Sally Lunn Bun, Jacobs Coffee House in Bath

Horn Ok Please, Surrey Street, Croydon

I’m getting good and culminating blog posts together into one post these days! I’ve just been visiting so many places these last couple of weeks it makes sense. To be honest when I look back on my Iphone I’m amazed how many food pictures I have on there and more importantly how much I have consumed!

But all of these places have been great in different ways, let me enlighten you on my journey..

Over the weekend I headed to the quintessentially beautiful Bath with friends to wonder the streets, drink tea and take in the historic splendours of this city.

We headed over to Jacobs Coffee House, a small cafe perched on the corner of the street opposite the Roman Baths. Pulled in by their display of homemade cakes, scones, pastries and panini’s on offer, we grabbed up a few.

Their lemon and polenta, almond cake was tangy, like a drizzle cake, tart, moist and crumbed with crushed pistachios as a topping.

The large scones plain or flecked with sultanas, were bigger than my hand, chunky and cut in half slathered on with butter and jam.. although no cream which was a shame.

The panini’s again varied in fillings, mine goat’s cheese with artichoke, creamy cheese flecked with vinegar tartness from the sliced artichokes other flavours included, ham and cheese, sun dried tomatoes, or aubergine.

A nice place to pit stop for a bite to eat or coffee express, or maybe just to pick up some of the sweet treats to take while perusing Bath.

Sally Lunn Bun

Sally Lunn’s is much more than a world-famous tea and eating house in the centre of the wonderful city of Bath. It is also one of the oldest houses in Bath. They have a Kitchen Museum which shows the actual kitchen used by the young baker Sally Lunn in Georgian Bath times to create the famous Bath Bun.

She was a French refugee and came to Bath over 300 years ago, her popular Bath Bun is rich and round, similar to a Brioche and the secret recipe has been passed down with the deeds of the house, so this is how today we can sample these famous buns!

You can stop to have lunch or afternoon tea at the Sally Lunn House which we jumped at the chance to try, the menu is extensive, the buns are used to make toasted sandwiches, Welsh rarebit, sweet versions, or dipped in soup, so the choice is yours.

House blends of tea and coffee can be accompanied with the meal, we ordered a range of Sally Lunn buns to try from Welsh rarebit, which was deliciously cheesy inside, served with homemade chutney and salad. And toasted buns with beef slices, which tasted like a damn good toasted sandwich! Or layered up with aubergine, peppers and sandwiched in warmed bun slices.

The sweet versions you can opt for can be slathered with chocolate, cream and all sorts, however the simple Afternoon tea of strawberry jam with a side serving of clotted cream was amazingly melt in the mouth delicious. The bun is not too sweet itself so can be complimented either way savoury or sweet.

Next time you’re in Bath, I would definitely recommend a leisurely afternoon tea at Sally Lunn’s.

www..sallylunns.co.uk

Horn Ok Please!

‘Horn OK please’ is a phrase commonly painted on commercial vehicles like trucks, buses or local taxis in India.

The purpose of the phrase is to alert a driver of a vehicle approaching from behind to sound his/her horn in case they wish to overtake. Wikipedia

I only found out at Horn Ok Please a couple of weeks ago and stumbled on them via Twitter and that they would be in Surrey Street market, in my home town of Croydon during the week. So taking a trip down there one Thursday, I stopped to meet the lovely Horn Ok Please team for a quick chat and some tasty food!

I have had Dosa’s before but have not tried Bel Puri or Pani Puri before so this was a great opportunity to try these popular street food from North and West India and get some inside info on how they are made..

Firstly the lovely Sandhya & Gaurav, created me a taste of each type of their food, from their colourful stall at the end of Surrey Street Market.

The amazing Bhel Puri, has to be my favourite, using sev (which normally I have eaten plain) they add a mixture of tomato, potato, tamarind chutney, fresh coriander and red onions.

The flavour combinations and textures are beautiful with sweet pellets of pomegranate for colour and sweetness. A taste that becomes familiar fairly quickly, flavours bursting in your mouth, I almost ate two portions.

The Pani Puri, is a street food fave im assured, these small cups filled with surprising flavours are heavenly mouthfuls, transporting you to India in a second. The round, hollow puri is filled with a mix of potato, chickpeas, masala and chutneys to the right combination and topped with spiced water.

Eaten in one go (yes I did fit it in my mouth) , you get a bursting sensation of flavours inside your mouth, these little snacks are quite addictive.

The sweeter version to refresh your palette if you will, is filled with yoghurt, sev and pomegranate seeds

And finally its Dosa time..a savoury crepe made from rice flour, on the day I was at Horn OK they made it using moong dhal (lentils) which is also what my mum uses in Mauritian cooking too, so a familiar ingredient.

I watched them elegantly spread the batter over the heated pan with a ladle, watching for when the bubbles on the surface start to appear then it is flipped over and kept in motion to stop it sticking. The potato filling is then spread onto one side of the dosa while it’s still on the heat to ensure that hot, freshness when you bite into it.

It’s then wrapped up and cut in half so the filling is inside. It was a treat to eat, the warm potato and mustard seed dry curry was the perfect filling for these crisp, thin dosa’s. They can also be filled with other things including paneer. The dosa is eaten with the bhel puri, a lunch time dish that worked wonders together with the depth of flavours, your mind and senses will be trying to figure what everything is..

There was non left over in any case for the hubby.. I will definitely be around to try any new dishes/snacks Horn Ok Please come up with, its refreshing to see FRESH, interesting Indian street food being offered in Croydon! They are also at other London Festivals and Purley Festival end of June or just pop down to visit them on Thurs/Fridays at Surrey Street.