Friday Night - Salmon
JS: In preparation of Emily's visit I made a triple ginger cheesecake (it is from a previous blog post that you can find here) the night before her arrival and poured over my cookery books for something I could make quickly and easily so cooking did not eat in to gossip time, but I still wanted a challenge and for it to feel special - a tall order from any recipe.
I went for a Jamie Oliver recipe - Salmon wrapped in prosciutto served with lentils. I had never cooked lentils before and was ready for the challenge, even though I was nervous they would be a bit dull. I did 'back up' new potatoes too!
Luckily, it went really well even though I discovered Emily is not overly keen on fish! I think the fact it was wrapped in meat helped.
ES: Yep it's true, I'm not a fish fan, but fish wrapped in meat is most definitely the way forward! I was really impressed with the lentils too, lots of fresh flavors and a perfect accompaniment to the fish.
I thought the main course was awesome until I tasted the cheesecake, it's beyond belief how good this tastes - will most definitely be making this.
Saturday Morning - Blueberry Panacakes
JS: After Mat made the most amazing pancakes for my birthday, I thought I would make them for Emily and Mat (before he left for a stag do!), they seemed to go down a treat.
ES: Although they were smothered sugary goodness the fact they were also covered in berries made me think I was being extremely healthy. I've made pancakes like this before but the inclusion of fresh blueberries into he actual mix is a stroke of genius.
Saturday Day - Oysters
JS: For part of my birthday treat, Emily decided to take me for Oysters - something I have never tried and she loves. We went all out and got a seat at the Oyster Bar in Harrods, a great place to sit and people watch surrounded by the buzzing environment of the food hall.
We went for six oysters each as I was pretty confident I would like them due to my love of cockles and mussels, and washed it down with half a bottle of champagne. They don't come cheap but feel so luxerious to indulge in. I loved them - simply with a little lemon on there own, with a few drops of tabasco or with one of the fresh vingeratte dips, we both preffered the shallot vingeratte over the chilli and coriander one too.
ES: This was such an experience, felt like a total tourists, but I really enjoyed every minute of it. We headed off to Harrods, I have never been there before so was pretty excited to have a little mooch about. I really wanted to treat Jade to oysters for her Birthday as she has introduced me to so many new foods and drinks (without Jade I would not be a Gin lover and Thai Green Curry eater). Knowing she had never tried oysters and the fact I love them I wanted to share this foodie moment with her.
I watched carefully as she tried the first one, it didn't come back up and she had a big smile on her face much to my relief!
Saturday Evening - Graphic and Polpo
JS: Poplo is a restaurant I have long wanted to visit, especially after visiting their sister restaurant Spuntino a few months ago, where I had one of the tastiest mouthfuls of food so far this year!
Another restaurant with a no reservation policy we rocked up and was told the wait would be an hour but it turned out to be only 15 minutes which we happily spent at the bar drinking the house wine. The principal is lots of sharing plates inspired by Italy - we went for four different ones and a couple of smaller appetisers.
All were delicious bite sized mouthfuls of heaven, but the stand out ones for me were the asparagus (which had just come in to season) with huge shavings of the best parmesan I have ever tasted with a drizzle of tomato sauce over the top and the meatballs - substantial cylinders of perfectly cooked and seasoned beef covered in a tomato sauce.
ES: All that is left to say is that Graphic is awesome, it's not style of substance. The atmosphere was chilled and the cocktails were delicious. As for dinner the concept of Italian tapas is brilliant, any excuse to try a little bit of everything instead of having to commit to one big dish is a bonus.
Sunday - Columbia Road, Brick Lane and Canteen
JS: After starting the day with a bacon sandwich to soak up the previous nights alcohol we went for a mooch around Columbia Road flower market (where I got some very pretty white roses and thistles) and Brick Lane.
JS: To cure the hangover completely we headed to Canteen in Spitalfields market and tucked into a beef roast with a huge yorkshire pudding and followed with the most amazing desserts served in little glasses, I went for the chocolate brownie caramel sundae which I didn't think I would manage to finish but was the perfect sweet pick me up to power my legs the rest of the way home.
ES: Really enjoyed exploring this side of London, the flower market was hectic but a real experience for both your eyes and nose. I was also happily surprised by the great little art galleries and shops that you find there too. Canteen was brilliant as always, never felt so sleepy in all my life though, we'd walked loads then eaten the biggest dinner ever and we were both very relieved to get the tube home and sit on the sofa and veg out. It was lovely to have an extra day with it being bank holiday so we could just chill out and wander around rather than rushing for trains. My highlight was my rhubarb trifle though, made me proud to be British to eat such a classic :-)
I was slightly amused at the two foreign tourists reaction to our dinners, they nearly feel of their chairs when they saw out Yorkshire Puds and quickly started to refer to the guide book, I couldn't understand what they were saying but every now and again you'd just hear 'Yorkshire Pudding'. They even called over the waiter to check that's what they were :-)
Monday - Carluccios
JS: We had been all over London - east, west and central but I had yet to show Emily the much of the area I lived in and near, so we took a stroll in to Hampstead and popped into Carluccio's for brunch before Emily headed home. I am a big fan of the restaurant chain (apart from the screechy child in the background) and the brunch we had was yummy. I went for the sauteed mushrooms and scrambled egg on toasted Italian bread and Emily went for the fried eggs and crispy pancetta, also on toasted Italian bread - benissimo!
ES: Brunch was yummy and loved the deli next door too. The wild boar ragu I brought for dinner was amazing.
Thanks Jade for a brilliant weekend :-) x
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