SEDAP: WORTHWHILE MALAYSIAN ON OLD STREET

It might not have been the best time to try Sedap, a relatively new addition to Old Street’s dining offerings, but after a long journey back from Wiltshire we were both hungry enough to have almost digested our lovely meal at The Red Lion and definitely in need of something to soak up the two bottles of wine, two pints of beer and little digestifs.

HP suggested we stop off on route to casa DH and give Sedap a try and, at about 7.30pm on a Saturday evening, lots of other people seemed to have had the same thought as it was packed, primarily it seemed with students from the nearby private halls of residence.

We were squeezed into a tiny little table in the back room and handed the menu. It looked familiar, not just because I have eaten quite a few Malaysian meals in the last year, but also because, as HP pointed out, it was run by the same people who once owned Nyonya in Notting Hill and offered a similar range of Chinese Malaysian dishes.

HP left the ordering to me and we began with some archard, pickled vegetables, which had the required crunch, but perhaps lacked sharpness. A roti prata was better, with the flaky disc of dough being used to mop up a lamb curry and reminding me of the roti and dahl I had for breakfast every day during my all too short time in Kuala Lumpur.

Three main courses followed, all looking the part and all hitting the alcohol sopping upping spot. The weakest was perhaps the beef rendang which paled behind the one I made recently at home using a recipe provided by my friend and excellent food writer, William Leigh. It lacked the depth of flavour of long, slow cooking and the powerful end note of heat that I enjoyed in William’s version.

Penang Char Kway Teow was better, with the noodles cooked so they still retained a bite and the seafood contents still crisp from stir-frying. It lacked the chunks of pork that I have enjoyed in the best versions and was cooked in oil rather than lard. This was something I also encountered in KL and was told was not only a nod towards health but also made the dish more approachable to Malaysia’s large Muslim population.

I have never quite got my head around Hainenese Chicken Rice, a dish of poached chicken with white rice, which I know Singaporeans particularly claim as their national dish and is beloved in Malaysia too. It just strikes me as bland and, if that is the desired effect, then Sedap’s version is bang on the mark.

That little lot of booze blotting paper, brought the bill to a reasonable £40 including service, which was harried but very friendly.

Sedap is hardly going to set the world on fire, but as a new little local joint, particularly one that does take away, it is going to be a welcome addition to an otherwise barren neighbourhood.

LIFE: SUSHI BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT

There was a pleasing circularity in having a Japanese meal tonight on my second night back in London, given that I began the last stage of the EAT MY GLOBE journey in Japan.

Unfortunately, that was about the only thing about tonight’s meal that was pleasing as LIFE on Old St, the latest entry into London’s burgeoning Sushi scene, proved to be a bit of a damp squib.

A shame really as the perma grins of the staff displayed a genuine sweetness that belied their hapless efforts.

Early signs were not good. A simple drinks order prompted eight questions (yes we counted) as the waiter struggled to come to terms with a simple order of tea, soshu and beer and still managed to come back with the incorrect drinks. Added to which, the time between courses would have allowed us to catch up with a couple of series of “24” as we waited and waited and waited for the different stages of our meal to arrive. From time to time, when food did arrive, it was often meant for neighbouring tables and was whisked away before we had chance to pick up a chopstick.

Much of this could have been forgiven if the food had been terrific. Indeed, some of it could be forgiven if the food had been any good at all. But, As HP put it “when you are serving raw fish, there is no place to hide” and in the case of LIFE, clumsy execution and lack of freshness in the raw ingredients were in full evidence.

An appetizer plate of pickled vegetables was not bad at all retaining a crunch and not being swamped by vinegar and a “spring roll” wrapped in shiso was pleasantly crunchy with salmon replacing the unavailable horse mackerel. Edamame, however were over salted and stone cold.

After a long wait a plate of assorted seafood tempura appeared which had been allowed to sit for too long until the batter lost its crunch and the white fish and prawns had begun to turn to mush. This was followed by sashimi of sea bass and sweet prawns that lacked the prerequisite sparkling freshness as indeed did plates of clumsily made salmon skin and spider crab rolls, nigiri of eel, fish roe and scallops which replaced the unavailable sea urchin.

Not dreadful, just flabby and looking as if they had been hacked inexpertly of dull eyed fish making us happy that we had not taken up the option of the more formal Kaiseki tasting menu option.

A visit to the basement of the restaurant saw the discovery of a small shop selling a disparate collection of the bizarre tat that the Japanese seem so fond of alongside a man with rather wild hair standing disconsolately by twin DJ decks as if he was waiting for a party that was never going to happen. One wonders if they had spent more on the fish than on Hello Kitty merchandise if he would have more people to appreciate his skills.

The bill for three of us came to £95 including service which, as I said was beguilingly charming for such an average experience. But, the bar of Japanese food in London has been raised much higher in the last eighteen months and this fell way below what is on offer even just in the environs of Clerkenwell and Shoreditch with places like Edoku, Ginnan, Tajima-Tei, Saki and Matsuri offering better quality at a range of prices.

Unfortunately, I can’t see LIFE having much of a life.

PINCHITO

NUEVO TAPA IN OLD ST
Well, Featherstone St actually, but you see where I am coming from.

At last. At long last. For the last three months or so, DH have regularly been seen pressing our noses against the glass window of the site of Pinchitos waiting for the day it opened. We have even tried to chivvy them along by sticking our heads in every now and then and saying “ when the hell are you going to be ready?” We are like that. We love to help people out.

But, given the fact that co-owner, Jason seems to have done most of the work himself (with his old man) the fact that they only took that long is a pretty remarkable feat.

Another challenge came on opening day yesterday when they found out they had no gas which left the restaurant with a truncated menu and the punters with an assault course of road works to overcome before the two could meet.

It tells you something about the future success of this place that, despite all of these setbacks, the place was packed at lunchtime on its second day and, based on the food I tried today, it is going to be packed pretty much all the time.

With a handful of tables and plenty of counter seating, the room is an agreeable place for casual group dining or a solo snack. I was having lunch with my new chum, Andrew and we sat at the bar next to the appealing refrigerated display of montaditos and sipped on a chilled Fino.

Pinchitos has taken the best elements of mothership, PinXo People in Brighton with a good cocktail list and a menu of light nuevo tapa based on well sourced ingredients. Excellent ham with strips of acorny fat, sharp meaty boquerones came in the Madrileno style on top of potato crisps, small glasses of Gazpacho topepd with a slick of peppery olive oil, a decent portion of Pimientos Padron suitably charred and salty and a good selection of both cured Iberico meats and cheeses.

Given that they were very definitely not cooking on gas, It was a good effort from Miquel and his team.

Regular readers will know that I am no great fan of Barrafina/Fino school of restaurants and the bleating from critics about how Barrafina was “ just like the real Spain” made me want to hurl my tortillitas de camarones. No, it looks like Cal Pep and costs you the best part of £100 for two if you have the stomach to queue for an hour to sit at the counter.

Pinchitos is a lot more to my taste.

Casual, well priced (with tapa about £5) Cruzcampo on draught and Mahou in bottles, a decent wine list and what I am told was great coffee I can see it is going to be a regular haunt for Chocolate and Churros in the morning, a snack at lunch or a cocktail in the evening on the days when Tobias is up from Brighton.

It wont be for the faint hearted. The small space is going to get hellishly crowded with post work revellers from nearby offices. the music is loud and I suspect the large glass windows will heat up the crowd nicely.

But, these are small quibbles for a very welcome addition to the neighbourhood. Particularly my neighbourhood.

It is a soft opening and next Thursday will be their first evening session with the full menu. If you go in there on that night and see a bald man licking a plate clean of ham juices, it’s probably going to be me.

Welcome to the big city guys.