So it's Friday... If I was in London now I'd be finishing my Friday Pho... But No, I'm in Budapest and this weeks menu's delivered to us by Stevie to add to the Indian and Hummus menu's were, a restaurant called Wasabi, Sushi, soups and noodles and a traditional Hungarian Cafe, the menu is just jam packed with choice of soups and stews and pasta and pizzas! Amongst the Hungarian section is a curious dish, Pasta with Mashed potatoes... Don't think I'll be trying that one.
Today I tried to make up for missing my Fabulous Friday Pho with having a Thai Chicken and vegetable soup from Wasabi...  so a Fo Friday Pho if you like... it was ok but not great..
Back to the Hungarian restaurant's menu and Emma stumbled across an interesting dish, described as "Steamed Green peas - vegetable dish" I think she expected just steamed peas but the correct name for what turned up is Fozelek . On the link you will find it says " it seldom (or never) appears on restaurant menu cards, apart from that of cheap diners " So thanks production, you chose a nice cheap diner to buy us lunch from. That said the taste of this pea Fozelek was very very yummy... Noemi our Hungarian assistant told us you can make it with almost any vegetable, as it says in the link. I think is definitely a recipe to try out at home.

Saturday now, Emm and I went for dinner last night to a place called Cafe Kor. I have to say I meal was not that great but the place had a nice atmosphere except being sat next to 4 guys who were in the film industry and talking shop that it was hard not to eavesdrop, but we didn't really want too! The bottle of wine helped us block them out eventually. When I got home my clothes smelt like I'd been working in a kitchen! The reason why?, probably the deep fat fryer! I had Chicken thigh filet fried in breadcrumbs with parsley potatoes and peach compote, tasted a bit like KFC, and the peach compote was not a compote, is was just a dish of peaches... Yuk I hear some of you cry fruit with meat but I have to say Chicken & apricot go really well together.... hmm ideas looming! Watch this space...

Sunday In Budapest

So Sunday morning... Up early and of to the baths. It was a beautiful day, clear skies once again... Actually it's been sunny and just beautiful for about 5 days now... So check out this link for the baths I visited Szecheny Bath I have to say it's an experience that you have to do if you get the chance... as I say it was a lovely day about 12 degrees and I was walking around in my swimmers dipping into 27 degree outside pools... There were people just hanging out relaxing in the sunshine, men playing chess sat on the side if the pools but I hate to think of all the dead skin I probably swallowed....!!! Let's not go there...

Then met up with Emma and took the metro down to the river... We literally came out of the metro and there were these 2 old geezers busking and people relaxing and drinking beer... We headed down towards the river and immediately stumbled into a restaurant and sat down in the sunshine... We ordered a Weissbier as you do when you're in Hungary and as I was so hungry after my mornings activities we ordered lunch promptly and this is what we had...  

Emm's Paprika Chicken with Noodles

My Sesame Chicken with avocado

Then we couldn't resist to try the Hungarian deserts. Emma decided to go for Cottage Cheese Dumplings with fruit sauce and I for some reason got convinced by the waiter into having the Tokaj wine cream... Yes it was just cream! That had been cooked with wine in it and then some grapes thrown in for good measure, it also had a slight taste of Cinnamon. I have to say not my cup of tea, so we finished off with a coffee and took a stroll along a Danube. 
Not a bad a Sunday really... 

Budapest

Diary from Budapest... Week 1

Yes I'm in Budapest with work for a month. So I'm going share some of the Hungarian delights that this city has to offer. Firstly I'll just rewind a bit and say the only excuse I have of not being on here since June is this movie I'm working on.... But now I'm in foreign climbs I will find the time. To be honest  I have not done much cooking in the last few months, nothing really to write home about so probably a good thing I haven't been blogging. I get home on November 5th so hopefully I can get in the kitchen on weekends and get cooking....
Haven't really seem much of the city as yet as we arrived last Sunday and we've been at work each day but have tomorrow, Sunday off which will be great. The forecast is for bright blue skies and rather chilly, 11 degrees but rather lovely for a stroll by the Danube....

Right food, we have our lunch brought in everyday by our lovely PA, Stevie, he's in his forties and this morning he told us about how he'd been up most of the night as his 5 year old son vomited... Yeah nice... then he vomited, then his wife did, then his sister in law, obviously visiting puked too... He then told us how been a father was the best thing in the world. He told me when I have kids, I would know how it feels...sorry Stevie, ain't gonna happen! Bless...

So this week we've had a choice of just 2 menus... Indian and the hummus bar. Stevie promises that next week we will have more choice... After a few days of the Indian menu Emma and I both found our favorite choice from the hummus bar, here's mine...  Pargit
  

Grilled chicken leg (Pargit) served with 

salad and hummus and cous cous.

So Emma and I had a lovely meal out on Wednesday evening. We found an Italian Restaurant which was lovely. We asked to share a starter and they actually divided in two for us lovely oval bowls. It was a starter of cheesy balls wrapped in a parma ham and salad.. the cheese was warm.. delicious. Then I had ravioli stuffed with Cod Fish with tomatoe sauce... yes weird but very tasty and Emm had Parppadelle with Duck.

Friday night we tried a place called Menza. This place was recommended to us but I have to say we had a lovely time there, the place had a nice vibe with it's 70's decor and we people watched, our waiter flirted with both of us and we got quite merry... But the food was not great... But a fun evening and all paid for by per diem!

So onto Saturday night. I booked a table at a restaurant called Mokka, recommended by the Michelin guide for 8pm. We finished work at 7:45, so pushed the table to 8:30, got back to our apartments and did a quick wonder woman twirl and got a taxi to the restaurant for 8:30 on the dot... Not bad.... Emma and I both looked fabulous considering we'd been at work 45 minutes earlier. So we ordered a lovely bottle of Rose, Dúzsi Kékfrankos Rosé 2010 Szekszárd - Young and crisp with a pale colour and fine, clean aromas reminiscent of strawberries and banana. Refreshing and dry with fruity acidity and ordered our food. We both had Green asparagus wrapped in Prague ham, sautéed in butter and served in ricotta, chive and horseradish sauce and I followed with Basil baby chicken baked with sweet bell pepper, spinach salad, red rice risotto on the side and Emm had Beef tenderloin quesadillas with sour cream and salsa.

Asparagus wrapped in Prague ham

Basil baby chicken

Courgette, Leek and Pea Quiche

My first recipe

What I tend to do is look on line for a few ideas and then amalgamate them to make my own recipe.

Ingredients

Short crust pastry  (ready to roll)

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 or 3 courgettes, diced

1 leek, sliced and diced

about 3 cups of frozen peas

250g Marscapone

175g freshly grated parmesan

3 eggs

Chives, chopped

salt and pepper

Preparation

1. Heat the oven to 200C / Gas 5
2. In a frying pan, saute the courgette in olive oil until tender and is starts to brown on the edges...about 10 minutes
3. Then remove from the pan and add the leek with a tad more olive oil and just fry for a few minutes until soft then add the courgette back into the pan with the frozen peas, season well with sea salt and black pepper and then add the chopped chives. 5 minutes on the heat and then leave to sit.
4. Meanwhile roll and blind bake your shop bought pastry for about 20 min.
5. In a bowl, combine the eggs, Mascarpone, and Parmesan, salt and pepper and then add in the courgette and pea mixture.
6. Take the pastry out of the oven and pour in your mix and bake for about 25 minutes.

Saturday Lunch

Welcome to my blog!

So with this being my first post I just want to explain as to why I'm doing this.

I recently went on holiday to Mykynos and the picture to the left was my view each day as I had lunch, 12 out of 14 days.... Yes I'm a creature of habit!

Whilst on holiday on my own I decided to write to some of my friends to share the moment. It was a great way of not feeling so alone and sharing my time as holidays are for sharing after all. 

I would usually start writing at lunch and describe my food which I have to say was always delicious. Consisting of a salad bar of about 8 salads.... lentil, feta and sun-dried tomato salad, spinach with dried figs with a sesame dressing and tablouleh to name a few.... then meats, fish and vegetables from the outside grill, a chimney at the back of the open air terrace... although it has a roof which is from the tree that grows up through the middle of the restaurant. 

  

So Kiki's truly is a haven.... The most wonderful idyllic little haven that you could ever imagine and there lies my inspiration... So I'm not sure where this will this lead and how this will evolve but I want to share all my recipes and seek out some special places that I maybe haven't discovered yet... I'm doing this for me predominantly but to share with my special friends....

On my return from Greece after the weekend in Brighton I popped down to Devon... Stephen called me so we could devise a menu... I just want to include this cause at the time I said I would... It's taken me 4 weeks to get this going.. So feel I have to...

 

On the menu was Stephens kedgeree. Best ever, considering I'd only had this once before also with Stephen this was best ever!!

The following day we went for a walk to a place called Fingle bridge and we sat by the river with a pint of proper job and ate our pack lunch of beetroot and feta salad with green beans.

So that's it... my first post... one of many I hope... It's 4:35 on Friday 24th June... Gonna go home now and pop into Waitrose and I'm thinking of making a courgette, pea and mint tart (or quiche) for tomorrow.. Summer is finally returning for the weekend so I feel quiche is in order... Real Men don't eat quiche