food, reviews and of course coffee
I was staying at the Doubletree Hilton in Ealing and was eating in the hotel restaurant.
I decided to go for a starter, choosing the lamb kofta, which was served with mint yoghurt and pomegranate.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised with the dish and how the food was presented. I did enjoy the lamb and it was an interesting mix of tastes, textures, warm and cold. If I get the chance I think I would order it again.
I was staying at the Doubletree Hilton in Ealing and was eating in the hotel restaurant.
I had initially decided that I wouldn’t have a burger, as I have eaten quite a few burgers recently. However I haven’t had a chicken burger for some time. Reading the description, fried butter milk chicken burger with red-hot sauce, blue cheese sauce, pickled cabbage slaw, lettuce, mayonnaise, tomato, pretzel bun, I wasn’t sure I was going to like that.
I did think about modifying the burger and getting rid of the sauces, but in the end I went with what was described. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I do like to try new things and see how they taste.
It arrived and it did look quite good.
The pretzel roll was a nice change from the brioche roll which seems to have become the standard across gourmet burgers these days.
The chicken was nice though it wasn’t as crispy (or crunchy) as I would like. The sauces I thought might be overpowering actually weren’t.
The accompanying chips were crisp and tasty.
A quick breakfast for me was to take a panettone, sliced and toasted. It can toast rather quickly so I use the lowest heat setting on my toaster.
A spread of butter, a double espresso, and a great quick tasty breakfast.
One of the regular dishes in out home is cavelo nero. My usual process for using this vegetable is to take the leaf and cut the stem out. I then cut it into bite size pieces.
Using a large frying pan or a wok, I heat a little olive oil and then add some pancetta. Once the pancetta has cooked off I had the cavelo nero leaves.
These are cooked until softened.
Looking for gluten free versions of wheat based dishes was always challenging, but becoming less so.
We have always enjoyed the prepared salads from M&S, but alas most of them contain gluten.
I had been looking for a pack of gluten free couscous for a while, so when I saw a pack of Clearspring Organic Corn Couscous this looked like a solution.
It was really easy to prepare I added 100ml of stock to 65g of the dried couscous and left for five minutes. I then used a fork to fluff the couscous. I added some diced cooked Mediterranean vegetables and seasoned with olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper.
I was really impressed, it had the texture of couscous and worked really well.
I was staying at the Doubletree Hilton in Ealing and was eating in the hotel restaurant.
I recently had fish and chips in a different hotel which I had enjoyed. So I decided to order it at the Doubletree.
It was described as traditional fish and chips with garden peas, chunky chips and tartare sauce. I received an excellent looking plate of food.
I wouldn’t have said the chips were that chunky! However it was nice to have the lemon as well. The fish was well cooked, the batter was excellent, lovely, light, and crispy. The chips were nice as well. Overall I really enjoyed the dish.
Made myself a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch the other day. I took two slices of sourdough bread, to which I added slices of Emmental and Mozzarella cheese.
I put my frying pan on a low to medium heat. I added some sunflower oil, I placed the sandwich in the frying pan, then put a lid on the pan.
The plan is that you melt the cheese before the sandwich finishes browning on both sides. When I first tried to do this, I had a lovely crust on the bread, but the cheese hadn’t melted. I found a lower cooking heat and a lid, would melt the cheese and you would have a lovely crust.
Back in 2018 I had some nice lunches from Carbon in Covent Garden.
I was passing by today and decided that I would see what they had on their menu. I was a little saddened to see that it had closed down and had been replaced by something else.
I was staying at the Doubletree Hilton in Ealing and was eating in the hotel restaurant.
I decided to go for a starter, choosing the nachos. I quite like nachos and have had them back home. These nachos were described on the menu as tortilla chips with sour cream, tomato salsa, guacamole, jalapenos and cheese.
I was quite surprised by the size of the dish, it was a large plate of nachos and I was unable to finish all the nachos!
The nachos had been toasted, so the cheese was melted. The sour cream, tomato salsa, guacamole, was all fine. I didn’t eat too many of the jalapenos though.
Overall a simple dish, which was quite tasty.
I was working in London and wanting a coffee so headed out to one of my usual haunts, Coco di Mama on New Square.
I ordered a double espresso and took a seat, always like it when they bring the coffee to you rather than hanging around by the counter until they’ve made it.
The coffee arrived in a real china cup with a square of delicious dark chocolate on the side.
This was an excellent double espresso and I enjoyed the chocolate too.
Great tasting coffee and friendly staff.