Taste Talk: First-time cafe and shop owner Emily Wright

 

She's not even thirty yet but Emily Wright has already done what so many secretly dream of -- opening her own cafe and shop. She's the founder, manager and sole employee of T&SHOP in Newington Green in North London. She lives upstairs, bakes all the goodies and scours vintage furniture markets and local producers for quality stock. Oh and mere months after opening a Hollywood movie star has already become a repeat customer, while the local Turkish population has warmly welcomed the 29-year-old's impressive work ethic and ridiculously fragrant rose tea. Amongst all that she kindly took the time to talk with Tasting Pages, thanks Emily!   

How would you describe T&SHOP to people who've never been?

T&SHOP is a lifestyle concept shop with tea, coffee and food, where you can buy the chair you're sat on while having a cuppa.

When did you open T&SHOP?

It was born end of May this year and is still teething. It took about 9 months of prep so I feel like it is my baby; I imagine it to be emotionally similar.

How did the idea come about?

I have always loved tea... and cake. I like to host and bake and feed people, and I have a big family to practice on. I think I'd talked and dreamt about having a shop long enough that I had to make it happen and I realised I had nothing to loose and a lot of support around. Plus also to be honest, I had a big break-up shake-up!

Back, with Balls

Eating and chatting are two things I do a lot of but this blog came to a halt a couple of years ago when nausea and fatigue supplanted them. When you're pregnant people regularly ask with giddy anticipation what your crazy cravings are but I'm afraid I pretty much lived on Carr's water crackers and ginger ale for the first half of bumpdom and lucky you were spared posts on those culinary firecrackers. Then before I knew it my bump was a toddler, and boy does he love to eat. I'm inspired to get back to cooking and baking, and uh even better, get OUT OF THE HOUSE to try what all the amazing talent out there is whipping up.

As my son seems insatiably hungry (wonder where he gets that from...) I'm on the look-out for quick snack recipes that are low sugar and low salt but tasty enough to inspire the yum-yum dance. I was without an oven for a couple of weeks recently as ours went kaput, but sought baked-good style snackage. A recipe for no-bake energy bites caught my eye and after trying it once we are now big on balls in this house.

They are that magical combination of easy to make, store and transport as well as wholesome, yet just sweet enough to feel like a treat. Great to grab when you don't have time for a proper breakfast, perfect to pop in your mouth with an afternoon coffee, and ideal for stashing in a packed lunch. And because these balls are bespoke, you can roll them into whatever size you like; I do about a third of the batch to suit toddler paws.

No-Bake Energy Balls 
Adapted from: Gimme Some Oven 

1 cup dry oatmeal
2/3 cup toasted coconut flakes (do toast, it's much tastier plus your house will smell like vacation)
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 cup dried fruit (I've used dried blueberries and cherries)
1/2 cup nut butter (I prefer almond butter)
1/3 cup runny honey or maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Yields: Approximately a dozen balls
 
Take your rings off. Stir all the dry ingredients together in a medium sized mixing bowl, then add the wet and sticky stuff. Get your hands in and really combine the mixture. Lick fingers. Put a plate over the bowl, place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Now you're ready to be a baller. Put the chilled plate on the counter. Scoop up some of the mix and roll it between your hands then place on the plate. Continue creating balls of whatever size you like until finished then pop them all into an air-tight container and store in the fridge (no one wants sweaty balls). I like to put mine in the freezer for about 15 mintues to firm them up.

Try alternating what type of dried fruit and nut butter you use, maybe add a dash of chia seeds or go wild and toss in some chocolate chips. Kids love them, adults love them. Balls for all y'all.

London Food Tour - Covent Garden with Celia Brooks

On a chilly and bleak London morning I huddled outside of Covent Garden tube station with a small squad of hungry strangers. We'd all be invited to try out Celia Brooks's new food tour of the area, and fortunately she knows how to get a group giddy and chatting right from the start.

Once introductions were made she simply opened a box procured across the road from legendary macaron-maker Ladurée, and the brilliantly coloured discs instantly lit up the atmosphere. Pistachio, black currant, salted caramel... there wasn't a wrong choice to be made and the box was soon empty.

Celia is a cook, food writer, and guide of London gastrotours around Portobello Road, Marylebone, and now, Covent Garden. Over several hours she led us to some top quality shops, market stalls, and cafés where we tasted everything from English cheese to Venezuelan corn cakes to Indian street snacks. She offers nuggets of historical trivia along the way, and her love for food is clear when she introduces each of the producers on the tour.

Our first stop was for cheese, glorious cheese....

St. John Hotel: London City Centre Accommodation with Great Taste

Famous for introducing nose-to-tail eating into the general dining lexicon, St. John Restaurant is now looking after overnight guests with the same thoroughness at its St. John Hotel. You will feel comforted from head-to-toe relaxing in this sleek London city centre inn.

Our stay here was a surprise for my birthday plotted by Alex. A night at a chic hotel in your own city is a thrill. It's not everyday that I pack an overnight bag and hop on the local bus. We alighted in China Town, and walked under a canopy of festive lanterns, until we stopped before a brick frontage that belies its glamorous interior...

Mad Men Party Canapés (Betty and Joan would approve)

Please, do not host a Mad Men viewing party. Terrible idea. Watching Mad Men is like reading a brilliant book; you savour every line, become mesmerised by the poignant storyline, and everything else around you fades away. The experience doesn't benefit from someone wedged on the sofa next to you, gnashing snacks and shouting out observations over the dialogue.

I watch it alone, in a dimly lit room. Just me and some beautifully damaged characters, trying to find our way in this crazy world... some of us a little drunker than others.

So, no, I won't be attending any giddy gatherings the night the new season debuts here in the UK. I can't abide all the silliness that's sprung up around the show recently — retro costumes, wacky internet videos. I'm not a kill-joy but this isn't Beach Blanket Bingo people. Mad Men is not goofy. The wackiest thing that ever happened on it involved a run-away riding lawnmower and (spoiler alert) that did not end well.

But the day aprés episode I can't wait to get social about Don Draper and company, and this is when a Mad Men party is ideal. Invite some fellow fans over and serve up retro cocktails and canapés to compliment the era you're all engaged in.

Pancake Day UK: Spelt Pancakes with Creamed Spinach, Traditional Lemon and Sugar Pancakes

British Pancake Day is a tradition I've come to love after living in the UK for many years. This is the day, also known here as Shrove Tuesday, when you indulge before forty days of Lent. In America they have wild Mardi Gras style street parties, in Rio there's Carnival, and in Britain, well, they make pancakes. Everyone lets loose in their own way...

The traditional way to eat pancakes (note to Americans: when I say pancakes I mean the British version which resemble crepes; they are thin) is with lemon and sugar, but I have a savoury tooth and like to make a heartier version as well. This way you can have an entire pancake meal, which seems fitting for Pancake Day!

This year for the first course I whipped up spelt pancakes and topped them with warm, rich, melt-in-your-mouth delicious creamed spinach. Alex was initially very skeptical about the inclusion of a savoury round, but I've convinced him with this combination.

Tasting Menus: PipsDish Pop-up Restaurant at Islington Barn in London

Walk up a little alleyway off of Upper Street. Enter a disused car repair garage. Duck behind a curtain. Grab a seat on a hay bail. Relax. You've arrived at Islington's most exciting new restaurant.

Chocolate Custard Muffins Recipe

Sunday morning we awoke to find London covered in a thick duvet of snow. Big feathery flakes had started falling before we fell asleep — the first snow of winter illuminated the city in a pure white glow. Hello? Are you listening to me wax lyrical about the enchanting affect of frozen water? No, you're fixated on the image above, the glistening, cocoa-saturated handful you want to get your teeth into, instead of hearing about the weather. Yeah, I don't blame you, (I've been eating them and you really need to soon) let's get down to the business of chocolate custard muffins.

Violet Brown Sugar Chocolate Cake with Treacle Fudge Frosting Recipe

Our neighbours welcomed a cute new flatmate recently — a baby.  Many visitors bestow infants with onesies or hats topped with animal ears, but I like to treat the parents. Parents love cake. When their little girl's name was revealed I was instantly inspired to find some crystallised 'Violet' petals to add a personalised touch to a cake recipe I've been eager to try. Almost nine months later (new parents are quite busy!) Violet Brown Sugar Chocolate Cake was born in my kitchen. 

Sure, the kid couldn't eat any of it (she has many years ahead to juggle a conflicted love affair with desserts) but she seemed happy enough watching us scoff thick chocolaty slices as she gnawed on green beans.

Tasting Menus: San Diego Mexican Food in Restaurants, a Diner, and a Market

Hola. It's been a while, eh? Well that's what a couple weeks in the California sunshine will do to a girl, dazzle her and then leave her feeling jet lagged and grey upon return to an English January. I've been eager to share my San Diego dining recommendations with you; we tried a range of Mexican food, in restaurants, a diner, and at a market. The following picks won't be found in the Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego's bustling tourist area, where many of the big hotels are located. But don't worry you only need to make very short trips to get your mouth around this fine Southern California Mexican food...

Food Gift with Long Shelf Life: Subscription to Independent Food Magazine

What publications do you turn to for interesting, evocative and inspiring food writing? I've been asking a lot of people that question recently and the "umms" and "hmphs" I get in reply speak volumes. Unfortunately there aren't many widely-printed publications putting much stock in food writing these days. I'm not talking about recipes and product guides — those are printed in abundance and make up the content of most food magazines now. But essays, investigative pieces, profiles and nerd-tastic treatises with an edible bent have been quietly disappearing from the printed page.

So hurrah for independent publishers! There are some truly brilliant food magazines being produced in various corners of the world that will satisfy your hunger for quality food writing and illustrations.

A gift subscription to a lovingly-crafted independent publication is a gift that delivers food for thought and a treat for the eyes throughout the year. Two of my favourite ad-free food magazines are 'Fire & Knives' and 'Remedy Quarterly'. Why would a subscription make a good gift? What can we look forward to seeing from them in 2012? I conducted a little Q&A session with the publishers to find out...

Give Tasteful Gift Vouchers: Cooking and Baking Classes in London

We all have so much STUFF. Instead of wrapping up more of it as a Christmas or birthday gift, consider giving — and asking for — a cooking or baking course voucher. That one little slip of paper will bestow upon the lucky recipient several hours happily spent improving their kitchen tinkering abilities, meeting new people, tasting the fruits of their labour and then hauling a sack of it home to enjoy later. Bit better than another sweater or box set, eh?

I highly recommend the following two cooking and baking instructors in London for their enthusiastic, engaging manner and varied course selection. Maria Mayerhofer and Anna Colquhoun both offer vouchers for their courses, which are seriously good value compared to other culinary classes in the city. 

BAKE WITH MARIA 

Instructor: Maria Mayerhofer
Location: The Baking Lab, Swiss Cottage, London
Website: www.bakewithmaria.com
Vouchers: Click here

Page Tasters: Rachel Cooke, Observer Journalist & Food Magazine Columnist

For someone who considers herself a creature of culinary habit, Observer journalist Rachel Cooke has a hell of a lot of recipe options to hand. She adores books — one of the reception rooms in her North London home is used solely as a library — and an ample part of the collection is of a cookery nature.

Some 200 cookbooks can be found lining her bookshelves and sitting in neat stacks in the dining room. It's only down to regular donations to a charity shop that her collection does not explode much beyond this figure.

Rachel regularly writes book reviews, refreshingly non-formulaic profiles, and a column in Observer Food Monthly magazine. She's my favourite writer at The Observer and I got in touch with hopes of interviewing her for the blog. Happily, she agreed to meet. I went round to her North London home, which has an enviably grown-up decor (love the drinks cart) to talk about pages of taste.

We had a chat at the kitchen table where she divulged which cookbooks she takes to bed, what it’s like interviewing celebrities over a meal, recipe pet hates, and “the greatest thing that has ever happened” to her (hint: it involves a cookbook).

Bake the New British Celebrity: Soda Bread

A remarkably humble baked good has recently attained celebrity status. It’s not French. It’s not covered in gold foil. And it certainly doesn’t take years of training to perfect. Soda bread has become a media darling, simply for being a quick and trustworthy loaf that the beginner baker can accomplish.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Nigel Slater, Lorraine Pascale, and Nigella Lawson have all baked soda bread on their TV programmes recently. There are two cookery trends that have helped push soda bread into the spotlight — home bread baking and 'simple' recipes.

The convergence of these two trends set off a flurry of encouragement to make soda bread. Why does it fit the bill so well, for so many? This bread doesn’t require many of the steps that fill new bakers with fear and loathing: kneading, proving, and shaping. Even if you do feel comfortable baking, soda bread is a delight because it can be ready in under an hour.

Recently there has been a massive swell of interest in bread making, and baking books and classes have been popping up in abundance. First time bakers, keen to get their hands in and start making their own, can easily feel deflated if their initial loaves don’t meet expectations.

It doesn’t help that everything is touted as being just SO easy and quick to make now. Or to translate that into Jamie Oliver speak; while preparing a dish for his 30 minute meal TV series he exclaimed: "Even a raving lunatic can do this!"

The problem with, uh, encouraging sentiments such as this is, when you’re in your kitchen trying to prepare a simple-easy-quick-lunatic-friendly recipe and it’s not going well, you feel so raving inadequate.

I’m here, as someone who has taken a couple of bread making classes but still struggles to consistently get all the elements quite right (there are good loaves and there are what-the-hell-happened-there loaves), with assurance that you can make soda bread.

With its pillowy centre, crusty shell, and comforting nostalgic fragrance, soda bread will become a staple once you take the plunge and make your first batch. It's a gate-way bread — once you bake it, you'll be eager to try other bread recipes. That’s an addiction I’m happy to enable.

This article was written for the Bake with Maria website. Click here to read the remainder of the article and try the recipe! While you're over there check out Maria's brilliant selection of baking classes, which take place at her Baking Lab in West London. I've taken classes taught by Maria and heartily recommend. 

Pumpkin and Rice Soup with Za'atar Croutons Recipe

If it looks as though I've been applying fake tan lately I can explain. I've been eating a LOT of pumpkin; so much that an orange hue has surely seeped into my pores by this point. I've tried a few new pumpkin recipes, in search of an interesting dish full of flavor and spice. The one I'm sharing with you here, which the writer calls 'the comfort blanket of the Middle Eastern soup world', allows the pumpkin's flavour to shine as it crackles with an exotic mix of spices.

Around this time of year cheery jack-o-lantern festooned recipes crop up everywhere, all calling for pumpkin as their primary ingredient. Frustratingly most pumpkin recipes I've seen give no guidance on what type of pumpkin is best to use, thus many cooks undoubtedly buy a big orange guy and are disappointed with the results. It's become common practice to substitute butternut squash for pumpkin, as 'carving' pumpkins have flesh that is quite watery and tasteless.

Tasting Menus: Spuntino, Soho, London

Is it possible to be simultaneously sleek and comforting? Cool yet cosy? Spuntino, the popular 'diner' in Soho, is like Kate Moss's greedy twin, devouring carbs and heavy cream then licking her lips with delight. She's on-trend and she unabashedly loves food.

As a former New Yorker I had a strong sense of deja vu as I approached Spuntino. There is no sign out front, just a black facade with a building number. They don't take reservations. Even the website is elusive, seemingly designed by the creators of Lost. The interior wall tiles bring to mind the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station. The friendly staff are tattooed and pierced. And the dangling exposed light bulbs, well whoever created those things must sleep on a towering bed of cash. Tis the ubiquitous lighting of all establishments working a vintage look.

But there ain't nothing wrong with all of the above. These qualities combine for an attractive little place that adds a hint of downtown NYC to London. Why, it's even in Soho.

Remedy Quarterly Article Featuring Blackberry and Apple Crumble Recipe

In this screen-staring age it's still nice to be a part of a publication that you can hold in your hands and feel proud of.

I recently wrote an article for Remedy Quarterly, a gorgeous food journal published in Brooklyn, NY. Started by friends who wanted to document and share food memories and recipes, it's now on its sixth edition. 

'Stealing' is the theme of the latest issue, to which I contributed. I'm thrilled with how the finished pages look, and have really enjoyed reading the other pieces. Help support independent, creative and environmentally-friendly publications! These 100% ad-free booklets are sold online and at these stockists. And they smell nice too, like a book that's sat on the shelf a while.

To read the article click on the images below or click Page 1 and Page 2 to download full sized images. Try the Blackberry and Apple Crumble recipe, it's a much-loved British classic, perfect for this time of year. There are plenty of apples out there waiting to be plucked and put to good use...

Smoky Black Bean and Roast Tomato Soup Recipe

I've been craving dinner earlier than usual recently. My appetite gets discombobulated in the autumn, as the sky darkens at an ever-quickening pace, similar to the confusion jet lag inflicts. Alex has poked his head round the kitchen door a couple of times this week exclaiming, "Are you already making dinner?" If I was married to an 80 year old my timing would be spot on.

Not only is dusk nudging in but the temperature has turned officially chilly — I feel the need to insulate from within. Soup season has arrived.

Tasting Menus: Trangallán, tapas restaurant, Newington Green

The London neighbourhood of Newington Green flies somewhat under the radar. Tucked next to Stoke Newington and Dalston — two areas oft-mentioned in the media as havens of trendiness; where cafes, delis and restaurants seem to open weekly — it houses luminaries such as myself, but not many restaurants of note. So when a defunct shopfront shows signs of development, those of us obsessively on the hunt for new edible experiences hope something tasteful and tasty will arise.

Trangallán has teased us for a while. The smart striped monochrome facade has been in place for many months. The word on the street was... 'tapas'. The suspense is now over, it's open, and I'm tipsy with relief after my first visit. Newington Green is now home to a cosy and charming restaurant that I look forward to revisiting.

Apple, Cardamom & Sour Cream Muffins

I love the Internet: a quick jaunt on the WWW and next thing you know a cancer research scientist in Boston and a Punjabi Southern belle in Houston are helping me bake muffins.

Last week I bought a new muffin tin and a few days later I happened across a lovely apple tree while walking in the countryside. New tin + abundance of collected fruit. I needed a recipe! I searched my cookbooks but couldn’t find any suitable ideas. Time to call on my good friend Google. I asked him, Google, where can I find a nice apple muffin recipe, preferably with sour cream (key defender of dry bakes) and cardamom (a spice used in Nordic baking, which is quite fashionable at the moment. Obviously I only want muffins that are on-trend).