The Uncensored Household
Ok, so I am a veggie but I don’t like vegetarian restaurants, certainly not vegan ones. Lettuce munchers, allergic to good taste. It’s just something about the atmosphere in them that turns me off. A room full of veggies, a crazy night does not make.
Ah, Manna. Primrose Hill. Beautiful people. Warm evening. Ice cold prosecco.
God, I love living in London.
Where else can you eat lunch in a crypt made by Sir Christopher Wren? Cafe Below is an exquisite cafe under St Mary-Le-Bow Church on Cheapside. A hop and a skip away from Bank tube station.
While mooching around the fine island-thing that is Manhattan, one must sample the seafood or one really is a loser.
Enter ilili, 236 Fifth Ave.
Love! A fabulously exclusive Lebanese restaurant (what, you didn’t book weeks ago? You mustn’t have any friends this side of the pond darling). A little darker than I like for a restaurant but phew, the tables are lit well
If you find yourself wandering around bustling Hell’s Kitchen, New York then there are a million and one places to stop for cake and coffee. So how to select the best one once you ignore all the chains? (Rather alarming posters of Oprah Winfrey currently on every Starbucks window as she’s promoting her new Chai Latte, now that’s random.)
Easy! Go to Amy’s Bread – it is such a find! Too cute – it reminds me a little of Gail’s Kitchen in London but this is a million times better and cheaper. We walked in for $3 iced mochas and read a cute sign “Voted Best Carrot Cake by the New York Post”. Sold!
Pero by Aneeth Arora WIFW AW 2014
‘You’re in next season’ I told my friend. ‘Whaaattt?’ Was my confused friend’s reply as she’s never in or on trend or bothered.
My friend is an Austrian chef living in Delhi. We were out looking for check fabric a couple of weeks ago for her company branding so I was pleasantly surprised to see checks were in two shows at Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week AW14. And that too in both the prints we selected, blue checks and red checks.
Because you can get lovely veggie food everywhere it is easy to forget how different it is to actually go to an exclusively veggie restaurant/cafe.
If you find yourself around Holborn, you must skip along to Orchard on Sicilian Avenue. The Ave is cute enough but a fab lunch time stop is offered by Orchard. They don’t take bookings
The things I learn when I’m on the move! Today I learned that there is a World Instant Noodle Association (WINA), can you believe it? I’ve never been a fan of Pot Noodles although Supa Noodles were at the back of my cupboard in my halls of residence …long past the expiry date.
Instant ramen noodles were first invented by a Japanese man in 1958 who experimented on creating a low cost dish after seeing starving war veterans. Many decades later
My mother is mortified that I’ve been a veggie since about 2006. She has only just recently accepted that chicken is still meat. I told her once that even if I did ever eat meat again (yuck) I would not touch halal meat because I find the procedure cruel and inhumane. Yes, personification of an animal but can you truly say an animal does not feel distressed when she knows she is bleeding to death?
Continuing the cool theme of my previous post, I will add Atul Kochhar to the “cool” list!
He’s delightfully nerdy and told us joke after joke and bless him, I was forced to laugh along with the rest of the audience on Saturday afternoon in Asia House. He cracked a few wife jokes and then moved on to his curry demo. Ohhh what! I couldn’t believe my misfortune. He was going to make Lahori Chicken Curry. Jeezo! My mum is from Lahore and makes this curry every week.
On the way to the London Marathon today, we popped into The Wolseley on Piccadilly. Isn’t it wonderful? You live in London for a million years and there are still amazing treasures to find. The welcome was lovely and we were quickly guided to lovely seats even though we hadn’t booked and it was busy brunch o’clock.
One of my darling nieces who is five years old made that statement contrary to her mother who said that my niece’s teeth were in a bad state and she wasn’t getting any. I know who will win that battle…!
Lindt bunnies are the cutest Easter treat to give to loved ones this weekend and you know their mini size bunnies are only about £0.30 but get a guaranteed smile and squee from the receiver.
My niece might be able to sit inside this chocolate egg by luxury chocolate company
I remember when I first moved to South West London and my cousin took me to a bar in Chelsea. “Oh my god” she heard me mutter as we walked in. “Great isn’t it” she nodded at me. No. It wasn’t great, it was awful, full of tossers, one of whom said “it was great to see Asians drinking in Chelsea”.
This experience happened time and time again. I would be taken to a “fabulous place darling”
At work we fell into two camps during and following the horse meat scandal.
Smug smirky looky-downy middle-classes who sneer “what do you expect! A Findus frozen lasagne hahahah and you think you’re eating beef? Come on!”
And…
Smug smirky looky-downy vegetarians who sneer “hang on you disgusting eaters of flesh! What is the difference between eating a cow and a horse?”
I fell into the second camp. “It’s a good week to be a veggie, hohoho” my fellow veggies and I chuckled.
Not so! Do you like chocolate? And almond? I heart both. And if you were in the Second Worst Place on Earth (Ikea), does your partner have to promise to buy you a chocolate almond cake to shut you up that “all the cool couples in the world are not in Ikea on a Saturday”?
Lookin’ good!
We Brits will die before our European neighbours, so claims the latest research. As we all know a healthy diet plays a big part towards our longevity. The Mediterranean diet may well be wonderful but many Mediterranean breakfasts consist solely of black coffee and cigarettes. Very healthy!
Want to know how to bake a Universe? Kings College London will hold a festival of food and ideas from 7 – 22 March 2013 and the programme of free public events looks appetising indeed!
Having heard great things about Seventeen in Notting Hill, I broke with tradition and decided to Go West and try it out.
First impressions were incredible, this certainly is a very cool Chinese restaurant, very modern but in keeping with a Chinese aesthetic. I’m not entirely convinced it belongs in Notting Hill which is more understated cool, but anyway, I was looking forward to a fab meal having been very impressed immediately with the restaurant interior.
Delhi, the sprawling capital city of India includes numerous little villages that were swallowed up in the city’s expansion. Retaining their narrow lanes and crumbling buildings they have an authenticity missing in the newer parts of Delhi.
One such village is Shahpurjat. One could easily drive past it or live in the city for years as a foreigner without knowing it existed, however, it has some very delightful shops and cafes that are worth visiting. One such shop/cafe is The Wishing Chair, a decidedly feminine and pretty little place. Teeming with beautiful trinkets
Nobu is one of those marmite restaurants that people either love or hate. A friend went a while ago and was hit with a £500 bill between four and frankly speaking, that did put me off a little. I love sushi but always feel hungry after a couple of hours and would not appreciate a rumbling tummy after a hefty bill.
Having said that, every time I have had sushi at a restaurant with a Nobu guest chef
Nigella Lawson’s current series on BBC 2 has caused controversy. Notorious for “cheat’s cooking” as she calls it and loved by working women everywhere for its ease and convenience, this current series has gone a step too far or has it????
The Italian inspired series is full of recipes that use unhealthy helpings of butter, cream, chocolate and the list goes on. Nigella recently said in an interview in The Telegraph that she is a great believer in fat; it helps look younger in middle age and is a moisturiser from within.
Apples are falling off the trees across the country. There are an assortment of foods that can be made from jams to chutneys to desserts. My recent favourite is a quick and simple Apple Crumble served with custard or ice cream.
Takes less than half an hour to prepare and perfect warm dessert for the colder autumnal nights.
It’s often said that beauty begins from within and although there are plenty people that oppose this theory it is logical that we are what we eat. Here are some beauty power foods that will help you look your best:
Starting with a 2-in-1 beauty combo, avocado with cottage cheese. The avocado is packed with vitamin Niacin (B3) and other essential oils to help give you a glow.
Cottage cheese contains selenium, an essential mineral, that teams up with vitamin E
Following a tip from a travel agent on BBC Radio 4 a while ago, I decided to take a short city break to Valencia. The agent suggested that countries affected the most by the recession are offering the best value for tourists and she wasn’t wrong. Normally visiting Europe feels and is so expensive but this trip left me with change.
A really sad story in the news today was research indicating that UK has a child hunger crisis. According to Net Mums and Kids Company, 1 million children live in homes without enough to eat. The forthcoming summer holidays is real problem for these families as children rely on free school dinners as their only meal of the day.
Hungry children is not an epidemic as it is in some developing countries but a 223% increase in the last 12 months due to the economic climate in the UK is frightening. I just cannot believe it.
There is probably a good reason why I have stayed away from oysters. The slimy texture really isn’t my thing, so I cannot understand the appeal. I was literally frightened away from them even more when I watched a tiny wiggling creature pop its head out the oyster as my friend was about slurp one down……
Yuck!!!!
If you’ve seen this restaurant, which is just outside Westfield near Waitrose, you will know that it looks amazing. Great interior design, solid furniture, huge mirror and welcoming atmosphere…. Or so I thought!
It has been ages since I went somewhere utterly rubbish for dinner and I feel I must share bad reviews with you to prevent you from wasting your hard-earned cash. My sister and I were shopping in Westfield
Roti Chai in Portman Mews, next to Selfridges, brings street food of India to London.
The canteen style restaurant with a fine dining area downstairs, has carefully selected dishes from around India such as papdi chat, dhokla and bun kebabs.
During this week, we have given you recipes for “Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms” and “Salmon Encroute“.
Today is the final recipe for this no fuss delicious dinner party menu….
Heartache Chocolate Cake adapted from a recipe by Harry Eastwood from Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache.
This delicious chocolate cake with an unusual ingredient is full of surprises.
Nigella Lawson eat your heart out. The Queen of Ease has been a role model for me who likes to create delicious meals with little fuss. My timetable just doesn’t allow lamented cooking efforts. So my menu for a dinner party this weekend took all of an hour and a half to prepare and was cooked entirely in the oven.
The Menu:
Starter: Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms, Main Course: Salmon and Artichoke En Croute, Dessert: Heartache Chocolate Cake.
Each day I will bring you a recipe starting with Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms from a supermarket recipe card.
New research has found that cutting carbs for two days a week is more effective in helping weight loss than trying to diet constantly. Apparently you can eat carbs the other days as normal.
This is the two-day diet the women in the research followed:
Breakfast: Fruit tea and a banana, or mug of milky coffee.
The Himalayas stretch fromPakistan to Nepal and there are countless restaurants borrowing the majestic mountain range’s name. However, the Himalayan cuisine I will focus on is the Nepal/Tibet side as I review one of my favourite restaurants in Delhi: Yeti, the Himalayan Kitchen.
Always fresh ingredients and light
The Chatterjis Blog 