Taro

Me and Nabs stepped into Taro - A Japanese noodle and sushi bar in Soho London, on a particular rainy and windy Sunday. Glad to get away from the oncoming rain. It just happened to be the Chinese New Year weekend and celebrations were running just in the next street in Chinatown, but as you know rather than joining in the upbeat drumming and following the lion as it went from shop to shop, me n Nabs will choose to eat anyday! 

As I (Sammii) had previously eaten here before, I was dying to get my chopsticks around The Spider Roll again! We opted to order a range of sushi from the menu to share between us rather than the noodle and rice dishes the restaurant also had to offer. 

Green Tea £1.50

Vegetable Gyoza £4.70 

The Dumplings were mediocre, can't complain about them really, just what you expect from a vegetable dumpling, soy seasoning on the inside. Compared to the sushi we ordered, the dumplings were a stage prop to the main attraction. 

Nabs "I definitely agree. I've eaten better dumplings at other restaurants so I won't be getting these again. They weren't bad, they tasted fresh but the sushi was the real star of the show here. Taro is all about the sushi so in my opinion when visiting this amazing restuarant don't waste any time, just order their sushi, you won't regret it!"

Spider Roll £7.90

Rolled 'Futomaki' sushi ('big roll') of soft shell crab. 

Mayonnaise on top. 

Sammii "I loooooove this dish so much! I went here two weeks ago and had the exact same dish. Today it certainly wowed me again! The tempura was crisp and the crab was soft but firm. I definitely will order this everytime I visit here!"

Nabs "I've not eaten crab before, it has been on my to eat list (I keep one in my head and am forever adding food to the list) so I was really excited to try crab. Today was the first time trying it and as Sammi had recommended the Spider Roll I couldn't wait to taste both the crab and the actual sushi roll! All in all I was not disappointed. The Spider Roll was amazing! The mayonnaise sauce (I love mayonnaise!) was an incredible edition to the sushi. I would never have thought the two (sushi and mayonnaise) would go together but they do, so well! I don't think this was normal mayonnaise though, more a garlic mayonnaise I think. Even better! In terms of my first attempt at eating crab I was very satisfied with the taste and will definitely be getting the Spider Roll again as well as eating crab again!"

[Left] Prawn Tenpura Roll £5.90

Nabs "I LOVE prawns, literally my favourite sushi alongside salmon so it was a no brainer that I was going to get a prawn sushi roll!"

[Right] Eel Avocado Roll £3.50 

Nabs "I've not eaten Eel before either (I know I know, there is a lot of fish I still have to try). I must admit I was a little afraid at trying this one because Eel aren't the most attractive looking fish. They actually look pretty frightening so I didn't try this one straight away. However once I did, I ended up liking it though I told Sammi that the Eel was nice, a little chewy but she said it wasn't chewy so I don't know if I actually even tasted any Eel or just swallowed it without tasting it...hmm."

 Wonder Roll £7.90

(Avocado, cucumber, salmon, crab stick, with mayonnaise) 

Sammii "I didn't know that the tempura sushi roll existed! I have tried the sushi roll where the seaweed is on the outside and the california types where the rice is on the outside, but never knew about the tempura batter on the outside! I really loved this sushi roll too, the tempura really gave the sushi an added dimension. You could tell that it was freshly made as the sushi was warm when it was served. I also like the filling of the cooked salmon on the inside (as usually the salmon is raw)"

Nabs "This was definitely my favourite sushi roll, I loved it! The batter was so tasty and as Sammii said, it was very fresh! I could easily have eaten another portion of these. It's a week later since we went to Taro and I can honestly still taste this roll."

The other tempura style rolls on the menu is definitely something we would like to work through!

Nabs "Isn't this photo of all the sushi so beautiful! I want to go back and eat all of this again!"

Nabs "We were both still gushing over the amazing sushi we had eaten for hours afterwards, we just couldn't forget the taste! The atmosphere in the restaurant was really nice, it got busier towards the end but for the most part of our being there it wasn't too bad. The service was friendly and I really enjoyed myself. I'm talking like I was at a convention or something, not a restaurant but eating is an experience for me :) "

Atmosphere - 8/10

Service- 8/10

Food- 10/10

A nostalgic look at the past

Nabs ~ I'm going to start off by saying that the 90s (and the early 2000s) were amazing! Life was a lot simpler back then, without everyone being as connected 24/7 through social networking, phones, emails, as we are now. 

Sammii - Ipad? What Ipad? Hand me over the pogs!

Children's Television was at its height. Just a few of the cartoons/shows we had: Hey Arnold, Recess, Art Attack, Chucklevision, I could go on forever... Nickelodeon was my absolute favourite channel showing Saved by the Bell, Sister Sister, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and my personal favourite, Kenan and Kel (orange soda anyone??)

I love 80s music but 90s music comes pretty close (I'm listening to Backstreet Boys as I write this post, getting myself into full 90s mode). Some 90s bands and singers are still popular today, Backstreet Boys being one example. Others not so much...anyone remember Aqua?...

In the days before YouTube (it's hard to remember a time when there was no YouTube) I used to listen to songs on MTV, The Box, VH1 classic...TV music channels that are actually still around today!

Growing up I loved to read (I still do). Some days I would spend the entire day just reading (utter bliss) and one of my favourite authors as a child and teenager was Judy Blume. Her books were brilliant, dealing with issues such as family, love, sibling rivalry, friendship. They were almost like a friend and I remember reading them over and over again.
And who remembers Beano magazines?? Those magazines used to keep me entertained for hours! I would re act the whole panels and make up voices for everyone. I loved going to my mum and begging for a pound coin, just so I could scoot off over to the corner shop to get the latest Beano magazine along with a 10p pic-a-mix bag. And what about those Goosebumps books? I think that was just about the most scariest thing I knew when I was little (Oh wait- not including Vega from Street Fighter >< Long story!) I was so scared of one book I had to hide it in my cupboard and didn't even end up finishing it!

I found a copy of a Point Horror book. Does anyone remember these?? They were so scary, I think they were like a step up from the Goosebump books.

Okay, I am in full nostalgic mode now and could go on and on about all the things that made the 90s so great but the rest of this post is going to focus on 90s food. Ahh glorious food!

I was in Tesco passing the soft drink/juice aisle when I came across this:

Um Bongo!!

I instantly recognised the colourful packaging and bought it to try it and see if it still tasted the same as it did when I was young (not that I remember exactly how it tasted but I like to think I do...)

Um Bongo in a glass ready for me to try

I'm sure I remember it being sweeter than it is now (most probably because it was loaded with sugar). I think it has a lot of pineapples in it, the colour definitely reminds me of pineapple juice. I wouldn't buy it again but I'm glad I bought it this once, as it gave me a chance to briefly revisit my childhood. It was seeing the Um Bungo juice carton in Tesco which triggered the feeling of nostalgia and gave me the idea to write this post.

Sunny Delight

Another blast from the past! I used to love Sunny Delight as a child and I remember drinking it a lot...probably not the healthiest drink but it was so nice! Sunny Delight or Sunny D was launched in the UK in 1998 and it quickly became a very popular drink. I tried it today for the first time in years and it tasted wonderful, not too sweet or tangy.

Coming onto chocolates, just a few of the ones that are no longer with us (sorry to sound dramatic but I am a chocoholic after all!) ~ Cadbury's Marble chocolate which was a delicious blend of milk and white chocolate filled with praline, Mars Delight and Aero filled with white chocolate...why were these stopped! Aero filled with white chocolate has actually made a comeback, so that's good news! I ate a large bar last week!

Also, who remembers when Starburst was called Opal Fruits??

As they look now...I still think Opal Fruits sounded better!

One of the fondest memories from my childhood definitely has to be walking into Woolworths (I miss that shop!) and heading straight for the Pic n Mix section! I can't eat gelatine so it was only the chocolates for me but what a delight! I would fill my bag with chocolate mice and chocolate ice creams, Smarties, Mini Eggs, Jazzies and chocolate raisins and peanuts and eagerly wait for my mum to pay so we could get outside and I could finally dig in!

I found Pic n Mix in a shop but it's just not the same as it was in Woolworths!

Christmas at Borough Market

Festive post at Borough Market!

Today was a beautiful winters Sunday afternoon, its about time I-Sammii, got my festive cheer on! Being the lazy person that I am on weekends, where it's a time for me to operate 3 times slower than normal, I headed on up 10 minutes down the road to Borough Market!

Borough market has a whole host of different traders, the main attraction is of course being the food stalls!

The first stall I hit was the mulled wine one- great start to get my festive mode switched on I think!

It was £3.50 for a cup of mulled wine! 

After sipping on mulled wine for 10 minutes I wasn't sure if it was the hot drink that made me feel warm inside, or was it the cheeky alcohol? Either way I was on a festive high! ;D

I was a bit disappointed with the Christmas lights however, I thought that the place would be more decorated.

Cheese, cheese and more cheese!! :D They have ALOT of cheese stalls, and free samples to try out! Great compliment to my mulled wine ^^

The one that particularly caught my tastebuds was the cheese pictured above called the Comte Grande Reserve (I think) I will have to come back to this place just to buy me a slab of this!

After snacking on cheese and wine and walking round the stalls it was time for a proper meal, I decided to try out this Ethiopian stall called Ethiopian Flavours. 

You could choose between chicken or lamb, I chose the lamb, and also 3 side dishes to go with it!

I did enjoy the lamb, it was very flavoursome, the good thing about this dish was that it was all gluten free! A good thing for the gluten free trend that is going on these days. On the whole however I wouldn't buy it again, it reminded me of a sloppy school dinner, and the vegetables were cooked too soft, the whole thing ran into one consistency. 

What comes after a main course? 

Of course desserts1 :)

Carrying on with my gluten free meal, I decided to try out the Free From Bakehouse- all their products being gluten free!

I went for the Salted Caramel and Plum cupcake which was priced at £2.50. It is also vegan! Anyway I am glad I am not a vegan or suffer from any gluten allergies, as gluten free cupcakes just don't have the softness of all glut cupcakes! 

With it being the festive season and all I also got a mince pie! It always baffled me how it was called a 'mince' pie with the pie having no mince in it at all and how mince pies are actually sweet and not savoury, like the name suggests. 

The mince pie was way too sweet for me, sweeter than normal mince pies. Big thumbs down. 

I really enjoyed this stall, the Christmas pudding stall! The lady gave me a free sample too and it was gorgeous! The packaging of these Christmas pudding make it the perfect Christmas gift if you're going to visit a relative or a friend. 

I know this post is coming out more than a month since Christmas has passed, that is mostly due to me being very lazy, but I hope everyone had a great Christmas break :) Mine was filled with food and family and friends, I think I may have had 3 Christmas dinners in 24 hours too! Oh well its that season for food and to be jolly ( well before the new years resolution of going on a diet kicks in! xD)

Post written by Sammii

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