EATING IN

This week, Tom falls in ‘pure carnivorous love’ with some perfectly formed buns

By now, all being well, the pub gardens and terraces are open, the tables, pods, capsules and marquees alive to the sound of alfresco eating joy. But there’s still a few weeks until we can venture indoors and the majority of restaurants open their doors once more. So this week, a few places that I’ll continue to order from, even when life is, God willing, back to usual once more.

First, Smokestak, a London barbecue restaurant so good that even ’cue master Ardie Davis told me it was ‘excellent’. Praise doesn’t come higher than that, and their smoked brisket is the stuff of slow-cooked legend. I’ve even heard Texans agree. Albeit under their breath. It’s sweet, smoky and succulent, with a chewy bark and pale pink smoke ring. The 15-hour Brisket

Bun box (£32.50 plus £5.95 delivery, serves four, boxed by smokestak.co.uk) comes with soft milk buns and pickled red chilli. Their Native Breed Pulled Pork box (£27.50) is damned good, too.

I also loved the sublime fried chicken sandwiches from the ever-brilliant Chick N Sours. Instructions are clear and detailed and you even get a playlist to download. Do go for the deep-fry option if you can. It just requires a saucepan and bottle of rapeseed oil. I went for the All In Kit K-pop and The General (£50 plus £7.95 delivery, serves two to four, chicknsours.co.uk). You get The General Sandwich, with pickles, cheese, kewpie mayo and ‘seaweed crack’ as well as the K-pop Sandwich, with chilli vinegar and sriracha sour cream and gochujang mayo, plus four sublime hot wings (best buffalo sauce ever), four kung pao wings and four chicken tenders. There’s also watermelon salad, bang bang cucumbers and ginger miso green slaw. The chicken is a revelation, all crisp, crunchy coating and sweet succulent interior, the sides inspired, the flavours big, bold and brilliant.

Finally, a special collaboration between Black Axe Mangal (BAM), one of London’s greats, and Bao with the BAM Reuben Bao (£30 plus £5 delivery, serves two, baolondon.com). Offers change monthly, so check the website for details, but I got six yellow bao buns, to be stuffed with brined and cooked ox tongue, a slab of rarebit, sauerkraut, spicy, crispy shallot and dill pickled cucumber. Rich, strident and deeply, unapologetically beefy, it may be a little visceral for some tastes. But I fell in pure carnivorous love.

YOU MAGAZINE’S BRILLIANT FOOD CRITIC AND WINE EXPERT

The smoked brisket is the stuff of slowcooked legend

The 15-hour Brisket Bun Box from Smokestak. The General Sandwich by the ‘ever-brilliant’ Chick N Sours

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