The London Particular, New Cross

Is New Cross, my 'hood, finally becoming trendy? Along a stretch of shabby looking houses, rough-looking pubs and of course our favourite nightclub, The Venue, outside of which there is a booze-fuelled chavtastic fight every weekend, a little coffee shop popped up. I gawped at it on its day of opening when I hurried past, my sights set on a bubble tea but I vowed to return to check it out. Billed as a 'bowl food cafe', it's so named after the blend of coffee they use.

On a Saturday afternoon at 1pm, it was busy; all the seats outside were taken, and the solo large communal table indoors had a spare couple of places for me and my friends. Delicious-looking cakes line the windows, and the weekend brunch menu proudly declares all its food as home made, aside from the bread. Coffee, though it took half an hour to arrive, was smooth, rich and well made.

After huge deliberation, I decided upon a bacon, halloumi and fresh tomato sandwich, with roasted garlic mayonnaise, and a side salad. This beast turned up, without the salad which appeared a few minutes later when I enquired after it. I was worried the bacon and halloumi combination would be too salty, but the tang of the tomato balanced it nicely. The mayonnaise gave a wimpish hint of garlic. Salad was of the chickpea, squash, rocket and cauliflower variety, nicely dressed with lemon.

All in all, a very good lunch. I was confused by their pricing though; the sandwich came in at a very reasonable £5, but because the sausage sandwich came with a side salad (priced altogether at £6), I assumed the bacon and halloumi would too. I was wrong, and I was charged an extra £3 for it. I ended up spending a tenner on my lunch, which caused me to raise (alright, arch) my eyebrow.

The service may be slow, but I'll forgive them that as they have only just opened. With more careful ordering, I will definitely be back; it's high time New Cross had a decent cafe.

The London Particular

339 New Cross Road
London SE14 6LA

Spicy Baked Eggs

One thing I usually make sure to do at the weekend is to take the time to have a nice proper breakfast or brunch. Weekday breakfasts consist of sad dusty bowls of miserable muesli at my desk, waiting for my email to load, or slices of slightly warm toast, bolted down while I run around the flat trying to find my keys. It makes the weekend a far more appreciated, leisurely affair.

Eggs feature heavily. They are comforting for healing the damages of Friday night beers, and they settle the stomach nicely. Recently I've taken to baking eggs in ramekins so that the whites are just set and the soft yolk oozes over the bread-dunking assault.

I went for a healthier version of the usual baked eggs with spinach, cream, butter and other niceties and made this smoky, chilli-packed version instead. A single dried chipotle chilli gave it plenty of kick with a background of smokiness that complemented the tomato well. If I wasn't still sick to death of them, this would go nicely with rice cooked with beans.

Spicy Baked Eggs

Serves 4

4 large eggs
1 tin of tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 onion
1 fat clove of garlic
1 courgette
1 tsp sugar
1 stick of celery
1 dried chipotle chilli
2 avocados
4 flour tortillas
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Dice the onion, celery and the garlic and sweat in a frying pan gently. Meanwhile, rehydrate the chipotle chilli in a little boiling water. Once the onions are golden, add the tinned tomato and the tomato puree. Chop up the chipotle chilli and cut the courgette into chunks. Add to the tomato mixture along with the tomato puree and sugar, give it all a big stir and leave to simmer for 15 - 20 minutes, until thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

When ready, spoon the tomato mixture into 4 ramekins, reserving about 2 tbsp. Crack an egg into each ramekin, carefully spoon a little more mixture on top and season lightly. Drizzle the extra virgin olive oil over the eggs. Cover with foil and bake for 10 - 15 minutes, until the whites are set and the yolk is still runny.

To serve, halve the avocados, skin them and slice thinly. Season with salt and pepper, and serve on the side. Place the tortillas under the grill until they are browned and nicely puffed up.

A Baked Egg Brunch

Brunch in my house rarely excludes eggs. Eggs are comforting, whether they're simply scrambled, softly boiled or delicately poached. A favourite brunch of mine is Eggs Florentine, especially with foaming Hollandaise but sometimes it can be too much effort, or too heart-stoppingly buttery.

I hadn't tried baking eggs before I made this. It worked well; simple flavourings, runny yolk and a toasted English muffin to scoop up the goodness. There's no set recipe as such as I'm sure you can really add whatever you like - bacon, slow-roasted tomatoes, cooked cubed potato - but here's what I did.

Baked Eggs with Spinach

Serves 1

2 handfuls of spinach
An inch of salami or chorizo, diced
A shallot
1 large free range egg
A dribble of cream or milk
A grating of cheese
Salt & pepper
Some sort of bread product for scooping
Butter

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. In a frying pan, add the salami or chorizo and fry slowly to render the fat out. Add the shallot, sliced, and fry until soft and translucent. Add the spinach and fry on a high heat until just wilted. Drain off any water, and add to a ramekin. Make a well, crack the egg into it, top with the cream and cheese with a touch of salt and pepper and bake for 10 minutes, checking often - you want the egg whites to have just set.

Toast your bread product, butter it, scoop the egg up and eat - preferably with some yolk dribbling down your chin.