Galicia loves seafood. The scallop shell is an emblem of their pilgrim walk, the camino de Santiago. I saw a church covered entirely (and beautifully) in scallop shells and many pilgrims with a scallop shell painted with the camino emblem attached to their backpack or their wooden walking stick.

Razor clams are a favourite, as are clams, more pedestrian (but still fabulous) mussels and gnarly percebes, plucked from the cliffs before the waves crash in by expert brave fishermen. If you have been to Spain you will have noticed the percebes, it is hard to imagine that you can eat them that first time they take you by surprise. Black and pointed, looking like a velociraptor talon, not something tender, saline and delicious. Harvested in Galicia and popular in Spain, they are cooked by plunging them briefly in boiling salted water for just a couple of minutes. Pinching them to remove the outer leathery carcass reveals a delicate addictive interior, juicy and bright. Continue reading

There is a tired and jaded notion that cooking over fire is the preserve of the male, and that women are neither interested in or inclined to BBQ, preferring instead to be at the stove indoors. This is nonsense, of course. There are people who love to cook, indoors and out, and it is in no way gender specific. Why are people so obsessed with gender when it comes to cooking, anyway? We all eat, it is the one thing that unites us, and so many of us love to cook too. Why be divisive?* Continue reading

When I was in Dublin last week I cooked with Lily Ramirez-Foran. I have known Lily for years online and met her at Electric Picnic, an Irish music festival with a fun food stage, the Theatre of Food. Lily is Mexican, from Monterrey, but based in Ireland with her Irish husband whom she met in Japan. Ireland is very lucky to have her and her gorgeous Mexican shop and kitchen Picado, in Portabello in Dublin. It is a joyful place where Lily serves the best Mexican produce (food and other bits like handmade Mexican pinatas!). She also has supper clubs and cooking classes there on a weekly basis.  Continue reading

My friend Luiz is a terrific cook. He is also a blogger and food writer, that is how we are friends. He runs a wonderful supper club in his house (one of the best in London and in the most beautiful space). Last year his first cookbook was published, on Nikkei cuisine called Nikkei, Japanese Food the South American Way. Continue reading

I remember when I first had prawn toast from a Chinese takeaway and I was mesmerised. Just how do they make this, and how do they get the prawns to stick to the toast? Very much a guilty pleasure, I can’t actually order it as the supermarket bread used turns my guts into knots (real bread is no problem, as for most!), so I turned to my stove as I always do, and figured it out.  Continue reading

I try with bananas. I buy them and then I leave them there and next thing I know they are brown. Very brown. Almost oozing out of the skin. Collapsing with sweetness. Bananas in the supermarket are never ripe, so you have to wait and then, kabam, too late they are gone! No longer great for eating but nectar sweet and perfect for pancakes and baking. Continue reading

After my breakfast with Guy Savoy, I made my way to the 14th arrondissement to meet Didier Lavry at Le Petit Mitron, a baker who had just been awarded the second prize in le Meilleur Croissant au Beurre d’Isigny AOP. That would be the best croissant competition in France, Paris section, then. Don’t you just love France for that? Continue reading

As I walked up the stairs of the Monnaie de Paris on a quiet Friday morning, I wondered what awaited me at the top. I was in France’s oldest institution, the national mint in the centre of Paris overlooking the tree lined Seine. It was early, and the staff at the door were surprised to see me arrive as they don’t open until lunchtime. I am here to have breakfast with Guy Savoy, I announced gently in clumsy French, with some trepidation.  Continue reading

This recipe is the fourth in a series of four that I developed in partnership with the Big Green Egg who sponsored this post. (Read more about sponsored content on Eat Like a Girl). Previously in this series: BBQ Teriyaki Pig Cheeks, Miso Pork Aubergine and BBQ Clams with Gojuchang and Sake. 

One of my friends, a fellow food writer and blogger (Luiz of The London Foodie and author of the wonderful book Nikkei) presented me with a little cool bag for my birthday. I peeked in side and shrieked, thrilled to discover that he had gifted me Uruguyan picanha, a cut of beef which we would call rump cap, undervalued and misunderstood here but valued all over South America. With good cause. It is a perfect BBQ cut.

Chimmichurri is a perfect steak accompaniment. From Argentina, and fitting for this South American cut of beef, they usually serve it using dry herbs, I prefer the liveliness and texture of fresh. I also wanted this to be super summery, and looked at my new kitchen garden, particularly my gorgeous aromatic window sill, fragrant of bergamot, lemonbalm and lemon verbena. I chose lemon verbena and mint as the stars with some parsley to tone it down. I also add some Aleppo pepper, another gorgeous food gift from my friend Ailbhe. Adjust the quantities below to your taste, or if you prefer to go traditional, substitute oregano for the lemon verbena and mint. Really traditional means using dried herbs, but I much prefer the bright flavour and gentle texture of fresh. 

Picanha is a great value cut and goes far. It is tender and flavourful, it is quite lean too with the fat coating on top. The fat protects it as it cooks and gives it terrific flavour. Fat is flavour, let’s stop demonising it. 

If you are celebrating father’s day this weekend, this is perfect for your family lunch. Enjoy!

I grew up in the countryside with a wild garden front and back. Our house was a new build and so the garden was new too. My first foray into edible gardening was in this garden as a small child, when I transplanted my new broad bean plant from a yogurt carton where it had been planted in school, into the soil. I was mesmerised by how much it grew. Then I discovered that marrowfat peas could be germinated in water and planted to become whole bean plants. Beanstalks, maybe with giants at the top? At 7 this seemed possible.

I became reckless with my germination and one day filled a big plastic tub with marrowfat peas and boiling hot water before spilling it all over my feet. I couldn’t wear shoes for a week, my feet were covered with blisters and I could hardly walk. Instead I wore floral slippers with a big orange furry bit at the front. (Remember those? I loved them.) This didn’t halt my gardening ambitions. I planted my pea plants in a rockery out the back and watched my beanstalks grow. One day I bounced out only to discover an invasion of slugs, and that was it. I was DONE. Nobody had warned me about that.

I was surrounded by gardens though, and farms, and apple trees, even one orchard where we would play. My aunt had a half acre planted with glorious veg, a fruit patch and a greenhouse with vines clambering overhead. Nearby was an abandoned old house, still standing and interweaved with stories all from my head. To each side was a wood, and towards the back a walled garden, our very own secret garden, with apple trees, a cherry tree and lots of fruit bushes, including my favourite gooseberry. It was wild and unmaintained, thick briars climbed the walls but we hardly noticed them. I was a voracious reader and loved The Secret Garden. I fancied that this was one of my own.

Since then, a kitchen garden was always something that I wanted to have. But a garden in London is a luxurious thing. One flat I lived in had a sunny window and I had a tiny chilli farm growing in the heat of the sun. I finally moved to a flat with a garden a few years back, but I travel so much planting a garden was never something that I could do. Until this year, a year that I have slowed down to focus on some projects (that book) and just be, rather than be on the move all the time. (I still travel a lot I know, but smaller short haul projects, I am saving my long haul stuff for the second half of the year).

Sometimes things are in the ether. I had already bought lots of seeds for my edible garden, heritage Italian seeds and beans, when Wyevale Garden Centres got in touch to see if I wanted to work with them on a gardening project. They could help with what I needed to create my edible garden (I had told them that that was what I wanted to do). I started to research. I knew that I wanted courgettes, they were a key motivation, my desire for a courgette flower bounty was strong. I have long been obsessed with edible flowers too, since I was a child. My first cookbook contains many, from rose flower butter to pansy salad potato soup with chive flowers and chive oil. Wild garlic flowers, wild leek flowers and elderflower are regulars in my kitchen. 

I am a month into my kitchen gardening and I am obsessed and mesmerised. The joy of planting a seed and nurturing it to a plant is a wonderful thing. It can be time consuming but I find it so positive, except when I have to deal with the slugs. More on that below. 

How to start? 

Lentil seedlings

Starting Your Kitchen Garden

From Seed or from Plant?

This really depends on how much time you have, when you start and how much work you want to put in. Growing from seed is very satisfying but it is a longer process and it can be quite involved. Yes seeds do just grow themselves, and it is mesmerising, but starting from plants is quicker, and by the time you get them most of the hard work will be done. If you are starting now, I would start with a mix. If you want courgettes, move quickly, or start from a plant. I will be sharing lots about the possibilities about those over the coming months.

I started my garden with some plants provided by Wyevale Garden Centres (including two types of tomato, aubergine, chives, an elephant garlic plant and some flowers) and some seeds, compost, tomato feed and a propogator. A propagator is a useful tool if you are planting late as I did, it is basically a tiny greenhouse that gets your seedlings off to a speedier start. My courgette seedlings popped their head above the soil within 4 days, my purple carrots and nasturtiums took longer. In general you can expect seedlings in at least half the time. You can get simple ones that are just a box with a plastic lid that absorbs the light and sunshine, at this point of the year these will work very well inside or in a bright window. I used a plug in one which I liked so much I bought a second one. This allowed me to start lots of seedlings quickly which I could then plant outside. Take care not to over water them, you can get some mould growing too. Just make sure the soil is nice and damp. 

You can of course choose not to plant from seeds and instead plant pots that you buy from your garden centre, where there are amazing selections. More mature plants stand a better chance against slugs and if you are starting late, it gives you a head start. 

Where and How to Plant Your Seedlings?

Borlotti been seedling

You have your gorgeous seedlings, such a joy. Before planting them in a container or in the ground let them adjust to the new temperatures outside first and give them at least a few days, taking care to water them. I have an old table that I use as a nursery. If you have a small urban garden like me, or even just a patio, you might want to stick to containers for simplicity on your first time. My garden is wild and needs a lot of attention. The soil quality isn’t great. Using bags and containers I can control the soil quality and grow my edibles without sorting all of that out. I bought a couple of tomato planters (not grow bags) and some good organic peat free soil and planted my new seedlings in those. Disaster struck, that first night an avalanche of snails and slugs devoured the lot. So, I had to learn how to deal with that. 

Chickpea seedling

Strategies for Dealing with Snails and Slugs

Yeah I know. I am sorry about that, but this is your new reality. Slugs and snails are your new bête noire. You want a gorgeous bountiful kitchen garden? You need to deal with snails and slugs. This year there are more than ever as we have had a mild winter, they are calling them sleepless superslugs. Yeah, I know. Don’t worry you can still leave the house.  I hate slugs and snails so much each encounter was punctuated by a squeal, a roar or an expletive. Often all three. But you can do it.

Courgette seedlings planted in a growbag with lots of slug wool. After a major rain! No slugs here.

Slugs love courgettes and nasturtiums and similar juicy plants. There are many different types of slugs, some techniques work for some and not for others. I found copper tape ineffective for the tough troop in my garden. You also need to think about the rest of your garden, as fun as it would be to poison them (I know, but you know, different rules for slugs and rodents) or salt them (melt like the wicked witch of the west you vicious slug but it will ruin your soil). You need to think about pets and neighbourhood cats if you are putting down pellets. 

Here are your sensible and ecologically friendly options:

Think barriers: these guys are slippery and gross and don’t like anything sharp. There are natural options: coffee grounds, egg shells, sharp gravel and sand (both of which you can get in garden centres for the purpose). Bake egg shells briefly first and rinse them of any remaining egg as eggs are tasty and you don’t want to be attracting any beasties that might like those. 

Attract predators: birds and hedgehogs love slugs and if you can attract them to your garden they will love it.  BUT please be careful with slug pellets as some can poison these animals and other pets. (See below for my recommendations!). Turn over your soil to expose the slugs and eggs and let the birds and hedgehogs feast on them. We love you birds and hedgehogs! 

Drown them in beer: this wasn’t very successful for me but others swear by it. Put a saucer of beer by your plants and slugs will go in and drink it and drown in there. Others recommend beer traps, beer in empty yogurt pots put in the soil and buried near your vulnerable plants. Or a beer can with some beer in it, they apparently will wander in and then they are easily disposed of. 

Commercial options: slug pellets are an option but be aware of the effects that they might have on pets, garden birds and hedgehogs etc. I bought Sluggo Slug and Snail Killer which is iron based and toxic to slugs but safe for everything else. The slugs go underground once they eat them leaving no trace. Follow instructions and don’t put out too many. I also tried Slug Gone wool pellets which are a completely natural product which irritate slugs feet (I know, who knew they had feet, and did you know they had 24,000 teeth EACH?). They are completely safe for children and animals, and also act as a natural mulch, discourage weeds and nourish your soil. They biodegrade naturally too. I have found slug wool to be a magical thing, and the only thing which protects my gorgeous seedling courgettes. Both of these products are available at Wyevale Garden Centres. Lots have recommended nematodes to me also but I haven’t tried these yet. These are small worms that exist naturally in soil and that kill slugs naturally.  You can put these in before you plant too, clearing the way for your plants. 

Which Edibles Should You Plant?

Hanging baskets with nasturtium seedlings, hanging on the washing line!

That all depends on what you want to eat of course and the time of year you want to plant. I want to plant everything but I have limited space and it is my first year so I am still learning. Starting at this time of year (June), I decided to focus on tree things:

Courgettes

I have planted several types, including ridged Roman ones and a courgette plant that only produces flowers.  I am all about the flowers as much as I love the courgette. Expensive to buy and hard to find, they also have a very limited shelf life. None of these are problems when you grow your own! I want to make courgette flower pizzas, Roman style; courgette flower tacos, Mexican style; I want to stuff them, fry them, and eat them all summer long. Well, after they flower anyway. Slugs love courgettes so I have been at war, but I am winning. See above for my tips for your battle!

An Edible Flower Garden

I have long been obsessed with edible flowers. There is an overlap with the courgette patch above, the most regal of edible flowers, and also many herbs have gorgeous edible flowers too. I got a lovely selection from Wyevale Garden Centres to plant and also planted some of my own. From Wyevale Garden Centres: bright purple chicory flowers, chives (with their pom pom purple chive flowers), garlic chives (with their parasol of white flowers), borage flowers (perfect for salads and for summer drinks with their gorgeous cucumber flavour) and lots of nasturtiums both for their leaves and their flowers. 

A Herb Garden 

I have planted lots of herbs. I buy lots and then watch as they wilt and lose their vigour. I want to snip them from my window boxes and use them while fresh and full of life and flavour.  I have had occasional pots of herbs around but nothing long term. I am excited. I planted: parsley, sage, rosemary, basil, oregano, lemonbalm, lemon verbena.

Courgette seedlings, strawberries and French marigolds (gorgeous and edible

Also: Salad, Carrots, Pumpkins, Chillies, Tomatoes, Strawberries

And other bits and bobs! Let’s see how this goes. I am so excited. The idea of my pantry extending into the garden and using everything while fresh and full of flavour fills me with joy. I have gone a bit crazy and bought so many seeds and plants. But I love it, and hopefully I should reap some rewards too. 

Tomato, courgettes and in the sink, lots of edible flower seedlings coming through

Over to YOU!

I want your tips and stories! Do you have a kitchen garden, or a bountiful window box? Are you excellent at managing slugs?! What should I plant that I haven’t planted yet. 

Come follow on Snapchat where I share my daily journey and tips and tricks for gardening, as well as cooking tutorials, London stuff and my travels. 

This recipe is the first in a series of four that was written in partnership with Wyevale Garden Centres who sponsored this post. Come back for more detail on planting courgettes, an edible flower garden and a herb garden, with lots of recipes too. I am posting daily updates on snapchat also, where you can also follow Game of Slugs (aka SLUG WARS). All editorial is mine, as always. (Read more about sponsored content on Eat Like a Girl). 

Other posts in this series on edible gardening:

Growing Courgettes & Courgette Flower Egg Menemen

Kitchen Garden: Aubergines & BBQ Nasu Dengaku Recipe

How to Plant Your Own Easy Edible Flower Garden

This recipe is the third in a series of four that I developed in partnership with the Big Green Egg who sponsored this post. (Read more about sponsored content on Eat Like a Girl). Previously in this series: BBQ Teriyaki Pig Cheeks and BBQ Clams with Gojuchang and Sake. 

Well this is a cracker. Aubergine is a vegetable that loves smoke, and loves meat too. The deep sweet rumble of miso blends in seamlessly, and chilli gives everything a lift. Because everything does need a lift, every now and then. 

This is deceptively simple. The deep flavours come from the fermented miso, the whole thing start to finish cooks in less than an hour. Miso is a great store cupboard ingredient, for quick miso soups and great marinades. Miso makes a great steak marinade with a little mirin, sake and rice vinegar to loosen it out ant balance it. Some chilli too for me, because I can’t resist it. Mix it with butter and a little citrus (yuzu if you can get it, if not some lemon or lime) and rub a chicken with it before sticking it on the grill.

I start this dish with an onion, as most good dishes start. It gives lovely sweetness and texture. Onions, like most simple everyday things, are deeply underrated. 

I can’t get enough pastry this week. I just can’t. Sweet tarts, savoury, small little leftover bits crisped with peanut butter and a drizzle of maple syrup, to have on top of sweet raspberries mixed with coconut cream. That was awesome. Today, I decided I wanted a tart for lunch, with a whole meal in it. Pastry as a plate, a crisp flaky gorgeous one.

I have made puff pastry before, but not today. And not often. It is a faff. (I respect, admire and worry about home cooks who frequently make it). I used shop bought which made this speedy and not very challenging at all. One of the first of the seasons bright tomatoes, a joyful yellow one bursting with sunshine. Some stout asparagus spears in pancetta straight jackets, crisped to submission, a pert egg and a light cover of cheese with the intention of gently covering the yolk so that it didn’t blister in the heat and giving it an extra layer of magic. A little chilli just to wake it all up. On top of that some crisped kale, because you have to.

Very simple and it looks impressive. Give it a blast!

This recipe is the second in a series of 4 that I developed in partnership with the Big Green Egg who sponsored this post. (Read more about sponsored content on Eat Like a Girl). Previously in this series: BBQ Teriyaki Pig Cheeks. 

It is a bank holiday weekend and the sun is shining, I bet most of you had your barbecues out. I sparked up my Big Green Egg this evening as I do often now, and I used it to do something a little different. I wanted something quick and fresh and spicy, and I wanted it to be a little smoky too. I had some wonderful clams, bought explicitly for the purpose. Perfect little clams that I had soaked in a few changes of water just to make sure that they had relinquished all their grit. 

When you think of the BBQ, you probably think of kebabs, burgers and steak, beer can chicken, meat in marinades, low and slow cooking so that the meat falls off the bone. But cooking over fire doesn’t need to be just like this, there is so much pleasure in cooking in cast iron over an intense flame. For this purpose I wheeled out my small cast iron frying pan. 

I love clams in sake, it is a combination that works so well, the dry sake combining with the clam brine. With the smoke I wanted some spice, and I reached for my pot of gojuchang (Korean red pepper paste), a favourite cupboard ingredient, deeply flavoured and hot. A little does a lot, and the flavour it lends hints at much longer cooking. A little brightness to finish with some finely chopped spring onion, and some coriander would be lovely too if you had that.

Enjoy and have a wonderful Bank Holiday! (And if you are in Ireland, line this up for your bank holiday next weekend!).   

I do good brunch. Forgive my hubris, but I do a bloody great brunch. This is one thing I know for sure. I devote a lot of energy to it. It is my favourite meal of the day and I have it most days. It is one of the perks of working from home (there are a few downsides too, trust me). I have never been one for eating straight out of bed in the morning. I have a coffee and a couple of hours later I turn my attention to the stove. It is often egg based, eggs are one of the most magical things in the world. 

When my brunch is egg based, I think about what I want to dip into it that day. Earthy marmite buttered toast soldiers, bright asparagus wrapped in bacon or ham, something dippy, something firm, something that tastes great. I have made soldiers of sesame crusted tuna and salt and pepper tofu, shaped into perfect egg soldier size, perfect for dragging through a glorious runny yolk. 

This Sunday my first thoughts went to a simple sourdough soldier, quick and earnest, it would get the job done. I also spied my tub of yeast flakes, something I love since my university vegetarian days (YES, really!), something used as a cheese substitute by vegans, but loved by many for the joy it brings on its own. I had a cauliflower too, and all I could think about was how awesome that would be cut into steaks and fried in butter with an egg on top and a yeasty crumble. I would baste the cauliflower gently with butter as it cooked. And, what about crisp sage leaves, to bring it to the next level?

Cauliflower is having a moment. It is everywhere right now. Carb avoiders love it and turn it into cauliflower rice and cous cous (which are pretty much the same thing, just blitzed cauliflower, and they taste good), and even make pizza bases from it, stringing it together with cheese. This makes sense, cauliflower and cheese covered with pizza toppings, and more cheese? What is not to love? (Although don’t ever give me one instead of real pizza, please). I still love it as a simple cauliflower cheese, I love it spiced and fried to dip into a runny egg (turmeric, cumin and chilli work really well). 

Yeast flakes? Cheesy joy and a complete protein packed with vitamins and minerals. It is not a surprise that yeast flakes are favoured by vegans for the cheesy nirvana they deliver, they are a wonderful ingredient which should be embraced by all for their wonderful unique and intense flavour. Yeast flakes an umami bomb, they have such intense flavour they taste like they could not possibly be good for you. Yeast flakes are also loved by exercise fanatics as they are a dense with nutrients. (Someone please save me if I ever start eating powdered protein or something similar. Where is the JOY?!).

A big tub of yeast flakes will go a long way. Combined with butter and chilli they make a terrific spread for toast. Like try and have just one slice of that, I had four. Combined with nuts they make a terrific crumble topping for anything savoury. Pounded to a powder and mixed into a béchamel or beurre blanc you get something deeply addictive. And they are very good for you too, packed with vitamin B. 

Note – don’t confuse yeast flakes with bakers yeast and brewers yeast. They are different animals! I use these yeast flakes from Engevita enriched with extra B12. 

Good morning! I have something fun to share with you today. I have been working with Flavorly on some fun videos of my recipes. We started with my easy and gorgeous Blueberry & Cardamom Tart.

You can knock this one up super speedily, shop bought pastry, a quick frangipane whipped together with almonds, brown sugar, eggs, butter and punch fabulous cardamom. A perfect bright tart for any day, particularly for summer. It transports super easily too. 

Follow Flavorly on Facebook to see more recipe videos. I have another couple coming up soon!

Enjoy! Press play below and then get into your kitchen.

This recipe is the first in a series of 4 that I developed in partnership with the Big Green Egg who sponsored this post. (Read more about sponsored content on Eat Like a Girl). 

This is the first in a series of recipe posts that I developed for the Big Green Egg. The iconic ceramic BBQ is a terrific piece of kit that I have really enjoyed working with at home. It The Big Green Egg has a domed lid which makes it an all weather BBQ but also allows very precise temperature control (combined with air valves at the top and at the bottom). The enamel coating ensures that it doesn’t rust and it is ready to use within 15 minutes of sparking up. I thought that I would go through a lot of charcoal but it is surprisingly efficient for such a big beast. 

There is such satisfaction in cooking over fire. The smells and flavours of smoke permeate the food and the results vary hugely depending whether you cook over a flame or smouldering coals. I like to use flame for steaks and then stick something on low and slow to cook gently. Something like wings, ribs or these pig cheeks. 

A hugely underrated and terrific value cut of meat, pig cheeks are a dream to cook on the BBQ. They have a deep porky flavour and firm texture, and they are often cooked so that they yield and fall apart, functioning as a glamorous pulled pork. I don’t know why people don’t stop them before this, I love them cooked until before this point, still firm but rich and moist, and glorious coated in a dark glaze as I have here. 

Pig cheeks BBQ very well when marinaded overnight in a soy based teriyaki marinade which functions not just in terms of flavour, but also as a brine. After an hour of gentle cooking the cheeks are tender and moist, and full of flavour. A gorgeous bite. Glazed with a reduction of the marinade cooked on the hob once the cheeks hit the fire. Like this with a slaw, or in a Japanese style taco with sweet Japanese mayonnaise, some sriracha, some sesame seeds and fresh coriander. 

Enjoy! And do share what you think of them, and any ideas that you have for BBQ season. 

If I had a beach hut I would paint it yellow. Somewhere between canary and primrose, cheerful, bright and full of promise. I would put it facing the sea, surrounded by heather, long grass and all sorts of sea vegetables. It would have a lovely little hob and lots of gorgeous pots and pans hanging from nails on the wall. There would be lots of enamel dishes. I might whistle as I walked there. If I could whistle. (I never could and I spent most of my childhood trying.) 

The secret to living in London well is not encoded in the size of your pay packet or the size of your flat. It is in knowing when you need to get out and take a breath, so that you can rush back to go through it all again. I love London, deeply, but I love the sea also. I grew up by the ocean and I miss the clear salt air, the familiar smells, the sounds of the crashing waves, the slippery seaweed, creeping crabs and barnacles, hostile and pointing and telling you what is what. 

I know that I am one of those Londoners guilty of not exploring the countryside surrounding. It could be that I don’t have a car, nor do I drive anyway, but that is a poor excuse with the extensive train network that we have here. Life is busy and I am often elsewhere. Last year I decided that I would dedicate more time to exploring the countryside around me, the nearby cities, towns and villages. I made little inroads and so I raised the task this year again. 

Bournemouth is only 2 hours from Waterloo on the train. It has a mixed reputation. Some describe it as God’s Waiting Room, others simply describe it as dull. I went along with this for a while until friends told me that this was nonsense, with recent years seeing an influx of interesting places to eat and drink there. And then there is that big long beach and glorious fresh sea air.

Sold! I booked my train ticket and off  I went. Being an excessive planner I researched painfully as I always do, and booked anywhere I needed to before I left, leaving enough time to idle or wander, an essential component of any weekend trip. 

I stayed at the Hilton in Bournemouth, freshly pressed (not yet a year old) and well located just 5 minutes from the beach. Everywhere you turn you are greeted by a cheerful windmill pattern, on the walls, on the blankets, on the wallpaper, there are even some windmills in your room for you to play with. It is not overdone, though it may sound like it. It is all soothing and lovely. The bed is very comfortable and the sheets are crisp.  

We had Executive Lounge access along with an Executive Room, which meant we could goto the lounge for snack and drinks throughout the day (including alcoholic drinks from 6-8pm). We started here before heading briefly to check out the view from The Sky Bar which has a bright white balcony stretching the length of it. From there we went to the restaurant downstairs, Schpoons & Forx, for dinner. 

A little about the name, for I thought the same as you are now. WHAT? It is quite sweet really, the restaurant is names after Bertram Bell, a master cutler from the area in times past, who had a speech impediment, and was chosen to speak at the The Cutler’s Feast in 1733. He was nervous, but the audience embraced it, and so the term Schpoons & Forx was coined. Matt Tebutt is at the helm here,  behind the stove but also behind the tandoor. They are doing very good things. 

Hotel restaurants fail when they try to be all things to all people. A restaurant that knows its mind has a much stronger chance of success. That is the case here, the menu is divided between dishes for the table (snacks, really); starters; tandoor, clay oven and chargrill and sides. Desserts follow on their own page later. The sea has a strong presence, we order some fried cockles which were divine, I was so tempted to order a second portion (and I did when I returned the next day, I ordered 2!). Crisp and light with hardly a trace of grease, we had them with the buttery large nocellara olives and some smoked aubergine with flatbread.

For starters, I had the monkfish “scampi”, firm fresh nuggets of monkfish in a light batter, with some gorgeous fried slices of lemon. A fragrant aioli came on the side. My friend had a small portion of mussels, that came in a fragrant fresh bath of riesling, ginger, coriander and lime leaves. For mains we both had the 400g tandoor rib steak, served sliced in tarragon shallot and port butter with watercress and a sturdy pot duck fat chips. The steak was gorgeous, the tandoor delivering an intense crust, but it was tender and rare inside (as I had ordered it). The port butter added a layer of indulgence. I will by trying that at home in BBQ season (of course, now I want a tandoor!). 

Lemon posset was large and tart, with raspberries on top. I was full but it served well to cut through everything that I had eaten before. I battled a little but I couldn’t manage a lot. To drink we had the Portillo Malbec from Salentein, a wine that I have not had since I visited Salentein in Argentina in 2011. Seek it out, it is very good, and well priced. 

We were woken early by breakfast in bed (which I had ordered the night before). Poached eggs, sausages and hash browns. No bacon, as I have eaten SO much of it recently in the final (final!) round of Project Bacon testing. Then to the beach to hire some bicycles, we had a plan for lunch booked before we had ever boarded the train from London. 

We cycled along the beach, hugged by beach huts on one side in varying degrees of gorgeousness. Some bright and cheerful, others concrete with pale enquiring faces made of windows. We boarded the ferry at the Sandbanks crossing, and 2 minutes later continued our journey through the National Nature Reserve that is Studland and Godlington Heath. Furze bushes, soggy marsh, proud rushes. One cow grazing announced by numerous signs.  

After an 8 mile cycle in total, we arrived at the Pig on the Beach, a hotel and restaurant set in a rambling old house with a kitchen garden and garden wood oven. Deck chairs and tables are dotted throughout the garden, overlooking the white cliffs and the sea nearby. The day was absolutely gorgeous, so bright, so blue. We sat at a table outside on the terrace for our Sunday lunch. 

The kitchen garden provides much of the vegetables and salad, the pigs nearby the meat and there are chickens also. Everything that isn’t sourced in house is sourced from within 25 miles. I can never resist crackling, even if I am going to order a pork roast for main course, and so we had that to start with apple sauce. Also house fish fingers which were pleasant, although I would have preferred them with a mayo based sauce.

The pork loin came in slices, which were nice and moist, the yorkshire was large and proud and the potatoes crisp from their roast in beef fat. Mustard sauce came in place of gravy, which worked quite well. House ice cream came for dessert, in 3 flavours (chocolate, mint & thyme) with a pig shaped cracker. We had some lovely Cote du Rhones white throughout. Service was charming and the day cheerful, we didn’t want to leave but we had to get back on our bikes. 

We finished our short trip with drinks at The Library, above the Larderhouse in Southbourne. The Library is the last thing that you would expect in Bournemouth if you listened to those that rehash its old reputation. The Library, complete with taxidermy and quirk wouldn’t be amiss in London. Perhaps that shows the sometimes small mind of the Londoner, there IS life outside the capital after all (I jest but you know what I am saying). The menu is delivered in a bronze tube and is written over a map. We opt for the Peruvian and the Madagascan, both so lovely we immediately order 2 more, the Haiti and the New York. Salvatore was manning the bar, with white jacket and bow tie. I dragged myself from the table to get my train. And I had a couple of portions of fried cockles back at the Hilton when I collected my bag. 

A lovely 28 hours, it felt longer, and just 2 hours from London! Gorgeous. 

What You Need to Know

With thanks to the Hilton Bournemouth who hosted us for dinner and our room. We spent £90 on lunch at the Pig on the Beach with drinks and service. Cocktails at The Library were £10-12. We hired bicycles for £16 each from Front Bike Hire on the beach, and I paid £2 extra for a basket. Our train fare paid in advance was £56 return each. 

Eating and Drinking Map of Bournemouth (for a weekend break)

I mourned the loss of The Dairy deli, where I used to buy their excellent bouncy boules of sourdough bread, bright pickles, bone marrow butter and house smoked trout. I particularly loved the piccalilli. Alas, it is gone, and now in places of shelves, there are bar counters and stools. Where there was a fridge displaying all sorts of goodies and a proud cooked ham sitting on top, there is a large wooden bar from behind which a tight team of cooks deliver a seasonal selection of small plates and one dessert. And it is even better.

The Dairy’s Naughty Little Brother

Counter Culture is a relaxed space for The Dairy to deliver their house cured salamis and ferments and pickles along with vibrant small plates. Billed as The Dairy’s naughty little brother, and located next door, it is a fun space with just 15 seats (and you can book!). George East is at the helm here (overseen by Robin Gill next door), and Coco Crean (previously of Paradise Garage) is front of house. It is characterful and exciting, and a friendly place. The food is very good, and for now, it is BYO. Yes, BYO. So, why are you still sitting there?

Let’s talk about the food. I have been twice, once for the opening and once since with a friend. Prices are excellent, everything is under £10 and like The Dairy, everything looks deceptively simple, but on every dish there are layers of flavour and technique. The menu changes a little from day to day, this is the kind of thing you can expect.

Sour potato flatbread with ‘nduja and cultured cream. The Dairy is deservedly respected for their house bread, enter now the potato bread. A chewy gorgeous slice with small chunks of potato spiced and enriched with Calabrian ‘nduja on the side (that wonderful powerfully spicy spreadable pork sausage) and cultured cream. £4.

Sweet promise mackerel, sour escabeche, salted blood orange (£8). A beautiful dish, just to look at, the bitter treviso a lovely counter to the fresh sweet sour mackerel and the blood oranges cheery, sour and bright. 

Purple artichokes and smoked cod roe (£7.50) – a gorgeous dip approaching taramsalata (and the proper stuff not the bright pink terrifying one in the supermarket), creamy and rich with lovely tart lightly pickled artichokes to drag through it. 

Cellar ferments and pickles (£3.50) – fresh from the Dairy cellar where they have been fizzing and pickling for months, these are excellent. I loved the romanesco particularly.

Crab crackers with Korean spiced brown crab dip (£4). House crab crackers (think prawn crackers but with crab with a lovely rich crab dip and wakame. Lovely.

Bambi dog with sauerkraut and crispy shallots (£8.50) – a divine venison hot dog with piquant sauerkraut and crispy shallots on top. Just what it says really and very good. 

There is no booze on sale but there is BYO (yay!) and there are some alcohol free cocktails like fizzy banana kombucha (£4) and peach and ginger cream soda (£4). BYO has a £4 cover fee. 

My first visit was on the opening night, on my second we ordered almost the whole menu between two of us at and it came to approximately £40 each with BYO corkage and service. I recommend it very highly. You can book online, which I recommend you do, as it tends to be busy.

Happy weekend – get down there.

4/5 

What you need to know

Open Tues – Fri 6pm – 11pm, Sat 3pm – 11pm, closed Sun – Mon

Book online: http://www.countercultureclapham.co.uk/

Map

Menorca in Spring is covered in flowers. Wild joyful ones, carefree and colourful with tall stems and bright petals. So many poppies lining old stone walls, gates made of wild olive wood and bristling against ancient UNESCO world heritage monuments, occasionally a donkey, some cows or some sheep. There are wild orchids too, tiny and discreet. Up to 25 types. I found one hiding on a walk to the seashore.

The Wild Flowers of Menorca

There are over 900 types of wild flowers recorded there. Menorca doesn’t have an Autumn, instead they call it Winter-Spring, in reference to the wild flowers that flourish at that time of year. So, it isn’t inaccurate so to call the honey produced in Menorca thousand flower honey. There are hives dotted throughout the island. Sebastià Pons has 350 dotted along 8 locations on the island. Sebastià is the producer of Miel S’eixam (along with all of those busy bees), a raw honey produced and sold in season.

Visiting Miel S’eixam hives

Down winding Menorcan country roads, through fields rich with flowers and past some curious cows we found some of Sebastià’s hives. It was an overcast day, which was a good thing, as his bees can become agitated in the heat. They are part African bee (he had some genetic analysis done), and they are aggravated by red and black, which were the colours that I was wearing that day. Bad planning but not to worry, I had a full beekeeper outfit, complete with hat, to protect me from any unwarranted bee attention. Although Sebastià was keen to stress that he allows himself to be stung on occasion as he believes it is good for him, citing back pain in particular (and there is scientific evidence that the immune reaction to bee stings can be beneficial for other situations).

I watched the bees fly in and out and could not help but think of those two terms busy bees and mind your own beeswax. I watched them return to their hives with the pollen attached to their legs as tiny perfect cylinders (pollen is bee protein, and is very good for us too). A separate hive had started to form in a nearby bush, which I walked to through wild flowers as tall as me (and that would be 5ft 3!). Sebastià had placed a box nearby for them.

The Benefits of Raw Honey

Raw honey is unpasteurised and so has not been subjected to the heat that can strip honey of its health benefits and breadth of flavour. Local raw honey helps with hay fever too, and it has to be local, as what you are doing when you are eating it, is inoculating yourself with local pollen, and getting your body used to it before the onslaught of the season. It is rich with antioxidants, and minerals like iron, zinc, potassium, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium and selenium. It is vitamin rich, containing B6, thiamin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid and niacin. Raw honey also mops up free radicals and there is evidence that shows it enables significant suppression and prevention of cell damage. We focus too much on the fact that it is sweet and confuse it with processed white sugar. Honey has long been a valuable energy resource for us, and a health food.

Miel S’eixam was not yet available (it sells speedily when in season, and the season has yet to start this year), and raw honey is hard to come by at home but it is available if you look for producers in your area. I get excellent local raw honey at my farmers market in Balham, London of varying types depending on the location of the hives. I buy 3 types: forest, lime and borage (the borage is said to be particularly good for hay fever). They have pollen too, which is dried (and this removes a lot of the properties) but with notice they can get me some frozen pollen which is still very good.

If you are lucky enough to be in Menorca during honey season, make sure to get some. And have it with sobrassada as the locals do.

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A Day in Ciutadella, Menorca: Where to Eat and the Best Caldereta

A Menorcan Food & Wine Producers Trail (Wine, Gin, Sobrasada & Mahón Cheese)

Where to Eat, Drink & Stay in Menorca

A Perfect Sunday Lunch: Caldereta de Langosta in Menorca at Es Cranc (Traditional Lobster Soup + a Recipe)

I travelled to Menorca as part of a project between iAmbassador and Visit Menorca, who sponsored this project.  As always, I have complete editorial control.

Some towns capture the heart and the imagination. Ciutadella is one. Previously the capital of Menorca (but not since 1722), it is the same size as current capital Mahon, both small cities with 30,000 people living in each. The remaining 30,000 Menorquins live in other small towns and rural Menorca. Ciutadella is a small city, cosy and friendly, but its architecture and large square lend it a feeling of a much larger place, and one that you want to get lost in. 

The streets of Ciutadella are gorgeous, winding and narrow. Many shoot off the large impressive main square, the Placa d’es Born, which overlooks the harbour below. The narrow streets are lined with Moorish, Gothic and Medieval architecture. Window balconies jut out above, reminding me of sleepy Andalucia. It is all very lovely, and glorious on a sunny day. 

Coffee in Bar Imperi, Ciutadella

We started our day in a lovely little cafe in the corner, Bar Imperi. I was meeting Antonio, secretary of the Fra Roger Gastronomy & Cultural Society (Fra Roger Gastronomia y Cultura) and a Ciutadella native. Fra Roger wrote the first Menorcan cookbook and is a very important figure in Menorcan gastronomy. He was a Francisan friar and likely learned to cook in the friary. He wrote down all he learned in his book Art de la Cuina (The Art of Cooking) which was published in the 18th century. 

Bar Imperi is a local institution and it is clear from the first few minutes that Antonio knows everyone there. Here you can have local pastries and snacks, coffees and alcoholic drinks. There is an open courtyard to the back as is common in buildings like this in this area. Over coffee and sobrassada sandwiches we spoke of Fra Roger and his recipes. He wrote 200 including dishes like lobster meatballs and there are many references to the original mayonnaise, alioli. Menorquins claim mayonnaise as a Menorcan dish, discovered by the French during their occupation of Menorca (and called after its place of origin, Mahon). 

Seafood lunch at S’Amarador overlooking Ciutadella harbour

Lunch had to be seafood, and we headed to one of the best restaurants in Ciutadella, S’Amarador. It was packed on a Monday lunchtime, on the terrace overlooking the harbour, in the courtyard where we sat, and throughout. We had a seafood platter to start with john dory (sublime!), grouper, cuttlefish red prawns and scorpion fish.

To follow we ordered the local speciality Caldereta (invented since Fra Roger’s time and in Menorcan cuisine for 100 years or so). A local spiny lobster soup, this version was rich and had a beautiful deep rust red lobster broth with lots of lobster in, and crisp thin toast to dip in and soak it all up. As good as last years was this was divine and I was full, but the magnetic broth kept pulling me back. For dessert I had to have the local ensaimada, a glorious snail shaped lard pastry dusted with icing sugar, and served with cinnamon ice cream this time. 

Finish the day with a Pomada, Menorca’s favourite gin drink

My third recommendation is the same as my first, but you will thank me for it. Start your day at Bar Imperi with a coffee, and finish it there with a pomada. A pomada is the local drink, a gin cocktail made with Menorcan Xoriguer gin and lemonade (or lemon fanta). Sometimes, lemon, or homemade lemonade.

Here I learned a neat trick, maybe two. First, you can order small cocktails, just to start your evening, a perfect primer, and not so much that it will make you sleep. Second, as I witnessed the barman repeatedly smash a bottle of fanta off the side of the counter, I realised that they had frozen the whole thing, and then gave it a good beating to create crushed ice. My pomada was like a pomada slushie, and it was so good in the heat.

I will return to Ciutadella, I have a list of restaurants to check out and I loved the relaxed friendly vibe there. I think it will be a perfect place to chill out once my book is done (and it nearly is!).

What You Need to Know

Bar Imperi, Placa des Born 5,Ciutadella de Menorca

S’Amarador, Carrer de Pere Capllonch, Ciutadella de Menorca

Map

Follow me on instagram! (@eatlikeagirl)

To see more recipes and to see them first come follow me on snapchat! I share video recipes from my kitchen, almost daily, along with my other London and travel based food adventures too. Add eatlikeagirl on snapchat using this link: http://www.snapchat.com/add/eatlikeagirl
 

I travelled to Menorca as part of a project between iAmbassador and Visit Menorca, who sponsored this project.  As always, I have complete editorial control. With particular thanks to Antonio and the Fra Roger Gastronomic and Cultural Society and Menorca Guides for their help on this wonderful day in Ciutadella.

Related Posts: 

A Menorcan Food & Wine Producers Trail (Wine, Gin, Sobrasada & Mahón Cheese)

Where to Eat, Drink & Stay in Menorca

A Perfect Sunday Lunch: Caldereta de Langosta in Menorca at Es Cranc (Traditional Lobster Soup + a Recipe)