Tag: food

66 good things from 2024

~ Shakeel Hashim ~ Leave a comment

I’ve written up my favourite movies, books and theatre from 2024, but here’s a dump of everything else I enjoyed, in roughly chronological order.

  1. The stunning architecture of the Alcázar, Seville
  2. Tapas at Eslava, Seville
  3. Antony Gormley, White Cube, London
  4. Parfums d’Orient, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
  5. Mark Rothko, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris — possibly the best exhibition I’ve ever seen?
  6. Salt & pepper Dungeness crab at R&G Lounge, San Francisco
  7. Riding a Waymo, San Francisco
  8. Giant redwoods, Santa Cruz
  9. The aquarium at California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco
  10. Seeing the Northern Lights on a return flight from San Francisco to London
  11. A custom made LEGO minifigure of me
  12. A Palestinian art exhibition at Darat Al Funun, Amman
  13. Learning woodturning
  14. Ustad Noor Baksh, Southbank Centre, London
  15. Getting a Curzon Cult membership
  16. The Art Institute, Chicago
  17. Watching the eclipse while eating Culver’s, Indianapolis
  18. The Tiffany dome at Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago
  19. Architecture boat tour, Chicago
  20. Listening to The Dark Knight soundtrack while driving down Lower Wacker, Chicago
  21. Buying an inflatable boat to use on the canal
  22. Rothko Chapel concert, Southbank Centre
  23. My friend’s very good exhibition Paper Cuts, Peltz Gallery
  24. Taylor Swift, La Défense Arena, Paris
  25. The windows at Sainte-Chapelle, Paris
  26. Monet’s waterlilies at Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris
  27. Lunch at Oktobre, Paris
  28. Olivia Rodrigo, O2 Arena, London
  29. Burgers at the Chuck’s popup, Carousel, London
  30. Sampha, Justice, Mdou Moctar, Ustad Noor Baksh, Rimski’s Yard, and a million other things, Glastonbury
  31. The unbelievable House of Uncle Cornelius escape room, Geneva
  32. Dinner at Opheem, Birmingham
  33. My friend’s two beautiful weddings, London and Mysore
  34. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
  35. Art of Noise, SFMOMA, San Francisco
  36. Musée Mecanique, San Francisco
  37. Half Price Books, Berkeley
  38. Tavares Strachan, Hayward Gallery, London
  39. The flower market, Bangalore
  40. Museum of Art and Photography, Bangalore
  41. Karavalli, Bangalore
  42. Blossom Book House, Bangalore
  43. Vijay Vitthala Temple, Hampi
  44. All the monkeys, Hampi
  45. Royal Enclosure, Hampi
  46. Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace, Srirangapatna
  47. Dosas at Old Original Hotel Vinayaka Mylari, Mysore
  48. Searching for shells on the beach, Bekal
  49. Lunch at Quality Wines, London
  50. Sunsets, London
  51. Philip Glass Ensemble, Barbican, London
  52. Rug tufting, London
  53. Takeaway sushi from Haseya, Ealing
  54. Learning how to draw Islamic geometry, Harrow
  55. Classical Indian music workshop, Barbican, London
  56. Watching people dangerously set off fireworks, Shoreditch Park, London
  57. The Silk Roads exhibition, British Museum, London
  58. Making Nick Bramham’s tuna melt recipe
  59. The Electric Dreams exhibition, Tate Modern, London
  60. Humongous dinosaur skeletons at Museo Paleontológico, Trelew
  61. All the penguins, Punta Tombo
  62. Watching ice fall off a glacier, Perito Moreno
  63. Hiking Laguna de Los Tres, El Chalten
  64. The architecture of Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
  65. Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires
  66. Dinner at Roux, Buenos Aires

San Francisco / Berkeley, August 2024

~ Shakeel Hashim ~ Leave a comment
  1. I was underwhelmed by almost all the food on this visit. Thanh Long’s garlic noodles aren’t as special as one is led to believe (and certainly not worth the price); Rose Pizzeria is fine but doesn’t hold a candle to basically any pizzeria in NYC or Chicago; La Taqueria and Hang Ah Tea Room are both fine but nothing special; and Tartine’s cakes are actively disappointing. At normal prices this would all have been tolerable; at SF prices it feels like robbery.
    • I thought Escape from NY, Woodhouse Fish Co. and Las Cabanas were all decent and not ridiculously priced, though.
  2. The big exception to this is the superb Arsicault. My friend described their pain au chocolat to me as the most delicious thing he’s ever eaten; it’s hard to disagree with that assessment. The croissants are superb, too.
  3. I’ve been to SF MOMA before, but enjoyed it even more this time round. The Visitors is particularly special — I went in expecting to stay for 5 minutes, and ended up remaining for over an hour.
  4. Berkeley has some really excellent book shops. Half-Price Books has, as the name implies, very good prices (especially by American standards), while Moe’s has an exceptional selection of second-hand film books (an oddly small history of technology section for the region, though).
  5. Golden Gate Park is absolutely stunning. Smells great, too.
  6. If only the same could be said for Market Street, which is still an absolute disaster. 
  7. Waymo taxis, now omnipresent in the city, are very obviously the future. A faultless journey, aside from the end: it dropped me off down an alleyway next to someone high on fentanyl, which sounds so absurd I’m sure you think I made it up.
  8. The De Young is a pretty middling museum (certainly not worth the admission fee), and it ought to be criminal to own a Turrell Skyspace but not allow access at sunset.
  9. The Musée Mecanique, on the other hand, is an absolute delight — an obvious labour of love, and a fascinating one at that. Cheap, too!
  10. It continues to be very odd that a broadly quite average city (at least in terms of museums, food, theatre, transport) is the most important place on earth.

Some thoughts on Rome (and Italy)

~ Shakeel Hashim ~ Leave a comment

Rome is a very good food city, but not a great food city. I went to many of the most highly recommended restaurants; they were all good but I think I will struggle to remember all but one a year from now.

(The one I will remember is Santo Palato, which was divine. L’Elementare and Felice a Testaccio were very good too. Cesare al Castelleto and Romanè were good but I didn’t really get the hype.)

This chimes with my experience of Venice and Lake Garda last year; the only meal I remember from then is Lido 94. Being in Italy is a good reminder of how invented some of the narratives about Italians and food are; much of what “everyone knows” is in fact just conservative nationalistic propaganda of the worst kind.

Taking things slowly is essential. Reports of overcrowding were (the week of Easter, at least), greatly exaggerated. Buy tickets online and in advance and you’ll be fine, even in the Vatican (which is unmissable).

Vasari’s The Lives of the Artists is worth reading anyway; it’s especially worth reading when in Rome (and presumably Florence). Rick Steves’ app is also very good (I preferred reading the transcripts to listening). Make sure to visit the various churches that house important works; Sant’Agostino is my favourite.

The public transport is surprisingly good, and much better than it gets credit for. The soon-to-open new metro line should make that even better.

Italians have a reputation for being very friendly but I find that in reality this is rarely the case.

Five restaurant recommendations for visitors to London

~ Shakeel Hashim ~ Leave a comment

In a recent, excellent, Vittles post, Jonathan Nunn asked people for the top five places visitors to London should eat at. Here are mine, based around the criteria of getting things you can’t get elsewhere/understanding the “soul” of London:

St John, but just for starters and puddings (whoever says the food at Rochelle Canteen is better is wrong, I always leave the latter feeling ripped off). You could substitute this with F.K.A.B.A.M., which offers an insight into both Turkish and nose-to-tail cooking, but the food is less consistent and the atmosphere is less fun.

40 Maltby Street, for the other side of Modern-British-Cooking.

Dishoom: not for the food, which is awful, but because it gives you a better insight into how white people view British Asians than almost anything else.

Bake Street, which gives you a better insight into how brown people view being British Asian than almost anything else.

Taste of Pakistan on your way back to Heathrow. Pack leftovers for the plane and annoy everyone on your return flight.

More good things (books, films, restaurants)

~ Shakeel Hashim ~ Leave a comment

Books

The Planet Remade by Oliver Morton — I’ll write more on this soon, but it is a very good, wide-ranging and surprisingly poetic book.

Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand by John Markoff — will also have more on this soon, but if you’re interested in Brand (and you should be), this is worth reading.

From Satori to Silicon Valley by Theodore Roszak — a short and very readable overview of the links between Silicon Valley and the ’60s counterculture.

Various Batman graphic novels — Year One was the highlight for me, though The Dark Knight Returns and Hush are good too. Neither are as good as The Long Halloween, Arkham Asylum or The Killing Joke, though. I also read The Black Mirror and The Court of Owls, neither of which impressed me very much.

Films

That comic binge was brought on by anticipation for The Batman, which was much better than I expected. It’s probably my favourite Batman film, though The Dark Knight is arguably a better film in and of itself. (I also watched a few animated films, and would recommend both Under the Red Hood and Mask of the Phantasm if you liked The Batman.)

We Are As Gods is a very good documentary about Stewart Brand, and by extension about the ’60s, de-extinction, and techno-utopianism.

I also watched Dune for the fourth time, this time at home, which confirmed my suspicions that it derives a lot of its power from the big screen (particularly IMAX). Still good, though.

Restaurants

Bake Street has started doing biryani on Sundays, and if the first batch was anything to go by this is now one of London’s best meals. Everything else there is still fantastic too, obviously. I’m very excited that Feroz is opening a new outlet in the promising-looking Arcade Food Hall.

Towpath reopened the other week, and a sunny lunch of taramasalata, carrot-top fritters and peas was pretty much perfect.

A lunch at Dosa Express was particularly memorable for the snacks — pani puri, samosa chaat, dhai vada. The dosas were good too, particularly the crispy rava ones.

The Black Axe Mangal x St John meal kit was worth it just for the t-shirt; the excellent food was the icing on the cake.

Music

I’ve been listening to a lot of Acid Arab, Michael Giacchino’s The Batman soundtrack, Floating Points’ new single, and Music from Saharan Cellphones.

fabric at the Opera was a very clever and fun event, which I hope they do a lot more of. Rival Consoles and Frank Wiedemann stole the show.

Some recommended things from the last month

~ Shakeel Hashim ~ Leave a comment

Book: Eating to Extinction by Dan Saladino. This is one of the best food books I’ve read. It’s both very poetic and information-dense: I suspect I am significantly more pro-capitalism than the author and I view the Green Revolution as an unambiguously good thing, but Saladino’s writing does make me mourn the diversity we’ve lost and want to help save it as best I can. (Happily, doing so involves buying delicious ingredients.)

Film: Dune in 1.43:1 IMAX. I’d already seen this twice in cinemas, including once in 1.9:1 IMAX. Watching it in full IMAX (at London’s Science Museum) was still breathtaking — the extra height makes a huge difference in conveying the scale of the world. Showings are few and far between but I highly recommend trying to find one.

Restaurant: Brat x Climpson’s Arch. Beautiful tomatoes and cod’s roe on toast; divine burnt cheesecake.

Play: A Number at the Old Vic. More plays should be this short and more actors should be this good.

Best things I ate in 2021

~ Shakeel Hashim ~ Leave a comment

I eat out a lot, this is some of the best food I ate, starting with the restaurants I consider to be the best in the world right now, all of which I did not have a single bad dish at.

  • Everything, 40 Maltby St, London
  • Everything, ASAP Pizza, London (RIP)
  • Everything, Endo at Home, London
  • Everything, Banh, NYC

And some very good dishes from other places:

  • Nashville Hot Sandwich, Bake Street, London
  • Chicken wings, Smoking Goat, London
  • Lobster roll, Quality Wines, London
  • Fish finger sandwich, Hank’s Crab Shack, Fowey
  • Crab fried rice, Thai Diner, NYC
  • Burger, 7th Street Burger, NYC
  • Pistachio escargot, Du Pain et des Idees, Paris

Waste of time and money: Dishoom, London

Recommended restaurants in NYC, November 2021

~ Shakeel Hashim ~ Leave a comment

I’ve just returned from a two week trip to New York City. I make regular trips from London and always try to eat at as many new places as possible. Here are some highlights from this trip:

Banh
The best “new” restaurant I’ve been to in any city for a very long time. The pastry and barbecue were both perfect. Really high-quality produce, too (I normally hate lettuce but it was good here). And very reasonable prices. Disclosure that I’m not very familiar with Vietnamese food, which probably helped wow me. (Upper West Side — Menu)

Dhamaka
I went somewhat sceptical amid the fawning praise (the Bloomberg review comparing it to London’s “slop” didn’t exactly prime me to love it). But I was pleasantly surprised: it’s a very interesting menu and all of it was pretty good, especially the biryani. Nothing blew me away, but I’d return to try the rabbit. (Lower East Side — Menu)

Peaches HotHouse
Came here in a fairly bad mood, but the food was absolutely restorative. Spicing on the ‘regular’ is flavourful without being overwhelmingly spicy, though I’d like to try the ‘hot’ next time. Great cornbread too. (Bed–Stuy — Menu)

Wu’s Wonton King
Possibly the best salt and pepper squid I’ve had. Great mix of textures with the perfect amount of spice. (Chinatown — Menu)

Katz’s
The food was good, the atmosphere even better. I could sit in that room for hours. (Lower East Side — Menu)

Golden Diner
I’ve got a thing for diner nostalgia, and this fits the bill perfectly. The food is pure comfort — a really good tuna melt (feat. salt and vinegar crisps), with some of the best, crispiest fries I’ve had anywhere. (Two Bridges — Menu)

Peter Pan Donuts
A very, very good donut, and a wonderfully nostalgic room. Can’t wait for indoor dining to resume here. (Greenpoint — Menu)

I also made a return trip to Thai Diner to have their crab fried rice, which was every bit as excellent as on my last visit. One of my favourite restaurants in the world, I think. (Nolita — Menu)

Other places I enjoyed but recommend less strongly: Via Carota; Curry Mania; Peter Luger; Joe’s Pizza; Arepa Lady. And please send recommendations for my next trip.

Cook As You Are, a cookbook by Ruby Tandoh

~ Shakeel Hashim ~ Leave a comment

I’ve made four or five recipes from this so far and they’ve all been delicious and, importantly, easy. It’s a cookbook that exemplifies user-centered design: Tandoh genuinely considers your needs and wants as a cook. And it has introduced me to flavours and ingredients that I was otherwise unfamiliar with.

It is easily the most useful book I’ve bought this year. Highly, highly recommended (both for yourself, and as a great gift for almost anyone) — you can buy it here.