Let's get eating

Sod the running. I realised I far prefer talking about food. So here I am.

I am going to switch lanes and start talking about food.

To be precise, I am going to start writing about the food that I've liked, and some of the (small) successes I've had in the kitchen.

To kick things off, La Figa in Limehouse.

This wonderful, unpretentious Italian restaurant is one thing I will really miss about London when I leave. It's not glamorous, it's not intimate. It's loud, gregarious, and it works.

The Ah Lau and I come here almost once a week. Our expanding waistlines can attest to that.

Tonight, I had my favourite carbo-load: Porcini ravioli.














Porcini ravioli is one of my favourite things in life: It's got starch, it's got cream, it's got fungi. What's not to like?

One thing I do is add a healthy dash of pepper. It just takes the dish to a whole different dimension, in my view.

On the DLR on the way to our weekly Figa pilgrimage, the Ah Lau asked me: "How come you always order some sort of pasta dish?"

Well, silly cow, it's all about the Holy Trinity of course - MTC. Meat and two carbs.

He gets to choose the meat, I choose the pasta, and for a nice starter, we have.... pizza (second carb!)

For tonight, we decide on restraint, so he chooses the saltimbocca, a lovely dish comprising veal lined or topped with prosciutto and sage.
















The meat was tantalisingly tender, the sage was simply seductive and the proscuitto... Well, it was perfection.

Portions at La Figa was huge, so huge that I ended up bringing home half of my ravioli, and to add we brought home, er, a pizza. For breakfast.

That should tide us over until our next visit!

La Figa is at 45 Narrow Street, E14 8DN. Tel: 020 7790 0077