Pub Review - The Foresters

Living in Kingston I am lucky to be at the door of many restaurants and cafes. While most are the typical chain based ones, there are a few hidden gems.

Located just over the bridge and in the heart of Hampton Wick is our favourite pub – The Foresters.

A small and quaint pub (which probably describes most British pubs) it's a place where you know you can get good food, wine and service. 

For entree we tried both the pea, broad bean and asparagus risotto with mascarpone and the pickled beetroot with goats cheese, toasted pine nuts and chardonnay dressing. Yum!

The main journey included seared scallops with roasted ceps (had to google ceps), sweetcorn puree and confit chicken. And rib eye steak with portobello mushrooms, cherry-vine tomatoes, caramelised onion, rocket salad and the signature... king edward thick cut chips (which I sneaked a taste on my plate). They do have the best chips!

Now for wine. I typically have an affiliation with Aussie wines only but because the only Aussie wines in Blighty are cheap and nasty, we decided to go with the recommendation by the waitress, which was a lovely light sangiovese red from Italy.

You would think we'd probably had enough food by now but seeing as we were enjoying the atmosphere, company and wine.... dessert had to be included. A lovely creme brulee and apple crumble with custard.

If you want to read more about The Foresters or perhaps book a meal, their website is http://www.the-foresters.com. They do have entertainment each Saturday so you have to book in early for those!

How to host a Dinner Party for a Russian Model

H and I have had so many busy weekends, whether it’s travelling or work that the last couple of weekends have been bliss to just sleep in, enjoy H’s cooked breakfast (or bought one) and then enjoy whatever the day may bring.

This Saturday we had a friend of H’s coming around for dinner and I’d been given the briefing that his girlfriend is a 6ft red haired Russian model. And both are vegetarian.

My first surprise was that a Russian was vegetarian. I thought that the main staple foods of Russians consisted of meat (goulash) and potatoes. Maybe she’s over goulash like I’m well over sausages! I ate so many of those damn things when I was a kid, that unless it’s the gourmet spinach and pinenut ones I just won’t eat them.

I can’t say that I’ve ever had dinner with a model, let alone a 6ft red haired Russian model, so my first concern was what to cook. After spending time with H’s mum this week and reading through the family Indian cookbooks I decided to cook some Indian curries.

If you’re the slightest bit interested in the menu, here it is;

Entree : Pappadums and Pakora (with some homemade chutneys)

Main : Bhendi (Okra) curry, Aloo Palak (Spinach and Potato), Gobi (Cauliflower) curry, accompanied with raita, chapati and rice

Dessert : Fresh Fruit and melted Toblerone for dipping

On the day in question and after sorting all the food, I went to get myself ready. That was when I opened my cupboard to get out some clothes, and had one of those ‘oh shit’ moments... what the hell do you wear to a dinner party when you’ve got a 6ft red haired Russian model coming?

Perhaps I should have done that extra gym workout this morning... or sat in the sauna for a few hours to at least make myself feel a bit slimmer. But really, what can a 30 something woman do to try and make herself look half decent against a 20 something woman that is a 6ft red haired Russian. No point.

After feeling depressed about my lack of wardrobe (and the fact that Blighty adds on pounds no matter how much you exercise), I finally settled on a safe option of casual jeans and a top. However when she walked through the front door I had omitted to wear any shoes. That was a big no no, as you can imagine being 5ft something, I looked like a dwarf next to her (and she didn’t even have heels on). Thankfully we were seated for most of the night.

You may ask how dinner went?

She ate.

Actually more than me. And here I was brainwashed by those trashy magazines that tell us models starve themselves. I can safely say they, or this one, truly do eat.

The evening went well, although I don’t think she understood all the things I said, the Aussie accent can cause confusion even for the Brits at times.

What did I learn?

That the benefit of being a 20 something model is you can wake up the next morning and look perfect even if you've had a few red wines, unlike my disheveled state.

And that next time I WILL wear high heels!

A nice piece of Road Kill anyone?

Your choice of the day... flattened badger, fox or pheasant.

I found a television program last night called 'Come Dine with Me'. It features four individuals who host dinner parties. The one that gets the highest vote wins a thousand pounds. So after tucking into my roast mushrooms for dinner I started watching (By the way, I was thankful I had eaten before hand).

When one of the contestants said she only cooks Road Kill, I thought it was a joke. And then I saw the menu:

Starter : Pheasant Road Kill Pies

Main: Water Buffalo called James (She had a photo of him)
Dessert : The only normal one...Creme Brulee
Petit Fours : Barbecued meal worms and Chocolate Coated Scorpion


On the night she served her Road Kill dinner she wore a necklace made from animal teeth (perhaps that's where she collected them from). Only some of the teeth were cats so that is kind of sick isn't it? 

The other contestants were obviously a bit dubious about eating their meal, but when she reassured them that she had over cooked the pheasant to ensure any bacteria was killed, they tucked in. And as one of them said 'it will only come out as diarrhea...'.

I don't think I could subject myself to that. When I think of Road Kill, I think of all the dead Kangaroos and Rabbits strewn along Australian highways. Some have been sitting there for days rotting in the hot Australian sun. It certainly doesn't tempt me to stop the car, jump out and rescue the slain animal in a bid to feed my family.

Japanese

I've never been partial to sushi, the thought of putting something raw and fishy in my mouth coated in seaweed does nothing to excite the palate. It's a bit like pork, the smell of which leaves me feeling nauseous. Who could subject themselves to a flesh that apparently is the closest to human flesh? yuk!

You will then be surprised that I agreed to try Japanese on Friday. 

To ease my way into it, we started out at a bar called Mahiki. Apparently this is a location where Prince Harry has been seen a few times. We didn't see him and instead were entertained by the waiter who served us in his finest pirate voice...ahoy me hearties!  I tried the Monkey Brains cocktail which was delicious...

Monkey Brains

The Japanese restaurant that we went to was called Sake No Hana located just near Green Park.  I did attempt the raw fish, but found the cooked version of black cod to be the highlight. Some Saki and a wonderful chocolate desert topped off the evening. And yes I will go out for Japanese again, this time though a little less Saki.

The yummiest desert!

A snog in London

You really do see some sites when you're wandering around London, actually you see some back home in Oz to. 

But if you ever fancy a snog in London then we found a great spot.....a snog shop.

The Snog Shop

  

It's free from fat and sugar... so why not ?

We were meant to be shopping for an outfit for H, but got sidetracked when we saw this. Actually I got sidetracked by it.

Don't ask me to find it again because I was completely lost from wandering around all the little side streets near Covent Garden. I also found an Aussie shop but I wasn't going to pay the eight pounds they wanted for promite.

The snog were selling frozen yoghurt by the way...

Date Night

This week we decided to go to a new little Bavarian bar and restaurant called Steins.

It's a quaint spot, not overly large but you escape to another world when you walk inside. It's adorned with floor to ceiling wood paneling, wooden tables, animal furs (not real for those of you that love animals) and old style black and white photographs showing off some lederhosens. It also has a great outdoor area overlooking the Thames which we've enjoyed before when the sun was shining.

Unfortunately there was no sun this evening, replaced by plenty of rain, so we sat inside.

Being Bavarian there is lots of sausage to eat... and pork. Not my most favourite of foods considering I was watching a program one day and it said that pork is a flesh most like human. In any case there are other options and I went for the chicken. 

The main course was average. We've been there before and the tasting platters are the way to go. However we'd never tried any deserts until now. Look what we had;

Yes a big platter of pancake and it just melted in your mouth. Crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy in the middle and served with an apple mousse.  I would hate to think how many calories I consumed, but hell it tasted good. 

We did have a few issues with service which was kindly acknowledged by the team there who offered us some complementary schnapps to finish up with.

We'll definately go back again.

Spiced Plum Chutney

What do you do with excess plums? 

The easiest solution would be to try and make jam, however I wanted to see whether I could find something different. So after googling for a while, I found Delia's Spiced Damson Chutney.

I've never made a jam or chutney in my entire life so this has got to be something for the record books!

The process (or some of it!)

It actually was quite easy, the plums simmer amongst ingredients such as apple, raisins, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. 3 hours cooking time allows the spice to settle around the apartment reminding me of grandma's cooking. 

The end result!

H wanted to try it straight away but I had to break the news to him, we have to let it sit for a good 3 months, just in time for Christmas!

What do I do with the rest of the plums?

Hot and Spicy

I knew that would get your attention!

A while ago there was a news program on television in Oz about a pub in Adelaide serving up a burger called 'The mega-death burger'. Apparently the burger is laced with an American spice that is 500 times hotter than a jalapeno chilli. For $25 you can try this but you have to wear latex gloves to eat it! 

More recently, in Kingston we had a chilli eating competition. There were no latex gloves required, however participants had to sign a death waiver. mmmm would you willingly sign away your life to pure pain?

Personally I don't fancy anything hotter than a standard Thai or Indian curry however there were about 8 participants in the competition, half of whom were female crunching away on chilli like they were juicy apples.

Did you know that the heat of a chilli is measured in scovilles? So taking a typical jalapeno, that would be between 2,500 and 5,000 scovilles. Cayenne Pepper takes it up to between 30,000 - 50,000 scovilles and then there's the Naga which is what most of the participants were eating towards the end of the competition. If you fancy a taste of this one it sits at around 1,382,118 scovilles. You can understand why eyes were bloodshot, noses were watering and random gagging could be heard. And they did this to win a ring of fire sauce?!

The winner turned out to be a draw between a male and female who had consumed about 6 of these Naga chilli's and that was after the first course of approximately 8 others. Personally I'll stick to my Indian curry.

The participants

 One of the winners 

Cornish Fairing

One of my welcome presents when I arrived in the UK in May was a 'Bake for Britain' cookbook. 

Do you think this was a hint?

Feeling domestic today I flicked through the book to see what I could make.  The Cornish Fairing caught my eye, mainly because I already had all the ingredients in the cupboard. 

Because I'm curious I googled the Cornish Fairing. Apparently it's a traditional ginger biscuit commonly found in Cornwall. The term 'Fairing' used to mean an edible treat sold at fairs, now more commonly known as Ginger Biscuits or Gingerbread.  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish_fairing



They are an easy biscuit to whip up but beware, even if you roll them into tiny balls they spread everywhere. The recipe also said to cook them for 10-12 minutes but they looked well baked in half the time. 

Not sure if these look like the real thing. H will have to taste test when he gets home tonight!

The recipe

The Supermarket Experience

The topic of Supermarkets doesn’t particularly sound very interesting, however there is something that really bugs me and I just have to share it with you.

I’m not sure what the statistics show in terms of landfill around the world, but if we were to base it on the amount of pre-packaged goods within Waitrose, for example, the UK would beat any country hands down.

Let’s take the example of a simple roast chook. Now in the real world one would expect to buy a plain chook, preferably free range, and at home add the flavours desired. My preference is lots of lemon, garlic and thyme.  We would then take our vegetables from scratch, wash, peel and chop them and cook them as we require.  

Now, going back to Waitrose.... if we popped down there to purchase the items for a ‘simple roast chook’ we’d be met by an array of options.  The chicken would be wrapped in so much plastic and cardboard it would sufficiently fuel a little campfire to toast marshmallows. Additionally you could have the option of going gourmet and picking up a Delia chicken or perhaps going even more gourmet (double gourmet) and getting a Heston chicken, whereby it comes with a lot of little extras and very specific instructions on how to cook the ‘perfect chicken’. Then when it comes to vegetables, well you have a specific ‘roast vegetable’ pack that you essentially just need to chuck into the oven as it’s all been peeled and chopped for you. And the roast potatoes, well they’re already pre-cooked so you just have to warm them up!

Essentially I can come home after a days’ work to just rip the packaging off a chook, vegies and bits, toss it in the oven or on the stove top and presto I have a gourmet roast. Now my other half maybe very impressed by my cooking Heston’s ‘perfect chicken’ however that kind of cooking just doesn’t cut it for me. How bland and boring is it to just take some food out of plastic, throw it in a pot and serve it up.  Not to mention the health aspects, god knows what additives they’re adding in there secretly!

And let us not forget to mention the laziness society is breeding with the addition of more and more pre-packaged options. Women of the next generation(s) will not have any idea how to cook (or clean but don’t get me started on that one).

Don’t get me wrong, the odd Lean Cuisine is a necessary addition to the freezer for those opportune moments, however there is the art of balance.

OK I’ve had my whinge now so will leave you in peace, but welcome your thoughts on this British phenomenon.