Restaurant Review: Dog Eat Dog, Islington

Working late in Islington one night I didn't leave the office until nearly 9pm and knew I couldn't wait until I got home (nearly two hours as I wasn't in my regular office) to have dinner and didn't really fancy what I knew was on offer at the train station.

I'd earlier spotted a new restaurant just a few doors down from the office I was in (I go there once a month and this place wasn't there last time) called Dog Eat Dog - a fast casual hot dog restaurant. I'd wanted to go to Bubbledogs for ages after it opened as I loved the idea of gourmet hotdogs, but the only time I was in the area, the queue was out the door (they didn't take bookings) so I decided not to bother.

So when I was leaving the office in Islington - not my usual place of work, as I was spending the day with an agency - and saw Dog Eat Dog I decided to go in for a quick bite. I ordered at the counter and sat at a high table on a stool - I think there were booths too but it seemed the sort of place you'd have a quick meal or go for a drink with friends. Dog Eat Dog is owned by bar chain Brewdog and offers craft beers alongside the hot dogs, but as well as the extensive drinks menu one of their USPs is that they source a lot of their ingredients (including the meat and the bread rolls) from local London suppliers.

This is definitely casual dining – the hotdogs are served in cardboard boxes – but they have more than a casual approach to the menu. Flavour pairings seem well thought out and quite adventurous – for example, Voodoo Cajun sausage with pineapple salsa and spicy mustard, or Tandoori chicken dog with mango chutney and mint raita.

 

I had the former, but it was a bit too spicy for me. The hotdog had so many toppings that it was pretty hard to eat and I had to scrape some of it off, and then the bread roll started to break down so I had pieces of bread coming off. It ended up falling apart and I got quite messy!

 

 

It wasn't something I'd eat again mainly because the Cajun sausage was a bit too spicy but I thought it was a really good concept - so I'm surprised that in the couple of months it's taken me to post this review, Dog Eat Dog seems to have closed down. There's talk online that it's a temporary closure while they "re-evaluate the concept" but it's been a while now. I did ask Brewdog on Twitter if it had closed but I haven't had a response yet, so if anyone knows I'd like to find out!

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Roast Cauliflower, Sumac and Rocket Salad

Now that the weather is nicer (and I have ten weeks and counting to the wedding) I'm starting to want to eat salads but in the evening also want a more substantial meal. This recipe is really good as it's chunky - cauliflower in a salad is a lot more filling than just cucumber - and it's also a very 'clean' recipe with simple flavours that makes you feel quite virtuous.

The recipe came from YOU magazine in the Daily Mail - I love the magazine so my parents keep it for me every week as I don't buy the newspaper. The recipe is also available online here.

To serve 4, you need:

500g small cauliflower florets
1 red onion, peeled and sliced
5 tbsp. "good olive oil"
sea salt
1 heaped tsp coriander seeds, coarsely ground
sumac for dusting
2 handfuls rocket

Preheat the oven to 210C/ 190C fan. Spread the cauliflower and onion out over a roasting tray and drizzle over 4 tbsp. olive oil. I used this one my fiancé brought home from me, which is made from olive groves owned by the man who owns the company he works for - very nice!

 

 


Season with salt and scatter over the coriander seeds. Roast for 30 minutes then leave to cool.

Dust the cauliflower with sumac - a Middle Eastern spice - and mix with the rocket. Drizzle over another spoonful of oil and serve.

I'm sharing this with No Croutons Required, hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes.

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Crumpet Pizzas

 

I really thought I had blogged about these before as I've made them several times, but can't find any mention on my blog so I'm sharing the idea with you now. It's more of an idea than a recipe; a quick and easy weekend lunch and something that I imagine might be fun to make with children. I usually use normal-sized crumpets but have also tried with Warburton's giant crumpets which work brilliantly!

Lightly toast your crumpets under the grill and spread each one with about 1/2 tsp tomato puree. Top with cheese - either grated or thinly sliced, or a processed cheese slice (eg Kraft). Other toppings are optional - here, I did some with ham and pineapple. Return to the grill until the cheese is bubbling and enjoy!

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Pastel Tattered Lace Shoe Birthday Card

I made this card using my Tattered Lace high heel shoe die, a frilled edge circular die and a Sizzix butterfly die, in complementary pastel colours.

The backing paper is also various shades of pastel, from a pack of cupcake and related printed papers. I used the dies to cut the shoe and butterfly out of purple card and the circles from pink card and mounted the shapes on top. The topper that says 'to a wonderful friend' is from a little pack I bought from Ebay; this sort of thing isn't hard to make yourself but I never seem to have time!

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Meal Planning Monday Week 15

Breakfasts this week will be yogurt mixed with protein powder or yogurt with fruit, and for lunch now the weather is nicer I'm going to start eating salads.

Monday
Dinner: tuna and vegetables for me, chicken and mashed potato for him

Tuesday
Dinner: spaghetti Bolognese

Wednesday
Dinner:  fish en papilotte with spiralized butternut squash for me (Inspiralized p174), chicken en papilotte for him, based on this recipe (on meal plan for last week but didn't make)

Thursday
Dinner: out after work for drinks so will get something to eat on the way home

Friday
working from home.
Lunch: Hawaiian pasta
Dinner: Slow cooked gammon with cider from Slimming World Extra Easy all in one p198

Saturday
Early lunch as I'm meeting my friend and her daughter to go bridesmaid dress shopping : bacon sandwich or cheese toasties or crumpets if we have no bread
Dinner: something easy from the freezer my fiancé can cook in case I'm back late

Sunday
Lunch: Out at an Aston Martin day at Beaulieu. Might take a picnic, will depend on the weather
Dinner: might be back late so something easy from the freezer

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Chocolate Truffle Making with Farfetch

Photo courtesy of Farfetch

When a company called Farfetch invited me to a chocolate making evening I assumed they were a confectionery company, or perhaps one that ran different 'experience days' for hen nights and parties. So I was a bit surprised to find out that Farfetch is a luxury designer fashion retailer with an interesting USP - they bring together over 400 fashion boutiques from around the world onto one website, but rather than hold any stock, when you order your items are delivered directly from the boutique.

 

Fashionistas obviously do eat chocolate because they invited me and a group of other food bloggers and lifestyle bloggers to a chocolate truffle making lesson in their beautiful offices. I've made truffles several times before and even went to the Chocolate Hotel in Bournemouth for a chocolate weekend so I pretty much knew what I was doing but it was still a fun experience.

 

The lesson was taken by Lisa Marley of the Cocoa Box, who was a great tutor. She explained how chocolate is made and got us to taste different pieces before we sat down to the task of truffle making while drinking amazing chocolate martinis.



Photo courtesy of Farfetch

I was paired up with Vicky from Being Tilly's Mummy (which was funny as my cat - my own little baby - is called Tilly) and we decided to flavour our chocolate truffles with alcohol (I think it was brandy), the other option being mint which I don't like.

 

 

We added cream to chocolate that had already been melted and found that even after just a minute of stirring, the mixture had already become very thick and stiff. We spooned it into large piping bags - this is much easier to do in pairs - and piped it out into thick lines which made some people giggle!

We were advised to cut the lines into pieces and roll each piece between our fingertips to make a ball, rather than rolling in the palms of our hands as this would melt the chocolate. I found that I didn't need to roll it at all and instead could just shape it into a ball by pressing gently.

We made quite a lot of mess!

We decorated our truffles in different ways, dipping into melted chocolate, or rolling in cocoa powder, chocolate vermicelli or raspberry flavour sprinkles. The Cocoa Box provided us with a selection of bags and boxes to take our truffles home in, just in time for Easter!

I'm sharing these truffles with Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker, as the letter I have chosen this month is T.

Thanks to Farfetch for inviting me to the event

 

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Restaurant review: Villagio, Andover

Living in Surrey and getting married in Wiltshire, where I grew up and my family still lives, I was worried that I would be making endless journeys backwards and forwards to visit suppliers. Luckily that wasn’t the case – our wedding venue came complete with caterer and we were able to combine meeting the photographer with a meeting with the venue event coordinator before Christmas. There was no need to visit bakeries and taste wedding cakes because my sister and I are doing my wedding cake together and I happily booked us into a hotel for our wedding night just from seeing the website.

 

I did want a hair and makeup trial though, because I know my hair and it never holds a style for long as it’s so slippery (the nice term is silky!) and fine. On the wedding day, the hairdresser and makeup artist will come to the hotel where I’m getting ready, but for the trial, I had to go to them. They both work from home or are mobile, though are attached to the same salon, and they agreed that I could go to the hairdresser’s house, a beautiful cottage in Dorset, for the trial.

 

I took one of my bridesmaids to make a girly day of it and really liked what they did with my hair, though the curls fell out within two hours and the front section looked terrible, so I’ve told the hairdresser she will have to come up with something different for the big day!

 

I spent the rest of the day with my bridesmaid and we drove back to Andover where she lives, and went to a restaurant in the town centre for dinner. Villagio is inside the Guildhall so the setting is impressive; I wondered whether the food would live up to it.

 

Villagio describes itself as a “convenient, modern Italian restaurant with a classic family menu”. It’s a chain, with a few locations around (mainly) Hampshire that says it offers live music in the evenings – but looking at the website, every single thing they have between now and Christmas is either a Frank Sinatra or a Michael Buble tribute act. So if you don’t like that sort of thing it may not be the best choice!

 

The menu is quite broad as it offers most types of Italian dishes – pasta, risotto, pizza, meat, fish. I love calzone pizza and don’t have it very often, so was tempted by the seafood ravioli on the specials board but plumped for the pollo calzone, containing chicken, pepperoni, pancetta, roasted peppers, tomato sauce and mozzarella instead (£11.50). My friend did ask for the special ravioli, but the waitress returned to our table to say they had run out – surprising as it was only 6pm but I guess they must have served a lot at lunchtime.

 

My pizza was very good – nice dough and stuffed full, with a side salad to accompany. I did think it was a bit expensive for what it was, but maybe the location puts this restaurant at the top end of the town centre choices in Andover. We shared a mozzarella garlic pizza bread as a starter, which was pretty average – I’ve had very similar and often better versions of this in other Italian restaurants. Overall though it was a nice meal with friendly and speedy service and made a nice end to a memorable day.

 

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