Asian banquet: no recipes included

So, after a delightful day of free lunches and wedding dress shopping me and Andrews decided we fancied a healthy Asian style tea.

So free styling like the youths we whipped up some Chinese delights that would have Ken Hom shaking in his kimono. Wrong country? Whatevs...

It was greatly aided by the fact Grace Mills informed us we'd been living 10 mins from a chinese supermarket. Soy sauce for 65p, now this is living!

The menu consisted of dim sum to start, followed by chilli and garlic king prawns, egg fried rice, soy and sesame pak choi and spinach and haddock with ginger, spring onion and chilli.

The ingredients from our new favourite place








To start  - steamed pork Sui Mai and prawn dumplings that Kate thought were as good as ping pong. Restaurant standard. And what?!




Followed by the haddock cooked in the oven for 15 mins







The prawns marinated in chilli, oil and garlic, the longer they're marinated the tastier.







The egg and sesame oil for the egg fried rice.




And the finished product, it was quite simply uncredible and not even that high on the kcals.
A dine worthy of celebrity chef status. Come on James Martin, pick up the bloody phone....












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A-Frae-Zing Yogurt

After our amazing sangers me Nellist and Downie need a palette cleanser and the lovely PR from FRAE had said we could have complimentary yoghurts to review for the whatdidyouhavefortea so we trotted to Boxpark in Shoreditch to the delightful FRAE, a fat free frozen yoghurt bar

Spoilt for choice with the toppings. Nellist won on this one as we decided her option of granola and blueberries was the best combo. Note to self, crunch is good.

Downie went for white chocolate and raspberries. Check out these generous portions. These were a size small. The couple next to us opted for medium which Downie thought was greedy. She perhaps shouldn't have said this loudly whilst said couple were in fact still stood next to us.


They were DELICIOUS. So you can imagine our surprise when I spotted that they are a mere 87 kcals. HOW do they do this?? HOW???? We discussed this further to see if we could think of just how they manage to make something that tastes so good fat free?? Skimmed milk aint even fat free and this tastes waaaaay better. Answers on a postcard please.

Not only is FRAE a delish dessert/snack/breakfast its totes guilt free so if like me you watch the kcals but have a sweet tooth it's snack perfection.

Once done our bellies were full and it was time to leave. Not before discussing how hefty their leccy bills are likely to be though, this place has more lights than Blackpool Illuminations. 

Thanks FRAE your miracle defying frozen yoghurts hit the spot. A whatdidyouhavefortealastnight thumbs UP.

A Turner and Roast Sanger

Thanks to the soaring success of the whatdidyouhavefortea blog. The lovely Lisa Goody of miss selfridge fame offered us a complimentary, yes I did say complimentary, trip to her fellas sandwich van.
So me Andrews and Downie hit brick lane for our v important review. AAGILL get.over.it
Tucked away in Trumans brewery is Turner and Roast and possibly the cutest sandwich seller weve ever seen.




So after drawing straws over who introduces ourselves. shy? Us? Never! We met the lovely, lovely nick #swoon.




The options of Sanger were roast chicken, lamb or pork or a halloumi option for all those lesser people ... I mean veggies. Served on either white or low GI ciabatta.








Me and Andrews shared a chicken with mustard and rocket




And the roast pork with rocket, mustard and sliced pickled onions.








Wheato downie went for all 3 meats with apple sauce and mint sauce on paper mmmmmm




They were beyond delish, our mouths are watering just thinking about them.

Deffo worth a visit for the hottest piece of meat in east London...
And the sandwiches aren't bad either.

Bucks Feed Up

I have been in the house merely an hour, (58 minutes of which I've spent in the pub avec parentals, #rocknroll) and I'm on my third vino, open fire, dog jumping up - snagging my tights nonetheless (more pleased to see me than parents, bleak). Food wise, the domestic goddess that is mother dear eichler has come up trumps with salmon en croute. Not only that, the fridge is more full than a look fashion cupboard. Just calling for a sweep on sunday (that's the fridge not look HQ, i only wear designer, obvs). Welcome home indeed.

Mum, what's for breakfast??

Mygdals Birthday Party (?) Dinner

Last night we visited The Corner Room at Bethnal Green for a posh tea for Mygdals Belated Birthday party. And what a party it was!!

The Corner Room (owned by the same people who do Vijante) don't take booking so we kept our fingers crossed that we wouldn't have a long wait...

 We needed have bothered.... there was no one else in there.  The waitress kindly reminded us that we only had the table for two hours, shame really as we were planning to be out for the long haul.

To start we shared squid with romesco, leeks and chorizo crumbs. Totes delish

Followed by beetroot with butternut squash and stracciatella. Stracciatella is perhaps ones of the most delicious cheeses known to man. You should try it.

As a big porridge fan (yes, I even like the one in the IPC Blue Sky Cafe and will happily admit that as it's ironic that it's not cool and therefore is. You get me?) I couldn't resist opting for the cod and clam porridge. Sounds very Heston, no? It wasn't. Give me an Oatso Simple any day of the week.

The other gals went for a not so hearty steak. Which was nice but when you leave a restaurant and salivate at the sight of local Hackney kebab shops you know you've not had enough.

It was all going well, prosecco was flowing, Mygdal was her usual sexual self ("I feel sooo zexy in springtime)  discussing her latest conquest involving lots of claw like hand gestures   "Grrr... his name's Ben and he has HUUUGE muscles and is sooo zexy"

The clock struck 7.30 when Mygdal announced she had to leave soon as she had a date with said man (well, boy, the guys only about 21). WTF!!!! Luckily we managed to drag her kicking and screaming to The London Fields pub where she had one more drink then left.

Lovely to see her of course (she's hilarious) but the money spent means that this girls company works out at a rate of around £30 an hour. You can get cheaper prostitutes.

The Corner Room is worth a try be be warned: Never order porridge with fish in it (what was I thinking?!) and make sure you've got bread in for the inevitable peanut butter on toast when you get in.

Dinner with Joan at the Dover Street Arts Club

We are seriously going up in the world. Don't worry, we're not going to change because we're just not like that #saltoftheearth. We're not the kind to be embarrassed to sit together in the Bluefin canteen. Instead we give nary a thought to the fact that word up from certain fashion quarters on the 7th floor is that it's incredibly uncool. Who knew? And more importantly, who gives a shit? Not us anyway - especially when its offset by an invitation to Dover Street Arts Club for dinner with Joan Collins. Yes siree.

I mean, strictly speaking we weren't actually dining at her table or actually with her in any way (she was with Tamara Beckwith. I mean - who knew?), but she was within spitting distance if you had so felt the urge. Obvs we didn't do any such thing. We were far too busy gawping like goldfish to waste any saliva or bring shame on the table by being that uncool. check out the tres chic dining room, this is where us gals belong.

The Nellist and I were invited to this swanksworth do by the lovely Liz from Snow PR on behalf of their client www.owntherunway.com and we had been asked to pre order a starter, main and side. Now it may sound silly, but pre-ordering without knowing the lay of the table is tricky because you're never sure whether to go a) tactical ie. Jode gets one side and I a different one so we can share or b) just go for what you really, truly want despite the possibility the table might end up with 7 creamed spinaches and no dauphinoise. Well that's the gamble you've just got to take.


In reality it was the starters that were put on the table to share. A bit odd as we ended up with about 7 portions of smoked salmon, three prawn cocktails and something else random but this momentary blip was overcome by possibly the best prawn cocktail we had ever tasted (think it had horseradish in it. Delish.) and very tasty salmon too.

Next onto the mains. Again most people got their own mains except those that opted for the king tiger prawns - a group that included myself. They came on a large platter (you get your own plate and cutlery of course - it's not kfc). As it happened this was not a problem as portions were very generous and the prawns actually the most tasty I have ever eaten in my whole life and I have eaten enough shrimp to make Forest Gump's pal Bubba look like an amateur so I am fully qualified to comment. Unfortunately i couldn't tell you what was on them but it definitely involved garlic and something a bit green.

The other thing of note was the creamed spinach. It was basically a purée and utterly, utterly divine as I imagine Joany C would say. Smooth, soft and rich like a freshly Botoxed forehead. Of which we saw a few, that's for sure.

Jodes sampled the razor clam linguine which she also thought was excellent. Lynne sent hers back to get it altered as she had an aversion to the parsley garnish. Well each to their own as they say on Gardeners World.

Next despite everyone being totally full with a few glasses of good red to wash it down (bobby bonus), we decided to share puddings.

I'll be brief as this is turning into a dissertation. We had an apple tart which Nellist loved, a very rich nutty chocolate bar (ie it had nuts in, as opposed to clinically insane), a floating marshmallow thing, some sort of date thing, ice cream and cheese. Nice.

Then we all retired to the bar upstairs where a magician called Maximillian (he said he was italian - I wasn't sure) did some magic tricks. Naturally we were all horribly cynical so he sloped off after visibly recoiling when Jodie tried to put on his top hat. Peril of the job Maxi.

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The Veggie Sausage Debate at Charlotte St Hotel

The lovely ladies who look after Vero Moda treated myself, The Eichler, Downie, Rachel and Hughsey to a brekkie at Charlotte Street Hotel.

I've been before and have to say the smoked salmon and eggs are pretty damn good and they never even flinched when I did my usual trick of ordering off menu.

However this time (purely in the interests of research for whatdidyouhavefortealastnight) I decided to go for the full veggie breakfast. It's a well known fact to my close friends that I love the veggie sausages from Roast almost as much as I heart Richmond North Yorkshire (well, maybe not THAT much but the love is substantial).

So I thought I would do a comparison.....

Perfect eggs, tasty tomatoes, good mushrooms and nice spinach. BUT within this dish lyed one problem. The veggie sausages. Didn't taste of very much and in fact not as nice as a supermarket bought option. I should have trusted my instincts and gone with the salmon. 

Eichler on the other hand ordered salmon AND veggies sausages. Hate her!! 

Wheato Downie went for eggs benedict sans muffin with a side of hash browns. Food envy much?

So take note Charlotte Street Hotel. Buy your sausages from Borough Market, lower your costs and next time whatdidyouhavefortealastnight will give you a rave review. Alternatively just offer us a free breakfast/lunch/dinner and the review will be just as positive.