Green tea noodles topped with egg omelette and pan-seared squid

This is a little experiment i came up with - it's simple but makes for a lovely meal. Great for lunch or dinner, and can be eaten hot or cold.

Ingredients (serves 1)
Green tea/ matcha noodles
1 large egg
Milk/Soya milk
Whole cleaned squids
Sea salt
White ground pepper
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
Strips of seaweed (optional)

First prepare the squid. The ones i had were already cleaned and ready to use, but if not just make sure to remove the eye that is in the tentacle part. I used around 4 squids as they were a little on the small side, but you can use more or less to your liking. Detach the tentacles, if it hasn't already been done so then slice the squids into rings. Next, season the squids with 1-2 teaspoons of sesame oil, some sea salt and white ground pepper. Then set them aside.

Beat 1 large egg (or 2 if you're cooking for 2 or more people) until it turns a pale yellow, then add in 2 tablespoons of milk (or any type of milk you prefer - i used Alpro's light soy milk which gave the eggs a slightly sweet taste). Whisk the milk and eggs together for about a minute to try and get as much as in as possible. Set this aside for the moment and move onto the noodles.

The noodles i used was called "green tea vermicelli" and from a brand called Sempio. A pack contains 3 bundles of the noodles. Since i was cooking for only myself, i only used one bundle. Boil the noodles  according to the instructions on the pack - in this case, it required 4-5 minutes. Once done, drain and run the noodles under some cold water, and drain again.

Whilst the noodles are still boiling away, heat a non-stick pan on low to medium heat with a small amount of oil and pour in the egg mixture. Let the egg mixture sit for about 1 minute or until the bottom starts to set, then using a spatula gently push one edge of the egg and fold it across and over onto itself - lining up the edges. Cook the egg for another 30 seconds, remembering not to overcook it, then flip the egg over to cook the other side for another 30 seconds. Once done, cut the egg omelette into strips of about 1cm wide.

Using the same non-stick pan, add a little bit more oil then start pan-frying the seasoned squids you set aside before. Cook the squids for around 2 minutes, but don't overcook them or they will go rubbery. It should be quite obvious when the squids are cooked, as the tentacles will go from floppy, to a curled up shape, and the squid rings will curl up around the sides.

Next make seasoning for the noodles. I simply mixed half a tablespoon of sesame oil, half a tablespoon of (Maggi) soy sauce, and half a teaspoon of water. If you want to have the noodles cold, simple go ahead and mix the noodles into the seasoning and then plate up the noodles. If you want the noodles hot, i would pour boiling hot water over the noodles, then drain out the water before mixing the noodles with the seasoning and plating it up.

As pictured, I plated this dish with the noodles at the bottom, topped with criss-crossing strips of the egg ommelette and a generous pinch of dried seaweed strips and then placed the squid tentacles right at the top and the squid rings sprinkled around the side of the noodles.

This dish is quick and easy to make, though it does take some multi-tasking, especially if you want to have the noodles hot. If you've decided to have it as a cold dish, it would be better to make the omelette and squid first so that they have time to cool down. 

Let me know if you've decided to try this out and how it goes for you!

SIX Soho Italian Restaurant

SIX Soho is a relatively new Italian restaurant that has opened up in Soho, London. The restaurant serves Italian tapas. I thought i'd give it a try as the only tapas i've had before is Spanish tapas.

Bread and olives to start. There's a good selection of different breads, and the olives looked different to ones i've eaten before but were very nice. 

Calamari in white wine. The squid was tender, and full of flavour. Shame that you only get 3 pieces though, only just enough between 2 people.

Grilled Mediterranean Prawns. These prawns were slightly spicy - think it was a chilli oil. Though as prawns go, i wouldn't say they were anything that special.

Seafood Paccheri which contained clams, mussels, squid and prawns. This pasta was enjoyable and the portion size was surprisingly big for a tapas dish and we probably could have done without one of the other dishes that the waitress advised us to get due to the small portions. But she could also have been trying to push us to order more dishes due to the fact that we were using the tastecard discount. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the food here and would definitely recommend it to seafood lovers - though they do have other dishes other than seafood. However, a warning is that the prices are a little steep and i probably would not visit this place had i not gotten the tastecard discount.

Restaurant details
SIX Soho
6 Greek Street
Soho
London
W1D 4DE
02077343888

Street Feast London 2013

I've always wanted to try a street food festival, but haven't managed to attend one properly until now. Though i have been to the food stalls around the Southbank area - gotta love Churros Garcia!

Anyway, about 2 weeks ago i heard about Street Feast London that was happening in Haggerston and dragged my friend with me for a food adventure.

We started off with some tacos parrilla from Buen Provecho, they had the option of chicken, pork, beef or chorizo. Disappointingly, the lady told us that her chorizos wasn't quite ready yet, so we had to get the other three fillings. I don't eat beef - so i can't comment on it, but the pork and chicken were good. I wouldn't say great though, and the pork was a little on the dry side.

Next we had the jerk chicken wrap from Mama's Jerk Station, with a topping of tropical mayonnaise. I thought the chicken was nice and succulent, and i love my spicy food. In fact, i think it could have been spicier. The tropical mayonnaise was delicious. However, since this was my first time trying jerk chicken, i don't know how well it fares compared to other places. My friend on the other hand did say that she has had better jerk chicken elsewhere, so the verdict is still out until i try more of the stuff. 

Top: Tacos (chicken, pork, beef)
Bottom: Jerk chicken wrap

Then we moved onto the popcorn prawn burger from Yum Jungle. I loved it! The popcorn prawns are prawns in batter and sprinkled with seasoning. Surprisingly the prawns do not come out oily at all when  you bite into them. They were put into a brioche burger bun along with coleslaw and a three types of sauce were given (can't be seen from the photo, but they were placed in the container which the bun covers up) which includes sriracha and sambal sauce if i remember correctly. 

Popcorn prawn burger

To go with the burger, we got ourselves some sweet potato fries from Bleecker St. Burger. These fries were so good. You could tell they were pure strips of sweet potato - not powdered stuff reconstituted into the shape of fries. They were slightly crispy on the outside, and tender on the inside - not over fried like other places i have tried.

Sweet potato fries

Next we tried out the buns from Yum Bun. These are soft steamed buns (which if you are Chinese/Asian, you will recognise them as mantaos) that can be filled with a selection of fillings. On offer was a Japanese fried chicken with chilli sauce, portobello mushrooms with a miso glaze, or slow roasted pork belly with hoisin sauce. Since usually in Chinese cuisine, these mantaos are eaten with crispy suckling pig, i decided to stick with what i know and get the pork belly. And man, it was delicious! The pork belly was so tender and juicy, and the hoisin sauce complemented it perfectly.

Yum Buns filled with slow roasted pork belly

Finally, we moved onto desserts! First we went with some good old ice cream from Sorbitium. We tried a scoop of the salted caramel, and a scoop of the peach creme brulee. As you can tell from the photo, the peach creme brulee was melting already - which was disappointing as ice cream should be enjoyed in it's proper texture. The peach was a little on the sour side, but the creme brulee (well, crunchy caramel) pieces were very nice. And i don't think an explanation for the salted caramel is needed. It was so lovely, and kept you wanting more.

Peach creme brulee & salted caramel ice cream

Our second dessert was little doughnut bites from You Doughnut. I asked for half of them to be dusted in vanilla sugar, and the other half in cinnamon sugar. One half was covered in warm salted caramel sauce and the other half in indulgent chocolate sauce. They were topped off with sprinkles, pistachios and mini marshmallows! I thoroughly enjoyed them. The doughnuts were not oily at all, but were very light and fluffy and the sauces were not too sweet - not even the chocolate one.

Cute little doughnut bites

This concluded our night at the street feast, and we were so stuffed by the end of it despite the fact that we halved everything. The highlights for me are definitely Yum Bun, Yum Jungle's popcorn prawn burger, and You Doughnut. I definitely recommend these three, you will not be disappointed! I will definitely be trying them again. 

Foodie Introduction

A brief intro and i'll start getting to the good stuff - food! I'm a food enthusiast who has been described as "ridiculously happy about food" and i will happily drag my friends out with me to try a new place. I'm not an expert, just a food lover that enjoys sharing her adventures through instagram, and now this blog.

However, i think you'll quickly notice that there are no dishes that contain beef - i just don't eat it. So if you're a beef lover, i'm sorry, but this is not the place for you. 

I enjoy cooking and baking, so i'll be sharing some recipes of my own too when i have the time. 

Anyway, to start the blog off i'll probably be posting some food adventures from the recent past, just to get things rolling! 

Feel free to suggest places to me too!