glamgirlgonegourmet

Welcome 2012 - doing what makes me happy.

2012-01-01T16:00:00.000Z

Well, London welcomed in its Olympic Year in true style, those fireworks were just wonderful.

Picture courtesy of the Sunday Mirror!

And now 2012 is upon us. Whilst we look forward, we also look back at the year that was. Those stories that make the news headlines always seem to contain tragedy - the earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan (and the subsequent tsunami in the latter); the Norwegian massacre; the London riots; the eurozone crisis. But 2011 also brought many good news stories - the Royal Wedding of William and Kate; the clean up campaign that followed London's riots; fledgling democracies in the Middle East

For me, 2011 was personally tumultuous, as I decided to end my long term (8 year) live in relationship. It's the main reason as to why I've been neglecting my blog for sometime. For anyone going through the same thing, keep your head held high, it's painful and horrid, but it will get better - that tired old cliche about time being a great healer really is true. The love and support of friends and family has also been incredible, and I salute you all.

So 2012 is the year I please myself. It's when I travel where I want to go, eat out where I want to eat, sleep with whomever I please and generally enjoy myself. It's the year that I take off on the round the world trip I've wanted to do since I was about 18, visiting 14 countries over 5 and half months. I will also be (trying to) concentrate more on my blog, documenting great food, fashion and what makes London such a wonderful place to live in - while I'm still here (I leave in October)!

Thank you to everyone who read my posts in 2011 and I hope you continue to do so in 2012. I wish you good health and every happiness.

Coq of the City

2011-11-04T15:45:00.000Z

Take one very sunny Friday. Add a top notch City restaurant with great views. Mix in a £25 for three courses set menu. And there you have a recipe for a perfect Friday lunchtime while the boss is away.

Last Friday we escaped the office and headed to Coq D'Argent in the City http://www.coqdargent.co.uk/. We had booked the extremely good value three courses for £25 set menu (available at weekends, which appear to include a Friday in the City), as we are sadly not in possession of an expense account. We were shown to our table with its great views over to the Monument and the Shard. We ordered a Kir and settled in to peruse the rather lovely menu - certainly one of the best set menus I have seen this year.

I ordered the snails to start. I've never really been a big fan since the time when I was in Normandy aged 8 years old and my mother told my brother (then 5) and I that they were mushrooms and that we should just eat them. My brother chose the moment the entire restaurant of chic French people went silent to shout 'uuurrgggh, they're snails'. He's always had impeccable timing. So, I've steered clear of snails, but have never really been a fussy eater and have always been a fan of the philosophy 'if you fall off the bike, get back on it'. Snails it was then:

They were beautiful. Fat old shells, meaty molluscs inside and drenched in garlicky, herby butter - perfectly mopped up with the never ending bread you are offered.

The main course was venison with a crust of pistachio and cocoa nibs, served with mash and baby vegetables:

The venison was perfectly cooked, still pink (I love that when you order meat in a French restaurant they serve it how it should be done as opposed to how the customer wants it done, which is so often overcooked) and very tender. The pistachio and cocoa nib crust was perfect, the slight bitterness of the chocolate balancing the rich gamey sweetness of the meat. As you can see from the picture, the accompaniments were not too much, which meant that we could go on to the dessert course - hurrah!

As a slight aside, Coq D'Argent has recently won the Louis Roederer Wine List of the Year 2011. I was given the wine list to make a choice - gulp - and was a bit freaked out by both the size of the selection and some of the prices. Note to people - at the back of the wine list is a very reasonable and very lovely selection of wines, from which we had a very nice bottle of Argentinian Malbec for £35.

So, we ordered the red wine, and we still had most of the bottle left - therefore our third course had to be cheese. Five different cheese, served at room temperature (so often not the case and one of my pet hates to be eating fridge-cold cheese), we lingered and finished the bottle while stuffing ourselves full of the well thought out selection of cheese, which included one of my favourites, the Normandy Livarot. The cheese was a £4 supplement, but as the whole menu still worked out at less than £30 a head, it was excellent value.

I can't recommend the £25 set menu here enough. It's such a treat to be able to enjoy this restaurant without paying through the nose, for those of us not lucky enough to be able to entertain clients! And the fact that they don't compromise on quality with their set menu is as it should be, not the bonus we have come to almost expect from such deals. Choose a sunny day when you can escape for a couple of hours and go and enjoy.

2011-10-13T21:53:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, I had lunch for the first time with a fellow food blogger who writes the excellent http://itrustcowsmorethanchemists.blogspot.com. Dayna had suggested that we go to Elliot's in Borough Market and a quick check of the menu on their website http://www.elliotscafe.com/ reminded me of how good she is at knowing the latest fabulous places to go to.

The omens were good - Marina O'Loughlin had reviewed Elliot's for that morning's Metro, raved about it and given it four stars. We got there expecting it to be heaving, but only had to wait a couple of minutes to be seated. It's a lovely little building on Stoney Street, with natural light coming in from the huge skylight at the back and a big sharing table at the front of the restaurant.

We ordered a bottle of Prosecco and settled in to peruse the menu. I have it in front of me now, and just reading it is making me salivate. We decided to order two or three starters and share them, mainly because I am greedy and wanted oysters, as well as a more 'substantial' starter dish. The oysters were enormous, sweet and fresh and tasting of the sea. My only quibble was that as well as the traditional shallot and red wine vinegar to accompany them, there was a very odd teriyaki style sauce with them, best avoided. Other than that, they were superb:

We observed hundreds of plates of shoestring fries with aloli coming out of the kitchen and decided that we were going to get ourselves some of those. Messy as hell to eat, but temptingly moreish, just grab a handful dip in the gorgeous, heavily garlicked aioli, ignoring the fries that scatter across the table in your wake:

The third starter dish we chose was soppressata with spiced cherries. Wonderful finely sliced Italian salami with pickled spiced cherries that I thought we may come to blows over:

Having lingered gloriously over our starters, the delightful waitress asked if we were ready for our main courses. Bring them on we said! Dayna had a beautifully poached piece of plaice, with the roe still in it. Cooked to perfection so it was ever so slightly opaque, it fell off the bone and was light and lovely.

It was accompanied by a fennel, tarragon and radicchio salad, which looked beautiful, but I'm ashamed to say I did not try it (I know, I know, schoolgirl error) because I was busy stuffing my face with my lamb cutlets and kidney, served with green bean and anchovy salad. And, as an added bonus, there was more of that wonderful aioli on the plate - hurrah!

Because I am a complete glutton, I was a bit concerned that this would not be enough food for me, especially owing to the lack of carbohydrates on the plate, but I needn't have worried. The lamb cutlets were fat, pink and tender and the kidney was that perfect, slightly sharp tangy antidote to the sweetness of the cutlet meat. The green bean and anchovy salad was perfectly dressed, with sweet onions and mint included in the tangle - divine!

We were too stuffed to even think about pudding, so we paid the very reasonable bill and sauntered out into the Borough Market sunshine. I now see it as my duty to go back so I can try the desserts and report back. It'll be no great hardship.

Front Row at Fashion Week

2011-09-22T16:18:00.000+01:00

Saturday evening at Somerset House. Torrential rain. Ridiculous bondage shoes that making traversing over cobbles nigh on impossible. But such petty things as walking matter little when I am front row at London Fashion Week for the John Rocha collection. It's crazy busy, as all pre-shows are, with everyone bustling around, the photographers assembling at the end of the catwalk, and everyone eyeing each other wondering who's who and who's sitting where. The the lights dim, the audience hushes and the models emerge in their amazing creations.

Simple white dress and head piece

Black feather dress

John Rocha leads out his models at the end of the show.

The clothes are simple and stunning in either black or white with no hint of colour, the fabrics they're made of do the talking for them. Feathers, chiffon and subtle layering make the clothes sit so lightly on the body, lending the models and ethereal air which is heightened by the sculptures they wear on their heads, which seem like wings.

The collection is beautiful and eminently wearable, with full flattering skirts and high necklines continuing the ladylike theme that's starting to dominate this season. The work that goes into designing and making these clothes is simply incredible - the cut, fit and finish of the material all combining to sit and drape elegantly on the body as per the designer's wish.

John Rocha isn't mentioned a lot in the 'best of the week' articles written as Fashion Week draws to a close, the journalists preferring to concentrate on other big names such as Vivienne Westwood and Burberry. But someone I met at Fashion Week said that he often goes into the store when John Rocha's new collections come in and spends a couple of hours just looking at and touching the clothes. It may sound mad, but after seeing this collection, I totally get it.

Spain - tapas extravangza and a wild wedding!

2011-08-25T12:29:00.001+01:00

Continuing my gastro tour of Europe, we flew to Spain a fortnight ago for a friend's wedding. It was so good, and we partied so hard that it's taken nearly a fortnight for me to get back to normal and start blogging.

We landed in Seville and saw the (very impressive) cathedral before heading off into the blazing sunshine on a hunt for tapas. Because the heat had addled our brains, we couldn't find Las Teresas, the tapas bar we wanted to eat at, so made the foolish error of eating in the main tourist area - on the Plaza Virgen de los Reyes, at a tapas bar called El Giradillo. Big mistake. The food was OK-ish (not good enough in a city renowned for its tapas), but the service was dreadful. We left having paid the (incorrect) bill and went exploring to see if we could better our first Sevillian tapas experience.

And we did. We found the beautiful Plaza de la Alianza, and within in the tapas bar that (I think) was called the Cafe Alianza. The first of several rounds of tinto de verano was ordered - 'safer' than sangria as it doesn't contain brandy - and we asked for jamon, boqurones and were recommended the pigs cheek by the waitress. All were fabulous and a very pleasant hour was spent drinking in the pleasant surroundings, happily munching on tapas, knocking back the tinto de verano and saying hi to the passing priests.

Tim showing off the tinto di verano and jamon.

Jamon

Pigs cheek

Boquerones

Then we headed off to Arcos de la Frontera more more eating and drinking and a pre-wedding fiesta. On Friday night in the village of Arcos, the locals in conjunction with the church organise a procession of the Virgin Mary, the town's patron saint. All the wedding guests holed up in a tapas bar to watch the procession go past.

The statue is borne along by 30 young men.

And here she is close up.

During the fiesta, we drank an awful lot of this:

Tinto de verano

And gorged ourselves on plenty of this:

Manchego cheese, prawns, jamon, chorizo.

And then the day of the wedding arrived and the bride and groom both looked utterly gorgeous:

Mr and Mrs Argent

As did several of the guests, particularly Tim in his beautiful pistachio trousers (with me):

We were fed amazingly well on a variety of tapas, which I was too busy getting stuck into to photograph, but I did manage to take some pictures of the wedding dinner:

Beautiful place sitting and liking the four wine glasses!

The evening dinner took place in an olive grove, which was simply beautiful:

And the food was wonderful:

Salmorejo - like gazpacho, but better.

More pork!

Lemon tart pie with summer fruits.

Following dinner we partied long and hard into the night, culminating in a 5am skinny dip. Fortunately, there are no photos of this - none that I'd care to share anyway!

So, thank you to Mr and Mrs Argent for inviting us to their wonderful wedding. You guys know how to throw one hell of a party.

Weekend of Gluttony - Part Two.

2011-08-01T12:25:00.000+01:00

It's the Saturday morning after the Friday night of copious Italian food and wine. It's sunny, my head hurts a little, and I have to get on a horse. My friend Amy tells me the best cure for a hangover is a horse ride and you know what, she's right. But I would add to that, the best cure for a hangover is a horse ride, half a bottle of Bollinger (once safely dismounted of course) and lunch at Petersham Nurseries.

This is not, contrary to what you may think, a typical Saturday for me. We are riding, and drinking Bollinger at lunchtime and eating at Petersham because it is my friend Vicky's birthday, and we managed to score a table for lunch a month ago. And we are not disappointed by what we find.

The beautiful setting of Petersham Nurseries Cafe.

We start with an aperitif of Petersham rose syrup and rose petal Prosecco. Not too sweet, and with crystallised rose petals which we are delighted to find that you can eat, this makes the perfect pre-wine accompaniment to perusing the menu.

Petersham Rose Syrup and Rose Petal Prosecco

We then move onto the starters and I have the first of many outstanding dishes, courgette flowers with Sairas Ricotta, Borage and mint and basil dressing:

Rod Liddle wrote in this week's Sunday Times Style magazine that he would stab anyone with a fork if they tried to share some of his food in a restaurant, and if they offered him some of theirs. Fortunately, we are sharers and are trying each others food. Birthday girl makes the best call on the starters menu and has salad of tomatoes, nectarine, mozzarella, San Daniele and basil oil. This sounds so simple, but the ingredients are so perfect, so fresh and come together so brilliantly, that although my courgette flowers are very good, I have minor sulk that I didn't order this instead:

Pretty much without fail, I always choose the most expensive dish from the main courses. It's a running joke in my family. Today is no exception, with the salt baked Cornish turbot, potatoes, broad beans, spinach and mayonnaise at £35.50. It is eye wateringly expensively, but very much worth it, soft tasty fish, beautiful, fresh broad beans, new potatoes and an incredibly light mayonnaise:

And the birthday girl has the scallops, roasted red pepper rocket and marjoram salmoriglio, which are also fabulous:

Rosé in the sunshine at Petersham Nurseries. In the background you can just see our waitress - helpful, funny, friendly and polite, is there anything not lovely about this place!:

Dessert next and we opt to share a summer pudding; the slice is so vast that I dream they have a huge summer pudding in the kitchen. Needless to say, it's faultless:

We end with cheese - the wrong way round I feel - it should always be cheese first then pudding - but it's what the birthday girl wants and I can't argue with someone whose birthday it is. And it's actually a really nice end to the meal, served with a glass of chilled red wine. The cheese is Pecorino Canestrato from Sardinia, with honey:

The birthday girl on the left and me on the right:

We have a little post lunch stroll around the nurseries in the blazing sunshine.

And I cool my wine hot feet in the fountain:

We overhear a customer saying it's a shame that it's more about the restaurant than the nurseries now. I'm afraid I have to disagree - the fact that the food is sourced locally, using vegetables and plants from the nursery where possible, means that both the nurseries and the restaurant compliment each other. And the draw of the restaurant, means that they've got a willing and captive audience to shop for plants post lunch. This place really deserves its recently acquired Michelin Star and the food being cooked is of such a high standard and in such a beautiful location that it's a strong contestor for Lunch of the Year 2011.

Weekend of Gluttony - Part One.

2011-08-01T11:20:00.000+01:00

Having love-bombed the French last week, this week it's the turn of the Italians to feel some glam girl love. Just doing my bit for Euro-relations in these troubled economic times.

Six of us ate at Al Boccon d'vino in Richmond. It was a big raucous Italian love in, with the restaurant rammed and no menu - you get what you're given. I was half an hour late (thank you South West Trains) but when I arrived I was poured a much needed glass of Prosecco and on we cracked with the food.

The second plate (but my first owing to lateness) was a sort of antipasto plate, with Parma ham on the side for you to help yourself. This contained mozzarella, crostini with tomatoes, a tomato stuffed with tuna and the amazing paste on crostini at the back of the picture, the best way I can think of describing this is an aged Parmesan 'hummus'. I did ask what it was, only to be told 'cheese' - fair enough.

Antipasto

Scoffing the Parma Ham.

Next came the only dud course (I'm gutted to have to mention this so early), deep fried chicken with a strange, hundred thousand island type sauce. I can't face putting the picture I took up on the blog because it looks so unpleasant. Moving swiftly on to the lovely meatballs - one each in a yummy tomato sauce and perfect for keeping the appetite whetted:

Next course please! An outstandingly good parmagiana melanzana, aubergine cooked perfectly, soft but not squidgy, layered with tomato and covered in Parmesan.

Then on to the start of the fish course - a single, grilled scallop, also cooked to perfection:

Followed by a big bowl of calamari and prawns for the table to share (being shown off by Sean) :

Then a plate of carpaccio, dressed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a very finely sliced truffle, which we watched them slicing behind us, salivating (us, not them):

Then the first of the pasta courses, which I had to post three pictures of because it was a) a bloody fabulous mushroomy, cheesy, buttery plate of gorgeousness and b) served in a hollowed out Parmesan wheel:

Then the second pasta course, a light, ricotta filled, tomato sauce swathed single ravioli:

Then the piece de resistance, the owner brings out a whole roasted suckling pig, and proudly shows it around the restaurant:

Before we all tuck in to the juicy, sweet, meat:

After these nine courses, I must confess to being very full and more than a little drunk. I think the pictures below demonstrate this adequately:

Me with the owner in his car outside the restaurant - I promise that nothing untoward took place!

Me with man in a dress and friend. I have no idea who they are or why they were at the restaurant.

So although there was dessert, and I did take a photo of it, I can't for the life of me remember what it was - ideas on a postcard (or by other more modern means) please:

So, to sum up, this was a fantastic night out. For a group of friends or a big family gathering it's perfect. They recommend you don't go if you're fussy eater - all the better for those who like me, will eat pretty much anything. All that food costs just £40, which I think is outstanding value. Make sure you go on an empty stomach, and with a sense of fun and a willingness to be entertained and you'll love it. We're going back in November to see what the menu then will bring us, and in the meantime, I'm continuing my Grand Tour of Food with a trip to Spain next weekend.

Fabulous France, first class food, fantastic wine

2011-07-28T22:03:00.000+01:00

I love the French. I love the fact that they treat mealtimes like marriage; 'not by any to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly'. OK, maybe not soberly. I love the fact that the supermarkets tend to only stock French wine, the daily markets that sell fresh, ready to eat produce, the regionality of the food - Bresse chicken, beef from the Limousin - and the pride that the French take in their food.

So needless to say, when I went to the Dordogne recently, I ate extremely well. This is a region famous for geese, ducks and that delicious delicacy foie gras. I'm fully aware that some people have a real problem with foie gras so let's get this issue off my chest now. I don't have a problem with it at all and I love the stuff. I have been to see the geese being 'force' fed and they are calm, free range, placid creatures who happily waddle forth to be fed. Banning the practice (which is incidentally what the Nazis did during Occupation because they thought it 'cruel') is only going to force the whole thing underground, leading to geese being cooped up rather than being free range and unhygienic feeding and killing practices as the farmers try to conceal what they are doing from the authorities.

Anyway, rant over and back to the food. We ate in a great little restaurant in Domme that served traditional French food using spices - I had prawns with a mildly curried sauce to start:

Then foie gras four ways (I know -so greedy!) as my main course, which was just incredible. Check out the shot glass of jellied Montbazillac as an accompaniment:

I was so, so full after this that I had to abandon the cheese plate - although I did steal some of my boy's cheese, which was great - they have my favourite goats cheese Rocamadour on tap in this part of the world:

And I settled myself with some sorbet - such beautiful presentation:

I've already mentioned the food markets, Sarlat market being one we had to get up astonishingly early on a Saturday morning for. But it was well worth it - hundreds of stalling selling garlic, fruit, vegetables, terrines, pates, cassoulet and wine. And the smell is just incredible - fresh ripe melons, nectarines, apricots and peaches, ready to take home and eat that day.

Browsing a stall selling what looked like candied figs, we got chatting with the guy behind the stall, who urged up to try his produce. He cut a slice of the fig and we tasted it, only to discover it was stuffed with foie gras. Heaven. We were chatting to the producer when I found a glass of dessert wine being thrust in my face and was urged to try it with the figs. At 9:30am in the morning. But hell, I was on holiday so my breakfast that morning ended up being a foie gras stuffed fig and a glass of Saussignac. And very nice it was too:

Later in the week we also visited the market at St Cyprien to buy fish from the stall there - check out the incredible selection:

Which gave us the opportunity to gawp at the guys making huge pans of paella for hungry shoppers and stall holders:

These beautiful prawns are that evening's dinner, fresh from the stall above:

Another great dish of the region which you'll find on pretty much every menu there is Salade Perigourdine. Salad leaves, expertly dressed of course, with duck gezers, stuffed goose neck, foie gras, and smoked duck. Always best when eaten outside accompanied by a pichet of rose wine.

When we ate where we were staying, we were lucky enough to have potatoes fresh from the earth, dug up by my father:

And an incredible summer pudding, using those fresh fruits that smelled so good at the market, lovingly handmade by my mother:

The last night we were there, we ate at Le Bistro de l'Octroi - I stupidly left my camera at home - where there was yet more foie gras, and then steak tartare charolais, followed by plate of nine different sample sizes of the puddings they offer - to share, had I attempted it alone I think I would have literally exploded. After that, I had to say goodbye and head back to the UK - thoroughly contented and several pounds heavier.

Friday food heaven.

2011-07-09T14:51:00.000+01:00

My boy and I had rocked up to Spuntino a few weeks ago, a little bit pissed and very hungry, only to be told there was an hour and a half wait for a table, which we couldn't deal with. Last night, I went back to this uber-cool New York style diner with a friend, prepared to wait to see if it lives up to the hype.

And ohhhhh, it lived up to the hype. It was Friday night after work, we were both a touch tired and a touch hungover and we needed stodge. Fay Maschler in her review described the food as "slightly white trash, comfort-eating easy pickings" - perfect.

I got there first and secured our place in the queue. Only a half hour wait this time, and with a glass of Prosecco and fellow queuers to chat to, this flies by. Spuntino has only one table at the back, the rest of the seating is around the bar, where we sat. We upgraded my glass to a bottle, and were given an enamel mug of freshly made popcorn (they have a machine behind the bar), heavily salted and dressed with chilli oil - yum.

Popcorn

I don't think there was ever much doubt about what we were going to have from the menu - sliders and mac and cheese. We had pulled pork and pickled apple and ground beef and bone marrow sliders. Both were fabulous, but the beef and marrow slider was exceptional - when you squeezed the bun to take a bite it would ooze with meat juices and the mini burger was juicy and full of flavour. Calorie confession number one: 'off camera', we ordered another beef and marrow slider - each.

Ground beef and bone marrow and pulled pork and apple sliders. Manna from heaven.

In a vague attempt to inject something green 'n' good into our meal, we ordered spinach and pine nuts to go with our mac and cheese. Bloody hell, even the spinach was good, heavily garlicked and dressed with butter and pine nuts. Then the macaroni cheese arrived. Served in a hot iron pan this was just what we needed - proper carb and cheese laden loveliness, all crispy on top and stuck to the bottom to scape off. Oozy and delicious, I think everyone in the place had ordered one of these. A very wise choice.

Mac and cheese with spinach on the side

Were we, by this point, stuffed to the gills, not able to eat another thing? No ladies and gentlemen, we were not and there was pudding to contemplate. Calorie confession number two: we ordered three puddings between two of us. We had to, we couldn't choose between the three we really wanted and I'm so glad we did.

Chocolate, pecan and whisky cake.

My friend Vicky desperately wanted the chocolate, pecan and whisky cake, and very nice it was too.

I desperately wanted the brown sugar cheesecake with drunken cherries, and this was utterly divine.

Brown sugar cheesecake and drunken cherries

And neither of us were leaving there without trying the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I had visions of this being bread based and was a little dubious, but couldn't have been more wrong. To use a really annoying Americanism: OMG. It was two layers of peanut butter ice cream sandwiched together with raspberry jam and topped with sprinkles of peanut butter brittle. It was utterly divine.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich. My new love.

Apparently, the model Kate Moss has been known to say in the past that 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'. She's obviously never eaten at Spuntino.

A star in the (South) East

2011-07-05T20:49:00.000+01:00

Apparently, London's latest up and coming are is Bermondsey. Whereas previously hip London districts have been north of the river (yes Shoreditch and Dalston, I'm looking at you), now anywhere with an SE1 postcode is considered too cool for school.

According to people who are far more down with the kids than me, Bermondsey Street is the epicentre of where it's at. It already contains several fabulous bars and restaurants, The Garrison, Zucca, The Woolpack and the recently opened, and previously blogged about, Jose. Rumours abound that a White Cube art gallery and a Gordon Ramsay restaurant are soon to open.

Yesterday lunchtime, on the prowl for somewhere lovely to lunch and feeling a bit decadent, we headed to Village East, 171 Bermondsey Street. It's a bit lovely, a bit lofty, with a cute dining room and even cuter staff. We cracked open a lovely bottle of rosé wine, obligatory when the sun is shining, and pored over the menu. We wanted lobster even though it was on the evening menu only, and the kitchen said they'd happily oblige our request, only for us to be those really annoying people who then chose something completely different.

Hitting the rose.

So, on to the starters. My friend Sara had the asparagus soup with sorrel and creme fraiche. She said it was very nice for the first seven mouthfuls, but there was too much of it. I tried it and have to say that it was lovely, served chilled, which highlighted the combined flavours. I suspect I could have managed the whole bowlful myself....

I had the seared scallops and caramelised pork belly, served with carrot puree and a (largely unnoticeable) terayaki glaze. The scallops were cooked perfectly, the pork was lovely but a teensy bit dry in places,and the carrot puree was beautifully flavoured with orange and possibly cumin. Sara liked this so much that she proceeded to keep sticking her fork in to try it. Maybe she should have had a bowlful of that instead?!

In a vague attempt to be virtuous, we both had the salad as our main course. The furthest-from-diet type-salad you can imagine. Loads of chorizo, paprika, beautifully cooked squid, 'perfectly soft squid' said Sara, who is Spanish and knows about such things. Dressed with a citrussy mayonnaise and served on a bed of mixed leaves, this was a really good main course salad.

Pleasantly stuffed, and not inspired by the dessert menu, we passed on dessert and coffee and ,although tempted by the tiramisu martini, we left that for another visit and meandered off to check out their private bar for a forthcoming party. Very cool, despite the price tag. Pleasantly squiffy, we headed off back down a sunny Bermondsey Street, trying to decide the venue of our next gastro-outing and wondering where London's next 'hot new neighbourhood' will be.

2011-07-01T11:30:00.000+01:00

I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I actually feel a bit sorry for Dominque Strauss-Kahn. If reports coming in overnight from New York are to be believed, there is serious doubt about the strength of the case against him, amid suspicions that the alleged victim's report is flawed and that she has 'repeatedly lied' during conversations with prosecutors.

If Mr Strauss-Kahn is innocent, his name has been dragged through the mud and his career, both with the International Monetary Fund, and in French politics is ruined, for no good reason. There will always be an element of suspicion surrounding him, those who say 'there's no smoke without fire'.

If he is guilty, the chances are he will not stand trial or, if he does, be found not guilty, because 'law enforcement officials' insist on briefing the media as to the lack of credibility of the alleged victim, together with the fact that she apparently lied about her application for asylum (The implication being that she's obviously a serial liar and not to be trusted.).

Either way, the whole case raises the issue of how rape cases are handled, both here in the UK and in the United States. Of course this is a high profile case, but wouldn't it have been better for the identities of both the alleged victim and the defendant to have been kept out of the media, at least until after the trial - essentially for justice to have been done without trial by media?

Soho Food Feast

2011-06-25T19:16:00.000+01:00

I'm so full I can't move. The impossible has happened. I thought I could just go on eating and eating, like a Labrador, but I honestly can't eat another thing.

This sorry state of affairs has come about as a result of spending the afternoon at Soho Food Feast. The Food Feast was set up to support Soho Parish Primary School, and was held this afternoon in the grounds of St Anne's Church on Wardour Street. The day was phenomenal. There were stalls from pretty much every great restaurant in Soho and beyond - Blueprint Cafe, Arbutus, The Ivy Polpo and St John, to name just a few.

The venue for the foodie goodness.

We purchased our food tokens (every small dish or bowl was £2 a pop) and plunged in. First stop was Tapas Brindisa for a plate of yummy iberico ham, and to try some salmorejo, which is a bit like gazpacho, but thicker and without red peppers or cucumber:

Salmorejo at the front of the shot, ham at the back.

Me stuffing my face with iberico ham - first time round.

Later on, we went back for seconds of that ham - so good!

Next door to Tapas Brindisa was Polpo and Polpetto. I've eaten in Polpo before and loved it, and the dishes they had on offer today were up to their usual high quality. Little bowls of dressed seafood with olives, and my favourite, chicken liver pate on crostini, with taleggio and asparagus, and cocktail olives and anchovies on the side:

Moving on, we found the Blueprint Cafe stall with, I think, Jeremy Lee in attendance. Have a look at the photo below and see if it is him (sorry Jeremy, if you're reading this!). They were serving up middle white pork, with beans and mint in a french style dressing. It's going to get very boring if I keep saying everything was amazing, but I'm afraid that everything WAS, and this was no exception:

Do you know this man?!

Pork and beans - delish.

What next? Pigs head of course. Served up by the guys who run Arbutus, Wild Honey and Le Deux Salons. Just the right amount, served hot, and unctuous and full of flavour:

Pigs Head

Anthony Demetre cooking pigs head.

Off next to scoff some oysters from the Wright brothers stall - natives from Kent, despite there not being a R in the month - is that an old wives' tale? Lovely people, lovely food:

The Wright Brothers stall

Scoffing oysters

Then we discovered a queue. And quite a long queue. But we found out what it was for and joined it immediately. MeatWagon - hurrah! The chance to try the burgers that everyone's been raving about without having to go to Peckham Rye! No offence Peckham-ites, but it's quite a bit out of my way. And lo, we discovered what all the fuss was about:

The MeatWagoners get cooking

Nearly ready...

Almost done....

Happily being scoffed by my friend Louisa.

These babies are good. Patties of meat, ever so slightly rare, in a sweetish (brioche?) bun, with pickles, cheese, mustard and ketchup. Worth the wait and very moreish.

And what of dessert? Oh yes, there was that too, these beautiful cherry chocolate cakes were from The Union. I must now confess that I took a photo because they looked so pretty, but I couldn't eat one because I was too full after all the above.

Still room for ice cream though (always room for ice cream), at the Gelupo stall:

Pistachio and Ricotta and Sour Cherry Gelato

The nice man at the Gelupo stall.

All in all, this was a fabulous afternoon for a good cause. It gave everyone the chance to try a dish or two from some of the capital's best restaurants at a great price in a friendly atmosphere, and the sun was shining. Three cheers to the organisers and I hope all those who participated now have their feet up and are having a well earned drink - you deserve it.

How I set about becoming the next Sarah Burton (or not).

2011-06-22T11:08:00.000+01:00

At the beginning of May, I started a dress making course. My rationale was that I love clothes, why not learn to make my own? In my head, this was going to be so simple, and before I knew it, I was going to be the next Sarah Burton. Reality kicked in with a thump - this stuff is fiddly to start off with, particularly on a Monday night after a day at work.

Six weeks in, I now know what a bobbin is, I only have to ask once at the start of each class how to thread the needle through both top and bottom on the swish sewing machines and, mainly thanks to the extraordinary patience of the lovely teacher, I have the beginnings of what now resembles a dress.

I confess, I chose the material before the dress, but wait until you see the material, it's so pretty, you'll totally understand my reasoning. I will also own up to buying the pattern because not only did it say 'Tres Facile/Very Easy', it also had that iconic word 'Vogue' on it (I know, I know, I'm a marketeers dream). So, this is my pattern, and I'm making the mustard yellow dress - not in that material - to the left of the picture.

I'm making the dress in the most beautiful sage green material (it looks grey in the photos but it's a very pale green), with different coloured shoes printed all over it. £10 a metre in John Lewis and I fell in love with it the second I saw it:

As aforementioned, the teacher on the course has the patience of a saint, which means that as things stand, I now have a front of dress, complete with darts and gather:

And I now have the back of a dress, also darted and gathered, and ready for the zip to be sewn in:

I've really taken to the class now, although big name designers have nothing to fear! It's ever so relaxing to sit round a table after work and stitch and sew and chat and learn. I'll post the final result, hopefully me wearing the dress, in a couple of weeks time, when the class finishes.

Summer Solstice

2011-06-21T20:44:00.000+01:00

A rare night in and a chance to sit outside and enjoy a glass of champagne to celebrate the solstice (any excuse) and to cook some lovely food. This delightful little number is a bastardisation of a recipe in Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries - one of my all time favourite cookbooks. It's bulgar wheat, as much chopped parsley and chopped mint as you can shake a stick at, a whole deseeded chopped red chilli, two sliced mangoes and 400g of cooked peeled prawns mixed together and dressed and mixed again with olive oil and lime juice. Delish, and only takes 10 minutes.

Cheers!

Tonight's dinner.

The Posh Lunch Club heads to Quaglino's.

2011-06-18T23:12:00.000+01:00

It's all go at the moment isn't it?! This afternoon, the posh lunch club went to Quaglino's for lobster and chips. It's a hard life. The restaurant is offering a half lobster and chips for £15 a head, which is a great way to do posh on the cheap.

I am of the impression that it's quite hard to do lobster and chips badly. Quaglino's do it rather well, lobster cooked perfectly, chips crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle, not much more I can say. The service was not as attentive as it could have been - three asks for the non alcoholic cocktail for my pregnant friend, and two requests for salt (that obsession of mine), before they arrived at the table.

My pud, treacle tart, wasn't brilliant either, nowhere near treacly enough, almost crumble-like in texture. Very odd. My friend's pavlova, which I think you will agree is desperately photogenic, scored much higher on the yum scale.

Treacle tart. With clotted cream - NOT an egg.

Overall, my thoughts are as follows: go and have the £15 lobster lunch and the rather lovely Chateau de Poyet Muscadet. Take your own salt, but don't blame me if the Met Police take a keen interest in the bag of white crystals you're carrying around. And don't stay for pudding - head to one of the fabulous Soho gelateria instead (I highly recommend Gelupo).

Back to Taste of London.

2011-06-18T22:44:00.001+01:00

The guys who do the PR for Estrella Damm, the lager from Barcelona, very kindly invited me to the Taste of London Festival last night. I know what you're thinking - corporate sell out - and I'm well aware that they wanted me to blog favourably about their product. And I'm going to, but only because it was good, I can assure you that had it been awful, I'd have said so.

We rocked up in the pouring rain to the main event in Regent's Park, smiles fixed and brollies at the ready. We located the Estrella Damm tent and were given free beer. And not just me, everyone in there was trying the beer for free. If you're going to Taste, swing by the Estrella tent, it's under cover (a god send) and there's FREE beer! In addition to the beer, there's some excellent tapas as well. I've blogged before about the new Inedit beer from el Bulli/Damm brewery (before they contacted me - I promise) and it appears that Damm are doing a big push in the UK, promoting beer as something to be served with tapas rather than wine. They're doing this in conjunction with tapas chefs, some of who were trained at the 'World's Best Restaurant', including the rather hot Spanish chef Omar Allibhoy (El Pirata Detapas; Tapas Revolution), who was in attendance, saying hi to the punters and overseeing the tapas.

Hot chef, tasty tapas!

I love tapas (OK I love food in general) and the first dish we were given didn't disappoint. . Endives and Valdeon cheese foam worked really well, the blandness of the endive and the shape of the leaf a perfect match, and scoop, for the salty strong blue cheese foam.

Estrella and Endive with Valdeon foam.

We were then handed packets of what we both thought were salted chocolate - wrong! This was actually morcilla de burgos, black pudding, dried and sliced very thinly and salted with big crystals of salt (another one of my favourite things). I think a wine would have struggled with the flavour, but the beer worked well, particularly with the dryness of the black pudding.

After waxing lyrical about this, we were then given a plate of what was my favourite tapa on offer, slow roasted, falling apart sweet peppers on bread topped off with anchovies, another of my favourite things, probably because they're usually quite salty - my doctor wrings his hands at my salt obsession.

Looking at this picture, I want to eat this again - NOW. God, this was good, the bread soaked with the juices of the peppers cooked in olive oil and the anchovies counteracting the sweetness of the peppers. I don't usually make tapas or small plates at home, but I'm definitely going to try to recreate this one, probably shortly after blogging this.

After this, we ventured out of the tent into the pouring rain to investigate the rest of the rest of the festival. We bought £30 worth of 'crowns' - the currency of the festival- and believe me, they don't go far. I had oysters at the Chapel Down stand, really good, but no indication of where they'd come from, which would have been good to know:

Oysters and Chapel Down

I have to confess at this point that we didn't really need any more food for the time being, so we 'investigated' the drinks tents, primarily driven by the need to get under cover. We had Welsh cocktails (both my parents are Welsh) and although I was aware that Wales produces a great whisky at Penderyn, I had no idea that it also produces gin and vodka - who knew?!

Welsh vodka.

Mixing up some great Welsh cocktails

My boy on cocktail holding duty.

Cocktails Cymraeg - and rather tasty they are too.

We then headed off to do some wine tasting - by now not terribly bothered by the rain - and secreted ourselves in the wine tent with some cheery Brits and some thoroughly fed up French and Italians. We discovered the lovely wines of the Loire with Amanda's Wines and her French husband. How could he not be French with a moustache like that:

Then we hit the wine jackpot - Prosecco tasting. Prosecco has a bit of a reputation as a poor man's champagne, but it's totally different and I'd much rather drink a good Prosecco than a bad champagne. We had seven sip tastings, five 'normal' Prosecco and two rose Prosecco (apparently illegal in Italy!) and then a glass of our favourite. Trying to remember which was our favourite at the end was a little taxing, but we really liked the DOC, even though the Prosecco Riccardo DOCG won the Taste of Summer Wine at the Festival's food awards this year. Here are the UK seller (in the fetching yellow jumper - very knowledgeable) and the son of the producer (Italian, totally fed up with the British weather) with said award:

So, what are my overall thoughts? I'm very grateful to Estrella Damm's UK PR company for inviting me to the festival and I think the idea of promoting beer as the drink of choice with tapas is a good one. I also think it's eminently sensible to promote drinking beer with food, as opposed to just going to the pub and necking pint after pint. I'd have liked to have seen Inedit, the el Bulli beer in a wine sized bottle, making an appearance - maybe next year? I know other bloggers have commented on how expensive the festival is, and I'm inclined to agree, but overall if you're into your food and want a taster of what London's restaurants are offering, then go along. Just prepare your wallet in advance, as well as your stomach.

Hot Gossip from the Royal Enclosure.

2011-06-18T20:31:00.000+01:00

My very posh friend - Cambridge, old school Gentleman's Club, top hat serviced on his day off - has texted me from the Royal Enclosure at Ascot to say that he has just been helping Princess Eugenie adjust her bra. My first thought was 'what an odd thing to ask a male stranger to do', but at least it seems royal princesses are just like the rest of us after an afternoon knocking back the champagne in Granny's tent. I wonder if anyone managed to pap it and if so, will he be touted as her latest flame in tomorrows papers? You heard it here first.

As an aside, today's 'what I'd wear if I were there' is below. High Street rather than High End fashion, but still rather lovely nonetheless. And a big hurrah to all the ladies at Waterloo this morning who looked so effortlessly chic and very excited, despite the rain.

Royal Ascot - what I'd wear if I were there*

2011-06-17T16:11:00.000+01:00

* and had, by now, run up an enormous credit card bill.

I have a confession to make. This Vivienne Westwood dress, being the 'cheapest' of the dresses I've chosen for Royal Ascot, and at £320 I use the term loosely, is now sitting in my 'to purchase' basket on Net-a-Porter.com. I'm wrestling with whether or not to buy it. Several people have said "do you need it?", which totally misses the point. But it is the cost of a week's European holiday, so I think it may have to stay in the basket online, tempting me.

Tomorrow's outfit for the final day of Royal Ascot won't pose this dilemma as it will entirely constructed from the High Street. Check back tomorrow to see what it is and whether I managed to resist temptation.

Royal Ascot - what I'd wear if I were ther, Ladies Day*

2011-06-16T18:43:00.000+01:00

* and still had an unlimited clothes budget

Ladies Day calls for something a bit special, a bit (OK, a lot) look at me. I think this Hussein Chalayan dress fits the bill perfectly, it's demure with sleeves for the Royal Enclosure, but yet fabulously on trend with its fuchsia lined cape. An enormous hat is practically compulsory and comes courtesy of Philip Treacy. I've tried to stop the outfit being too matchy matchy, by adding a black Miu Miu bag and some black-but-not-boring Brian Atwood shoes. Ad of course, a good umbrella is essential. I'm in love that dress and liking this fantasy fashion game more and more. Shall I turn it into a reality?.........

Taste of London Preview

2011-06-16T18:23:00.000+01:00

"Would you like to come to a party at the Laurent Perrier Secret Garden" said a friend. "It's the opening night of Taste London" - uh, YES PLEASE! So last night, we headed off in the drizzle to Regent's Park for the preview night of Taste London.

There was lashings of Laurent Perrier, mojitos a-go-go, some yummy food from Street Kitchen and an amazing hog roast. Celebs included Alex James, A A Gill, Jeremy Clarkson, Gary Rhodes, Ian Wright, Jay Rayner, and Michael Gambon, which led to excited cries of 'Dumbledore' from our group - poor man.The only thing not making a guest appearance was the sunshine, which would have made the evening. But stiffer upper lip and all that, we battled on.

The food was marvellous (as you would expect) - black bream with coleslaw, rocket and beetroot from Street Kitchen and that wonderful hog roast in a big floury bap. The staff at the event were lovely and did I mention the drinks kept on coming? All in all a rather top night. My only complaints, no, not complaints, suggestions, for making it better, would be as follows: 1) Guests greeted on arrival with a glass of champagne rather than having to go to the bar for the first drink. 2) More food stalls - this was the Taste preview after all and only two stalls seemed a bit mean. 3) Access to the main area to have a look around at all the other stalls. Gosh, I'm fussy. My pictures are below, and if you're going over the next few days, enjoy. And take an umbrella.

Me at the entrance to the Secret Garden.

My friend Duncan samples the black bream from the Street Kitchen.

The amazing spit roasted pork in a bun and soaker upper of Laurent Perrier.

The lovely guys at Street Kitchen

Street Kitchen - yummy black bream.

Sampling the Laurent Perrier

That bream up close. With watercress, coleslaw and beetroot.

Mojito - entering danger zone!

Friend of a friend with Ian Wright.

Lovely lady in a beautiful dress (Laura Ashley - wow!)

Party goers!

Me and Duncan - slightly worse for wear.

Royal Ascot - what I'd wear if I were there*

2011-06-15T15:10:00.001+01:00

* And had an unlimited clothes budget

My very posh colleague (who is off to Royal Ascot on Saturday and helped with ensuring the fashion boards you see here were in a bloggable condition) set me the challenge of creating a mood board of what I'd wear to Ascot if I were going every day and had a limitless budget - a girl can dream! I have a sneaking suspicion that this challenge was set to keep me quiet for a few hours, but I love a hat, so duly obliged and above is yesterday's outfit (how great is that hat!), with massive thanks to Net-a-Porter.com for inspiration and their amazing collection of designer goodies. Below is today's outfit, a little chilly, but totally old school glamour. Check back tomorrow, when my outfit for Ladies Day will be posted.

Discovery of the weekend - el Bulli beer.

2011-06-12T21:53:00.001+01:00

Wandering into a rather fabulous little local bar/restaurant near home on Saturday night, we took our seats at the bar with every intention of ordering the rather nifty Prosecco on tap. We then made a discovery. Ferran Adria, and his el Bulli team have got together with the Damm brewery to make a beer to go with food. Well, we weren't eating, but we were certainly prepared to give it a go. It's sold in a 75cl 'wine' bottle, and served in white wine glasses, and it's designed to be quaffed with foods that are hard to match wines to - asparagus, oily fish etc.

And it's good. It's cloudy and not too harsh but neither is it bland, like a lot of European lagers. It's gently fizzy, without being unpleasantly gassy and it's got a mild, almost white beer taste. I'm now trying to find a retailer that sells it so I can try at home with those 'hard to pair' foods, and see if it does what it sets out to do. But as a stand alone drink, I rather like both the taste and the serving method - after all, a glam girl can only approve of drinking beer out of wine glasses!

The rather fetching bottle

Right back at Yauatcha

2011-06-11T19:00:00.000+01:00

Whenever I have a food craving, it's almost always for an Asian type dish - something with noodles, some dim sum, some wasabi peas ( I love wasabi peas). The beauty of dim sum is that you get to try loads of different flavours and textures, and it's food that justifies a restaurant visit - if justification were needed! - as most Westerners wouldn't dream of making at home, myself included.

Last night we sampled the delights at Yauatcha, Alan Yau's modern Chinese tea house on Berwick Street in Soho. The restaurant downstairs is the perfect chill out zone after a crazy week at work, all soft lighting, a fish tank that runs the length of the bar and twinkling 'stars' above your head. We ordered a modest selection of dim sum, as we wanted belly space left over for the legendary puddings afterwards.

We shared 3 different types of shui mei (pork and prawn, beef and blue swimmer crab), which are open top steamed dumplings so you can see the filling poking out the top- the pictures below give a better sense of what I mean. The pork and prawn and beef were good, but the blue swimmer crab shui mei was outstanding, rich, chunky, meaty crab on delicate dumpling, just yummy. We also had crystal dumpling wraps, which were a little bland, I'm not sure butternut squash stands up to the flavours that accompany dim sum, but perfectly acceptable. The prawn and mango rice paper rolls were delicate little parcels of true deliciousness - prawn and mango just works so well together. The Char Sui Cheung Fun was a cannelloni style wrap of beautifully cooked pork meat, served covered with soy and was heavenly.

Having savoured our dim sum, we moved on to the dessert menu, and were encouraged by the staff to go upstairs and have a look at the desserts in the small patisserie on the ground floor. We discovered upstairs that they sell chocolate and tea, as well as the desserts to take away. My dining companion decided that rather than have dessert, she would nibble at some chocolates and we agreed that we would share these (I cannot watch someone having food without wanting to try some!) and the milk chocolate praline cake. That cake was superb. Light, with a mousse like texture, but not so light that you feel you've been short changed. Deeply chocolatey and utterly fabulous. Just typing this is making my mouth water. Accompanying the pudding were the selection of chocolates that we'd chosen upstairs. I may going into ranting and raving territory now - the chocolates are sublime. Luxurious tasting with a range of great flavours, they rounded the meal off perfectly. My favourites were the mango and balsamic, the green tea and the vanilla rum. I brought some chocolates on the way out (buy them in a bag by weight rather than in a box, unless money is no object toy you) and am heading to my fridge to scoff these now. If I finish them all, I've got the perfect excuse to go back!

Note - My only minor quibble about the restaurant was that the staff, whist very sweet, were a bit scatty, not really acceptable in a half full restaurant with a reputation such as Yauatcha. It was sometimes hard to get their attention, they forgot our blue swimmer crab shui mei so we had to ask for it again and we also had to ask for the remainder of our wine (in an ice bucket away from the table) to be served to us. But these are only minor complaints and they certainly wouldn't prevent me from going there again.

Rice paper prawn and mango rolls (background) and Crystal dumplings (foreground).

Rice Paper Prawn and Mango Rolls

Char Sui Cheung Fun

Beef Shui Mei (left) and Prawn and Pork Shui Mei (right)

Blue Swimmer Crab Shui Mei (my favourite!)

Lovely bag for taking goodies home.

A bag of the superb chocolates

Milk chocolate praline cake.

Glam Girl at Graduate Fashion Week

2011-06-10T16:02:00.000+01:00

I love Graduate Fashion week. I think I like it (whisper it) more than actual London Fashion Week. This is for several reasons. It's easier to get in to Graduate Fashion Week, you get to see several collections at once at the gala show that ends the week and it's more relaxed and informal.

Each year, the talent of the students showing at GFW never fails to amaze me. As someone who has recently started a dress making course (which I will blog about later), I know how difficult it is to start off making clothes, so to get to this level of craftsmanship takes real dedication and skill. I've photographed some of my favourites from the Gala show below. Apologies for the quality of the photographs - I've discovered that whilst my camera might be great for food blogs, it's not great for taking pictures of people moving stealthily down a catwalk, particularly when I'm not in the front row! I don't think the pre-show champagne helped either. But I hope this gives you a flavour of the wealth of creativity that's out there in this country, and a big round of applause to all the students who took part.

Glam Girl at Graduate Fashion Week. Time to tan a la Pippa Middleton?

Christina Economu
Istituto Marangoni, Paris (she won the International Show Award)

Chrstina Economu

Dominque Kral
University of East Sussex
Loving that amazing bodice and knitted skirt.

Shirana Chavda
De Montfort University

Shirana Chavda
Beautifully dyed fabric, brilliantly cut to fit the body. Fluid, floaty and gorgeous.

Rachel Cogley
Birmingham City University
Am gutted that these pictures didn't come out very well. Rachel showed this great coat and a fabulous 'dog' handbag, in which the dog's hair matched the models - brilliant.

Marissa Owen
University of Central Lancashire
Loved this collection. Reminded me of Viktor and Rolf with a dash of Kenzo. This won the Womenswear Award at the show. Very well deserved. Further pics from her collection below:

Marissa Owen

Ume Sacraine
De Montfort University

Carl James Illingsworth
Northumbria University
The best male model EVER!

Lyudmilla Lane
UCA Rochester
Gauze, floaty, pleated beauty - perfect for summer.

Adored this, but am unable to attribute.

Sophie Ellis Bextor presenting the Music Award to Kingston University

Caryn Franklin, Amanda Wakeley and Fiona Lambert (from the sponsors, George)

Rory Langdon, Nottingham Trent University, winning the George Gold Award.

Rory Langdon and his models take a glittery catwalk bow to end the show.

Glam girl and friend at the after party

Stars of small screen were in attendance. They're in EastEnders in case you're thinking, 'who'?

Up close and personal with the male model!

After party gets going.

Glam Girl covets vintage

2011-06-06T09:44:00.000+01:00

Dying to head to Harvey Nichols today, despite the rain, lunchtime spin class and after work dress making class (it's all go in my world!) to try and buy the new range from Lily Allen and Sarah Owen, the owners of that fab boutique in Covent Garden, Lucy in Disguise. Am partial to a bit of vintage and am LOVING this little lot:

http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/daily/110531-lily-allen-unveils-debut-fashion-co.aspx?gclid=COGAyMfwoKkCFUtC4QodZgKCsw

I suspect it will sell out super fast.

My new addiction

2011-06-05T15:09:00.000+01:00

My new addiction comes from Latin America, is ground into powder and you can buy it (almost) on the street in South East London. Unfortunately, I've got myself a fairly pricey habit; fortunately, it's coffee I'm referring to. In particular, Monmouth coffee. It's like no other coffee I've tasted, the shop in Borough Market frequently makes the 'best coffee in London' lists and unfortunately for my wallet, I walk past a shop that sells Monmouth coffee every day on my way to work, and have so far drank about 100 flat whites in the past month.

I made a beeline for the shop at the weekend, deciding if we're going to have coffee at home, it's going to be top notch. The man at the bean counter and I talked through what I wanted from my coffee and I settled on the Finca Las Nubes from Guetemala. It's a slightly sweet, dark roast coffee that stands up to me making it into latte in my cafetiere. So far today I've drank half a litre and am now totally wired. It's good stuff.

Lunch in the sunshine at The Engineer, Primrose Hill

2011-06-05T14:56:00.001+01:00

Wine in a pichet - so civilised, so French...

Crab and chilli pasta

Kingfish with pinto beans in a harissa type marinade

Poached salmon salad

Brownie with cherries and pistachio ice cream

Steamed marmalade pudding

The gorgeous garden

There are few finer things in life, when the summer finally gets going, than lunch in the sunshine in a lovely pub garden. Unfortunately, in London, this sometimes requires military precision planning, as everyone has the same idea once the thermometer starts rising, and the mad scramble for outdoor tables begins.

We'd already unsuccessfully tried getting a table at Inn the Park in St James's Park, and at The Albion in Islington. Trawling the Internet for somewhere outside that's not as wallet busting as The River Cafe, I came across The Engineer in Primrose Hill. I telephoned and got the last outdoor table for lunch - bonus!

Apparently, this place is something of an institution among locals, but being a) not very down with the kids, and b) not local, I'd never heard of it. It was really busy throughout the day, with people regularly turning up to try and bag a table outside and being turned away. Always a good sign.

We had a great little table in the garden, which, like my pregnant dining companion, was blooming and beautiful. I hit the wine list, quirkily encased in a Pokemon annual, and was pleased to note that a lot of the wine is served both by the glass, and in 25 and 50 cl 'pots' (pichets in France) - so civilised and something I wish far more British restaurants and pubs did. A rather nice bio-dynamic chilled rosé arrived to sip at (for me, not her!) as we perused the menu, and tap water was already on the table in a jug (again, British restaurants, please take note).

We both ate a divine starter of crab and chilli linguine, pleasantly fiery in the summer heat, with the brown crab meat flavour standing up well to the intensity of the chilli. My co-diner had a poached salmon salad, which was generous with the meaty chunks of salmon, super fresh and perfectly dressed. I had kingfish, pan fried in a harissa type marinade and served with pinto beans. This was good, with the fish perfectly cooked, my only minor complaint being that the beans were a little bland and would have benefited from a stronger dressing (lime maybe) to compliment the flavour of the fish.

For dessert, the pregnant lady (wistfully eyeing up my second pichet of wine) had a brownie with marinated cherries and pistachio ice cream. I didn't try the brownie for fear of being disappointed (I've yet to find a brownie better than the ones sold in the Ottolenghi delis), but I did have a taste of the ice cream as pistachio is one of My Favourite Things Ever. Not bad. I was going to have a very summery pudding of coconut pannacotta and spiced pineapples but our charming waitress told us "not to tell the chef, but the pannacotta is not very good - it's quite bland"! So I had a steamed marmalade pudding instead.. Not terribly seasonally appropriate, but a rather fabulous little pud, served with home made custard. The dessert wine selection was also worth a perusal, and I indulged in a tokaji pudding wine. I love the sweet sticky honeyed-ness of this wine and was moved to declare that this was 'like angels dancing on my tongue'. Maybe I'd spent too long in the heat and had a one glass too many. Or maybe that's just what a perfect Saturday lunch does to a girl.

http://www.the-engineer.com/index.html

NB: The Engineer is being threatened and asking customers to sign their petition. Apparently, the landlords are threatening to take possession and turn this into a managed public house or part of their franchise, which includes O'Neill's and the Harvester. This would be a travesty. Part of the charm of this place is its independence, its chilled out vibe, its individual staff and its seasonal and responsibly sourced food. The thought if it becoming an O'Neill's fills me with horror. Too many parts of London are just chain pubs and chain restaurants, it's time for an earnest backlash against big business homogenising everywhere and everything. Sign the petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/theengineer/

Olympics Tickets

2011-06-02T16:36:00.000+01:00

Is this another example of a society that expects to have everything? Demand was always going to outstrip supply; we always knew that far more people would want to see the 100 metres athletics finals than the stadium had capacity for. But, doubtless in part fuelled by the media, we seem to be having a collective whinge because we haven't got any, or only got some tickets. Did we really think we were all going to get a ticket because, to roll out the old line, 'we're paying for it' (yawn) and have one big happy UK party of 60 million people in London on 27 July 2012?

And also, what's all this moaning about people having hundreds of pounds worth of tickets but not knowing what for? Unless you are exceedingly stupid and give your credit card details out to every Tom, Dick or Harry, then surely you knew when you were applying for tickets that the money would be debited before you knew what you'd see during the Games? And surely, on that basis, you only applied for stuff you actually wanted to see, or at the very least, thought you could sell back to the organisers? More fool you if you're stuck with 20 tickets to the ping pong. Although I think Boris Johnson might buy them off you.

Now may be a good time to confess that I did get tickets to one event (I'm not sure which, the diving I suspect), and I know at least three others who also got tickets, which blows out of the water the theory of 'Kelly Alderwick from Birmingham' that "every common soul out there has got bugger all" as quoted in today's Daily Star. The fact is, these tickets were available to everyone and if you weren't successful, well I'm afraid, as with life, that's just the luck of the draw.

It's time to wise up and accept that London 2012 is going to be a fabulous occasion, whether you watch it on the sofa with a beer or are in the stadium, so close to Usain Bolt you could touch him. The eyes of the world will once again be focused on the nation, as they were in April, and that was a major success. Let's get the bunting out of the loft, throw a street party, revel in the cultural Olympiad, cheer on Team GB and enjoy the short time that the Games are here. It's time to stop whinging, start partying and show the rest of the world what makes Great Britain so great.

2011-06-01T22:44:00.000+01:00

Tomato bread

Steak with cheese and caramelised onions

Boquerones

The first bottle of sherry

Huge and yummy prawns

Patatas bravos

Chefs at work and the rather odd tortillas

The Jamon.......ohhhhhh the jamon.

Chorizo and picos

Lunch on the last day of the 'soft' opening of Jose (31st May I'm afraid folks), a new tapas joint on Bermondsey Street, SE1. This soft opening is a new (and rather rude sounding) concept to me, but very welcome, as it entails 50% off the bill.

The place is tiny, with only 30 covers, and was rather busy, considering it wasn't even officially open yet. We started off with a bottle of sherry (there were 6 of us) and ordered up some tapas. I realised halfway through that I am destined never to make any money from food writing as a) I am so greedy that everything was 'fabulous' initially and b) I was so busy scoffing that I forgot to take photos until halfway through. So I'm afraid you don't get to see the tortillas, the pisto with duck egg, or the albondigas (meatballs). Sorry.

So, what of the food? Some of the tapas was outstanding - the huge prawns, the fat, oily boquerones, those meatballs in their tomatoey luscious sauce. And some was decidedly so-so, the tomato bread wasn't all that and the tortillas needed to be served warm. But I forgive them all this for one reason and one reason alone. The Jamon. The Jamon Iberico Manuel Maldonado. Initially we didn't order this, but having asked for the bill and received it, we decided to have 'seconds' and ordered another bottle of sherry and a plate of ham. The ham alone was worth the visit. Rich, meaty, fatty, melt in the mouth ham. Go to Jose, order a selection of tapas - the menu changes daily. But make sure you have the Jamon. And ask the adorable waitress for her number - my brother chickened out of doing so.

Slobbering like Pavlov(a)'s dogs.

2011-05-30T17:27:00.002+01:00

The best pav in the world - courtesy of my mother.

The Posh Lunch Club

2011-05-30T17:24:00.000+01:00

A friend and I 'borrowed' an idea from the great 'eat like a girl' blog http://eatlikeagirl.com/ and set up our very own posh lunch club. The concept is simple - some of the most wonderful restaurants can be extremely pricey, but a lot of them offer a set lunch, which is more often than not, great value. So far, the posh lunch club has visited Marcus Wareing at The Berkley (old school glamour) and Dinner by Heston B, which was just wow. Heston's in the lead so far, the restaurant is relaxing, the staff charming and the food exceptional. Oh, and the set menu is £28, and the house wine is £20 a bottle. A real bargain for the quality of what is being served up to you. You must have the chocolate wine, a pudding to die for. The posh lunch club wanted to go the The River Cafe next, but it appears they only do their set lunch menu in the winter- boo hiss. I'll be scouting for the next venue over the next few weeks, any recommendations greatly accepted.

2011-05-28T21:29:00.000+01:00

Polly Vernon in today's Times : "Fashion is not the great suppressor of otherwise fierce minds. Dressing well - with wit, skill, art even- is a pleasurable, mood-altering, creative thing to do to yourself every day."

Welcome

2011-05-28T19:19:00.000+01:00

Welcome and thanks for looking at my blog. You will probably notice sooner rather than later that this is the first blog I have set up, and I don't really have a clue what I'm doing. The main reasons for setting this up are to share my musings as to what's going on right now with you, cool bars, fabulous restaurants, great shops and clothes and also as an outlet for my 'articles' (and I use this word in the loosest possible way), by which I mean my thoughts and opinions on political and current affairs issues that my colleagues and friends don't really want to hear, and that I can't express at the debating society I joined 18 months ago because (ahem) I haven't actually been along once yet. I wanted to get a feel for whether there's an interest out there for this sort of writing, and hope that you enjoy what I've written. If so, tell me and if not, tell me why not! Here we go.........