The World in 202 Meals » Links

Roundup: Lebanese mezze and eating East London

Andrea — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:47:37 +0000

- Allegra McEvedy’s account of eating her way through Lebanon reminds me of why Lebanese is so high on my list of potential next meals. I thought I knew Lebanese food, but I hadn’t heard of many of the dishes she describes–like man’ousheh, muhammara and ‘boiled brains with lemon’. Here’s hoping a few of them are served on Edgware Road.

- We love the sound of this! Circus Eats at Stratford Circus has a special menu for the East festival this weekend: the theme is celebrating the cultures of London’s east end with a mix of international dishes, from African, Caribbean and South American to European, Asian and traditional East London eats like pie mash and salt beef bagels. The Thursday night launch has a “modern East End seven course tasting menu accompanied by specially selected international drinks.” We hope to investigate.

- Our mission plan page is filling up. Matt, our chief geek, has designed a really clever drop-down menu you can use to easily view the countries we’ve covered, the countries we’re working on and the countries we have no idea about.

Readings: The kimchi crisis

Andrea — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:01:49 +0000

Oh no! One of our favourite foods has been hit by the economic downturn, according the the BBC. Despite kimchi’s status as a South Korean cuisine staple worthy of its own museum in Seoul, a kimchi trade deficit has reached $77.3 million over the last three years thanks to demand for cheaper Chinese-made product. There’s some good news for the kimchi-mad, however–South Korea has launched a $40 million campaign to increase the number of Korean restaurants around the world to 40,000 by 2017.

Readings: The disgustingness of Mongolian breakfasts

Andrea — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 22:34:35 +0000

“The most disgusting food. Ever,” begins Tim Wu’s article for Slate on the joys of eating in Mongolia. Wu doesn’t sound easily disgusted–he’s apparently a pro at gagging down deep fried scorpion, duck brains, snake blood and semi-live octopus tentacles. But even he had trouble with the acidic, rock-hard cheese, endless mutton and fermented horse milk of Mongolia. (Though mutton dumplings and mutton mixed with noodles “can sometimes be good,” he admits, likewise the fermented horse’s milk “when distilled to a clear liquor”.)

Wu’s description of slaughtering a whole sheep for breakfast truly disturbed me: “As we went into a local ger to eat breakfast, I noticed that the sheep’s head had been removed, and the internal organs were being poured into a giant pot, the same way you might empty a can of beans…I’m sorry to say that we had to watch the whole mess boiling for a while on the dung fire, yielding bubbles of brownish-gray scum. Afterward, a giant steaming bowl of internal organs was placed before us with some ceremony.” Needless to say, Wu did not find it very tasty.

Looks like we probably won’t have to endure sheep organs for our future Mongolian meal, though–seems the only “Mongolian” restaurant in London is this chain, which serves dishes like Genghis Murphy’s Mousse.

UPDATE: The Mongolian Barbeque in Covent Garden is closed for refurbishment, but Little Lamb in Chinatown serves Mongolian (but not really Mongolian) hotpot. Thanks Charmaine!

Readings: UK delicacies

Andrea — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:28:30 +0000

The Guardian has a list of 10 regional UK dishes and where to eat them, which, as a transplanted Canadian, I was very interested to see. London is nowhere on the list. Doesn’t our pie and mash count?

(For the record, I have had amazing Yorkshire puddings at The Lord Stanley and pretty good Northern Irish soda bread from my trusty, overpriced Sainsbury’s Local.)