Food Review: A kaleidoscope of spice and fun with Home by Nico
Andy Richardson discovers zing, zang and plenty of punch along with harmonious flavours in an easy-to-assemble dine-at-home delivery.
Spring is here and it’s time to enjoy menus of easy-eating flavours. In a few short weeks, if the weather’s pleasant, barbecues will be lit and diners will get messy as they throw burgers and steaks onto the flames.
We work, however, a few weeks in advance and at the time of writing this the temperatures were so cold that the ice on the inside of the windows was complaining.
If only we could have been somewhere warm, somewhere a little bit more LA.
Step forward Home-X, a fabulous dine-at-home platform that offers a range of seriously good boxes. We’ve previously enjoyed their Haus of Bao collection of bao buns and there’s a range of other goodies that are worth ordering before they sell out.
The box is accurately described as reflecting LA’s quintessential melting pot of culture and food.
It promises a laid-back Californian with plenty of delicious street flavours.
And it delivers in spades. Designed for two, but with enough to leave a few cheeky left-overs for the following day, it’s one of the better, casual-eating boxes on the market.
As we head towards sunnier times, the range of eating out options has increased.
Restaurants are making up for lost time as they look to cash-in after the pandemic. Boxes sit alongside those, offering a super-casual way of spending time with family and friends while still enjoying the comforts of home.
Nico’s box was a delight. It comprised two sides, two mains, one starter and a dessert, though there was more than enough food to have two light meals each – the side with a starter, then the other side with the main.
Trying to plough through the whole thing in one would have been a step too far.
The flavours were delightful. Spicy and playful, they were kaleidoscopic, offering zing, zang and plenty of punch.
Tuneful and harmonious, joyous and unexpected, Home by Nico was a carnival of sweet and sour, hot and spicy, sweet and mellow.
The box had been delivered efficiently and on time and its contents were clearly labelled and easily to sort through. Dishes were a doddle to heat – mostly, bang into a pre-heated oven for 15 minutes, then serve and drizzle toppings to taste.
The Korean fried chicken with sesame and gochujang glaze was dizzyingly hot – or perhaps that’s just because I used so much of the fiery glaze.
The chicken inevitably lacked some of the crunchy texture it would have had when initially cooked, but that aside the flavours were spellbinding.
It was glazed in the hot Korean liquid then dotted with crunchy sesame seeds and thin slices of scallion.
The chicken was decent – perhaps a little dry – though the flavours were like eating a firework on November 5. No, make that a box of fireworks.
Birria beef tacos with crumbled cheese, mojo de ajo and crispy onions were scintillating.
The beef was tender, moist and packed with flavour.
It was simmered gently to heat then loaded onto hot, soft tacos before being dressed with crumbled cheese and a drizzle of the mojo de ajo sauce, which was mildly spicy.
A lime wedge was squeezed to add a dose of sour, zingy citrus then the tacos were folded and wolfed down as though we’d not eaten in four days.
They were delicious, in short, though quite how anyone could eat three of those each, plus chicken, plus sides, was beyond me.
The sides were decent. Street style corn was served with lime crème fraiche and a chipotle seasoning.
The crème fraiche dosed the fire that had come from the chipotle seasoning, providing an enjoyable balance of flavours.
The other side was a sweet potato hash with Morteau sausage. It was dressed in a chorizo hot sauce and Frenchies’ mustard.
The sweet potato was delicious and the chorizo hot sauce was one of the stand-out ingredients in the box.
The Morteau, however, was merely so-so. Morteau is one of gastronomy’s delights but there’s a huge difference between genuine Morteau and the mass-produced stuff.
This didn’t have the quality that would have made a difference and was merely enjoyable, rather than blow-your-socks-off good.
There was dessert – of course there was dessert – and it was sumptuous.
Peanut butter and jelly empanadas – is there a dessert more LA than that? – were heated until the outers were nice and crisp.
They were doused with a cinnamon sugar and then a pot of peanut butter salted caramel sauce was served alongside, hot and runny.
Here’s the thing. When I die, I want whoever’s dealing with the funeral schizzle to put a pot of peanut butter salted caramel sauce alongside me, in the box. And I am pretty damn sure I’ll wake from my slumber to dive in. It is heaven on a spoon. It is paradise in liquid form. It is the promised land and nirvana. It is the gastronomic Elysian Fields.
I would happily sack off dozens of mediocre dinners to eat peanut butter salted caramel sauce once in a blue moon. Nothing is finer. Somewhere there’s a land where the rivers run with the stuff. I’m going to find that somewhere then swim in it.
But I digress.
The salted caramel peanut butter loveliness had just a hint of mellow nuttiness, a soupcon of salt and more butter, cream and sugar than a dairy farm that’s located next to a sugar plantation.
Applaud now.
Home by Nico is a thrillingly good box. Playful and fun, it’s the sort of thing to eat with friends rather than a slap-up posh-nosh for a special occasion.
The flavours are mountainous, the process and cooking as easy as writing 150 words about the beauty of peanut butter salted caramel sauce and the value pretty damn good.
I’m going to order another one. You should too.
