What I ate last weekend ~ Tartine

I met up with my friend last Saturday morning and we ate brunch at Tartine, a cafe in Tooting Broadway. The weather on Saturday morning was miserable, a combination of rain and really strong wind, so when I reached the cafe I really needed something to eat to warm myself up.

I am really indecisive when it comes to choosing what to eat, I mean, there are always so many options to choose from, where do I start?! My friend and I took a while to look over the menu and in the end were deciding between ordering a really yummy sounding vegetarian breakfast or a vegetarian burger (which came with chips and sauce). In the end we both went with the vegetarian burger (I ordered it with cheese), chips and the sauce which we kept referring to as samurai sauce (the name of the sauce honestly sounded like samurai! I think it was a spicy mayonnaise.) Everything was freshly made and the burger buns were really soft, although the burger itself was a little oily. Despite this it was an enjoyable meal and the service was great. There was relaxing music playing in the background and by the end of the meal I had recovered from getting soaked and having my hair blown everywhere earlier in the morning.

Post by Nabs.

Atmosphere- 9/10

Service- 9/10

Food- 7/10

Chocolate Sushi Rating- 8/10

Making Minny's Chocolate Pie from the movie 'The Help'

The Help is one of my all time favourite movies. I watched it again recently and it made me laugh and cry. If you haven't seen it definitely watch it! Anyway, one of my favourite things about the movie is Minny's Chocolate Pie! Honestly, everytime the pie comes on screen I drool and want to reach through the screen to take it and eat it! Near the beginning of the movie Aibleen's character says that Minny is the best cook in Mississippi and her chocolate pie is almost like a character in the movie, it is central to the plot.

Ever since I first saw the movie I've wanted to make the chocolate pie. This weekend I was in the mood to do some baking so I bought the ingredients that I needed yesterday and made the pie this morning. 

Ingredients I used:

 Pastry Sheets (which I found in Tesco), Granulated Sugar, Cocoa Powder, Unsalted Butter, Evaporated Milk, Eggs, Salt and Vanilla Essence.

I used the following two sources when making the pie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjdCleGL0pw and http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/minnys-chocolate-pie. For details on measurements of ingredients click on either of these links. I used a combination of both.

Method:

Line a tin (I only had a sandwich tin to hand so used that) with the pastry sheet. Cook for 15 minutes (Gas Mark 4).

Whisk the sugar and cocoa powder together. Add the melted butter and evaporated milk. Whisk together and add in the eggs, salt and vanilla essence. Pour the mixture into the sandwich tin and bake for 45 minutes.

How the pie looked before it went into the oven for 45 minutes.

As the pie was cooking the smell of chocolate was filling the air. I couldn't wait to try a slice!

This was my first attempt at making a pie so my pastry/pie skills aren't very good yet. I don't think the pastry cooked as well as it was supposed to but practice makes perfect. Next time I'll use a deeper tin as I don't think the tin I used was deep enough. It was the only one I had though so had to make do today.

Post written by Nabs.

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

Seoul Bakery

by Sammii

The first thing you will notice when stepping into this small cosy Korean Restaurant is that the walls are covered with post-it notes! These post-its are written by customers-its pretty much toilet graffiti except that its on pretty colourful post-its! 

The place it self is very small, the whole restaurant only seats 13 people! One a table of 6, one a table of 4 and the other is table against the wall which seats 3. Its no wonder me and my friends waited 20 minutes on a Saturday afternoon to get seated! And indeed, it was no disappointment!

Seoul Bakery is 2 minutes walk away from Tottenham Court Road Underground station. It is one among a row of Korean restaurants on this street. 

Ok. Lets quit the small talk! Bring out the starters! 

[Left: Beef Boulgi Ghimbap £3.50, Right: Vegetable Ghimbap £2.50]

[Vegetable Pancake £6.50]

The food was oh so fresh! The rice in the Ghimbap was so soft and you could tell it was made straight out of the rice cooker as the rice was still warm! The pancake was just the right texture, crispy on the outside and a good amount of vegetable on the inside. I can fault nothing with these starters! It was cute and had a home made mummy's cooking feeling. I am feeling snug just thinking back at it ^^

Belly's all warmed up our main courses came out in good time. 

[Beef Bulgogi Bibimbap £4.50]

This was the main dish which I ordered.

My verdict is that I loved it! I glimpsed over at what the couple next to us ordered and asked what the guy had- the taste was as yummy as it looked! I was pleased to be a nosey one! Again everything was so fresh, I particularly liked the beef.... It was so perfect, perfectly flavoured and was the added ribbon to this dish. 

[Dumpling Topokki £5.50]

My friend was displeased at the size of her main dish, and I think this dish would do for a side rather than the main. I tried out a topokki piece and felt like I was robbing my friend of a quarter of her dish! The piece I did try however was all dandy! :)

[Topokki & Noodles £5.50]

Another of my friends that had this dish commented that "it was full of flavour and not too heavy which is perfect after being out all day in the cold."

I will definatly be revisiting this place again. The food was in the words of myself: "soooooooo good!" It tasted great without the feeling you would get when you just ate a  big greasy pizza. It was cooked fresh and the food was one that warmed my heart. 

Another thing I would comment on however was the service, our waitress did not crack a smile! I think it was a kind of i'm-just-here-to-serve-food kind of service. Any way I like you cause you're quick and you serve me great food! I can let this one slide...

Atmosphere 9/10
Service 7/10
Food 10/10
Chocolate Sushi Rating 9/10

Coffee Max

Coffee Max is a Halal Italian restaurant on Tooting High Street. I've been going there for years, whether it be for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Over the years I've tried a lot of things, from pizza and panini to a full on English breakfast.

When I go to a restaurant on a regular basis and end up really liking a particular dish I'll begin to order that everytime I go (I'll never try anything new). For a long time it was the panini that was my favourite. My go to panini was the 'Melted Mozzarella' which is made from turkey rashers, cheese, tomato and basil. Delicious! There are a range of other fillings to choose from including a vegetarian option (vegetables, olives, and cheese) and a fish option (tuna, sweetcorn, tomato, lettuce, red onion, and mayonnaise). All the options excluding the vegetarian are priced at £5.95; the vegetarian option is priced at £5.25. All the panini come with chips.

For the last year or two when going to Coffee Max I've always ordered the 'Melanzane Alla Parmigiana' or as I like to call it, 'the aubergine dish' (see the photo below). On the menu it's listed as a starter but the first time I tried it I was so full afterwards that for me it's a lot more filling than a starter is. I usually have it with some bread and that is my meal complete. 

Melanzane Alla Parmigiana £4.75

Melanzane Alla Parmigiana is baked aubergine layered with tomato sauce, mozzarella and parmesan. I love aubergine (one of my favourite vegetables) so I could eat the aubergines on their own and still be satisfied but the tomato sauce and cheese add a beautiful flavour to the aubergine. The bread is perfect for mopping up the tomato sauce and there is a generous amount of bread given so I usually have enough for the entire dish. 

Last week I went to Coffee Max for dinner and ordered my usual 'Melanzane Alla Parmigiana'.

I don't always have dessert after a meal (it depends on how I'm feeling) but this time I really needed something sweet. I usually have the chocolate fudge cake (see photo below) which is lovely! I am a chocoholic but for some reason am not very fond of chocolate ice cream or chocolate cake (I know, I'm weird) but I've literally eaten this cake everytime I've gone to Coffee Max for either tea & cake or as a dessert after dinner and I've never gotten tired of it. It comes drizzled with chocolate sauce and accompanied by whipped cream. I usually have it warm and in the past I've sometimes had it with ice cream (instead of whipped cream). 

This time though I wanted to have something different for dessert and went for the Tiramisu instead. I've eaten Tiramisu in the past and although I'm not a huge fan I do like it. Tiramisu is made using sponge cake, coffee and mascarpone cheese. The last time I ordered it (which was probably years ago) it certainly didn't look as pretty as it did now. The tiramisu was presented in a dessert glass with two Italian biscuits on the top (see photo below). A perfect mix of cake, cream and coffee (perhaps a little heavy on the coffee, I know I know, Tiramisu is made with coffee, what am I talking about?!). I was unable to finish it though (not because of the taste but because there was quite a lot of it and around 3/4 of the way in I was full). 

The Tiramisu and Chocolate Cake are both priced at £3.95. 

Post written by Nabs.

Atmosphere- 8/10

Service- 8/10

Food- 9/10

Chocolate Sushi Rating- 8/10

Chocolate Cornflake Cakes

I wanted to bake something this afternoon but wasn't in the mood for anything complicated so decided to make Chocolate Cornflake Cakes. What could be simpler?! I love these, they taste so good I can usually eat 2 or 3 in one go. This is a brilliant recipe for children to make with their parents as it's safe (no oven involved), easy and quick to make and very tasty!

I used around 3/4 of a belgian chocolate bar and a whole Terry's Chocolate Orange Popping Candy ball. I could hear the chocolate going pop as it was melting in the microwave.

Breaking the chocolate into little pieces I melted it in the microwave for around 1 minute. You can also melt chocolate by placing the bowl over a pan of hot water but I find melting in the microwave is a lot quicker.

Once the chocolate was melted I added in the cornflakes and mixed both chocolate and cornflakes together.

I then added the mixture as evenly as I could into cake cases.

It took me less than half an hour to make the cornflake cakes. I've put them in the fridge for an hour or so. I can't wait to eat them!

Post written by Nabs

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