My Fave Foodie Websites!

I love finding inspiration from others in terms of what to cook! I love collecting cook books but when you have the World Wide Web now at our finger tips there are more recipes circulating around! Which means more variations, new ingredients and more options on what to cook tonight!

These are my current favourite websites that I like to look at to gain inspiration on what to cook that night or one to save for another day!

Jamie Oliver’s website is one of my favourites! I love his flavour combinations and I love his books. His website shows just that bit more than what you would see in his books but also it means that if you don’t have his books then you can still access some of those recipes on his website!

Sainsbury’s recipe section offers a wide range of products and obviously if you like the recipe you can just add those items into a basket on the groceries page and get them delivered to your house! Supermarkets have really upped their game in terms of providing more than just being a supermarket, I have 100s of Sainsbury’s recipe cards that were free to pick up when I was younger. Now I can save trees by finding those recipes online!

Can’t forget BBC Good Food now can we! I always like looking though the different sections of this and trying to find things I wouldn’t normally think to cook! Over the years when I have been trying to get inspiration I always head here! Its such a simple and easy to use website!

I love this ginger & lime chicken recipe! I make it quite a lot actually, its perfect for summer or keeping simmer alive! Its perfect on the BBQ or fried on a griddle pan or even to put it in the oven and roast it and keep adding on the marinade! It makes it go more jammy when you put it in the oven! But its even nice cold in salads or with a different side such as a vibrant cousin cousin salad but this chicken should definitely be something you should try, I tried it and now my family love it!
Now everyone loves halloumi! How can you not love a bit of squeaky cheese! These wraps are so tasty and fresh, again another perfect summer time recipe!

So whats your favourite websites to use? If you haven’t used any of these already then I would highly recommending you to!

Feeling 22 ooo ooooo!

On Friday I turned 22! I booked the day off work, my mum and sister came down for a day out! We went to Westfield’s Shepherds Bush to do some shopping where I got a new top, some make up and some new trainers, and I also wanted my mum and sister to try a Snog! I really liked mine last time I had one and I knew my mum and sister would like it as well! This time we got mine ones, I went for the same flavours as last time but my mum went for Chocolate frozen yoghurt with brownies and strawberries! She said the brownies could have been smaller pieces but more of them. Otherwise my mum and my sister both loved Snog! I love showing people new things especially when it comes to food!

I asked around at work as to what the good places to go to in Notting Hill were. One of the recommendations was The Distillery. The home of Portobello Gin. The Distillery is built up of 4 floors each with a slightly different theme but all surrounding the ideals of gin! We went in for some pre-dinner drinks and we parked ourselves in The Resting Room. Its on the ground floor so is perfect for passing by! This floor is traditional but classy British in a nutshell! A large selection of wines, gins (obviously) and cocktails. They do serve food as well but I have head that the floor you really want to go to is the Gintonica floor! This will be a floor that I will try due to its long list of gins but also its tapas menu! This would be a luxury night out for me but by the sound of the recommendations at work it’d be totally worth it. The other floors are the Ginstitute which is a small museum with different cocktails to try which will enhance the gin history lesson. There are boardrooms as well as bedrooms as well at The Distillery.
For my pre-dinner drink I had an Aperol Spritz! I do like the refreshing yet slightly bitter taste of an Aperol Spritz. My mum and sister both had a glass of wine.

After our drinks we thought we would head down the road to Honest Burger. A place that calls themselves honest but serve some real good dirty burgers! Tucked away in a small narrow section of Portobello Road with a large bar taking up most of the space, your food gets cooked downstairs and come out quite quickly! The onion rings were gigantic! I had the special which was the Louisiana! Cajun-rubbed beef, smoked bacon, fried onions, American cheese, smoky ketchup and pickles. The burgers are cooked pink or to how you would like them! I had mine pink and my god did I make a mess! It was such a nice burger with gooey cheese and soft burger van onions! The sauce made for an even better flavour and the pickles added that slightly healthy element and added flavour! The rosemary salted chips were incredible! The rosemary made them! Best chips I have had so far! My cocktail also came in a cup! All three of us really enjoyed Honest Burger, but like I’ve most probably said before, you cant go wrong with a burger!

On the Sunday me and Hayden walked up to Shepherd’s Bush (Its only round the corner so you can’t blame me for being there so much) and went to Dinner at Jamie’s Italian. As part of the Gold Club, which is free to become a member of with so many perks, I got the taster which was a slow roasted tomato on creamy ricotta and basil topped onto a crunchy crostini! There was a large mouthful sized (a small bite for Hayden) for both of us! There was an intense tomato flavour but balanced out with the creamy ricotta! As well as this I got £10 off the bill and because it was my birthday, a bottle of Jamie’s Prosecco which me and Hayden shared.
For starters we shared the crispy Italian nachos which is actually deep fried ravioli with a chilli, tomato sauce that you dip them into. The filling is a cheese and its topped with shaved parmesan. The other starter we had was Crispy Squid. Cant go wrong with crispy squid and aioli. For mains I had Gennaro’s Mixed Grill which was Free-range pork & fennel sausage, Welsh lamb chop & herby marinated flash steak with crispy British coppa, smoky chilli ketchup & a side of your choice which I chose Polenta Chips. Hayden had the Pesce pizza! My mixed grill was so nice! Proper meat feast! There was so much meat (doesn’t look a lot from my picture but bearing in mind I’d had starters) by the end I was struggling but made sure I ate it all as it was too good to waste! But I couldn’t eat any polenta chips! I wanted room for pudding! I had 3 scoops of dark chocolate ice-cream topped with honeycomb and a butterscotch sauce! Hayden had the Chocolate fudge sundae! We came away from our meals stuffed and slightly tipsy from the bottle of prosecco! But we both thoroughly enjoyed our food and the atmosphere of the restaurant!

I had a lovely birthday weekend and the birthday celebrations don’t stop here!

Lewis’s late birthday celebrations

Me and Lewis have been friends since I was 2 years old! And every year we like to do something exciting for each others birthday! This year Lewis turned 21! For such a big birthday I wanted to take him somewhere special and to do something a bit different, especially now I am living in London.
Where I live isn’t far from Shepherd’s Bush Westfield’s and White City, So I had a look around there to see what places would be good to go for lunch. I then remembered that there is a rooftop bar just opposite the White City entrance of Westfield’s called Pergola on the Roof. Neither of us have been to a roof top bar, the weather was meant to be nice and I felt as though this was the perfect occasion to go!

Pergola on the Roof is on the top of the BBC television centre Carpark. This is the old BBC headquarters. If there are less than 4 of you then you don’t have to book but it is on a first come first basis in terms of the getting a table. This I’d looked into so made sure we got there early enough to be able to get a table! Up on the roof you didn’t even feel like you were in London! The decor was that of the Hamptons in America and the weather matched it perfectly! The cocktails and prosecco were flowing and for food we got the popular squid burgers from Salt ‘n’ Sauce (Bonnie Gull) . The way it is set up is there is a 2 bars and then 4 pop up counters which are run by a different company. Salt ‘n’ Sauce is one of them and the other 3 are Patty and Bun, Breddos Tacos and 8 Hoxton Square. The squid burger was so full of flavour and the squid itself was crispy yet not chewy! It was cooked perfectly! And the chips were beautiful as well!

Pergola on the roof was a perfect start to our day and by the time we left we were a little bit tipsy but also looking for something to eat some more! We had had a whole bottle of prosecco at this point as well as a few cocktails! So we went into Westfield’s not really knowing what to have and wanting something a bit light and came across Snog. Snog is a frozen yogurt brand where they serve it to you as if it is Mr Whippy ice-cream and then you get to choose your toppings. For mine I went for salted caramel with brownie pieces and dark chocolate nibs. I have to admit mine didn’t taste very much of caramel so was a little bit disappointed but the brownie pieces were so nice and I love dark chocolate so I was happy with that. We did get a too bigger size though. We definitely could have done with a smaller pot as neither of us finished them. But Id definitely go back and have another one!

For our evening entertainment, I had got myself and Lewis tickets to see Sigma at the Royal Albert Hall. So to make it convenient  for us, rather than jumping on nearly every tube and having to go here there and everywhere, I booked us a table at Verdi an Italian Restaurant which is inside the Royal Albert Hall. We turned up a couple of hours before the concert so that we could have a nice relaxed dinner experience. I had the ‘Tagliatelle Al Ragù D’anatra which is slow cooked duck with wild mushrooms. Lewis had the Pappardelle Al Ragù Di Cervo which is braised venison in red wine. My duck was so tender it just fell apart in my mouth, there wasn’t much of a sauce or a massive amount of flavour if I am honest. I tried some of Lewis’s and I know that venison has more flavour but the depth of flavour in for his pasta was incredible! Mine I think was a bit more simple in that the flavours the restaurant wants you to taste are the duck and mushrooms which you could. For pudding I had lemoncello which was delightfully creamy but really strong in alcohol as well! It got to the point where I couldn’t finish it. I wasn’t disappointed by the meal but I also wasn’t wowed by it. I think because of where it was I expected a little bit more from Verdi but Lewis really enjoyed his meal and that was the main reason for me being there so thats all that matters. Would I go again, maybe, if I was going to the Royal Albert Hall again yes, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to go there again for a nice casual meal. It was in a perfect atmosphere, great location in terms of what we were doing that evening and fitted well into the day. Sigma was also pretty incredible!

The next day me and Lewis went down to Chichester, Lewis has just been offered a job down there and so we went and looked at some places for him to potentially live in. Whilst we were there we stopped off for lunch and we went into the first place we found which was Brasserie Blanc, a french restaurant in a traditional British city. For a Sunday they did offer roast dinners and when I saw people eating the roasts, well I may have started dribbling! I did think though I could have a roast anywhere and still enjoy it. So I thought I’d choose something different, something I don’t always eat! I had King Scallops Provencale, which came with chargrilled courgette, sautéed potatoes, padron peppers, cherry tomato sauce and a deep fried herb crumb. Im not a massive fan of peppers so I did push those to the side but everything else, oh my days, was delicious! For something very simple it was full of flavour! The cherry tomato sauce lifted the whole dish and the scallops were cooked to perfection! I came away from the table not feeling stuffed but satisfied which I think is a good position to be in when you know you have a lot of walking to do and knowing that I was going out for dinner that night too made it even more comfortable in the knowledge that I hadn’t eaten too much nor ruined whatever we were going to be having for dinner that night!

Once we had seen all the places Lewis wanted to look at we made our way back to London where Hayden joined us. We eventually decided on Pix followed by trip over to Bounce. Pix is a tapas restaurant in the style of a buffet where you go up to the counter and see what you want and put it on a plate and take it back to your table. There are different sized sticks in each dish, 2 different sizes to be precise. The different sizes equates to the difference in price. The shorter stick is cheaper and the longer stick is a little bit extra. Due to it being a Sunday and a bank holiday, they had a deal on which was all you can eat tapas as well as all you can drink cava for £33 each. This was a deal we couldn’t refuse! I went for all the traditional dishes as well as the ones I didn’t even know I was going to like! Patatas Bravos, diablo meatballs, chorizo stew, baked brie with cranberry sauce, there were just a few things I had and tried at Pix! I have been to a Pix before but the atmosphere in the Notting Hill branch was so much better. All 3 of us really enjoyed it and then we went to Bounce and had a game of ping pong on the tables with a few cocktails and we were set for the night!

The weekend consisted of a lot of different food, a lot of drink and a lot of laughs and I am so glad that Lewis enjoyed his birthday weekend and treats that I had planned for him.
I’d highly recommend Pergola on the Roof as well as Pix and Brasserie Blanc in Chichester for places to go to.