Review: Kooks Cafe, Brighton

I had some more visitors at the weekend - My best friends M&N came down on Sunday, it was the first time I had seen them in about 6 months and I couldn't wait to see them.

It was Pride in Brighton this weekend, which meant that the entire city was full of people. With that in mind, we decided to try and avoid the throngs and go out during the day for lunch, and then get a takeaway later in the evening.

We went for a stroll around the lanes, did a bit of shopping, and then went on a hunt for somewhere new for a brunch/light lunch before taking a quick (but windy!) walk along the seafront.

So, for lunch we ended up at KOOKS, situated in the North Lanes.

I had never been in this café before, but from walking by several times it always seemed busy, and the menu looked really good, if slightly expensive.

The menu boasted really simply prepared and cooked ingredients, so looked like it would be a good place.

Unfortunately, there was one thing that ruined our visit - the service.

I was surprised when we arrived, the café was nowhere near completely full, but many of the tables hadn't been cleared, and so we had to ask the very flustered looking waitres to clear the table before we sat down. To be honest, that should have been our first clue.

The second: the waitress was friendly and cleared the table straight away, but then disappeared before giving us any menus - quite a key thing for a group of people coming for lunch! And so we waited for a few minutes before reminding her.

There was a family sitting at the table next to us also looking very flustered - it seems that they were having the same experience as us although they were already seated when we arrived.

The menu itself looked really appetising - a few simple brunch items such as crispy bacon ciabattas, poached eggs with hollandaise, or full English, and then some bigger plates such as burger and chips, salads and pasta dishes.

Both myself and N ordered the crispy bacon ciabatta, and M decided on the poached eggs with spinach and hollandaise. We also ordered drinks, but we had to later chase these up as the waitress had forgotten to add them to our order!

Long story short on this one - we waited for nearly an HOUR after ordering before the food actually arrived. I think that may have been the longest I have ever waited when eating out. If it wasn't for the fact that we would have struggled to find anywhere else that wasn't packed, we probably would have walked out.

Hoever, when the food did eventually arrive, it was good and well cooked and prepared.

Here is the baocn ciabatta:

Although the sandwich was good, the bacon was very crispy without being fatty or greasy, with crispy lettuce and seasoned tomato, I wouldn't necessarily say that it was worth an hour wait.

I could have easily made something just as good at home for a fraction of the price. Two bacon sandwiches, poached egg and spinach, two (very small) cups of tea and one (again small) iced coffee came to just under £30!!! Very expensive for what we got, and especially given that the service was so terrible.

Unfortunately the service, or lack of it in this instance really tarred our experience of this place, it would have been a much more pleasant afternoon if the staff were a bit more on-the-ball.

This experience does put me off visiting again, and it does explain why it was one of the few places in Brighton that wasn't rammed to bursting on Pride weekend!

One would hope that they were just having an off day!

In a nutshell, satisfactory but overpriced food and terrible service means that its not an experience I would like to repeat.

Recipe: Bruschetta

I love Italian food. There is just something about Italian food that makes you feel warm inside. Its comforting, indulgent, but flavoursome and relatively healthy, and most Italian cooking is relatively simple, which makes it super-easy to cook at home.

I have a glut of Italian recipes that I cook on a regular basis, from a simple pizza base to a rich slow cooked ragu, or a simple carbonara-style pasta.

But, this recipe is something that I love, but very rarely cook at home. It only needs the simplest of ingredients, but makes a meal more packed with flavour, whilst still being filling, fresh, tasty and relatively healthy.

An Italian favourite - Bruschetta!

And the best thing about this recipe - it only calls for a few ingredients that most will have in the cupboard or the fridge anyway

The main ingredient for this recipe: Tomatoes. I just happened to have this punnet of cherry tomatoes in my fridge, and they ended up being the inspiration for this recipe.

Tomatoes really are an amazing ingredient - they are so versatile and can be used in so many things, and its wonderful how different varieties have such a vast amount of flavour.

These cherries were amazingly sweet, and perfect for a bruschetta.

I started by chopping about half of these into quarters and placing them in a large bowl. Drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and toss so that all the tomatoes are coated.

The next thing was the herbs. I added the following:

A teaspoon each of:

Garlic powder (or a couple of cloves of fresh garlic is even better if you have it, grated or finely chopped)

Chilli flakes

Basil

Oregano

(you could also add a finely chopped red onion at this point too, but I didn't have any in the cupboard at this point)

Obviously fresh herbs will always give you a more intense flavour, but dried herbs are much more cost effective.

Once again, toss the tomatoes so that the herbs are even distributed and all the tomatoes are coated in the oil and herb mixture. Set aside.

The next bit is easy - make some toast. I used two slices for my lunch, but I was feeling extra hungry!

Usually, one slice would be plenty.

Once your toast is done how you like it, put is on a plate and spoon the tomato mixture on top - don't forget the oily dressing at the bottom of the bowl - that's delicious when soaked into the toast!

A delicious lunch for me!

This obviously would work really well as a starter too, and you could make it look a lot prettier than I did if you wanted to impress...

I have also tried this with melted goat's cheese and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar....

A Really Busy Week

So this week, as the title suggests, has been so crazily busy I feel like I haven't even had time to breathe! Its been a good one though, lots of exciting things happening, as well as a few stressful things! But let's focus on the good things first:

The week has been really lovely and sunny, which at the beginning of the week really helped to lift my spirits. I love the warm weather and it just makes you feel happy - I think it must be the vitamin D!

So last Sunday, I had a friend come and visit me. I hadn't seen him in around a year and it was nice to have a good catch up! He's moving to the USA in about a month's time so I wont get as much opportunity to see him once he moves. He is having a leaving party at the end of August so I will get to see him one last time before he jets off!

We had a really lovely evening, took Prince out for a walk along the seafront and to The Lion and Lobster Pub in Hove for a meal. The food there was really amazing - cant believe I hadn't been there before but I will definitely be going again - Have even already recommended it to some people! Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of my meal, but I had a really delicious pan fried mullet served with samphire, new potatoes and a shrimp and butter sauce! YUM!!

Anyway, we had a really good catch up and chatted for hours, mostly about his moving plans, but he has given me an open invitation to go and visit him in Denver - So watch this space! There may be a blog post in the not too distant future.....

Then, on Tuesday I was out again with another friend (read: first date). Was a really lovely evening of cocktails, tapas and lovely company. The cocktails were from Twisted Lemon in Middle Street and the Tapas from Casa Don Carlos in the lanes. I saw him again on the following Friday, and I think (hope) to see him again this week as well. Watch this space!

Again, I didn't get any photos of the meal we had, as I thought that would be a bit weird for a first date to start taking snaps of the food! But it was really delicious - Sangria, calamari, artichokes, spicy chorizo flambéed at the table, meatballs and bread and olives. Just fantastic! And of course he was a complete gentleman and paid for the meal, despite my attempts to convince him that I would pay for my share!  It was a very pleasant evening. I may be speaking about this wonderful guy again, so we will be referring to him as Mr D.

But, that hasn't even touched on my busy week!! Tuesday was another meal out (this is not great for my diet!) with one of my best friends - Lady L! I don't get to see her very often as her job means she is away a lot, so it was nice to have a whole evening with her while she was back in town.

So we decided that we both wanted Mexican food - we both love it! We met outside the Theatre Royal in Brighton and decided that we would go to El Mexicana for dinner, which is practically right next door to the theatre in New Road.

This time I did manage to get some photos of the meal - My friend loves a selfie and foodie photos so we were both taking lots of snaps! Here are a few photos of our meal:

Sharing a Jug of Pimms....

Our starter: NACHOS to share

My Chicken Burrito!

Lady L's chicken enchiladas!

After our meal, it was still quite early, so I decided to take Lady L to Twisted Lemon, where Mr D had taken me the night before! We love a good cocktail so she was really excited to go with me - I had obviously told her how amazing it was in there.

We sampled 4 of the cocktails between us (2 each) and here is the photographic evidence:

Unfortunately I cant remember the names of these cocktails - it was a few days ago and they were rather strong! Although I do remember that the two in the first photo were made with gin, cucumber and apple (the green one) and the other had baileys, Kahlua, Dissaronno (the creamy looking one) and both were delicious.

The two in the second photo were cherry liquor, (cant remember what else was in it) and the pink one was raspberry and prosecco! Lovely!

Was a really lovely evening and I'm not sure when I will get to see Lady L again - hopefully it wont be too long!

So Friday I saw Mr D again. I went round to his flat in Brighton and he cooked me a lovely meal. We had a really nice evening. Don't want to give too much away at this early stage but hopefully I'll have more to say about him soon.

And now we are pretty much up to date, although I do have to talk about yesterday.

Unfortunately after really amazing week, yesterday brought me back down to earth with a rather nasty bump.

The day started off well, the plan was to join Cuckoo's Nest Morris and Brighton Morris Men for another afternoon of dancing and general larking about. I decided that I would take Prince with me on this Stand as it would be a long time for me to leave him on his own at home, and I didn't have anyone who could watch him for me. The weather didn't look like it was going to be too hot - around 18 degrees, so I wasn't worried about taking him with me.

Anyway, the plan was this: To meet at a pub in Falmer, (The Swan), dance for a bit, and then have a walk across the downs, stopping halfway for a picnic and a game of rounders, and then to carry on walking to Lewes, where we do more dancing at another pub (also The Swan). All sounded good and we were really looking forward to it.

Unfortunately during the walk across the downs, Prince was taken very ill and collapsed. We suspected it was dehydration and managed to get some fluids in him. We hadn't been walking too long, probably only about half an hour, but he was really very poorly.

Luckily one of the hubbies is a vet and was helping me to tend to him and get him to drink lots of water, and we eventually managed to get him into a car and drive him to the vet. The vet kept him in for around 10 hours and put him on a drip, and luckily he made a full recovery and I was able to pick him up and bring him home in the early hours of this morning.

I am so pleased that he is alright, but I was really worried and stressed and upset about the whole thing.

So, we didn't actually make it to the second pub in Lewes, but I hear that everyone had a really good time, which is good.

So, in short, the week started off fantastically, and ended on a bum note, but looking forward to more exciting things to come. I'm off to Cropredy festival next week and then it will only be around 4 weeks until I go on my travels......