Ayla Eats

Cooking Bangladesh

You’d be surprised how much you can learn about a country through what they eat. Food is steeped in culture, tradition, and history.

I would like to say that I am not an expert on the cuisines I am covering. I am just someone with a love for food and an eagerness to always keep learning. My research will be gained from the internet (not always the most reliable source). If you have any corrections/more information for me, I’d love to know!

Bengali Cuisine

Due to the fact that Bangladesh was once part of India, I’ll admit that before I began my search into the cuisine, I assumed it would pretty much be the same as Indian food. Being from the UK where we have been obsessed with Indian cuisine since our embarrassing colonial reign, I felt that I was already quite well versed. Although there are many similarities, there are also some differences. The first thing I’ll note, is that I was shocked to see how orientated the cuisine is around seafood and meat, with vegetarian dishes only seeming to appear as sides. You can read more about why this is in the History section, if you’re interested, or just skip to the food! As you can see above, the country is covered in thick rivers, so I guess a seafood heavy cuisine is only natural! I also noticed that the cuisine was very sugar heavy with most dishes I found recipes for adding a considerable amount of sugar. It’s also worth mentioning that Bangladesh is the 4^th largest producer of rice in the world, and rice is eaten with most meals.

A Little Bit of History

Bengal was once a region of British India. When British rule ended it was split into West Bengal, an Indian province with a majority Hindu population and East Bengal, a province belonging to Pakistan with a majority Muslim population. East Bengal later became their own country of Bangladesh (after the Liberation War in 1971). This explains a primary difference in cuisine between these two regions, as many Hindus do not eat meat, whereas eating meat is a big part of Muslim culture.

Although 98% of Bangladesh’s population are Bengali, they are the 8^th most populated country in the world and have some notable influence from other countries in the food they eat. Mostly, Chinese immigrates, as well as Nepali and Tibetan, that both have Chinese influences in their own cuisines as well.

Most Common Bengali Dishes

Fish & Rice

When you google ‘Bangladesh’s national dish’ you’ll be told Ilish Macher Paturi by a website called Taste Atlas. Bangladesh does not actually have an official national dish, however there is a popular saying within the country: “Fish & Rice is what makes a Bengali”. From what I could find, most Bengalis were happy to take on any fish and rice dish as a true representation of their cuisine, although summarising a whole nations food through one dish is pretty much impossible if you ask me. The Ilish (Tenualosa) fish is one of the most common to the region. This can be covered in spices and mustard oil before being wrapped in a banana leaf to be steamed, or it can be marinated in chilli and turmeric and then deep fried. It’s then served dry or in a sauce.

Biryani

Biryani originated in Persia (Iran) and was brought to India and Pakistan through Persian travellers, who had a big influence on the cuisine. It is now one of the most common dishes eaten in Bangladeshi cafes, eateries and by far the most popular street food in the country. It is also commonly served at parties and weddings. To get a real idea of the effort and process that goes into making a Bangladesh Biriyani I recommend this recipe by Bong Eats.

Dal

Just like the Dal you know and love from India, the Bengali version isn’t much different, apart from it’s a little thinner, more like a lentil soup. I thought this one was worth mentioning for the sheer amount that it is eaten in the country. With most families having it as a side on the table daily. It is extremely cheap to cook, making it a staple in poorer households, while still being equally loved by richer families for its ease and comfort to enjoy.

Haleem

Haleem seems to be all about the balance of heavy, hearty food, with fresh zesty flavours. It consists of barley, lentils, minced or shredded mutton/lamb, and spices, all slow cooked throughout the day. It is then served with lots of fresh ingredients on top such as coriander, lemon, ginger, and chillies. With Arabic origins, the high protein, high carb nature of the dish makes it extremely popular for breaking fasts during Ramadan.

Dhokar

This is one of the few vegetarian dishes aside from dal that I found when researching Bengali food. Dhokar is lentil based, but not as you know it. The lentils are soaked and ground into a paste that’s then dried and moulded into diamond shapes and fried. They can then be eaten as is, or most commonly, added to a curry called dalna, spiced with tomato, ginger and cumin. They are most often served as a side dish but can occasionally be the star of the show.

Bhorta

Bhorta meaning mashed, is a blanket term for what can be a wide range of different dishes. Most commonly Bhorta is made from potato or aubergine, however it can be used to describe any mashed vegetable dish with no rules on the spice combination, or extra ingredients added (most commonly fish). This dish can be eaten on its own, with rice, as a starter before a meal or even as a side dish. You’ll find some variant of it on every restaurant/café menu in Bangladesh.

Paratha

Paratha is a very popular flatbread in Bangladesh, made by folding an oil laminated dough in a certain way to produce flaky layers. You will find it in other countries such as India, however in Bangladesh it is a staple of breakfast. Although it is also served in the afternoons and evenings, breakfast is its most established place! Often being served with honey and sugar, eggs and fried veg, or even a lamb shank curry that happens to be a very popular breakfast dish amongst locals.

Rasmalai

For a country that is extremely proud of its desserts, with many sweet shops selling Bengali delicacies situated throughout every city, I had to talk about at least one! I chose Rasmalai because it intrigued me the most. It’s made from sugar, and curdled milk, quite like a sweetened paneer. The clotted cream dumplings are then served in milk that’s flavoured with cardamon, nuts and saffron.

What I Made

Dhokar Dalna

Recipe: https://www.bongeats.com/recipe/dhokar-dalna
Difficulty Level: 4/5

Thoughts: This was unlike anything I’ve ever cooked before. I was very grateful to Bong Eats not only for the comprehensive recipe but the video to accompany it! The soaking, blending, drying and frying of the Dhokar was a lot of fun, because it was all new and exciting, and when I first tried one of the fried cakes that was flavoured with sugar, coconut, peanuts and cumin, I was very impressed. Sweet, crispy and delicious. This process along with the dalna took me half the day. This is not a quick recipe.

The dalna uses mustard oil, an ingredient I’ve not used before and fun fact, one that is illegal for consumption in the UK. Don’t worry I didn’t have to venture into the dark web to obtain some. Shops get around the legalities by pretending the oil is for cosmetic uses only. Due to this and the fact I wasn’t sure if I’d even like it, I used half the amount the recipe suggested, and I’m glad I did. It’s a very distinct taste and I think any more would have been a little overpowering to my unaccustomed taste buds.

Overall, I loved the flavour of the dalna, it was perfectly balanced with cinnamon, cloves, cumin, ginger, chillies and a whole load of sugar. I’ll put my hand up and admit that I messed it up a little right at the end. It was super liquid-y, so I naturally overcompensated by reducing it down way too far. As soon as the Dhokar are added they absorb all that liquid straight up! It had a lot of desiccated coconut, which at first, I didn’t enjoy the texture of, but the end result was decent. The super sweet, coconut and warm spiced curry paired with the pungent mustard oil and tomato was so different to anything I’m used to, tasting it for the first time was my idea of an adventure.

Bengali Fried Rice

Recipe: https://www.bongeats.com/recipe/bengali-vegetable-fried-rice
Difficulty Level: 1.5/5

Thoughts: After my research it was obvious that I couldn’t make Bengali food without a side of rice. This simple but flavourful fried rice dish is most typically served with fish (of course), but I can see it working well with anything. The cinnamon, garam masala and sugar continue the theme of a mix of sweet and savoury in every dish. It’s definitely the sweetest fried nice I’ve had, but somehow managed to taste healthy and light with the crunchy fresh veg.

Paratha

Recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIaXP9JVpK8&ab_channel=OoniPizzaOvens
Difficulty Level: 4/5

Thoughts: I know, I know, paratha is mostly eaten for breakfast in Bangladesh. But honestly, I just love this stuff and really wanted to have a go at making it. Although I used this YouTube recipe for the dough, I pan fried it in lots of butter, rather than in a pizza oven like this idiot. The dough itself was great. I was honestly so impressed with what I managed to make. I took a while getting the folding technique completely down, so some were much better than others. But the good ones were really good, they had the flaky layers that you’d expect from a paratha and were spot on to the frozen packet ones we have in our freezer at all times (although my ones were a lot more time consuming to make), still definitely one to whip out to impress at a dinner party!

I’ve loved learning about and trying some of the food of Bangladesh! With such a populous country, it was difficult to sum up the cuisine in just a few dishes and words. But I hope I gave you a good idea of how diverse the cuisine is, and a better idea of the country’s food, rather than what you might have eaten at an Indian/Bangladeshi curry house here in the UK. Most of all I hope I have encouraged you to cook something new!

The Best Cheap Eats in Brighton

So, I recently asked my followers on Instagram what their favourite places to eat on a budget were.
It was clear to see that everyone was huge fans of Pompoko, Planet India and Foodilic. However, I think there are a load of places that are great to eat on a budget in Brighton, and I want to share my favourites with you, as well as exactly why I love them.
I’m classing ‘budget’ as a decent meal for around £10 and under. So places that were mentioned in my previous vote such as China Garden, Manju’s and Chikini don’t quite make the cut.

Noodles Soup

Noodles Soup is my personal number one spot for a cheap eat. Maybe this is controversial, but I’d choose it over Pompoko almost every time. Pretty much every soup is £7.95, and there are 3 soup bases to choose from: Noodle Soup, a clear, clean vegetable broth; Spicy Noodle Soup, the same, but spicy; and Singaporean Laksa Noodle Soup, the best thing on the menu.

I’ve tried all three, and the clear broths are still really banging and a lot fresher, but the Laksa hits different. Not to mention it comes with delicious tofu puffs, no matter what topping you choose.

After you’ve chosen your base, you can then customise your noodle soup with your choice of toppings and noodle type, with vegetarian, seafood and meat options available. I’ve had the mixed seafood (which takes you on an adventure of weird and wonderful things), vegetable, which comes with some top level tofu puffs, prawn, and back when I still regularly ate meat the honey glazed pork, which was magical.

Price: £7.95
Portion Size: A Big Ol’ Bowl – sometimes hard to finish
Rating: 9.5
Vegan options: Yes, all the soup bases are vegan as far as I know!

Unithai

Now, I’ve only actually been to Unithai a few times despite living so close to it for over a year. However, this is by far the best pad thai I’ve personally eaten and if I’m ever in the mood for pad thai, then this is where I would go in a heartbeat.

I’ve also tried the duck red curry, and sweet and sour tofu stir-fry. Both are decent, and not a bad price for the amount of food, but they didn’t blow me away in the same way that the pad thai does. The noodle bar is hidden at the back of a stacked oriental convenience store, which means you can grab some banging instant noodles and packs of mochi on your way out.

Price: £6.95 – £7.65
Portion Size: Very generous
Rating: 8/10
Vegan options: Yes, tofu pad thai is vegan!

Social Board

The Porcetta: Pork Belly, Crackling, Fried Onions, Homemade Mustard

Social Board aren’t your average sandwiches. From the ex-head chef of Food for Friends, this place is any foodie’s lunch dream. Surprisingly, the menu is mostly meat, but the 2 vegetarian/vegan sandwiches on there are some of my favourites.

All sandwiches are either £6 or £8 depending on the size you want. Then there’s a range of sides from £3.50 – £4.50. My usual order is a small sandwich and skinny fries with truffle mayo: £9.50. Proper filling, and proper tasty!

You can tell how high quality the ingredients are, and personally I’d choose it over a burger any day of the week. Some of my favourites include the BBQ mushroom served with a vegan cheddar that tastes just like the real deal, the Szechuan tempeh and a Moroccan lamb special I ate years ago. Always wrapped in a chewy and soft focaccia bun from the flour pot bakery.

Price: £6 – £9.50
Portion Size: A very filling lunch!
Rating: 9/10
Vegan options: Yes! Always a tempeh and sometimes a mushroom one.

Big Slice

Mushroom & Candied Jalapeño – White Base

This guy is relatively new to the game, opening during lockdown number one.
Dan decided to make an investment in some top quality pizza ovens, and start throwing out finish-at-home pizzas for the whole of Brighton. All you have to do is whack it in the oven for 5 minutes, and you’ve got a fresh sourdough pizza at any time you feel like it throughout the evening.

Let’s face it, this beats a fancy supermarket pizza any day, and it’s not far off the same price. All the pizzas range from £5 – £9. I could have easily included a lot of pizza places in this list, as you can get a good pizza for under £10 at most places in Brighton. However, I think when it comes to eating on a budget Big Slice is the best quality you’ll get for a lower price, and Dan delivers each pizza in person (for free) with a big smile on his face.

P.S. If you happen to see a Big Slice pop-up, where you can get this pizza fresh – GO!

Price: £5 – £9
Portion Size: 12” pizza
Rating: 8.5/10
Vegan options: Yes, cashew cream replaces the cheese, and it’s delicious.

The Pond

I thought hard about putting Baby Bao of The Pond on this list, because honestly, I can easily spend £20 here. BUT, most of the time I’ll just get a fish bao and a side of mac and cheese (£9.75) alongside a beer with friends (but we’re not counting the beer). Ellie will always order the panko squash or mushroom bao with house loaded fries (£10.50).

But like I mentioned, if you want to get 2 baos each and 3 sides to share with a side of pickles this could easily total £20+ pp. That being said, this is still an absolute bargain, and let’s be honest it’s one of the best places to eat in Brighton, whether you’re on a budget or not. So it’s staying on the list.

Price: £9.50 – £12
Portion Size: Not massive, but filling. If you want a big portion, you’ll have to spend more!
Rating: 10/10
Vegan options: Yes. They even do Meat Free Mondays every Monday.

Monjibello

Monjibello is a Sicilian café on Duke Street. Don’t let the outside fool you, there’s a whole little restaurant upstairs, with an extensive menu of arancini, paninis, cannoli and, most importantly, pasta!

You can get a giant plate of pasta here for £6.50 – £8.50. I had the creamy salmon pasta, coming in at £7.50, with an extremely generous amount of salmon. The creamy sauce was simple, salty and delicious. The pasta was a little aldente for me, but I’m sure it would be easy to request otherwise, beforehand if you wanted.

They even mentioned that they’re looking into making their own pasta fresh if it becomes popular enough, and I’m very much here for it!

Price: £6.50 – £8.50
Portion Size: HUGE
Rating: 7.5/10
Vegan options: There were tomato vegan options when I went. But none on their delivery menus

That’s all for now, but when this lockdown is over, I’m planning to try and hit up a few more of your recommendations for cheap eats and I’ll keep you updated if anything changes!

Amarillo: Drakes of Brighton Review

On Friday 11th September, I got together with fellow food friends @brightonfoodboy and @brightonfoodguide. Mr BFG joined us, making us four hungry foodies ready to see what Amarillo has to bring to the city’s ever improving food scene!

Amarillo (named after the word for yellow in Spanish) is not entirely new to Brighton. You may remember them from their brief pop-up earlier in the year at Lost in the Lanes café. I’d heard some great things about their food from the few that had the chance to visit. When I found out they had managed to get the kitchen at Drakes Hotel, I was keen to book in and finally get to try the food.

Photo credit: @amarillo_restaurant instagram

Amarillo is marketed with head chef Ian Swainson at the forefront. Ian has a very impressive resume, holding a Michelin star for 3 years, as well as working at many other Michelin grade restaurants and winning plenty of notable awards along the way. Amarillo’s website says that this is “Ian’s love letter to Brighton”, and as cliché as it may sound, that was perfectly translated into every part of the meal, with Ian himself coming out to talk each table through every one of his proudly created dishes after its arrival.

Drakes Hotel is no doubt a well-known name in Brighton. Situated right on the seafront on Marine Parade, Kemptown, the hotel itself is meant to have some gorgeous rooms, with beautiful views. Despite having only just opened, the restaurant was almost full. They’re always bound to get guests from the hotel, so I recommend booking in advance before they begin to get really busy!

The restaurant at Drakes is situated in the basement, and I’m going to hold my hands up and say that I’m not the biggest fan of the restaurant’s atmosphere. The lighting was slightly artificial, to the point that even at 10:00 pm it felt like they were trying to recreate natural sunlight. The décor was comfortable, but very typical of what you might expect from a hotel restaurant.

All that being said, it’s early days, and they may well slowly adapt to fit in with Amarillo’s style. Plus, none of that really mattered as we were greeted with a warm welcome, and our waitress Merve was an absolute delight, making the experience all that more special.

Now, what you all came here for: the food.

Merve explained to us that the menu is designed to be shared, with the option of a small and larger plate for each section.

So, naturally we ordered one of everything on the whole menu (with double pinchos) and Merve assured us that this would be more than enough food between the four of us (it wasn’t, but I’ll come to that later).

For now, I’m going to talk y’all through (almost) the entire menu from start to finish. I don’t really eat meat these days and am not the person to talk about that to, so I’m going to leave those dishes out of the review.

You can view the current menu here.

Pinchos

If you’ve ever been to northern Spain, you’ll probably know the beauty of the humble pinchos bar. Although as far as I’m aware there are no specific rules as to what a pincho can be, they are generally a slice of bread with some form of delicious topping, e.g. cheese, cold meats, fish etc. In the bars in Barcelona, these would then have a cocktail stick through the middle. You’d collect the cocktail sticks so that at the end of your meal, you’d pay dependent on how many you had.

Although there unfortunately wasn’t a cocktail stick in sight at Amarillo, these pinchos were next level. They were easily my favourite part of the meal, and considering all the food was amazing, that’s saying something.

The mushroom and truffle French toast had the perfect balance of truffle, with a super crispy buttery edge, a slight sweetness and a sprinkling of rich cep powder. This was decadent beyond belief and I savoured every bite.

If you’re a fan of sushi, then the salmon belly nacho is going to be right up your street. Clearly using some top-quality salmon sashimi, this dish was honestly some of the best raw fish I’ve eaten in a long time, and I wasn’t even in a sushi restaurant.
The salmon is served in small cubes on top of a homemade deep-fried tortilla chip, which had a delicious flavour even before being adorned with its fresh toppings. These were avocado and sriracha mayonnaise. Ian let us know that this had been on the menu ever since Amarillo first started, and I for one hope it never leaves!

Fish

Down on the menu as Bacalao, a Spanish salted cod dish, this plate was another one of my favourites! Confit cod, which was so tender I was convinced it had been sous vide. It was almost somewhere between sashimi and cooked. The texture was incredible, and although delicate and subtle in flavour, it was delicious. It was served with a tasty parsley pomme puree, rich beurre blanc, and a shard of intensely fishy and perfectly crispy fish skin.

Next up in the fish round was, you guessed it, yet another impressive dish: pan roasted halibut, with the most flavourful master stock broth. The fish was resting on some sea vegetables, with toasted rice panna cotta distributed throughout and puffed wild rice on top, which added a variation in texture. I think the panna cotta was lost a little in the broth, but the broth was so delicious, I didn’t care.

Vegetables

Roasted beetroot salad with lavender milk curd, butter powder and cashews nuts. As salads go, this was absolutely stunning. It had both golden and normal beetroot on the plate, and the lavender milk curd was subtle but still prominent with the taste of lavender. It was a nice light dish, that used vegetables to their full potential.

Next up, my favourite larger dish of the evening, the split yolk raviolo with pickled artichokes. Perfectly cooked, giant ravioli pasta, with runny egg yolk inside and topped with vegetable crisps, delicious artichokes, and slices of raw mushroom. This isn’t the first time I’ve eaten a raw mushroom, but I definitely think they would have got a lot more out of the versatile vegetable into if they’d been cooked in some form.

Sides

Honestly, as surprisingly delicious as the truffle infused spinach leaves were, I would recommend just ordering another couple of portions of pinchos over these sides. They’re tastier, cheaper and will fill you up more… it’s a no brainer!

Dessert

My favourite dessert of the two was easily the meadowsweet crème brûlée with blackberries, yoghurt sorbet and meringue shards. I’d never tried meadowsweet before and only really understood what it was after Ian had come over and explained that it’s a wild flower/herb that typically grows in meadows (who’d a thought?)
It levelled up the crème brûlée and made it something entirely different. The textures were all perfect and the sorbet, meringue and blackberries balanced the dessert really well.

This dessert is down on the menu as a Chocolate Milkshake, which is all part of the theatre of the dish, as you can see this dessert is far from a milkshake.
There’s some milkshake encased in a chocolate shell, with some pistachio sponge, sesame ice cream and chocolate crumb. It was a fun dessert, and I enjoyed it! The sponge was an interesting texture, and I appreciated all the different elements, as well as the thought that went into it.

I probably wouldn’t order it again, just because it’s not quite my kind of dessert, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t!

As you can probably tell, I was a massive fan of the food here. It would be pretty hard for me to tell you exactly what I loved the most. However, there are a few aspects of the evening that need a little work, and I couldn’t possibly keep them from you (those 10 hardcore fans who read my reviews).

Please remember that we went to Amarillo within their first couple weeks of opening, and it’s very possible that these will be adapted and refined in the next few months.

Firstly, we ordered more pinchos before we ordered the desserts, as we were all quite hungry. Although we were told on arrival that the menu was created for sharing, and the amount we ordered would be more than enough, all dishes were relatively small and not easy to split between four by any means.

@Brightonfoodboy said that he’d suggest ordering the whole menu between 2 instead, which definitely ups the price.

Personally, I’d rather they added some carbalicious sides to bulk out the meal if you wanted. Please god, give me some potatoes; the vegetable sent from the heavens, the staple that carries so many meals. The cooking at Amarillo was insanely good – but I know these guys know their way around a potato, and I’d love to see a side of it in some shape or form on the menu.

Another of my pet hates these days is when menus don’t cater well to dietary requirements. If you threw on some potatoes/bread to the menu then a vegetarian would be able to get a decent meal here, although they wouldn’t have a lot of options, but there’s no attempt to cater to vegans at all.

I think in this current climate, more and more people are trying to at least reduce their meat intake, even if they aren’t cutting it out altogether, and we need restaurants like Amarillo to show just how delicious vegetables can be to encourage more people to choose them over meat.

My only other small complaint (which was also partly due to us chatting away and taking a while to order) was how long the meal took. We were there for a total of 4 hours. I think this is partly due to the way the menu works; they only bring out two dishes at a time. As you can imagine, when you’ve ordered the whole menu, that can take a while!

All that said and done, Amarillo is an exciting new addition to the Brighton food scene, and I can’t wait to see how they develop and move forward now they’ve found their home at Drakes.

Recommendation: Perfect for a date night or celebration, definitely worth checking out!

Med. Restaurant Review

If you’re hot on the Brighton restaurant scene, you may have noticed that there’s a new guy in town – but Med. is no risky starter restaurant; Jack Southan and Will Dennard have made their way around Brighton, from working at the renowned Plateau, to starting their own popup business called Wolfsmouth, where they showcased exactly what they were capable of. Pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, tacos, you name it, these guys were probably doing it somewhere in town.

In 2019, they took over the kitchen at Paradiso Social Bar and demonstrated to the city where their real passion lay: in the world of small plates and fine dining food. Paradiso Social managed to make it to 17th place in the 2020 Brighton’s Best Restaurant Awards within the first year of Wolfsmouth taking over (that’s seriously impressive by the way).

After announcing that they’d made the decision to end all Wolfsmouth popups (including Paradiso Social), they officially opened Med. on 30th July 2020.
Situated on Little East Street, Med. sits opposite their old friend Plateau. If you’re an old time Brightonian you’ll know the building well, as it was famously once home to Momma Cherri’s, star of the 2005 Brighton-based episode of Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares – seemingly the only episode in which Gordon likes the food! Fun fact: Will Dennard trained under Gordon Ramsey, which makes this location even more fitting for his first restaurant.

The concept: Med. plans to specialise in small plates from all over the Mediterranean. If you don’t already know, have a quick Google of exactly what countries that includes. Quite a few, right? Within their opening menu alone they managed to cover Italy, Spain, Egypt, Greece, France, Portugal and the Middle East, just to name a few.

This was Ellie and I’s first experience of eating out in a restaurant since lockdown, and it’s safe to say we were incredibly nervous. However, as soon as we walked in, we were greeted with smiles and friendly faces and shown to the best seat in the house, right next to the big window at the front of the restaurant. The interior of Med. is calming in itself: spaced out tables, mostly of groups of two, with a mixture of light wood and pastel peach walls. Oh, I almost forgot to mention there’s real decorative moss on the walls! Apparently this helps improve air quality, reduce noise levels and is said to also reduce stress?! More importantly, it looks amazing.

It’s worth mentioning that this was an invited event, meaning that we received a 50% industry discount. However, Med. are participating in the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme, where they’re offering 50% discount (up to £10pp) to everyone who books from Monday – Wednesday!

One of my favourite things about Med., was that it was so laid back. There’s no pressure to order too much or all at once. We gradually ordered a variety of different small plates throughout the night until we were full, and this is what we went for:

Sourdough Focaccia & Condiments
Padron Peppers
Egyptian Hummus
Crispy Potatoes & Bravas
Taramasalata & Bunelas
Cantaloupe Melon with Avocado & Cured Cucumber
Charred Artichokes & Courgettes with Sheep’s Cheese and Mint
Honey & Lavender Ice-Cream

So, lets get started. The bread. Wow. Honestly, it’s just some of the best bread I’ve ever eaten, and no, I’m not being dramatic. You would be making a massive mistake if you came here and didn’t order the bread. In fact, I think I could come here and only get the bread. The focaccia crust is salty and crunchy, and the fluffy white bread inside is airy, soft and baked to perfection. It was served with whipped sundried tomato butter and aioli. The butter was so light it instantly dissolved into the bread on contact. The aioli had the perfect level of garlic for my taste. Personally, I don’t want my taste buds to be tickled, I want them to be attacked.

We also ordered some Padron peppers with this course; they were salty, acidic, and as delicious as they always are. (edit: we’ve since been back and I can HIGHLY recommend ordering the burrata in Sardinian olive oil with this too!).

Next up, we had the Egyptian hummus. Our bread was almost all gone at this point, so the crispy potatoes were a welcome substitute dipping vessel. The hummus was incredible. It comes covered with seeds, oil, mint, coriander, and crispy chickpeas, giving it quite an earthy flavour.

The potatoes had a very high bar to live up to as one of our favourite things to order at Paradiso Social. These came in the form of patatas bravas, the famous tapas dish from Spain, topped with spicy tomato sauce and aioli. These were probably some of the best patatas bravas I’ve ever eaten. My only complaint is that there wasn’t quite enough flavour in the spicy tomato sauce, but the punch of the garlicky aioli was amazing.

The taramasalata was one of my favourite dishes. It reminded me of a salmon mousse, although this guy is notoriously made with fish eggs (usually cod). In coordination with the rest of the meal, it was super light and I could not get enough of it. It was served with bunelas, which are sticks of fluffy deep-fried dough, something a little more interesting to dip than breadsticks!

Next up, Ellie’s favourite dish of the night. The cantaloupe melon is something that I wouldn’t usually have ordered, and therefore shocked me with just how much I loved it. The flavours were relatively simple, but with an obviously complex technique gone into making it what it was. The dish was juicy and citrusy, with a great variety of textures. The melon almost looked like smoked salmon when it came out (although it didn’t taste like it), and is then topped with avocado, cured cucumbers, mint and dill. It really was a work of art.

Our final ‘main’ dish was charred artichoke and courgettes with sheep’s cheese. They even split this portion in half for us and did one vegan (without the cheese) for Ellie. I can often find artichokes bland, but these were full of flavour from where they’d been charred on the grill and covered in lemon and mint. The salty cheese then balanced the flavours perfectly.

Finally, to finish we couldn’t quite handle a big dessert so ordered some lavender and honey ice-cream to share. We paired this with a delicious white port, and it was an experience within itself. I was expecting the lavender to be subtle, but I can assure you it’s not, and it is all the tastier for it! We both agreed we’d never eaten anything quite like it. Even if you’re not really a ‘dessert person’, I would recommend getting this out of pure curiosity at the end of your meal.

As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, we loved the food here. So much so we actually went back again last week with friends! If that doesn’t vouch for it, I don’t know what will. They’ve also now got an outside terrace, perfect for August.

Med. is definitely worth adding to your list (everyone has a ‘restaurants to eat at’ list right?!) and a great place to check out as a date or with a group of friends. I’m especially excited for what the future holds for these guys and can’t wait to see where they take us next.

The Urchin: Portuguese Street Food

A couple of weekends ago on Sunday 28th June, I decided to treat my friend, Adam to The Urchin’s new street food offering as his late birthday present. Although lock-down wasn’t yet lifted, the restrictions have been relaxed, meaning we’re now officially allowed to sit out in the sun and eat food, which is exactly what we did!

If you don’t already know, The Urchin are a gastropub specialising in initiative shellfish dishes, which I can confidently say are some of the best in Brighton & Hove. They’ve got a weekly changing specials board dependent on the fresh catch of the day, and it’s all served from the comfortable nautical surroundings of a gorgeous British pub.

Shellfish is not the only thing these guys do well. Their vegetarian and vegan options have never failed to amaze me. They are one of my favourite restaurants in the whole city, so you bet my expectations were pretty high for this meal…

After launching a very popular ‘Finish at Home’ menu in May, The Urchin recently started offering street food from their small side garden a few weeks ago, and this was my chance to see if it could live up to their usual impeccable standard.

This week there was a Portuguese theme. I don’t know about you guys, but I am an absolute sucker for a good theme.

When we arrived, the lovely barmaid explained that they’re not allowed to let anyone sit in the garden just yet, as it encourages large groups to socialise (understandable). We also saw that the feijoada croquettes were sold out. I was absolutely gutted, as ever since seeing feijoada on Netflix’s Final Table, I’ve had a slight obsession with it. Instead we ordered:

Beer Battered Prawns

Salt & Pepper Squid

Seafood Dog with Crispy Potatoes

Vegetarian Francesinha

This all came to a total of £29 for two people, and was quite a lot of food.

We ordered two of the Larrikin Oyster Stouts to enjoy while we were waiting for it all to arrive. These were smooth, relatively light, and delicious. They’re also brewed in house using whole oysters from the restaurant as part of the straining process, this is to clarify the beer and help the yeast settle, rather than give the beer a seafood flavour.

When our food came, instead of wandering around trying to find somewhere to eat while our food inevitably began to get cold, we joined the socially distanced line of pairs sitting on the street outside the pub. It was surprisingly comfortable, and the sun was even shining.

First up, the dish we both decided was by far our favourite: The Vegetarian Francesinha. I first heard about Porto’s version of the French Croque Madame through the Channel 4 show Travel Man, and despite Richard Ayoade’s mild disgust, I still found myself very much wanting to try this mammoth sandwich.

The Urchin’s version was a little more refined, yet probably only slightly healthier. As you can see, this isn’t the prettiest of dishes. But who said there can’t be beauty in chaos? Between two fried slices of bread, were grilled courgettes, asparagus, mushrooms, truffle mayo and a generous amount of vegan Gouda cheese. It was then topped with a shallow fried egg, which resulted in a runny yolk and a super crispy white. Rather than take on the unusual spiced tomato, beef and beer sauce that is traditional in Portugal, they opted for a very flavourful tomato and roasted pepper sauce instead. It was messy, cheesy, crunchy and, above all, delicious.

Next up, and our agreed second favourite dish of the day was the beer battered prawns with paprika mayo. In true street food style, they were served on a stick. For some reason food is instantly more fun when it’s served on a stick.

These prawns were almost the size of tennis balls and they were all the more delicious for it. Think the same kind of batter you’d get down your local chip shop, but on a prawn. It was thick, with a crispy outer layer and a very satisfying texture. The mayo added a subtle level of flavour without overpowering the delicate fish inside.

If you’re wondering exactly what a seadog is, I’m sure you’re not alone. This particular seafood sausage was made up of smoked haddock and prawns. We originally guessed smoked salmon from the pink colour, but honestly it doesn’t matter what was in it, because it was super yummy, and utterly new to me.

It was quite a dense sausage, with a very similar texture to its meaty counterpart, but with a distinct seafood-y flavour. My only (very small) criticism on this one would be that the bread is a little dry. I would prefer a slimmer, softer bun, with a more generous helping of sauce.

Adam didn’t agree with me on this, so it’s obviously a personal preference. The crispy potatoes were a great touch, adding another level of texture to each bite (although they did make it even harder to fit into your mouth).

Last up, we had some salt and pepper squid. This was our backup order to the sold-out croquettes. The portion size was very generous, which is always going to earn extra brownie points in my books.

The squid was coated in a very light batter, with the perfect soft, yet chewy texture. Adam even proclaimed that this was the best cooked squid he’s ever eaten.

Living up to the name, it was super salty, which I absolutely love, so no complaints here! I would have appreciated a side sauce just because condiments are king, and I get excited by a well executed dip, but in terms of flavour it definitely didn’t need one.

As you can probably tell, I loved The Urchin’s street food. Luckily, they’re set to continue it for the rest of the summer, so I’m excited to try a few more bits in the months to come.

True to their style, the street food is an ever changing menu. I’m still a little gutted I missed out on the week with octopus arancini (here’s hoping it makes a comeback).

I have so much faith in these guys that I wouldn’t even need to look at the week’s offerings before rocking up. You know they’ll be turning out incredible food no matter what!

Now that they’ve started to reopen the pub, there’s also slightly bigger dishes on offer, like their classic Malaysian Prawns and Moules Mariniere (both well worth a try!) So, get down there as soon as you can to grab some delicious bites and beers in the sun.

As much as I’d love to believe this review is the highlight of The Urchin’s career, they were visited by none other than Jay Rayner in 2018, where he raved about their food and compared their Malaysian prawns and perfectly cooked fries to an upgraded chips and curry sauce. It’s a great read, if you’ve got a minute you can find it here!

Recommendation: Definitely Check This Out!

Social Board: Sunday Roast Review

As I’m sure you all know, unless you’ve been in a coma for the last few months and the first thing you decided to do was read this review, the country’s on lock-down, and the way we eat out has been forced to change to the way we eat in.

So, when Easter weekend rolled up and we had four consecutive days to do nothing but eat, we were keen to make sure we ate some good food, and a lot of it.

Naturally on the Sunday, we were craving a hearty roast dinner. We also happened to be a little drunk and we didn’t want to bother with any of the cooking, and above anything else, the mountains of washing up that are always produced from any roast cooking adventure. We decided to check out Social Board, who have recently started serving roasts at The Cloak Room.

I’ll admit that I had my doubts when it came to a Deliveroo roast dinner, as I’m sure many would. How well they’d carry was the main issue. Fears of sweaty, cold roast potatoes enter my mind and haunt my thoughts whenever I so much as consider ordering a roast online.

That said, me and my girlfriend Ellie are massive fan girls when it comes to Social Board. We once went to a special 6 course, vegan tasting menu there that we still talk about to this day. Their sandwiches are the lunches of dreams. The ingredients they use are top tier, with every element of the humble dish being well thought out and executed to a very high standard. I would love to go into a lot more detail on exactly why they’re the best sandwiches in Brighton, but this is a review about roast dinners!

We chose Social Board not only because of our love for their sandwiches but also based on a couple of recommendations from friends. We also assumed the ex-head chef of Food for Friends knew what they were doing when it came to making vegetables taste magical. However, it ended up being a bit of a mixed bag.

Ellie’s been a vegetarian for years now and I like to brand myself as a bad pescatarian. I love veggie food and will try to choose it over everything else, but if someone tells me they’ve eaten the best fried chicken in the world and I can get it delivered to my door in the next 30 minutes, there’s a 95% chance I’ll cave. To sum up, I’m weak, but I’m trying. ANYWAY, we both ordered the lentil and sweet potato bake, and oh boy was that bake a big mistake. There were no other veggie options, but we’re usually fans of anything wrapped in pastry and paired with gravy. I’ve been known to eat vegan sausage rolls and even veggie samosas with my roast dinners (trust me on this one, the latter is surprisingly tasty).

The bake came with rosemary and garlic roast potatoes, carrots, butternut squash puree, red cabbage, seasonal veg (for us this was: cauliflower, roasted beetroot, green beans and leeks) and finished off with some red wine gravy. I also ordered a side of the cauliflower cheese (because who wouldn’t).

The food was luke-warm when it came, of course this is no fault of Social Board’s and is just something we need to accept is a possibility these days when we order our takeouts. I decided to go with it and hope heating up the gravy to beyond boiling point would make everything okay – I just couldn’t risk jeopardising the crispiness of those all important potatoes.

Ellie risked a few minutes in the microwave (I think she regretted it).

Our lentil and sweet potato bake was unfortunately under cooked. The pastry was claggy and raw closer to the middle, and still soft around the edges too. The lentils were rock hard and the entire filling was bland, I ate it because I was hungry, Ellie left hers.

Thankfully it gets a lot better from there on out! The potatoes were by far my favourite part. They were bursting with flavour, which isn’t something I’ve ever really encountered in other pub roasts, not to this level at least. My potatoes still had a slight crisp to them (Ellie’s microwaved ones disappointingly didn’t). The red cabbage was super vinegary, but balanced out with sweetness, and all the more delicious for it. There was a tasty pile of cooked leeks that were soft and caramelised. The rest of the veg was okay, the roasted beetroot was slightly hard, but still a fun addition to the plate.

There was a small Yorkshire pudding that looked a little like the ones you find in the freezer section of your local supermarket, but don’t let this deceive you, as it was crisp and delicious nonetheless.

At £3.75 I thought my cauliflower cheese was well worth the price. I needed to put it under the grill for a little longer as it had no colour on top, but it was basically just a bowl of delicious melted cheese with chunks of cauliflower here and there. Absolute heaven. You could tell the cheese was good stuff, with more than one type thrown into the mix. It may not look like much pre-grilled, but it was indulgent as hell, and I savoured every bite.

Finally, the gravy. I’m going to guess that we got the veggie gravy, and the meat gravy is probably utterly delicious. This however wasn’t. It was watery and lacked any depth of flavour at all. I would hazard a guess that they’d put the juices of the red cabbage in there because the only thing I could really taste was vinegar, unless that was supposedly the red wine. Just mix some Swiss Vegetable Boullion Powder with flour and water and you’d get a better result. You don’t need to be ashamed that you didn’t make it from scratch, at least it tastes good!

It’s difficult to sum up exactly how I feel about this Social Board Sunday roast, because there were some outstanding components (potatoes, leeks and cauliflower cheese), but the mistakes that were made with the lentil bake and the gravy altered the enjoyment of the whole meal. We live the other side of town and don’t own any mode of transport, so, we weren’t able to get the discounted food through pick up. Meaning this roast cost a total of £36.73 for two people. Not outrageous, but not quite worth it when prior to lock-down we’d planned to get it for less than £10 each through Wriggle.

I don’t think this was simply a case of neglecting the vegetarian option, I know they have the ability to create incredible vegetarian food because I’ve eaten it time and time again.

Unfortunately, it looks like for now, we’ll be sticking to the sandwiches (which you should all go and try by the way), and searching for another Sunday roast delivery in Brighton.