Oh my DAYUM!

Satisfying a craving at the local burger and hot dog joint...

Sometimes you just need a milkshake. Maybe it's cause milkshakes are so damn tasty or maybe it's because your body realises it's lacking in calcium and responds by sending out this cravings. Who am I to argue?

Bank Holiday Monday was such a day. I needed a milkshake and having previously spied people at our local Five Guys enjoying one in the their window seats, I knew where we had to go. One thing to note though... not all Five Guys locations actually serve milkshakes so don't be demanding to see the shakes if it's not on the menu. (there's a big red and white saying 'MILKSHAKES' so it's not hard to miss) Checkout the locations that serve milkshakes here.

Ok, so the 'milkshake' ended up being a bacon and cheese hot dog all the way, fries AND a milkshake meal but hey... you have to grab a moment with both hands when it presents itself!

I've always been a fan of the Five Guys burger and never steered from it because really... what else would you eat at a burger joint? Perhaps I was crazed by the upcoming milkshake or just feeling risky but we went for the hotdog to share. (NOTE: we only wanted a small meal hence the sharing but if you're feeling hungry you can tell your other half to just get their own!) I was thoroughly impressed. Ultimately it still tastes the same as the burger as all the fillings are the same but the hot dog itself was a lovely surprise. It still had the texture of a hot dog but at least not that floury/mushy texture you see in other encased meats. It actually tasted like it had previously been an animal! The fact it was also a little smoky only added to the overall taste and yes... satisfaction.

What about the milkshake you say? Well that was dayum good too! There's about 10 different flavours (ranging from chocolate to strawberry to oreo pieces to peanut butter to coffee and more!) to choose from and even better... you can mix as many of the flavours you want. I went for a peanut butter coffee and the other half strawberry and let's just say there were some slurping and not a drop left by the end. The flavours were obvious and tasty (the strawberry having chunks of strawberry in it!) and the texture? Just right... It was not too milky/runny and not too thick. Just right. At £4.50 a serve it's a little on the pricier side but dayum it's worth it.

Will we be having the hot dog and shakes again? No doubt about it. The only thing will be building enough self restraint to not just 'pop' in on my way home from work... Just keep walking! Don't make eye contact!

For a bit of fun and addictive singing nothing beats this little ditty! Try and stop a smile forming on your face!

Easy Peasy... Vietnamesey?

Cooking up a typhoon...

Christmas Day 2014 I opened up a pug Christmas card (of course) from the other half to discover a cooking class for 2 at Jamie Oliver's Recipease. I was excited. I guess he got the hint after I said 'Oh I want to go there!' every time we walked past. (living in Notting Hill at the time, it was quite a few!)

Recipease offers quite a number of different classes from Indian to Mexican to bread making to knife skills and everything in between. We opted for the Vietnamese Street Food for something a little different... and maybe we were feeling the need to be a little 'healthy' at the time...

So early on a Saturday evening we headed to Notting Hill excited for what we would be cooking then eating in a matter of hours.

On the menu was:

• Pork balls (more like triangular pyramid)
• Summer rolls
• Beef pho
• Dipping sauce

The session we took was a 'bring a friend and get £5 off' deal which meant that each board/cooking station was shared by a couple. With 14 stations this meant a total of 28 people which made things a little on the squishy side. So make sure you go with someone you really like!

Starting with a glass of prosecco each, the lesson kicked off with a demonstration for the first, part of the second and fourth item on the list then sent off to our work stations to get on with it. All the ingredients in their necessary quantities are laid out so there's no need to worry about remembering exact measurements etc. We were lucky in that our recipes were relatively easy (chop everything into slivers and mix together) but I would hope a bit more guidance would be given to more difficult ones. (you do get a copy of the recipes sent to you via email after the class so you can recreate at home if wanted!)

While our pork balls are put on the fry we regroup once again for our final demonstration of the summer roll assemblage then a discussion of the beef pho. Due to the nature of the beef pho stock there would not have been enough time to make this from scratch so we are left to assemble the bowl and present to the teacher for her to provide the stock.

Once everything is cooked, assembled and done you then take a seat and enjoy your meal together! Was it all tasty? I would say the pork balls were the favourite having the most flavour but the summer rolls were a nice fresh flavour to cut through any grease/heaviness.

My thoughts overall?

• Though fun, I'm not sure I came away with any great new skills or recipes I couldn't find online. Not sure it was worth us spending £45 each for the class? 
• It was a little rushed/slapped together as there weren't enough utensils for every couple nor did we have all the ingredients we needed. This could have just been the one off but not only had we sat down to enjoy our meal for 5mins when I turned around and all the work stations were already half converted for the Mexican class due to start in a few minutes.
• I'd be willing to give it another go but maybe go for their '2 for 1 Tuesdays' which means a total spend of £51 rather than £90!

--------------------------------------------

Recipease can be found at:

92-94 Notting Hill Gate
London W11 3QB
T: 020 3375 5398

E: hello@recipease.com

Opening hours:
Mon - Sat: 8am - 10pm
Sun: 9am - 9pm

Coming up this week...

... w/c 25th May

Welcome back from the Late May Bank holiday weekend.. hope you had a good one and not suffering too much...

Tuesday 26 May, 8pm 

Pitch Perfect 2

I have lost count how many times I've seen the first one so I can only hope the second is just as good.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Thursday 28 May, 7:30pm 

Dinner @ La Polenteria
A 2 Course Meal with a glass of Wine Each for Two at the lovely price of £21 through Amazon Local deals!

I love a good deal and I love polenta. Here's hoping it's a match made in heaven. Polenta yummy heaven.

Image courtesy of la Polenteria

Sunday 31 May, 12:30pm 

Into the Woods afternoon tea @ sketch
sketch has teamed up with Disney's musical film Into the Woods, to create a limited edition run of its Afternoon Tea...

Only available from Monday 18th May - Sunday 7th June.

Image courtesy of sketch

See you all out there!

Sponge Cake Friday!

Who can say no to cake delivery?

We at work recently got introduced to Sponge, a cake delivery company. We were lucky enough to benefit with a slice of cake due to the birthday recipient being out of the office on the date of delivery. Sucks to be him, lucky us!

On that occasion we had a whole cake that had 4 options within it. The sharing option - a different flavour for each quarter. What better way to battle the 'not everyone agrees on the same cake dilemma'?!

Photo courtesy of Sponge

Photo courtesy of Sponge

The cakes are ginormous (i.e. tall and substantially sliced), surprisingly moist and delicious considering it has been in the post! They're also quite reasonably priced! There's a wide variety of options available ranging from classics to the quirky and the seasonal special - check them out here in the 'Meet the Family' section down the bottom. They even do gluten free! I didn't get a photo of the cake the last time as we kind of ate it quite quickly... ahem. Moving on...

Today however, there was a surprise delivery as there was a deal on! 8 baby cakes for £9.99 rather than the usual £17.99. Thankfully our lovely colleague didn't say no! So in the post came 8 different little cakes individually wrapped and boxed. What a way to start a bank holiday weekend.

I went for the coffee option (obviously) and thankfully the friend who also likes a coffee cake as much as I do was out of the office so no altercations evolved.

Happy Friday and here's to the next delivery! (Sponge Friday is an ACTUAL event in our calendar... Talk about commitment to the cause!)

Simply Craftacular!

Craft + Cake + Crafty Friend = Good Times

When it comes to crafty markets and talk of cake availability it's not often you won't see me at said event. Highly likely (read: definitely) eating a piece of cake in the corner. So when I saw the BUST Magazine Summer Craftcular advertised I rallied my nearby crafty friend and made a date.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon we headed for the bunting decorated York Hall in Bethnal Green and lined up to get in. First 100 received a goody bag so it's no surprise there was a huge line looping around the corner.

Surprisingly I didn't balk at the £3 entrance fee so we happily paid, got stamped and made our way in. In a large hall (reminds me of awful gymnastic classes in our school gym) were laid out 2 aisles of crafty sellers. In the corner was a pop up Drink, Shop & Do cafe and up on stage were crafty workshops.

Cake from Drink, Shop and Do

We jumped straight in perusing away, both with hopes of finding to take home. I've been to a number of these craft fairs before and I am very glad to say that the majority of stall holders, if not all, were actually new to me. You work the craft circuit long enough you start to see familiar faces and items so it was a lovely surprise.

I won't go into detail of every single stall as we'd be here all day but enough to say there were a wide variety, many well priced and most of a very high quality! We both came away with a print (2 for my friend plus a sandwich purse!), a belly fully of cake (coffee and walnut for me, choc and vanilla for the friend) and a smile on our face.

Here's to the next one! Fingers crossed it's not too far away...

Lovely print from Scout Editions

Survival of the Yummiest...

Dining adventure amongst the clouds...

Following on from our Sky Garden experience, we visited Darwin for a bit of (semi) fine dining.

When trying to decide which of the 2 restaurants at the Sky Garden we would go to, 2 things made the decision:

• cheaper
• menu looked tastier

We were not disappointed! Well... maybe on the final bill as it ended up being more than expected but that's probably more down to the other half having a splurge than the meal itself! (note to self: always double check other half isn't having a £26 dish when you're eating on a budget!)

Important things to note from our time there:

• Our waiter looked like JGL. Yeap, Joseph Gordon Levitt. 'nuff said.
• Speaking of service, it was amazing and we totally gave the guy a well deserved proper tip! (not because he looked like JGL)
• The food was pure and simply delicious. All of it... bread basket, shallot tart, risotto, lamb, dessert, even the £26 lamb, it was worth it!
• They have a dessert called Knickerbocker Glory. It's ever so tasty and with all that fruit has got to be healthy. Right?
• The view - pretty damn good! Even if you are set a little bit back and there's more glass to look through.

Would we go back? Yeap - already planning on taking the family there when they come to visit. Plus it would be nice to see it during the day or when the sun is rising... Or just try the Sunday brunch... Or see JGL. I mean, eat the amazing food. Ahem.

Here's a photo of a teeny tiny mushroom. Look how cute it is! (and delicious!)

---------------------------

Find the Darwin Brasserie at:

Level 36, Sky Garden 

20 Fenchurch Street
London EC3M 3BY
T:0333 772 0020
E: restaurants@skygarden.london

Opening Hours:
Breakfast:
Mon - Fri: 7am - 10am
Sat: 8am - 10am

Brunch: 
Sun: 11.30am-3.30pm

Lunch:
Mon - Sat: 11.30am - 4pm

Dinner:
Mon - Sat: 5.30pm - 10.30pm
Sun: 5.30pm - 8.30pm

Coming up this week...

... w/c 18th May

Things in the calendar this week:

Tuesday 19 May, 7pm 

Mad Max: Fury Road

Everyone's heard about it... Everyone's been hyping about it. I'm ready to be blown away.

2 things to note:

• You apparently don't need to have seen any of the other Mad Max films (since when were there that many?!) to appreciate this one. (i.e. Me!)
• Vue Cinemas have up to 1/3 off adult ticket prices on Tuesdays - get onto it here!

Photo courtesy of IMDB

Wednesday 20 May, 7:30pm

Restaurant Week @ Heddon Street Restaurant

3 Courses for £26 - checkout the menu here.

Photo courtest of GordonRamsay.com

Saturday 22 May - Monday 25 May

Bank holiday weekend away @ Spring Park, Cornwall

Staying in lovely The Duchess... can't wait for some quality time with the other half and some well deserved R&R!

Photo courtesy of Spring Park

See you all out there!

There is a Garden in the clouds...

Sky High...

Located 42 floors above the city of London, Sky Garden is a stunning public garden that is best of all, free!

How is this possible you ask? Just book your visit (do it here) within the coming 2-3 weeks and a specific time (in 15min blocks) to go up. I coincided mine to the estimated sunset of the day we were going but alas... the clouds thwarted my plans.

Don't go too early as you'll only be able to go up within minutes of your designated time. Remember to bring your ticket or have it accessible on your phone and be prepared for airport style security checks. (ok, maybe not so intense but you do have to go through a metal detector)

From there, you ride the lift up and come upon the Sky Pod Bar. Let's ignore the view for a moment and focus on the bar - the cocktail menu is diverse, ever changing and interesting and unlike other cocktail bars left me with the tough decision of what to pick as there were so many I wanted to try!

The execution was expertly, presentation top notch and the taste delicious. Didn't have to sit and nurse this one! (yes I licked the sugar and cinnamon off the lid when no one was looking)

But what about the garden? What about the view?

The garden is lovely and actually landscaped in a way to allow rest or hiding spots as you ascend the stairs. The floor to ceiling glass ensures you don't miss even a bit of the view.

As for the view. Well that's just fantastic. Even more so as the sun sets and the lights across London start to sparkle. No need to go into too much detail, the photos speak for themselves...

Keep an eye out on the Sky Garden website as they've now started Sky High Music Sessions where not only DJs entertain the visitors but also live bands and acoustic sets. Get your toes tappin on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday eve.

Would we go back? Absolutely. It's definitely something impressive to show the out of towners (just don't tell them about the free bit!) and to see the ever changing London landscape through the day and seasons. If you're intending to just spend the night having a bevvy or few then do try to book a table else fight it out like the rest of us or awkwardly stand waiting to pounce on the first available to come up.

Stay tuned for the review on the Darwin Brasserie where we had dinner after checking out the garden and views.

-------------------------------------------------

Sky Garden can be found at:

20 Fenchurch Street

London EC3M 3BY
E: info@skygarden.london

Opening Hours:

Mon - Fri: 10am - 6pm (last booking slot 4.30pm)
Sat - Sun: 11am - 9pm (last booking slot 7.30pm)

Go West!

OpenTable launches London West End Restaurant Week...

Photo courtesy of OpenTable

When?

13 - 24 May

Where?

Over 70 restaurants of varying fanciness in and around Mayfair and Soho.

What?

Some restaurants have special set menus, others have deals while others are a percentage of the bill.

Checkout the full list of available restaurants here and get booking! We've booked in to Heddon Street Kitchen for next week...

Coming up this week...

... w/c 11th May

Things in the calendar this week:

Wednesday 13 May, 6:30 PM 

Urban Lab Films: Cities After Hours

UCL are running an evening of screenings and discussions about the inequalities of the city at night, from those who work, those who unwind, and those who sleep rough.

AV Hill Lecture Theatre, UCL Medical Sciences Building, Malet Place WC1E 6BT

Saturday 16 May

Vietnamese Street Food cooking class @ Recipease

Cooking class at Jamie Oliver's very own cooking school!

92-94 Notting Hill Gate, W11 3QB

Sunday 17 May, 12-6pm

BUST Summer Craftacular

Featuring over 70 crafty vendors – including the Drink, Shop & Do pop-up café and craft beer bar, DJs and DIY workshops.

£3 entrance fee.

York Hall, 5 Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PJ

Sunday 17 May, 12 - 6pm

BMW LSO Open Air Classics

An annual free, open-air concert in London’s Trafalgar Square. Key thing to remember, get there early to nab your picnic space or you'll be squished or worst... standing the whole time!

Fingers crossed the weather holds!

Och Aye!

More than whisky and haggis...

Edinburgh has always been on my list of places to go but for some reason it just kept getting pushed down the list as other more 'exciting' and foreign places came up. All of a sudden, all my friends and colleagues were going so I thought... I'm not being left behind, I'm going too!

So... mid April the other half and I headed up north for 4 rather awesome days...

Things to do:

• Arthur's Seat - I whimpered, I took breaks and I almost cried but I got to the top and boy was it worth it. Don't miss this! Just try to get there early to avoid the tourists. 

• Underground City of the Dead Tour - I'm not easily scared but this one had me shakin! I'm not sure if it was more me working myself up or if there really was something down there but there you go. Others have called it naff but that's for you to decide!
• Scotch Whisky Experience - actually fun and informative! It's amazing how much you learn to appreciate whisky when you've had the good stuff! You get a free taste and a glass to boot!

Places to eat:

• Lovecrumbs - cakes and brownies and tarts and cakes. Did I mention amazing cakes? The menu changes on a daily basis so it's ok to go more than once...

• Mary's Milk Bar - gelato and chocolates. Perfect for an afternoon visit... or on the way to dinner... ahem.
• Mimi's Bakehouse - there's a couple of locations but you have to go to the big one in Leith to have the AMAZING French toast. You'll need to walk it off but dang it was worth it!

• The Pantry - go for brunch and try the whole menu. (with a slice of cake at the end!)

• Oink - hog roast roll. Need I say more? Perfect for those mid afternoon hunger pangs...

• Scran and Scallie - amazing pub with Michelin star chefs/owners. Food was delicious, service was top notch, drinks were a delight - you can't go wrong!

As probably rather obvious... I may have planned our trip around places to eat... Never a bad thing in my books!

We stayed at a lovely airbnb right off the Royal Mile - it was sweet, convenient and affordable. Can't really complain! (especially with a big bottle of beer and shortbread cookies as a treat)

Would we go back again? Yes. It's just one of those lovely cities you keep coming back to as there's so much more to eat and drink! (a little like London with less people (& tourists) and everyone is happier and nicer)

P.S. don't feel bad if you come home with more than 1 tartan inspired item. I came back with a stole, a blanket and a Christmas ornament! What can I say... It's hard to fight the tartan!

*crickets chirping* *tumble weed rolls by*

So things have been a little quiet... since September 2014...

Lots of food have been eaten, things have been done, places have been visited but I've been a little preoccupied and not had the chance to write them.

Never fear! (to my 5 readers out there... Hi Mum!) I am back and I've got a back log of exciting places to try!

Stay tuned... more to come soon...