What Came First? The Chicken Or The Egg?

Spending your bank holiday Monday hungover is a pretty standard thing, regardless of age. So as per this is how I spent mine. But as I thought my brain was going to fall out of my nose, I descended down the stairs of the Chicken Shop and all hope was restored.

With no signage and in the tiniest of places it is very easy to miss, in fact we drove past it 4 times. I had it in my head that this place was going to be huge, which seems to be the fashion at the moment. Vast restaurants with deli's and florists and card shops and shops that sell staplers and EVERYTHING. It all becomes a bit confusing after a while. But this was the opposite.

Down the stairs, you found yourself in a little den, seated right by the kitchen we got all the action. There aren't any menus - how exciting! To be honest I wasn't very excited (as I've explained my brain was about to fall out of my head and through my nose). Instead they are on the wall, and like all these restaurant/bar/deli/shop things that also have huge menus, it was actually nice to have an easy decision to make instead of spending 20 minutes umming about what to eat.

The very happy waiter did his best to bring us back to life, telling us that we can have a whole chicken, half a chicken or a quarter chicken. With a number of sides including corn, slaw, chips and salad. Being the three little pigs we had it ALL.

A whole chicken with all the sides... it was amazing. Who thought something so simple could bring my little taste buds back to life and do a little dance of happiness! The chips were made out of proper potatoes as opposed to.. I'm not sure what, rubber? And the avocado and baby gem lettuce salad was so yummy and very refreshing.

I always have a fear of chicken, I rarely eat a chicken sandwich simply because its often dry and quite sad. But this chicken has been cooked on a spit roast and it was probably one of the best chickens I've eaten. You can add a little heat to your chicken, with the Hot Sauce or the Smokey sauce which is bottled and on your table. I found the Smokey Sauce had more of a kick to it than the Hot Sauce still they were both the best.

Dessert is served at the table - my tummy was far too full of chicken - but pops went ahead with the apple pie, and you could smell the cinnamon on it. It comes with either cream or ice cream very yummy indeed!

Apple Pie

All in all I think I have found my new hangover cure, sadly it is really hard to get to and almost impossible to find, they've literally made it work through word of mouth and their website is: http://www.chickenshop.com. But it really is worth the hunt and I will certainly be returning; maybe not so hungover this time round.

Mr Chicken Chopper

Nothing Like A Naughty Scene To Brighten Your Monday Morning.

I'm one of those people that begins a book and then puts it down only to rediscover it four weeks later, with a library fine. I don't believe in Kindles they make me sad. I like the smell of a good book especially an old one. I'm from the generation of the Harry Potter book smell, if you dont know it, go into Waterstones and just sniff one... I promise you wont get any strange looks.

So recently I rediscovered a book that I borrowed from the library 2 months ago. A little dusty I'll admit. But what a cracker it is! Just Like Proper Grown-Ups by Christina Hopkinson is one of those feel good books, even on a Monday morning when your eyes are aching from the need to go back to sleep it makes you realise that things could be a lot worse.

It's the tale of four people who become the godparents of their friends unexpected baby. But it's not all simple as it seems, with a few twists and turns I did get some odd looks on the tube for gasping a little too loudly. And you may find that you have to put the book up to cover your face as it blushes at some very naughty scenes! This is without laughing out loud and waking the sleeping man on the train up.

I am a little worried about what I'm going to do once I've finished the book because as usual I've allowed myself to get far too involved in the plot and mistake the characters as real people. We've got;

Owen: Every girls dream and a very big bed hopper. What's worse is he's been engaged 4 times or maybe he's had 5 even he doesn't know. But he's charming and got a few issues so women to fall at his feet including two of the main characters.
Tess: She's the posh one, her parents are loaded and she's pregnant by a donor even though she never wanted babies and was quite happy roaming wild and free, very suspicious. Her and Owen had a little thing way back when.
Michael: Tess's second cousin who is oddly very much in love with her it's almost cringe
-worthy. But sadly everyone thinks he's gay.
Sienna: My favourite, she's curvaceous and slightly crazy but she's also super amazing and ends up in bed with Owen after one too many.
Lucy: Tess's best friend mother of two and the partner of a very sexy younger man. She's obsessive about everything, about the fact she's 40 and her eggs are dying and she is ageing and the fact that everyone seems to be at it apart from her.

It is definitely a holiday pool side read and I would recommend it to everyone.

A Little Snack

There's very little I don't like to eat, literally, I eat EVERYTHING. I could probably count on one hand the things I don't like: 

•   Aniseed - just ew

•   Yoghurt coated fruit- I once ate so many banana chips coated in yoghurt that I was nearly sick - scarred me for life. 

•   Wasabi - Now I used to love the stuff, until one unfortunate night involving A&E and me wailing like a banshee

•   Finally dark chocolate 'the chocolate that's good for you' why, just why. 

So the other day I got a little pop up from the usual student discount places - is it immoral if I stay a member once I've graduated? One of there lovely little treats was a free Graze Box. I was sold; in fact I think I was sold on a number of free things. 

And yesterday much to my delight it’s arrived!! And what a little treat it was!! I'm one of the unfortunate people in the world to have a nut allergy (wasabi tale) and so I've stayed away from the Graze Box for quite a while. Luckily mine only came with one little package that was inedible to me. So father had that one. 

Little Box of Goodies

But out of what I could eat everything seems very yummy. Today while on my placement I had the scrumptious berries. With dried blueberries and cranberries and.... blueberry yoghurt coated raisons. I gave the blueberry yoghurt a stab and to be honest it wasn't all doom and gloom. The cranberries and blueberries were so sweet and a nice change from the fresh ones that everyone knows goes amazing with natural yoghurt and honey! It definitely made the perfect office snack AND was one of my 5 a day so every body wins! Tomorrow it's going to be the seedy mini flapjacks which I'm sad to say will possibly be the highlight of my day!

Not only this but in my little package I also get to give away 4 free Graze Boxes to some lucky people, well 2 have already been given away. I may save them for when I’m feeling extra generous! 

Nibble Nibble

I should probably introduce myself properly. I'm Helena and I like food. Yes everyone says that but honestly it rules my life, as I eat breakfast I think about dinner for the next day. Very annoying habit for all those around me. And I've often asked myself whether I should be on one of those Secret Eater programmes.

But after three years of 'I'm going to start a blog tomorrow' I've finally done it! And how proud of myself I truly am. The Girl Who Eats Like A Man is pretty much about that. I eat fast and most the time more than anyone I know. But I've grown up surrounded by food and restaurants because I'm a very lucky girl. Being a waitress for the last 5 years and spending a a fair few summer holidays at work with Pops has meant that I've seen all areas of the restaurant world.

But I'm not an expert, I'm just giving my opinion, not really about the taste or the decor of wherever I happen to be but just what I think of everything in general.

So I'm just going to blog about my food experiences any goodies that I try and if by some miracle I find the cooking gene I may even have a little treat for you all.