Halloween

We had fun tonight - here are some of the food/drink things we did:

Raspberries stuffed with chili chocolate and physalis decorated as pumpkins

Chipolata "dead man fingers"

and playing with fruit in the wine.

BBC News article: Chefs at home revolutionising Paris

Well, we don't live in Paris, but perhaps this could work anywhere...


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34581898

Fish Mongers

I love fish mongers, but sadly they seem to have been banished to big markets like London's Borough Market or supermarkets.  Well, I obviously go to the supermarket fish counters, but it just is not the same.
I love going to the ones in the markets, but I do not live in central London and one and a half hours on the train are probably not the best thing for fresh fish. SO for me they are more about the theater. Don't get me wrong, I love that, but it doesn't get me fed ;-) Eiother way, here are a few pics from these markets:

Thai Chilli Crab

I thought I'd play with putting a video together for a recipe. We had Thai Chilli Crab last night and the flavors were amazing. We got the crab claws from @regalfishuk - super healthy and very, very tasty. Give it a try.

I know that I have so much to learn in term of putting these videos together, but I thought it's not a bad start...

Working from home today and I thought I'll try an be good. So this is my mid morning snack...

So, today I am staying in the Bloomsbury Holiday Inn in London. Location is great, maximum of 5 minutes walk from Russel Square tube station. Staff is really friendly and the room is perfectly OK. Before getting here I had a look at the online menu and I thought that this sounds actually quite nice and I can be virtuous and have a two course meal. I decided on the "Crispy Spiced Squid" with carrot, cucumber & beansprout salad,  followed by "Rainbow Grains & Grilled Halloumi" with ribbon vegetables. And I was quite looking forward to it as it sounds like it's full of flavor.

However, the actual menu is nothing like the online version and any of these healthy options, or similar, are not available. Not to worry, I have stayed with Holiday Inns many a time and the one thing I do know about them is that they certainly can turn out a good steak. Here they do not have the usual selection, but only 8oz rib eye. That's not really a problem as I quite like that. I prefer to have a choice of sauces,  but as they normally are quite uninspiring, going with the garlic butter isn't an issue neither.

As I said, the staff are very friendly, so I was duly asked how I would like my steak. I like mine medium-rare. Really I can cope with either medium or rare, but I prefer it just in between.

This one turned out medium, but as I said, that's not too much of a problem. However...

... as you can see from the juices running everywhere, this piece of meat was definitely not rested at all and actually was quite tough. When I saw that the menu was totally uninspiring I should have just gone somewhere else. It's not like central London is suffering a shortage of places to eat. Next time I stay here this is exactly what I will do.