sriracha (homemade, I think)
and lemon; “apple margarita”
(genuinely no idea, but it’s a
buzz). Everything is so much
better than you expect to find
in an old pub — the ingredients
alone are noteworthy, from
the estimable likes of Fin +
Flounder (for fish, of course)
and the Somerset-based Estate
Dairy for, well, dairy. Actually,
that comes across as damning
with faint praise and I’m not:
I’m genuinely impressed.
Especially with blood cakes —
squares of black pudding, like
the St John version but crisper,
piled high with the perkiest
crabmeat and crisscrossed with
something bright orange and
palate-popping that turns out
to be sea buckthorn hot sauce.
This could sit happily in any
ambitious restaurant proper.
It’s a belter of a dish.
There are gorgeous and
intriguing salads — winter
tomatoes, house curds andwhey, cool and delicate in its
treacly brown pool, on top a
crunch of biscuit crumb. But
there’s nothing frugal about
the slab of oozing Baron Bigod
cheese gorgeously laden with
drifts of black truffle.
The Prince Arthur is part of
a tiny group of three pubs (plus
the Plough in Homerton and
the London Tavern in Margate)
that seems to act as a bit of
an incubator for interesting
chefs and food concepts. The
heavenly dame tells us that Hot
4 U (look, I know) is opening
its own place sometime in the
near future. I’m not at all
surprised. It’s the inevitable final
tick on the ambitious young
chef ’s checklist. I’ll be there like
a shot when they do. Still, even
with the porchetta and swede
I can happily live without the
roasts. I hope once they’re out
of a pub, they can too n
Twitter: @marinaoloughlin
Insta: @marinagpoloughlinPLATE OF
THE NATION
The Cookaway
ChickenPastitsada
Despite the pandemic being
“over” (pause for hollow
laugh), the trend for gourmet
home delivery shows no
sign of abating. Here’s the
Cookaway, whose USP is a
regularly changing roster of
chefs offering everything
from Japanese to Malaysian,
Spanish to Pakistani.
Its latest addition is former
MasterChef winner Irini
Tzortzoglou and her Greek
menu; my choice is chicken
pastitsada, Corfu’s favourite
Sunday lunch, featuring
hilopites (Greek tagliatelle)
with marinated chicken in
tomato sauce, all liberally
dusted with Graviera cheese.
It’s a great dish, comforting
and vivid, with a theme of
sweet and sour: chewy dried
figs in the generous citrussy
salad; the mellow chicken
with a hum of vinegar,
cinnamon and mild paprika.
It’s not instant food, but
instructions and videos make
it difficult to balls up. Extra
touches — a spetsieriko
(spice mix) for the chicken,
ginger and coriander
powder for the salad — lift
it out of the everyday. MO’L£40 for two people, £60
for four; thecookaway.comHOW MUCH?
Starters £3-£9
Mains £12-£21Total for two, including
wine and 12.5% service
charge £95salted yoghurt maybe, or my
bitter leaf one: billows of pastel
castelfranco and pink Veneto
radicchio spiked with capers
and sharp orange, topped
with grated Berkswell cheese.
Little grilled items: skewers
of ox heart, all ferrous bite
and another blast of smoker
cordite (in a good way).
They’re dedicated to using
the whole animal: both original
founders, Matthew Scott and
Eddy Tejada (since moved on),
worked in the empire of Silo’s
Dougie McMaster, high priest
of the zero waste ethos. See
also crème caramel made fromCAITLIN ISOLA, THE PRINCE ARTHUR
Clockwise from
top left: torched
mackerel with
fermented
berries and
kombu; salt-
aged roast
duck; squid
ceviche with
peanut and
jalapeño; the
shabby-chic
interiorThe Sunday Times Magazine • 43