Bread In Common, Fremantle

While staying in Perth we grew particularly fond of the laid back atmosphere of nearby Fremantle (Freo to the locals). Not only that but there seemed to be a real passion for independent food and drink.

Bread In Common sits unassumingly between residential buildings and offices in the historic coastal town. The gorgeous former warehouse was originally built in 1898. Baker, Gotthard Bauer, and restauranteur, Nic Trimboli (co-founder of Freemantle’s Little Creatures Brewery), transformed it into the restaurant it is today and received several awards along the way.

The first thing you notice when you enter is the array of bare lightbulbs dangling from the vaulted ceiling, which draw the eye up the tall exposed walls.

We were greeted by our dreadlocked waiter who filled me with his enthusiasm for not just the restaurant and bakery, but also for the town and its history (we ended up touring Fremantle Prison on his recommendation).

While the open kitchen is home to the intricate small plates, almost the opposite could be said at the rear of the restaurant where two huge wood-fired concrete bread ovens (Hansel & Gretel) bring life to large loaves of the restaurant’s namesake. The leftovers of which are donated to St Vincent de Paul in an effort to reduce food waste.

Sitting on communal dining tables, we started with a latte and iced chocolate while we browsed the exciting daily-changing menu.

We opted for salmon with pickled mussels, citrus, daikon and kale alongside kangaroo, capsicum (pepper), pineapple skin vinegar and quandong (an Australian fruit) from the seasonal menu for our final lunch of our holiday. Ahead of that though, it was time to try some of their rye bread and freshly churned salted butter.

Then it was on to the mains: The salty crisp skin of the salmon gave way to stunningly soft, delicate fish underneath. Pickled mussels and daikon then added an amazing sharpness to the dish.

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Had the most incredible salmon at @bread_in_common #Fremantle. Crispy and salty on top and then beautifully soft and fresh fish underneath 👌 Served with pickled mussels (the greatest), crispy kale and pickled daikon in a super tasty, pickle juice infused broth. Food heaven. #perthfoodadventures #perthisok #freo #seafood #lunch #foodphotography #breadincommon #wa

A post shared by Dan Papworth Smyth (@dansmythphoto) on Dec 12, 2017 at 1:35am PST

I knew opting for kangaroo was a bit of a tourist move, but cliché aside, the meat was perfectly pink and genuinely can give the finest beef a run for its money. The rich gamey, almost barbecued flavour paired effortlessly with the sweetness of the fruity sauce from the local fruit. It really felt like a dish that was proud of its Australian heritage.

One of only 5 Western Australian restaurants in the Top 100 compiled by the Australian Financial Review, it’s clear that Executive Chef, Scott Brannigan and Head Chef, Chris Eales have created something of a must-visit for foodies in this isolated corner of the country.

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Find out more about Bread In Common on their website

Top 6 gins of Western Australia

In a few weeks I’m off to Perth, Western Australia, to see some friends and soak up some winter sun.

When I think of Australian gin I tend to think of the likes of Four Pillars, and others from Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania. Western Australia, however, can more than fight it’s corner as, while it lacks in the quantity of distilleries, it more than makes up for with quality of gin. Several of their distilleries have achieved top accolades from the global spirit community.

The West Winds Distillery

• One of the most highly regarded is The West Winds distillery in Margaret River, a region that is most well known for its wine production. Established in 2010, they distill Australia’s most awarded gins. The Cutlass and The Sabre won double gold and gold respectively at the 2011 San Francisco International Spirits Convention, with The Cutlass winning double gold again at the same event in 2013.

Twitter: @TheWestWindsGin
Facebook: The West Winds Gin
Web: thewestwindsgin.com
UK stockist: Master of Malt and Gin Kiosk

Margaret River Distilling Co.

• Also in Margaret River are Giniversity (produced at Margaret River Distilling Co.). Giniversity is the gin offering from Limeburners who’ve been producing single malt whisky legally in SW Australia for longer than anyone else. They produce a London Dry; a Botanical gin with sandalwood, lemon myrtle and eucalypt; and a delicious sounding Barrel-aged gin.

Twitter: @LimeburnersWA
Facebook: Giniversity
Web: distillery.com.au
UK stockist: n/a

The Grove Distillery

• Over at The Grove distillery, another from Margaret River, their gin won gold at the Melbourne International Spirit Competition. It’s a traditional London Dry and sticks to just 6 botanicals: juniper berry, angelica root, lemon, cinnamon, cardamom and coriander. If it ain’t broke…

Twitter: N/A
Facebook: The Grove Distillery
Web: thegrovedistillery.com.au
UK stockist: n/a

Hippocampus Metropolitan Distillery

• Now, this is an honorary shout to Hippocampus Gin who up until recently were Perth-based, however are now located in Melbourne. Despite only releasing their gin in late 2015 they have already got gold awards to their name. It’s a juniper-led gin, distilled in their 450ltr German-made copper still called Kylie with botanicals which are macerated overnight to ensure for maximum flavour. This comes from the likes of orange and lemon peel, coriander and cubeb pepper.

Twitter: @Hippocampusmd
Facebook: Hippocampus Metropolitan Distillery
Web: hippocampusmd.com.au
UK stockist: n/a

High Spirits Distillery

• Staying in Perth, you’ve got also got the even newer: High Spirits Distillery (not to be confused with Mile High Spirits) with their first batch only released in the last few months. Made; bottled; and labeled by hand, brothers Michael and Jade produce just 1 gin and 1 vodka. Their Dry Gin combines vapour-infused traditional botanicals such as coriander, orris root, angelica root, and cassia. The simple illustration on the label design is really subtle and elegant too.

Twitter: @DistilleryHs
Facebook: High Spirits Distillery
Web: highspiritsdistillery.com.au
UK stockist: n/a

Old Youngs Distillery

• Heading slightly out of Perth into the Swan Valley you’ve got Old Youngs, founded in 2016. Their gins and vodkas are multiple-award winning and span some incredible flavours. The 4 gins they offer include their 1827 and 1829 gins, with 100% Australian sugar cane spirit bases, as well as their Six Seasons special (based on the Aboriginal calendar) and a barrel-aged gin called Old B.A.G. too. It’s their brilliant manifesto that most excites me about them as distillers though, and shows that they’re going to be my sort of gins.

Twitter: @old_youngs
Facebook: Old Youngs Distillery
Web: oldyoungs.com.au
UK stockist: n/a

I can’t wait to sample Western Australia’s finest! Do you have any favourites?

PS. my favourite gin-based learning when researching Western Australia was that there’s an actually town called Gingin (pop. 743). The West Winds distillery even source their lemons and limes from there.

Want to find out more about Australian gins? Check out The Gin Queen’s website (and super handy map)

One Time Gin: Red Leaf Gin launch

Half of the UK’s gin production is on the smallest scale: a passionate person, and maybe a couple of friends, making gin by hand exactly the way they want to.

It’s not every day you get to glimpse into the small-scale gin production world. I was invited to hear how it’s possible to give it a go yourself by One Time Gin as they launched their new gin, Red Leaf Gin.

One Time Gin started life as a monthly gin subscription service, partnering with small scale distilleries to release special editions of their gins. Now they’re back with the first gin of their own: Red Leaf Gin. Distilled at Langley Distillery in the West Midlands, home of Palmers 44 Gin, the small batch autumnal gin contains botanicals such as blackberry leaf, hazelnut, and orange. Specifically created as an autumnal gin it really hit the spot, not as light and fruity as a summer gin, but equally not as wooded and warm as a wintery one.

A lot of thought and care has clearly gone into the appearance too, with each of the 112 bottles being wrapped in an illustrated sleeve and sealed with hand dyed wax.

When I arrived at WeWork Moorgate, our venue for the evening, I was presented with a complimentary gin and tonic made with this new Red Leaf Gin and Double Dutch tonic water. We also received 3 samples of gins in one of those quintessentially student-y red plastic cups – resisting the temptation to dive in, we were instructed that we’d be tasting them during the talk from James Grant, founder of One Time Gin.

The first sample was of a floral Welsh gin that has featured in One Time Gin’s initial run as a monthly subscription service. Merywen, being the Welsh for juniper berries, is distilled on an extremely small scale in a 30ltr still with local botanicals including gorse and heather from around the distillery. This was the first size of distillery than we learnt about, where producing a bottle would cost roughly £15, and at the smallest they’d be selling 100 bottles per week.

Over the course of the evening we also heard from Max Chater, the founder of Victory Gin. He also happens to be one of the guides of London’s brilliant Gin Journeys which I blogged about before, so he really knows his stuff. Victory Gin takes its name from George Orwell’s 1984, but the gin itself belongs less in an Orwellian society and more in a socially conscious one. They were the first distillery in the world to provide customers with “eco pouches” rather than glass bottles when delivering new stock. The pouches are recyclable and contain as much gin as 3 traditional bottles, allowing bars to fill up their optics without discarding so much glass each time. This has helped Victory Gin to reduce packaging waste by 80%. It also means you can get them into festivals!

The Victory Gin counted chestnut, cardamom and orange as some of the key flavours. Max said he didn’t want to stray far from a traditional London Dry gin, so it’s still very juniper-led and for me sits alongside the likes of Sipsmith with that type of flavour. It’s a very versatile gin, and I’d be interested to experiment with it in some cocktails.

Having heard from Max, we then briefly heard about the largest size of distilleries – those doing 5,000+ bottles per week in production in stills ranging from 200 to 1,000+ litres. The sheer amount of information being thrown at us though was tricky to comprehend though without any slides or visuals. Unfortunately, James delivered the presentation with the slide of a static logo on a projector screen, which felt like a bit of a missed opportunity to keep our attention for longer.

I left the event buzzing with all the stats and facts (I’m a numbers guy) and excited to have heard about all the innovative flavours and practices that are coming out of the industry. Even just little insights like the name Victory Gin, despite featuring in Orwell’s 1984, wasn’t trademarked until Max decided to; that the V design on their labels is the negative space on a Helvetica V; or even that Red Leaf Gin was called Hibernation Gin until 3 days before the event!

I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on One Time Gin and their interesting creations as they enter into this next phase. Head to their website to find out more, or even buy yourself a bottle* of this limited run Red Leaf Gin.

*Order yours before midnight 30th September using the code FOUNDER and get 10% off your purchase.

National Burger Day 2017

Thursday 24 August is like Christmas for fans of all things meaty. Mr Hyde’s National Burger Day hosted at Street Feast’s Hawker House in Canada Water was back for another year, celebrating the finest the burger world has to offer. Launched by Jamie Klingler 5 years ago it’s become a bit of a staple in the foodie calendar.

Working our way through the 17 traders wasn’t going to be easy, but thankfully the stalls were broken down into areas so it wasn’t quite so daunting! Starting in the aptly named “The Big Room”, I went for Lagom and their “Bjorn Burger” (60-day aged patty, tomahawk rib bacon, smoked american cheese, scandi slaw and dill mustard mayo) before getting some advice from the people next to us on the communal dining-benches. It was time to divide and conquer.

Splitting burgers with a friend meant we could cover more ground (beef) so we grabbed Black Bear Burger‘s perfectly cooked “The 74” with its pancetta-y goodness, and a “Double Double” from Beer + Burger. The latter was unfortunately the only misstep on a incredible night of food. It wasn’t bad by any means, just fairly standard flavours and a thin patty that wasn’t up to the high level of the other traders – that said their Beer + Burger Running Club sounds like a brilliant approach to exercise.

I also got my hands on this stunning piece of meat from Hot Box, covered in smoked pulled pork collar, dripping in rich BBQ sauce, and with a surprise kick in the form of a pickled jalapeño tucked under the bun. It’s making my mouth water again just writing about it. The bun was so soft too, perfect with the melt-in-the-mouth pork.

My Brother had been raving about how great the “Fools Gold” burger from The Beef Chief over from Amsterdam was so I couldn’t leave without seeing if he was right. It definitely didn’t disappoint! The beef patty was so incredibly juicy and when combined with the peanut butter sauce and chilli jam made for one of the most succulent offerings of the night.

I went with my Brother last year too, but this year I also brought along my wife and a friend. One of the perks of going with others is that occasionally, you’ll get a sneaky bite of their burgers (with their permission, don’t steal burgers kids). This meant I got to taste the gravy soaked “The Sloppy Tom” from Chuck Burger – even just a bite was enough to show they were onto a winner with that one.

(Check out my 360 photo of Hawker House filled with burger fans)

I was really impressed by the thought taken for anyone who was gluten intolerant at the event too. There was a station were you could pick up a bag of decent gluten free buns which you could then provide to each of the burger stands to use instead of their standard offering. They all seemed to be knowledgable about it and even knew whether there was gluten in their sauces, unprompted, which can be so useful but easily forgotten. Some even offered their own, preferred gluten free buns (nice one Barrels).

As always the guys from Honest Burger were so on the ball with separate gloves and preparation area for the gluten free burger my wife was having. Taking lots of care and attention to get it right, just as they do in their restaurants.

While on the subject of Honest, their special in collaboration with Chop House was on another level. The meat was so incredibly juicy which then was perfect alongside the crisp and decadent confit potato. Like the ultimate roast dinner in a bun. There’s a reason they’re kings of the burger game in London right now.

Just when you think you couldn’t possibly eat any more, SE Cakery are on hand with a millionaire shortbread milkshake to polish things off and round off the night (and my belly). We’d got these to take with us on the walk back to the tube but unfortunately security was tight and they wouldn’t let us take the plastic-cupped milkshakes out of the venue. Bit of a shame but certainly didn’t spoil the night.

Roll on National Burger Day 2018!

What were your favourite burgers? Did you celebrate elsewhere, what did you eat? 

National Burger Day 2017 preview

This Thursday it’s one of my favourite days of the year: National Burger Day!

A full day celebrating the might of the hamburger in all its glorious forms. To make it easier to appreciate the meaty goodness Mr Hyde partner with restaurants and bars all over the country for a 20% discount (go get your discount voucher).

The main event though is over in Canada Water, South London, in partnership with Street Feast at their Hawker House venue. 3,000 people, 17 different burgers and a whole lot of fun.

Last year I went along for the first time and experienced the one-off specials that had been created, alongside some of the best burgers London has to offer.

My favourites last year were a special from Nanban who brought along their Down-N-Out, an Asian take on the classic In-N-Out burger. It came with katsu sauce, hash brown, pickled ginger, it was as amazing as that sounds. Another favourite was the first photo in this blog – the guys at one of my favourite restaurants, Mac and Wild, were doing slider versions of their VeniMoo (one of London’s top burgers) with the beautiful venison patties.

I’m heading back on Thursday and can’t wait to get stuck into the burgers on this year’s menu. Which ones have you got your eye on?

There’s only a few tickets left so make sure you’re quick if you want to join me tucking into this!

If I still haven’t convinced you, here’s a video of what went down at last year’s event…

 

Gin Journey, Notting Hill

Mention the idea of hitting 5 bars in an afternoon and the mind immediately conjures up visions of students or a stag do. Gin Journey has less in common with that, and far more with an afternoon of prolonged wine tasting spread over several venues. Or at least that’s what I told myself.

My wife Kirstin and I met our guide, or “Gin Guardian”, Chris, at our first stop: The Elgin, near Ladbroke Grove. The old pub has a gin palace-style area to the rear where we met the other participants and got to sample our first gin cocktail of the afternoon (Sipsmith G&T) whilst learning about the botanical composition of gin. One of our G&Ts was served with cucumber and mint, whilst the other had blueberries and rosemary, which went really well with the savoury tasting gin – definitely a garnish we’ll be using more ourselves.

We then hopped into a very swish minibus which took us to our next stop: The Italian Job. The bar was steeped in musical history having seen performances in its speakeasy-style secret upstairs bar by Mick Jagger and more that I can’t remember, because, y’know all the drinking. The cocktail here was beautifully refreshing: East London Liquor Co London Dry gin, citrus, Liquore Strega, Cocchi Americano, and Italian Cedrata.

Along the tour there were points where you could win small bottles of gin in exchange for answering gin-based trivia questions. I was lucky enough to win a taster of Ableforth’s Bathtub gin to take home and try.

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Gorgeous Italian gin cocktail in a secret cocktail bar in Notting Hill listening to the history of gin! 🍸🇮🇹👌 @ginjourney @theginboss #ginjourney

A post shared by Kirstin Papworth Smyth (@kirstinpapworth) on Aug 12, 2017 at 7:13am PDT

Now, we couldn’t be touring Notting Hill without paying a visit to the legendary Portobello Road. The third stop was also time to have a bite to eat (to help lightweights like me) at the Portobello Road distillery. I’d never been to a working gin distillery before so it was amazing to be given a guided tour and shown the copper stills where the magic happens. The largest of which was around 400 litres, which sounds tiny when you compare it to the massive commercial production of the likes of Beefeater or others who use multiple 10,000 litre stills.

The cocktail we had featured Blue Mist tonic and marmalade so had an interesting flavour as well as being really eye-catching. It looked like a gorgeous Mediterranean lagoon with the bold slice of grapefruit reminding me of a sail. The tapas was incredible there too and they even have hotel rooms so you basically spend a while weekend eating and drinking your way around Portobello Road.

For our penultimate stop we had to slide through the side of a crepe stall to get to an underground tiki bar. Not a sentence I expected to be writing in this blog!

Once we were down in the delightfully retro bar we were served some Jindea, both neat and in a cocktail (with umbrella – had to happen at some point on the tour). Its lovely darjeeling flavours were crafted by a former barman at that very venue. This one was a personal favourite, neat especially, and think we’re going to have to pick ourselves up a bottle to join our collection.

Lastly it was on to 65 & King for a final drink or two as a group. Being on Westbourne Grove it was only right to have some Martin Miller’s gin, created just a few doors down with the purest Icelandic water. The cocktail we had featured crushed tomatoes, basil and black pepper so had a really fresh, Italian vibe to it. The perfect way to bring our afternoon to a close.

Our host Chris (of The World Sip – check out their YouTube channel) was so knowledgable and blew our minds constantly with facts and how many sayings (like “the real McCoy” and “one for the road”) had their origins in the spirit. We were also guided through the history of gin, the distillation process and everything we need to know to be able to impress our mates the next day.

We had such a good time and loved getting to know the gins but also the rest of the tour participants too. It was such a nice mix of people, all with different gin preferences and experience. It’s definitely something I’d recommend, not just to those who already love gin, but people looking to discover different ways to enjoy it, or just find some new likeminded drinking buddies!

The Gin Journey is run in London (Bermondsey, Shoreditch and Notting Hill), Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh.

Please note, I won a pair of tickets to attend this tour through Twitter.

Plot

Plot is new to Tooting’s booming scene. Sandwiched in the Broadway Market it spreads out into the usually bustling walkway to serve some of the finest small plates of seasonal British produce. At just 15 seats it’s about as intimate as they come, so make sure to book.

We opted to perch at the sleek marble counter and watch the small, but perfectly formed, kitchen and the chefs in action.

Starting with smoked mackerel salad topped with pickled cabbage on a bed of crushed potatoes, we moved our way through most of the menu – unfortunately as it changes often these items might not be available if/when you visit. Think of it as a bonus though because it means you can keep going back and have something different each time.

Head Chef Giles Elstob has taken his experience from previous roles in Michelin starred kitchens to create a menu that really sings the praises of local suppliers and British produce.

Last time we were in the market, for an event called Tootmas, we picked up some local cider called Pilango which is made from languished apples across Surrey. It’s beautiful, crisp and each one is different due to the batches. It was so nice to see they served that and supported their local businesses here – we also spotted fellow Tooting’er Graveney Gin available who we sampled at Junipalooza recently.

Then we were on to simply cooked Wye Valley asparagus with romanesco, before tucking into chicken with the most beautiful crispy skin with gem lettuce and minted peas. It was all so perfectly cooked and thoughtfully presented.

We couldn’t stop eating, so went for the Scottish hake next before taking on their special Tunworth cheese on toast. The nice thing about being at the counter is that the chefs can hand you the food directly. It’s amazing what a nice environment that makes for, being able to chat and joke with them makes everything so much more relaxed and you completely forget you’re sat in a walkway.

Last but not least was the dessert. Molten chocolate pot with ice cream. Yum. The perfect send off for an incredible meal. Plot is a real hidden gem, you’ve got to know where to find it, but if you do you’ll get to eat some of the finest food South London has to offer.

 

Junipalooza 2017

On Sunday we visited the Tobacco Dock in East London for this year’s Junipalooza event. Unfortunately we missed celebrating World Gin Day itself there on the Saturday but we were able to benefit from the Sunday’s slightly longer session which meant we could fit more gin in! Every cloud.

The annual event played host to more than 50 gin distilleries, as well as tonic producers too. Between them there were over 100 gins available to try ranging from smooth and sweet through to punchy navy strength ones that knock you for six.

Having got our bearings we dived headfirst into the incredible smorgasboard available. Gins from all over the world with completely different tastes all in one place. Not that it’s a competition and I don’t encourage this sort of behaviour, but we were able to try 28 different gins – finding some incredible new favourites along the way!

Highlights included Esker from Aberdeenshire,  Tarquin’s summery Elderflower and grapefruit gin from Cornwall, Curio also from Cornwall with its salty samphire notes, Persie’s nutty Old Tom (with ginger beer), inventive Four Pillars gins from Australia, and our local Graveney Gin from Tooting. What was a particularly lovely touch was that many of these stands were run by the makers themselves. They could give you really personal stories about how, when and why they decided to make their own gins and what gave each its own personality.

All this focus on amazing gin did mean the food offering left a little to be desired, restricted to 3 dishes from 3 street food-style vendors. When you’re spending the day drinking high quality spirits it’d be good to have food that matched, especially given that in London’s incredible Street food scene there isn’t exactly a shortage of amazing traders.

We walked away with a few lovely additions to our gin cabinet, including a bottle of Esker, Tarquin’s, Franklin & Sons Sicilian Lemon tonic and some alcohol-free pre-mixed G&Ts (shock horror) from South African brand Duchess which were so refreshing we couldn’t resist!

Find out more about Junipalooza on their website.

Kerb presents Alchemy

I couldn’t say it better than this man’s apron. Indian food is the most incredible combination of flavours and textures.

London street food kings KERB brought together the finest traders to coincide with the Southbank Centre’s (where this is based) festival on South Asian culture and arts.

We visited our favourites, Horn OK Please, whose dosas are so simple, but so delicious with an amazing combination of textures and flavours, and then went on to The Cheeky Indian for  shredded crispy lamb with plum and mince lamb with peas. Not forgetting fragrant chai, smooth and creamy mango lassis and crispy bhajis that we also somehow found room for!

The market does tend to be a little short on seating but if you don’t mind exploring South Bank you can usually find a spot to make your own. It’s worth going down even when this particular festival isn’t on, as for the rest of the season it’s the turn of the Southbank Centre Food Market which has some equally stunning food from all around the world.

 

I already can’t wait until next year’s festival!

The Jolly Gardeners

Time Out recently did a feature on Garratt Lane, a road close to where we live in south west London. As part of this, they listed all the trendy places you must go along this road, in order to stay cool.

The Jolly Gardeners is a local pub with a restaurant headed up by Masterchef 2010 winner Dhruv Baker. It’s a real hidden gem with a compact menu, allowing the chefs to focus on delivering some truly stunning plates of food.

We opted to go straight into mains and, having been salivating since reading about it in Time Out, had to go for the pork belly. The pork was beautiful, proper melt in your mouth. It had incredible flavour from fresh chimichurri over the crispy crackling skin. Sitting on a bed of buttery, silky spring greens, roasted beetroot and carrot and cardamon puree it was as much a treat for the eyes as the tastebuds.

My wife had the daily special, perfectly pink roast lamb with dauphinoise potatoes that were the ultimate decadent complement to the meat.

I’m kicking myself knowing this has been on our doorstep since we moved to the area years ago, but now we’ll most definitely be back for more!

Want to read the full Time Out feature?