Cote, Ealing

 Early evening menu at Cote again.

 Tomato soup; tangy, rich tomato taste, but on the thick side for a soup

 Coq au vin; deep wine flavour, the lardons were however burnt which gave it a bitter and burnt taste, disappointing

Iced berries with white chocolate sauce; literally frozen berries with white chocolate sauce on the side. The berries were tart which went well with the sweet chocolate. The fact that the berries were frozen gave a tingly sensation in the mouth. I'd normally go for the creme caramel but thought I might as well give something else a try this time.

All in all, this experience at Cote was ok, but was let down by the burnt lardons in the coq au vin

Martha Stewart corn bread muffins

I was going for an "American" themed dinner of pulled pork and coleslaw. What better accompaniment than corn bread muffins. I found the recipe for corn bread muffins from Martha Stewart's Website http://www.marthastewart.com/319085/massachusetts-corn-muffins?center=0&gallery=901331&slide=319085

I'd never made corn bread before and was surprise at how easy they were to make, simply mix all the dry ingredients together and all the wet ingredients together. Then combine all together. Simples.

The recipe made 12 muffins which were light, slightly sweet and moist. They were delicious.

Bourbon biscuit on steroids

There are giant versions of favourite biscuits out there. I got this from Costa but I've also seen them in Waitrose, which also had custard creams and jammie dodgers. It's a bourbon biscuit which has been pumped up to at least twice the size of a normal size bourbon.

It had more of a cake like texture, it was missing the crunch you'd expect from a biscuit. I was slightly disappointed, I'd much prefer the normal biscuit to this steroid version

Henry J Beans, Chelsea

I went to Henry J Beans for the happy hour really, but saw this platter on the menu and had to get it to compare it to the platter at Big Easy, which is down the road from Henry J Beans.

This platter had; half rack of bbq ribs, bbq wings, potato wedges, stuffed jalapenos, chicken crunchies and onion rings served with a variety of dips.

The bbq sauce on the ribs and wings was finger licking good. A good mix of smoky, sweet, spicy and tangy. The chicken crunchies were breaded chicken deep fried. The jalapenos were stuffed with cheese and tasted better than the Big Easy counterpart. The onion rings and wedges were regular onion rings and wedges, nothing extra special to write about but needed on the platter to balance out the bbq-ness.

I think I prefer this platter better than the Big Easy one, the only thing that Big Easy's platter is better is the vast array of dips they offer.

Cake fork from Tiger

I found these cute forks from Tiger the other day and thought that they could now be my special forks just for eating cakes. It makes the whole cake eating experience that more special.
These were really cheap, only a couple of pounds each