London Baby!

Hello.  Long time, no post. We have loads to do, but we are both enjoying the eating and neglecting to write about it! 


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

Wholesome

Afternoon,

D here.  Eleanor and I have been out on our adventures again yesterday and found another little gem to tell you all about.

Since finding TALC we have been eager to find more places of this standard.  I have to admit I miss a Nandos still but when we fancy a coffee we are actually getting excited at the thought of finding a nice little place that make beautiful things.  We decided to go out for food yesterday (Saturday 4th February 2012) earlier in the week and I decided to use the internet to try and find somewhere nice to go.  We were happy when we found Pinocchios, a little Mediterranean restaurant on St. Benedict's Street in Norwich. Their menu looked delightful and it was the sort of food we love.  After walking around Norwich shopping, we decided that we were not really hungry enough to go for a proper meal out and that we would not have enjoyed Pinocchios as much as it would have deserved so we have made a note of it and will visit at some point in the year.  On my internet search, I also found Wholesome, which is a smaller establishment which we decided would better suit our appetites.

Wholesome

1 Swan Lane

Norwich

Norfolk

NR2 1HZ

www.wholesome.org.uk

"Merry Christmas!" was the call from the man behind the counter, "Well that's what it feels like out there!" I had to agree it was freezing outside.  At this point in time, Norfolk is covered in a good three or four inches of snow and yesterday, when we visited Wholesome, it was cold enough to create it! After being told that he would be with us in a second he walked out from behind the counter to give the people sat behind us their order, not cake, not a pastry, no drinks, but two small hot water bottles.  This is a complimentary service for all in this freezing cold weather which made everyone feel at home.  If you know me at all, you will know I have a mild phobia of hot water bottles. If you don't know me, then I'm sorry, I'm weird. It's just the way they feel freaks me out but everyone else in the place was over the moon with this idea.

Wholesome is a grocers. If you go onto their website they give you a long list of the local produce they stock which includes meats, drinks and preserves but they are also a cafe offering a lovely menu of sandwiches, salads, pastries, cakes and hot and cold drinks with space both upstairs and downstairs to sit.  The decor was lovely, had a very home made, rustic and quintessentially Norfolk feel to it with mismatched chairs, china,  and decoration on the walls.  The second I walked in I have to admit I felt very much at home. 

So to the food on offer.  There is a great selection of beautiful looking salads of many shapes and colours, meats from different parts of different animals, and a great selection of cakes.  I chose to have a hot Norfolk Pasty and a mocha and the better half chose to have a slice of millionaire's shortbread and a flat white.  The selection of hot drinks on offer excited Ele as they serve "Pukka" tea which is a brand Ele has become obsessed with recently.  So after placing our order, which took us a long time through everything looking amazing, we headed upstairs, which felt like sitting in someone's dining room. This is where my only negative comes in and to be honest, it is so small I don't think it really matters.  The upstairs, which is a great size only has four tables in it.  These tables sit between four and ten but there were no tables for two, which saw Ele and I sitting at a table that would sit about ten as the parties of four or less had taken the smaller tables.  I would not have minded at all if others were to have sat at the same table as us, which is why I say this is a very minor thing, but some people would not have done so, being too shy. As I said, such a small thing and I am being majorly picky.

Our food was then brought to us very quickly and handed to us by the waitress who was really friendly.  As she was handing me my pasty she told me that in the small dish was a gooseberry chutney which they added to try if I fancied it.  

I find this bit difficult.  It is hard to be wordy and exact when all I could think when I was eating and drinking was that this is perfect. The pasty was lovely and, as a person who has never been to Cornwall, was the best pasty I have ever had (and Ele wanted to steal the Royal Wedding plate it came on!)  Everything about it was beautifully made and the flavour was so full with the pastry being light.  I could not recommend the pasty enough. I wanted to look around the room and offer a bite of it to people that had not eaten it just to show them how good it was.  Now I think you can see that I loved that pasty, but there was something that made it even better.  Gooseberry chutney is, without a doubt, the best thing to have with that pasty.  I loved every bite and had to stop myself from going downstairs and ordering another. I will also be going back to Wholesome to see if they do jars of that chutney.  I need it in my life.  To top it all off, the mocha I had was amazing.  Rich and bitter coffee with richer chocolate. Can not ask for better than this.  

My first mouthful of pasty went in and in my excitedness I turned to Ele with that look of "OH MY GOD" across my face.  I almost laughed to see the exact look I was giving staring back at me followed by Ele saying "I've eaten a lot of Millionaire's shortbread in my time but this is the best I have ever tasted."  She saved me some begrudgingly and I have to admit, I am not a fan of this sort of cake but this was mouth-wateringly beautiful.

Sitting near the stairs meant that the waitress would have to walk past us to get to her customer and every time she walked past I was staring mouth opened at the tray of treats she was bringing up the stairs.  The sandwiches looked amazing, and from looking at the sandwich board each sandwich was one that I wanted to try.  They were made in beautiful looking bread with a georgous looking side salad.  I really wanted to order one for after my pasty but thought I better not.

This idea came about through us missing a little deli in Leeds called Pickles and Potter in the hope we would find somewhere local that would be close to the standard set by them.  We both left Wholesome saying that in February, early February, we have succeeded.  Whoesome not only matches Pickles and Potter, but in some ways, could even be better.  Need to visit a few more times before I make this bold claim though! 

So if you are in Norwich, please visit.  A place like this is far too good for you not to. I think the main problem will be to not go every time we are there! 

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Wholesome

1 Swan Lane

Norwich

Norfolk

NR2 1HZ

www.wholesome.org.uk

Love D and Ele xxx

Tea and Little Cakes

Evening all,


Hello! Eleanor here, with the first proper post, and the first independent eatery review! On Saturday, we went for what was supposed to be a coffee and a cake, and ended up having a full blown brunch at Tea And Little Cakes! 


We stumbled across this little place on Timber Hill after having a slight disagreement about the quickest way to get to John Lewis. I was the winner, so we set off up Timber Hill, and thank goodness we did! 

Tea and Little Cakes

17 Timber Hill

Norwich 

Norfolk

NR1 3JZ

The restaurant has a lovely friendly feel about it, and was almost full when we arrived. The decor is a mix of modern and contemporary, with painted white beams, and farmhouse style dresser and tables. The kitchen at the back of the restaurant is open plan, and it was really good to see your food being cooked right in front of you! The menu's are super simple which I liked, just printed on card and clipped to a wooden clip board. I was also quite amused to see they have the same Bodum salt and pepper grinders we have a home...simple minds hey!

Tea and Little Cakes, or TALC, operates a full waitress service, and ours was very friendly, we ordered a green tea and a lemonade, and I was chuffed when the tea arrived in a pot with a vintage tea cup and saucer.

TALC serves a really good range of proper coffee, plenty of unusual soft drinks (like the yummy Luscombe sicilian lemonade we had), and Tea Pigs tea. The green one is one of the best I've had.

We then ordered our food. I went for scrambled eggs on sourdough (though I was really tempted by the Eggs Benedict), and D went for the  TALC Big Brekkie. 

The scrambled eggs were perfect! Not too wet, not dried out, and with a good amount of pepper. They were made even better when I pinched the hollandaise that came with D's big brekkie!

Breakfast perfection I think you'll agree! 2 sausages, bacon, grilled tomato, mushrooms, 2 poached eggs, TALC baked beans and sourdough, with hollandaise sauce. The homemade baked beans have totally inspired us to have a go at making our own, as I certainly won't be going back to Heinz in a hurry! 

They also had scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, the TALC veggie brekkie, beans or egg on sourdough toast, and croissants and pan au chocolat, oh and gluten free bread should you require it!

As you can imagine, we quickly gobbled the lot up...

D even ate his poached eggs, which until now he has maintained he doesn't like! 

I really loved the whole feeling of this little place. There were elderly couples, families, friends meeting for a drink, and kids in high chairs all happily eating breakfast together. When I went to the counter to pay, the chef came over to ask how we had found our food, all the staff were really friendly. I had a nose at the cakes available on the way out, and particularly like the look of a chocolate and Guinness number, and the HUGE croissants. We also flipped the menu over to have a peek at the evening offerings, and I can safely say we'll be returning for dinner very soon! 

Just a quick note from the other half really.  Sausage = Good, Bacon = Good, Baked Beans = amazing = poached eggs = good, sicilian lemonade = good, decor = good, staff = good, TALC = AMAZING. Thoroughly recommend this eatery in every way and I am excited to go back for cake and a meal. One thing, though, and I am being picky...the idea of TALC cooked food is a bit off-putting but as I said, I am being super picky and you would have to be a little silly to think anything would be cooked with talc.  Seriously hope the rest of the year's finds are as good as this one!

If you would like to visit Tea and Little Cakes, and we highly recommend you do, you can find it here:

Tea and Little Cakes

17 Timber Hill

Norwich 

Norfolk

NR1 3JZ

Much Love Eleanor and D 

xxx

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