Pilpel: fantastic falafel and houmous bar in London

I don't usually post entries about my fast food lunch, but this time I've made an exception.  A colleague, JC (not the one from N'Sync), recently took me to a falafel and houmous bar called Pilpel, located in the St Paul's area in London.

I was promised two things:

1. A tasty lunch.
2. Large portion.

Living up to this promise, I got both.  I ordered the houmous and aubergine - deep filled with falafel, salad and chilli inside a soft wholemeal pita. Sometimes, falafel can be a bit dry, but Pilpel's falafel was tasty, crispy and not dry in the middle.

It wasn't practical to take this apart to show the inside, but there was lots of salad, falafel, aubergine and houmous...

Sadly, there is no banana to show scale, but it was pretty chunky and I was definitely full by the end!

If you're in the area and you like this kind of food, check out the menu and head in - you won't be disappointed.  There are three other units at Spitalfields, Spitalfields Market and Fleet Street.

Closest Tube: St Paul's
Address: Unit 5, Queens Head Passage, Paternoster Square, London, EC4M 7DZ

Flavours of Morocco...in Bexley, Kent

I once visited Morocco and found the food to be awesome and full of flavour. (I say this despite getting really bad food poisoning that needed a course of antibiotics to sort out, but maybe I was just unlucky?) 

Until very recently though, I had not been to a Moroccan restaurant outside of Morocco, but that has been rectified by a visit to Flavours of Morocco in Bexley, Kent.

The first dish I am going to show you is a moussaka. Now I am reasonably sure moussaka is not known as a Moroccan dish, but it was on the menu nonetheless. It was not bad, though I think it needed a bit more potato to balance the cheese topping.

In Morocco, I found that most the tagines had vegetables included, but not at this restaurant. So we decided to order a vegetable tagine to share.

Apparently the chicken tagine tasted a bit like a curry...not necessarily sure if that was the goal.

The lamb, apricot and prune tagine was probably the winner for all-round taste. The meat was soft and well-seasoned - exactly what I would expect.

Houmous and olives.

Address: 73 High Street, Bexley, Kent, DA5 1AA

Closest train station: Bexley

Delicious Delicio in Bexleyheath

Along Broadway in Bexleyheath is a Mediterranean restaurant called Delicio. It is a modern-looking restaurant with a very extensive menu, so much so that I was initially worried about what the quality of the food would be like.

However, no need for the worry, as the food came and it was a delight. Let's look at what we ate...

We started with a selection of meze. Houmous, halloumi, beetroot and feta, calamari and chorizo. All good portion sizes and tasty.

Plus a fish cake...

Onto the mains. Here's the mixed grill.

My lamb shish. Very soft and well seasoned throughout.

This is not food, but it is still worth a mention; Chantel the belly dancer makes an appearance too. 

Good times all round. Would definitely consider going again.

Address: 157 Broadway, Bexleyheath, DA6 7EY
Nearest station: Bexleyheath