A Sunday Lunch in the Country

Sunday Roasts are the fundamental part of every weekend. Whether they're consumed at home or in a Country Pub off the M25 they make the world a better place.

This Sunday we all popped off to The Stile Bridge just outside of Maidstone. The pub has been listed as one of the best CAMRA pubs in 2014, so expectations were high. To make things even better, the pub itself is independent, which is quite refreshing as just about every street is now littered with Wetherspoons.

Initial thoughts upon arrival were great. It was a truly traditional country pub in every sense; beer mats on the walls, different size pint glasses hanging from the ceiling and, the most exciting feature (other than the alcohol), an open roaring fire. The smell from the fire was fantastic, filling the room with that beautiful, wintery, smoky smell. Traditional pub quirks carried on throughout the restaurant, with big oak beams and bunting hanging over our heads. We had stumbled upon a great pub.

The Stile Bridge had an amazing selection of beers and gins; I opted for a pint of Whitstable Bay blonde lager, which was one of the CAMRA lagers on offer. It was great, really light with a fruity twist, and a nice change to the usual lager that I go for.

Crab Salad 

On to the food then.. after all, it's what we were there for. The Stile has an extensive but enticing menu, including a great range of specials, ranging from a duck and plum salad to artichoke soup. All 13 of us opted for the specials; I went for the crab salad, which was refreshing and light with its mayonnaise base and red onions. It was a perfect way to start the meal.

Duck and Plum Salad 

Despite the slow service our mains arrived. I had the roast beef with yorkshire pudding and seasonal vegetables. To be perfectly honest the roast wasn't the best I have ever had, the veg was a little tight as we only had two small bowls to go around 13 people. The beef was perfectly cooked but the yorkshire pudding was very heavy and not the usual fluffy goodness you would expect. Extra gravy was supplied though, which is always good as I can never get enough.

Chocolate Brownie 

Despite being full, there was room for dessert. Sticky toffee pudding, which is one of my all time favourites, was on the menu. I rejoiced, thinking this would redeem the average roast! But there was bad news. The dreaded nut. Oh how I hate it when places put nuts in their stickty toffee pudding. There was nothing else I fancied, so I sat there sulking for a bit. That got even worse, as everyone else had dessert and I ended up with food envy looking at the cheese boards, treacle tarts and brownies. They all looked amazing!

All in all the Stile Bridge was a lovely pub, and the staff were helpful and smiley. But the service was slow and the roast just didn't give me the warm fuzzy feeling that I usual get. After all, a roast is a special dish which just makes you feel amazing on a cold, wintery Sunday.

I would go back again however, just to try some more of the beers. The burgers also looked delicious and have been recommended.

Southbanks Street Food

When living in London you can never get bored, there is always something going on somewhere. Whether it's a festival, market or show there is never a dull moment in London. And this weekend was no different.

Southbank is one of the many places, itoffers something everyday of the week,  Sunday happened to be a Love Festival and a street food market. Despite the original weather report, Sunday ended up being very hot and very sunny. 

White Sangria 

After spending a good twenty minutes walking around trying to make a decision on which stall I should approach, considering there was a fair amount of choice, from Indian, Lebanese, Korean, French and British. 

Firstly I had to quench my thirst, with a nice glass of white Sangria a nice change from the usual red, which as I'm not much of a red wine drinker never really appealed to me. 

Nice Sangria Lady

I decided on a Moroccan spiced lamb and chickpea tagine whole-grain flat bread, filled to the brim it was possible one of the best food choices I have ever made, the spiced lamb was seasoned perfectly and matched the chickpea tagine. With a slathering of mint yogurt and a hand full of tomato and chili salad it was a combo made from heaven. 

Spiced Lamb

There was a slight downside to this master piece. The flat bread was too small and so when i got half way through the wrap it exploded.... This is one of the faults to street food, in practise it should very urban and cool but in reality it just ends up in a big explosion of Moroccan spiced lamb mess. 

The Wrap

I did find a perfect spot to eat my flat bread, over looking the entire market and watching everyone else having a similar street food explosion going on. 

Southbank 

All in all though, Southbank is the perfect place for lunch or if you're simply stuck for things to do on a sunny weekend.

Pelagoes, Crete

I've been rather absent recently sunning myself in Crete. But have no fear, I was keeping my eye out for some tasty treats throughout the two weeks that I was away. Amongst the site seeing and snoozing on the beach, I did my fair bit of eating!

Our holiday rep let us into a few sneaky treats when she climbed up into the hills to visit us (luckily we had a car and I only had to walk up that hill once, an experience I will be forever scarred from!)
Her recommended restaurant was one that the owner of our villa owned, and she was certainly right to recommend it to us!

Pelagoes, was a small restaurant hide in the back roads of the town. With it’s over grown garden with hanging lanterns and mis-matched furniture, it was the best spot for one our first nights out. Not only , but the free wine and little bread basket was the perfect welcoming! Our very friendly waiter showed us to our table asking us about our holiday and where we'd been.

We started with a little bit of everything, Fava, Zucchini and Dill fritters, Kefta, Cheese Souvaliki, all freshly made and was so delicious I failed to take a picture! (Very bad blogger I know!) Zucchini did become my staple diet for an evening meal! Our mains where equally as good!

I had grilled octopus, with grilled aubergines and peppers, it was the best octopus that I have ever had! The parental ones both had the fish grill with sword fish, mussels, octopus cuttlefish and rice and grilled vegetables. I had this on our second visit and the fish was perfectly cooked!

The owner of our villa came to see us and gave us free fruit with melon and grapes! Later found out that this was the general thing in Greek restaurants.

Overall the food and staff were friendly and helpful, the atmosphere was equally as lovely with a little guitar man in the corner it was the perfect setting for a family meal or dinner for two.

It was so good we went back again! I would definitely recommend it to anyone staying in or around Agios Nikolaos.