Food:"The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" at Cooke's Pie and Mash, Broadway Market, E8

A little bird flew into the apartment today. It was probably trying to escape the noisy din from three days of music in Victoria Park, bringing festival-going interlopers into the neighbourhood.

We walked to Broadway market late in the afternoon, following the path along Regent's canal, joining the strollers and cyclists lolling about. Sundays at Broadway markets are much nicer than the market day on Saturdays. This is when the cafes are free to breathe and spill tables onto the footpath.

The pie and mash shop has been taken over by a Japanese chef, but only on Sundays when the pie shop is closed. I cannot think of two things more incongruous and therefore more interesting.

"The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" at Cooke's Pie and Mash.

Handpainted watercolours adorn the exteriors

It runs every Sunday from 12pm to 9pm, serving either a set menu for £13, or takeaway bento boxes for £5.

Today's set menu: Tekkadon -- fresh tuna with rice, salad with rocket, cress, vine tomato, Hijiki with carrot and beans, Miso with clam, Pickles, Iced barley tea, or soba tea.

Isn't this the loveliest menu? 

Temple of the Golden Pavilion - set menu £13

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion specialises in Japanese home cooking. Every dish was fresh and crisp, presented beautifully. The clam miso soup was exceptionally tasty, the stock clear and sweet from the clams and not overly salty. A large bowl of soy-seasoned rice with large meaty slices of tuna sashimi. Cucumber pickles to round everything off beautifully.

Japanese wooden bowls.

It was quite a novelty for us to be having Japanese food in a pie and mash shop but the gentle, nonchalant ambiance inside the shop seemed to suggest that it was the most natural thing in the world.

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion also does catering and events. Contact details on their website.