About Time: You Celebrated Rosh Hashanah 2016 in LondonBy Angelica Malin
If you’re looking for a recent guide, see our Rosh Hashanah 2017 guide here. Oh, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. I love Rosh Hashanah. The apples and honey. The optimism for the year ahead. The endless amounts of sweet cake. September, with its plentiful Jewish festivals, is a very special time of the year for me. Quick religious studies lesson: Rosh Hashanah is Jewish New Year and marks the official start of the Hebrew calendar. Rosh Hashanah is a time of sugary indulgence; traditionally one eats apples and honey – to ensure a ‘sweet’ new year, as well as pomegranates. It’s a month taken over with family, feasting and fantastic excuses to eat too many treats. Here’s the top ways to celebrate Rosh Hashanah in London this year:
Breakfast
Delight in Honey, Apple + Pomegranate Oats at The Modern Pantry
What could be more celebratory than all the Rosh Hashanah traditions rolled into one glorious breakfast dish? The Modern Pantry does just that with their wonderful honey roast oats, seeds and nuts with grated apple, pomegranate, Greek yoghurt. This is one of the most beautiful, light breakfasts you could find in London, with a sweetness from the oats, crunchy seeds and lovely, creamy yogurt. The kind of creation you’ll want to eat all (new) year long.
Where: Locations here
Eat Apple French Toast at Tom’s Kitchen
The brioche French toast with caramelised apples and cinnamon cream at Tom’s Kitchen is absolute delicious. With branches throughout London, you can get your french toast fix quick and easily at Tom’s Kitchen. We love the Chelsea branch; a former pub, turned light-and-airy brasserie, it serves a cracking all-day menu as well as snazzy weekend brunch delights, like crushed avocado on toast and superfood granola.
Where: Locations here
Try Apple Pancakes at MILK Balham
Little bit of creative license, but if you order a side of honey, you’ve got yourself a apple and honey pancake stack, right there. These buckwheat pancakes with apples from Heron Valley’s orchard in Devon, apple cider vinegar posset, cider foam and puffed barley praline, are absolutely divine. All the September vibes at Balham’s favourite MILK. Prepare to queue at weekends – this is one seriously popular brunch hotspots
Where: 20 Bedford Hill, London SW12 9RG
Try Honey Toast at Counter Kitchen
Opening Monday 3rd October, Counter Kitchen is a vibrant, all-day eatery, with a focus on nutrient rich ingredients and punchy flavours for mindful foodies. The menu is kept simple to allow the natural flavours to shine through Counter Kitchen’s range of warming salads, soups and cold press juices. Serving breakfast and lunch, the seasonal menu celebrates produce at its finest – Counter Kitchen serves some great quirky breakfast dishes, including special avocado on toast with cucumber kimchee and almond butter toast topped with raw honey and cacao nib. Add a slice of apple onto that toast and you’ve got yourself a Rosh Hashanah delight.
Where: 63 Goswell Road, London, EC1 7EN
Discover New Coconut Yogurt Bircher at LEON
This autumn, LEON the Naturally Fast Food chain has added five new dishes to its menu, including a dish made in collaboration with chef and food writer Gizzi Erskine and three dishes created especially for LEON’s vegan customers. The LEON x Gizzi Erskine Chicken Satay Salad launches nationwide on September 21st priced at £6.45, alongside four other news dishes including three made especially for LEON’s vegan consumers. The new vegan overnight-oats with apples, dates, pomegranates and pistachios at LEON is absolutely divine. What could be a sweeter way to start the new year than a combination of all things Rosh Hashanah? The combination of apples, nuts and pomegranate is so delicious, and it’s a great breakfast for vegans too. Get involved.
Where: Locations here
Cake
Make Livia’s Kitchen Honey Cake
Olivia Wollenberg, healthy baking queen and founder of Livia’s Kitchen, has a fantastic recipe for honey cake on her wonderful blog I can’t wait to try. The honey cake features a gooey, oozing middle for something extra special this year, and is inspired by Livia’s memories of her mum’s honey cakes as a child. We think it’s going to be a new classic – see the recipe here.
Photo credit: Livia’s Kitchen blog
Indulge in Honey Cake at L’Eto Caffe
This is easily one of the best store-bought honey cakes I’ve ever tried in London. Take my word for it: you NEED to try this cake. Made with a traditional Russian-inspired recipe, this is the most soft, moist honey cake you’ll ever experience. You can by it by the slice in one of their London locations, as well as a whole cake to take away (£30). Six layers of honey-dipped cake, filled with sweetened sour cream. Perfection.
Where: Locations here
Taste Traditional Cakes at Carmelli Bakery
Carmelli Bakery opened in the summer of 1987 with the desire to bake kosher breads and bagels as they should be – fresh, succulent, utterly delicious and available to the surrounding Jewish community. Its popularity hasn’t wained over time, and it’s one of the most popular kosher bakeries in London! They do the most amazing special occasion cakes, including the best Rosh Hashanah honey cakes. Get involved.
Where: 126-128 Golders Green Rd, London, NW11 8HB
Devour the Apple and Cinnamon Cake at PAUL Bakery
The brand new apple and cinnamon cake at PAUL Bakery is a delight to behold. Decorated with apple roses, there’s no prettier way to start the new year. A nice one for all the Great British Bake Off fans out there! While you’re at PAUL, you must sample their thick, rich Belgian hot chocolate – it’s one of the finest in London.
Where: Locations here
Try the Apple Tarte Tatin at Black Roe
You may not think a restaurant that specialises in poke and grilled fish would do a killer apple Tarte Tatin. You would be wrong. This is easily the best Tarte Tatin I’ve ever had in London, and I know a thing or two about apple tarts (let’s just say, I’ve never not ordered one from a menu). The buttery pastry base, the sweet caramel, the soft, melt-in-the-mouth apples. This is a Tarte Tatin worth crossing London for – trust me. While you’re here, the spicy tuna poke is beyond divine.
Where: 4 Mill St, London, W1S 2AX
And the Apple Tarte Tatin at The Ninth London
The second best Tarte Tatin I’ve ever tried in London. I love literally everything at The Ninth – the French Mediterranean-style food is so, so good. Their Tarte Tatin is a massive hug on a plate, and comes with rosemary ice cream, which is really unique and goes beautiful with the sweet apple tart. A must-try. A when you’re there, try some of their veggie and fish small plates – the kale with hazelnut pesto and sea bass carpaccio are personal favourites.
Where: 22 Charlotte St, London, W1T 2NB
Cocktails
Drink The Fappening at Barsmith
Why not indulge in a delicious sweet apple cocktail to ring in the New Year? Barsmith in Farringdon does a fantastic one: toffee apple bourbon, lime and apple juice served with caramelised brown sugar top. The spirit infusions that are used to craft these cocktails go through a variety of processes. This allows the alcohol to infuse with various botanicals, plants, fruits & spices thereby creating a unique flavour. We love.
Where: Barsmith, 18-20 St John Street, Farringdon, London EC1M 4AY
Sample the London Mule at Night Jar
Everything at Night Jar is amazing, and this cocktail is no exception. Tanqueray gin, apple and rhubarb, Kamm & Sons, lime, honey, Galangal beer and stout bitters – what’s not to love? This creation at Hoxton favourite Night Jar is an absolute winner, with sweet honey cutting through the bitters and the delicious taste of apple and rhubarb together. Jewish festivals never tasted so good.
Where: 129 City Rd, London EC1V 1JB
Sip the Haig Old Fashioned at McQueen Shoreditch
Both apple and honey make an appearance in this delicious cocktail at trendy Shoreditch cocktail bar McQueen. We love this cocktail – Jack Daniel’s honey, pear cooked in honey, port, red wine and spices, fresh lemon and apple juice are all very good news together. While you’re at it, try the Soldier in the Rain with Grey Goose vodka, lychee, jasmine syrup and cucumber – it’s one of my favourites.
Where: 55-61 Tabernacle St, London, EC2A 4AA
Delight in Honey Cocktails at Company Below Soho
One for the diary. This October, Safiyah Kamara will join the team at Company Below Soho’s basement bar. Together with founder, Bonny Porter they have transformed the underground space into a botanical drinking den, serving up a menu of herbal cocktails and deep-fried bao. A brand new cocktail list will make use of house infused spirits, unusual liqueurs and natural ingredients such as, Smoke Without Fire, mezcal, aloe vera, lime, chipotle and rhubarb soda. If you’re stopping by for a pre-dinner snifter, there’s Eden’s Apple with white rum, honey, eucalyptus, lemon and apple cider shrub. Winner.
Where: Company Below, 58 Greek St, London, W1D 3DY
Events
Taste the sweetness of Rosh Hashanah with this family biscuit baking session. There’s so much honey cake about, sometimes you just want something a bit different, so make the sweet taste of the new year with a twist and a crunch! Tickets here.
