Showing posts with label pub crawl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pub crawl. Show all posts

Sunday, 11 September 2011

The Bonnie and Wild

We had a wonderful lunch yesterday, eating rib-eye steaks marinated in Korean gochujang paste and red miso again.
T's friend was gracious enough to bring over rib-eye steaks for us from Whole Foods.

a little steaks on the stovetop action
I always seem to have a problem of chewy, rubbery steaks when I cook on the stovetop but yesterday's steaks that were really flavorful and tender.
mushrooms marinated in balsamic vinegar and sauteed.

asparagus lightly seasoned with butter and a heavy hand of pepper and sea salt.
triple cooked chips- boiled, fried, baked. T's still trying to perfect the triple cooked chips, as they turned out not as crispy yesterday. I'm thinking maybe he has to fry the bad boys after he bakes them.
This was really a perfect Saturday afternoon lunch.

We headed over to the Belgravia area for our second weekend pub crawl. If you want to see a rich area (money, money, moneeeey!!), check out Belgravia!!

We were intending to meet the group at the second pub called The Plumber’s Arms, but when we arrived, we found out it closes on the weekends! After making a call, the group decided to meet at the Shakespearean, a touristy pub right across from Victoria station.
hello cervezas!
I spy, with my little eye....a beautiful rainbow!! I haven't seen one of these in years.. Sigh..
We made our way to the second pub The Antelope and stayed for one glass of wine for muah and a pint for him. No pictures though. I must have forgotten amidst all the chatter among fellow ex-pats. A friend of T’s who seemed to have acquired a mass amount of friends/acquaintances through his diligent networking skills put the pub crawl together. I always appreciate people who do all the gritty work for me, all I have to do is show up! :) Hats off.
We popped into the Grenadier, a lovely looking pub outside and cozy little space inside, but we sadly we couldn't stay..
We hit up two pubs and had to dash because we had a dinner date at The Boonie & Wild, a “part time” restaurant. So, the restaurant is part-time because it’s actually run by a catering company that rents out a fish and chips shop in Chapel Market only on the weekends. The vibe is laid back but the food isn't. I would say that the food is equivalent to a bib gourmand gastro pub. I was impressed by the attention given by our waitress as she really stepped it up, filling our water pitchers, giving us extra bread, and bringing me, the only ketchup left in the kitchen. :)
I've reintroduced gluten back in my life after giving the gluten free diet an experimental shot for almost a month. It was an interesting experiment to see what life is like having to do without wheat, rye, and barley. I'll talk more about it later but I realized I don't have a gluten allergy and I think its best for me to focus on achieving a balanced diet, geared more towards eating fresh ingredients rather than completely avoiding certain things like gluten.
I had the lions share of the bread-- I asked for more after the first bowl was done!
a little white vino to complement our meal


T had the goats cheese and fig appetizer to start. I had a bite of it and it was heavenly-- the creamy goats cheese really complements the figs. I also love the texture of the crunchy little seeds in the figs, nom nom nom!!
I had an equally amazing starter: 4 maldon oysters in a shallot vinigrette= Amaazing and definitely slurpable!!
Our mains were delicious as well, we both had the grey mullet- it looked similar to seabass but it was a bit heartier in texture, and a trio of queen scallops
we had chips and aubergine as our sides. The aubergine was rolled with ricotta cheese and complemented with rocket leaves, tomatoes, and olives.
our first dessert was a selection of four different cheeses, oatcakes, and an pear chutney I believe. All four cheeses were tasty in their own unique way. I was stuffed but somehow, I managed to have one bite too many of each cheese!
Our second dessert was a plum clafoutis with raspberry coulis that had the consistency of a lighter egg frittata. It was quite yummy!

Breakfast this morning was a simple bowl of honey oats cereal with additional almonds and raisins on top.
I hardly ever eat cereal but #1 we've run out of eggs and #2 I'm too lazy to go to the cornershop to get some
the cereal made for a nice breakfast substitute

I will never forget: A silent prayer to the hero's of 9/11 and the thousands of lives lost.

Monday, 5 September 2011

Islington Pub Crawl

On Saturday night, we went on a pub/bar crawl around our Kings Cross/Islington hood. We stopped at the following places:
  1. The Canal
  2. The Draper's Arms
  3. The Albion
  4. Ethiopian restaurant for din din
  5. Back to the Canal
  6. The Driver
  7. Be @ One
We also enjoyed the last few days of summer. The weather was pretty dang beautiful this weekend!
I stuck with wine/cocktails for the night. Occasionally, I snuck in a few sips of beer (shhh!!)

Dinner was at Merkato restaurant. We've been here a couple times and its always been a pleasant dining experience. Unfortunately, we had a few minor hiccups this time around.
We ordered a bottle of their in house honey wine. It's usually sweet with a touch honey but this bottle seemed to have gone bad; it had a vinegar taste to it :(
at least their beer was decent!
The food service at Merkato was unbelievably sloooooooow. I think we had to wait 45 minutes for our food!! They apologized for the slow service but didn't really acknowledge it til we grew impatient. I don't like it when restaurants ignore the fact that their food should have come out 30 minutes ago!!
Thankfully everything was as delicious as I last remembered it. Btw- most injera's are gluten free since they are made from teff flour. I didn't ask if any other flour was added to it because I just didn't want to know! Ignorance is bliss (this time around) :-)
We all inhaled our food, stopping every now and then to remark how tasty it was. I must have gotten lazy after this because I didn't take any more pictures throughout the night. Somehow, our group of 6 grew to 10+.. We ended our night at Be @ One, and this time, I had a better experience and kept my new Iphone close to me!

Side note- the bartenders at Be@1 are super friendly but the free shot of Jose Cuervo tequila at the end of the night was definitely unnecessary! Needless to say, my Sunday was completely ruined.. My bum was glued to the couch for most of the day.
Somehow I was able to peel myself off the couch to make myself a GF lunch. I added in some sauteed onions, chopped up cucumbers and spring onions to Tiger Tiger's gluten free noodles.
http://www.tigertiger.info/gluten-free
Tarek totally spoiled me and brought back bbq from Pitt Cue. It was the last day they were serving bbq from their truck since summer is almost over.
http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/venue/2%3A30101/pitt-cue-co
juicy pulled pork on a bed of coleslaw
I also had some beef ribs- DELISH!

with some eggplant on the side
gluten free macaroons! I think I died and went to macaroon heaven :) Someone please tell me how I only discovered macaroons 2 years ago when I moved here to London- they are so good!
the green tea one was my favorite! I couldn't tell the difference between GF and regular ones.. In fact, I'm not even sure if the regular ones are made with any type of flour. Maybe they're just naturally gluten free?? hehe.. Either way, I'm not complaining!
the sesame one was decent..
hot sauced/ketchup scrambled eggs w. GF toast and it's time for the gym yo!