London's Best Hot Dogs - Time Out

Apologies for the lack of posts but time (and dietary) constraints are making it harder to keep updating the blog.

Nevertheless, I couldn't let this link go un-posted; A handy guide from Time Out to London's best hot dogs. The sausage and bread scene in London is alive and kicking...

 Link: Time Out London's Best Hot Dogs

Soho Joes (Dean St.)

Soho Joe's took over some large premises that used to be a burger bar a few years ago and now seems quite established as a low-cost, Soho eatery. It's large tables give it a unique atmosphere

Known mainly for it's pizzas, I recently discovered they were also open for breakfast so I thought I'd give them a try.




This was a mistake.

The sausages were spongy and bland and bore little resemblance to meat. They were smothered in a particularly bad example of catering-grade brown sauce; Sour, brown slop.

The bread appeared to be a good quality baguette (it might have been passable with some butter and jam for example) but for some reason it seemed to 'react' with the horrid brown sauce and turn into a squidgy mess.

0 out of 5. Go in the evening for a pizza instead

Japadogs - extraordinary!

Check out these beauties! Gourmet hot dogs with Japanese condiments and garnishes. A brilliant idea. I seriously need to try one of these!

via Sherman's Food Adventures

Sabrina reviews Big Apple Hot Dogs, Old Street

These look absolutely amazing! Have to try them soon!

Link: Sabrina's Passions

Bratwurst, Berwick St.

Apologies for the lack of posts in recent months. Unfortunately the blog has dropped a little on my list of priorities but I haven't forgotten about it!

And what better way to revive Sausage and Bread than with a brand new review? When you see the exterior of this newly opened establishment in Soho, you can see why I felt the need to start posting again...




Yep, The Bratwurst does indeed appear to be an honest attempt to bring the classic German streetfood to the UK. This branch (the second in the UK chain, the other is in Broadgate Circle) only opened recently - early July, I believe - so is very much a new face on the Soho scene.

Will it finally crack the secret of being a sausage and bread food retailer in the UK or will it follow in the footsteps of Olly Olson and The Gourmet Hotdog Company, and fail?

The menu starts promisingly with a list of half a dozen authentic German sausages (made by award winning butchers, the signage tells us). Besides the classic pork Bratwurst you can also choose beef, turkey, cheesey, oniony and boiled variations.

I opted for a 'double meal deal' consisting of a Bratwurst, a Mettwurst (smoked pork and beef sausage served boiled), brötchen and sauerkraut.




Let's deal with the sides first: The sauerkraut was very pungent and sour which guess is how it's supposed to be. The vinegar sharpness made it perfect for cutting through the heavier meat. The brötchen was fresh and tasty; Crispy on the outside, cracking open to reveal a fluffy and non-industrial interior. Nice to see that they have paid attention to the bread here.

The sausages were both very good indeed. The Bratwurst (cut into pieces by a special sausage cutting machine) was nicely browned yet still drippingly moist on the inside. Lightly seasoned with a very thin casing that made for very good eating.

The Mettwurst was a surprise. Even though it is served boiled the sausage is actually very dense and dark. It reminded me a lot of an Italian salsicce. Slightly saltier than the Brat, it was still very moist and bursting with juices with every bite.

What completes the meal is of the course the essential German yellow mustard - wonderfully mild and moreish and the perfect accompaniment to the sausages.



All in all, The Bratwurst is a success and definitely worth a visit. The question is will the people of London frequent it enough? It sells fast food that is far and away better than what you get in more famous fast food chains. But the store resembles a coffee shop, or boutique eatery. So is it trying to to lure customers away from EAT and Pret when it should perhaps be targetting the KFC/Nandos/McDonalds crowd?

The other meal options on offer at The Bratwurst seem a little confused and odd (Bratwurst salad, anyone? Sausage and nachos?) They clearly want to cover some extra bases to appeal to customers aren't grabbed by the conventional style of serving. But in my opinion they should just stay true to the classic streefood style (and perhaps start offering chips and mayo).

5 out of 5
Let's hope it survives!

Website: The Bratwurst

Malmesbury King named Best British Banger

The British magazine Country Life has just held a nationwide competition to find the UK's best sausage and the banger that emerged victorious was the magnificently-named Malmesbury King from Wiltshire.

The speciality of butcher Michael Thomas, the sausage is said to contain coarse pork shoulder flavoured with rosemary, thyme, parsley and ginger.

Sounds gorgeous. The winning sausage will now appear on the menu in Bar Boulud in the Mandarin Oriental hotel in London (in a sandwich, I hope!).

This, the only coarse-cut sausage to make the shortlist, is made to Mr Thomas's own recipe, using a shoulder-cut of pork (specially sourced from pigs with good conformation), minced just once and hand-mixed with rosemary, thyme, parsley and a sprinkling of ginger, before being piped into natural hog casings. The judges deemed the Malmesbury King to have the most pleasing, rustic, herby appearance and a satisfying, piquant taste. Mr Thomas now has the honour of the Malmesbury King being served in Bar Boulud.

Link: Country Life

Greggs (nationwide)

Photo: avtost

This is an interesting one. Greggs the Bakers are present on just about every high street in Britain. Compared to the chains I've previously reviewed, Greggs is much more widespread and prevalent but it is perceived by many as being of inferior quality to say, Pret a Manger or Eat.

This is unfair I think. Their products may be made on a large scale but that is not to say they are bad and in fact studying the Greggs' nutritional information shows that for a number of items Pret a Manger's equivalents are actually less healthy and higher in calories and fat (see the two companies' egg or tuna sandwiches).

Back in February Greggs officially launched a new breakfast range but it was only recently that I noticed the new menu and was able to try their sausage breakfast roll



What a pleasant surprise. In most small cafes, sausages are cooked, allowed to cool, stored in a chilled cabinet and then reheated when served. This results in sausages with a compressed, airless, paste-like texture and a tremendous amount of taste and subtlety is lost.

In contrast, the Greggs sausages must have been cooked fresh that morning. They were wonderfully moist inside, with a springy, satisfying, tasty filling. I wouldn't say they were gourmet sausages and the salt content is perhaps on the high side (3.8 grams for the entire roll), but for what is in effect a mass produced sandwich (on a par with a McDonalds hamburger) the quality and flavour are impressive.

The bread roll is, as you would expect from a bakery, fresh and pleasant to eat. The only condiment choices are tomato or brown sauce but they are genuine Heinz ketchup and HP - another plus point.

All in all, this is a great ambassador for the sausage and bread combo. Importantly, we are talking here about a good quality sausage and bread roll that can be bought on just about every high street in the UK. That's something I've been hoping for since I started this blog, all those years ago!

5 out of 5. A very good sandwich with top marks for availability.

Trailer - 'A Connecticut Hot Dog Tour'

Well, who would have thought that one day I would be posting a trailer on here? :-)

This video was sent to me from CToriginals.com to promote their new DVD 'A Connecticut Hot Dog Tour'. it looks like a fantastic little independently-made documentary about the many and varied types of hot dogs that are available in Connecticut, and the love affair people of New England have with the classic sausage and bread combo.

As it's a trailer, we only get to see glimpses of the various hot dogs that appear in the film but they do look delicious. From the webiste:

From a hot dog boat that travels the Connecticut River to a roadside shack built in 1872 that allows customers to carve their names on the walls, A Connecticut Hot Dog Tour, Directed by Mark Kotlinski, visits some of Connecticut’s distinctive hot dog stands.

A Connecticut Hot Dog Tour travels across the state to visit outstanding hot dog shops like Blackie’s Hot Dog Stand in Cheshire – where the family’s secret hot relish recipe transformed the former gas station into a hot dog institution that’s been around since 1928. We go from Capitol Lunch in New Britain to sample the “meat sauce” that’s made it famous since 1929, to the flame-grilled hot dogs at Glenwood Drive-In in Hamden, to the original Frankie’s location in Waterbury, an open air stand where the local hot dog franchise got it’s start.

This trailer along with a few selected clips form the DVD can be seen on CToriginals' Youtube channel.

Photo: Spike's Junkyard Dogs, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

What a wonderful image, taken by BlueisCool, found on Flickr.



Website: Spike's Junkyard Dogs

Make Mine, Dean Street

makeMINE is popular sandwich shop with the Soho crowd. Most afternoons you will invariably see more than one of their purple and white bags being carried back to an office somewhere and there is usually a queue extending out the front door.

The shop is like a Subway but much better in that you choose a sandwich from a set menu and it is made fresh for you. But their combinations are much better and the quality a lot higher than that of the ubiquitous sandwich chain. They also do soups and salads.

The sausage sandwich is part of their breakfast menu and only required a short wait before I was able to take it away.




What we have is a couple of moderately good quality, small Cumberland sausages sliced, in toasted granary bread for £2.25. It was overall a curiously boring sausage sarnie. The sausages have been cooked some time ago and reheated so they have a pasty, compressed texture to them. The bread was quite tasteless being a generic, catering granary variety. There was nothing particularly bad about it - to be sure you will find worse - but then again there was nothing really good about it either.

2 out of 5.

Randall and Aubin, Brewer Street

Randall and Aubin has one of the most appealing shop fronts in Soho, if not the whole of London. Originally a butcher's shop, it is now known to denizens of Soho as a lively place for great seafood, wine as well as rotisserie items such as roast chicken, not to mention great french fries.

It has a wonderful, open, bustling atmosphere and is that rare (in London) combination of being a casual and accessible restaurant yet also high quality.

Personally I've always liked their fresh seafood selection more than the hot menu but with a sausage baguette on the menu, how could I possibly resist?



The offering is actually a sausage baguette plus french fries for £5.00 (takeaway) and on balance I think this is a good deal; Randall and Aubin's fries are hard to beat.

The sausage baguette is substantial and good quality but it's underwhelming. It's a case of the product not living up to the promise of such an appealing venue.

The 2 sausages (on the main restaurant menu they are described as pork and honey sausages) are unembellished with any herbs or outstanding flavourings. The darkness of the cooked outer casings suggest they are deep fried (perhaps alongside the fries?) rather than griddled. The addition of plain sliced tomato helps but overall there is a feeling of pallid dryness and a lack of 'oomph', flavour-wise. More delicate cooking might extract more out of the sausages.



For £5 you do get a very satisfying sausage, bread and fries combo that is hard to fault for value for money but one that is, I'm afraid, unlikely to get your taste buds excited.

3 out of 5 (1 point for the fries)

Link: Randall and Aubin

Oh no! Goodbye, Farmer Brown! (Il Castelletto, New Row)

This is a truly devastating revelation. The little known, out-of-the-way cafe that (in my opinion) served the best straightforward sausage sandwich in central London is no more.

It has been replaced by a generic 'Italian' cafe called Il Castelleto which, at the time of reviewing, had not even fully removed the old signage from its shopfront.

Once I was over the shock of Farmer Brown's demise, I decided to try the new establishment out in the hope that they had retained the same supplier of sausages:



They hadn't. I'm afraid what would once have been a delicious sandwich filled with two fat Cumberland sausages, has been replaced by a bland sarnie indistinguishable from those bought in many other Soho cafes. Microwaved at my request (because the shop's griddle had not been turned on and would have taken 5 minutes to heat up), the sausage was your usual salty, flavourless cafe fare, and the bread was no more than ordinary.

1 out of 5. RIP Farmer Brown. you will be sorely missed.

Caffe Milan, Shaftesbury Avenue

First of all, I apologize for the lack of updates recently. After a spell out of the country, I'm finally back in London and what better way to brighten up a drab, winter morning than with a sausage sarnie?

Caffe Milan is located on the Covent Garden/Soho border, a few steps from Cambridge Circus. The first impression when you walk in is how clean and modern the interior is for a cafe. The menu covers the usual bases with the addition of a small salad bar. Overall the impression is that everything seems carefully prepared, although their on-display panini look a little meagre with their fillings.



But what of their toasted sausage sandwich on brown bread? Well, the sausage is what I would call a 'catering Cumberland'. It has the speckled appearance of a well herbed sausage but lacks little in texture and flavour. It's quite generic. What can't be faulted though is generous serving of two fat sausages in each sandwich. Many establishments try to fob you off with one sausage cut into slices but not here. For £2.20 it's a good value, if unremarkable sarnie from a well-maintained establishment.

2.5 our of 5 Good value for money

Tokyo Sausage

A wonderful little video sent in to me from readers Mike & JJ.



Commuting on the London Tube is certainly nothing like this.

The awesome world of Vienesas (Chilean hot dogs)

I first heard about these bad boys from watching a show called Anderw Zimmern's Bizarre World, a food travelogue show on the Discovery Travel Channel.

Vienesas are based on a standard bun and beef sausage foundation which is then massively loaded up with toppings and condiments. By all accounts they are a very popular fast food in Chile and for me, a good enough reason alone to visit the country.

One of the most popular varieties is the Completo which is stacked with salsa verde, chopped tomatoes and mayo. Check out the website of Domino, a popular chain of hot dog restaurants in Santiago, for a full list of varieties that include such excellent names as the Dinámica, the Irlandesa, and the Rodeo.

Read more about the 'complete Completo' experience in this article by Adam Fuller from Santiago magazine.

Time to stock up on some salsa verde, methinks.

Check out the video below to see a Completo in the wild:



And watch Anthony Bourdin's take on the Chilean hot dog phenomenon on his show 'No Reservations' with a dog that actually looks excessive even for me:

A word from the Hot Dog Council

Who or what is the Hot Dog Council, you may well ask? Well...

"The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council is a project of the American Meat Institute Foundation. Established in 1994, the Council conducts scientific research to benefit hot dog and sausage manufacturers.

The Council also serves as an information resource to consumers and media on questions related to quality, safety, nutrition and preparation of hot dogs and sausages."

Check out their homepage here and be sure not to miss the video on the front page for a truly astonishing performance from Mr. Frank Furter!

Sausage and Bread is taking the summer off

There'll be no new reviews for a while as Sausage and Bread goes on its summer holidays. There'll be occasional news postings and I hope to be back in full review mode later in the year. In the meantime, do please keep sending in your tips and recommendations!

British Barbeque Festival 2009

If you're looking for something to do next Sunday, why not check out the British Barbeque Festival which is taking place at Laverstoke Park Farm‎ in Overton, Hampshire.

Plenty of country fair activities will be taking place including buffalo & hog roasts, live jazz, farm tours, bungee run and coconut shies and chefs Ashley Palmer-Watts (The Fat Duck), Eric Chavot (Captial) and Antony Worrall Thompson will be making an appearance.

The event of most interest to readers, though, is probably the British BBQ Championship: a three level (Pro, National and Novice) cook-off competition that promises to be a real treat for BBQ lovers - and no doubt some decent sausages will be available too.

Check out the official website here.

4 Market Place

Market Place is one of London's pleasant surprises. If you don't know it, it's a small pedestrianized precinct just north of Oxford Street. Within one block you go from the sometimes unbearable crowds and tacky shopfronts of Oxford Street to a little oasis of calm that's packed with decent places to eat, drink or have a coffee.

There are several restaurants and cafes to choose from but one place that's quite easy to miss is 4 Market Place.

4 Market Place is a rare thing: It's a basement cafe. If you were to walk past quickly, you might not even realize it was there. I really like the novelty of having to walk down some steps to get to the front door. It gives the place an air of clandestine exclusivity you don't often get with cafes. So it's a great shame the toasted sausage sandwich on brown I ordered didn't live up to the promising location.



It wasn't a bad sandwich, just mediocre. The sausage was quite salty and lacking in flavour. The toasted bread bland. On the plus side, the price (£1.80) was a bargain for central London. Just think what an amazing place this would be if it served really great food.

2 out of 5

Sainsbury's 8 Butcher's Choice Cumberland Sausages: Avoid!

Just a brief review of these sausages. They are half price at Sainsbury's at the moment. They should be avoided.

Grilling the 8 medium sized sausages yielded an unbelievable amount of fat (approx. half a cupful) and the cooked sausages were almost totally tasteless. Not a hint of pork and barely any of pepper. Please avoid!