Hello all!

This is my very first blog post (you can find out more about me and why I set up this blog on my ‘about’ section). And I’m starting off with a post about our recent work visit to The Breakfast Club in Hoxton.

We’d been talking about going somewhere for Pancake Day and The Breakfast Club was getting so much attention socially and in the local press that we just had to give it a go! I’d been to The Breakfast Club in Clapham many times before, but ironically enough, for dinner rather than breakfast!

Three of us opted for the chocolate and peanut pancakes, while the other two went for the more traditional bacon and maple syrup. They were absolutely delicious – the chocolate was layered between the pancakes, with a peanut cream and brittle. It completely blew my wedding diet for a day, but it was worth it!

They also had a clever promotion taking place, challenging people to eat 12 pancakes in 12 minutes (#bcpancakechallenge). If they failed, they donated the money to charity. Judging on the pictures posted on their social channels, it looks as though the charities did pretty well!

M :)

During my recent hen do in Paris, my lovely hens arranged for us to go for breakfast at Angelina. Averting our eyes from the overwhelming delicatessen/patisserie counter, packed with brightly coloured macarons and cakes, we headed into the tea room.

Originally founded in 1903, Angelina (as it says on its own website), has built a reputation as a place of sophistication and indulgence. It didn’t disappoint!

I chose the traditional Angelina breakfast – at 30 Euros, it’s not a cheap breakfast, but it was so delicious that it was worth every penny! You’re given the choice of tea, coffee or hot chocolate (I opted for the latter, and it was so incredible that I can still taste it, weeks later!), fruit juices, mini viennoiseries, bread with butter, Angelina honey, jam and chestnut cream, a fresh fruit salad, and eggs cooked however you would like them.

I stupidly looked into whether you could buy Angelina hot chocolate in the UK, and it’s available online for just over £5.00 a bottle! Must suppress those cravings, for the sake of my bank balance…

I first went to Caravan in Kings Cross a couple of summers ago with friends, and loved it. But being a bit out of the way (it’s tucked away behind the station in the Granary Building), it’s not the most obvious place to think of going – but it’s always worth it.

We took a long (2 hour) walk along Regents Canal from our flat in East London to Kings Cross, so we’d certainly worked up an appetite by the time we arrived! As always, it was incredibly busy (you can’t book a table for brunch at weekends) and there was a rather ridiculous one hour wait for a table. Luckily they told us we could also eat at the bar, where conveniently, two bar stools were sitting there with our names on them.

Despite it being so busy, we were served quickly and the food arrived in a respectable amount of time. I had the baked eggs, tomato pepper ragout, greek yoghurt, sourdough toast and merguez sausage, while Tim had the barbeque baked beans, fried eggs, mojo verde, coriander, sourdough toast and chorizo sausage.

What I love about brunch at Caravan is that they’re not afraid to try something a little different. Although we went for fairly safe options, a couple of other examples on their menu are a kimchi pancake with pork belly, fried duck egg and bbq crème fraiche, and a pumpkin waffle with baked ricotta, maple and pecans.

And while they’re doing something a little different, and it’s always super busy, the food isn’t too expensive. Most main courses are between £8-10. You can go for simpler, cheaper options such as poached eggs on toast, for around £5.

Because the ingredients are so fresh and tasty, it feels like quite a healthy breakfast/lunch, although in reality it’s probably quite indulgent! But every time I go, I always say to myself that I must go more often!

Yesterday morning I was invited for breakfast to mark the launch of Arla’s new Icelandic Skyr yogurt. The event was hosted at The Ham Yard Hotel, tucked away behind Piccadilly Circus, and is one of the hotels in the Firmdale Group. I’ve held PR events at many of their others, but this was my first visit to The Ham Yard. And it’s pretty incredible!

I confess to being a typical (gluttonous!) Brit when it comes to breakfast – I just love a good English brekkie at the weekend! On weekdays I tend to either go all out (when I’m being especially naughty, a bacon bap or a croissant) or nothing at all (which is more likely). So I was keen to hear what nutritionist Charlotte Stirling Reed and Arla would have to say. 

Iceland seems to be becoming increasingly ‘en vogue’ of late – trips to Reykjavik appear to have become more popular (either that or they have some very good PR and Marketing people!) and the recent Sky Atlantic TV programme ‘Fortitude’ was filmed on location there. As you may have read in one of my previous posts, Tim and I visited in January 2012 and loved every minute of it! We were hooked on Fortitude and it really made me want to go back (more for the beautiful landscapes and fantastic food rather than the murders and parasitic wasps! If you haven’t watched it yet – do!)

I tend to eat Greek yogurt with savoury dishes, largely due to my upbringing in Cyprus, although I would often eat it with local puddings such as Baklava. Generally I don’t tend to think of eating fruit flavoured yogurts for a pudding or snack. So I was keen to find out what different flavours of Arla Skyr would be available. I love the idea of Icelandic yogurt – from our time there, it conjures up images of clean, crisp, fresh landscapes and a very pure product. These photos I took while I was there should give you an idea of what I mean. Imagine that in yogurt-form – bliss! 

As Charlotte explained to us, Skyr (pronounced ’Skee-er’) has been the ‘go to’ yogurt in Iceland for thousands of years and is made from skimmed cows milk. This results in a silky texture which, most importantly, is low in fat, reduced sugar and naturally high in protein. She stressed the importance of the latter, for preventing energy crashes throughout the day. I normally resort to things like nuts for this, so it was good to think of this as an alternative (and in this scorching weather at the moment, anything cold would be appreciated!!)

The Arla Skyr yogurt is available in big pots (Simply Natural, Mixed with Strawberry and Mixed with Honey) for £1.69 and in snack size (Simply Natural, Apple and Lingonberry, Nordic Sour Cherry and Strawberry and Nordic Mixed Berry) for £0.85. These small pots only contain 114 kcal, so it’s great for anyone who’s calorie counting! The fruit yogurts obviously do contain some sugar, but I was assured that they’re a much healthier alternative to others on the market, with both the sugar and fat content being much lower. 

I recently made a berry tart, which for the past few days, we’ve rather naughtily been eating with some beautiful Devonshire clotted cream. So last night I thought I’d try out the Arla Skyr yogurt instead. I tried the Simply Natural, as I didn’t want the fruit flavours to clash with the raspberry and blueberry in the tart. It was a great accompaniment – the tart has a lot of sugar in it, so having something less sweet than cream or custard worked very well. It was also a lot thicker than I was expecting, so it would be perfect to stir into curries or soups!

*Please note that Arla Skyr is definitely 100% suitable for vegetarians. I’ve had a few queries about this, but I’ve had confirmation from Arla that it’s suitable :)

I was invited to this event by Arla and Cow PR, and was given some samples to try out for review purposes, but did not receive any payment. All views are my own.

Earlier this week, I was invited to visit a brand new bubble tea shop in Shoreditch, quite literally a stone’s throw from my office. I’ve been known to go well out of my way for bubble tea and up until now, had been walking 15 minutes to Boxpark to get my fix. But luckily Chatime have come to my rescue!

Tim joined me for this tea tasting session but as much as we both enjoy bubble tea, our experience of it had been mostly limited to fruit teas with tapioca – I was keen to learn more about what this new place had to offer.

We were very lucky to have Allen Du from Chatime spent over half an hour with the two of us, talking us through the various types of teas available and putting some together for us to try.

There are five different types of tea to choose from (in three sizes) – Milk Tea, Fruit Tea, Fresh Tea, Mousse and Tea Latte. Each of these can be customised with toppings, sugar level and ice level – I hadn’t been offered a sugar level option before and I think it’s a great touch, especially for those who are looking for a nice drink but are on a diet or aren’t allowed much sugar.

There are a wide range of toppings available, at 50p each, and all are made fresh each morning on site: pearl, grass jelly, pudding, red bean, coconut jelly, rainbow jelly and coffee jelly.

The drinks are shaken by hand rather than a machine and their unique recipes are followed to the tee (excuse the pun!) to ensure the best possible quality.

Tim started off with the Lychee Black Tea with coconut and rainbow jelly – this was delicious and very sweet, right up Tim’s street!

I chose the Jasmine Green Tea Mousse with grass jelly and really enjoyed it. The combination of the ice cold jasmine tea with the sweetness and thickness of the cream was unusual but really refreshing – it’s something I would definitely have again.

We also tried a few others, including the Sakura Sencha, the Gyokuro Genmaicha and the Brown Rice Green Tea. The latter was very interesting – the rice is brewed in the tea sachet, so it gives the tea a distinctive taste, unlike anything I’ve ever tried before.

This is the 5th Chatime to open in London, although it was the first one I’d visited. It was particularly interesting to hear how the business works from a franchise perspective. The Shoreditch branch is the first one to adopt a very different style from its usual branding – their distinctive colours are purple and white, but the Shoreditch venue is very fitting with the area – bare brick walls and beautiful wood furniture. The local branches adapt to fit with the area they’re located in, including what products they offer, depending on the local customers’ preferences.

Something that I think is important to get across, is that many of these drinks are incredibly healthy! When I was doing my wedding diet and quite literally counting every calorie, I was shocked at how bad my morning coffee was for me. Bubble tea offers a great alternative when you’re on the way to work, or popping out for a meeting – switch that coffee for a tea! They’re looking into offering a stamp card style loyalty scheme, but either way, I’ll be going back pronto!

The Chatime Shoreditch shop is at 65A Rivington Street, more information can be found on their website.

I was invited to try out Chatime’s Bubble Tea by Samphire Communications and Chatime but did not receive any payment. All views are my own.

Breakfast or brunch might just be my favourite meal of the day (provided it’s done right, of course, which usually means with plenty of meat and bread, in my case!)
And there are lots of great spots to go for breakfast around where I live in East London. A while ago, I noticed a place called ‘Foxcroft & Ginger‘ in Whitechapel when I was passing on the bus, and had been meaning to give it a go. So when I was offered the chance to try out their breakfast last week, I was really looking forward to it.

You might not notice it during the day – it’s one of the many shops and restaurants on Mile End road. The reason I spotted it in the first place was because it was dark and the name was lit up in bright lights – it looked so cosy and inviting, but cool and a bit edgy at the same time.

There’s also a Foxcroft & Ginger in Soho, which was the first to open in 2010. The business is run by a husband and wife team, Quintin and Georgina. Quintin’s surname is Foxcroft and Georgina is a proud redhead, and so the name for the cafe was formed.

I went for breakfast on my way in to work at 8am and expected it to be quiet, but there were already a few people in there. It has an open plan, industrial style vibe, like many East London venues of late.

Their menu is my idea of breakfast paradise and I found it really hard to choose. I was tempted by the Ricotta Gnocchi, Tomato Fondue, Kale and Broccoli with Poached Egg and Pecorino but then I saw there was a dish with truffle in and, well, you know me…  And so I ordered the Herb Roasted Mushrooms, Poached Eggs, Truffled Hollandaise and Parmesan on Sourdough Toast. It arrived very promptly, just what you need for a mid-week breakfast when you’re on the way to work, and it was beautifully presented.

After one bite I was in a truffley-cheesey heaven. It was incredibly rich, perhaps too rich for some people, particularly for breakfast, but I loved it!  I also ordered an orange juice, served in a mini milk bottle which I thought was cute!

They make all of their bread fresh each day at the Soho branch using a sourdough base (therefore without yeast), making it easier to digest. Apparently they also do some fabulous pastries too, but they didn’t appear to have any when I was there. According to their website, they sell something called a ‘cruffin’ – a cross between a croissant and a muffin, also baked with sourdough, available in  Honeycomb & Lemon curd, Vanilla Custard with Jam, Chocolate Custard and ‘Snickers’ with Nuts, Salted Caramel and Chocolate.

And in the evenings they serve a wide range of sourdough pizzas, if you can’t make it in time for breakfast or brunch!

I was given a cappuccino to take away by the lovely manager, Luis, who is also a mixologist and coffee making extraordinaire! You can check out his Facebook page here.

Whether you’re closer to the Soho or the Whitechapel branch, I’d definitely recommend it for a lazy Sunday brunch.

If you liked this, you might also like:

Brunch at Caravan

Pancake Day at The Breakfast Club

Brunch at Angelina

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I was invited to review the breakfast by Foxcroft & Ginger and Luxe PR but did not receive any payment. All views are my own.

If you want to pay this awesome place a visit, they’re at 7 Roach Road in Hackney Wick – you can find out more info on their website.

Since moving to Tooting a few weeks ago, we’d noticed a queue outside a coffee shop at the weekend whenever we walked past. This place was clearly popular! Last Saturday we headed over to ‘Mud’ in the morning to see what all the fuss was about.

Luckily we had just beaten the ‘brunch rush’ and managed to get a table for breakfast. We were served quickly, ordering a couple of iced mochas and fresh orange juices, and the waitress was very friendly. Actually, the place had a very friendly vibe in general. The fact that it was one of the hottest, nicest days of the year might have helped, but everyone was smiling and you could tell that lots of regulars were coming in, as they chatted away to the staff behind the counter. I heard one of the groups ask if they could sit ‘in the garden at the back’ – I’m not sure if this is a closely guarded secret, but I’m keen to check it out next time. I also loved the decor – very rustic, Aussie and cool!

And even the coffees had a cool edge to them – I really like the effort that has gone into how the drinks are served.

The breakfast menu looked great and I was torn over what to have. I always think pancake dishes look amazing for breakfast, but if I order them, I end up getting meat/egg envy. I decided to go for the Beetroot Smash: beetroot & ricotta smash on sourdough, Scottish smoked salmon, poached burford brown eggs and fresh horseradish. And it was a very pretty dish indeed.

Thankfully it was just as good to eat as it was to look at. The flavours were lovely, with beautiful smoked salmon. The only thing I would say is there was a bit too much beetroot/ricotta as it’s quite rich, but a complaint about too much of something is never really a bad thing! And just look how incredibly orange the egg yolks were – just as they should be!

Tim ordered the Eggs Benny: breadcrumbed bubble and squeak, burford brown eggs, brown butter, hollandaise and poached salmon. Eggs Benedict is probably Tim’s favourite breakfast dish, so he was in his happy place!

I’m so pleased we found Mud, and fairly soon after moving in. You may have read that when we lived in East London, we used to love going to Counter Cafe on the canal in Hackney, just a short walk from our flat. Well I’m pleased to say that it looks as though we’ve found our new Counter Cafe. The view might not be quite as impressive, but the food sure makes up for it!

Recently I came across a cafe on Twitter called Cut The Mustard, which I realised was a short walk from our house in Tooting. It looked like the perfect breakfast spot, so one Saturday morning a few weeks ago, Tim and I went to try it out.

Far away from the hustle and bustle of Tooting Broadway and Mitcham Road, Cut The Mustard is in a quiet residential area, where a few small shops and businesses are dotted along the road. It’s obviously a popular spot, and when we arrived the inside was pretty full, with young couples, friends and families. Luckily there were some tables outside, and it was just about warm enough to sit there, so we took a seat near to a big shelf of all kinds of breads and pastries.

I loved the window display of the cafe – a treasure trove of foodie goodies, from food products to cookbooks and utensils.

Cut The Mustard serves everything you could possibly want, including cooked breakfasts, pancakes, breads and pastries. As I’ve mentioned before on here, I’m always tempted to order pancakes but once again, the meat craving was calling, and I ordered the Full English.

Everything was cooked well and was just what you would expect from a good English brekkie – the only thing that could have improved it was a hash brown!

Tim ordered the Kedgeree, which is one of his faves. For those who haven’t heard of it, it’s a smoked haddock dish originally from India, served with rice and eggs packed full of delicious spices.

It would be a bit much for me in the morning, as much as I enjoy seafood, but Tim loved it! We ended on a nice warming coffee before heading home.

It’s a great little place for breakfast. There are lots of nice cafes like this around London so it’s probably not worth going well out of your way, but for anyone who lives around Clapham/Balham/Streatham (and obviously Tooting!), definitely check it out. You can find out more on their website here.

I’m sure you all know by now that I bloody love a good brunch, and if that includes a bloody good Bloody Mary, even better! We’ve been trying out some of the cafes and restaurants near where we live, the latest of which was Brickwood in Tooting Market.

We’d visited it a few weeks before when we were looking for a quick coffee (and a cheeky slice of cake, ssshhhh!) which was when we realised they do a pretty amazing brunch, and knew we’d have to return soon!

It was pretty packed on the Sunday morning we visited, but the staff were still really attentive and we were served quickly. We ordered a couple of flat whites to kick start the day, along with a Bloody Mary each.

We were both seriously impressed with the latter – it was one of the best I’ve had, largely due to the cute extras it came with – bacon, a quail egg and what I took to be a mini hash brown. It was only around £4.00 and although it wasn’t very big, it hit the spot. And with the little extras, this would almost have been enough for brunch. But there was more goodness to come!

I ordered the Wild Mushrooms and Poached Egg with Truffle Oil and Parmesan on Toasted Brioche and Tim went for the Huevos Rancheros (another of our faves!)

I was surprised by the ‘wildness’ of the mushrooms in my dish – there really was such a wide range of mushroom types, some of which I’d never tried before, all of which were delicious. I was also surprised by the fact that I’d ordered a dish without meat in it, although I suppose the little bit of bacon made up for that!

A scrumptious brunch and gorgeous drinks (I also noticed they stock one of my favourite tea brands, Bluebird Tea Co) – we’ll definitely be going back again soon! They also have places in Clapham and Balham if you fancy trying them out too!

During my recent hen do in Paris, my lovely hens arranged for us to go for breakfast at Angelina. Averting our eyes from the overwhelming delicatessen/patisserie counter, packed with brightly coloured macarons and cakes, we headed into the tea room.

Originally founded in 1903, Angelina (as it says on its own website), has built a reputation as a place of sophistication and indulgence. It didn’t disappoint!

I chose the traditional Angelina breakfast – at 30 Euros, it’s not a cheap breakfast, but it was so delicious that it was worth every penny! You’re given the choice of tea, coffee or hot chocolate (I opted for the latter, and it was so incredible that I can still taste it, weeks later!), fruit juices, mini viennoiseries, bread with butter, Angelina honey, jam and chestnut cream, a fresh fruit salad, and eggs cooked however you would like them.

I stupidly looked into whether you could buy Angelina hot chocolate in the UK, and it’s available online for just over £5.00 a bottle! Must suppress those cravings, for the sake of my bank balance…

I first went to Caravan in Kings Cross a couple of summers ago with friends, and loved it. But being a bit out of the way (it’s tucked away behind the station in the Granary Building), it’s not the most obvious place to think of going – but it’s always worth it.

We took a long (2 hour) walk along Regents Canal from our flat in East London to Kings Cross, so we’d certainly worked up an appetite by the time we arrived! As always, it was incredibly busy (you can’t book a table for brunch at weekends) and there was a rather ridiculous one hour wait for a table. Luckily they told us we could also eat at the bar, where conveniently, two bar stools were sitting there with our names on them.

Despite it being so busy, we were served quickly and the food arrived in a respectable amount of time. I had the baked eggs, tomato pepper ragout, greek yoghurt, sourdough toast and merguez sausage, while Tim had the barbeque baked beans, fried eggs, mojo verde, coriander, sourdough toast and chorizo sausage.

What I love about brunch at Caravan is that they’re not afraid to try something a little different. Although we went for fairly safe options, a couple of other examples on their menu are a kimchi pancake with pork belly, fried duck egg and bbq crème fraiche, and a pumpkin waffle with baked ricotta, maple and pecans.

And while they’re doing something a little different, and it’s always super busy, the food isn’t too expensive. Most main courses are between £8-10. You can go for simpler, cheaper options such as poached eggs on toast, for around £5.

Because the ingredients are so fresh and tasty, it feels like quite a healthy breakfast/lunch, although in reality it’s probably quite indulgent! But every time I go, I always say to myself that I must go more often!

Last summer I visited a restaurant in Borough Market that has remained at the top of my ‘must return’ list (you can read my previous write-up here). But the months flew by and I realised I hadn’t been back yet when I was invited back to try out their new brunch menu. I literally couldn’t wait!

The food and hospitality was superb during my last visit and I’m pleased to say that it was still equally great. I headed there for brunch on Sunday morning at 10am and by 1pm I eventually heaved myself up from the table, full of fantastic food. You know a brunch is pretty epic when it lasts for three hours!

So you might be asking, what on earth did we eat for brunch to last that long? I think the question should be, what didn’t we eat?!

 Antipasti

Pulia Taralli & Olives

Mix Frisella Platter

Selection of Panzerotti & Rustici

Pulia Croissant with Capocollo and Scamorza

Pulia Salumi with Focaccia and Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Mains

Spinach & Mozzarella Omelette

Smoked  Salmon with Scrambled Eggs

Pulia Burrata with Figs and Fig Marmalade

Sweets

Crostata with Apricot and Strawberry Jam

Lemon Custard and Amarena Pasticciotti served with Mandarin Olive Oil

Chocolate and Hazelnut Pasticciotti served with cream

As you can see, there was a LOT of food! And all of it was just as amazing as I remembered. And I’m telling you, the burrata there is the best you’ll have in London, if not anywhere. It’s truly beautiful! And on that note, we were treated to a demonstration from expert cheesemaker Dominico who had been flown over from Puglia. It was incredible to see nodino (like little ‘knots’ of mozzarella) and burrata being made (and getting to taste them straight away, both warm and chilled) – the man must have hands of steel, as he was shaping the cheese in boiling hot water.

There was also plenty of fresh coffee, orange juice and even Prosecco!

I really hope the brunch menu will be a big success. Brunch is such a big thing in London at the moment (I know Tim and I go for brunch most weekends at our favourite local restaurants), so offering people staple brunch dishes that they know and love (eggs, salmon etc) alongside some authentic Italian dishes that they might never have tried, is a brilliant move. For me, the burrata with figs and fig marmalade on toast is the perfect brunch dish!

Tim and I actually did go back again over Easter and we were greeted with the same lovely Italian hospitality. The brunch menu wasn’t anywhere near as big as everything listed above, but hopefully some more of the items I had during the blogger brunch will be making an appearance soon!

To book, check out their website here. Please do go and visit, and experience the hospitality for yourself! I can promise you, you won’t be disappointed.

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I was invited to brunch at Pulia but did not receive any payment. All views are my own.

During our visit to Edinburgh earlier this year, we were catching our flight back to London late morning, so we wanted to find somewhere close to our hotel for a spot of breakfast before we left this beautiful city. And we found a brilliant new restaurant called Badger & Co.

It had only just opened up a week or so before, and with it being 8.30am and pouring with rain outside, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. I was completely in love with the decor!

You might be wondering about the name, and the reason for the badger artwork adorning the walls. Well, it has a very cool reason indeed. The restaurant is located on Castle Street in the former home of Kenneth Grahame, the author of Wind in the Willows! The literary geek in me was having a whale of a time – Tim has experienced this on many occasions to his peril, such as the time I made him trek around Brooklyn for hours trying to find the former home of Truman Capote!

There was a wide range of options on the breakfast menu – Tim ordered the ‘Full Sett’: Char-Grilled Borders Bacon, Pork Sausage, Roast Vine Tomato, Sautéed Wild Mushrooms, Toasted Rye Bread, Fried Duck Egg & House Baked Beans.

It was certainly a whopper of a breakfast – look at the size of that duck egg!  I ordered the ‘Brexit Brekkie’: Smoked Ham, Blarliath Cheddar, Doorstop Toast, Homemade Jam, Strained Yoghurt, Honey & Fruit.

We thoroughly enjoyed our breakfasts – we only wish we’d heard about this place earlier in our stay in Edinburgh, as we’d have loved to have visited for lunch or dinner, the menu looked great!

If you’re in Edinburgh, I’d recommend paying them a visit – you can find out more on their website here.