tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79979834960608654932012-02-16T17:17:53.541ZCOME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.comBlogger3861100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-42049499232459686952012-02-08T14:10:00.002Z2012-02-09T22:49:07.883Z

chutneys the mughal empire has fascinated me since i was a little girl. mama who named me after the famous mughal empress begum nur jehan first inculcated this love. nur jehan (literally light of the world) was a titular name with her real name as mehrunnisa, which is what mama chose for me. my brother is also named after a mughal prince murad. i read mughal history at school and in the

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i had been waiting for my sibling to arrive in london to make an excursion to maltby street. he’s an early riser, loves walking and has a handsome appetite like me, and since maltby street requires all three he was the perfect companion to explore with. you could of course go to maltby street by noon as it runs from nine to two pm. however, if you want to get your hands on one of those

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net curtain pattern reflected in the menu pitt cue co is about bold, gutsy and assertive flavours. it is strictly a vegetarian hell so please don’t make the mistake of taking your animal loving friends there. in terms of its sexual orientation this food is truly heterosexual. (if you don’t know what i am talking about then read this article on simon doonan and you will know what i mean). to

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in december twitter gave me a christmas present, a lunch at the rib room courtesy of roche communications. given the scale of our pre-christmas gluttony i figured it would be best to take up the lunch in the new year, and so i booked us for january. a fortnight prior when i was looking up some reviews on the rib room i came across jay rayners less than enthusiast one, and since i highly

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pars restaurant west london seems to have a proliferation of persian restaurants and since it is one of o’s favourite cuisines i always keep an eye out for ones that are authentic. fortunately me for me, a wonderful toronto based twitter foodist called spicespoon of iranian heritage recommended pars to me. i specifically asked her for recommendations as to what to eat. it turns out that we

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rosalind's kitchen from the outside we are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavours and furniture polish is made from real lemons.  alfred e. newman  on starting with the quote above, i am saying what strikes me most about rosalind’s kitchen. one of the most important happenings of the last few years is a renewed emphasis on ‘real’ food. food that

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christmas presents under the tree my maternal grandmother is polish and it is to her that my family owes its celebration of christmas. my early memories of this holiday are of eating minted mitchell’s butterscotch toffees whilst waiting impatiently for babcia, daddy and mama to wake up so that i could open the presents under the christmas tree. i did not care much for minted butterscotch but

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leftover chicken and mushroom pie every so often o tells me about a chicken and mushroom pie that his mother used to make for him. then, he hastily adds that he is sure i wouldn’t like it, partly because i am not a huge fan of pies and partly because the pie would be more along sub-continental lines. this statement is probably inspired by the many discussions that we have had about the

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date and espresso truffles in the world of confectionary truffles are cherry sized balls of soft chocolate paste. sometimes they are encased in a shell of harder chocolate or dusted in a bittersweet cacao. my date and espresso truffles only partly fit this description as they aren’t crafted from soft chocolate paste. they are made from a paste of dried fruit and nuts (dates and almonds)

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-92078422751730535212012-01-06T16:35:00.002Z2012-01-07T01:09:06.709Z

confiture de lait in the making i have a very distinct memory of my first taste of caramel and the reason for that is a scalded finger. mama was making caramel custard at home and despite being told not to touch the liquid in the pan i did so anyway with the tip of ring finger. knowing that i would get no sympathy for having not listened to her, i spent the rest of my afternoon with my

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'i love chocolate' tote-bags i was determined to make it to the chocolate festival on southbank this year. should the rain have wavered my commitment, a promise to meet giulia of mondomulia blog of  made my attendance certain. we are fellow twitterati and foodists. giulia has a passion for food photography so as suggested by her we decided to join together to bring you this post

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breakfast on christmas day was a wedge of white stilton with apricots on crisp toasted slices of gail's apricot and hazelnut bread accompanied by glasses of duval-leroy fluer de champagne. i love the citrus notes of this particular bubbly. we had this whilst watching nigel slater's simple christmas. my past two christmas' have featured a nigel slater recipe and this christmas is no

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our little christmas tree it was mulled wine and mince pies at thirty-two on saturday seventeenth of december, as kbt and i hosted our first ever christmas drinks. i have always loved entertaining and it's because my parents have always loved it too. mama and i used to love hosting tea and as a family we hosted lots of lunches and dinners. it was a time when our family of four would pitch in

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-30006758997949722502011-12-18T22:23:00.002Z2011-12-20T10:42:11.401Z

moitié-moitié fondue in a caquelon  no one can dispute that fondue is the perfect winter food. the intensely savoury aroma of melting cheese piqued with wine and kirsch is an olfactory pleasure. gentle bubbles that erupt with the heat burst and dissipate into rings that are lovely to look at. lb has brought me to chez angelo in old town geneva to savour this swiss speciality. chez angelo

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-78373614156884021772011-12-14T18:23:00.002Z2011-12-14T21:27:27.078Z

love the stick-on christmas hats on this picture o's birthday was gluttony personified. after our grand breakfast at hawksmoor guildhall we were due at dishoom in the evening for a christmas tweet-up. we therefore imposed a period of fasting upon ourselves for the remainder of the day, drinking copious amounts of cardamom laced jasmine tea to create space.  i love dishoom tweet-ups not

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a half eaten rudolph santa and his trusty four legged companion have delivered a truly delicious mooli for christmas. when christmas meets india and sits down at a table it brings us the flaming turkey raan complete with two vegetables at dishoom. the potatoes have had a make-over in bombay and long green beans have been jazzed up with masala. but one doesn't always have time on a weekday

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-51922363643618114502011-12-13T16:07:00.000Z2011-12-13T16:12:46.568Z

street-food kind of effect, the interior of east-street east-street is the newest addition to canteen style restaurants in london. truth be told i was quite apprehensive  about trying it out as its menu is a jambalaya of east-asian cuisine. as much as i love east-asian cuisine, idon’t make it a habit to go to places that serve the breadth of the region. but sometimes curiosity gets the better

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-47753801889153297332011-12-11T19:39:00.001Z2011-12-11T20:13:34.029Z

spaghetti vongole at l'incontro this year lb and i have had the pleasure to dine in two cities which have been home to him at different stages of his life. in july it was sydney and in december, geneva. on the night before the closing of the thirty first international conference of the red cross and red crescent he took me to restaurant l'incontro. lb tells me that eating out in geneva isn't

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bowl o red from anna mae's chili shack some of the eat street collective were at this weekend's chocolate festival. for me, the big attraction was anna mae's chili shack. i've been a convert since the mac n cheese i had a while back and definitely wanted to give the chili a try. today was a perfect chili con carne kind of a day as winter always calls for comfort food with bold gutsy flavours.

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the entrance to hawksmoor guildhall i’ve been in a permanent state of food coma since the last week of november. a three day trip to geneva was something along the lines of a nakd nut and fruit bar for lunch followed by a dinner of steak frites one night, italian the second and fondue on the third.  of course a visit to geneva is not without its share of chocolate. i bought myself lindt

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-82638613584166063492011-11-27T20:26:00.001Z2011-11-27T21:07:42.999Z

custard sunshine at primrose hill it was a perfect sunday with custard sunshine. it has been a strangely warm winter in london so far and there is much to be grateful for. i've been enjoying london's many green spaces carpeted in leaves in their autumnal tones. today, after exploring overcoming challenges through change in yoga class with one of my favourite anusara teachers lisa sanfilippo

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-41850561872838306692011-11-27T19:04:00.001Z2011-11-27T20:02:22.571Z

o's chocolate  guinness birthday cake it is k.b.t.'s birthday on fifth december and he (unlike me) is very fortunate to celebrate each growing year with his siblings. this year's celebration came early as one of his siblings  is travelling on his actual birthday. to me there can be no birthday sans cake so i baked a really fudgy and rich guinness chocolate cake. a rather petulant o kept

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-48660508611483602072011-11-20T19:32:00.001Z2011-11-20T22:40:39.209Z

the clipboard menu at elephant if you are in london and you love food you've probably already been to brixton. everyone who is into seriously good food is talking about what's happening in brixton village. in fact i am convinced that jay rayner's article in the observer has been directly responsible for the increasing traffic. on the day that i went to eat at elephant the lines at honest

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butternut beet spread o loves beetroot. i usually get this sweet and earthy vegetable pre-cooked but lately the tightly wrapped plastic hugging the round beet bodies has irked me. increasingly i find myself walking the aisles of the waitrose and other grocery stores feeling sorry for food captured in plastic prisons. it's had the effect of pushing me to make the extra effort to buy beets

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-1151991704297737682011-11-20T16:04:00.001Z2011-11-23T17:15:15.234Z

almond cream-cheese drizzled with honey my husband's brunch palette is limited to eggs. over time i've managed to coax him to eat eggs in other ways than scrambled. in doing so i've added to the my repertoire of egg recipes - we love eggs baked in individual ramekins like the french do, north african style in a shakshouka where they are braised in gently spiced vegetables and changa eggs

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-6926968482413215382011-11-18T23:28:00.001Z2011-11-18T23:49:42.790Z

eat street, kings boulevard n-one-c assertive and meaty portobello mushroom tucked into the folds of a soft steamed bun. cucumber coins and crushed walnuts are added for texture and crunch. deep in the folded crease of the bun is a slick of miso glaze that adds sweetness. i would have liked a laquer of shiracha sauce not only for it's vivid heat but a bright spark of colour too. i missed out

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rosalind's kitchen window rosalind's kitchen's twitter feed would make any food loving person hungry. they've been on my list of places to get breakfast or lunch for a while now. i must confess i haven't been inclined to wake up early and grab breakfast on the go from there, and on most days i sadly lunch at my desk. then one day i got lucky because i was in rosalind's neighbourhood. i really

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nigel's easy shallot chutney with ricotta one of the best things about the year coming to a close is nigel slater's bbc series on cooking. as is nigel's style, his cooking is always simple but this year it had a theme of 'marriage and relationships' between foods, flavours (sweet and sour, soft and crisp) and ideas (weird and wonderful). what i love about nigel is that his recipes aren't

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-3574327506603616242011-11-13T22:42:00.001Z2011-11-15T15:32:31.777Z

cod poached in a spiced coconut milk with basmati and wild rice when it comes to southeast asian cuisine, i much prefer their clear broths. don’t let the clarity and lack of colour fool you, as not only do they pack depth but in most cases an unbridled chili heat. i like how the clear soup with its medley of flavours makes the taste-buds sing and sometimes the eyes water. needless to say o

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dhal with a garnish of coriander and green chillies i don’t know what it is about dhal chawal that comforts so much. it could be its cheerful yellow spruced with fresh coriander. oil warmed with cumin and garlic stirred through it brings a breathe of spice. dhal adjusts to the mood so when i want heat i add thinly sliced green chilli as a garnish. on early winter evenings i like to a squirt

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chili con carne on brown rice with crème fraiche i have always taken love for chili con carne as granted. it is wholesome and comforting food that is very easy to make. but that was before i met o who didn’t really have that kind of affinity for chili con carne. in fact he wasn’t even a fan of minced beef dishes. i am convinced that this is because he didn’t eat keema (pakistani beef mince)

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parathas at thirty-two my phupi (aunt) tells me that the best way to eat a paratha is the way kashmiri's eat it. they  sprinkle it with salt and eat it washed down with a cup of strong yet milky and very sweet tea. i like the contrast of sweet and salty in this combination. i find eating paratha with something more substantial like a fried egg (which the way o likes it) difficult as the

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beat them until they form soft peaks. then add two ounces of sugar per egg white (delia's advice) beat until stiff and glossy. drop casually onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. i had none but the tray was non-stick so i had no trouble. bake at a hundred and forty degrees for around forty minutes. then turn the oven off and let them cool completely (have a look at delia's

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-45147922871510398122011-11-06T19:50:00.003Z2011-11-07T16:39:10.281Z

movember at byron i'm a girl and girl's don't do moustaches (of course there are exceptions to this rule but i am not one of those girls). being moustache-less however, doesn't leave me any less of a mo-sista because my appetite as a lover of food makes me a very effective one at byron. byron has a movember burger on its menu called the gizz-mo, fifty pence from which goes to the charity

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-41166894312264464702011-11-02T00:10:00.004Z2011-11-19T00:13:12.107Z

burrito love at chipotle on baker street the burrito and i became acquaintances on my first trip to chicago in the nineties. it was my cousin z who introduced me to taco bell. i don't remember much about them, perhaps an indication of the fact that they didn't taste that good. but all said and done, it was the nineties, we were teenagers and we thought we were so cool eating taco bell. we

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hardcore prawn, kings boulevard there has been much ado about street-food this year which is nowhere near dissipating. the focus is now on specific locations in central london providing a home for mobile carts, vans and trailers so that more of us can try them out. the eat.st collective at the brand new king’s boulevard is the newest kid on the block. described as a micro-market, eat.st at kx

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truffled egg toast at thirty-two truffled egg toast is gusty and certain of its ability to please.  o and i have to thank russell norman for bringing truffled egg toast to london. we first ate this super-calorific treat at spuntino in soho. it is basically a thick slice of bread whose depressed centre holds two very runny yolks framed by melting fontina cheese. the real pleasure though is

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pesto with toasted almonds  i cannot recall the first time i tried pesto but i am certain that it was made by mama. i took to it instantly. what's not to like about the delicate peppery notes of basil combined with the slight bite of garlic, fruity olive oil and most importantly the rich oiliness of pine-nuts. in pakistan, pine-nuts (called chilgoza's) are often eaten in the winter. shelling

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cream-cheese with pistachio frosted carrot cake  "life is uncertain. eat dessert first" [ulmer] or better still have dessert for dinner as i did this tuesday night.  for those of you who are frowning please be aware that carrots are one of five a day. if you still don't agree then dan lepard (creator of this recipe) will convince you that the ingredients of this cake are good for you - '

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dolly at tann roka and mum-made cake here's something i love about london, how you can come across the best coffee in the most unexpected of places. it's even better when you find good coffee post seven am yoga on a cold friday morning. sandwich & the spoon pops up during the week near chalk farm. st.ali coffee beans and very good gloucestershire milk are what make the coffee at sandwich

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dishoom covent garden this tuesday i skipped my yoga class to do something very fun and special. i went to dishoom for a diwali preview dinner. the evening began with all of us seated in somewhat of a circle near the bar downstairs. a most serene and elegant lady brought to life the story of diwali. well known as the festival of lights, diwali is the shortened version of deepawali which

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 citrus coriander baked fish, baby new potato chili coriander hash i spent this week catching up with nigel slater's simple cooking on bbc one. watching his shows or reading his cookery books always inspire creativity in my kitchen so today, i explored a spicy and cool marriage by putting together a citrus coriander baked fish. o said that the fish had a distinctly thai flavour. i used medium

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a single stemmed yellow rose the carluccio's brunswick has a special significance for o and i as this is where our life as a couple commenced. so it was apt when o said that we should dine there on our third anniversary. on a clear autumn night on what was the twelfth of october i met o at carluccio's at the brunswick for dinner. he presented me with a single long stemmed yellow rose because

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i love courgettes but for some reason i always forget that i bought them. they usually make their presence known when i am doing the next round of grocery in the mistaken belief that i have run out of vegetables. this week i made a lazy roast garlic and courgette soup with my 'a little on the tired side' courgettes.  ingredients 500 grams courgette  three tablespoons of olive oil and a

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coupling bikes at chatsworth road market, e five if autumn were a fragrance it would be a combination of musk and wood fire. it's tone would be a deep amber to imitate the changing colour of leaves. autumn is undoubtedly my favourite season of the year. today was the perfect autumn day and o and i spent it doing what we do best, eating. a quick overground ride led us to chatsworth road market

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my grandmother is polish which is why we call her babcia. strangely we call my grandfather daddy which is what mama calls him. that of course makes sense given that he is her father. i do recollect babcia telling me a couple of times that dziadek is how they say grandfather in polish but daddy stuck and that is what both of us siblings call him. but i digress. when mama was little her mum used

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peanut butter and chocolate chip cookiesjust out of the oven peanut butter and i were lovers at first bite.  we first met out of a skippy jar, the one with the turquoise sticker and turquoise cap. the one that called itself creamy. this particular jar had traveled all the way from the land of uncle sam in a huge carton packed with other fun things, for instance toys that had been neatly

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yalla yalla i and i have never had luck at yalla yalla green's court. our hunger and impatience always gets the better of us. and it doesn't help that there isn't a convenient waiting space. however all that has changed because there is now (in relation to the green's court location) a super size yalla yalla right of oxford street. on the evening that we went the weather was so warm we sat

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it is jay rayner who is responsible for my introduction to omakase. in his review of sushi of shiori in august twenty ten he speaks of omakase as 'a japanese-style tasting menu prepared according to what's best and available'. elsewhere i had read that omakase means to entrust yourself to the chef's choice. at the conclusion of our omakase lunch today, the petite and intent japanese woman who is

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la gelatiera from the outside the morning of the sicilian brioche breakfast turned out to be bright and sunny and really really warm. it was as if the gelato gods had aligned themselves with british weather to give me the perfect excuse to indulge myself. the italians generally indulge their sweet tooth at breakfast. when i was in turin with i we would have biscuits and espresso for breakfast

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no.26 rathbone place i passed by no.114 tottenham court road recently and was instantly taken by the large windows and the decor of the space. i also instantly connected the dots between it and no.26 rathbone place which i had seen on a recent walk through goodge street with o. unfortunately it has taken me a little while to get myself over to tapped and packed, the blame for which falls

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pitstopcafe there is this mobile van on berwick street. if you want an absolute location it is on the corner of where berwick street meets broadwich street. it is on the side of the corner of yauatcha. it is a two person show called pitstop cafe and is run by carol and sing. pitstop cafe is at berwick street market from tuesday to friday but sometimes when life happens carol and sing tweet to

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trishna london in marylebone village o and i dined at trishna london on a unseasonably warm evening.  summer experienced a renaissance at the end of september although the days started in an unmistakable mist that is so quintessentially autumnal in keat’s way. on this friday evening trishna london had thrown open its doors so the eating space merged with the diners sitting on the sidewalk.

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the custom citroen h van i can say easily that some of the best food i have eaten this year has been street-food. i can also say that i have happily followed the trail of street-food and will go in search of it where necessary. a standard weekend favourite for o and i is the real food market at south bank. one of the regular traders crêperie nicolas is one that i've bookmarked for when the

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looks like the theme of this last weekend was bad service because after our rather tumultuous dinner at manchurian legends o and i had a similar experience at brunch the next day. on sunday we took ourselves to boulangerie bon matin for brunch. there had been much to-ing and fro-ing about having brunch in or out as we had a house guest. i had started off with the idea of making pancakes and

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good food is always good. but good food that is well packaged is even better. if there were a category for on-the-run friendly packaging, the little green pie company would win the top award without a doubt. if you live, work or happen to be around goodge street area make sure you give them a visit. the little greek pie company's twitter gives you a list of the pies of the day. on the day

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a little over a decade ago, my family and i had a summer vacation in greece. despite the heat we all loved athens and santorini and more than anything i loved the food. on the ferry from athens to santorini our hearing was assaulted by the loud and persistent cry of a man selling loukoumia, a soft sweet and gelatinous square reminiscent of turkish delight. we bought home boxes of the honey and

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dehesa lb was due in london this weekend and i was looking forward to an evening of wining and dining. the only issue was, i wasn’t sure where we should go to eat. see, lb is a vegequarian (a fusion of a vegetarian and pescatarian). now, it is very easy if you are firmly in one camp i.e. vegetarian or vegan or omnivore because that makes it easy to pick a place to eat. i was not aware of

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it is fairly correct to say that i am likely to try most places that jay rayner recommends (at least those which my pocket can afford). it is also correct to say that i have never been disappointed by his recommendations, and if my dinner experience at manchurian legends hadn’t been as disastrous on saturday evening thanks to service and language barriers i probably would have been able to

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the gelato at la gelatiera is smooth and definitely much creamier than most gelato that i have eaten and there is good reason for that. la gelatiera uses jersey milk from the somerset dairy ivy house farm. monmouth aficionado's would know this milk. it's what gives their milk based coffee's like cafe au lait and flat whites their creamy and rounded edge.  a combination of twitter and

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that the occupants of thirty-two love ottolenghi is no surprise. i am the proud owner of both cookbooks; ottolenghi- the cook book and plenty (which was a birthday present from the hungry husband). i am also a faithful follower of his recipes in saturday's guardian. with autumn increasingly asserting itself in london through the shortening of the days, the change in the tones of sunlight and

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if you want a caffeine fix in brixton village go to federation coffee. there is much to love about federation coffee. the brightly stenciled sign board, the menu that is constructed in a colourful scrabble tile fashion and the flat whites and mocha's themselves. however, there is a slight problem and that is the lady who served us. now i know we all have bad days and i don't expect people to

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i really wanted to like roti chai. to start with, i love the indian touches to a very modern indian canteen. in addition, much thought had been put into the presentation of the food. in customary indian style it is bright and cheerful. the menu looked good too. it's got the customary street foods; bhel puri, papri chaat and samosas. the katori (literally, a small container) with it's kabuli

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-62327612436920738482011-09-17T23:28:00.003+01:002011-09-30T15:59:14.209+01:00

o first ate changa eggs at the providores in marylebone in the early part of twenty-o-nine. a couple of weeks ago he brunched on them at kopapa. kopapa and providores have in common peter gordon and michael mcgarth. gordon is a new zealander and mcgarth (originally british) moved to new zealand. they were both consultants to changa in turkey. this is how changa eggs came to be in london, first

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o and i love spending saturday afternoon with the guardian. that is made even better when i can sit back and relax and have someone else bring forth the food. and i know that o loves being absolved of his 'coffee duty'. this saturday, i chose the very recently opened pistachio&pickle in barnsbury. so we headed there for lunch with the guardian. for booklovers, i left roffey's 'a white woman on

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the latest franchise to be exported from uncle sam's country to london is pinkberry. it started up in golden state making its way across a select number of states in the us. its international presence is as select with shops in peru, the middle east, canada, russia, mexico and now finally the uk. frozen yoghurt is not new to the us. in fact my first ever encounter with frozen yoghurt was in

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you'd be forgiven for believing that there could be a bar behind a worn down and weary grey door with a large splatter of paint on it in chinatown. in fact the combination of a door that looked so sorry for itself along with the fact that we were right in the middle of chinatown meant that i had some serious reservations about z's. plan. however, a love of cocktails and a sense of adventure

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in february this year i did the guardian masterclass on eating your words. a necessary corollary of eating our words was to be eating. after all how would we write about food if we we didn't eat it. now you may be wondering why i am talking about the masterclass when i should be writing about mark's but you'll understand the relationship when i tell you that it was during the eating your words

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vinod patel's indian burrito has finally arrived at a location closer to me. as of thursday september eighth chula fused food will be at covent garden market from eleven to seven pm. az and i have been waiting of the arrival and despite having a rather heavy work load made our way to covent garden on thursday afternoon to get ourselves some fusion burrito's. i must tell you now that we ate

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i was given this really nifty little card from a lovely lady called kb at fourteen ten to try #breakfastmyway at the big chill house near kx. it has taken me a while to get round to using it as when the card first arrived the only breakfast i could face was a hot honey, lemon and ginger thanks to a sore throat that cost me my voice and a weeks worth of sleep. summer is turning a page in london

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in mid august, o and i went to the seaside town of llandudno in wales. i was excited by the prospect that my other half would finally get the chance to eat a welsh rarebit. we had no such luck, not in llandudno and not even in nearby conwy. i thought perhaps asking a local might help but even the chef at the hotel where we had a lovely three course dinner one night said that the rarebit is

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yes, more aritsan gelato. it seems like it will never end, this rage of artisanal gelato parlours that are mushrooming over london. and they all promise the real italian experience. so far, despite having tried a fair few, o and i always find our way back to gelupo. but it seems as if o might have found one other artisan gelato parlour where he'd go only for the pistachio and that is dri dri. i

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jay rayner is right when he says it is the cauliflower ming style that will convert you to the way of yming. the menu says it is crunchy, delicate and savoury. it is all of those and a little more. it tastes deceptively of a deep chicken broth and you'd be hard pressed to believe it was cauliflower had it not been for the distinct texture of the florets. aside from the savoury there is a

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the world and its aunt has been to chin chin laboratorists, europe’s first nitro ice-cream parlour. and much has been said about its lab like set-up. to be sure there are beakers, white coats and goggle type glasses and large canisters of liquid nitrogen. it seems to me that over the last few years the food industry has developed a love for combining food and theatre. so much so that blow

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i come from a family that likes to cook as much as it likes to eat. my memory is populated by images of tastes, smells and textures. i still remember the first time i tried hummus. it was in our race course road house and i remember i ran a fork through the creamy slate-yellow coloured paste stored in what was previously a square tub of soft-scoop ice-cream. i took an instant liking to the

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chowpatty beach in bombay is synonymous with snacking and strolling. to celebrate the spirit of beach, sunshine and pleasure dishoom has popped-up on the shores of south banks make-shift faux beach. it is a more than  appropriate addition to the festival of britain which is in its sixtieth year of  ‘present[ing] to the world and its own people a modern Britain’ [taken from the national

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friday turned out to the perfect day to eat lots of ice-cream. and that's not just because it was  sunny and warm, but because o has recently been through a new fangled laser tonsillectomy which justifies his consumption of ice-cream in copious quantities. as we know there is no shortage of cold summer treats in the form of sorbets and gelato around london. in fact london seems to be so

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i love exmouth market at lunch time. there is so much to choose from. it'll cater for the most fussy of food eaters as well. on my last visit there i felt like eating something  along the lines of curry. something with bold flavours and spices like cumin and coriander. after roaming around i settled on gujarati rasoi which is a vegetarian stall offering traditional home-cooked indian cuisine.

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i love that in london you can have fast-food that is healthy. and no that isn't an oxymoron, i really mean it. i love leon's wraps especially the sweet potato falafel ones. i particularly envy all those people who work near exmouth market as there are so many options both for veggies and carnivores. but now there is a new option and it's location is convenient for lunch breaks and snacks

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i've already reviewed mooli's but felt i needed to write more about mooli's. here's why. i had my most perfect bowl of dhal. mooli's calls it wholesome dhal. it is nothing but a large bowl of yellow dhal (it's a mix of masoor and channa dhal) with some curry leaf. you can have it with or without roti. i prefer mine with roti as it makes a full meal. as mooli's says, it is real soul-food. o's

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i spent an afternoon with a walking around bricklane and spitalfields. the more i visit this end of london the more i fall in love with its quirky character. in particular i love the street art and the changes in personality of the space as you walk through spitalfields to bricklane. we had lunch at nude espresso that afternoon. a had not tried a flat white so i figured that she must try one.

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one of the pakistani dishes that i miss most in london is 'keema' (mince meat). the keema dishes at pakistani restaurants in london are always made of lamb mince. however, for me keema has always been good quality beef mince in which the ground is not too coarse but not too fine either. that always works out to be a challenge and i suppose what i really need to do is get beef mince from

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for a city that has a capricious summer that recedes far quicker than on continental europe, london has a lot of gelato, ice-cream parlours and frozen yoghurt places. luckily, we've had a prolonged spell of summer sunshine these last two weeks so o and i have been on a gelato eating spree. of course we've been back to gelupo consistently. i am loving the new saffron vanilla that they are serving

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o's first time in brixton was to eat honest burgers. i couldn't think of a more worthy reason for his first visit. another equally worthy reason would be if we were wanting pizza as brixton is also home to franco manca. for a first timer he's definitely better at getting around brixton because i had us going around in circles through market row. it was when we both got soaked because the clouds

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i love one pot suppers, especially when i am cooking on the weekend. for dinner tonight i cooked a saffron haddock pilaf inspired partly by kedgeree and partly by simon hopkinson's smoked haddock pilaf from his bbc series the good cook. i love watching his programme because like nigel slater his food is simple and his show is about 'real' food. when it comes to cookery shows there are those

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it's been a long time since the fourth of july burgermonday, in fact a month tomorrow. so yes, i know this is terribly late but i couldn't not write about it. burgermonday is the shape of daniel young's mission to seek out the best burgers and bring together some serious burger aficionados and food lovers. the fourth of july (celebrating the independence day of the land of uncle sam) took place

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i made my reservation for lunch at the roganic as soon as they were ready to take reservations. in fact, because its opening ran behind schedule, my initial reservation had to be changed as it clashed with my work trip to sydney. the day of our lunch arrived and it turned out to be a beautiful hot summer day. roganic's location in marylebone village means that once you leave baker street

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i sometimes wonder whether i bake cake because i am craving batter or whether i am really craving cake. these days i also often find myself baking cake when the butter or some other lone ingredient is in danger of perishing without use. this weekend however i got particularly lucky as we had a house guest which justified having cake, butter that was perilously close to its use by date as

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there is nothing i love more than a relaxed dinner which to me involves a nice bottle of wine, good company and most of all the willingness to share. our sunday night excursion to fish at the rocks in sydney (two colleagues and i) turned out to be exactly that. we figured it would be worth treating ourselves to a relaxed dinner before the kick-off of the commonwealth law ministers meeting which

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com0Sydney NSW, Australia-33.8689009 151.20709139999997-34.2412264 150.78688789999995 -33.4965754 151.62729489999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-83520709014777708322011-07-19T22:19:00.003+01:002011-09-21T16:57:52.261+01:00

 on thursday fourteenth july the legal division wrapped up our flagship ministerial meeting. the team had been working on this meeting since last year and it was a great relief when it was done and done well. after a team drinks at the sir stamford hotel some of us went off to dinner. the concierge at the intercontinental had recommended a japanese restaurant called masuya.masuya is in the

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on my last day in sydney i had a whirlwind tour of the city which ended at the lord nelson brewery hotel in the rocks. the rocks is one of the oldest parts of sydney. it was here that the first fleet of convicts arrived with captain arthur phillip. the gentrification of the area sometimes makes it hard to imagine what it’s history was like. however, in the little alleys there are steel cut

COME · CON · ELLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16999746775608407822noreply@blogger.com0Sydney NSW, Australia-33.8689009 151.20709139999997-34.2412264 150.78688789999995 -33.4965754 151.62729489999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7997983496060865493.post-36768371116484145062011-07-19T20:01:00.005+01:002011-09-30T16:07:20.688+01:00

ash’s table has as its view the point where the sea meets the sky. on this rainy day on manly beach the lines of blue had blurred into oneness and a silver sheen sat on the ocean. a reflection of grey angry skies. we were lucky to have found ourselves a place to breakfast just before the rain came down. and the plastic shield on the front of the cafe/restaurant was a welcome buffer. 

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sparkling wine after a 12+ hour day, a recent twenty-four hour journey and a +10 hours time difference is not a wise thing. but all that wisdom flies out of the window when you are in good company, surroundings and a really laid-back city. it’s also when you learn the ramifications of opening times that read 11am to late.  establishment bar features on the world’sbestbars. and it is the

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shochu lounge's neon sign is at odds with it's dim interior and dark mahogany tones. as its name suggests it is a lounge type bar with low comfortable sofas. o had picked roka for my birthday dinner and we both agreed it would be better to reserve at shochu because then we'd get the best of both worlds - cocktails and food.  the cocktails were worth it, fruity but not too sweet with lovely

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o and i love gardens. i had been counting on a sunny day to take him to the chelsea physic garden. sunday twenty sixth june saw the mercury at a real high in london and turned out to be the perfect day to go. founded in the sixteen hundred's the chelsea physic garden was an apothecaries garden and was meant to train apprentices in identifying plants and continued to be just that until the

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pop-ups and food-trucks are the most ubiquitous face of london in the last couple of months. i've lost track of things that are popping-up be it food and now even arts and crafts. the dishoom chowpatty beach bar on southbank is around till october and is complimented by a faux beach that runs along the concrete rimmed edge of southbank. it's a celebration of colour and brightness and on a

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street food is it. sure london has it's fair share of fine dining establishments but sometimes you want that no fuss relaxed experience sans the negotiations of multiple forks and knives and white napkins. i've had pitt cue co. on my list of food trucks to eat at and i figured my birthday was the best day to treat myself. pitt cue co. is a silver van with a few tables and small yellow stools.

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