What a lucky girl I was last week! Not only did I get to try lobster for the second time, but managed to wrangle myself a THIRD only a matter of days later - thats right! I went to London for the day with my dad to see the new Manet exhibition, then he treated us to a lunch at Burger Lobster. I had never heard of this place before but it is AMAZING. It's a chic taste on the classic diner, and basically there is no menu - they either sell a burger - with a choice of cheese/bacon/salad etc, or a grilled lobster or lobster in a toasted brioche sandwich. Everything is the same price so you'd be a darn food not to pick the lobster, which we did of course. My dad had been before and recommended I try the brioche roll, and I'm so so glad I did.
It came on a tray with a can of delicious skinny fries and a nicely dressed little salad (which I'm sure I'd like if I liked to eat salad), and consisted of two slices of toasted brioche bread, absolutely crammed full of tender pieces of lobster and a decent amount of Japenese mayo. You definitely got what you paid for in terms of quantity and quality, it was the perfect sandwich! Taking the menu away from a restaurant and leaving you with only two choices is actually a great idea; there's no faffing about with what to have, whether you'll like the flavours, what will be healthy, what is too expensive or not. It's just good quality, well made, but fairly simple lobster (the best way to have it) or burger. The staff were lovely and very helpful, our food came ridiculously quickly (which normally I'd be skeptical about but was worth it this time) 100% definitely worth a visit :)
Monday, 4 March 2013
So while I am supposed to be doing an essay, I thought I'd share with you a particularly exciting snippet of the weekend. Yes, it centers around food, but we love it and it's fun and delicious and shhhh. Sam and I were trying to find something exciting to cook, and there happened to be a cooking show on focusing on new and innovative (apparently) types of Surf and Turf (Lamb and anchovies? not for me...) so we decided to take a closer look. After research and discussion - which cooking dinner definitely requires - we figured that buying fillet steak and lobster would be too expensive, so settled for half of the equation. That's right, we decided to attempt cooking our very own lobster for dinner! Because it costs waaaay too much dolla we just bought some lovely tails from Waitrose and decided to make home made chips with it.
We had never cooked lobster before, and it was only the second time I'd had it myself. However, after reading a few recipes, it seemed simple was the best option to get the full flavour of the beast. Here is what we did in a few quick bullet points:
- cut down lobster lengthways, almost butterflying it
- brush inside with olive oil
- season with salt & pepper
- sprinkling of lemon juice (which we forgot to get, but reckon this would taste good)
- grill for 3-5 mins on each side on a medium heat
Chips can be quite boring, but home made ones always have SO much more flavour and are really easy to make. And probably much healthier too, especially if you leave the skins on which means you get all the added vitamins and nutrients of the potato AND extra taste.
- cut potatoes in halves or quarters (depending on how big they are)
- boil potatoes for approx. 10-15 mins (you dont want them too soft, just partially cooked)
- slice into thin chips or wedge shapes
- season with salt and drizzles of olive oil
- sprinkly generously with paprika
- shake in metal bowl to get the chips covered and fluff up the sides, meaning they get crispier
- lay evenly on baking tray and drizzle with more olive oil
- roast slowly in the oven on medium heat, for about 30-40 mins
- turn during cooking
- grill for 5 minutes on medium-hot heat to crisp up
ta daaaa! It was a delicious and surprisingly easy lunch, with each plate only cost about £7-8 in total, bargain! Well, cheaper than eating out anyway....
I haven't posted in a really long time because I have been crazy busy with many a exciting thing, including exhibitions and being a CHEF. That's right. I'll do a proper update post later, along with new and interesting fashion ventures and exciting things and things and things, but for now I just want to post a bunch of pictures (mostly just cupcakes) that I am pretty much backlogged with. Enjoy my pretties!
I've decided I still really really want to have my own little bakery/cupcake buisness, so I've been busy practicing. I'm not too fussed about how pretty they look so can't be bothered to faff around with tiny shiny roses, but I like making interesting flavours. The second picture above are pina colada flavoured cakes (or were supposed to be!) followed by melting marshmallow chocolate fudge cookies :)
Enjoy my latest lookbook too, I've been really bad with the fashion side of this blog lately (very sorry for all the neglect!) and when I have some free time I plan to invest a bit more...well, time, in it. This is the first ever maxi dress I've worn, I wasn't sure about them at first but I actually really love it! I bought it from a vintage fair in winchester where I was intending to ONLY look...oops. My hair also looks ginger here (phone camera quality for you), but it's not!! (Strange to say I sort of like it?)
Back again real soon with actual information, big promise this time! xo
ps. some things i've been listening to lately... (partly reliving my teenage years with the MCS)
Motion City Soundtrack - Point of Extinction (acoustic)
These are things I made this weeeek, birthday/exhibition cupcakes and my artz
peace and love xo
Friday, 20 April 2012
This surprise came for me in the post today, from my mum because she knows how much I wanted it :) and that I have been feeling really bad lately. I love herrrr :')
Can't wait to try experimenting with more cupcake flavours etc, and hopefully soon trying to make up some of my own! I would also like to point out that Kat Dennings in two broke girls stole my life, she did an art degree and then makes tons of cupcakes...ahem...
;) tomorrow xo
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Made these for my two housemates birthday celebrations!
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Mine :)
I need to stop...it's getting ridiculous. My bank account has never looked so bare....or just, so deep into minus numbers....oops
My friend Fran finally got her 'End Of The Road' film pictures developed, and it just made me miss the festival so so much! One of the best weekends ever. It was like living in a magical, sunny, hippy bubble full of beautiful music, cake, books, games, tea and cider. Also made me miss having pink tips.
for now x
Thursday, 5 April 2012
Birthday boy's cake....
And friends posing enjoying the cupcakes aha!
Clothes posts to follow.... :) ox
Sunday, 25 March 2012
Oh and also, here are some of the cakes I have been practicing making recently :)
I apologise for being beyond awful with this blog lately, I've had horrible amounts of work has been doing!
I am starting to think I have S.A.D too, January just makes me feel really funny and unmotivated and lazy and the weather makes me miserable...talk about your winter blues.
So, a lot of stuff has been happening lately. I've been spending a lot of time (although not as much as I should have...) writing an essay for a Visual Culture module, I chose to write about the film 'Cache' (Hidden) by Michael Haneke. Although I never want to see the film again as long as I live, if you don't have to write an essay about it I highly recommend it! Haneke is this completed twisted, yet wonderful auteur director and although I hadn't actually heard of many of his films, they all seem pretty great so far.
What else? I can't remember how I've been spending my time! Oh, a highlight of the Christmas holidays was getting to go to Heston's 'Dinner' restaurant in Knightsbridge with my dad. Both appreciators of ANY sort of food but this was just something else - I don't think I've ever been to a restaurant which was as posh as this one, but it was an amazing experience! The restaurant itself was just beautiful, particularly with the open glass wine storage and glass kitchen where you could see the chefs making all the fancy dishes.
My dad and I shared Heston's famous 'Meat Fruit' dish for starters. Being weirdly obsessed with him, I already knew what to expect... out came a plate with what appeared to be an orange on it - stalk, skin, texture, everything...but when cut open it is full of a meat pate! The orange skin was some sort of sweet glaze, and it just tasted beautiful together. I forgot to take a picture before it was cut open but enjoy:
And for my main course I had steak with marrowbone, and triple cooked chips - best chips I have ever tasted! My dad had duck of some sort which also tasted wonderful. I've started to become such a food snob... And then below is a photo of me having the 'chocolate bar' dessert - chocolate fondant with passion fruit puree and ginger ice cream! Need I say more...
After this, I met up with one of my old friends Louis and we visited the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland. It's always a massive rip off and hugely tacky, but I love looking at all the colours and big crowds.
Here he is standing with some festive chickens...
Not too much else has been going, aside from the Christmas festivities! My Christmas was nice this year, I also got some lovely presents which I'll take photos of and post when I'm not feeling so lazy/worn out! I've also been spending a lot of time with my friends at the pub, I try to see as much of them as possible when I go back home. Now, however, I have come back to Winchester to do work and i'm going to be alone in the house for a few days more. I thought I would hate it but so far it's been okay, though I have been spending a lot of time at my friend Liss' house so strictly speaking I haven't reaaaally been alone.
And before I forget, here is a photo of my friend Jude (and my hair) from back in August I believe, when we visited the Tracy Emin exhibition. The exhibition itself was really amazing, I'm not usually a fan of hers so didn't go in with high expectations but I was really impressed by her work, and found it a lot more emotive than I have done in the past. Anyway, on our way out we were asked by a group of people to write what we wanted right now. The exhibition was called 'Love is what you want', and well, at that exact moment all I really wanted was a piece of banana cake. Easy to please clearly! For some reason they didn't put up the photo of my banana cake drawing, I can't imagine why...
I remember that being a really lovely day, when i'm away from home I miss London so much.
I think that is pretty much all I have to say for now, but enjoy some festive cupcakes!
I hope your Christmas's and New Years brought in wonderful treats like this for you as well:
These are two of my favourite people. I am sad that Zooey and Gibbard split up (also one of my favourite people... but I would love it if these two got together!)
And to finish, here is a song I have been listening to non-stop the past couple of days (from the 500 Days of Summer soundtrack, one of my favourite films). I know it's quite a sad song but i've been feeling quite funny lately, and I guess being alone in an empty house can give you a strange sort of cabin fever...
On that note, have a spectacular week full of the upmost merriment! x
