Where have you eaten out today?

[Sakkarin]

Oooh. I haven’t been to Wing Yip for aged. Love it. Think it is now in the Congestion Zone which is why we stopped going.

HAAA! AGED! Special Wing Yip for old people like me!

Wing Yip is not in the brutal "everyone pays" inner Congestion Zone, it's in the "North Circular" ULEZ (Ultra low emissions) Zone, now expanded - I've made a map. Only vehicles that don't meet the emissions standards have to pay in the ULEZ zone. Confusingly I see they still refer to the entire area as the Congestion zone...

For some time that meant I was unable to pop up there on my non-ULEZ-compliant motorcycle, however they introduced a special dispensation for motorcycles when they expanded the zone in 2023, that they could be Dyno-tested at two specially appointed London Transport test centres, then modified to meet the standards if required and retested, and reclassified if they met the accepted ULEZ "Euro 3 NHx" levels. It cost me £305, the modification was simply to fit iridium spark plugs, which burn the fuel more efficiently.

However these days I rarely go to Wing Yip, as there's two Oriental ingredients shops locally now, and apart from that it seems to rain constantly, and I hate riding in the rain. Anyway, I seem to be cooking mostly Indian food these days! Tip: Kashmir Chillies make a great sub for Szechwan Chillies...

The 142 bus from Watford goes to within walking distance of Wing Yip, but the trip takes about 2 hours each way, so needs very careful planning, as my bladder is not as resilient as it used to be

[Pepper Pig]

Blimey. My bladder couldn't cope with that either! Thanks for the info Sakks. Aged. haha.

[aero280]

We spoke to the owner at St James. He wanted his nephew, who is the current chef, to take it on, but he wants to be a chef and not get involved in management. The problem is money. No one has the money to take it over unless they are “money men” with a rental income in mind. No young chef could afford it.

The new Italian which has opened in place of China House is doing take away pizzas. There is a specialist pizzeria just along the road, but that only seems to open at weekends.

At the last count, I made it 14 places in the short High Street that do food. We have lost the Chinese and the chip shop. Some people hoped that the China House would be Japanese, Vietnamese or Thai. We did have a Thai place for a short while, but it attempted to be upmarket and was too expensive.

[Earthmaiden]

Meanwhile, in an area of Swindon, some keen young men have enthusiastically opened a new place which offers burgers and various accompaniments because 'they saw a gap in the market'. Really?? I wish them well

[Sakkarin]

We did have a Thai place for a short while, but it attempted to be upmarket and was too expensive.

I guess you mean the Thai Sunset, which was on the high street. There was briefly one where the posh Chip Shop took over, I complained about the meal I had there. It was called something like "Chicken with Thai Basil", which I love when I make it myself as it's a real basil hit, I wanted to check out the "authentic " version.

The dish I was served had no discernable basil, and when I complained, they said there was basil in the CURRY PASTE.

I only realised recently there's one in Watford Market which looks promising, I'm going to give it a try soon. Apparently it's been there for 2 years, shows how much my head is in the sand.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserRev ... gland.html

[PatsyMFagan]

Thanks for clarifying the congestion charge thingy.....at least I don't have to feel guilty that my friends might have the extra expense of a fine if it was the original congestion charge zone. They have a relatively new merc so I guess exempt

[herbidacious]

Meanwhile, in an area of Swindon, some keen young men have enthusiastically opened a new place which offers burgers and various accompaniments because 'they saw a gap in the market'. Really?? I wish them well

!

They probably will do well if the number of junk food joints (even if often dressed up as a being bit upmarket) is indicative of tastes. They don't need a gap in the market.

I have noticed that the very few places round here that don't do burgers are becoming increasingly difficult to get into so hoping that others will spot a gap in that market really soon. (Please...?!)

[Sakkarin]

The most recent burger chain that opened a few months back here to replace the "Bills" restaurant only lasted a matter of weeks, so brief in fact that it never even made it onto Google Street View...
https://watfordtowncentre.com/news/the- ... gh-street/

"Bubble Tea" is the thing here, I've lost count of how many have popped up in the High Street recently, 9 spotted here, there's at least one other, the Thai place I mentioned elsewhere.

[Stokey Sue]

We have plenty of places where you can get burgers (all the pubs for a start) but we have a surfeit of coffee shops - it's hard to tell how many as few describe themselves as such, many are "cafés" though some of those are more lunch places or even greasy spoons, but it's pizza that has taken over - searching Google for pizza in N16 gives 20 locations, some delivery only but most eat in, and most pubs do it too, not all of those come up on Google.

[Sakkarin]

I do envy you all those Vietnamese places within easy reach. There are absolutely NONE in my bit of Hertfordshire, a Tripadvisor local top 10 has one in Hitchin and one in Finchley...

[Stokey Sue]

The Vietnamese are mainly a bit south of me, though we have Uncle Nam’s (real name Dave, but genuinely Viet) and a banh mie place. The best I know of is Green Papaya in Hackney Central.

[Earthmaiden]

Tea and cake for a treat at the Pump Room in Bath yesterday:



Glazed fruit cake - which tasted like Christmas pudding.
Raspberry tartlet - not sure what was underneath the raspberries, just almonds I think. Quite dry.
Lovely mousse-like chocolate concoction.
A delicious feather- light pastry thing filled with a gooey lemon and cream filling- I would very happily just had four of those!

[WWordsworth]

On Wednesday evening we ate here
https://www.platocafe.co.nz/menus

The decor was very "kiwiana" but the food was great.
We had smoked salmon and bubbly at home so starters were not required.

J had fish of the day which was kingfish in a coconut and tomato sauce.
Sounds unappetising and I would not have chosen it but it was delicious.

I had market fish - sea perch - karapu style, plus a green salad and I loved it.

The Kiwis both went for the smoked ribeye.
I hadn't tried smoked steak before but it was really nice.

[WWordsworth]

We left Dunedin (and the family) on Thursday morning, for Christchurch.
As my lovely cousin had made a massive brunch before we left we didn't really eat properly again that day.

In the evening we had a couple of craft beers and shared a pizza here
https://riverside.nz/

[WWordsworth]

Last night, Friday, we ate at Rangoon Ruby in Christchurch.
I can only find a FB page for it.

Fabulous dinner. We had no experience of Burmese food so followed the advice to order 2 plates plus rice per person.
Perfect.
I talked to the server who said Burmese food is usually spicy but has to be adjusted to local taste. We said we're happy with a bit of spice so they upped it slightly. The food was aromatic but not hot.
We ordered crispy tofu, blue peas, fish skewer and lamb cubes, plus rice.
The only bum(ish) note was the blue peas. A cousin of mushy peas but we ate them anyway.
Highlight for me was the tofu.
A glass of wine each and the bill was NZD110.
We will be researching Burmese food in the UK.

[Earthmaiden]

That all sounds so good, WW

[Stokey Sue]

That sounds great, I love Burmese food and have been to Burma (new year 2012, in the small window of opportunity before Aung San Suu Kyi was reimprisoned and the fighting started)

Was the crispy tofu the kind made from chick peas? It’s good.

If you go again try a chicken curry and a salad. Or noodles, though those are more a snack.

Like Thai food it can be hot, but is often quite mild with a hot relish on the side.

[WWordsworth]

Was the crispy tofu the kind made from chick peas? It’s good.

I really don't know.
It wasn't in cubes, more like a sheet which had been cut into squares then origami-d.

[Cheezy_Jazzy]

I ate here last Friday, have been a couple of times before. I will be taking my mum there in a few weeks.

https://www.dextersbar.co.uk/

[Stokey Sue]

Was the crispy tofu the kind made from chick peas? It’s good.

I really don't know.
It wasn't in cubes, more like a sheet which had been cut into squares then origami-d.

This is MiMi’s recipe, the only difference with the version in her book is that I think she really uses a pinch of msg rather than a bit of bouillon powder (the Burmese love msg, I’ve seen pure crystals sold loose in street markets)

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/bur ... s-tohu-jaw