Modern Filipino desserts at Kasa and Kin

Kasa and Kin specializes in Modern Filipino desserts and skewers.

I have always wanted to try their desserts but I thought it was takeaway only unless you dine there for dinner followed by dessert.

Anyway, went late one night and had their cheesecake.

It was one of those desserts where you unwrap the plastic and the sauce flows from the top to the bottom popularly found in some other countries.

We had the ube cheesecake which was a regular cheesecake topped with ube sauce and white chocolate pearls.

The cheesecake was not bad as it was not too sweet or heavy and there was a layer of pudding between the cheesecake and the sauce.

However, it would have been nice if you could choose a topping because I would have preferred some crushed nuts instead of white chocolate balls.

Overall, it was fun removing the wrapper and letting the sauce flow over the cheesecake.

Smoked eel sandwich at Quo Vadis

Quo Vadis has been around for years but somehow I only recently stumbled upon it after dining nearby.

I believe that Barrafina steals the show which makes Quo Vadis easily missed.

Anyway, I was captivated by their fine menu while I was walking past so took a quick browse and was drawn to the smoked eel sandwich!

It turns out there is so much history to Quo Vadis, first it was a brothel house and then it was home to Karl Marx.

Quo Vadis serves a good selection of English fare by Jeremy Lee.

I love eel so had to give it a try and to be honest, apart from jellied eels, I haven't really appreciated eels properly because of the bones.

At Quo Vadis, I had a feeling the eel was going to be good and I like the way it was served.

There were four pieces of succulent eel which lets you enjoy it better and the way it was smothered in sweet horseradish but the pickled pink onions were the star of the show.

It was good that the pickled onion was served separate as it gives a nice colour to the plate and you can get to try the eel on its own.

The pickled onions definitely make the whole thing more appetizing with its lovely sharpness.

Overall, I am so glad I tried and even though there were still some bones they were more manageable than broken short bones.

Cherry Rhubarb slice and strawberry danish from Dough Bakehouse Croydon

Dough Bakehouse, a unit at boxpark opened in Croydon a few months ago serving coffees with doughnuts and cakes to offer.

It has been hard for me to pay them a visit because I either get the bus which means it is not on my path or if I do walk to the station, I am obviously in a rush to stop by.

One morning, I was captivated by these cherry rhubarb slices so I decided to stop by and get some.

As they serve coffees, you really have to wait if someone orders a drink.

Anyway, I eventually got my cherry rhubarb slice which is supplied by pfalzgraf in Germany.

The cherry rhubarb cake was definitely worth trying as you don't often see it around.

It was super yummy moist, with big chunks of zingy rhubarb and juicy cherries on it.

The slice itself was soft and not too sweet.

Also had the strawberry Danish which was amazing.

cherry rhubarb slice

Strawberry Danish

Exclusive Breakfast udon with an English twist at Marugame

Ever since Marugame launched the breakfast udon with a benedict twist, I have been meaning to try it because I love trying new things and I justed wanted to see how it would turn out.

Not only do they have benedict udon, they also have bacon and sausage tempura which is like battered sausage and bacon but with tempura coating.

At Marugame, there are so many things you can relate to like the tempura pieces which are just like chip shop scraps.

I was most looking forward to the tempura sausage because it was a Japanese sausage, the size of the sausage was like a cocktail sausage but the taste was very different with a crispy skin and smokey taste.

The bacon tempura was quite nice with the tonkatsu sauce which is similar to brown sauce.

So overall, the tempura bacon and sausage were quite nice but would love to try a tempura sausage using an English banger.

Moving on to the breakfast udon, you can choose Florentine udon with wilted spinach or benedict udon with bacon topped with an onsen egg and hollandaise sauce.

Since I had the tempura bacon, I got the Florentine udon and it was a good choice.

The creamy hollandaise sauce and onsen egg made the whole thing a bit like carbonara paired with cacio e pepe.

Overall, I enjoyed this more than their regular udon offerings because it was soupless and the wilted spinach texture was really soft and mushy like the canned stuff so when you mix the onsen egg, it was simply lush.

Would love to have this again but you have to get there quite early so hopefully the Charing Cross branch will be serving breakfast as well one day.

They also have sandos (Japanese sandwiches) which I tried as well, so I had the spinach and tofu which was quite tasty but salty at the same time.

Fantastic Russian food

I love Russian food because it revolves around dumplings, blinis, soups and stroganoff.

It is similar to Eastern European Polish and Ukrainian food where they also have dumplings.

Spotted Zima one night after having tiramisu nearby so decided to try this place as their menu is a bit more sophisticated with the same suspects but with a finer and modern touch being in Soho.

To be honest, I was attracted by the black dumplings.

When we entered the restaurant, the decor and everything was elegant and how you would expect it to be.

At the far back of the room, there was a shelf and it was encouraging to see another place that does pickled strawberries and other pickles.

It was really hard deciding what to eat because everything was nice but we had Fish pelmeni, ukha fish soup and chicken and beef cutlet with buckwheat.

For dessert, the only thing I would have chosen would be the Cherry Vareniki which are cherry dumplings, the rest I have tried elsewhere.

To start off, the fish solyanka soup was a light consomme yet impressive because of the strong fish flavours and dill, there were big chunks of salmon in it.

Next, the star of the show was the black fish pelmeni which did not disappoint topped with my favourite salmon roe in a lobster and salmon roe sauce.

These were gone in flash because they were so delicious and the remaining sauce just had to soaked up with bread.

Moving on to the mains, the pork and beef cutlet was more like a steak hache.

The accompanying buckwheat with oyster mushrooms took me by surprise, I was expecting the texture of the buckwheat to be coarse and prickly but it was soft like rice which I finished off happily.

For drinks, I had the sea buckthorn tea which tasted like hot orange juice it was good that it was not sweetened.

Overall, I was really impressed with the food especially the soup and dumplings.

Zima Russian Restaurant:

45 Frith St, London W1D 4SB

McDowell's pie mash

There are two places for pie mash in Romford: Robins and McDowell's.

It has been difficult trying to dine at McDowell's because I always get there late and they are closed but I was lucky that day and it was still open so I had to have it even though I was going to dinner.

Just another pie mash place I thought but the portions here are big and you get lots of liquor.

Trying the liquor first, it was really flavourful and you can really taste the grassiness of the parsley.

The mash was just your regular lumpy mash but adding salt and chilli vinegar to it always makes it tastier.

Moving on to the pie, the minced beef was actually quite tasty compared to some other places as it was salty and it tasted like there was marmite in it.

However the beef was a bit of a let down because there were so many chewy bits, otherwise it would have been perfect because the consistency was good.

XXL Hazelnut cookie and hazelnut flan from Cedric Grolet

A while over during the festive period I shared this expensive £25 XXL hazelnut cookie with someone from Cedric Grolet.

It was a really nice cookie but not knowing more about Cedric Grolet it was hard to review it properly but from pictures they do these fine fruit shaped cakes with fillings.

From just tasting the cookie, I loved the way it was topped generous whole hazelnuts which were caramelized and it was not too cloyingly sweet with a kick of saltiness.

The cookie was far too big to finish in one go so I had to over a few days.

It was really nice warmed as the texture was soft and gooey and it was amazing with some clotted cream.

The cookie had a nice dough sugar ratio so it was not too sugary to eat with a full on hazelnut flavour.

Recently, made a trip to Cedric Grolet to see for myself, it is located at The Berkeley hotel, Knightsbridge.

I was greeted with a clean modern open kitchen where you can see the ovens and kitchen staff and then you have the pastries at the counter and the artisan cakes at the entrance.

Looking at the range, it was a bit limited for takeaway and prices start from £6 a croissant to £25 for a cookie!!

Visually, the choice was a bit difficult because you are either choosing between the artisan cakes at £17 or the pastries which is just a choice of croissant, pain au chocolat, pain suisse or the hazelnut flan.

Ended getting the hazelnut flan because the croissant and pains were just a bit plain.

I didn't have any expectations for the hazelnut flan because it just looked like a bigger than average Portuguese tart.

Taking a bite, I wasn't impressed but it turns out I had to take a bigger bite where I got a lovely surprise.

It was actually a really enjoyable flan with a flaky pastry base and then in the middle you have this hazelnut eggy filling with an intense hazelnut layer at the bottom which is like a puree

The best thing, it was not too sweet or sickly and the pastry was not overwhelmed with grease or butter.

Overall a bit pricey but it pays off as I haven't seen this hazelnut flan anywhere else.

Would love to try the artisan cakes but I feel that it should be enjoyed dining there or somewhere nice.