It's my third time in this small Vietnamese restaurant and it still gush about its food especially their pho. The soup base is simply the best I've tasted anywhere in UK. And its other dishes are no slouches as well. The only downside is its location in the depths of Deptford. Not exactly the most accessible part of south London.
My family would agree that this is my kind of eating place - small (almost like a canteen), friendly service, reasonable price, and most of all fantastic flavours in all their dishes. They have the kind of flavour that I was expecting from a Southeast Asian restaurant - bold, strong, with lots of combination of taste - sour-salty, sweet-salty-spicy, sweet-sour-salty-spicy, etc. For me, the balance of different flavours in strong doses is the cornerstone of SE Asian cuisine. Especially for Filipino food, the need for strong flavours in our dishes is important to balance out the relative blandness of rice which for me is really the centre of the Filipino cuisine.
Here are some pictures in our last visit:
All noodle soup orders come with this salad of fresh herbs, beansprouts, chilli, and limes.
We ordered Cha Gio (fried spring rolls) as starter.
Husband ordered Pho Tai Chin, a combination of well-done and rare slices of beef on flat rice noodle soup. Our son thought the soup was salty but both me and my husband find it full-bodied and just right.
For me this is the star among the phos here - Pho Ga or chicken noodle soup. The soup base is simply superb and all with sliced chicken meat and flat rice noodles then topped with green and crispy onions.
I had this Com Tam Cha Bi which is Vietnamese meat pie (kinda like meatloaf) and shredded pork skin with rice. The meat pie was great especially in combination with the spicy fish sauce. But I was not a fan of the pork skin. I thought it was crispy but it was soft and kinda limp. As usual I gave it to my food hoover husband since I was not keen on it.
This is Che Sun Sa which is a sweet coconut based drink with coloured jellies and I think sweet corn or something that looked like it. Yummy!
On previous visits I also ordered BBQ chicken with rice and it was fab as well. My kids loved the soup base in Mama Pho and agreed that theirs is probably better than any Vietnamese and Chinese that we have tried before. But they were not keen on the flat rice noodles. *sigh* They still prefer the eggs noodles of the Chinese restos. I think next time it will just be me and the husband who will come back. But hey, less competition for food is mighty fine with me! Their loss not mine. ;)
Mama Pho
24 Evelyn Street
Deptford
London SE8 5DG
Tel No.: 0208 305 6649
Here are some pictures from that family outing (click on the picture for a larger view):
After paying our reasonably priced entrance fees, we each got tagged with a red wrist band. J3 said she felt like a pigeon (maybe a homing one at that).
The Soil Association is the organiser of this whole extravaganza.
Here's a view of the harbour and foot bridge at the back of the festival ground.
The one stall I forgot to take picture of is an umbrella-shaded wheeled cart with a young lady giving free Yeo Valley strawberry yoghurt. My daughters loved it so much that we kept coming back to get more from the patient lady. Between us we might have consumed more than a dozen sachet tubes! Other big organic companies were in attendance as well:
There are of course more of smaller producers represented in the different stalls:
One of the most favourite stall (it certainly was mine) is Green & Black's chocolates. They were giving out whole chocolate mini bars in big volumes! They were not even breaking them up in little pieces. You should see how they disappeared once the staff laid down one plateful of these gorgeous chocs.
My husband and youngest (J3) love cheese so it's just natural that they gravitate to the cheese stalls. One such interesting stall is Villanova Food where J3 particularly requested for a chunk of Grana Padano to buy.
I took the opportunity to buy some organic sirloin steaks at a discount (they were doing a buy 2 get 1 free promotion). And Brown Cow's steaks did not disappoint at all. We cooked them on a stove top grill right after we arrived home. It was one of the best I've tasted ever, very tender and flavourful. My only regret was I only bought three thinking my kids won't finish theirs like they normally do. But as it turned out everyone enjoyed it very much that all had clean plates. :)
There was also a kitchen demonstration tent where the likes of Sophie Grigson and Darina Allen did some cooking demos.
Besides food stalls, there are also other non-food organic stalls that were promoting or selling things like plants and herbs, toiletries, clothes, cleaning products, etc.
It's good that they provided entertainment as a minor distraction from all the wonderful food around. Here is the band The Courgettes dishing out funny food-related adapted songs like 'Beat It' which turned out into 'Eat It'. I must say they were good.
A different type of music were performed by the Bollywood Brass Band at the main Millenium Square stage.
We had a good day out that Saturday despite the overcast skies. I just wish the delicious organic food and produce were all more affordable. Well, just goes to show you can't have the best of both worlds.
I was on a 1-week training course in the Holborn area of London the week before. Whenever I think of Holborn, the image conjured was a vast expanse of tall office buildings virtually desert-like in terms of foodie shops. How wrong I was!
The training house I went to was in the Rosebery Avenue-Clerkenwell Road area. While doing a walk-about after our usual sandwich lunch, I discovered a small market in Leather Lane which is parallel to the jewellery centre of London - Hatton Gardens. See the pictures below, to see more closely click on the pictures for an enlarged version.
Leather Lane has the usual low-priced stalls for you name it - books, clothes, bags, shoes, jewelries, flowers, etc.
But what made my eyes widen with delight are cafes, delis, food stalls, and restaurants that offer interesting food that are not of your usual fastfood chains.
First, let me show you some of the cafes:
This one serves not only burgers and chips but also kebabs, doners, and other Middle Eastern delights.
As the name suggests, they do nice bagels plus curries, couscous ... more Middle Eastern fares.
Oasis is of healthy-organic food genre. You should see their offerings - they looked so delicious.
Here is one of a few juice bars in the market. They looked pretty busy on the day.
Now we come to the curry kiosks. The one on the left is the Indian variety and on the left is the Thai variety. Goodness, just smelling the waft of spices from these stalls made my mouth water even though I've just eaten my lunch at the time!
This is probably the kiosk with the longest queue, one that offers authentic-looking Mexican food.
There must be quite a number of Mediterranean residents here as gleaned from the number of cafes and restaurants offering the cuisine like this one ...
... and this one.
There are also authentic Italian delis in the area like Terroni & Sons in Clerkenwell Road.
This one is on Theobald Road which is about 2 minutes walk from Leather Lane.
Above is just one of the authentic-looking Italian restaurants in the area which together with the delis and an Italian Catholic church nearby suggests a high concentration of Italian immigrants in the place.
Leather Lane Market
Leather Lane
London EC1
Opening times: Monday-Friday 10:00AM - 3:00PM
Nearest tube station: Farringdon or Chancery Lane
Underneath the railway arches of London Bridge station, beside the Southwark Cathedral lies this small open air food shopping area called Borough Market. On this approach you can access the market through the small alley of Green Dragon Court. [Click on the pictures for a bigger view.]
I have heard a lot about it, mostly along the lines of excited chatter on great foodie finds or fresh organic produce. One fine Saturday in October I was able to verify that and I had a great time with my son foraging through the numerous stalls with loads of wonderful produce usually from small artisanal producers.
Its got a great atmosphere with lots of people mingling and craning their necks on the goods laid out on the tables. A favourite of my son is the hot apple juice laced with cinnamon. Lovely when drank in cold cold weather.
If you look closely, the place might seem familiar because it's always been a popular movie location - Harry Potter 3, Bridget Jones, Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels, etc.)
In the early mornings (as in pre-dawn) the market caters more for the food/restaurant trade and wholesales. I have it from a reliable source (thanks Hanna) that it's open for retail trade on weekdays as well as on Saturdays. Fridays and Saturdays are its busiest.
Among the few things you can find there are saucisson sec (dry French sausages) of different flavours. The truffle saucisson is particularly delish. There is a stall for bratwurst and other types of German sausages, pickles, etc.
You can also find all manner of sweets, chocolates, fudges, toffees, etc. Baked goods also abound - numerous breads, cakes, pies, tarts, cookies.
I love rummaging through the stalls with fruits and vegetables where they have both organic and regular ones. You can often see unusual and hard to find vegetables that you don't normally get from your local supermarkets.
There are also a number of stalls selling food on the go - juicy hamburgers, raclette sandwiches, roast pork sandwiches, pizza (crust remained crispy!), oysters, yoghurt and others. You will never go hungry there definitely.
Anything food related can be found there. Just take a look at these lovely hand painted plates for sale. The same stall also sells coasters, placemats, and aprons.
Besides the temporary stalls, there are food shops, pubs, and restaurants which are open everyday since they are in permanent spaces. The restaurant (and overpriced) Fish! can be found there with a new one right above the market whose name I couldn't recall.
Among the favourite shops that I love returning to again and again are Brindisa for anything Spanish (chorizos, wines, paprika, etc.; they also have a separate tapas bar), Neil's Yard for robust breads and cheese and a branch of Konditor & Cook's for delectable cakes, cookies, and other sweet stuff.
