Been too busy eating chickpeas…

Two years ago (almost to the day, spooky) I abandoned this little blog. I didn’t mean to, no reason why – too busy eating chickpeas I guess…

I’m back though, and have left the over saturated food blog land of Cambridge, where I chose to focus more on Flavour and impart my food love that way (check it out, the team are still doing great work!) and moved to the even more over saturated food blog land of BARCELONA. I told you I’d come for a visit and just not come back one day…okay it wasn’t that romantic or simple, there was a lot of planning involved but lets stick the the romantic vision of a holiday gone permanent eh?

I’ve already increased my waistline from too much damn good eating, so lets give that some purpose. Adventures to come!

Chickpeas are clearly an obsession, also THE FUTURE

At the risk of definitively becoming The Chickpea Girl, and this blog becoming The Chickpea Blog – I’m starting a little project, chickpea recipes around the world.

I was chatting with my mother recently and she thought it would be a good idea to start a project on 100 chickpea recipes (because I’m always complaining on how I need a little more direction/structure with this/always eating chickpeas) and then I thought, why not try mixing it with the travel aspect of my blog? SO, I’m starting this feature next week – any ideas or recipes I should be checking out?

Also, I’m headed to Paris for 36 hours end of this month, WHERE CAN I FIND CHICKPEAS? Or any other suggestions on what to do in 36 hours (+ or – chickpea consumption) would be mucho appreciated.

cambridge pt1: the pint shop

So I’ve been awful again and have failed to do this once a week. I’ve been busy eating and documenting SO it’s okay, all in the name of research! Anyway, I’m back with many food stories to tell.

There’s no better time to be in Cambridge than now I think. Seriously guys, it’s great – hard on the wallet and the waistline, but never more exciting for the food oriented (or foodies if you will, but I hatehatehate that word, more on that another day.) I don’t even care about my dwindling overdraft or the fact that I needed to buy new jeans in a bigger size (that’s how self actualised I’ve become) because what matters is that my tummy is full of deliciousness….but I’m totally going for a run after I write this.

There are SO MANY things to talk about re: the Cambridge food revolution so will continue this little tangent over the next few weeks. Today I choose the Pint Shop. Mostly because I have some sweet pictures, I went there the other day and am dying for one of their sexy scotch eggs. No lie, they are sexy as hell.

Tell me this isn’t sexy.

The Pint Shop opened last November and never have we been so excited – when we covered it on Flavour it definitely stirred up some emotions and much excitement in the studio.

I’m there often enough, with some big love for the beautiful board of beers (seriously, BIG LOVE. It may be my most favourite blackboard, ever.) but I think what’s best is the service and knowledge of the staff –  everyone behind that bar knows what they’re on about (and enthusiastic about it!) and that’s just a rare gem. A friend and I went somewhere else and asked  about the beers and were met with a despondent shrug – which you know, whatever, that’s fine I guess, but if you’re gonna have a bar full of unique and interesting beers… dudes, know your shit yeah? They also have whiskeys and some excellent gin, one made especially by the Cambridge Gin Company. If that doesn’t say legit drinking establishment, I really don’t know what does.

Not only does this place have some sexy beers, it has sexy food. Those scotch eggs you see (and above, AND the featured image…why yes, in case there was any doubt, I DID love the scotch eggs) are pretty amazing. But this little bar of snackage is not all they have available. The Pint Shop is a proper restaurant too. Up the stairs you can get some serious cooking, but I have yet to actually go (because I’m a poor food blogger you see…also, quite happy with just some beer and a scotch egg, I’m cheap date.) However, I have heard nothing but good things – I sent my parents on their anniversary dinner there and they came back pretty content and with zero complaints. Which let me tell you, is as rare as a unicorn, they will always find a bone to pick if it’s a recommendation from me. One bad movie recommendation many moons ago has ruined my stamp of approval forever it seems. So head over to their site to see what they have on. Their motto after all is MEAT. BREAD. BEER. three of the most beautiful words in the English language. To top off all of this amazing food and beer situation, it’s a beautiful space – simple and rustic but not rustic in the undone “we forgot to sand this, but it’s okay it’s rustic” kind of way but the understated let’s not overdo this way. SO GO. Eat some food, drink some beers, tell me all about it. My goal is to try as many as I can, so I’ll probably see you in there.

& more chickpeas please

My obsession with chickpeas is truly endless. Will I ever tire of them? Probably not. They’re perfect.

Here’s a beautiful little salad from Green Kitchen Stories that I tweaked to my own liking, perfecto for a little lunch or dinner. I present to you the Chickpea Za’atar salad:

We mentioned Zatar in this episode of Flavour and I can’t get enough of it, seriously lifted the aubergine and made what really could have been a boring salad into something summery and exotic. I also have a deep love of aubergines (something I’ll come back to in the next few weeks – have been craving an eggplant parmiggiana sandwich for moons…I tried wording that with aubergine, I swear but this is the one time eggplant works better, I swear.) so trying it with a new spice was exciting and wonderful. Kind of like when you start dating again after being in a boring relationship and a whole new world is introduced.

So, you will need:

Two beautiful aubergines

Za’atar (the green) and Sumac (the red)

Roasted red peppers (yes, this time I used a jar mostly because I love the oil they use in this for a dressing BUT roasting them and using THOSE oils is wonderful too.)

Feta – or any other soft goats cheese, I just love the sharpness of feta and it’s my personal favourite cheese.

Prepped and ready chickpeas (this includes canned because they are as prepped and ready for 80p as you can get) however feel free to click the picture below to see how to do it from scratch.

Dice the aubergines and coat liberally in olive oil and the spices and then whack into the oven for about 40 minutes or until they look browned and beautiful.

Then of course, once that’s done it’s off to just whack it all into a bowl together, top off with the feta and some greenery, usually parsley, but I used spinach (because I had a craving) and happy days! The original recipe calls for tomatoes, but I didn’t have any so used the roasted red peppers HOWEVER I tried it the next day with both the peppers and some tomatoes and it was pretty sexy, so would also recommend that, but if you’re Gwyneth Paltrow and have decided tomatoes are bad for you (say WHAT?!) then this is just right.

Happy eating!

samovar tea house

Once upon a time I thought Ely was terribly boring and there was nothing interesting about it. When my family first moved here, I was still living in London, so to me – ever the city girl – Ely was entirely too small (even though it’s really not.) But much like Cambridge, there’s been a change in the air. It’s no longer just families and old people about but younger folk are trickling in, bought out by Cambridge’s rising prices in rent/buying.

That can only mean one thing, fun things are on their way.

There’s of course long standing places to go such as the Peakcocks tea rooms, the river, an excellent antiques emporium (aka, Ruth’s favourite place on earth), the cathedral amongst many other things, but I always felt it was a bit lacking in places for the younger folk that were not still in school (i.e 20-30 somethings like myself). In the past year or two though, we welcomed a beautiful new boutique hotel, a new food and drink festival that happened this weekend past, a pop up deli/feast and my favourite tea house ever, Samovar Tea House and gallery.

Down the hill past the high street and market area where there used to be a bead shop (who needs a bead shop?) is the sweetest tea house in all the land. Boasting loads of teas, many of which are unique to Samovar – lovely specialty blends, cakes (some gluten free for those inclined) and breads it’s a beautiful little mecca with a gallery that is rarely the same when I go in.

It’s everything I ever really want in a cafe  – tonnes and tonnes of great and different teas so you’re never bored, books, comfy couches and a really chilled out vibe, it almost doesn’t feel like you’re in England. They hold little events, a sci-fi book club (uh, yeah, AWESOME) you can buy the art on the walls, but I think most importantly, they know their shit. Speaking to Marta, one of the co-owners, everything about the teas is just in her head and she’s more than happy to help with explaining anything. It’s important that they love tea the way they do, because then this small, beautiful, gem of a place wouldn’t be so perfect. When I was last there, I had a chance to try the Moroccan Chai, specially blended for EAT Cambridge – a mix of green tea, Samovar Chai blend, Moroccan mint and cinnamon – resulting in a wonderful and delicately spiced tea. You get a full pot plus some extra water on the side to top it up which essentially means you can have at least four cups of tea (if not more) and each is different due to teas brewing process (also, you can sit there for ages with a good book and not even worry the whole time about making sure you drink your tea super slowly.) None of this standard bag, milk, mug, done. situation – tea is an art, and Samovar is Van Gogh.

I chatted with Marta form Samovar for my radio show, Flavour which you can listen to the episode by clicking the picture below:

toast + avocado = beautiful

I’m trying super hard to be healthier but the trying is not in what to eat – I actually love healthy food, all the veggies and fruits and oats and all those things – LOVE THEM. However, it’s the NOT eating of things that I find really difficult. There are some brownies on the kitchen counter right now calling my name and it’s taking everything I’ve got not to eat them. SO, I’m going to talk about my favourite healthy lunches in an attempt to distract myself from chocolatey fudgey caramely goodness in the kitchen.

Avocado toast. My favourite things – bread and avocados, together as one. They are just so perfect, and together nothing short of awesome. Designer toasts seem to be a thing lately too, I’ve seen avocado toast in various cafes around town for upwards of £5 which is ridiculous (…although I am totally guilty of buying some, on several occasions because I love it that much) amongst other fancy toasts like banana, peanut butter and and honey or strawberry and nutella and other such nice toast related combinations. But the best is avocado, it’s great for lunch, dinner or a very large snack (seriously, it’s surprisingly filling.) It’s delicious, creamy AND it’s good for you filled with all sorts of healthy fats, fibre, vitamins and other such health related things.

Listen, I know it’s super easy to make toast and this isn’t really a recipe, but I thought I’d share one of my favourite things to eat. I love making mine from a big fat grande mange baguette (sometimes I make it, sometimes I don’t, I won’t lie this time it was bought from the bakery up the road, more on bread another day maybe) sprinkle a bit of olive oil on it and whack it on the pan to toast up. WAY better than the toaster, especially if this is for lunch or dinner.

What makes this really sing is adding some nice spices to it – my favourite is dukkah (pictured in pot) a middle eastern blend of spices and roasted chickpeas in this one but of course, like many things, there are plenty of variations. I imagine sumac would be super on this as well!

I’ve made this many ways, not just with tomato but always with avocado, in fact yesterday, I had just this but with tuna and roasted pepper and it was seriously sexy. So use your imagination, this is nothing more than some lunchtime suggestion and clearly is open to all sorts of combinations, I mean it’s toast after all, you can do anything with toast (isn’t that just great?! Toast is so good.) Happy eating homies!

Ch-ch-chickpeas

Today I decided to make some crispy chickpeas, a favourite snack AND it’s healthy (a rarity for me snack wise…or in general). They’re nice and versatile and you can flavour them any which way you damn well please, which is fun. They even beat crisps. Sometimes.

I’m boring (or classic?) though and just went with a chilli/garlic/salt combo. You can use the canned – it’s faster and less time consuming, but I prefer to have the dried ones just because I feel they taste a bit nicer and weirdly, I like the process of it.

Soak overnight

Rinse, boil for an hour and then (you can skip the first two with canned!) layout on the pan – put on chosen spices, olive oil and salt.

Whack it in the oven on 120 for about 45 mins until nice and browned (I like mine properly charred, but as with most things, it’s up to taste – the important thing is that they get CRUNCHY. AND SEXY. If you use the nice golden ones a guide that’s the ideal colour for optimum crunch, any less and it’ll be too soft.

Munch away homies!

In which I wax lyrical once more about Barcelona

I’m a little bit in love/obsessed with Barcelona. I keep going back and I keep needing to go back. Thankfully, I do have friends there making it way too easy to go back on a whim or maybe it’s simply the pull of the blue and orange tones of that beaut of a city that is just too much. Or maybe it’s the way of life? Beach, food, music and friends, how can anyone say no?

I will move there, soon enough I’ll go there for a weekend and just decide to stay – it’s not unheard of…

ANYWAYS.

I was naughty…I didn’t take as many pictures of food as I had intended. In fact, I only really took a picture of one of my meals…it was damn good too. I think for the most part it was a sudden onset of shyness in being in such local places, and also in large part to a deep impatience to eat what’s in front of me. You know…don’t let your food get cold and all…important stuff.

Since there are not many pictures of food, I’ll just have to describe it because guys, you need to go. And you need to eat.

DO IT.

EL MUNDIAL

El Mundial for proper tapas and Catalan feel – it was my favourite of the trip too, I had aubregine chips with honey and they were just heaven in my mouth, along with some grilled clams in a white wine sauce type thing where the juices were just so good and thank god for bread to soak up! It was just super, I ate there three times in a week. Also get the pimentos de padron – they are lovely and salty and wonderful – you can get this anywhere and even do them at home (we found some in Waitrose – from Spain and it’s a a favourite snack in Casa Reyes) but it’s worth ordering, along with some chipirones – crunchy squid bits. Don’t be intimidated by the tentacles. DO IT. Its a narrow place with a long bar and marble tables to the side and genuinely just looks old school, reminded me of the kind of places my family used to drag me to as a kid. Quite frankly the opening hours are seemingly sporadic, I walked by it daily (often a few times a day since my friend lives next door) and sometimes it was open, and sometimes it was not, but maybe it was me who was sporadically walking by.

Plaza Sant Agusti Vell, 1, 08003 Barcelona, Spain

MOSQUITO

Not spanish tapas BUT still a great place is Mosquito which does “exotic tapas” so dumplings and other delicious asian food like Pho and crispy friend duck amongst other things. The beautiful dumplings and amazing crispy duck breast with plum sauce were my favourite. So much so that I’m thinking about it right now and I actually physically miss it. If you do go, get the duck – it’s the 2nd option that’s 7.60 because they don’t specify it just says duck 1 and duck 2 (or if you get the catalan menu like my friend and I did and had to decipher what the hell was what -we learned that duck is Anec, so get the anec) Below is the menu in Catalan: feel free to just order the same, it was sexy.

Also get the coconut tapioca for dessert, it was grand. There’s a great array of craft beer as well which is so nice to see – craft beer revolution is world wide, HOORAY. There’s always a queue as well but it goes quickly and its vastly worth it. Seriously. GO.

Carrer dels Carders, 46, 08003 Barcelona, Spain

ESPAI MESCLADIS

Espai Mescladis is lovely for lunch – I had a great lentil soup and a chicken empanada and some artesian beer but what’s best is the actual space, it’s mostly inside a courtyard and good atmosphere – takes ages to order though so don’t go hungry. My lunch didn’t photograph well and I was pretty hungry, so again, apologies for lack of food pictures. However, the food is not the only attraction – it’s just such a lovely space worthy of just a glass of artesian cola or a coffee and a good book (I sat there for hours, but I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves).

Carrer dels Carders, 35, 08003 Barcelona, Spain

LA CANDELA
La Candela was also very lovely for a sit down dinner or lunch, I had a great white bean and tuna thing but their menu changes daily – they have a cute little narrow place but also some tables outside and the staff are pretty nice. I took my laptop there to work a few days and it became a firm favourite .
Placa de Sant Pere, 12, 08003 Barcelona, Spain

LA XANPANERIYA

I’ve already told you about this. But to reiterate.

GO THERE, EAT THINGS & DRINK CAVA.
Carrer de la Reina Cristina

A little photo diary from the rest of my trip…because Barcelona is beautiful and I can’t get enough of it.

#4

This was a strange one – it started off in the middle of a jungle river and it was just raging. I was on a door raft thing and next to me were these two baby tigers just swimming along merrily. Suddenly, one of the tigers leapt onto my raft and started to cuddle, turning into my little sister but then she fell into the river and luckily, I caught her so we struggled along the river holding tight to each other trying to get her back on board. But then, slowly, the river began to calm until we were out of the jungle and approaching a town and the river was the main street. We approached a bright blue door and entered, and it was my great aunts house and my whole family were there and preparing food. It was warm, inviting and like the jungle river struggle never happened – even though just seconds ago, I was feeling helpless against the river, overwhelmingly afraid that I was going to let go of my sister, and an intense need, that filled my whole dream self, to become a boat and be as strong as I can be. We started to sit and read while the others cooked and I walked into the beautiful, big kitchen (something I blatantly saw on Pinterest before falling asleep) started to merrily chop away vegetables looking out into the jungle garden that was filled with light. Then, my grandmother made a disparaging remark about my weight as I sneakily grabbed a chip. Naturally, that’s when I woke up.

#3

Predictably, I had dreams of Oscar night. I mean, no surprise there – I fell asleep, phone in hand, scrolling through my Twitter feed which was just laden with Oscar related posts.

SO, it was a pretty awesome dream this one – I don’t remember seeing anything about pizza before falling asleep but I must have looked at my phone when I woke up in the middle of the night because otherwise it means I am psychic.

Everyone was dressed in pizza. Like normal, gorgeous gowns you see on the red carpet but made out of pizza.

I was there sat next to my BFF Kevin Spacey and my other BFF Jennifer Lawrence (we did a super movie together obvs) and we were just giggling at Billy Crystal making many jokes and rating everyone’s outfit out of ten and had to eat a bite out of everyone’s dress. Julia Roberts’ pepperoni and mushroom number one best dressed.

Then I woke up. Seriously craving a pepperoni pizza.