Hungry in Hungary

Sorry for the long delay in any new posts, I kind of got behind with all the winter term exams and essays and coursework and all sorts of other useless university related things! It's been a crazy few months since I last posted anything, so much has been going on! I'm going to a tiny island off of the coast of Tenerife, called La Gomera. The food there is supposed to be amazing, so I'm really looking forward to it!

So, I went to Budapest a few months ago for my birthday, slap bang in the middle of that brilliant snow storm we called December. It took 5 and a half hours to get from Central London to Gatwick (some of which was spent in a taxi speeding down icy country lanes in the middle of the night, not exactly how I imagined it). After finally getting to our hotel, grabbing a few hours sleep, we were off to Hungary. Albeit, a few hours later than planned, but we got there which was a success considering the amount of flights cancelled that day.



The food in Hungary is quite unique in the use of ingredients and styles. The first night, we went to a really traditional Hungarian restaurant, full of locals (always a good sign) and second hand smoke (not such a good thing). I had a smoked chicken, smothered in creamy paprika, with homemade egg and potato noodles! It was absolutely amazing.!



But by far, the restaurant we visited on the second night. Not knowing quite how amazing it was going to be, we went to Tigris (www.tigrisrestaurant.hu), a little rustic Hungarian place next to a beautifully, gigantic cathedral. Accompanied by some of the most amazing red wine I'd ever tasted, I had a delicately tasting starter of scallops and pancetta, followed by a perfectly cooked mushroom risotto. Rob had grilled pork belly, which was probably the best I've ever tasted! The service was really good too, the waiters were really attentive.



So, I know this is a much shorter entry than usual, but this was just a quick update with some details and photos from my latest trip.! This weekend, I'll be creating a birthday feast, which I'll be photographing and detailing for you to enjoy!

Turtle Bay - The Hub, Milton Keynes

So, a little update for you all! Finally, after years and years, I've bought myself a BEAUTIFUL Olympus Pen camera! Now all photos will be even better, lucky you!

When my mum told me about a new Caribbean restaurant that was opening in Milton Keynes, it was safe to say I was pretty excited about it! Caribbean is one of my favorite types of food, and having open so close to home was heaven to my ears (and taste buds..!). Keen to try it out, we decided to go one saturday lunch time. I had high expectations!

Walking into Turtle Bay, it was like being transported back to a little beach bar in Jamaica! It was decorated perfectly, lots of bamboo and lounge chairs! The bar was in the middle of the restaurant, and looked exactly like Cosmos in Negril, I couldn't help but smile! It had already brought back some good memories!

The waiting staff were really friendly and helpful, we were seated at the best table in the house, with good views for me into the kitchen. There was a little bit of shuffling around with the chairs, they were far too big for the table and little section the table was in! You had to kind of sit, and then shuffle the chair under the table; all a little bit too much effort for just sitting down!

We ordered some drinks, and then discussed our food. It was a hard descision to make; I would've tried everything if I could have! Eventually we decided on rosemary and roasted vegetable patties,



and salted cod and callaloo fritters.




I was really impressed with the patties, the pastry was perfect and really authentic! The plate was dressed with a tomato and red pepper salsa, which contrasted with the spiciness of the filling. The cod and callaloo fritters were perfectly cooked; light and fluffy inside, crispy on the outside, and went well with the lime mayonnaise.

After a short wait, most of the time which I spent staring into the kitchen spying on the bored looking chefs, the mains arrived. Rob had chosen a Guyanese one stew pot:



It looked amazing! The lamb and rice and peas smelt delicious, but with one bite, Rob went bright red from the spiciness! On tasting the pepper pot, I had to agree with him, the amount of the scotch bonnet pepper in the dish was crazy! It seemed as if the chefs didn't really know how hot those peppers could be, it was uncomfortably spicy. There was no mention on the menu about the spice either, which didn't seem very good for people who can't handle it! All this time, we were sitting at the table, staring at Rob's other drink sitting on the side of the bar (he was still bright red), whilst the waiting staff all walked past it!



I had chosen the jerk chicken wrap with shoestring sweet potato fries. Considering it was supposed to be a "light lunch", it was massive, I could definitely see why they had put toothpicks into the wrap to hold it all together. However delicious it looked, the chicken was really dry and bland, no spice at all compared to the pepper pot! After a while, we swapped dishes due to Rob's ever increasing facial redness. I did quite enjoy the pepper pot, but the meat was quite gristly, and there were lots of tiny bits of bone in the dish.

Once the plates were cleared away, we paid the bill and left with a friendship card, entitling us to 20% off our next visit. It was a very good repeat business strategy!


So, in conclusion:

Food:
The starters were amazing! The fritters were light, yet full of spice and flavor. However, the main courses did let it down a little bit. Dry, bland chicken, and then overly spicy lamp pepper pot, not really consistent flavor wise!

Service:
Our waitress was really good! Really friendly and laid back, she was attentive for our entire dining experience (apart from the second drink fiasco). When her shift was over, the other waitress took over seamlessly.

Overall:
The atmosphere in Turtle Bay was great! Relaxing and laid back, it took me right back to the Caribbean. The waiting staff were really nice and pretty attentive, but the food really let the place done, despite how delicious it looked.

Casareccia - Kilburn, North London

In bed already at 7pm with a cup of tea, I might be turning 20 in a few weeks, but this is a little ridiculous!

Since Rob got himself a cheeky one month trial of the taste card (http://www.tastecard.co.uk/ - this gives you 50% off, or 2 for 1 in over 3500 restaurants in the UK for the yearly rate of £69.95), we decided to put it to the test in Kilburn. We were going to see Little Comets (epic band, fully recommend checking them out), so were in a little bit of a rush.

Casareccia was very easy to find, only a few minutes walk from the overground station. We had a table booked for 5.30, however the restaurant was pretty much deserted at such an early hour. The restaurant looked great, really rustic and family-run, with a great atmosphere, even though it was empty.

We were seated quickly by the slightly stressed-out waiter at a tiny table at the edge of the restaurant, with a good view of the open kitchen! Our drinks orders were taken quickly, although you either had to have red or white house wine by the glass, or otherwise buy an entire bottle which was a little ridiculous.




Our starters, I had chosen asparagus topped with melted goats cheese, on a bed of wilted spinach. It looked absolutely fantastic, and was delicious.! Asparagus is notoriously difficult to get right, but this was perfect. The combination of goats cheese and the spinach was beautiful, I enjoyed it! It also was the perfect size, not too filling, but enough to really give you a taste of the flavours in the dish.

After a short wait, our main courses arrived. As soon as I walked into Casareccia, my eye was drawn to the chefs spinning the pizza dough, so my heart was already set on a pizza. I had chosen the parma ham and rocket topped one, and it did not disappoint!



The base was the perfect thickness, and the toppings were perfect. It was a little too big for just me to eat, but it was still nice... UNTIL..

I found a hair. Baked into the mozzarella on the top of the pizza, I was less than impressed. Safe to say Ramsay would have been outraged, and probably would have throttled the chef! Alas, I am still far too polite for my own good, and just cut round the infected section of pizza and left it. I'm sure if I had mentioned it to the waiter, they would have been more than apologetic, but I couldn't bring myself to kick up a fuss! Rubbish food critic, right?

The rest of the meal was nice, the restaurant began to get really busy. It had a really good atmosphere, and even though it was packed, the waiting staff were still really attentive up until we left.

So, in conclusion:

Food:
The food was well cooked, and absolutely delicious, if you ignore the added hair in the pizza. The chefs were not wearing any sort of bandana or cap, which strikes me as being unhygienic, especially since it was an open kitchen.

Service:
The waiting staff were fantastic. Our first waiter, who may have been the front-of-house manager, was a little stressed, especially once we mentioned the Taste card, but it was all good.

Overall:
Good little restaurant! Very good value for money, a little disappointed about only having two types of wine by the glass, but for a small restaurant, I guess it was a little understandable. If you exclude the hair in the cheese, it was a really good meal!

The Black Horse - Great Linford, Milton Keynes

After nearly completing this review twice already , I've sat down in a room with all distractions (Facebook) removed and blog deleting drunkards absent.

Two nights of heavy drinking left us in need of some quality pub grub, and The Black Horse in Great Linford, somewhere we'd been meaning to go for a while, seemed like the ideal way to spend a lazy sunday. I hadn't been there in months, and I had fond memories of the food, so was quite excited about my delicious lunch!

Seating ourselves (after being ignored by the bar and waiting staff for a good few minutes), we made our way to the only table left, directly below the drafty emergency exit, which people kept walking in and out of to smoke. Eventually, an overly friendly waitress came to give us some menus, and then left us in peace for far too long. Once the orders were taken, it took over twenty minutes just for the drinks to arrive. There is no way it takes that long to fetch two glasses of juice, it's not like they went outside and picked the oranges fresh from the tree, it was just shockingly appalling service. Unfortunately, this theme was to continue throughout our dining experience, and I can tell you, Ramsay would not have been impressed.

Now, I don't claim to be some sort of culinary master (not a man for one), but whoever thought that putting raisins in garlic ciabatta was a good idea is literally insane. For his starter, Rob foolishly chose that, much to his distaste. There was something that felt a tiny bit immoral eating such sweetness with garlic; not a good combination AT ALL.




My starter, french onion soup, came with a raisin filled, mozzarella topped "crouton", which added absolutely nothing to the lukewarm, bland soup. There was an excess of rosemary in the dish, which was just ridiculously overpowering. Needless to say, after waiting nearly an hour for our starters, and to be given this poor excuse for a "soup", I was less than impressed.

And then, our delicious main arrived!



We'd both decided on the handmade gourmet burger (lies), I'd changed my mind from the roast turkey on Rob's strong recommendations! Unsurprisingly, it was awful. Burnt, wilted and tasteless, I had to actually scrape the charcoal off of the meat.

During all of the food crimes going on at our table, looking around the restaurant, it wasn't just us that seemed to be having problems. A couple sitting near us looked incredibly angry at being ignored by the one waitress who seemed to be wandering around. It was a joke.

So, in conclusion:

Food:
If you are looking for somewhere that will give you fast service and a quality dining experience, this is not the place to go. Bearing that in mind, we did go on a busy sunday afternoon, if you go on a weekday evening, I'm sure it wouldn't be such a problem.

Service:
Ignored by the majority of the staff on our entrance, and then taking over twenty minutes just to get our drinks, the service was poor, until they brought us the bill.

Overall:
If you are looking for somewhere to spend an enjoyable afternoon, just come here for the overpriced drinks, not the food. There are much better places around.

Introductions

Good old Gordon Ramsay..

Very much the inspiration for my new blog, every time I've been out to a restaurant in the last few weeks, Ramsay, our favorite hot-headed, bin-kicking tv chef, has been on my mind. A little bit strange (perhaps obsessive), but there is something about imagining his exasperated tones complaining about everything ("it's FUCKING RAW") planted the little seed in my mind to do something more productive with my time than stay awake all night watching endless repeats of Come Dine With Me. Because, let's be honest, I like cooking, I like eating, and most of all, I like ranting.

So welcome to my food blog. I am a student, so value for money and cheap eats are always the priority in my book. Saying that, I do seem to spend the majority of my money on food and eating out, but it's good to have a healthy mix of everything right?

My aim is to bring you reviews, opinions, and perhaps even a cheeky little recipe or two. I have a love of baking and cupcakes, so if that floats your boat, you are in the right place.

Enjoy!