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Are Fried Protein Sandwiches the Next Big Summer Food Trend?

Plus more observations and piercing insight extracted from Instagram this week

Fish finger sando at Milk
enginozger/Instagram

Welcome back to Insta Stories, a column examining the London restaurant scene through the often-problematic medium of Instagram. This week’s filter is a new one called Wanderlust.

News of the week

Filtering news through Instagram is always a curious business. A picture may tell a thousand words but it’s not exactly a brilliant vehicle for communicating broader nuance and context. Accordingly, this week’s big story — the annual World’s 50 Best announcement — was all about the winners, Shoreditch stalwarts Lyle’s and The Clove Club, in particular. There’s no denying they deserve it — few kitchens have done more to kickstart London’s second restaurant renaissance — but for Core by Clare Smyth (overseen, of course, by the “World’s Best Female Chef”) not to feature at all seems like an oversight at the very least. This isn’t the place to get into the thorny question of whether female-only lists help or hinder progress, but viewed simply through Instagram? It’s just a weird look.

Emerging craze of the week, maybe

The most recent instalment of Insta Stories drew attention to the increasing prevalence of the pork katsu sandwich as the must-have handheld accessory de nos jours. What if, though, the scope of that #trendwatch was too narrow? What if pork was just the beginning? A world in which any prime ingredient under the sun can be deep-fried with Michelin-starred precision and presented in pristine crustless white is surely one the good people of London should be excited about inhabiting. #SummerofSando?

fish finger sando sunday. back at this favourite place after years.

A post shared by Engin Ozger (@enginozger) on

Matchday pub of the week

Be honest: food-wise, major sporting events are always a major disappointment. Go to any big-screen venue and encounter exactly the same offering: stringy chicken wings, piles of nachos slowly congealing, overcooked burgers yawped down at half time. So thank Harry Kane, then, for the Marksman, offering a feasting menu that would look every bit as enticing even if the backdrop weren’t England and Belgium’s reserves fouling each other to a five-all yellow card draw.

Hashtag of the week

#invite is so last year

This were reet good #invite #freeloadingbastard

A post shared by Bob Granleese (@bobgranleese) on

Rather you than me of the week

Pity and / or props to Eater London matchmaker Emma Hughes, who this week spent six hours from 11 at night to the ungodly hour of 5am strolling the streets of Soho in search of good things to eat and drink. A quarter-century ago the Insta Stories might have been rather more lurid.

Seasonal pizzetta of the week

Rule of thumb to anyone guessing how much this costs: double it.

Whimsical beverage hue of the week

A few years ago, the story goes, Campari — the company that owns and manufactures Aperol — decided that the U.K. could be the next big success story outside the core market of Italy. Anyone living in the city at the time will remember the sudden ubiquity of marketing messages and enticing promotions; it is still remarkable that, in just a few fleeting seasons, the colour orange suddenly became synonymous with U.K. summer drinking. Cannily marketed rosé may be making a comeback, but for the time being? In THIS heat? The future’s…

Dish of the week

Again: IN THIS HEAT?

Shot / casual home cookery account of the week

Standard.

Story

199 Tooley Street, , England SE1 2JX 020 7183 2117 Visit Website

The Clove Club

380 Old Street, , England EC1V 9LT 020 7729 6496 Visit Website

Marksman

254 Hackney Rd, London, Greater London E2 7SJ +44 20 7739 7393 Visit Website

Core by Clare Smyth

92 Kensington Park Road, , England W11 2PN 020 3937 5086 Visit Website

Brilliant

72-76 Western Road, Southall , Middlesex , UB2 5DZ Visit Website