I will start the blog on a sad note. I am hoping this is not a curse, but Wholesome, by far the best find to date, has closed it's doors. I am hoping it has only moved or has closed for a refit, but we walked past a few days ago and were saddened to see the empty shop where a beautiful, vibrant cafe once stood. It is a huge loss.
But now onto the new places. So Ele and I booked a trip to London in the Easter. The main two reasons we went was to find Ele a dress for a wedding and to see Matilda the Musical, which, to stray slightly from the point, was a superb show with clever want witty songs and a story that will pull at your heart strings. I love the book and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone at any age.
Anyway, three days in London meant three days of glorious food. We were staying in my favourite place ever, Covent Garden which is full of wonderfully amazing places to eat. We went from Tuesday to Thursday and stayed at the Strand Palace, which is a lovely hotel whose food always looks amazing, but is extremely expensive. I would recommend the hotel though.
We walked from Liverpool Street to the Tate Modern to see an exhibition Ele really wanted to see and then we walked to Covent Garden. This was a fairly hefty walk but we decided that except to get back to Liverpool Street from wherever we ended up on the Thursday, we would try not to use the Tube, or public transport. This was not overly difficult and was really a really interesting insight, making us both realise that London is not actually that big. Walking did however give us a great appetite.
We walked into Covent Garden Market and I turned to Ele and stated that I really fancied Paella, and could smell it. We looked down into one of the lower areas to see two paella dishes at about five feet in diameter each. The smell hit me instantly and I knew that that was going to be my dinner.
Hola Paella
Covent Garden Market
Covent Garden
London
www.hola-paella.com
Chorizo is a food that I love. It has everything about it that appeals to me. It is meaty, slightly spicy and has a real distinctive and unique taste so after ordering a large when asked if I want extra chorizo of course I was going to say yes. The paella also had squid, mussels, prawns and chicken in it with peppers, peas and onions with the paella rice, all served on wooden plates with a wooden fork. We ordered our meals and sat under the stairs to eat.
I was amazed at how clean and strong the flavour was coming from every element of the meal. There is very little to say about things that are perfect so this review is very difficult. Everything about it was amazing. The only annoyance was that the prawns were still in their shells, which in essence only served to slow down the shovelling. The atmosphere of Covent Garden is one that will add to any occasion and only served to make this street food taste even better. The guy serving the food was incredibly polite telling us we made a great choice when selecting extra chorizo and being generally friendly. I would not only recommend you go there, but I would not hesitate to go back, and if you do go, order extra chorizo.
That was it for day one. We then went back to the hotel and slept, ready for day two, a trip to Sloane Square.
We woke up early and left for Sloane Square, walking, again. The map on my phone said it would only take 45 minutes so it wasn't so bad. We walked past Buckingham Palace which was full of people eating picnics outside. So full we both wondered if something was actually happening. Having to push our way through a mass of tourists made the walk take more like an hour but it was a really pleasant walk which ended up in us finding Anthropologie's flagship store. They sell some beautiful things from clothing to home related goods. After spending far too much time in there, we decided that we needed food so walked back to Selfridges of all places to fulfil a small dream/need of Ele's.
The Brass Rail
Selfridges
Oxford Street
London
Every time Ele and I go to London we stop at the Brass Rail, normally for a cup of tea and a cake or something similar. The Brass Rail is a salt beef sandwich specialist, and although in Selfridges, it is one of a kind. So Ele and I shared a salt beef sandwich, with two gherkins. The man serving us made the experience far, far better, practically guessing the sandwich we wanted, and diffusing the brown bread/white bread argument that was close to happening by offering foccacia, which is how bread should be. He made the sandwich, practically telling us we wanted English Mustard, which we did and then offering us two gherkins, which he cut in about half a second. I have never, ever seen anything cut that fast. So we got the sandwich and payed for it at the till and found a seat. I then moved the two gherkins to notice that he had not cut all the way through. To do that at that speed was a skill only a man that loves his job and has been in it forever could pick up. I was very impressed, and this is before taking a bite into the sandwich, which to be blunt was pure salty, beefy heaven. The mustard gave the sandwich a little heat and the gherkins added another level and another texture. I loved this sandwich so much so that I forgot the picture until after I took a huge bite. Delicious, and well worth the money.
We then made our way back to the hotel and got ready for the show which was amazing, I can not tell you enough how amazing it was but afterwards we were starving. We have been to London quite a lot, and recently found a "don't judge a book by it's cover"restaurant. It is in Leicester Square and is called Noodle Stop. It is a dingy little chinese restaurant in the middle of a busy Leicester Square that, I have to be honest, I would just walk past. We went this time and for £6 they fill up a tardis tub of your foods of choice. You can have a mixture of as many different things as you like. They offer a great selection from curries to sweet and sour dishes, to oyster sauce dishes, basically anything you would expect to find in a chinese restaurant. I had sweet and sour chicken and salt and peeper chicken on rice and Ele had Caramel Chicken and Lemon Chicken on noodles. Both, I have to admit were delicious with everything piping hot, with sticky rice and really fresh and full of flavour. Every time I have been, which now is four, I have never been beaten by the seemingly never ending boxes but every time I come away feeling like I have eaten far to much, but it is impossible to stop. We then crawled to the hotel, really wishing we could find a chain free frozen yoghurt place and slept until the next day.
Day three was to be a lazy day spent wandering around Covent Garden, the Seven Dials, Regent and Oxford Street mainly looking for a dress for Ele, which we succeeded at! We left the hotel and got breakfast at a little cafe, which was a pastry and a coffee to walk around the other side of the market to find a huge food market selling beautiful food including burgers made from many different meats, salads, stews, indian wraps, chicken skewers and so much more. We decided after a long walk around the area we would head beck there and start the near impossible task of deciding which food to eat. This was really tough until we were told that the parma ham and mozzarella ciabattas were buffalo mozzarella. Ele and I are massive Italian food fans so the draw of these was too much, even though the piri piri chicken skewers were a massive draw considering I miss Nandos but I am so glad I did.
The ciabatta, which was toasted was amazing. I never realised how much difference buffalo's milk makes to a mozzarella ball. It just tasted better in every way. I had to tell myself how stupid it would be to buy four balls of it in a bag that is very similar to the ones you get a goldfish in at the fair.
The rest of the sandwich was made up of rocket and tomato, so it was a pretty simple sandwich but one that was beautiful and made sure that the quality of the ingredients spoke for themselves. Literally pure bliss. Then, I walked past this:
I love meringue. Pavlova is the best thing ever invented. So when I saw these I was beginning to worry that I would have to buy one to eat, which is not good for the calories at all. I then noticed that they did Eaton Mess. For those of you that do not know, Eaton Mess is what happens when you smash up a pavolva. So I bought some, obviously, and Ele washed her sandwich down with some hot apple juice. This was amazing for us both, and topped the meal off amazingly. This market of glorious food is at Covent Garden every Thursday and if you find yourself in the area I would recommend a visit. If you do not come away with something amazing I will eat my hat.
The final stop of our quick tour of London was a little cafe off Carnaby Street called Sacred. Sacred is somewhere that sells lovely looking home made food and drinks. We went in just for a drink earlier, but both ended up ordering cakes as they are really appealing to the eye. I had a Caramel and Pecan Chocolate Brownie and Ele had a cookie and a chai latte, all of which were gorgeous.
The atmosphere in there is great, with a dark but homely feel and really polite and friendly staff and another bonus for London is that is is not too hard on the wallet. I again would recommend it to anyone in the area looking for a nice, well priced pit stop.
This basically sums up our trip to London. I apologise that the reviews are a bit shorter than the ones previous, but I didn't want to write a full review for each place we ate, it seemed a bit excessive. If you are in London though, we were fortunate enough to eat at some amazing places, which I would recommend to you all.
Thank you for reading!
D and Ele xxx
http://www.hola-paella.com/
http://www.sacredcafe.co.uk/
http://www.coventgardenlondonuk.com/events-entertainment-culture/articles/the-return-of-the-real-food-market
