East London Summer: Burgers, Bikes, Coffee & Parks

Victoria Park
So I finished my old job, so long iCrossing, you were good to me. I even got put on Gardening Leave (thanks tube strikes, that then got cancelled) for the last few days. Which meant I finished on a Friday and had a whole week and a half off work to look forward to. I booked in a last minute trip to see my friend Rae in Berlin (more on that to follow) but started with an absolutely gorgeously sunny Saturday pootling about East London with my friends Gabi and Erica. We met up for a burger at the new Patty & Bun in London fields, where I had possibly the messiest burger experience of my life (worth it), before walking along the canal down to Victoria park.

Patty & Bun

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Top 3 – London Burgers

Patty & Bun - Smokey Robinson

So for a very long time now I’ve been meaning to start doing restaurant reviews. Partly because I eat out so often so it makes sense and partly because I thought it’d be fun to add an extra element to the blog. The more that I’ve been thinking about it and now I’ve increased the lifestyle type posts I was thinking that I may do a slightly different angle on this. So rather than doing individual posts on a restaurant I’m going to start blogging my Top 3’s. This will be something like: “Top 3 Burgers” or “Top 3 Fried Chicken Dishes” so it may not be restaurant specific but more food/dish specific depending on the post so I may mention the sides in passing say, but will focus on the core element. There’ll be no specials as you may not be able to grab it, so what’s the point in me telling you what you can’t have? Specials will have their own dedicated lists. These lists will primarily be based around London but I’ll blog about other places from time to time as well.

To kick things off I’m going straight in with the burgers. I’ve eaten a fair few of these over the last few years and I will happily say I’m spoilt. So here goes with my top 3 burgers in London, in no particular order:

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A Weekend In July: Parents, Les Mis, Bao, Museums and Caravan

Caravan Eggs

A few weeks back my parents came down to visit! For many of you that wouldn’t be all that much of an event, but now they live on a Scottish Island I don’t get to see them all that much. I mean, I’m planning my next trip up to see them and I have to break it down to London – Glasgow (coach, train, sleeper service, plane, car, cannon) , Glasgow – Oban (train), Oban – Craignure (ferry), Craignure – Pennyghael (bus or pick up by parents). It means that if they are coming down you need to do more than just hang around and it likely means they’ll need a hotel. I’m apologising now for a very photo heavy post.

Boat Ride

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Above The Taps: My Morning Routine

“Hey Mike, do you just wake up looking that good?” My adoring fans cry from the moment I leave my front door until I’ve fended them off and get the elevator door closed up to my office, followed by the screams of “and when are you baking us all cakes?”.
Well my answer to both is of course: “I naturally look like this, and don’t have to try, oh and I’ve already baked you all cakes, here they are”.

Then I wake up and realise that my hair is a mess, I look like shit and I’ve not baked anyone a cake.

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Berries Say Summer: Summer Berry Pie

Summer Berry Pie

A few weeks ago I hosted a BBQ, which was pretty rad. For the event I made a Summer Berry Pie. I also got a bit drunk and didn’t take any photos of it, because I was having a good time (soz ‘ard). I was however recently contacted by Seasonal Berries who were looking for people to get involved in their Berries Say Summer campaign. Talk about a great excuse for me to re-bake not only a tasty pie but for me to get some actual snaps of it this time around. And hey, as I’m changing jobs soon (can’t remember if I mentioned that) it’s a good chance for me to make a pie and take it in for my current workmates (they’ll be getting a cake the week I leave, I’m too good to this lot).

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