Duck and Waffle

Last week, after becoming an official Law graduate, me and my family zoomed up to Duck and Waffle for arguably the best meal of our lives. 

Shooting up in the glass elevator to the 40th floor, it felt like we were ascending to heaven. And we were.

We sat for a few unique cocktails in the bar because we were early - make sure you book - they had no available extra tables at 2pm on a Monday!
The views were incredible. 



^ me and my truffle cocktail... I love truffle a LOT but drinking it was quite odd!

Then we were shown into the restaurant where we went crazy ordering all of the abstract sounding food...

Ox Cheek doughnut - meaty and sugary in one, me and Dima loved it but my parents not so much.

Fois Gras Creme Brulee - a literal creme brulee with lobster chunks on brioche toast. A bit rich for non-fois gras lovers.

And the money shot..

The famous duck and waffle. We ordered three for six people, and it was more than enough - at £17 each it should be! It was the most amazing thing I have ever eaten - a perfect waffle topped with a tender ducks leg, duck egg (which interestingly holds your entire cholesterol limit for the day) and honey mustard sauce. Heaven.


We also got from the 'big plates' the potato gratin (above) which was lovely but we were all too full to find room for it, and the home made gnocchi which was fabulous. I didn't manage to capture a good picture of it though because everyone was too busy digging in!
We also had incredible oysters, and the special of the day which was home made bread with goats cheese and honey. The bread was one of the best things I ate - definitely a must have!

Phew! Are you sick of all that food porn? Now it's time for... dessert!

I had the macaroon sandwich  - huge pistachio macaroons holding a chubby chocolate mousse - wonderfully decadent.

My dad had the Baked Alaska (conjure images of Ben & Jerrys..) which was incredible.

Dima went for tiramisu, his favourite which was beautiful

We then rolled back into the elevator, three hours later stuffed to the brim with rich, wonderful food. An amazing experience but maybe a once-a-year type thing, for the bank account and waist line! We pottered around for a couple of hours then went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical which was absolutely amazing.

Medlar

Medlar is my friend Stephanie's favourite restaurant - for someone who goes out to eat daily this is saying a lot. She had a wonderful birthday party there last year, and I have been back regularly ever since! Based in Chelsea, with a michelin star to it's name, you would expect small, overpriced portions and pretentious staff but Medlar couldn't be further from that image. Their staff are all absolutely lovely, there is no pretentious-ness at all and the food is mindblowingly excellent. There is also SO much of it that it is very, very difficult to move afterwards (in a good way.)

Medlar operate a three course, fixed price menu for dinner which is £45. A mid-week lunch of the same menu is £27 so if you are looking for a cheaper option definitely opt for that - there is no difference at all except it is a little less busy! It really is excellent value for what you get. 

I went along with Jade last week, and we had the most amazing meal ever. I started with tuna tartare (Tuna tartare with ponzu dressing, tobikko, preserved lemon, avocado purée and crispy garlic) (above), Jade opted for the crab raviolo. The menu here changes monthly, but a couple of star dishes remain constant which include the crab raviolo and the duck egg tart - both of which are amazing. You also start with complimentary bread which is AMAZING - get the bread!! 

For mains I chose the 'Roast Cornish hake with baby violet artichokes, mousseron, fennel purée, sea beet and pennywort'.  This was amazing and also very healthy - a welcome respite from the rest of my eating lately! The different types of fish offset eachother perfectly and the avocado addition was really good. 

Jade went for the 'Roast guinea fowl with summer truffle pesto, sautéed wings, broad beans, St George and cauliflower purée' which she really enjoyed as well, and couldn't finish! 

Now for the dessert. I highly recommend going with a group of friends and ordering one each, to pass around the table as we saw on the table infront of us. We went for 'Passion fruit sorbet with coconut tuile' (above) which was really fresh and tangy, and the 'Chocolate tart with salted caramel and praline parfait', pictured below which was one of the best desserts I have ever eaten. It is literally my ideal dessert - rich, gooey chocolate cake with a splattering of crust on the side, salted caramel sauce drops which were AMAZING and some incredible chocolate chip ice cream. I was sorely tempted to order another straight away, but by this point had already unbuttoned my jeans so thought it was probably better not to. A must try. 

It's ok though - just when you think it is all over, out come the homemade marshmallows (orange flavoured this time, really unusually great) and amazing chocolate truffles. It is things like this which make Medlar stand out - little touches which shows they understand the turmoil of finishing a meal and thinking there is nothing else but the darkness of a food coma lying ahead. They fill this longing hole with delicious complimentary treats, and it goes down a storm. 

If you are looking for somewhere to impress a date, or just a really excellent quality meal with brilliant service, Medlar is definitely the place to come. I think it is also my favourite restaurant in London - I have never eaten anything there that didn't make me convulse in ecstasy so it is a pretty good bet for a great meal.  

Work

Since I finished exams, I seem to have been going full force and have replaced one kind of work with two others. I love what I am doing now much more than spending my days cooped up in the library with books though!

First up is work with Our Honest Foods - I am running their blog and generally writing cute things for them, which I love doing - a combination of writing and eating! Me and Lisa are running the blog (which can be found here) which is great also, working with your best friend :) They are a really awesome company selling Office and Home boxes of healthy, British snacks - I reviewed the box in the past (here) and they are just really great to work with. Hopefully it will help me decide what to do in the future! The blog is updated daily with reviews of different (all literally incredible) snacks so be sure to check it out :)

Then there is the complete opposite of that sort of work - modeling. I have made it on to the asos and urban outfitters websites (inside screams) - it is so much fun shooting for both of them! Definitely my favourite kind of modeling work - easy, quick and fun. Everyone that works at Asos and Urban is so lovely and amazing to work with, I feel very lucky! 

I also have had castings everyday, which the sporadic British sunshine has helped greatly! These can be quite exhausting, but I made some new model friends this week which was really nice and makes the travelling around from one place to another (to be seen for one minute!) much more fun. Next week looks pretty full on too, but I would rather be super busy than doing nothing!

What are your plans for after uni? xxx 

Honest Box

Revision = hours of procrastination on the internet reading random blogs. Every so often, you find something that is just like AFAHOKKLSAD how did this bit of the internet exist and I didn't know?!?

THIS 'webhouse' super lured me in with it's promise of 'Send me something cool' / adorably cute website/ concept of sending snacks to offices to fill in the 'awkward gaps' of the day. Their 'Snackorium' is filled with cute goodies from British producers which are for the most part, pretty healthy and all amazing.

My box came a few days after ordering (£10 including delivery - it was my revision treat) and fit nicely through my (tiny) letterbox whilst still being stuffed chock-full of goodies!

THE BOX WAS ALSO TOO CUTE. IT HAD EASTER GAMES ON IT. (apologies for background easter eggs sneaking in on the snack-fun). 

^ free game of the day xo 

The box also came with a nice quote of things that they are more British than - 'saying sorry even though we have done nothing wrong'. On to the FOOD. 

1. Super Seedy Sustain Squares - Whole Plus

These are basically the result of recipes all over the internet which require you to blend up dates and a variety of nuts etc, but in cute calorie controlled bite-size portions which taste really ridiculously good. I am proud to say that a couple are still there, I've been trying to eat them as an 11am snack.

2. Furniss Dark Chocolate Ginger Mini Biscuits 

These unfortunately didn't make it through the night because I ATE THEM ALL BECAUSE THEY WERE PRETTY AMAZING. I think they were healthy-ish so it's fine. They were fab and there was a lot of them. 

3. Giant Roasted Corn Nuts 

These are ridiculous. They taste like barbecued chicken put into crunchy bitesize corn snacks (although I am pretty sure that there is no meat at all in there!) They were really, really good even though I'm not generally into savoury-ish foods and prefer more of the... 

4. Perkier Gluten Free Rocky Road

This was my favourite thing in the box. It was literally ordained from the rocky road god - although I am probably biased because I am obsessed with anything chocolate. Marshmallows is an added bonus. Gluten Free is there to kid yourself that it is actually probably good for you and part of a healthy post-Easter diet. My 'legs bums and tums' teacher today used a nice phrase, 'carving out easter eggs from your waist'. Anyway - this was literally so so so good, but unfortunately quite moreish and depletes itself very quickly. But leaves you happy. 

5. Braw Gluten Free Apple and Pear Bar 

This made me happy because I felt like I was eating a cereal bar which tasted really good and was not packed with lies about how it's healthy when it is actually packed with more calories and sugar than a kitkat. Cereal bars, though fabulously delicious and decievingly-cute are actually generally quite high in sugar and fat. This bar is gluten free with no added sugar/wheat/dairy etc so I really hope it isn't lying :'( It also isn't too moreish so I have actually made it last for quite a few days by eating small bites at a time. 

6 - Cheeky Chunk Chocolate 

This chocolate was very good. I gobbled it up sraight away after opening the box, it was too cute and easter-appropriate to last for long! It is also organic so I hope sort of healthier than normal? (definitely cuter anyway!)

7. Uncle Joe's Mint Balls

There was about 10 of these in the box, and at first I thought they were a pretty random addition but I slowly realised the master-plan behind them. They are quite typical mints (pretty guurd) but they are there to be eaten after you eat for example, a bite of delicious Rocky Road, to take away the temptation to EAT EVERYTHING IN THE BOX. Quite a good idea. 

A very cute addition is this teensy leaflet telling you where all your snacks were made. 

On the other side a popularity leaflet, if you do decide to order a box - which I mainly decided to get because it was a one-off payment (Graze and the like's cancellation policies seem a lot of effort) - mention my name (Leanne Maskell! :) ) and you will get it for £5! SNACKS FOR £5 YAY!! I would definitely recommend this if you are:

1. gluten free - everything is gluten free whoo 

2. An Anglophile - they seem to really love Britain and all it has to offer in the way of tasty treats! 

3. A student revising for your exams - they are fab to break up the monotony 

4. Sad and need happiness - everything in this box exudes happiness. There is no negativity (except snacks potentially ending but then you can replace it with the games on your box)

5. Happy and would like to get even happier - I LOVE MAIL. and I love snacks. 

6. Like food - and especially snacks. 

Also they are generally geared towards offices so I suppose if you are a 'real adult' with a 'job' then you could get them and take them to work and be super popular that day in particular :) 

Bob Bob Ricard

HAPPY EASTER! This is one of my FAVOURITE holidays, because I love chocolate a lot. Last night I went for an Easter meal with my family, and I have to say - I have found my new favourite restaurant. That is quite a big thing for me because I am really spoiled for choice in London, there are so many with amazing quality (Hawksmoor, Patty and Bun, Sapori Sardi are some favourites) yet Wagmama's somehow continues to lure me in for its Chicken Katsu curry time and time again. 

Anyway. If the first thing you see when you sit down in a restaurant is this, you know it is going to be good. 

We were at Bob Bob Ricard - the place I had wanted to come to for a long time but lacked necessary funds. Luckily my dad was in town and was ready to make up for lost time! The ambiance as you walk in hits you straight away - the waiters are impeccably dressed in pink waistcoats and bow ties and the entire place looks like a 1920s French first class steam carriage!

We ordered some incredible warm, crusty bread to begin with as we pursued our menus.. I decided to opt out of my alcohol-ban for the Easter weekend and order a salted chocolate martini.

If you get one thing (ok drink) here make sure it is this. It was INCREDIBLE, like chocolate milk with a hint of alcohol and salty deliciousness. So, so worth breaking my chocolate/diet/alcohol ban for... but it started me on a slippery slope. 

This was my dad's rhubarb gin and tonic - amazing. 

The menu was full of amazing-sounding food, but in the end I opted for 'Brezhnev' Oysters - baked with parmesan and black truffle. They were without a doubt, the best oysters and are probably one of the best things I have ever eaten. 

I lasted a full five minutes before greedily pressing the champagne button, where upon a waiter immediately popped up and offered me PINK CHAMPAGNE which was amazing. 

my dad went for Crab Salad with Chilli Avocado Mayonnaise

For mains I opted for lobster mash (naturally), creamed spinach and salmon tartare (healthy.. sort of?)

The tartare was incredibly fresh and there was a strong presence of dill (as in all the dishes) which reminds me so much of Russia! I should probably mention that Bob Bob Ricard is a Russian/English restaurant, and my dad lives in Russia. Also my best friend and boyfriend are Russian - surrounded! Russian food is realllllly good. 

Not quite sure how Russian this lobster mash was but it was decadently amazing. 

My brother's chips came in this cute box! They were also AMAZING (told you the martini started me on a slippery slope.. coupled with the wine I completely forgot that I was on a diet ;) ) 

a brief 'person' picture to break up the FOOD AMAZINGNESS - me and my brother. 

Then it was dessert time. I have impressively managed to resist desserts for the past two months, but as I said, the excellent food, company and alcohol had got to my head. Plus, when there is such a thing as 'BBR Signature Chocolate Glory - Chocolate Jivara Mousse, chocolate brownie, merginue and passionfruit jelly - served with fresh raspberries and a hot chocolate sauce' would I really be able to say no? It would be plain rude. So naturally I got that and forced my dad to get chocolate fondant so we could share! 

The chocolate fondant (my favourite dessert!) which was incredible. My brother decided to get one after seeing mine. 

and now for the glory... 

A large gold sphere, questionably awaiting the hot chocolate sauce which is promptly poured over it, causing the sphere to MELT AWAY and revealing the chocolate innards. Probably the most incredible dessert I have ever eaten. (and I have eaten a lot!) 

(IT DESERVES THREE PICTURES) 

After this insane haze of luxurious food, we attempted to calm our stomachs with fresh mint tea.. and more chocolate (truffles). 

They had everything down to a T here. The service was impeccable - waiters hovered close by without being obvious, but so lovely and welcoming despite the very high prices and luxury-feel of the place - it wasn't really stuck up at all, only in a good way of 'we serve oysters, champagne and lobster and they are all FAB come try!'. The place also smelled amazing because of these giant flower arrangements everywhere. A definite new (luxury) favourite - for very special occasions only, as it is very pricey! I would say it is SO worth it though.

Happy Easter! Indulge freely - today is a day for chocolate, happiness and love!