More ugly, but delicious food

Despite coming from Hong Kong, I don't own a digital camera, nor do I want one - I think it's something to do with the trips I used to do around China with 20 other Chinese people and having to stop for pictures every 3 minutes. The only pictures I ever take are of food, and it's all done with my slightly crappy camera on my Blackberry - that's why most of the pics on this blog look a bit dodgy.

But the food in this post really were pretty ugly, but just goes to show presentation really isn't that important. Anchor and Hope on The Cut has been hailed many a time as one of London's best gastropubs, serving some very good British grub. Given their no booking policy, it is always heaving, meaning you have to get there pretty early to avoid a 2 hour wait. But the bar area is a lovely traditional pub, and they serve some interesting Polish sausages as you wait.

The main reason we go there is for their duck hearts on toast, which are the most wondrous thing. I have no idea how they cook them so perfectly - they are so soft which suggests they have been hours stewing, but yet when you cut into them they are still perfectly medium rare. I was raving about them to the couple next to us, not sure they were convinced, but it is just like the perfect combination of ducks liver and ducks breast - mmm! So good we nearly ordered some extra for dessert:

The other starter we tried was the cuttlefish risotto - this was quite unusual given that they put a little bit of chilli in there. Again, very ugly:

For mains, we had originally wanted their roast rib of beef for two, but unsurprisingly they were already out of that when we got to ordering. Never mind, as we always eat that, and it meant we had to try something new. What we both ended up with was slow roast lop with fennel and creme fraiche - we had to look up lop, and it turns out to be very cute floppy eared bunny rabbits. This was gorgeous, the fennel worked really well with the surprisingly rich meat:

Anchor and Hope does have a sister restaurant Great Queen Street which does actually take bookings and is much nearer to my house. Only reason why I prefer A&H is the duck hearts, which I've never seen at GQS. Has anyone ever seen hearts at GQS? If so, that would make me a very happy bunny...