Tag: food

Eating, Walking and Driving London

  • Post date 30 January 2018

I went to London for a three-day trip – never like to stay with anyone for longer than three days – based on the premis that guests and fish go off after three days.

The reason for my visit was my great friend Genevieve Fox was publishing her first book https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/29/milkshakes-morphine-memoir-love-loss-genevieve-fox-review .Milkshakes and morphine   is an un-put-downable down memoir – I devoured it one evening pre publication and experienced a torrent of different kind of emotions for the author and also as a friend. Do buy and read: Milkshakes and Morphine: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Genevieve Fox is published by Square Peg (£14.99)

Genevieve giving a wonderful speech at Daunt Books at her launch 

And of course with London I wanted to eat – the in-crowd may have moved on but I wanted to try The Chiltern Firehouse which is a former fire station dating from the 1880s, this refined, high-end hotel is surrounded by bars, restaurants and shopping in the fashionable Marylebone district http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5319709/Princess-Eugenie-parties-Chiltern-Firehouse-again.html

My friend Lu secured a table – one with a actual fire pole -so we imagined the action that bit of metal had seen  as we looked for celebs – Eugenie hadn’t turned up yet…

 

From the range of starters top pick was this crab doughnut £7 

I love to see a bit of London I don’ t know and I would recommend going on an airbnb experience -https://www.airbnb.co.uk/experiences/145488 I thought Roberta’s tour (£20 per person)- a gorgeous mix of economy and history from Bloomberg’s latest scraper to the recently discovered Mitra temple with coffee thrown in in a crypt church and Roberta ended her tour on a high at the Skyscraper Bar in the city.  

Coffee in the crypt in St Marys le Bow London

and as Roberta was Italian – of course we got the best coffee and sandwich tips – Panini Gusto in the city from Milan a Parma Ham sandwich packed with ham and mozzarella. And enough walking why not hop – or in my case pour myself into a mini and have a tour of the city – seeing the big names and the lesser known sights https://smallcarbigcity.com/ Samantha picked us up from exposed pipes but cool pan Asian food at Caravan restaurant Bankside  where I had just eaten a  very fine crispy tofu with fermented black bean paste – through Borough Market in a mini – ‘these are great salted caramel doughnuts’ – Sam said – ‘oh yes please I said’ as I begged the Borough Market bread vendor to pass one through the roof – which was open  and then we were off again 

Samantha with her whizzy mini – and finally before I let the train take the strain back to Scotland I was delighted to find there is a food market – wednesdays to Fridays at Kings Cross  Railway Station http://www.realfoodfestival.co.uk/real-food-markets/kings-cross-market/which is great if you have a hankering for fresh  doughnuts – even I had had enough –  to Moroccan carrots and felafel and feta and lentil salad with dried apricots  for your train journey which I ate as headed north through England’s Green and Pleasant.

Categories City travel - not Scotland, Eating, London, tours

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Upmarket breakfast food for robins

  • Post date 16 October 2017
Robin and designer cereal

I was camping at Roybridge – near Spean Bridge – near Fort William in the heart of the Autumnal oranged-Scottish Highlands. To make up for sleeping in a pod I brought Primrose’s Kitchen raw beetroot and ginger muesli to ease the pain on a sling mattress in a wooden pod. 

I was not the only one to find this designer muesli delicious – this robin was sorely tempted by the lure of: gluten-free oats, raw beetroot, raw agave, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, raw virgin coconut oil, almonds, linseeds, coconut pieces, ground ginger, shelled hemp seed and psyllium husks.

This muesli is made in Dorset by Primrose’s Kitchen and I bought it from Real Foods – £5.95  for 400g and a Great Taste winner. Intrigued I googled Primrose’s Kitchen: 

Primrose’s Kitchen: Having had a youth of chronic fatigue, M.E and poor digestion, Primrose Matheson set out on a mission to understand her body and what was needed to maintain it in perfect health. This led her into Naturopathic and Complementary health studies and a degree in Homeopathy the knowledge of which she has used to design natural and wholesome food. She started with muesli as breakfast is (as a nation) our favourite meal of the day due to its quick assembly and had a desire to make it into a healthy food for any occasion, not just first thing in the morning.

By including ingredients you might associate more with lunch or dinner such as beetroot and carrot she wanted create a versatile health food that tasted great and could be eaten as a healthy snack whatever time of the day. Ideally for a more balanced diet we should be eating as much or more fruit and vegetables than we do grains. 

From this it seemed logical that if she was going to add a healthy ingredient like vegetables why not add other nutritious ingredients not found in breakfast muesli that support good health.

And how was it? Really good especially soaked in orange juice and topped with Greek yoghurt. You could mix it yourself but for a weekend camping trip this was a treat and a bonus – if it attracts wildlife! 

 

Categories Drinks, Eating

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