Wafflemeister...

If you need a sweet hit, any time night or day, then Wafflemeister's the place to go. With stores in South Kensington and Embankment, these sugary havens are open 24/7 serving the best doughy delights on the market.

All these handmade Belgian waffles are made fresh in house and come with an array of delumptious toppings and fro yo or gelato on the side...

So whether it's for a breakfast treat or drunken munchie at 4 am, go treat yourself to one of these bad boys.

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I love Yotam

Today has been like my Birthday and Christmas all rolled into one!! Yotam Ottolenghi's new recipe book arrived! WOHOO!

Wowsers... It's going to keep me one busy little cook. AMAZING! Go grab a copy and find yourself in foodie heaven. The recipes and pictures are beautiful. Will blog about some of this scrumptiousness after this weekend's cook-a-thon.

:)

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Love a bit of Nige...

Nigel Slater is not only a fantastic cook, but he also has a beautiful a website.

Browse and drool....

http://www.nigelslater.com/

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Pizza East

So last night I FINALLY went to Pizza East. I've been gagging to go since it opened, and as it's just around the corner from work I can almost hear the pizzas calling me... It's running into its sixth month and this place has been an instant hit. We turned up at 7.30 and the place was rammed to the rafters, and its not a small either.

The interior is lovely. Very organic and rustic with distressed wood, exposed brick work and low hanging big spot lights. The atmosphere was buzzing, full of good energy. 

We were seated at a great table by the window where we had the last of the sun shining on us. It was a beautiful evening, I was with great friends, and I was super excited about my pizza! The waiter brought over a generous carafes of red wine and we were good to go.

One of our diners has frequented Pizza East rather a lot and also happens to be a rather fabulous food connoisseur. We wanted to share some starters so we left the choosing up to him. He came up trumps. We had a delicious platter of San Daniele Ham and Bresaola with a ball of the creamiest mozzarella I have ever eaten (not for the cholesterol conscious). It was AMAZING! So tasty and fresh. Mmmm.

To accompany this we had some fried whitebait with lemon and some fried chicken livers in a cheesey sauce. Yummy. But the mozzarella won hands down.

Now on to the Pizzas.... I thought that for the sake of the blog I had to try something a little bit more adventurous than my autopilot Parma ham and rocket. So... I opted for Smoked salmon with tomato, ricota and capers. I like all of the ingredients and thought that smoked salmon on pizza could be an unexpected winner.

So when it arrived and I took my first mouthful I REALLY wanted to love it... but I have to say, it just didn't do it for me. I always associate smoked salmon with being cold, and it was just weird having it luke warm on a pizza. The textures and food combo didn't work, and I looked on with envy at my fellow diners' more conventional choices. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't that good either. And as a girl who loves her pizza I was disappointed with my choice... :(

However, I must say, that the dough was really good. But the crust was about 2 inches deep, and we could have all done with topping on that space. After a couple of swapsies I got to try some other toppings. The Spicy sausage with mozzarella, sprouting broccoli and garlic was great. Having a good bit of green on there makes you feel like you're being that little bit healthier. The Speck, tomato, mozzarella and rocket was good too. But not mind blowing.

The pudding menu arrived, and my gorgeous friend Amy who lived in Argentina spotted Hot cinnammon sugar doughnuts with Varhona chocolate which reminded her of churros in BA, so we just had to get them! These (along with the mozzarella!) were a highlight of the meal. The doughnuts were SO light and the chocolate was wonderfully runny and rich; a great mixture of flavour and texture, and the bitterness of the chocolate meant they weren't too sweet. The plate was huge too! Lots to share round. 

So my general consensus on Pizza East is that it's more about the location, atmosphere and people watching rather than amazing pizza. I get what they're trying to do with the unusual topping combinations, and I think it's a bit fun and different, but there's a reason why the Pizza canon of Margheritas, Four Seasons and La Reines exists. The oldies are the best.

Pizza East is the perfect place to go with a group of friends for a fun evening, to fill your tum with some hearty food before you hit the Shoreditch bars. Just don't come expecting Pizza that's out of this world. I am still on that quest - so please leave any recommendations below!

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Food machismo

Do you have a penchant for live animals, eye balls and brain? Well lucky you. This gastro craze is set to come to London fresh from the US of A.

Yuk. I won't see you there.

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Come Dine With Me Homemade Competition

Channel 4's Come Dine With Me's competitive edge has taken a social media turn... 


The show is offering foodie's the chance to win £1,000 to spend at Very.co.uk. All you need to do is upload photos of your dinner party to facebook, and then create a slideshow on the Come Dine With Me Homemade site. You can add comments, soundtracks, and (this is the best bit) sound bites from the show's hilarious commentator David Lamb!! Awesome! 


The competition will close at midnight on 30/06/10 when a panel of judges at Channel 4 will choose the winning slideshow.


So now you have a new fun game to play at your next dinner party. How crazy can you get?! The only prescription is no naughty pictures (behave). 


Click HERE to enter.


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Moro

So, the indulgent supper club met again this week. It had been a long time coming. We were all hungry for another treat. This time we went to Moro; a Moorish restaurant on lovely Exmouth Market in Islington.

It was a gorgeous hot evening, and I felt like I was walking down a Parisian street. People were sitting outside on little tables, sipping their rosé and soaking up the joie de vivre. Moro has concertina windows so that the whole restaurant opens and has tables spilling out on to the street. You honestly feel like you're abroad, and it wasn't just the weather.

As you can see from the picture above, the interior is sleek, understated and cool. The room is quite lofty and there's lovely sense of space. Chitter chatter fills the air, and it isn't too noisy because the ceiling is so high. There's an open kitchen at the back which is alive with culinary magic. They have a wood burning oven, and a charcoal grill to make their home made delicacies. The smell is amazing!

So, onto the food... The menu changes on a weekly basis, with ingredients sourced from the best suppliers all over the UK. The cuisine is called 'the marriage of saffron and cinnamon' with its roots in Spain and the Muslim Mediterranean. The menu is so mouth-watering-ly amazing that it makes you want to go there everyday and try something different each time. Everything on it sounds sooo good. Such unusual and good combinations of ingredients which sound good for you. Wholesome indulgence. They also do tapas at the bar, and this is super popular.

After much deliberation, we picked our starters. We shared some Pan fried lamb's sweetbreads with braised peas, sweet herbs and seasoned yoghurt (home made of course!). This was really yummy! I'd never had sweetbreads before and they were meatier than I thought they'd be.

We also had a Raw broad bean salad with salt cod, olive oil and lemon. This was ok, and not surprisingly, very salty! It tasted very fresh and was sort of a palette cleanser. So we felt set up for round 2. And wow was it good. All the plates were beautifully presented (I can't believe I forgot photos!!) and so colourful. I think the aesthetics adds SO much to a dish, and Moro have perfected it.

Cordelia had the Wood roasted pork with patatas alinadas. Now pork is the one thing I NEVER order. I always find it a disappointment, but... this was really yummy. A very generous portion (as with all the plates), big cuts of meat and lots of scrummy potatoes.

Pemmy had the Charcoal grilled lamb with chopped salad, pomegranate molasses and farika. On paper this sounded like the best one! Such an exotic mixture. And it was delicious too! The lamb was cooked perfectly, and the pomegranate was a fantastic addition to the dish. It was the right balance of extra flavour and freshness.

But for once, my choice was the best! hehe! I had the Seared sea trout with spring vegetables, lentils and rosemary manteca. Mmmm.... The flavours were insane. First of all you got the seared sea trout which tasted as if it had been caught that morning. Then the lentils and rosemary kicked in which rounded off each mouthful perfectly. Scrummy. I could have had it twice over.

Now, as there's always room for pudd (and because I have a weakness for ice cream), we shared the Caramel and Seville orange marmalade ice cream. Sadly, this was the down point of the meal. I was a little disappointed. It wasn't orangey enough at all, and tasted more of burnt caramel. But I love the idea of it. Maybe I just got a bad scoop!

But all in all I LOVE Moro. The menu is amazing, I could honestly eat everything on it (even the pork!). The quality of the ingredients and food combination are superb. And all the dishes are beautiful; combining colour, culture and taste. It's a fantastic restaurant with a wonderful atmosphere that puts you in a great mood for the rest of the evening.

This Moorish is more-ish.

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Bar dining

Urban Junkies' brilliant Eat & Drink section has hit the nail on the head with London's trend of bar dining. See this article below for fancy ideas of where to dine at a bar...

Urban Junkies - Restaurant Radar

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p.s - I can recommend Polpo!