PEGGY LEE LOVES LONDON: MY LONDON GUIDE
Katrina Leskanich & Sher Harper
Metropoodle Press 13th May 2013  £8.99
ISBN 978-0-9575828-0-4

To order your copy from this website  - click here for details – we can arrange autographed copies – please request with your order.

Taste Festivals is an international food and drink event which spans 19 cities around the world and is a must for any self-respecting foodie.

Taste London returns to Regent’s Park from 20th – 23rd June with over 40 chefs including Vivek Singh from the Cinnamon Club, Thomasina Miers who founded Wahaca, TV chef Michel Roux Jr from Le Gavroche, the cutting edge of culinary innovation from Bristol boys Jonray and Peter Sanchez Iglesias from Michelin starred Casamia and lots more. Plus 40 of London’s top restaurants serving special menus which include their signature dishes. There will be masterclasses, demos and cook-offs and a boutique food market with over 200 artisan producers and top brands.

And if that’s whetted your appetite then check out their website for details and tickets.

Taste Festival London

I (briefly) visited a new pub/bar in Belsize Park the other evening and was told dogs weren’t allowed. She doesn’t drink, she doesn’t smoke, she doesn’t talk loudly and she doesn’t bore people with stories about herself that don’t go anywhere. It’s not a piece of EU legislation and she’s not in the kitchen so why are all these pub landlords citing some non existent phoney baloney about dogs not being allowed in pubs. They are and if they’re not blame the landlord. Should have gone here – Scolt Head in Islington. And they’ve got a great menu which offers locally sourced meat & fish, good selection of beers and wines and homemade ice-creams, sorbets, jams and chutneys. Dogs Allowed!
Scolt Head
Culford Road
London N1 4HT

Alaska studios in Alaska Street were founded in 1977 by Pat Collier who was the bass player in the Vibrators. We recorded there in 1983 when Pat produced our first few records – ‘Katrina & The Waves’ and ‘Katrina & The Waves 2′ until we were signed by Capitol Records. We used to drive down from Feltwell in Norfolk every day for about a week because that’s all the time it took us to record our first album. Because the studio was under the railway bridge and back then the rooms weren’t very well soundproofed, we had to stop every time a train went across or when the doorbell rang – which you can hear on ‘Don’t Take Her Out of My World’ on our first album. We used to go to ‘La Ronde’ an Italian cafe across the street where I had my first cappuccino and bread and butter pudding and the Wellington on Waterloo Road. At the time there weren’t any shops in Waterloo station just a pub which closed at 11pm and a Wimpy. When we strolled around Waterloo station in the evening there were always more pigeons than people.

This Jewish deli was started by local butcher Harry Morgan in 1948 and is now the most well know New York style restaurant in London.  Famed for their salt beef sandwiches and their chicken soup with noodles, kreplach or kneidlach, the 100 seater restaurant is usually rammed at lunchtime. I had one of the best chicken noodle soups I’ve ever tasted and salt beef on rye where the mustard served on the side nearly blew my head off.  The mostly haimish menu also offers some more hardcore items like chopped liver or tongue sandwiches and then there’s all day breakfast and a pudding menu. I had their homemade cheese blintz with blueberry sauce.  It looked a bit limp and colourless on the plate and apart from a small splash of blueberry sauce was quite bland. But blintz apart it was good comfort food on a cold day.

Harry Morgan
29-31 St. John’s Wood High Street
London NW8 7NH

It looks as if they’ve just set up in a semi derelict butcher’s shop but with clever lighting and designed distress – it feels as if I’ve just stepped into a lower east side bar. Why it’s even got a zinc ceiling.

The word has got round because you have to get here early to get a seat and by early I mean 5pm. If you don’t mind standing around the bar waiting for a seat, then this is a great place for a drink and a bite any time of day or evening. There’s no telephone, no reservation and no online menu – they think they’re a bit special and if the food is as good as the vibe then I’ll have to agree. We started with stuffed fried olives, buttermilk fried chicken and a Hendricks Martini. Not much of a fried chicken fan and the addition of buttermilk didn’t sway my opinion. The stuffed fried olives though were not like any olives I’ve ever tried before and I still can’t decide if I liked them or not. I did like the very smooth Hendricks gin martini served with a slice of cucumber in a delightfully retro style glass. Then we had a margarita accompanied by a couple of sliders and string fries. The sliders are like half size burgers in a bun with the option of beef, pork, lamb or salmon. We ordered the ground beef with bone marrow and the pulled pork with pickled apple which were exceptional and I could so easily have ordered more. But we had yet to try their mains, so we went for mac and cheese with a crispy crumbly breadcrumb cheese topping done to perfection and, with a nod to something more in keeping with my on off Atkins diet, a strip steak salad which was mouthwateringly refreshing. The margarita was nicely soured and to be savoured – still one more for the road and sadly we had to leave. The seats at the back facing the window are best, where you can watch Soho life or just enjoy the backdrop of Soho’s neon lights, which from here is like a snapshot of old Soho – strip bars and peep shows.

Spuntino
61 Rupert Street
London W1D 7PW