Weekend in New Forest.

I spent the weekend in the New Forest, Hampshire, this weekend, and it was so rejuvenating to get out of the city and soak in the verdant environment!

Some photos:

I have black nail polish on, in honour of Jessica Chastain's bitching performance in Miss Sloane.

Pub review: THE PIG AND BUTCHER (Angel)

To get a table on a Sunday at The Pig and Butcher, you have to make your reservation some days in advance. It's quite rare for a gastropub to be fully booked up, but when I visited this venue, that's exactly how it was.

The Sunday menu offers several roasts, some available for the single diner, and others only available as part of a two-person package. On our visit, my friend and I had the beef roast to share. The roasts came with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, creamed leeks and vegetables.

Restaurant review: BRASSERIE MAX (Covent Garden)

About two or three times a year, I deviate from my questionable practice of dining at mediocre restaurants using Groupon deals (and then absolutely destroying the dumps on my blog, and give patronage to restaurants which don't need deals in order to get custom. Although such an act (of paying full price for a meal) doesn't strike most as out of the ordinary, when I do, I always feel like Charli XCX, in that 'I'm so fancy', and it means I've gotten to eat at some pretty awesome places.

I had the Thanksgiving dish, which, given the time of year, I felt was apropos:

Review: JERKKIES (Farringdon)

Spending in excess of a fiver for my lunch is not really my modus operandi, something you may have gleamed from my last blog, where I reviewed a bunch of Easy Cook noodles, all which retailed at 45p a pack or less. Another life hack I am extremely fond of (even if my waistline isn’t), is that every Monday, the Metro have promotional vouchers for McDonald’s, where you can get fries and either a Big Mac, McChicken sandwich, Quarter Pounder or, my personal favourite, filet o fish, for a mere £1.99.

These are two very purse-friendly options, but too much of anything can make you sick, so I strove to take advantage of my office’s Farringdon location to exercise some variety with regards to my lunch, and sample some of the local talent. And that’s how I found myself at Jerkkies, a fast-food joint that claims to produce ‘authentic Caribbean cuisine’.

I had the lunchtime deal, which was one of a selection of chicken dishes (or vegetarian equivalent), along with rice and Peas/ white Rice, steamed vegetables/green Salad and plantain for £6.50. I went for the chicken stew, because the gravy which the chicken had been cooked in looked (and smelt delicious).

I was happy with my selection, given that the element I could control turned out to be the best part about the meal. The stew had a fabulous taste, even if individual pieces of meat in it were hit and miss – some were succulent, other parts tasted bland and chewy. 

There were other missteps in the takeaway container, too. The white rice and peas had been lazily cooked, and the vegetables were soggy and low-quality. These components, graciously, were redeemed by the plantain, which I doused in generous amounts of sweet and sour sauce (it was free, so naturally, I helped myself), and tasted heavenly, the s&s sauce really coaxing out the plantain's texture.

So overall, a satisfying amalgam of flavours, where the tantalising taste of the stew masked some of the cooking shortcuts the chefs made with regards to the vegetables and rice. It was certainly a memorable lunch in a week where I’d been feasting on noodles. I’m glad I sampled Jerkkies, and I have no doubt that I’ll get a craving for the unadulterated in-you-face character of its creations one day in a few months, and saunter back. But for £6.50, I was hoping for more.

B

Pub review: THE BULL AND THE HIDE (Liverpool Street)

Another LivingSocial deal, another review. I purchased a deal for Sunday roast for two at The Bull and the Hide and thought I’d give my thoughts about the dining experience there:

• Venue: relatively easy to get to from Liverpool Street Station, although be aware that the dining takes place in the upstairs of the pub.
• Ease of LivingSocial use: excellent. In fact, I’d called up previously to arrange usage of the voucher a week previously, but due to over-booking, I had to reschedule for the following week and the staff were extremely helpful and obliging about it, which is more than can be said for many other
• LivingSocial/Groupon deals, which operate on a ‘one strike and you’re out’ basis. Furthermore, after the meal was over, the waiters let us go without tacking on an unwanted tip on the bill, which was ace!! As I was lamenting in my review of Tierra Peru, nothing ruins the taste of a good meal more than a barely deserved tip.
• Quality of food: Not the best Sunday roast I’ve had, and not the worst. The meat wasn’t the best, but I loved the potatos and the gravy, but sadly, both were on the sparse side (I adore gravy, had you noticed?). The vegetables were healthy and well-cooked. The choices of dessert were good, but stupidly, I went for the least impressive option, which was a glorified plate of strawberries.
•  Quality of wine: I’m not the biggest red wine fan, but I drank it all, which is something.

Overall, it wasn’t the best LivingSocial deal I’ve purchased, but due to the politeness of the staff, the refreshing fact that what we saw was what we got with no extra LivingSocial stipulations, and the cute way they created name-labels on the tables, I’ll be generous and give this place a B.

Grade: B

For more of my pub reviews, click here. If you would like me to review your bar, drop me an email at lemon_and_lime7@hotmail.com

Pub review: THE PRINCE OF TECK (Earl’s Court)

A short walk away from Earl’s Court tube stop, The Prince of Teck is that bit more elegant than the vast majority of dives I’ve visited, and can probably be best described as a pub with aspirations of being a bar.

Not that The Prince of Teck’s delusions of grandeur are a bad thing. Because it’s slightly more upmarket, you’re spared the company of unhinged boozehounds, and instead share company with city professionals who graciously have that London DNA imbued in them of just wanting to get drunk with their mates, and won’t be making small talk with strangers for no reason. 

Furthermore, the staff are extremely attentive and friendly, and never do you feel like you’re being an inconvenience to them, which is more than I can say for other London restaurants, where the pint-pullers glare at you for so much as asking for a drink.

Alcohol is slightly overpriced, but that’s expected, given the Kensington postcode. The food was exemplary – my sausage and mash were absolutely delicious, and it was good to see that the chefs had taken on board my request for extra gravy. 

My colleagues all spoke highly of their meals as well, and the choices on the menu transcended the standard paint-by-numbers fare. Such is the hegemony of The Prince of Teck in the dining stakes, then, that I would give this place a huge thumbs up. Visit it if you can; getting inebriated has never been so much fun.

Grade: A-

For more of my pub reviews, click here. If you would like me to review your bar, drop me an email at lemon_and_lime7@hotmail.com

Christmas Dinner.

This year, me and the brother were put on Christmas roast-cooking duty. These were the fruits of our labour:

We sprinkled a bit of cheese on our veg, just 4dabanta.



We marinated the turkey in lots of peri peri sauce.



Delicious food, all ready to be eaten!~~~