I’ve been converted

Schlagwörter

Goat's cheese, Restaurant, the gate

… and yes this obviously happened at The Gate. Where else.

If there is one thing, I always stay clear off, it’s goat’s cheese. Anything else (non-meat), I’ll give a try, when at a nice restaurant. But goat’s cheese normally makes me feel sick. Really, it gives me goosebumps, I dislike it that much. But then yesterday we went to The Gate. Because this is just we’re we go, because we’re cool kids, and because I think it might be my favourite restaurant of all times. I had to order something with goats cheese, because everything else had nuts in, and as you might know, mon cher has a nut allergy. So I ordered this:

Rotolo
Roasted Butternut Squash, Basil & Goat’s Cheese rolled in Thyme – infused potato, baked & served on a bed of french beans with a parmesan cream sauce and deep fried leeks.  

I was scared. Like actually scared, because I get so exited by food and I knew it’d be really disappointed if I didn’t like it. And if I didn’t like this dish, I actually wouldn’t have been able to eat it.

BUT it was incredible. It was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten, and I really didn’t think that would ever happen with something with goat’s cheese in it (And I’ve tried goat’s cheese at some really nice restaurants before). It was incredibly delicious and didn’t have that yucky goat-y taste at all!
Monsieur Daniel made a very valid point, that this is probably because it’s a purely vegetarian restaurant. They actually take the best out of every ingredient, whilst other restaurants just try to use some fancy, strong cheese in order to at least have some vegetarian option. So yes, it was delightful and I can’t tell you how relieved I was, when I put the first bite into my mouth and I don’t think there is anything that proves the amazingness of a restaurant better than this!
GO THERE

Oh and just to make you jealous, we also had:
- Indo-Iraqi potato cake, potato cake filled with indian-spiced baby corn, french beans, carrots, courgettes & green peas pan-fried & served with coriander chutney 

- Leek & Trompette Tart, sautéed leeks baked with stilton cheese & crème fraiche in parmesan pastry, topped with trompette mushrooms (The Gate definitely knows how to rock a tart!!)

- Sticky Toffee Pudding, served with vanilla ice cream (Who would have thought that Sticky Toffee pudding could ever actually taste AND look good?)

- Maple Syrup Crème Brûlée

I would show you photos, but it was too dark to take any (which made a really nice atmosphere though, because there were many candles and fairy lights)

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Café des Jeux

Schlagwörter

Café, france, Games, Grenoble, Restaurant

Today I’ve got something well cool to tell you about. Here’s the deal:

- There’s a café in Grenoble called Café des Jeux, which translated to Café of Games or simply Games Café and it’s exactly what it sounds like a Café full of board games!

- You come in, find a table and look at the menu: not only will you find a delicious drinks menu but you’ll also find a Games Menu, listing all the games you can play there, stating how many players it’s for and how long it will approximately take to play.

- When you order drinks, you’re asked if you actually want to play. Playing is very reasonably priced at 3€ for “normal” people, 2€ for students and 1€ for children.

- If you say yes, the waitress will send over the games person, who is like a sommelier in a nice restaurant, he looks at how many people will play, what the people are looking for (strategy, fun…) and then recommends a game. We didn’t know about this service, we were going to just play backgammon or chess, but what we got was even better, mainly because it was something new and exiting.

- You can also order the coolest teas, wine based cocktails, beer based cocktails, desserts, mains and even potentially a bowl of Haribo!

I think it’s an amazing idea and definitely makes for an entertaining evening whether there’s just two of you or up to about 10! 2€ per person is definitely not very much money if you consider how many games you can choose from and how much effort they put into finding you the “right” game and making sure you’ll understand it. As I said before I think it’s a well good idea, and if you happen to be in Grenoble, you should pay this little, cute café a visit!

REVIEW: Vanilla Black, London

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Crumble, eating out, london, Michelin Guide, Passion Fruit Mayo, Pineapple, Potato Cake, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Ribblesdale Pudding, Vanilla Black, vegetarian, vegetarian restaurant, Vinegar Dust

As promised the other day, here’s an entire blogpost dedicated to the amazing restaurant we went to on saturday night! It’s called Vanilla Black and it’s a vegetarian restaurant recommended by the Michelin Guide. Going there was also (like the Theatre ticket to Blood Brothers) part of my present from the amazing Daniel.

The restaurant is located in a surprisingly quiet street in Central London. When you walk in, you’re immediately greeted by very friendly waiters and a pleasant athmosphere. You’re given some freshly baked bread and amazing salted butter straight away. This is when I really knew that we’d have a great time! Good bread and butter hehe.

The next good thing was that when only asking whether the bread had nuts in, we were offered a nut free menu straight away, which I think is a really nice gesture.

Once we ordered we got a little greeting from the kitchen. Unfortunately we got a bit exited and ate it without really actually noting what it was or being able to take a photo of it. All I can say is that it was absolutely delicious!

For starters, we both had

Yukon Gold Potato Cakes and Vinegar Dust with Heritage Potato Crisps and Pickled Cucumber Ketchup

The Potato Cakes were an absolute delight and went perfectly with the pickled cucumber ketchup (something that you just can’t imagine without trying by the way), and the mayo-y thing just gave it a nice creamy finish!

For mains, I had:

Fried Mushroom Mousse and Tarragon Waffles with Whipped Madeira, Fennel, Broccoli and White Grape

I admit it looks slightly odd in the picture, but it tasted really really nice! The Mushroom Mousse was incredibly flavourful and had a very nice consistency. The Brokkoli and the Fennel were on point, the waffles really interesting and the foam was just perfect to finish for this dish.

D had:

Poached Organic Hen Egg and Ribblesdale Pudding and Hickory Smoke Potato Croquette and Pineapple Pickle

I think I slightly preferred what he had (even though mine tasted absolutely amazing as well), but this yellow-ish thing that you see in the middle, was just so incredible! If I understand it right, I think that’s the Ribblesdale Pudding. It’s hard to describe, but I think it was something along the lines of a Potato-Egg-y- Cheese-y Soufflé. It tasted amazing, it had the perfect consistency, and I could pretty much live of this, I think! But anyway, the other things tasted really really good too! The poached egg was absolutely on point, the Potato Croquette nice and crispy and the pickled red onions gave a surprisingly nice edge to the whole dish.

The dessert menu was sadly a little bit reduced because of D’s nut allergy, but we still ended up with something really nice:

Raw and Poached Pineapple and Passion Fruit Mayonnaise with Toasted Coconut Sorbet and Crumble

Whilst I think this could have been presented in a slightly nicer way, the taste was really good! I loved the Toasted Coconut Sorbet, and the Pineapple was delicious and ripe and lovely. Oh and crumble. Well there’s not a lot I have to say about this, we all know that it just makes everything this little bit better, don’t we?

Once more, I have to say: If you get a chance, definitely pay this restaurant a visit, whether you’re a vegetarian or not, it’s definitely worth it!

London Trip

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Blood Brothers, Jamie's Italian, london, Theatre, Weekend Trip

On friday I went on a very short (37hrs) trip to London. To see Monsieur Daniel.

We had the best weekend. D took me to see the play “Blood Brothers” which is a fairly society critical play outlining how different people’s perspectives are, even with the same genes. The play is about twins that get separated on the day of their birth, because their birth mother, who earns her money with cleaning, can’t possibly feed another child, whilst the woman that she works for is unable to conceive. The birth mother agrees to give one child away under the one condition, that she will see the baby every day.

Obviously it doesn’t all go too well. The wealthy mother soon gets anxcious with the birth mother around, so she makes her redundant and tries to keep her child away from the other one. One day they meet though and immediately want to become best friends and therefore blood brothers. I’m not going to go into much more detail, but from then on, the play mainly outlines how different their lives become, one goes to a boarding school with very good reputation, whilst the other one can only attend the local school. Following the boarding school, the boy who grew up in the rich family goes to Oxbridge, whilst the other one becomes a worker that soon becomes redundant and so on.

It’s a very thought provoking play and especially the end is quite sad and touching. If you get a chance, you should definitely go and see it! At the moment it’s on in the Phoenix Theatre in London.

Anyway, the play wasn’t the only amazing thing we did yesterday. We went for lunch at Jamie’s Italian and anyone who’s following me on Twitter might have seen that we went to the absolutely amazing Vanille Black for dinner. The food was absolute divine, but as said before, I will describe the restaurant in a separate blogpost. All I’ll say now, is that it’s a purely vegetarian restaurant and that it’s recommended by the Michelin Guide for I believe three years in a row now.

As you might be able to tell by now, I had the bestest weekend, even though weather-wise London was, you know, London . But then, I think with company this amazing I and food that makes it hard to stop “mmmmmmmmmh”ing, the world could probably look like it would end soon and I would still have a great time.

RESTAURANT: The Modern Pantry

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food, london, No Bant, Restaurant, The Modern Pantry

I just read another little article about The Modern Pantry and I realised that I hadn’t written a blogpost about it yet.
I had heard so many positive things about this little restaurant, and everyone seemed to be raving about it. So because of all the positive reviews and good things I had heard about this place and because to be honest, it just seemed like exactly the sort of place I’d like, I made a reservation.

When we walked in, it seemed a bit simple (very basic chairs, not a lot of space between table), but you know I thought it could add to the charm of the little restaurant (because often it’s those things that make them special).

We were happy with the starter. Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos or wrote down what we actually had, but it was some sort of fritter made out of many different vegetables including okra and I think it was served with some sweet tomato dip. It tasted very very nice, but it was served in a way that I really really (really really) dislike: on a small plate. I think small plates make every food look un-special, whilst food that is presented in the middle of a big plate always looks more elegant (in my opinion anyway). So whilst I liked the taste of our starter, the presentation of it was unfortunately a no-no for me.

But anyway, since we did really like the taste of the starter, we were looking forward to the main (because that sort of had to be served on a big plate ; ) ) and potentially a dessert.
However, I think you might have already guess by now: We were majorly disappointed by our main. I can’t even remember what I had (it was that unexiting…), but I think I remember that D. had veal, and whilst all the things that were listed for this dish on the menu sounded very promising, it was actually just a (massive) piece of meat with little to no sides.
Now, this might just be me, but I live for the sides you get with food, I think they’re what makes the dish exiting.

At first we both tried to make the best out of it, and pretended to like it (you know, in case the other person is having a great time), but at one point we just couldn’t anymore and agreed that sadly, to us, the food was really not worth the money. It was in terms of ingredients (as I said before a big big piece of meat and we saw on other tables that it was the same with fish etc) but sadly not in creativity.

I hate to write such a bad review, but I just felt that I had to, because maybe someone who’s been there felt similar? (If so, please let me know? I can’t be the only one who didn’t have a great time?)

Anyway since we felt this place really wasn’t worth the money (remember we’re poor students and shouldn’t spend all our money on expensive meals but on alcohol … apparently), but we still wanted to end a still nice evening with a good dessert, so we went to a restaurant that we had seen on the way there, where we had a look at the menu too (and liked it).

Fortunately we were a lot more lucky there: very nice, cozy atmosphere, delicious dessert and an extraordinarily nice waiter (especially surprising since most restaurant don’t treat you too nice if you’re only having a starter/dessert). *

So anyway we were talking Modern Pantry. Maybe I’m just not cool enough for a place like this. Maybe I’m just being fussy. BUT I don’t think the whole rave about this restaurant is justified. I don’t think it’s anywhere near as good as The Gate, and to be honest I’d rather go to a nice little, simple Italian restaurant, spend half the money and have twice as much of a good time. But just for the record, I really wanted to like this restaurant and I think I was more forgiving than I would have been with restaurants I hadn’t heard anything about before, but it just wasn’t my thing. But I’d love to hear if anyone’s been there and what they thought of it? Did we maybe just choose the wrong foods?

Love,
Johanna

* Unfortunately I don’t remember the name of this restaurant, but I will find out and go there for a proper meal and then give you a good review

THE GATE … another review

Schlagwörter

artichoke, crème brûlée, dining out, dinner, dolcelatte, food, polenta, Restaurant, Tart, the gate, torte, vegetarian

As proposed in the previous blogpost, here is now a more wordy one about our second visit to The Gate.

As before we got some delicious flavoured olive oil before we even ordered, which was good, because it took us a loooong time to order: so many delicious options made it incredibly difficult to decide what to have.

One thing that I like about these “good” restaurants, is that you can pretty much order anything without having to worry about whether you like the ingredients or not, because the chefs will have made it perfect anyway (the couple at the table next to us disagreed and thought there was way too much chili and too much cheese in everything (they were obviously wrong)). So this time I ordered something with dolce latte in it and definitely didn’t know what it was (it’s blue cheese, something I normally really really don’t like, but in this dish it was the perfect combination).

But anyway, back to the point of this blogpost, I’ll try and go through what we had and comment on it:

STARTERS

Caciofini: baby artichoke stuffed with dolcelatte & wild mushroom duxelles, fried in a crispy beer batter, served with a puy lentil salsa & lemon & garlic aioli

This was just delightful, especially if you managed to get some of everything in one bite: filled, fried artichoke, lentil salsa and aioli. The filling of the artichoke was creamy, the batter in which the artichoke was fried made it very crispy, the salsa (even though it had lentils in it) was refreshing and the lemon aioli just gave the other two the perfect finish.

Three onion tart: leeks & shallots baked with crème fraiche in parmesan pastry, topped with caramelised red onions & finished with basil oil

This tart was genuinely the best tart I have ever tasted. It was just impeccable. It tasted perfect and it was served at exactly the right temperature. Oh and of course it had the right consistency, which is not easy to achieve with a tart. I don’t know how exactly they made it, but I will definitely have to attempt to re-create it (even though I probably won’t manage to make one half as good), because it was so so good. The lovely and creamy tart was nicely rounded off with some delightful basil oil.

 
SIDE

Polenta Chips served with Chili Jam

I’ve had polenta chips before… at Jamie’s Italy. There they were served with rosemary salt. I loved those, so I thought, we should probably give them a go at this place too. What we got was even more delicious, because they were thinner and therefore crispier and oh of course the most important thing: they were served with this a.m.a.z.i.n.g chili jam. It was so full of flavour and was just perfect with those polenta chips (or potentially anything else to eat). I will definitely have to try and make some chili jam, so if anyone knows any good recipe, please do share . The other slight problem is, that I don’t know where to get enough chilis from to make jam without spending a month worth of money on it. Maybe I’ll have to start growing my own?

 
MAINS

Risotto Mille Feuille: roasted peppers, portobello mushrooms, fennel & red onion served on a truffled risotto cake, with a cannelloni bean cassoulet

Mille Feuille made out of vegetables seems to be the new thing. You might have read that I had another version of it here in the same week, which I was positively surprised by, so I decided to try out The Gate’s version. And again, I had a great time eating it. This version was different however, because it was served on a (huge) risotto cake and with a cannelloni bean cassoulet.
Whilst I loved that there were some of my beloved carbs in this dish in the form of this beautiful risotto cake and that it was served with this very refreshing cassoulet (which had coriander, one of my favourite herbs, in it), I preferred the other restaurant’s choice of vegetables.
BUT: in a way, I’m glad I didn’t like their vegetables just as much, because I am 100% sure that the perfectness of the combination of those two dishes would have put me into an immediate food coma (… which would have been slightly awkward)

Gnocchi: potato gnocchi topped with stilton & served in a parmesan cream sauce with pan-fried girolle mushrooms, spinach & butternut squash

I find that good gnocchis are very hard to find, they’re usually either too dry or just really mushy. These ones were in a different shape to usual ones (as you can see in the photo in the blogpost below) which I think helped to give them a perfect consistency and flavour. It also enabled the chefs to put them into a beautiful star shape around the spinach and butternut squash. The sauce was nice and creamy and went perfectly with the gnocchi.

DESSERTS

Earl Grey Crème Brûlée

Since they had another crème brûlée on the last menu we looked at before, I decided that the fact that they “always“ have a crème brûlée on the menu represents the fact that they’re obviously really good at making them. My admittedly adventurous assumption was right: they are in fact very good at making it. The earl grey flavour was subtle, but definitely there. For me this dessert was the perfect finish to an already perfect dinner and evening.

Pressed Chocolate and Cherry Torte served with crème fraiche

I can’t really say too much about this one, because I only had a tiny bite. Monsieur le D. had a great time eating it though. It was really rich (what you can expect from a pressed chocolate torte though), but neverthelss very nice.
I preferred my “light” (yeah right haha) crème brûlée

All in all as I said before a fantastic evening with good food and even better company. I find this restaurant very inspiring and the perfect place to spend a lovely evening with your beloved one(s)  : )

THE GATE… again :)

Schlagwörter

artichoke, butternut squash, caciofini, crème brûlée, dining out, dinner, food, gnocchi, london, mille feuille, Restaurant, salsa, the gate, vegetarian

Today we went to The Gate again. I might write something little about the things we had tomorrow, but just to give you some idea, here’s photos of what we had. It was again a wonderful evening with absolutely delightful food!

STARTERS
Caciofini: baby artichoke stuffed with dolcelatte & wild mushroom duxelles, fried in a crispy beer batter, served with a puy lentil salsa & lemon & garlic aioli

Three onion tart: leeks & shallots baked with crème fraiche in parmesan pastry, topped with caramelised red onions & finished with basil oil

SIDE
Polenta Chips served with Chili Jam

MAINS
Risotto Mille Feuille: roasted peppers, portobello mushrooms, fennel & red onion served on a truffled risotto cake, with a cannelloni bean cassoulet
Gnocchi: potato gnocchi topped with stilton & served in a parmesan cream sauce with pan-fried girolle mushrooms, spinach & butternut squash

DESSERTS
Earl Grey Crème Brûlée

Pressed Chocolate and Cherry Torte: served with crème fraiche

REVIEW: The Haven, Bistro and Bar

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dining out, finchley, food, haven, millefeuille, Restaurant, review, vegetable, Whetstone

Yesterday I went for a meal with D.’s family to a lovely restaurant called The Haven. I liked this place from the very first minute, it’s very spacious (without being impersonal) and is decorated tastefully. A couple of specials are written on a big board on the wall, and the other delicious possibilities are presented on a plein but nice Din A4 Page menu.

I recently made the decision to try and choose something in nice restaurants, that I couldn’t make myself (or maybe could, but wouldn’t know how), so I do look at pasta (but mainly to get ideas for what I could cook at home) but I try to force myself against it so I get to try new things. This time this strategy definitely paid off!

It was really hard to choose but in the end I went for the Millefeuille of Spinach, Mushrooms, Butternut Squash and Grilled Artichokes. It did say “NO pastry”, but silly as I am, I thought that there must be something pastry like, maybe something that wouldn’t be called pastry. There just had to be something with carbs, the main logic being that I love carbs.

When the food arrived, I was a bit disappointed (at first) to see that what I got was a plate of vegetable. Pretty yes, but a plate full of vegetable, seriously???
In case you didn’t get it yet, I’m not the biggest fan of vegetable. I’m slowly trying to corporate them into my meals, but I’m really not mad about them. Well, usually I’m not, yesterday might have changed me a little bit. But let me first show you, what I actually got:

Looks nice, right? And believe me, it tasted even nicer! It was so so so good. Every single vegetable was completely on the point, and especially the butternut squash was just a dream! This was the kind of meals that just leaves you feeling really satisfied and full, whilst still good about yourself (Pizza fulfills number 1 and 2 as well, but feeling good about yourself? Not so much…). The flavour was so amazing!
I was a little bit like a teenie, that got kissed/touched by someone they like, who don’t want to wash that part of their body ever again: I didn’t want to eat anything else ever again OR brush my teeth (D. quickly reminded me that this would be a bit gross for me and  the people around me), so I decided to not give up on brushing my teeth and even more importantly (at least for my taste buds) FOR dessert!

It was really hard to choose between vanilla cheesecake, sticky toffee pudding, banoffee pie and the like. I decided to stick to my “order something you don’t have a clue what it will be“ theme I had on the night though and ordered the summerberry pudding with clotted cream. 

This was really nice and as promised: summery and refreshing. I still don’t really know what it was, it was something spongey on the outside, which was filled with berries. It was sharp in flavour but still very delicious.

All in all a very delightful evening, if you ever are in that area, it’s well worth a visit!

DISCOVER: Secret Supper Clubs

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clarise faria, friday food club, hush, loft project, nuno mendes, restaurants, secret supper club, supper club, vegan, veganpeasant

Secret Supper Clubs aren’t just called secret, because they are sort of on the border of legality and because their location won’t be shared until just before, but also because it’s done by people who secretly want to be cooks, but for some reason, be it working hours, pay or something the like, chose to follow a different career path. For those people it’s perfect, because it gives them the opportunity to cook, whenever it suits them, for an audience they get to choose and without having to depend on the income they create through this.

Okay so just in case you haven’t heard of secret supper clubs yet, this is what they are about:

Someone who enjoys cooking for people with a normal day-to-day job hosts little dinner events, for which he/she creates a menu. This can be however difficult/easy/twisty as the host wants and it can also be any amount of courses they like. The host usually either sets a price for the meal or asks for a donation. However, drinks are not provided, because the host doesn’t have a license to give out (alcoholic) beverages. The guests are therefore encouraged to bring drinks themselves.

Anyway, since I am in London at the moment, but not able to host one of these clubs, I want to be guest in one. However, it’s really really not easy to choose and/or find one that’s actually available at the moment. Here are some of the ones, that I like the look of:

1) First up there’s a pretty big and actually famous one which is The Loft Project which they describe as an experiment in food and people, set within an intimate and beautifully considered environment in East London. This project was started by Nuno Mendes and Clarise Faria. It was meant to only be a temporary supper club and a test kitchen but it’s now used to give talented chefs the opportunity to showcase their food, which I think is a brilliant idea.
Every evening there is a maximum of 16 diners, who (apparently) are encouraged to walk into the kitchen to have a look and/or ask questions.

Whilst I’d love to go there, I think it’s a tiny bit over my budget (about 100 GBP per person). However most reviews suggest that it’s worth it! Maybe one day…

2) Then there is the hush supper club, which in my opinion sounds pretty amazing. This one serves sumptuous, fresh, vegetarian Indian cuisine. I’ve been following the blog for a while, and it just sounds so so nice, not only does it talk of mango lassi, minty chai and cinnamon and saffron infused gin and tonic, but also that, to make an appointment, you need to fill out a little questionnaire, where you for example have to tell one short anecdote, that says something about you. It’s designed to make it easier to get into conversations on the actual night.

However this one is also not going to happen (at least not on this visit), since “Hush” is currently in America and will be for a couple of weeks, but I will surely keep this one in mind.

3) The Friday Food Club hosts one event a month to bring together the foodies of London and surrounding areas. The food is cooked by a classicly trained chef and is usually british with a twist. I especially like that they publish their recipes afterwards!

Sadly again, there is no event that fits into the 10 days that I am in London.

4)  For fans of vegan food, I like the look of Veganpeasant (seriously, have a look at the photos!). Their concept is to have delicious vegan food with simple but high quality ingredients. The food is always meant to be healthy and they try to only use organic ingredients.

Whilst I really really like the concept, sadly this will be another miss for now, because it doesn’t work date wise!

Ok so at the moment it really doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, but you know… one day

For more secret supper clubs, you can have a look at saltshaker.net, where there is a list of pretty much all of them in every country.

THE FRESH TEA SHOP, Saarbrücken: Karstadt Passage

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Bubble Tea, Bubbles, fresh, Restaurant, saarbrücken, tea, The Fresh Tea Shop

(Photo from http://thefreshteashop.com/)

Saarbrücken isn’t exactly known to be a very hip city. I really liked what I came across the other day though: a little shop just for all sorts of ice tea: The Fresh Tea Shop. They have many different categories, ranging from simple ice tea as we know it to bubble tea, which is tea with bubbles that pop in your mouth, to marshmellow tea?!?!

When I saw this little shop, I obviously had to try it. I went for limegrass-kumquat with basil seeds. Ok fair enough the basil seeds mainly look pretty (if you like the look of frog spawn) and taste a lot like what they look like, but the actual tea was very very nice and refreshing.

Another thing I really like about this place is that you can regulate how sweet and cold you would like it, there are about 6 different levels for sweetness and maybe three for how many ice cubes!

If you walk past, you should definitely give it a go and I’m sure you won’t regret it, the staff is very, very friendly (and might even let you try one first before you buy it) and even if you don’t like what you’ve bought, you won’t exactly have spent a fortune (they start at around 2.00 I think).