Late night fry up at the 24 hour Smithfield Cafe

As a late night foodie, the streets surrounding Smithfields market are a haven for late night/24 hour greasy spoons!

Imagine having a fry up at 12am.
Before visiting the historic Smithfields market, I decided to get some food so went to Smithfield Cafe, an old school caff owned by a Flipino.
I was really tempted for a fry up but had a jacket potato with black pudding and fried egg.
Everything was beautiful and not a bit greasy or heavy.
I'm so glad I tried the black pudding which was very different to the ones you get at the usual greasy spoons, there were more oats in ratio to blood/fat which makes it firm with a chew.
I love the handwritten menu on the window but they do they cards!!
Will definitely check out the other caffs in the area before they disappears since Smithfields is likely to move in the next 10-20 years.
Just like caffs, the prices are down to earth.
My plate was only a fiver.

876 uptown Jamaican Restaurant and Takeaway: Possibly London's first Jamaican buffet and it's only £20

876 uptown Jamaican Restaurant and Takeaway has now replaced Cheeky Fish on South End.
It features Jamaican buffet style food and I love the range eg cow foot, Mannish water etc.
Finally tried it on a Friday which is the best day to try it as they feature the most dishes according to the menu.
I particularly liked the soft and gelatinous cow foot stew which you normally have hunt down and the Mannish water.
Basically, all the standard items are there like callalloo, rice and peas, brown stew chicken, fried fish/chicken, mac and cheese and last but not least the famous goat curry and ox tail.

 

New dishes at IKEA: Rogan Josh, Fish and Chips, chocolate ricotta

IKEA is now serving some new dishes again:
rogan josh, fish and chips with optional curry sauce [doesn't seem new], mozzarella and tomato, salad bowls, garlic naan, spinach pakora and chocolate ricotta cake.
I tried the rogan josh, naan and ricotta cake.
Rogan Josh: the cauliflower potato rogan josh was super tasty and appetizing because of the tomato and quite fiery too.
The rice however was so wrong, firstly it was white and not yellow like the photo.
The grains of rice were not basmati which you can see by its shape.
Garlic naan:
The garlic naan was how it should be but there was some strange sweetness to it.
Ricotta chocolate cake:
This was an interesting pairing but it was nice.
The ricotta wasn't strong but there was a bitter aftertaste.
The ricotta was whipped and fluffy then you had that lovely soft cake layer on top with chocolate chips and chocolate sauce at the bottom.
The only thing I didn't like was the hard biscuit layer.
On a side note, the naan and salmon tasted really nice together.
@ikeauk
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Trying the new IKEA Plant Based hot dog!!!

As well as the Veggie dog, IKEA has launched a Plant based hot dog this summer.
It was finally available in the UK according to their instagram post a few days ago so I went to try it out.

Priced at 85p, I got two plain ones to try, one naked without the sauces and the other one with basic ketchup and mustard.

The plant based dog comes with green napkins to distinguish it from the rest.

Visually, the dog looks the part and the bun now looks more like a cylindrical panini sliced horizontally from the side.

Before taking a bite, the dog feels the same with the usual firmness and the casing feels the same as the regular ones.

Taking a bite, without sauces and bun the casing had a good snap just like a regular hot dog and tastes ok.

However, the texture was so different, it was like konjac mixed with fat, squidgy and somehow waxy but not as soft as regular dogs.

Now taking another bite with the bun and sauces, it was quite enjoyable and tasty.

It still doesn't beat the regular dog but I would still recommend it because of the price.

@ikeauk

@ikea_uk_pr_team

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#ikea

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McDonalds 2023 spooky new menu

For Halloween 2023, McDonalds have given it a sweet start with toffee apple offerings!

The new items are: Philly Cheese Stack, McCrispy BBQ Smokehouse, Toffee Apple Pie, Toffee Apple, Donut, M&Ms Halloween McFlurry and Twix Toffee Apple McFlurry.

I tried the toffee apple pie and the toffee apple doughnut.

As expected the toffee pie was lush, it was the usual apple filling with a toffee sweet kick and the pastry was also tasty.

The pie pastry was caramel in colour.

The doughnut was a bit like Krispy Kreme but less sweet and the texture of the doughnut was lot firmer and the filling was well filled.

Revisited two different branches for the McFlurry, the first branch for the toffee apple which turned out a disappointment, firstly the McFlurry cup was just the regular ones and the toppings were meagre.

The other branch fared better even though the toppings were meagre, I felt that the galaxy chocolate sauce made it taste nicer.

Revisited again for the toffee apple at a different branch and it was much better.

 

Indian fare at Dine Bangla

I love Indian food and Dine Bangla in Baldock did not disappoint.

There were so many choices for curries and the vegetable section reminded me meals at this Indian Restaurant near by uni in East London because of the usual choices like saag aloo and the prices being 3 pound ish. They didn't have as many options for rice as they did but the mushroom rice was there. Ordered the Balti Rani, Garlic naan, Bindi Bahjee and mushroom rice. 

Anyway, I loved my carbs so the mushroom rice was what I needed and there were many slices of mushrooms. 

The bindi bahjee as a bit different and dry compared to other restaurants I've had it.

The Balti Rani had the right amount of heat which complemented the rice well. 

Last but not last the garlic naan looked the part but it was strangely sweet like a donut. 

Overall, I was happy with dinner and the ambiance and seating was comfortable.

21 Whitehorse St, Baldock SG7 6QB