The Imperial, Kings Road, Fulham London

My latest tastecard adventures took me to a part of London that I am not too familiar with. Kings Road, Fulham. Or “The Kings Road” as it’s fondly known as. What perception is conjured up by Kings Road? Well, it was famous in the 1960’s for style icons Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren.

Nowadays, it still has a reputation for being one of London’s most fashionable shopping streets. In addition to this, it is also known as being residency for Fulham’s 4×4 mums and Made in Chelsea.

Easy Yorkshire Pudding Recipe (Stop being lazy)

I have a real bugbear for fake Yorkshire puddings. That is the likes of Aunt Bessie’s.

Don’t get me wrong – I am definitely GUILTY of buying a ready-made Yorkshire pud or two. I used to pick them up in the fridge aisles of supermarkets along with the beef I was planning to cook for Sunday dinner.

That is until I discovered how EASY they are to make – using Jamie Oliver’s recipe. The first time I made them, they didn’t come out so great, however I persevered and now I have them down to a T if I may say so myself.

The Ape and Bird Public House, Shaftesbury Avenue, London

When I told Russell Norman that I was initially a bit sad when the Marquis of Granby pub at the top of the road where I work closed, he replied “really?” with a look of disbelief on his face. Russell, sometimes when you work in a pressured environment such as retail – closest pub for a gin and tonic takes precedence over “best location”.

It’s fair to say now that he has snagged “best location” for his latest venture of The Ape and Bird which opens next week.

The Marquis of Granby may have not been the best pub but it was an old boozer and conveniently located on the way home. You could often find most of my office stood in a circle inside or outside the pub on pretty much any evening having a drink. A drink, which would eventually lead to five. I even ate lunch there once which was a mistake. Their fish and chips were awful and unless I’m at a Wetherspoon pub or a football match, I DO NOT expect to be served condiments in sachets.

Lobster Festival at Smithfields Market | The Blackhouse Grill, London

I’m always on a quest to visit restaurants serving seafood, (ok this fact you already knew about FoodieClaire) so I jumped at the opportunity to visit Blackhouse – The Grill on the Market Restaurant in Smithfields, London. I had been sent an email about their Lobster Festival, which has been running throughout the month of March. I thought it would be a great excuse to visit my first restaurant in Smithfields – an area I previously associated with viewing from the confines of a black cab en route to client meetings back in my agency days.

The timing was perfect as Chanelle had decided that she was going to stop being boring during throughout weekdays in 2013 and start partying instead. Well we weren’t quite having a party – but eating seafood does kind of get us excited…

British Pie Week | Nigella Lawson | Chicken, Mushroom and Spinach Puff Pastry Pie | Recipe

Last week (4th – 10th March 2013) was a special foodie week. It was British Pie Week. I’m British. So I baked the easiest midweek pie I could muster around a packed solid busy work week.

I’ve made Nigella’s Chicken and Bacon Pot Pie so many times its unbelievable. It’s so easy to make and looks perfect every time. I change bits and generally use whatever I can find in the fridge. The only compulsory additions are chicken, mushrooms and some sort of green veg (preferably broccoli or spinach). Here’s my own rough method.

The Best Toad in the Hole Recipe (according to the Metro Newspaper)

If you read the Metro Newspaper on your daily commute then you may have come across a recipe deemed as “Ultimate Toad in the Hole“.

Metro and Guardian have a wonderful process of elimination where their writers find these ultimate methods (boiling an egg etc.) looking at the top chefs and agreeing or disclaiming their various traits.

I’m going to be honest, I didn’t read the detail of Chloe Scott’s Toad. I didn’t need to. I was reading the e-version of the article on my iPad and the photo alone won me over.

Even before breakfast I would have happily had a plate of this…

Google Event #GoogleMeatCrawl | Beard to Tail, Tramshed and Death by Burrito @ Catch

Who in their right mind would participate in a meat crawl of three different venues? Sounds like something you’d see in Man vs. Food doesn’t it? Well the Google+ Local team made it happen and I am eternally grateful for the privilege of being invited along.

Our locale this time still remained to be East London (have to say these East adventures really agree with me) and first stop was Beard to Tail in Curtain Road – haven’t heard of it? Well neither had I til I looked it up.

Recipe (kind of) | Egg in a Hole – Inspired by Donal :)

I love Donal Skehan. I’m not sure how I first heard about him but I’ve been following him on Twitter for years (how ironic is that referring to Twitter with such longstanding presence?). Plus I like his hair…

He literally IS the food porn king in Ireland as far as I’m concerned and I am always making notes what to try next inspired by his latest Twitter post/Instagram pic.

Enter Egg in a Hole. I saw it on Donal’s Instagram, I tried it. It rocked. Thanks Donal!

Golden Union Fish and Chips Restaurant, Poland St, London | Helping Centrepoint to Feed the Homeless with EATT

Next month it will be one year since I moved to Soho for work. I still miss working in Shoreditch but having worked on Wardour Street previously, the area is not unfamiliar and I looked forward to re-discovering my favourite old haunts (Maletti, Tosca, Star Cafe, The Dining Plaice) and new adventures.

I happened to stumble across one such eatery last month. Golden Union Fish and Chips, which opened in 2008. In recent times, independently owned fish and chips restaurants/takeaway are very far and few between. Certainly a big chunk of them are turning into Chinese takeaway with fish and chips on the side. My all time favourite had always been The Brothers Fish and Chips on Water Lane in Maryland, London. With my grandmother living across the road I recall many treats of being given change to run down to the shop after school to get the both of us chips. It’s a wonder that I’m still so slim. Unfortunately they closed down a few years ago. I don’t know whether they’ve set up shop elsewhere or simply retired. I suspect it’s the latter. To me, without them, Maryland isn’t the same.

Recipe | Home made fish and chips | Fresh haddock in organic beer batter and twice cooked chips

Yesterday I cooked fish and chips – from scratch – for the first time. It was surprisingly easy – Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall helped a lot.

There are a lot of recipes and videos advising on how to make the perfect batter. Some use fizzy water, some use beer, some neither. I wanted beer in my batter so after looking around for a while, this video came in very handy before I got to work. It seems apt that the video was from Hugh as he is currently actively involved in campaigning with The Big Fish Fight.

I halved the quantities Hugh recommended. So instead of eight tablespoons of plain flour, I used four, and a half bottle of Organic beer (the other half I disposed of sensibly – in my stomach).