Selfridges: Turner & George Burger Masterclass

- Michael Leave a comment

As I mentioned in my post about my chocolate tart I was invited by the guys at Selfridges to attend a Burger Masterclass up on their rooftop terrace and hosted by the butchers, Turner & George. As many of you know, I take my burgers fairly seriously (there’s a whole column in my restaurant spreadsheet dedicated to patty quality) and for me to get an invite to see how they go about making their famous Black Label Burger was a pretty great chance.

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Turner & George

Warning, this post is not suitable for vegetarians (this isn’t here as a joke, it contains raw meat)

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Chocolate Tart

- Michael 10 Comments

Chocolate Tart

I have a bit of a backlog. I seem to open half my posts with that. I need to get my act together. I’ve been so busy (again, and I was expecting such a quiet July…) and a lot of that is blog related. I took advantage of working from home during the tube strike last week though to do some baking (gaining a couple of hours back in a day is pretty hand when you don’t have to travel). Having said that, it did take me 2.5 hours to get home from a Selfridges event I attended on the Wednesday night (more on that to come soon). The great thing about a Chocolate Tart is that while it needs plenty of chill time, the actual hands on time is fairly minimal.
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Blueberry Pie

- Michael 6 Comments

Blueberry PieI moved house, again. I am now a resident of Bow Road. Pretty much opposite the tube station, so pretty handy. Now you know where I live. No stalking please. But because of this move, I’ve been a bit slow on the baking lately. I’ve not had a chance to try out the new oven yet (don’t worry, that’ll be soon). On top of moving, I’ve been to my first press event and been quite social in the weeks. Baking takes time, as does editing photos and writing up the posts. But here’s a Blueberry Pie I baked about 2 weeks ago. Read more

Monthly Music – June Jams

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Monthly Music June

I like music, in fact I’d go as far as saying I love music. As anyone that follows me on twitter or Instagram will know, or anyone that has seen any of my posts about festivals I’ve travelled around the world to get to, I talk about music quite a lot. I spend a fair bit of time recommending music to other people as well. So I’ve decided that I’m going to start doing monthly round-ups of bands/music I’ve been listening to for that month.

Worth noting is that there is almost always an underlying amount of Thrice, The Hotelier, The Smith Street and various Post Rock bands to go alongside this. But I’ll try and keep this on either new discoveries or bands that have really stuck that month.

I listen to a lot of sad jams (read old school emo a la American Football), punk rock, post rock and pop punk but there may well be something here for everyone’s tastes so don’t discount anything. If you’re interested then follow me on Spotify

Somos – Temple of Plenty
At the start of the month I asked a few of my friends for some recommendations and Somos were one of those. I’ve been listening to this album on repeat ever since. Think undertones of American Football but with a slightly more upbeat and poppy vibe. Plenty of singalongs and perfect for summer.

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A weekend in June: Hotbox, Dinerama & Dinosaurs

- Michael 2 Comments

Well, June has been hectic. In fact, wait a minute, it’s JUNE? And it’s July IN TWO DAYS? When did this happen? I have no idea where my time has been going lately. It seems to be slipping away faster and faster (along with my money). Just this Friday I’m moving (again) to Bow Road, so if any of you are East Londoners, mine is a Gin & Tonic (no cucumber, god help you if I find cucumber in my gin).

Secret Cinema - Force Choke

Force choke – Photo by Arthy

But why has June been so busy I hear you ask? Well I’ll give you a snapshot of just one weekend to really hit it home. It started with a gig on the Thursday, the Movielife to be exact, at the Electric Ballroom. A whole heap of my friends were down from Leeds as well as a bunch of people from London. The Movielife are one of those bands that helped shape half the people I knows music taste. They got big in the early 00’s before breaking up and continuing with various endeavours (Vinnie, most notably in I Am The Avalanche). This meant that while it was a Thursday, a rather large amount of booze was consumed, and by the end of the set I had no voice left.

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