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 :) 

Tasty naan breads at Tooting Bakery

Hey guys, Nabs here! I know it's been a long long time since I last posted but I'm back and will hopefully be sharing a lot of food adventures with you in the future :) 

This post is going to be about one of my favourite types of food: bread! (More specifically, naan bread). I eat Indian food on a daily basis and always accompany my curries with roti (chapati) or naan bread. 

Tooting bakery do the most delicious fresh naan bread! They sell 3 white/wholemeal naan breads for £1 which is a fantastic deal and this is what I've been buying from them in the past. Recently however I decided to try something new.

As well as the plain naan breads they also bake naan breads with a variety of toppings. You name it, they bake it! Some of the toppings they do include chicken, keema (mince), garlic, spinach & cheese, pizza, and even nutella!! How amazing does nutella on naan bread sound!? I must try that next time! Anyway in the last week I've tried two of the above: the spinach & cheese and pizza naan and I have to say they were delicious!!

Pizza Naan Bread

Spinach & Cheese Naan Bread

The toppings on both naan breads tasted fresh and there was plenty of cheese melted into the naan which was good news for me as I love cheese!

The naan is freshly made for while you wait. The people who work in the bakery are friendly and helpful, and have no problem when you accidently mess up your order like I did. I was half asleep when I was ordering and asked for a spinach & cheese naan when I should have asked for the pizza naan, but thankfully they hadn't started to make it yet so all was well.

Out of the two the Spinach & Cheese Naan is definitely my favourite but I will no doubt be ordering the Pizza Naan again.

Atmosphere- 10/10

Service- 10/10

Food- 10/10

Chocolate Sushi Rating- 10/10

What I ate: Buffet at Jimmy's in Wimbledon

When going for a buffet I always imagine that I'll  be able to eat  4 or 5 plates of food yet I never manage more than 2 plates, 3 is pushing it. This is despite the fact that I've not eaten anything beforehand so am really quite hungry. I don't know if it's because I sometimes pile my plate with too much food and as a result get full quickly but it literally happens everytime I go for a buffet.

Moving onto Jimmy's, I went to see the the Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies with my friend yesterday and we ate at Jimmy's before seeing the film. Jimmy's is a buffet restaurant serving food from around the world: Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Italian. 

There was so much different food to choose from that I didn't know where to start. Did I feel like eating pizza or maybe sweet and sour chicken? In the end I went for both, so my first plate (see photo below) had sweet and sour chicken, spring rolls, rice, prawn crackers, beef in black bean sauce and pizza. The spring rolls were my favourite, I found myself eating all 4 and wanting more. 

Plate 1

Plate 2

I have been to Jimmy's once before and on that visit had been to the wok cooking station where fresh stir fry is made for you while you wait. How it works: you add noodles and vegetables onto a plate which you then hand to the chef who will ask you what meat you would like on the stir fry (you can choose from prawn, chicken or beef) as well as how spicy you would like the stir fry to be. I can't remember what I had on my first visit to Jimmy's but yesterday I chose peppers, mushrooms, bean sprouts, pak choi and chicken with medium spice. The chef took all the ingredients (noodles, vegetables and meat) and cooked everything in front of me. I couldn't wait to eat! 

Dessert

Moving onto the best thing about a meal: dessert! At Jimmy's you can choose desserts ranging from ice cream to cake to marshmallows and chocolate fondue (my favourite!) Although the meat at Jimmy's is halal some of the desserts at Jimmy's contain gelatine (this is labelled) so I wasn't able to try everything. I love ice cream so that was an obvious choice for me. You choose a flavour of ice cream (from chocolate, strawberry and vanilla, there were a few other flavours but I can't remember what they were now) and a range of toppings, I chose vanilla ice cream with mini egg chocolates. Mmm! Next, I obviously went for the chocolate fondue (I seriously need a chocolate fondue kit at home!) where I dipped two marshmallows (they are halal) into the chocolate. The melted chocolate was lovely, it tasted like melted galaxy! The other dessert I chose was red velvet cake but I was so full by this point I couldn't eat it.

Christmas prices apply from 1st December to 24th December, so the buffet on Saturday (we went around 1.30) was £12.99. I don't know how much the buffet usually is (outside Christmas prices) but here is the link to the website: http://jimmysrestaurants.com/restaurants/wimbledon/

Post written by Nabs

Atmosphere- 7/10

Service- 8/10

Food- 7/10

Chocolate Sushi Rating- 7/10

Friday Deal at Jaffna House

I went to Jaffna House on a Friday night with a friend a couple of months ago and I really should have written about the meal I had once I got home or at least the next day. Unfortunately things got in the way which meant that I've left this post quite late, forgetting a few details along the way such as the price! I'm sure it was between £4 and £5 which was very reasonable considering how many dishes this deal contains as well as the large portion of rice! (The price may have gone up since).

I really liked the potato curry which is the second one from the right at the top, it was definitely my favourite. The other dishes included are aubergine curry, fried cabbage, daal (lentils) and spinach curry. I can't remember what the dish on the top right hand corner is. 

The donut shaped snack in the above photo is called a Vadai, it's made of daal, onions and chilli. It tasted nice except I found it a little dry. If you're going to Jaffna House for a meal and don't go for this deal you should try the Thair Vadai where the Vadai is soaked in yogurt (this will make it less dry). Unfortunately with this deal you can't choose and you get the original Vadai (I guess you could soak it in one of the curries, maybe I should have done that!)

Anyway I hope to go back to Jaffna House soon to either get this deal again or try something new. And I'll hopefully be able to write a more detailed post (apologies for the lack of detail in this post).

Written by Nabs.

Atmosphere- 8/10

Service- 8/10
Food- 8/10

Chocolatesushi Rating- 8/10