Dress / Urban Outfitters
Shoes / Mango
Monday, 17 October 2016
Thursday, 13 October 2016
MIRRORED
Sunglasses / Quay Australia
Jacket / 5Preview
Shirt Dress / Warehouse @ House Of Fraser
Shoes / Boohoo
Tuesday, 11 October 2016
A VEGETARIAN FEAST @ MILDRED'S
Being a non-meat eater has become increasingly accepted and catered for in London's restaurant scene. While a few years ago you may have been faced with the dreaded decision between a sad looking filled pepper or yet another limply flavoured mushroom or butternut squash risotto, most restaurants in this town nowadays, regardless of cuisine, make an effort to serve up something decent to their vegetarian or in my case pescatarian diners, some of course more successfully than others -Morito and Berber & Q deserving a special mention here for their consistently fantastic meat and vegetarian options which take equal pride and place on their menus in terms of flavours, execution and attention to detail.
A whole other ball game are restaurants that cater for vegetarians and vegans only. Yes, these days many of them are almost militantly focused on the whole clean eating thing, selling you £5 energy balls which for me are never going to do it when I can have a real sweet treat for probably the same amount of calories but with less faux health claims attached, and ultimately end up serving food that just doesn't have that treat yourself factor to it. Eating out after all, at least in my eyes, is an experience, it allows you to eat food you don't enjoy every day for reasons of time, skill and also in most cases to not end up looking like the size of a house, and just because no meat is involved doesn't mean that exactly that experience can't take place.
Mildred's indeed manages just that, in fact they have been doing so for over 20 years now, serving up comforting and delicious vegetarian and vegan dishes, often reinterpreting traditionally very meat heavy options for hungry Londoners. I first went to Mildred's in what must have been my first year of uni in London, it always featuring right at the top of veggie friendly places to try in London. And these lists weren't wrong- I was instantly taken by their original Soho branch. Though slightly crammed and with a wait for a table almost certain no matter the time or day, it won me over with it's warm service, big portions and undoubtedly delicious food, particularly their almost infamous sweet potato fries with creme fraiche dip making me come time and time again. I even made it a habit to take keen carnivores there to prove to them that Mildred's pie may lacked the steak but made up for it with buckets of flavour and beautifully cooked juicy mushrooms and meant I only ever left with happy diners afterwards that vowed to cut down their meat consumption not because I lectured them but as they simply had not missed it as part of their meal.
However as I moved East and started to avoid central London's crowds at weekends, especially as I was now working full time, my visits to Mildred's became less and less frequent with my last dinner there over 2 years ago before my most recent visit. In that period Mildred's only seemed to have gained popularity, no doubt also benefiting from the increased focus on healthy eating and obsession of showcasing exactly that lifestyle via social media in recent years, eventually resulting in them becoming a bit of a mini chain, opening two new restaurants serving their veggie fare alongside the original Soho branch, one of them around the corner from me in King's Cross and one in Camden by the hustle and bustle of the market.
As my luck would have it when I had a sudden brainwave to re-visit to Mildred's the King's cross branch, located closest to me, was, of course, shut for maintenance and meant that we trekked all the way to Camden, admittedly not where I usually tend to hang out, on a Sunday for an early dinner.
I will say right from the onset that in my experience as restaurants expand into having several locations a little bit of the initial magic of what made the original restaurant so special inevitably gets lost, everything becoming well...a little formulaic and with Mildred's this was at least to some extent sadly also the case- everything that worked so well in Soho applied here in an attempt to create an equally successful dining experience with even most of the menu not too different to what I chose from many years ago.
That is not to say we didn't have what I would deem a good dinner. The dining room is lovely, a little more spacious than the Soho one with staff well trained and more than capable of dealing with dietary requests and queries. As I said the menu is also still full of the classics that made me fall in love with Mildred's in the first place and some new additions like the fantastic rose harissa hummus with pine nuts, spicy tempeh and chargrilled flatbread and the halloumi, panfried and served with chilli jam and leeks, are excellent albeit tiny starters (£7 for three small pieces of halloumi simply unacceptable in my eyes). Which brings me to the my main objection at this new incarnation of Mildred's - prices have gone up significantly and portions have shrunk. Whilst once upon a time one of their star mains, the veggie burrito filled with black turtle beans and squash and topped with cheddar cheese, sour cream and guac, was a delicious and generously filled wrap that left you suitably stuffed, I couldn't help but note its sad size and lack of toppings on this occasion, the extra sour cream I asked for upon it's arrival not adding much in terms of quantity and coming with a £2 price tag as I was shocked to discover as the bill arrived. The same was true for the sweet potato fries I used to dream about, while costing the same as in the "olden days" now appearing to be half their original size and no longer the massive chunks you couldn't wait to devour with some dip.
Ultimately everything still tasted absolutely delicious, yes, and for someone that hadn't been to Mildred's pre-expansion it would have no doubt received only praise across the board. Heck I would still fully recommend a visit to any of the three branches for anyone wanting to please vegetarians and vegans alike yet also fully satisfy carnivores willing to be meatless for the eve with it's warming and crowd pleasing selection of dishes. However where a lot of restaurants formally not too welcoming towards vegetarians have moved with the times and provide menus and use culinary inventiveness that ultimately result in no one being excluded in their dining experience, meat eating or not, Mildred's has remained a little static, applying an originally great concept to new locations without the heart and soul that made it such a favourite of mine when I first stumbled across it.
Monday, 10 October 2016
Thursday, 6 October 2016
Monday, 3 October 2016
Thursday, 29 September 2016
Tuesday, 27 September 2016
AFTERNOON TEA @ BETTY'S YORK
Afternoon tea is one of the few British traditions I can fully get on board with. You may not find me lusting after a Sunday roast, particularly as nut roasts have so far failed to impress me as none meat eater, or see me craving a Cadbury's chocolate bar- let's all take a second here and appreciate how much better German and Swiss chocolate is, and don't even get me started on the idea of a pie or pasty, but I will never turn down a scone with clotted cream and jam and some fine finger sandwiches which is why I was more than a little bit excited to sample one of the most renowned afternoon teas out there - the one served at Betty's beautiful tea room in York's historic centre.
Yes, I may still not get the whole drinking tea thing, on this occasion switching to champagne after a couple of sips of a, don't get me wrong, lovely rose tea, but it is the whole fanfare, tradition and etiquette that surrounds this most English of tradition that, alongside the delicious finger food served as part of it, makes it so appealing to me.
I've had a few afternoon teas in my time already. These have however so far all been in London and with a decisively modern twist in their execution ( from a high fashion themed one at the Berkeley to a French leaning one at Sketch) which is why my lovely friend Maddie, who I stayed with during this weekend getaway to Yorkshire, warned me that Betty's would be serving a little bit more of a traditional and quintessentially English afternoon tea compared to my previous experiences.
For avid readers of the blog this of course is not the first time I have written about Betty's, I in fact already becoming enchanted with the old school interior, excellent service and delicious macaroons of their Harrogate tea room on my last visit up north. That experience in fact made me desperate to return, a place that after all has been serving the public with its afternoon tea since 1919 definitely one to add to the culinary bucket list which is why, dressed up to the nines, Maddie, her mum and I made our way to their York cafe for Ladie's afternoon tea on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
Not that we made it particularly easy for them to impress us. Maddie being lactose intolerant and me not eating meat would have seen a lot of other places respond rather rudely to our dietary requirements, let alone creatively work around them to still present us with a fantastic afternoon tea experience, but Betty's rather impressively managed just that.
In fact once we were seated in the slightly 70s leaning but all the better for it upstairs tea room (think printed carpets and cushioned wooden chairs), a pianist playing soothing harmonies for the duration of our stay, we were treates like kings by a brigade of absolutely wonderful waitresses in their meticulous uniforms, almost it seemed capable of reading any wish from our lips before we even got the chance to voice it.
After carefully choosing our tea, being talked through everything on the menu, the food began arriving, each of us presented with an individual stand of savoury and sweet goodies perfectly tailored to our needs, an attention to detail and wish to satisfy their diners that was like nothing I had ever experienced before. For Maddie that meant a selection of goats cheese sandwiches, a miniature pork and apple pie and dairy free prawn salad, followed by a dairy free scone that almost brought her to tears, so happy in such an esteemed place to be served what they are so famous for and she thought she wasn't going to be able to enjoy. Her patisserie pieces were replaced by a lovely bowl of summer fruit in a berry sauce with floating meringue pieces and a rather large dairy free chocolate coin. Managing to make a meal, if we can call it that rather than an afternoon indulgence, that is nearly completely made out of some kind of of dairy enjoyable for Maddie showed true commitment to excellence and though it may have been around for nearly a hundred years highlights how Betty's has managed to move with the times in order to successfully offer an afternoon tea that caters for all, allergy issues or not.
My stand was equally fantastic, the smoked salmon, cream cheese and dill roulade, served on a wholemeal croute gone in seconds and the goats cheese and caramelised onion sandwich so good that we all ordered seconds for the table. The scones were out of this world, no doubt the best I have ever had and of a crumbly almost shortbread like consistency without being too heavy. Where some afternoon tea's may think a big scone will impress with its opulence, the two types served here, sultana and Yorkshire lavender to be precise, alongside heavenly jam and clotted cream were perfectly sized bites of heaven that won't send you into a dough coma.
The highlight for me however was the patisserie layer of my little Betty's tower, a beautiful medley of a cream filled berry meringue with a white chocolate lattice, a cinnamon and apple macaroon that tasted like the essence of autumn with just the right amount of chew and a delectable coffee Religieuse. Though only bite sized, this is what I imagine Mary Berry would call patisserie perfection, not only beautiful to look at but a pleasure to eat.
Water and tea were constantly topped up and replenishments offered, always discreetly, extremely friendly and with a composure that I don't think you are going to find in a lot of places in this day and age. Heck even a stray pigeon that somehow managed to find her way into the upstairs tea room and decided to interrupt service for a few minutes couldn't stop this exceptional level of customer service - in fact our hostess for the afternoon rather bravely eventually catching it before coming over to us to apologise once more whilst we wanted to only applaud her for her bravery!
If you ever get the chance to visit one of Betty's tea rooms please go! This kind of place is a living piece of culinary and social history that is worth celebrating, an old school way of customer service that we rarely experience in our fast paced, getting everything as cheap as possible dining out environment, which nonetheless manages to serve fantastic and clever food that is far from outdated. This type of place is at the essence of what has made Britain so passionate about baking and afternoon tea and goes some way in explaining our obsession with shows like the Great British Bake Off. For me Betty's can truly be seen as a national treasure that everyone should have the pleasure of eating and drinking tea at at least once in their lives. I may never be fully British but oh boy for Betty's afternoon tea I will sure as hell give it my best shot!
Monday, 26 September 2016
Thursday, 22 September 2016
Wednesday, 21 September 2016
RECENT EATS - BEST THAI IN LONDON
Sometimes a bad food experience can manage to put you off an entire cuisine. With me that was very much the case when it came to Thai food. A very, very bad Pad Thai eaten many years ago and the, in my head at least, apparent dominance of lemongrass in their dishes which I can't stand meant that I had successfully managed to avoid this particular country's food for a good few years.
Getting older, wiser and more experimental when it comes to my food I eventually ended up eating dinner at the rather lovely Zaap in Leeds which just so happened to serve me up an incredible prawn Pad Thai that made me completely rethink my perception of Thai food, in fact surprising me so much with it's fresh, zingy and new flavours that I couldn't help but wanting to explore more of what Thai food had to offer now that I had finally looked passed my initial reservations.
Yes of course there are plenty of bad Thai takeaways in London, much like you get terrible Chinese and Japanese offerings, however I was lucky enough to find two real gems that have seen me slowly but surely branching out from my initial and rather safe noodle orders, though they remain my staple hangover choice, to things I would have never imagined choosing to eat only a few years back. Whether you are a fan of Thai food or not, these two places serve pretty fantastic food at good prices and are worth stepping out of our your food comfort zone for!
MODERN THAI SMALL PLATES @ SOM SAA
A stones throw away from Spitalfields market, on the formerly rough but now increasingly gentrified Bethnal Green rather than Shoreditch end, you'll find Som Saa and it's exposed brick dining room. Yes, a lot about Som Saa is unarguably text book hipster - the no bookings policy that means more often than not having to wait an hour or longer if you show up any later than 6pm (we got there at 5:45pm and still waited for 25 minutes), the small plates sharing concept, meant to help you explore a wealth of flavours but in reality resulting in a bill that very quickly adds up to quite a bit, and of course the cool and striped back interior BUT that is all kind of ok and bearable because the food served here is simple fantastic. In fact the queues have only built up since its opening because every restaurant critic worth her or his name has given this place a rave review (most recently my favourite restaurant critic The Guardian's Jay Rayner) and rightly so. Everything we sampled blew my mind and was not your typical Thai takeaway style dish either.
The menu is split into several sections like wok, curry and grill and with 4 to 5 dishes between two people recommended you get to try a little bit of each. Though a lot of the menu is meat heavy and I would like to see a few more completely vegetarian options, there was plenty for us to choose from even with my none meat eating. Highlights were the yum makeua yao, a grilled aubergine salad with egg and prawn floss, adding a slightly acidic note to this vegetable that made it taste like nothing I ever quite had before in the best of ways, and the incredible gaeng baa pla, a jungle curry with daily fish, thai aubergines, holy basil and wild ginger, that blew mine and my dining companion's head away with its chilli power and spice combination, beautifully married with silky chunks of white fish and other herbs. Everything is served with fragrant sticky rice that proved too good to resist for soaking up juices even for someone that usually isn't a massive fan of rice like me.
Cocktails were equally delicious, taking classic drinks and giving them a Thai twist without going into the gimmicky- my 'bamboo planter’s punch' for example a refreshing and fragrant mix of Jamaican rums, guava juice, pandan syrup and lime that was way to easy to drink while my friend's 'dragon’s milk' a sweet concotion of sticky rice rum, kahlua, coconut cream, condensed milk, salt, sesame presented itself as one of the best creamy cocktails I have ever had.
Yes, you may have to wait for a table and not all dishes were flawless, one let down was the pad pak, a limp mix of veg that could have easily been eaten out of a plastic container and made at a below average Chinese takeaway, but overall where Som Saa tries to push the boundaries with traditional Thai food it thrillingly and exceptionally succeeds with a modern and elegant touch that few newly opened restaurants these days manage to have. I will be back to explore more of the menu and am even prepared to endure a bit of a wait to secure a seat here, a commitment I rarely make in London unless the food is truly worth it.
EXCEPTIONAL THAI FOOD DELIVERED TO YOU @ ROSA'S THAI CAFE
Though I am yet to eat at one of Rosa's five London restaurant locations I can fully vouch for the exceptional quality of food that they serve up, it having quickly becoming my takeaway of choice since it became available on Deliveroo. Why? Well the husband and wife duo that started this mini chain believe in making authentic Thai dishes that are healthy, full of flavours and not afraid to push boundaries and traditions a little in their flavour combinations and ingredients.
Yes, they absolutely nail a Pad Thai, not only the classic prawn version is delicious but their tofu one comes equally recommended by me which is saying something as I very rarely enjoy tofu, and their drunken noodles, a heady mix of flat rice noodles, Thai basil and a hell of a lot of chilli will beat even the worst of hangovers, but my absolute favourite of the menu so far, and heck I am slowly trying my way across the whole thing, is their incredible salmon red curry. This beautiful mix of lightly battered deep fried salmon fillet in red curry and Thai herbs absolutely blew my mind when I first ordered it. It screams with flavours yet is so delicate and well prepared that I was craving it for weeks after I first ordered it.
This isn't some shitty takeaway option you will feel gross after or order as last resort- Rosa's offers stunning food that I am lucky enough to be able to enjoy in the comfort of my own house. If you are in their delivery zone I urge you to do the same ASAP and if not I would suggest a visit to one of their restaurants just as much. You won't regret it and like me will want some regular Rosa's fare in your life.
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