Rök Out

Smoking food is fast becoming a massive trend in and around London and Rök in Shoreditch is taking it to a whole new level.

The restaurant takes its name from the Swedish word smoke (makes sense) and it gives quality British ingredients the Nordic treatment.

Led by Matt Young, a down to earth and super talented chef, Rök is creating and smashing out dishes like there is no tomorrow and to be honest that's no surprise as the food there is at its very best.

Their meat is supplied by the famous Cobble Lane Cured in Islington and from there, Matt and his team produce some pretty tasty treats. For example, you definitely need to sample their bad boy quail scotch eggs. But its no any ordinary scotch egg, its meat is made from Nduja pork, a spicy sausage meat which instantly hits you with its warm heat.

Keeping with the Ndjua spice, you've got to try the scallops. They are absolutely banging and the scallops themselves take in all of that spice and heat.

 

 As I mentioned earlier the meat is supplied from Cobble Lane so its a no brainer diving into the restaurants charcuterie selection made up of thinly sliced chorizo, salami and prosciutto. As soon as the meat touches your tongue, it just melts away.

And the fun doesn't stop there ladies and gentlemen, Rök serves a whole host of delightful gems such as the mouth watering sous vide duck with a slightly tart lingonberry and bacon jam as well as tender

pork which gets finished off in the kitchens custom made grill giving it its unique character.

Rök also serves up an array of amazing pickles served in eye catching kiln jars. For me the wild mushroom and beetroot pickles is a must. Its sweetness, sharpness and saltiness leaves you wanting more and more. Not only that its fresh and clean to the pallet, perfect for those waiting for their mains.

I don't go to restaurants without ordering sides and you would be a fool not to. Rök's bone marrow mash with garlic and parsley has bags of flavour and its refreshing to see the team mash the potato with its skin, besides that's where the flavours at. If you love your cheese, the cauliflower cheese with beef dust and almonds will leave you speechless. The cauliflower is drowned in awesome gooey cheese and the beef dust and almonds gives it that added crunch as well as heightening the simple flavours.

So there you have it peeps, if you want a bit of Rök 'N' Roll at dinner time, then Rök is the place to be. You will not leave disappointed. Oh and just a bit of advice, its best to book so that you avoid any sort of disappointment. Rök on people!

26 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3NY

Checking Out Some Fit Birds

Okay peeps, so there's this cheeky little restaurant just by Shoreditch High Street station that I need to tell you about. If you're like me and the other 99.9% of the U.K. population that eats anything that's deep fried then this particular place is for you. If not then it sucks to be you.

Bird's restaurant is fried chicken heaven. Its menu is short and sweet and it does things the simple way, get some quality birds and dunk them in hot oil until its crispy and golden brown.

You can have your fried chicken however you want, whether you want it whole, mixed (white or dark meats) or just the wings. Not only that, your chicken can be drenched and covered in a variety of bad boy sauces such sweet honey and ginger or if you want to spice things up a little some extra hot chilli. Whatever you fancy Bird's will sort you out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buffalo wings

Mixture of fried chicken

The burgers at this joint are awesome and come in different shapes and sizes. Take for example a fried chicken sandwich. Not only is it mouth watering and tasty, this particular beast had to be put down with a knife stabbed right through the middle. Its the only way to take it down.

Fried chicken sandwich

If you fancy something oriental and a bit more delicate (no not me!!!) the mushu crispy fried chicken is a safe bet. Take a pancake, spoon a dollop of tonkatsu sauce, put a few pieces of fried chicken, lay down some cucumber, sprinkle some spring onion, roll and go to town like Jackie Chan.

Mushu crispy fried chicken

HOWEVER if you're wanting more of a challenge, feeling brave and eager to eat something mega then ladies and gentlemen look no further. I give you chicken and waffles.

Chicken and waffles

 

 

Two fluffy piping hot onion and potato waffles squashing and sandwiching tender, crispy chicken. Not only that its smothered in melted cheese, hot sauce and maple syrup, layered with thick cut juicy bacon and crispy shallots. Oh man did it taste good!!!

Don't worry though if you think you can't tackle it, you can always go for the "lighter" option by ordering the open waffle sandwich. No one would blame you, the two waffles took its toll.

The fun doesn't stop there food punkers, because there are some sexy sides that you can order to go with your burgers, waffles and sandwiches. You don't want to miss out on any of these....




Fries

Deep fried pickles

Slaw with cider vinegar

Jalapeno corn hash

The meal isn't complete without fries, deep fried pickles, slaw with cider vinegar and jalapeno corn pudding. Standard night out for FoodPunk.

The standout attractions were definitely the sweet, juicy deep fried pickles and the crumble textured jalapeno corn hash.

If you have any space left in that stomach, dessert is a must. They really don't shy away from the portion sizes. You might as well forget calories when coming to this place :)

Donut sandwich

Banana split

 

 

 

 

Above you can see a donut sandwich, with freshly whipped cream and lashings of caramel and chocolate sauce and the other is a banana sundae, chopped peanuts, cherries, lumps of broken honey comb, three different flavoured ice creams (strawberry, chocolate and vanilla) and again loads of chocolate sauce.......and breathe out.

 

 

 

And why not wash it all down with their cocktails. Refreshing and light, you can't go wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there you have it punkers, Bird restaurant is the place to check out. It gets my seal of approval and there are some seriously tasty looking birds. As you can see I left with a huge grin on my face.

 

 





FoodPunk Goes Street In Dalston

A few weeks ago a couple of my mates, Oli and Alex, invited me to go out for drinks and a bite to eat. I’m not going to lie I did find it a bit strange when they texted telling me to head up to Dalston. I’ve never been to that part of London before and the only thing I knew about it was that indie rockers Razorlight wrote a song about it many moons ago.

So anyways I didn’t question it, I just headed up there and after meeting them I did ask “Why Dalston?” To which my friend replied “Street Feast!!!!”. As soon as he said Street Feast, my jaw dropped, he didn’t have to expand on that. Those two words said it all.

Tucked away just behind a busy street in Dalston lies an oasis for all foodies, a place to kick back, relax and stuff your face with some of the most amazing food East London has to offer.

 



 

 

 
 
 
 
 

The whole place just blew my mind away, I couldn’t believe the amount of food stalls there were, ranging from smokey barbecue’s to finger lickin’ fiery jerk chicken to even, wait for this… LIQUID NITROGEN MADE ICE CREAMS.

So the question that evening was, how am I gonna tackle this beast of a place? And who am I gonna hit? (not literally).

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 


First stop was The Bell & Brisket.
 


 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 They offered a whole range of mouth-watering bagels, each with different fillings. Naturally in true FoodPunk style I went for “The Duke”. A grand name for a grand bagel. But as you can see below they have other varieties to fill that hole as well as offering "Filthy fries". I would have gone for them but other places awaited me and I couldn't fall at the first hurdle.
 

 

 
 
 I honestly couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and after five minutes there she was, the most beautiful, sumptuous looking bagel just waiting to be devoured.
The beef was so moist that drops of juice seeped through my holder and splattered onto the floor (and that’s before I even had my first bite!!!) Oh boy was I going to enjoy this and it seriously didn’t disappoint. The spicy jalapenos, the cool refreshing sour cream, mixed with the sharpness of the pickled onions worked so well with that tender beef. You couldn’t help but make a mess of it and I definitely made a big one, but it was so worth it.
 
 

 
 
Within minutes of eating that banging bagel, I went on another recon mission scoping out for my next meal.
 
Everyone knows how much I love my chicken so it was to no surprise that I jumped straight for Mamas Jerk.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These three lovely and bubbly ladies were so welcoming and infectious. I loved them and they brought the Jamaican party to Dalston.  

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

As for the food, well it was Jerk at its best. The chicken was moist, meaty and packed a damn good  punch. It had the right about of spice where it just coats the lips and gives that numb, warm feeling, and you know its hot and spicy but you keep going back for more, that's what Mamas Jerk does to you. Luckily I had a refreshing cold beer on hand to cool things down a little. I did the Asian thing where I put the whole bone in my mouth trying to get as much meat as I could off of it. Every bit of that wing was gone. By the end of it, my hands and my mouth was covered in jerk spices.

 

Mama Jerk, I salute you and I cant wait to get more of your awesome wings.

 

 

 

 







 

 

 

 

The night was still young and myself, Alex and Oli were eager for more street food and so we branched out and stumbled across Smokestak. This place was a major disappointment and the staff were a little awkward at times. In fact their food sucked, it was just boring and lacked character. I very rarely give a bad review but the less said about it the better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were determined to get over that major fail and luckily within seconds we found Rola Wala, Indian street food.

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Rola Wala serve up a variety of blinding fluffy naan sliders topped with a whole range of different meats and spices. The best way to eat these little bad boys is to fold them and take a huge chunk out of it. They look pretty, they taste beautiful and if you really want to switch things up a little then top one of your naans with a naga ghost chilli. That will soon heat things up a little.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I honestly don't know how the three of us continued with our street feast adventure but we somehow prevailed and the next foodie treat that we checked out was probably not the best thing to eat so late in the evening especially after the foods that we had.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheeky Italian offered Crab Mac 'N' Cheese and there was no way I was gonna turn my back on that. It caught my attention when we first arrived, so naturally it would have been rude not to give it a go. For £6.50 I got a shed load of Mac '' Cheese crammed with crab meat, smothered in cheese sauce and topped with crispy, golden brown fennel breadcrumbs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mac 'N' Cheese definitely finished me off for the evening. My tummy couldn't take anymore food or drink, but Oli had to go just one step further. He dragged Alex and I for one last hurrah - Chin Chin labs.

 

 

Made to order ice creams using a kitchen aid and blasting the mix with liquid nitrogen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because Oli chose this place Alex and I left him to queue behind a sea of people all waiting to get their hands on this.

 

After some time he approached us with a bowl of ice cream sandwiched between two ginormous, gooey brownies and I tell you something that was probably the smoothest lushest ice cream I have ever eaten.  

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know how we ate all that food without falling into a coma but I tell you something we didn't scratch the surface with Street Feast. There were a ton of other joints waiting to be tried and tested but overall I can safely say I had an amazing time meeting some ace people running extraordinary food hotspots.

 

Street Feast is a place that everyone should go down to. They have food suited for everyone and the range is unbelievable. For three pound entry, you simply can't argue with that.