C’mon – must be at least a million.

To be sure, we’re a nation obsessed with a chickpea dip.

I wonder why – a lot of the supermarket stuff is a bit of a travesty – too lemony, garlicky, to cover up the lack of taste from the key humous ingredients: chick peas and tahini (sesame paste).

Instead of going for this pallid, ersatz humous, try the legendary hummus bros (branches near Holborn, and on Wardour St in Soho).

The bros serve up a more genuine Middle-Eastern rendition of the h-dip. Satisfyingly thick and tasty, they serve it with a choice of meat and vegetarian toppings in the middle -

My tip – the ful (beans) or roast vegetables. The occasional falafel salad one is fantastic too. Oh, and Mexican Beef.

You can take away the humous too, so no need to rely on the bastard pesto or wasabi-flavoured supermarket version in future.

Image by Rain Rabbit

What happened to the real pubs in town?

How many have:

• blindingly red upholstry
• hot nuts
• an amazing selection of ales
• and (a pub first here?) friendly staff who’ll often save you even the trouble of moving 2m to the bar to order

Ye Old White Horse ticks all of these boxes.

Situated between Holborn and the Strand, its past claim to fame was refusing to serve students

(despite being practically inside the LSE campus – genius.)

Needless to say, now all are welcome, and it’s all the better for it…

Will report back when I’ve tried their hearty-looking food.

Image by Kake Pugh

“Early Summer is gooseberry season and this is a lovely, easy way of turning those sour little berries into something sweet.”

“Great on toast, as a cake topping, on pancakes or muffins, in a pastry case as an easy pudding or straight from the jar with a spoon. Makes a nice present too.”

Ingredients:

Disclaimer: I lied: this recipe is actually by (another) poet extraordinaire Bez – Ta pal.

Images by: kyleplastock

(and Bez)

LondonCooking has some advice, in the midst of the Great Swine ‘flu plague of 2009:

Not our own slogan (we wish), but that of a very timely T-Shirt range.

Well… It’s good enough for Katie Price. And she hasn’t got swine flu. Yet.

Read about the history of the ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ slogan.

“If you feel a bit under the weather,
If you feel a little bit peeved,
Take granny’s stand-by potion
For any old cough or wheeze.
It’s a cure for hepatitis
it’s a cure for chronic insomnia,
It’s a cure for tonsilitis
and for water on the knee.”

- ‘Have a cuppa tea’ by the Kinks

I feel the same way about umeboshi plums – actually mini-apricots, pickled until they reach eye-watering levels of saltiness.

In Japan, these “seeringly tart” treats are eaten regularly as an accompaniment to rice (even for breakfast.)

For the rest of us, they’re a great pick-me-up when you’re suffering from a hangover or mild stomach upsets.

Warning: they are intensely salty. And pricey (£7ish for 40 or so). But still worth it, I reckon – After all, you’ll only need one once in a blue moon. (Here’s hoping, at least.)

You can also get umeboshi paste, which is great on corn on the cob, and is the secret ingredient in my tahina recipe.

Since umbeboshi are said to have an ‘alkalising’ effect, I’m wondering if they might be a good indigestion remedy too (caused by acidity?) … Anyone know?

And more to the point, have they been used to treat water on the knee…?

Image by kattebelletje

Are you, well… not classy? You could do worse than checking out the Sun’s slideshow of the World’s Rudest Food, bringing Pee Cola, Shito Hot, Mini Dickmanns (pictured) and Cock Flavoured Soup mix to the masses.

Meanwhile, the Guardian challenged its readers to come up with two course menus costing less than £5 – downturn-tastic.

Finally, don’t miss the London Paper’s London’s top secret restaurants – top of the list is the mercurial Food Rambler’s Rambling Restaurant – for all the latest Rambling Restaurant news and dates, check out the Facebook Page.

This will def be worth checking out in future – you can book/find out more info by emailing ramblingrestaurant@googlemail.com.

The main thing to note, is that this is the real deal – not your usual ‘UK crap version’ of Italian cuisine. It’s also not pricey, considering the quality.

My recommendation: go for the meat – lamb, veal (whoops…) whatever – it’s bloody amazing…

Photo by someone called Kake Pugh (EH?) Thanks, anyway, Kake.

Ingredients

As they say, “that’s ah-it-ah” (or at least they do if they’re part of an ad campaign for pasta sauces which encourages Italian stereotypes with the use of puppets.) Oops… Did I say that?

Amazing as it might seem to some Londoners, Italians actually know which pasta goes best with which sauces. Get the wrong one and you could be a laughing stock. For Bolognese/ragu, LondonCooking suggests you plumb for tagliatelle.

Launching at the start of April, it’s already amassed about 300 followers (not bad going, Jamie, John and co.) which would suggest the recipes aren’t bad at all… Here’s one of them -

Hearty barley chicken pot

Sainsbury’s 500g pack skinless chicken thigh fillets, 1 loose red onion, 4 loose carrots, 150ml pot single cream, 500g pack pearl barley, 410g tin cannellini beans in water. (Ingredients from your store cupboard: olive oil, chicken stock cube, dried herbs)

Recipe: Serves 4

Cook Time: 10 minutes
Prep Time: 35 minutes

1. Cut 1 x 500g pack of skinless chicken thighs into small chunks. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large flameproof pot and fry the chicken until it begins to colour.

2. Add 1 red onion and 4 carrots, all peeled and cut into chunks, to the pot. Stir in 200g pearl barley and 1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs, and fry for a few minutes.

3. Add 750ml chicken stock, made with 1 stock cube, and simmer for 30 minutes until the pearl barley is tender.

4. Stir in a 410g tin of cannellini beans, drained, and 75ml single cream and heat through. Serve immediately.

Pukka.

But the Crown and Goose, aka Goose and Crown/Moose and Frown (or so Abi calls it,) tucked away on the corner of Delancey and Arlington, is the real ramona, with friendly staff and excellent gastropub-type food, made by a chef fresh from Michelin-starred acclaim.

The place abides, despite its owners almost getting the green light to turn the pub into a strip joint (a sure indication the kind of classy outfits that operate in Camden…)

So all the more reason to cherish it, if it weren’t already the top of the pub pile in a Camden packed with by-the-numbers, characterless craphaunts.

The Crown and Goose’s Website.

Abi’s Article: ‘Long live the Goose!‘