The Swan – Sunday Roast!

Before our 2nd lockdown, for my birthday treat last month, my husband took me The Swan for a traditional Sunday Roast. It was a beautiful day as the sun was shining and our table was by the riverside so it felt quite romantic even at lunchtime. My brother in law and niece kindly offered to babysit the boys for us so that we can grab a nice birthday lunch.

I swear, you can’t beat a Sunday Roast in a traditional pub! The restaurant was spaced out and we had a view looking over the river, the staff was very friendly and it felt COVID-Safe. But more importantly, the food was amazing and the portions was huge! I was so stuffed!! I opted for the roast beef and this came with a huge yorkshire pudding, green vegetables, cauliflower cheese, parsnips, red cabbage, roast potatoes and gravy. Normally, we would share our yorkshire puddings with the boys so for the first time, we didn’t have to share with them!!

Even though we were so stuffed with our mains, we still wanted a pudding!! We went for the passion fruit macaron with coconut ice cream, preserved raspberries and toasted granola! Luckily, the dessert was a reasonable size so that we can share! It felt quite refreshing after a heavy mains! Needlessly to say we didn’t eat anything for dinner and the next day, I went for a 10k run to work it off!!! 🙂

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Breakfast Club

For my birthday weekend last month, we went to Oxford and had our lunch at The Breakfast Club. I have always wanted to go there as i hear about it from my friends but there always a long que. Unfortunately, they didn’t take bookings over the weekends but we thought we would go early and take our chances as i think it was the weekend when the ‘Rule of 6’ was implemented.

The restaurant was really busy inside and we were lucky that we only had to wait 20 minutes for our table to be ready so we were really pleased!! 🙂

We went for the classic breakfasts and the boys had their pancakes!! Even though the boys are most of my breakfast! They wanted my fried toast, hash brown, bacon and my eggs! Luckily, they didn’t want the sausages! The portions weren’t as big so we did end up eating everything!!

Although, I must admit that I still think IHOP are the best pancakes! It is such a shame that they don’t have a branch here in the UK!!

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Post COVID-19 Lockdown First Meals!

COVID-19 lockdown began for us in mid March and pubs and restaurants were only allowed to open on the 4th July. Since then, we are able to order take aways that is if they are still opened for business! I think we have ordered Chinese food, pizza and Fish and Chips!

It was only in August, that we ordered our very 1st McDonald’s and when u haven’t had it for such a long time, our family quickly devoured it within 15 minutes including the boys!! Lol! 🙂

Our 1st sitting down meal was in Oxford Westgate shopping centre, in the Social Street Food area. It is like a food hall and we had a look at it before going in and the tables were spaced out and there was alot of room. It wasn’t busy so we managed to find a table away from other people. We had a mix matched of everything, me and Dee had mac and cheese, Gray had boiled rice and noodles and Dan had a taco bowl!

Also, we had our 1st fry up breakfast and Sunday Roast!! Gosh when u haven’t had it for such a long time, it taste so delicious for something so simple. It is always a different taste when eat them at a restaurant than when you cook yourself!

Now with our 2nd tier restrictions coming into force this weekend, I am going to enjoy my bday food celebrations whilst we still can!!!

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Sweet Chick Restaurant

Before the whole COVID 19 broke out last month I was able to get together with my friends for a meal to catch up.

One of my friend recommended ‘Sweet Chick‘ as they offer vegetarian dishes and halal. The decor in the restaurant was really nice, we were lucky to have a booth as it was more spacious. Although, we did find the music was playing really loud so it was quite hard to hear each other.

It is famous for their fried chicken and waffles and their menu comes from Brooklyn. I thought it was a really strange combination but it works! Me and friends ordered some mac and cheese and biscuits which is like scones to share between the 3 of us. The biscuits was delicious, it was still nice and warm when served, hard on the outside but fluffy on the inside. Already the portions looked quite generous for starters so I dread to think what the main meals were like!!

The mains were massive!! In the end, I ate 1 chicken and 1 waffle. I had to take the rest home and so did my friends with their food as we were stuffed!! I just heated it up in the oven the next day for the boy’s lunch!!

 

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Valentine Date Night!

We didn’t go out for dinner on Valentine’s day last week, as it’s so expensive and you always have to choose the set menu so you don’t get a real choice. I just cooked dinner at home and my mum joined us as she was staying over to babysit the boys so that we can go out on the Saturday evening.

We heard that Sara Bareilles is in town for 6 weeks appearing in her musical show that she wrote the lyrics for – Waitress. We are big fans of hers and decided to book the show for the 16th Feb to see her performing. I would highly recommend this show as it was so funny and touching at the same time. We were just laughing all the time as the characters was so amusing and playful and talented. Sara Bareilles was amazing to watch, it felt like a mini concert!

Before the show, we ate at ‘On the Bab‘ in Covent Garden, it is a Korean street food restaurant and takeaway. Normally, this place has long ques outside and we were very lucky to get a seat as soon as we entered as this place is very popular. Quite tiny inside but they made good use of their space as they had counter seats and bar tables against the window for people to sit.

We ordered the following and gosh the food was delicious and so flavoursome! I was so stuffed afterwards as the portions were very generous!

Octopus and prawn salad – this was the most tastiest dish and felt very fresh to eat with a big of spicyness. This dish reminded me of a chinese dish with the jellyfish, pickles and cucumbers that you normally had a wedding banquets or at special dinners.

Bibimbab – A popular dish to order! It is normally served in a hot stone pot but this time it was in a metal bowl. My husband ordered the bulgogi beef and it was a huge portion!

On the Buns – I had the bulgogi beef in the buns with salad. I thought it would be a small portion as they give you two. The buns were nice and soft and there so much meat packed inside, I actually had to take some out! The beef was juicy and sweet!

Of course, going to a Korean restaurant, we had to order the ‘Korean Fried Chicken’ which is coated in crispy batter with sesame seeds, we had the soy ginger sauce!

I would definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone who wants to try Korean food as the dishes was so yummy but best get there early to avoid the long ques! It is best to go there with friends so you can share the different dishes and they were such generous portions!

NOPI Restaurant

Last week it was my friend’s birthday and she has chosen a restaurant called NOPI in Soho which specalises Ottolenghi trademarks. Yotam Assaf Ottolenghi is an Israeli-English chef, restaurateur, and food writer. He is the co-owner of six delis and restaurants in London, as well as the author of several bestselling cookbooks, including Ottolenghi, Plenty, Jerusalem and SIMPLE.

To tell you a funny story, I actually went to the wrong restaurant as i misread the link on my phone! So from being very early at the restaurant, I ended up being 15 minutes late and bumping into the birthday girl on the way to the restaurant!

I was very excited with this menu as I have not explored this cuisine before. My friend is a vegetarian so she ordered the Valdeón cheesecake and Parmesan polenta chips. It was very tasty although I didn’t like Valdeón cheesecake as it reminded me of goats cheese and i don’t particularly like that taste. The Parmesan polenta chips was delicious and very crunchy!

My other friend and I ordered the following to share as it was recommended by the waitress to share 3 small plates each:
Roasted aubergine, taramid yoghurt, preserved lemons and cashews
King prawns, rad prik, stir-fried turnip tops
Mutton shawarma, pickled quince, yoghurt, flatbread
Crispy saddleback pork belly, kimchi, pink grapefruit, black bean sauce
Spiced buttermilk Skrei cod, urid dhal, cavolo nero Cauliflower and green bean fritters, amba, coconut tahin

The food was very delicious and tasty with lots of flavours! I must admit that when I ordered my dishes, I don’t even know what some of the ingredients were and had to look it up quickly my phone! :). At the end of our meal, we were too stuffed for desserts but my friend ordered cookies and milk as her bday dessert treat! I tried one one of the cookies and they were still hot when being served and you can taste the chocolate melting! Very moorish!

This is a great place if you want to share your food like tapas style whilst catching up with your friends!

Hot chocolate in Harrow

The chocolate room

We went to Harrow last weekend and I came across a shop called ‘The chocolate room’. We needed somewhere to have a drink and also where Dee can have his mid morning snacks and this seemed the perfect place!

We were amazed by the variety of hot chocolates available. Unfortunately they ran out of coconut and hazelnuts but the staff told me ‘gianduia’ is the best one to have as I wanted to drink something nutty. Dan ordered a double macchiato and a coconut and raspberry slice. We also bought a chocolate that looks like a cake to take away, it looked really cute and was hard to resist!

My hot chocolate tasted amazing!!! I would definitely recommend going there again!!!

Our Brighton trip!

Our clothes was in the rucksack, the rest belongs to Dee!

After the christening, i booked a weekend trip to Brighton! As it was our first time away with Dee, I think i went slightly over the top with the packing as most of the stuff belonged to him rather than us!

In Brighton, we ate mostly take outs on the floor as most of the eating places closed quite early and we didn’t want to go out too late at night! Our room didn’t have a table so we ate on the floor!! We found that there were alot of mexican places to eat so i think it is very popular in Brighton!

Typical fish and chips!

For our first day, we had a typical fish and chips from Harry Ramsden and for the first time, we managed to finish all our dinner without having to hold Dee as he slept!!! Here are some of the foods that we had during our trip!

 

 

Fishcake and Chips

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pancakes from ‘World of Crepes’ on the Brighton Pier

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our take out from ‘Tortillia’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love bubble drinks from ‘Chatime’!

Tea and Scones from ‘Stanmer House’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Korean take out from ‘Namul’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cupcake Desserts from ‘Celebrate with a Cake’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last night, we ate at ‘Giraffe’, I had the noodles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dan’s meal but we thought the portion was quite small when compared to mine!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Needed a cheesecake to fill us up!

 

One bubble drink from ‘Pearls’ for the road home!

Birthday Day Out!!! :)

Bday Cupcake from my Hubby! 🙂

On my Birthday, my hubby took me to a lovely steak place in Chiswick called Buenos Aires. The food was amazing and the portions were really good, we went for the lunch menu and it was £12.50 for 2 courses which is a bargain! 🙂

My steak had to be well done as I am pregnant at the moment! And, I was really impressed because the steak was still nice and juicy and tender! 🙂 Dan ordered a steak salad and it was a massive portion! 🙂

If you are in Chiswick and you like Argentinian steak, then this is the place to go!! 🙂

Buenos Aires

Starters!

Steak Salad for Dan!

My lovely yummy steak!

 

 

 

Dim Sum Date Night!

Shanghai Blues

I saw a ‘Dim sum making class’ on Wowcher and I thought it was a really good deal because it was 50% off (normally cost £68) and you get to have a two course meal with a glass of wine for £34! Bargain! 🙂 I decided that this was the perfect opportunity for me and my hubby to go on a date night! Although, he was slightly concerned that you had to make the ‘dim sum’ as he is not keen in baking or making desserts etc but was pleased to hear that you get to have dinner and wine!!! 🙂

In case you are not familiar with the term ‘Dim Sum’, it means bite-size food served steamed or on small plates and you share this with your family or friends. We called this ‘Yum-Cha’ as normally, you would have Chinese tea with your food. In some ways, it is like ‘Tapas’ as you many different starters!!! 🙂 The most popular day to go Yum-Cha is on a Sunday, in China Town, it is normally packed with Chinese families enjoying their family day! 🙂

Class room

The Dim sum lesson took place at Shanghai Blues Restaurant in Holborn in a beautiful Grade II listed building. It was beautifully decorated inside looking traditional but still very modern. We were led into a room and it had different fillings on the table such as: prawns, scallops & mixed vegetables.

Chef demonstrating making the dim sum to the class

I was really unsure how they were going to teach us because there were so many people in the room ( 25 – 30 people)!!! The chef rolled out the skins for us and demonstrated the different types of dim sum and then we all had a go at it ourselves! The chef made it looks so simple, we were all struggling with trying to remember how you fold it with your hands and what it is meant to look like.

Our beautiful dim sum! 🙂

Dan was pretty good at the green triangle one!! 🙂 The Har Kau was the hardest one, ours just looked like won tons or fat dumplings!! It was a lot of fun but I was slightly disappointed that we weren’t given a recipe card to take home as this is pretty specialised! After the class which lasted about 90 minutes, we got to eat our two course meal and this also included the dim sum that we made which tasted delicious!!! 🙂 Dinner was lovely, my hubby enjoyed his 2 x glasses of wine!!! 🙂 It was a wonderful evening and had fabulous time, something different!!! 🙂

Dan made this one!! I was very impressed! 🙂

This is meant to look like a scallop shape…

This was meant to be the Har Kau (Shrimp Dumpling), it was difficult to shape!!!