08 March 2014

Joy's Afternoon Tea Birthday Party at Hush Brasserie, London, England:

English breakfast tea, scones w/marmalade, strawberry jam & butter
(I thought the butter was a weird form of clotted cream at first and ate it. It wasn't, unless that's how actual clotted cream is supposed to look/taste like. I miss Satori's clotted cream. This is more of a restaurant than tea place, so their scones weren't superb, but it was edible and had a decent texture. The service was incredibly slow though, and I think half of it was because we were all students as opposed to the champagne-ordering-older folks who were also at this place for a birthday luncheon.)

Joy's chocolate birthday cake (didn't eat the frosting)

Samples from Food For Thought, London, England: 

Spoonful of Spanish chickpeas w/aubergine & olives in a tomato, smokey paprika & saffron sauce
(Marie sent me a Buzzfeed list of vegetarian dishes to try and this place is one of them! Sadly, I think they have a rotating menu so I couldn't get the butterbean bake, but the spoonful I had of this was good. A bit too salty, but it was a new flavour palette for chickpeas! I normally eat chickpeas in Indian or Mediterranean cuisines, so this weird tomato sauce base threw me off for a bit. I think the majority of the saltiness also comes from the olives.)

Bit of a cream cheese, cheddar, sunflower seed & spinach scone w/pumpkin seed butter
(I was so weirded out by the flavour of this scone that I had to get it. And I was not disappointed! The salty, sharp cheddar flavour complemented the pumpkin seed butter perfectly! Match made.)

Snack:

Rest of the cream cheese, cheddar, sunflower seed & spinach scone
(I took this picture before I ate the sample above, but I later decided to eat the rest of the scone. For such a weird flavour combination, this turned out delicious! The cheese flavour was really strong, but it wasn't overwhelmingly cheesy like mac & cheese. I think the addition of cream cheese helped with that, and it probably also helped with the moistness of the inside. The outside was perfectly baked, with no part burnt and every part nicely "toasted". Actually, the flavour is reminiscent of a really cheesy, but light, mac & cheese with some spinach and crunch factor. I'd eat this scone any day over mac & cheese though, because I find that I always have to dilute the pasta dish. Plus, this is extremely filling and the savoury flavour combination is just so utterly pleasant. This is a definite must-try and is probably my favourite food from London thus far. I'm so glad my server recommended it to me.)

Snack:

Cous cous w/spinach & some of the Spanish chickpeas w/aubergine & olives
(While the dish was decent on its own, I find that I like it much better with added greens and cous cous to dilute the saltiness.)