FIRE AND FEATHERS

Sorry for a couple of day's silence on the blog. I travelled back to France from London very early on Sunday morning and wanted to embrace the one family day we had that week. Then yesterday it was a day of unpacking and tackling mountains of laundry. 

But let's get back to London. I really want to tell you about a great, brand new spot on Fulham Road called Fire and Feathers. It's a new restaurant that serves the best ever piri piri chicken. The cuisine is from Portugal, the food delicious, atmosphere casual and relaxed and the bill won't break the bank either.

Let me show you some of the dishes. Some nibbles in the format of garlic carrots. Yummy! I wouldn't eat these on a date though... they are seriously garlicy!

Especially if topped up with these; garlic prawns. Soooo tasty.

Meet the proud owner and my friend, Harry.

Back to the food; a grilled vegetable and halloumi salad. There aren't many things better than halloumi are there?

Some side orders; rice, peas and tomato. I could have eaten the tomatoes as their own dish, they were that good.

And then the signature dish of Fire and Feathers, their chicken. It was unbelievably good. You can choose the level of your preferred hotness. I liked the hottest!

A quick drink outside on the street in the warm summer night. 

And some posing! This is how casual Fire and Feathers is. Jeans are totally appropriate even on a Friday night.

Back to the bar. I have to tell you, they make the most incredible cocktails. And the bar is nice and lively to hang out in.

Bye! I went home with a very full tummy of delicious food.

Well done Harry!

Minna x

SUPER SPECIAL CHEAT MEAL

Thank you so much for all the comments to my previous post! One of the best thing about this blogging hobby is definitely interaction with you all. On the Finnish blogs that I follow (or I try to follow, I've been useless at it all year but getting better now that I have more time) I've noticed a very unpleasant and also rather odd phenomenon... When you talk about food or exercise you receive a lot of nasty comments. People get awfully angry over it. I fail to understand why but nevertheless I was very happy to not receive any. All the comments were so thoughtful and smart. They made my day.

I mentioned in that post that I'd tell you about my cheat meal last week. This was the setting I had it in. In the most beautiful little hillside village between Nice and Monaco called Eze. In Eze there is the most beautiful restaurant called La Chevre D'Or. I have spent many summers in the South of France already but had never made the effort to dine there before. Mostly due to the fact that the menu is fine dining and it's not the kind of thing my other half and I normally go for. However my Mother-In-Law and I made a pact that this summer the two of us wouldn't just stick to our usual haunts but go and explore new restaurants. Small and big, near and a bit further, cheap and expensive, smart and casual... just everything. Well La Chevre D'Or ain't cheap and it ain't casual but it's an experience worth having. 

La Chevre D'Or is located in a small boutique hotel by the same name. Upon arrival you walk through their beautiful gardens overlooking the most stunning views over the Riviera.

My usual camera was out of action that evening but my backup one didn't do too bad of a job capturing this pink beauty!

My Mother-In-Law tried to get me to pose properly and position my feet the way they were told to position them in her modelling days. Ha, no chance of that! 

I was wearing my Issa dress from some years ago. It felt grown up and smart enough for the occassion.

How about this pose then? A school teacher comes to mind! (No offence to school teachers but you know what I mean... I hope!)

The views really were breathtaking. It's a shame that a camera can never capture it like your eye can.

Here she goes! She puts my poses to an absolute shame! What's also a shame is that you can't see her handbag more closely. It's the most beautiful, special edition Louis Vuitton little number from years ago. I can't stop drooling over when ever she wears it. It's incredibly impractical and only fits in credit cards and an iPhone, not even a lipstick but who cares, it looks the part!

The bar inside La Chevre D'Or.

And the bar outside. How lovely is that?

I can't even be bothered to say anything about my poses anymore. But cheers!

After enjoying a glass of champagne whilst enjoying the views we got seated to our table.

The restaurant itself is inside but the views are equally incredible and the room itself stunning. I didn't find the setting too stuffy either, which fine dining can often be.

Let's get started. Some amuse-bouche. I can't remember what they were exactly but I can remember that I ate them all with pleasure! 

The bread. I had already eaten half of it when it occurred to me to take a picture of it. Sorry. It looked much nicer whole. It had a pinch of lemon in it and it was warm and fresh and soft and salty. Amazing. And like I told you in the comments of my sugar addiction post (those comments are in Finnish though, sorry) I'm not a bread eater normally. This was no ordinary bread and well worth it.

Then onto the starters. I had foies gras. Kind of felt like the dish to have in a French fine dining restaurant. And good it was!

And then they brought us a little in-between-dish, which happened to also be Foies Gras... this time pan fried. Delicious.

Mother-In-Law's pigeon. 

And my lamb, which tasted incredible. 

Then... this dish would really deserve a little fanfare... The most unbelievable lemon dessert. The lemon is actually made of chocolate. White chocolate. Inside it there's the most delicious lemon... something. Custard, merengue, and all sorts of sugary, creamy goodness. I went for it based on our lovely waiter's recommendation and he was right indeed!

Here he is, with more sugary treats! Yes, I had one of these too. The chocolate one on the left. 

So that was my cheat meal. From beginning to finish. BUT... it didn't lead into a binge. The next morning I was back on my clean eating. I used to try and not eat pretty much anything the day after an indulgence like this and that's where I always went wrong. Hunger feeds sugar cravings. This time I started the day with a healthy breakfast of eggs and spinach.

I'm up late because I've just finished packing. I'm heading to London tomorrow! I can't wait! I have two reasons for my trip... To celebrate a close friend's 40th and to attend another friends' wedding. 

Minna x

FUN FUN FUN IN LPM

I remember doing a post about this restaurant on my old blog many moons ago. I also remember that at least a few readers ended up going there based on my recommendation and very much liking it. So here we go again... One of my favourite restaurants not just here in South of France but possibly just about anywhere in the world, La Petite Maison in Nice. Food is never nothing but absolutely delicious, atmosphere second to none and the service... well it's very good as long as you don't mind that they don't always make you feel the most welcome at the door ;-) Let's not go into details but I guarantee that once you get past that you'll no doubt have an excellent evening. 

The tables are decorated with tomatoes and lemons. Which by the way I always eat... I chop the tomatoes up, cover them in lemon juice, salt and pepper and wolf them down whilst waiting for the actual food.

The most incredibly smooth, creamy and tasty scrambled eggs with truffle. There are no words to describe how good it is. Tastes more of cream than eggs but that's probably where the secret lies!

Another delicious starter, tuna carpaccio.

And dover sole. Pan fried with butter. So simple and so good.

For some reason a lot of restaurants in France get their lighting completely wrong. They seem to love bright ceiling lights, which means zero atmosphere and at least for me ruins the experience. La Petite Maison is the opposite and has it absolutely perfect. 

This particular evening was at the height of the Monaco GP and Cannes Film Festival so it was even busier and livelier than normally but this is what it very often looks like anyway. Especially during the summer they have a band entertaining diners and getting them up on their feet.

We had fun indeed.

And so did everyone else.

As a dessert they carried heaps of fresh berries to our table.

And my favourite ice cream flavour ever; caramel with lots of the gooey stuff.

There are a few La Petite Maisons around these days but Nice is the original and in my opinion the best one. Having said that they're all extremely good restaurants and definitely worth a visit. At the moment there's one in London, Paris, Cannes and Dubai. The Dubai will be seeing me this autumn!! :-)

Minna x