Roti Joupa

  
We haven't been to Trinidad before, but this Trinidadian takeaway Roti Joupa definitely made us feel like we had stepped off the streets of Clapham into a whole tropical world of exotic beaches, soca vibes and sunny islands. 

We ventured into Roti Joupa around half 12 on a very hot sunny Saturday. The seating area of Roti Joupa was already very packed, it seemed like this place was a hot spot for the local Caribbeans! The friendly afternoon bustle coupled with the soca music playing in the background really did set the Caribbean vibes, you just had to get up and get your groove on! 

One of the customers kindly told us that Trinidadian cuisine is rooted from India. The dish 'Hot Doubles' is a typical Trinidadian dish. He was brought up in Trinidad and hot doubles were served in carts for lunch at school, or as a home comfort food.  We couldn't wait to try them! We just had to order a hot double each, and on a spur we decided to try the Pholourie between us as well. 

Hot Doubles £1.50

A Hot Double is a popular Trinidadian street food, made from two fried flat breads which are filled with curried chickpeas. 

We both ordered one each and were given the choice of mild, medium and spicy at the time of ordering. We went for medium to be on the safe side. 

We wanted to take advantage of the sunshine so we took our food to Clapham Common Park. 

The hot doubles were delicious, starting off not very spicy at all until we got to the curried chickpeas where the spices kicked in with a vengeance. However, once we got used to the spices it was delightful. They were definitely worth the wait (we had to wait around 15 to 20 minutes for our order) and the only thing we underestimated was the size of the hot double. It was not very filling so in the future we would definitely buy two!

Pholourie £1.50

Pholourie are deep fried balls made from split pea flour and traditionally come with a chutney.

For the Pholourie we were again given the choice of mild, medium and spicy at the time of ordering. We chose medium.

The Pholourie were soft and tasty to start off with but they were heavy and filling despite their size. They were also very spicy, almost too spicy to enjoy properly! We would not get them again.

Overall we really enjoyed our trip to Roti Joupa, we will definitely be visiting this little gem again, keen to try out the other dishes they serve, we highly recommend it. :) Tongues blazing, sun sweltering, we were definitely on fire that day!

Atmosphere  10/10

Service           10/10

Food               9/10

Chocolatesushi Rating 9.5/10

On this occasion we only ordered from the Sides Menu but the following photos are of the rest of the menu showing you what else is available to eat at Roti Joupa!

Comic Con and a huge meal at Dosa n Chunty!!

In May, Sammi and I went to Comic Con at the Excel Centre with our friend Ara. As we were going to be buying tickets at the door we tried to get there as early as possible. Getting there for around 10am we got distracted at the entrance by taking pictures. When we finally got to the hall, the queue for buying tickets was so long we couldn't see where it began!! There began our 2 hour wait with little or no food. As we waited the three of us got hungrier and hungrier and we decided to go for a really big meal after the convention!

The only time I had been to Dosa n Chutny was a couple of years ago so I couldn't for the life of me remember what the food was like. However, Sammi and I were prepared and a week earlier had been looking at the menu online (that's what we do).

At the restaurant, the waitress bought us the menus, gave us sufficient time to decide and then was back to take our order.

Vegetable Samosa - £1.00

The vegetable samosa was Sammi's starter which she remembers as being the perfect samosa: crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, with just enough spices to add flavour to the vegetables. She loved it!

Curd Vada (2 pieces) - "Lentil doughnut immersed in mild yoghurt garnished with carrots and coriander" - £2.25

I've eaten Vadus (lentil doughnuts) before and this starter didn't dissapoint. The yogurt was fresh, the pieces of vada soft and delicious, and the dish itself was quite big for a starter. The three of us shared this starter.

Special Masala Dosa - "Crepe with seasoned potatoes, onions, mixed vegetables and cashew nuts" - £3.50

Sammi and I had both decided that we had to try a Dosa as that is what Dosa n Chunty are famous for. The Special Masala Dosa was Sammi's choice. 

She remembers the dosa as being plain, with the contents of the dosa not having enough flavour. However, she liked the 3 sauces which accompanied the dosa but in the future would go for a meat dosa.

Masala Dosa - "Crepe with seasoned potatoes and onions" - £2.95

I chose the Masala Dosa and when it arrived I was surprised by how big it was. With the dosa I was given a daal curry sauce, and two other sauces, one of which was a yogurt sauce. My dosa had a generous helping of potatoes and onions in it but I agree with Sammi, they could have had more flavour. The three sauces saved the dish as the dosa dipped in the lentil curry sauce or the yogurt sauce was delicious.

Lamb Rogan Josh - "A classic Kashmiri dish; tender pieces of spring lamb cooked in an onion tomato gravy with selected spices" - £5.50

No visit to an Indian Restaurant or in this case a South Indian Restaurant is complete without a curry! 

Our friend Ara is a vegetarian so she ordered a seperate dish, a Vegetable Kothu (Indian fluffy bread shredded on a hot Tawa, mixed with vegetables and Indian spices).

Sammi and I shared the Lamb Rogan Josh. Now we have eaten many lamb curries in our time but this was seriously the tastiest lamb curry I have had in a restaurant. It wasn't too spicy, the lamb pieces were so soft they almost melted in my mouth! If I came back to Dosa n Chunty and there was only one dish I could have this would be it!!

Garlic Naan

"Indian bread freshly cooked with garlic in tandoor"

£1.95.

The peshwari naan was our original choice of naan but they had finished their batch of peshwari that day so we ordered a garlic naan instead, which was the second best option. The naan was freshly cooked and tasty, perfect for eating with our lamb curry.

Faluda - £3.50

Now I remind you how hungry we were that day after all that walking we had done at Comic Con so we felt we deserved a dessert...who doesn't?! I have had the traditional faluda before which I love and I wanted to try Dosa n Chunty's take on it. The faluda started well, with fresh cream at the top, refereshing mango ice cream and pieces of fruit but it went downhill from there. The basil seeds at the bottom, of which there was unfortunately a very generous helping, were very bitter and the watery jelly at the bottom left a bad aftertaste in the mouth. We would not get this dessert again!

Atmosphere  8/10

Food               9/10

Service           8/10

Chocolatesushi Rating 8/10

Dawat Tooting Review

Located in Tooting, between Tooting Bec and Tooting Broadway underground stations. Dawat is a Halal Indian restaurant. 

On the outside, Dawat appears quite small, but looks can be deceiving :) Dawat opens into a surprisingly big interior. Me and Nabs decided to take a seat here after deciding that eating a curry in the park (as we had originally planned) would be a bit difficult. 

The waitress did seem a bit grumpy while showing us to our table and also throughout the service, but towards the end after getting charmed by our lovely selves she eventually cheered up a little ;)

We were asked whether we wanted our dishes coming out separately or all at once, and we said all at once so here comes the on slaughter of food!... 

First the salad and the dipping sauces.

Meat Samosa 80p

I cannot get an Indian without ordering a samosa and this one was lovely especially with the dipping sauce! :)

Seekh Kebab 70p

Lamb Mirchi £5.99

Lamb Karahi £5.49

Peshawari Naan £2.49

This was to share between us

Let's feast away! Both of the lamb curries were very delicious and also very similar to one another, but I would say that the lamb mirchi had a slightly sweeter aroma to the lamb karahi. 

After demolishing a samosa and half of my lamb mirchi I was surprisingly full! And usually I can finish a curry, naan and small starter easily! 

There was a very generous helping of lamb in the curries, around 15 pieces of meat, that is a lot of meat! Usually in the curries I've had, there is only around 5 pieces swimming in a pool of curry sauce, so the curries were definitely good value for money!

With the very decent prices, big portions and very relaxed atmosphere I would certainly visit Dawat again!

Atmosphere 8/10

Food           9/10

Service        8/10

Chocolatesushi Rating 8.5/10

Sammii

It's Always Tea Time

For my birthday we went to Sketch London for Afternoon Tea. Why, when there were so many other possibilities available, did we choose Sketch? After all, we had our pick from The Dorchester, Grosvenor House to The Ritz, which is considered by some to be the ultimate Afternoon Tea experience. Sketch London sits on Conduit Street, just off Regent Street, and within walking distance from Oxford Circus station. One of the things which set Sketch apart from the rest was the Glade room (See image B), where as the website advertises, we thought out afternoon tea was going to be. (More on this later).

When walking into Sketch you see that every room is different, every room is unique. For example, as image A shows, in the entrance hall there is a hopscotch painted in white on the floor. Yes, a hopscotch!

Image A

Image B

Image B shows the Glade Room. As I mentioned before, this is where my friends and I thought our Afternoon Tea was going to be but we were led by the lady into another room. Regarding the Glade room, as you can see from the image, the walls are painted like a forest from a fairy tale. Huge trees painted against a blue background and it looked like there were branches hanging down from the ceiling. The wooden furniture continues the forest like atmosphere. So I admit I was disappointed when we were led away from this wonderful room.

 

Image C

Image C shows The Gallery room in which our Afternoon tea was held. Although it was larger and more crowded than the Glade room the atmosphere was not affected. The unique and individual style of Sketch continues as you can see from the furniture and the wallpaper. No two walls, nor 2 chairs were the same. Each table had 3/4 chairs, there were wooden chairs, chairs with a stripy pattern... 

Bar in The Gallery.

The cost of a full afternoon tea with your own choice of tea was £34 per person. There was a large variety of tea's to choose from!

I am a fan of Audrey Hepburn with Breakfast at Tiffany's being one of my favourite movies so it was a nice surprise when I saw that my teapot came with a picture of Audrey Hepburn on it. I know it is just a teapot, but a beautiful teapot and tea set in my opinion makes the experience of drinking tea even better.

Our cake stand with a beautiful array of sandwiches, cakes and macaroons!!

Sultana Scones served with clotted cream, strawberry and apple jam and marshmallows.

Unfortunately, we left the best till last, so by the time we actually got around to eating our scones they were cold!! :( However, they were still delicious once they had a generous spread of clotted cream and jam on them but my advice to you would be eat the scones first! When they arrive they are warm, so don't wait for them to get cold..

Smoked Salmon and Jacob's Cream Sandwich - one of my favourite sandwiches!!

Cucumber, Ricotta and Broccoli Sandwich - one of my least favourite sandwiches.

Egg and Mayonnaise, Quail Egg and Caviar Sandwich.

Croque Monsieur with Comte Cheese. 
Though a little oily this was delicious, and I wouldn't have minded there being 2, 3 or 4 more of these...

Fig Tartlet.

Lemon and Basil Tartlet.

Chocolate and Mint Éclair.

This wonderful éclair had caramel cream inside it and as you can see from the picture had 3 silver crispy balls set on top of the dark chocolate.

Christmas Pudding Macaroon
 I usually love macaroons but I could not finish this macaroon, the Christmas pudding flavour was too much.

Coconut and White Chocolate Lollipop.

Tapioca Pudding with Pomegranate Coulis, Pistachio and Champagne Jelly- Sammii's favourite from the menu! I myself couldn't eat this because it had champagne in it.

Half way through our tea, a little surprise in the form of a birthday plate came out for me! Seems like my friends had told Sketch beforehand that it was my birthday :) One minute I was munching my way through one of the sandwiches and the next minute the waitress was walking towards my table with the birthday plate where she began to sing happy birthday to me along with my friends. It was a lovely surprise, and was the key moment in the whole afternoon tea experience for me.

To get to the toilets you had to walk up a white coloured flight of stairs, with the male toilets on the left hand side, and the female on the right. However, with the lack of any signs showing which was which, this was not made clear and luckily we just happened to walk up the right side.

Now if the glade room was like something out of a fairy tale, the toilets were like something out of a science-fiction movie. In fact, in my opinion, they strongly resembled alien pods.... what do you think? 

And to make things even more bizarre, while you do your business in the toilet a female voice sang Silent Night out to you! On top of that the toilet attendants were wearing French maid costumes! Strangeness coupled with wacky, it was sensational! 

Our waitress for the afternoon was lovely. She made the experience even more pleasant, always had a smile on and was happy to help! From the moment we started eating, you could tell that all the food was made from fresh top of the range ingredients- It was a delight to the taste buds and a feast for the eyes! Now I am not just talking about the food, but about the whole presentation of the table, the decor of the venue, the uniqueness of absolutely everything from the teapots to the toilets. To me an afternoon at Sketch was not only a delightful meeting over tea but an adventure of creativity. Sketch proves that it pays excellent attention to detail! Would I go back? Definitely!!

And to finish off our afternoon of tea... Our bill was delivered in a beautiful gold sandpaper-envelope! 

Atmosphere  9/10

Food             7/10

Service          9/10

Chocolatesushi Rating 9/10