Brunch: London



CARAVAN King's Cross  
Address: Granary Building 1 Granary Square (off Goods Way) London N1C 4AA

Immensely popular during weekends, prepare to wait! This fantastic brunch place is set in an old industrial looking room. They have a great selection of breakfast/brunch classics alongside some new original combinations (like the kimchi pancake with duck egg and pork belly shown in the picture below). This brunch  made us last on this one meal (before dinner) when we walked across London for 5 hours so I can't really complain on the price (each dish is somewhere between £7-10). Having to wait 45 minutes for our table was not a problem, as you can sit by the bar in the center of the room and have cocktails, coffees, fresh juice or amazing cold brews.
 
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GAIL'S
Address:4-6 Seymour Place Marylebone, London W1H 7NA
Sunday brunch. We were exhausted after walking a zillion kilometers on Saturday so we decided to have brunch in my sister's favourite place (close by): Gail's artisan bakery. If you have to choose one thing from this place it would have to be their maple pecan scone, which is probably the best scone I've ever had in my whole life. 
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S U M M E R

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These shots were taken in the weeks before I left England. So many croissants, lazy mornings and sunny days!

Where to Drink in Manchester: TAKK

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TAKK

Address: 6 Tariff Street, Manchester M1 2FF

Being a Scandinavian abroad I am painfully aware of my roots and that means I am instantly drawn to anything with a Scandinavian sounding name, it's just in my blood. TAKK is no exception. However I go to TAKK not only for their adorable name ("Thanks" in Icelandic and Norwegian! Seriously though, their logo is adorable.) but for their coffee. Featuring coffee from The Barn Berlin you know you can't go wrong.. Actually no, you CAN go very very wrong, however the barista at TAKK didn't. 

Being an instagram freak I discovered TAKK a while ago while searching around instagram, so one rainy afternoon before summer we decided to sprint to TAKK for an ice coffee (running makes you feel warm you know). The first thing that greets you is a simple counter, strong smell of coffee and drawings by, I'm guessing, local artists. One thing I really love about small independent coffee shops/cafes, is the friendly vibe you get; and TAKK is no exception. Excellent friendly staff who will gladly take the time to explain to you what coffees they have that day. One thing is for sure: I can't wait to get back to Manchester after summer!
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Lemon Yoghurt Cake

Being a student makes you sometimes forget the joys of baking. You are always missing an ingredient or two, or worse, sometimes you are even missing equipment. I finally decided to do something about that and bought myself a loaf tin, which resulted in a heavenly lemony yoghurt loaf cake from London Bakes for breakfast! www.londonbakes.com is always my go-to page when I want to bake something comforting and delicious.

Find the recipe HERE


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Mousse for dinner & breakfast

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I LOOOOOVE chocolate mousse, but then again who doesn't? For Easter dinner we had homemade chocolate mousse with espresso and raspberries and it was divine and so easy to make. The next morning we had the leftover mousse for brunch dessert with even more raspberries!

It's getting pretty hectic at the moment with exams coming up soon so I keep daydreaming about that week I had back home in Norway with sunshine, the ocean a mere 5 minute walk away, delicious meals and a bakery 200m from my house. Agh. I'm lazy whenever I'm back in England and I really don't bake as much as I'd like to. Life's tight on a student budget hehe.

Anyways, this recipe is so easy to make and the warm espresso does most of the chocolate melting for you! For this recipe you'll need

200 grams of dark chocolate
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 dl warm espresso (the taste of the espresso will affect the mousse slightly so go for a coffee that you really like. I love beans with fruity and dark berries notes as I think this goes really well with the mousse)
3 egg yolks
3 dl double cream

1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and pour the hot espresso over it, leaving it for 5-10 minutes stirring occasionally to ensure that the chocolate is melting properly.

 2. Mix the egg yolks into the slighly cooled chocolate mixture. Whip the cream until it's got a soft whipped cream consistency and carefully fold the cream into the egg & chocolate mixture.

 3. Put the mousse in bowls or cups and chill for at least 2-3 hours. Serve with berries!





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Countdown

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Don't get me wrong, I like living in a big city but sometimes I just yearn for nature: less cars, forests, rivers and silence. BUT that is going to change in less than a week because I will be back in Norway!! Counting down the days!
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Places to Eat in London: The Corner Room


You know how some meals just leaves you eating in silence with a massive grin on your face? Well, a couple of weeks ago I experienced this with every single course I had. I am referring a divine dinner I had at The Corner Room, London. 

The Corner Room is technically, a corner room. But it is a beautiful one decorated with old lamps and light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. The size of the room adds to its charm; it's not too big and rather cozy. First up we ordered some delicious bread and French wine. It had to be French because after spending more than seven years in France my sister only goes for French wine. Deep down I sometime think she's more French than Norwegian.

The starters had a good selection of things that just sounded really yummy, but there was one thing in particular that really caught our eye: Raw duck heart with seafood mayo. I have had chicken heart before, but that was grilled. This was RAW which I know can put a lot of people off, but I actually quite liked it. It was delicious, rich, almost a bit bloody and the seafood mayo just added depth to the meat.


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Next up: main course.  My sister decided to have the rest of the duck and I went for lamb neck with barbeque swede and pickled baby radish. The sauce was spot on, the lamb was tender and moist and the vegetables were packed with flavour, yet somehow they still kept their earthy flavour (I mean this in a good way). We were warned beforehand that the duck would be cooked rare-medium/rare to which my sister replied "Perfect!" with a carnivorous grin.

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And finally: the dessert. To be honest I wasn't blown away when we first ordered it, but when it arrived at the table I knew we were in for a treat. The Bramley apple with salted caramel, star anise, ice cream and nuts was DELICIOUS. At first those crunchy nuts and the lovely room temperature apple purée hits you then the salted caramel and cold ice cream (all served inside a cold apple) and finally... the star anise sneaks up on you like a ninja in the night. Perfection.

The chocolate mousse was divine, with a whole plate full of exciting little things (which I can't remember anymore. I just remember that it tasted amazing). For all of this you would expect to pay a fortune, however I was really pleasantly surprised by the price. The portions aren't big, but that suits me fine as I don't really like being served a massive plate of food. 

One of the things my sister and I have in common is our love of food. We love food and that's just a fact. We both get extremely excited about salads, tabbouleh, sea food buffets, you name it. In this case that shared love of food just made this whole experience even better. We both chewed in silence with the same expression as two excited little pugs. We became all giddy over dessert. We both gave each other that look that just said "I want to keep eating this. For days."

And finally I would like to thank her for actually booking a table. I'm silly and most of the time I forget to book. Glad she did though because if we missed out on this meal my life would have seemed less.. Fulfilled.

I just really need to go back. 


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