England

The Cotswolds, good morning sun

19th February 2012 by Regula 11 Comments

We went to stay with friends in the Cotswolds for a few days.
Leaving the busy and stressful life behind and being embraced by the silence and tranquility a country village offers.
We arrived late in the evening, as we turned into the single track road leading to our friends house it started to snow. For a few moments the cottages we drove passed started to look like someone had dusted icing sugar on them. It was cold, terribly cold but the warming fire roaring in our friends cottage warmed our frozen fingers and toes.

The next morning we went on a walk trough the fields wearing wellies and big warm coats.
We visited the church where my friends got married and went home to a cup of warming tea.

I adore this little Cotswold village and the way the yellow stones of the cottages catch the morning sun.

The last day of our stay I got up just after dawn and watched the sky turn from a greyish pink to bright blue from the cottage window. I jumped out of bed and dressed warm to go explore leaving everyone still asleep behind.

As I walked around the village, the sun giving her warmth and melting the dew and the ice on the flower buds I watched the community waking up. Dogs were walked, curious neighbours asked me where I came from and cats ran out of the houses to go exploring.

But there is a down side to this comforting story, in lots of these Cotswolds houses people didn’t start their days. Shutters were closed and padlocks guarded the gates. It’s the same story in all rural villages in the UK, people from the city buying houses in small villages to escape to when they can. And who can blame them, I too feel the soothing feeling of the slower pace of life a country villages seems to give.

But communities are broken and youngsters are forced to leave their home, because life in these sweet little villages has gotten too expensive for them to stay. Moving down the road from mum and dad is no option because even the smallest of cottages are sold as a luxury retreat in the country.

Pubs are forced to call last orders for good every day, because there are no people to pour pints for during the week. Village shops are disappearing, rural schools closing.

Rural Britain is beautiful, but it is changing.

Bocca di Lupo, London

28th January 2012 by Regula 4 Comments

I love social media, a few weeks ago I saw some tweets passing by from a friend about a restaurant she was at. The tweets got me all excited to go to that restaurant, I got my review about the place from a reliable source because I know the lady and know she is a tough nut to crack 😉 So when we decided to go to London, that restaurant was my first choice.
I tend to do my research before I book a table for dinner. You probably know the story, first you google it for reviews than you go to Tripadvisor. Thanks to social media, you can just ask someone who you know you can trust on the matter. I mostly check if another foodblogger has written something about it on his or her blog.

Back to the post. We are at Bocca di Lupo today, because of Twitter.
After a walk trough the busy neighbourhood of Soho we turned into a quiet street where the restaurant and it’s little sister Gelupo have found their home.

‘Bocca di Lupo’ the child of Jacob Kenedy and Victor Hugo, opened its doors in the winter of 2008 and has since received numerous awards and great reviews for its down to earth ‘real’ Italian cuisine.

On their website they say that despite being in glamorous surroundings they are still “a family business and a humble trattoria at heart”.

If they can make something themselves, they will and some of the home made delights are available along with their gelato across the street at Gelupo.

We had high hopes and quite and appetite after we went prop shopping at Potobello Market in the morning.

The onion focaccia and the big green olives soothed our first hunger and soon we made a choice between all the delicious dishes on the menu card. Next to every dish on the menu is the region mentioned where it originated from, nice touch.
Sitting at the Chefs counter we were able to see all the cooking happen in front of our noses.
We had a few primi from which I must say the radish salad was my absolute favourite, even B who would usually never touch pomegranate loved it.
The great thing about this place is that you can choose between a large or a small portion so you can have an assortment of small plates to taste if yo want.
That way you can try a lot of things and you don’t form an opinion on just one or two dishes.
B was totally in love with the spinach and ricotta malfatti and I could have eaten a bucket load of the tortellini filled with Mortadella. I had tripe ‘Italian style’ for the first time and rather liked it.
Soon all the little plates were empty and spoons licked clean.
The service was correct, attentive and not too formal, just the way I like it.
This Italian restaurant is a little gem tucked away in Soho, after our meal we crossed the street to Gelato for the delicacies and ice cream.
I left the Bocca di Lupo experience with the big Bocca di Lupo book under my arm and a Ricotta bonbon in my mouth.
Lovely experience, can’t wait to eat here again.

Bocca Di lupo
12 Archer street, Soho, London
Underground station: Piccadilly

Some of the dishes we tried

Cornwall – a taste of Kernow and wedding balloons

25th October 2011 by Regula 12 Comments

Cornwall, land of moors and mining, of dramatic cliffs and sandy beaches.
A place where the weather can not be predicted and where nature does it’s own thing.
Described as an area of outstanding natural beauty it is also the poorest county in the UK.
Tourism is the county’s biggest industry but towns struggle in the low season…
For me Cornwall is a foodie destination, a place where you can eat a crab sandwich in a small village cafe that is ten hundred times better then in a highstreet establishment in ‘The big smoke’.
But Cornwall is also an environmental friendly place being nearly entirely self sufficient with the most beautiful produce you can think of. They have red, white, rose, sparkling and fruit wines. Real Cider, Cider Brandy and ale. Cheeses big and tiny, blue and yellow. Fish straight out of the Cornish waters, giving the word Fresh fish a whole other dimension.
So I can’t call Cornwall the poorest county in the UK, they are in financial therms, sadly, but culture- and foodwise they are rich.
That’s why I can’t get enough of Cornwall, and by going there on holiday you help them with the ‘being poor’ side of the story but you can enjoy the wealth trough food and heritage.
Cornwall, land of turquoise waters, tiny pittoresque villages and great produce.
I can not praise it enough, I just adore every rock and pebble of it.

On the last day of our time in Cornwall last summer, my sweetheart Bruno proposed to me on a dramatic cliff at Lands End. The engagement ring was a simple silver band, forged on the rocks of the Cornish cliffs by a pirate and his pirate cat, meters from where he had just asked me.
The pirate also forged our wedding rings, bashing them on the rocks leaving them with an imprint of a very special place to cherish.
This had to be our honeymoon destination without hesitation.
After our little wedding in a Sussex town steeped in history, we drove off to Kernow.
We visited the pirate and his cat and had a truly wonderful time.

On our wedding day in East-Sussex, UK. Pictures by Assassynation

I love my Stout and I’m proud of it!

Union Jack love

heart

I hope you’ll enjoy these views, they left me breathless and hungry for more…

Best view ever, Bottalac Engine houses

Boat trip, great views over Polperro an Fowey harbour

ruines in the Moors

I see food

The tearoom in the Moors that was closed… sadly

Tintagel castle

A very special place…

Bottalac Engine houses

St-Ives, the 9 o-clock pink light

Polperro fishing harbour, the best place to eat fish

The netting house, Polperro

Please leave a comment. I appreciate every single one.

British cheese – a British treasure

30th September 2011 by Regula 3 Comments

There is something to be said about British cheese.
They are versatile as much as they are delicious.
I’ve been a keen explorer of these cheeses for a few years now and I am amazed by the variety of cheeses this country holds.

Caraway seed cheese by Crudges – The Cotwolds

Some are huge, some are tiny some have strange shapes but they all have one thing in common: they are a product of love and caring.

I was lucky to talk to a few cheese makers and the most important thing they all have in common is a passion to create an outstanding product.
As you might know already, my heart beats a little faster when I meet people who are passionate about creating their delicious product.
I enjoy to see the smile on their face when they tell me how they made it, the sparks in their eyes because someone is taking an interest and the warmth they share by telling me about it.

Over the last years the small cheese makers are popping up all over the UK.
There are over 700 cheeses produced in the UK so there will be a cheese to everyone’s taste.

A broad public is becoming more aware of the benefits of artisan products and are starting to prefer these product to the mass produced items the supermarkets have on offer.

Lord London by Alsop & Walker – Kent

Trelawny, Keltic Gold, Cornish blure – Cornwall

Cheese has been made in Britain for over thousand years but it was during Roman times that the techniques were refined. In Medieval times most of the cheeses were made by monasteries.
Cheshire is one of the oldest British cheeses. It dates from Roman times and is even mentioned in the Domesday Book. Wensleydale was made by monks at Jervaulx abbey in Yorkshire and can be traced back to the 12th century.

From around the 16th century, cheeses were being named after the region in which they were made.

In the 19th century during the Industrial revolution, it became more profitable for dairymen to sell milk rather than making cheese. The new railway networks made the transport of fresh milk over larger distances possible. This resulted in a situation where less cheese was being produced in Britain.

In the 1940s cheese making suffered another blow due to WWII. Milk was rationed and the Ministry of Food banned cheese making in general, only one type of cheese was allowed to be made: the National cheese. By the time the war had ended only a few varieties remained.

It would take almost 30 years before cheese making became popular again and it hasn’t stopped since. We’ve only seen a thriving trend with old cheese recipes being re-discovered and new ones being developed. Cheese varieties that were once lost were now found again.

I’ve been wanting to write this post about British cheese for some time now but as it’s British cheese week this week I thought it was just the time to start writing.

British Cheese Week starts with the announcement of the winners of the awards and the opening of the Great British Cheese Festival.

Some British alternatives to well known cheeses
Tunworth – Camembert
Carnevale’s Greys Farm in Theydon Bois, Essex. – Ricotta
Farmers’ Hand – Parmesan
Mature Winchester – Parmesan
Fine Fettle – Feta
Cornish brie – Brie
Frances Wood’s Somerset mozzarella – Mozzarella
Berkswell – manchego
Ogleshield – Raclette
Cornish Blue – Roquefort
Cashel blue – Fourme d’ambert
(note that there are a lot more…)