin picked them from her garden; they surprised everyone by tasting incredibly sweet and delicious. A flower actually worth eating.

Amazing cheese board featuring Langres, Moustardier, Charollais and Comté surrounded by palmiers.

Mostarda tutti frutti ice cream with berries, mint sugar and mustard candy floss. Kerstin and I are both of the opinion that tutti frutti ice cream should be BROUGHT BACK IMMEDIATELY.

And in between all that, I’ve been rapidly expanding outwards due to my extremely close proximity to The Rye pub, which is serving Meatwagon food for the summer. In addition to my favourite chilli burger I’ve been packing away the following, at least 3 times a week.

Smoked pork sandwich

Pulled pork sandwich

Baby back ribs with slaw and deep fried okra. I will be deep frying okra very, very soon.

Smoked buffalo wings with blue cheese dip.

What can I say, get yourself down there.

The Rye
31 Peckham Rye
SE15 3NX

So there we go. Ooof. I think I need to go and exercise now.

You know by now I have a  ‘healthy’ (bordering on obsessive) appreciation for sandwiches. I find it so satisfying to sink my teeth into a slice of crusty, fresh bread which yields to layer on layer of textures and flavours; it is a perfect self contained meal. Earlier this year I began to blog about sandwiches I’ve found around London but for some reason this slipped and I’ve now got a backlog. Here’s a little round-up, just to get us back on track.

First up, a London classic: the chorizo roll from the Brindisa grill at Borough Market. A ciabatta roll is stuffed with either a single or double portion of Alejandro Barbacoa chorizo (obviously I had the double) plus roasted Navarrico piquillo peppers and a good handful of rocket (£4.50 ish?) A drizzle of olive oil is all it needs in the way of lubrication as all the beautiful spicy fat from the sausage seeps into the bread, coating everything with its smoky, paprika flavour. This sandwich is intense and addictive, which is why the queue more often than not snakes right back into the market. The picture below represents a rare moment of quiet at the grill; when they are moving at full pace it is quite a spectacle of sizzle and smoke.

Next, a sandwich from my favourite local bakery, Luca’s. This is not one of their greatest creations unfortunately and would have been more enjoyable toasted. I mean, look at the size of that bread! Tim Hayward would hate this sandwich. The filling of brie and pesto was, as ever, fresh and high quality; the brie was ripe and pongy and the pesto tasted home made (it cost around £3).  Despite some ongoing problems with slow service, the staff are charming and endearingly ditsy and the baked goods are a cut above the norm. They also do cheese and charcuterie plates, an absolutely triumphant rye bread, preserves, biscuits and cakes.

There are a couple of irritating things about Luca’s though – one being the fact that their coffee is a bit watery (according to trusted sources) and the other that, as with most places in East Dulwich, you have to have a high tolerance for the presence of small children; this means lots of noise, mess and rows of increasingly alien looking pushchairs. I am practically immune to this now. If you can’t bear the thought however, I’ve recently heard from the charming Rosie Lovell that her deli (Rosie’s Cafe Deli in Brixton) will soon be stocking Luca’s bread and they will also be selling their goods at Brixton Farmers’ Market in the near future.

Next, another Borough Market offering: the salt beef from Roast to Go, which is one of those places I’ve always meant to visit but never felt particularly inspired by. To be honest, this wasn’t a particularly remarkable example of the classic. To me, thick hunks of meltingly tender brisket should be bursting out of the bread; this was just a bit rubbery and meagre in size and the miserly stripe of mustard down the middle wasn’t enough to invoke even a mild case of ‘mustard nose’. Pickles were present and correct but it pales in comparison to a classic salt beef from Bagel Bake on Brick Lane, which costs around £3 I think in comparison to Roast’s version for a fiver. The bread was sweet and soft though, almost bagel-like in chewyness. I think they could be onto something there…

Finally, a sanger from an Italian deli and restaurant called Tentazioni that Chris discovered down in Shad Thames. The deli seemed well stocked although I do have to question their choice of location. Are they really going to drum up enough business tucked down one of those dark side streets otherwise filled with estate agents and over-priced, under-sized apartments? It’s a shame really because the lady inside was very charming and keen to help, even if she did work at the most incredibly slow pace. As the place is not geared mainly towards making sandwiches, it was a bit difficult to see what was on offer and a language barrier issue meant we just had to point at a few things and hope for the best. We got some fennel and pepper salami and parmesan with cracked black pepper and salad. The ingredients inside were delicious but the sandwich on the whole, a little dry and bready.

That said, the place is definitely worth checking out. I spied some gorgeous looking (if ridiculously expensive) smoked mozzarella along with Sicilian fennel sausages, pastries, a range of Italian cheeses and meats and also dried products like good quality pulses. You can see more pictures in my Flickr sandwich set here.

So there we have it, a few sandwiches to digest while I search out the next victim. Londoners, I call out for your assistance in directing me to the best sandwiches in the city. Share your favourites please!

FYI: Jonathan also writes a great series on sandwiches in London: ‘The Sandwichist‘

[Edit: to save any more of you e-mailing me - I've called it 'pan' rather than 'pain' because google told me so. I don't know why either.]

Firstly I would like to express my irritation with the man who persuaded me to buy these tomatoes which he promised would be sweet and delicious, even in UK spring time. Curiosity got the better of me and I caved. Of course, they didn’t taste of much. I called him a name which I shall not repeat here – not to his face of course, I made sure to complain behind his back like a good British customer.

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted about a sandwich I’ve found in the city for a while. That’s because March was a cursed month as far as the sammich was concerned (my partner in sandwich crime Jonathan had similar problems). I successfully tracked down many promising candidates but the execution was always foiled at the last minute. For this reason then, I bring you one of my favourite ever sangers, from my own little kitchen – a stand in for March (and probably most of April by the time you get this).

The pan bagnat is a Provençal sandwich, originating from Nice. It traditionally contains a salade niçoise but you can stuff it with practically anything and my slightly crazy version is filled with practically everything that happened to be lurking in my fridge that day. So, you get yourself a nice round loaf, scoop out the middle and then give the inside a good brushing with some garlicky oil.

Then you just need to start layering it up. I had some of those little peppers stuffed with cheese so they went in followed by some cucumber for crunch and then salty anchovies and basil leaves.

I sprinkled a few capers on top of the fishy layer before adding marinated artichokes.

Those fruits masquerading as tomatoes went on next followed by some spring onion shreds and gem lettuce (with hindsight putting the lettuce on top is a silly idea, as it prevents juices from meeting with bread). Then you weigh the whole thing down well in the fridge for a few hours so that the bread soaks up all the lovely juices within (at least on the bottom anyway…).

The bagnat is perfect picnic fare as you just cut it into big, fat wedges and chow down. This is by no means the best I’ve ever made – previous successes have included grilled vegetables, mozzarella, olives and sometimes cured meats. Still, not bad for a fridge job eh? A king among sandwiches and a true flavour explosion.

[Edit: Their shredded caramel pork banh mi is much better than this one. Try it].

I’ve searched for a bánh mì in London (without success) since I first arrived, so I was amazed to find I have been working a measly two minute stroll away from one (Café Bay has five different Vietnamese fillings on the menu), for the last two and a half years.

Café Bay (Camberwell) – Bánh Mì.

Where: 75 Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8RS.
When: 5th Feb – lunchtime.
What: Bánh Mì is a Vietnamese sandwich, featuring contrasting flavours and textures usually including pickled vegetables, chilli, cucumber and spiced meat – in a baguette.

Outside
Bread: A bog standard baguette, the really soft kind. Not usually a personal favourite but I liked it for the bánh mì.

Inside
Flavour: I thought it only right and proper to go for the ‘Bay Special’, pâté with two kinds of pork – spiced and ‘regular’. So, we have chilli on the bottom, then the spiced meat, then the rich pâté, mayonnaise, crunchy cucumber, fresh coriander and awesome pickled carrot (I was sad when I realised there was no daikon). It’s all about the contrasts. There’s one major problem, but that’s coming next.
Quality: The spiced pork also had huge, tough, rubbery flabs of fat, with a really hard ‘rind’. I’m always up for pork fat but I couldn’t eat it. Shame, because the spicing was tasty. There was also luncheon meat. [Edit: I've since come around to luncheon meat - guilty pleasure ahoy. See my SPAM mi]

Quantity: Average lunchtime baguette size.
Textures: Lots of great contrasts, apart from the pork rind/fat stuff.
Spreads/Dressings/Sauces: The combo of mayo and pâté was a bit alien to me at first but I really got into it.
Assembly: Lightning fast and sound. Good even distribution.

Particulars
Value for Money: £3
Service: The lady who makes the sandwiches smiled and spoke to me for the first time ever when I ordered this – mostly I rock up with a hangover and ask for a bacon butty. I think she was pleased with me.

Overall Score: 6/10

SATC #2: Fuzzy’s Grub (St. James’s) – turkey Christmas dinner on wholemeal bap.

Where: Fuzzy’s grub – St. James’s Branch.
When: 8th December, lunchtime, I met up with Jonathan for a carb-based lunch in town.
Concept: Fuzzy’s grub is all about the meat, carvery style. The idea here is basically that you can get a whole roast dinner – in a sandwich. I mean, I had to try it.

Outside
Bread: A wholemeal bap (I sniggered at the word bap). It was perfectly serviceable.

Inside
Flavour: We both opted for a Christmas sandwich with ‘the works’. Turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots and gravy. To be honest, nothing in the sandwich really tasted of anything. It was all one big bland amalgamation of nothingness. Perhaps some of the other options, eg. beef, lamb are more interesting?
Quality: Crap, to be perfectly frank! Well, the meat was ok but the rest of it? Blimey.
Quantity: Just see for yourself, that sanger was a monster.
Textures: Just what you would expect really. Well, not quite. The Yorkshire had the texture of rubber – which was a surprise.
Spreads/Dressings/Sauces: They were unbelievably stingy on the cranberry sauce, it may as well not have been in there. I reached for the mustard on the table, both for flavour and moisture.
Assembly: Very good. We giggled watching them tower everything up and then squish the bread on top.

Particulars
Value for Money: I think it cost around £6 but I’m not entirely sure as Jonathan is such a gent and wouldn’t hear of me paying, which makes me feel bad for slagging it off but I’ve got to be honest otherwise my words are worthless. ‘High margin’ definitely springs to mind. It will certainly fill you up, if you can be bothered to eat it.
Service: Great, I think. No complaints anyway and they were cheery, I remember that.

Overall Score: 4/10

Overall, I was not impressed. I mean, the concept is great but the delivery? Poor. The vegetables were limp and lifeless, the stuffing was basically flavourless mush and the Yorkshire was incredibly dense and rubbery. They were also mean with the cranberry sauce and I found the whole thing bland to be honest. To be fair, I did have the tail end of a cold but then I have been eating other food during my period of sickness and I had no problems picking out flavours thus far. The four points they did accumulate are basically down to the fact that the sandwich was edible, the staff were friendly and the concept is brilliant. I must also say that Chris told me he has noticed a decline in quality since Fuzzy’s first opened, which is a shame as he was basically existing on the lamb version of this for a few months. Apparently, the lamb is now often rubbery. Boo.

I must mention that Jonathan was marvellous company and if you want to know what he thought of the sandwich, read his review here.

Image created at www.wordle.net

Those who know me well will be privy to my obsession. I heart sandwiches. Not just a bit, not just a regular appreciation – I am really and truly smitten. Heck, I even eat them for breakfast. Most days. I have been meaning to start this little series for a good six months now – if nothing else, it gives me a way to justify my abnormal consumption levels.

For a sarnie geek like me, London glistens with endless opportunities to find the perfect arrangement of things-in-bread and I have wasted no time in seeking them out since moving here. I have munched my way all over town with the insatiability of a carb addicted pacman and I ain’t about to stop yet. Well, I almost did once, when I thought I had a wheat intolerance – I mean, can you imagine? Turns out it was just a mild overdose.

So, if there’s anyone who knows the building blocks of a decent sanger, it’s me and I consider it my duty to disseminate this information to the masses. Here’s how we’re gonna roll. Each sandwich will be rated on a number of characteristics which must all work in beautiful harmony if the whole is to become more than the sum of its parts.

Outside
Bread: SO important. There are hundreds of varieties available, some gorgeous artisan specimens among them. We no longer have to settle for ‘plastic’ white sliced ‘bread’, tragically soggy from sweating in a plastic packet for three days.

Inside
Flavour: Pretty self-explanatory this one.
Quality: Ditto.
Quantity: Not always about the deep-fill, sometimes less is more.
Textures: The key to a perfect sarnie – s’all in the contrasts y’all.
Spreads/Dressings/Sauces: Or not.
Assembly: Prepared with the appropriate dose of love? Layering is also important (no, really).

Particulars
Value for Money: Extra credit crunch with that madam?
Service: To be fair, I’m not going to be there long but it still counts.

Overall Score: I shall employ the tried and tested, ‘out of ten’ system.

SATC #1: Luca’s Bakery – Serrano Ham, Manchego and Quince Jelly on Ciabatta.

Where: Luca’s Bakery. They are opening in East Dulwich soon but at present operate from a trestle table outside Moxon’s fishmongers, said table groaning under the weight of luscious baked treats.
When: 12th November, lunchtime, hopped off the 185 from Lewisham especially to see them.

Outside
Bread: A fine slab of gorgeous, airy, floury ciabatta. I get flour all over my face. They score extra marks for generously drizzling with olive oil.

Inside
Flavour: Serrano ham – gorgeously melty flavourful fat, slightly sharp Manchego and then sweet quince jelly. A hint of grassy olive oil in the background. Pretty damn good. I’ve not eaten quince jelly in a sandwich before but I will certainly be doing so in the future. There are also leaves, which are pleasantly peppery.
Quality: Really rather good.
Quantity: I could take a little more ham, but only in a greedy way, the cheese is not overdone and I think the amount of jelly is spot on.
Textures: Good. Soft ham, softish to crumblyish cheese, squishy jelly and then a good bite from the leaves.
Spreads/Dressings/Sauces: The olive oil works a treat. I suspect it is Greek.
Assembly: Well stacked. They have prepared the sandwich as one long ciabatta and then cut into suitable wedges. I like this. I visualise them making it.

Let’s take a look inside…

Particulars
Value for Money: I didn’t note the exact price (I promise to do so in future) but I think it was about £3. I think this is excellent value for such a beautifully flavoured, sizeable and quality sandwich.
Service: With a smile. They are such lovely friendly ladies. I tell them I can’t wait for the bakery to open and purchase a macaroon. I ask for pistachio which turns out to be coconut. I don’t mind.

Overall Score: 7.5/10

(A ‘very good’ sandwich, not a life changer but an extra half point for introducing me to the idea of using the quince jelly. I am a strict marker – or a ‘hawk’ as teachers say).