foodie for thought

Le Caprice!

After years of hearing about how amazing Le Caprice was, I finally went on my birthday weekend, which was a weekend of excellent food and drink, and company. Best one so far. So here is my experience at Le Caprice, on jazz night. Ideal!

Walking in from the blistering cold air into the Caprice was a sigh of relief and warmth. Although slightly early we did have to wait for our table to be cleared of the overly imbibed couple that clearly had spent quite a long time ordering from the bar.

Once settled down in the best table in the place (a shared opinion) and shuffled out of my jacket I looked at the menu in awe. Naturally I had tried to decide what I wanted before my visit but there were just too many delicious meals to choose from.

I decided on the sauteed razor clams with chorizo, capers and hedgerow garlic butter to start. It was simply…WOW. That is just something else isn’t it? The chorizo and clams were juicy and succulent, and capers just go with everything in my opinion.

I must admit the fragrant duck and pomelo salad with spiced cashews did look incredible. So if I’m lucky enough to go again I’d definitely like to try this.

For my main, I must admit I went a bit overload on the seafood this weekend, but what the hell I was getting treated! I had the roast fillet of cod with crispy proscuitto and mushrooms on a bed of cauliflower puree. I stand by what I say about mushrooms and seafood, for me, it just doesn’t work. But the fillet was thick and meaty and the crispy proscuitto complemented it wonderfully. 

Now I don’t usually have a dessert when I eat out, but as I said, I was milking the birthday weekend. To my surprise I had this yummy little something brought out to me!

And after this we shared a sublime dessert of frozen berries with warm melted white chocolate sauce poured over them. I think this may be my new dessert! It’s a classic on the menu and I can see why.

Even if you go for drinks here, go on Jazz night, which is the first Sunday of every month. The saxophone and piano player are a winning combinaton, especially with a view like ours.

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Is it just me?

But mushrooms with seafood kind of freak me out. I don’t understand it and it freaks me out. For instance, mushrooms with cod just aren’t right somehow.

Rant over. Who else agrees?

Beach Blanket Babylon

For my birthday this year my brilliant boyfriend picked possibly the most perfect place for  our dinner together. In the heart of Notting Hill, Beach Blanket Babylon. 

When you first walk into the bar area you notice that it is packed (Saturday night this is the place to be it seems), with a buzzing atmosphere and quirky decor. As we were shown to our seats, it got even better…you have to go up a ladder to the restaurant area, it felt like something out of Neverland! For atmosphere and interiors this definitely scores very highly. It manages to be cool, romantic and a place to hang out with friends all in one go (although I could have done without the brash squawking gaggle of girls sat at the next table).

To start we both had the seared St Jacques scallops with roast butternut squash and truffle puree. DIVINE. The scallops were meaty and were complemented beautifully by the puree. A great starter.

For our mains, the boy had the free range corn fed chicken breast with curly kale, onions, bacon and potato puree. This looked a knockout on the plate. Normally I wouldn’t order chicken in a restaurant, as it can be a disappointment but after seeing this I definitely would here.  

I had the poached fillet of sea bass with puy lentils, crispy salsify, sautéed spinach and sun blushed tomato vinaigrette. This was beyond incredible. The portion size was deceptively large, with two significantly sized pieces of sea bass accompanied by some of my favourite flavours. I’m a sucker for puy lentils and they were just so good. I could not fault it.

But the fun didn’t stop there. I had probably the best cocktail of my life here, which was also gigantic (bonus points here). With strawberry and vanilla vodka being the main ingredients, it was simply yummy. I could have had quite a few…

What excuse can I make up to come back here again very soon?

foodieforthought

Venice

A four day city break to Venice provided a great opportunity for a blog post. And naturally, as the self-confessed queen of pasta, I was in my element. On one day I had to refrain from eating pasta for both lunch and dinner. I was so close…

We were staying in Dorsuduro, away from the tourist area of San Marco, and we absolutely loved it. Here you could eat and drink for next to nothing. We sampled the local drink ‘Spritz’, which is €2.50, and everyone in Venice drinks it, that’s no exaggeration. On our first day, after being up since 4am, sleep was in our thoughts over food (almost blasphemy I know), but we picked up some falafel from a cafe and dined on cheese and olives with a bottle of red wine on the side. Speaking of drink, this is incredibly cheap here. As a thank you to our host for letting us stay, we were able to get a beautiful local Prosecco for just €15! 

For lunch the next day I had a mouthwateringly good olive focaccia with meditterean grilled vegetables and mozzarella. If this isn’t a taste of Italy, I don’t know what is. As a mid afternoon treat, I simply had to have a mint chocolate chip gelato. Yes, even in cold November. For dinner that evening we shared proscuitto and parmesan to start, then I had my all time favourite pasta, spaghetti vongole (spaghetti with clams). Another Cabernet Sauvignon Red and it all came to just €40! I haven’t had so much amazing quality food for so cheap in a very long time. And it came highly recommended by a local. This is what I love to do, live like the locals when you go to their country. 

The next day we found an intimate little cafe in Santa Margherita. I had the pasta of the day, which was with mussels and prawns, this was not one to try if you don’t like that ‘fishy’ taste. In the evening, we sampled an aperitif bar. Here, it is customary to have a spritz and then a plate of different appetisers. We had a choice of artichokes, pate, cheese and tuna crostini. Drinks for 5 people and two platefuls of food only cost €11!!! What a bargain. This is certainly how to do it. For our last dinner we had matching pizzas topped with proscuitto, rocket, brie and mozzarella, with a thin and crispy base, just how a pizza should be. It was such a big pizza and it took all my effort to finish it. And as a mini celebration, we just had to have prosecco and limoncello to drink.

When can I go back please?

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