Notes on Food and Exhibitions, May/June 2021
pretty much a diary of things that I enjoyed
Hi friends, happy Monday!
I did promise in my last post that I would be writing about things that have been keeping me happy outside the kitchen so here it is! I know I know… I am at least 2 weeks late but this post has taken longer than expected for me to write because it is so hard to wrap up on 2 months of activity.
Hopefully though, for those who are still around, you will find something useful in this semi-jigsaw-semi-diary style post.
Foods: old favourites and new discoveries
When restaurants first reopened their doors, I rushed to sit down at some of my “old favourite” British restaurants. Rochelle Canteen, 26 Grains, Cafe Deco, 40 Maltby Street. I craved that feeling of familiarity — perhaps even nostalgia — of sitting down once again in the restaurants we loved.
Fresh Banh Mi’s @ Ant House and Auntie Banh Mi
As we entered summer I craved banh mi’s, and I am grateful for these two new (female run) food businesses that were born during the pandemic. Both have creative and generous fillings, (and for me they taste amazing but taste is a subjective thing) but what makes their banh mis so great is the fact that they make their bread fresh daily — and if you haven’t tried, it really does make a difference.
Ant House is my new favourite Vietnamese place down Kingsland Road, just opposite BunBunBun and Song Que. Restaurant by day and bar by night, not only do they have great banh mis, but also serve up other really delicious dishes too. My personal non-banh-mi favourites are their vegetarian xeo pancacke rolls and anything that is grilled incl. aubergine, pork, and honey roasted chicken leg.
Auntie Banh Mi, on the other hand, is not a restaurant, but a pop-up that often collabs with various bars, and specialises in Laotian banh mi’s. Auntie has a changing menu, often featuring 3 banh mi’s, plus various ‘daily specials’ such as crispy chicken wings or beef brisket pho if she decides to do them. She is super creative with the fillings, often taking inspiration from personal preferences of her friends and family.
Soft Serves @ Leila’s Shop
I am not sure how this started, but I have been almost going to Leila’s weekly. Mostly for Sam’s softserves as he thinks up creative flavour combinations weekly. Just like his tiffin-tin lunches, they are made with ingredients according to whatever is in season (and also available in the shop next door).
New discoveries in (perhaps a lot of people’s) old favourites
Thanks to the tip off from Sam at Leila’s Shop, I ordered pommes frites at Quo Vadis for the first time, and it was mindblowingly good. It now sits with that smoked eel sandwich and the profiteroles as my top ‘must-trieds’ for QV.
I also kept going to 40 Maltby Street, most of the times for takeaway lunches but I did (finally) manage to sit down for dinner twice. There was this warm smoked mackerel salad with pickled and fresh radish that was mere perfection, and a crumbed sweetbread dish served with new season’s garlic last week that was perfectly light and crispy on the outside but juicy and soft once you bite into it. Too bad that their menu changes weekly, so I am only able to sit here reminiscing their greatness until the next time they appear.
Other awesome eats
Four Legs @ Compton Arms: seasonal and inventive dishes by two genius chefs. When I tell friends about Four Legs, and they ask ‘what sort of cuisine?’, it is really hard for me answer because they are just so unique. Sadly though, Compton Arms is temporarily closed due to staff shortage. The duo are, however, doing crowdfunding in order to open their own place on Kickstarter.
Alhaji Suya @ Greenwich Business Park: perfectly grilled, piping hot, and well spiced suya with a lot of oomph. Took me so long to go but I am already dreaming about going back when I next get a chance. (Got their kilishi to go too, it was spicy and addictive — the kind that sits on the edge of sweating non-stop but also wanting more.)
Dimsum Duck @ King’s Cross: You have probably seen this a lot on Instagram recently but their dimsum is indeed very good. I wouldn’t queue for hours for it but if you do don’t miss out on the XLBs.
Egg bun @ 26 Grains: I have loved Stoney Street by 26 Grains since they opened near Borough Market, but this egg bun is only available in their Neal’s Yard cafe and it is definitely worth a stop.
Exhibitions: currently on and worth seeing
Seeing exhibitions had been one of my favourite activities, and to a certain extent still is. However, with limited capacity and social distancing measures, it is now a much bigger commitment to plan and book gallery-trips, often months in advance if you are after a weekend viewing.
Nonetheless, over the past month or so, I have (somewhat luckily) managed to see most of the exhibitions that are currently on in some of the major galleries and museums.
I have summarised them here, with a couple of comments on what to expect and how much they are worth seeing in my opinion.
Yayoi Kusama and Chantal Joffe @ Victoria Miro, N1
Everyone is dying to see the Tate Modern exhibition. After visiting both Tate’s and Victoria Miro’s Yayoi Kusama specials at the start of July, I felt the VM presents more dimensions of Kusama’s work, with a much less stressful ticket booking experience. There was also the bonus of a Chantal Joffe exhibition in the second gallery which is very much worth seeing too.
That said, as news spread, the exhibitions are now booked out.
However, what I love about VM is that they put so much more information about their exhibitions online, and you can learn A LOT about the artworks through their website.
Rubens @ The Wallace Collection
Before you get overly excited, the Rubens special exhibition at the Collection only features 2 landscape paintings. However, you should still go because it is the first time in over 200 years that these two landscapes are reunited, and they are both astonishingly beautiful.
I won’t spoil too much for you here as the introductory film will tell you all about the paintings and their history, but be sure to spend enough time in front on the paintings to observe all the beautiful details.
David Hockney @ The Royal Academy
Out of the 3 exhitions that are on at the RA, Hockney was by far my favourite. The premise of the show was part of the attraction: Hockney drew on an iPad and sent digital paintings daily to a small group of friends. Most paintings are bright and of nature, it must have brought so much happiness to those lucky recipients throughout lockdown.
Now we get to see a collection of those works together in the same space, arranged by motifs.
What I liked about this exhibition is the feelings and emotions that it carries: to share emotions without the burden of exchanging paragraphs of conversation. (Perhaps that’s just the introvert in me.)
In truth though, the exhibition may not be for everyone as some of my other art-loving friends found it quite dull, ‘too meta’, and ‘too modern’. If you are after more exciting content, then the other two shows are great too, and if you are seeing the Emin/Munch exhibitions, be sure not to miss the tiny sculptures by Tracey Emin, they are really wonderful objects.
Turner’s Modern World @ Tate Britain
Turner needs no introduction here — there is a reason why Tate Britain has a dedicated Turner gallery. I have always enjoyed Turner’s expressive and romantic watercolours of the sea whether in calmness or through storm, but this temporary exhibition revealed more of his industrialisation-related work. I did not know what to expect and the exhibition ended up showing me a completely new side of Turner’s works. It still puzzles me how Turner managed to paint sceneries of modernisation so expressively.
It was also quite a dense exhibition, with a huge number of artworks and a lot of details in each one, but a definite must-see if you are the studious art-lover, or a huge fan of Turner.
Epic Iran and Alice @ Victoria and Albert Museum
The two temporary exhibitions at the V&A are similar in their grandness and details but polar opposites in their mood.
Epic Iran felt very academic — cultural and artistic treasures throughout the country’s history gathered in one place — walking through the exhibition felt like going to a massive interactive history lesson. My favourites were the Oxus treasure and the manuscripts section; for the latter, be sure not to miss the Horoscope of Prince Iskandar (lent from the Wellcome Collection), which only gets lit for 5 minutes every quarter hour.
Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser, on the other hand, is a pretty much a playground. Given the nature of the subject this isn’t really a surprise, but V&A has really taken augmented reality into the next level. Original drawings, snapshots of Lewis Carroll’s life, and artworks influenced by Alice in Wonderland are intertwined with creatively designed sculptures and installations. The curators clearly had both adults and children in mind.
The only criticism I have for the V&A is that it is by far the busiest out of all the galleries and museums in this post — perhaps due to the density of the exhibitions as well as their popularity — I had to queue for at least 80% of the items on show.
Matthew Barney and Igshaan Adams @ Hayward Gallery
I am a huge fan of the Hayward Gallery in terms of space, both in terms of the architecture/interior and how walking through their exhibitions tend to feel.
The two exhibitions that are currently on show both feature very beautiful objects; Matthew Barney’s film Redoubt is presented along with giant sculptures constructed from fallen trees, while Igshaan Adams’ Kicking Dust in particular presents a surreal landscape of textile sculptures that invite the readers to walk through.
