Posts Tagged ‘Food’
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Gorgeous lunch for a fiver
One of my favourite new London discoveries is Canela Café on Newburgh Street, which offers a rather brilliant line-up of budget-friendly Brazilian and Portuguese dishes. I really love the warm and deliciously fragrant Brazilian cheese bread as a starter or snack, and their coffees come with a stick of cinnamon for a real Portuguese kick.
But they really win brownie points with their fab £4.95 lunch specials, such as this hearty Portuguese stew served with salad and rice. It’s worth dropping by if you’re out and about in the Carnaby area – although you can also find them in Covent Garden.
Canela Café
1 Newburgh St
London W1F 7RB
Tel. 020 7494 9980
Posted in Food
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Day trip to Paris for £50 [Part 3]
I’m back from Paris – and despite the fact that I “failed” the challenge by exceeding the £50 budget before setting foot in France, I think I did fairly well by only spending a grand total of €11.20 on the day. I enjoyed a glorious day of the very best that Paris has to offer in terms of sight-seeing, shopping and eating local food. (You could definitely get by on less than €10 a day in Paris, but unfortunately the hot weather got the better of me and I succumbed to the lure a €2.50 strawberry icecream on Ile St Louis.)
I saved money by packing my own bottle of water and preparing a “grazing” box of nuts, dried fruit and bits of chocolate I found in the pantry. This really helped as the pound has taken quite a beating in recent months – for instance, a latte will set you back around €3.80, whilst the asking price from a bistro for a glass of Coke is €5. I could have prepared a packed lunch as well, but part of the challenge was that I actually eat local food, so that was out of the question.
Here’s how my day panned out:
7.15am Departed St Pancras International on Eurostar.
9.30am Arrived at Gare du Nord station in Paris.
9.45am Purchased a single Metro ticket (€1.60) to the Marais.
10am Arrived in the Marais and spent some time window-shopping and picking up a few items for my picnic lunch. I found a bakery, patisserie and fromagerie on rue de Bretagne, and spent a total of €5.50. This was actually a really good, budget-wise move, as I had enough bread and cheese for both lunch and dinner – score!
12 noon. Headed to the Musée Carnavalet, which offers free admission. Spent a couple of hours checking out the extensive collection devoted entirely to the history of Paris. The beautiful manicured hedge garden was also a highlight – like a mini Versailles! – and provided a valuable resting stop in between all the history and art.
2pm. Found the most gorgeous little park just opposite Musee Carnavalet on rue des Francs Bourgeois for my picnic lunch. The cheese and baguette went down a treat – with lots left over for afternoon munchings and dinner! (So much more affordable and thrifty than getting a single take-away Croque Monsieur for €6.50.)
2.30pm. Walked back through the Marais towards the Seine, stopping to look at a few discount and vintage shops. If you’re up for a fashion bargain, you might like to check out these shops:
Free ‘P’ Star Bretonnerie – cheap vintage fashion (see below). Climb the ladder to the little loft area and rummage through the €5 handbags. 8 rue Sainte Croix de la Bretonnerie
La Belle Epoque – vintage fashion. 10 rue du Poitou
Come on Eileen – vintage fashion. 16 rue des Taillandiers
L’Habileur – discounted second-hand designer fashion, including A.P.C. and Vanessa Bruno. 44 rue de Poitou
3pm – Walked across Pont Louis Philippe to Ile St Louis, stopping to admire the Seine in the afternoon sunshine. Joined the queue at Berthillon for a delicious €2.50 fraise glacee (strawberry icecream).
3.15pm – Crossed Pont St Louis and watched street buskers for a bit of free entertainment. Stopped for a rest in the square at the back of Notre Dame, which is also a great place to pass some (free) time in Paris. I made a beeline for the seats under the shady avenue of trees.
3.30pm – Visited Notre Dame, which is free entry (although you have to pay if you want to go up the towers) – and marvelled at the stained glass windows and vaulted arches. Amazing building.
4.30pm – Crossed to the Left Bank and browsed legendary bookshop Shakespeare & Co. (Tip: the upstairs window gives you one of the best (free!) views of Notre Dame. There are also lots of chairs and benches for (free!) reading.
5pm – Wandered around the back streets of the Left Bank, visiting tiny churches and looking in shop windows, before getting another single Metro ticket (€1.60) back to Gare du Nord station to catch the Eurostar back to London.
TOTAL SPENT: £70.20
USUAL COST OF DAY TRIP TO PARIS:
£309 (Fully-flexible standard Eurostar fare)
£15 (Standard bistro lunch for one)
£20 (Standard bistro dinner for one)
£5.80 (One day Mobilis Metro ticket)
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£349.70
TOTAL SAVED: £279.60Take a look at the video of my glorious €11.20 day in Paris…
Oola Moola goes to Paris from OolaMoola on Vimeo.Posted in Entertainment, Fashion, Food, Travel, Vintage
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Market challenge: How much can you haggle or get for free?
I love the idea of haggling. Really, I do. It’s an age-old system of two parties negotiating the best deal for themselves. But I just happen to be spectacularly crap at it. Especially at farmers markets - I feel like a total cheap-arse offering a farmer-type peanuts for their organically grown and loving-tended potatoes. OK, so that’s not exactly the reality of the situation, but you know what I’m getting at. Nobody wants to be a scumbag.
So this really was a challenge for me on a number of levels. Especially as my local “farmers market” also happens to be one of London’s number one foodie tourist attractions, Borough Market. I generally make a weekly trip to Borough to pick up some goodies for the week – and to grab some coffee from Monmouth to kick-start the weekend. The thing is, I often go first thing in the morning, mostly to avoid the tourist crowds which really start to get crazy at about 11am.
But one week I happened to be there towards the end of trading, around 4pm, and noticed that the stall owners were madly discounting all their produce. So I decided to head back there at 3.30pm, to find out exactly how much I could haggle - or get for free.
First thing I noticed? Nobody is discounting at 3.30pm. It’s still packed with tourists milling around the stall counters and paying top price for produce. So there’s no need for the owners to discount or bargain with customers. I snuck up to a couple of stall owners and offered £2 for half a dozen sausages, and was just about laughed away. The embarrassment!
So whilst I waited for the crowd to dissipate and the day to wind down, I dedicated myself fully to getting as much free stuff as possible – ie. samples. Now, I usually steer entirely clear of food samples. Honestly, I really don’t want your teensy bit of bread covered in oily pesto that has been man-handled by hundreds of other grubby fingers. Yeeuurk. So I literally had to swallow my germ-phobia and get on with it. I felt like a total scavenger, swooping in on any out-stretched platter of crumbs.
But you know what? I did quite well. In fact, I just about made a three-course meal of it. Here’s what I scored…
STARTERS:
10x chunks of cheese
3x pesto on breadMAIN:
2x samples of sausage
2x samples of ravioliDESSERT:
3x pieces of cake
1x pieces of fudge
2x pieces of browniesI was starting to feel quite full by the time 4pm drew near, so I had to draw on my inner reserves and steely determination to haggle with the best.
Coming up in part 2: The full haggling results! In the meantime - enjoy this video:
Birdy Moola goes to Borough Market! from OolaMoola on Vimeo.How much can you haggle or get for free? Read more at our blog!
Posted in Bargains & Markets, Food
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Thrifty food: ‘Left-overs’ muesli
Will you just take a moment to admire this superb-looking muesli? It’s actually a totally thrifty home-made recipe masterfully created from left-overs by Sydney-based blogger/chef/foodie/stylish girl about town The Likkle Girl Who Wurves Pwetty Things (hereafter known as Likkle Moola).
In an extremely kind and blush-worthy post, Likkle Moola explains that she was inspired by Oola Moola to clean out her pantry where she discovered “bits of grains, seeds, nuts and dried fruit left over from previous baking projects”. She used all the bits to make herself a huge batch of healthy, crunchy toasted muesli. We applaud her “make do” efforts. (And we also applaud the inclusion of peanut butter in her recipe.) Luckily, she was kind enough to share it with us. Take it away, Likkle Moola …
To make your own, you’ll need:
~ 200g nuts (make up that amount from what’s left in your larder - I used a mix of macadamias, slivered almonds and pepitas)
~ 250g rolled oats
~ 100g bran
~ 50g shredded coconut
~ 150g dried fruit (again, use what you have - I threw in sultanas and dried cranberries)~ 100g vegetable oil
~ 50g peanut butter
~ 150g honey- Preheat oven to 150°C.
- Place all dry ingredients (except dried fruit) into a big bowl.
- Add oil, peanut butter and honey. Mix well.
- Line two large baking trays with greaseproof paper. Divide mix evenly onto trays. Spread mix out as thinly as possible to ensure even cooking.
- Place trays into preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes.
- Pull trays out and give muesli a good stir and spread it out thinly again so all the bits get a chance to brown.
- Place trays back in oven and repeat the stirring and spreading every 10 minutes until the muesli is golden.
- Oh, remember to mix in the dried fruit in the last 10 minutes, when you think the muesli is nearly done as the fruit burns easily.
- Leave to cool completely and store in airtight container.
There, done and can be kept for at least a month, if stored correctly (but I think it’ll be eaten way before that!). What I like most about making my own muesli is I can choose what I want to put in - there’s always at least one ingredient in store-bought ones that I don’t like and have to pick out before eating.
Total spent: AU$0.00 (had everything in the pantry)
Cost of a 1kg bag of our usual macadamia muesli: AU$19.oo
Savings: AU$19.00Thank you Likkle Moola, you’ve done us proud!
Posted in Food
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Posh afternoon tea for two for £10 [Part 1]
Afternoon tea for two at London’s swanky Dorchester Hotel (see above) can cost up to £100. The challenge? Host your own sumptuous afternoon tea – without scrimping on quality – for £10.
Posted in Food
