Propstore at The National Theatre

7 May

Last Thursday I visited the Southbank, one of my favourite areas of London, to experience the launch of The National Theatre’s pop-up riverfront cafe-bar, Propstore.

Now in its second year, Propstore features a collection of props and scenery from recent National Theatre productions.

We REALLY enjoyed the range of street food on offer, including pulled pork buns, sweet potato and chickpea falafel and literally the best fish finger sandwich I have ever had the pleasure of tasting.

We sipped on Sipsmith Summer Cup cocktails, sat on House of Commons benches from This House, followed Luke Treadaway’s original train sets from The Captain of Kopenick around the track and recognised Cillian Murphy’s tape deck from the Misterman production that we saw last year, all whilst watching the world go by on the Southbank and the rippling waves on the Thames.

Whether you’re passing by and fancy a quick drink, need a delicious bite to eat or fancy listening to a live band or DJ (Friday and Saturday until 2am), Propstore is a must visit destination this summer.

Propstore, in partnership with American Express, is open until 28th September.

Watch the video of Lauren Laverne’s visit and chat with the curators here.

Opening hours
Monday – Thursday 12 noon – 11pm
Friday, Saturday 12 noon – 2am
Sunday 12 noon – 6pm

Friday and Saturday nights will see Propstore transformed with DJ’s and live music until 2am.

Tags: , , , ,

Fire & Stone, Spitalfields

3 May

Whenever my friend Lucy and I meet for dinner, for some reason we always end up eating pizza. We used to frequent Pizza Express fresh out of university, 50% off voucher in left hand, pizza slice in right. But on Wednesday evening we tried somewhere a bit different.

Fire & Stone has been around for a few years. I visited a while back to enter a competition to create a pizza named after a European city – the winner got to go on holiday to the city. Mine wasn’t the winning pizza unfortunately so I didn’t get to jet off to Seville but I thought I’d head back to try a couple of new additions to the menu.

Fire & Stone Spitalfields was buzzing on a mid week evening with post workers enjoying pizzas inspired by and named after cities from around the world. The new pizzas we were there to try included the Canberra and Trinidad and Tobago. We were offered thin and crispy for £1.25 extra so we opted for the Canberra to come on that base, following the waitresses recommendation.

Fire & Stone pizzas are hand stretched, topped with parmesan and stone baked, something I hadn’t been too fond of before but my mind was changed on Wednesday. The Canberra was my favourite with a topping of roast chicken breast, garlic & rosemary potatoes, marinated mushrooms, mozzarella, sour cream, sweet chilli sauce and chives. The Trinidad and Tobago was topped with spicy pepperoni, fresh red and green chillies, jalapeno peppers, mozzarella and tomato salsa and despite enjoying it, I felt that it didn’t have the same depth of flavour – it was extremely spicy but we both had to peel off a fair few chillies so that we could actually taste everything else.

The pudding list landed in front of us as soon as we had wiped the last crust in chilli oil but neither of us could face it – the pizzas had well and truly won the battle.

Fire & Stone wins against Pizza Express any day, but I still have my reservations whether it can beat the Italian sour dough kings, Franco Manca and Santa Maria, that I love so much.

Fire & Stone
4 Horner Square
Old Spitalfields Market
London
E1 6EW

Tags: , ,

Trek and Nakd Bars – product review

30 Apr

Every so often I go through a healthy phase where I’m slightly more careful with what I eat. I’m never giving up cake, chocolate or pizza, right? And as well as eating, this phase also involves a couple of trips a week to the gym. But it never lasts long and usually everything comes crashing down after a few weeks. This time, however, I have to admit that I’m not doing too badly. My exercising is averaging out at around four times a week and according to the fancy machines at the gym, I have lost a few % in body fat since I started. Not bad without changing my diet.

I know exactly what to eat should be I wanted to become honed and toned like Gwyneth Paltrow. Pain au chocolat’s and full fat coffees certainly shouldn’t be a part of my diet. But they are and what’s more, they’re staying. My post workout choices aren’t always the best either. Wembley’s version of Nando’s does a great chicken, chips and nan bread combo that I have succumbed to a couple of times, or I’ll go home and cook pasta with tonnes of olive oil. I don’t want to stop but I sometimes ask myself whether I’m feeding my body the right foods post workout.

Enter Nakd and Trek bars. I have long been a fan of Nakd bars. Last year I went gluten free for three months after taking a food intolerance test and Nakd bars were a staple in my diet. I only came across them because my boyfriends sister is vegan and I saw a few in the cupboard once but it wasn’t the actual bar that caught my eye, it was the packaging. Each bar has its own fun name, such as Pecan Pie, Ginger Bread, Rhubarb and Custard or Cashew Cookie. They are wheat, dairy and gluten free and only contain dried fruit and nuts ‘smooshed together’, as they say and what’s more, they’re utterly delicious and the perfect (and very healthy) snack.

I only tried Trek bars for the first time this week and I am impressed. They are marketed at the health conscious cereal bar lovers who are looking for a healthier option. Instead of syrups and sugar, the bars only contain natural ingredients and are again wheat and dairy free. The other good thing about these bars is that they also contain 11g of protein so they are the perfect choice for a post workout snack. I tried one after a grueling Friday evening body attack class and I was hoping to replace dinner with the bar but I was getting the train down to Chichester and sushi literally called my name when I arrived at the station. Nevertheless I felt good that I was giving my body the protein that it needed after a workout.

Go and buy a Nakd or Trek bar, or both, and let me know what you think.

Tags: , , , , ,

The Attendant

29 Apr

I drank coffee out of a urinal last weekend. What? I did! And it wasn’t just me. Around fifteen other people were crammed into a Victorian public toilet in London’s NOHO drinking Caravan coffee and nibbling on sweet and savoury treats. You don’t believe me? Well you’ll just have to go and see it for yourself.

It was a sunny Saturday and Jack and I arrived at The Attendant at 1pm to sample the coffee and French toast. We trundled down the steps and arrived in the small underground room full with good looking youngsters sipping on flat whites, reading papers and laughing with friends.

We took a pew at one of the original urinals, which have been converted into tables and watched the customers pour through the doors to grab a coffee and a cake. As I waited I glanced around the room and fell in love with the design of the place. Beautiful original Victorian tiles adorned the walls and the floor, the door to the kitchen was painted a distressed orange with an old fashioned ‘attendant’ sign nailed into it and a communal table sat at the back of the room, surrounded by original Victorian restored furnishings – The Attendant is a feast for the eyes are well as the stomach.

Our coffees arrived and without even sipping I could tell that it was going to be good. The milk was smooth and there wasn’t a bubble in sight on the beautiful latte art. I took a sip and my initial thoughts were confirmed. Smooth, strong and utterly delicious – in fact, one of the best flat whites I’ve had in London.

My French toast arrived and I was in for a treat. Fresh, sweet and juicy fruit was strewn across two thick slices of French toast, which was drenched in a vanilla syrup and served with a vanilla crème fraîche. I shared half with Jack and we also shared a toasted wrap, which was good but not quite as enjoyable as the magnificent toast.

I loved The Attendant and I think the guys behind it have done a superb job. They have taken a beautiful Victorian landmark and turned it into something for all to enjoy. I can’t wait to go back for another one of those flat whites.

The Attendant
27A Foley Street
London
W1W 6DY
0207 637 37 94

Tags: , , , , ,

Spelt Pastry Pecan Pie

28 Apr

Jack had the ‘big dogs’, as we like to call them, over from America for a meeting a couple of weeks ago. The meeting took place on a Monday so I decided to put my Sunday afternoon and a bag of Sharpham Park spelt flour to good use and bake a pecan pie.

Pecan pie, however fun to make and delicious to eat, is very time consuming. This pie took the best part of the afternoon to bake but it was definitely worth the effort.

This recipe is by Annie Bell and is part of Sharpham Park’s Great British Spelt Recipes, a recipe collection created by Sharpham Park (Mulberry founder Roger Saul’s spelt food range) in partnership with Bowel Cancer UK.

I wasn’t there to see the big dogs tuck in but I’m told they absolutely loved it, particularly the spelt pastry and the lemony filling.

Spelt Pastry Pecan Pie

Ingredients

Pastry
230 g spelt flour
70 g golden caster sugar
130 g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
1 medium egg, separated
milk

Filling
200 g pecan nuts
juice and finely grated zest of 1 lemon
300 g golden syrup
3 medium eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
300 ml double cream
pinch of sea salt
icing sugar for dusting (optional)

Method

Place the flour, sugar and butter in the bowl of a food processor and give it a quick burst at high speed to reduce it to a crumb-like consistency. Add the egg yolk and then with the motor running trickle in just enough milk for the dough to cling together in lumps, a teaspoon or two should do it. Bring the pastry together into a ball using your hands, then pat into a flattened patty. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 1 hour, or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 180 C fan oven/200 C electric oven. Lightly dust a worksurface with spelt flour, knead the pastry until it is pliable and thinly roll out. Line the base and sides of a 23 cm tart tin 4-6 cm deep by slipping the base of the tin under the rolled out pastry and then into the tin, don’t worry if you end up partly pressing it into the tart tin. Trim the edges by running a rolling pin across the top, and reserve the trimmings. Line the case with foil and baking beans (any dried pulse will do), securing the sides to the tin, place on a baking sheet and cook for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and beans, paint the case with the egg white and patch any cracks with the trimmings, and cook for another 10 minutes until the case is evenly golden. Again if any cracks have appeared patch these.

Turn the oven down to 150 C fan oven/170 C electric oven. Thinly slice two thirds of the nuts. Whisk the lemon zest and juice into the syrup in a large bowl, and then the eggs and egg yolks, and finally the cream. Fold in the sliced nuts and salt. Pour the mixture into the precooked tart case and arrange the pecan halves flat-side down over the surface, discarding any broken ones. Bake for 60 minutes until lightly golden and puffy at the edges, if you move the tart around it should wobble without showing any signs of being liquid. Remove and leave the tart to cool for a couple of hours, then chill it for another couple of hours. Cover with clingfilm and remove from the fridge 30 minutes before serving if keeping for longer than this.

Tags: , , , , ,

Aperitivo at L’Anima

27 Apr

L’Anima has been on my radar for a few years, ever since Francesco Mazzei taught me how to make pizza at a bloggers event and it is one of those restaurants that despite being desperate to visit I have just never made it.

It’s no secret that Italian flavours are my favourite – fresh tomatoes, pillowy dough, creamy cheese, fresh cured meats. The list goes on.

Aperitivo is one of the latest crazes to sweep the London restaurant scene and L’Anima is now offering a range of aperitivi cocktails, which are served with one specially prepared small plate. We visited the bar a couple of weeks ago to try a few cocktails and dishes.

L’Anima is part restaurant, part bar and the large space is split in two by a large glass window – the long bar on the right and the restaurant on the left. I saw similarities to one of my favourite cafes, Princi in Soho, and shortly after I noticed it became apparent that Francesco and his team were consultants on the project.

Our first cocktails were aperol spritz and campari shekerato, which were accompanied by panzerotti, small crescent shaped tomato and mozzarella filled hot parcels. I then enjoyed the best negroni I have ever tasted – Portobello Road gin, cocchi rosso & campari mixed in a short glass with a huge cube of ice to ensure the drink stayed nice and cool the whole way through.

Throughout the remainder of our evening we were presented with a range of small but perfectly executed aperitivo dishes – veal meatballs and the most tender squid I have ever had the pleasure of tasting, served with a homemade chilli jam.

We topped our evening off with a lychee bellini and tour of the kitchen and private dining rooms. One dining room doubled as a wine cellar and featured a long table surrounded by cabinets with mostly Italian wines. The second room resembled a church – smooth cream coloured cool marble surrounded us with a long green marble table sat in the middle.

I walked out of L’Anima a happy lady. Excellent service, the best classic cocktails I have experienced in London and delicious authentic Italian snacks to boot. As we put our coats on the manager told me something that helped me sum up the L’Anima experience – the restaurant does not use fridges or freezers – all produce is freshly cooked that day. I’m already itching to return to L’Anima and I’m extremely excited about the L’Anima Cafe, which will open in August. Bring it on.

Aperitivo cocktails at L’Anima start at £5.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Headmasters blow dry, Mayfair

25 Apr

Awards ceremonies are always fun. If nothing else they give you a chance to dress up and let your hair down and the Drapers Accessories and Footwear Awards last night at the Grosvenor House Hotel was no exception. But as much as I love getting glammed up, I’m not very good at planning. I knew about the awards months in advance and still managed to leave outfit planning to the last minute, running around like a headless chicken the night before trying on every dress I own.

The one thing I did plan though, granted still only a couple of days before, was a blow dry at Headmasters in Mayfair. Having never been to the hairdressers for a blow dry, I was looking forward to the post work, pre event treat.

I arrived fresh from work and met Stephanie, manager of the salon, who would be making me look a whole lot more glamorous for the evening. After a quick consultation I was off to the sink for a shampoo, condition and one of the best hairdresser head massages I have ever had.

My hair was dried to 90% before Stephanie came over to work her magic. My hair was parted and Stephanie, armed with blow dryer in one hand and brush in the other, set to work to create luscious waves.

No longer than 20 minutes later Stephanie was brushing my hair to the side and clipping it into place. My hair looked beautiful – bouncy with very glossy waves.

I don’t know how I ever went to an event without a blow dry. That may have been my first but it certainly won’t be the last.

Headmasters’ blow dries start from £27.

Tags: , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 3,580 other followers

%d bloggers like this: