Dinner at Zedel

Hi Guys!

I went for dinner in Regent Street's Zedel - a French brasserie. I've never been to a place like this before and had no idea what to expect. What I experienced was great food and an amazing atmosphere. Zedel is surprisingly bigger inside than it looks from the street. The interior is beautiful - gorgeous art deco, glamourous and cool.

Let's just say - food was amazing. I had pate to start, steak for my main and creme brulee for dessert. I also tasted for the first time a bite of steak tar tar and I must say, it was yummy. But I couldn't eat a whole raw cow.

The service was brilliant - I felt welcomed and comfortable. I wasn't  overly bugged but I was never thirsty. This was a treat but I think this might have come up to about £40 for what I ate - and I would say it was worth it and totally recommend it to anymore. 

After dinner we walked down Regent Street towards Bond Street station. The window displays were lovely. If I win the lottery I shall be raiding Hamleys!

Nom nom nom

Had the urge to cook (well actually, just had the urge to eat food that didn't come out of a packet and required heating in the microwave) so I did a bit of cooking.

Pictures are a bit washed out but I was too busy slaving over the stove then to take too many pics ;)

[Above]

For starters I made a thai beef salad.

Ingredients:

Steak (you could also use smoked sausage)

Red Onions, Onions, Shallots, Corriander, Lettuce, Gem Lettuce, Cucumber, Chilli

Fish sauce and lemon juice

[Below]

Main course was suppose to be dover sole but when the fish defrosted (couretesy of mum) it was a fish with a head and eyes and a tail, not filleted as I assumed so instead I made.....

Stuffed chicken breast wrapped in parma ham

Ingredients:

Chicken breast, soft cream cheese, garlic, parma ham, salt and pepper

New potatoes, butter, asparagus

[Above]

Erm...this is suppose to be a cheat chocolate cheesecake but it so totally wasn't lol

But!! Even though it didn't look or even taste like what I was aiming for it was acutally all right :)

Ingredients:

Crushed ginger nut biscuits (for the base)

Chocolate custard and mascarpone cheese

That's it!

And as you can see from the pic I probably would have been better using a whisk but lumps just add character......just like me and my lumps/humps LOL

xoxo

Welcome to Wahaca!

Hi Guys,

I ate dinner at Wahaca* for the first time the other day in Westfield Stratford City and thought I'd share with you:

(*Wahaca serves mexican street food. Kind of mexican tapas style where you order loads of bits and pieces. There was also 'big' stuff on the menu in case you don't like to share;) lol )

This is what I ate (with a friend). It was yummy. And actually price wise it wasn't too bad for my pocket (still a major treat for me though). The selection plus a wine and a diet coke was about £13 each including tip. And I feel better paying for food that I can't cook.

And the pork pibil was AMAZING!!!!

The food was great. And the atmosphere was buzzing. We got there at a great time and it was pretty quiet and plenty of seats but by 8pm people were queuing out the door. I would say this is a nice place for a second date type thing or a quick catch up with a friend - a casual but special atmosphere (a step up from nando's!!!) It was very noisy which is why I said second date and not first date (where you would want to be able to talk properly), likewise not a great place to eat to have an in-depth catch up with a good friend (unless you like shouting at each other).

The service....tbh it left a lot to be desire. I appreciate it was friday and really busy and as a new restaurant with new staff there's going to be some glitches but I did expect more. Service was inattentive, rushed, and the food came in dribs and drabs in a bad order. There was a lady on the table next to us waiting for someone to join her and she was there for about 10 minutes before she called over a waitress to order a drink since no one came to her. We had the opposite problem where our waitress asked what we wanted to drink within 30 seconds - er I don't know I've just sat down.

So drib drab food? What I mean is that, as you can see from the menu/photo's, we ordered a set selection of food. I either expect to be told that the food will arrive as and when, otherwise I expect the food to arrive together. Our meat dishes came first which were devoured, And then the bread, rice and veg stuff came last (and half way through I had to cancel a seperate order of coleslaw and I was challenged as to why "because we've eaten everything else" - why would I want to eat coleslaw by itself fool? Especially when I told the waitress at the beginning that I wanted the coleslaw asap.

Er......ok despite all that I enjoyed it though. I'm glad I went as an experience, but I am not sure if I would go again (or not too often anyway). And if I did go again I am just going to eat 10000 pork pibils!!

Oh! And the best thing about Wahaca was the decor. Really different from anywhere I've ever been and they're really into recycling/reusing; the 'walls' leading to the toilets were made from plastic water bottles. Cool or what?

I give my Wahaca experience 6.5/10

Come dine with me - main and dessert

Continued.......

Main course - was sea bass, mash and veg (onions, yellow pepper, olives) and parmesan. This was so wrong because my mash was catastrophic! More like a potato soup than a mash lol It was suppose to be a mix veg and mash tower with a sea bass fillet placed fancily on the tower and a drizzle of sauce but it was a fish swimming in potatoe. But it did taste good though (couldn't really go wrong could it!)

Dessert - OMG it was lovely. White chocolate creme brulee with raspberries. I could eat this everyday! First time making creme brulee and really happy with the result :)

Challenge - Day 3: My favourite TV programme

As you guys know I'm not much a tv watcher but one programme that I know that I'll enjoy and so I guess makes it my favourite is... Come Dine with Me.

I'm sure many people will agree but one of the best things about cdwm is the narrator Dave Lamb. He's so funny and sarcastic.

I also enjoy the food aspect of the show. I'm equally amazed by the great cooks and appalled by the crap ones. I cannot cook but I still enjoy watching other people cook. I usually watch cdwm online whilst I'm eating my own dinner and I often pretend I'm eating whatever 3 course meal is being served instead of my toast or instant noodles (or fish fingers if I'm feeling plush).

I love being able to see how other people live and to get to have a look around their houses. I find the way people present their dining table/room really interesting as well because my eating area is so plain.

So that's my fav tv programme, what's yours?