Pizza Union, Liverpool Street

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Pizza Union is an Italian industrial style canteen near Liverpool Street serving super thin pizzas super fast all day. It is as simple as that.

The venue is busiest at lunchtime when the city workers flock in to grab their pizza before returning to the office. The open-plan, airy interior lends itself to big group outings or quick meet-ups, perhaps less ideal for an intimate date. Communal style basic tables are dressed with salt, pepper and chilli oil, the empty surface cries out for a pizza plate. After a cocktail round the corner at Discount Suit Company, Pizza Union was the perfect option to satisfy our seemingly insatiable hunger. Even on a Tuesday evening the large room was full and it had a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

You order at the counter, and when your buzzer is activated your pizza is ready to collect, just 3 or 4 minutes after ordering. The menu has a large selection of classic and creative recipes, though the staff seemed happy to cater to my additional ingredient request. Calabria is a rich and luxurious option with tomato sauce, mozzarella, mascarpone, n’duja spicy sausage and rocket, I particularly loved the flavoursome meat. We also sampled the Pepperoni with additional black olives, red onion and peppers… it was a Mediterranean dream with fresh flavoursome vegetables complemented by the intense pepperoni slices. The pizza bases are thin and tasty and cooked to perfection. I would have loved a pepper grinder for some crushed black pepper but we made good use of the chilli oil. The drinks fridge features familiar Italian beers and soft drinks, I chose a delightfully refreshing Blood Orange sparkling San Pellegrino.

Ice-cream pots are provided from Soho parlour, Gelupo, but I would recommend the authentic Dolce (a dough ring with nutella and mascarpone). Arriving warm to our table we insisted we would never be able to conquer such an epic dessert. Minutes later we were scraping the plate clean… it was indulgently delicious, served hot with a creamy chocolatey centre.

I am still marvelling at the reasonable prices… a Margarita costs just £3.95. Pizza Union is a blessing for those working in this business area; I’m a rare visitor to Liverpool Street but I will keep this great pizzeria in mind next time I’m nearby.

More information on Pizza Union here: www.pizzaunion.com

Hot on the Highstreet Week 205 – Bangkok

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Chatuchak – This weekend only market is North of uptown Bangkok. It is the largest market in Thailand covering over 27 acres with over 15,000 stalls. You can find everything here, Section 6 is particularly good for vintage finds, whilst other areas focus on accessories, jewellery, phone covers and gifts. I recommend wandering through and browsing the colourful array of goods with a freshly squeezed orange juice in hand. When you are feeling weary, stop for a 30 minute foot massage (150THB – £3).

Open Wednesday and Thursday for plants and flowers 6am-6pm, Friday for wholesale 6am-6pm, Saturday and Sunday whole market 6am-6pm. Best to get the Skytrain to Mo Chit station (exit 1) as traffic can be bad.

Propaganda – Now located in two venues (The Emporium in Sukhumvit, and fourth floor of the Siam Discovery Center) this design led boutique sells a range of intriguing items, most memorable perhaps are the witty plastic pieces, like the molar shaped stools.

MBK Center – This futuristic shiny building is home to many familiar brands both authentic and fake. If you are looking for a good quality imitation this is the place to spend your cash. 2000 stores and services spread over eight floors, it is heaven for shopaholics, and just across the walkway from Siam Discovery and Paragon shopping centres.

Almeta – Most dash to Jim Thompson House for their silk tailoring in Bangkok, however Almeta offers the highest quality luxury handmade silk and has an impressive Silk a la Carte service. Customers can choose from over 1000 iridescent silk colours, yarn types and weights. Almeta are also the creators of Lazy Silk, the only machine-washable Thai silk. If you want something tailor made try to leave time for a couple of fittings.

Find the shop on Sukhumvit 23 and walkable from Asok Skytrain station.

It’s Happened To Be A Closet – A mad and eclectic retro bohemian clothing store, that also serves as a tea room and nail salon. You could spend hours rummaging through the pretty floor-to-ceiling piles.

For more Bangkok shopping ideas, look here.

Chris Kenny: The Flowers That Did In Eden Bloom

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In a series of painstakingly constructed works using found materials (such as text cut from books, maps and abandoned landscape paintings), West London-based artist Chris Kenny examines and muses on the notion of Paradise: our attempt to define it, build it, reach it or perhaps remember it.

Rows of little wooden houses built from abandoned amateur landscape paintings are incised with the names of ideal worlds: Arcadia, Elysium, Utopia. They poignantly demonstrate the common desire to make a heaven on earth, a perfect garden, a harmonious society. Stories assembled from phrases cut from a multitude of books describe places heavenly but sinister, whilst complex floating assemblages of map fragments form circular ‘signs’ for an island or a terminus where the specific and universal are interwoven.

Kenny has exhibited with England & Co for over a decade with six solo shows to date, and has exhibited internationally including at the Museum of Art & Design, New York in their 2009 exhibition Slash: Paper Under the Knife. Kenny’s works have been reproduced in many magazines, exhibition catalogues and books, including You are Here and The Map As Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography.

More information on Chris Kenny is available from the England & Co website.

Date: 26 April 2014 – 11 May 2014

Location: PM Gallery & House, Walpole Park, Mattock Lane, Ealing, London

Cost: Free

Exhibition tour
Saturday 10 May, 2pm
Join us for an informal tour of the exhibition with artist Chris Kenny.
Free – just turn up