Meat Liquor, burger delights - 11/11/11

Meat Easy has gained cult status for its burgers and pop-up van but this was brought mainstream, to some peoples horror I imagine, by an appearance on Jamie Oliver’s around Britain show a few weeks ago.

I have always wanted to go to Meat Easy’s van but it was stationed all the way out in New Cross. I live in North London and so quite frankly I didn’t want to make the effort to go all the way to South London for a burger.

If I’d known then what I know now, I would have made the effort.

Meat Easy now known at least temporarily as Meat Liquor, occupies a tinted windowed venue just off Oxford Street in central London. This location may seem to be against the brands image but with no signage, you’d never find it unless you were looking for it.

You walk in past a bouncer (I have no idea why as he didn’t even open the door and it was only 5.45pm) and into a darkened room decorated in black, red and white paint splatters with pasted posters on parts of the ceilings. The bouncers’ one instruction, take your own seat and a waitress will spot you, served me well though, as I was quickly attended to by a friendly and charming waitress who took my order of a bacon cheeseburger and a side of fries.

The toilets were wonderfully clean and you could see throughout that nothing in the décor was an accident. All the customers around me were seen to immediately once they’d sat down and at no point was you made to feel like anything but a very welcome guest.

When my food arrived I looked upon it with awe. The burger was a true delight to behold and a large portion of fries accompanied it.

The burger tasted as good as it looked 10/10

I took a bite into my burger and the tenderest meat I have had in a long time melted in my mouth along with a delicious combination of pickles, onion and sauce. It truly was the kind of burger that you resent because you know that you won’t get anything like it anywhere else.

The waitress, being attentive not intrusive, came over to ask how my meal was and went to take away my unused knife and fork. I felt embarrassed by this as surely it was an example of my uncouth ways.

“Don’t worry.” Said the waitress, “no one uses their knife and fork. Just enjoy the food!”

I then tried to settle into my fries and this is where the experience nearly came unstuck.

My fries were lukewarm at the hottest end of the bowl and stone cold at the other. The fries that were lukewarm were rock hard from being overcooked and the cold ones were just the right side of raw to be acceptable.

If I wasn’t in a rush then I would most certainly have complained.

The rest of the burger was a delight with each mouthful offering something slightly different as the heaped salad and sauce combined with the juices from the meat.

I can only recommend Meat Liquor for their burgers and friendly staff but I would not recommend ordering the fries. I hope that the supreme taste of the burgers doesn’t distract them from making all the food pleasing and I would like to say that I am sure it was a one off but taking hot food to a customer is such a very basic thing that I cannot imagine it was.

The bacon cheeseburger was £7 and the fries were £3 and despite my bad experience with the fries, you won’t get a better burger, combined with the warm and trendy atmosphere and with such friendly staff for the same price.

Everybody should take a trip to Meat Liquor.

Find Meat Liquor at: http://www.meatliquor.com/

Hamlet - Young Vic Theatre - 11/11/11

The man of a thousand voices, Michael Sheen, has taken on one of literatures most iconic characters, Hamlet, in Ian Rickson’s depiction of Shakespeare’s classic at the Young Vic theatre in Southwark.

Despite the season being sold out I turned up on the first day of the limited morning release of tickets and as I was on my own, I managed to secure the very last ticket…seat A2. I was filled with excitement as I have been a huge fan of Michael Sheen but my worry, as I am sure many peoples worry was, that we had never seen Michael Sheen. I shared a few jovial texts with friends before the show debating whether Cloughie, Blair or Frost would grace the stage. I needn’t have worried.

Before the show, the audience had the opportunity to go on a pre-tour ‘experience’, which it turned out was a walk through the back stage of the theatre and as the play went on, the context of what was going on on stage fell into place with the walk around.

The backstage and indeed main stage seemed to be leftovers from the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest soundstages. Big mechanical doors, office space and a giant sand pit were all things that you are greeted with but in the end it all works. This mental asylum style of staging is reinforced by the theatre staff being dressed as orderlies as they show you to your seats.

Sheen and Robinson star as Hamlet and Ophelia

The language of Shakespeare is the language of a long gone era and in my opinion takes a supremely talented actor to pull it off. I have seen many productions of the Bards plays but none have had a cast like this. The speech can often be stunted, as I imagine it feels like you’re performing in a foreign language, but in this instance, apart from some of the more minor roles, it flowed well.

Michael Sheen is commanding and has the audience on tenterhooks before uttering his first line. As the play progresses he becomes all-consuming making the audience cower as he spits his lines in rage and takes Hamlet’s madness to crashing crescendos.

I was also entranced by the performances of James Clyde as Claudius, Sally Dexter as Gertrude and Vinette Robinson as Ophelia. These three fine actors were shining lights in a cast that could have easily fallen into complacency knowing that they were playing alongside such an enigmatic leading man. Clyde and Dexter combined the childish hedonism of newlyweds with the vindictive cruelty of a King and the naïve heartache of a Queen and mother who is losing control and Robinson was chilling and came close to stealing the show from Sheen as Ophelia crumbled following her father’s death.

When I saw that the play was 3 ½ hours long I was worried and I don’t care how much of a philistine you many think this makes me. In the end, the 3 ½ hours just weren’t long enough to watch this majesty unfold before me.

I don’t read Shakespeare, I only go and watch it being performed and for anyone like me, I cannot recommend this production highly enough. The Young Vic should be applauded for taking a leap of faith in Rickson’s vision for this play. I haven’t been to the Young Vic before but they have demonstrated themselves to be innovative with their productions and so I won’t hesitate to go back and see anything they are putting on in 2012.

I can understand why the play has its critics. It certainly isn’t a purists delight but it is enjoyable throughout.

It must also be noted that The Young Vic have some wonderful and very helpful staff and their merchandise and programmes are all very reasonably priced.

After the show I met Michael Sheen and the rest of the cast and they were very humble in the face of the many compliments that people were throwing at them, however well-deserved they were.

Tea Tea Tea!

Tea is seen by so many as a staple of our nation. We built an empire on leaves plucked from the hills of India, the plains of Kenya and if we were ever in real need for a cuppa, we could have exchanged goods for all the tea in China.

The London Tea company was formed in 2003 and as with, in my opinion, most good businesses, they started by producing the flavours that they liked. They say they were ahead of the game in wanting to produce teas that weren’t produced without using harsh chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Now they are hoping to be ahead of the game with a new range of teas and herbal infusions.

Raspberry and Chilli – This fair-trade and organic tea is less subtle that most fruit teas that I have tasted but that is not a bad thing. The danger of a fruit tea is that their bark is often more power than their bite but with the chilli added to the more subtle raspberry flavour, there is a real kick to the flavour with every mouthful. If there was such a thing as a ‘getting ready to go out’ tea, then this is it.

Peppermint and spearmint – This fair-trade and organic infusion of two flavours you would not normally expect to be sharing the same bag is a curious little creature. Each sip held me on the cusp of something, I kept waiting for that final burst but each time I was pulled back from the brink. This mixture of mints was a tender kiss that left you wanting more.

White tea elderflower – This organic tea seems to stick more stringently to the rules of flavoured teas than the first two. It smells delicious and looks delightful as the tea infuses in the water and the flavour is wonderfully subtle. It certainly doesn’t give you that dry mouth feeling that some flavoured teas do. The tagline on the packet is, ‘an English summer’ and I couldn’t agree more. It is light, refreshing and takes you to an open space as the sun is setting.

Intense chai – As someone who has spent a good chunk of time travelling around the Himalayas, it was with trepidation that I made this fairtrade beverage. When products have words like ‘chai’ on, they are implying some kind of cultural connection, and most tea manufactures manage to produce something so generic that you could mistake one brand for another. This is where the London Tea Company have excelled themselves, this drink could be set down at any table with pride. It carries flavours from misty mountain sides straight into a mug.

Green tea tropical – By my own admission I have never been a huge fan of green teas but I live to be disproved, plus the label says organic and that’s good for you, so I went for it. I found there to be an initial dry mouth attack but that quickly made way for a thin, floral fruitiness, akin to warm Um Bongo. It was refreshing and I am sure it carries many wonderful health values but for me it didn’t hit the spot. It was however well received when I asked other people in my office to give it a try.

There we have it. Hardly a culture vultures guide to tea but they have been tested, well and truly, by someone who drinks a lot of hot drinks throughout the working day.

The London Tea Company have the right ethos and many larger companies could take note of their approach but for us, the drinker, it’s not so much about the company. They have produced a set of very fine teas that I would not hesitate to give to my Mum.

If that isn’t a recommendation, what is?

If you want to find out more about the London Tea Company or to order your supplies, please visit: http://www.londontea.co.uk

Many thanks to the lovely people at Story PR