Barista course at London School of Coffee

I first heard about the London School of Coffee from my good friend Won a few years ago - we had both just finished our pastry course at Ferrandi and respective stages in Paris. He stayed in Europe for a few months extra to attend some courses at LSC before heading home. I have never been a big coffee drinker myself but am acutely aware that there are many people out there who are. I therefore decided to enroll on a course at LSC in order to educate myself on all things coffee.

The course I took was a 3-day VRQ City & Guilds Barista qualification. Courses are limited to 6 people per class due to the size of the classroom but it also means that there is great access to the trainer and enables each student to have plenty of time on the coffee machines for practical work. The course is pretty intensive and covers a lot of ground: Coffee (everything from how it is harvested to roasting to cupping of filter coffee), espresso (from coffee beans to milk foaming), tea, chocolate and blended drinks. Our trainer was a guy called Ben Townsend who is also the owner of The Espresso Room, an independent cafe on Great Ormond Street in Bloomsbury. It was great to have a trainer who was an experienced barista training us. The thing that really made the course for me was all the anecdotes that peppered our 3-days about the coffee scene in London, who the key players were and the trials and tribulations of opening up a business - it really did give me a great insight into the independent cafe scene. I was also really taken aback at how open the coffee community is; the norm is to share information freely with others which felt really refreshing.

All in all, I really enjoyed the course and met some interesting people to boot. My knowledge of coffee has vastly improved, I feel like I have just learnt how to speak a whole new language and am confident on what to look for going forward, be it coffee beans, equipment, etc....a very worthwhile course :)

Our "classroom"

Coffee grinder plus remnants of our cupping session

 Mini roaster

My 1st attempt at a latte :)

 Lunch!

Friday dinner - Moo Grill

Buoyed on by a craving for steak (and reminiscing about our Argentina hollier), I've been looking around the net for any new Argentinian/steak restos in London to try and came across a relatively newcomer in the City, Moo Grill. Another blogger had raved about the lomitos (steak sandwich) so I was tempted to head over and try one for a late lunch. In the end, I hung on and met JD for dinner instead so the lomito will have to be sampled another day :)

I had rung earlier to make a booking just in case, I wasn't sure whether this was necessary but on arrival, was glad I did cos the place is tiny!! We were greeted with a loud "Amigos!!" and a big smile by our waiter which set the tone for the evening. The resto had a great atmosphere and every customer who arrived was greeted as though they were part of the Moo family - very infectious and definitely brings a smile to your face :)

We started off with empanadas (and the now regular Quilmes for me!) which I had read about being particularly yummy so shared a greedy 4 of them between us: ham and cheese (2 of these bad boys), beef (my fav) and sweetcorn and pepper. They were indeed delicious - if I was really nitpicking, I prefer my empanadas baked rather than deep fried but that wasn't the end of the world :)

Shortly after, our mains arrived......steak and chips accompanied with a couple of salads. The steak was cooked pretty good but could've done with a bit more seasoning. Even though we were stuffed, we still managed to make room and try some desserts, alfajorcitos (had been secretly looking forward to these ever since I spotted them on the menu!) and flan for JD. Again, they weren't bad but did not match the Havanna alfajores we had in BA all those years ago.....

Despite the food not being 100%, we had a great evening and it was really down to our waiter being so cheery and making us smile/laugh ("Perfecto" after every sentence, slagging off JD for not drinking and confessing to having a sly one himself at the beginning of the day, telling us that their coffee was the best in this room but not in the area cos there's a good Italian around the corner!!) There's a lot to be said about good service which isn't exactly found in abundance in London.....will definitely be back for a re-visit in the future. 

Ciao amigos!! :) 

情人節快樂! :)

Cream is optional but oh so scrummy! :)

Quick lunch - Baozi Inn

 Need something to warm you up from the cold weather? Suggestion = bowl of 擔擔麵 (dan dan mian). Noodles served with chilli minced pork - hit the spot nicely but it was so cold that I had to keep my coat on in the resto!!!

Weekend nosh - The Mitre

Since the weather has been bloody Baltic of late, we decided to try and stay local when deciding where to get some grub this weekend.  We had passed by The Mitre a few times on our way up to Portobello Road and always thought that it looked a nice pub and that we should pop in there for a bite to eat so that's exactly where we headed on a cold Saturday evening.

Inside, it is a very good-looking pub, sectioned off into drinking and restaurant section. Service was very attentive at the beginning but slipped a little as the resto started to get a little busy. Food was not bad - we had a shared platter, 2 mains, 1 pudding, 2 minerals, a glass of wine and 2 coffees and the bill came to around 80 squid which probably reflects our Notting  Hillbilly surroundings :)

 Starter of Mitre hog platter: ribs, pork belly, black pudding, ham hock rilletes, crackling and red cabbage. Great concept of a dish but a little poor in execution. Both the accompanying bread and ribs were on the wrong side of  "burnt". JD wasn't a fan of the cabbage due to the spicing - I thought it was OK but did not appreciate cracking into various cloves, etc.... would've been very easy for someone to fish those prior to serving.

 My main of rack of lamb cutlets, lamb shoulder ravioli with carrot puree and Madeira jus. Nicely cooked meat but the carrot was oversweet so it felt like I was having dessert with my main :(

 JD's rib eye with chips and peppercorn sauce - not bad but too much charring.

 Sticky toffee pudding

Edinburgh dining - Ondine

Despite our trip to Edinburgh being short and sweet, we did manage to squeeze one wee meal in town. After a bit of perusing on the List website (Scottish equivalent of Time Out), we plumped for swish seafood resto in the Old Town, Ondine. Most of the reviews I had read seemed positive and apparently, it was the place where the movers and shakers entertained clients and the like.....was a little worried then that maybe I was a bit underdressed for the occasion but service was friendly, phew! :)

The food overall was pretty good but portions were a little on the small side. Whilst my main of langoustines were lovely and quite reasonable at £21, I was more than a bit miffed to pay 3 squid for literally 10 chips!! Desserts promised a lot but disappointed, my beignets looked tempting upon arrival but it was as if someone had forgotten to add the sugar to the batter and it all tasted of bland deep fried eggy mess. I was also commenting to JD on how they were a little stingy with the chocolate sauce for my beignets and miraculously, a waiter appeared by my side with an extra little jug of sauce. I was little embarrassed but grateful for the extra sauce but sadly, it didn't make the beignets any better, oh wellos....

 Bar in the middle of the resto

 Starter of squid tempura with Vietnamese dipping sauce - tasty!

 Grilled langoustine with garlic butter - yum!!

Eggy tasteless mess, aka. beignets

Loving the teapot :)

Falko Konditormeister

Despite an ongoing travel ban at work, JD was summoned up to Edinburgh for a workshop this week for a few days so I decided to tag along and use the trip as a chance to catch up with some old school mates.

I had arranged to pop over to my friend S's house on a wintry morning and didn't want to turn up with "兩梳蕉" (lit. 2 bunches of bananas in Cantonese. The bananas are in reference to your hands, ie. emptyhanded!) so I popped into a bakery in her neighbourhood to pick up some cake. I didn't realise until I was in the shop that Falko was the same bakery that was featured in one of the episodes of Rachel Allen's enormously popular Bake programme. At the time of filming, there was only 1 bakery based in Gullane and the programme centred around the making of Baumkuchen. I did ask the lady who was serving me about it but they didn't have any available at the moment and also told me that it was very much a Christmas speciality. The bakery doubles up as a shop and cafe and had a lovely cosy, old school feel to it - if I had a bit more time in the city, I would've definitely headed back for some coffee and cake :)

After much pondering at the cake display, I finally settled for some plum cake, black forest gateau, choux layer cake and a decadent looking chocolate and peanut slice. S's wee lads tucked into the choc/peanut slice combo and gave it the seal of approval! Cool place for a pit stop if you ever happen to find yourself around Bruntsfield/Morningside :)

 My choices were top shelf (middle) = plum cake, middle shelf (middle) = peanut and chocolate slice, bottom shelf = choux layer cake and black forest gateau :)