Michelin-Starred Michael Wignall at The Corner Restaurant, Selfridges

One Monday evening mid august amidst the tooing and frowing of Summer holidays, Adam and I were sitting down to a ten course meal made by two Michelin-Starred chef Michael Wignall. Michael was cooking at The Corner Restaurant as part of the Meet the Makers campaign running at Selfridges. He was the last chef out to cook at the restaurant over the campaign and some would day considerably by far the best. Michael Wignall describes his cooking as 'complex and carefully crafted:

"Whilst the style is technical and the presentation elaborate, the food itself is not intimidating, having its roots in familiar classical themes. The textures, flavours and ingredients complement each other rather than jostling for position on the tongue" (taken from an exert about Michael on the Pennyhill Park Website).

And so the evening began...

Canapés
Taramasalata, Tuna nori, Parfait with cocoa, and bresaola crostini

Thoughts: Prawn crackers with diced toppings, baby shrimps and cream were combined to create the flavour of taramasalata - brilliantly done. The Tuna nori was pleasantly flavoured and not overpowering, the crostini unmemorable and the parfait cigars had great crunch and oozed creamy parfait - yum!)


Mackerel
Cornish mackerel, edamame and English wasabi, cuttlefish film, compressed cucumber, Belgian Oscietra caviar, Portland crab, confit lemon

 Thoughts: Delicate mix of flavours with a sense of calmness, intensity in the cuttlefish film and great flavour in the compressed cucumber, wasn't wowed.



Celeriac
Salt baked celeriac, compressed and nitro apple, chilled pea juice, home made ricotta cheese

Thoughts: This was very tasty, the intensity and richness of the ricotta were offset by the pea puree and nitro apple.

Rabbit
Poached loin of Loire Valley rabbit, white polenta, braised Scotch oats, salsify,  brilliant truffe, crisp milk skin, shaved summer truffle

Thoughts: This was a very delicate dish, the rabbit melted in the mouth, and was complemented with the intensity of the truffle, just delicious and went very well with the Argentinean Bodegas Chacra, Barda Pinot Noir wine match

Hake
Cornish hake poached in single estate olive oil, cassoulet of summer beans, charcoal and scallop emulsion

Thoughts: This dish was cleansing and fresh and had subtle hints of flavour. The beans provided a crunchy texture to offset the soft scallop and fish.

Piglet
Slow cooked and roasted Lancashire suckling piglet, dehydrated cep scented pork fillet, sweet and sour sweetbreads, barbecued 'hen of the woods' charred spring onion

 Thoughts: This dish was smokey and delicious, it enticed you in with its smell and presentation and was full of flavour with each mouthful - one of my favourites!



Savoury
Doddington diary Baltic, organic feta, beetroot, rye beer bread crisp, pickle spheres, atomised vinegar

Thoughts: This dish had a lot of texture going on which I enjoyed.  I loved the feta and pickles resting on the crisp bread. This was served with an interesting Atlantic Pale Ale from Brixton Brewery which was a very disappointing accompaniment.

Pimms
"Our way"

 Thoughts: Michael Wignall's take on Pimms was bright and foamy, the chunks of fresh fruit and cucumber made this dish refreshing and cleansing.



Cherry
English cherries, Tahitian vanilla custard, almonds in different forms, vanilla dough, milk ice cream

Thoughts: This dessert dish was interesting, there was a lot going on but I loved the mini doughnut with the variety of vanilla.

Raspberry
Raspberry namelaka and jelly, micro cocoa sponge, aero chocolate, nitro yoghurt rocks and mint

Thoughts: This one I was so excited about I forgot to take a picture before hand! The aero chocolate was fun, and the mint rocks made for an element of surprise. The raspberry was the perfect tartness to compliment the varieties of chocolate.

Treats to take home
A mixture of macaroons, nougat and chocolates 

Thoughts: We were so full after the experience that we did not devour these treats straight away, in fact they ended up going in the pantry and we completely forgot to eat them!!!

Overall a fantastic evening with great service and a delightful way to start the week! We would have enjoyed if Michael had come out to introduce each dish a bit more but nevertheless the waiters were well informed and it made no difference to the meal. I would certainly recommend visiting Michael's restaurant at the Latymer in Pennyhill Park, Surrey, United Kingdom.

Love Bites Restaurant Review: Sushisamba London

Sushisamba is one of those exclusive restaurant chains that only feature in the hottest, hippest and in some of the highest locations of cities in the world, those the likes of New York, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas... and their first international location - London.

I fell in love with Sushisamba in London at first sight. I loved the atmosphere, the colour scheme, the cocktails and could not get enough of the food, let alone the orange tree outside on the terrace! I am lucky enough to have dined at Sushisamba in London a good handful of times. Dining at Sushisamba usually needs to involve a lot of patience due to the fact you need to literally book months in advance. In every experience I have been impressed by the food, cocktails and of course the skyline views of London. Being located in the Heron Tower near Liverpool Street Station and on the 38th floor invites some pretty spectacular sights over London city. With floor to ceiling glass windows, roof terraces on both sides of the building and a glass lift that takes you to the 38th floor in what feels like under 60 seconds. Even before you've sat down to dine you've already had an incredible experience and are in for a real treat.

 The food itself at Sushisamba is an exciting mix of cuisines which create an electric combination in every dish. Peruvian, Japanese and Brazilian flavours are entwined throughout the menu boasting an abundance of colours and flavours. The menu is designed for sharing with a mixture of small and large plates and to finish on sushi and sashimi. I love this style of dining as you get to taste a variety of dishes, my particular favourites being the kuromitsu glazed pork belly wraps (check out the recipe here), the shrimp tempura and the wagyu gyoza's. Everything is so fresh on the menu, the pork bite sized and oozing tenderness, with a crisp crunch of lettuce and scattered crackling, to the shrimp's golden batter combined with the julienned sugar snaps and fresh garden peas, each dish is a mixture of hot and cold ingredients with particular attention to the sauces and colour. Sushisamba really makes for an exciting meal.

Wagu Beef Gyoza

Shrimp Tempura

Kuromitsu Pork Belly Wraps

In my latest experience I devoured the black cod skewers with Peruvian corn, these literally melted in your mouth leaving me drooling for more. The teriyaki chicken was so good that we even ordered another round. That is another thing I love about the experience of Sushisamba, if you are a large group they will add more pieces to each of the sharing plates so everyone gets to have a taste. This comes at an additional cost but there is nothing worse than sharing dishes that you can't technically share with everyone - so Sushisamba really hits the nail on the head with this one.

Black Cod Skewers

A Selection of Seviches

Chicken Teriyaki

A Selection of Sushi to Finish off the Meal

The one negative thing I have to say is that I have found that the service at Sushisamba in London is not always consistent. In the past I have been waited on with unfriendly staff with stiff upper lips giving the impression you are not wanted there. However I can say that my most recent experiences this seems to have changed and the staff have been fantastic. Their knowledge of the menu, the ease at which they design a sushi platter for the final stage of the meal, and the friendly banter has really come a long way.

Between the food, the views and the cocktails and the atmosphere, Sushisamba is really something special - Get booking!!!

I will leave you with a mixture of photos from my Sushisamba experiences - enjoy...

Restaurant Review: The Good Life Eatery

http://www.goodlifeeatery.com

A couple of girlfriends and I met on a lovely Spring Saturday morning in London in Chelsea / South Kensington at The Good Life Eatery. This little gem of a place was brought to my attention on Instagram via a Chelsea resident, silver-screen siren Millie Macintosh (Made in Chelsea). I had seen some of the pictures she had posted on the numerous times she went there and needless to say I was sold. Healthy, tasty food, delicious juices and rather local to my abode - what more could I want?!

After some further research, it turned out you could not book directly and when we arrived a little after 1.30pm you could see why. The place is TINY, literally minute. There were people lining up in single file out the door to try place an order whether to eat in or take away. The idea of their cafe/eatery is a little odd... You take your order and wait until a table becomes free (bearing in mind there is under 10 tables available) and hover lurking to grab one ASAP. Once you have your table they will bring you your food, which was actually brought out rather promptly.

Now the menu is small, full of healthy, 'eat-clean' options, quinoa being prominent, sweet potato, Greek yoghurt with fruits, gluten free porridge etc. The juices were rather pricey and there was really only one good one (the........)  It's clientele is tends to be those 'hashtag' eat-clean peeps, the 'posho' Chelsea-ites with skinny jeans, ankle boots and fedora hats or those that wear their gym gear all day, with a full face of make up having most likely not been working out at all, I hope you catch my drift.

We were lucky and did not have to wait long for a table and as mentioned our food then came out shortly after. Between the three of us we chose a selection of the menu: quinoa pot with poached eggs, sautéed kale, sweet potato and walnut pesto, Greek yoghurt granola with fresh bred berries and shaved coconut, and sweet potato dukka with gluten free crisp breads. The quinoa pot had a great texture between the grain, eggs and nutty pesto and the flavours seemed to hit every note with each mouthful. The walnut pesto was a tasty alternative to the usual basil and I was surprised to note that the dish filled me up for the rest of the day! (Definitely some inspiration here for a Love Bites recipe!)The granola was pretty standard but the coconut shavings were a delicate but decadent hit. The sweet potato dukka was another interesting spin on the usual chickpea hummus dip. The sweet potato dish nailed it in flavour and spices although I think the crisp breads were a little too harsh a whole wheat pita (or wheat free variety of bread) or fresh raw vegetables would have been a health and interesting addition to this dish. The coffees were good, the juices better but very expensive at £6.50 a bottle. 

We were in and out within 45 or so minutes (although we may have stayed longer chatting and finishing off the juices at the table!) overall the service was fast and efficient, the food - healthy full dishes not only just for the 'eat cleanies' and those with allergies. The good life eatery is definitely a hot and if they continue to expand their food and drink menu I will most certainly be making a few return trips!! #eatclean

The Art of Poaching an Egg

For a long time I have struggled with poaching eggs. I actually felt uneasy at the thought of it, probably because I was so bad at cooking them this way! It was my Dad's job and he did it really, really well so I shied away and never learnt the task until most recently, when I finally decided to 'man-up' and learn this skill. It really is a technique that one needs to master in life, and for me it has taken 15 or so years and I still don't get it right every time.

I have tried many an attempt at different techniques:

1. Egg in Glad Wrap

Method: Lining a small round dish with glad wrap and cracking the egg into it to create a case, poaching the egg in a frying pan of simmering water until cooked... like so:

Result: This worked seemingly well. Although the egg tended to cook very well on the bottom and not so much on the top so I then proceeded to attempt to dunk the bagged egg with the spoon, so it was submerged into the water, which resulted in an overcooked egg but which easily came out of the glad wrap. 

Recommendation: Attempt this again with boiling water rather than simmering and potentially in a deeper smaller pot.

2. Microwave

Method: Cracking the egg into a small ramekin-style dish, pricking the egg yolk and white a few times with a toothpick and cooking in the microwave in 10 second slots until the egg appears to be cooked. 

Result: BEWARE! The egg may explode with a bomb-like sound from the microwave, resulting in an eggy mess and one hell of a fright! Alternatively the egg may be cooked on the outside but not so on the inside. Continuing to cook the egg results often in overcooking but still with a runny gooey like substance around the centre... this technique does often work quite well and is mostly a quick cheats way to poach an egg. 

Recommendation: Monitor the cooking of the egg like its life or death, and sometimes you may need to grease the ramekin or add in a bit of water to stop the egg from sticking to the dish.

3. Boiling

Method: Bringing a large pot of water to the boil, adding a decent lug of vinegar (I've actually found cider vinegar to be quite good), break egg in to small ramekin sized bowl, and pour swiftly into the water with bowl almost touching the water. Continue to boil the egg until the egg raises to the top of the water, remove with a slotted spoon and serve...

Result: Note to self - be careful to not burn your hand on the boiling water which results in a fright, causing one to jump and then spill the egg all over the element. 

I haven't managed to find the most accurate time for the cooking of the egg in this way but I have decided that you must remove it as soon as it rises to the top. If you don't do this it will most likely not be runny in the middle, which is not my idea of a good poached egg, like this: 

Still tasty, but not ideal...

Recommendation: The key is to remove the egg immediately after it rises with a slotted spoon to drain the excess water, your egg should come out at perfection with a deliciously gooey centre, like so:

Do you have a better way of poaching an egg? If so leave a comment and let me know, would love to try out some more tricks but at this stage number 3 is a clear winner! Good luck and get poaching!!! 

Love Bites Abroad : Berlin

Adam and I took a 3 night trip to Berlin in between Christmas and New Years in 2013. We arrived early Boxing Day to an unexpectedly extremely quiet city. We were staying in the newer shopping district end of the Kurfürstendamm. Working in the retail industry myself, one would expect the biggest shopping street in Berlin to be a buzzing hive of activity on the busiest shopping day of the year, yet literally none of the shops were open nor were they showing signs that they were going to be open at all. 

We had stayed at my English family's house for Christmas and luckily enough one of my cousins had been to Berlin a couple of weeks before us and had kept a list of restaurant 'must-go-to's' provided by his hotel. We studied the list in anticipation and he suggested two in particular if we could get into them on short notice. These were The Grill Royal, an on-trend, upmarket seafood and steak house and Cantina, a pan-asian fusion, tapas style bar. We were lucky enough to get a reservation at both through our fantastic concierge at our hotel, for the second and third nights of our stay. He also recommended a restaurant called Keno for our first night which we happily took his advice for dinner that evening.

For lunch we strolled around the Christmas markets close to our hotel and our first taste of Germany happened to be traditional currywurst sausage. A kransky-style sausage with a spicy curry sauce and a sprinkling of curry powder. As we were rather hungry we devoured this fast but I can't say I would be rushing back to try another one as it tasted very processed and fake. We also treated ourselves to some deep fried garlic potato crisps which were so oily our fingers were smothered with grease instantly. They were also so garlicky after a couple of crisps our mouths were stained with the taste, let alone our breath, any lurking vampires would have been killed instantly.

Garlic Crisps

Currywurst Sausages

So Restaurant Keno was our dinner option for our first night - a traditional German restaurant which was close to our hotel.  As Boxing Day is still part of the Christmas celebrations in Germany they still had a Christmas set menu available as well as the a la carte. Feeling festive I chose the Christmas menu of mushroom soup, and roast duck with braised cabbage, potato dumplings and cranberry sauce, finished with a creme brûlée.  The mushroom soup was full of flavour and had a delicious garnish of parma ham. This infused the soup with flavour and melted in my mouth. Definitely something I will include when I next make a mushroom soup! The duck was delicious with the cabbage and the skin cooked to perfect crispiness, the potatoes were a bit stodgy for my liking. Adam devoured a vegetable soup, which was rather salty but had plenty of veges and a clear broth. He then ate veal meatballs with mashed potato in a white wine caper sauce. The sauce was really rich but complimented the meatballs well. We had great attentive service at Restaurant Keno and was a good way to kick off our Berlin trip.

Vegetable Soup

Mushroom Soup with Parma Ham

Veal Meatballs 

Roast Duck, Braised Cabbage and Potato Dumplings

Creme Brûlée

Our next dinner treat was Grill Royal. This high-end grill restaurant is located on the River Spree on Fredickstrzae. We we're greeted by the maitre'd and our coats were taken. My immediate thoughts were this is an refined chic grill restaurant with a vibrant atmosphere and high end diners. There were an odd mix of sculptures, artefacts and paintings adorning the dining room, surrounding the snug leather booths and mint condition white table cloths. The restaurant was oozing sophistication and encouraged people watching. We were initially seated next to a well dressed couple and their small child which seemed an odd mix with this type of restaurant. They left early and were replaced by two almost identical blonde barbie dolls who looked like they had never lifted a finger to work in their lives. 

The menu consisted of traditional grill style food, steaks and lobsters.  We settled for a starter each I had the a white fish soup, which consisted of a light frothy white wine broth with poached salmon and a white fish I can't quite remember, it was a sensational experience, the fish and the broth were delicate with a kick of white wine intensity. Adam devoured some snails, smothered in a thick garlic butter sauce which made the slimy experience of eating them much more appealing, they were some of the best snails I have eaten. For our mains I decided with a local Bavarian fillet, and Adam went for the American Entrecôte fillet. We shared four sides, which was quite a feast for two of us! We settled with fried broccoli and cauliflower in chilli and garlic, a smooth potato mash, coleslaw and something I wouldn't normally choose but must have been continuing with the festive spirit - some succulent sautéed brussels sprouts with bacon.

Fish Soup

Snails

I have to say my medium-rare Bavarian fillet was one of the best pieces of steak I have ever had. It was oozing tenderness, full of flavour and melted in my mouth. It was perfectly cooked and along with the mash and the red wine jus it was a masterpiece of a meal. Adams Entrecôte was not in the same league as mine, although his steak was larger than mine, it was not as tender and involved a few more chews. We settled on a sticky toffee pudding and a custard tart for dessert. Neither was anything to write home about and I'm even surprised we managed to fit it in! 

On our final night we made our way to Cantina in the trendy area of Mitte for some 'Fine Asian and Ibero-American cuisine.' Part of the experience is actually finding Cantina which is located at the bar of the trendy cocktail bar Tausend. Our taxi kindly dropped us outside a wooden door underneath what was a railway arch. We knocked politely, waited a couple of minutes and was greeted by the Maitre'd who asked if we had a reservation and under which name. We advised our details and then had the door shut on us, only to be greeted another minute later by the same lady who confirmed our booking with a big smile and invited us in. The bar had a very confident - trendy air to it, the decor was dark but lit with a huge circular eye-like sculpture at one end of the room. I had the feeling you kind of had to be in the know about this place, with the secret door, and sleek 'coolness' of the staff, it was almost a little intimidating. We were taken through the bar and led into a small tunnel into Cantina, a small room with limited seating. Our reservation was for 6pm and we could only get a seat at the bar, which actually turned out to be a fantastic experience as we were able to watch the chefs work straight in front of us.

The service was very suave, tight jeans and pony tails were the attire of most of the waiters. We drank cocktails and dined on some of the most delicious food, the whole experience of Cantina was a real treat!  The head chef was directly in front of us preparing sushi, sashimi, and ceviche. We spotted some male Latino-looking diners on the other side of the bar devouring the ceviche and asking for more of the sauce after they had finished, then smacking their lips in desire. This along with another female couple who asked to see the Head Chef to thank him for the ceviche thoroughly promoted our decision to get this immediately.  We started with some Spanish pimentos de pardons (grilled peppers) - one of my favourite Spanish tapas. These were not as good as expected, slightly overcooked and not enough flavour so we quickly moved on to our next dish satay chicken and lime skewers with a chilli, coriander and red onion garnish, these were moist and succulent pieces of meat with a a delightful kick. We devoured our ceviche in absolute pleasure, the tender calamari, squid, and raw fish pieces, enveloped in the juiciest sweet and sour sauce, and decorated with chilli, coriander, red onion and corn was a sensational seafood experience.

Pimentos de Padrons

Chicken Satay Skewers

Ceviche

The dining experience even got better after this, our main dish to share was a white tuna with foie gras on a spinach risotto. This main dish was heavenly. Drizzled in a pesto oil and garnished with fresh herbs every mouthful melted in your mouth and the spinach risotto was so delicious I have vowed to attempt to re-create this in the Love Bites Kitchen!  The tuna was a moist mouthful of goodness and complimented the dish well. We finished on sushi and sashimi that was prepared and handed to us by the Head Chef right in front of us. The small bites were so fresh and delicate it was the perfect end to our meal and by no way could we squeeze in dessert!

Tuna Foie Gras and Spinach Risotto

Sashimi

Sushi and Sashimi

Cantina was the perfect way to end our culinary Berlin experience. We had dined on traditional German food, the most delectable steaks, and a fresh and intriguing Asian-fusion food. We had spent a lot, feed ourselves to our hearts content and drank ourselves silly. Berlin was a wicked experience through and through. I can't wait to go back to try out even more of the culinary treasures this place has to offer!