Author: Sarah Kemp

The Hackney Bureau

Published by

When I lived in East London a few years ago, Shoreditch was the go to place for fun. I have lived in North West London for the last five years but I know that over the years the area has become a playground for City workers. The young creatives who used to frequent the area have since departed to the surrounding areas – Dalston and Hackney. One young creative that I have known since I first moved to London is currently doing something that my nearest and dearest know I dream of – running an independent cafe and restaurant with her boyfriend. I had heard good things about The Hackney Bureau on Mare Street – the most delicious homemade cakes, a perfectly executed flat white and laid back surroundings in which to enjoy. I had also read about the varied and very good value dinner menu, including a specialty of theirs, braised beef cheeks – yes please! Despite the cafe having been open for a while, I had never visited as I don’t tend to …

Konditori Valand, Stockholm

Published by

I don’t know how Jack does it. It’s like he has some sort of in built independent world travel guide embedded in his brain. Take Stockholm as an example. We were heading to Åre for a skiing trip but we were to enjoy a day in Stockholm on either side of the trip. I had spent a couple of hours at the computer before we left, trawling through pages of content to try and find the best places to eat and drink. We arrived back in Stockholm at 7am after an overnight train journey on a sleeper train down from the mountains. Bleary eyed, we dragged our bags to the lockers and headed to McDonalds for a coffee. The problem was, there were 11 of us and true to the style of travelling with a large group, not everyone agreed with a stint in McDonalds. So it was Jack to the rescue and after a couple of minutes on my ipad, he had a suggestion – an original 1950’s cafe called Konditori Valand, which was …

Homemade Granola Recipe (from Breakfast for Dinner)

Published by

Maybe it was because I didn’t have any weighing scales, or maybe it was because I couldn’t tell what temperature the oven was at, or perhaps it was because I was using a combi oven. Whatever it was, the chocolate chip cookies that I baked in the skiing chalet in Sweden went SO wrong. Slightly embarrassed, I took the bubbling mess out of the oven and tried to redeem them by placing outside in the freezing cold to firm them up. To my surprise they tasted OK and were demolished. But I wasn’t satisfied and was adamant that I would redeem myself with a fresh batch when I returned home. We arrived back from holiday last week and I decided to put a new cookbook to use over the weekend. The first recipe on the list was homemade granola. I have made a few granola recipes in the past but I think this one may just top the list. I used half for a granola cookie recipe (posting soon) and I have used the other …

Naga, Kensington

Published by

It baffles me that despite the recession, a HUGE number of restaurants continue to open across London. Last year in particular saw a surge of new openings with a plethora of well designed foodie traps serving excellent quality food with innovative concepts. My favourite new openings of 2012 were John Salt (while Ben Spalding was still there) and Bone Daddies, which was at the forefront of the Ramen trend currently storming across London. Another new opening was Naga in Kensington, which launched at the end of the year. I attempted to go in December but the endless Christmas plans got the better of me so I saved it for a January treat. Jack and I visited on a Thursday evening and when we arrived at 6.45pm, we were the only diners in the restaurant. We walked through the bar area towards the back of the restaurant and were impressed with the surroundings – the restaurant is split over two floors mezzanine style, covered by a glass roof and decorated by foliage and red silk screens …

Moreno at The Baglioni

Published by

I have often said that Italian is my favourite cuisine, although my experiences over four years that I have been writing this blog have shown me a whole range of exciting cuisines. The Eat the Olympics challenge that I started this time last year with my boyfriend also introduced me to foods from countries that I had never even heard of before. You can see how we got on here. But despite all of the delicious new dishes that I have been subjected to, a good pasta dish can still win hands down. One of my favourite restaurants for pasta at the moment is Banca on North Audley Street. It is expensive so unfortunately for me can only be a treat but this high end Northern Italian produces a range of home made pasta dishes and the veal cannelloni tops one of my all time favourite pasta dishes. I visited Moreno at The Baglioni Hotel a few days ago and was looking forward to my visit like a child waiting for their annual trip to …