Places to eat in London: Kaslik, Soho

We arrived at Kaslik around 6:30, there didn't seem to be a single table free. Luckily, we had booked, and was escorted downstairs to a small basement room. It was draped head to toe in rich red fabrics, complete with middle eastern style lights and candles. The tables were made from large, intricate, gold platters and the seating was low.  I immediately warmed to the place.  Food choice was vast, it took us ages to decide what we wanted.

 I eventually went for a selection of mezzes:

MOUHAMARA - Mixed oriental nuts, crushed in a spicy sauce, served with olive oi

FALAFEL - Fried balls of chick peas served with tahini sauce

HALLOUMI CHEESE - Fried halloumi cheese served with tomatoes and cucumber

BATATA HARRA - Spicy potato cubes fried with garlic, coriander and green pepper

My friends opted for the MIXED GRILL - Shish Tawuk, Lamb Kebab and Lamb or Chicken Kafta.

The waiters were very friendly, they even began teaching us how to pronounce the different dishes.

 

I was so excited to see the food arrive. Everything was lovely and hot and filled our table. Food was superb; great quality and authentic. Washed down nicely with a bottle of white. We received 50% off our food bill too, as we had a Tastecard.. Bonus! I am definitely going to be visiting Kaslik again! Yum!

http://www.kasliksoho.com

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Things to do in London: London Zoo

Visited the Zoo last weekend with the family.  Tickets cost just over £20 each, however we used a 2 for 1 voucher because we travelled by train.  There plenty to see and do here, we didn't manage to get all the way round! There are lots of shows on during the day, I especially liked the Penguin feeding. Would recommend taking a picnic!

The highlights...

Butterfly paradise.

The Aquarium

 

Into the outback...

 

Into Africa.  Makes me want to go on Safari.

The Giraffes were by far my favourite bit.  They amaze me, how on earth do they stay up with those necks?! We joined them for "High Tea" in the afternoon.

London Zoo is suprisingly tiring.

Just for jokes, got to throw some novelty photos in there.

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Roasted Chickpeas (gluten free challenge)

Very simple to make

2 tbsp - olive oil
1 tbsp - curry powder/spices
1 can of chickpeas

Coat the chickpeas with the olive oil and spices
Put in oven for 30 minutes on 190 degrees.

Very satisfying snack, with a nice crunch.

I almost convinced myself they were Doritos so may try this recipe with different spice to try and recreate Doritos flavours.

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Places to eat: Prezzo, Eastbourne

Popped to Prezzo for lunch. I normally plump for the vegetarian 'Goats Cheese Al Forno', it's beautiful - loaded with cheese; massive portion. True comfort food!

Today, I went for the margarita pizza on a gluten free base. Overall, to my surprise, this was quite a satisfying meal. It didn't have the usual soft, doughy-ness of a normal pizza but was pleasant. Theres not really that much more to say about a cheese and tomato pizza really. I'm definitely going to try making some tastier gluten free bread though.

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Day 1 - Breakfast

Today was probably not the best day to start this crazy challenge.

I stayed over night in Eastbourne last night for work. My hotel stay came with a continental breakfast. So, after happily trotting down the stairs and entering the breakfast room, I immediately realised how difficult this was going to be. Bread... Bread everywhere! A selection of toasts and hot pastries laid out before me. Noooo! I love bread so much! I can't do this! After having a little motivational word with myself I carried on along the buffet. Lets start with something easy... A hot drink. I helped myself to a cappuccino, immediately reaching for the sweetener. Again, stop it, you can't have that either. Urgh!

For breakfast I ended up having a raspberry yoghurt. This was followed by an apple and a piece of cheese. I convinced myself I was eating a ploughmans, which made life bareable.

This is going to be hard!

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6 weeks... gluten free; sugar free

I've actually been thinking about doing this for a long time. My brother really got into his food and nutrition last summer, and since then we've had various conversations about it and its always been at the fore front of my mind. Going on from that, I received an email not long ago titled the 4 foods that are going to kill you quickest... wheat, oats, sugar and oil. Now lent has come around I think it's the perfect opportunity to give it a go. I'm excited about the idea of giving myself a good detox!

I must not forget to mention that I probably wouldn't be up to this challenge without my mums help. I commute to London every day by train and my mum, probably the most amazing mum in the world, has a beautiful hot dinner waiting for me when I get home. As you can probably tell, I love my food way too much to go hungry, so we've gone through lots of recipes to make, I'm hoping to feature these on my blog as the weeks go on.

The rules

No food containing gluten;
No food containing sugar (or sweetener)

I know this is going to sound like cheating, but I've allowed myself two days off over this six week period (go on, please?). These two days have been booked in already and I won't enjoy them unless I can eat what's there. They are:

2nd March - trip to the coast with Olly
9th March - my sister in law's baby shower (afternoon tea themed)

So here goes nothing...

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Places to stay: The Big Sleep, Eastbourne

Arriving at the hotel, reception wet very friendly, efficient and accommodating. The decor in the rooms, was a little strange. It was minimalist which I like, but curtains were made of some sort of fleece material and everything was either blue or white. Apart from that I was quite impressed. Two spare pillows; an addition fleece throw on the bed; a full length mirror! The shower was boiling hot (amazing!). Most importantly it was clean, probably one of the cleanest rooms I've been in recently. The hotel had a pool and table tennis table, although I didn't take advantage of this. I loved the fact that you could bring takeaways into the main dinning area, not something you see very often. Continental breakfast in the morning, a good selection of cereals, cheese and pastries. However fruit and yogurts were lacking.

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Places to eat: The Buccaneer, Eastbourne

Friendly, local pub outside of the Devonshire Theatre. The interior incorporates the feel of the traditional English pub with some more quirky features such as posters from old theatre and show performances. You can this is a favourite with the locals as the bar area soon filled. The eating are is nicely spread, you don't find yourself eating on top of other customers. The food is good value. They have a 2 for £10 menu. Our evening was finished off by a hot chocolate fudge cake with ice cream. Nom nom nom!!

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Starbucks Vanilla Spiced Latte

Grabbed a coffee, before a train journey to Eastbourne with my work colleague. Loved our servers sense of humour.

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Places to eat in London: Abokado, Farringdon

Heading back to the office today, came out the tube at farringdon, starving hungry. Thought I'd have a quick look around the station to see what I could grab for lunch. I came across akborka, I was drawn to the "healthy" advertising, so thought I'd give it a try. As far as customer service, it was great, staff very friendly and happy to help. However I wasn't impressed that the food displays, that would usually shelf the hot boxes of food, were all empty. There was a little sign that said ask for your dish and have it cooked fresh in two minutes. Cooked fresh turns out to be, pulled from a counter under the till and put in a microwave. Food wise, I must say, I was underwhelmed. I went for the vegetarian gyoza with brown rice. The gyoza was pretty chewy and portion size was poor. Brown rice was average. Overall rather tasteless. To be fair this was late in the afternoon, maybe it's different during lunch rush hour. Give it a miss.

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Wine Mondays

Wine Mondays is becoming a trend with my friends Natalie and Sarah. I'm not sure what it is about it that works; maybe because Mondays always happens to be the day we all have free; maybe because we need that kick start to the week. Who knows! It's just a nice way of relaxing with friends, talking about what we have planned, and having a general catch up. And, because we can't resist, our weekly bottle of rosé is always accompanied with some sort of chips or nachos. It hits the spot! This week nachos, wasn't a massive fan, there seemed to be very few, soggy nachos, topped with a tonne of sauce, oh well! Here's to another week....

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Places to eat: Shanghai Gardens, Peterborough

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