Marie Claire’s Fashion Features & Entertainment assistant samples the Med in Zone 1 London…
Stuck in London this Summer with little prospect of heading outside of Zone 4? If you’re like me with no holiday in sight, escaping from the office is less about heading off to Ibiza and more about trudging to Pret for your usual and scrolling through an endless amount of holiday porn from your smug friends (hot dog or legs was so two years ago, guys).
If you’re finding yourself spiraling down into a bottomless pit of no-holiday-blues, why not sack off the usual ham and egg sarnie and indulge in a taste of the Med and Middle East in Zone 1 before smugly Instagramming it.
If that sounds like your kind of social media revenge, then Sesame in the Covent Garden area is a no brainer for those making do to satisfy their wanderlust. The brainchild of the Noam Bar, one of the founder’s of achingly hip Ottolenghi, Sesame’s counter service selection of sides, sides, skewers and pittas all fit the bill and will transport you elsewhere, even just momentarily.
If you’re going to pretend you’re on holiday while surrounded by fellow disillusioned Londoners, I suggest ordering as much of the menu as is humanly possible to fit onto a tray and we did justthat. To start we tucked into two tasty and colourful salads boxes which were jam-packed and probably a meal on their own but it would be boring if we stopped just there. Inbetween dipping extra pitta breads into pots of creamy houmous and crushed peas with feta and sumac, we stuffed our faces with stuffed pittas.
It’s hard for me to eat something without meat and to not miss it but the Sabick pitta with roasted aubergine, egg and mango pickle was perfect without any…could this be the start of my vegetarian life? Most likely not, because after tasting my eating partner’s paprika and cardamom chicken pitta, I was back to my carnivorous ways.
After nibbling on a selection of their desserts – all great BTW – we sipped on our fresh mint lemonade and sat back to reminiscence about our holiday away from the office. Like with any good break away, we vowed to be back.
Sesame, 23 Garrick Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9BN