Sunday Roast

After reading an article in the papers about a certain actor making a decent roast, I was inspired to push the boat out on Sunday and treat ourselves to a roast too - it was also an excuse to make use of the funky Mjölk jug which JD bought when we were in Stockholm for some tasty gravy! Bon app :)

Poulet rôti (pas agneau!!) pour nous :)

 

Accompanying veggies

 Mjölk - oops, I meant gravy! :)

Lemon drizzle cake

A big thanks to Tamami for this great recipe - it is super-lemony and really does keep well (have made it twice now and my current cake is coming up to a week old and is still edible!). The original recipe suggests sprinkling chopped pistachios for added colour on top but wasn't too keen on that so decided to do a simple icing decoration on top.....this was partly inspired by a story about the Dude asking for an ice tea in France which went along the lines of,

"Limón?"

"Pêche?"

"Limón?"

"Pêche?".....etc.....

Some peeps might've figured out that he should've asked for "Citron" :)

1st attempt

2nd attempt - I need to cop on and stop trying to move cake to plate before the icing sets properly to prevent unsightly cracks, char!!

Scrumptious pizza - Pizza East

JD and I hopped on our vélos on Saturday and headed down to trendy Portobello Road to meet one of my friends who was setting up a market stand at the farmers market there (it was her first weekend so went down for support). As usual, we were out and about during lunchtime so after the market, we then had to find somewhere for a bit of grub. I remembered the last time I was in the same neck of the woods, I had driven past a Pizza East (pizza place with its original resto in Shoreditch and now with an outpost out west) and thought it looked pretty cool. I was sceptical about us getting a table on a Saturday afternoon but we chanced our luck and got seated at the bar by the pizza ovens. The place was pretty funky/trendy (retro chic decor) with a  somewhat "interesting" clientele (preening is the name of the game!).  

We ordered a couple of small dishes (meatballs and grilled squid) to start followed by a couple of pizzas. Our meatballs arrived which we polished off and then were left in limbo for a good 15-20 minutes with no sight of our squid. One of the front of house (slimey Bradley Cooper, the other was Heather Locklear wannabe) noticed we were sat waiting for a while, went off to investigate what had caused the delay and returned apologising profusely that our order had gone to another table but we would have ours very shortly and offered extra drinks on the house whilst we waited. In fairness, it was very courteous and over and beyond what we would've expected.......but he should've left it at that and not insisted on giving us embraces every time he came to check on us?? (definitely not a fan of touchy feely staff) Our squid came promptly (which was scrummy) followed closely by our pizzas. I have to say it was seriously good pizza and for me, even topping Franco Manca! JD concurred to a point but said he would like to try a few more other types on the menu before coming to a conclusion. We were too stuffed to try desserts but perhaps that will be an excuse to return some other time? As we were leaving, "Bradley Cooper" came over to bid us farewell and we were gifted with some hilarious soundbites ("That's the last time you will have to wait" and to another table, "We'll set it up all nice.......cos we're professional!"). I have since found out that Pizza East is affiliated with Soho House which takes a bit of a shine off things but I honestly could not fault our visit - oh wellos, gotta give credit where credit's due :)

 My pizza of pork belly (including bits of crackling!) and mushrooms - different by really good!

Pizza base passes Pa Chan's test of cleanliness, haha!!

 JD's pizza of anchovies, capers and chilli

Green tea red bean Swiss roll

美味しいだね?? :)

Bank Holiday Monday lunch - Feng Sushi

OK - take 2 for this entry.......having logged into Blogger, there was a pop-up suggesting that I should try their spanking new interface so I thought, why not? After laboriously typing in this entry plus doing the usual photo editing, I was then met with a great big error message and on return to my blog entries, found that my latest musings HAD NOT BEEN SAVED!!! (cue mini rant on Twitter - I mean, seriously, whats the point in asking ppl to use smthg that crashes??)

Needless to say I am back using the old and hopefully, more reliable interface so let's see if I can remember what I wrote in the first place......

After a bit of a hectic week at work (including pitching in at the weekend as a favour to my boss), I had Bank Holiday Monday off before heading back to the grindstone the following day. Needless to say, the day began with a much needed ly-in, followed by a meander up to High St Ken to pick up a few bits and bobs. Since we were already in the area, JD and I decided to head to Feng Sushi for a spot of lunch. I had forgotten how titchy the resto was but we managed to squeeze ourselves into one of the tables in the corner.

The food was OK but we were a little disappointed to find some of the stuff on the menu had already sold out  (namely, yuzu infused lemonade and a special scallop maki) even though it was only around 2 in the afternoon? The highlight of the meal was the sushi, less so for the hot dishes - oh wellos.

 

Some pretty good spicy tuna roll plus soft shell crab roll

 JD's fish tempura plus sweet potato chips - the chips were NOT sweet potato!! I had a bowl of spicy baby cuttlefish udon soup - the cuttlefish was NOT baby!! (notice a pattern here??)

1st ever Leon fish finger wrap!

....for those of you who no longer eat at Maccy-D's (para mí, it was after reading "Fast Food Nation") and craving a (more sophisticated) alternative to a Filet-o-Fish, bon app! :)

Customised Kitchenaid cover - 多謝姨媽!! :)