Recency Bias
A plot to unseat the prime minister, and six of our favourite writers share the best or most unexpectedly delicious things they ate in the last two months.
Welcome back to Vittles Restaurants.
Today’s Six of One has a slight twist - instead focusing on the places that our writers deem worthy of far greater attention, Recency Bias asks them to simply share with us the best and/or most unexpectedly delicious things they have eaten in the last two months.
We are delighted to present K Biswas earwigging on the BBC’s Chris Mason in Westminster over Milanese with spaghetti and gamberetti, Riana Austin diving into Korean newtro culture in Islington, and the long-awaited return of Rohan Jones who travelled to Southall for methi paratha. Also: Simran Hans on Georgian food, Gavin Cleaver on kebab rolls, and MiMi Aye on Bromley! You can look forward to more Recency Bias, as well as reviews and guides in the coming weeks and months. AC
1. Sapori
On Parliament’s first day back following the Easter break, I am summoned to discuss a plot to unseat the prime minister.* Wearing dark glasses and walking with a limp, a veteran Westminster fixer takes me for supper at an unassuming Italian deli on Horseferry Road. Sapori, situated in an area saturated by chain cafés, is a safe haven. The only nearby diner exhibiting signs of life at 9pm, it greets you with bright lights and cannoli chilling in cabinets close to its entrance. Inside, two dozen black cab drivers, their vehicles lining the street outside, talk over each other’s tables while watching a Premier League match, and BBC political editor Chris Mason clutches his papers at the counter with one eye on his iPhone.
From Sapori’s varied evening menu (which includes a ‘Taxi’s Special’: pasta and a drink for £15), I chose a chicken Milanese: two tenderised, breaded cutlets bigger than a rugby player’s hands, the accompanying spaghetti upgraded to ‘gamberetti’. My interlocutor, a hard-drinking product of the trade union movement, orders penne fresh tuna with capers, olives, cherry tomatoes and a loaf of garlic bread. An upbeat, Stakhanovite waitress, coming to the end of her 15-hour shift, brings over our massive plates within five minutes, along with two giant glasses of Sangiovese.
Following espressos and a cool slab of tiramisu, we file through the exit behind the cabbies, who are anticipating a stream of fares into the early hours. In search of a nightcap, our gossip not quite exhausted, we have a brandy at the nearby Marquis of Granby, outside which Westminster’s New Right are congregated. Braying hoorays and women with impossibly low voices chunter on about drone manufacturing, while fedora-wearing, moustachioed GB News contributors and unnerving Americans jostle for attention from Reform’s latest high-profile defection. On a screen through the window, Mason appears, harried and wan, delivering his Ten O’Clock News piece to camera, as I ponder a return to Sapori in the morning for breakfast. K. Biswas
60 Horseferry Rd, SW1P 2AF
*This entry was written three weeks ago. As of the time of writing Keir Starmer, just about, remains prime minister after attempts to unseat him. We will know soon whether this particular plot was successful or not and what role the ‘Granita Sapori dinner’ played.
Behind the paywall: Korean dabangs, Georgian aubergine, parontay in Southall, dim sum in Bromley, and a new Bermondsey opening from Dishoom dark kitchen defectors.
You can subscribe to Vittles for £7/month or £59 for the whole year, which gives you access to restaurant recommendations from the last six years, including the Six of One map.