Braise

My latest post for paid subscribers: a review of Tamila, the new cookbook that covers the cooking behind The Tamil Prince, The Tamil Crown, and Tamila itself. Expect pitch-perfect recreations of most of the restaurants’ classics, though not every recipe went entirely according to plan

Lovely first visit to Clementine, the sit-down cafe from the team behind Quince. I suspect I'll be a regular, but in fairness it couldn't be much closer to my house

Really enjoyed the almost excessively French Casse-Croûte in Bermondsey, which backs up the OTT aesthetic with some simply excellent cooking

My 20 favourite places to eat and drink in London right now. Half of them aren’t really restaurants, despite the title, but I forgot to change that so we’re all going to have to live with it

The deep-fried bread and butter pudding certainly isn’t the only reason to visit Café Cecilia, but it sure doesn’t hurt

This isn’t the meal I intended to eat on a visit to Cambridge the other week, but one look at these dumplings should tell you it worked out okay in the end

New(ish) for paid subscribers this week: a reminder of my favourite taco spots in London to visit once Sonora is gone for good

I ended up in Escocesa by chance, after taco plans went awry, but what a happy accident it was: great tapas, with some September specials from the Canary Islands on when we went, in a lively, vibrant dining room

Is it terribly basic that Antepliler might be my favourite spot along the main stretch of Green Lanes? I know it's the obvious one, but it hits all highlights well. Great cold mezze, solid meat coming off the grill, and good lahmacun too, though they've never been a regular part of my order

Allow me to sing the praises of Otto, a Berlin restaurant I have fallen deeply for

I’ve spent a decade visiting Berlin almost annually; here are the restaurants, bars, and coffee shops I go back to time and time again

I’ve got no real point of reference for Yunnanese food, but I really enjoyed the unexpected — and at moments fiercely fiery — cooking at Cloud Land

Napoli on the Road's reputation precedes it, so I was relieved that it mostly lives up to the hype. One of the best bases I've had from Neapolitan pizza in London: flavourful, soft, and just firm enough to hold up to the toppings — even a saucy Ragu — without ever getting soupy

I wrote about Brutto, a restaurant I have accidentally only ever eaten at in August. I have no idea how it is the other 11 months of the year, but for those few weeks it's certainly pretty great

Out this week, Five Tastes by Fuchsia Dunlop is more than a cookbook: it’s an introduction to the first principles of Chinese cuisine, from cooking a dish to designing a menu. I can’t remember the last cookbook I’ve learnt quite so much from.

Fun visit to Rambutan, as I continue my quest to eat at more of this city’s best (or at least bougiest) south Asian spots. Lots of good dishes, but the hot butter squid bun was extraordinary. braise.substack.com/p/rambutan-se1