food

The Blues kitchen Shoreditch.

Last night Zac and I went to The Blues kitchen in Shoreditch for date night. It’s a gorgeous quirky bar and restaurant that serves American style BBQ and grilled food with live Blues music and a great range of cocktails and drinks. We booked a table for 7:30pm and were met with a bustling atmosphere and lovely people. The food was delicious; we had the Deluxe BBQ Sharer for 2 which came with the best rib of beef I have ever tasted!! The place had such a good vibe – it was decked out in a rustic industrial hipster est style with chesterfield sofas and tiled ceilings. I would highly recommend it to anyone after some good food in Shoreditch.

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The food was a competitive price for the amount you got and for the Shoreditch area. Cocktails cost around £9 each so a little pricey but for a one off occasion it is a lovely place to go. The frozen margaritas were amazing; frozen tequila, raspberry, grapefruit and lime juice -I could have drunk them all night.

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A perfect place to go for meat lovers and cocktail drinkers.

Bream on the Barbie.

It’s been an absolutely glorious weekend here in London. When the weather is this nice what can you do but buy three crates of beer and whip out the BBQ. We invited some friends round yesterday and had the classic barbie: sausages, burgers, chicken and everything meaty and macho washed down with plenty of bottles of Bud. The food and company was perfect, that and the sun made it such a lovely Saturday in the garden.

bbqWe brought the cutest little BBQ from ASDA the other day- just in time for the lovely weather. It was only £10! and I 100% recommend it to anyone after a small and easy portable BBQ. It comes in a few different colours, we chose this little red number.It’s the classic round style with a lid on a small stand its perfect for anyone with a small outdoor space, for us it works particularly well in our split level garden.

Today with bellies still full after one too many burgers we decided to do a lighter, fresher BBQ. We whipped ourselves up some chili king prawns to start followed by Sea Bream stuffed with lemon and garlic butter rubbed in chili oil, served with grilled pak choi and tomatoes -Oh my god it was the most delicious thing I have every tasted and so proud we cooked it ourselves. I know some people are funny about fish especially if it still has a head but there is nothing to be scared of when it comes to cooking a whole fish. It’s moist and so so simply to cook.

Bream

Sea Bream is a delicious choice, at approximately £1.80 per fish its pretty cheap and a perfect substitute for the usual chicken and beef on the BBQ. Simply season and stuff with lemon butter and garlic and then grill over hot coals for 5-7 mins on each side until the skin is crispy and the flesh cooked through, rubbing butter on the inside will ensure for perfectly succulent flesh and a melt in the mouth butteriness. You can serve fish with so many things but here we went for a Thai feel and grilled sliced Pak Choi with cherry tomatoes- but you could easily have rice, salad or Mediterranean vegetables.

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It was absolutely delicious. We sat outside with a glass of wine by the warmth from the bbq enjoying the perfect end to our lovely weekend in the sun. I hope you too have had a great weekend. And lets hope the weather stays nice for more weekend BBQs to come.

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Small Red BBQ: ASDA http://m.direct.asda.com/george/george-home/portable-kettle-bbq-in-red-34cm/001679167,default,pd.html?cgid=D26M09G09C02S01