Morito

I live very close to Exmouth Market, it’s about a ten minutes walk from home and it’s a walk I do quite often, subscribing to the theory that walking is better for me than heavy sessions at the gym. I’ve been intrigued by the growth of the street food market here. When I worked round the corner in Pine Street, the area was heavily Italian, the church, the restaurants and Gazzano’s deli bearing witness to this street postion in the heart of “Clerkenwell Italian” life.

Now though, many new food cultures have arrived and you can finds foods from Thailand, India and much of North Africa as well as Spain and Italy. There are ferocious Sardinian sausages , peanut curries and vegetarian falafel.

I was too late last Friday to find anything left at the Moro stand and quite frankly I’m not surprised. The idea that you can eat lunch from the heritage of this wonderful restaurant and it will cost about £5 is simply amazing.

So to Morito, the tapas bar, next to the parent restaurant Moro. At 2.30pm it was quiet but still with enough buzz to make you feel this was the place to eat.

I had Padron peppers, pan con tomate, spiced lamb on aubergine puree with pine kernels, huevos rotos, a potato, egg and chorizo dish and a startlingly beautiful and sublime tasting beetroot borani with walnuts and goat’s curd.

There was hot flat bread with oil for dipping and a selection of dried spices: sumac, chilli and zatar, plus coarse salt in which to dip the oiled bread. And to finish vanilla ice cream bathed in hot expresso…….