5ive Spice

A restaurant with a number in its name, which serves a fusion of Vietnamese and Mexican food, should be a disaster. Somehow, 5ive Spice has achieved an impossible feat, and defies all expectations its name and concept provide.

We honored our suspicious instinct on our first few visits, and ordered the truly Vietnamese options i.e. the pho. The broth is elegantly spiced, meaty but not fatty, and so fragrant. When you take a spoonful, you feel its healing and comforting powers. Slurp up the noodles, chew the extremely generous portions of meat, and sprinkle on as much cilantro, basil, lime, and chiles as your tastebuds desire. Every bowl is huge, but you'll finish every last drop. That broth is too good to leave behind.

When you do trust this place enough to venture further afield on the menu, you'll have a revelation that these two cuisines can indeed be successfully combined. Tacos filled with lightly pickled veg and lemongrass grilled chicken are terrifyingly addictive; and grilled corn, it turns out, makes a great accompaniment to a bright rice vermicelli salad (pictured above).

No alcohol is served, and the prices are incredibly reasonable. You'll be heading back for another bowl of healing pho as soon as the next rainy day arrives.

5ive Spice, 52 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217.

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CHeU Noodle Bar, Philadelphia

Given the terrible American laws (or lack thereof) on vacation days, a real, proper, holiday isn't on the cards this year. So you won't be getting any photos of me sipping margaritas and eating guacamole on a Mexican beach, which is where I would like to be right now, rather than in the midst of a New York, post-work thunderstorm. So to make up for this lack of restorative, life-affirming beach time, we are using our weekends to the max. Over the last four weeks we've spent two weekends on Long Island, one eating our way round New York with my parents, and the fourth in Philadelphia. And I'm feeling full, happy, and wanting to set off on another trip immediately just thinking about them. 

Last weekend was the Philly mini-break. I took one of my very few summer Fridays and we arrived in this beautiful city early on a Friday evening. After dropping our bags off at our totally dreamy, please can we never leave, I am actually obsessed with this place (see photos above and below to explain why), Airbnb, we went in search of a drink and dinner.

Cheu Noodle Bar's lack of pretentiousness is wonderfully reassuring and refreshing. As someone who is constantly being bombarded with press releases about the newest perfect, genius, niche food product, a website that reads "What do we, two dudes from Philly, know about "authentic" Asian cuisine? Nothing.", makes me breathe a sigh of relief. Even if this lack of pretention does mean that the hostess will carry on cleaning the glass front door while you wait in front of it, outside the door, for her to finish, and she then turns away without even opening it for you, I promise it's a good thing. Here's why.

Drinks. Let's start with drinks. On a list of totally amazing sounding cocktails, they have the option of having their fresh juice of the day spiked with a spirit of your choosing. The juice was fresh watermelon, cucumber, and basil, and with a shot of ice cold vodka splashed into it, it was exactly what I want to drink on every sweltering city summer evening. (Maman - you'd have loved it). B had beer. He says it was good.

B insisted we had the much-raved about black garlic chicken wings. It's good that he's skilled at insisting. And that I don't take much persuasion when it comes to ordering chicken wings. They were sticky but not cloying, spicy without burning my mouth off, herb-filled, and with a refreshing squeeze of lime spritzed over the top. I would have been happy to just eat more of these and have another glass of juice and be done with the evening. But more food beckoned...

... In the form of tuna bombs. Raw tuna sashimi, stuffed with puréed avocado, served on crispy sweet potatoes, and topped with chile and sesame. I mean, um, do I need to tell you that these were ohmygadIneedtoeattheseeverydayforever good?

Noodles followed. Huge bowls of steaming noodles. Coconut curry noodles with cucumber, peanut sambal, chickpeas, and plenty of fresh herbs were hearty and spicy, and coated my mouth with some of my all-time favorite flavors. B had the extremely fusion-ified brisket ramen with matzo ball, kimchi, all in a red chile broth. While his bowl was far from a thing of beauty, what it didn't win in Instagram likes in won in tastebud appreciation. 

We had come to Philly with (perhaps unfairly) high hopes of an exciting city, filled with spectacular food. CHeU Noodle Bar got us off on the right foot. If we lived here (maybe when we're done with NYC? I can dream...), I have a feeling CHeU would become a regular date night haunt.

CHeU Noodle Bar, 255 S 10th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107

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Shoryu

When I arrived at Shoryu I was not the happiest bunny: on the walk to the tube I was caught in the biggest downpour I think London has had for quite some time. I sprinted to the tube, but when I got there I had water pouring off my face, my glasses were making me blind (not what glasses are meant to do), my hair needed wringing out... I was doing a pretty good impression of a drowned rat. When L arrived everything was okay again - I hadn't seen her smiley face for far too long, a good distraction from my rat-like appearance.

Cocktails were ordered, and then we noticed that it was 2 for 1 hirata buns. Because it was a Monday. Hoorah! This is the most exciting thing that has happened in my life all week. And then it was even more exciting because we could mix and match with flavours. Wahoo. One prawn tempura and one pork belly please. Mondays are the new Friday.

The ramen menu is somewhat overwhelming. We both went for the traditional one with a slight twist. I had to pick one with miso in, for obvious reasons, Livvie went for one with a little extra spice.

Bowls of steaming noodles, swimming in a rich, spiced, filling broth. The noodles were slurpable without being greasy and mushy, the pork was rich and soft and not chewy. It was hard to concentrate on talking and eating at the same time: there were many spluttered sentences, vigorous head nods and eye-moving communication skills as a result of a mouthful of noodles removing our ability to speak.

Spoonfuls of ramen were broken up with the most amazing hirata buns. I'll never be able to appreciate those hirata buns I used to eat as much any more. And I eat quite a lot of hirata buns. These are so fluffy and shiny they look fake: the light bounces off them as if would a plastic hamburger toy. You bite into it and it falls apart. It's what I imagine eating a cloud would be like, only this cloud is filled with sauces and perfectly cooked flesh and lightly pickled vegetables and, well, and, oh my - they're rather overwhelming.

Needless to say B was rather jealous when I recounted this meal, and so I will be going back soon. Probably next week. Especially as they are now doing wagyu beef hirata buns. Maybe I'll be back tomorrow - I'm not sure I can wait any longer.

Shoryu, 3 Denman Street, London, W1D 7HA

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Tonkotsu East

Cold. Friday evening. 6.45pm. Arch 334. 1a Dunston Street. Tonkotsu East.

It nearly became a sad Friday as our much looked forward-to drinks with my Godmother at a fancy-pants London hotel had been cancelled mid-morning because she was ill. Cursing illnesses I got in touch with B in a slight state of panic. 

Dinner at Tonkotsu East was to be the replacement. And a good (although very different) replacement it was too.

As much bare-bricks, industrial pipework, and old-school furniture as one would expect from a Hackney restaurant-in-an-arch. I feel there should be a term for this, so oft are they appearing around and about. No street-cred if you're not in an arch. Instant brownie points if you are. We sat down at the 'bar', which isn't really a bar but a line of chairs and tables that look at a wall, not high enough up to see into the kitchen. As cooking obsessed as B and I are, we always love being able to watch the chefs at play, so it was a slight shame not to be able to peek in. However, watching the action in the 'noodle room' at the other end of this space more than made up for it. A Japanese noodle-making machine. In Haggerston. In a glass box. Beats our pasta machine hands down. A chef sits patiently, catching the freshly-produced noodles and taking them into the kitchen. No doubts about how good these noodles were going to be.

Anyway, back to the meal, and less of my oggling of the industrial equipment.

Cocktails (both whiskey based - a new phase - move over pasta, move in whiskey) were ordered. Took slightly too long to arrive (but the waitress was aware and was chasing the clearly very doolally barman without us having to chase her. Worth the wait, they were warming and soothing. With just the right strength to to take the edge of a long week. And potent enough to mark the beginning of the holidays for B (no jealousy here at all, promise).

Edameme covered in crispy sea salt, and then pork gyoza were both perfect. The little dumplings crisped on one side, dipped in a tad of soy sauce, and filled with tiny nibblets of pork. Yum.

Tonkotsu and Tsukemen ramen followed. 'A lesson in broth' in B's words. One rich, meaty, yet still clean; the other miso based, salty and gentle - both perfectly balanced and suitably powerful. The noodles, as expected, were unlike any other noodle. A visit to Wagamama will never again satisfy in the same way. Not a huuuuge pork eater, B ate most of my meat. His faith in pork (sausages and bacon excepted) had been removed by school dinners and college canteens, but here was finally restored to its rightful place. A blossoming relationship which saw a trip to the butchers to buy pork chops for dinner the next day. We slurped away until the bowls were empty. Warmed from the inside, calming ramen swirling in our stomachs, we braced the cold for a quick, blustery walk home - an early, nourishing and restful Friday night.

Highlight: noodles (and their machine)

Lowlight: too long to wait for a cocktail

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