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- [Nick] Heavy metal at maximum decibels
and phallic imagery are not what you expect to welcome you
at one of London's most important restaurants.
Yet that's exactly what you're gonna get
at Black Axe Mangal.
Literally every chef I spoke to in this city
told me I had to try this place.
Chef Lee Tiernan has worked and trained
at some of the city's most acclaimed kitchens,
but now at Black Axe, he's highlighting the multiculturalism
of this vibrant international city.
He does this by leaning on his passion
for British cooking tradition,
using native ingredients,
but incorporating the influences of the immigrants
that have made London what it is today.
The result is a menu that could only really exist
right here in London town.
(rock music)
Let's talk about the decor in here.
You got skateboards, Kiss on the oven,
brightly colored floral...
- There's dicks all over the floor.
- There's penises all over the place.
- It's pretty much a desperate bid for attention, I think.
- (laughing) You got this geezer right here.
- This was all just fun,
and I think the thing I'm most concerned about
when people come to Black Axe Mangal is, are they having fun?
If they're gonna come and spend some money with us,
I want them to have a (beep)ing great time.
- How would you describe the menu here?
- Just spicy, interesting, quite salty, smoky.
- Meaty.
- Meaty; it's a product of London's multiculturalism.
We get tails, tongue, kidneys, heart,
and we incorporate that into the menu over the week.
The lamb offal is baked on flatbread,
smoked potatoes inside.
We pipe lamb offal on the top.
Liver, heart, balls, kidney fat,
some of the mince from the belly,
and any off-cuts from the lambs that we get in,
cumin, black pepper, coriander, fennel, caraway.
And then we top that with yogurt, chili sauce,
sumac, shallots, and flat-leaf parsley.
- What about the ox heart?
'Cause that's something that actually
you get a lot of in England.
You really don't see it in America too much.
- It's one of my favorite things to prep and cook.
Very lean meat; there's no fat in ox heart whatsoever.
We marinate it in fish sauce, garlic, some oil.
Sometimes put a little bit of vinegar in there as well.
- When an order comes in, you're just searing it.
- Yep, sear it.
We serve it with a range of things.
Like, today I'm gonna serve it in an iceberg lettuce cup
with some AO leaves and tahini,
some Mission Chinese wing spice,
and some chili hot dog onions.
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The fun dish is smoked pig cheek.
We salt spice that up,
and then we smoke 'em for about six hours,
chill it down, take the skin off,
then slice it so you get nice, defined slices.
And then usually pan fry that,
because a lot of fat comes out of it.
You pop it in the oven as well.
It's like cooking it in a jet engine;
it really cooks quickly.
- And what does that come served with?
- A little XO slaw, white cabbage, pickled carrots,
coriander, spring onions, chili garlic,
dried shrimps, and Shaoxing wine.
- Alright, well listen,
can't hear this much about food and not eat food.
Let's get in the kitchen.
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So I didn't know what to expect
when I walked in this restaurant,
and what I have here is food
that you really can't pigeonhole.
I mean, it doesn't really fit any particular vernacular.
I'm gonna start with the heart,
because it seems the most appetizer-y
sort of salad-ly kind of thing.
If nothing else, this dish has heart, right?
Okay, here we go.
Mmmm.
It's a bit messy, but quite delicious.
What I'm really getting is
a really nice tangy rich creaminess from the sauce.
Nice snap and crunch from the pickle.
But then you get the flavor of the heart itself,
and it is a very lean muscle, but you know
by conscientiously cooking it and slicing it,
it can become tender.
I mean, it's never gonna be filet mignon,
but it's gonna have a lot more flavor.
It's a perfect thing to start the meal with
because it just puts your taste buds on, like, 11.
It's so filled with, like, things
that stimulate your senses.
The pig cheeks.
(boisterous music)
Mmmm.
This is better than 98% of pork chops
that anyone's ever eaten.
I mean, you love the flavor, you love the succulence.
I mean, this is much darker meat.
It's cooked a bit more
than you probably want in a pork chop,
but it's completely balanced out
by this lovely striated fat and meat in here.
And, actually, let's get in there
and try that little bit of gland, down the bottom.
It's a very interesting texture.
Very gelatinous.
But it's not like fat.
It's meaty, but so soft that it just wilts on the mouth.
Right, just kinda dissolves almost instantly.
This is really amped up, this slaw.
The flavors are so...
It's hard to really pigeonhole them.
I mean, ostensibly you would consider them
predominantly Asian, because there's a lot of chilis
and star anise in a lot of this.
I mean, this pork is so British-tasting.
All the great pork comes from Britain.
The original breeds of pig that we eat throughout the world,
just like beef, originates in the British Isles,
and this is just world-class pork.
The lamb offal.
So, look, classic flatbread.
I mean, really, if you think about it,
one of the first things that humans
probably ever evolved to cooking was a bread,
and then somebody probably made a flatbread,
and then threw something on it.
And it was probably animal.
- I'd just fold it up and start (bleep)ing eating it.
There you go.
(exciting music)
- Mmmm.
Ah, it's (bleep)ing great.
What I really think sort of denotes, like, high cooking,
really advanced techniques, is transformation.
Like, it hits you with one thing,
but that thing changes, and then changes again.
You get these sort of waves, or undulations.
And this is like a perfect example.
The first thing that hits you is that hot sauce.
It's really acidic, it's bright, it excites the palate.
Then you get that wave of richness from the offal.
And it's, like, mineral-y and it's tangy and funky.
And then the cilantro and the onions,
the sweetness from that,
the tang from the bread itself,
those all sort of come on,
building this sort of multidimensional layered experience,
which I'm gonna stop talking about, and have again.
The lamb offal flatbread, it is utterly sensational.
But, you know, honestly you can't go wrong
with whatever you get here.
It's just really unexpectedly vibrant, bright food.
And just a really fun environment.
And if you order the whole menu,
they'll get you drunk for free.
So, thank you so much for watching.
Click here for the next episode.
So, if you've watched the Meat Show before,
you're probably sick of me talking about
how wonderful I find the cap of the rib steak,
which is the Spinalis Dorsi muscle.
But for the new guys...
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