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 :) 

Salvation In Noodles Review- SINfully delicious!

Sammii here!

When my friend posted a pic of a hot bowl of steamy noodles on instagram, I was dying to get my lips around those noodles and go in for the slurp! 

Salvation In Noodles in Finsbury Park was the place we went to and don't you just love it when a foodie friend of yours recommends a place to you?? It's a sure guarantee that it will be good! I was expecting a gold medal and what I got was a world record! If you've never tried Vietnamese food before, look no further! For a place with top quality Vietnamese food, this place will have you hooked!

Starters have become a must for me these days. And dare I say it... more so than the dessert! 

Ok let me stop dilly dallying and tell you all what we ordered. 

Goi Ga £6

Shredded chicken, pickled cabbage, red onion & Vietnamese herbs with black sesame cracker. 

This was my favourite dish from what we ordered. It was very crisp and refreshing!

Cha Gio/ Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls with Pork and Wood-Ear Mushrooms £5
The spring rolls were very crisp and a good amount of juicy filling on the inside! I would really recommend this dish too!

Vietnamese Dumplings- Pork and Water Chestnut in a Spicy Chilli Oil £6

I thought that there was nothing special about this dish, and it was all too soft! But nevertheless great flavour! 

Bun Cha Gio- Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls with Rice Noodles, Pickled Carrots, Lettuce, Cucumber, Fresh Herbs & Garnished with Peanuts & Fried Shallots £8.50.

This dish was a delight! It was very fresh and inspired me to make my own noodle salad for my lunches, it is perfect for a summers day!

Bun Bo Hue- Thin Rare Steak & Pork Belly in a Hot & Spicy Lemongrass Beef Soup £9.50.

I would defo order this dish again too! The flavours of this dish were so perfect together, I could have done with more noodles though. There is something about tossing a bunch of herbs together with noodles that just does it for me! 

Top restaurant that I would visit again! Sorry, I am running out of interesting sign offs... Either that or me wrapped in my big fluffy dressing gown is making me a wee lazy xD

Chow for now all!

Atmosphere- 6/10
Service- 8/10
Food- 9/10

Chocolate Sushi Rating- 9/10

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

Korean Fried Chicken at Cheemc, Review.

Post written by Sammii.

Don't you love a humble, hidden, hush-hush, Houdini-wouldn't-even-want-to-escape-from-here, kinda restaurant! This Korean restaurant on Walworth road has been sitting right under my nose since December 2014! 

Cheemc is located amongst the many pizza, fried chicken and kebab restaurants near Elephant and Castle tube station. Up until this weekend I had always thought that it was another donar kebab shop! Oh boy was I wrong! If Cheemc had any similarities with these normal takeaway shops is that it specializes in fried chicken! Though not any kind of fried chicken... Korean fried chicken!

"I dream of the day where donar kebab shops are replaced by Korean fried chicken stalls!"

I would say that Korean fried chicken is gently rising in popularity in London since the opening of On The Bab. 

My friend was visiting me this weekend and she had a craving for yangnyum chicken, so I went off and did some researching online and came across this little place. It had been recommended by local Koreans and with instagram being my deciding factor, I thought I would give Cheemc a try. 

Cheemc is a tiny restaurant seating under 30 people. The menu was handed to us, and what struck us was that alot of things on the menu had been crossed out! A shame really because I would have liked to try some of the black pudding dishes!

Green Tea £1 per person. 

Kimchee £2.50

This kimchee sure had a kick to it which I enjoyed, it was fresh and crunchy. 

Kimchee Jeon £6.50

This was one of my favourite dishes! It was nice and crispy on the outside, a nice amount of filling on the inside, without making it soggy and just the right amount of spice! Hands down best jeon I have ever had!

Japchae £7.50

Toppoki £6- Rice cake with sweet chilli sauce with fish cake.
This was the second awakening to our taste buds, it was very spicy! If I had this to myself, my face would have needed a towel for sure! It had a good flavour, although the rice cakes could have done with more boiling as the rice cakes were a tad too tough for my liking. 

Fried Seaweed Roll (2 pound something- sorry I forgot the price and the proper name!)

Very nice- sorry I can't be more descriptive than this!

Lemme try again then- The food came out piping hot! Just the way I like it!

Yangnyum Chicken (above) and Soy Chicken (below), half of each, £17.50. 

You know how the TV is the center piece to place all your furniture around in the living room. The Korean fried chicken is the centerpiece on this dining table! A TV playing an addictive, plot ensnaring TV series, the episodes will be played one after the other.  The Korean fried chicken will go one by one!

The chicken did not disappoint, I was very happy with the generous portion size! The chicken was the real chicken and not the bits that no body wanted: thigh, breast, drumstick, everything was in there! My friend, Lady A, enjoyed how moist the chicken was and the how the outer skin was sweet and beautifully glazed.

It can get very busy in here especially around dinner time, luckily we got there earlier at around 6ish, by the time we left an hour or so later there were 2 sets of diners waiting to be seated. As the place was very small as well, I found that there was always a constant draft, which made it quite breezy if you were to sit nearer to the front of the restaurant. All in all however for a good eat no fuss restaurant, this little demure place is a definite place to visit!

For 3 of us diners the price came to £18 each.

Atmosphere- 5/10

Service- 7/10

Food- 9/10

Chocolate Sushi Rating- 8/10

Candle Lit Dinner @ Amici Miei

Sammii here!

So a month ago it was a Sunday and a Valentines day! I went on my first Valentine's day dinner :) I know how Valentine's day can be an advertising money spending trap kind of day, buuut it still feels nice when your man can go out of his way to spoil you for the day! 

I am defiantly not the type to have an extravagant full on cheesey Valentine's day however, and I was quite scared that everywhere that weekend would be a full on IT'S-VALENTINE'S-DAY-BE-ROMANTIC-PRESSURE-IS-ON-YOU, so I was very happy that this little restaurant in Shoreditch was not full on in your face! It was discreetly decorated for the day with a rose in the middle of the table and a Valentine's day menu. 

My other half and I both opted to go for the Valentine's day menu, as we both are lazy to look and choose through the complete menu lol!

The menu was priced at £31 per person which included a starter, mains, dessert and a glass of prosecco. It gave you different options to choose for each course, but this is what I choose for my set Valentine's day dinner, 

Starter: Capesante In Salsa Pesto- Scallops and Pesto.

I thoroughly enjoyed this starter, it was very simple and light!

Mains: Gnocchi Al Tartufo Nero E Porcini- Black Truffle and Porcini Gnocchi.

This dish had a very chesnut-ty wooden taste. I think that it could have done with a bit more flavour as I felt as though the taste was watered down. 

Dessert: Strawberry Tiramisu. 

The star of the show always ends with dessert. This red curtain came in the form of red strawberries!

It was a delightful end to the meal and it was a very hearty size! We were both struggling to finish this dessert! It was very creamy!

I was happily fed and accompanied by a very fine guy sitting across the table from me with a very nice shirt on, nothing could have gone wrong that day! :)

Atmosphere- 10/10

Service- 10/10

Food- 7/10

Chocolate Sushi Rating- 8/10

"I wish I was a dancer, tracing with my feet the lines of Butlers' menu"

Sammii here!

I have recently been lavishing myself far too much (by accident- long story cut short, I thought that this experience would be free but it wasn't!) I went for a spot of afternoon tea with my girls. Tea and catching up just go hand in hand!

The Venue? 

Butler's at the Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel.

Price? 

£36.50 per person.

The venue being in the heart of Mayfair fell nothing short from what you might expect. Doormen stood in the entrance ready to meet and greet you as you arrive. High ceiling, luxurious furniture, it is a place you imagine the queen dining in. A place where you go to treat yourself for a one off occasion. It looked like people dining here had those exact thoughts, as there were choirs of "Happy Birthday to you" that went off more than 5 times. There were a group of women who looked like they were celebrating a baby shower. 

We were seated in an area that had a conservatory/green house feeling, of course feeling like I was sat in the conservatory of Mr Obama's own home! This place would be wonderful in the summer time as it had glass panels on the ceiling letting the weather shine through, though this being London and in the middle of February, it was glum weather all around. 

We all chose to go for the afernoontea package which came at £36.50 per person. Everything came with free refills, so it was kind of like a buffet style afternoon tea! 

Up first was this fizzy little drink, which was very refreshing and fun!

I went for the Chesterfield Afternoon Tea blend, which was full of flavour with hints of spice in it. 

The Sandwich Selection: 

• Honey roast ham with Cheddar cheese and tomato chutney on onion bread.
• Roast chicken with grain mustard mayonnaise and nibbed almonds on white bread.
• Scottish smoked salmon with cream cheese on brown bread.
• Free range egg mayonnaise and watercress on basil bread.
• Cucumber and cream cheese on white bread.

My favourite one was the roast chicken with grain mustard mayonnaise and nibbed almonds on white bread, the picture of it is below. It was the most softest bread and the almonds were a nice touch to it as your typical chicken mayo sandwich would not have it!

In fact they were so good that when they came to refill our sandwiches we only asked for the chicken one!

My least favourite sandwich was the cucumber and cream cheese, just as I found the whole sandwich very dry and the bread was not as fresh as I expected it to be. 

The bread used for all the sandwiches were not very fresh, if I had to put a sell by date on them I would have said that they were to expire in 3 days, and they seemed like that had left the sandwiches out in the air for too long. 

The scones-

There were two scones presented which was the original scone and a chocolate one. I liked the original one the most, the chocolate one was ok and there was added chocolate chips in the scones which made it a nice little treat biting into one. The downside again to these scones were that they were not 5 star fresh. 

Golden egg I choose you!

This was a white chocolate egg, that I found very sweet, I didn't finish the whole thing off. 

This oompa loompa cupcake was also very dry, like it had been made 3 days ago!

My favourite from the sweets was this blueberry macaroon. It tasted how it looks! 

Towards the end of our afternoon tea, a member of staff dressed as willy wonka came over and told each of us to pick out a golden envelope from his hat, the envelope was sealed and the next time if we were to come here they would open the envelope and there would be a prize inside. For example free afternoon tea, a percentage off etc. 

My friend already had a golden envelope from the last time she had come here, which gave us 10% off this time round, unfortunately this was not taken off our bill and we had to remind the staff to take it off. 

We could take away the things we had left and more in a box. Though when I say more, they were not very generous with it! 

All in all I would not return back here. The food was disappointing and not fresh, and not worth the price. 

Atmosphere- 10/10

Service- 9/10

Food- 4/10

Chocolate Sushi Rating- 5/10