Welcome back to Insta Stories, a column examining the London restaurant scene through the often-problematic medium of Instagram. This week’s filter is truly disappointing pizza.
News of the week
Britain may talk a good game about reducing its meat consumption, but the crowds descending on Tobacco Dock for Meatopia this weekend suggested it will take more than a dubious Byron burger to get the nation to kick its most carnal habit. Of course, Meatopia is not just about meat — there were vegetarian options, not least courtesy of charred brassica wizard Yotam Ottolenghi himself — but Instagram does not care for such subtlety. Animal protein was very much front and centre on the ‘gram, suggesting a revision may be needed to one of news media’s most famous truisms: if it bleeds, it leads the feed.
Fortunately, it wasn’t all animal carcasses. If last week was about heralding sweetcorn as the most desirable vegetable of the day — establishing The Corn Identity — then this week saw nothing less than The Corn Supremacy, as the yellow kernel cropped up in domestic and professional kitchens by the armload. Or, to put it succinctly: corn starred.
This column previously considered an aesthetic provisionally labelled ‘beans cooked in rainwater’: dishes, typically hailing from the Italian tradition of cucina povera, that act as a clear rebuke to the hyper-saturated and -stylised Instagram lewk. Think David Chang’s Ugly Delicious on steroids, basically – and give thanks for these two absolute pinnacles of the form.
One for the completists, this: the giant puffball mushroom appears to be coming into season and favour, along with other late summer fungal icons like the British cep. Scarily, autumn suddenly doesn’t feel very far away at all.
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