~*El Rancho de Lalo & Lutong Pinoy in London!*~

One of the things I love most about London is the amount of choice there is of places to eat. London is a melting pot full of incredible restaurants, cafes and eateries, and there is always somewhere for everyone.








When I went to visit J in London last weekend, we visited a couple of amazing restaurants, which I will be telling you about in this post.










The first place we went to was a fantastic little Colombian eatery called El Rancho de Lalo. Situated in Brixton Village Market, it is a small, simple looking restaurant that is always jam-packed with people because the food is just too damn good! Reasonably priced, fresh and with VERY generous portions, it is the perfect place to get your fill on high quality grub. It was the second time J and I visited El Rancho de Lalo - we loved it the first time and we loved it even more the second time around!!
 

J with his Club Colombia beer!

On this visit, J ordered a Cazuela de Mariscos, which is a seafood soup with mussels, squid, octopus and shrimp. This was served with a portion of rice, salad, a couple of croquettes and cornbread. I was grateful for J sharing some of the seafood soup, because it was quite possibly one of the best dishes I have ever tasted!

Cazuela de Mariscos

Yes, I'd be happy with that dish too!

I ended up ordering the same dish as I had done on my first visit - the Bandeja Paisa, which is Colombia's national dish. The Bandeja Paisa is an absolute man meal (as you can see in the photo!) made up of different meats (grilled beef steak, fried pork belly and Colombian sausage), grilled plantain, rice, fried egg, beans and corn bread. I didn't finish everything as the portion was so huge (I shared most of it with J), but it all tasted amazing - the plantain, especially, was a nice way to break up such a protein-heavy meal!









La Bandeja Paisa!

The second restaurant we visited over the weekend was Lutong Pinoy, a cosy little Filipino restaurant on Kenway Road, about a 2-3 minute walk from Earl's Court tube station.

Upon walking into the restaurant, the whiff of cooked white rice made me feel very much at home - it smelt like a typical Filipino house, which made me feel super hungry!! I absolutely love the smell of Filipino food in the air, as it reminds me of being at home with my family.

The menu was full of amazing Filipino dishes at decent prices. We opted for Filipino Longanisa sausages with garlic rice (me) and Dinuguan with egg rice (J). Dinuguan is a Filipino savory stew of pork offal (typically lungs, kidneys, intestines, ears, heart and snout) and/or meat simmered in a rich, spicy dark gravy of pig blood, garlic, chilli, and vinegar. Needless to say, I was impressed with J choosing this as I thought he'd be put off by the ingredients, but he's very open-minded about food and he ended up loving it!

For drinks, I ordered a fresh Mango juice (my favourite!) and J enjoyed a bottle of Red Horse beer, which, along with San Miguel, is the Philippines national beer.

And for dessert...Halo Halo for both of us!! And it was delicious!!

Overall, I think we had a pretty awesome weekend of brilliant food and getting fat...I look forward to visiting both places again in future!

~*Cooking with Bae: Part 3 - Fajitas*~

It's been a while since I've posted a "Cooking with Bae" piece!




Last weekend was the first time in ages since J and I were able to cook something at home (blame the Christmas madness!) and to be honest, it wasn't anything massively exciting or complicated. Nevertheless, I am going to share it with you and hope that this inspires you to cook at home...maybe with your bae too!




This time, we decided to cook Fajitas, mainly because it's cheap and quick to prepare, and J wanted Mexican food (like he always does). We did cheat a little...well, quite a lot actually, because most of the stuff that we used, such as the Fajita seasoning and the accompaniments, were shop-bought, i.e. from packets and bottles! BUT...please take this as a review of the products we used, as we still encourage home cooking as much as possible!


First, we cut up some fresh chicken breast, onions and peppers and placed them in a frying pan, lightly cooking over medium heat. We then mixed in a packet of Santa Maria Fajita Mix (mild) and stirred until the chicken, onion and peppers were covered in seasoning.

We also chopped up some fresh iceberg lettuce and grated some cheese (J's job!) to add to the Fajitas.

For accompaniments, we used Mexi Grande Guacamole (in a bottle), Santa Maria Classic Mexican Salsa and Aldi's Snackrite Sour Cream. I have to be honest, the shop-bought Guacamole has nothing on the proper homemade stuff!!

The wholemeal wraps that we used for the Fajitas were Asda's own brand which I lucky managed to buy from the "Whoopsies!" section for 10p a packet (of 8 wraps). So I bought 5 packs and froze most of them! :D


We also cut up some fresh watermelon for dessert.

For those who know me are aware that I am not a big fan of pre-made sauces, seasoning, etc, but the ones we used in this instance were OK - nothing too special. I wouldn't discourage people from purchasing the products we used, but I personally wouldn't be in a rush to go out and re-buy them either.

Overall, I would give the food portion of the dining experience a 5/10, though dining with J after a 2-week gap was a lot of fun - I really miss him when he's not around. Next time, we will definitely be cooking from scratch!

~*Dinner Date @ Barrio Comida (Newcastle)*~

I have been fortunate enough to have spent more than the usual amount of time with J this week, as he's been back home in Newcastle for the Christmas holidays (yey!).

For one of our dinner dates during this time, we visited a new Mexican eatery called Barrio Comida. Situated in the Quayside area of Newcastle, Barrio Comida is a gorgeous little place that is made up of two shipping containers, and is perfect for date night or a super chilled catch-up with friends. If you sit by the window, you'll have a lovely view of the Tyne Bridge, which is especially beautiful at night. The entire restaurant is candle-lit, creating a romantic and hygge-like ambience, and the décor is simple, with aloe vera plants placed on typical Mexican-style plastic table covers.

Prior to going to Barrio Comida, I had read a number of great reviews and I knew both J and I needed to try it out.

J is half Mexican/Geordie, and he absolutely loves Mexican food. After checking out their website (www.barriocomida.com) and scrolling through their menu, which mainly focuses on traditional tacos which are cooked to order, I knew that Barrio Comida would be right up his street. I also loved that Barrio Comida isn't a chain (I believe there is another one in Durham and that's it), so I expected the food to be of high quality, fresh and as authentic as possible.

We started our date with a Michelada each. Michelada is a popular Mexican cocktail prepared with clamato (a mix of tomato and clam juice), beer, lime juice and assorted sauces and spices. It is definitely an acquired taste; J loves it but I personally wasn't crazy about it. It reminded me of a watered down Bloody Mary with stronger flavours of spice. I ended up giving most of mine to J to finish off!

Michelada

We then ordered our tacos (suggested serving of 3 tacos per person) - this was a difficult task since they all looked absolutely delicious! In the end, we ended up settling on the following:

J: Al Pastor, Camaron & Mole
Me: Lengua, Ensenada & Cabeza

Please check out www.barriocomida.com to see what each of these tacos consist of.

The tacos were AMAZING - you could taste the freshness of the ingredients, which were all well put-together to create incredible flavours. J, who has a talent for clearing his dinner plate in a matter of seconds, hoovered his tacos up at record speed - they were just too good!

J's tacos!

 

My tacos...my God I'm getting hungry again

 

J enjoying his grub!

J also treat us to a Ceviche Tostada (raw Tuna, Salsa, Chipotle Crema and Avocado on a toasted taco) each, which was definitely my favourite out of all the tacos we ate that evening - it was ridiculously good!

Heaven on a plate...Ceviche Tostada

We had another round of drinks to finish off our meal; J had another Michelada and I opted for a non-alcoholic homemade Agua Fresca called Jamaica, which is a lightly sweetened Hibiscus infused juice-like tea. The Jamaica was super tasty and the flavour of Hibiscus was just right, making it refreshing and very easy to drink.

A cup of Jamaica

All in all, it was a brilliant dining experience and I would strongly recommend anyone with a love of good food to try this place out. It's a very chilled setting so there's no need to get dolled up for the occasion either, which makes it the perfect place to have a laid-back gathering with your friends and loved ones.

Barrio Comida

Wesley Square

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE1 3DE