Cake Glorious Cake! (The Beeches Cafe, Burnham Beeches).

I love cake perhaps more than I love anything else...

This interest stems perhaps from my student days in Durham, where truly awe-inspiring mammoth cakes of infinite variety were served up in giant slabs at Cafe Continental, and where cosy Wednesday afternoons disappeared a haze of tea and cakes in Vennel's.  Cake always succeeded in soothing our (constantly hungry) souls when faced with night after night of seriously disappointing College Food.

There's no time I crave tea and cake more than Sunday late afternoons (almost exactly from the point at which all shops close, making cake difficult to procure, especially when my baking skills leave a great deal to be desired).

But, I no longer need to worry!  I have found a place!  A place that can give me a glorious cake fix, as late as 6pm on a Sunday!

It's hard not to like Burnham Beeches (especially when you live as close to it as I do).  Despite being owned by the ominous sounding 'Corporation of London' it's really lovely woodland area.  Visiting late on a sunny Sunday afternoon, you can have the place mostly to yourself (and a few squirrels and the odd bunny rabbit in clearings that would make amazing picnic spots). 

But really, the main reason to visit, is for the Beeches Cafe.  Whilst Sharon's extolled the pleasures to be found in their flapjack, on each visit, I've been unable to pay any attention to anything but the small variety of ever changing, wonderful looking home made cakes!  On the last visit Coffee and Walnut cake ruled supreme - this visit the choice was between an elegant iced cake, a sumptuously sticky looking tower of zesty lemon cakes, or, the choice I finally made of the carrot cake beauty below.

It was everything you could desire from a cake.  Moist and light.  Lovely nutty texture.  Icing that was the perfect balance between sweet and tangy.  Blissful, and bargainous at only £1.90 for each generous slice.

The cafe itself serves from a hut in the centre of an open grassy area with outdoor seating - perfect for catching the late afternoon sun.

Highly recommended!

Come Dine With Me 2010: Part 2. Ushi's Sloughdog Millionaire Dinner

Photos by Jerome Taylor

I’d been putting it off for weeks. I’d delayed on setting a date, being somewhat intimidated by the prowess of the first hosts during the first instalment of our Come Dine With Me competition, and I was rather distracted by the looming deadline of my 15,000 word dissertation (hence the lack of blog posts in April and most of May 2010). I had a vague idea of the menu – it had been established early on that I’d be cooking Indian food, being the only type of food I could possibly cook more impressively than my talented friends, but I had no theme or plans for entertainment.

I had a vaguely advantageous situation as I’d convinced everyone to stay over at mine after the meal, hence could utilise the ‘get everyone too hammered to criticize’ game plan! I sought inspiration in the Pornstar Martinis discovered in Rotterdam, although I decided to re-invent them as martinis of the ‘Bollywood Star’ variety.

Inspiration along these lines, came only four days before the event itself. A recent visit to Slough Museum, combined with a re-watching of The Office had left me feeling much pride in the town I’d been living in for the last 9 months. So a Slough theme appealed, but I couldn’t think of a way to combine it with the Indian Menu, until inspiration hit…’Sloughdog Millionaire.’ A theme that was partly Bollywood, partly rejoicing in Slough (by virtue of being held there), and with some ‘Millionaire’ game show entertainment. Sorted. I sent out email invitations with mocked up Slumdog Millionaire posters which were received with some amusement (rather than ‘bemusement’ I hope) - no one even noticed I’d missed the ‘g’ out of ‘Slough’.

My main course and dessert I’d been testing on a number of guests over the previous few months, so I felt pretty confident with my chicken curry and vegetable rice with cucumber raita. My dessert – individual Baileys tiramisu wasn’t bad, but previous incarnations hadn’t been quite right in terms of cream and liquid and biscuit ratio. I had however sourced better receptacles for the individual desserts, and taken on board Sharon’s advice on soaking the biscuit fingers until they were oversaturated with liquid, and thinned out the layer of mascarpone and Baileys infused cream, so I was hopeful that these would turn out well. Previously I’d made them without any drama, but making eight of the things the night before, proved to be far more fiddly and tricky than I’d anticipated…a job I expected to take an hour at most, turned into three…

Cooking the chicken curry involved having to use my parents’ kitchen, a 7am start and the biggest steel pot and spoon I’ve ever seen (my mother never ceases to amaze me when she produces ridiculously gargantuan cooking implements out of nowhere). It was a great help though, and ensured good mixing of all the spices (fresh chilli, ginger and garlic green paste is the secret, as well as cloves and cinnamon sticks when you start cooking).

As I was hosting on my own, I’d been granted special dispensation from the group to enlist some help in the cooking. Whilst I’d been faffing around with the tiramisu for hours on the previous evening, my mum had made the samosas to accompany my Bollywood Star Martini starter. I was massively thankful as I battled with a vegetable curry – Aloo Gobi (potato and cauliflower curry), as well as an apple and coriander chutney for the samosas and the cucumber raita. Rice would be made after the starters were served.

Another challenge was seating – given I can normally only seat three. I was counting on borrowing a folding table from my parents that, was until the morning of the meal, as good as mythical. I’d never actually seen it before and there were mutterings from my dad and sister that it was broken. I finally saw it just a few hours before the guests arrived - massively relieved that it was fairly study and of a good size, (and there’s nothing like some heavy duty tape to stick a slightly broken table back together).

The food was mostly cooked by early afternoon, and I quickly prepared my menus – on individual red crepe paper scrolls tied with silver ribbon. Not as hand drawn or as beautiful as the previous dinner, but not bad for a last minute job.

Then to decorate the table – my tour de force was my Bollywoodised Place Names – Greg Rukh Khan, Salman Khan Foley, Kajol Jayasinghe, Aishwarya Aldred, Amitabh Taylor Buchan, Sofia Mitra Mukerjee, Preity Amie Zinta would be joining me, Madushi Dixit, for dinner. Flowers, menus, candle sticks, tea lights, sparkly table confetti and a little pot of bubbles each, made for a fairly crowded table, (and a slightly drunken, but luckily not too destructive table fire later on in the evening).

The full menu (complete with Bollywood film style Acts and Intervals) was presented as follows:

Act 1

Pink champagne on the Veranda

Bollywood Star Martini with Samosas

Act 2

Chicken Curry with Vegetable Rice

Aloo Gobi

Cucumber Raita

Chapattis & Naan Bread

Interval

Act 3

Individual Baileys Tiramisu

Chai

I’d covered the walls in saris, put songs from the emotion-fest that is bollywood film Khabbie Kushie Khabbie Gham on the DVD player, and I’d prepared Who want to be a Millionaire style multiple choice questions about my guests. Literally an hour before the guests arrived, I’d spotted a ‘Millionaire’ board game in the charity shop across the road, for a princely sum of £2. Theme sorted!

The guests arrived and pink champagne was calmly served (champagne flutes began the great use every type of glass possible mission). Guests took their seats, blowing bubbles and comparing whose Bollywood names whilst I got the Bollywood Star Martinis ready.

Passion fruit and mango juice, much vodka and gin, sugar, ice and passion fruit seeds, served with a separate shot of cava. I had lovely martini glasses for the girls and manly tumblers for the boys (made slightly less manly by neon squiggly straws), and shot glasses all the way from Uzbekistan. Samosas accompanied the drink along with an individual serving of the chutney. Much topping up of drinks, quickly bought with it a genial and slightly burry atmosphere. As a result, cooking vegetable rice and some token chapattis for the main course, was a challenge too far, so I went for straightforward plain rice instead and naan bread (and hoped no one would notice).

Serving up the main course with rice in little mounds, chicken curry in small bowls and individual ramekins of cucumber raita, didn’t leave much room for the Aloo Gobi, and left me thinking I’d taken the ‘individual’ thing a step too far.

The small napkin/candle table fire was luckily moved from table to sink without catching fire to the saris on the wall. Post meal silliness involved my personalised ‘millionaire’ questions, more bubble blowing and a new game…Face Table.  All you need to play is sparkly table confetti, a slightly moist face, and a table!

Photos by Jerome Taylor
 Dessert went down well – the tiramisu turned out far better on this occasion than ever before to my delight!  Chai (Indian tea) which I’d only really made once before that morning (my parents were guinea pigs), had been greeted with enthusiasm when the guests first saw the menu, and I was relieved that I hadn’t offered a choice of various post dinner hot beverages, as by this point in the evening, simplicity was by far the best plan.

The evening continued for many more hours in a similarly entertaining fashion. I’d surprisingly stopped caring about winning quite early on the evening, as just having pulled off the evening without any disasters, and with appreciative guests, seemed like a brilliant thing to have accomplished. I recorded a witty and erudite video diary entry on my view of the evening, to find at 2am when I was in my pyjamas and far worse for wear, that none of the recording had actually worked, and that we’d need to re-record all our thoughts. So the actual video (when we finally see them all after the last meal we have), will consist of my drunken incoherent mumblings about how I’m now too old to not be in pyjamas at 2am. Fitting I think.

(Many thanks to Jerome Taylor for his beautiful photos).

The White Horse, Village Road, Hedgerley, SL2 3UY

I'm amazed I'd not written about The White Horse until now. Originally a Beer in the Evening find, it's my most favourite (relatively local) drinkery, and the place where I take all my distinguished visitors, in order to counteract the smokestacks and trading estate view from my flat. True to form, I whisked Laura from Slough Rail Station to the gorgeously rural village of Hedgerley.

From the moment we headed up 'One Pin Lane', and took delight at 'Christmas Lane', Laura expressed incredulous shock at the opulent houses and lush greenery - Toto I have a feeling we're not in Slough anymore...

Village Road itself is exactly how you'd imagine it - flanked by fields and a tiny church - we parked a short walk away, and found we weren't the only ones walking the final few yards to The White Horse (it's always busy- I've never attempted to squeeze into the car park). The timber-thatched building dates back to 1679, with nothing incongruously modern in the decor. Always busy, this is everyone's favourite pub. Two bar areas (one so tiny, I've frequently had to sit in the fireplace cubbyhole -see picture below courtesy of Lee on a previous visit), and a wonderful rambly garden, makes this place a delight.


The winner of many a Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) award, it boasts an immensely wide ranging selection of booze - from the aforementioned real ale, to properly potent cider, to a selection of Belgian Bottled Beers so large it's presented to those who ask, in a ring-binder.

 But my visit with Laura, was no normal day. The sun was shining to herald not only the start of the Bank Holiday Weekend, but also the 18th Annual White Horse May Bank Holiday Beer Festival, as we discovered with delight as we walked into the beer garden.


Although not yet 6pm on Friday, the large garden was full of relaxed drinkers, taking advantage of the huge bar tent serving 100s of beers - the atmosphere very much like we were in the garden of a friend. We found a quiet spot upon the steps of the children's playhouse, got ourselves a suitably frivolous raspberry beer and basked in the sun... Fruitily, frothily, delicious we marvelled at our good luck.

The Cricketers, Coronation Road, Littlewick Green, Maidenhead, SL6 3RA

It was dark. Whilst we could see a distant glimmer of a pub upon a village green, finding the road by which to reach it was a little more challenging. Once parked outside, I was pleasantly surprised by the bustle of people inside. As much as I love the Beer in the Evening website, the last Sunday night pub it led us to managed to be simultaneously hostile and empty. The Cricketers looked pretty from the outset (I imagined even more lovely in the summer when the green wasn't just a dark expanse), and once inside we were met with one of the friendliest and most chatty landlords experienced in a while, (how many times have you been entertained by an Alexander the Meerkat impression, by the person serving your drinks? And introduced to the selection of meerkat memorabilia behind the bar).

There was much in the way of Badger ales and slight touches of quirkiness in the knick-knacks dotted around the pub. Deep in conversation I didn't realise for a while that the crowd had disappated by about 9.30pm, and we were the only ones left (well, us and a couple of chubby birds...I'm sure they had lovely personalities):

I am quite a fan of slightly weird pubs (the appearance of the tiniest dogs in the world firmly put this pub in that category), particularly when they are friendly, old-fashioned and cosy as The Cricketers is. The toilets did let the side down somewhat- the Ladies are in definite need of a refurb, and I have it on good authority that there is a very unconventional colour scheme going on in the Gents. But hey, all good conversation topics! Didn't sample any food, but I hope to visit again and can highly recommend a visit.

Chez Marianne, 2 Rue des Hospitalières Saint-Gervais, 75004 Paris

As a child I was frequently told off for being impatient. I still struggle with it. Waiting for a table isn't something I do well, particularly as was the case at Chez Marianne, when faced (quite literally) with an array of pastries (pictured below), just inches from my nose, on one side of the queue, and a counter of take-away falafel on the other.

We looked enviously onto those lucky enough to have tables in the tiny dining room, the walls filled from from floor to ceiling with wine bottles (is there a better way to decorate a room?), trying to spot the people nearing the end of their meal, mentally urging them to leave.

My resolve weakened a number of times, as I debated internally on the likelihood of whether the queue would operate in a fair and proper manner. About 15 minutes into our wait, I even suggested that maybe myself and Pam should cut our losses, and opt for takeaway falalel instead (we'd sampled the best takeaway falalels I'd ever had, just round the corner on a previous visit to the Jewish Quarter a couple of years ago). Pam assured me that I wouldn't want to miss the delights on offer at Chez Marianne, so stomach rumbling (my hunger slightly surprising given the huge freshly-baked crossiant (avec extra beurre) I'd had for breakfast just a couple of hours previously) I took a quick walk round the block in a hunt for a cash machine, in the gorgeously cold but sunny weather, in the hopes that we'd have a table by the time I returned.

A short while later, we were intriguingly tapped on the shoulder by a waiter who gestured that we should follow him outside. "Great" I thought. "We're being forcibly ejected for being too hungry looking."

But all was well! We followed him outside and were led to an entirely separate dining room a little further down the street - how wonderful! Busy but feeling more roomy. No wine bottles decorating the walls, but mandolins (not bad). The food is Middle Eastern/Jewish/Kosher and mezze seemed to be a fantastic plan for lunchtime.

The system was for a plate of 4, 5 or 6 mezze choices each (or 10 for two people sharing) from a list where everything sounded delicious.

Sadly they were out of mushrooms, but I was still very utterly delighted with my plate when it arrived. My choices: falafel (just fried, so wonderfully hot and crispy), hummous and tzatziki (a joy to eat with the hot flatbread) and heavenly aubergines. Pam's plate varied from mine slightly with her pastrami and feta options.

The huge portions meant that we struggled to finish the misleadingly named 'petit' plates, but also resulted in really very good value for money. There was no space at all for any desserts (especially as we knew we had an afternoon at a spa ahead of us), but my day had already been made, and I was most definitely in agreement that this had been well worth the wait.

Pornstar Martinis and other delightfuls - Level, Pannekoekstraat 76-A, Rotterdam

Preparation...

The infamous 'Pornstar Martini' - gorgeous vanilla infused vodka, with passionfruit sours and vanilla syrup, served with a shot of prosecco. We had six.

Caipirinha (we had 5)

The 'Cookie Monster' - don't be fooled - it was very potent

Boozy blog post for you tonight...

Far too stylish for us, we soon scared off the few other Monday night drinkers with our noisy demands for Pina Coladas. Almost luckily, the lack of our usual team drink meant that we were able to sample a wide range of other boozy delights. Full cocktail menu here. Shulaika may not be able to return for a while, but I can highly recommend!

www.levelrotterdam.nl

Pannekoekstraat 76

A3011 LK Rotterdam,

Netherlands

Beijing Chinese Restaurant, 103 Old Wokingham Road, Crowthorne, RG45 6LH

Open-ended plans often feature high levels of indecision. Luckily, due to a winning combination of well-reasoned logic, recommendation, proximity and hunger we found ourselves making a short walk to Crowthorne's 'Beijing' Chinese Restaurant.

Visiting someone's local favourite is always a good plan - for both good food and insider knowledge (Free takeaway delivery? Of course! However, as Sharon enlightened us, there's never a driver available to do the delivery!)

Whilst packed on Friday nights, we were almost the only diners on a Wednesday evening, but the atmosphere remained relaxed. Service was attentive and the menu was extensive. Whilst the 'Baked spare ribs - capital style' sounded like they were going to be a main meal of deep-fried joy, we opted for the less adventurous but very enjoyable spring rolls and satay chicken. All great, but really, there's just one dish I want to talk about - and disasterously, the picture I have of it just doesn't do it any justice, so I'll let you form a mental picture. Beautifully thin slivers of lamb marinaded in a sticky sauce with ginger, cooked to perfection which slightly crunchy spring onions and peppers. Utter deliciousness.

The staff were very sweet and eager to please - I asked for a take away menu and was given about 50. Upon hearing that one of our party wouldn't be taking a menu as she lived in The Netherlands, we found the waitress enthusing at length about how lovely tulips were. Which was quite endearing.

All in all - a brilliant discovery and the best lamb dish ever.