Every year me and my good friend Kerry Gairy like to set ourselves a little challenge around eating out. Kerry Gairy, (and you always have to say both names) and I have been friends for nearly twenty years and our friendship has been based on food, restaurants, mini breaks and more recently being dog Mums. We met up last week and discussed what this years theme should be.
Firstly, how has this come about you may ask? Don't people just say, "hey let's go out for dinner" and book their local or somewhere they have been wanting to try? No, not us!
Years ago, back in the day before we had mortgages and pet insurance we used to fancy ourselves as Michelin star reviewers. Everywhere we went, had to have a Michelin star or at least an AA Rosette. We would go to these places and either pretend to each other we were enjoying it, or rip it to shreds and promise to write a strongly worded review after. (We would never get around to this).
One day, circa 2010 we got bored of the stiff white table cloths and the foam of this and a Jus of that. It all started to taste a bit samey. We would go to places and couldn't even tell you what we ate a week later. So, we said, "let's do neighbourhood gems", and eating out with a theme was born. So for an entire year we had to go to a neighbourhood gem. This was decided by opening up the A-Z (yes it was that long ago) and pointing to anywhere on the page and whatever neighbourhood it landed on we had to find the best place to eat in that area. We were known to cheat a little with this because, I'm sorry, I am not travelling all the way to Falcon Wood for a Harvester.
Another one of our themes was eat the alphabet by country, e.g A - Afghanistan, B- Belgium food etc. That was fun and we have revisited this one over the years.
I must admit, we havn't always stuck with our themes, sometimes you do just fancy a pub roast or a new Michelin star place we just have to try. Sometimes we even forgot what we were supposed to be doing. Other years, the year would tick by and we would realise we hadn't even set a theme and we would just go rogue all year.
So fast forward to January 2022. We decided to meet up for lunch at The Coach makers Arms last Saturday. I follow them on Instagram and an amazing cheesie toastie kept jumping out at me so I had to try it. I sent them a message and they confirmed they were dog friendly. Woohoo, this meant that Gregg the sausage dog and Zuma the Italian Greyhound could join us.
I was envisaging a nice relaxing lunch with Kerry Gairy, the dogs curled up snoozing at our feet below and us throwing them the odd bit of cheese toastie to keep them happy. Well, it was not to be! Since I had last been at The Coach Makers Arms, they had refurbished and all the tables, bar one were big high bar stool types.
This meant the dogs were way down below, uncontrollable and getting tangled, running around like lunatics, barking, weeing with excitement and causing a right riot. I said to Kerry Gairy, "we've become those people". We both hate kids, well I guess thats a bit strong given the fact I am a teacher. It's not that we hate them per se, and I do like my kids at school and have even been known to like the odd child of a friend. But they have no place in a restaurant running around and causing a raucous. And here we were, becoming "those people" but with dogs.
Anyway, during our broken conversation with interruptions we managed to discuss what this years theme could be. I had read an article form CNN on The Worlds Best 20 Soups and thought this could be something to go by. I love soup, Ive never met anyone who loves soup as much as me. Kerry Gairy wasn't impressed, she said "soup is like what you have when you're desperate and there is nothing else in the cupboard". I said "what if we went to restaurants that had these soups on the menu and you just order what you like?" So she was up for that.
But still, we needed to make it a bit more challenging, and so "Soups Of The Central Line"was invented. We would pick a soup/nationality and find a restaurant on the central line that had it.
Which finally brings me to last night and part one of "Soups of the Central Line".We chose a restaurant on Frith Street, nearest tube Tottenham Court Road so that ticked that box. It was called Bali Bali and specialised in Indonesian, Thai and Malaysian food and actually had quite an array of soups on the menu. This would be perfect to kick off our theme.
I went on the website to book, the website threw a few alarm bells at me, but hey who am I to judge. There were badly taken photos of the blue seas of Bali, an unrecognisable dodgy looking font hailing from the 90's and shock horror, no instant booking but right old school, where you email your enquiry and they get back to you. A few hours later I get this headline popping up in my in box :
"Re: Booking request for Tangy Yum Yums" Strange, I thought it was called Bali Bali? On closer inspection of the website it is Bali Bali the home of Tangy yum yums. Oh god, what have we got ourselves in for???
So, last night we start the night off at the Black Book Wine Bar as if it all goes horribly wrong it will take the edge off.
We turn up at Bali Bali the home of Tangy Yum Yums and it is full to the rafters. This is a good sign. It's not the type of place we would normally set foot in, in fact I would have walked past this place hundreds of times and never noticed it. It's the type of place that has a circle of plastic over the table cloth and clipped on for ease of cleaning. Its the type of place that have small wine glasses with big fat rims. But it was busy and bustling and the food looked and smelt great.
The plastic table cloth
The Wine list was a little confusing as well, but it was that type of place. We understood "Drinks List" must be white and "wines" must be red.
So let's get on with the real point of this eating adventure and this blog. The soup!! I opened up the 20 best soups of the world article to check which soup I needed to have as there were a number of options available in the soup department. I ordered Soto Ayam which was described as mild coconut based chicken soup and for £4.95 you couldn't go wrong.
Soto Ayam
Kerry Gairy not being a soup lover ordered the spring rolls. The article says this about the soup "Chicken noodle soup may reach its culinary pinnacle in this piquant Indonesian dish. Spices such as fresh turmeric, star anise, cinnamon, lemongrass and lime leaves combine for deeply layered aroma and flavour"
It did live up to the hype. It was delicious. You could imagine being sick home from school on the sofa as a child and this making everything feel a bit better. Comforting and soothing and wellness in a bowl.
For our mains I ordered the Nasi Goreng and Kerry Gairy the beef Rendang. They were both pretty good.
Nasi Goreng
Beef Rendang
Service was friendly and quick and the drinks list wine went down a treat as did the ubiquitous After Eight which you find in places like this.
So, where to next? I made myself this spinner and it has landed on Notting Hill. I am quite pleased by this and I didn't even cheat. I will now have to do my research to find a place with one of the twenty soups of the world. Watch this space!
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