Brunch at 'Jacks at the Junction' - Clapham Junction

So. Much. Food.

A couple of weekends ago we went to Battersea on Sunday morning to drop off some baking for a charity bake sale (berry brownies) and also to have brunch. It turns out that Battersea is basically just Clapham, I mean they seem to be the actual same place.. weird. Anyway I looked up a place to go online and there was one which had really high tripadviser reviews so we thought we should go check it out (I think they were 70 something out of thousands of places in London.

It was super easy to find because we walked past on the way to drop off the baking. When we got back it looked pretty busy and had a line of people to be seated, usually that would totally put us off but we were starved by then so went in. We didn't have to wait long for a table, but did have to share a table with another couple which was a little weird but we just ignored each other! I think they were on a blind date or something.. but also tried not to listen to their conversation too much.

Quentin and I both chose the vegetarian big breakfast, Quentin got his without eggs of course. We also both got milkshakes which may not have been the best decision since I was so full after the milkshake there was no way I could eat all my breakfast. Also it was massive. I mean look at it! We should have got one breakfast to share really, if we go back that is what we will do.

So, what came with the breakfast was two slices of toast, a whole grilled tomato, two eggs (I got mine poached, Quentin swapped his for more hash browns), two hash browns (four for Quentin), baked beans, chips, and two sausage shaped items which may have been Glamorgan sausages although I can't say for sure.

The sausages were delicious although not at all like meat, they seemed to have a bunch of veges grated up inside. I hadn't tried them before but would definitely eat them again. They were packed full of flavour from herbs and stuff as well so super delish. The hash browns and chips were cooked pretty perfectly, sometimes hash browns aren't cooked enough and are soggy which makes me sad. These were super crunchy (but not too much) so they made me happy.

The eggs (I only ate one actually) were the best I have had so far in London. I hate over poached eggs because then what is the point, you may as well boil them. But I also hate under poached eggs because then you get the creepy uncooked white which makes me feel sick when I look at it. This egg had neither of those problems so I enjoyed it a lot. I don't usually eat white bread (unless I am having a chip buttie) but with everything else it was actually just right.

We both only ended up being able to eat half our breakfasts. I tried hard to eat more since I hate to waste food but I failed. Too full! It was a great meal though. Oh and I forgot to mention that you can get bottomless filter coffee with your breakfast which basically rules. It was good coffee too. And the service was good. Overall I would give them a 4. Everything was cooked well and delicious, but it was really noisy and the tables were super close together. I would go back there for sure but just share a breakfast!

It looked like they did a huge range of things to take away, including choose your own sandwiches with delicious looking ingredients so that would be an option as well.

Homemade Pizza

"Chicken", cranberry and cream cheese

All of the vegetables

Mexican style

So I have a lot of catching up to do with this blog since I have been super busy the past couple of weeks at work and planning our trip to Switzerland/Netherlands... Fondue, rosti and croquettes, here we come! These pizzas are from when our friend Lindsay came over a couple of weeks ago so we could decide where to stay in the Netherlands.

We had made pizza for our flatmates a few days earlier but I forgot to take any photos of those. These ones turned out better looking anyway. I bought a couple of pizza trays with holes in the bottom from Pound Land so our pizzas could get a crispy base and they worked pretty well although I think we are now planning to get a pizza stone. Quentin always makes the bread and pizza dough and is really awesome at it now, I just put on the toppings and make up ideas of pizzas to have.

We made three pizzas, the first one with "chicken" was because we had the quorn chicken left from the vege fest and I remembered how jealous I used to be of people who could get chicken, apricot and cream cheese pizzas. Unfortunately it seems that apricot sauce does not exist in London, at least in the three supermarkets I went to so we used cranberry instead. It may have actually turned out better!

We used cranberry sauce for the base, then put on the quorn "chicken", pinenuts, cream cheese and mozzarella, it was super simple. I just popped some rocket on top once it was done and that was it. This pizza actually turned out to be everyone's favourite, although I am not the hugest fan of quorn. I may be able to find something better to use.

The second pizza was basically all of the things that were in the fridge. We used barbeque sauce for the base because I love barbeque sauce on pizza, then we added onions, three colours of peppers, tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, mozzarella, and possibly some other things which I can't remember. This one was good but not as exciting as the other two so was probably the least favourite.

The third one was inspired by our visit to the Robin Hood restaurant and had a mix of Mexican vegetables on the base (I know we used sauce, maybe just tomato??), then some fresh tomato, peppers and onions, then corn chips and mozzarella. Once it was cooked I added the salsa and rocket. This pizza was a bit different to usual and a bit weird but actually really good. I think  I would definitely make it again if I had leftovers from Mexican. I probably wouldn't bother if I didn't have all the ingredients around already though because it would be a bit like making dinner twice.

We managed to eat all three pizzas between the three of us, although we almost didn't make it. I thought that was pretty impressive though! All the pizza was popular, with out flatmates as well, which is encouraging. Quentin and I think that when we are old we will open a pub which sells awesome food and pizza will be on the menu so we need to spend a long time practicing!

Lunch at the Prince of Wales in Putney

Beautiful Food!

On Monday our Finance team went out to lunch because we had a new intern starting and it was also his birthday. We went to the Prince of Wales because our new intern wanted to try fish and chips and apparently is the place to go for fish and chips in Putney. It has really good ratings online which was a good sign, and my workmates all seemed to like it as well.

It smelt a bit weird when we first walked in, like a bit musty maybe which wasn't great but after a few minutes I didn't notice anymore. They change their menu most days I think, but have some things which are always on there like the fish and chips. There was only one vegetarian option and it didn't sound that good since the main ingredient was celeriac which I don't think I like. There was a fish dish so I went for that even though I would have preferred to have something vegetarian.

The fish was sea trout which I hadn't tried before, which came with a cauliflower puree, poached egg, fried potatoes with almonds and spinach and the fish over top with a crispy skin. The fish was nice, it was a similar colour to salmon and the crispy skin was pretty good. The potatoes, poached egg and cauliflower puree were the best parts for me though! If they had just had that for a meal instead of adding the fish as well it would have still been awesome.

The food was so nicely presented, not only mine but all the food people ordered. I think I was the only person who didn't order the fish and chips or the burger and both looked amazing. The burger looked so good it made me wish that I ate meat! The fish and chips were huge and apparently really good. I got to try one of the chips and they were quite delicious!

I was happy with my food but would have been happier if there was at least one more vegetarian option. I think if I was going to go back I would have to check before going that they had a vegetarian option I could eat so as not to have to have fish again. It is a shame they don't have more vegetarian options because the food is so beautifully presented and delicious.

I would give them a 3.5 out of 5 because they didn't have much choice but the food I did get was really nice. It is a bit expensive and the service wasn't great, none of us were asked if we wanted drinks other than wine (which we didn't want on a Monday lunch time!) and my food came a good 5-10 minutes after everyone else's. I might go back for lunch or dinner since it is so close to work but would check the menu first.

Dinner at "Robin Hood Zorro", a Mexican Polish restaurant!

Starters, so many things

Fajita frenzy!

Enchiladas with lots of things

One of the many murals

On Monday Quentin and I went to Hammersmith to go winter clothes shopping and get dinner. I was looking up what kind of restaurants there were in Hammersmith and saw that there was one called 'Robin Hood Zorro' which was a Mexican/Polish restaurant which I thought sounded hilarious so we should definitely go there. It wasn't too far down the road from where the shops are in Hammersmith so it was a good location.

When we walked in we were a bit taken aback because it is extremely decorated in there! They have murals everywhere of Robin Hood and Zorro, both apart and together, including one of the two of them having a sword fight with real swords (well metal anyway) which were stuck to the painting as well as a gun which was also stuck on, super hilarious!

The menu was interesting because it was like a whole Mexican menu and a whole polish menu with some other random stuff as well. We decided to go for Mexican since it is one of our favourite foods rather than polish, although I would like to try more Polish food as well.

We ordered one starter to share which was lucky because the starter and the mains were really huge! For the starter it was all sorts of random things, some onion rings, deep fried cheese sticks, deep fried peppers stuffed with cheese, garlic mushrooms, spring rolls and a sort of nacho tortilla thing. It wasn't much on presentation but it all tasted good and gave us the idea to make a Mexican pizza which we did later in the week.

For mains I got fajitas because they are my favourite, and Quentin got enchiladas because they are his favourite. Quentin's enchiladas came with Mexican rice, chips and salad. The rice was really tasty but a bit spicy for him so he didn't eat it all. The enchiladas were good and had plenty of vegetables as well as cheese. It may have been the same vegetable mix as my fajitas but we weren't sure. He was happy anyway and managed to eat most of it although he did have to use some of my sour cream to make it less spicy.

On the other hand I thought my fajitas were a bit lacking in spice. The vegetables had a nice flavour but I would have to say they were very mild which was a little disappointing. The vegetable mix was a bit strange as well since it included things like baby corn and baby carrots but was still good since it had onions, peppers, beans and so on. The vegetables came on a sizzling platter which was exciting, and came with a heated container of tortillas, cheese, guacamole, salsa and cheese. I managed to eat two tortillas and about half the vegetables but then I was super full. The lady who was serving us put it in a container for me to take home which was nice of her.

There seemed to be only the one lady working although there must have been a chef as well, and she was really lovely. She didn't seem in a hurry and had a little chat with us which was nice. Quentin and I both agreed that the food was good but not great. It was delicious because it was Mexican but it wasn't the best Mexican we had ever had. Overall I would score them a 3.5 because the food was good but not great, although the service was excellent. I would consider going back there for entertainment value, maybe with a group of friends.

Amazing lunch at the Coach and Horses in Soho

Welsh Rarebit

With a poached egg!

Pie of the day

Last weekend we were going to see the Queens of the Stoneage at Wembley but wanted to go out and do something during the day. Our friend Lindsay was keen to do something as well so he suggested meeting for a late lunch at this vegetarian pub in Soho which sounded great to us! I was getting my hair cut in the morning so went to meet the boys there. The Piccadilly line was having a mare so we were all late by varying degrees although no one was too bothered, we just had several drinks while waiting for each other!

The pub was a bit busy when we arrived and just got busier as it got later in the day. I'm not sure if it is the location or the food or the drink that brought people in but the food was definitely good and the man who ran the pub was lovely. They have a restaurant upstairs but we sat downstairs in the bar which is small but cool, super old fashioned.

They had a menu downstairs which may be the same as the one upstairs, and also a bar snack menu. I decided to get the Welsh Rarebit since I had never tried it before, and it came with the option of adding a poached egg, which I totally love. Adding a poached egg to things definitely makes them better. The meal was delicious, super tasty! The egg was poached perfectly which made me happy and the carrot salad went really well with the rich rarebit. It was a bit spicy because I think it was made with hot English mustard but it was just right for me. Quentin said he probably wouldn't have been able to eat the whole thing because it would be too hot for him. For me it was cheesy and spicy and creamy all at the same time, on sourdough which made it a bit chewy as well. It may be one of my new favourite foods and I am thinking about eating it again just writing it, the memories are making me hungry!

Quentin was tossing up between the burger and the pie and decided on the pie since he is always getting burgers. The pie came with butternut mash and the crust was made from bread dough. The pie was pretty large and filled with all sorts of veges and grains in a rich gravy. The butternut mash was average, I don't know why anyone eats butternut because it basically has no flavour. Quentin enjoyed the pie though which was good. We were talking about the bread as pastry and the owner overheard and told us about how they are trying to work down to zero food waste so if they run out of something (e.g. pastry) they will replace it or take it off the menu. He said he would rather run out of something than waste it which is something I totally agree with, I hate wasting food!

Lindsay order the 'tofush and chips' which came out looking exactly like fish and chips! He let us have a try of some and it was really good! It tasted surprisingly like fish but kind of better because it was tofu. The chips were really good as well and I got to eat some, excellent!

I would give them a 4 out of 5 because my food was so tasty and delicious, the host was great and the service was quick. We are already talking about going back to try the burger, and there were a bunch of other options to try as well, like a beetroot ravioli where instead of pasta it is beetroot and it is stuffed with cheese, that sounds awesome!

The only real downside was the butternut mash, and also the bathrooms which were absolutely tiny, you would not fit a large person in there I don't think, and I wouldn't be too keen on going in there while drunk! Overall though it was great, we stayed there for several hours and felt comfortable and welcome, although a little cold from all the people going in and out. I would recommend this place to vegetarians and meat eaters.

Lunch at the Hare and Tortoise in Putney

Vegetarian "duck" pancakes

Tofu and Vegetable Lo Mein

The internal auditors from America were visiting my work over the last couple of weeks so we went out for lunch with some of them to the Hare and Tortoise which is a Japanese place near my work in Putney. I think I may have posted about it before, when I got Ramen from them. This time was more delicious!

We were all getting starters so I picked vegetarian duck pancakes which sounded yummy! Also it's something I hadn't seen on a menu before but I had always thought the meat version sounded good. It came with four pancakes filled with deep fried tofu, cucumber, hoisin sauce and spring onions. It also came with a delicious dipping sauce which seemed a bit like plum sauce but maybe with the addition of some soy and maybe even more hoisin. They were delicious, I could have just eaten several portions for my lunch and nothing else! I loved the freshness of the vegetables with the savoury from the tofu and the sweetness from the sauce, so good.

For main I got tofu and vegetable lo mein, there are a lot of choices here so I might have to keep going back until I have tried them all! They gave me an option of rice or noodles with this one but of course I chose noodles since I think rice sucks! It was a bit overloaded with noodles, like far more than I could ever eat, but maybe a good amount for Quentin.

The actual dish was really good, I enjoyed it much more than the Ramen because it had more flavour, although I could have done with a little extra soy, there was none on the table so I ate it as it was. There was a good amount of tofu and vegetables but I think I only got through about a third of the noodles! Not that I am complaining but I do often find things a bit heavy on the carbs when I go out to eat, maybe because vegetables are more expensive than rice/noodles.

I love carbs and love to have them at every meal but I also love vegetables and would prefer an equal amount of each, or more veges than carbs even. Anyway there was good variety in this dish, some bok (or pak or something else) choy, carrots, onions, spring onions, broccoli and mushrooms. The tofu is so good here because it is deep fried but also in such large pieces that it still has that soft delicious inside.

The food here is quite cheap as well, I don't think I would have paid more than 10 pounds for this meal which I think is a good deal. I would give them a 4 out of 5 because the food is delicious, the service is good and it is also good value for money. I definitely intend to go back and try more things there. Yum.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

So tasty

Delicious Cookies

I have been doing a bit of baking recently since my flatmates and workmates seem to appreciate it! I wanted to make some chocolate chip cookies since I used to make them quite often and they were always pretty tasty. Unfortunately all my recipe books are still in NZ and I used to use the recipe for chocolate chip biscuits from the Edmonds Junior Cookbook with a couple of adjustments.

I did a google search and couldn't find the Edmonds Junior Cookbook one but I did find the Edmonds Cookbook one so I thought I would try them. I don't think they came out as well as usual because they were much crunchier and I prefer them a bit more soft and chewy. They still got eaten pretty quickly though so they cant have been too bad!

They are totally easy to make as well which is a bonus, here is the recipe;
125g butter
1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp. sweetened condensed milk
A few drops of vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Then you just need to cream the butter and sugar, add the vanilla and condensed milk and mix it well, then add the flour and baking powder and mix again, and finally mix in the chocolate chips.

You can add extra things if you want, for example I added extra condensed milk because I thought it seemed a little dry, and also added dark and white chocolate chips so there were about 1.5x the amount in the recipe. I also doubled the recipe.

I am still getting used to our oven which is a gas one and cooks much faster on the top shelf than the bottom, as well as being hotter in the back than the front! I have to make sure I move things around while they are cooking so they cook evenly.

It is supposed to take about 20 minutes at 170 degrees but I think mine cook more quickly than that so you will want to keep an eye on them every 5 minutes or so. I find if I wait until I can smell them they are likely to be overcooked.

I will keep looking for a recipe which makes chewy cookies though since I think they are better so that might be coming up soon.

Lebanese at Kaslik in Soho

All of the things

Fancy gold table!

Delicious dips

Yesterday we felt like being tourists and wanted to go look around town a bit. I also wanted to go out to eat and felt like having lots of small dishes so I used the top table app to find some options of places in Soho we could go and we decided on a Lebanese place called Kaslik which is just off Soho Square. When we got there it didn't really look open but luckily it was. The guy who was working there, maybe the owner, was super nice. He was blowing up balloons for a 21st party they were going to have there in the evening but was really friendly and welcoming.

There weren't any other people in the restaurant when we arrived but a few others came in while we were there. The restaurant itself was really cute, it had all sorts of random lamps and light fittings which were made out of like gold and other metals as well as colourful glass. All the tables were these round gold metal ones which had patterns all over them.

There were so many vegetarian options for us to choose from which all sounded really delicious so we went with an option where you could pick 3 mezze for 10 pounds. We got hummus, baba ganouj, falafel, halloumi, batata harra (spicy potato) and a pastry dish with spinach and pinenuts. We also got some pita bread and complimentary olives.

The olives were really good, some of the best I have had in London. Quentin tried one but he didn't like it. That was good because then I got to eat all of the olives. I don't think they make their own pita bread but is was warm and soft so I didn't mind too much.

The hummus was delicious, so smooth and tasty and it came with extra chickpeas on top. The baba ganouj was good as well, although a little more chunky than I am used to. The falafel was amazing, so much better than the last falafel we had at the toy shop. It had a bunch of flavour and was nice and crispy on the outside but was light and fluffy on the inside.

The halloumi was grilled and chewy, so good! I could have eaten tonnes more than what we got but we had so much other stuff to eat as well. The potatoes were not surprisingly my favourite part. They were cooked so well, and had a great flavour with some good spice from the chillis.  The pastry dish was not the best. The spinach was tasty but the pastry itself was a bit weird. It was the only one of the six which wasn't awesome though so I didn't mind.

Overall it was all delicious and I would go back except for the fact there are so many other places to try! The service was great, the food came out pretty quickly and we felt like we could have hung out there all day and they wouldn't have minded. I will give them a 4 out of 5. Yum.

Vegetarian platter at the Toyshop in Putney

All of the food!

So many deep fry!

On Tuesday Quentin and I went to see Captain Phillips at the Odeon in Putney and I thought rather than go home and then come back we should go out to eat somewhere in Putney. There are tonnes of restaurants just near the movie theatre but the Toyshop had been recommended to us and the menu sounded good so we thought we would give it a go.

They had a bunch of interesting sounding starters and mains, and the menu was about 50/50 vegetarian and non-vegetarian so we had heaps of choice as well which was cool. We decided to get the "Earth Star" platter which was about 28 pounds so not super cheap but could have fed more than two people for sure!

When the platter came out it looked amazing! It was on a sort of wooden board which was raised off the table and could spin around so you could get to all the things, I had never seen anything like it. There were so many foods to try as well which I love. Variety is totally the best.

The things we got were a couscous salad which had some fruits and brazil nuts, Quentin really liked this one but I thought it could have had more flavour, maybe some lemon juice or something would have been a good addition. The next thing you can see is a sort of take on a potato salad, it had a creamy dressing but no potato, instead it had cheese, peas and some red pepper. I found the dressing too creamy but it was nice when you just had a little bit mixed with something else. Quentin agreed that the dressing was too creamy but he liked it more than I did.

We also got a bowl of sautéed green beans which were cooked perfectly, still a bit crispy, and they were one of my favourite things, although they could maybe have done with a little salt, maybe some soy sauce or something. We also got some focaccia bread which was great for the goats cheese lollipops which were coated in pistachio and some spicy paprika. The goats cheese lollipops were probably my favourite thing out of everything, they were so delicious and went well with everything.

Another thing which you cant see too well in the pictures was a barley risotto with broad beans and spring onion. I really liked the risotto although I thought it could have had a little more flavour, maybe some parmesan or something to give it a bit more richness.

Now for the deep fried things... There were aubergine chips which were covered in a buttermilk batter which was amazing! The actual aubergine I am still not sold on but the batter was so good I was just eating that by itself when I usually don't even like batter. There was also sweet potato chips which were my second favourite thing, they were super delicious and just needed a little extra salt. They went nicely with the goats cheese because they were sweet and warm where the goats cheese was cold and more sharp and sour.

There was also falafel which we both agreed was not the best, it seemed like maybe they had blended their ingredients for too long so it was sort of pasty rather than being chunky. They also didn't have a whole lot of flavour. Oh and the final thing which was also my favourite were the risotto balls. They were made from sundried tomato so had tonnes of flavour and then had a nice crispy coating. I could have eaten about 20 of them I think!

As well as all of these things there were also three dips. One was a tasty beetroot chutney style dip which was my favourite, then there was a mint sauce which we both found a little weird since it tasted really like a mojito and was super strongly flavoured. The third dip was something which reminded me of curried egg, I don't know what it actually was, possibly some sort of curried mayonnaise, Quentin really liked this one anyway although I found it a little too creamy.

Overall it was a really fun meal, it was cool to be able to mix all different things together and try so many foods at one meal. Not all of the different foods were as good as I thought they could be, some were a bit lacking in flavour or could have been a little more tasty but overall most of it was delicious.

The service was good and the food came out pretty quickly. We didn't get any drinks but they had a fun cocktail list which I would like to go back and try at some point. I will give them a 4 because some of the things could have been more delicious but it was a fun meal and most of it was really good. I would go back there for drinks with friends and get this again.

Snacks and drinks at Lost & Co

Arancini, so pretty!



Arancini and fries!

Last week one of my workmates from Ireland was over in the London office so we went out for some drinks on Thursday. There are heaps of places to go for drinks in Putney, and lots of restaurants as well which is cool. We went to a place called Lost & Co which is apparently quite new because it used to be a different restaurant.

They have a lot of different beers on tap which is cool but their food menu is almost completely vegetarian free so there wasn't a lot of choice for me. Everyone else was getting pizzas but there was only one vegetarian pizza and it had only things I didn't like on it. It was pear, walnut and goats cheese I think. So not the best.

Luckily they did have a couple of things I could eat on the snack menu so I ordered the fries and arancini. I had actually just been saying to Quentin the other day how I wanted some arancini so I was happy that they had them on the menu.

The pizzas looked pretty good but they should totally have more vege options! The food came out reasonably quickly as well which was good. The fries were fries, I mean you can't really get them wrong unless they aren't fresh. These were nice and hot and crispy and I ate them all!

The arancini were really tasty, they had a nice crisp coating with soft rice inside and some cheese in the middle which was all melty and delicious. I think it's hard to make rice delicious and usually find it bland but this rice was full of flavour. I couldn't eat all of the arancini since I had eaten all of the fries but the others all wanted to try them so it worked out well.

I have no idea what the dip was which came with the arancini and forgot to look on the menu but it had a strange flavour. Quite good but also weird. I can't even really explain what it was except it reminded me a bit of a tapenade.

The service was good and the beer list is impressive but since they had almost no options for a vegetarian I am only going to give them a 3. The food I got was good but fries and arancini are not what I would usually choose to have for dinner.

Mexican at Mestizo in Camden

Deep fried cheese!

The tortillas come in such a cute warmer!

Enchiladas de mole

Mexican crepes

We were lucky enough to win a ballot to buy tickets to see Nick Cave in a special show at Koko which was being filmed for a documentary, which was awesome! It was on a Sunday so we didn't really want to drink but thought we would go out for dinner before the show, since we had to go there early to pick up our wristbands and then wait around until it was time for the show to start.

When we had got our wristbands I just googled Mexican restaurants in Camden and picked one which seemed relatively close. It turned out to be quite fancy with all white table cloths and stuff which I wasn't expecting but that was ok. There were a few other people in there but they seated us at a weird table really close to some other ones and then ended up putting another couple at the table next to us which was so close we were basically at the same table. It was weird because they had so many other tables available and it meant you were listening to each others conversations the whole time!

We were pretty hungry so decided to order a starter to share as well as mains. All the other tables got given complimentary corn chips and salsa when they were seated but we didn't for some reason, which was annoying because we had to wait ages for the starter! Maybe they didn't like us.

For the starter we order queso frito which is basically fried cheese. I'm not usually that big a fan of fried cheese but this was actually really really good. It came with a bunch of tortillas in a little tortilla warmer, and had a base of tomatillo salsa (not as spicy as the stuff I had had recently!) and some chopped onions and coriander (which I also don't usually like, but here it really worked). It was lucky we didn't order two starters because this was way bigger and more filling than I expected. I think what made it awesome was the salsa which meant the cheese wasn't too greasy or rich.

For mains we decided to get two different ones and share. Quentin ordered the enchiladas with mole sauce and I ordered some Mexican crepes with red salsa. They both came with black beans which I love, and rice which is usually good with Mexican but this one was pretty bland. The crepes were amazing, so delicious and had heaps of veges and really good salsa.

I tried some of Quentin's as well but ended up swapping back because I really didn't like the mole sauce. I'm not sure what it was about it but it had a really strange flavour. Maybe like dirt, I don't know. The filling in the enchiladas was really good (potato and cheese, you can't really go wrong!) but I would say my enchiladas were a lot better.

Overall I think the starter was by far the best dish and the mains were actually quite average. Still definitely good because I love Mexican food, but not on the same level as the starter. I think maybe just because the flavours were kind of dull whereas in the starter they were bright and fresh.

The service was not great, they took a long time to bring the food even though there weren't that many people there, and they sat people really close to us for no reason. Also no chips was annoying. Overall I would give them a 3.5. The starter was awesome, the mains were a bit above average but the service wasn't very good. I might go back and just order a couple of starters but I think I would prefer to try some other Mexican places. Oh and they had two giant TVs in the restaurant playing a looped tape of about 2 minutes of some random cooking show which was really off putting. There is no need to have a TV where you are eating unless you are in a sports bar or something, I really dislike it!

Brunch at the Cock Tavern

Super cute mugs!

So many food

Fritters of deliciousness

Health points!

Negative health points! But amazing!

Most filling pie ever!

On Saturday Quentin and I had a concert to go to (Vista Chino) and expected to do some drinking in the evening so we thought we better have a hearty brunch. Also we had no good brunch foods so had to go out (what a tragedy). We walked down North End Road which is pretty close to our house and almost went to a place called The Goose but it didn't appear to be open so we went further down and ended up at a place called the Cock Tavern.

Inside it was cute and had a bunch of tables and booths, an outside area (too cold for that but would be nice in Summer) and all sorts of random posters and pictures on the walls. It also had all sorts of random light fittings, some of them reminded me of the ones that Dad used inside the boats he was building when they didn't have power. Quentin liked all these lights.

They didn't have a huge breakfast menu but they did also have grazing plates and mains available. Thinking that grazing plates would be small portions we thought we would get a few of those and Quentin really wanted this pie so we thought we would get that as well. Bad idea. Portions were not small at all and we ended up with enough food for about four people!

It was really good food though! I really wanted the triple cooked chips so we got those and they were really good, although as Quentin pointed out they weren't as crispy as you would expect. They still tasted amazing though with a light and fluffy inside and they weren't greasy at all which is awesome, that is my pet peeve with fries, when you can see the oil sort of dripping off, it is just too much!

We also ordered 'roasted butternut and balsamic tomatoes' which ended up being a salad with just these two things and a big bunch of rocket. It was really nice though and we needed it with all the other food we ordered! I must say though, butternut has nothing on normal pumpkin, it has way less flavour and doesn't cook into nice soft gooeyness like pumpkin.

We also got some zucchini and sweetcorn fritters which came with a tomato salsa. The fritters were really good, they had a slight flavour of pancakes but were full of veges which was really nice. I ate them with the salsa and some mayo and it went together so well. I think I may have even managed a whole one!

The final thing we ordered was a mushroom and stilton pie which came with root vegetable mash and kale. The pie was amazing. I am not usually the biggest fan of mushrooms but man this was good! The pastry was the right amount of crispy and soggy (reminiscent of an Irvine's from the pie warmer) and the filling was super super tasty, I think there were some red onion and leeks in there as well. The mash was also amazing and came with some delicious gravy which is basically one of my favourite things to eat ever. The kale was meh. I don't think the dish needed it and no kale will ever be as good as the kale salad that Jean made that one time. Quentin and I both agreed that if we went back we could just get the pie and share and that would be enough.

I felt super guilty about the amount of food we left behind but we did sit there for over an hour trying to eat as much as possible! The place was great, good service, great food, heaps of vege options and also good coffee! They can have a 4.5 and I will totally go back, but order less food next time!

Japanese Delivery!!

So many options!

Getting all of the things!

On Friday night I didn't feel like cooking so we thought we would order some food to be delivered. That is the awesome thing about London, you can basically get anything delivered! I felt like sushi so I just looked up Japanese places on a couple of apps (Hungry House and Don't Cook I think) and found one which had good reviews and seemed to have the food I wanted, then I just picked some stuff and ordered it for when I would be at home (since I was ordering while still at work).

There was one bad thing about this experience, and that is the delivery ordering over an hour before I ordered it to be delivered! For some reason they must have just ignored the time I picked and delivered it right away! Anyway luckily Quentin was already home but otherwise it could have been a problem.

I ordered quite a lot of food because I was hungry at the time... I got edamame, vegetable gyoza, a vegetarian sushi set, pumpkin katsu curry and vegetarian ramen. This may have been a bit much!

The edamame were good, just regular edamame. I find it weird eating them cold now when I am so used to having them hot in New Zealand, but it's ok. And when I make them myself I make them hot. The gyoza were really good, I could have eaten double the amount easily. The sauce they came with was tasty as well. I couldn't tell exactly what it was but it looked like soy sauce but had a sweeter taste.

The sushi was all really nice. I got the maki rolls with tempura sweet potato and avocado which were delicious, lots of black sesame which I love. The other ones were with inari and egg. I don't like egg sushi because I think they always make the egg weird and sweet which was the case here as well, I don't think I would get those ones again. The inari was delicious as always though. It came with soy sauce and ginger as well, although no wasabi. Not that I mind because I don't eat it but other people might be disappointed.
 
The katsu curry was maybe my favourite thing. It had some fried patties of pumpkin which had been coated in panko, and then a Japanese curry sauce over that which had what seemed like sweet potato and more pumpkin in chunks. It was super delicious and a bit spicy but in a good way, it was also super filling. I love the crispiness of the fried pumpkin patty with the smoothness of the sauce. I even ate some rice because the sauce was so good and I don't usually like rice (when it isn't in sushi).

The only thing which wasn't great was the vegetarian ramen. It was quite bland and filled with overcooked noodles. Also the only vegetables were mushrooms which I am not such a fan of, and seaweed which is not my favourite. It did have a good amount of tofu and it was still nice, just not as good as everything else.

Quentin and I have already said that we will get it again with all the same things, except to get more sushi and no ramen. Overall it was a really good dinner for a reasonable price (I think it was £20 altogether) and I was happy afterwards. I will give them a 3.5 because the ramen wasn't great and they delivered it an hour early. They will get a higher score next time if they deliver at the right time!

Mexican Lasange??

Mmmm Lasange

Quentin's brother Seamus came to stay with us for a few days last week so I had three people to cook for instead of two, which ended up being pretty lucky actually because this meal turned out kind of giant!

I had bought some random Mexican like things (chilli beans, corn tortillas etc.) so I thought I would make something Mexican. But I didn't know what exactly. I started with this packet of 'taco mix' which I found in the supermarket and got because it seemed interesting and had some soy mince in it. You just add the packet to 600mil of water and simmer for about 15 minutes while stirring.

So I had that cooking and I also started a pan with onions, red and green peppers and some mushrooms cooking since they needed using up. When the mince mixture was almost ready I added a can of chilli beans, and the vegetables. I also chucked in a bit of salt and pepper, paprika and some cayenne. I got a new spice rack recently which is awesome, it has all of the things that I want.

I cooked that a bit more and then decided I would make some kind of a bake so I put a layer of corn tortillas down into a greased oven tray, covered that with some of the mince/bean/vege mix, put down another layer of tortillas, another layer of beans and another layer of tortillas.

I had some chopped tomatoes with chilli and peppers in the cupboard so I spread about half the box over the top of everything (come to think of it, I may have put a box of tomatoes in the bean mix as well) and then chucked some cheese on top.

I put it in the oven to bake for some amount of time which may have been about 20 minutes and then served it with some salad, guacamole (I didn't make my own this time but next time I totally will) and tomatillo salsa. Usually I find tomatillo salsa mild but this one secretly had jalapenos in it (ok so I didn't read the ingredients) and was preeetty spicy. A little was ok though.

It was a really good dinner actually, and we ended up having it again the next night, I just baked it again with extra cheese and tomato on top, and served it with salad and some sliced grilled potatoes. It may even have been better the second night actually, since the flavours had developed. Anyway it was super tasty but not really good for two people, more for if you are having a few people over I think.

Brownies!

Not the best photo I know

Sorry about the photo, I meant to take some photos of them cut up but totally forgot, and then they got eaten!

Anyway, something else I made on Sunday were some brownies for the boys, and for my workmates. I don't have any of my recipe books over here so I couldn't make the ones I usually would, but this recipe I found worked out pretty well I would say.

I made a double batch so Quentin, Seamus and my flatmates could have some, and my work mates as well. First I drained two cans of mixed summer berries from Waitrose. I wanted just raspberries but they didn't have that option so I got mixed instead. Then I melted 300g butter with 1 1/2 cup of cocoa on the stove. You need to make sure it goes slowly so it doesn't burn or anything.

I mixed 6 eggs with 2 1/2 cups of white sugar and a couple of teaspoons of vanilla essence until it seemed mixed and was sort of creamy and thick. Then I added 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 1 cup of flour and mixed them in so it was smooth. I didn't want to mix too much because I know that can ruin things sometimes.

By that point the butter/cocoa was cooler, it wasn't cold but it was just sort of warmish which I thought would be ok so I mixed that into the other mix. I poured it into two baking trays which I greased while waiting for the butter/cocoa to cool. Then I sprinkled the berries over the mix and put the two trays into the oven.

The oven was preheated to gas mark 4 which I am pretty sure is around 180 degrees Celsius. Then I cooked them until they looked cooked and sprang back when I touched the top. I think it was around 40 minutes.

They were pretty good, even I ate some and I don't even like that stuff really. It is a pretty easy recipe to make, and uses things you probably already have at home so its good if you feel like doing some random baking or feel like something sweet and don't want to go to the shop!

Sausage Rolls!

So delicious!

Mmmm close up

On Sunday after brunch we had a bit of a look around Fulham and went to the supermarket and then walked home (getting a bit lost, thanks Quentin). We were lucky because when we got home the weather turned mega crap and windy! It was a good day for movies (well afternoon by that point) so we hung out in the lounge watching movies and I made us some snacks.

One thing I made were these sausage rolls. Quentin LOVES sausage rolls and has been known to eat the meat ones at parties sometimes, shocking! Anyway I thought I would make some easy vege ones since I could.

I just got some pre-rolled puff pastry from the supermarket (jus roll brand, which is vegan) and some Linda McCartney sausages (red onion and rosemary) since we hadn't tried that brand before. So far our favourite sausages are the Asda brand ones.

Once the pastry and sausages were defrosted I spread the pastry with some sundried tomato pesto that I had in the fridge, lined up the sausages and rolled them up. There was enough pastry to roll 4 sausages up inside, giving me two rolls. Then I brushed the rolls with a little bit of milk and sprinkled some black sesame seeds over.

I cut them into sausage roll sizes and put them in the greased baking try and then grated some mature cheddar over them all. I cooked them for some amount of time, I really don't know how long, until the looked cooked. Since we have a gas oven with the flame at the back I have to turn everything around every now and then so they don't cook unevenly.

These sausage rolls were delicious and enough for a few people, we couldn't finish them between 3 of us, although we were eating other snacks as well. They would be good food for a party because they are cheap, easy and fast to make. I will make them again for sure.

Brunch in Fulham

Vege breakfasts!

Iced coffee

Quentin's brother Seamus came to stay with us for a few days, arriving on Saturday night so on Sunday we went out for brunch in Fulham. We hadn't been out to eat around where we live for ages, maybe since we went down to the markets! I did a little bit of internet research and found a place that sounded good which was only about 10 minutes away so we headed down there.

They have a small café but also a lot of tables outside which would be lovely in Summer but not so great in winter since it is cold and windy at the moment! We got a table inside anyway which was good.

They had a breakfast and a lunch menu but it seemed like you could just order off either one which was good and bad, good because we had more options, and bad because we had more options... I am terrible at making decisions! In the end I went with what Quentin was getting (vege breakfast) because I thought I might get jealous otherwise!

They also had a bunch of other vege stuff, all kinds of eggs, omelette's, wraps, a burger, sandwiches and so on. I think we will go back to try some of the other stuff because it all sounded really good.

We ordered some milkshakes and iced coffee as well and everything came out super fast! The iced coffee was good because it was blended with ice rather than milk/cream which meant it was more refreshing but it was definitely lacking in coffee flavour, I think Krys would hate it!

The breakfast was good, not great. You got lots of halloumi which was awesome but only one hash brown which is less awesome. The egg was cooked well but the bread was weird and made me cough. The baked tomato was delicious but the mushroom and spinach was not delicious. In saying that I don't actually like mushroom or spinach so it is not their fault. People should just not put them on every vege breakfast! The beans were beans, I can't really say any more about them.

I also forgot to take a photo before I started eating so sorry about that! Overall I would go back to try some of the other things because what I saw coming out of the kitchen all looked yummy. I think it was a good breakfast and reasonable value for money (about £10 each including drinks) but it could have been better. I will give them a 3 out of 5.