Foodie day in Southall

Hey guys, Nabs here! Recently, Sammi and I took a bus (well 3 buses) down to West London to spend a day in Southall. In total the journey took us around 2 hours but we didn't mind. I love bus journeys and definitely prefer the bus to the tube/train.
(Warning: This may turn out to be a long post as we ate a lot that day, I mean a LOT...)

This was the first time visiting Southall for the both of us and honestly, as soon we got off the bus I felt at home. There were food stalls left right and centre. Being the foodies that we are we literally went into the first food shop that we saw. Inside was an array of sweets and savoury snacks. As we had seen a jalebi stand right outside the shop and were planning to buy from there afterwards we decided to go straight for the savoury snacks. The selection to choose from was so big we spend a good few minutes there just trying to decide what to buy. They had the usual samosas and pakoras (deep fried snack, usually with potatoes inside) but with additional snacks that I hadn't really seen in any of the shops near home. They had bread pakoras (which I still need to try!), paneer pakoras, as well as deep fried chillies. We finally decided on a samosa each as well as a paneer pakora for me. [The samosa was 60p each and the paneer pakora was £1]

As I mentioned, outside was a jalebi stand selling fresh hot jalebi. (I love these stands as there is definitely a difference between fresh jalebi made there and then compared to jalebi that was made a couple of hours back. It's so crispy and hot).  It was Sammi's first time trying jalebi and I honestly couldn't wait for her to try one as Jalebi are delicious and definitely one of my favourite indian sweets. I'll let Sammi tell you what she thought of them :) [We bought £1 worth of Jalebi]

Sammi: I absolutely loved the jalebi! I totally wasn't expecting the taste nor the texture of what I ate! I was expecting more of a hard candy with the sweetness of the type in a flavoured sweet, but when I bit into the jalebi... oh boy!!! I went to heaven! It was very crispy and hollow inside and the sugar coating was sticky and syrup like! I loved it! I was secretly so pleased when Nabs said I could take the whole lot home with me :P Nabs also told me that it's a great accompliment with tea.. So guess what I did when I got back home with them?? HAD THEM WITH TEA :D 

We couldn't wait to try the snacks and despite the rain we stood on the corner of one of the roads to devour them. The samosas were so fresh, but the paneer pakora was definitely my favourite! I absolutely love paneer and when it is deep fried, even better! The pakora had a slice of paneer in the middle of the batter and the taste reminded me of a filet-o-fish burger. 

The high street was full of stalls selling samosas, pakoras, chaats! I don't think more than 5 minutes had passed after eating our snacks when we noticed one of these stalls and decided to try something else.

We decided to try another vegetable samosa each (you can never eat too many samosas!). We also bought a Aloo Tikki (Potato Fritter) [Samosa was 50p each and Aloo Tiki was 50p each]

Sammii taking over here! We definately ate our way down Southall! I was loving it. There was a shopping centre on the main street that had different stalls inside it so we went inside to have a look. They had clothes and accessories stalls mostly, at very decent prices! They had earrings going for £1 which Nabs bought 2 pairs, I was very tempted to get a pair myself! There were small cafe's in the shopping centre too. 

When we finished browsing the shopping centre we ventured down the rest of the road and saw fruit stalls (which were much cheaper than what you get in Tesco!) If I didn't have to lug the fruit back home to central London, I would have definately got myself a basket full of fruit! We walked passed more Indian sweet shops and smaller restaurants. There is so much in Southall that we already talking about when our next trip would be! 

Ok what did we do next? 

More food of course! :) 

We were browsing online and found a restaurant which we wanted to try out, it wasn't in central Southall so we took a 20 minute bus ride out to it. The restaurant is called Raunka Punjab Diyan. Even though we had been eating the whole day we couldn't wait to try out this place! 

Inside was beautifully decorated, the walls were painted with out door rural scenery. 

It had a large choice of items on the menu. One of the reasons why we choose this restaurant was because it sold Gol Gappa so of course that was one of the dishes we choose. 

Sev Puri £3.75

(Pooris, potatoes, chickpeas, tamarind chutney & masala water)

These were sooooo delicious, I really enjoyed the fillings and the toppings! This was my favourite from what we ordered- it was nice and crispy with a burst of different complimenting flavours. 

Samosa Chaat £3.75

Samosa with yoghurt, mint, tamarind sauce, diced onions and chickpeas. 

This was equally delicious, I loved that the samosa was warm under all that yoghurt!

Garlic Naan £2.25

This was made fresh and it very light, thin and slightly crispy- different to the usual fat naans that you normally get. 

There were a selection of curries that you could choose from that were priced at £6.9. 

Hot Gulab Jamun with Vanilla Ice-Cream £3.75
I looooved this dessert! Something about hot and cold desserts I can't resist! The gulab jaun was like a syrupy soaked cake. It was the perfect end to the meal. And that's not even it, when we asked for the bill, the waitress bought over a little basket of sweets, there tasted like little pieces of sugar, I loved the way they were presented- very cute.

So that was the end to our day exploring Southall, we really enjoyed it and Nabs said she would even want to move there! Haha. We defo will be back, bring back full stomachs :) 

Dessert at Afters

Today I decided to treat myself and went to Afters in Tooting with a friend. Afters is an ice cream and dessert parlour and I have been a fan ever since it first opened but I've not blogged about it at all! Luckily I've kept pictures of nearly all the desserts I've tried there so I thought I would do one big blog which will look at all of those desserts.

 What you see as you walk into Afters: ice cream in the refrigerator on the left side and the seating area on the right side, which you can just about make out from this picture. Afters also have an outside seating area which they open during the summer and when it gets really busy, but unfortunately I wasn't able to take a picture of this.

The Seating Area - comfy pink chairs!!

 As you can tell from the above pictures there is a definite pink theme going on here: pink chairs, pink walls!!

Now onto the desserts!

What me and my friend had today:

Smartie Pants

Banana Split

I ordered the Smartie Pants sundae and my friend ordered the Banana Split. 

The Smartie Pants sundae contained a scoop of strawberry ice cream, m&m's, skittles, 100s & 1000s as well as chocolate and strawberry sauce, it was like a rainbow of colours in the ice cream glass. The picture just doesn't do it justice!

The first spoonful I tasted was an explosion of different flavours, a mixture of strawberry ice cream, softly whipped ice cream and chewy skittles! By the time I got to the bottom of the glass where the 100s & 1000s were I was really full but I couldn't resist a spoonful or two of melted ice cream and 100s & 1000s. Mmm!!  

Desserts that I've tried in the past:

Cakes

Strawberry Cheesecake

Oreo Cheesecake

Fudge Cake

Cake and Custard

Apple Crumble with custard

 Waffles

Waffles with whipped cream, marshmallows and a flake

Waffles with white chocolate sauce, ice cream and a flake

 Milkshakes and Juices

Kinder Bueno Milkshake no1 with whipped cream

Kinder Bueno milkshake no2 with whipped cream and marshmallows

Strawberry Sunset Juice

Cold Stone

Cookie Love

Sundaes

King Ferrero

Mr Whippy

Waffler

Minty Magic

Strawberry Surprise

Brownie Point no1

Brownie Point no2

Knickerbocker Glory

As you can see from the above pictures I am a regular customer at Afters, going there everytime I need my dessert fix. There are other desserts I've tried that I unfortunately don't have pictures of. These include the traditional Falooda, which is a cold drink made with rose syrup, vermicelli, tapioca or basil seeds, milk, jelly and ice cream.

I have tried so many different desserts at Afters that I wouldn't know where to start if you asked me what my favourite one is but if you're visiting Afters for the first time I recommend trying one of their sundaes! If you want something fruity try their Knickerbocker Glory or for something which has more chocolate try the Brownie Point!

Afters has branches in Tooting, Croydon, Walthamstow, Leyton, Ilford and Green Street.

Atmosphere  9/10

Service           9/10

Food               10/10

Chocolatesushi Rating 9/10

Nabs 12/08/13

Italian and Apple Pie

After working up an appetite from a morning of uni and work, we walked around Leicester Square looking at various menus along the way and finally settled on having a bit of Italian at Leicester Square Bella Italia. It turns out there were 3 Bella Italia's to choose from! All less than a minute's walk away from each other!! It was calling for us to eat there! haha.

 When we walked through the door we were greeted straight away and shown to our table. We chose one right at the back around the corner, very cosy!! 

There was a lot to choose from on the menu, the prices being fairly average at around £9-10 a dish! There was also a lunch menu available, but we chose to try something from the main menu. 

 This is the shared starter we ordered: 

Calamari £5.95

Lightly breaded and deep fried tender squid with lemon and caper mayonnaise

It took roughly 13mins for it to be brought out, so all in good time for a nice chat!

The dish was very nice! The batter was light and not too oily, however the squid pieces could have been more 'squidier' xD We would have liked to have bitten into a bigger piece of squid meat!!

For Samantha's main dish she ordered: 

Polle e Spinaci £9.45

Wholewheat riatoni with sliced chicken breast, field mushrooms and baby spinach in a creamy gorgonzola sauce

Samii: The dish was ok..... not as nice as it looked however! There was nothing wrong with it don't get me wrong! Guess it lacked a flavor I could say.. But I would not be ordering this dish again in the future. 

For Nabila's main dish she ordered: 

Gamberoni £9.95 

Eight succulent king prawns sauteed with garlic and chilli in a spicy pomodoro sauce, with spaghetti

Nabila: Now I'd like to start by telling you that I am a huge fan of prawns so this dish was a no brainer for me, especially since it said in the description 'succulent king prawns'! I mean what could be better?! Still it took me a while to select this dish as my final choice as there were just so many dishes on the menu to choose from! When the dish arrived I did oo and aah at the plate as it was nicely presented apart from the splattered chilli sauce on the side! 

The dish as a whole was very tasty, I especially liked the prawns as they were nice and juicy! And big too, which is very important as sometimes on the menu they say king prawns and when they arrive they are definitely not king sized! Also, there was a very generous helping of spaghetti but the dish did not fill me up. I am a person who usually gets full quite quickly but after cleaning my plate I was still hungry! So perhaps it wasn't value for price and the dish looked bigger than it actually was!

For both of our main course dishes we were given the option to have the dishes sprinkled with grated mozzarella cheese and pepper! Lovely!

Overall, our waiter was pleasant, the service was timed nicely and the waiter got the balance right between checking if we were ok and leaving us to enjoy our meal, which is always nice!