Luxury Fruit Bread at Starbucks, Ten Degrees in Croydon

Dined at the Croydon, Ten Degrees Starbucks because I had some time to kill.

Walking in the cafe, it was not very welcoming in the sense of the layout,

The seating was weird, there were two pillars either side of the walls which chairs facing it or a communal table in the middle facing the entrance and drinks collection counter.

There were a few normal seats by the window which are ok and then the toilet was at the far back.

In the end, I had a Luxury fruit bread with some extra whipped cream and tea.

It was two slices of fruit toast studded with with cranberries, raisins and sultanas toasted and it was quite nice as it had a nice chew to it.

Pastries at PAUL

Paul's is everywhere so it wasn't an urgency to try.

One night, someone got the Raspberry croissant which has a sweet Raspberry & Frangipane filling and the Strawberry French tartlet with creamy vanilla custard and topped with fresh strawberries.

Both were how they should be but not spectacular that I would want them again.

Pitta bread and lamb soup at Murger Han

Even though I have not been to Xi An, I love Xi An cuisine based on the Xi An restaurants I have tried.
Xi An cuisine involves on a lot of lamb/mutton, biang biang noodles, round pitta bread filled with lamb etc.

The pitta bread with lamb soup is one such nice soup but nothing as good as the ones made from scratch in Xi An where they use a whole chunk or joint of mutton so the broth will be very different and probably not require msg like this place.

I am not sure how the texture of the pitta bread pieces are but I didn't like it.

Overall, not the real deal but this soup let me imagine how the real deal would be.

The lamb used in this soup are probably those frozen slices used for hot pots and roasts.

Revised again because of the beef rib which was sold out so had the Lamb Stir Fried with Murger and Chilli Sauce & Egg and Crusty Murger With Roasted Duck.

The stir fried lamb was amazing, again you get those lovely thinly sliced lamb which is soft and tender and the spices were tasty.

The duck was rather boring just the usual sweet Peking duck filling in a crispy murger.

Ice Cream at Cadwaladers, Cardiff Bay

Went to Cadwaladers for some ice cream after lunch.

It was a nice parlour with the usual ice cream flavours.

We had the raspberry ripple ice cream which was quite nice.

Lunch at The Dock Mermaid Bay, Cardiff

Throwback of Welsh lunch at The Dock on Boxing Day.
Located at Mermaid Bay it was difficult to find options that day because we were far from the market let alone trying to buy some laverbread or proper Welsh Breakfast.
Scanning the area, it was the usual chains except this one which was slightly hopeful.
Ordered the welsh cawl and welsh beef lasagne.
The cawl was diced lamb, carrot, swede, potato, leek stewed and served with Alex Gooch sourdough.
I was a bit disappointed with the cawl because all I could taste was parsnips which got me wondering if the parsnip was Christmas leftovers.
While looking at the menu, I discovered a parsnip soup they had at Christmas so it was definitely leftover parsnip soup with lamb added in.
The Welsh beef lasagne was ok, ordered it only because it was made with Welsh beef.

Frisella avocado, salmon and poached egg brunch

Frisella may look like a bagel but its not.
It is hard and crispy that needed to be soaked with water / flavoured liquid before serving.
Usually eaten with tomatoes.
Apuglian chef Alessio and Roberta were really kind to give me some frisella to experiment with and I decided to turn them into brunch.
I used gyokuro tea to moisten it with some saltiness while the leaves were used as garnishing.
Then I assembled it with a ripe hass avocado, Squeaky bean vegan salmon alternative and a ready to eat poached egg from M&S and it was delicious!!

Back at Mo' Mangio! for the Orecchiette Pugliesi and Frisella Dolcella dessert

After trying Mo' Mangio! last week I was hooked so this time went back for more pasta and this new dessert seen on their instagram.

I had the Orecchiette Pugliesi which is handmade Orecchiette Pasta with Turnip Tops, Anchovy Extract (Colatura di Alici), Garlic, Chilli and Toasted Crumbled Bread.

The highlight of this were the turnip tops which are native to Puglia which is a must try as the dishes here are Apulian.

I felt that it was a really healthy option that was light and tasty with lots of greens and I loved the bitterness.

The turnip tops also jogged my memory of this Italian stall where they had pickled turnip tops which were really nice.

Next was the Frisella Dolcella dessert which was insanely good so best leave some room for that too!

I totally fell in love with this Frisella bread as it is so light and versatile.

Just like some breads, it has always been eaten in a savoury way but now they are serving a sweet Frisella Dolcella, which is an Apulian artisan baked loaf served infused in Orange syrup topped with Nutella, Strawberries, crushed handmade Meringue and a Mint leaf as garnish.

THE FRISELLA DOLCELLA is MUST because it was like eating a crispy cloud with nutella and strawberries.

Simply delish.

@mo_mangio_italian_takeaway

@alessio_chef

@9robi3