London: Caravan Restaurant, Bar & Roastery

Lately, it seems like I always start my posts with..."NO! I haven't forgottten about my blog!!" I haven't. At all. If anything, if you asked my friends, they would tell you that I'm always taking photos of things that I've eaten and whatnot. Never fear, I will still be talking about my London food adventures.

The first eatery that I will be talking about is Caravan. It's kind of fitting that the first place I start talking about is connected to my home country. That, and the fact that I'm momentarily back in New Zealand. [In two weeks time, I will be trekking to the US for the first time and the excitement I have is unexplainable! It's always been a future destination of mine and funnily enough, the first thing I think about when I think of New York for example is not the Statue of Liberty or whatever, it's Momofuku!! Ha.]

Caravan Restaurant, Bar & Roastery (Exmouth Market)*
11-13 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QD (Closest tube station: Farringdon)

In terms of a good feed and a good drink, Exmouth Market is the place to go. I must admit that I only travelled to Exmouth Market twice, but I wish I had gone a bit more than I had. Caravan had been on my list of places to go for a few months, knowing that the head chef/owner was a kiwi (and previous head chef at the Providores, which I will be reviewing sometime soon too!). But it wasn't until my lovely flatmate recommended the place to me that finally made me move my butt! So my partner-in-crime and I decided to go for a nice lunch at Caravan on a Monday. The deal with Caravan in terms of its all-day menu is small plates. They have a few large plates on offer, but I'm a big fan of small plates as a matter of wanting to try more than one plate of food.

For drinks, I ordered the Caravan old-fashioned lemonade (£4.50). A sour buzz gets me going for the day! Loved it. My partner ordered the elderflower spritzer (£4.50) which actually tasted better than the drink I ordered. Now that I'm away from London, I realise that those prices are rather excessive for something as non-alcoholic as those drinks, but are actually rather standard prices for London. If you know me, you'll also know that I can be very indecisive when it comes to food (thus the small plates are a blessing in disguise). Seriously, sometimes if I know where I'm going to eat in advance, I'll check out the menu online and pick a dish to save time, but never end up choosing it once I get there because I seem to find something else on the menu (...that I may or may had not seen earlier). If I am feeling really indecisive, I'll ask my waiter/waitress for a recommendation. This is what I did in terms of the snack dish that we shared. The waitress, like me, was indecisive – weighing up between whether she liked the cornbread or the wontons better. For the record, she decided that she couldn't choose since both were pretty good.

For our snack, we ordered the blue cheese and peanut wontons (£4). I had done a bit of reading and heard about the crazy combination and how it actually worked, so I thought why not?

I was pleasantly surprised actually by how the blue cheese was not that overpowering. I'm pretty neutral against blue cheese – which is strange considering the majority either love it or hate it  – but it surprisingly worked, especially with the crunchiness of the wontons and sweetness from the sauce. Following the wontons, we shared three small plates: the oozy arancini (£5), the cured salmon with wasabi dressing (£7.50), and the salt and sichuan pepper squid with chilli mayo (£7.50).

All the dishes were fantastic and full of flavour. My favourite dish was the arancini. The oozniess of the cheese once you cut into it was delightful and made my tummy warm. My partner's fave was the cured salmon. He couldn't stop raving about it once we left. Fresh, clean flavours, and the wasabi dressing was subtle rather than overpowering. Don't forget about the squid though. Contrary to what my parents think (they think I can't handle chili),  I like the use of chili when it doesn't completely overpower the dish. In this case, the squid had the right amount of heat and the mayo that accompanied the squid worked well with it. Yum.

We were actually pretty full but I was still thinking about cornbread in the menu. So we (okay, I on behalf of us, heh) ordered it. The cornbread with the chipotle butter (£3.50) was amazing. I really appreciated seeing actual corn in the cornbread, but the butter with the cornbread really makes it melt-in-your-mouth stuff! Yummmm. My partner really liked it too (maybe not as much as me) but thought it was rather heavy.

Food arrived to our table relatively quick as it was not so busy when we arrived. Service wasn't too shabby. The bill below shows that lunch wasn't exactly cheap, but is it a good treat to have once and a while? Definitely. It was my partner's favourite place to eat during his time in London, and it was one of mine too.

Next update: Providores & Tapas Room! Woo!

* Another Caravan just opened up in Kings Cross/Granary Square (in Granary Building). Wish I had the time to visit that one before I left as well.