More Eating! Isle of Wight Edition

So over the last couple of weeks I have been to my parents for my Father's 70th birthday, to the Isle of Wight and to Northumberland. This post will be a celebration of the birthday and the Isle of Wight.

My Father selected the menu for his 70th and we had all his favourites. 30 people came for lunch and we had caterers in to do the food. We started with Prawn Cocktail and Avocado, followed by Beef Wellington with new potatoes and veg and then Eaton Mess. It was delicious and the day was beautiful so we had drinks in the garden to start with.

On our way to the Isle of Wight we spent the night in London and went for dinner at my sister's flat. She made Mary Berry's Chicken and Bacon Lattice Pie followed by Peach Cobbler,  both were absolutely delicious.

Then we got to the Isle of Wight. I went with my Mum, cousin and my sister popped in for the weekend. We rented a beautiful National Trust cottage at St Helen's on the Isle of Wight.

It was about a 10 mins walk from the village of St Helens and a 5 minute walk from the beach. There were 3 decent restaurants all within walking distance. The first we tried was Ganders in St Helens, I went for the Bouillabaisse. It was absolutely delicious and I got a whole red mullet fillet, a whole salmon fillet and a large mussel in a really flavourful tomato sauce.

We went to The Garlic Farm. They often have a stall at Alexandra Palace Farmers Market and so I have had bits and pieces from them before. I bought some toasted garlic mayonnaise and some black garlic. There was also some Black Garlic and Chocolate Ice Cream on offer and I had to try it. It was lovely, liquoricey and chocolatey.

We then went to Baywatch on the Beach, which was right on the beach at St Helens. I had fish pie with a side salad and it was really good and full of fish.

My Mum had Garlic Prawns and Chips that I'm told that too was really good. She had it twice during the week!

We spent a day at Osborne House, Queen Victoria's summer residence and now run by English Heritage. We had lunch in the Terrace Restaurant and I went for Sweet Potato with Spicy Lentil and Chickpea Stew. That too was very good, gently spicy and felt lovely and healthy too.

We went out to Baywatch on the Beach for Breakfast one morning and I went for the Sunshine Breakfast - basically a full English. It was much needed and I loved the inclusion of the fried cherry tomatoes, which are one of my most favourite things.

On our last night we went to Dan's Kitchen in St Helens. My main course was a Chicken Burger, which was decent, but it was the dessert which was really special. Chocolate and Honeycomb Mousse with Marshmallow, White Chocolate Ice Cream and Salted Caramel and Honeycomb Sauce. It was out of this world. Rich and velvety and crunchy with the honeycomb. 

I'll be back in a couple of days with the delights of Northumberland.

Denim n Dine, Pedro Passinhas Pop Up

On Thursday evening I went to a pop up dinner at Blackhorse Atelier, Walthamstow. It is a pop up run by Pedro Passinhas who has worked at The Fat Duck and La Gavroche.

It is in a factory building close to Blackhorse Road tube station, so we had dinner surrounded by sewing machines and rolls of denim, hence the name.

The kitchen was off to one side so you could see the chefs preparing the dishes as we ate.

We were welcomed with a cocktail. The we sat down at a communal table for the first course, Pain D'epices with local Walthamstow honey butter. This was delicious.

Then came Prawn with Dulce Seaweed and Peas, the prawns had been flattened out into a kind of dumpling skin and the crispy seaweed was the perfect complimentary texture.

We then had Carrot Bark with Stracciatella and Pistacio. This again was a lovely combination of textures and flavours. Stracciatella is the creamy middle bit of buffalo mozzarella and was just sublime.

The final main course was, I think, my favourite. Squid Tagliatelle with Ceps and Nougatine. So there was no pasta involved, the squid had been cut into thin strips to form the tagliatelle. This was served with crunchy quinoa, which again was just the perfect texture to go with the soft squid and mushrooms. Sublime.

We then had a pre-dessert. Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Jelly, Goat's Cheese and White Chocolate rolled in Hazlenuts and then Honey Water over a kind of Creme Caramel.

The last course was Almond Vanilla Rice Pudding with Cardamom Ice Cream and a Coconut and Rum Sauce. Now, I don't like rice pudding, it reminds me too much of schools dinners and its a texture that I just can't get on with and this didn't convert me. Having said that the cardamom ice cream was really good. I loved the flavour of that.

All in all this was a lovely decadent meal. I don't often have haute cuisine and it was lovely to be treated, the squid was just out of this world, and the simpleness of the bread and honey butter to start was fantastic. The waitress was really friendly and personable which helped the experience and as the menu changes with the seasons I may well take a trip back in the Autumn. I would definitely recommend you take those 4 stops north of Highbury and Islington and try out Denim n Dine, which is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings and is BYOB.

Afternoon Tea at Aura Rosa, Walthamstow

On Sunday afternoon I went out for afternoon tea for a friend's big birthday. We went to Aura Rosa in Walthamstow and had a fantastic tea.

We started with three different kinds of empanadas - chorizo and potato, pulled pork and pineapple and pesto, potato and olive. They were served warm and were absolutely delicious. As I don't drink tea or coffee I had a plum and pear cordial.

We were then served a little almond milk and cinnamon drink.

Followed by 2 raisin scones with clotted cream and jam.

Then a small sorbet.

Then came the cakes; raspberry macaron, a marshmallow, mango creme brulee, green tea and strawberry tart, mini meringues, a mini tres leches cake and a rich dark chocolate mousse.

Oh my goodness this was good. The empanadas were lovely and flaky and the flavours were distinct. The scones were lovely, served warm and the cakes were fab, that chocolate mousse is seriously to die for. It was really good to have a slightly untraditional afternoon tea, without sandwiches and slices of cake. This was more inventive and just oh so delicious.

Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium Afternoon Tea

On Saturday afternoon I went to Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium in Bethnal Green for Afternoon High Tea. We started with an elderflower and strawberry sparkling drink and hummus and olives with pitta bread.

Then our tea arrived.

We went for the vegetarian afternoon tea, which was a vegetarian sausage roll with mushrooms, a broccoli and chilli quiche and then two sandwiches. One goat's cheese and onion chutney and one egg mayo.

I had the goat's cheese and onion chutney roll, which had ears and a face on it.

We then had one plain scone and one fruit scone with cream and jam.

Then came the sweet stuff. We had custard tarts, salted caramel brownies, macarons - one strawberry and one champagne, a red velvet cake and a pumpkin cake.

There were cats sleeping around us and occasionally they got up and wandered around.

One downstairs was playing with the velvet cloth.

So we were both a little disappointed by the afternoon tea experience. I have never had to share things before, ie different sandwiches, the scones and one red velvet cake, during an afternoon tea and given the price we had paid, comparable with other afternoon teas I have had, this was a little bit annoying. The staff were polite but a bit stand offish and we felt very rushed. The food was ok, the salted caramel brownie and the custard tarts were really good but the rolls were a little dry. Would I go back? No, I think for the money it's not worth it.

Guglee, Finchley Road

On Friday night I went to see Mr Foote's Other Leg at Hampstead Theatre with my father. We went to Guglee on Finchley Road for dinner before the theatre. We started off with Poppadums with raita, spicy pickle, mango chutney and tamarind-date chutney. There were two types of poppadum, one spicy and one plain. The sauces were delicious.

We then had Aloo Chaat for starter, these were crispy potato cakes topped with yogurt and chutneys, the flavours were similar to those of the chutneys served with the poppadums but there was the lovely crunchy potato cake underneath.

Formy  main course I had goa fish curry, which is what let the whole meal down. In terms of flavour all I got was chilli heat rather than any nice spiciness. The fish was perfectly cooked but the flavour was disappointing.

I also had a garlic naan, which was super, really garlicy and lovely and crispy but soft, the perfect naan.

So all in all this was a good meal but the main course really let it down. I would come back but definitely choose a different main.

Review: Bao

I don't usually do reviews, mostly because I am so busy concentrating on eating that I don't take any pictures! But this was special, this was steamed buns after all!

So a couple of weeks ago I went to try out Bao. We arrived at 5.30pm when the restaurant opens but there was already a large queue. In fact we only ended up queueing for about 30 mins. Top tip, the queue is on the other side of the road from the restaurant! We choose food from two sections of the menu, the Xiao Chi and the Bao. First to arrive was the Aubergine, Wonton Crisp. This was a lovely spicy babaganoush type dip with crispy wontons and was one of our favourites.

Next up came the Trotter Nuggets, which were stunning, lovely and crispy but meltingly soft in the middle.

Then three at once! Taiwanese Fried Chicken, Classic Bao and Lamb Shoulder Bao. We asked for the hot sauce to come on the side with the Fried Chicken and that was definitely the right decision as when we dipped the chicken into the hot sauce, it is very hot at least to me! The chicken tasted a bit like the flavour you get with salt and pepper squid, which I love. 

The classic bao is slow braised pork scatter with crushed peanut and the lamb is lamb shoulder, both of which were very good and the dough lovely, soft and pillowy.

Then the Daikon Bao, which I really enjoyed. It came with pickled veg which really enhanced the flavour.

The Guinea Fowl Chi Shiang Rice, this comes with a raw egg that you then mix into the rice, a bit like a bibimbap. I loved this one too.

Fried Horlicks Ice Cream was our last item and my what a dish. The bread tasted a bit like brioche and the ice cream was delicious.

All in all a huge success and if you get the chance to go, go!