Yotam Ottolenghi’s 2010 vegetable-forward cookbook “Plenty” was one of the most talked about releases in past few years, making vegetarian cuisine beautiful and exciting. Now, with the release of the follow-up cookbook, “Plenty More,” Ottolenghi is again on everyone’s lips. However, before the cookbooks, there were the restaurants. Ottolenghi has a restaurant and three delis scattered around London. The delis particularly intigued me because they offer his signature food for carry-out by the kilo. Having gorged on sweets and fried food in London thus far, it was time to order a bit healthier.
I visited the Ottolenghi branch in the impossibly posh neighborhood of Belgravia (13 Motcomb Street London SW1X 8LB). The Ottolenghi store was bright and airy, and much like his cookbooks, everything was presented perfectly. The windows were full of deliciously fresh treats, and upon entry, the food was piled enticingly on large trays. I was frankly surprised at how beautiful everything looked. We are not talking about a Whole Food buffet, this stuff is art.
One downside, the ordering system was a bit confusing. Some items, like muffins or desserts are sold individually, while the vegetables were by weight, however it is important to note that you do NOT do this yourself, you have to request a paper takeout box (large or small) from the person behind the counter who will then put the food in the box for you.
The desserts looked particularly tasty, including fruit tarts and a sunken chocolate cake. However, I was trying to be especially healthy so I skipped dessert altogether and went with a few of the veggie salads. The first dish that caught my eye was the curry roasted cauliflower with tahini, hazelnuts and pomegranate arils. The second salad I chose consisted of roasted sweet potatoes with Ras-al-hanout yogurt and pumpkin seeds. Other options included a new potato salad, a quiche with leeks and bacon and char-grilled broccoli and chilli. Now, I couldn’t totally avoid the “treats,” so I also picked a savory muffin with pesto, goat cheese and tomatoes.
Around the Belgravia shop there are no public parks, so I took my carryout box to the V&A museum to eat in the center courtyard. Everything was light, delicious and unique. The sweet potatoes with yogurt sauce was impossibly complex, and the pomegranate and cilantro really worked as a topping. However, the savory cheese-filled muffin was the most delicious of all! Ottolenghi is a great option for lunch, and gives me some further inspiration to try the cookbooks to bring the dishes to this side of the Atlantic.
After two years of trying, we finally made it to Rick Bayless’ star restaurant. It was Matt’s birthday, and Lindsay planned ahead making reservations months in advance as to ensure a spot. We, like everyone else in the city, were caught off guard by the meteoric rise in Rick’s popularity following his win at the inaugural Top Chef Masters; but at the same time, we, like everyone else in the city, took a renewed interest in his food.
I am crazy about pupusas – it’s no secret! What could be better than a pocket of carbs filled with cheese and other fillings? Nothing, I tell you. When we heard that the pupusas were on point at Brianna’s Restaurant (4911 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL 60625) we knew we had to visit! Brianna’s advertises itself as having Salvadoran and a Guatemalan cuisine, with a small selection of Mexican dishes.
We ended up at 
We ordered one of our favorites from Singapore, Prawn/Shrimp Lemak (£8.70), and a new-to-us dish: Beef Rendang (£7.95). Both dishes came out pretty quickly and were perfect portions to share. The Rendang was advertised as being in a spicy, “almost dry” curry, meaning it was more of a thick paste that coated the meat. Not a photogenic dish, but spicy, flavorful and tender. The prawn lemak was a coconut milk curry, with plenty of lightly spicy soupy-ness and a strong lemongrass flavor. Both dishes were flavorful and complex, and had clearly been cooked to order. Overall, we found the food at Sedap to be unique and reasonably priced (for London) for the quality. We wish we had more time in London to explore more of Sedap’s Nyonya dishes and flavors. But even if we won’t be back for a while, we encourage people to get off the tourist track and try something new beyond the typical curry.
We love Caribbean/West Indian food, but our local options in Chicago are somewhat limited to Jamaican food and a Trinidadian spot or two. However, our trip to London provided us with the rare opportunity to sample Guyanese cuisine and we jumped at the chance. The ultimate Guyanese dish is the roti, an unleavened bread popular in Indian cuisine, which was brought to the West Indies by immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. The beauty of the roti is in its role as a wrap, that can be filled with nearly anything! We learned about a couple of roti restaurants in the Brixton area which seemed to be located in food trucks or markets, and were near-impossible to track down. However, we heard great things about 
We decided to split a Goat curry on dohl puri, at the behest of the chef/owner Deborah. We really enjoyed the dohl puri, a roti filled with chickpeas, which was unusual and different from a garden variety roti (we ordered one of those on the side too – see above). The rotis were made fresh to order, and were like thin, rich naan: soft and a little flaky, but not too greasy. Unfortunately the curry was not too photogenic, but it was certainly delicious. To finish, we recommend washing your meal down with a delicious, floral 
In my years of coffee drinking, it is rare that I come across a wholly new espresso drink, however when I heard of a 
I decided to go to the pioneer of flat white coffee while in London, the aptly named Flat White cafe in Soho (17 Berwick St, London W1F 0PT). The menu is very simple, consisting of only a few coffee drinks and a pastry or two with a special focus on the eponymous drink. There were expats behind the counter and filling the shop, one particularly pleased grandmum expressed her pleasure at being able to get a proper flat white. The cafe is quite small, and many just pop in for a flat white to-go cup. I placed my order and waited at a small table inside.
Many visitors to London, so we are told, cap their trip with a leisurely boat ride along the Thames – a journey which, surely, will take you to some fine culinary destinations. But – and this knowledge is thanks to a trip from our well-traveled friend Robin – London also possesses a series of small navigable canals in the central and northern parts of the city. You can ride, as we did, a British longboat from the back of Paddington Station to the Camden Lock, a leisurely ride through London’s “
We have eaten a lot of Lebanese street food, but Egyptian street food is something new to us. The most emblematic street food in Egypt is koshary/koshari, a mix of pasta and grains topped with chickpeas, a spicy tomato sauce and caramelized onions. Koshari Street (56 St Martin’s Ln, London WC2N 4EA) does a modern fast casual take on the Egyptian dish, offering three sizes of koshari in take away cups.
We are obsessed with old school Italian groceries, and we absolutely pine for an offshoot of our gold standard, Tenuta’s to open in Chicago. Laurenzo’s (16445 W Dixie Hwy, North Miami Beach, FL 33160) is Miami’s answer to Tenuta’s, an old-school 1960s era supermarket with a little restaurant inside and a prodigious selection of olive oil and cheese. We were on our way to Hollywood beach for the day, so we decided we needed to pack a perfect picnic. Fortunately, Laurenzo’s had everything that we needed. We wandered the aisles, spending some extra time in front of the cheese counter, where we spied imported mozzarella and provolone. The baked goods selection was also pretty impressive, with a rainbow selection of Italian cookies and house-made cannoli. We could have piled up a basket or two of food, but we tried to keep our appetites in check. Check out the photos below of our wanderings through the store (and of course, we’ll definitely be back next time we end up in Miami). We ended up buying some crostini, buffalo mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes and prosciutto. These are our typical picnic fixin’s, but not typical beach food. We still think it pairs pretty well with the sun and sand!
Nom Wah doesn’t look like any other restaurant we have been to. Think the crazy ambiance of a 1950s diner meets corner pizza restaurant meets mah jongg parlor. The little street Nom Wah is on seems to be out of another era, and was given an especially surreal touch by a fashion-student photo shoot taking place with a model dressed in shiny spandex and vinyl while propped up against the shuttered entrance of a neighboring store. Only in NYC. We met our friends there for a Friday night dinner, and the joint was hopping. Nom Wah claims to be one of the first dim sum places in NYC, and it certainly has remained popular over the years.
Here’s what we ordered for people:
No matter what kind of food you a craving, from cake to Italian, to health food to hearty traditional Brazilian fare, chances are 24-hour Bella Paulista in the Jardins neighborhood of São Paulo has it. The full name of the restaurant is Bella Paulista Casa de Pães, (House of Bread), but that really doesn’t tell the whole story. Bella Paulista is kind of a riff on 
Eating The World 