The Sugar Bar

Always looking and envying and never doing it myself, I thought it was about time I got involved in the famous Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24. And I did!

Because ‘24, 24, 24’ is a global food event covering 24 meals on 24 blogs in 24 hours, tasting Italian-accented modern cuisine in the heart of the busy, cosmopolitan and stylish London city’s Mayfair seemed like the perfect idea. Dinner is a special event and amongst my girlfriends and I, it is a wonderful ritual comprising getting excited, getting dressed up, and savouring the eating moments and banter. It is a time where our greatest memories occur and the worries of the week melt away. And I couldn’t think of anywhere better to take my bestie for her birthday dinner than Murano.

Murano comes under the Gordon Ramsay Holdings umbrella but is run by executive chef Angela Hartnett. Having worked frequently with celebrity chef and my bestie’s crush-of-her-life Gordon Ramsay, Hartnett is one of Britain’s best-loved female chefs. My bestie Anna is all about good food and she’s a great cook, whipping up amazing Sunday roasts or delicious lasagnes without really thinking about it. A great female chef, a bestie who’s great with food – it was just all falling together and I thought it would be a lovely treat for my bestie’s 22nd birthday. And what an experience it was – for the both of us. 

Murano recently won a Michelin star in 2009 and offers a menu of Hartnett’s trademark Italian cuisine with a modern twist. Sounds amazing doesn’t it? And it was! We went for the a la carte 3 course menu and never looked back. It was gorgeous but I’ll let the pictures do the talking for the food.

The restaurant’s pretty small but very stylishly decorated. There’s even a little window where you can look into the kitchen and see the chefs at work. You can also request for a kitchen tour but make sure you do it quick as the head chef leaves (which means the kitchen shuts for visitors) at 10.30pm. Upon entering, the waiting staff attend to you very quickly and are so welcoming and friendly. They take your coats off and tuck them away somewhere you can’t see and if you’re early for your reservation, are prompt to serve you any drink you desire, customized or no. And everything is done stylishly, with great precision and utmost suaveness. What I really liked about the staff was their willingness to chat to you, crack a joke or have a little laugh. Nothing other than a bit of friendliness to let you completely relax into the comforting candlelit interiors of Murano and forget about the week’s worries. The waiting staff are so very attentive and give great attention to detail. Whether its getting your napkin correctly placed on your lap, waiting for your return from the ladies, or serving the polenta accompaniment to your main or the pouring warm custard over your pudding, it’s all done with such smoothness, quiet confidence and care that one feels in an almost surreal, dream-like state. 

The whole meal lasted 2 hours 45 mins which is typical of an Italian meal. Definitely one of the longest meals we’ve ever had but now, less typing and more food ogling. And oh yea, apart from service and good-looking food, have I forgotten to mention that this was impeccable standard of cooking?!

Drinks

Gin & Tonic – made with Tanqueray London Dry Gin and Fever-Tree Indian Tonic Water

Italian White from Abruzzo – Pecorino, “Colle dei Venti”, Caldora

Amuse-gueule

Olives – delicious giant olives which were a deep avocado-green, a telling sign that these were very fresh

Fresh bread, pane carasau, shaved ham & salami with extra virgin olive oil so good we’d never tasted anything quite as dreamy as that

Arancini – fried rice balls subtly flavoured with white truffle and coated with breadcrumbs

Starters

Scottish sea scallops, apple and cucumber salsa, pata negra, caper berry purée – beautiful scallops that were just of a melt-in-your-mouth consistency in the middle with hints of the sea

Hand-rolled cavatelli with braised rabbit leg, confit tomatoes, niçoise olives – first time tasting rabbit and I adored it. Wasn’t as gamey as I expected it to taste. So soft and tender!

Mains

Roasted turbot, Cromer crab ravioli, apple purée, smoked eel and horseradish velouté (Supplement £5) – simply cooked to perfection with all the flavours working brilliantly together. The velouté came in a small potion-like jar frothed and bubbly.

Red leg partridge, truffle polenta, braised leg roasted ceps, curly kale – a beautifully presented dish that tasted so much more than it looked. Totally opened a new dimension of taste for me and the polenta was simply gorgeous with the succulent partridge

Desserts

Selection of sorbets: Chocolate Banana, Blueberry & Crème Fraîche, Mango, Basil, Earl Grey, Guava, Chocolate Orange, Pomegrenate & Cranberry – we finished with the basil as it was a lot stronger than the other flavours and a great way to cleanse the palate; Anna’s fav? Chocolate Banana & Basil. My fav? Earl Grey & Basil. Yummy.

Pear and chocolate millefeuille, warm custard, rosemary sorbet – Wonderful custard done right and the pastry was perfectly cooked. The sorbet was delicious and it was dessert perfection really. I loved how Anna ate this so daintily too, especially when I just dug into mine and was licking and sucking the spoon to get every bit of chocolate.

Pistachio soufflé, warm chocolate sauce and macaroon – warm chocolate sauce or hot chocolate as the waitress called it really made the soufflé. I felt like a child all happy about pudding but this was one of the best parts of the meal. I love pistachio and the flavour of this was just awesome paired with chocolate. Macarons were a great bonus too!

Lemon Tart – complementary of the kitchen. This tart was like tarte au citron but it was brûlée-d at the top. And the lemon filling was less firm and resembled lemon curd more. It was so delicious and a real effort to polish off judging from how full we were by the end of the meal.

Petit fours: Selection of chocolates, candies and truffles. 

So delicious. So beautiful. And we were stuffed, satisfied and over the moon with giant bellies to boot.

And as promised, here are our VERY EMBARRASSING videos of ourselves. Sorry if we weren’t exactly eloquent. We were so tired and sleepy post-dinner it was hard to be more intelligible than we were then.

Anna’s Review ‘Come Dine with Me’ Style

Kid Diva’s Final Words

We have had the most amazing meal and night of our lives I do believe and I can only thank Foodbuzz and Visa Signature for making this possible. So pleased we had this opportunity to visit Murano, a restaurant producing high standards of food and service. And not just that, the whole experience was simply divine. We would be happy to return any time (when the bellies are less full and the pockets are more full) for the lunch, dinner service or Chef’s special tasting menu.

Murano
20 Queen Street
London
W1J 5PP
T: 020 7592 1222
F: 020 7592 1213
murano@gordonramsay.com

Breakfast is the best meal of the day. Fiction or fact? FACT. 

Are we quite particular with our eggs for breakfast? FACT.

Is the English breakfast fry-up quite the classic morning pick-me-up? FACT.

And is The Breakfast Club simply one of the best places I’ve eaten at for breakfast/brunch? FACT. again.

So what’s on the menu? Obviously a proper English fry-up but besides that, there are a classic selection of sweet and savoury pancakes, eggers (I’ll explain), sandwiches and wraps. Not too worry, TBC is open for lunch and dinner as well so it isn’t simply a hangout for breakfast goers only.

Normally, I’d choose the fry-up or the pancakes but because everything looked all too good and the egg cravings were too overwhelming, I went down a different path this time. But before I go into what I’d ordered, let’s just say be prepared for very large portions at TBC. You can get a good Full Monty fry-up here with bacon, sausage, eggs, black pudding, hash brown, mushroom, beans, tomatoes and toast. It’s the works. And a real effort if you’re not a big eater. So be hungry if you intend to do the full monty. There is a downsized version, not so much in portion though but in the amount of ‘works’ you get and that’s the Half Monty. What you get are the cool kids that make the fry-up – bacon, sausage, eggs, beans and toast.

Even talking about it now is getting me all hungry and excited so definitely saving the full mont and the pancakes for TBC trip no. 2. And certainly worth the trip if you’re one of those particular with eggs for breakfast. These guys at TBC know what they’re doing with them and know how best to serve ‘em eggs. Can I say, the Eggs Benedict (£7.00 – picture above at top of blogpost) are too lush for my own good? 2 eggs poached to perfection, sat on top shredded ham so succulent and tasty it reminds me of hot roast pork, on toasted and buttered English muffin. Not forgetting the healthy serving of fresh hollandaise that goes all over the eggs and the crisp fresh salad drizzled with an olive oil dressing served on the side. Seriously people, the eggs were cooked the way I love. Not too yolk-drippy, so firm but not all cooked through that it’s all crumbly and powdery. The ham, which was given a bit of a golden-brown once over in a frying pan, totally made it. These guys know their pork and it’s no wonder they’ve a sign outside the restaurant claiming they did not see your missing pig!

My new fellow foodie who lives across the hall from me ordered the Eggs Royale (£8.00) with an extra order of mushroom (and boy was her mushroom a big one!). The same gorgeousness as the Benedict but with smoked salmon instead of ham. Her verdict? So very scrumptious and satisfyingly good that she needed a bit of recovery time. I was jealous of that giant mushroom on her plate. It was all oozy and juicy, just the way I love mushrooms but could definitely not have fit that in my stomach what with the uber generous portions at TBC.

I admit paying 7 or 8 quid for a breakfast might be a little bit stretching a student budget, especially when you could get the same classics for half the price at say a Scream pub or even a quarter of that if you decide to jump into one of ‘those’ good greasy hearty breakfast cafés like a certain famous Cafe Face in Birmingham. You’ll be singing a different tune once you’ve tried TBC though and you’ll understand why I’m waxing lyrical over some fairly uncomplicated breakfast dishes. The quality of the ingredients (and gosh, the ham and bacon) certainly shines through and shows how TBC can afford to name itself that as one of the big players in the breakfast scene. 

Not only was the food fantastic, the atmosphere and furnishings were exactly up my street. If you’re not that much of a morning person, you want to have breakfast somewhere comfy, not too loud, welcoming and friendly enough (in terms of both interior and waiting staff) to just completely absorb you into the scene whilst you soak up some energy and caffeine? Go to TBC! I loved how there were different rooms to choose from and relax in, so much so that you felt like you were in a dream house, with a bit of time before your breakfast is served to wander about and explore. The quirky collection of memorabilia like a Mickey Mouse telephone, and random photographs of rugby or football teams made for a quietly gentle way to lure you out of your morning grogginess.

We loved the sparkly room. It’s the prettiest. Kinda like a cross between a disco room, a student pub and a Victorian-themed tea house. Well, sorta. If you’re sat outside this sparkly room by the windows facing the street outside, or by the open-concept kitchen, you’ll feel like you’re in some sort of 80s diner with the black and white tiled floors, except of course you ain’t getting the little diner tables. Here, you’ve got a collection of cute wood furniture or awesome comfy sofas, long canteen style tables and even a section that mimicks a beach side fish bar. Eclectic. Just like East London. Quirky, wacky-fied, old school and modern at the same time – just really cool. And it really helps that the waiting staff are very quick to bring you your coffees, that the food is just spot on and so deliciously satisfying.

It really looks like there’s nothing to complain about. But if I had to say something negative about it (and I’m really pushing it here), it would be that the various rooms sometimes meant the waiting staff forgot you were there which made getting the bill a bit of a tricky one. Seriously though, we didn’t care at all!

The Breakfast Club
2-4 Rufus Street
Hoxton
London
N1 6PE
Tel: (020) 7729 5252

It’s been a while hasn’t it? Get anything good for Christmas? Did you have a blast of a new year’s? My good wishes go out to all and pray that you lot have had an amazing holiday thus far. We had an amazing Christmas dinner party this year and I even had my own bar to boot! The dogs went mental with the smell of roasting meat in the air. Post-Christmas was the typical – savouring the remaining leftovers, rubbing the belly and snoozing in front of the telly with a glass of wine. We celebrated New Year’s with a 2 hour high-tea buffet session and shopping with the -rents. Mum was pretty insistent on purchasing this new liquid foundation made from the waters of Mt. Fuji. Dad and I had a massive debate about department stores sapping away the hard-earned money of men vs. women supporting the economy via the beauty, cosmetics and fashion industry. Pretty random stuff.

So anyway, I think I’m still stuffed from all that Christmas and New Year’s feasting. This year, we definitely did take ‘feasting’ to the next level. Completely outdid myself and grew triplet food-babies this year. And so, still reeling from all that gastro-delight over the holiday period, I have yet to create any special funky dish. Venturing into the kitchen, really, is quite daunting. I swear I see grey shadows lingering about the pantry and often catch the D-word (‘diet!’) from the whispers floating with the wind. Everywhere is a hovering suffocating cloud of paranoia and hesitation. Even the food fanatic I take after, my dad, was vehement about not over-eating after New Year’s. I can safely say everyone is still in shock, myself included.

This pasta dish is one I made a few days before Christmas. Something light and quick to prepare, low on the budget, and quick to eat so as to return to whatever important stuff you’re working on. (To fully enjoy Christmas and then New Year’s, I was quite determined to finish all my essays before then. Now that it’s all been celebrated and past, I regret to say I’ve still got 1 essay left. The biggest pain in the arse, to be more specific.) Indeed, this was an easy-peasy lunch for three that didn’t take me away from my essays for long. The capers and yellow peppers in this really make the dish. Nothing like capers to give me a great big zing! to keep me awake all through the afternoon.

Lunch-break Pasta with Cajun Spiced Courgettes, Peppers & Capers
Ingredients

3 servings dry penne pasta
about 3/4 – 1 courgette, chopped
1/2 a large yellow pepper, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp capers
1 tsp cajun spice blend
2 heaped tbs sundried tomato pesto
sprinkle of dried parsley or chopped fresh parsley
sea salt, cooking and seasoning
freshly ground black pepper, for seasoning
grated parmesan, for garnishing

Cook pasta in boiling water.

In a frying pan, sauté the garlic with cajun spice blend. On medium heat, add the prepared courgettes and peppers. Cook til courgettes start to lightly brown.
Once pasta is cooked til al dente, add to the frying pan. Add the sundried tomato pesto, capers and stir altogether. Pasta should be evenly coated with pesto. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with grated parmesan.