Guacamole Grilled Cheese Sandwich

This isn't really a recipe, but it's so delicious it would be a shame not to share. It adds that je ne sais quoi to the classic grilled cheese sandwich. Enjoy!

First, get a non-stick pan on medium-high heat. You want it to be hot by the time you've got your sandwich ready for toasting. Then, grab two slices of your favourite bread. Slather generously some guacamole on one, and pile a few slices of cheddar on the other.

If you have flavoured cheddar (mine here is with caramelised onions), then all the better! Sandwich together and put it in the hot pan.

At this stage you should press it down - you can do it with a spatula, or if you're lazy like me, pile on a plate or two.

See how snuggly it looks under there?
After a couple of minutes, flip! Wait until it goes golden brown on the other side as well, and serve.

Ooey, gooey goodness.

By the time you've read this, this sandwich would be long gone.

Everyday is Pizza Day!

That's not strictly true. But it should be!
Homemade pizza is easy to make, costs next to nothing and is much more waistline-friendly that the shop-bought ones.

This recipe makes two medium pizzas (depending on appetite and greediness), but feel free to multiply it to feed the hungry crowds.

For the base you'll need:
250g of strong bread flour plus more for dusting
half a 7g yeast packet
1 teaspoon of olive oil
180ml tepid water (it shouldn't feel hot or cold)
sprinkle of salt

Mix everything apart from the flour and the salt in a bowl and let it sit for a couple of minutes. In the meantime, sift your flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour the yeast/water/oil mixture into the well and little by little mix in the flour using a spoon (it's much easier to use a metal one instead of a wooden spoon).

Now, flour your hands and knead it to your heart's content (it's strangely therapeutic). Most people take it out of the bowl and knead the dough on a well-floured surface. I keep it in the bowl to reduce the mess I make, and I still love my pizza. Feel free to do either.
After kneading it for a while, and you end up with a springy dough, flour the bowl again, cover it with a damp towel and leave it in a warm place for an hour or so. In the meantime, you can get on with your life.

After the hour has passed, turn on your oven to 220C and put in your pan to heat it up. Cooking the pizza on an already hot pan is possibly the closest you can get to a crust of a pizza-oven quality without a fancy pizza oven.

By now the yeast would have worked its magic and your dough would have doubled in size. Now, roll up your sleeves and flour your hands, because it's kneading time! Knock back the dough (a fancy way of saying knead the dough after it has risen), and add more flour as needed until it starts to behave. Again, you want a springy dough.

When you're satisfied with your dough, cut up a piece of aluminium foil and dust it with flour. Put half your dough on and with a rolling pin or something cylindrical (wine bottle maybe?) roll it and get it as thin as you can (the thinner the crispier!). Next, spoon over your tomato sauce.

If you don't have one already, it's incredibly easy to make some. Just blitz some passata (or a can of chopped tomatoes) with a couple of cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of dried herbs and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Ready.

Now add some grated cheese - I opted for mozzarella, but for something richer you could also add cheddar.

Then it's the fun part: toppings. I went for just spinach, but you can go with anything you like: anchovies, pineapple, fried egg etc. Sky's the limit. Just think that a well known chain of pizza places in Cyprus makes pizzas with strawberries and white chocolate!

Very carefully and with mittens, take out your pan, place your pizza with the aluminium foil on the pan, and pop it back in the oven. A pizza of that size would need 10-15 minutes so keep an eye on it. As soon as the cheese appears bubbly and golden brown, take it out.

If you've got something like this, you're onto a winner.

Enjoy with a glass of crisp white wine and a side salad while watching Game of Thrones (or not, depending on your tolerance for misery).

Street Feast

Imagine it's Friday afternoon, and you have just left work. How do you start your weekend? You could go home and rest, or you could head to Street Feast.

Personally, I would go for the latter.

Street Feast brings together the best street food out there, fits them all together in the Merchand Yard in Haggerston, and here you have a weekly mini food festival with lots of food and lots of beer.

As you can understand I was thrilled about the concept, and last week the boy and I jumped to the chance to check it out and have some of our favourite Ribman ribs (if you haven't tried them, you haven't lived!).

We arrived at around 7ish and there were people there, lots and lots of people, and also lots of food. The atmosphere was great; lively with people who clearly appreciated food. We queued for the Ribman. See that black tent dooooowwwn there?
That's the Ribman, who as you can probably guess, is kind of a rockstar within the London street food scene. We were at the end of that line.

The boy was going to try THE ribs for the first time, so when he did manage to get his food, he kept asking me why all these people were staring at him and his roll.
I smiled and told him to take a bite.
He did, and then he knew exactly why people were staring.

I opted for the gyoza from the lovely people at Rainbo, which did not let me down at all: delicious chicken and tofu gyoza with a crunchy salad and steamed edamame.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to take as many photos as I would like, mainly because it was quite crowded and I couldn't get a clear shot. However, there's something to please anyone's tastebuds. Street food heroes such as the Big Apple Hot Dogs, Sorbitium, Bhangra Burger, Yum Bun, Mother Flipper, Kimchi Cult and the Bowler, to name a few, are regulars there and do their best to feed the hungry crowds.

you doughnut!

This is not all! Tweat Up which organizes Street Feast, also organizes a series of events on Saturdays, all food-themed of course! Past events include Taco Wars, a Craft Beer Battle and a BBQ & Keg Party. If these make your mouth water, head there tomorrow for the Barn Party of talented Gizzi Erskine, Ginstock on the 15th of June, and Ribstock on the 22nd.

PS: Head there early, to avoid disappointment - the doors open at 5 and last Friday the Ribman sold out before 9! Also, queues tend to form outside.
PS2: Don't be intimidated by the crowds, you're all there to have a great time! If you're stuck in a queue, make sure you have with you a beer and/or a friend to keep you company.
PS3: Street Feast will run in Merchand Yard for another four weeks only, so go while you can!

Like them here and here

The Great Gatsby (2013) *spoilers*

This is a film I've been waiting for since they announced it in 2011, or even before that, given how much I love the book. Also, Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby and Carey Mulligan as Daisy? I wouldn't miss it for the world!

Before I move on, I shall note that the book is always better. And I don't mean that this is a bad movie - on the contrary, I did enjoy it, but if you really want to fully grasp the essence of The Great Gatsby, go for the book.

For anyone who hadn't read the thousand of reviews published already, the story is set in 1922 during the Roaring Twenties, and tells the story of the mysterious and incredibly rich Jay Gatsby who organizes larger-than-life parties in an effort to meet again with the love of his life, Daisy. Daisy in the meantime, while she used to be in love with Gatsby before the war, when Gatsby had to leave for his army service, she got married to Tom Buchanan, one of richest men in America. The story is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway, a cousin of Daisy's, who unlike any human being I know, reserves all judgement throughout the book, despite all the upheaval taking place between the characters.

It is said to be Fitzgerald's magnum opus, quite possibly the Great American Novel, and my favourite book - and that's a quite a statement considering I've been a bookworm all my life.

In other words, read it.

Now, if you're already a classic literature aficionado, I'm afraid you'll have to scale down your expectations for this film. Although essential points in the book like the character of Jordan Baker or the relationship between Myrtle and Tom are hardly explored, I do appreciate that the film was made with the wider audience in mind.
Not everyone wants to think about the highlighted contrast between old money and new money. Or whether The Great Gatsby is the Great American Novel. Or whether Daisy is a victim or not.

Some people just want to watch the movie, enjoy all the glitz and glamour and decadence of the Roaring Twenties (which were portrayed quite well I must say), and then go home. I suppose the film was made for these people, so if you haven't read the book, you'll still enjoy the film.

On a more positive note, I liked that Nick was presented as an alcoholic in a sanatorium. Although on-screen he appears a bit boring and hollow, and as the narrator he does not judge any of the characters, not even rogue and dumber-than-a-sac-of-rocks Tom, he was still a (dramatic) construct of his time.

Also, the costumes, oh the costumes, were what they should have been, impressive, flamboyant and all that Jazz-age (got it?). Carey Mulligan as Daisy was careless, coy and childish with some momentary flashes of true emotion - quite probably the kind of Daisy Fitzgerald had envisioned. DiCaprio was probably like Gatsby would be if he wasn't fictional: mysterious, powerful but insecure, hopeful but delusional.

Also, the music was quite fitting of the film with a range artists from Beyonce and Jay-Z to Lana Del Ray and Emeli Sande lending their voices for the film soundtrack.

All in all, I recommend you watch it, but if you've studied the Fitzgerald novel before, do scale down your expectations.

Bubbleology

I recently had the chance to try the latest hype of the tea world - bubble teas. How can you resist something that has 'bubbles' in it?! The 'bubbles' are in fact chewy tapioca balls or pearls, and the actual teas are either fruit-flavoured or milk teas, or sometimes both!

Anyway, last week the boy and I decided to give bubble tea a try. We went down to Bubbleology at South Kensington (they also have branches in Soho, Notting Hill, Knightsbridge and Westfield Stratford), and queued. And waited and waited for the first available bubbleologist (their words!) to take our order.

It's all very scientific!

Nevertheless, after about ten minutes we did manage to order. Although there was quite a selection of drinks, I opted for what I thought was the most exciting one: bannoffee pie! Yes, dessert in a plastic cup. 
The boy went for the rose milk. I don't say this often, but they tasted exactly as the should! In mine I could taste the banana and the caramel, and even a hint of crust, although I'm not sure where that came from. All the while, the boy reminisced about his childhood, since for anyone growing up in Cyprus in the 1990s, rose milk was a staple part of their diet!

Overall, I think you should give them a try, it would be a quirky change from your usual (and let's face it - boring) Starbucks, and you never know, this might even be your new addiction (in this case, you could get also get a loyalty card).

You'll find them here, but they also deliver in a number of post codes. For more updates find them on Facebook and Twitter.

Bonus: they work with the Drop4Drop charity, and with every regular drink sold they aim to supply at least 20 litres of clean, drinking water in developing countries.

SalesGossip

This is one of my latest discoveries and one of my favourite ones as well. Apparently other people agree with me as well since it was voted the 12th best website to save money by The Times.

SalesGossip is a website that notifies you when your favourite shops have a sale, or even a sample sale event - kind of like your new best friend in shopping who never fails to point you to the right direction when in need of a good shopping therapy session.

Just to give you a taste, let's say you like Hermes (and I sincerely hope you do), get down to Molton Lane on 14-15 of June for an up to 80% sample sale!

What about Alexander Mcqueen? Jenny Packham? Linda Farrow? SalesGossip gives you all the information you need - date, time and place and off you go!

Even if you're a guy, SalesGossip also has something for you, like that Brown's sample sale down on South Molton Lane with men's clothes only and a range of brands from Alexander Wang to Vivienne Westwood. By the way, this event is today, so if you're interested register on SG and run.

However, if you can't attend these events, as they only go on for a couple of days, SG will also let you know when your favourite high street shops are having a sale.

You like Gap? They have a 50% off on their logo-emblazoned products.
What about that party dress from Whistles? They have a 70% off in-store and online.
La Perla lingerie anyone? Save yourself up to 50%.

If you're not a complete convert by now, I don't know what else to tell you. Otherwise, enjoy!

Photos via www.salesgossip.co.uk

Jack Wills - Fabulously British in Chichester

Jack Wills needs no introduction. It's one of my favourite brands, preppy and elegant, almost like a young, British Tommy Hilfiger. However, I wasn't planning on posting about JW since it is already well known, and I wouldn't be able to offer something new to my valued readers.

This was before I stumbled upon their incredibly cute store in Chichester on North Street. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Do I hear Summer coming?

Do I hear Summer coming? 2

The boy immediately spotted the Macs at the back of the mannequin and was particularly excited.

oh the stripes!!

Giving 'Fitting Room' a whole new meaning

While on the topic of Jack Wills, they also sell the African beaded bracelet below, of which 100% of profits go to the Malaria No More charity. They cost a mere £5 and they can really make a difference; malaria although preventable, kills a child every 45 seconds - that's less than the time it took you to read through this post!

If you're excited as much as I am for Jack Wills clothes, I highly recommend a trip down to your local store since they also have seasonal reductions going on at the moment, and if you're a student don't forget you also get 15% off!