A Long Weekend in Aberdeenshire, Pt 1

I've spoken before about how you don't have to go very far to see beautiful parts of the world. The stunning fjords of Norway are only a two hour flight away and my road trip around Ireland introduced me to the eye-popping greenery of the Emerald Isle. When it comes to Scotland, I've only ever been to Edinburgh and Glasgow, but never to the more rural areas. We flew into Aberdeen late on a Wednesday night, just as it started snowing and drove 40 minutes to the little village of Fettercairn in near pitch black.

[Food] What I've Been Eating #2

I've been busy bustling about trying to try out some cult eats over the last couple of weeks, both in the supermarket and in London. I'm a sucker for a food trend, let me know in the comments which ones you can't resist!

Cinnamon rolls at Cocomaya

Cocomaya is hidden away off Edgware Road and is mostly known for its incarnation of a cronut - a hybrid croissant/doughnut which they call a cro-dough (so as not to go against trademark regulations). However, as i got there at about 4pm, all the cro-doughs I liked the look of had gone, so I went for a MASSIVE cinnamon roll instead. You could tell they'd sat out all day as it was pretty dry, although it really was delicious. The service was pretty poor too, especially as it was pretty empty. I'd plump for a takeaway cro-dough next time. 

Cranks' Carrot and Coriander Bread

I'm a bread fiend. I love it in all its doughy forms, from sourdough to rye, it's just the best. I am continually horrified that bread, however delicious it is, just isn't that great for you. (Quote Scott Pilgrim: "BREAD MAKES YOU FAT?!") I found this loaf from Cranks reduced in Waitrose and figured that if there's any food that will encourage me to eat more carrots, it's bread. Despite not being a huge fan of coriander, that wasn't the overwhelming taste for me, it was actually the 'pinch' of orange zest. The slice-your-own loaf is perfect for soups and actually really nice when toasted with lots of butter (well, I had to make it unhealthy somehow!). I'll be looking out for more products from these guys!

Ben & Jerry's Satisfy My Bowl

I will provide endless love to anyone who can find me a large tub of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey in a London supermarket. I cannot find it anywhere but I did stumble across this tub of awesome on a day that demanded ice cream (not for weather reasons I might add, purely a comfort food thing). It's essentially the same banana ice cream and chocolate pieces (in peace signs instead of banana shapes), but added with caramel and cookie swirls. Actually, I think this is better than Chunky Monkey but it's bloody Special Edition. Who knows how many of these I'm going to have to demolish to make up for the fact that it won't always be in my freezer?!

Interactive sushi

I had to include this for the sheer truth that it is in fact the most pretentious canape I've ever had. I went to the Make Fashion Content Count event at Rockabox Studios and when I heard this being introduced, I had to take a picture. Let's be clear here, this was basically just sushi, it just so happened that you have to spray your own soy sauce directly on to it and dip in some wasabi that's probably been dipped in already. Mind blowing it was not, but 10 out of 10 for level of ridiculous!

What's been tickling your tastebuds recently?

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Lunch at Wapping Market

London is awash with food markets. With the likes of Kerb and Street Feast making it an evening affair, and the staples of Borough and Broadway attracting thousands of tourists every weekend, it's difficult to determine where is actually worth investing your time. Wapping Market opened a few months ago by Shadwell Basin, bookended by great views of the City and attracting a steady stream of hungry punters.

Not only are there ready-to-eat food stalls, but a great mix pop-up stores to buy everything from herbs to cheese, flowers and preserves. We started off with sandwiches. My housemate went for bacon, feta and avocado from Swine Dining -a sandwich so good that he went back for another one after a doughnut and ice cream! 

My boyfriend and I followed the crowd and headed to Mother Flipper for some giant burgers. I've written before about how burgers are such a huge trend in London right now, from Honest Burger to Five Guys - it's difficult to know where to start. But I can easily say now, that Mother Flipper is the best burger I have ever had. I went for the extravagantly named 'Smoked BBQ Belly Flipper aka #PorknParty' which consisted of aged beef patty, smoked pork belly, homemade cheesy BBQ glaze, cheddar, pickled cabbage and mustard mayo. It was near on impossible to actually fit it into my mouth, and there is definitely no way to eat such a monstrosity in any kind of refined fashion. It was insanely delicious, I could hardly believe it. My boyfriend had the Dirty Barbie: two beef patties, cheese, candied bacon and onions - a burger that kept him completely silent for a good five minutes save for a plethora of yummy noises.

That should have really been enough, but I'd already spotted Crosstown Doughnuts on our first lap of the area and they've been on my hit list for a while so I couldn't resist. I went for a creme brulee doughnut: hardened sugar on the top and filled with vanilla custard. I saved mine for when we got home and it tipped me right over the edge into a full food coma, but it was totally worth the pain. 

In between eating far too much food and contemplating more, we found World of Zing. This is the type of shop that I can't resist; full of weird and wonderful ingredients that I have no idea how to use but I want them all regardless. I was intrigued by their popcorn flavourings, despite not liking popcorn, and my boyfriend invested in a bottle of their award-winning ultra-dry Martini as I heavily contemplated a bottle of their rum punch which was incredible. I did buy a couple of intriguing chillis though, which the boys I live with were excited by as they started imaging each other crying out with pain at our next meal. We used the habaneros in a chilli that night and put them in whole. They certainly gave a kick to the meal, but they added a really delicious intensity rather than just raw heat - much better than standard red chillis from the supermarket. I also bought some Chinese White Hunan Chillis which apparently have a salty taste. I've yet to use them but I'll be Googling some recipes soon to get some ideas! The guys on the stall said that if there's a strange ingredient I find online that I'd like to buy, that I can email them and they'll bring it down to the market too. A dangerous idea for a woman who owns more recipe books than sense.

We finished off our exploring with ice cream from Ruby Violet - a parlour based in Tufnell Park that I never got around to visiting when I lived in north London. I had a scoop of both Damson and Sour Cream and Banana and Toffee, topped with a delicious wafer. It was a great way to get over the savoury bombardment of the giant burger, but I was so full I just could not finish the ice cream, despite how gorgeously smooth it was. The slight sour tang to the damson one was just what I needed to remind my stomach that it isn't actually made of pork.

Wapping Market was amazing for a foodie like me, but even my two skeptical companions were converted by the selection and quality on offer. The market is on every Sunday from 10am until 2pm, and I will definitely be heading back down there as a frequent customer.

Food: Dinner by Heston

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know I'm more of a Wahaca/Pizza Express type girl. But on Friday I had the opportunity to eat at a restaurant that's just been voted the 9th best in the world, and I couldn't not write about the experience.


And Dinner by Heston is definitely an experience. Of course it is world class food, but it is also based at the beautiful Mandarin Oriental hotel in Knightsbridge, and our table looked out over Hyde Park on one of the most stunning days we've had this year. 

The menu is suitably extravagant; full of courses I'd never heard of and even the list of ingredients beneath it didn't always help explain what I could potentially order. Next to each course was a date telling you what year the recipe originated from, and on the back was the name of the book each recipe came from. 


But on to what I ate! For my starter I had the roast scallops with cucumber ketchup and borage, from the year 1820. The ketchup was sweet and tangy and the scallops were enormous and tasted perfect. Borage is apparently the herb starflower. I've no idea what it is, but it tasted good!

I also got to taste a bit of the famous meat fruit dish. This basically looks exactly like a satsuma, but inside is a delicious chicken liver pate. It's so bizarre, and just shouldn't work, but it has to be tasted to be believed.

My main course was black foot pork chop with hispi cabbage, lardo, ham hock and Robert sauce from 1860. Don't ask as I have no idea! You pretty much had to take a risk with the food, as although the waiting staff were extremely knowledgeable, sometimes I still didn't understand what it was after they'd explained! This pork chop however was like no other pork chop I'd ever tried - soft, tender and melt in the mouth. I could eat it every day quite happily. There was also small things that looked like popcorn on top of the ham hock but in fat was the finest and most delicious pork crackling. 

For pudding I had the simply named chocolate bar from 1760. It was anything but simple though. It was essentially a bar of the most dark rich chocolate, like a ganache but smoother, topped with specks of gold leaf with passionfruit jam running through it. My god. 

I thought that was all, but no! Then came the best bit. The ice cream trolley had a hand operated mixer where the waiter poured a vanilla cream concoction into it and then poured LIQUID NITROGEN to freeze it on the spot! We were then served it in a delicate waffle type cone, with fresh strawberries in the bottom and our choice of toppings. I went for half apple and popping candy, and half dried raspberries. I didn't want it to end.

Step1: Add the vanilla

Step 2: Add the liquid nitrogen

Step 3: Eat!

An incredible place to spend an afternoon, if you're lucky enough to go please do let me know what you tried out!


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