Weekend Breakfast - The Lido Cafe, Brockwell Park

For all the best laid plans, my sister C and nephew ZW's recent visit to the sunny English shores unfortunately managed to coincided squarely with the burning of London town. Unable to fully tackle C's 'To Eat' list (thankfully it included easier to source items such as a M&S BLT sandwich, as well as the trickier meal at The Ledbury), I hope I managed to feed them both sufficiently.

Scrambled eggs on buttered sourdough toast (£4.25)

On the morning before their depature it was a hearty brekkie at The Lido Cafe at Brockwell Park. Revamped to highlight it's Art Deco heritage, the cafe now does brisk business with the yummy mummy and daddy crowd during the day and with a more mellow wine and dine feel in the evening. Overlooking the swimming pool, the glass doors are opened to the terrace in the summer with the overspill of customers seated in the great outdoors with the splash of happy swimmers in the background.

Blueberry Pancakes with Bacon & Maple Syrup (£5.50)

Free Range Full English (£8.65) -Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms grilled tomatoes and buttered sourdough toast

It was a nicely filling breakfast that I can't complain about - the overall consensus, I believe. The eggs were nicely buttery and soft, the toast had an enjoyable slightly charred/grilled flavour, the sausage was delish (pure porky goodness and none of that overpowering herbiness) and there were lots of mushrooms (I like me a mushroom or two!). There was some ... constructive feedback on the bacon though - it could have been crisper. Well done, Lido Cafe.

C and ZW - I had hoped your trip would have been more enjoyable but ZW did manage to adopt a new, cool hood on fashion and a full English brekkie sure does make the rest of the day more positive, innit? x

The Lido Cafe
Dulwich Road, Brockwell Lido, London SE24 0PA

Big Dirty Breakfast

Brekkie at the local greasy spoon. Big, hearty and a more than a little greasy - the best way to start a weekend and fight the big chill.

Big brekkie 1 - Bacon, sausage, fried egg, fried mushrooms, black pudding, beans, tinned tomatoes and chips.

Big brekkie 2 - same as the above except it the chips were replaced with hash browns.

Summer Dinners

Tom Yum Mussels with Garlic and Chili Pasta

The mussels were a spur of the moment purchase from a Chinese supermarket one weekend. I cooked them up with a tom yum spice mix I had brought back with me from Malaysia and tinned tomatoes. Loads of herbs I also picked up from the Chinese supermarket went in - coriander, dill and mint. Served with pasta simply tossed in olive oil, garlic and chili.

Chedder Stuffed Burgers with Courgette Crisps

I stupidly didn't consider the size of my roll when I shaped out these patties. Amateurish mistake! I was so focus on getting the meat to encase the ball of cheese I forgot about everything else. The patties turned out pretty darn good though - oozy melting cheese. Yum. The meat was flavoured with a myriad of different things I found in my cupboard, which is possibly why none of my food ever tastes the same twice :) The courgette crisps were made by deep frying thin long strips of corgettes coated in cornflour.

Full English

Well, not really a full English since I decided against eggs and bread but I got the hash browns that I had been thinking about. I won't take any credit for this meal as Stuart knocked it up in about 10 minutes flat.

Bacon Fried Rice

I had some rice sitting in the fridge, a pack of bacon I couldn't find room for in the freezer and a whole load of bits and bobs lying around. So fried rice it was and bacon just goes so well with just about anything, doesn't it?

Sweetcorn Fritters with a Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Someone mentioned sweetcorn to me in passing one day and I just knew I had to have sweetcorn fritters for dinner that very evening. I mixed up a batch of batter of flour, corn flour and an egg, seasoned it and added some cayanne pepper. I then added as much sweetcorn as the batter could hold. On hindsight I should have defrosted the sweetcorn before I added it to the mixture to avoid the huge sweetcorn clump. Yes, I know it's summer with an abundance of sweetcorn but sometimes I just want a pain free evening that frozen food offers. Served with a simple salad of chopped tomatoes and cucumber topped with olive oil and chili pepper flakes.

Roast Teriyaki Chicken Legs

I marinated a batch of chicken legs in teriyaki sauce, honey, black pepper and spring onions overnight. All I had to do the next day was to shove it all into the oven and dinner was ready 40 minutes later. Served with steaming hot rice, of course.

Grilled Mackeral with Thai Inspired Salad

The mackeral fillets were quickly grilled (about 3 minutes each side) and served with what I like to call a Thai inspired salad (thinking along the lines of the Thai papaya salad, som tam). Long shreds of courgette, carrot, red onion, tomatoes and coriander tossed in a dressing of fish sauce, chili, lime juice, sugar and garlic.

Macaroni in a Fresh Tomato Sauce with Burger Patties

I love summer for it's abundance of fruit and veg and none makes me smile more than the tomato. My tomato love affair is intensely passionate and if I could, I would probably add tomato to all the dishes I cook. I bought a huge batch the other week and I'm desperate to eat them before they go bad. What better way than a fresh tomato sauce with olive oil, garlic and basil. I also added some spinach to my boiled macaroni and fried up some sun dried tomato burger patties (cut up into bite size chunks) to serve with it.

Fried Kway Teow (Thai Style)

My food is frequently Thai style but never truely Thai. I just like borrowing elements from Thai cuisine - I love the freshness, the herbs, the flavour. This is a lot like phad thai but minus quite a few of the essential ingredients like tamarind juice, crushed peanuts, lime juice, etc. I boiled up some flat rice noodles (which I love over and beyond any other kinds of noodles and know it as kway teow or hor fun), fried up some chinese leaf, thinly sliced tomato, spring onion, shredded chicken, prawns and egg. I added the softened noodles to the mixture before flavouring the dish with fish sauce, oyster sauce and my secret ingredient, ketchup. I guess I'm just a big kid who never outgrew her taste for ketchup with almost anything :) Some rough torn basil leaves went in just before the final toss of the noodles for extra flavour.

Breakfast at Carluccio's - Kingston

Usually nothing can drag me out of bed before noon on a weekend but circumstances called for an early morning meet up with the girls in Kingston a few weekends ago. Given that choices are limited at that time of the day - Carluccio's definitely won over greasy spoon cafes and McDonald's. Carluccio's with its fill of yummy daddies and mummies playing happy families and older folk with their copies of Daily Mail, Telegraph and maybe on occasion the sneaky copy of the The Sun (purely for the sports section mind you).

Having browsed the menu online the day before (always better prepared) I had my heart set on the Colazione Magnifica (£8.95) for no other reason than that was the heartiest item listed (with a choice of juice and coffee/tea included with the price - bargain!). I got a very nice glass of freshly squeezed (it does make all the difference, doesn't it?) orange juice and a latte. The water was brought over on request by one of the other girls which I probably drank a little grudgingly. More liquids means less food space!

My scrambled eggs, grilled pancetta, sautéed mushrooms and half a grilled tomato came piled on a slice of toasted Italian bread - not quite sure what exactly Italian bread is but at Carluccio's it sure is tough and chewy. Everything else tasted fine - the eggs were done nicely with the right amount of fluffiness and left just a tad bit runny.

JN's order of Uova E Funghi (£6.25) - scrambled eggs with sautéed mushrooms on toast. Pretty much the same as mine but without the pancetta, tomato, orange juice, coffee .....

The others opted for eggs benedict (£7.50) with Italian roast ham. The hollandaise appeared in an over-enthusiastic shade of yellow and smelled like it had come in contact with a heavy hand of vinegar. It tasted like it looked - off-putting. Claggy, sharp and in good need of seasoning. I was personally unimpressed and the dish won no points despite the eggs very prettily cooked.

Being the piggies that we were (are) we ordered another round of carbs after polishing off our mains - a Breakfast Bread Tin (£3.95) and almond croissants (pastries from £1.40) to share. The bread tin consisted of one very good looking croissant (in golden brown perfection), more Italian bread (untoasted this time, which surprisingly tasted a lot nicer than its toasted counterpart), butter and fig jam (ergh!).

We got in a few good hours of natter and noshing before it became distinctly obvious we had overstayed our visit. The breakfast menu was cleared off the tables and the happy families munching on Danish pastries were replaced by hungry families queuing up for their midday fill of risotto and raviolli. All this and it was only just gone twelve. I must say it was weird to have done so much (eaten so much ... I should rephrase) by noon on a non-working day and still have a whole day ahead of me. I should do this more often .... I will keep reminding myself that ... I will ... I will ... zzz ...

Carluccio's
2 Jerome Place, Kingston upon Thames KT1 1HT

Good Morning

I freely admit I’m not a morning person. Nine out of ten mornings I suffer from terrible grumps cleared only after about 2 hours of wakefulness and my usual routine of coffee and serious overload of butter soaked carbs. The morning carb of the moment - cinnamon and raisin bagels – toasted with a good smear of butter, usually the fake stuff (spread) but the real stuff is better, and unfortunately also a luxury I don’t always indulge in. Whilst saying that I had some butter laden mash last night …. So good I’m having the leftovers today.

Happy Monday! (At least the sun is shinning in London today and temperatures are expected to raise to 14 degrees C. Yay!)

Breakfast in Bed

Yay... another Friday, another weekend. It means two days of lie ins and leisurely breakfasts.

Toast, beans and fried egg topped with Maggie sauce and white pepper. The best way to eat fried eggs. Oh and the eggs have to be crisp round the edges.

Nia - Brighton

The last time I suggested a trip to the beach to Stuart, we ended up in Southend .... which is probably why it has taken this long for me to suggest it again. The summer months had been drawing to a close far too quickly and I really felt like I should be doing something summer-y. With a nice Sunday forecasted (this is going back a few weeks now) ... and I suggested a trip to the beach and got a better response this time ... 'Brighton' - yay! The only time I've ever been to Brighton was in the 'in-between' phase of student-hood and ... adulthood. With absolutely no money to spare but desperate to get out of London for a few hours, we took the coach (yes, the coach in the middle of summer! If you've ever taken one you'll know what I mean) and probably just had enough cash for a cheap burger (or nothing at all .. I don't recall now).

This time we got the train (we have moved up in life, haven't we?) and arrived bright, early and bushy tailed. First things first ... food! The first few places were passed off for being too 'quiet'. Then we chanced upon Nia. It had a bustle its neighbours lacked and it had waffles on the menu! Yum... I haven't had waffles in years! We were seated quickly in the rather bright but squashed dining room filled with mismatched furniture. I think it's suppose to be reminiscent of some country kitchen - jumble sale chairs, daisies in a chipped water jug - all rather charmingly homely. We gave our order to the rather sweet but slightly clueless waiter - one Nia Veggie Breakfast, one Nia Breakfast, one flat white and a mocha. And sat back to wait for our food. And waited and waited .... considering that there couldn't have been more than 15 tables (mostly groups of 2-3 people and only one large-ish party of 6) in the little room, they took an awful long time. Twenty minutes later our food arrived but no coffee. I admit I have quite a few pet peeves and one of them must be the arrival of my food before my drinks in a restaurant. Our waiter gave us a flustered apology but apparently there were quite a few back orders for coffee. Hmmm .. right..! So we started eating and must have been half way through our meal, maybe 10 minutes after the arrival of our food before our coffees were brought over. Tahhh dah ... a grand total of 30 minutes for two cups of coffee. Oh dear, dear me ... it's only coffee!!!! Oh when the coffee arrived, we saw that they came with a little biscuit each (aww nice!) but our waiter accidentally knocked mine onto the tray and ... yes, he never replaced it with another. I never did get my biscuit.

I got the veggie breakfast despite the 'oo-ing and ahh-ing' over the waffles when we browsed the menu earlier but it's almost always about the salt with me. When it was first placed in front of me it looked pretty darn good - my choice of 2 fried eggs on 2 buttered slices of wholemeal toast (also my choice) with a side of wilted spinach, sauteed mushrooms, half a grilled tomato, homemade baked beans and a homemade hashbrown. All too soon it was 'uh-oh' ... I've spotted another problem - they stacked my slices of toast on top of each other and then put the eggs over the top slice ...... which spells soggy, floppy bottom toast! Grumblings aside, I hungrily tucked in but sadly this seems to be a case of the dish looking better than it tasted. The wilted spinach was only half wilted. The other half was blatantly still raw. Alright I could have lived with that if I wasn't already getting so worked up about the other things. If something on the menu says it is homemade I automatically assume that it will be better than the shop bought stuff (ohh the mind games the consumer falls for - ME!) but dear oh dear ... please Nia, just buy the baked beans and hash browns! There is a reason why Heinz is so successful. Nia's beans were hard (undercooked) and the sauce was tasteless. The hashbrown was a notch or two below warm, hard and again, tasteless. Poking through the hashbrown was like going through the unused potato salad from the previous day's dinner service (Nia is opened for dinner) - there was some mashed and whole bits of potato and some added diced red onion for good measure. The tomato ... hmm ... it was late summer and they still managed to find the most tasteless tomato to put under the grill. Oh the eggs and mushrooms (if a tad over-herbed) were ok though.

You see where I'm the moany one, Stuart like most guys just tucks in and gets on with the business of ... eating. He didn't seem to mind that his bread was lost beneath the pile of food or that his tomato lacked flavour. He seemed quite happy with his poached eggs and shrugged when I asked about the bacon and sausage. Unless they were homemade, which I doubt they were, they couldn't have been too bad. He was saved from the unwilted spinach and the hard, lackluster beans. But he did make a face when I brought up the hashbrown. Ah hah!

The coffees when they did arrive were actually pretty good. I've become so used to Starbucks (they are so convenient though...) and instant stuff from the office that I have almost forgotten how nice proper brewed stuff tastes. As the food took an age to arrive and the coffee practically didn't make it before we left, we asked for our bill quite soon after we finished eating. We still ended waiting 10-15 minutes for it anyway. For all my moans and groans, it wasn't actually a bad experience. So the service was pretty hopeless and the food not all that great but it was a nice Sunday breakfast. Very chilled and well, Sunday :)

Nia Brighton
87-88 Trafalgar Street, Brighton, BN1 4ER

Sunday Morning Breakfast

I thought I'll have a little sunshine on my plate this morning - mashed avocado and tomatoes on toasted sourdough sprinkled with salt and black pepper. I was all cheery until I took my first bite - no, there was nothing wrong with it - it was just then that I fervently wished I spread the toast with a thick wedge of butter and topped it with a thick spread of bramble jelly instead.

It's absolutely miserable today -the down in the dumps sort of overcast day. I was going to lock myself up in the gym and sweat out all that chocolate badness that I consumed yesterday (ooo that reminds me, I still have some of that ultra gooey cake left in the fridge - chocolate always makes things better) but I think I'll go for a little walk instead. A bit of fresh air ... maybe down Oxford Street ... turning into Selfridges .... retails therapy always makes things better too ;)

Sunday Eating - Croissants and Burgers

We've had beautiful weather today, with sunshine and temperatures that have outdone most the summer days past. I dragged Stuart out of bed early-ish, fed him and shoved him out of the front door (nearly) for a day out.

Breakfast was mini ham and cheese croissants. I would love to say that those croissants were homemade :) but they came from the shop in a pack of 12. I stuffed a few with some cheese and ham and put them into a medium hot oven for about 10 minutes to melt the cheese and crisp up the exterior. This is one of those breakfasts that can't really fail. Ham, cheese and buttery croissants.... all good and yummy. Even yummier put together and warmed up. Served with milky, sugary tea for a hearty (and artery clogging :) breakfast.

But fear not, we headed for a nice long gym session in the afternoon to make sure we redeemed ourselves (and our poor tummies) somewhat. Killing some time between our gym session and dinner, we chilled out at Lincoln's Inn Fields where we met this little guy. The squirrels here seemed so incredibly tame, more so than at other London parks. He came bounding up to us hoping for a little handout (of which we had none) but still happily struck a few poses for me ;) He hurried away as soon he caught scent of a Weimaraner, in full hunting mode.

When the squirrels retired for the day, we went on to Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) for a few juicy burgers. We our hearts set on fish and chips from The Rock and Sole Plaice right after the gym session but after walking round and round looking for a cash point, we were a little too lazy to retrace our steps. So off we went to GBK at The Brunswick Centre, off Russell Square. I remember going to The Brunswick Centre for lunch when I was still a student in the area and it was one of the most depressing, run down of places. The only good thing about it then was the cheap noodle bar - the Hare and Tortoise (which is still there). A few years on and it's really cleaned up with lots of new shops, restaurants and a slick coat of paint.

GBK burgers are probably the best amongst the chain-restaurant offerings. And it doesn't break the bank. This was my third visit to a GBK restaurant and found that this branch was probably the most pleasant. The staff were more friendly and probably because it was a little early for the dinner crowd, the atmosphere was more relaxed. In tune with their informal chain-restaurant vibe, the GBK system works on staff greeting and showing you to a table with menus, cutlery, your table number and an explanation of how you have to order at the counter. After you've made your selection from the menu, up you go to counter to order and pay. Back to your table again and your food is brought to the table. Bit of a pain bit it's all generally cool - hopefully the savings they're making on the number of waiting staff shows in the price of my food :)

As usual I went for the Avocado and Bacon beef burger (£7.95). It's described on the menu as "100% Aberdeen-Angus Scotch beef, avocado, streaky bacon, salad, mayonnaise & relish" and yes, it was every bit as good as it sounds. The avocado was mashed up and oozed beautifully out of the burger. The thick cut streaky bacon had been cooked over the grill and had a lovely charred flavour, espacially where the fat had met the fire. The patty was meaty and cooked to 'medium' - as are all their beef burgers, unless otherwise specified.

After a little grumble about there being no cheese and bacon burgers on the menu, Stuart settled for the Garlic Mayo beef burger (£6.90) - 100% Aberdeen-Angus Scotch beef, fresh garlic mayo, salad, mayonnaise & relish. Extra streaky bacon - with extra bacon (£1.60). Yup, a double dose of mayo! He could of course just ordered a plain Cheese burger and added the bacon :) His burger does look a bit smaller than mine - because he squashed it and took a large bit from one end before I could stop him. I didn't try his burger but I did get a little swipe of the garlic mayo that had dripped out and it was good - they certainly ensure you get all the garlic you paid for!

We had a portion of GBK skinny fries (£2.75), freshly out of the fryer. The oil still sizzling off the golden brown spuds. They were not bad fries, they were just not great.

We also had the GBK Homeslaw 'the Antipodean way' (£2.35) with cabbage, spring onions, carrot, celeriac and vinaigrette. Very nice it was too. Unlike the usual coleslaws, this was not bogged down by heavy mayo although it was slightly oily. The vinaigrette was citrus-y (think orange rather than lemon or lime) and despite my dislike for celeriac, I found myself happily digging in until there was no more.

Verdict?

Tired and full we headed back for an evening of silly TV shows and mind numbing games on the X-box :D GBK-wise, I'm no burger connoisseur but I think the stuff from GBK is pretty good. I've read reviews where the burgers have been compared to the stuff in the States, but having never tried a Stateside burger, I'm quite happy in my oblivion. Hopefully the next time I'll be able to tear myself away from the Avocado and Bacon burger... and maybe the next time I won't be so greedy ... I was disgustingly full after all that food!

Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK)

44/46 The Brunswick Centre, London WC1N 1AE

Sunday breakfast

I was feeling generous last Sunday and decided to make breakfast for Stuart and myself. I was also starving (which probably did help the generosity along .. hehe) and made what I could find in the fridge. Buttered toast with a slice of ham (straight from the fridge non-fancy ham), fried egg (runny yoke, of course, I won't have it any other way) sprinkled with white pepper and maggie sauce, fried mushrooms and a fried whole tomato. Stuart didn't complain, so it couldn't have been too bad. As if he would dare! ;) He wasn't too keen on the mushroom.. said it tasted 'different', so I scored extra mushrooms. Yay!