Travel Diaries: 48 hours in Oslo

Oslo

When our plane started to descend into Oslo airport the reality of Norway’s natural beauty became apparent. Visible out of the window as the plane banked into a sweeping turn was mile upon mile of lakes, mountains and trees all covered in a deep blanket of early winter snow; a sea of white broken by pockets of grey lakes and the dark spikes of conifer. The snow was unexpected, as when booking this trip for November we’d been told it was likely too early, but welcome. Even the airport, surrounded by snow dusted trees, was turned into something picturesque. Sat on the bus from the airport, which I’d recommend over the train as it’s significantly cheaper for a round trip and only takes 40 minutes, I took advantage of the free wifi to frantically do some googling for “Oslo’s best cinnamon bun“. The bun which really stood out was made by WB Samson, the Oslo institution. Each bun is baked in its own individual tin, knotted up rather than simply swirled and covered with cinnamon and a little salt. I could happily talk about this bun for the rest of this post, but as it was simply a pitstop we made between the bus terminal and our hotel, I should probably get going with the rest of the trip.

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Where I Ate: October 2016

Butterscotch Cronut

A while back I used to do round ups of the places I ate, things I baked and recipes that I cooked each month. This was, in part, to keep a kind of diary and to show the places that I get recipes from for my day to day baking and cooking which don’t necessarily make the blog. The posts, while a fun summary, were too long and took far too much time to put together for what they were. I have decided to revive them in a slightly different manner however. I’m taking out the bits around everything I’ve baked & cooked and I won’t be listing every single meal I’ve had out that month. What I am going to do is concentrate on a small handful of the best (or worst) places I’ve eaten across the previous month. So without further ado, here’s some eating out highlights from October.

The month started with a trip to Leeds where I ate at Bundobust, because that’s basically where I eat every time I head up. It’s my favourite place in Leeds and I’ve talked about it at length before. The rest of the month was London based and it was also one of my 3 veggie months for 2016. The highlights are as follows:
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Travel Diaries: New York Pt. 2

Brooklyn Bridge

As you’ll have seen from Part 1, I recently travelled to New York. If you want to see what happened on our first couple of days, or even how the trip came about, then go read that. This post picks up on Day 3 and runs through to our journey home.

Jack's Wife Freda

The Sunday morning wasn’t quite as early, but we were still up at about 7am. First up for the day was breakfast at Jack’s Wife Freda, which even at 9am on a Sunday was bustling. We took advantage of their bottomless drip (coffee) and while Maddie had a Rosewater Waffle I tucked into a Madame Freda (Pressed sandwich with duck prosciutto, cheddar béchamel, gruyere & a sunny side up egg). Out of the two main breakfast spots we tried this trip, this one was the better. The setting is charming, service friendly, polite & quick and the food was spot on. We’d booked in a slot to visit the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center) so this was our next stop. As someone who has been to the city before, and done the Empire State, I can safely say I prefer the view from the Rock. Coming out of the elevator after a, very short, queue you instantly get a view across central park, something the Empire State doesn’t offer, and the view the other side has the Empire State and the southern end of Manhattan. After 25 minutes of indulgent selfie taking and view admiring we went back down in the lift and walked from the center down towards Grand Central(via Sephora so Maddie could look at make up she couldn’t afford). We deliberately zigzagged on this walk so we could soak in the noise and sites of Manhattan. Next was a walk over to Time Square.
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Eating Out: Pergola on the Roof

Pergola on the Roof

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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What & Where I Ate: February 2016

What & Where I ate

I failed dismally at doing an update on what I baked, where I ate and what I cooked for January. Which is actually a bit of a shame as I did another veg month and we themed each week around a different cookbook or cuisine, so for once it would probably have been a bit more interesting than normal. Stuff like courgette halloumi fritters, mushroom & tofu noodle soup or re-purposing my sriracha honey glazed chicken to use with oven baked tofu. I moved right at the end of January though and I’ve not eaten out as much as I usually do, but I have however been baking a lot. So without further ado, here’s what I baked & cooked for February 2016 along with where I ate out.
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