How can you not love a restaurant with a catchphrase like that!
Hummus Bros is one of those restaurants that I’ve been meaning to go visit for quite some time but always got pushed behind other restaurant choices. Finally, Catherine took things into her hands and arranged for us (her, Jenny and I) to check out this houmous bar. We were all, if not quite dying of curiosity, at least very curious as to how a houmous bar could operate – after all houmous has probably always been considered to be a side dish or starter of sorts.
The way it works is that they get a bowl and slather houmous around the sides and then throw some toppings on top. All the houmous is the same but it’s the toppings that differ – chickpeas, fava beans, vegetable salad, mushrooms, guacamole, chicken and chunky beef are the regulars and they also have rotating specials. Tonight’s was mexican beef spiced minced beef topped with shredded cheddar cheese & crushed tortilla chips.
The “small” serve (which is actually a regular serve) come with one warmed pitta bread and the “regular” (what I consider large) comes with two. I was pleased to see that the pitta was both wholemeal and quite chunky. A “small” and a side is recommended by the website as a decent portion. To be honest one “small” houmous each and two sides shared between the three of us was more than enough to fill. Though I must admit I couldn’t look past trying the Malabi dessert.
I was quite pleased with my chunky beef houmous. The beef was perfectly tender and very chunky, as promised. Saucy as well. With the beautiful pitta it was perfect. Though I was tempted to go for another pitta actually one was more than enough. Two would have probably left me bloated though I’m sure I would have happily finished it off. Jenny went for the mexican beef, which she seemed happy with, and Catherine the guacamole. We shared a Greek Salad and the Smoky Barbecued Aubergine with pine nuts. Both served cold the salad was nice but the aubergine wasn’t very smoky or barbecuey. My Malabi dessert (basically like a pannacotta with date honey (tasted like golden syrup) poured over it) was very pretty but nothing stunning. To finish our waiter was really nice and served us with small (complimentary) glasses of mint tea.
In fact the service was perfect tonight – attentive, not pushy (even when we were finished and there was a line out the door we were never rushed to leave) and very friendly and patient. The atmosphere is quite nice in the restaurant. There is only enough seating for 24 on long benches although there is also a bar facing the street where people can sit. Strangely they haven’t tried to fit too many tables into the restaurant and there is more than enough space to sit comfortably and move around which is a nice change although due to the nature of the tables be prepared to sit quite close to your neighbour.
Our bill came to £15 each (including service which we happily handed over) which I think is a touch on the pricey side for what is essentially an item you can buy in a tub from the supermarket or grocers for a few quid plus some extras. Still, I can’t say we weren’t stuffed after our meal and we did enjoy our toppings.
Hummus Bros is ideal for a quick and relatively healthy meal (not the kind of place you’d really linger.) Great friendly service in a good location.
It was Rita and Ade’s last day in the office today so I left it up to them to decide on where we should have lunch. Although I really like the lunch places we go to in Hammersmith it seems we always go to the same places – the Thai, the Iranian. Umm … yeah. So, when Rita suggested we try for something Indian I thought it would be great time to try Green Chilli. I’ve seen good write-ups of the place and with a 40% off deal from toptable it seemed like a good option.
Green Chilli is quite an attractive restaurant inside – all white table clothes and updated décor (all reflected in the prices by the way!) We were the only diners at lunch today. Not a total surprise as I suspect most of its custom is at night for dinner.
The service, as it should be I guess when we’re the only diners, was efficient and friendly without being intrusive For food we decided to go with the chef recommendation of the chilli paneer (marinated cottage cheese chunks in a sweet chilli sauce with some onions, red and green peppers) as a starter and three curries: lamb korma, butter chicken and gosht chicken for our mains. All were excellent and tasty. Very high quality food we thought. Portion-wise the starter was a very generous size. The curries were a little less generous and were served in quite small, though deep bowls. Having said that each curry came with a number of good-sized chunks of meat. Along with our naan and shared rice dish we were suitably stuffed at the end of our meal. Price-wise the food is quite over-priced for Indian food but with the 40% discount from toptable on food offers reasonable value for money.
If you want to have some excellent Indian food don’t overlook Green Chilli in Hammersmith – it may surprise you.
As usual the English weather is totally unpredictable. Nearly a month into autumn and this weekend we are experiencing one of the warmer and sunniest weekends we have for most of the summer.
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth (not quite sure what one is) after some lunch and a quick hair cut at my favourite hair salon Hair By Fairy I took a nice loooong stroll through Hyde Park on the way home.
It was a beautiful day today and as it was only us girls (Jenny, Rita and I) left in the office we decided to make a trip up to Chiswick to find somewhere for lunch. As we couldn’t decide we ended up in the George IV.
Many of the pubs in Chiswick have gone down the route of the gastro so its nice to walk into a pub like the George IV and still get a .. well a pub! We should have been adventurous and gone for a table in the beer garden but opted for a seat near the window instead. I was happy with this as then I could stare all I like at the cute English bulldog that was near the bar.
Such a sucker for a cute stocky dog!
Food is very reasonably priced at this pub and great portions and good taste. No microwave meals here methinks. My only complaint – getting charged £1.50 for a pint of tap water and squash. Could have walked across the road and picked up a whole bottle of squash for that price!
Four months ago I came to Gilgamesh and it was bright and airy. When I came tonight with my brother it was dark and moody. Amazing how four months can make a change in the atmosphere purely from the light coming from the outside! We were taking advantage of the same top table offer as last time (50% of set menu) so I was pleased to see that they had changed the set menu but still offering the meat and vegetarian options. Nothing really excited us from the vegetarian options so meat it was.
This time around our starters were:
– Smoked trout, mango & star fruit salad
– Prawn spring roll, tomato salsa & coriander
– Egg white soup dumpling
followed by mains of Thai crispy duck hot pot & Asian herbs and Double cooked pork, pak choi & chilli jam (is that what that was!) and dessert of Steamed coconut custard with coconut foam and tropical fruit. We were also a bit greedy and decided to have some salt and pepper squid (served in newspaper.)
I didn’t think the food was as tasty as it was last time though it was as equally prettily presented. The smoked trout, mango & star fruit salad was a touch on the tangy side, the dumplings were nothing to get excited about and actually where a bit mooshy and the spring roll was tasty but strangely reminded me of a prawn toast!
Our main dishes weren’t anything too spectacular though they were sufficiently tasty. Patrick wasn’t really impressed with the double cooked pork as he didn’t think it didn’t have much flavour and had too much fat. I thought it was okay though and surprisingly tender. The hot pot wasn’t so much crispy duck as soggy duck by the time we got to it. The duck too was quite tender but there wasn’t so much flavour in the dish. Our mains were served with some really tasty coconut rice and very well cooked green vegetables. Perhaps the flavour of these dishes overwhelmed our mains!
My favourite dish of the night had to have been the steamed coconut custard (served cold.) Never a being a fan of foam I was happy to find that the foam had quite a strong taste which was more tropical than coconut I thought but I wasn’t complaining. Well, actually I would like to complain – to say that the dessert serving was way too small! 🙂
We had a really friendly waitress from Denmark tonight so I was quite happy with her service. I was pleased to see that she kept topping up our water without us having to ask so this is good. She only let us down when we were trying to pay – at that point we were waiting quite a while and couldn’t see where she’d gone.
Once again I left the restaurant feeling way too full and relatively happy with my experience. A bit more light would have been appreciated so we could actually see what we were eating but I guess it went with the whole ambience of the restaurant to have dimmer lighting. All tables were full tonight so the restaurant is clearly having a good season.
I’m starting to think that if I ever move to Europe for work that Germany is one of the countries that would appear top of the list. Every visit I’ve had to Germany I’ve enjoyed immensely – the German people (extremely friendly and not too bad on the eyes), the German food (ahh … meat!) and the German efficiency (what’s not to love!) – all fab. Munich is
Germany’s third biggest city by population and every September for two weeks this population of more than 1.3 million swells by another nearly 6 million as visitors pour in for the annual Oktoberfest – an over a fortnight of celebration which constitutes the worlds largest fair.
There was a good-sized group of us who came to Munich with Pauline, James, Sarah, Erin (though we didn’t really see her all weekend) and I sharing a room. We also met up with Caroline who, crazyily, braved a 24 hour bus from London with a bunch of aussie yobos to get to Munich and then camped it the whole weekend. Brave girl.
Mid Sept 2008 (not October as one would imagine …)
Why Go?
Munich is a beautiful city. Going there at the same time as Oktoberfest? Great atmosphere!
Weather
A touch on the cold side. In 2007 same time this year it was 28 degrees! So who know!
Hint
– If going during Oktoberfest book accommodation as early as you can and wait until you get to Munich to buy great outfits for the festival. Being in the right dress will let you fit in get in the right mood. Also considering pre-booking a table in the popular beer tents for the afternoon if possible. On opening weekend Oktoberfest gets very busy and sometimes beer halls stay shut once full.
– Visit with up to five of you – public transport have partner tickets good for covering up to five of you
Regrets
Not getting dressed up in a genuine Bavarian wench outfit – the Dirndl 🙂
We deliberately flew in on Thursday night to give us a couple of days sight-seeing in Munich. We spent Friday and Monday sight-seeing but the weather was so rubbish on Monday that we just didn’t have the heart. I hadn’t really had much time to think about what I wanted to see but I knew Dachau was on top of the list. Dachau was the first concentration camp opened in Germany which served as a model for all other concentration camps following it. It was also the only one to last through the whole war. Many atrocities were committed there but you wouldn’t know it today. When Sarah and I visited it was amazing weather with beautiful blue skies and the surrounds of Dachau itself was quite pretty with many grown trees and beautifully maintained landscape. This made my kind of uncomfortable as Dachau felt so clean and sanitised and so it made me feel almost guilty for visiting on such a day. There is a lot of information in Dachau and though most of it has been destroyed they have a museum which takes you through its history in-depth. A lot of heavy reading and definitely worth a visit. The greatest turn-off was the great groups of pushy tourists who were jostling each other to get a look into the re-built rooms. Its not like it was extremely busy so that they were pushing me and each other around was a puzzle to me.
Sight-seeing wise that was about it for our trip to Munich. The rest of the time we walked around just taking snaps of notable areas such as the City Centre including Marienplatz square (which admittedly is where most tourists hang out) and its Glockenspiel and the English Gardens, and sitting in beer halls!
We spent Friday afternoon into early evening at the Hofbräuhaus am Platzl. Hugely popular we were lucky to get a table for lunch. The beer hall is probably the most famous in Munich and hence attracts its fair share of tourists. Its got a great food menu at reasonable prices (I took the opportunity to get my pork knuckle) and I had my first pint since New York courtesy of a married guy who wanted to … shall we say … be more than friends! Ha ha. Just a lot of harmless flirting really. The beer wasn’t actually too bad tasting though I did have my usual allergic reaction to it.
The atmosphere in the Hofbräuhaus is great with bavarian music being blasted by the band every now and then. Apparently there are a number of tables which are “subscribed” to by local germans who in return for paying a hefty price for the table for the year get the privilege of the use of the table whenever they want, a special stein glass to drink it from (these steins are kept locked up in cute little lockers when not in use) and free beer. One of these guys were sitting next to us and he apparently was the Hofbräuhaus’ longest running subscriber.
Saturday was opening day at the Oktoberfest. We got there for just after 9am but by then the queues to get into the beer halls were already massive. Its clearly one of the most popular days with many people keen to get into the beer halls for the opening tap at noon. Erin met up with her friends at 8am to get into the Hofbräuhaus tent. This tent last year had the worst reputation for general drunken We went into several tents looking for a table including Ochsenbraterei tent (room for 5,900), Augustiner-Festhalle (6,000), and Löwenbräu-Festhalle (5,700) – not one table free at 9.30am! Everyone was in great spirits considering no alcohol was going to be flowing for another few hours. We ended up sitting in the Löwenbräu beer garden next to Caroline’s lot. It was a great atmosphere but the aussies were in a crazy mood. By the time noon rolled around they were more than ready for their steins. Unfortunately our table seemed to have the slowest waitress and by the time we got our first steins other tables were on to their second! We did get to see one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen in my life – the guy selling us snacks was gorgeous!
The waitresses are amazing – each stein is 1-litre and the glass themselves must weigh at least that much and these ladies can carry 12 steins at once – without any apparent effort and with greater dexterity moving through the crowds than I could managed. Apparently these positions are very hard to come by and are often passed down in the family. The people working at Oktoberfest (admittedly 12 hours a day for 16 days straight) can make more than three month’s wages in just two weeks so they are very coveted positions and are worth the sacrifice of two week’s holiday. If you go to Oktoberfest and are in any vicinity of an Australian or Kiwi be prepared to wear a lot of beer. They are quite “energetic” in their cheering and once they get up on the seats and tables there is no turning back. Thankfully the beer seems to dry quite quickly!
For those who aren’t the biggest fan of beer you also have the shandy option – though its handy to know the German word for it as not all waitresses speak English. Its Radler for those who are interested and this word became my number one favourite German word all weekend.
I don’t know if it’s the drink or just general party atmosphere at Oktoberfest but anyone will talk to you anywhere. I was waiting in line for the ladies and this Danish girl just turned around and started speaking to me and telling me her life story. It was great and sure passed the time whilst in line.
In addition to drinking at Oktoberfest there are some great food options at the fair including the roasting half chickens, the half meter long bratwurst, currywurst, etc. all of which fell victim to my appetite. I only managed to down one stein all day but I was quite proud of finishing off even that litre. When things got a bit messy in the Löwenbräu beer garden, and the weather a little bit colder, we thought it was time to leave and try and get into a beer tent somewhere. No luck! All were either shut or still too full.
So James and I decided to partake in some carnie activities including shooting a rifle and cross-bow and riding the Olympic Ring roller-coaster (this was almost a fatal error as we rode the ride just after I’d downed the stein – lucky for James I managed to hold on to my beer but it was a very close thing!)
Day 2 at Oktoberfest dawned a little more civilised. There were noticeably less people at the fair in the morning when we arrived at the Hippodrome. Erin had arranged us tickets inside the beer hall for the morning which turned out quite well. I don’t know if it happens at all beer tents but when we arrived there were these giant platters of food on the table – comprised mainly of radish, plus bread (including a delicious though heart-stopping lard and fried onion topped bread) and cold meat. We thought it was complimentary only to find out it was a stunning Euro 11 each for the platter! And we barely at any of it! Never mind.
The morning in the beer hall was fairly civilised to be honest. I guess its family time – we even saw a table of kids with their small beers – not sure if they were alcoholic but it was funny to see them indulge in the practice anyway.
Erin and her lot wore some dirndl outfits that they bought in the UK. As they were more costume then genuine outfits they were a little, shall we say, short and showy. It definitely caught the eye of everyone who saw them. Erin definitely got her fair share of stares and hushed whispers and snickers. I felt for her but I’m sure she didn’t regret wearing her outfit.
We were all looking forward to our half chickens for lunch. We almost couldn’t wait as we saw half chicken after half chicken parading before us and being delivered to all the other tables. It was delicious. The stein I had over lunch seemed to go down much quicker than yesterday’s!
After lunch we were kicked off our table so had to go search for accommodation in another beer tent. It was mad crazy when we got out. Once again all the beer tents were quite full and many had their doors shut to us. We tried the Schottenham tent (6,000) which actually seemed like a happening place with great music and good-natured partying on the tables, and we tried the Löwenbräu tent again because Sarah had some friends on the inside. Unfortunately this place was only letting people in a trickle at a time and though Sarah, James and I managed to push our way in Pauline got pushed out and never made it in. It was probably good we didn’t stay there anyway as it seemed that the fanatics had taken over the tent – all around the band was a sea of their tell-tale yellow-shirts. It was messy. It was so bard that steins were actually being smashed against each other and breaking – not an easy feat!
We lost Sarah inside the Löwenbräu and Pauline outside somewhere so James and I went over to the Schützen-Festhalle beer garden where some of his friends were. We’d actually met these guys on our first day in Munich but I didn’t really speak to them. Here I made the mistake of having and quickly downing my second stein. This was to prove a fatal error in my getting sick later!
Finally we decided to try and get into a beer tent again and somehow made it into the Hofbräu-Festzelt. Do not go near the pig pen in this tent or you will accidentally find yourself without underwear! We ended up near a bunch of Kiwis and although it was all fairly good-natured there were some very drunk people around us.
One guy was lying in his sick, a few people around us got escorted outside they were so drunk, many people up on the tables kept falling off the tables and taking people down with them. It was very messy. I even saw some blood on the tables. And finally all sorts of people were getting it on. The Germans have a specific word for those over drunk people: Bierleichen – Beer Corpses. 🙂
Good atmosphere though and the band were rocking. We also met up with Caroline in the tent and somehow she kept scoring free steins! It was really funny. Here I had my walk of shame – throwing up! Thankfully I made it to the toilets though Caroline was doing her best to get me to do it into a stein or under our table – ha ha!
The evening and my Oktoberfest experience ended with Caroline and I riding three of the bigger rides at Oktoberfest. I guess that’s the great thing about the fair – its not just about the beer, its also about the great entertainment and food.
We rode three rides Cyber Space (this ride which twirls all over the place, tips you upside down and drops you to the ground), the Star Flyer (a basic swing ride about 50 metres up in the air – this started me on the path to nausea) and finally the Hollenblitz (a crazy Space-Mountain like roller coaster) which had me running urgently to the toilet. The fact that there was a hat on the ground at its exit full of sick shows just how nauseating this ride was! Great end to the evening.
But the funniest end to the evening – getting to the hotel room and finding everyone in there watching German porn (ha ha – not really but Sarah was getting full teasing for accidentally switching it on) and a random German guy accidentally trying to get into our room. He was pretty cute – I wouldn’t have said no if he’d insisted 😉
As family and friends know I live in a place I affectionately call ‘the shoebox’. Great location but hardly any space to swing a cat, as they say. As a result I hardly have any cooking facilities – at least I have two hobs but there is no microwave and worse yet no oven. I could probably get a mini-oven but it would take up precious space … which I use for all my clutter. As a result of not having an oven now and then I find myself craving some good old-fashioned oven cooking – normally in the form of lasagne. So, today, I invited myself over to my brother’s house for a Come Dine With Me-type meal.
Come Dine with Me is a show which has five amateur chefs competing against each other by each hosting a dinner party for the other guests. Most people secretly love the show and I must admit watching it is quite entertaining because you get the drama of a reality program but you get the cooking side too. What’s not to love about that combination? So, this was Come Dine With Pat only he had to do the entertaining for me. Ha ha.
Actually it was a lot of fun preparing our simple lunch – only something simple garlic bread, lasagne, salad finished off with my zucchini and chocolate chip cookies. All cooked from scratch. What made it really funny was we had the fam from back home in Oz online at the same time so it was kind of like we were broadcasting a cooking show. Hilarious.
Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of how the cookies turned out but here they are in preparation. Mmm … tasty 🙂 :
The meal was a great success and we seriously over-ate. There’s just something about the combo of garlic bread and lasagne that just calls for double serves. And we’d made such a gigantic lasagne that we had enough for about 3 more meals each from the leftovers. Great result.
Another adaptation of a Tom Cruise Hollywood blockbuster has come to the West End – Rain Main. This time starring heart throb Josh Hartnett in Tom Cruise’s role. I honestly can’t recall much of the movie considering it was released nearly 20 years ago (!) but I imagine that a bit of adaptation has to have been made to the movie to bring it to the stage – not least translating the big cross-country car trip across the states on to stage. There were also some notable updates to the script to bring it into 2008 including a very emotional reference to 9/11.
I wasn’t sure how seriously I could take baby-faced Josh Hartnett in the bitter character that is Charlie. He has to play a cynical brash bitter almost mean-hearted at times young man, a character which belies his pretty face, opposite Adam Godley who tackles the role played so wonderfully by Dustin Hoffman in the movie of Raymond, Charlie’s older brother who is sweet and an autistic-savant. I read somewhere that, ironically, Josh Hartnett took on an opposite role in 2005’s Mozart and the Whale of Donald Morton who diagnosed himself with Asperger’s syndrome after watching Rain Man.
Briefly Charlie is young man who finds out that his estranged father has died and left his whole estate to an un-named beneficiary. Upon finding out that it is a brother he never knew he had and that brother is in an institution he, at first, sets out to exploit him but then finds himself on a journey of discovery to fulfilment though as the play ends seemingly in the middle of a story we are left to imagine where this journey takes him. We hope to a better place.
Interestingly, unlike most American plays I’ve seen, the American accents didn’t grate on me. Perhaps it was because Josh’s accent was quite a bit less harsh than most I’ve heard and the British or non-American actors didn’t try to go too overboard with their own respective accents. From a delivery perspective its clear that the cast are still settling into their roles. Josh himself made quite a few mistakes during the show which was a little unexpected considering it has been showing for at least two weeks now. Let’s hope that he and the crew get on top of it in time for the press showing on the 19th!
I was quite drawn into the play with both the main leads, Josh and Adam, doing well in their respective roles. There was a lot of foul language in this version which I didn’t feel was entirely necessary and only at some points did it add emphasis to the scene. There were some laughs and whether it was the story or the acting I did have some teary moments – especially at the end of the first half. Highlight – Josh in his underwear. Ph-oar!
How can you not love a restaurant with a catchphrase like that! 
and they also have rotating specials. Tonight’s was mexican beef spiced minced beef topped with shredded cheddar cheese & crushed tortilla chips.
get a mini-oven but it would take up precious space … which I use for all my clutter. As a result of not having an oven now and then I find myself craving some good old-fashioned oven cooking – normally in the form of lasagne. So, today, I invited myself over to my brother’s house for a Come Dine With Me-type meal. 
of adaptation has to have been made to the movie to bring it to the stage – not least translating the big cross-country car trip across the states on to stage. There were also some notable updates to the script to bring it into 2008 including a very emotional reference to 9/11. 
Perhaps it was because Josh’s accent was quite a bit less harsh than most I’ve heard and the British or non-American actors didn’t try to go too overboard with their own respective accents. From a delivery perspective its clear that the cast are still settling into their roles. Josh himself made quite a few mistakes during the show which was a little unexpected considering it has been showing for at least two weeks now. Let’s hope that he and the crew get on top of it in time for the press showing on the 19th!
