Cafe East the right place for a Vietnamese broth!

 Lately, I became a Big Fan of Vietnamese Cuisine, it is fresh, spicy, it wakes your taste buds and makes you feel alive!
My favorite so far is Cafe East, a spacious, airy and relaxing place.
I've ordered a steaming bowl of beef noodle,their signature dish, spicy or less spicy as you wish, thin slices of rare beef, it is served with a plateful of fresh, verdant herbs: Vietnamese basil, rau que (Asian basil),ngo gai (Saw Leaf Herb), bean sprouts and a slice of lime . The broth is delicious and rich in spices, with a complexity that can only come from hours of simmering beef bones and meat together with star anise, ginger and cinnamon. highly recommended!

Closed on Tuesdays -Surrey Quays Leisure Centre, 100 Redriff Row, Deptford,   SE16 7LH

Banh mi (Bun Mee)

I've heard about this intriguing  French-Vietnamese dish called "banh mi" (Bun Mee) – a baguette spread with pâté and mayonnaise, filled with pickled vegetables, fresh herbs, chili, slices of Vietnamese pork sausage and grilled pork and I decide to find it today!
There are only few places in London where you can find it, Long Kee Cafe (kings Road) Cafe Bay ( Denamark Hill), Banzi 237 Lower Road Canada Water, where I had mine, open (12 -23h), Branhmi 11 Broadway Market and Baguete + More The Fountain Food Market -Greenwich.

I've had a "special" with all the above ingredients and extra king prawns and I love it! Very filling, fresh, unusual, but tasty!

Tomato varieties "Isle of Wight"

I've been to the Isle of Wight with the "Fifteen apprentices" where I work, to meet our suppliers. We went to see cherry fields, cheese production, live stock and tomatoes plants in massive green houses. I was surprised with so many varieties! I've seen "black tomatoes", long, sweet like a fruit, what they are, really.I love tomatoes and they are good for you! You can see some samples in the picture above.
  As well as plant types there are quite a number of different tomato fruit types. As a home grower, you can find many different – some weird and wonderful – varieties but the main types of fruit are listed below:

• Standard – the ‘normal’ tomato, spherical in shape and around an inch to an inch and a half in diameter.
• Cherry – just a small version of the normal tomato, often marble sized. Often from dwarf bush types.
• Beefsteak – a large version of the normal tomato. Because of their large size, these tomato varieties take longer to mature and ripen so really do not do well except in a greenhouse.
• Plum – the firm fleshed oval shaped fruit you find in Italian canned tomatoes. Tend to have been bred to store well as bottled (or canned) and they freeze well. (See Storing the Surplus)
• Marmande – large irregular shaped tomatoes. Often very tasty.
• Oxheart – cone shaped fruits, usually firm fleshed and good flavor.