Christmas Culinary Adventures in London

Hi everyone! Remember me? Well I wouldn’t blame you if you’d forgotten all about Eat Rio – it’s been a shameful 4 weeks since my last post. I’ve never left it that long before and such a long hiatus deserves an explanation. How about tell you what’s been going on since this time last month?

Eat Rio Food Tours

Going from strength to strength. Eat Rio Food Tours are currently sitting at #14 in TripAdvisor’s list of activities in Rio!

My little food tour business continues to grow and take up more and more of my time. For more than a year I’ve been taking out small groups, 4 times per week and I have to say the whole experience has been wonderful. On every tour I meet interesting people and get to show them around some of my favourite spots in Rio. Together we eat, drink, talk about life in Rio and I generally point them towards what I consider to be ‘the best bits’.

It’s not going to make me a millionaire, but it’s incredibly satisfying to show people that there’s more to Rio than beaches and mountains. Sorry to sound smug, but it feels so good to have finally found a job that I truly love. No more Sunday night depression, no more dread of dealing with difficult people and tedious tasks. I know it’s not easy, but if anyone is wondering whether it’s worth taking a risk to find a job they don’t hate, I highly recommend going for it – life really is too short.

Travels

Last time I spent a Christmas with my family, some bloke called Barack Obama had just been elected US President! Yep, it had been 6 years since I’d gorged on mince pies, pulled Christmas crackers and enjoyed mulled wine in sub-zero conditions. Mrs Eat Rio and I flew back to London a week before Christmas and did our best to enjoy all that a British winter has to offer. Cosy pubs, ‘Full English’ breakfasts, last minute Christmas shopping and plenty of Christmas cheer with family and old friends. It was a hectic couple of weeks, but we managed to squeeze a lot in.

It’s great to catch up with family. It’s even better when they serve up plates of nibbles like this! Luscious slabs of smoked salmon atop herby cream cheese and crunchy, lemony-buttery toasts. Part of me wanted to take the whole plate off to another room so I could eat it all, but I guessed I wouldn’t be invited back…

Eat London

One of the best bits about calling myself a culinary guide and food and travel writer is that I get to call eating and drinking ‘research’. I’m going to quickly tell you about our 3 stand-out eating-out experiences:

Everything @ Pitt Cue

I first heard about Pitt Cue when my sister bought me their excellent eponymous cook book a year or two back. This small restaurant near Carnaby Street is a tribute to Southern BBQ and although I’ve had great results with their recipes, I was dying to try their food straight from the source. I was not disappointed! Pulled pork and brisket in dreamy brioche buns with tangy slaw and real BBQ sauce, pickle-backs (bourbon with pickle juice chaser), Soho Sours (Bourbon, Amaretto, sours and a cherry) and more meaty treats than I can bear to go into… Highly recommended for the greedy carnivore.

Pulled Pork bun from Pitt Cue. Divine.

Soho Sour (left) and a Pickle-back (right, a shot of Bourbon and a pickle juice chaser.

Full English and the banter @ Pellicci’s

When I actually lived in London, I spent most of my time in the East End. It’s an interesting part of the city, with a mix of many different immigrant communities and it’s also on the border between the financial heart of the city and the trendy zone for artists and creative types. Although a large part of the draw of the area is due to recent waves of immigration (amazing curries hailing from the subcontinent, Vietnamese and Turkish cuisine, etc) some of the earlier waves of immigrants still have a very welcome influence.

I had visited Pellicci’s once years ago – it’s a brilliant little East End ‘caff’ (a cafe specialising in fried breakfasts and other British culinary delights) that was established in 1900 by Italian immigrants and is still run by the same family today. Before going, I read the Time Out review to Mrs Eat Rio which includes the line “[the staff serve up the food]…with as much banter as you can handle”.

“What’s ‘banter’?” Mrs Eat Rio asked. She found out soon enough!

As we enjoyed our Full English breakfasts, Nevio Pellicci walked past and noticed Mrs Eat Rio’s tan. “You’re not from around here, are ya?” he asked. I replied “She’s just got here from Rio”. “She just got ‘ere from Rehab?” he asked incredulously, employing some comedy hard-of-hearing. The whole place fell about laughing (Mrs Eat Rio’s tan mostly hid her blushes!). Time Out described Nevio as “possibly one of London’s ten nicest blokes” and I can totally believe it. A very nice, very funny guy. It would be worth going just for the history and the banter, but the food is all absolutely top-notch too (and totally home-made). This video gives a great feeling of the history and spirit of Pellicci’s:

Fish Sauce Chicken Wings @ Smoking Goat

Two words for you: Thai Barbecue. Did that stop you in your tracks like it did me? Say it again: Thai Barbecue – oh yes, and it’s as good as it sounds. My friend Niamh (Eat Like a Girl) put me on to this place and I owe her a thousand thank yous. This place opened on Denmark Street in November 2014 and all the reviews I read have been gushing. Mrs Eat Rio and I were joined here by my sister and brother-in-law for a very memorable meal on New Year’s Eve.

Grapefruit and pork belly salad, lamb ribs smoked over sweet chestnut wood, duck legs with galangal and and kaffir lime leaves served with a green papaya salad – this is some seriously delicious, messy food. For me, the star of the show was a dish of the most succulent, sweet, sticky, spicy, tender chicken wings encased in a fabulously crunchy batter and smothered in a sweet and salty Thai fish sauce. The best chicken wings I’ve ever had, hands down.

Take me back. I need to eat these again…

OK, this went on rather longer than I had planned, so I’ll stop there. Next time out I need to tell you about the beers, a Balti pilgrimage to Birmingham, and various other culinary delights sampled in and around London.