Happiness is...

I often like to take little snaps of foodie things that have made me content or just laugh out loud. Just quick pix with my crappy mobile phone. They don't really merit a whole blog post on their own, but, being a bit of a food nerd, I think they're worth a quick mention. On the left, you can see a bowl of porridge I ate at the Spitalfields branch of Leon. What made it so special were the Valhrona chocolate flakes and strawberry compote they put on top. Not sickly - simply delicious (and it almost makes me forgive Leon for no longer using free range chicken in their meals...but that's another story.)


Below, observe a blackbird singing from inside a chicken pie my husband made - cute, huh? And yes, the chicken was free range (not sure about the blackbird)!



This handsome cheese plate was set upon by several of us (in the manner of hungry dogs) at Tapas Brindisa in Soho one rainy Saturday afternoon. I had a monstrous hangover - this seemed to help steer me back into normality again:




The toasted sandwich below may not look like much, but believe me, it is mighty. This is one of the best things you can order at Crystal Palace's superlative brunch cafe Domali (a real local fave of mine) in SE London: you can be having the worst possible day and one of these toasties will envelop you like a warm hug. I ask for the exact same filling every time: tuna, cheddar, tomato and home-made pesto. They use enormous, thick slices of farmhouse granary. Beautiful!



Last week, a group of friends and I descended like hungry scavengers on Mien Tay, a Vietnamese restaurant on Kingsland Road in Shoreditch, East London. The food was sensational - and the star of the show was this amazing crispy sea bream cooked with mango and fish sauce, a real mix of sweet, savoury and crispy:



Last, but not least...my friend Paul recently had his 40th birthday at the aforementioned Domali cafe in Crystal Palace. But instead of a traditional birthday cake, he instead got a massive birthday pork pie. That is genius, is it not?