Month: June 2016

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Bottomless Brunch with my Hen – Avenue, London.

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My beautiful big sister got married on the 18th June 2016. But, before I go into all the exciting details about that, let me take you back to the beginning of June when I was in charge – the hen party!

As head bridesmaid, it fell on me to organise a wonderful send off for my sister. Food, prosecco and dancing was my main theme and this was to be repeated throughout the day. The idea was to start where every Saturday should begin, at brunch, and drink prosecco in the best way, the bottomless way. I decided on London, the brunch centre of the UK, and started researching where to go!

After looking through google and timeout suggestions I narrowed my choices to Bad Egg, Bourne and Hollingsworth Buildings and Avenue. They all looked lovely and seemed to provide what I was looking for however, following recommendations from friends living in London and TripAdvisor reviews I finally decided on the latter. The general consensus was that Avenue are extremely attentive and you totally get your money’s worth – which when it comes to prosecco is very important.

Groups of 8 and under are booked online, if any bigger you can call and reserve your table there. No payments are taken in advance they just require credit card details as a deposit if the party doesn’t turn up.

The brunch menu offers 2 courses for  £23.50 or 3 for £26.00 you then add on bottomless prosecco for £15 per person. Honestly, it really is bottomless. Your table is booked for 2 hours and at no point in that time was my glass empty! The staff were all great and brilliantly attentive. I only had to take a couple of sips and there would be a nice man leaning over my right shoulder to top up my glass!

Now to the food! The brunch menu is a sort of American style lunch affair, varying between smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, pancakes and buttermilk chicken burgers. Of course, not everything is gluten free friendly but I felt happy with my selection. They can substitute any of the bread/toast for gluten free replacements. Unfortunately all granola, waffles, pancakes and burgers were off limits.

I chose two courses and started with eggs royale. The gluten free bread is by no means groundbreaking but it was a good portion and the hollandaise sauce was really tasty. Every brunch should have a pudding so my second course was mint ice cream with hot chocolate fudge…delicious.

We booked for 13:15, it was extremely busy already by then so I would definitely recommend booking first. Despite the tables of excited hen parties and group after group of girls with cocktails and prosecco, we still felt the waiters looked after us really well and were at no point left trying to catch their eye for service.

For us it was the perfect way to start the weekend. I have to confess my planning got rather lax onwards from this and we ran late for everything else! Don’t expect to have a productive afternoon after you fall out of a bottomless brunch! Find Avenue on St James’s Street round the corner from Green Park and Piccadilly tube stations. Grab your best girlfriends and guys and book a table! I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon – can you?

Forever, The Awkward Dinner Guest

xx

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Turtle Bay – Delicious Cocktails and Kind of Gluten Free

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Some friends of mine and I booked a table at Turtle Bay in Bristol on Saturday night for some cocktails and University reminiscing.

We arranged the table for 19:30 and both the bar and restaurant were packed already. Unfortunately we just missed out on happy hour 241 cocktails which runs until 7pm every day. But, I’d hear so much about the cocktails here that we all order some anyway. I had the Jammin’ – white rum, apricot liqueur, fresh mint, ginger, lemon, apple juice and apricot jam. No complaints, we all enjoyed our choices and they went down very quickly.

Turtle bay do have an allergy menu, which at first glance has pretty much every dish marked with wheat or gluten. From what I could work out none of the starters were gluten free – but I had a good smell of everyone else’s which looked and smelt great – not awkward at all for the group! There are some main dishes on the menu that just have flour written in the gluten box. I was told that these could be GF as the flour is just for the roti and the dish can be served without this. So, that gives you pretty much all the ‘one pots’ to choose from!

Unfortunately all the jerk dishes are off limits as soy sauce seems to be used in all of the sauces.

I took my time deciding between goat curry, curry shrimp and mango or Trinidad curry chicken. I finally went for the latter; spiced chicken breast, cooked in coconut milk with spices, garlic and scotch bonnet.

Turtle Bay say “we like it hot,” and they certainly do! Proudly, I have got a lot better at eating spicy food and really enjoy a meal with more spice in now. This curry was just teetering on the side of too hot for me! Saying that, it really was delicious and I ate the whole lot.

I have to admit we all went particularly quiet while eating, sipping water, wine and milky cocktails after each mouthful – Turtle Bay is definitely not for those who can’t stand the heat.

After reading a few GF reviews before going I was pleasantly surprised at how many of the dishes I could eat on the menu. There are some posts out there telling you to avoid the restaurant completely. I probably wont return any time soon for food on my own but, if you’re going with a group wanting fun cocktails and good atmospheric music its a great Saturday night spot. They have restaurants all over the UK, have a look and I’m sure there will be one within a stones throw from you.

Forever, The Awkward Dinner Guest

xx

 

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Bubble and Squeak brunch – chorizo and poached egg hash! 

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Bubble and squeak is no longer just the meal your dad fries up on Boxing Day with all the Christmas Day leftovers. I’m seeing it on menus in all the most popular brunch spots.

I jumped in and braved bubble and squeak for breakfast last weekend at ‘Canteen’ in London’s Old Spitalfields market. It was one of the few gluten free items on the menu and I loved the idea of fried ups and poached eggs for brunch, unfortunately I was so disappointed. I was brought out a tiny portion that honestly tasted of so little I put salt on before I took each mouthful. But, this is not a moaning post!! As a result of last weeks fail, I was inspired this weekend to cook up some squeak myself, with what I hoped would have a much bigger, tastier ending.

Raid your fridge for any old vegetables and jump on the bubble and squeak hype with me.

Here’s the recipe I ended up with..

– Ingredients –

1 sweet potato

Half a red onion chopped

Handful of curly kale

50gs of carrot and broccoli

3 eggs

20gs of chorizo chopped

50gs of chestnut mushrooms

Salt and pepper to taste

– Instructions –

Chop your sweet potato up and put on to boil.

Throw which ever other vegetables you’re using into a pan and boil together – in this case the kale, broccoli and carrot. Pop the mushrooms in a separate frying pan and sauté.

Once the potato and veg have boiled, drain and put in a mixing bowl to cool slightly. Add in the chopped onion, salt, pepper and one egg. Mash up together until most of the veg has broken down.

Put on a pan with water to boil for your poached eggs.

Heat another frying pan with about 1tspn of olive oil, when hot, transfer your mashed mix into the pan. Shape and flatten out slightly.

Add the other two eggs into the boiling water to poach. I don’t bother with any of the little tricks like vinegar or spinning the water backwards. Just put both eggs into the water, boil for 2 minutes. Take off the heat and leave for another minute. Place the eggs on a piece of kitchen roll to drain off excess water.

Assemble everything as you like and eat! It was a perfect Saturday lunch for me and put bubble and squeak firmly on my brunch menu.


Perect poached egg? I was overly proud of this one!

Forever, The Awkward Dinner Guest

xx