BARCELONA EATING

For our third holiday together this year, after a crazy fun weekend in Paris and a wonderful few days in Menorca, Lucy and I went to Barcelona to stay in the very newly opened Soho House. Most of our pre-holiday plans revolve around picking out the best spots to eat and drink, and this was no different. Apart from the fact that it being Barcelona, one of the culinary destinations of Europe, there seemed to be even more to choose from. We'd decided not to book anywhere and go with the flow, hopping from tapas bar to bar and back to tapas bar, but I sneakily made a reservation anyway as I couldn't resist what I'd seen of Bodega 1900 so after dumping our bags at the hotel we headed straight there.

Bodega 1900 is a reincarnation of the traditional bodega restaurants of the past, where the food that's served is modern versions of classic dishes. We kicked off with a vermouth or three, toasting our arrival and the start of what was to be one of my favourite weekends this year. An early start, plane journey and speedy cab ride had left us both feeling a little delicate, so we opted out of the set menu in order to choose our food ourselves. We chose well. First to the table were the "olives" - straight out of El Bulli, these spheres of olivey liquid burst into the roof of your mouth filling it with salty goodness and amazement. Once we'd got over how good they were we moved on to the rest of our choices - thin tubes of confit squid, soft and delicate and stuffed with mince, swimming in a bowl of the herb infused olive oil they'd been cooked in; "la rubia gallega" beef tenderloin cured in salt and spices, which was rich and meaty and so moreish; fresh tomato salad doused in lip lickingly good olive oil and topped with snowflakes of salt; clams "de carril" cooked in a rich tomato sauce (not pictured); and melon drenched in vermouth to finish, which Lucy kindly let me eat nearly all of! 

I'm going to say this about all of the places in this post, but if you go to Barcelona, make sure you eat at Bodega 1900. We ate a lot more than I've written about and drank a fair few vermouths etc, and I think our bill was around 70euros each - not the cheapest place we ate, but worth every cent. 

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MENORCAN HOLIDAY

Last week I was luckily enough to spend a long weekend in Menorca. I've travelled a lot this year (Japan, Paris, Greece and the Isles of Scilly) but they've all either been for work or felt like work. My lovely few days in Menorca were the most relaxing holiday I've had in a long time. Decisions revolved around swimming pool or beach, BBQing or eating out, and drinking beer, cocktails or wine! I didn't have to think, as my wonderful friend Lucy knows the island (and me) so well that anything she suggested we do ended up being the best option possible. It was absolute bliss.

We were staying in Son Rosas villa, which is on the edge of Es Migjorn Gran. It's a stunning villa which sleeps up to 8, has a pool (which became home to Fabio the inflatable Flamingo, who was promptly renamed Beaky by Lucy's mate's 3 year old), stunning gardens with all different types of fruit trees, and four different outside eating/chilling/drinking areas.

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RECENT EATS

Sometimes I actually go out to a restaurant without my camera and writing head, and just to enjoy a meal and catch up with mates... That doesn't mean the places we go aren't worth writing about, just that I can't document every single thing I eat all the time. Having said that, I've eaten in some really excellent places recently, so feel I should share the love and tell you about them in case you want to try them out too. So excuse the phone snaps, but here's a few of my recent favourites.

6 Portland Road

I saw this hidden gem on Instagram and immediately knew I wanted to go. Everything about it seemed so similar to the wonderful Amarante that Lucy and I discovered in Paris earlier this year. A little French inspired restaurant in West London that does brilliant food and even better wine all with excellent service. It felt like a little secret we'd discovered though I worry that it might be less of a secret now that both Grace and Fay have given it such stellar reviews. I went with Lucy and we drank delicious wine and shared courses of ox tongue, terrine, calves liver and red mullet. I can really see myself spending many a lazy Sunday afternoon at 6 Portland Road. It's the perfect addition to West London.

 

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TAPAS REVOLUTION, SHOREDITCH

Reviewing a restaurant right after Christmas was a risky move as I wasn't exactly hungry... I hadn't been actually hungry for days, having eaten way more than necessary on a daily basis for well over a week. But I got back to London on the 28th from my parent's house, and had plans to meet up with a girlfriend, so decided to go to Tapas Revolution, just off the top of Brick Lane, where I'd been invited to check out the food. I was worried the menu would be full of deep fried bits, and heavy meats, but we ended up having such a delicious meal, full of light bites, raw meat and fish, and wonderful salads.

Tapas Revolution is a chain. I don't normally review chains but it's only got a few branches and the menu appealed to me so thought it would be worth checking out - it definitely was. They've got London branches in Shoreditch (which I went to), Westfield and Bluewater (as well as one in Birmingham, and opening soon in Sheffield). The menu at Tapas Revolution is very typically Spanish (as you'd expect) and consists of lots of meat, fish and veggie tapas sharing plates - hams, cheeses, olives, anchovies, patatas bravas, croquettes.... All of which we skipped! We picked the lightest, freshest dishes on the menu, and thoroughly enjoyed all of them.

First up was carpaccio de ternera - seasoned thin slices of 45 day-aged ribeye from 8 year old basque cows, topped with shavings of parmesan, cress, a little lemon and salt. There was a beautiful piece of fat on the end of each slither of beef, and rolled up with the salt and the cress it was a heavenly mouthful. The quality of the beef was outstanding.

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MILLI'S KITCHEN SPANISH POP UP - THIS WEEK

If you're in Soho this week or next, then promise me you'll pop in to The Sun and 13 Cantons on Beak Street to try out some of Milli's amazing Spanish food?

Milli's doing a Spanish pop up at lunchtime and dinner time at The Sun and 13 Cantons, serving up delicious dishes like squid ink croquettes, sliced sirloin steak with potatoes and aubergine with honey, to name just a few. The tapas dishes range from £4-10 and there are about five vegetable, five fish and five meat dishes to choose from. They're also serving sherry, and smaller nibbles, so even if you haven't got time for a whole meal, I'd really recommend you pop in for a nibble and a drink!

Lunch is from 12-3pm Tuesday - Sunday, and dinner from 6-10pm with spaces still available on 26th, 27th and 30th October, and 2nd, 3rd (when I'm going) and 4th November. To book a table email info@milliscatering.co.uk or if you're going for lunch then just drop in.

Photos 100% stolen from Milli's blog, and taken by the wonderful Bec

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SPANISH PORK TASTING w INTERPORC

I'm a fan of foods from all over the world. I love Japanese food, French influenced food finds its way in to lots of my cooking, I adore the flavours of North Africa and I definitely couldn't go without Italian food... but one of my absolute favourites is Spanish food. I was lucky enough to live in Seville for a while where they have, in my opinion, some of the best tapas in Spain. So when Interporc, Spain's biggest white pork exporter, invited me to a night of tasting and teaching at La Iberica in Marylebone I couldn't refuse.

The evening started with drinks. We were offered red or white sangria - I chose white, which is made with cava instead of red wine and is a revelation - fruity and strong but not heavy from red wine, I'll be drinking a lot of this this Summer. In fact, we sought some out in Portugal last week and enjoyed it in the blazing sunshine on the beach in between body boarding dips in the sea - bliss!!
 

  

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FINCA CORTESIN w QUINTESSENTIALLY TRAVEL

I may have mentioned before, that the end of our Spanish holiday was spent at a 5* hotel, which was part of a bundle of goodies I'd won. What actually happened was about 8 months ago I signed up to receive Quintessentially Travel's newletter. I forgot all about it, until a few months later when I received this in my inbox:

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ON TO CADIZ...

After our 4 days in Seville recently, we hired a car to drive down to Cadiz, where the sun came out, and shone on us for 3 days. We had booked another Airbnb apartment, which was somehow even better than the one in Seville. It was 2 minutes walk to the beach and located on a gorgeous palm lined street, full of cafes and bars. Our Airbnb hosts (they own the flat rather than live there) even went off with the boy to help find a space for the car and when we left they offered us a free night there next time we visit! This was the view from the front door of the flat: 

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EATING IN SEVILLE

A couple of weeks ago the boy and I took ourselves off to Andalucia for a well earned break. In fact, I had won a weekend at a 5* hotel near Estepona back in Autumn last year, via Quintessentially Travel, so had booked another 7 days on top of that via AirBnb, firstly in Seville then on to Cadiz, before the weekend at the hotel. More on both the hotel and Cadiz in my next few posts, but here I want to tell you about Seville.

I spent a year living in Seville in 2004. I have wonderful memories of lots of good food, interesting tapas bars and great places to drink. Although structurally Seville hasn't changed too much (apart from the addition of trams and tubes!) pretty much everything else seems to have been replaced or upgraded. Yes, there were still a few places I knew and recognised, but the food scene in particular, seems to have taken off in a big way. Gone are many of the small, traditional tapas bars, having been replaced by fusion restaurants, sushi bars and all sorts I would've never expected to see in Seville. 

We set off, armed with various emails and blog links that recommended places to eat, and print offs from Lizzie's blog, Hollow Legs, including her really helpful spreadsheet she compiled from a Seville/Cadiz visit, ready to go. However, on arriving in Seville, I began to realise just how much has changed, even since Lizzie's visit 2 years ago. We hung on to all recommendations, and visited a few of them, but were thrilled to bump into an old acquantance of the boy's and mine, the very talented grafitti artist Seleka, who now runs the wonderful DeLimbo gallery in the centre of Seville, and had a whole load of recommendations of the newest and best places we should go to eat.

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