Restaurant: Zen Mondo, Upper St
Time: Friday lunchtime
With: –
Stand-out dish: Miso soup
I was the first in the door at lunch, so the place was empty. It’s relatively small and the staff wait around the back to save space. Some of the best tableware I’ve seen this challenge. Beautiful tea set too. The sushi is very fussy and ornate. You barely notice the fish as each piece is overloaded with citrus and/or veg and/or fish eggs. But the miso tastes great and the side salad was well dressed.

Cocktail #1. Bloody Mary
Source: Difford’s Guide to Cocktails

Recipe:
2 shots Vodka
4 shots Tomato juice
1/2 shot Freshly squeezed lemon juice
8 drop Tabasco hot pepper sauce
4 dash Worcestershire sauce
2 grind Black pepper
1 pinch Celery salt

Roll all ingredients with ice and strain into ice-filled glass. Garnish with a celery stick.

Nairn’s London #18
Red House, Bexleyheath

THEN: A very famous building – William Morris’s house, commissioned from the young Philip Webb as a deliberate reaction from everything implied in mid-Victorian design, a shock as big as Butterfield’s first churches. But the achievement is nowhere near All Saints, Margaret Street. Webb simply could not make his volumes real enough or forceful enough. It is clearly a beautifully thought out design, honest and sensitive, but it stays in two dimensions. Photographs or drawings can give it a solidity which does not exist in the flesh, so its final influence matched the worthy intentions, which is perhaps fair enough. Anyone who makes a visit may get more of a shock from the mean subtopian surroundings than from the building – Bexleyheath would be nobody’s first choice as the ideal London suburb. It is in Red House Lane, south of the main street.

NOW: It’s not often that you find something you dislike and like at the same time. Red House somehow manages it. And the most inexcusable thing is I’m not sure why I’m so torn. On the approach up the semi-circular driveway, the house stands stout and proud. Inside, the hallway is grand, and the staircases impressive. And there are Morris & Co patterns aplenty across wall, window and ceiling. But there’s an arrogance that hangs about the place, a pompousness that feels completely at odds with the arts and crafts movement it housed for so long. The English Gothic and medieval furnishings give it a macabre feel. And there are one too many Morris coat of arms that nudge pride into narcissism. There’s a lot to feel uneasy about.

Cocktail #10. Whiskey Sour
Source: Difford’s Guide to Cocktails

Recipe:
2 shots Bourbon whiskey
1 shot Freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 shot Sugar syrup
3 dash Angostura Aromatic Bitters
1/2 fresh Egg white

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into ice-filled glass. Garnish with lemon slice and cherry on stick (sail).

Cocktail #12. Sidecar
Source: The Savoy Cocktail Book

Recipe:
2 shots Brandy
1 shot Lemon Juice
1  shot Cointreau

Shake well and strain into cocktail class.

Cocktail #19. White Lady
Source: The Mixellany Guide to Gin

Recipe:
2 shots gin
3/4 shot Cointreau
3/4  shot freshly-squeezed lemon juice
1/4 shot sugar syrup
1/2 egg white

Shake with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

Restaurant: Kanada-Ya, St Giles High St
Time: Wednesday lunchtime
With: –
Stand-out dish: Aburi Chashu
Very small and jam packed. The doors are locked, and they turn you away if they’re full. Clever use of space – there are mirrors on ceiling to make it feel bigger, and a semi-circular window that connects kitchen with dining. The ramen was some of the best I’ve had this year. I ordered the Tonkotsu X. But it was the seared pork belly that stole the show – it had a deep charr flavour that may well be my favourite dish of the challenge thus far.

Cocktail #11. Singapore Sling
Source: Raffles Hotel

Recipe:
1 1⁄2 ounces Gin
1⁄2 ounce Cherry Heering
1⁄4 ounce Cointreau liqueur
1⁄4 ounce Benedictine
4 ounces Pineapple juice
1⁄2 ounce Lime juice
1⁄3 ounce Grenadine
1 dash Bitters

Shake with ice. Strain into an ice filled collins glass. Garnish with cherry and slice of pineapple.

Nairn’s London #26
The Hoop and Grapes, Aldgate

THEN: One of the most dramatic contrasts in London. Just when the City seems to be getting to its most crowded and correct, along Fenchurch Street and Leadenhall Street, the whole thing falls away. In a few yards the bowler hats have gone, the buildings – shoddy but very expressive – house second-hand goods and small-scale tailors. The streets have stalls like Tubby Isaac’s in Goulston Street, selling eels, inscribed: ‘We lead, others follow’. This is the East End with a bang, and just around the corner are some of the roughest streets in Stepney. At the other end of Aldgate East is another moving change: the split of Commercial and Whitechapel Roads – one going to the docks and the estuary, the other pointed straight at the heart of East Anglia, those long miles beyond Newmarket. It is only a traffic block now, but it could be marvellous, given town artists and not just town planners. Half way along on the south side is the Hoop and Grapes, a lovable survival of the years just after the Fire. The inside, long, low and dark, is in the old style too.

NOW: Nairn discusses Aldgate in general, but as he finished with the pub, I’ll start with it. The Hoop and Grapes is now part of the Nicholson’s chain, and bears all of the commoditised hallmarks that you’d expect – cheap pub grub and an uninspiring beer selection. But its shape still remains – with low slung ceilings and foreboding dark wood interiors. Heading outside, the dramatic contrast between city and shanty still exists. In fact, with the addition of Vinoly’s Walkie Talkie building, the effect has only been exaggerated. Stepney is now one of the more multicultural areas in East London – you’ll struggle to buy eels these days – but the market stalls remain nonetheless. And with my recent move from Old Street to Whitechapel, its an area I’m going to get to know rather well.

Cocktail #13. Algonquin
Source: Imbibe Magazine

Recipe:
60ml Rye Whisky
30ml Dry Vermouth
30ml Pineapple Juice

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.