Old Town Italian Restaurant in Clapham

My dad's request to have italian tonight prompted the search for a good italian restaurant that was quite nearby as he had some luggage with him. Immediately i think of La Trattoria Mooli's located near Clapham Common tube station! My husband and i have gone there several times and enjoyed the food there. We have even brought my cousins there. I call and turns out they have had a change of Management and now the new restaurant (still serving italian food) is called Old Town Italian Restaurant. Hmmm..I cant find their menu online but recent reviews made by others led me to believe that the menu had changed as well and the food offered was more "adventurous". I wasnt fully convinced so the search continued. In the end, i decided to try it anyway as i hoped the food was still good. So off we went.

We were warmly greeted by staff and promptly given the menu. There wasnt much choice of pasta dishes (which was what my dad wanted to have) and when the waitress came by to ask if we had any questions on the menu, i jumped at the chance to figure out what was what. The menu was filled with fancy italian which was abit daunting.

For starters, my dad ordered the homemade pate de foie gras and coppa di parma with tropea onion marmalade  (which was a special for the day)

served with a piece of bread marinated with olive oil

and ordered a wholemeal tagliatelle, veal sweetbread, raddichio trevigiano porcini mushrooms, naturale truffle oil as a main course.

I skipped starters as i had a heavy lunch earlier that afternoon (See post on Thai Square) and just ordered a portion of black ink bauletti filled with cuttlefish livernese valderama saffron vellutata (you see now why i had to ask the waitress) which when it arrived it look very similar to a chinese dessert that my grandma loves.

We were also given bruschetta with tomatoes with compliments from the chef. The bruschetta was a tad dry compared to what i am used to. It wasnt anything to shout about.

We also ordered some homemade bread for the table which consisted of bread with mozarella, with ham and the large flat piece is from Sicily.

For dessert, we both had the cheesecake with honey which came recommended by the waitress. In the end, i was quite disappointed as it was in effect a dollop of mascarpone cheese on top of some biscuit crumbs and decorated with a flat piece of chocolate and a flat piece of sugar..? It was not sweet at all except for the parts with honey drizzled and of course by eating that flat piece of sugar. I personally prefer the usual types of cheesecake.

Personally, both my dad and i though that the food was just ok, and the price wasnt really justified.

Roasted duck rice @ Four seasons Leicester Square

Leicester Square is the chinatown of London. Here you can find rows and rows of chinese restaurants, oriental grocery shops, and its also close to most of the London theatres.

I was there last night with my dad as we were going to catch "Yes,Prime Minister" showing at the Apollo Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue http://www.yesprimeminister.co.uk/ (based on a BBC hit TV series). We opted for a quick dinner at Four Seasons restaurant in Gerard Street (the original one is based in Bayswater) http://www.fs-restaurants.co.uk/. We ordered 2 roasted duck (de-boned) on rice

and a plate of Kai Lan (a type of chinese green vegetable) with garlic.

And there is nothing like a cup of hot chinese tea to wash it all..mmmm

Verdict: Duck was tasty, but i would still trek down to Bayswater to my favourite Chinese restaurant i.e. Goldmine instead.

P/s oh yea, the play was ok..but my dad says the tv series was funnier..

Cupcake for cupcake

Another weekend gone by too quickly..and here we are on another Monday -Back at work

I brought in some of the oreo cupcakes i made for my husband on saturday for my colleagues. As i handed them round in an attempt to brighten up the mood, one of my colleagues says that he made me a cupcake as well.

Look!

I was in disbelief as i never figured him to be able to bake cupcakes...pretty ones with glitter too!

Turns out, it was his cousin that made them over the weekend and he was present when it was being made. Plus he brought it in for me.... haha

Oh well, at least i got a pretty cupcake out of it! What a nice way to start a week off..

Korean food

A craving for good (and nearby) Korean food, brings me to start my search on the internet. I find loads of Korean restaurants in London but went through reviews to narrow down those located in South London. Turns out New Malden is full of Korean restaurants and it was quite closeby for us if we drove. Quite a few of them were shut on Sundays though. Found one that was opened and had good reviews i.e. Jee Cee Neh http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/venue/2%3A1095/jee-cee-neh.

So we called our friends to join us, and off we went. 

Upon arriving at Burlington road, we noticed that there were loads of korean restaurants and grocery shops..

Walking into the restaurant, we spot quite a few koreans...JACKPOT! 

We ordered the korean pancake (very tasty, and served piping hot)

The condiments.. Think this was some sort of barley? 

  Kim chi cabbage

  Pickled carrots and radish

We also ordered a portion of sol bul go gi (i.e. marinated beef) ...

 A portion of marinated pork

 Giant cabbage in our kim chi soup

 Kim chi soup boiling...

 Mmmm... kim chi soup READY!

The food was very nice, and food was served quite fast. Service was abit slow, and it was quite hard getting their attention for refills of tea as we were sat behind a pillar. I enjoyed the tea which had a distinct flavour to it which was quite different to the japanese green tea we were used to. Mmmm...very nice dinner all in all. It cost around gbp16 per person.Will definitely be back for more..

I did pop into the Korean grocery shop just next to the restaurant to get myself some korean tea though, just to tie me over till our next visit!

Lake District - Day 3

Woke up to rain...oh no! we were planning on taking the "Cruise and walk" which is one of the most popular walks http://www.windermere-lakecruises.co.uk/daysoutdetails.php?id=8.

We started off with the breakfast and walked to the Ambleside pier (which was around 10 minutes walk from our hotel) where we caught our boat to Wray castle..and thats when the walking/hiking began...It was a much longer route compared to the one we did before and it was definitely more scenic as well as there were parts we were actually walking round the lake. However, as it was a really overcast day, it did start raining midway. Ugh! Luckily my friends who are seasoned hikers brought along a spare plastic raincoat which kept me dry although i looked like a giant jellyfish!

After the walk, we got abit lost looking for the ferry..(yes despite the clearly marked signboards)

Anyway, we had sandwiches for lunch at a nearby bistro and headed back to Ambleside. On the way back the sun came out! yay..

Upon arriving we spotted this

Hmm...what to have ..what to have?

2 Choc dips and 2 mint chocs please....

Mmmm...

Oreo chocolate cupcakes

Its my husbands' birthday tomorrow and i wanted to bake him something he liked! He loves chocolate..so decided to make...

Oreo chocolate cupcakes ..


I found this recipe from http://www.bakerella.com/

For the cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups of plain flour
1/2 cup natural unsweetened cocoa
1 1/4 cup castor sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup hot water
Some oreo cookies

First, preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Then start by lining the cupcake tin with 12 cupcake liners.  Break some oreo cookies into small pieces and place into cupcake liners.

Then, start measuring out the ingredients and add into a big mixing bowl.

Plain Flour

Then the unsweetened cocoa powder

Then the baking powder, baking soda, salt and caster sugar..

Start mixing all the dry ingredients together with a wire whisk. Mix well.

Start adding in the eggs, vanilla essence, milk and vegetable oil.

Continue to mix until well incorporated

Then add the hot water, and mix well. The mixture should be quite liquid.

Use a ladle to pour into cupcakes liners.

This is what it looks like once baked.

 Now for the frosting..i have used buttercream icing

Buttercream recipe:
170g slightly salted butter
340g icing sugar
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp vanilla essence

First measure the butter..

 Then add the icing sugar

Then using an electric mixer, whip till light and fluffy

The buttercream that is ready for icing should look like this.

I am going to use my large tip nozzle (See how much bigger it is compared to my usual nozzle i use for piping macarons)

I am also using my Wilton large tip coupler for the first time..

All ready to be iced

Iced with buttercream icing

 Time to decorate with my alphabet set and fondant icing

Any idea on what i am creating??

I coloured white fondant icing with caramel colouring

Note the green non-stick board in the photos.. It was quite expensive gbp29.99 but the fact that i dont have to use corn flour/icing sugar when rolling out my dough/pastry/icing really pushed me to buy it! After using it for the first time today, i have to say it was definitely a good move to get it! 

Cupcakes with a half an oreo as topping..

Happy birthday...Muacks!!

Up close...

This recipe is so simple and delicious! Will definitely be making this again..