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The Rosendale, West Dulwich
65 Rosendale Road, West Dulwich, London, SE21 8EZ www.therosendale.co.uk
A big old boozer in sarf lundun
I once heard a food writer say ‘Oh we don’t like chain restaurants’. I assumed he was using the royal ‘we’ but no. Apparently he was referring to some mysterious cabal, the admission criteria being snobbery.
He might have liked it at The Rosendale though, as the clientele has upper middle class written all over it. Close enough to Dulwich to draw in the local wealth, The Rosendale on our night was packed with thick-haired young men and beautiful blonde girls all drawn from the same gene pool and already firmly set on their Life Cruise Control.
Saved from ruin some years ago this lovely old boozer has real character and could well be in Highgate or Islington instead of, technically I think, West Norwood. Renaissance Pubs has done it out nicely in Gastro Pub, the new paint from Farrow and Ball, and it has a decent outside area for smoking, a garden and plenty of space to park prams. One of which is quite important to me. Read more…
Ducksoup, Soho
No expense spared
Is it a good idea to grill lemons? Is it a good idea to incinerate artichokes? Is it a good idea to open a minimalist bar restaurant in Soho?
I like simple griling, frying and roasting but an artichoke subjected to intense heat resembles something saved from a bonfire with a lot of burnt leaves and a subsequent vicious struggle for the tender centre. Grilling lemons adds a pleasant caramilisation but makes the seeds even more bitter in the mouth than usual. The Fritto Misto at Ducksoup, a new London restaurant, might be better named a Fritto Mysterioso, as in ‘why would they do that?’ Read more…
Tea time treats from the London Tea Company
These delicious teas have been sweetening the foetid air of the Foodepedia offices, staffed as they are by people who eat for a living and thus suffer from alimentary gusts and breezes, for a week or so now. It is suddenly like being in a boudoir, or the offices of The Lady perhaps. Even served in our hilarious tea mugs ‘You don’t have to be mad to work here but it helps’, the tea’s delicate nature remains undisturbed.
Green tea, it has been recently claimed, may ward off cancer, which is something we should all be trying to do obviously. Not least as there may well be no public health service to wash and bathe us in our autumnal years and green tea is cheaper than selling the house over the children’s heads to afford private care.
It’s the antioxidants that do it of course. Green tea is loaded with them but all too often, for me at least, it actually tastes medicinal. Nanny’s edict that if tastes horrible it is doing you good, never struck a chord with me.
London Tea’s Green Tea is very delicate and one of the few green teas I can actually drink without effort.
Favourite though is the White Tea with elderflower, lemongrass and a hint of apricot. Not only does it taste rather wonderful and smell even better, it has all the benefits of White Tea which is made from the youngest buds of the tea plant.
These teas are part of a large range from a rather cool company. www.londontea.co.uk
Nick Harman 