A new week, a new post about feasting on crab...last week it was Sri Lanka's Ministry of Crab and today it's the Big Easy Crab Shack on the Kings Road! Very opposite ends on the location and clientele scale, however both serving up seafood that's super duper tasty!
I've been meaning to pay a visit to the Big Easy for a while, but Sloane Square's not being the most convenient for me which always puts a bit of a dampner on the plan! Last weekend though, my uni girls and I decided to mix it up a bit, so we shed our eEst London loyalties and set off to explore further afield. We didn't get a reservation in time, so decided to turn up on the night in hope of a bar table - first word of warning....get a reservation before heading down! We were added to the waiting list and issued a two hour wait, this place is very popular and deservedly so, but a wait that long is never welcome! I managed to stack up a 45 min delay in my arrival (a long story full of broken umbrellas, late buses, wrong tube stations...all sorts went down...), so that limited my waiting time, however the other girls were feeling positively boozy by the time we were seated!
That aside, I loved the Big Easy! The decor is cool without being try hard, the space is cosy and the atmosphere's buzzy....
The service is excellent - staff are friendly and the barmen are always happy to mix you another cocktail whilst you wait... And most important of all the food was delish! Fran and I opted for the Lobster roll and Vanessa went for the fajitas...apologises for awful photography skills the lighting was very red and dark which seems to have made the food look plastic but I promise it was 100% real!
Fear not, if dinner on a Saturday night is not your style (eating is cheating, I get that!), trusty Big Easy caters for week day guests like eating's going out of fashion! They have permanent weekly specials, which are reason enough for another visit! You pay a set amount (usually £14.95 or £19.95) and get the likes of all you can eat fajitas, all you can eat shrimp, 2lb fresh Maine Lobster or steak and lobster usually with either a frozen margarita or beer! Check the website out for the weekly offers - how much do I want to try Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...I think you get my drift!
And for those of you that are lazy like me and don't live a tube stop away, you'll be pleased to hear that a new branch is set to open in Covent Garden this Summer. We're sharpening our pincers at the thought....!
The three of us left happy little chappies, suitably fuelled for the night ahead of further drinking and dancing in Barts and yes, we even made an appearance at Embargo!!!!
Tapas for me brings back memories of the long summers spent as teeny, tiny Mice in a sleepy Menorcan fishing village, Macaret. We would go once or twice a year and spend three super fun weeks playing on the beach, collecting shells and making new local friends who we couldn't speak a word other than 'Hola' to!
Our love for food dates back to those days and may even have been ignited in Macaret. While all the other children demanded burgers and chips, we would be happily tucking into rich, tomatoey Menorcan soup served up in traditional clay oven bowls, crispy baby squid complete with miniature tentacles, slabs of Spanish omelette and plate upon plate of Iberian ham!
Since then, I've been on a constant hunt for calamari to live up to those napkins piled high with baby squid gobbled down on the beach as a snack! But chewy squid rings from La Tasca never quite cut the mustard! Food is a big deal to me, and in my opinion, good tapas outside of Spain is a hard thing to find!
Pix however may be just what I've been looking for... this is Tapas with a twist! Not your standard little sharing plates of potato bravos, soggy paella and wizened olives but instead a station at the front of the restaurant laden with miniature pots of all different tapas deliciousness on a stick! You're seated, you order a drink, and you're then handed a plate, told to pick whatever you want from the front and to make sure that you keep your sticks. Pricing's simple, big sticks are £2.75 and small sticks are £1.95, when everyone is done the pot of discarded sticks are removed and cashed up for your bill.
Beware it's very easy to get carried away... especially when seated right by the kitchen door where you're first to witness all the new trays of delights emerging! It's just so very easy to grab a little stick as the waiter walks by, you don't even need to get up from your table...!
We feasted on the following delights....
And as you can see, this made us very happy girls!
Tapas on a stick - an upgrade from the dry, generic tapas chains we've all tried hopefully thinking maybe this time we'll be wowed, only to leave disappointed a couple of hours later with lighter pockets and rumbling tummies... Pix however serves up genuinely tasty mouthfuls of culinary heaven! Everything is thoughtfully put together and presented beautifully plus the small batches of each stick avoid food sitting out and going cold but, fear not there is never a shortage of options!
A super tasty, fresh and fun way to do Tapas in London! We like! A lot!
From London
restaurant revolutionaries, Russell Norman and Richard Beatty - the duo
behind mouthwatering, small plates dining destinations - Polpo, Polpetto, Spuntino and Da Polpo - also came Mishkin's, their take on the Jewish American 'New York' Deli.
After a cultural and stylish evening checking out the Valentino exhibition
with my gorgeous girlfriend's L and S - we tottered over to Catherine
Street, on the edge of Covent Garden to stock up on some much needed
grub and vino.
Much like its sister restaurants, Mishkin's faithfully evokes New York's
Lower East Side through its interior. We perched at the bar with a
comforting glass of red (it is pretty nippy in London still so this was
just what the Doctor ordered) whilst we waited for our table. Promised
just a 20 minute wait - we did actually stay 'perched' for a good 45
minutes...however, with much chat to swap, we didn't really notice.
Taken to the back to a cosy table we settled in under the dim-light and
devoured the menu and were certainly spoilt for choice with the
traditional Jewish delicacies and dishes!
We opted to share some
starters - gin cured salmon, pickled apple and beetroot & roast
beetroot, lentil and feta salad - with some schamaltzed radishes on the
side (just because we were intrigued as to the 'schmaltzing' part -
we've since discovered it's actually not the January dieter's friend but
who cares!). The starters really
didn't disappoint - the delicately flavoured salmon was mouthwatering...
and the beetroot and feta salad has inspired, me, a beetroot sceptic to
get involved and recreate this at home - because it was just the most
perfect pairing. Definitely our two dishes of the evening - and worth a
trip back for alone.
Onto our second bottle of the Bordeaux, the mains arrived. Lovely L went
all traditional with the turkey schnitzel, greens, apple compote and
mustard sauce (tender and comforting together) whilst S opted for the
macaroni cheese presented beautifully in a copper frying pan, topped
with breadcrumbs - it was perfectly creamy but, for a cheese freak like
me, could have gone stronger on the fromage!
I opted for the house fishcakes, beets and horseradish... these were
perfectly formed patties full of fish and I (still a beets sceptic) dug
into the beetroot and rocket on the side... perhaps a little dry - but
no worries, as I quickly took a bit of L's mustard sauce that was
definitely enough for two and complemented it well enough.
The service was a little slow - but it was actually quite refreshing not
to be rushed out and have the waitress trying to fill our table with
the next in line...even if we did end up home a little later than we'd
planned on a Tuesday night! Now we aren't experts
on Jewish cuisine so can't rate it against its peers - but it was a
perfect little spot for a mid-week catch up and chinwag. I think its
sister's Polpo and Spuntino probably pip it to the post for a wide
selection of to die for dishes that you can't stop ordering or eating...
but we'll definitely be popping back in when we're in the
neighbourhood!
In London the week started out with a snow storm! Maybe a little bit of an exaggeration but you know how us British can be when it comes to the weather. A bit of sun and there's a drought, a scattering of snow and the country shuts down... Anyway, it has been a bitterly cold week with lots of evening duvet and hot water bottle action! Over in Hong Kong we're assured its a pretty similar story. It may be clear, sunny and a steady 20+ Celsius but HK Mouse has become a bit of an expat wuss. She claims that because the flats are built to let out the heat and have no central heating that 20 C is the equivalent of -1 C, we're not convinced...! Aside from squabbling about the weather, this Week The Mice Have Mostly Been...
Eagerly devouring F.Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby'. So much so that I semi look forward to getting on the tube each day at the crack of dawn and fighting for a seat just so I can get my morning Gatsby fix!
If you saw our post back in May 2012 hyperventilating about the film release then we may sound like a broken record, but as I'm reading it for the first time I hope you'll let it slide and allow me to gush about it once again!
Image via jojoaponte.com
When HK mouse was home for Christmas she showed me the forthcoming film trailer which if I were to describe in one word I would say ... breathtaking! I seriously could not take my eyes off the screen. The costumes! The Music! The cast! Well you've guessed it I was straight onto Amazon ordering myself a copy of the book. Sadly I wasn't lucky enough to read it at school, instead I slowly made my way through 'Underground to Canada' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. If 'The Great Gatsby' had have been on the syllabus I would have definitely received a few more A+ grades that's for sure!
Image via www.fansshare.com
Image via www.neontommy.com
I hate being told by smug book worms after watching a film that ... 'the book is so much better' and that 'the film just didn't do the book justice'. I've therefore made a pact to try and always read the books first so I don't feel like i'm missing out so much! In my experience however, it is often true and near impossible to make a short 120 minute film live up to a beautifully written book packed with page after page of imagination. Examples for me include 'One Day', 'My Sister's Keeper', 'The Time Traveller's Wife' and 'The Help' (although the latter I must admit was a stronger adaptation than the rest). However, having seen 'The Great Gatsby' trailer I have a good feeling that this one will live up to my very high expectations!
If like me you haven't read the book then order a copy now! Don't let the fact that it was written 80 odd years ago put you off. Its 115 pages of pure glamour, glitz, parties, love affairs and secrets - you would never guess that it was published back in 1925! Set in the roaring twenties it exposes the rich lifestyles of a social set living in mansions in Long Island. It boasts tonnes of fun, a real page turner and is thought to be Fitzgerald's finest novel.
Image via www.broccolicity.com
Honestly if the trailor is anything to go by we are in for a treat ... there is a stellar cast - Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Tobey Maguire, Joel Egderton, Carey Mulligan and Isla Fisher and the film is Directed by the amazing Baz Luhrmann, creator of Romeo and Juliet. The release date has already been put back from Christmas 2012 to 10th May 2013. All I can say is roll on the next 105 days and get your tickets booked ASAP!
Take a sneak peak here and get excited with us...!
Falling nose over heels for Jimmy Choo's subtle new fragrance, 'Flash'. I'm always a little cautious when it comes to brands who are famous for creating something, in this case, shoes, so perfectly who then decide to branch out into new product areas. However I am happy to report that Jimmy Choo knows its perfume just as much as it knows its stilettos!
Everything about this fragrance oozes glitz from its cut glass bottle design inspired by a paparazzi's flashbulb to its glitter-tastic outer box packaging!
The pocket sized scent could be described in one word as 'floral' but personally I think it has much more depth than that with notes of strawberry, jasmine and white lily coming through. The fragrance works hard to last on your skin which is a must in my opinion, there's nothing worse than spritzing yourself all day long with little effect.
Pleasantly surprised by the new Bombay-style cafe in town, Dishoom. I say 'pleasantly surprised' because I had booked a reservation to try the much hyped Dishoom before Christmas but had since read a really negative review from the well known Food Critic, Jay Rayner. My expectations were therefore lowered and my richter scale of excitement pulled back to a mere 6 - with my newly adjusted outlook in place, I made my way to the Shoreditch restaurant eager to see/taste for myself.
Image via www.dishoom.com
First things first, the interior is beautiful with so much to look at - chunky marble bar tops, exposed brick, black and white tiled flooring, antique family photos scattered on the walls and generally a rough round the edges / shabby-chic feel.
Next up the food - curry with a difference! We're not talking run of the mill Brick Lane curry but Indian dishes packed full of flavour and spice, sure to get your tastebuds tingling! Firm favourites included lamb samosas, gunpowder potatoes, masala prawns, mahi tikka, paneer roll and biryani. The Dishoom signature dish, the house black daal, deserves a stand alone mention - simmered for 24 hours it is dark, rich and deeply flavoured. But the star of the Bombay show goes hands down to the Lamb Raan, a whole leg of lamb marinated in chilli, garlic and ginger, braised overnight with spices, then flame-grilled, sliced and dressed with fresh lime - quite simply, out of this world amazing!
The puddings were also incredible. We opted for Pineapple and black pepper crumble to share and then I couldn't help but be a greedy guts and order the mango kulfi on a stick, which was basically yummy mango sorbet in the form of a pointy mini milk!
As you will have guessed I absolutely loved Dishoom and would go back in a heartbeat. The food is really something else and to top it all off super affordable too. Our bill came in just shy of £200 for six people and we most definitely over ordered. There's whispers that this winning concept is going to be rolled out as a chain - watch this space!
That's your lot and the end of another week - January has flown by hasn't it? It will be Christmas again before we know it and we'll all be another year older and wiser - slightly depressing...!
