Restaurant review: Wagamama

Restaurant name: Wagamama

Location: Mansion House, London

Description: Casual Japanese-style dining. You sit on long benches - often sharing tables with strangers - and have a paper placemat on which the waiter scribbles the number of your order. Dishes range from huge bowls of soup and noodles to salads and bento boxes; there's also a nice range of fresh juices to drink.

Reason for visit: Lunch with work colleagues when our manager came over from America - he likes this kind of food and it was a chain he had never been to before. It's also quite cheap and quick.

I ate: Chicken katsu curry - chicken goujons in breadcrumbs with a spicy curry sauce and a mound of rice, £9.50. I had a very nice fresh juice with it from the seasonal menu that was printed on my paper placemat.

My companions ate: Kare lomen - ramen noodles with chicken - £10.25 and wagamama pad thai with chicken and prawns, £9.75.



The food was: Very good; Wagamama is a successful and popular chain and with good reason. The portions are large and filling but this never seems like 'heavy' food. My only complaint is that I find it impossible to eat any of the soup-based noodle dishes (which are full of broth) without sloshing it all down myself, which is why I often tend to stick to things like the chicken katsu curry!

The atmosphere/service was: Very low key and casual, and the service is fast. They let you know that they will bring dishes when they are ready - so you have side dishes rather than starters - but it meant that most of our group had finished their main courses before one of our friends received hers. We pointed that out to the waiter who apologised, but there was no reason given for the delay to her meal, which was the same kind of food that everyone else was eating. I also noticed when we left that there was quite a queue outside, but a lot of empty seats inside, which I didn't understand.

Price range/value for money: It seemed a little more expensive than I remember, but I hadn't been to a Wagamama for years and I expect prices are lower outside of central London. Even so, the portions are large and the prices are good value. Green tea is free of charge which makes a nice change from water and can keep the cost of a meal very low.

Would I recommend it? Yes, it's a good place for lunch or a quick dinner, with plenty of healthy options and it's not very expensive.

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Atelier des Chefs - Cook, Eat and Run

I enjoy cookery lessons and had a great time when I went to the Atelier des Chefs near St Paul's for my boyfriend's birthday; we had a private lesson making burgers and potato wedges. I worked near to the venue so when I knew I was leaving my job back in February, I decided to go there one last time. As well as 60 and 90 minute evening courses, they run a lunchtime session called "cook, eat and run". The idea is that you spend thirty minutes learning to prepare a dish, then you can either sit down and eat it or take it back to the office with you - so the whole thing fits neatly into a lunchbreak (as long as you work nearby!). Best of all, the whole thing - the lesson, and the meal that you get to eat - only costs £15.



The classes each focus on cooking one dish, so I had a look at the calendar and chose a date that suited me but also a meal that I liked the sound of. I chose a French dish of chicken with tarragon and creme fraiche.



When I arrived, there was only one other person there and we were waiting for one more. While we were waiting, the chef asked if we fancied making a chocolate brownie dessert, so of course we said yes! He had some melted chocolate and we whipped it up with the other ingredients and he poured the mixture into a tin which went into the oven, and that was that.

When the third person had arrived, we started the lesson. We each had a space on the workstation with bowls of ingredients, including mushrooms and fresh tarragon. The mushrooms had to be washed and sliced, the tarragon chopped and some onion chopped as well.

We tossed the chicken pieces in some oil - these big tongs were a particularly good tool for the job and I bought myself some similar ones afterwards.

The chicken is then griddled at a high temperature until it is cooked

We had some sliced potatoes which had been parboiled; these were added to a large frying pan along with the chicken, the onion, the creme fraiche and finally the tarragon.

It was a simple recipe but really very tasty. We served our own portions and sat down to eat.

The chef then took the chocolate brownies out of the oven, which he had made in a muffin tin. The brownies were chewy on the outside and almost runny on the inside - more like a chocolate fondant than a brownie. Absolutely delicious!

We were charged extra for the drinks we had with the meal and I didn't realise we were also going to be charged for the dessert as well; I thought we had been allowed to make it as a bonus to kill time while we were waiting for someone to turn up. On the other hand I didn't really mind paying a few pounds for such a delicious dessert! The class is extremely good value, at only £15 for the lesson and the food - you would pay at least that for the food alone in a pub or cafe as it was really good quality. I no longer work so close to the Atelier des Chefs location but I'm really not that far away so I hope to go again at some point. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a cookery course in London.

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Restaurant Review - The Ramblers Rest, Coulsdon

Restaurant name: The Ramblers Rest

Location: Coulsdon, Surrey

Description: Traditional pub with roaring fire and excellent restaurant area

Reason for visit: I've been here many times with my boyfriend and his family, and we went recently for dinner with my parents and his mum when my folks came to visit. It's not far from where I live, and on this particular occasion there was an England rugby match and I wanted a pub that wouldn't be showing the game!

I ate: Ale battered haddock, frites, minted pea purée & homemade tartare sauce £11.95

My companions ate: Three of us (the ladies) had the fish and chips, while my dad and my boyfriend had the West Country beef burger, £11.95 (other toppings extra).

The food was: The fish and chips was lovely - pretty much what you would expect. I liked that the chips were chunky (rather than fries)and served in little metal buckets. The burgers were pronounced good; the toppings you can choose from include cheese and bacon but also lobster tail! I may have to try that in a burger next time...

The atmosphere/service was: Good, the restaurant was quite busy and we did have to wait a little while but overall I like the atmosphere here, it's a sort of upmarket yet laid back country pub.

Price range/value for money: A little on the pricey end, particularly if you have cheese and bacon in your burger as that comes to £13.45, but the portions are large and the food is good.

Would I recommend it? Yes, I've been here quite a few times and really like it.

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Forever Friends Gardener's Birthday Card

I haven't had time to do any card making for ages - getting on for a year I think! Since I had some time off between jobs I decided I would definitely make some time for this hobby. I made quite a few cards; some of them were pretty simple and quick such as this one.



I took a square white card blank and covered it with a piece of paper from a pack aimed at men - it included football print papers for instance but also some more generic patterns like this one. I had a pack of Forever Friends stickers on a gardening theme so I arranged some of these on the card, along with a few flower stickers from another pack as I felt it needed something to contrast. The banner is a die cut card that I bought in a pack of card making supplies from Ebay a long time ago, with a silver happy birthday outline sticker.

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Meal Planning 2014 - Week 9

I'm starting my new job this week and don't know exactly what time I will be home in the evenings, but I know it will be later than in my last job and probably later than my boyfriend most days (though I will still be the one cooking dinner!). So I need some quick and easy recipes this week while I figure out my new routine.



Monday

Breakfast yogurt


Lunch will buy something out to explore the area near my new office


Dinner pork ragu with pasta




Tuesday

Breakfast yogurt or cereal


Lunch leftover pork ragu if there is a microwave in my new office, sandwich if not


Dinner out



Wednesday

Breakfast yogurt or cereal


Lunch sandwich


Dinner Fish in breadcrumbs/ chicken in breadcrumbs and chips



Thursday

Breakfast yogurt or cereal


Lunch sandwich


Dinner salmon and hollandaise sauce



Friday

Breakfast yogurt or cereal


Lunch sandwich


Dinner sausage and mash




Saturday

Breakfast yogurt or cereal


Lunch baked potatoes


Dinner homemade lasagne



Sunday

Breakfast yogurt or cereal


Lunch soup with fresh bread


Dinner roast chicken

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Valentine's card for my boyfriend

This is the Valentine's card I made for my boyfriend last year - I just realised I never actually posted it on my blog!

I took a square card blank and covered it with a red lovebird-patterned paper. I cut out a cardboard square from the same pack (which came with a cardmaking magazine) of two birds in cages and used a silver outline sticker around the edge. I mounted the square onto the card and added a 'For my Valentine' outline sticker - you can only just see it in this photo as it's red, but you can see it better on the actual card.

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Chicken Provencale in a Heart-Shaped Le Creuset Dish

This is a great recipe to make for Valentine's day and it looks even better in a Le Creuset heart-shaped dish!

The recipe is adapted from one in a free calendar that came with Slimming World magazine at the end of last year. I bought this casserole dish from the Le Creuset shop at Bicester Village, the designer outlet shopping village, when I went in January. I came home with quite a few shopping bags that day! I'd had my eye on this casserole for a while and when I saw it was reduced from £45 to £27, I couldn't resist. Now all I need to do is find space for it in my kitchen cupboard....

For this Provencale chicken casserole, to serve two you need:

2 chicken legs (here I've actually used one leg and two small breast portions)

400g tin tomatoes

1 courgette, thinly sliced - though as neither of us likes courgette, I pureed it so I could stir it in without it being noticed

1/2 red onion, sliced

1/2 red pepper, diced

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 tsp dried herbes de Provence

salt, pepper

2 tbsp tomato puree

100ml chicken stock



Preheat oven to 180C. Spray a frying pan with Fry Light, season the chicken and fry the chicken for a couple of minutes on each side. Then transfer to the casserole dish.

Scatter the pepper, courgette and onions over the chicken.

Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, chicken stock and garlic. Sprinkle the herbes de Provence over the top.

Put the lid on the casserole dish and bake in the oven for about an hour until the chicken is cooked.

The cooked dish....

Serve with a few spoonfuls of the liquid and the slow-cooked vegetables on top. And if your other half really loves you, they will do the washing up!

I'm sending this to Cooking with Herbs, hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage; she has a dual theme this month of Chinese new year and romantic recipes for Valentine's day.

I'm also sharing this with Four Seasons Food, hosted by Anneli at Delicieux and Louisa at Eat Your Veg. The theme this month is "food from the heart".

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