Archive for the ‘Food’ Category
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Gorgeous lunch for a fiver: Tuk Tuk Thai
pad Thai at Tuk Tuk -- delicious!
Deep in the heart of Soho, about halfway down Old Compton Street, nestled amongst pants stores and sex shops, is a little Thai joint called Tuk Tuk. It’s easy enough to miss, marked by just a tiny orange awning, but well worth a visit.
I treated a friend to Tuk Tuk last week and ours was a typical Tuk Tuk experience: briskly seated, we were handed well-loved, plasticised menus, and given a minute or two (no longer, please) to order. Service is polite, but it’s also efficient. This is not a place to dawdle.
Posted in Food
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Dinner party: sushi on a Sunday
I promised a dinner party… and here’s the first.
I was initiated into the pleasures of sushi making at a young age (no Japanese heritage; rather, I babysat for a hip foodie family) and make-your-own sushi is one of my favourite party tricks. What’s more, it hits a satisfying note in terms of affordability and impressiveness. Naturally, this makes it a prime candidate for an oola dinner party.
The supplies…
Ingredients for a sushi feast: five of your best girlfriends, and the following:
my most photogenic ingredients -- see full list below
Posted in Entertainment, Food
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Day 5: The Cuban Sandwich
The Cuban Sandwich
There’s a special reason why I’m such a fan of the Cuban Sandwich. Years ago, when I was studying in Cambridge, Boston, Chez Henri, a French bistro with a Cuban twist was my local - my favourite bar/restaurant ever. I used to go there in the evenings to meet people in my neighborhood - so often that my bike is even pictured outside the bar on a photo on their website.. But apart from being a calm, safe haven for us locals it was also the best, most romantic place in Boston to go for a date - the reason for this being the Cuban Sandwich. Priced at only $8 (in my time!), this massive feast served with delicious plantain fries (banana chips) in romantic surroundings was ideal for sharing. Read full post
Posted in Food
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Gorgeous lunch for a fiver: Japan Centre
I had long heard great things about the Japan Centre (quality ingredients! low prices! amazing selection!) but I’d never got myself down to Piccadilly on a lunchtime to check it out. That all changed yesterday, when I finally got to know my new favourite sushi place – and for well under a fiver. Read full post
Posted in Food
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Day 4: The return of the open faced sandwich…
Sometimes, I forget that I am a Scandinavian. I have lived abroad for something like a million years and this means that my memory of sharp cheese slicers, thin sandwiches with one layer of toppings only, brown cheese and 30 min lunch breaks in a tiny staff room towards back of the office has faded.
The minimalist Scandi lunch culture is perfect for my moola challenge, though. It all came back to me yesterday when browsing the cheese selection at Tesco. What’s up with all these thick, pre-sliced cheese packages? They’re so fat you’d think they’re meant to compete with bread. Read full post
Posted in Food
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You like potato and I like potahto!
Baked potato hiding under melted brie
Had to resort to buying lunch again. Been so busy lately - there’s just no time for shopping! Came home from work around 22:00 last night - missing the little convenience store at the corner by seconds. Argh. No food anywhere - and I used the last leftovers for yesterday’s salad.
I decided to have lunch at my desk and headed towards Coffee Republik for something cheap & cheerful. Read full post
Posted in Food
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Treasure hunting in the kitchen
Day 2, £10 Lunch Week Challenge
To make up for yesterday’s failure, I was determined to spend absolutely nil moola on lunch today. So I hurried back home for a quick peek in the fridge, fearing an empty sight followed by a distinctive, sour odor… I don’t usually stock up on much and if there’s anything at all to be found, it’s usually way past the expiry date.
Time is money, but I think that the most important lesson I’ve learned from my Oola Moola challenges it that Planning = Moola! A number one rule for being clever about money is always plan ahead.
Thankfully, my fridge was not completely empty. I found:
4 small cherry tomatoes
1/4 full box of feta cheese
A little bit of lovely, leafy & still edible spinach (does it make you think of Poopeye too..?)
1/2 avacado
1/2 red onion
Some grilled chicken pieces
A nearly empty bottle of Honey Mustard salad dressing.
Perfect! “Many brooks make a great river” says a Norwegian proverb, and the same is true for food - my small leftovers have become today’s lunch meal.
In no time at all, I put together a salad. I put the dressing in a separate little container to avoid the salad from being soggy by the time it’s time for lunch.
More treasure hunting: I couldn’t believe my luck when I found two, lonely and forgotten pieces of chocolate in a bowl, and a can of diet coke left behind by a friend this past weekend.
That’s lunch all set for today, with dessert:) And I’ve spent absolutely £0 of my £10 budget.
I’m back on track!
Spent today: £0
Spent so far: £2.75
Budget left: £7.75
Posted in Food
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“Between soup and love, the first is better.”
… goes an old Spanish saying. Is there’s some truth to this? Maybe that’s why Molière famously said “I live on good soup, not on fine words”…
Day 1, £10 Lunch Week Challenge. Well, as much as I love quirky old quotes, I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve completely forgotten about my carefully planned lunch menu for this week. I’ve just blown away £2.75 of my £10 budget, on nothing but… you guessed it, soup.
Budget killer soup
How could I leave home without preparing lunch today? Pretty dumb, no? It wasn’t until I found myself waiting in line over at Pret’s that I suddenly remembered my lunch challenge. Fabulous. I really do have to begin writing notes on the bathroom mirror..
Horrified at all of this, I dropped the pricey salad I was carrying and asked for soup instead. “Want some bread to go with the soup?” the man at the till offered. “No thanks,” I answered quickly. Everything has a cost, I’m learning! I carefully counted my coins, paid up and hurried out of there. Although this rescued some of my budget, the remainder of my week is now looking pretty meager. And I’m still very hungry.
Spent so far: £2.75
Budget left: £7.75
Sigh. Will I survive this week?
Posted in Food
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Dinner at The Diner
It is my conviction that a burger and chips (or fries, if you like) is, if not a shoo-in for the Best Dinner Ever award, certainly a contender for the shortlist. But as I learned at a recent trip to The Diner in Shoreditch, not all burgers are created equal: some taste better and cost less.
I’ve long been a fan of the Gourmet Burger Kitchen, and while I can’t fault the food, I also can’t seem to leave without spending at least a tenner, and that’s before the tip. What’s more, I like my burger with a side of atmosphere, and I find most chains are a bit of a let-down in that department.
Enter The Diner.
The Diner channels a classic American diner feel, with vinyl booths, retro movie posters and solidly sing-alongable tunes (we got Elton, Carly Simon, The Beach Boys and Bowie in one fell swoop, making me a rather happy diner indeed). Service was friendly and relaxed, with none of that non-subtle hustle to get rid of us and flip our table.
The menu runs from burgers to macaroni cheese to quesadillas and meat loaf, with most plates coming in at between £5 and £8. I had a burger, half a huge plate of fries, and a cup of coffee. My burger was juicy and satisfying, with plenty of fresh, crunchy salad. Fries were crisp and well-seasoned, and the endlessly refillable coffee was surprisingly good.
I paid £5.00 for a burger, £2.50 for a big dish of fries (we shared this, so £1.25 each) and £2.00 for coffee. Total cost of a booze-free dinner for one: £8.25 (£9.25 with tip)
128-130 Curtain Road
London EC2A 3AQ
Tel: 0207 729 4452
Posted in Food
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Beachy day trip to Herne Bay and Whitstable
I grew up near the ocean, and just as I’ve grown accustomed to living some distance from the sea, so have I come to expect a sense of missing-ness to surface every year when the weather turns warm. I miss the sound of water on rocks. I miss the grit and squeak of sand under my feet. I miss the salty air and the good sleep that always follows a day on the beach.
This year, when the longing struck, I was ready for it.
I had lined up a day trip to Herne Bay with two friends and a dog (not their dog; we were puppy-sitting). G and D and I met up for breakfast, packed up the puppy, jumped in a Streetcar (they have a membership and G says the car came in at £80 for the day, budgeters) and headed for the coast.
An hour and 45 minutes later we pulled into a car park (80 pence for the day!) near the Roman fort in Reculver. The fort is right on the ocean, and the view is amazing. After a long winter in the Big Smoke – and a long drive with an antsy dog – the space, the sun and the clean air were really quite perfect.
First order of the day was to explore the fort. There is an old wall and an older wall, and there are a few signs to explain the historical significance of the spot, if you’re into that sort of thing. If you’re not, you can kick off your shoes, pad through the grass and take a lot of pictures.
Tourist boxes ticked, we headed down to the beach and began walking north to Herne. The tide had just turned and was on its way back in, so we could walk along the sandy flats. Slightly comedic local signage advises beach walkers that the cliffs are prone to breakage, so should you try this micro-break on your own, best save the Spiderman manoeuvres for another day.
The walk to Herne took a couple of hours – this includes two unsuccessful attempts to coax canine companion to swim — and it was, we agreed, just the thing after a long week at work. And in spite of it being a gorgeous Saturday, the beach was uncrowded, and the only people we did meet were genuinely friendly. For the most part, though, it was just us, the sun, and the non-swimming dog.
Herne, of course, is on the sea, and we easily found a beach-front bar that allowed dogs and served food. Canine companion took a snooze, tired out from poking around in tidal pools and barking at nothing in particular, while those of us with opposable thumbs had a shandy and a BBQ lunch.
After lunch we headed back to Reculver, but with the tide in and the beach gone, we walked along the upper path (avoiding those menacing cliffs, naturally). From Reculver it’s just a short drive to Whitstable, and D, a real foodie but an oyster virgin, was ready to see what all the fuss was about.
The final stop on the trip was dinner at the ridiculously welcoming and gorgeously sea-front Hotel Continental in Whitstable. We grabbed an outside table and our waitress brought some water for the weary pup. G and D and I ordered white wine spritzers (somehow it just felt like the thing to do), Greek salads, olives and oysters – a dozen on the half shell and six breaded and fried.
The oysters were beautiful – not too briney, perfectly chewy – and at around a pound each, almost embarrassingly inexpensive. More were ordered. And yet more. But the bill was less than £20 each – so, decidedly non-London prices. Alas we did eventually eat our fill (and canine companion began to wear out his welcome with the dog one table over) so we packed up and headed for home – tired, slightly sunburnt, and very relaxed indeed.
A quick technical point: if you don’t drive, you can still micro-break the Whitstable way: an off-peak day return to Whitstable is £20.10, and to Herne Bay is £21.10. Trains leave London Victoria fairly frequently and the journey is about an hour and 19 minutes, direct.
Total spend: £51 (1/3 car hire, lunch, dinner) — so, £1 over budget (but seriously sated after the epic mollusc feast)
Micro-break verdict: A beachy winner – we’re going back in July for the Whitstable Oyster Festival
