Back to Square Pie

FINALLY, I managed to fulfil a pie dream today - going back to Square Pie...

This is a place that I stumbled across a few months ago and enjoyed thoroughly! But because I was unprepared to be met with such pie goodness, I hadn't taken my camera along to take photos.

After finding out from their website (yes, I Googled it) that this delightful place was not a one-off eatery, but had other branches, I made a mental note of where they are in London, on the off-chance that I would be in the area one day to be once more with my pie desire.

And earlier this afternoon, we were reunited!

Love your pie - I know I do! Continue reading this post..

Cooker-less Jenny

I was happily stir-frying some pork yesterday for an egg fried rice dinner. And then a catastrophic thing happened.

The cooker broke.

Noooo! Well the power cut out and at first, we didn't panic because we thought, hey, we'll just flip the mains back on. It didn't work. After a while, my house mate Grace managed to get the power back on, yay!

But as soon as I switched the cooker back on, the power cut out again! A couple of tries later, and we had to face the fact that the culprit was the cooker. I switched it off and slowly the realisation sank in - I had all of the ingredients for my lovely dinner laid out ready to fry and no means to cook. I couldn't bear the thought to chuck it all away!

After a few incoherent mumbles and stumbling around in a daze, I faintly heard a murmur of a solution: "Why don't you cook it in the slow cooker?" Pork fried rice in a slow cooker? I was a bit confused about how that would work. But with Grace scurrying around me getting things in order, my plan for a delicious dinner all started to fall back into place.

There was a minor blip when an hour after putting the slow cooker on, I went in to check on it and realised it was on 'warm' instead of 'high' so the food inside was still cold. Whoops. But I got to make scrambled egg in the microwave for the first time!

I'm not sure how long it will take to get our cooker problem sorted but I'm in London this weekend so won't have to worry about it for a couple of days at least. And I'm very glad that I had decided to make extra portions before I started cooking so when dinner was finally ready two hours later, I had three lots of leftovers! I hate microwaving but at least it will sort my dinner for the next few days...

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Mabel Makes My Day!

This is hilarious, I've just received a comment from Mabel, who I blogged about back in June.
She was on an episode of 'Come Dine With Me' and I just loved how she laid on a 10-course authentic Chinese meal for her guests! She mentioned that her friend referred her to my post after she came across my blog - how cool is that?

That's really made my day!

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I am a Sausage Fiend!

Wherever I go, the sausage follows...

Creamfields 2008

V2008

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The Best Fiver I've Ever Spent

Now food is not something that I scrimp on and when I go out to restaurants, I try not to think about how much it costs and just figure out whether what I will be eating will be worth the value. Cue lots of £15 steaks!

But like most people, I'm quite partial to a good bargain and I became very excited at the prospect of a cheap deal for one of my favourite dishes:

I don't know if Toby Carvery have this deal at every branch but this particular one in Warrington, where I was at the weekend for Creamfields was an absolute godsend after the long train journey up from Chichester. It was right next to the hotel I was staying in the night before we were due to camp and you could smell that lovely gravy and meat and general roastness as you walked past.

At that point, I didn't know if I was more excited about the prospect of a cheap ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT carvery, or Creamfields!

Either way, it was the perfect meal to fuel up on before my usual camp food treats that would follow the next couple of days.

Meat, meat, meat, plus all you can eat! You can't really see it here as the gigantic yorkshire pud is covering it all. I wasn't a fan of the yorkshire pud actually (but am not really in general to be fair) as it was quite light and just tasted of air but everything else was yummy. Especially the roast potatoes which were lovely and fluffy but not to the point where it gets too dry. And I loved that there was cauliflower cheese as I'd forgotten how good that tastes! This was proper comfort food.

I did have a look at the actual menu whilst we were waiting and couldn't get over how cheap everything else was too. Apparently it was because we were up north but still! I couldn't believe it. I now want to hunt down another Toby Carvery a bit closer to home to try out the whole of their delicious-looking menu. (I admit, I do feel like that with alot of menus, but this one particularly so.) And no, I don't mean try out the whole menu in one sitting. That would be impossible!

Of course, I did manage to go back for a second helping. Unfortunately you're not allowed to get more meat as in most places but hey, I wasn't complaining:

Apparently, this looked like a second dinner but to me it's was just a small portion. And that's not my eyes being bigger than my belly as I finished it all off, mmm. When can I go again? Continue reading this post..

Festival Essentials

Tent.
Sleeping bag.
Wellies.
Hand gel.

FOOD...

CHECK!

A few years ago, I went to see Green Day at MK Bowl with my friend Dan. As it was a one day thing, it didn't really occur to us to take any food and drink with us, even though we knew we'd be sitting out in the sun all day til they came on in the evening. What this resulted in was the purchase of a £4 ice cream, £2 for a pint of water, and £5 for a dry, stale baguette.

Now I hate buying things that are overpriced anyway but this was just ridiculous. However, it did set me up for future festivals/gigs to come. I've just survived a fantastic V Festival on pitta bread, scones, breakfast bars, twiglets, croissants, and fruit - all pre-bought from Tesco's. Oh, and cider of course!

This is pretty much what I had at Global Gathering last year too and it's proving to be my failsafe festival food combo. I'll be honest and admit that there were several occasions where I really craved hot food - especially on those damp evenings and getting a whiff of the greasy goodness from the food stalls.

But apart from the crazy prices (£5 for just a burger? No thanks! I know you get burgers pricier than this in restaurants but remember we are talking burger vans here), I think what helped me to restrain myself was the amount of litter lying around the stalls with the remains of what surely was not food worth their prices. I was going to take a picture but it's not really something I would want to upload and subject your eyes to! Yik.

My friend had a burger and really enjoyed it but I suspect it's mostly just cherishing something that you feel you've been deprived of. A bit like the feeling you get after spending days hovering over a portaloo, and then thinking that the public toilet in the service station on the way home is the most spacious and ingenious loo you've ever come across.

So yes, I feel quite smug and proud that I saved a bit of money at the festival by not wasting my money on these stalls. I did buy a pair of pink fishnets, but, um, I needed those. Continue reading this post..

Char Sui King!

My chinese name is Pui King and when I was little, my family started calling me 'Char Siu King' because I loved eating char siu pork so much, which is basically barbecued roast pork (but nicer than the English version, I must say!). When my sister came to visit, she brought a batch of my mum's and it was delicious! Brings back lots of memories every time I eat it:

This is still a favourite food of mine and something I could eat again and again without getting sick of it! I always have a jar of the sauce in my cupboard, though I make char siu chicken, not pork - it's the only thing that I can roast in the oven!

Traditionally, a char siu dish is pork shoulder cut into long strips, seasoned and roasted. The meat goes dark red because of the different sauces used to season it. My mouth is watering just uploading these pictures up!


I love eating it with rice but you can also get this as a 'char siu baau' which is the pork stuffed inside a bun and steamed. Haha, I'm remembering now when I was younger of a song about 'char siu baau' that I used to prance around and sing to - though I'm not sure if this was actually so, or if I just made it up to fit the tune!

A dish I never fail to order when having dim sum with my family is 'char siu sou', which is another bun variety but in puff pastry. It's absolutely gorgeous when it's fresh as it's lovely and warm and just crumbles in your mouth when you bite into it:

Having recently found a recipe for char sui pork, I think I might give it a go. There is actually a lot of different ingredients which is interesting as I've always wondered what gives it that sweet flavour. Next time I go to a chinese supermarket, I will definitely get the ingredients and try it out... Continue reading this post..

Speak Up! Speak Out! About food? Ok!

Today I did something a bit unusual - I gave a speech on Hungry Jenny to a room of people I have never met before. No, it was not part of a ploy to overtake the world with Hungry Jenny fever (woah, imagine what that would be like...). Actually, it was an opportunity I took to talk about one of my favourite subjects and why not spread the word, eh?

Anyway, I took part in a public speaking workshop offered by YouthNet, the organisation that I do volunteer online proofreading for. The thought of public speaking terrifies me, as it does for most people (it came fourth in a poll of people's greatest fears after all!) but I've recently decided to start acting on this. I was so nervous on the way and felt like I was about to head into a job interview or something!

I'm so glad I went though and after the initial nerves, it was actually a really fun day. The trainer, Sam, was absolutely fantastic and a real inspiration - it was hard to believe that she was a shy, quiet child and had also been terrified of speaking.

The day was built up to help us prepare and deliver a speech on something we felt passionate about. Topical issues came up such as gun crime, violence in football, the role of parents with rebellious children, autism, growing selfishness of humans...and it was apparent that each speaker was clearly passionate about the subject they had chosen.

Me? Of course I decided to take a more simple route and talk about FOOD. I did think long and hard about choosing a subject that was 'serious' or debatable but in the end, I wanted to feel confident about what I was saying. And my passion for food kept singing out to me as I was deciding on my topic, despite my fears that it would just be seen as a silly thing to talk about.

The result? Well, I didn't cover all the things that I had planned to as there was just so much I could have said that I overcompensated and wrapped it up too quickly I think! There were so many examples of my blog posts that I wanted to give to help paint a picture of what this is all about!

I completely forgot to recite my poem about pie which I was a bit disappointed about really! I thought that would have made people laugh and realise how silly I am. They probably got that impression though anyway from the subject I chose anyway! I'll admit that I did come across a stumbling block during the middle as during our preparation, I had been concentrating so hard on how to begin and end the speech.

My main point though was to talk about a new challenge I want to do which is to go veggie for a set period - I'm not sure how long yet as just thinking about it is making me break out in a (non-meat) sweat. It's funny though because although I've been thinking about it for a while, I've not mentioned it in previous posts yet. However, now that I've got up and made a speech about it, I feel like there is no turning back on the idea now! Continue reading this post..

Sunday dose of meat (and two roasts)

Finally, I've had my much long-awaited Nag's Head carvery...!

My sister and her boyfriend are visiting and we went on Sunday evening. I would proudly like to mention that earlier that day, we all managed a Sunday roast LUNCH too...

Now, it wasn't my intentional plan to have two roasts in one day of course. But my ever-so-kind housemate Grace happened to be making a roast for lunch and offered it to us all - how could we say no?! And, when it was dished up at 2pm, I thought, yeh, we will be hungry for dinner for our table at half 7, no worries.

7pm. We were still slouched on the sofa, still stuffed from earlier...and I was feeling quite panicked. My goodness, is this what it feels like to be full? The thought of not being able to eat dinner, and a Nag's Head dinner at that, was just too upsetting.

Undefeated, I changed the booking for 8. "We'll feel hungry when we see and smell the food, don't worry," I said to the others reassuringly. By the time we had been seated and were allowed to go up to the carvery, it was half 8 and we were HUNGRY. It probably helped that we were seated at a table right next to the carvery! Mmm...

I said that my 15k race would not be finished until I had my celebratory meal...

...and now that I've finally done it, I feel that I have really achieved my goal! Managing an extra roast was just the icing on the cake! Continue reading this post..

Mmmm...pie....

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Home Comforts

I'm really excited as my sister and her boyfriend are coming down today to visit me for a few days. Jemma has only been a couple of times but has never really seen Chi and it'll be Steven's first time so am looking forward to spending the next couple of days with them.

A little while ago I was just on the phone to my family as my sister was getting ready to leave and my mum was telling me that she has given Jemma some char sui pork to bring down. Mmm! She is also stocking me up on oyster sauce, soy sauce, char sui sauce - as well as treats like egg rolls! Oh, and most importantly, a big bag of RICE. I don't know what is more exciting, the fact that my sister is coming down, or all the authentic food that she's bringing!

My housemate Grace has just kindly offered to make a roast pork lunch so I'm going downstairs in a minute to help her. Now I say help, but me being oven-shy, I will probably just get in the way. But I will be sure to take some pictures...! Continue reading this post..

Magnifique!

Two of my old college buddies, Nathan and Hafeez, came to visit me in Chi for the day yesterday. I was at a bit of loss on what we could do as I had planned to go for lovely walks around the area, and go to the beach (they are city boys who never see the sea, after all!) to chill out. Despite being gorgeously sunny and hot all week, it clouded over the night before and I rapidly had to think of a new plan!

As we mooched through the town in the rain, I found myself pointing out all the eateries in Chichester. Yes, I was showing them the important sights :-) Then as we wandered past another, Nathan stopped and cooed with interest at the window:


My ears (and stomach) twitched. We had stopped outside Maison Blanc, a lovely French pastry eatery that I've always wanted to go into but hadn't found an occasion to try it out. I walk past it all the time and see little old people nibbling on these posh pastries over cappuccinos. Finally, I had an opportunity to be one of them! A little person nibbling, not an old one of course.

Although it was pre-lunch time, the place was completely full, but we managed to grab a table. The atmosphere is lovely and the smell of all the French pastries and bread wafts through, mm! It was table service but we took it in turns to go up and look at the counter as the menu was in French - obviously there are English descriptions but for some reason, the foreign words always overpower this and distracts you so it gets confusing - makes the process of choosing even longer! Don't you find that?

Just some of the yummy choices...

To be honest, I had already seen something that I fancied from the menu before I went up to look - the description was along the lines of 'A regular beverage and three mini viennoiseries'. Ooh, I do like to have a selection when trying out a new place. But yes, I went up to see how 'mini' these viennoiseries actually were. Sometimes when you order something different or new to eat, there is always that fear you have when your food is delivered and it is not what you expected. As you can imagine, I hate it when this happens!

Luckily though, I was pleased with what I saw and went with my choice:

Le Leve Tot

Verdict? C'est tres bon! Mmmagnifique!

Continue reading this post..