Degustabox: September

 

This month I had to have stern words with my other half to keep his mitts off bits in my Degustabox*. The things for your sweet tooth are always top notch and so great for keeping aside for a day when you just need sugar. Or booze. That helped too.

Degusta Box: March

I'm pretty sure that this month's Degusta Box* is the best I've had yet. Everything in there was SO delicious and I've definitely found a few products that will be a regular feature in my kitchen cupboards.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Afternoon Tea

I was brought up on a healthy diet of Roald Dahl stories, and even as an adult I still revisit the quirky and bizarre fantasy world created by him for a quick read. Aside from The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was my favourite and when I saw this afternoon tea announced I was so excited. Hosted at One Aldwych, it's to celebrate the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical in London and the menu is enough to make your mouth water. Get ready to be jealous!

The menu had cute drawings of different characters from the book. I had the Gloop family which was pretty fitting considering how much I was about to wolf down.

We sat in beautiful high backed chairs and I tried to look as much like a golden ticket as possible in my favourite vintage skirt. I even did some Willy Wonka themed nail art, what do you think?!

But no-one cares about that, it's all about the food here. We started with a selection of sandwiches (no crusts of course), an amazing tomato tart and awesome mini leek and stilton quiches, all washed down with caramel tea which was surprisingly delicious.

And so to the sweets. Oh my god. There was chocolate caramel milk, candy floss, chocolate golden egg with vanilla cheesecake and mango filling and mini eton mess. That was one side. Then we moved on to scones with clotted cream and berry jam, blueberry brioche (my favourite from the day) and cocoa bean financiers - that's a really good brownie to you and me.

The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Afternoon Tea is at One Aldwych until 31st December and is £29.50 per person. Book your reservation online here. You won't regret it!

Food: Scandinavian Kitchen

A day's shopping on Oxford Street is an experience many of us have had over the years, but where it reigns supreme in high street fashion names, it severely lacks in decent places to eat. Tourists are left to put up with McDonalds and Starbucks, completely unaware that hidden behind Oxford St is a maze of streets and roads that hold some amazing places to eat.

There are two places on Great Titchfield Street that I've discovered recently, and the first is Scandinavian Kitchen (I'll write about the other one soon). This cafe gets ridiculously busy at lunchtime, both for eat-in and takeaway orders, but also to find some new culinary delights at the Kitchen's own shop.

I tucked into a plate of meatballs with 3 different side salads: potato, mixed bean and 'pizza' (comprised mainly of cabbage).

We also couldn't resist sharing a slice of homemade apple cake which was beautiful!

Wandering around the shop, the packaging was all so eye-catching and colourful, I was tempted to buy a load of items despite not always knowing what things were!

Please somebody tell me what this is!!

I'm sure the staff get fed up of people taking pictures of the food with rude English meanings, but I couldn't help chuckling at these sweet treats:

So next time you're on Oxford St, veer north and try somewhere local, unique and yummy.


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