Please note that since writing this blog post, Cucina Frenzi has closed down
Please note that since writing this blog post, Madrid has closed down
It was one of those weekends that started as it meant to go on. A Friday night trip to my favourite sausage and wine place (Worst) ended several glasses deep, and one rather embarrassing andouilette story later. (To cut to the chase: we thought andouilette was related to andouille sausage. We were wrong, but we were too proud and foodie to admit it – so we gamely munched our way through an entire acrid-tasting colon.)
We woke up feeling less than sprightly, and decided to cleanse our bodies through embarking on a virtuous-sounding “Vegetarian Day”. Now, you’ll be none too surprised to hear that these don’t happen very often in House Hampton. So we set to scouring Google maps for restaurants that would sate our desire to be healthy. We came upon raw food restaurant Alchemist Garden on the Overtoom, phoned up, and were there within an hour. So far so good, except for one problem: the owner, who told us he had two staff out sick the day before, and another two off that evening (it didn’t bode well for the food) decided that he “felt like” he “might want to close”. Not really having time to wait while the planets aligned or his auras instructed him further, we left.
A couple of blocks down the road, we found Cucina Frenzi – a sort of trattoria meets workshop space meets general hippie hangout. Since when did the Oud-West get so – umm – chilled out? We ordered a vege pasta bake (which was nice when it came the second time, but cold when it came the first) and a selection of three side orders, or “Happi tappi”, as the menu referred to them. I rest my case about the hippies. My favourite “tappi” was like a cross between ratatouille and caponata with big, satisfying chunks of aubergine and tomato. The tortilla of the day was pretty decent too. The cauliflower salad with sultanas and nuts was past its best, but at its freshest would have been delicious. The wine was organic – naturally.
