Author Archives: Grace

Putney Pop-Up: Phil Howard’s The Square

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A new way of fund-raising for Haiti has recently hit the Putney area. The Putney Pop-Up Restaurants involves taking on fabulous restaurants, restaurateurs, showmen and chefs to produce a series of pop-up restaurants at the Phoenix Bar & Grill in Putney during March only. Chefs/restaurants involved include Matthew Harris, Bibendum; Rowley Leigh – Le Café Anglais; Atul Kochhar – Benares; Bruce Poole – Chez Bruce; Helen Puolakka – Skylon and many others.

It was lucky that Sandra had spotted the teeny weeny tiny article in the evening standard about this fund-raising event a few months ago as it certainly does not seem to have been well advertised. Word of mouth, however, has been more than enough advertising it seems if the fact that most of the events have been fully booked out anyway, including tonight’s Philip Howard (of The Square – a 2-michelin starred restaurant) meal which Sandra was luckily able to get us a booking for. Second nights for some of the chefs were also needed to be put on to accommodate their popularity. Luckily I was also able to get us a booking next week for Rick Stein (The Seafood Restaurant) so tune in for that review.

We didn’t try booking anymore because two meals is just about what I can afford anyway (starts at £60 with the food not including extras such as drinks, tea/coffee, extra fund-raising contributions and service)! Plus it would probably be not very fair to deny other people an opportunity to participate in this event.

The Phoenix is a lovely newly renovated pub about a 15-20 minute walk from Putney Bridge tube station. I joked to Sandra that most other people dining tonight would have likely caught a taxi or got driven to the venue! Ha ha! It has a nice little outdoor area but on this wet evening we were all dining inside. Inside gives the impression of being quite cosy as all the rooms (around about 4) are split up to fit between 5 up to 10 tables rather than being one big open space.

Sandra and I were the first diners to turn up tonight. We were greeted by Rebecca Mascarenhas, owner of The Phoenix, well-known restaurateur and organiser of the Putney Pop-up. It felt rather awkward really as number of chefs and the waiters were kind of standing gathered at the entrance (where there were a number of lounges as a waiting area) and they all turned to look at us as we walked in. We were about 10 minutes early so we thought we might have interrupted their preparations but they were more than happy to seat us. We were followed very closely by another group who I think were from some sort of special organisation as they were directed to another room which they didn’t fill with diners until the rest of the rooms were filled.

So, out of the £60 we were paying for food tonight £50 was going Haiti. I didn’t quite know how the drinks situation would work because there was a short wine list which including contributions apparently of 120 from Jancis Robinson, and contributions from Liberty Wines, Laytons and Bibendum Wine. I’m not sure that any of the wine money would go to charity but the £10 corkage per bottle on B-Y-O certainly does. Sandra thought it seemed a bit tight not to order a glass of wine (glasses averaged about £9.50) but since it wasn’t going to charity I didn’t think it would really matter. Not that I would normally order wine anyway!

Bread was plentiful tonight and because when we arrived it was relatively quiet the waiter continued to bring bread around at least 3 or 4 times until both Sandra and I had had enough. The butter was delicious! Mmmm!

The special charity dinner tonight consisted of four courses: an amuse bouche, a first course, a second course and dessert. Phil Howard’s menu seemed to be a cross between what they offered at The Square (e.g. the Smoked Loin of Venison with Beetroot Purée, Root Vegetables, Pickled Pear and Green Peppercorns which Sandra had for her main and the Brillat-Savarin Cheesecake with Passionfruit and Lime we had for dessert) or variations.

What I did notice about all the food that was served tonight, perhaps with the exception of the dessert, was how messy and not delicate the presentation was. I was actually expecting delicately plated dishes but if felt like most of them were plonked and piled on top of each other so when you look at the pictures the food doesn’t actually look all that great. I’m sure great care was taken with the presentation but they were not how I’d pictured how the dishes would come. They tasted great though so that is the main thing!

Our amuse bouche was a Salad of Beetroot with Eiswein Vinegar, Goat’s Curd and a Balsamic Cream. This to me was a disappointing amuse bouche in concept because I couldn’t count on my hand the number of times I’ve had this kind of combination in restaurants in 2009. The delivery, however, was a little more unique. The balsamic cream was a nice touch and I liked the fact the beetroot came in an assortment of colours! It was quite odd to pick up a pale square of something to find it was actually very strong tasting of beetroot!

Sandra and I had the same starter: Ravioli of Scallops and Langoustine Claws with Wilted Iceberg, Champagne Foam (aaaaargh!!) and Clementine. What an interesting combination to throw in the clementine! I really quite liked this dish even though, as I mentioned earlier, it looked to be a wonderful mess of flavours!

Where Sandra moved on to meet with the Venison for her next course I continued on with seafood with a Loin of Monkfish with an emulsion of spätzle (a type of pasta), Cauliflower, Salsify, Chanterelles and Truffle. Sandra loved her Venison. She said the smokiness of it was amazingly concentrated. I loved the intense mushroomy flavour of my dish – could it be that I can taste truffle at last (I’m still not convinced it was the truffle I was tasting … damn my inability to taste it!)

When our waiter was bringing out our pre-dessert we must have some sort of horrified look on our faces because he had cause to comment that we shouldn’t be scared! I think he thought we thought what he was giving us was our cheesecake dessert? Who knows! The pre-dessert was very cute. I loved the fried donut touch which I kept in my mouth as I ate the rest of the treat: vanilla yoghurt, blood orange jelly and blood orange mousse.

Dessert (the cheesecake)! Yum. Sandra commented that the orange bits tasted like the orange solero ice block! They really did! It was a nice dessert … more cheesecake would have been appreciated though. Heh heh.

At tea-time the push for the raffle tickets came. It was kind of weird – Rebecca came over and said would you like to buy raffle tickets? She didn’t say at first how much they were or what they were raffling so we were a bit confused! Turns out they were raffling vouchers for various restaurants. To be truthful at these fund raising events you could hardly begrudge buying a raffle ticket or two no matter what they were raffling off!

Additional treats were a take-away box of nougat and truffles which tasted like salted choc caramel truffles with a rice crispy shell. It was divine.

Its quite hard to be judging of an experience like tonight – one-off, staffed by volunteers (service tonight was a bit hit and miss e.g. none of our dishes were really explained to us), raising money for a good cause. However I reckon a good night was had by all and we couldn’t believe how quickly the night had gone. After a slight misunderstanding with our coats (buried under about six others it took us about 15 minutes to find them!) we were off.

How sad for the night to be over! … until next Tuesday then to see Rick. 😉

10th at the Match Bar

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Rehana celebrated her 10th year at work a few weeks ago so James thought it would be a lovely idea to surprise her with some celebratory drinks. I had the task of setting her up and James the task of getting people together for it. It was difficult to get Rehana to a bar without lying about what we were actually going to be doing as we normally go out for a lovely meal or theatre show which requires booking but also I didn’t want to say we were going to be eating somewhere or seeing a show when we actually weren’t! Additionally I couldn’t just tell her to meet at the bar because I know that if she’s early she has no problems with going into the bar/restaurant or venue by herself and we couldn’t have her arriving before anyone else did!

It was very nearly undone by one of our bosses sending her an email to say sorry she couldn’t make the drinks! Luckily she also copied James into the email and as Rehana was not working the day that the email was sent James was able to get IT into her inbox to get rid of it. So funny.

Anyway, we all had a great time at the Match Bar tonight which was very busy by the time Rehana and I walked in at 6.30 but pleasingly it wasn’t difficult to get to the bar for drinks at all, despite various groups setting up camp around it. There is plenty of seating for a relatively small venue though James had thought ahead and booked us an area so there were no problems for us.

Pearl by Jun Tanaka

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Pearl is Jun Tanaka’s modern French restaurant. Jun, who bears a passing resemblance to my brother (it could be the long hair!), has been heading up this restaurant since June 2004. The restaurant is located in Holborn in the Renaissance London Chancery Court, a luxury hotel. It’s a very elegant location with sensuous designs, lots of pearl! The best thing about it was that everyone’s speaking volume was very muted so we didn’t have to shout over each other to be heard. Additionally I like how they had set up the room so that at the two people tables around the edges the chairs were faced inwards so that no one had their back to the rest of the room. Jenny’s seat was slightly facing towards the kitchen and we were both excited to see Jun moving in and out of it. Wonder if he prepared any of our dishes tonight?

We dined off the set menu deal (3 courses for £37.50 plus cocktail). On the set menu there were three starters, three mains and three desserts (though one was for cheese at an additional £10.). Both starters and mains gave a choice of a fish, meat (pork ) and vegetarian options. Despite having three options both Jenny and I went for the same starter and mains only differing when we got to our desserts.

First up whilst we were deciding on the menu and waiting for our cocktails was a pre pre amuse bouche with four little treats: a sort of scallop carpaccio, cherry tomato oozing with goat’s cheese, a miniature black pudding and a mushroom risotto crumbed and fried. Cute and unexpected!

Our cocktails were quite strong. As usual my “allergy” decided to make an appearance and I must have been red enough that my waiter expressed his concern for me not once but several times despite the fact I reassured him that I was fine. He even offered to change the dessert options to a non-alcoholic dish!

The amuse bouche of golden raisin puree, celeriac foam, almonds and parmesan was tasty. I commented to Jenny that I was a bit over amuse bouches that were basically foams or veloutes. What a snob! Ha ha! But its so rare that the amuse bouche doesn’t consist of foam of some sort. I guess it’s a vehicle which allows for intense flavour to be infused in a very small package.

Our starter was served very quickly after – Pollock Brandade with Caramelised Squid Crisp, Quail Eggs and Parsley Vinaigrette. It was a very attractive dish especially when placed on the centre of the table where a light was glowing from below. Eating experience-wise the squid was surprisingly chewy but the pollock was moist and strong flavoured. My favourite part of the dish was the quail eggs – which were breaded and fried.

Roast Fillet of Pork with Black Pudding, Choucroute and Smoked Mash Potato was served for our mains. We hadn’t realized what Choucroute actually was but it turned out to be a couple of sauerkraut with different varieties of sausages. Jenny didn’t like the sausages so I got to benefit. Heh heh. The pork itself was very well cooked (tender and well seasoned) and the ring of black pudding around it was surprisingly effective. The smokiness in the mash potato, however, wasn’t very identifiable. The presentation of the plate was not as pretty as our starter as it seemed like a big ole mess of sauces, meats and veg thrown onto the plate!

Which takes us to our very pretty desserts! After a pre-dessert of coconut couscous (we’re not sure if we misunderstood our waiter as it seemed mostly like a rice pudding), mango and passion fruit we moved on to Tiramisu (Mascarpone, Coffee, Amaretto Ice Cream) for Jenny and Prune (Poached Prune and Almond Crumble Almond, Ice Cream). Jenny’s Tiramisu was nothing I’ve seen before with the Tiramisu wrapped in a sheet of caramelised sugar and my dessert was presented on a rather long plate which very nearly didn’t fit on the table – it was an awkward fit at any rate. I liked it though actually breaking down what was going on on the plate the components were rather simple. I did particular like the little cake.

Service tonight was fairly decent except for the waiter who kept checking up on me and my alcohol tolerance (it did get a little annoying despite his best intentions) and he also happened to be the guy who was supposed to top of our water which I had to ask for and which he took over ten minutes to address. Otherwise all our dishes were explained well which is what I would expect from a good restaurant. Food did come out very quickly though so we were in and out in just under 90 minutes.

Comparatively speaking with restaurants in the same or similar league the deal we had tonight was a little on the pricey side so not the best value for money meal. Still, overall the experience was pretty good and its always a plus when you actually know the chef the restaurant is attached to is actually in the kitchen!

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

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For Christmas last year Jules got Sandra this Ice Cream making machine. As with all things new for the first couple of months they both expressed an enthusiasm for the machine which sounded like they were making use of it nearly every couple of days – mainly making frozen yoghurt I think. Sandra invited me over this weekend to try and make Delia’s Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream which she describes as half dessert half ice cream.

But before work comes sustenance and today it came in the form of a delicious chicken pie from the markets that Jules and Sandra visit most weekends. Yummo!

We started making the ice cream at about 2pm. Steps included pureeing strawberries and making a syrup, crumbling and baking the crunchy bits, making the custard base for the ice cream, combining with curd cheese and yoghurt ready for freeze-churning in the ice cream maker. This only took 45 minutes to get to this stage. The freeze-churning stage took about half an hour to chill the machine and nearly another half an hour to freeze churn.

Then it was time to quickly fold in the strawberry puree and the crunchy bits. I think we ended up with too much strawberry puree because they ended up being less ripples and more strawberry flavoured ice cream! (Did anyone notice in the photos that I’ve switched to sweats! Heh heh. Sweats with maximum expansion to fit in all the food I was expecting to eat today.)

Delia suggests that you need to freeze the whole mixture for 5-6 hours! 3-4 hours actually was enough for us and just enough time to watch a movie and for Sandra to make us some dinner – lasagne! Delicious lasagna!

So the finished ice cream product looked like this coming out of the freezer. Okay – at fist glance it doesn’t look fab (in fact Jules commented that you couldn’t tell looking at it whether it was savoury or sweet! Cheeky! Ha ha!) but once served it started to look like the genuine thing.

Taste-wise it was pretty good though it was a lot less creamier than I was expecting it to be. We might try rocky road next time …

Caro’s Big Chicken

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I so blame Caro for the pain I’m in at the moment .. and not my weak resistance to all things food! Ha! Tonight I caught up with Caro, Nate, Gaspar and Caro’s mum at their place. Caro promised me a big roast chicken and boy did she deliver. A beautifully roasted chicken with some beautifully roasted veges and gravy. Oh and champagne to celebrate Friday night! I was in absolute heaven. If I could have I would have eaten it all but I didn’t want to be rude. 😉

I think actually what tipped me over the edge was some camembert cheese Caro pulled out for dessert. Come on woman – who would resist that! Certainly not me! Ha ha.

But speaking of big, its not been that long since I’ve last seen Gaspar but boy has he grown. Nearly 10 kilos and at 9 months already wearing an 18 month old’s clothing – he is going to be massive! He’s just getting to that stage where he’s starting to want to crawl around. His laugh is so infectious – though I love the fact that as soon as he gets near anyone’s hair he immediately reaches for it!

As always I appreciate the lengths that Nate and Caro to go to take care of me. I hope one day soon I’ll be able to return the favour. Might have to practice a bit though to get up to Caro’s standard.

Blaze

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Looks like I’m bouncing from one dance show to another to another. Tonight D and I attended the premiere performance of Blaze, The Streetdance Sensation, at the Peacock Theatre. Awesome much!

The show was introduced by the Director of Plays at the Peacock Theatre warning us that it was possible the show might have some teething problems because it was a highly technical show and that they might have had to actually have to stop the show to rectify it. In a good sign for the show there were no stoppages and everything seemed to flow through pretty smoothly.

The show starts off rather slowly. Before curtain up along the front of the stage are numerous and varying forms of sneakers – all is revealed when the cast literally blaze on to stage and into their shoes! After this start, however, the show was soon firing and everyone demonstrated amazing energy. From a purely visual aspect, taking aside the dancing, there was a riot of colour often on stage tempered by an innovative set which, never actually moving itself, thanks to a great light and projection programme changed as required. E.g. at one stage it appeared that water was dripping down the wall when actually it was just a projection. I also especially liked the use of UV lighting in one of the performances which was pretty cool. Set changes were incorporated into the show rather than as a background.

The soundtrack was very original I thought not using the obvious songs, although tracks by artists such as Justin Timberlake and Rihanna did make an appearance. Most original was the piece that centered around using the wii soundtrack (that music you get on the home page – can’t remember what its called – its where you create your wii mes and select games etc.) Fantastic.

The cast consists of 12 core hip hop/street dancers (including two finalists from the first season’s UK So You Think You Can Dance) which was gratifyingly split 6-6 boy girl, a group of three breakers (draw dropping both from how fit they were – hot damn! – and their movements) and another breaker who kind of was a breaker but also kind comic relief and kind of compare when needed. Every person, either in solos, or as a the head dancer in a group dance, or in mini-groups got to showcase their skill. There was even a tap piece which was pretty cool. This kids have awesome talent. I admit I’m just a little bit jealous! One girl was a bit distracting as she reminded me very strongly of a friend of mine!

Although probably too slick and smooth for true gritty urban street dancing I’d definitely recommend it – and it seemed to appeal to a variety of people. There was even this middle-aged (white) woman who you’d never guess would be into this who was on my own and really getting into it. First one to give a standing ovation actually! Go see it before it leaves … though I suspect this is the kind of production that will keep coming back.

Soap

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Its rather amusing to me the number of shows that I drag my friends to where they don’t even know what they’re going to see – quite often on the night when we meet up the first thing they’ll ask will be: “what’s this about anyway?” I guess I should be pretty pleased that they trust my judgment enough to commit without even finding out what they’re getting into! Happily for the most part no one leaves dissatisfied and, thankfully, that “winning” streak continued tonight.

Tonight it was Laney’s turn to come out with me so we went along to the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith to see Soap – a circus type show with a difference. How you may ask? Well, its all in the name, kind of. All the acts are done in and around bathtubs! It’s a fantastically innovative idea and a great way to differentiate yourself from the numerous circus acts past and present.

On stage there are up to a maximum of eight performers and a minimum of one at any one time – each with their respective talents. Almost central to the show and keeping the theme of the show continuous are the non-circus acts: the opera singer and the clown. The opera singer was interestingly a centerpiece both for her visual impact and her voice. The clown, something you always see in these kinds of shows, kept things light and, well, funny though I did think they overused her a bit.

However the main highlights for me where the circus performers themselves. A bathtub is not a bathtub without water as Laney and I found out tonight. We were front row and I’m afraid were well in the splash zone though to be fair at times the splash zone even reached back to about the 15th row! Though we weren’t exactly drenched with each performance it was enough that we’d get a little damp and just as we dried off get damp again – kind of like intermitten drizzle! Totally fun though! Anyway, I’ve gone astray from the performances a bit! As I’ve intimated there was a lot of water involved in this show – whether it was in the bathtubs as the performers slid in and out it, or falling from above in a heavy shower – whatever the format it added a little something to the show.

So what exactly do you see? Well, aside from a bit of mincing around, and the group pieces there was specifically: Nata Galkina and her amazingly talented feet. It was kind of like juggling and throwing hoops etc. around with her toes but that doesn’t really do justice to her talent. We had Adem Endris with his juggling – against the ground rather than up in the air. Then the no doubt hottest man in the cast Michael Lanphear flexes his strength in a strap from the ceiling act (swinging up, down, around, and in and out of the tub). He also joined up with Nata Galkina and Masha Terentieva in a piece called “Love Scene” which involved two tubs, two girls and one man, and a lot of contortion, movement and balancing. You can kind of see where the story is going but you may be surprised by the ending (which I totally approved of!) Masha’s signature performance was up and down a pole – I was most impressed by her flaming red hair! Fernando Dudka known for his skill in handstandacrobatics also demonstrated his strength in a piece simply called Handstand – best description is kind of like the stuff you see the men gymnasts do on the rings and pommel horse but on the tub an in a much more fluid piece. He was amazing and towards the end of his act, when surely the lactic acids are desperately building up, he does this pose where he simply uses his neck to support his body – no words and describe! And finally a man who could make me cry with the way he moves – Francois Gravel. His signature piece is the dance trapeze and, involving a few of the other cast members, he does things with the trapeze which were simply beautiful. I was impressed with him the whole night in everything that he was involved with.

See it before it finishes its run – you’ll love it as much as we did!

The Gate Vegetarian Restaurant

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Vegetarian food? Who me? Well, I couldn’t believe it but tonight I enjoyed a 3 course vegetarian meal, not a meat in sight, and I left very satisfied … if a little lighter in the pocket (£34 for 3 course meal one softdrink and service …)

The Gate is located in Hammersmith. Run by Indo-Iraqi Jewish (as they describe themselves) brothers the food is inspired by their grandmothers – a mix of Indian, Arabic and Jewish cuisines. The brothers pride themselves on sourcing the best ingredients and as a consequence the menu changes monthly (though noting there are permanent signature dishes).

The menu makes for an interesting read. Though options, such as Laney’s starter of butternet & cashew samosa and my starter of carciofini appear straight forward the description that follows is not. For Laney she had “deep-fried filo pastry stuffed with butternut squash, cashew nuts & cauliflower, served with a date & tamarind sauce” to look forward to where I had a “baby artichoke stuffed with dolcelatte & a wild mushroom duxelles, fried in a crispy beer batter, & served with a puy lentil salsa & lemon & garlic aioli”. I guess the rather large descriptions are necessary for a vegetarian restaurant as all the better to draw you in. Starters were nice if not terribly memorable. My carciofini was lovingly cooked if a little slightly light on the seasoning side.

Mains of truffled risotto cake (sautéed pied bleu, hedgehog, oyster & chestnut mushrooms, served on a truffle risotto cake, with a creamy cep sauce, rocket & parmesan) and aubergine schnitzel (layered with applewood smoked cheddar, basil pesto, roasted red peppers & plum tomatoes, served with potato dauphinoise & pan-fried kale & finished with a horseradish cream sauce) were much better. It took a while for me to get into the flavour of the aubergine schnitzel but once I found it I didn’t want to stop eating (though the smoke cheddar flavour wasn’t as strong as I wanted it to be.) It was quite lovely. Laney loved her risotto cake which I think had to win the dish of the night. Still not sure what hedgehog is though … (other than those cute little spikey animals that is).

At the end of the two courses I was actually feeling pretty satisfied but of course it didn’t take much encouragement from Laney to opt for a dessert. She opted for a vanilla cheesecake and, even though I knew my stomach would regret it for its heaviness, I opted for the a coconut rice pudding served with caramelised pineapple. Damn me and my weakness for all things rice!

Service tonight was very friendly and efficient. Atmosphere was good with a lot more people turning up around 7.30. The Gate strikes me as the kind of place for regulars – located in Hammersmith and inside church grounds people are hardly likely to stumble upon it that’s for sure.

Overall as a vegetarian restaurant the Gate was pretty impressive – I didn’t miss the meat in my meal tonight at all which is rather surprising though I suspect come tomorrow morning I’ll feel a little hungrier than normal. Food quality and presentation is at a high level though if I’m to have a minor gripe about it I did feel, in the dishes we at tonight at any rate, that because the dishes had so many things going on that the flavours inevitably mixed too much and as a result had less of an impact than expected. Price-wise its probably quite a bit pricier than you’d imagine for paying for a non-meat non-seafood meal so I won’t be coming here every week but I’d be happy to come out their seasonal offerings.

Vapiano

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Annie’s sister, who I’ve never actually met, has been visiting with any for the last few weeks (mainly on a whirlwind tour around Spain) but leaves tomorrow to return to Oz. To give her a proper send off Annie got a few of us to come out for a meal. We ended up at Vapiano which is a German Based Italian restaurant chain. Its actually a pretty big chain internationally with locations including Australia, Estonia, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and, naturally, Germany.

This is no ordinary Italian restaurant. It’s a pizza pasta bar where food is made to order. Each customer coming into the restaurant has to pick up a chip card at the front door which you then use to wave in front of the counter when ordering your food and drink. Chargers are then accumulated on the card and there are no problems with splitting the bill. It’s a very casual restaurant with heaps of dining split over two floors. It does get very busy, however, and if you’re in a big group like we were then it could get difficult to find space all in one area. Even on a Sunday night it was heaving.

The great thing about Vapiano is that you don’t have to rely on a waiter or waitress (except to clear the tables) – its help yourself so you can go order your food whenever you want how often you want. This is ideal when in a big group, so you can stagger your orders so you can keep your table, but may be awkward if you’re trying to keep the table but you all want your food at the same time. Because there’s no service there’s no pressure to finish your meal and get out of there so you can stay as long as you like.

Food is surprisingly good and cooked fresh in front of you so you can see it all happening and also customise your dish (in terms of amounts of salt, chilli, pepper, garlic etc.)

An interesting option to add to my portfolio of food.

The Blind Side

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On the day of the Oscar’s, where Sandra Bullock is nominated for a best actress award, Pat and I went to see The Blind Side in which she stars and was nominated for. Everyone who knows me knows that it doesn’t take much to get me balling and The Blind Side had me doing it in spades!

Michael Oher is a big star NFL player. The Blind Side follows him from his deprived beginnings, to starting Christian school, to his adoption by an affluent family (Sandra Bullock plays the mother), to his spectacular rise in the school football team to his draft pick into the NFL.

The story is uplifting, moving and inspirational. Although there are some very bleak and heart-breaking moments for the most part the story focuses on the positives in Michael’s life. To be fair this movie is not any different from any other poor kid makes good except that there is a greater focus on Sandra Bullock’s character which is unusual – normally the focus is on the athlete.

The movie is a little cliché and does play a little on stereotypes (like the black kid who can only be helped by a rich white woman) but you know what sometimes you just need to watch something that makes you feel good and this movie did.

Film is released in the UK on Friday.