Cornish Cream Tea

I've been exposed with the famous British afternoon snack, the cream tea by a friend of mine (well the ladies like to have coffee session like once every month where we gather around and gossiping, ;) ). A bit of description, cream tea consists of scone served with strawberry jam and topped with clotted cream, and you can have it with tea or coffee. Knowing that clotted cream originally come from Cornwall / Devon area, I was looking forward to taste and buy one when I was there a few months back. At first, my husband suggested to try them at one of the cafe in Lizard Point area, but I said to him that I came across in a cottage-style cafe somewhere in Newquay in their tourism brochure and plan to go there instead. But sadly, it was closed when we arrived there and end up having them in a modern cafe in Newquay instead.

Scone with jam and clotted cream

I bought some clotted cream as well, to try them at home with Tesco scone and already-in-the-fridge strawberry jam :) So delicious, and surprisingly enough, it is quite difficult to make your own clotted cream,  and the traditional made in Cornwall recipe is also a protected designation of origin (PDO). No wonder it tastes sooooo good!

Rodda's cornish clotted cream



Momo's Birmingham

-from left: rice with lamb chop, rice with chicken, humous with salad-

We came across this restaurant when we went shopping at a halal market nearby (Al Halal market). According to the local, this is among the oldest restaurant around, serving middle eastern food. Most people would have rice here, and we can choose chicken, lamb, fish, etc to accompany it, plus some dhal curry as gravy / soup. Dishes will also be served with delicious humous / hummus (a chickpea-based dip, more info here) and salad.

As always, my view:

• Cuisine: Middle Eastern
• Ambience: 3/5
• Price: 4/5
• Others: Suitable for take-aways and dine-in (with ground and level 1 floor seater)
• Overall: 4/5

Spaghetti Olio

The good thing about cooking is that you could always add up or change the ingredients to suits you. Like cooking spaghetti olio for example, you can add tuna, chicken, seafood, or anything to it, as long as the basic ingredients (olive oil and garlic) are there. And this is my own version of Spaghetti Olio (traditionally Aglio e Olio - which means garlic and oil in Italian - well, the essential ingredients). I used anchovies, capers, olives and chopped tomatoes as they are there in the cupboard! No need to go to the store and buy others. And you could always change them as you like.



Shabas Spaghetti Olio (for one)

Ingredients

Spaghetti (around a handful)

Olive oil (around one tablespoon)

Half a onion

Half a chilli (you can omit this if you don't like it)

2 cloves garlic

Half tin chopped tomatoes

Capers (around 10)

Pitted black olive (around 10)

Crushed black pepper (to taste)

1. Boil spaghetti according to packet instructions. When it cooks, drain and sprinkle some olive oil.
2. While the spaghetti cooks, slice the onion and chilli, crush the garlic. After the spaghetti has cooks, put some olive oil in the pan and fry the onion, chilli and garlic.
3. Then, add other ingredients (chopped tomatoes, capers, olives) and stir them together. Then, add the spaghetti and the pepper (to taste). Serve.

Bosphorus Kebabs London

-mixed grill with nan-

I've been doing a lot of searching and internet surfing on halal restaurant in London as my family were planning to come over last year. FYI, we do rely on this website in checking them - http://www.zabihah.com/ (actually my husband came across this  website while searching for halal restaurant in Canada as we visited there a few years ago). The website is very useful in helping us in planning our eating-out.

As we'll be definitely very busy visiting a lot of places, I thought of having our meal on the go, thus I came across to this restaurant - Bosphorus Kebabs London - which also have quite a number of reputation itself. The food was delicious - and my parents loved them! But the portion is quite big for us, so we ended up ordering 3 different meal for 6 of us to taste all their specialties! Below are some of my thoughts about this place and the food:

• Cuisine: Turkish Kebabs
• Ambience: 3/5
• Price: 4/5
• Others: Suitable for take-aways as limited dine-in spaces available
• Overall: 4/5

Why don't you check them out yourself?

Welsh Cake

-welsh cake with raisins-

I love to learn and taste local food. Been to Cardiff, Wales, recently, I noticed some shops selling Welsh cakes. After asked them whether they are suitable for vegetarians (I'm a Muslim), I bought some and they taste nice! Comes in round shape, and raisins (I bought the one with them) sometimes it tastes like shortbread (maybe due to its thickness + sugar on top), plus they are made with similar ingredients (butter, flour, eggs). Make sure to taste some if you're in Wales!

Welcome

I'm totally new with blogging. Nevertheless, I love to cook and eat, therefore I think a blog would be a nice intermediate for me to share my passion with food with others. Oh, by the way, my husband says that my favourite colour is pink (well I can't argue with it!) thus this background (hope you don't mind!).