CHECKOUT (1st edition – October 2011)
Joe Delucci’s gelato
joedeluccis.com
We’ve often seen Joe Delucci’s gelato at Bluewater and my kids love the scooter seats. So we stopped and bought a few scoops, this isn’t your ordinary run of the mill ice cream. It’s texture is so thick and creamy and the flavours so full. I went for Rum & Raisin and if I didn’t know better I’d have thought it had half a bottle of Captain Morgan in it… Saff had a fruity Pineapple Gelato while the kids had chocolate, which wasn’t as bitter as some brands and a cool mint choc chip. With over 30 different flavours, your favourite will be there. Next time I’m going to try the new Cherry and custard flavour, it sounds ‘delucious’.
The new 'cherry and custard' gelato
Gelato is the Italian word for ice cream. However, gelato is made in an entirely different way to the ice cream you might normally buy. ‘Normal’ ice cream is made with lots of cream (obviously!) This means it’s high in fat, on average over 16% (and sometimes up to 30%). But Joe Delucci’s gelato on average contains between 0% & 12% fat! Which means it’s healthier – so you can have more of it. So how does it taste so creamy then? I hear you ask.This is because they don’t add lots of air when it’s made, this makes gelato thicker and creamier tasting.
- Just 4 of Joe Delucci’s ‘delucious’ Gelati Flavours – Rum & Raisin was Ade’s favourite
Cupcake Cakeaway
- A delicious little cup cake… complete with glitter!
We love these bespoke cupcakes! They come in 40 fab flavours and look and taste amazing. The cupcakes are available to order for collection/delivery within the Dartford and surrounding areas and can be ordered in advance for the date of your choice. All their cupcakes are freshly baked, ideal for birthdays, weddings, children’s parties, they can personalise any cake too! (Minimum order is 6).
Go vintage - stunning
Our favourite is the beautiful ‘Vintage’ collection – and they taste as good as they look. Take a peek of her pics on Facebook, the cakes are so imaginative – some of the best we’ve seen from a small independent seller! We predict big things from this company…
Sweet dreams!
For more details email rachel_neighbour@hotmail.com
Amazon Grocery
We all go to Amazon when we’re looking for a CD or PS3 game for a birthday present but we bet it doesn’t top your list of places to visit when you’re looking for a box of cereal or some olive oil? It’s a really easy way to get those hard to find International, organic & speciality foods (as well as the every day store cupboard essentials). The website is really easy to use and you can quickly find anything that you want, from weird American breakfasts to authentic Indian groceries. They stock a huge range of foods and the best bit? Well delivery is FREE. We ordered a couple of random items, some Marshmallow fluff from the States and a posh pot noodle, both arrived quickly and were very well packaged.
Another genius idea is Subscribe & Save. This feature that allows you to set up automatic re-orders of products you use frequently, on a time scale convenient to you, and at a discount on Amazon.co.uk’s everyday low price. All Subscribe & Save orders are also delivered for free in the UK and the Republic of Ireland using standard delivery. Good or what?
Kabuto chicken ramen and fluff - the kind of dish that Heston would serve!
Heinz Squeeze & Stir soup
Heinz Squeeze & Stir have recently launched a range of rich instant cup soups. Available in four tasty flavours, Cream of Tomato, Cream of Tomato with Basil, Minestrone and Mediterranean Vegetable.
- Quick and simple soup… Simply squeeze & stir
A range of rich instant cup soups, perfect as a snack or with a sandwich. Each recipe is made from a concentrated puree to give you a thick and delicious cup soup, simply add boiling water and stir. And guess what? Each recipe also counts as 1 of your 5 a day, is low in fat and has no artificial colours, flavours, preservatives or MSG. As they say it’s ‘Real soup goodness, in an instant’.
One Blenheim Terrace
A couple of week back we were lucky to be invited to the press launch of Chef Patron Ed Shaerf‘s new restaurant in the heart of St John’s Wood, Just down the road from The Abbey Road Studios (and yes you can cross ‘that crossing’ – especially if you’re walking from St John’s Wood Tube)
There's only One Blenheim Terrace, There's only One Blenheim Terrace!
We only had a taster of the full menu, 3 sample size dishes with each course, which were all paired with a wine or in the case of the starters a beer or ale! The Scotch egg (quail egg, foie gras, confit duck, piccalli, micro cress) was simply amazing but for a real sense of drama you must order the Smoked salmon (warm organic cured salmon, oak smoke, apple, cucumber, salmon roe, horseradish emulsion). For main the Duck à l’orange (roast mallard, confit leg, braised endive, spelt, blood orange sauce) really stood out.
The Mr Benn starter... As if by magic the salmon appears!
But Ade’s real winner was the Cheesecake (cheddar cheese, walnut biscuit, whiskey jelly, roast fig), a cheese board in a pudding – too clever! We wont waffle on too much as we are planning a full review soon, but in the meantime, here’s some words of wisdom from the press release…
Inspired by a love of cooking, Shaerf’s restaurant perfectly executes exciting dishes which are not only a gastronomic delight – but are also visually stunning.
“We are revitalising the food of yesteryear – by stripping back classic favourites, staples on British menus, in an imaginative way, which are then presented with style, cheek and chic,” says Ed. “We are serious about food, but it is still fun and flirty with a hint of razzle dazzle.
Ed Shaerf, the main man...
“Quality is at the heart of everything we do at One Blenheim Terrace,” says Ed. “From sourcing the very best ingredients. – to offering what we think is an excellent range of British beers from Harviestoun’s Bitter & Twisted to Purity Brewing Company’s UBU. We also work very closely with our suppliers to offer a varied, yet reasonably priced, wine list that compliments the flavours to perfection. The quality of our dishes is paramount and we certainly put the hours in, sometimes 18 per day, to make sure our guests leave One Blenheim Terrace with smiles on their faces!”
Examples of how Shaerf has breathed new life into classics dishes include One Blenheim Terrace’s Duck à l’orange which is a delicious variation on the original with roast mallard accompanied by confit leg and a blood orange sauce (£19.50). The stupendous Cucumber sandwich dessert (£5.95) sees a cucumber and ginger sorbet between a cucumber mille-feuille with roasted apple drizzled with orange syrup accompanied by a gin and tonic jelly.
Percol Black & Beyond Espresso
www.blackandbeyond.co.uk
Our favourite new coffee beans, they make a good strong cup of coffee on a Saturday morning to help get us going. And no horrible bitter aftertaste which we sometimes encounter.
We'll go back to black (& beyond)
Bella Vie White Zinfandel Rose
http://www.bellaviewines.com/about/
It’s almost too cold for rose now, but we appreciated this fruity sweet wine a few weeks ago when we had the mini heat wave. Produced in our beloved Puglia, Italy, where Bella Vie means ‘beautiful life’.
Beautiful life... Beautiful bottle... Beautiful flavours!
If you have any new products, gadgets, launches or events planned, you can contact us at welovefood@btinternet.com or message us on our Facebook page
