Posted on

POSH TOAST

Toast. We can’t quite imagine life without it. Even faced with the demonization of wheat we have maintained our devotion to moreish sourdoughs, crunchy baguettes or squidgey soda bread. So a new book that pays homage to all of the above and more has certainly piqued our interest. Posh Toast – is exactly what it says on the cover – a celebration of all things atop scorched bread from breakfast treats like avocado on toast (which is given a crunchy twist with a sprinkling of dukkah) or rancheros – the spicy, meaty cowboy staple – through to classics including eggs Benedict or eggs Florentine. There are more substantial toast toppings for lunches or suppers too – a buck rarebit or a maneesh flatbread topped with labneh, mint and pistachio for example. Helpfully there’s a whole chapter dedicated to small canapé sized toasts too – providing lots of very easy but impressive party ideas such as a ridiculously good baked camembert, rosemary and truffle oil toast (which quite frankly we’d eat anytime) to equally delicious tagliata crostini. The authors call it the ultimate convenience food – and of course it is – although toast can be totally indulgent too. However it comes.

Posted on

Rita Konig’s Design Workshops

We love Rita Konig’s top interiors tips.  As the daughter of Nina Campbell and as an interior designer in her own right, she has many tricks (and useful addresses) up her sleeves.  We’ve been reading her advice in the New York T Magazine and British House & Garden where she is a columnist for a while but we were thrilled to discover that she will be giving her own workshops this October.  Starting on 9th October, the series of design workshops are on ‘The Complete House’ and will take place at Rita’s home in W10.  The first class will focus on layouts and unexpected additions.  To sign up, e-mail milly@ritakonig.com.

Posted on

The Meringue Girls on their favourite foodie start-ups

We love ladies DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES! So many amazing food entrepreneurs lately, finding a niche and running with their idea – we love it!

A few of our faves are Lotta, Pip and Lillie, Chloe, Oonah and Carla.

Eat Chic: 

We share our bakery with Lotta so get to see and eat her amazing pimped out peanut butter cups every week. Her peanut butter cups are not your average fare.  She uses all types of amazing nut butters inside, slathers on either dark or white chocolate on the outside together with a liberal sprinkling of sea salt.

You can find her stuff in Organico Broadway Market, just around the corner from our bakery, or she has her own website so  you can you buy directly from her and receive your goodies in the post!

 

 

Pip & Nut:

Pip is an amazing young entrepreneur making nut butters. Our favourite is her almond and coconut butter. It’s so delicious! We collaborate with Pip all the time. Our favourite thing to make are our coconut flour brownies with lashings of Pip & Nut peanut butter swirled through.

Pip & Nut can be bought in loads of organic and health food shops, and she also runs a ‘toast bar’ events, where you can feast on lashings of nut butter with fresh banana on sourdough. All details on her website.

 

London Borough of Jam:

Lillie from London Borough of Jam makes the most EPIC flavours of jam and gave us her recipes for both raspberry & liquorice and peach & thyme jams, which we use in our jammie dodgers in our book. Lillie has a love of jam and all things beautiful. She has a gorgeous little shop by Chatsworth Road, which is open on a Sunday.  Get there early to try her jam packed St. John’s doughnuts.

 

Fatties Bakery:

Fatties is another one to watch out for. Chloe Timms is a sugar WHIZZ and focuses purely on salted caramel and sherbet. Her process is precise, simple and beautiful. She takes the most beautiful and indulgent of ingredients, and transforms them into a hot golden goo set into ingots of chewy gold. She makes everything in small batches in copper pans, and every piece of caramel is hand cut and wrapped. All Fatties products are made in Camberwell, South London, and are stocked in lots of amazing places in London, including General Store, Melrose & Morgan, Daily Goods, and Proper & Sons.

 

The Marshmallowists:

We had the pleasure of going all the way to Puglia for an Indian wedding with the lovely founder of The Marshmallowists, Oonah. She is incredible at what she does! She has perfected the art of the naturally coloured and flavoured marshmallows using organic whole fruit, essential oils and boutique alcohol to create crazy flavour combinations and the PERFECT texture. We love her! They are stocked in Harvey Nichols and Selfridges in both London and Manchester.

 

Fondant Fox:

Carla from Fondant Fox Cake Design is one to look out for. We are constantly colaborating with her as she is the best cake baker / decorator / designer we know. She designs the most incredible cakes for events, weddings, press parties and birthdays. She has the an immaculate eye,  and we are absolutely in love with her and everything she does. We have a range of cakes available that are Fondant Fox / Meringue Girls creations available to buy online. Fondant Fox Cake design is based in Hackney and will Carla will design, bake and decorate cakes for all your cake needs. Each design is completely bespoke and all of her cakes use the highest quality ingredients.

Posted on

The Decorative Collective

If, like us, you spend countless hours scoping antique shops and fairs then you may already know about the Decorative Collective. If not then you should really check it out. The site – which has long been an obsession of ours – gathers together some of our favourite dealers from antiques hotspots like Church Street and Lots Road as well as stores across the country and further afield too in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Most pieces are from the 20th and 21st century (although it’s not restricted to just that period) and thanks to the careful edit of dealers the site has a very unified taste level and aesthetic. You communicate directly with the dealers and there’s no commission involved – it is a proper collective of really great shops. It’s especially good for mirrors and lighting – although we have found all sorts of fabulous things on the site from old cast iron planters to 1940s Italian brass mirrors. There’s an off-shoot site too, The Hoarde, which brings together vintage rather than antique pieces. Happy shopping!

 

Posted on

Wiggy Kit – A great new resortwear collection

One of the downsides of spending summer largely at home on staycation is watching everyone else’s glamorous trips remotely on Instagram and we’ve been more than a little obsessed with stylist Martha Ward’s endless summer – and her equally dreamy wardrobe. We are very taken with one of her discoveries, Wiggy Hindmarch, whose new resortwear label is packed with truly covetable pieces like the tux dress – a swingy smock in waffle cotton with a crisp bib trimmed with tiny pom poms which comes in a perfect ice pink, all white or mint green. There are beautiful roomy white crepe shirts or the St Germain shirt in a gorgeous Swiss dot cotton voile. Hindmarch’s pieces are quite unlike other holidaywear which tends to nearly always be floaty and sheer. She had waiting lists within a week of launching and has already sold out of some key dresses in beautiful Palm Beach prints (we love the acid ikat). Best of all these are the sort of clothes that make packing lightly a breeze – you only need to add a pair of pretty sandals and go. Holiday bliss.

 

 

Posted on

The Zetter Townhouse Marylebone

Last night we went to the opening of The Zetter Townhouse Marylebone which officially opens its doors on Friday.  The 24 bedroom Georgian townhouse is sexy yet cosy, eccentric yet inviting and definitely feels more like a home than a hotel – but that’s the idea.  Whilst the original Clerkenwell outpost is modelled as the home of Zetter’s Great Aunt Wilhelmina, this is the home of Wicked Uncle Seymour.  The interior designer, Russell Sage, was inspired by Sir John Soane’s architectural collections and the hotel is crammed full with pieces ‘massed during Uncle Seymour’s European Grand Tour’.  There are seven categories of rooms although our top pick would definitely be the Rooftop Apartment which occupies the whole of the top floor with its own private staircase, dressing room and roof terrace with an outdoor bath.  On the ground floor is Seymour’s Parlour, a cocktail lounge open from breakfast to evening with food by Chef Bruno Loubet.  From the group that owns The Zetter Hotel, The Zetter Townhouse Clerkenwell and Grain Store, this is a great spot – whether it’s for breakfast, cocktails or a bed for the night.

Posted on

King’s Cross Eating and Drinking Guide

We knew a few years ago, when we saw Rosario Dawson and Danny Boyle dining at the pop up Shrimpy’s that changes were afoot in King’s Cross, and these days it’s transformed itself beyond all recognition. Here are our current top recommendations for eating and drinking in the area throughout the day.

Breakfast

Dishoom (5 Stable St, London N1C 4AB)

It might seem ridiculous to recommend a restaurant on the basis of one dish but the bacon naan at Dishoom is a thing of wonder. It’s quite a simple concoction: bacon from Ginger Pig with a smear of cream cheese, chilli-tomato ketchup and coriander inside a fluffy naan, but it works so brilliantly you do really wonder why no one thought of it before. There are plenty of other options beside the bacon naan, including Dishoom’s house granola if you want to be healthier, or the Big Bombay – Dishoom’s take on the full English – if you really don’t. They also have a range of pretty good juices and bottomless chai, which isn’t to everyone’s taste but we happen to love it.

1.Dishoom interior

 

Coffee

Noble Espresso (Battle Bridge Place, London, N1C 4TB)

Coffee drinkers in King’s Cross are now spoilt for choice: Pain Quotidien in St Pancras International Station and Kiosk in King’s Cross Station mean that commuters to the area never need patronise a Costa again. Restaurants such as Caravan and Granger & Co. also make a mean brew. Our top choice however, would be for the Noble Espresso coffee cart in Battle Bridge Place at the foot of King’s Boulevard (if you leave King’s Cross Station via the exit next to Nero Express or the exit next to Boots, you will see the cart). Noble simply serve brilliant coffee (and also builder’s tea for £1). The cart operates Monday – Friday, 7:00am – 4:00pm. At weekends and in the evening, we would recommend Notes, a little further up on King’s Boulevard, as an alternative.

3.Noble Espresso crop

 

Weekend Brunch

Granger & Co (Stanley Building, 7 Pancras Building, London N1C 4AG)

We were already familiar with Bill Granger’s Notting Hill and Clerkenwell restaurants and this branch is a lovely addition to the mini-chain. The olive leather banqettes and pink marble tables make it probably the chicest place to eat in King’s Cross. All of this would be irrelevant if the food wasn’t up to scratch, of course, but it’s predictably great and the generous portions and Granger’s magpie approach to ingredients make it perfect for a weekend brunch. We are big fans of the tea-smoked salmon with poached eggs and even bigger fans of the delicious chilli fried egg and bacon brioche roll.

2. Granger & Co KX crop

 

Lunch

Grain Store (Granary Square, 1-3 Stable Street, London N1C 4AB)

The best place to eat any meal in King’s Cross is Grain Store. We’ve raved about it before (here) so we won’t repeat ourselves, just go! If you don’t have a booking, don’t even bother pitching up in the evening but they may be able to squeeze you in at lunch.

4. Grain Store © Amy Murrell 2013-4 crop

 

Dinner

The Fellow (24 York Way, London, N1 9AA)

Any of the restaurants we’ve already mentioned would be very nice for dinner. It’s also worth considering the Fellow, a gastropub in an area where there are few of them. We would go back  for the smoked mackerel salad with pink grapefruit and horseradish cream alone, but they also have a range of heartier main courses and very decent puddings.

Fellow

Best place to buy wine

Vinoteca Wine Shop (3 King’s Boulevard, London, N1C 4BU)

In a mad hurry, we suppose you might grab a bottle from Waitrose in King’s Cross station or M&S in St Pancras. Far better however, is Vinoteca’s recently opened wine shop which is attached to the restaurant. Staff are notably helpful.

5.Vinoteca Wine Shop

 

Food gifts

Sourced Market (St Pancras International, Pancras Road, London, N1C 4QP)

The obvious place if you want to buy fancy biscuits in nice packaging, say, is Fortnum’s in St Pancras. Don’t overlook Sourced Market in the same station (opposite Starbucks) however — it has some more unusual foodie gifts, not least a lovely range of jams from England Preserves.

England Preserves

 

Cocktails

The Gilbert Scott Bar (The Gilbert Scott, St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, Euston Road, London, NW1 2AR)

Both the Grain Store and Camino (a Spanish bar that also serves great tapas) mix a mean cocktail. If you want somewhere for a proper conversation with a friend – or even for a date – the Gilbert Scott Bar in the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel is probably the best bet, however. Delicious cocktails, brilliant service — this is about as far away as it’s possible to get from the average train station drinking hole.

 

6.The Gilbert Scott Bar lit up crop

Posted on

Ice Kitchen: 50 Lolly Recipes

Summer’s not over yet, and jolly good, because we’ve a few hot weather crowd pleasers still to pull out of the bag. First and foremost is a much needed replacement for our take on DIY lollies: aka oh-too-simple frozen bananas dipped in melted chocolate. Helping us fashion gourmet artisan lollies – from Moroccan Mint Tea to Lychee & Lemongrass; Pistachio & Rose to Ruby Grapefruit & Campari – is new tome Ice Kitchen: 50 Lolly Recipes. Back in 2011, artist Nadia Roden began making ice lollies that looked fabulous – and tasted pretty damn good too. Joined by her nephew Cesar, the two upped the ante and eventually moved the business to London in 2013. Fast forward to 2015 and the book helps sweet-toothed suckers fashion their own creations. Go upscale for weddings, experiment for Sunday lunches, make a few for the kids and create others to get drunk on (Mojito, anyone?). Suck it and see.

Posted on

Honey & Co: The Baking Book

We loved Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich’s first book: Honey & Co: Food from the Middle East and weren’t surprised when it was named Food Book of the Year by both The Sunday Times and Fortnum & Mason. We also try and eat at their tiny but perfectly formed restaurant on Warren Street as often as possible. So we seized on their follow up, Honey & Co: The Baking Book, with glee and it doesn’t disappoint. As the Srulovich writes in the introduction: ‘Even though it is only a part of what we do, the pastry section is the backbone of the operation, the driving force and the powerhouse. What baking requires represents everything we want our staff to have and our customers to feel – consideration, concentration, experience and patience, of course, but also a lot of passion, greed, an eagerness to please on an industrial scale and a great big heart.’

So no, this is not just a book about how to bake cakes. God knows, we’ve got enough of those. There are plenty of deliciously sweet bakes to make of course – we’ve already made the blueberry, hazelnut & ricotta cake (fabulous) and the peach, vanilla & fennel seed mini loaves (a firm favourite) – but as well as these, there are chapters on baking for lunch (with recipes such as smoky aubergine phylas, Su böreği or Turkish lasagne, and pigeon pastilla); for your store cupboard (we’re obsessed with the black fig, cardamom & orange jam); for breakfast, elevenses (the spiced cauliflower muffins are amazingly pretty and equally delicious), and tea, as well as a glorious final chapter on traditional Middle Easter deserts. All the recipes are made distinctive by Honey & Co’s subtle but fragrant spicing and balance of flavours. These are bakes that will wake you up rather than send you into a sugar stupor. And like the first book, this one is written by a writer—Srulovich—with a wonderfully singular voice. It’s a pleasure to both use and read. If you’re feeling inspired by the new series of Great British Bake Off, do treat yourself to this book. Then download an application form for next year’s series.

Posted on

Cookbook Confidential Festival

There are few things we like more than listening to (or watching) some of our favourite cooks and chefs, and next month some of them will be in action en masse as the Cookbook Confidential festival hits the South Bank. On 5th September you can hear cooks and writers like Diana Henry, Kay Plunkett-Hogge, Gizzi Erskine, Olia Hercules and Leon’s John Vincent in conversation discussing everything from how to write a cookbook to the inspiration behind some of the city’s favourite eateries such as Hawksmoor, Foxlow or Pitt Cue Co. There are workshops too from James Wong, patissier Eric Lanlard, Chetna Makan and Sabrina Ghayour, whose debut book Persiana has contributed so many fab things to our repertoire since it was published last summer.

Better still Cookbook Confidential is offering one lucky reader a cookbook of their choice along with a pair of tickets to one of the day’s talks or workshops. Fill in the boxes below to enter and we will pull one name from the hat on 13th August at 5pm. Good luck!

Posted on

Meringue Girls: Everything Sweet

Anyone who goes to any fashion or PR events in London will be familiar with the rainbow displays of miniature meringue kisses whipped up by East London’s Meringue Girls. Since dreaming up their baking company four years ago Alex Hoffler and New Zealand born Stacey O’Gorman have risen to foodie stardom. And they are already onto their second book, Everything Sweet, which like their debut is a riotously colourful, fun and inspiring read. There’s a Willy Wonka zaniness about their reworked classics where old favourites (Jaffa Cakes, Iced Gems, Tunnocks Teacakes) are given homespun make-overs or their totally over the top celebration cakes which are piled high with everything from fresh honeycomb to fondant foxes. Colour plays a huge role in the girls’ baking which is partly why their recipes are so seductive – and they helpfully include all their little tricks in the book like how to pipe those amazing rainbow meringues (it’s ridiculously simple and brilliantly effective), how to dye white chocolate to create the fab Jackson Pollock chocolate bars or a dazzling fuchsia pink marbled millionaire’s shortbread. It’s their show-stopping cakes though that are truly mouth-watering – the piled high Eton mess layer cake is pretty much the most spectacular cake you can serve – and deliciously unctuous and summery too. If you’ve got kids there are lots of things here that can be made with them – we’ve never seen a six year old get quite so excited by recipes. And the results – like the genius chocolate cookiemuffs – were an all out hit.

 

Posted on

A Modern Way to Cook by Anna Jones

The Times calls Anna Jones the new Nigella and though the match isn’t immediately obvious (Unlike Nigella, Jones isn’t big on using cream, meat or refined sugar), they’ve actually got a point. Because yes, Jones is a vegetarian cook and food writer whose approach to what we put into our bodies is mindful, but more importantly, like Nigella, her recipes are delicious, packed with flavour and goodness, and really easy to put on a plate day-in, day-out.

Jones is not a food guru, wellness expert or instagram sensation: she is a trained cook who has worked with everyone from Jamie Oliver to Antonio Carluccio. She eschews food fads, but she does believe that making vegetables the focus of our diets is the most important thing we can do – both for our own health and that of the planet. She’s right of course. And her books show you how to do that without compromising anything else. You won’t have to spend hours at the stove; you won’t have to juice; you won’t have to feel like depriving yourself of anything, because her dishes are so complete and tasty.

We loved her first book, A Modern Way to Eat (read more about it and Jones herself here), but this new book is actually more useful on a day to day level. The chapters are divided up by how long the recipes take to cook (plus a breakfast chapter and one on puddings and treats), which is such a good idea, as finally most peoples’ overriding consideration when it comes to cooking is indeed: how long have I got? There’s a whole chapter, for example, for suppers that take 15 minutes to get onto the table. It includes an ingenious pasta dish – with kale, tomato and lemon – that you cook entirely in one dish (and it works), an addictively good pea and coconut soup, and a genius way to make Asian noodle soup that you assemble quickly, put into a screw top jar, and finish off at work using a boiling water from a  kettle. But there are also chapters for things that take more time (her honey and white miso aubergines are killer), as well as a really valuable chapter called Investment Cooking, which is about creating things, when you do have a little more time, that then become the go-to backbone of your kitchen: stocks, coconut yoghurt, granolas, grains, and pulses (including, and this is really useful, how to freeze the latter so you’ve always got some on hand). Of course vegetarians adore Jones’ recipes, but we are meat eaters ourselves and still this book has quickly become one that we constantly reach for and use, rather than flicking through once or twice.

 

It’s goodbye for now…

The team at A Little Bird are taking a break to recharge and make some exciting changes behind-the-scenes. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

CONTINUE TO SITE

A Little Bird Told Me…

SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER TO STAY IN-THE-NOW. ONLY LANDING IN YOUR INBOX ON THURSDAY MORNINGS AT 11AM.