Foodie Things: Costa, Evian, Farfetch, Sugar Dumplin
Wednesday, 13 April 2016
Evian Fruits &Plants Launch
Evian have just launched three new flavoured waters - in the cutest little bottles - which combine their natural mineral water from the alps with unique pairing of fruits & delicate botanicals. The three flavours are lemon & elderflower, grape & rose and raspberry & verbena.
I was invited along to Liberty for a little launch night event which was really lovely! I arrived to a room filled with beautiful flowers. After a little introduction to the new flavours, we got to try them all - My favourite of the three was the red one, raspberry & Verbena.
although, I'd never pass up anything elderflower flavoured!
We had a masterclass from Libertys florists on how to create the perfect bunch. But there were so many beautiful, good quality flowers that I grabbed all of my favourites and that was my bunch sorted, none of that greenery, filler stuff! They might not have been perfect but I love them. What do you think?
Truffle making with Farfetch
Farfetch invited 11 bloggers to their Old Street HQ (which is pretty snazzy might I add) for a chocolatey evening just in time for Easter. We started with chocolate martinis before sitting down to hear all about how chocolate is made and where it comes from.
Next up we tried some different dark chocolates and were really able to see the difference usually I love cheap chocolate but cheap dark chocolate really isnt very nice at all! We tried good quality, not so good quality and a few flavours - I nearly died with the chili one, I knew it would be spicy but I want expecting it to be that bad! Rose wasn't much better and although it didn't leave me gasping for water, it did taste a bit like soap. There was one that I liked though and that was sea salt, it just adds a whole other depth to the flavour and I loved the texture of it as well!
Soon enough it was time to get suck in I seemed to be the only one who couldn't control themselves and probably ate just as much as I made. It was delicious. We piped chocolate truffles, rolled them and coated them with cocoa powder, sprinkles and raspberry sugar all whilst sipping on never ending choctails and chatting away about our lives away from blogging. It as such a lovely friendly event and a great chance to have some fun and do something different!
Hot Food At Costa Fresco
A
couple of weeks ago, I went for lunch with the Costa girls to try the
new hot dishes at Costa. These wont be at every branch, at the moment
its just their Fresco branch on Tottenham Court Road which luckily for
me, is the same road I work on! They brought us one each of everything
so lets just say I certainly wasn't hungry for the remainder of the day
(week.) Starting from 4th March, there will be three pies, all hot and
ready to eat and two new puddings available. Initial thoughts? The
ultimate working, cold, rainy day, comfort food - so perfectly
positioned in London.
Lets
start with the pies! The lasagna was packed full of slow cooked beef
and pork, (the traditional Italian way apparently) and it was super rich
- I think that one is more of an evening one as it was definitely the
heaviest and most filling for the three, but that's cool, the new store
is open until 8pm currently.
Next
was the mac n cheese, gotta appreciate the amount of gooey, cheesey
sauce that you get! It was thick and creamy and topped with panchetta
and huge croutons. I loved all the burnt crispy
bits around the end.
But
what you may not know about me is that fish pie is my actual favorite
meal. Pub lunch? I will always shun a Sunday roast in favour of a fish
pie and Costa's was stuffed full of big chunks of cod, haddock and
salmon in a delicious parsley sauce. Added to the decadence was the
fluffy mashed potato and sprinkling of cheese and breadcrumbs on top.
It was absolutely delicious and for under 500 calories, that really
isn't bad for such a lovely lunch.
I
was pretty full but of course there was still dessert to be had. Sticky toffee and sticky chocolate puddings! I went straight
in for the chocolate but they were both light, moist and
delicious! Hot and steamy and more than enough sauce which is usually a
problem for me when it comes to puddings, there's never enough. Plus
they serve it with a little pot of cream, how cute?!
A couple of weeks ago, I got an invite for an event just outside of London, in Camberly! I was invited along to Sugar Dumplin to try out of of their Jamaican food and luckily for me, they had put on a party bus to take us there! We all met at London bridge and bundled in, turned up the reggae, got the rum out and we were on our way!
It was a fun little evening! The place was super cute with little cut off areas around the restaurant complete with tin roofs. We started off with a go on the steel pans (dont they just remind you of being on holiday?) followed by some flaming cocktails to get the evening started!
I have never eaten Jamaican before so I was pretty excited to try them all! Luckily, I had Juanita with me and she seemed to know what everything was when all these strange delicacies started arriving at the table. Everything from plantain, salt cod fish cakes, curry Goat, guyanese curry and of course, not forgetting the things I did know about - rice and peas and jerk chicken! I was worried that it might have been a bit spicy for me but it wasnt a problem, there were a fit spicy bits but they were easily avoidable without have to miss out!
The night ended with some more cocktails and a very long journey home!
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