All posts filed under: Food

How to Spend a Weekend in Margate

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I recently took my first visit to the little seaside town of Margate. To say I enjoyed it would be an understatement, I’ve been checking RightMove for Margate properties since I got back (pretty cheap, if you’re asking). It’s just an hour and a half from London, easy to get around and full of fun things to do. Here’s my 2 night, 3 day itinerary… Friday Get the train from London Victoria, booked early so got a return for around £25. Drink some tinnies on the train there. At Margate station we can’t get a cab and there’s no Uber. So we walk to our AirBnb which takes about 15 minutes. Our Airbnb in the Cliftonville area is lovely and has sea views. The host gives us some insider tips to Margate including a restaurant suggestion Roost, which we make a booking for that evening. There’s an Aldi supermarket round the corner so we get some provisions for the weekend. Wine and beer and bagels, eggs, salmon and avocado for breakfast. And snacks of course. …

Café Organic, Canggu Review

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Honest to Cher, a big reason why I love Bali so much is the food – specifically smoothie bowls. When I first visited last year I went on a Tinder breakfast date (with a guy who turned out to be dating a friend-of-a-friend from back home, small world huh?) and tried my very first smoothie bowl. And well, it was love. Not the guy obviously. So when planning my second trip to Bali I researched all the smoothie bowl eateries I could and ended up visiting a fair few of them. While my favourite will always by Alchemy (read my review here) Cafe Organic comes a close second. Located in trendy Canggu (there’s a few other locations too), Cafe Organic is the kind of place that in London would set you back £30 for breakfast. It’s full of the young and beautiful and the gleam of silver MacBooks – so in many respects it’s very similar to home. But the food, oh the food, it’s next level. Everything is organic and super fresh and their …

Dandelyan Wyld Tea at Mondrian London

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The Mondrian Sea Containers Hotel stands proudly on London’s Southbank and offers great, if sometimes a little grim (not their fault, the London weather) views of the city. Their resident bar Dandelyan is well known for some of the best cocktails in the capital courtesy of the award-winning Ryan Chetiyawardana. Now Dandelyan is branching out into afternoon tea with the Wyld Tea, a botanical take on the classic British tea. I went along on the first weekend to try it out.  The Dandelyan bar itself is a retro affair with rich fern green walls, pink leather banquettes and copper fixtures – designed by Tom Dixon no less. It’s a beautiful room, and has riverside views. The staff are attentive and knowledgeable and were happy to cater to any request. I had the non-boozy afternoon tea as I’m off the hard stuff for a while (in my old age hangovers are just too real). The selection of loose-leaf teas from Camelia’s Tea House was excellent and included a lemongrass infusion, citrussy Earl Grey, a peppermint blend and fresh …

How to Make Your Own Raw Superfood Energy Balls

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I love energy balls or raw food balls, whatever you wanna call them – they’re a tasty and healthy snack when you need a lil’ something. And they are far better for you than a Wispa (my usual go-to). The only drawback is that they’re incredibly expensive, so I thought I’d make my own! Here’s the recipe, it’s crazy simple and they’ll last about a week in the fridge.  INGREDIENTS  100g Frozen berries 50g Oats 100g Mix of Chia, raisins, any seeds, goji berries (use whatever you have in the cupboards) 1 tbsp Coconut oil 3 tbsp Honey or Maple Syrup 1 tbsp Protein powder METHOD  I use frozen berries in smoothies all the time because they’re so much cheaper and last longer. Melt these down in a pan until coulis-like in texture. Add the oil and honey.  Mix all your dry ingredients well in a bowl. Then add to the wet mixture.  Mound into small balls, the texture should be sticky.  Leave to set in the fridge for a couple of hours and enjoy …

Palm Vaults Hackney (The Place With The Pink Lattes)

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I’ve been wanting to pay a visit to London’s most Instagram-friendly cafe for a while now so this week my BFF Ben and I hot-footed it to Hackney’s Palm Vaults to see what all the fuss was about. Firstly I was blown away/insanely jealous of the plush pink and very 70s-inspired interior. Lots of crushed blush velvet, gold decor and of course green foliage; it really is a great looking place. I’d been intrigued by the pink velvet latte after seeing it on Instagram but I a/ hate coffee and b/ I’m lactose intolerant, so I didn’t think I’d be able to try one. Luckily for me it was a whole new drink! Almond milk, vanilla and beetroot… And it was delicious. They also serve a variety of teas, coffees, snacks and cakes. I especially love their new acai bowls, seriously pretty and very healthy. And soooo tasty. If they weren’t so bloody delicious I’d feel bad about eating them. Oh and do try their juices and smoothies – they do a great refreshing grapefruit …

Breakfast with Farfetch 

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I’ve been a fan of Farfetch for many years, the premise is simple – you can shop boutiques and concept stores around the globe all from one online marketplace. So it’s great for sourcing those hard-to-find designer and contemporary clothes.  I was invited to breakfast with the brand on the roof of The Boundary Hotel in Shoreditch to talk about the future of Farfetch. It’s very exciting to say the least, they’ve acquired Brown’s, the iconic London boutique, so expect a concept store soon! Plus as well as fashion they’re branching out into beauty and homewares.  The beautiful Bella Freud candles you see below were ordered from one of Farfetch’s boutiques and will be taking pride of place in my home.  Do check out Farfetch, it’s an essential site for fashionistas. And if you get the chance I can highly recommend breakfast at The Boundary.  SHOP FARFETCH  Thank you to Farfetch for a lovely breakfast. And in the interests of transparency my candles were gifted. 

5 Cheap, Easy and Healthy Meals To Impress Your Friends

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I love cooking at home, it’s a lot cheaper than going out to eat all the time (especially in London) and it means you know exactly what’s going into your meal. I’m no Nigella, but there are a few staple dishes that I can make really well and I thought I’d share a few of them with you… Courgetti with Pesto & Salmon If you haven’t heard of spiralizing then you’ve probably been living under a rock… either that or you have way more fun things to do than play with vegetables! However, we all gotta eat, right? And if you have to eat you may as well do it the quick and healthy way. Substituting pasta or noodles for veggies is great for people who are gluten intolerant (or pretending to be), or those of us who bloat after a good spag bol. Courgette noodles or ‘courgetti’ are probably the most popular vegetable to spiralize, you can use carrots or squash, and to do so you need to buy a spiralizer… or do you? …

In Defence of ‘Wellness’ and Healthy Eating

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There is a recent VICE article doing the rounds The Unhealthy Truth Behind ‘Wellness’ and ‘Clean Eating’ by ex Bake Off star  Ruby Tandoh that caught my attention. In the article which is definitely worth a read, Tandoh questions whether this new obession with juicing, eating gluten-free and detoxing is really healthy at all. In fact she shares a little about her own eating disorder (she suffered from anorexia) and how advocates of clean eating such as Ella Woodward of Deliciously Ella and the Hemsley sisters gave her an excuse to restrict her eating and cut out certain food groups. While a part of me agrees with her, it is only a small part, and while I also know that orthorexia (an eating disorder centered around a fixation on healthy or clean foods) is very real and I feel terrible for the people who suffer with that or any other eating disorder, when it comes to some pretty girls flogging healthy cookbooks and posting chia seeds on Instagram, I can’t help but think ‘what’s the …

Sheree’s Super Smoothie Bowl Recipe

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Since my trip to Bali where I tried my first smoothie bowl at this awesome cafe (Alchemy, check out the review here) I have been craving smoothie bowls like there’s no tomorrow. Which makes a change from craving Toffee Crisps, and is much, much healthier. So I thought I’d have a crack at making my own since they are incredibly expensive to buy here in the UK. So here is my recipe, oh and it was DELICIOUS!!!! 3 Steps To Breakfast Heaven STEP ONE: The Smoothie Base This is important because it’s the main component of your bowl, your smoothie needs to be thick, a lot thicker than a usual smoothie. So I use bananas because they thicken anything up and they’re cheap, but you can also try avocados, yoghurt (or a dairy free alternative if you’re lactose intolerant like me. Blend everything together in a Nutribullet or blender. 1 Banana Handful Frozen summer fruits Almond milk Manuka Honey STEP 2: The Fruit You can use anything here to be honest, just chop up some …

Five Minute Guacamole Recipe

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This is a variation of the delicious guac my old housemate Amy used to make for me (under duress), now, I don’t have her patience for carefully crafting amazing dips, I just want to eat. So I figured out how to make my own guacamole in a matter of minutes. Hers will always be best… but this is a pretty good recipe too. INGREDIENTS Large Ripe Avocado Small Red Onion (Diced) Tomato (Diced) 1/2 Tsp Chilli Powder Handful of Fresh Chopped Coriander Juice of 1 Small Lime Salt & Pepper to Season Once you’ve diced what you need to dice, peel the avocado – is that to obvious? Anyway, do peel and de-stone it. Telling if an avocado is ripe is pretty difficult, I say, if it’s soft to touch, use it, anther way to tell is to remove the brown stem at the top and if it comes away easily and is green underneath the fruit is ripe. If not and it’s brown underneath, it’s unripe… other than that you’re on your own. Anyway, …