Another Food Blog

This lunchtime I ate out at what might well be my favourite restaurant: Pizza Express. There’s something about familiarity that I particularly value: I’ve been eating there since I was a toddler.

So it was somewhat surprising that today I decided, for the first time ever, not to have a pizza there. Instead I went for the cannelloni. It was a hot dish on a hot day but still delicious. The spinach was done perfectly and went really well with the tomato sauce. For pudding I indulged myself and had a toffee fudge glory; vanilla ice cream with chunks of tablet. Mmmm.

Near where I live in London there is a cafe called La Bruschetta. But not many people know that it’s also an Italian appetizer, consisting of grilled garlic bread with olive oil, salt and pepper. It can also be made with cheese and tomato (good) and ham (bad).

I was given a pack of bruschetta this lunchtime. At first, I was a little sceptical about the concept because I’m used to crispy bread served with sun-blushed tomatoes, cheese and olives, and my scepticism proved well founded when it turned out to be garlic bread in a bag. Which is actually rather tasty and moorish: but it’s no bruschetta. Also, you have to make sure you take a mint afterwards or your co-workers might suffocate.

It’s always difficult being on a vegetarian diet (as I have been so far for the first 19 years of my life…). Soon, however, you learn to pick out the menu options with a (v) next to them and ignore everything else.

This happened at lunch today; I went to the Greencoat Boy in Westminster and managed to pick out a tasty quorn burger. The best bit about burgers, I think, is the raw onion. But the chips were equally good too.

This lunchtime I took some time out to eat at the Chinese Gourmet Buffet in Strutton Ground in Westminster. You don’t have to wait to be served food; you just sit down, order a drink, then wander up to the buffet to choose your grub.

I made do with some stir fried vegetables and plain noodles, with egg fried rice on the side. It was good food and reasonably priced too. They do take aways so I might go back there to grab lunch one day.

Last weekend I dined in La Caprice, a restaurant near Green Park, to celebrate my mother’s birthday. The meal was absolutely excellent as it should be for that sort of price. They even had a separate vegetarian menu which was very thoughtful of them; I ordered the tomato salad and the tagliatelli, cooked to perfection.

It was very filling too; so I didn’t have any room for pudding. Instead I ambled along to the jubilee line, alighting at London Bridge for an excellent birthday party held on the HMS Belfast. It felt like a very expensive weekend!

This lunchtime I went out for lunch, at the City Inn in Millbank, Westminster. I had the garden club sandwich, which featured layers of aubergine, roasted peppers, buffallo’s mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes. The sandwich really was delicious; one of the best I’ve ever had, which it should be when you consider the price! Buffalo’s mozarella and sun dried tomatoes complement each other really well and the bread was toasted to perfection.

Over the weekend, I ate out at my favourite restaurant: Pizza Express. This meal also featured buffalo’s mozarella; on my pizza, and the starter of garlic bread and mozarella is very tasty too.

So it was a good few days for mozarella.

I had to be up really early to go on the Today programme this morning, so I didn’t even have time for breakfast. Mind you, I never eat breakfast anyway so that was fine.

I had a big lunch though; two baguettes with cheddar and ripe vine tomatoes, washed down with a mug of tea. The baguettes were from Tesco’s Finest Range, which seems to be pretty new. And fairly tasty too.

Last night was one of the few nights I have when I was able to sit down with ‘the family’ and enjoy a nice meal. We had frittata, which was absolutely delicious, along with salad and special ‘Pizza Express’ salad dressing. There wasn’t any pudding, so I washed mine down with – bizarrely – corn flakes and milk.

This lunchtime I grabbed a take-away pasta with chili and tomato sauce. At first, I was a little nervous about encountering my old foe chili again after it landed me in hospital but we got along fine this time around: it’s now resting comfortably in my tummy rather than wrecking havoc in my eyes. For pudding I had a NutriGrain bar. I don’t know what flavour it was; ever since I went on my ten-bars-a-day diet for my Duke of Edinburgh expeditions I’ve been unable to tell the various flavours apart. The packet assures me it’s strawberry though.

This morning I got up late having attended Madsen’s excellent book launch party in Cambridge. I started the day with a cappuccino, which was just the pick-me-up I needed after twelve hours’ solid sleep. I took this with hot cross buns, grilled to perfection and with melted butter on top. The only problem with hot cross buns is that they seem to take ages to cook under the grill but if you take your eyes off them for one second then – BANG – they start smoking and set the place on fire. Fortunately after my sleep and coffee I was alert to the danger and consequently nothing was set alight. 

Lunch today was a salad nicoise. I especially like the egg but am not so keen on the pepper. Mine had to be separately prepared from everyone else’s because I am a vegetarian and the others have tunas in theirs. I used some lovely ciabatta bread to mop up the excess balsamic sauce.     

I grabbed breakfast this morning after a Radio 5 Live appearance at a time when any self respecting student should be sleeping (so that’d be eight AM then). Just a glass of water and two hot cross buns as it’s Easter - plain I’m afraid. Lunch was going to be a chickpea casserole, with spinach, onions, carrots and potatos, but was interrupted for me to go to the hospital having burnt both my eyes. Fortunately they’re still in my skull and functioning well although it was a thoroughly frightening and unpleasant four hours.

My mother finished cooking the dish and we ate it for supper, along with a tomato and mozarella salad, with strawberries for pudding. Mmm.