I used to make soda bread occasionally when I was kid, and it always tasted a bit…soda-y. It was like some of those shop scones that make your teeth squeak.
Northern Ireland Food Exploration: Soda Bread
Tag Archives: Bread
Stovell’s, Chobham
If two of you are attending a restaurant by car, one of you has to forgo alcohol.
I’m not a big drinker, as I’ve probably mentioned before. I don’t like the taste of alcohol, preferring apple juice to cider, fancy fizzy pop to champagne and milkshakes to White Russians. This makes me the natural designated driver, and while I’m always hopeful of something interesting yet non-alcoholic on the drinks menu, often as not there’s nothing that inspiring.
Therefore while H perused the amazing cocktail menu at Stovell’s (125 Windsor Road, Chobham), I was feeling a bit left out until I noticed on the menu it said to ask about soda, cordials etc. The incredibly helpful bar guy asked me what I liked, and I mentioned how the rhubarb puree in one of the cocktails had caught my eye. A few minutes later I was sipping a rhubarb, nettle, chocolate bitters and soda concoction, and feeling content.
This excellent start set the tone for the meal. After ordering, wonderful warm rolls with two types of butter (one smoked) arrived, accompanied by a pea shot and some interesting large crisps of different varieties, including parmesan and potato.
Malaysia Food Exploration: Roti Bom/Boom
I don’t know how to say this, but I have been unfaithful. Mere days ago I professed my love for roti canai, but even as I made that declaration I was aware of the existence of other types of roti and what is worse, I have eaten some of them!
Not all on this trip though. This time I only cheated the once, and that was with the explosive-sounding roti bom (pronounced and also alternatively-spelled “boom”).
Malaysia Food Exploration: Roti Canai
In all conversations about what we should eat when in Malaysia, the top of our must-haves list was roti canai (pronounced “rote-ee chan-i”).
I touched on this delectable bread a while ago in a post on the rotee stalls that lurk seductively around Thailand’s streets. Roti canai can be found on similar stalls, but is exceedingly common in the many Indian restaurants that inhabit the Malaysian food scene.
H spent some of his formative years in Malaysia, and fondly remembers breakfast roti with fish curry as a Sunday treat. Served with a frothy mug of teh tarik (tea sweetened with condensed milk and poured at a distance from cup to cup to aerate it), he reckons it is one of the finest ways to start the day.
Malaysia Food Exploration: Murtabak
On our first night in Kuala Lumpur, by the time we had escaped the airport and reached our hotel it was heading towards 9pm. A bit frazzled (we didn’t fly into the airport we thought we would, couldn’t track down the right bus and suspect we were misled over the taxi), we couldn’t be bothered to head off across town on a food odyssey so popped into the Zam Zam Restaurant (135 Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman) next door to have a little something.
We quickly spied that they served murtabak, which is a fried flat bread cooked around a filling. Having scanned the choices available I opted for a small beef murtabak and H decided to have the same but with chicken.
