Food: Bird

At first glance, Bird had held promise. Free range chicken and a simple menu was a pretty good combination, and I expected a fresh take on the dirty chicken shops we know and love (and hate).

And as it happened, Bird wasn't that bad at first. We started with a whole bunch of wings in various sauces and glazes (including one which was especially chilli) and things were good. The mains were less so, with "pathetic" being the only word I could use for the Chinese pancakes, while my waffle burger, although novel, not hitting the spot like I wanted it to. There was a regular fried chicken burger too, but that appeared adequate at best.

The service was a little hit and miss: food took a while to get to us, an oddity considering the fried nature of the stuff. There were a few errors made in the order that were quickly addressed, and overall all the staff had looked after us. The bill came to around 15 a head which although not earth shattering did just about fail to justify what we ate.

Although a good idea in principle, Bird does fail in execution and so just falls short of a recommendation.

Book: The Circle, Dave Eggers

I had mixed feelings about this book.

On the one hand I totally understood the message that the author was trying to convey - as someone who hates the Internet (or rather, the abuse of the Internet), I share both the fear of what by now seems the inevitability of an all encompassing quantified reality as well as the frustration experienced when trying to even discuss the matter with the great unwashed. As a book it's not too bad either - although they never appear to developp muchm the characters are interesting enough.

On the other hand I did feel that the pace of the story was a bit off - the plot laboured a bit, and at times it seemed that the only point of progression was to deliver some cheap thrills, sometimes even forcing some pretty obvious twists. This as well as the rushing of the ending, where not much is addressed (perhaps the point?) left me a little unfulfilled.

So The Circle ends up being a decent enough book whose message will unfortunately be easily dismissed, partly because of its delivery but mainly because not many will give it the attention it deserves. But hey, there's always real life to teach us eh?

Cyanide & Happiness

Aaah, sometimes reassurance is a great thing:

SO IT'S NOT JUST IMPERIAL!

Decoloniality London Workspace Launch

Although I initially attended tonight's event in order to offer my personal support, it turned out that it was actually myself who had been the lucky one to be invited. The crowd was large and engaging enough anyway, and even before the evening began it was clear that much success had already been achieved in having them all gather in one place.

If I've skipped forward a little, it's only because I'm writing this with the same sense of discovery that I had at Mile End. At first glance it was just a larger and better lit Rebel Muzik, a room full of hippies-but-not-really who were just going to have a bit of a intellectually poetic party for a bit. But no, it soon became clear that this was much more than a jolly; this was to be academic and structured (although they will pour scorn on me for saying so), well presented and accessible. If there was any question of whether good organisation really kills a message tonight was proof that it can be done.

But what is Decoloniality London? To be frank I don't think I understand it enough to do it complete justice here, but it appeared to be a commentary on the exact immensity of control that the establishment has on society. Okay, so it was a little western and white bashing at times, but it did manage to get away with it on the whole.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to hang around for the whole of the session, but the presentations that I did see were illustrative, fun and (in my opinion most importantly) accessible and manage to engage even the biggest cynic in me; as cheesy and facebooktastic as it sounds I learned a lot from the interactive game of Simon Says we played. I was actually a little disappointed that I had to leave early, but I will be catching up via the recordings.

As the title of the night says, this was actually marking the launch of a set of educational modules based on the subject of (de)colonisation and the effects and conditioning it's had on us as a population. There's more info via the title link of this post, and I would suggest it's well worth checking out the Decoloniality London website for a more in depth presentation of how exactly they're trying to end the world.

Food: Kazan

I guess I was tempting fate by complaining about the flooding of Turkish food options on the London Muslim's menu during my last post - I suppose it's no coincidence that my second meeting with a Muslim crowd landed me in yet another Turkish place this week. But as Efes showed, one can still be surprised even in the middle of ubiquity, so I did manage to go in to Kazan with a relatively open mind.

I think the immediate impression given by Kazan was one of a more "posh" Turkish place. This was reflected in the decor and clientele; this is a place that would appear very out of sorts in the middle of Whitechapel, say. The menu was also pretty difference too; yes, the mezze's were pretty standard, but the mains consisted of various gourmet platters and even a naked burger. Interesting and somewhat refreshing stuff then.

I went for the naked burger (and will admit that I was both surprised and embarrassed when it arrived without any sign of a bun), and it was more than just pretty good. It was perfectly portioned, tasted great and went down well - and looking at the platters received by others at the table it seemed that this assessment was to be pretty common across the board.

Atmosphere was decent but not the best - it wasn't quite the place to go for a quiet and intimate meal, but it was perfect for the medium group catching up like we were. The bill came to just over 30 per person including drinks; not surprising but still a bit on the pricey side for what we actually got.

So Kazan ends up being an interesting proposition, perhaps for those already in the area, but falls short of a total recommendation - but only because there are already so many other options in London that just about pip it to the post.

EDIT: So it turns out that I had already been to Kazan, albeit a fer number of years ago. Review here.

Food: Efes

I think that I've spoken before about my boredom with the generic Turkish restaurants that I inevitably come across so often whenever it's a group of Muslims deciding to eat food with. I place Turkish food in the same category as Shisha and Dubai: bland and unoriginal things that have fast become the defacto standard options that we pick. It's a shame firstly because it limits the exposure we have to other cuisines and experiences, but also because the whole class of food falls in danger of becoming pretty generic and common denominated. I mean can you tell the difference between the lot?

Well it turns out that you can - and when this happens it's a bit of a revelation. Take Efes - yes, the menu is pretty generic and on the surface the place looks like a clone of the many other Turkish's in the area. But the real difference comes when you receive the food - this was good, solid and clean grilled meats in the main, with mezze's and condiments that kept up the refreshing standard of quality and taste. It's by far one of the stronger options for Turkish in the vicinity. Cost wise, everyone was well fed and watered for just under 20 a head, which is neither cheap nor pricey.

The place is relatively new so it's still an open question whether it will last the distance or fall victim to the Turkish-by-numbers others do, but for now it's a decent place that you really can't go wrong with. Recommended.