Jo Lives To Eat

My life is mostly about food!

17:29

Come Dine with Me

Posted by thefoodsnob |

I was talking to a friend from work a few weeks ago and she mentioned that she was doing Come Dine with Me. I got very excited at the thought of her being on TV but she informed me that she is not going on TV but actually doing it with 4 of her friends.  What they do is follow the TV format and give each other marks out of ten but at the end they go to a swanky restaurant in London and the winner doesn't pay.  How utterly fabulous darling.  I immediately sent an email round to 4 of my most culinary skilled friends and the first date was set.  As with the TV show each impending chef du jour has to send through the menu before the actual date.
First up - Gemma.  I have to admit I was really intrigued by what she was going to rustle up - after all when I first met her at University she could barely cook an egg but now, 10 years on she was the obvious choice for this foodie jaunt.  She is quite the cook.
So, the menu came and it all sounded lovely.  A selection of meze for starters, followed by Lamb Tagine with a chocolate torte and lemon sorbet to finish up.
The evening at Gemma's house was just gorgeous.  Music playing, table set, chilling in the kitchen and plenty of wine.  The meze was yummy.  Humous, a sweet potato and olive salad, goats cheese with sweet peppers and chick peas and an aubergine puree plus lots of pitta.  It was all a little too moorish for me and I just wanted to keep eating.
Up next was the lamb tagine served with cous cous and apricots.  I was a tad apathetic regarding the apricots - I've never been too much of a fan however the whole dish tasted delicious - apricots compliment cinnamon so well.
So finally came desert - an extremely rich chocolate torte with extremely lemony sorbet.  The sorbet wasn't quite set but it didn't matter - it tasted excellent and placated the richness of the chocolate in a subtle way.
Along with the good food and flowing wine there was great conversation with 4 of my best friends.  Gem really has set the bar high.




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02:49

Hix Fix

Posted by thefoodsnob |




Even though Hix on Brewer Street has been open for exactly a year now, the press has only been fairly prolific in the last 4-6 months.  It won Time Out's best new restaurant recently and so I'm sure its awareness has increased ten-fold. To be honest I would like it to stay slightly off the "London's best restaurant lists" radar purely from a very selfish point of view.  I am in love with this place.  I took a friend of mine from Tel Aviv for his 30th birthday on Friday night and it couldn't have been more of a pleasure.  I have to admit from the outset that we did get some special treatment as my other friend who came with us is in the restaurant industry so pulled some strings for us but regardless this was dining out at its absolute best.


To start with the restaurant's design, feel and attitude is not what I had in mind at all.  I'm not really sure what I thought, I think I thought it would be a lot more in keeping with a fine-dining experience.  In retrospect I'm not sure why but anyway I digress.   The minute I walked in I felt the place buzzing.  I felt like I'd walked into a trendy American movie in New York.  It is a wonderful juxtaposition of sleek furniture, dim lighting  and nouveau art combined with space, calm and a most of all, a very warm feeling.  Even though this clearly has all the makings of yet another pretentious hipster London eatery it is nothing of the sort.  I saw smiles, I heard laughter and felt immediately comfortable.  We were welcomed by the  manager Hamish, who is just so utterly divine I wanted him to sit and eat dinner with us - and for me the night was all about this - the incredible service.  Yes, I'll get onto the food in a minute but if you have faultless service from knowledgeable, attentive, personable staff the night is three quarters in the bag.    The staff are totally on the ball and at your side when you need them but by no means in a sycophantic way.



So we were treated first of all to a plate of manx queenies - for those lowbrow readers out there (that includes me) these are scallops from the Isle of Man.  Utterly fresh and zingy these were a perfect introduction to Mark Hix's clean, unfussy and relaxed style of cooking.  I followed this with Goosnarg duck salad with radishes, carrots and landcress.  The duck was delicious - very pink, very tender and simple. Along with the colours and some lovely little duck crisps this was excellent British cooking.  The boys both had forest mushroom soup which was rich, woody, creamy and very mushroomey.  My main was a very sizeable portion of leg of lamb with parsnip mash.  The lamb was seasoned well and melted off the bone.  The mash, although very good was a little too rich and heavy for me and I couldn't finish it.  But if all I'm complaining about is rich mash in this review I think we can all overlook this.

The mushy peas that came with my friend's fish fingers and chips was unbelievable.  I might even go as far as to say the best i've ever had.  

Finally, we shared a a rich, chocolate pudding with honeycomb ice-cream.  Well, I say shared, I pretty much ravished the lot.

Along with a great selection of wines and some excellent cocktails; (try the Hix Fix) I would say there isn't much to not enjoy about Hix.  Plus, I haven't even mentioned the awesome bar downstairs from the main restaurant.  A den of dark reds and browns, smoky mirrors, antique billiards table and chilled vibes.  I'd like it to be my own personal drinking hideaway.








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15:25

The Betsy Smith

Posted by thefoodsnob |

Ok technically today's post is nothing to do with food. Technically I didn't eat any food at The Betsy Smith pub today.  But, I did drink a lot of  Bloody Mary's, which normally I class as a full meal so I feel this post is completely justified.

The Betsy Smith is a new pub on Kilburn High Road from the owners of The Winchester in Islington.  I was intrigued to go and see it as I feel that other than the North London Tavern,  Kilburn High Road is somewhat lacking in decent drinking holes, unless of course I'm an "old geezer", work on a fruit or veg stall or am an unemployed alcoholic.

I wasn't just pleasantly surprised when I arrived, more like mesmerised.  Its awash with luscious chesterfields, warm and bright wallpapers, kitsch ornaments, whacky lighting and pink flamingoes.  Now if I'm honest with myself this pub isn't as spectacular as I'm making out and the reality of it is, is that it is just a really nice bar, but I'm totally obsessed with everything in there.  I love furniture, I love lighting and weirdly, I love pink flamingoes a la Alice in Wonderland and so I think this place is gorgeous.



There is a great drinks menu too - some of the cocktails look a little pretentious and contrived - parsnip, tequila and blue cheese?!!  Having said that, most of them look interesting, varied and tasty. There is one with a jaffa cake on top!  The thing that drew me the most was the additional menu of cocktails for 2 served in a teapot.  I just love this.  Its so simple and a little stupid but I think rather quaint and lovely.  My friend and I had a "chilli pot" which is 6 shots of Bloody Mary for just £12.  Bargain.  And it was really good too - very spicy and thick.

A few niggles - the service needs to improve ten-fold.  It was extremely slow and several of the waiters are not trained in cocktail making however I'm sure that will get better.  They need to be weary though that as this place gets more popular, and it will, the bartenders need to be totally on it.  Also, the manager looks like a bit of a stress head and will definitely need to mould his staff and himself in a more positive manner.  Other than that, The Betsy Smith is the new rabbit hole to get lost in.



Do I look dignified?!

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12:10

Gripe of the month

Posted by thefoodsnob |

Ok this has been itching at me for a while now and I feel I must voice my rather pathetic and sad little issue with the world.

CUPCAKES.  Why and when did they get so fashionable? Ok, I'm the first to admit that getting a little package of mini or average sized cupcakes as a present is a most delightful treat and still more original (but only just) than one normal sized cake........however my gripe is with something rather specific -  the flavours.  Scores of cupcake shops have been popping up everywhere, the world and his stay-at-home but entrepreneurial wife have a cupcake business boasting flavours such as pistachio, cherry, lemon, lavender, berry and everything else in-between.  9 times out of 10 I gaze down suspiciously at these apparent taste sensations but oh no - it is all a deception, a rouse, a blatant lie.  Said flavoured icing but piped on top of a plain or vanilla flavoured cake.  This, does not a good cupcake make.  I urge the cupcake makers out there to do what is only right and just to these little heavenly treats and actually create what they say.  I just feel duped when I go to buy a passion fruit cupcake and I ask the assistant if the cake is passion fruit flavoured and they say "no, just the icing".
Now I realise, of course that my rant is a total sweeping statement and there are some great cupcake stores out there.  Bake-a-boo in West Hampstead for example is a girl's tea party wrapped up in a pink bow.  It is so exquisite and so are their cupcakes.  I tried the raspberry cupcakes in there and they are just incredible.  Moist, fresh, flavoursome and full of raspberries!
Hummingbird Bakery definitely don't do enough of the flavoured cupcakes but when they do they're really good.  I actually prefer the cookbook to the shop as they list how to bake so many great flavoured cupcakes; pineapple and coconut, banana and chocolate, green tea etc.
Anyway - rant over - please feel free to object, agree or just share the love and look at a pretty picture.

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