Just a little hiatus...

So I've not written about coffee or cake for a while, of course this doesn't mean I've not eaten any coffee or cake in that time, I've just been busy enjoying the coffee and cake.

Anyway, spurred on by some of my colleagues saying that I should start a food blog (unbeknownst to them that I actually have the shell of one already) because I talk about my individual tastes in food, places to eat it and the different quirks I have whilst eating it (I'm really not that fussy at all) I've decided to resurrect this blog and see how far I get.

This weekend has been particularly good for food so I thought now would be as good a time than any. Stay tuned.

Photo: Coffee cake and a latte at Daisies in the Park in Pinner on a Saturday in the sun this summer

The Breakfast Club - my not so guilty secret

I love breakfast, and I am more often than not caught saying that I could eat breakfast everyday, for every meal. So when D suggested that we go to The Breakfast Club for a Saturday morning catch up I was just so excited.

From the outside, The Breakfast Club in Spitalfields plays it cool. There is no flashy logo'd sign, just the clean white painted frontage with "today is going to be a good day" optimistically painted on it. You would pass this if you didn't know it was there. The only thing that gives it away is a large, train station-like clock, which has the name of TBC on its face and a glimpse of "Sex, Drugs and Bacon Rolls" written in neon on the inside wall.

Go through the door and it's packed, there's a queue of people waiting to be sat at the sanded down trestle-tables and ex-school-canteen chairs. There is definitely a club like atmosphere, you instantly know that everyone is here for one thing, that you are now part of that club and you all share the same guilty secret - except I totally don't feel guilty about it.

Looking at the menu, there's every kind of breakfast (obviously), it's so hard to choose because you know that, from the food coming out of the diner-style open kitchen, it will all not only look like it's out of a photo-shoot but it will taste amazing too. We went for American Breakfasts but had both decided after looking through only half the menu that we would have to come back again and try something else.

Whilst we waited for our food, we admired the design of the place - vintage, but not try hard - sipped at our wonderfully frothy coffees (me a latte and D a cappuccino) and discussed what we had been up to over the last couple of months. Good times.

When our Americans arrived they were just as good as we'd hoped. If The Breakfast Club did life-time membership, I'd be first on the list.

A sunny way to start the day

This morning I got the bus to work, the thought of wasting valuable sunshine hours on the tube did not appeal. It takes a bit longer but it's a nice route and I could drink my coffee from London Bridge's Pret along the way.

A relaxing, upbeat way to start the day.

My tour of Great Britain: up a mountain in the CairnGorms

I could drink coffee anywhere, and climbing a mountain is no exception. I bought my coffee and a cozy crimson fleece (yes a fleece, it was cold, I had to make a sacrifice) at the mountain shop 637m up at the bottom of CairnGorm, (1245m high).

I later discovered CairnGorm not to be the highest mountain in the Cairngorms National Park - a fact which makes me slightly disappointed and wondering why we went to so much effort.

We walked the 10 km long, 1245m high route in five and a half hours, with lots of scenic snack and photo stops along the way.

There's not much else to say as the views are pretty breathtaking despite it not quite being the highest route in the area!

 

 

My tour of Great Britain: in the grounds of Cawdor Castle

On our first full day in Scotland, which was also N's birthday,  we decided to take in some of the history of the area and visit a Cawdor Castle which was a short drive from our caravan in Nairn.

It was beautifully bright and sunny but the wind had a cold kick to it in the morning, so we opted for looking around the house first.

It didn't look like a stuffy home that  nobody had touched for the last 50 years, each style had been piled upon the last with books stacked everywhere and personal photos of the family ranging from the sixties to the present day - the Dowager Countess of Cawdor still lives in the castle during the winter months.

We sat down for lunch by a tree with a pretty red bench next to it, although it was warmer now, there was still a cold nip in the air so the café selling hot drinks was welcome.

After lunch we walked around the castle gardens which put us even more in the mood for tea and birthday cake back at the caravan.

 

My tour of Great Britain: the train from London to Bridgend

For the next 10 days I am on a tour of sorts around Great Britain. This morning I'm currently on a train heading to my first stop, Bridgend in Wales for Z from Universitiy's Hen Night. She lives in the North, so N (a friend from Uni also) and I are travelling separately from London.

We got to Paddington ahead of schedule so that we could go in search of breakfast. Paddington Station, like any other, is covered in those sub-standard coffee shops selling dried out croissants and coffee in horribly designed orange paper cups. We decided to leave the station and just around the corner on Craven Road we found Ef's.

Ef's is one of those Turkish café and sandwich bars that double up as your local kebab shop on the way home from a night out.

I ordered, a latte which came in a just the right size mug, with a saucer and a plate of sausage, egg and bacon; N ordered a tea which came with the teabag still soaking in one of those brown glass mugs and a sausage sandwich. It being quite a hot morning and after the wine we drank last night, I also ordered a Ribena and N a bottle of water. It all came to a reasonable price, which would have been at least double for what we had, had we stayed in the station.

Velvet sofas and the Disney 50 at the BFI Southbank

On Sunday afternoon we went to see Cinderella (1950) at the BFI Southbank as part of their Disney 50 season. It was a beautiful day and after watching the marathon runners go across Tower Bridge in the morning it was nice to get out of the crowds, so we hired BorisBikes and cycled down the south bank.

We met in the BFI coffee bar, a gloss black enclave with walls made of long black fringing and the squishiest velvet sofas, which were a little misplaced and didn't really allow for all four of us to sit within talking distance of each other due to their large armrests and varying shapes and sizes. It's better equipped for working by yourself (they have free wifi) or for a quiet coffee to get away from the hustle and bustle of the bank.

I ordered a latte which came in a tall white mug and rough cut sugar cubes in a kilner flask - I don't take sugar but it was nice to know that the cubes wouldn't be left out in the open air. N had a croissant & sparkling water, K had a diet coke and we shared some chunky wedges which came really quickly as they new we didn't have long before the start of the film.

Let's just stop for a coffee..?

My Dad likes coffee, when we're on holiday or on a day out the phrase that's always said within about 20 minutes of the last coffee is "shall we stop for a coffee?".

Drinking coffee at a little table outside a little café on some piazza has been the image I conjure up when I think of most of my family holidays. I guess it was only inevitable I should become a coffee connoisseur too.

Living in the centre of London, away from where I grew up, I don't get to see my parents at home so much. Coffee gives us an excuse to meet up. My Dad travels around the centre of London with his work, so he's always finding a new coffee spot away from the centre of things to do a bit of paperwork or just take a moment to relax.

Allans Patisserie on Duke Street does cake which is more of a dessert and must be eaten with a fork. Lunch there is also good, with salads and savoury tarts on the menu too. The French country-style interior is covered with shelves of produce for sale.