Saravana

I haven't had a Masala Dosa for a very long time so I jumped at the chance to go to Saravana with my parents who have been going and raving about it for a long time. In case I forget to tell you later, there's a sweet counter at the entrance so you can take home some headache-inducing sugary treats, sometimes drenched in syrup  for added sweetness.

Once safely past these temptations, the place opens out into a much larger space at the back which is busy and bustling, apparently there are days when there is a queue around the block which would be kind of annoying but the nature of the food, fast and street, means the turnover is pretty quick. The day we went though we were shown to a table straight away, authentically set with a steel water jug and glasses which always makes me feel like I'm in India.

There are saris stapled in a horizontal panel along the walls of the back room in the acid fun colours that are set to be this summers statement according to the Sunday papers, but this is a non-designed place. Completely unpretentious and completely focused on what the customer has come for.

The waiting staff are very efficient and smiley and although your order is taken, and the food brought, quickly, there is no sense of trying to hurry you up. The speciality is Dosa a crispy 'crepe' made out of ground rice and lentils, the Masala version is stuffed with a potato and onion filling and you can choose from paper or rava (a slightly heavier version). They all come with a variety of delicious chutneys - coconut, coriander, lime pickle - as well as dhal and sambar (a more watery lentil curry with tamarind and vegetables) to dip them into.

You can also have a thali to try a few different curries or puris which as a main meal come as one enormous puffed wheat bread which you tear and use to scoop up your curries. Of course if, like me and my father, it proves impossible to choose, just order everything. Somehow you find room and the prices are staggeringly low.

Every note was pitch perfect, the spice, chilli and seasoning. The batter was thin, paper crispy, completely addictive. The dhals were all unique and deeply savoury, a good potato curry is really very hard to beat and this had succulent pieces of potato that were at the magical point of the softest they can be and yet hold their shape and consistency. As close to perfect food as you can get. Pure flavour, humble ingredients, delicious.

This is how you could be vegetarian. And you can pick up a paan on the way out to chew, aid digestion and turn your mouth an alarming shade of red.

You'll find it by braving the streets of East Ham on High Street North on the corner of Byron Avenue. Turn North (right) out of East Ham tube station, it's about 4 streets up on the right.

Duke of Cambridge

With beers called "Eco-Warrier", "Freedom Organic Lager" and "Shoreditch Stout", this pub wears its credentials rather heavily and proudly states that it is the only Soil Association certified organic gastro pub in the country.

That's not a criticism though, the food is sourced locally and is Fair Trade where possible. Most of the beer is brewed in SE England helping the revival of the cottage industry that once famously thrived. Fish is from sustainable sources and a Pocket Good Fish Guide 2006 is on every table to educate the punters. This comes with a card (on recyled paper) explaining the company's values, the environmental responsibility it takes and the little things you can do at home that will make a difference as long as all the Islington yummies also club together and go to  Bicester Village in one Cayenne 4x4 together.

Being a working lunch I had a Luscombes Hot Ginger Beer which was authentically spicy and perfect for the chill of an early Winter day. The long list of organic wines looked promising and I will return one evening to try them.

To start we shared a Duck Prosciutto with walnuts, roast beetroot, shaved jerusalem artichokes and a red wine/port reduction. The duck was very good and full of flavour, not sliced so thinly that you didn't feel you'd got a proper mouthful. The rest of the plate was all kind of drowned out in frisée salad suburbia.

Then spaghetti with mussels and clams in white wine, chilli and garlic. For the record, the clams were the best I have eaten for ages. Plump,  succulent, briny; easy to find and remove from their shells - I sometimes end up chasing a grain of sand round a shell wondering "is that it?" I think the kitchen might have forgotten to put any wine in the sauce because the spag was quite dry and flavourless but I was so thrilled with the clams that I didn't really mind. 

Herb crusted sole fillet with crushed roast parsnip, chard and herb caper butter was more rounded as a dish. The fish was tender and flaky with lots of lovely crunch on top and salty creamy butter licking its flanks.  The vegetables were well cooked and had real depth of flavour to them.

We were kept waiting an extraordinary amount of time for such straightforward stuff but they were surprised by the number of customers they got in on that particular lunchtime and there were only two members of waiting staff, one of whom was being trained. They were both very sweet, polite and apologetic though and you'd have had to have been pretty hard hearted to be really annoyed. Or late for the office maybe...

The menu changes daily and according to the seasons. I would recommend this place because despite any minor short-comings they really are committed to good food with all the principles that entails.

The Duke of Cambridge, 20 St Peter's St, Islington 020 7359 3066 http://www.dukeorganic.co.uk

Hu'Ong Viêt

The boat rescues of refugees from Hong Kong in the '70s and '80s  saw the majority of the present Vietnamese population of Britiain arriving. Despite the dispersal policy effected by government, a natural survival instinct kept many of the communities together and they maintained strong links.

Like other Vietnamese communities as far afield as Bristol, Derby, Cambridge Portsmouth and Manchester among others, the East London immigrants formed a Refugee and Cultural Association, the An-Viet Foundation. It promoted integration and identity while providing much needed resources to help negociate a foreign and sometimes hostile new land.

Like the Chinese immigrants before them many of these newcomers worked in the catering industry, dealing with long anti-social hours, back breaking work and poor pay.  East Asian food was collectively known as Chinese and it was not until some years later that Vietnamese cuisine became recognised and sought out, allowing families to serve their own dishes to the public and capturing their imagination. This brought more prosperity and entrepreneurs thrived.

Kingsland Road is a treasure trail of Vietnamese restaurants from Shoreditch to Stoke Newington but my favourite by far is about half way up on Englefield Road in the former An-Viet Foundation building, Hu'Ong Viêt.

With its municipal 'Canteen' sign over the entrance and 1950s town hall folding seats it has a utilitarian charm. Relatively quiet, set away from the main road with over-hanging trees, in the fading light of dusk you can imagine yourself in Hanoi.

Inside there is authentically peeling paint and an unrepaired smashed wooden door lock which might have felt desolate were it not for some glorious photographs of Vietnam (which you would not find in Hanoi) on the walls in stunningly simple, modest frames.

Service too is modest and charming with second or third generation kids manning front of house. Probably studying during the day to become futures traders and lawyers.

I love Vietnamese food generally. It seems to offer the best of Thai delicacy and Chinese vibrancy and variety. This restaurant had things on the menu which seemed more authentic and unusual than you might find ordinarily.

Sesame prawn toast - I can't not order it if it's on the menu - was comforting in the way only fried bread can be. It was perfectly golden and crispy outside and  yeasty, dough-soft in the middle with a generous slab of prawns. The grilled chilli squid was the perfect texture and had a wonderful smoky combination of spices, far more than simple chilli, but the flavour of the squid came through. Very well-handled.

Another winner was prawns wrapped in pork done on the barbeque. The combination of sweet prawns, charred bbq edges and savoury pork was inspired. Succulent. Sizzling seafood with ginger and spring onions was delicious, light and delicate. It had the right level of tang to it.

Something I haven't tried before was creamy tofu in sweet ginger sauce and coconut cream. It was superbly sweet. The tofu was like floating crème caramel, the ginger syrup fragrant and spiky with the coconut keeping it fresh and light. A revelation.

These were just the highlights. It is incredibly good value and too easy to over order. We ate a lot. There is a bring your own bottle policy (as in many Vietnamese restaurants) so I took along a bottle of Gruner Veltliner which was just right. See the Journal page for a Gruner entry.

The Real Greek

I've never been to Greece but consider it one of the essential places in the world to go.  Like Africa is the birthplace of humanity; India, the spiritual mother; Greece is the cradle of all Western philosophy and literature.

Despite my lack of personal experience though, I had managed to assume terrible prejudices and stereotypes about Greek food. Even a favourite famous food critic who travels the world and unflinchingly attempts to swallow anything put on his plate (they always like inexplicable body parts), once dismissed the entire country's cuisine as cold rice wrapped in leaves. I read this at a formative time and believed this must be true.

So my enthusiasm was steeped in scepticism as I approached a tasting menu from The Real Greek matched with - oh horror! - Greek wines.  The menu was put together by Paloma Campbell, the co-owner and Operations Director, who also carefully selected wines to match each dish. At the restaurant, the staff are trained to help you make appropriate choices depending your preferred style of wine, and the list is sensibly organised into Good All-Rounders, Fish & Crustacea, Poultry & Pork, Red Meat & Game. Paloma's enlightened attitude has reds and whites in each category.

The food, oh the food! As befits a country with such varied landscape, the range was astonishing from coastal to mountain, each with traditions of local produce embellished, modernised and beautifully presented by a truly talented kitchen under Theodore Kyriakou, Paloma's partner in the restaurant.

All the things you might expect such as feta dressed with olives, tomatoes and oregano; dolmades stuffed with rice, sultanas and pine nuts - this served with one of the plumpest,  sweetest, most affectionate scallops you could ever put in your mouth; taramosalata - the pink fishy stuff I could never bear to go near was transformed into a pale, creamy, silky textured burst of fresh, salted not smoked, roe flavour.

Then there were surprises, not for Greeks just for English sceptics. Giant beans with courgettes, spinach and yoghurt - rich, strong, confident; octopus roasted with olive oil, rosemary and garlic - though it was the large, meaty variety it was as tender as a sigh and just as endearing; hand-picked (?) crab meat delicately lifted with chives, olive oil and lemon juice; Santorinian fava, split peas with spring onions and oregano served with a slice of duck sausage and a morello cherry spoon; and lamb cutlets with tzatziki - again the "supermarket" flavour of all taztziki that had gone before had not prepared me for the intensity, yet delicacy and satisfaction of the simplest of dishes.

All the dishes were handled with sureness and aplomb. The flavours were convincing but never overpowering and purposfully combined. It felt modern and traditional, light and rich and filling. It was a real pleasure.

White Wines

Domaine Spiropoulous, Mantinia VQPRD 2005 (Grape: Moshofilero 100%) Perfumed, aromatic nose. Really quite high acidity which cut the sweetness and richness of the crab well but might prove a bit searing on its own.

Ktima Biblia Chora, White  VdP 2005 (Grape: Sauvignon Blanc 60%, Assyrtiko 40%) The Sauvignon dominates the nose but there are more layers which penetrate through on the palate. It was good at holding and complementing the individual flavours in the beans.

Ktima Biblia Chora, Ovilos VdP 2005 (Grape: Assyrtiko 50%, Semillon 50%) Rich and full flavoured, amazingly well-blended. Good balance. Didn't overpower the scallop & dolmade, my personal favourite dish.

Domaine Hatzimichalis, Veriki 2005 (Grape: Robolo/Chardonnay - percentages not given) There is a sharp, prickly saltiness (not unpleasant) to the palate which is given structure and body by the chardonnay.  Holding fingers rather than hands these two, will need some convincing of each other's charms. This is one of the domaines which forged the 'boutique' winemaking style in Greece.

Red Wines

Dougos Winery, Methistanes 2003 (Grape: Xinomavero 50%, Krasato 25%, Stavroto 25%) Spirity but rich. Violets. Dry, tannic structure, spicy, a bit short. Went well with the lamb.

Ktima Pavlidis, Tempranillo 2004 (Grape: Tempranillo 100%) Purplish, rich and ripe. Violets and blackcurrants. Coconut sweetness, this wine was aged in 50% American and 50% French oak which is still a bit obvious. Paloma surprised me by putting this with the feta and it really worked together with the creamy saltiness.

Domaine Skouras, Cuvee Prestige VdP 2005 (Grape: Aghioritiko 90%, Cabernet Sauvignon 10%) This wine is served lightly chilled which suits its light bodied structure. Good aromatics with pleasing tannin presence. Very good match to the octopus which had been marinated in red wine overnight before being roasted.

Creta Olympias S.A., Mirambelo VQPRD 2004 (Grape: Kotsifali 75%, Mandilaria 25%) Light bodied, a smoky tobacco flavour which complemented the gaminess of the duck sausage.

Dessert Wine

Union of Winemaking Co-operatives of Samos, Vin de Liqueur Samos Phyllas VQPRD 2005 (Grape: Muscat of Samos 100%) Straw gold, powerful nose. Unctuous texture, baked Mediterranean oranges, candied citrus peel and ginger. Great acidity cutting the sweetness. Perfect with the Baklava with its honey, nuts and spices. A great way to finish.

Go there, really, go there. The Greeks weren't just clever, they were hedonists too.

http://www.therealgreek.co.uk/