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Ultimate Street Food

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The ‘Rankings’ heading has been floating around on my blog ever since I started it a few months ago, but until now hasn’t actually featured any writing.

The idea of ‘Rankings’ is that I group together my favourite dishes in a range of categories, ie, ultimate cake, ultimate chicken burgers etc etc.

Obviously it takes me a while to have tried enough of any one kind of dish to establish a solid top 10 or so, hence why it has remained blank for all this time.

But now I’m ready with my first in the ‘Ultimate’ series, and it’s my absolute favourite category – Street Food. Now what I mean by street food in this context is anything I’ve had literally in the street, at a food market/food truck, or even a food hall where the trader wouldn’t necessarily be considered a restaurant, but more like a small pop-up style eatery (think London’s Seven Dials/Market Halls etc).

This list is in no particular order – it’s hard enough whittling it down to a top 10 (or 15 in this case) let alone then having to decide which ranks as the absolute best of them all.

You’ll find their Instagram handle in brackets – do check out their amazing social media content to see more of what they do best!

So enough of the rambling, here are my favourite street food eats…

The Athenian (@theathenianuk)

Location: Boxpark Shoreditch

Cuisine: Greek

Dish: Lamb Gyro with Halloumi Fries

I’ve tried a few Greek places in and around London and The Athenian has to be my favourite. Their Gyros (finally worked out it’s pronounced ‘yeeros’) are second to none, and are absolutely packed with all the essentials i.e. meat (lamb in my case), chips, halloumi and salad. The pitta wrap was super soft and the halloumi fries on the side were delicious with a creamy, slightly sweet salad cream style sauce. An absolute winner.

Kottu Lanka (@kottulanka)

Location: Victoria Park Market

Cuisine: Sri Lankan

Dish: Mutton Curry

This was one of the first street food dishes I tried after moving to London and I was blown away. Rarely for me, I hadn’t had a look to see what traders would be at the market and so hadn’t decided in advance what I wanted to try. I think it was the idea of Sri Lankan food that intrigued me in the end – I’m always interested in trying new cuisines that I don’t know much about. I had their mutton curry and it’s difficult to put into words how much I loved it (to be honest if I had ranked these in order starting with the best, this may just be Number 1). The photo really doesn’t do it justice, but the meat was incredibly tender, the sauce on top was beautiful, and I loved the fact that there wasn’t a heavy curry sauce; the flavour just came from the spices and the way everything had reduced down and infused with the meat.

A Pie Party (@apieparty)

Location: Victoria Park Market/Greenwich Market/Canopy Market

Cuisine: Desserts

Dish: Toffee Popcorn Pie

I won’t say too much on this one as my last blog post was entirely dedicated to this amazing business, but as a reminder, my highlight is 100% the Toffee Popcorn Pie with its indulgent blondie-style base and sticky, sweet popcorn topping. A Pie Party is unique on this list, as an original and exciting dessert street food stall. The menu is regularly switched up, meaning there’s always something new to try, and you won’t see any pies like this elsewhere in London (or the country for that matter!).

The Mac Factory (@themacfactorylondon)

Location: Camden Market

Cuisine: Mac and Cheese

Dish: Pesto Mac and Cheese

Okay, so ‘Mac and Cheese’ is not typically considered a ‘cuisine’ in itself (lol) but the heading ‘cuisine’ sounds better than ‘type of food’ etc, so we’ll stick with that. The Mac Factory’s mac and cheese is my favourite that I’ve had so far and I’ve tried quite a few. They have lots of exciting combinations and toppings, making it quite difficult to choose but I went for the Pesto Mac and Cheese in the end. It was so creamy with salty pesto, and mozzarella balls to top it off. It’s as appealing visually as it is flavoursome.

Rice Brother (@ricebrotherlondon)

Location: Spitalfields Market

Cuisine: Chinese/Asian Fusion

Dish: Char Siu Rice Roll

I’d been on the hunt for sushi burritos for a while, and was struggling to find a mainstream option within London’s food markets. This isn’t technically a sushi burrito, as the recipes and ingredients are Chinese-inspired rather than Japanese, but it’s a similar concept, using sticky rice and nori (I think?) to fill out the roll and hold everything together. The Char Siu Roll had so much flavour – the meat was delicious and with the gelatinous rice, worked as a really filling, but not overly-heavy lunch, not to mention they’re super colourful.

2 Lads Kitchen (@2ladskitchen)

Location: KERB King’s Cross (and various other locations)

Cuisine: Afghan

Dish: Chicken Flatbread Wrap

Much like my experience at Kottu Lanka, it was the idea of Afghan cuisine that drew me in, having no idea what that really meant. As I approached the stall, the smell of the grilled meat wafting towards me was incredible. My first bite of the wrap consisted of literally just the flatbread, but even that in itself had so much flavour. After that, it was absolutely packed with chicken, a small amount of relish and lots of hot, spicy sauce (although you don’t have to have it so hot!).

OINK (@oinklondon)

Location: Various (I went to City Point)

Cuisine: Pork Burgers

Dish: Notorious P.I.G and Pepper Pig

Notorious P.I.G

THE best burgers I’ve ever had. Genuinely. You know when you eat something so good, all you can do is close your eyes and savour that deliciousness, hoping that it’ll never end. The Notorious P.I.G consisted of bourbon glazed bacon, a pork patty, bacon chilli jam, mozzarella, bbq sauce and apple slaw. Dreamy. And the Pepper Pig, Sriracha streaky bacon, pork patty, Monterrey Jack cheese, jalapeño salsa and avocado mayo. I loved that these two burgers were very different, as I sometimes find with street food burger stalls that they have a few different burgers that look and taste pretty similar. Can’t recommend these guys enough – life-changing food.

The Bucket List (@chipbuckets)

Location: Various/Cromer (I ordered via Deliveroo in Norwich)

Cuisine: Loaded Chips

Dish: The New Yorker

One of my rare experiences of street food outside of London, this ironically became the complete opposite of street food when I ordered it via Deliveroo to my hotel room in Norwich. I didn’t have time to eat out properly when getting ready for an evening out, so basically went by how interesting the pictures and descriptions looked on Deliveroo (which I now am no longer using due to them being useless when my account got hacked and orders were placed using my money. They failed to delete my account on 3 occasions to prevent access and I’m still waiting for my refund but more on that fun story another time!!!).

This was the unhealthiest thing I’ve ever eaten and admittedly I did feel gross after, but it was so incredible that it was worth it. The New Yorker is a bucket of chips (very decent ones at that, with a crispy, crunchy exterior) topped with umm, everything. Chicken nuggets, gooey, fried Brie, cheese fondue, bacon, bbq sauce and aioli (garlic mayo). If you haven’t had a heart attack just reading that then, congratulations. I’m still salivating.

Bill or Beak (@billorbeak)

Location: Camden Market

Cuisine: Chicken Burgers

Dish: American Fried Chicken Burger

Still my favourite chicken burger that I’ve had in London, they do both grilled and fried options, in case you want something a tad ‘healthier’ lol… but when would I ever choose grilled over fried?? It looks a little squashed because I refused to eat it until I’d taken it on a 45 minute journey home but this didn’t affect the taste and it looked wonderful when I first got it. The chicken fillet was huge and with a super crunchy fried batter. It was very simple, with American style cheese, lettuce and crunchy pickles, but in this case simpler was better. Really impressed, and great service from these guys.

Truffle (@trufflelondon)

Location: Seven Dials Market

Cuisine: Truffle???

Dish: Beef Shin Croquettes

I did have a couple of lovely burgers from Truffle, but what really blew my mind were the Beef Shin Croquettes. These were insanely delicious, with shredded, stringy beef with a crunchy exterior. I don’t actually know what the dipping sauce was but it was beaaautiful. These were heavenly. And I don’t think I have anything else to add.

Hanok BBQ (@hanokbbq)

Location: Victoria Park Market

Cuisine: Korean BBQ

Dish: Korean Chicken and Beef BBQ Bowl

This was an unexpected one. Hanok BBQ had never really been on my ‘desperate to try’ list, but after seeing a few amazing looking photos I decided to give them a try. Everything about this dish exceeded my expectations. I absolutely love sticky rice and so anything sitting on a bed of it gets off to a great start. I decided to indulge in the best of both worlds with chicken and beef, and the meats were sticky, smoky and super flavoursome. The kimchi on the side added that burst of flavour, unique to Korean food, and the side sauce (why do I literally never know what the side sauce actually is???) was AMAZING. It was probably some kind of sriracha mayo, it had that kind of feel/flavour to it, but who knows?

Breadahead (@breadaheadbakery)

Location: Borough Market

Cuisine: Doughnuts

Dish: Salted Caramel Honeycomb Doughnut

I’m labelling this as street food based on the fact that I got it from a stall, in the street, at Borough Market. Breadahead’s doughnuts all have a very uniform look, and their signature trading point is the way they really focus on the actual bake of the doughnut. Their dough is not heavy and is super soft. The fillings are generous and the salted caramel was delicious. The only thing I would say was that the honeycomb genuinely nearly broke my teeth so I couldn’t eat it, but the actual doughnut itself was beautiful.

Motherflipper (@motherflipperuk)

Location: Victoria Park Market

Cuisine: Burgers

Dish: Breakfast Muffin

I think I’d been scarred for life by the Mcdonalds breakfast muffins, which despite all the hype, I thought were kind of gross, but the Motherflipper one looked so good I was willing to try it. I was really pleasantly surprised – delicious sausage patty, oozing cheese, slightly crispy bacon and the perfect fried egg with a gooey yolk. Definitely worth the calories.

Seasoned: Street Food (@seasonedstreetfood)

Location: Hatch, Manchester

Cuisine: Various

Dish: Beetroot and Feta Fries

Fries are never my favourite side. I often leave them out in favour of more exciting options such as croquettes, mac and cheese, things like that. But these fries just sounded incredible. I really love beetroot and so the idea of beetroot flavour fries was really intriguing. The portion was huge and even I couldn’t finish them, but the beetroot dust was delicious, they looked incredibly striking, and the feta sauce on top added a creaminess that enhanced the flavours and textures.

Tarricrii (@tarricrii)

Location: The Market @ University of Manchester (open to anyone – when I visited they were located at Hatch in Manchester)

Cuisine: Arancini

Dish: Butter and Ham Arancino

The best arancino I’ve ever had. You can see how cheesy the centre was, and the rice cooked through beautifully. Massively creamy with a thin, crunchy outer shell, not to mention the size of it! This is really huge and would be a good side to share between two (unless you’re me and you eat it all to yourself).

WILDCARD

I’m going to finish with a Wildcard option, which will be a regular feature of my ‘Rankings’ post. This will be something that doesn’t necessarily fit in with the other options for whatever reason, but absolutely still deserves a mention.

Sai Woo

Location: Jalan Aloor, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Ciusine: Malaysian/Chinese

Dish: Singapore Vermicelli Noodles

My top 15 have all been within the UK, but the irony is that the majority of the street food we see in this country, is inspired by cuisines from elsewhere in the world. A highlight on my trip to Malaysia was eating the fantastic food on Jalan Aloor, a street full of amazing freshly-made street food. This is also another kind of cheat, as actually this place was more like a restaurant, with the food cooked inside and brought out to you. But I’m going to treat it as street food, as the street itself is full of small stalls cooking dishes before your very eyes, and the restaurants are not restaurants in the typical sense. We ate here 3 times in a row, each time the food was absolutely beautiful, but my favourite of the dishes was this Singapore noodle dish, which I often have when eating Chinese at home. Deliciously spiced with the addition of pork, egg and veg, this street, and restaurant in particular are definitely one to watch if you ever venture to this wonderful country.

So, my round-up is complete. No doubt that week by week I’ll be frustrated at all the amazing new street food I’ve eaten but that I can’t add to the list, all for it being too late, but who knows, I may do an updated version in a year or so’s time! Definitely check out these recommendations, even if you’re not someone who would typically try this eating-in-the-street street food malarkey. Casual dining is becoming huge so stay tuned for a further post in a few months focusing a bit more on some of London’s most popular food markets and halls, rather than the individual dishes.

In the meantime, hop on a bus/tube/bike and…

¡Comemos!

xo

The party you’ll never want to leave

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When I first moved to London just over a year ago, there was one place that I was immediately desperate to try.

Feasting my eyes on London’s foodie scene via Instagram, photos of colourful, innovative, incredible looking pie slices kept appearing week after week.

Those pies were dreamt up and brought to life by Claire Connor, the founder of A Pie Party (@apieparty Instagram), London’s most exciting dessert street food stall.

Claire now runs her dessert business full-time, working hard baking around the clock and coming up with new and exciting recipes that taste amazing and look equally as impressive. As a self-taught baker, Claire has perfected her pie pastry, and so with that solid foundation in place, she can experiment with a number of different flavours and concepts, many of which you’ll find out more about below.

It actually took me quite a few months before I finally ventured to Victoria Park Market in Bethnal Green where A Pie Party has been trading every Sunday for a while back, and the first time I went I naively arrived in the afternoon about an hour before closing, when most of Claire’s creations had sold out. The only thing I could get my hands on was the apple pie, with its generous filling and sweet, cinnamon taste.

I definitely learnt my lesson though, and every time since I’ve been there just after opening at 10, ready to get my hands on the goods.

Not only can you indulge in incredible pies, but A Pie Party also offers other desserts and treats such as cookies, brownies and Rocky Road. One of my favourite is the chocolate chip walnut cookie – possibly one of the biggest you’ve ever seen, but absolutely delicious.

A Pie Party’s second cookie, the Nutella filled chocolate hazelnut one is equally as ginormous as the choc chip and walnut. Only this one goes one step further – it is filled with Nutella. If you can’t finish this yourself, you should be ashamed. It is not for sharing.

A recent variation sees the same cookie filled with Black Milk Cereal’s Kinderella hazelnut cream. I liked the cream, but it didn’t ooze out in the same way as the Nutella, and there wasn’t quite as much packed inside. Still worth trying nonetheless.

One of the regulars that can be found on the stall is the blueberry pie. If you’re not in the mood for a super-indulgent chocolate treat, this fruity option could be the one for you. The blueberry topping is sharp and tangy, and the crumble topping adds a bit of a crunch to contrast the soft berries.

Rocky Road lovers are in luck as you can get your hands on both dark and white chocolate rocky road. I tried both of these in summer, and I couldn’t get enough of them when they’d started to melt slightly and go gooey in the heat. The white one looks beautiful but I surprisingly preferred the dark chocolate one. Would be handy if I were able to dislocate my jaw in order to get this giant slab of heaven in my mouth but sadly, small nibbly bites are the only way.

The chocolate chip brownie is equally as gooey. I really don’t understand the absolute animals who content themselves with dry, hard brownies, when you could devour a fudgey, creamy one. A much more manageable slab than the Rocky Road, this is one for all brownie connoisseurs.

A hugely popular special was the Cookie Dough Cheesecake Pie. One of the things I love about A Pie Party is the combining of different desserts in one – as in, cookie dough / cheesecake / pie. Those three together already sound like a dream. This one was flavoured with vanilla and so the cheesecake filling was very sweet, but in a good way, and the cookie dough ball on top was delicious.

A surprising favourite of mine was the Peanut Blondie Pie. I have resisted peanuts for years and years, always complaining that I didn’t like them, but Claire’s desserts have a strange power over me whereby I’m desperate to try everything despite them including ingredients/foods that I supposedly dislike. And I’m so glad I did give into this one. The blondie base was delicious and the peanut flavour noticeable but not overwhelming.

Next up are two staples that have been firm favourites on the menu for a while. Firstly the Biscoff Browie Pie, definitely a crowdpleaser, considering how long it’s been around. It has a gooey, fudgey base with a Biscoff crumb on top and is utterly indulgent.

The other, is a slightly more recent addition, but one that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. The Bourbon Pecan Pie is completely different to anything else Claire has done. The base and pecans are sticky and sweet, and the whisky adds a complementary flavour that isn’t too intense (and that’s coming from someone who’s not a huge fan of alcohol-flavoured desserts).

A summer special that looked as good as it tasted was the Funfetti Birthday Cake Pie. Another dessert hybrid – birthday cake / cheesecake / pie, this one was up there with the best. The funfetti sprinkles added a prettiness to its appearance and the sponge base on top of the pastry was unique.

A Pie Party made an appearance at this year’s London Brunch Fest too, and you may have seen the exclusive pie featured on my blog post about the event. This special was a Bounty Coconut Pie, and I loved it. Sadly there are many people in this world who do not understand the true value of the Bounty, and often leave them untouched at the bottom of the Celebrations tub. But they are fools. Bountys are delicious, and what could be better than a creamy, coconutty brownie-based pie topped with one.

I’ll leave you with my all-time favourite to salivate over – the Toffee Popcorn Pie. This was one of the greatest desserts I’ve ever had; chocolate chip blondie base with toffee popcorn topping and chocolate drizzle sauce. I hope Claire brings this one back as it was incredible.

There is nothing formulaic about Claire’s desserts and that’s part of what I love. Yes, she has perfected her pie pastry, but every other element of the pies is entirely unpredictable. What will top the pastry next time? Sponge? Brownie? Blondie?

Her inventive, imaginative creations really do live up to the Instagram hype, but you know what? Social media hype isn’t enough. Yes, like the photos, react to the stories, but also get yourself down there to try for yourselves. You can get your hands on A Pie Party treats at Canopy Market, Kings Cross Friday-Sunday, Victoria Park Market every Sunday and Greenwich Market every Saturday-Sunday. If you live in the Battersea area, you’ll also find her on Deliveroo.

There is one last thing before I sign off…

Claire’s stall is wonderful, but what would be even better, is a permanent location in London where you could treat yourself to these slices of heaven everyday. A crowdfunding project is underway to raise the funds to open ‘London’s first pie bar’, serving sweet treats by day and cocktails by night. This would also allow Claire to expand her menu, offering things like ice cream sundaes which just aren’t possible on the market stalls.

This can only happen with the support of those who believe in the project. A small amount donated by lots of people could make all the difference, but time is running out. If you would love to support this small business and give it a shot at transforming London’s dessert scene, then head to: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/londons-first-pie-bar/comments#start to donate.

This campaign really needs our support, no matter how little you may be able to offer.

To see loads more of these original pies, that I haven’t been lucky enough to try yet, head to @apieparty on Instagram for droolworthy content. Follow this up with a visit to the stall and…

¡Comemos!

xo

Persian Empire

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My reviews so far have all been of London restaurants, so it was nice to head home to Nottingham for a couple of days to explore more of the foodie scene there. Gotta put the ‘travel’ in foodtravelsldn somehow…

Persian Empire is somewhere we’d never been before but had seen fab reviews on Trip Advisor. It’s in a city centre location where you might not typically find the best quality food, but so many good reviews surely meant something.

The interior is a bit basic and dare I say, slightly tacky, but I’m all about the main focus being on the food itself.

To start, we shared a mix of 5 starters for 4 people with a side of flatbread. They came well presented on a rotating dish; I’ve numbered each of the dishes to review them individually.

  1. Your simple hummus. A lovely, thick and creamy texture with lots of flavour. Bland hummus always sets off alarm bells but this one hit the mark.
  2. Olivier. Chicken, egg, mayo and potato with gherkins and peas. I wouldn’t have known this was a typical Persian dish, and the flavour was giving me generic egg-based salad feels, but I did actually enjoy it and was great piled onto the bread.
  3. Ghel Gheli. Lamb meatballs with prunes. These were flavoursome with moist mincemeat sitting on a juicy sauce.
  4. Kashke Bademjan. This shredded aubergine was delicious. The way it had been cooked gave it a tender, almost meaty texture.
  5. Last, and to be honest, least, was the Sabzi Paneer. Basically just cubes of feta with walnuts and various herbs. Each element sat there in isolation, none of the flavours or textures working well together harmoniously. Nothing unpleasant about this at all, but just not one that I’d recommend.

Quick mention about the flatbread – perfect thickness – not wafer thin and crunchy but not heavy and stodgy either. A great balance and the ideal side to accompany the mixed starters.

Onto the mains, and typically, whenever I head to middle eastern restaurants I tend to always go for lamb over chicken. This time I decided that I’d change things up a bit and stick to chicken. The Fesenjoon caught my eye on the menu straight away. It’s a pomegranate and walnut chicken stew served with either rice or bread and salad. Really rich in both colour and flavour, it was delicious. The shredded chicken soaked up the creamy sauce, and the pomegranate added the perfect amount of sweetness to the stew. The saffron rice was a solid accompaniment – not wildly exciting, but just what you need to mop up all the sauce.

I couldn’t leave without satisfying my dessert stomach, obviously, so I shared the Faloode with saffron and pistachio ice cream. Faloode is basically rice vermicelli soaked in rose water syrup. For me, any food this bright in colour immediately makes me slightly sceptical. My brain is automatically shouting ARTIFICIAL… and admittedly this dessert was divisive. For me, the flavours were quite unnatural and I didn’t associate them with saffron or pistachio. The vermicelli in the syrup was also incredibly sweet and I just found it to be too much. Its crunchy texture also didn’t really work for me. Having said that my Mum really enjoyed it, so just goes to show that our tastes are entirely subjective.

The service was great throughout. Waiters were lovely, and attentive but without being overbearing. It’s also fantastic value for money. Starters are generally under £5 each, mains around £10 and desserts under £4. Even with a couple of rounds of drinks the final bill was a pleasant surprise.

So whether you’re a Nottingham local, or find yourself visiting in the future, I definitely recommend this place. It’s not at all fancy, but if you just want some hearty, flavoursome food, this is the place to go.

Looking up ‘Let’s eat’ in perfect Farsi might be a bit ambitious so for now I’ll stick with…

¡Comemos!

xo

‘Influencing’ is not a thing: The polemical world of social media advertising

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Freebies, followers and fame.

Three things that together, summarise a new 21st century phenomenon.

The world of influencing is a controversial one. Less than ten years ago, the word ‘influencer’ would be defined and understood very simply, and broadly, as follows:

‘A person or thing that influences another.’ (Google definition)

 But now it has taken on a whole new meaning. This new meaning stems from a marketing viewpoint, one in which an influencer is recognised as:

‘A person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media.’ (Google definition)

But here’s where I take a risk. This new term and even ‘career path’ just doesn’t sit comfortably with me. I’ll try and break it down into a few key issues that concern me.

  1. ‘Lifestyle’ Influencing

What does this even mean? I have seen numerous Instagram accounts where the person behind it purports to be a ‘lifestyle influencer’. To me, this simply implies that said person doesn’t actually have a main area of interest or passion to justify their ‘blogging’. It suggests to me less than ideal motives such as fame, and the addictive nature of follower counts and likes. ‘Lifestyle’ can encompass so many different things – from home to food, fashion to travel, and realistically no one has a specialist interest or knowledge in all of these vast areas.

2. Aspiring to be an ‘influencer’ as a full-time career

Some people are inadvertently able to influence others due to the following they have accrued through other roles involving talent, for example actors, singers, designers etc. They are able to influence others naturally, as they are well-respected and have made a name for themselves through something they are skilled at. However, aspiring to simply be an ‘influencer’ for me is really quite sad. It shouldn’t constitute a career in itself. Being sent free products or services and posting about them (often using pre-scripted captions – not even using your own words) should not be a job that merits payment. Of course I can see why marketing teams take advantage of this new form of promotion, because ultimately for them it is profitable, but for too many people they reap the rewards without actually putting in much work.

3. If you love something enough you will always be happy to pay for it

Recently I’ve seen many a post on Twitter from food traders telling cringeworthy stories of people asking for free food in return for a feature on their account. It’s quite scary how many responses these posts get from others saying they’ve received the same arrogant requests. Being sent something for free in return for promoting it to help the brand who have got in touch is one thing, but actively contacting businesses yourself to request freebies, for me, really shows no shame. If you are passionate about whatever you talk about on social media, you’ll always be happy to put money into businesses in order to gather content for your page, along with enjoying the product itself, whether that’s spending money on food, beauty products or clothing.

4. Do you even like what you’re promoting???

Of course not all of this applies to eeeeveryone, but there are ‘influencers’ who don’t even appreciate the products and services they receive. People promote for the sake of it when they’re asked to, rather than turning down freebies or payment if they’re not interested in the product. I have met people who have openly admitted that they get so many offers/invites, that it’s just not ‘special’ anymore. When it comes to food blogging, may I ask that if you’re on any kind of diet, be it low-carb, sugar-free etc (unless it’s for genuine health reasons, ie intolerance etc), don’t bother accepting an invite to an indulgent meal where photos are taken, but food is left untouched. Not only is this ridiculous but it’s also incredibly misleading to followers who trust you, when you’ve refused to eat the food. This happens and it is very frustrating.

So, where do I consider myself to be placed within all this? I’m not naïve. With just under 3000 followers on Instagram and a measly 14 on this blog, there would never be any suggestion of me being called an ‘influencer’. And I would never want to be. There are a few reasons I do what I do and I’d like to highlight what I think is the difference.

  • I combine my love of food and writing. I’m no food expert, nor am I the most talented writer, but I am going to be kind enough to myself to recognise that I do have some sort of skill when it comes to my writing ability, and I enjoy pairing that with my foodie ‘research’ to provide interesting and insightful content.
  • I started doing this for myself. And still do to a large extent. When I first started my Instagram page, I was scared to follow ‘normal people’ as opposed to business accounts because I was embarrassed, and I certainly didn’t want anyone I knew to ever come across my account as I would’ve found that utterly humiliating at the time. Fortunately now, I no longer play host to this self-conscious mentality, and in fact, when friends and acquaintances contact me to tell me they’re really enjoying my posts, I find it really uplifting. Having said this, it still all comes back to self-gratification. I am my number 1 fan! Literally my own number 1 stalker. The amount of time I spend looking over my own accounts at the foods I’ve eaten and the places I’ve visited is almost a joke. But ultimately, doing this kind of thing for yourself before anyone else means that you never lose sight of why you started.
  • I spend most of my wage on food. This isn’t a competition. A ‘who can eat out the most’ or who can buy the most expensive meal?’, but the fact of the matter is I don’t need freebies to feed my posts. I love supporting businesses whose food I absolutely adore and would never see this as wasted money. I think in the past year I’ve had 3 free meals, and don’t get me wrong, I’ve been so grateful for each of those. The excitement of receiving an invite will never lose its magic for me, but not in a million years will you see me actively asking for complimentary food.
  • Photos. I don’t want to stand around a table with 20 other people, bright lights and big cameras, positioning food delicately for half an hour, only to then consume a tiny bit of the food cold. Yes, of course I take photos to complement the written content I produce, but also as something for me to look back on. But I’ll snap a few shots on my phone over about a 30 second period, and then I’ll enjoy my meal. I don’t feel that I owe anything to the people who follow me, I am not producing content for them and so my priority is having a delicious meal with friends/family. This is also why I don’t often produce video content for Instagram stories for example. This is much more time consuming and is too much of a disruption to a relaxed sociable mealtime for me.

So to reiterate, for me, a ‘blogger’ is someone who produces original content, whether it be written, visual or both based on a specific area of interest using skills that they possess.

I’m not going to attempt to provide my own definition of ‘influencer’ to contrast my blogger definition, because I appreciate that some people would consider the two to overlap and would argue that influencing can be a really positive thing, but I think you can gather why I consider them to be very separate from the points above.

Despite my views, I’m not out to offend anyone. I just think it’s disappointing that this new craze-turned-profession is taking the beauty and excitement out of having a genuine passion for something.

Everyone’s entitled to his or her opinion, and I hope I’ve given fair justification for my thoughts. Ultimately, if you love what you do, and you do it for the right reasons, then no harm done.

But really, please don’t aspire to be an ‘influencer’. Who cares if people act based on your promotions or not? Eat because it tastes great. Wear something because it looks amazing on you. Use a skin product because it makes you glow like a goddess. By all means share your thoughts, but don’t base your entire career on convincing people to invest in a product or service just because you’ve been given an incentive to do so.

Less influencing others. More doing it for ourselves.

Ciao xo

and last but not least…

¡Comemos!

xo

Pick and Cheese

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Every time someone tells me they don’t like cheese, my eyes do a 360 roll in my head. Believe me, such people actually do exist, and there’s clearly something wrong with them.

I’m tempted to say that the best kind of cheese is always melted or baked, hot and gooey, an oozy cheese pull stretching from the plate to your mouth. But normal cheese, you know, hard cheese, soft cheese, basically uncooked cheese, is also a delight, especially when accompanied by gallons of wine.

The super successful Cheese Bar, located in Camden, have just opened their wonderful new project in KERB’s latest food hall/market in Seven Dials, Covent Garden. How no one’s come up with this before I’ll never know, but it’s basically like Yo Sushi, for CHEESE…

For anyone who’s not familiar with this set up, you basically find yourself perched on a bar stall, with a conveyer belt of cheese circling before you. Each cheese plate is contained within a little glass pod with a numbered tag, which corresponds to a number on the menu, explaining exactly what it is. The challenge here is finding the number of the cheese in front of you on the menu and deciding whether you fancy it or not, before it flies past and you have to wait for it to do another lap to come back to you.

Belt dish prices range from £2.95 to £6.10 and you can find out the price by looking at the colour of the dish and checking that against the price guides dotted around the restaurant bar in front of you.

Upon arrival I was told there’d be a 30-40 minute wait, which I’d kind of anticipated seeing as it’s new and there’s still a lot of hype surrounding it. They take your phone number and text you when a table is free but you can opt out of this at any time, and there’s loads of seating throughout the food hall where you can sit and wait.

It probably ended up being about half an hour, so really not too long at all.

There are 3 or so off-belt menu items, plus some desserts, but the vast majority of the dishes you can just help yourself to from the belt. There was only one that they didn’t have available as everything is fresh from their various suppliers and on this occasion the supplier wasn’t able to provide it.

Service was friendly and staff were enthusiastic and helpful.

It is honestly so hard to whittle it down to just a few dishes because I was desperate to try everything, but as per, I still gave it a pretty good go.

Plate number 1: Kingham with Walnut Fudge

My ability to articulate the subtleties in cheese flavour and texture is limited, so I’m going to settle for a ‘This was good.’ The cheese was pleasant, described by suppliers as having ‘a buttery, strong flavour, with a Gruyere-like texture.’

That fudge though…

I know it’s not supposed to be the star of the show but it was beautiful. Weirdly, one of the highlights. It was smooth, creamy and absolutely delicious.

Plate number 2: Rachel with Sun Dried Tomato and Basil Pesto

It was the Pesto that appealed with this one, and although it was nice, I found this to be the least exciting. The cheese was still decent, with a kind of manchego-y appearance and texture and a slightly nutty taste, and the pesto did complement it well but the best is still yet to come…

Plate number 3: Fellstone with Sherry Baked Cherries

Definitely one of my favourites here. Although technically a hard cheese, it still has a thick, creamy feel and taste to it. The sharpness of the cherries alongside it worked perfectly. The ultimate example of sweet and savoury working together in harmony.

Plate number 4: Stilton with Chocolate Oat Cookie

Now I had to try this one, as weirdly, it’s made in Cropwell Bishop, the tiny village in Nottinghamshire where I went to Primary School. They actually have two cheeses on the menu but I went for the Stilton as I absolutely LOVE blue cheese. It took me a while as a teenager before I was willing to stop turning my nose up in disgust and actually try it, but now I can’t get enough. So honestly, if you’ve always avoided it, you really should give it a chance, as it’s a lot tastier than its mouldy appearance might lead you to believe.

I’m not entirely sure why they decided to pair it with a chocolate chip cookie (am I missing something obvious?) but regardless, I’m not complaining, it was a softly-baked (random) side treat.

(Wine also excellent and inexpensive)

My friend tried the other Cropwell Bishop cheese which was the Beauvale with Sticky Pear Jam so I had a tiny bit of this one too. Super soft and creamy with a the sweet, sticky jam, I would definitely recommend it.

Plate number 5: OFF BELT

You CANNOT, I repeat, CANNOT, visit Pick and Cheese without ordering this dish which appears on the menu but not on the conveyer belt.

Whole Baked Waterloo with Basil Stewed Blackberries and Bread

Remember when I was talking about baked/melted cheese being unbeatable at the beginning? Well…

LOOK AT THIS. JUST LOOK AT IT. Not only does it look massively exciting, but it was one of the most delicious things I’ve eaten in a while. There’s actually quite a bit more to it than appears here, and it’s definitely more of a sharer.

The sharpness of the blackberries with that gooey baked goodness was heaven. Can’t say I was getting much basil from it other than the giant tree-frog-style leaf but I didn’t want the basily vibes anyway. The bread is unexciting but entirely necessary for dippage.

Honestly, when I go back (and I 100% will), I’m getting this just for myself. No sharing.

Just as a side note, they do also have a few charcuterie dishes but I wanted to stick exclusively to the cheese this time round.

Overall, I was super impressed with Pick and Cheese. It’s not just a meal, but a fun dining experience. For all the above dishes plus the glass of wine and service I think I paid about £35 which I thought was really reasonable. Waiters add up the prices based on the colours of the piled up dishes that you’ve accumulated throughout the course of the meal.

I love that each cheese comes with a unique, complementary side, and I’ll be honest, this often influenced my choices more so than the cheese itself!

This place is wonderful. It’s situated within a buzzing (but not overwhelming) food hall environment, has a sophisticated feel to it and produces some excellent food. I, for one, can’t wait to go back with other friends and family.

It may not be a hidden gem, but it lights up London’s food scene all the same.

¡Comemos!

xo

Meat Me Halfway: Week 1

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This is the first part in my new and ongoing series of blog posts, ‘Meat me halfway’. It’s basically a diary following the ups and downs, highlights and lowlights of my journey to reducing my meat and dairy intake.

I’ll willingly admit that I don’t ever have any intention of giving up meat, seafood, and dairy products entirely, however, everything I’ve seen in the media recently has made me consider what I can do to contribute positively to the environmental issues we’re facing. I’m under no illusions – I know that me eating slightly less meat/dairy isn’t going to change the world, but it’s a small step that I can take to contribute to reducing the demand. The way I’ve decided to work it is that for one week towards the end of each month, I’ll only eat plant-based food, so that equates to 3 months a year. I’m also intrigued as to whether my body will physically feel any better.

So there’s my intro – you can look forward to these diary posts once a month from now on, but for now let’s get stuck in and see what delicious (and not so delicious) meals I ate.

One of the things that actually quite concerns me about eating purely vegan food is Biscoff. Is there anything in the world that tastes as incredible as Biscoff spread? I think not. Yet it being vegan is not synonymous with it being healthy. And it is fast becoming my weakness. Firstly, Doughnut Time’s ‘David Hassel-Biscoff’ is one of the best and most indulgent doughnuts you will ever eat. But I wanted to incorporate this incredible spread into my home-cooked food. Porridge oats are delicious with some added Biscoff spread. This meal is so straightforward – oats with soy milk, (which I’ve realised doesn’t differ in taste at all to cow’s milk) add a blob or swirl of Biscoff spread, and top with a few Lotus biscuits. Super straight-forward, filling and tasty. Now I just need to stop eating it straight from the jar…

Another breakfast meal that’s really satisfying to both make and eat is granola. When I decided to embark on this journey I bought Rachel Ama’s Vegan Eats book, as it was one of the only books that stood out to me in terms of interesting, exciting-looking vegan food that I was eager to try out. Her guide to making your own granola is so simple – blitzed mixed nuts with coconut oil, oats and maple syrup, baked until golden and then add your choice of dried fruits. To make this even more delicious, I took the vegan cookie dough from Doughnut Time’s Ice Ice Bae Bae doughnut and sprinkled that on top.

Meal prep for the week came in the form of beetroot lentils with HECK sweet chilli plant-based sausages. I have to admit that this meal that I ate repetitively throughout the week didn’t really do it for me in the end. I much prefer chickpeas and beans to lentils, and although I love the flavour of beetroot, I felt like the texture of the lentils with the sausages was just too stodgy. The sausages were actually pretty tasty but the texture was definitely veggified rather than them attempting to be an actual meat substitute.

Last Sunday afternoon I headed to the Black Food Festival at the Oval Space, the focus being on innovative food aesthetics – more specifically, black tinted food. I hate to say it but I was very disappointed with the festival overall. There just weren’t enough traders or visitors to fill the large space, and to make matters worse, despite the festival ending at 9pm, by 5pm when I arrived, most of the food had sold out. I was able to get my hands on a vegan salad from a stall that I annoyingly can’t remember the name of but I’m not actually sure what that had to do with black food. It was tasty at the time, but one of those that on reflection you wouldn’t desperately want to eat again. Then I got a mushroom and black bean taco from Tacos Hermanos. It looked great with the charcoal tortilla and the contrasting bright orange chipotle sauce, and it tasted good, but I found myself admitting that I would never choose that over meat.

Before heading to work the following morning I went back to the wonderful recipes of Rachel Ama, and this time, her vegan pancakes with raspberry chia jam. They were super easy to make, including the jam (although it didn’t thicken up that much) and they tasted great too. The pancakes were quite heavy as oats had been used instead of flour, but they still had a nice texture and the sharpness of the chia jam worked really well.

I was lucky enough to receive some freebies from Itsu later that day in exchange for food from where I work and luckily the ladies had lots of vegan options. They gave me some vegetable gyozas and a tofu rice/salad box. I really enjoyed the gyozas – honestly don’t think I have a preference between the meat and veg ones, which says a lot. When it comes to tofu I have tried it many a time and sometimes I can stomach it, others I can’t. I really wasn’t a fan of this one so I left it, but I did really enjoy the salad and sushi rice, with the delicious sauce, although I still haven’t worked out exactly what it is.

My first proper vegan restaurant dining experience took place at BabaBoom in Islington. It was good that they had a few different options, although there were no vegan desserts. We had flatbread with sweet potato hummus to start and the hummus was great and really creamy. My main was a broadbean falafel flatbread, and whilst I definitely did enjoy it, I still found myself getting food envy when my parents’ chicken and mutton flatbreads were served. Falafel is a great vegan option though and I was definitely super full at the end – helped out by the really well-seasoned fries that I had on the side.

My homemade sweet treats of the week came in the form of apple crumble oat balls. I had a couple of these to snack on each day, and they grew on me throughout the week. They’re made from a blend of apple, almond butter, dates and oats and then chilled in balls so that they hold together. These are great for an energy boost and would be really easy to adjust the ingredients to create different flavours.

We’re on to Rachel Ama round 3 for one of my dinners, and I made her Caribbean Channa. This chickpea curry/stew was packed with flavour and tasted so much better than it looked, but despite all that flavour, for some reason it just didn’t satisfy me in the same way that it wouldn’t done if it’d had beef or chicken in.

I think one of the things I’ve been realising is that sweet vegan food is often much better than the savoury, and Juicebaby’s Açaí bowl reaffirmed this to me. I hadn’t had açaí since I was in Brazil and had been kind of nervous that it just wouldn’t be the same, eating it at work in rainy London as opposed to on beautiful, sunny Ipanema beach. But you know what, I loved it. It didn’t disappoint and although it was a little on the pricey side it was a decent portion size and a great breakfast. It was topped with banana, granola and coconut, but toppings can be customised.

Now, my first slip up. Up to this point, I’d found eating vegan super easy. I hadn’t been remotely tempted to break my plant-based promise. But whilst at work, I was approached by a lady who worked at the café opposite who was interested in doing a food exchange, much like the one I’d done with Itsu days before. I agreed enthusiastically, but then it turned out that eggs and bacon were the extent of the options available. My brain for some reason just froze and I couldn’t tell her that I wasn’t eating meat or eggs so found myself replying ‘Ooh a bacon sandwich would be great.’ Ten minutes later I’m sitting there with this sandwich thinking what the fuck do I do now? The smell was killing me. I literally can’t deal with food waste so there was no way I was gonna let it go to waste but it wouldn’t last until my vegan week was over. So yes, in the end I ate it. And you know what? I have no regrets, because there are no rules to my plant-based eating plans. I can eat what I like, and if during a week of around 15 vegan meals, one ends up slipping, who cares? I’ve still done really well. So I don’t plan on breaking the cycle every time I’m on vegan week, but I really didn’t need to beat myself up about it.

Okay, we’re on to our penultimate meal, and it’s a good one. I was really excited when I came across Chilango’s ‘This isn’t chicken burrito’ on Deliveroo. I was really intrigued as to how convincing it would be. This was one of the best things I ate all week. You could barely tell it wasn’t chicken, the texture was almost identical, and being the filling to a burrito, flavour didn’t really come into it, as that came from all the other elements. You had rice, black beans, salsa, jalapenos, all of which created the most flavoursome Mexican wrap which I would be happy to eat any time, even when not making a conscious effort to eat vegan. This is one that I massively recommend.

Last but not least is another home-cooked meal, but this time one that required no recipe. My parents had just got back from Italy and had brought me back some food-related goodies. One of those was a jar of vegan pistachio pesto, and along with that was some Busiate pasta from where they had been in Sicily which is not made with eggs. The pasta was oddly slimy, but not unpleasant, and when I’ve made fresh pasta myself it’s always had this texture. The pesto was really nice, but not as strong tasting as a basil-based pesto. Regardless, I will definitely be eating this again, maybe with some added sun dried tomatoes and who knows, perhaps a few bites of chicken.

So there’s what went down during my first vegan week. The highlights were definitely the Biscoff, which I have found myself craving 24/7 and also the Chilango burrito. I’m also impressed by the discovery of plant-based milk, which I’ll be using full-time from now on. 

I reckon I’d been pretty naïve regarding the way I thought my body would feel following all this plant-based food. I assumed that by being so ‘healthy’ I would feel less heavy and generally better in myself, whereas in fact I felt more gross and bloated than I have done in a long time. I guess this stems from a combination of things – firstly, as previously mentioned, veganism and healthy-eating are not necessarily synonymous so I hadn’t really been that healthy. Secondly, such a drastic change in my diet is obviously going to have effects on my body, and will probably take some getting used to, not to mention the fact that beans, pulses and some veg are known for leaving you slightly bloated so I should’ve expected this. It hasn’t put me off at all though and I’m sure once my body gets used to it every month, the side effects won’t be so significant.

I definitely suggest that you check out Rachel Ama’s cookbook for further inspiration, and hopefully you’ll learn that plant-based food can be both deliciously satisfying and full of flavour. Whether you’re a full-blown meat-eater or a dedicated vegan, I hope this little diary has offered you some ideas to consider when it comes to meat-free eating habits, but remember – as long as you’re enjoying what you’re eating in a balanced way, you do you! This is well and truly a non-preaching zone.

Stay tuned for next month’s instalment, and for now…

¡Comemos!

xo

Hello, this is London’s number 1 cheesecake expert speaking…

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Sixteen years of my life I spent thinking I didn’t like cheesecake.

SIXTEEN YEARS.

I will never be able to retrieve those lost years, but what I can do is attempt to make up for the lack of cheesecake in my life.

According to the wonderfully useful and addictive Eaten app (see my previous blog post on how it all works), I am officially the number 1 cheesecake expert in London. You simply cannot argue with their statistics. Here’s the proof:

So what is it that makes such a good cheesecake? And what are the warning signs of a disappointing dessert of this kind?

We’ll leave the best until last so I’ll start with some of my least favourite efforts.

One of the most important aspects of the cheesecake is its base. A dodgy base = a dodgy cheesecake. A few months ago I got carried away in a whirlwind of Brazilian flavours at Temakinho in Soho, and couldn’t resist their passionfruit (or maracuja) cheesecake. The flavour itself was lovely and sharp but the base really let it down.

I need to taste the buttery crumbs with their gritty texture. A welded-together stodgy base like this just doesn’t do it for me, no matter how lovely it looks.

Another major factor is of course the creamy cheese filling. Unfortunately this one just wasn’t creamy enough and had an odd savoury cheese flavour rather than a sweet cream cheese.

Ultimately Temakinho had produced a dessert full of fruity flavour but lacking on the textural front (with that disconcerting actual real-life cheese cheesiness).

Some attempts find they have the opposite problems though. Take this banana cheesecake from Almost Famous in Leeds, for example.

An excellent biscuit base (if you can actually manage to get your spoon to the bottom of the jar), and a pleasant consistency to the cream cheese. HOWEVER… bananas. I love bananas. And I love desserts flavoured with actual banana. But the problem is, as it’s not as sweet as other fruits, once you combine it with cream cheese and/or whipped cream, the flavour is is not powerful enough to shine through. The texture of the actual banana pieces gets lost in all the creaminess and the overall flavour of the cheesecake becomes quite bland. I often find this is also the case with an average banoffee pie. Banana + cream is not enough. More sugar or an extra burst of flavour somewhere is needed to heighten the overall taste. A pretty cheesecake that felt good to eat, but didn’t quite hit the spot.

Moving up slightly, we find this dessert in a whole new form. The frozen cheesecake by Whipped in Covent Garden looks absolutely delightful. Their fantastic menu allows you to customise your flavours, and so I ended up with a Lotus Biscuit base, blueberry sauce, honeycomb and oreos. To be honest I think I panicked under the pressure of having to come up with my own flavour combinations, but this is what appeared before me…

This majestic beast was slightly overwhelming and I hadn’t expected it to be quite so tall. But not one to turn down a food-related challenge, I put in my best efforts to finish it. My thoughts on the idea of frozen cheesecake? I’m not sure if it’s a ‘thing’ . As in, is this frozen cheesecake? Or is it basically just ice cream/soft serve/whatever you want to call it with a biscuit base hidden at the bottom. I would argue the latter. That’s not to say it didn’t taste decent; the blueberry sauce with the ice cream (as I insist on calling it) tasted good, but ultimately I prefer the more traditional cheesecake-baking methods.

Ok we’re getting to the good stuff now, and a pleasant surprise up next. You may have seen this dessert already in my Chalida review from a few months ago. In it, I talked about my indifference towards mango, but also came to the conclusion that in this particular cheesecake, the flavour worked fantastically.

The base was very thin, but the creamy topping was so light that the ratio of base to topping worked really well. It was airy and non-indulgent with a lovely sweet sharpness. On top of that, you have to acknowledge the carefully thought-out presentation, producing a delicate-looking dessert, rather than dishing up a heavy, indulgent slab.

In complete contrast to Chalida’s mango cheesecake is another Whipped creation, and a super popular one at that. After the interesting and probably not recommendable combination I chose for the frozen cheesecake, I decided to play it safe with my baked option, going for their classic banoffee cheesecake.

Now, backtrack a few paragraphs and there I am going on about how banana doesn’t work in a cheesecake. Well, it can, and here’s how…

This is not a load of plain cream cheese with plain whipped cream, with a few bananas chucked in. This cheesecake has a strong banana flavour, complemented by gooey toffee, warm melted chocolate and a crunchy biscuit crumb. There are lots of elements all working together in your mouth. Contrasting textures, chilled cream cheese vs warm sauce, and extra sugar from that toffee and chocolate. Extra sugar doesn’t always sound like a positive, but when it comes to banana desserts, it really is a requirement.

The fact that the cheesecake is baked does give it a heavier feel, but really if you’re looking for a light, guilt-free dessert you shouldn’t be heading to Whipped anyway. It’s the equivalent of a vegan going for dinner at an Argentine steakhouse.

Another surefire way to success is to come up with original or less obvious flavour combinations. I love vanilla, strawberry, salted caramel… the list goes on, but sometimes the way to stand out on a menu is to be different.

This next cheesecake is apricot and white chocolate from The Tap and Run pub in Upper Broughton.

You’ll see that the ratio of base to topping in this one is slightly skewed, and ideally I’d probably have a slightly thinner base, but the stand-out for me was the apricot flavour. I’ve never seen apricot in a cheesecake before (although I’m not doubting that they exist), and that candied apricot topping was delicious. I have to say that white chocolate is quite difficult to include in desserts as it gets easily lost when combined with other more powerful flavours, i.e. the apricot in this case, but nonetheless this was a beautifully-presented dessert with a delicious take on the traditional fruity cheesecake.

Right, just a few more to go. And a really important point here is not to neglect the chain restaurant dessert. One of the nicest cheesecakes I’ve ever had was the lemon cheesecake with raspberry coulis from Zizzi.

It may not be the most delicate-looking but boy did it taste good. Lemon topping with raspberry coulis is a fantastic combination, and the portion is the perfect amount to avoid feeling like you’re going to roll out of the restaurant (although if you’ve also had a starter and a pizza like me, you may end up feeling like that anyway). But the point is, don’t turn your nose up at places like this. It’s great to support independent businesses and everyone loves a cosy, intimate setting, but personally I think the zizzi menu is pretty decent, and this certainly was satisfying.

Now to my top 2.

Heading for dinner at a fish/seafood bar, cheesecake was the last thing on my mind. Yet, the berry cheesecake at J Sheekey was stunning.

Not only is the presentation incredibly elegant, but that berry compote topping was beautiful. As much as I like chocolatey, caramelly style cheesecakes, you can’t beat the contrast of a thick creamy cheese topping with a light, sharp hit of fruit. I’ve used the word ‘sharp’ a huge number of times but there really is no other way to describe that taste and feeling when the sugary cooked fruit hits your tongue.

For me this cheesecake was second only to one. And that one remaining slice of delight is Crumbs and Doilies Apple Crumble Cheesecake.

The excitement for me was the originality. Not just a fruit cheesecake, not just an apple cheesecake, but an apple crumble cheesecake. This title led to high expectations. I didn’t want a cheesecake that just tasted of apple, I wanted to be able to sense the difference between the flavour of the fruit itself, and the flavour of the crumble dessert that we all know and love.

I was not disappointed. Texture-wise you can see just from the photo that we have a clear crumble topping, with an added sticky toffee style sauce. But it wasn’t just that. It didn’t have a generic, artificial fruit flavour, it really did taste specifically of an apple crumble. The cheesecake topping itself wasn’t the best texture I’ve had, as I prefer a very smooth creamy cheese, however, I have to give it to them for originality and flavour. I have never before seen an apple crumble cheesecake, and now I feel like I don’t need to. I’ve tried it, it was delicious, and now I’m ready to be wowed by something completely new.

This is not the end of my cheesecake marathon. It really is my go-to dessert and there’ll be plenty more for me to discover.

If you want to keep up with those future discoveries, you can check out my Instagram account: @foodtravelsldn, or my Eaten account of the same name, where you can also find my full list of cheesecakes ranked from best to worst.

Now close your laptop, put down your phone, find yourself a nice, big slice of cheesecake and shove your face in it. Immediately.

¡Comemos!

xo

Delhi to Goa: A Culinary Trail

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Those of you who follow my Instagram page (foodtravelsldn) will know that I recently got back from an amazing 2 week trip to India.

There are so many things that India is famous for, but one of the most significant is its food. I knew I was heading to an absolute foodie heaven.

HOTEL FOOD

I ate so much over the two weeks that I couldn’t possibly cover everything. I’ve broken it down into 10 of the most interesting things that I came across, so here’s my best attempt at a round-up of those delicacies…I’ll start with hotel food. Often when eating abroad, hotel food is a bit of a cop-out. Generally they offer less authentic dishes and a wider range of international cuisine. One of the first striking things about food in India though is you can get great food from anywhere. It doesn’t matter whether it’s on the streets, in a small hotel or from a 5 star restaurant – the quality is still there, and you can be sure that nothing is coming from a packet. I’m not saying that each one of the meals below was a 10/10 but food in low-budget UK hotels doesn’t begin to compare.

STREET FOOD

One of the most exciting things for me was the prospect of trying street food. Not one to be scared off by talk of Delhi belly, I was fearless when it came to trying everything. My first day in Delhi was one of my favourite meals. I paid 20 rupees (25p ish) for a delicious potato curry with fried I-don’t-know-whats. It was probably the spiciest thing I ate there as it hadn’t been toned down for the foreigners but that’s exactly how I liked it. No cutlery, just hands. A delicious meal on the capital’s busy streets.

MASALA CHAI

I can’t even recall the number of times I’ve found myself saying ‘I don’t drink tea’ in my life. Yet despite that, something quite extradinary happened to me in India. I developed an OBSESSION for Masala Chai. It is exquisite. And yes it may well be because it’s so sweet and sugary and milky that it just tastes like a dessert but that’s not the point. I gave in to tea, with all its gingery, cinnamony flavours. The best chai by far is the tiny cups you get in the street, on the go. I’m not sure I’m quite fully converted to tea, but it’s a step in the right direction.

SPICE MARKETS AND FRESH PRODUCE

Arriving in Delhi, I’d read that one of the main attractions was the city’s spice market, and so being such a keen cook I had to check it out. To be completely honest, it wasn’t what I’d imagined. In my head I’d conjured up images of bustling streets and market stalls full of every colour and tone of spice you could imagine. The reality is all the little shops are nestled below buildings running along the side of each street and the takeaway images aren’t as striking. Having said that I still bought away an exciting haul of turmeric, cinnamon, cloves and some unknown substance that I’ll just shove in a curry and hope for the best.

Big chain supermarkets aren’t really a thing in India so local people buy all their fresh groceries from people selling on the street. In Jaipur the side pavements were awash with every kind of veg you could imagine, and for me it was a whole lot more interesting than what Delhi had to offer.

RESTAURANT FOOD

So we come to one of the biggest areas of intrigue for me  – the restaurant food. I was really interested to see how it compared to the kind of Indian food we would eat at home. I had really mixed experiences – some absolutely delicious meals, some pretty good and some just ok. One of my highlights was having breakfast at Kyani & Co. in Mumbai, which is one of the Iranian café style restaurants that the London-based chain Dishoom is based on. In all the two weeks there were of course occasions where I strayed from Indian food because 2 weeks of curry for lunch and dinner can become a bit too much…

I’ve also taken away the fact that India is the best place in the world to eat vegetarian. There are almost more options on one menu than you’d find in most of London’s restaurants combined. Whether it’s curried okra, aubergine, daal or a selection of 3849595 paneer (cheese) dishes, it really is veggie paradise. I tried to mix it up a bit, sometimes avoiding meat and sometimes embracing it.

FLATBREADS

An absolute staple of Indian cuisine is the humble flatbread. From rotis to chapatis, naan to paratha, again, there are so many combinations to choose from. What struck me straight away was that our idea of Naan bread here in the UK, doesn’t actually exist in India. Indian naan is a thin flatbread rather than a bready doughy teardrop shaped creation like we eat here. I’m not saying one is better than the other but it was just interesting to see how things differed. For me, chapatis were the most disappointing as they tended to be the driest and were plain without a selection of exciting flavours and toppings, whereas the naan and paratha were endlessly pleasing. Cheese, garlic, chilli, butter –whatever your topping, they’re the perfect way to scoop up your curry when there’s no cutlery in sight. Peshwari Naan is also a delicious sweet alternative with dried fruits and nuts.

GLOBAL BRANDS

So I’m a complete sucker for trying new menu items, limited edition products, or just things that I know I won’t be able to get my hands on elsewhere. So for that reason I did venture to Pizza Hut (Agra), Mcdonalds (Ahmedabad) and KFC (Mumbai). I’m all about embracing every aspect of Indian cuisine – but for me, this includes eating at these places and trying menu items that I will never be able to get in the UK.

Pizza Hut was a great experience – not only was my Tandoori Paneer Pizza delicious, but the whole staff insisted on performing a very well-choreographed and rehearsed dance routine before we left.

Mcdonalds and KFC weren’t quite as exciting, and were more quick meals on the go before travelling from one city to the next. The McSpicy Paneer was a highlight but I’d give KFC a miss next time.

SWEET TREATS

This section is basically dedicated to the God of desserts – Gulab Jamun. I’d tried these sweet, sticky, syrupy balls at Dishoom here in London, and at the time had had no idea what I was actually ordering. They really are beautiful though – like a slightly less heavy small syrupy doughnut ball. And the ones in India are even smaller than the ones I had here, so you don’t have to feel as guilty! I’d also really wanted to try Rasgulla Balls which are similar but it seemed that every time I asked for them, the restaurant didn’t have them. I guess I’ll have to make it my mission to find some here.

Just a quickie before moving on – best hot chocolate I’ve ever had @Oludar Village Café in Udaipur (They also did an amazing chicken burger). Not where I was expecting to find the most delicious hot chocolate in the world but there you have it – and I made sure to sample 2 so I knew it wasn’t a fluke…

HOME COOKING

The group I was travelling with were lucky enough to visit a local family’s house in Udaipur where we were given a cooking demonstration of some classic dishes. A year ago, the lady giving the demo spoke no English whatsoever, so it was crazy how now, she was able to speak freely and spontaneously about technical elements of cooking and answer any questions we had. She made some delicious pakora, okra, chickpea curries and chapatis. It was a lovely afternoon, despite the power cutting out multiple times (meaning we were in darkness and with no air con) and I’ll definitely be trying to recreate these dishes at home.

TOP MEALS

I’ll finish with a couple of highlights. Where were my best meals and what were they? Our group ‘leader’ was fantastic with his solid recommendations and letting us know where the best places were to eat each dish.

Hunter’s Delight @ Dagla, Jaipur

This mutton curry was delicious. Incredibly tender meat, a lovely curry sauce that wasn’t too runny like some of the others I’d had, and lots of chillis and heat! I never asked for the spices in my dishes toned down like they often do for westerners because I love the firey kick!

  • Keema Baati @ The Courtyard Café and Bar, Udaipur

This was a really interesting-looking dish and I didn’t really know what I’d ordered until it arrived. They’re basically big bread balls (the bread is quite tough, definitely not soft and airy, but it’s supposed to be like this) and the centre is stuffed with minced mutton. On the side you get a mutton curry and melted ghee so my tactic was just to smother them with the curry and ghee making it as indulgent as possible. So much flavour.

  • Paneer Kathi Rolls @ Hotel Royal Dezire, Udaipur

So I can’t say this was the most impressive dish, skill or flavour-wise but in terms of setting yourself up for the day with a solid breakfast, this was it. Basically tasty, stodgy wraps filled with cheese, chilli and other veg. A beautiful start to the day.

  • Keema with Fried Egg @ Kyani & Co., Mumbai

One that I have mentioned already, but probably my favourite meal in my favourite city. The keema (minced mutton) almost felt like a spiced Bolognese, and topped with a fried egg was delicious when scooped up with the bread rolls. I could eat this every single day.

So that’s about it! It’s tricky to condense 2 weeks of foodie adventures into one post, especially when you have a tendency to waffle like me, but there are my highlights, observations and general thoughts. India was a massive adventure, and I loved every minute of it.

I wonder how long it will take me to save for my next adventure in China – I might need a few years but watch this space…

¡Comemos!

xo