Brunch on the Towpath at The Lighterman

I've been eating a lot of brunch lately (yes, even for me). Let's face it: with less pleasant six-letter words that begin with br- dominating the headlines, we've all been needing some comfort food. A group of girlfriends and I try to go for brunch together once a month — more often when our schedules permit — and our latest destination was The Lighterman in King's Cross.

The Lighterman finally opened up a few months ago, perched above Regent's Canal in Granary Square, which is also home to Caravan, The Grain Store and St Martin's. I say "finally" because The Lighterman is very close to my office and it is on my lunchtime running route along the canal, so I have been watching the new building gradually come together for some time now. Set over three floors, The Lighterman has a pub/bar next to the towpath and two dining rooms on the higher floors.

It was a gorgeous and sunny when we arrived, which made the al fresco seating areas an attractive prospect, but with heavy rain forecast, we took a table inside, on the middle level. The décor is chic and simple, with mismatched tables (some wooden, some brass) and pops of forest green and yellow. We arrived at 11 am and it wasn't too busy, although there weren't many free tables by the time we left. The ground floor (middle) dining room is spacious and airy and there as a lively but relaxed ambiance. The Lighterman's name comes from "the industrial past of King’s Cross, and the Victorian Lightermen who worked on flat-bottomed barges, known as “Lighters”, on the canals and rivers of London." We didn't see any Lighters but there were great views over the canal.

The brunch menu is divided into 'eggs' (Cotswold eggs, to be more specific) and non-egg dishes; the latter are, for the most part, lighter dishes like coconut granola and toasted crumpets. I immediately spotted a dish on the 'eggs' menu that achieved two out of three of the classic brunch trifecta of avocado, poached eggs and bacon. In a menu decision that will shock no one, I ordered the crushed avocado on toast with poached eggs and herbs (£7.50), with a side of bacon. It was such a good choice that three of the other four ladies ordered the same dish; the other rebelled and had a side of cherry tomatoes instead.

The avocado was nicely garnished and the egg perfectly runny on the inside. The bacon wasn't quite as crispy as I would have liked (to be fair, the chef had had to whip up four portions at once) but the serving size was generous.

Given Friday's referendum result, I skipped coffee and went straight for a Bloody Mary (£8), with gin instead of vodka. The spice mix was really rich and with just enough heat, and it game with a sun-dried tomato and pickle garnish as well as the usual celery. In other words, it was the perfect brunch cocktail.

After brunch, we wandered around Granary Square, where a KERB event called Noshville was taking place. We were too full for an ice cream or doughnut pudding and I was definitely too full to have a ride on the 'Brexit bucking bronco'. Besides, the clouds were darkening and it was time for us to seek shelter.

The Lighterman. 3 Granary Square, London, N1C 4BH (Tube: King's Cross). Website. Twitter. Instagram.

A Cracking Brunch at The Good Egg

Stoke Newington is surprisingly difficult to get to from Bermondsey especially, it turns out, when there are part closures on the Overground and there is a road race taking place in the City. Nonetheless, I had been wanting to go for brunch at The Good Egg for some time and so I made my way as far as my bus would take me (Newington Green) and walked the last mile or so through leafy N16. It probably goes without saying but my brunch was well worth the journey.

The Good Egg is the kind of all-day neighbourhood restaurant that every neighbourhood should have. The menu has influences from Israel, Montreal and New York, and despite the restaurant's name, there isn't a preponderance of eggs on the menu. (Spoiler alert: I did order an egg dish, of course.) No bookings are taken for brunch and when I arrived at around 12.30 on Sunday, there was already a not insignificant queue. But it was a nice day and the line moved fairly swiftly (especially when the group of six in front of me decided to try their luck elsewhere instead) and before long, I was sitting inside scrutinising the menu.

I had been looking forward to trying the watermelon and mint juice but they had run out, so I went for a homemade mint lemonade (£3) instead and a macchiato (£2.20). The coffee is from south-London-based Volcano Coffee Works; there was a single-origin filter coffee on offer too. The macchiato was very nice, though, with a rich, strong flavour.

Most of the brunch dishes sounded great: creative and well-thought-out. I could at least rule out the cherry pancakes with orange blossom, delicious as they sounded, because I was hoping to have a sweet treat to follow a savoury brunch main. The bacon and date pita tempted me, as did the Montreal smoked meat hash, but in the end I ordered the shakshuka (£9): a gorgeous combination of baked eggs, roasted tomatoes and peppers, with lemon yoghurt, sourdough bread and merguez sausage. The shakshuka was really top notch: flavoursome, full of contrasting tastes and very filling.

I had hoped to finish my meal with a slice of babka — a sweet, brioche-like cake with dried fruit and nuts — which, in its resting place on the counter near the door, had been calling my name while I was at the front of the queue. I asked for a slice to take away but — alas! — they had served the last slice of the third and final babka. Somehow, though, my waitress rustled me up a slice (£4), which I enjoyed later.

The Good Egg has a lovely relaxed vibe, and the food and service are both very good indeed. After brunch, I wandered along the lovely Stoke Newington Church Street, which is home to dozens of other hip eateries, as well as some great independent shops like Nook at no 153; Search & Rescue at no 129; Design Store at no 111; Prep (a cookshop) at no 106; and Pictures & Light at no 41. I had hoped to visit a nearby speciality coffee shop, China Plate Espresso, but they were closed. Oh well; I'll just have to come back to Stoke Newington again soon.

The Good Egg. 93 Stoke Newington Church Street, London, N16 0AS (Stoke Newington rail). Website. Twitter. Instagram.

A Slice of the Action at Mamma Dough, Peckham

One of the main reasons I prefer to travel around London by bus or on foot is because of the potential for spotting interesting-looking new restaurants, cafes and shops — in familiar and less familiar neighbourhoods. A few weeks ago, on the way to Model Market in Lewisham, I noticed a pizzeria that was about to open in Queen's Road, Peckham. Mamma Dough has already established restaurants in Honor Oak and Brixton but it was great to see the sourdough pizzeria opening up a little nearer to home.

My brother, sister-in-law and I went to check out the new Peckham branch on a rainy Sunday lunchtime. Mamma Dough is located on an unassuming stretch of the busy Queen's Road, a block east of the Overground station. There were a few other diners while we were there but it wasn't busy; I suspect the inclement weather, combined with the slightly off-the-beaten-track location, may have been to blame.

The main section of the restaurant is light and airy, and has a rustic style, with long wooden tables and colourful art on the walls. There are a few smaller tables in the back near the pizza oven.

The drinks menu was relatively simple: a few south London beers (including Kernel and Brick Brewery), several well-priced wines, and several soft drinks, including homemade ginger ale (£3.50), which can be made 'hard' with rum or bourbon for another £2.50. I had the soft version and it was delicious and very gingery.

As for the food, sourdough pizza is the only main course option, with the six pizzas ranging in price from £6 to £11. We shared a meat plate to start (£8), which came with really good-quality cured meats, sourdough bread and pickles. The plate didn't go that far between the three of us, but the price was still reasonable. The bread was particularly moreish, although I was trying to save room for my pizza.

We all ordered the same — off-menu — pizza: a margherita with buffalo mozzarella and nduja (£8 + an nduja supplement). And how did it perform? Very well, as it happens. Pizza Pilgrims is still my favourite London pizza purveyor but the quality of the ingredients at Mamma Dough is really excellent: the mozzarella was creamy and rich, the nduja spicy and meaty, and the tomato sauce very flavoursome. The pizzas are also pretty large; they are thin too, and with a much crispier crust than at Pizza Pilgrims. The slight sharpness of the sourdough base contrasted very nicely with the creaminess of the cheese. Unsurprisingly, I ate my whole pizza, despite its size; the crusts were much too good to leave.

There were a few puddings (tiramisu, affogato, brownie and ice cream), but nothing particularly appealed to me (also, I was full). I did have a macchiato, which was fine, although it was served rather too hot and thus slightly bitter.

Mamma Dough's Queen's Road location is a little out of the way, but within easy reach of Peckham, Brockley and New Cross, and is well worth the trip: we all agreed that the pizza was really top-notch.

Mamma Dough. 179 Queen's Road, Peckham, London SE15 2ND (Queen's Road Overground). Website. Twitter. Instagram.

Taking a BAO — Restaurant Review

My visit to the Netil Market outpost of BAO last summer left me craving more of the Taiwanese restaurant's titular bao — pillowy soft white steamed buns with incredible fillings. BAO's main home in Lexington Street, in the heart of Soho, is always busy; the small restaurant only has about 30 covers and there is often a queue and when I've passed, I've either been in a rush or with a group of people, both of which make dining at BAO either difficult, if not impossible.

On Saturday, though, the stars aligned because I had plenty of time and it was raining — naively, I assumed that the rain might curtail the queue, but alas, the usual patient crowd was gathered on the pavement opposite BAO. Before long, one of the servers brought me out a copy of the menu to peruse while I waited, which definitely helped, although I had mentally eaten most of the dishes by the time it was my turn to head inside. The turnover is quite fast and the wait time was about 20–25 minutes wait for one or two people, and a little longer for larger groups.

I took my spot at one of the seats around the central bar — there are also a few tables at the back, near the kitchen, but I enjoyed watching the drinks being made. As well as the 'checklist' I had been given in the queue, there was a separate menu that explains all the different bao. I asked the waitress how much I should order and she said about three bao per person, but instead, I went for two bao and a couple of small-plate starters (xiao chi).

Although the pineapple and bay soda (£3.75) sounded great, I'd just drunk a bottle of pineapple juice and settled for a foam tea (£3) instead: a golden oolong tea served cold with a creamy foam on top. It looked like a mini lager, but was refreshing and surprisingly tasty. I also had a peanut milk (£2), which is exactly as it sounds; I could definitely have drunk this all afternoon. There are a few cocktails, wines, sakes and beers on offer too.

Food-wise, I started with a scallop (singular) with yellow bean garlic, which was £3.75 but well worth the price: my scallop was large and flavoursome. In what would become a theme of the meal, I wish I'd ordered another one (or two). The trotter nuggets (£4) were also a real treat: crispy on the outside and surprisingly tender on the inside. I dipped them in the accompanying green chilli sauce and ate them whole because I was a little squeamish about what the insides might look like.

I have one word for the bao — wow. I had already tried the classic (braised pork with peanuts, greens and coriander) at Netil Market, and although it was right up my street, I decided to branch out by ordering the confit pork (confit pork belly, pork sauce, hot sauce and shallots; £4.50) and the fried chicken (with Sichuan mayo and kimchi, served on a sesame bao; £5). Both were superb — the pork belly was so juicy and tender, while the fried chicken was perfectly crispy and paired well with the spicy accompaniments. If I had to pick one favourite dish, I think it would have to be the fried chicken bao, but as you can probably tell, by the time I'd finished, I was already plotting what to eat on my return visit, including the pudding bao (a fried bao with Horlicks ice cream).

Sadly, though, I was getting full and the kitchen was about to close (they shut between 3 and 5.30 pm), so it was time to bao out. I paid about £25 including service for my small feast — not cheap but very reasonable given the quality of the food. And if you can't face waiting in line, maybe BAO's second branch, which opens in Windmill Street next month, will ease the queuing situation. One can but hope!

BAO. 53 Lexington Street, London, W1F 9AS (Tube: Oxford Circus or Piccadilly Circus). Website. Twitter. Instagram.

Five Books for Your Summer Reading List

I've enjoyed quite a few books recently that I think would make good holiday reads. There are two thrillers in the mix; two novels about friendship — and particularly the difficulty of sustaining friendships as you grow older and grow apart; and a love story. I sometimes receive pre-release review copies of upcoming novels via NetGalley, but this doesn't affect my decision to review a book or my opinions of it in any reviews I do write. I've added an asterisk to the titles below for which I received a review copy from NetGalley.

Dear Amy by Helen Callaghan*

In Helen Callaghan’s debut novel Dear Amy, Margot Lewis balances her day job teaching classics to the often unwilling teenagers of Cambridge with her role as the titular agony aunt for the local newspaper. She is also going through a divorce and has quite enough on her plate when a letter arrives addressed to Dear Amy, signed by Bethan Avery.  Bethan disappeared from Cambridge as a teenager some 20 years earlier and her disappearance was never solved. 

Meanwhile, another teenage girl, Katie, who is one of Margot’s students, has also gone missing. With the help of a criminologist, Margot tries to find out who is really writing the letters and whether they can help her to find Katie or Bethan. But Margot, solitary and somewhat isolated, has demons of her own and her efforts to unravel the mystery may yield more than she bargained for.

Although an engrossing read with plenty of good, well-executed twists, Dear Amy isn’t a classic thriller. Instead, it’s a well-paced, reflective mystery with a complex and sympathetic heroine. In tone and theme, it reminded me of Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories, which also happens to be set in Cambridge. The Cambridge setting was an added bonus for me: like Margot, I experienced both gown and town in Cambridge, and Callaghan shies away from the university stereotypes to offer a more realistic picture of the city as a whole, beyond the honeyed stone walls of the colleges.

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware*

The Woman in Cabin 10, Ruth Ware's follow-up to her 2015 debut In a Dark, Dark Wood, is just as addicting and twisty as its predecessor. Although it loses momentum in the final act, it is a fast-paced, entertaining read with a troubled central character whom we aren’t sure we can trust.

A burglary in the house of travel journalist Lo Blacklock leaves her mostly uninjured but severely shaken. A few days later she heads off for a press trip on a luxurious Scandinavian yacht where she mingles with a cast of characters that wouldn’t seem out of place in an Agatha Christie novel: the charismatic and wealthy owner of the boat; the shifty hack; the ruthless magazine editor; and the obsequious crew. Woken one night by a commotion in the titular cabin 10, Lo witnesses a disturbing incident. She starts to investigate but someone doesn’t want her to get to the bottom of what she saw — or what she thinks she saw. Someone who will go to any length to stop her learning the truth.

The novel is told from Lo’s perspective but to add to the suspense, her narrative is interspersed with Facebook messages and news stories. I think these could have been cut, although they do speak to one of the central questions of the novel: should we believe Lo or is she lying or, perhaps, confused? The cruise loses steam towards the end, but the story is such a page-turner that I sailed on regardless.

Invincible Summer by Alice Adams
The title of Alice Adams' new novel is taken from a Camus quotation, but Invincible Summer draws on the worlds of physics and finance as much as the arts. The novel opens in 1995 as four friends graduate from Bristol University. Lucien, charismatic and cool, goes on to be a club promoter; his sister Sylvie, beautiful and bohemian, drifts from job to job, trying to find her place in the world; Benedict stays on to do a particle physics PhD; and Eva launches into a high-flying banking career. They are optimistic about their futures and the tenacity of their friendship.

Each chapter then jumps forward in time — sometimes by a few months, sometimes years. They struggle with their careers and their love lives — Benedict and Eva in particular wrestle with their complex and usually asymmetrical feelings for each other — but they also struggle to keep in touch as their priorities change and their lives carry them further apart.

If you've read David Nicholls' One Day, you may well think this story sounds familiar and it is. The two novels even cover similar chronological periods and the similarities did jar at times, although One Day is more focused on romance than friendship. Nor are the characters in Invincible Summer always particularly likeable, but they are complex and true-to-life and I genuinely cared about what would happen to them. I also thought the novel offered a realistic and convincing portrait of long-term adult friendships. Some of the chapters — particularly those depicting Eva's job on the trading floor — are a little technical but on the whole, Adams' novel is engaging and authentic, never straying into mawkishness. 

Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam
In Rumaan Alam's Rich and Pretty, Sarah is rich and her best friend Lauren is pretty. Sarah isn't ugly and nor is Lauren poor, but somehow, a classmate's careless characterisation of the pair when they were teens ends up defining their friendship, although the descriptions are mostly beside the point. The girls have been friends for two decades but, by their early 30s, they struggle to find time to see each other in their busy Manhattan lives. Sarah works part time for a foundation but expends most of her energy trying to plan her upcoming wedding. Lauren has a burgeoning career in magazine publishing and is uncertain she'll ever meet a man she wants to spend her whole life with.

The themes in Alam's novel are not dissimilar to those explored in Invincible Summer and the novel asks the question of whether you can call someone your best friend if you only see her a few times a year and have little in common with her. But Lauren and Sarah do have a wealth of shared history; indeed, Lauren muses that her "friendship with Sarah has always been about nostalgia." And although the two often fight and disagree, they forgive each other and move on as their lives continue to diverge. I'm the same age as Lauren and Sarah and identified more strongly with Lauren, but I think the novel will speak to a lot of people in the same age bracket.

There are a few instances of clunky writing in Rich and Pretty (the description of cashmere sweaters in — presumably — J. Crew was particularly overwrought: "the bag weighs nothing because the sweaters weigh nothing"), but overall, Alam's novel is smart and funny, and it offers a convincing and intimate account of female friendship. When I reached the end, it left me craving more: I wanted to spend more time in the company of these flawed but genuine characters.


If I Forget You by Thomas Christopher Greene*
Thomas Christopher Greene's second novel, If I Forget You, calls to mind the Pascal quotation Tu ne me chercherais si tu ne m'avais déjà trouvé (you wouldn't seek me if you hadn't already found me). At an expensive New England liberal arts college in the early 1990s, baseball scholarship student and would-be poet Henry falls in love with wealthy, WASPy Margot. They have a passionate romance that is brought to an untimely end. Two decades later and, still unsatisfied with relationships that never lived up to the excitement and intensity of first love, they both still think about the one that got away. "If poetry is the search for significance," Henry muses, "then the stubbornness of love must be its fullest expression."

Flashbacks told from both characters' perspectives fill in the missing pieces of their pasts, while in present-day New York, Margot and Henry seek each other with an increasing desperation. But will they get a second chance or is the die already cast? Greene's prose is elegiac and elegant. Both Margot and Henry are artists — she a painter and he a poet — and Greene captures their diverse modes of thinking and imagining with expert precision as they explore themes of love and loss. If I Forget You isn't the most cheerful of summer reads but it is thoughtful, beautifully written and very different from Greene's debut.

Paris: A Speciality Coffee Guide

UPDATE: I returned to Paris twice in 2017, once in March and once in September, each time adding a number of speciality coffee shops to my map.

The last time I was in Paris, back in November 2012, I was surprised to discover, after decades of mediocre coffee (or worse), that it was possible to get good speciality coffee in the city. Unfortunately, a hectic day trip meant I could only go to one coffee shop, La Caféothèque, a sprawling, characterful café in the southern part of the Marais.

I only had 48 hours in Paris last weekend, but as my friends and I spent most of our time wandering around the city, there was plenty of coffee time. Here are the coffee shops I visited, ordered roughly from west to east. I will also update this map after future trips to Paris.

Coutume

Coutume is a cafe and roastery that is credited with jump-starting Paris's long under-performing speciality coffee scene. It was on my list back in 2012, but its location, deep in the 7th arrondissement, wasn't convenient. Luckily, it was only a ten-minute walk from my friends' apartment so we headed there for brunch on Sunday. We got there early-ish (for brunch) and secured the last table and a line soon formed that snaked out of the door and along rue de Babylone.

The building is light and airy with high ceilings, cool light bulbs and excellent tiling. The coffee bar is at the front and if you can't face the wait for a table, they serve coffee to take away. The coffee menu is extensive — we had hoped to try the Café Coutume, a special coffee designed by one of the baristas that changes each month, but they weren't serving it. Instead, I did my best to confuse our waitress by ordering both a cortado (€2.90) and a hand-brewed filter coffee (€6).

Both coffees were made with coffee from the Mpanga washing station in Burundi, although the filter was brewed with washed beans, while the espresso was natural process. With its rich, fruity, cocoa notes the filter coffee was particularly good — so much so that I bought a bag of freshly roasted beans to take home. I think it was my first experience of Burundi coffee and I was not disappointed.

The brunch dishes were great too. I had pancakes with thyme-infused blueberries (€10) and my friends both had the chicken schnitzel (€17). Oh, yes, and there was the banana bread I had for 'pudding'. Oops! Coutume is a great spot for brunch or a coffee break; it jumped straight to the top of my Paris coffee favourites. 

Coutume is located at 47 rue de Babylone in the 7th arrondissement (Métro: Saint-François-Xavier or Vaneau). Website. Twitter. Instagram.

Télescope

The small, minimalist Télescope is on a quiet street a few blocks north of the Louvre. The once uninspiring neighbourhood now has a number of interesting cafés, restaurants and shops — it's a particularly good place to come for sushi. Télescope itself is a particularly good place to come for coffee. As well as the usual espresso-based drinks (which I didn't try but which looked great), they serve a couple of single-origin filter coffees. During our visit, a Kenyan and a Colombian variety were on offer, both from Hasbean (€4.50 each). I ordered the former and my friend had the latter so that we could both try both, brewed through the Aeropress. Of the two, the fruity Kenyan was my favourite and I also loved the Instagram-ready ridged serving glasses.

There are only a few small tables at Télescope, as well as a bench outside, but although there was a constant stream of customers on a grey Saturday morning, there were always enough tables. There was a peaceful ambiance, and wooden décor and sky blue accents gave the café a rustic, Scandinavian aesthetic.

Télescope is located at 5 rue Villedo in the 1st arrondissement (Métro: Pyramides). Website. Twitter.

Café Kitsuné

There are several branches of Maison Kitsuné, a hip Franco-Japanese record label and clothing brand, throughout Paris, Tokyo and New York. Some of them have larger cafés but we stumbled into the rue Condorcet location in the 9th arrondissement, which was more of a boutique with an espresso machine. A gorgeous powder-blue La Marzocco, no less. Unfortunately, they weren't serving coffee when we were there, but I'd like to go back.

Café Kitsuné is located at 68 rue Condorcet in the 9th arrondissement (Métro: Pigalle). There are other locations in the 1st and 11th arrondissements. Website. Twitter. Instagram.

Café Craft

With its gorgeous monochrome décor, laptop-friendly co-working areas and great coffee from local roaster Lomi, Craft is an ideal spot for caffeinating, collaborating or just chilling near Canal Saint Martin. We sat outside but there are a few seats at the coffee bar and several tables, including some larger ones in the co-working area. I loved the black-and-white tiles on the floor and the black La Marzocco.

I also loved that there were two single-origin filter coffees on offer (Colombian and Kenyan) and a Brazilian single-origin espresso. We had one of each of the filter coffees (€5), brewed through the V60. Linguists, please note: the French for V60 is vee six-tee not veh-swah-son (filter coffee is café filtre and a macchiato is une noisette). As at Télescope, I preferred the Kenyan variety, which was better suited to the V60 method.

Café Craft is located at 24 rue des Vinaigriers in the 10th arrondissement (Métro: Jacques Bonsergent). Website. Twitter. Instagram.

Fragments

Vibrant, colourful and quirky, Fragments is a good place to recover from the hectic streets of the Marais.

The sexy Mirage coffee machine sits on the long counter while Bruce Lee watches over the proceedings. I had a Tanzanian filter coffee, prepared using an Aeropress (€6), which was very well brewed. I often drink Kenyan and Ethiopian coffees, so it was nice to try beans from a couple of different African countries on this trip. They also serve espresso-based drinks and brunch: in fact, this was the only place I saw avo toast on the menu all weekend. It was too late for brunch and too early for dinner, so I only tried a couple of bites of my friend's, which only left me wishing I had ordered my own. The staff at Fragments are very friendly and there is a fun, casual vibe.

Fragments is located at 76 rue de Tournelles in the 3rd arrondissement (Métro: Chemin Vert). Facebook. Twitter. Instagram.

Other options:

La Caféothèque. We walked past but didn't have time to visit; my full review is here. 52 rue de l'Hôtel de Ville in the 4th arrondissement (Métro: Pont Marie). Website. Twitter. Instagram.

Holybelly. This small café in the 10th looked lovely but the onset of protestors and police drove us elsewhere. 19 Rue Lucien Sampaix in the 10th arrondissement (Métro: Jacques Bonsergent). Website. Twitter. Instagram.

Ten Belles. Again, I wanted to check this place out but the protests prevented us from crossing the Canal Saint Martin. 10 rue de la Grange aux Belles in the 10th arrondissement (Métro: Jacques Bonsergent). Website.Twitter. Instagram.

Terres de Café. 4 Rue Rambuteau, in the 3rd arrondissement (Métro: Rambuteau). Website. Twitter. Instagram.