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Wednesday 31 August 2011

SOS


Salad Prep


The Full Monty


Wicked Waiheke Coastline Wine 


Farmhouse Fayre Sticky Toffee Pudding


Toblerone Summit Glaciers




#14  Valentines Day


Summer Of Salad


"Hey don't falter, when your with me it's always summer." 


There are few meals that define summer quite like a Nicoise salad. It certainly is summers Mint Royale feature and this writers favourite place to tuck in to a summer salad is nestled at home, relaxing on the couch of life. The best part of a Nicoise is there are no fixed rules, allowing for inner creativity and a chance to paint a little landscape to suit your mood.


Here we opted for these Nicoise essentials : Cherry Tomatoes, New season Potatoes, Radish, Avocado, Green Beans, Boiled Egg, Anchovies, Black Olives, Pistachios, Pine Nuts, Olive Oil, Himalayan Salt. 


Accompanied by a beaute bottle of Man O War from their micro climate vineyard on New Zealand's Waiheke Island.


For pudding, a contest was declared and in the corner in the rose pink shorts....
'Piping Hot Farmhouse Fayre Sticky Toffee Pudding with Local favourite Marine Ices ice cream'
and in the pale blue shorts....
'Toblerone Chunks Ascending Ice cream Glacier Scoops'.
And as the ring master might say, by unanimous decision the judges declared this pudding contest..... 
ABSO  LOOT- LEEEEEEEEEEE
KNOCKOUT.


www.marineices.co.uk
www.farmhousefare.co.uk
www.toblerone.com
www.manowarvineyards.co.nz

Thursday 18 August 2011

SWISS COTTAGE POOL RESTAURANT






The view from Swiss Cottage Swimming Pool Restaurant


# 13 Unlucky For Some


There's Nothing Going On But The Juice.

Now then, now then ladies and gents, this may, or may not, float your boat, but if you enjoy your favourite tipple accompanied by flowing water.....

pop down to the Swiss Cottage Pools Restaurant


I am sailing,
I am sailing
Home again, 
Across the seas
I am sailing, stormy waters,
To be near you 
To be free....... from msg, additives, E numbers and other naughty manmade chemicals.


http://www.chegworthvalley.com


The best of natures juices. 




Saturday 13 August 2011

CHEZ NOUS



Full Moon Menu


It dosen't get any better than this



Regular patron snug in his natural habitat


The Beaker of Ribena


A Peak inside Nirvana


Avocado and Prawns with buttered triangles


Grilled Trout with Salad and Chips


The Birthday girls let rip

#12  One Dozen


A Place to Call Home


Some girls are bigger than others, some days are better than others, sometimes your instinct is to recoil from life's harsher edges and simply feel cosseted, fed and watered by a friendly face. A place where you can be left quietly to ponder life's intricate meandering web of ups and downs.

The development of Comfort Food is a testament to those such days and there are few locations in London that could compete with Chez Nous in a Comfort Relay Race.This snug cafe restaurant is one of a kind, proudly a family run business and fantastically not part of any chain, it retains the idiosyncratic charm to seduce and cosset.Opening early in the morning till late at night, it covers the traditional breakfast hangover to a twilight cheese toastie.

Supporting a local community with a fascinating cross section of the social demographic of Belsize Park, Chez Nous is frequented by builders, actresses, community workers, artists, accountants, hippies, vagrants and vicars. It certainly is a local institution, a haven for regular faces and sometimes for those less fortunate, who pop in gratefully to discreetly receive free food, for their daily nourishment. It is a place with a heart and a soul and though the young female staff seem to change frequently, a common thread runs through their smiling, courteous happy spirit, which radiates in their service. 

Educated travellers drop by and freely pass on their tips while some other patrons mentor and counsel over a cup of tea, safe in the bosom of Chez Nous.The layout is intriguing too with a single long bench seat and tables facing across the room to the adjoining customers. This gives a sense of being part of a life stage or tv documentary, while the ambience is so relaxing this never feels intrusive.

The decor and use of materials may not appear at first glance to be anything to write home about, but dont be fooled. This is the beauty of Chez Nous, it dosen't need to try too hard, because it is true to itself and has over the years, moulded into a snug, homely, non precious intimate form of existence.

The menu is extensive and perfect. It reeks of comfort food. The food is nothing but homely and comes in a generous proportion, cleverly avoiding life's tricky decisions by coming with both salad and chips. The plates are served with the perfect just-what-you-need condiments on hand. 

In the 21st century it is evident we as consumers have learned from America and an overly spoiled economy to be more demanding and exacting. Chez Nous knows how to counter this excessive expectancy and helps you to understand that sometimes, the little things in life that usually go unnoticed, are actually more important than the seemingly bigger self important things.

There can be no better testament to Chez Nous than  finishing this blog and by mentioning these observations :

  • an elderly customer given a doggy bag in a plain white plastic handle carrier to take home, with a little cake for pudding enclosed inside a polystyrene beaker. 
  • a patron depositing ice cubes with her fingers into her beaker of wine.
  • the maitre d' serving a surprise birthday cake with pretty candles lit up and wrapped in pink ribbon, to a table of four excitable ladies.


http://www.thank-the-lord-chez-nous-has-not-got-a-website.com

Tuesday 9 August 2011

THE BROAD WALK



Sausage roll, paper bag, bite size roll.



The baton exchange



The prized object


# 11 Legs Eleven

Breakfast Picnic Stroll

Breakfast picnic strolls are a new favourite pastime of the blogger. If you find yourself having a stroll.... why not think of a stroll with a roll.  

Sausage rolls are a little delicacy, an eighth wonder of the world and served fresh from the oven, become a complete breakfast meal of their own.

Pop your danglers in and tap on the pastry beat.


I love Sausage rolls,
Put another dime in the duke box baby
I love Picnic strolls,
Come and take the time and Roll with me.


MELROSE AND MORGAN
*Straight From The Oven
Large Sausage Roll £3.25 / Mini Sausage Roll £1.20 

http://www.royalparks.gov.uk/The-Regents-Park.aspx

Sunday 7 August 2011

PIE O' CLOCK

The pie o meter reaches the stars.


# 10 Camerons Den


Poke My Pie

"They tried to make me go to piehab and I said No, no, no !"

Any true artist knows where to find a true artist pie maker.

Please meet our local butchers bonus ball.

Any Oxbridge graduate worth his onions knows the square route of Pythagorus is always Pie.

ROWLEYS

Nestled in Jermyn St

Valentine's Night


Swirly Cast Iron Stair


A Romantic Carafe


When the boat comes in


Pan fried Cod on bed of buttered Spinach


The House Speciality, Char-grilled Entrecote


Pudding Service


Admiring the Eye Candy


# 9 Doctors Orders


A HIDDEN GEM


to read the write up - watch this space !


http://www.rowleys.co.uk/


Saturday 6 August 2011

BARRETS BUTCHERS of Englands Lane



Freshly malleted free range Beef cut



Free Breadcrumbs from Barretts Butchers



Flour, breadcrumbs and Organic free range egg from Budgens



The hands that rocked the cradle



Freshly crumbed Schnitzel. Waiting in the queue.



From the frying pan into the fire.



Spuds from Michael Palin's favourite grocer Pomona, Haverstock Hill. 



The South Island of New Zealand Schnitzel.



The end product. 



Roots Ginger Beer. Real Ginger, Real Ginger Roots.


# 8  Garden Gate


Crumbs Of Comfort

Some people say Kentucky Fried Chicken is finger lickin' good. And who are we to argue ?

It is more than a small crumb of comfort to know that times are a'changing and for every KFC that opens around the globe there is some burgeoning small community earnestly pottering away, producing handmade food that is locally reared, grown or sourced.

In starting this personal blog, I have been learning heaps about the technical rudimentaries. How difficult it is to get the layout just so, how little or much to write for the reading audience not to get bored and should I bother about the traffic flow. The most important point of all is how really good food can taste so different depending upon the place, the ambience and the experience.

This weekend the blogger decided to cut loose and make Schnitzel. Now, most food aficionados will know authentic Schnitzel is made from Veal. There are some meat eaters out there who steadfastly refuse to eat veal and sight understandable concerns relating to the historic cruelty of the young animal. It is good to know a body such as the RSPCA now endorses eating UK Rose Veal, having proactively overseen the adoption and implementation of new farming methods.

Despite this helpful reassurance, the blogger decided to challenge our local butcher on Englands Lane, to provide a cut of meat suitable for making Schnitzel, that wasn't Veal.

Our nice smiley butcher is innovative, bright eyed and bushy tailed and set about hammering away with his wooden mallet, creating paper thin slices of pork and beef. This experimental plan we hoped to prove an interesting Schnitzel test, with prime cuts from reputable locally reared, free range animals.

Kindly throwing in a surprise free bag of breadcrumbs, we gratefully thanked the butcher and headed off home to find the accompaniments for our meal and to prep for the table.

The rest as they say, went just like clockwork.

Schnitzel is a fab, fun plate to prepare and whether the cut is beef, pork or veal when served with mash, it truly is the ichiban of comfort foods.

Barretts Butchers


Friday 5 August 2011

MELROSE AND MORGAN




Heaven forbid. The Ultimate Flat White.


# 7 Lucky Seven

Heavenly Creatures


Some of best things in life need few lines. 

Who cares about the name of the coffee bean or the field it was grown in, the temperature of the milk or steam valve pressure blasted through ? 

We of course, think we all do care. Well some of us do, but most importantly when something is this good it is simply best to let nature run it's course.

Truly the best Flat White in London is served seven days a week at Melrose and Morgan, the stunningly cute grocers at 42 Gloucester Avenue.  


And the best bit, if you get so excited when picking up your fix, you race home to your roost with your prize and accidentally sprain your ankle, simply hobble over to see Garry Trainer across the road. That ladies and gentleman is a show stopping experience you never will forget.

Melrose and Morgan



Tuesday 2 August 2011

WHITECHAPEL GALLERY DINING ROOM


*Peanut and Chocolate Mille Feuille   £4.95 


Angela's Pendulous Lamp Land





Engraved Tap Water    £2.00
Artisan Bread with Veneto Valpolicello Olive Oil   £2.50






Small Plates
Slow roasted tomato, heritage tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and black olives   £5.50
Char-grilled courgettes, hazelnuts and gremolata dressing    £4.50
Pan fried mackerel fillet, tomato and fennel salad    £6.95
Roast beetroot and bean salad, goats' cheese    £5.85
Side Orders
Chicory and walnut salad    £3.50
Truffle chips sprinkled with parmesan shavings and truffle oil    £3.50



Bucket menu - cone for truffle chips



# 6 Tom Mix


Quiet Beauty


There are few things more pleasurable than food, glorious food when it really is on the glorious end of the scale. Angela Hartnett knows how to deliver glorious fodder. It is quite a coup for the Whitechapel Gallery to have Ms Hartnett navigating their restaurant ship. She is so dam clever and makes the best food on the block.

The food is simply innovative rather than innovatively simple and comes in beautiful small plate sizes. Or bigger plates if you've parked your truck outside. It is imaginative and wholly relevant, there is nothing fancy or over zealous. The ingredients set the benchmark and are a grade above the rest. The combinations of flavours suggests fresh food, locally sourced in England, is no longer second best. It is also extraordinarily well priced and considering the fine dining room setting, reeks of value for money. 

The Peanut and Chocolate Mille Feuille stopped the blogger in his tracks. Don't settle for my word. Please visit to taste it.

The mood is enhanced with chatty artistic types and those who come to dine in an airy, elegant atmosphere with an abundance of natural daylight. The piped music normally overbearing is wonderful and the music selection is pitch perfect with Ella Fitzgerald. 'Everytime You Say Goodbye'.

The service is relaxed, intelligent and fun. It is a pleasure to dine here and it enhances the experience of visiting this outstanding art gallery with it's amazing book shop.

No Brandon, its not Andy, 


Favourite Places To Eat

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