Easy chicken burger

There’s never been a better time to be a burger lover in London. Just when you think you’ve found the perfect match (Hawksmoor? Goodmans? Bar Boulud? or my personal fave, the off-menu at Joe Allen?), Meat Liquor comes along. I went with my colleagues to the much hyped diner for lunch, where we gorged ourselves like it was our last meal. We shared fat onion rings, skinny fries, decadent buffalo wings with a blue cheese glaze, and I had the Dead Hippie burger. We also shared two bottles of wine and had a Creme Egg each… oof. There’s something about going for a good burger that makes you high, yet very uncomfortable around the waist.

Vietnamese beef noodle salad

One of the great things about living in East London is the bottom of Kingsland Road, where lines of cheap and authentic Vietnamese restaurants cluster and clamour for your attention. It was here that I tried my first bún – cold vermicelli noodles topped with refreshing salad and hot grilled pork / beef / seafood / chicken / spring rolls, into which you mix a tangy dipping sauce called nước chấm. I love it so much that it’s the only dish I order when I go for my regular Vietnamese.

Thai green [thrifty] chicken curry

Here’s a quick and tasty meal that’s ready in 30 minutes (if you’re not making the curry from scratch, that is!). I used the thrifty chicken from my field&flower meat box. It’s £5.50 on their website for 650g (or two wings, two drumsticks and two thighs); great value for free range chicken. I’m not sure why these parts are the ‘thrifty’ parts – I much prefer wings and thighs to breasts!

Roast field&flower pork belly – siu yuk (烧肉)

Pork belly, how I love thee. I have previously rhapsodized about the beauty of a cooked pork belly – whether with crispy crackling, slow cooked to gelatinous perfection or even double or triple cooked. Whereas my last experiment was in slow cooking – this next one is in perfecting the crunchy crackling.

A quick Q&A with James Mansfield, field&flower

To learn more about January’s meat box, I caught up with James Mansfield – who together with business partner James Flower founded field&flower (do you see where the name comes from?).