2016 | a #food round up

Number 1. Green Tea.

You know that green tea has finally taken over the land of boring English Breakfast when even Starbucks has added a green tea latte to their permanent menu. Green tea has always been a popular drink in Asia for its many health benefits. Not only is it your best coffee alternative, it’s herby, earthy and bittersweet notes have deemed to be a great addition to any dessert, from cakes to ice cream to even KitKats, attracting an unimaginable craze to any green tea flavoured food product.

While many Londoners are still scratching their heads and trying to adjust their palette to the odd, green-coloured, grassy-flavoured ice cream, many green tea-themed cafes have opened their doors to welcome the curious and the homesick (that is, sad, green tea-deprived overseas students like myself). Visit Tsujiri, a Japanese tea house that has recently expanded to London, for a taste of authentic matcha in the form of ice cream and many other traditional desserts. Head over to Soft Serve Society at Boxpark Shoreditch for their creamy matcha ice cream (with sugar stars) in a minimalist, tumblr-esque setting. Crosstown Doughnuts incorporates full-on greenness into their matcha tea doughnut, complete with a cake dough and green tea ganache. If you cannot be bothered to go that far, there is always Tombo, a 5 minutes walk away, with their shelves full of green tea cakes, brownies and chocolate.

Number 2. Street food.

The street food trend has stayed strong throughout the past few years and is growing even stronger, with more and more people embracing the creative, multi-cultural and affordable menus of these independent stalls at many market locations across London. A visit to a food market, munching on burgers and letting the juices drip all over, has become an enjoyable pastime on the weekend. Maltby Street and Druid Street Markets near London Bridge has risen to fame, packed with visitors during the weekends for oysters, waffles and local produce. New additions to the street food market scene this year include KERB Camden, a small collection of stalls open 7-days a week featuring Oli Baba’s scrummy halloumi fries, and Flat Iron Square, an exciting hub of indie street food kitchens open daily, plus a flea market during the weekend.

Number 3. Dominique Ansel

The creator of The Cronut® deserves his own category. The patisserie has finally put London into his pocket in September after opening successful bakeries in New York and Tokyo, bringing major queues outside his bright yellow awning every morning for a flake of his Cronut®. The Cronut® has a different flavour every month, complimented by Ansel’s many other equally delicious pastries and desserts. If the croissant-doughnut hybrid is not enough to satisfy your sugar cravings, go for a Frozen S’more (toasted marshmallow with vanilla custard ice cream on a stick), a DKA (which stands for Dominique’s Kouign Amann), or a chocolate chip cookie shot at 3 pm on the dot.

Number 4. Poke the Poké

The poké waves have finally reached the grey, miserable, rocky British beaches all the way from sun-kissed, tropical shores of Hawaii. The colourful, healthy summer bowl of marinated raw fish cubes on rice has decided to stay through to the sub-zero days of December, with a growing number of restaurants transforming the recipe by exchanging rice with purple rice, quinoa, and even kale.

Our wonderful neighbour Tombo has opened their own Poké-dedicated bar in Soho, serving bowls with a more Japanese taste. Ahi Poké near Tottenham Court Road has a fully customizable menu giving you full freedom from your base, the fish, and all the way through to the sauce. The newly opened Island Poké in Carnaby also serves the best acai bowls in London on top of their Poké menu. Carb loading the Poké way.

Number 5. Mille Crêpe.

Imagine 20 layers of paper-thin crêpes stacked on top one another with layers of cream between them. That, my friends, is a mille crêpe cake. First brought into the global dessert scene by Lady M, a cake boutique in the Upper East Side, their mille crêpe cake has graced different parts of the world, attracting hour-long queues for a slice of their signature cake in a multitude of flavours: lemon, chocolate, coconut and of course, green tea.

Although Lady M has yet to set foot on the British Isles, a few cafés have caught on the trend and became pioneers to bring this wonderful new dessert to London. Kova Patisserie, a new addition to the Soho food scene, stocks their handmade mille crêpe cakes in their glass shelves in green tea, chocolate and fruit, selling out by 3 pm every day. Sosharu, an upscale Japanese restaurant in Farringdon, features their green tea mille crêpe cake on their dessert menu. Nojo in Old Street tube station, serves their gluten-free green tea version alongside their other healthy, gluten-free crêpes and treats. The mille crêpe cake is still taking its baby steps in the UK, with great potential to grow in the year ahead.