This week in food (4-10 February 2019)

Devvers had this great idea that I should also post shorter posts with the great food we eat – we don’t always need to provide the recipe (but do tell us if you see one that you want!).

Let’s look at this week’s food highlights ?

Monday

A leftover portion from Sunday’s Shepherd’s pie (cooked by Devvers) was the best thing ever. It’s so great, specially when the weather has been horribly grey, wet and windy. Truly responding to the expectations I have from comfort food.

I then made chao fan for dinner, following Devver’s grandma’s recipe. My goals were

• a) to not get out of the house again (as the weather was still horrible) and
• b) to finish off various bits and pieces in the fridge.

… both of which were accomplished with this.

It was also abundantly yummy, although there were some “disagreements” about the fact that I adventurously included cashew nuts ?

Tuesday

My new colleague Jessica brought all sorts of delicious stuff from Borough Market, and she invited me to this bun with butter and jam. It was excellent as I had gone to the gym and then cycled to the office and I was therefore VERY HUNGRY. I also made myself a single origin v60 coffee and after consuming this, I felt ready to tackle the world (or maybe look at the bane of my existence, AKA slack ?).

Wednesday

I don’t know what happened on Wednesday, as it’s been such a busy week. It doesn’t mean I fasted; I am still eating though. I don’t photograph everything I eat, despite the appearances.

Thursday

I really felt like pasta on Thursday, but I didn’t have time to cook it in the morning. I thought about that place called “Coco di Mama” which has been haunting/intriguing me for months, but I want to support small businesses and Coco is a chain, plus I am still not over the fact that they closed the former yumchaa in Tottenham street to replace it with a Coco di Mama which killed all the airiness and quirkiness of the teahouse and replaced it with a bog-standard corporate fast food outlet. So I headed to Flat Iron Square and La Nonna, their Italian take away.

I wasn’t sure of what to have so I chose something that I knew how to make, so I could then judge adequately. I was also very nosy and looking attentively while the cook prepared my pasta. I think they might be using fresh pasta, because it took a while to cook, but not as much as it would take for dry pasta. The method he used was quite similar to how I’d make it as well, and the result was pretty good, although I felt the pasta was a bit gooey (I think it’s because they reuse the hot water).

Either way, this is a good resource for when I crave pasta. The people seemed very nice and I was not hungry for hours (I mysteriously did not experience a sugar crash either, which is remarkable).

Friday

I could finally pay a visit to one of my favourite places in London (or in Earth!?), Pimlico Fresh, home of many joys and shared meals, but specially, home to The Green Eggs. They consist on an avocado on toast, with bacon, fried eggs, lots of cherry tomatoes, and finally some home made green pesto on top.

It is also incredibly addictive, and despite my efforts to order something different, I think this is the third or four time in a row I have this. And I don’t regret it!

Saturday

Porridges are so easy and comforting, and this is such a great combination of flavours (specially with a nicely ripe pear like this one). I also drizzled it with some honey, but there are no other sweeteners otherwise.

We had this with some cafetière brewed coffee. Great start to the Saturday!

I hadn’t had a mozzarella and basil salad in a very long time! I also got some sweet potato falafels from Waitrose to try them out. They tasted more Indian than middle eastern, but they were nice anyway. Although it was a bit of an strange combination.

Sunday

Someone I dated introduced me to the idea of adding hot sauce to scrambled eggs. I have kept adding various types of chilli-based condiments to eggs since then, even if that was our last date and we never met again ??‍♀️

I do not hold any grudge against them, though. I think it’s a great idea and I thank you, Dear Ex-Date! I will admit I don’t remember your name, but I remember your tastes, which is probably more than many couples aspire to ?

As a proof of my gratefulness, here are these scrambled eggs with spring onions and chilli oil, and a few slices of bacon to finish it off.

I don’t tend to have pasta more than once a week, so this is a bit of an anomaly. But these “Mezzi rigatoni” were so pretty and looking at me on the shelves and I just couldn’t resist.

I wanted to make them “arrabiata”, i.e. spicy, so I added a few chilli flakes. Too few. There was barely no heat and it was in fact quite balanced and well behaved. So there you go: non-molto-arrabiata pasta. Una pasta molto gentile!