Eating Out: Pergola on the Roof

September 24, 2016 - Michael 1 Comment

No one ever really has much of a reason to head west in London. Shepherds Bush in particular is somewhere I’ve only ever been for the odd gig, Westfields doesn’t appeal to me and generally I’ve no other reason to even go out that way. The other big reason to head out that way is the Television Center, historically the home of the British tele, and now newly converted into flats. The building itself is much the same from the outside so you can still go and reminisce about the golden days of UK TV, or you could go and climb up to the roof and fill your face with some of London’s best Street Food. Pergola on the Roof has been running all summer and only has a week left to go, but it’s worth a visit if you’ve got the time. I was overdue a catch up with some workmates from my last job, including Dan at City & Cinema. So this was the perfect opportunity to see people, hear all about their new office move and generally talk about what’s been going on over the last few months.
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Travel Diaries: New York City Pt. 1

September 15, 2016May 11, 2017 - Michael Leave a comment

Jet lag is a hell of a thing. When you find yourself sat on a balcony at 5.30am, already having been to a coffee shop, to watch the sun come up over the Williamsburg Bridge and you’ve not even considered going back to bed despite having a completely full day planned, you know its hit you. We’d landed the day before at about 11.30am New York time, after getting up at 4am UK time.Despite it taking 1.5 hours to get through passport control and lugging our bags across a hot & sweaty Manhattan, we pushed on, grabbing food at Tiny’s Giant Sandwiches while we waited to check in, and freshening up super quick so we could make the most of the afternoon. The buzz of arriving in New York helped us power through the tiredness that kept threatening to hit. We’d only found out a couple of weeks before that we’d even be doing this trip, having won it through the post I wrote on London’s food scene, and in a couple of short weeks we’d organised our flights & hotel and created a list longer than all of our arms combined of things to do and places to eat.

Bloggers Blog Awards Nomination

September 2, 2016 - Michael Leave a comment

So this year some pretty cool things have happened because of my blog. I got to go to New York City when I won a competition for this post. I also got nominated in the Great British Food Awards, and while I didn’t win, I got Highly Commended. The nomination was completely out of the blue and the fact that a bunch of my readers voted for me is incredibly humbling. Hot off the results of that, I then found out that I’d been nominated in the Bloggers Blog Awards.

These awards were founded by Hayley at TeaPartyBeauty, and while I attended last year’s there wasn’t actually a food category. This year she’s upped the number of categories and I’ve managed to get myself nominated in the Best Food Blog group. This is really exciting.

What’s just as exciting is that last year there wasn’t a single man in the whole thing and this year there’s 3 of us! There’s a whole host of incredible bloggers nominated in the awards, all of which deserve the attention they are getting. I feel a little out of place amongst some of them so I’m particularly humbled. If you wanted to go and vote for me though, you can do that here, and the closing date for votes is 18th September

Vote for me!

Travel Diaries: Budapest

July 25, 2016July 25, 2016 - Michael 5 Comments

I was sat sipping on a glass of wine, atop a boat sauntering down the Danube, my tour guide headphones discarded as they’d kept changing to Spanish, when I realised our decision to make the trip to Hungary was the right one. The clouds that had been lingering cruelly since we landed had finally parted and played their part in creating one of those sunsets you see on Pinterest or Tumblr, but a lot more real, and a lot less photoshopped. By this time we’d already feasted on a disgustingly cheap but hearty meal in the courtyard at Mazel Tov (Shakshukah Mergeuz for me, Falafel Wrap for her) and meandered around the Jewish District, where our stylish AirBnB was located. The first night of a 4 day trip to Hungary’s capital wound to a close with a few drinks in one of the cities many ruin bars before having an early night (and some chilli cheese bites from Burger King because hey, I’m on holiday) so we could get up early the next day.

We Need To Talk About London’s Food

July 18, 2016July 18, 2016 - Michael 4 Comments

On Tuesday night last week, Open Table kindly invited a number of London food enthusiasts, including myself, along to Grain Store in Kings Cross to partake in their Transatlantic Tables evening. At the same time they invited a selection of New York’s similarly inclined addicts to dinner across the pond, connecting us through our love for our city’s food. After an evening spent eating Chef Loubet’s specially prepared menu we were challenged to write an open letter to New York, and those who love its food, detailing why we love our own city’s food so damn much, all for a chance to win a trip over there to sample its own delights.

Alright New York,

Your food is pretty good; I’ve had the pleasure of trying a small handful of places when I visited your city back in November of 2013. I got to walk around the East Village eating Lobster Rolls from Luke’s Lobster, experience the secrecy and unique hotdogs of Please Don’t Tell and the burgers from Black Iron Burger. I filled my face with a salt beef reuben from Katz Deli and even found somewhere to give me a chicken waffle grilled cheese sandwich. Brooklyn gave me the delights of buying BBQ by the pound at Fette Sau, which remains some of the best BBQ food I’ve eaten, and a night sat in the Brooklyn Brewery followed by a trip to the Meatball Shop to hungrily (and drunkenly) devour a plate of meatballs. I’m not even going to touch on all those fancy Michelin Starred restaurants you’ve got, because that’s just not my cup of tea.

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