All posts tagged: cafe

Healthy Snacks from itsu

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I used to have a salmon sashimi addiction. Every day I would walk past itsu and every day I would have to go in and purchase a packet to satisfy my craving. itsu has been a firm lunchtime favourite of mine for years and I was recently sent a few of the snack goodies to try and I thought I’d share my favourites with you. Honey Cashews What’s not to like? Cashews. Honey. Itsu is onto a winner with these. I wouldn’t count them as a low calorie treat but still, they have to be better than chocolate, no? Miso soup With only 42 calories per pouch, this miso soup is the perfect mid morning or afternoon snack for the calorie counters out there. It’s really easy to make, too. Simply add hot water and you’re away! Istu sells a whole range of healthy snacks including chocolate covered rice cakes, chocolate edamame, wasabi peas and wasabi seaweed thins.

Inn the Park

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The joys of living in London. There is literally always somewhere new to visit. Despite living only a twenty minute walk from St James’s Park in my first year of university I never visited. And despite having worked no more than a ten minute walk from the park for over a year, I still never visited. Until last weekend. I have heard may good things about Inn the Park, which is a cafe / restaurant from Oliver Peyton of Peyton and Byrne fame. You might also know him off the tele – his face has graced our screens on Great British Menu for a while now. We visited last Saturday at 2.45pm, which was the last lunch sitting of the day. It was a beautiful crisp (very cold!) day in London and the warmth that greeted us as we walked through the door was very welcome indeed. We were seated and provided with the lunch menu. Almost immediately I knew what I wanted to order. Jack and I pretty much always share so that we …

Ottolenghi, Islington

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I have already done one post on Ottolenghi but I was very hungover that time and I figure I should just do it again. Ottolenghi is a vegetarian or cake lovers heaven. It is also one the best places to go for brunch and lunch in London – in my opinion anyway! The word vegetarian has been tarred with the wrong brush over the years. People expect vegetarians to live on a diet of Linda McCartney sausages, carrot sticks and celery. Ok, maybe that is a bit far but Yotam Ottolenghi has shown us over the last few years just how exciting the humble vegetable can be. If you haven’t had the pleasure of visiting his restaurant in Islington (or the three take away cafes branches in Notting Hill, Belgravia or Kensington), you may have been lucky enough to see one of his two cookbooks. The first, Ottolenghi: The Cookbook was written by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi and took influence from their home towns of West and East Jerusalem. But their culinary repertoire does …

The first Brunch. Toast, East Perth

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I’m probably one of the luckiest people that passed through Heathrow last weekend. Normally I would be so happy that snow had stuck to the ground but not then. Two days before we were due to fly to Australia, the snow came thick and fast and temperatures dropped to their lowest for 20 years. There was carnage at Heathrow airport, which was the worst affected airport in the country. Great. We weren’t able to get much information as our airlines phone lines were engaged for two days – finally we got through to Heathrow on the morning who said that our flight was scheduled. We arrived to queues to even get into the airport – they weren’t letting you in unless your flight was going. Struggling to hear the Heathrow workers, we stood behind a mass of people eagerly awaiting an announcement. Then it came, our plane had just landed from Singapore – and we were in. Straight to the check in, straight through security and a short wait before we boarded the plane. We …

Lantana – the best brunch in London?

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The Greedy Diva recommended Lantana when we met up shortly after I had visited her hometown of Melbourne. I told her how impressed I was with the breakfasts, brunches and cafe culture in Australia and how frustrating it is to come back to London and not have great food like that widely available. Put it this way, there isn’t a Starbucks on every corner over there. I was in Australia for a month and in that time visited Perth, Melbourne and Sydney. Most of the places that I ate served delicious food and I didn’t have a bad meal (apart from the Vietnamese that some of you may have read about). I was excited by the fact that most places, even little convenience stores sold what appeared to be delicious, delectable homemade banana bread and (I am told) great coffee. Two places that really stood out for me were Fringe in St Kilda, Melbourne and The Food Pharmacy in Dunsborough. Above is French toast with fruit compote and creme fraiche at Fringe. Being a food …