Koditor and Cook

I was introduced to K and C’s AMAZING brownies by my lovely friend Jess! They are seriously amazing especially the curly wurly cake brownie! Omg! Woods can’t describe!

K and C have 5 stores in central London and have been listed in the 101 things to do in London. I’m yet to visit one but will definitely be heading there next time I’m in town – and not dieting!

The brownies are all you’d want from a brownie! Slightly chewy topping with melt in the mouth centre …. Mmmmm!!!!

Anyway excuse me while I get carried away check out

QPR The Crown, Stoke by Nayland

Popped out for lunch today to The Crown at Stoke-by-Nayland! Not only was the company spectacular (met up with some really old friends who we hadn’t seen in years and it was brilliant!) but the food was also gorgeous!

Starters sampled included a venison scotch egg, and their trio of starters – a tempura prawn, scotch egg and pasty.
The scotch egg I can vouch for was delicious! The egg was perfectly cooked and all very tasty!

For mains three of us had rump steak at varying degrees of cookedness, all to our individual liking. It was served with lovely chunky chips, salad and a pesto salsa which was divine!
The other main was the sea trout served with the biggest poached egg if ever seen! Again beautifully cooked so it poured over the trout once burst open!
We all loved our food- and the house white was good too!

The staff were lovely and efficient, te pub is lovely inside with a farmhouse feel to it but also with a lovely garden/patio with plenty of seating and a gorgeous view. Definitely worth a look!

The quays, temple bar, Dublin, Ireland

I’ve been a little quiet on the blog front for a while but have just arrived in Dublin for a friend’s hen do and so far it’s been brilliant!

This QRR is of the Quay restaurant in the Temple Bar area. We heade here as we were Irish dancing in a hotel near – review to follow!! The girls ahead of us stumbled across this place or us to grab a bite to eat and all agreed it was a good find!

Food: I had a lovely Cajun chicken Caesar salad – huge portion for €10 but very good!!
Also tried and tested by our group were the potato skins, mussels, panini and wraps – all enjoyed alot!

Staff: polite and helpful – one lad offered us advice on where to go – we had already planned all he advised but it was a nice touch!

Price: reasonable. Generally compared to England I personally find Ireland expensive because of the euro and how crap the pound is ATM, but €15 for a huge chicken salad and 2 small glasses of wine (we shared a bottled) was not bad at all! Well worth a visit!!!

QRR cantina del ponte

Love love love this restaurant! Have been a few times as its close to our London abode and its just lovely!

Firstly it’s on the river right next to tower bridge so very pretty outlook.
Secondly the waiters are all gorgeous- great view in and out!
Thirdly the food is beautiful and not badly priced.

For our last visit I got hold of a late night London voucher- 2 course for £18 plus a glass of prosecco.

Our starters included the standard bowl of olives – lovely- and sautéed baby squid – delicious, perfectly cooked and not chewy at all, and chicken liver pâté – I am assured it was very good!

Mains this time round my Ma and I had beetroot and Gorgonzola risotto. Again delicious! And absolutely massive portion with the perfect amount of Gorgonzola – I find a lot of gorgo dishes you can barely taste it.

Our lovely friend both had sea bass which they both polished off and really enjoyed.

The desert menu had lots of choice and the ice cream was delicious!

All in all a great place for dinner especially if you don’t have long in London as you get to see a few of the sites walking along the south bank to it!

Frou frou, enniskillen

Dropped in for a mid morning snack! This cafe is lovely and bright inside with a wonderful array for cakes including scones, brownies, pancakes, carrot cake, coffee cake and apple pie!

All sampled were delicious especially the apple pie and the carrot cake!

I have also been assured that the coffee was better costa!

They are doing afternoon tea for Mother’s Day and also Offer 10% discount for students!

Definitely worth dropping in!

The parlour, Belfast

So it’s all been a bit quiet on the blog front! However hopefully this weekend that will change as I’ve headed to Belfast for a long weekend!
We’ve stopped off after a day of driving around for a drink in the Parlour bar near Queens Uni.

The most comfortable sofa in the world, cosy dark decor in red, black and grey. Cheap drinks (studentsville!) and £1 pizza with every drink between 3 and 6pm!

We didn’t get to test the pizzas as we had already booked for dinner but they looked nice and big and pretty yum.

Definitely a nice place to hide from the rain!

The libertine, borough

Ahh The Libertine!
This pub opened as is it when i was at uni round the corner. It became popular very quickly due to its great pizzas!

We have popped in for a drink on my birthday pub crawl.
It’s quiet in a Saturday afternoon, chilled music, racing on with gents in flat caps watching avidly!

The pub has forties nights (I think the lat Saturday of the month – but call to check) and we happened to be in here for one in August and it was brilliant! The next jive night is feb 23nd!
The regulars make a real effort and the dancing is entertainment in itself!

It also has a quiz night at 7.30 every Tuesday where winner takes all!

All in all a nice pub with some quirky bits!
Lovely rose!

Jardine cafe and bistro, wivenhoe

Popped in here to grab a coffee and a slice of cake this afternoon with Ma!
It was buzzing! It’s my second visit to Jardine and luckily better than the first!

The food here is lovely – on the posh side with small portions but still good!

The cake I had today (and really didn’t need!) was delicious! Homemade coffee crunch cake, the coffee wasn’t too over powering and it was yum!
Mum had bake well cake an although apparently being a little dry was still good!
The cake portions are not small! In fact neither of us could finish- and I tried hard!

The staff today were enthusiastic and charming with no problems what so ever! It’s a reasonably new bistro to wivenhoe, only open a year or two ago and I think at my first visit they were still finding their feet!

Looking forward to my third visit!
Just need to find some girls go want dinner!!

The plantation urban resort and spa, Phnom Penh, cambodia

Situated behind the royal palace in Phnom Penh, this hotel is a little bit of paradise! We arrived on a Tuk Tuk after a 5 hour journey via mini bus from Siem reap, and stepped through the entrance into a world of peace and tranquility! Such a contrast from the crazy street outside!
It’s obviously very new and very well cared for as everything is clean and shiny!

Rooms: our room was beautiful! It was a double with a pool view. It had a 4 poster bed with clean, new (and therefore attractive) mosquito nets draped over it. It also had a day bed by the window – just in case a couple falls out lol!
The bathroom was the first half of the room separate bus floating mirror and the sink stand – the toilet was in a separate room with a door so not quite all open plan!
The room also had balcony overlooking the gorgeous pool plus the obvious tv and mini bar etc.

Spa: I actually got to use the spa this time! I had a full body massage as a treat to myself on my birthday and it was lovely! The young girl who is was very polite and charming, she’d been working there for a year and definitely knew what she was doing!
Your greeted with the most delicious tea! No idea what was in it but it was very very good! Ginger, lemongrass, honey…. Yummy!
The hotel was offering a 30% discount at the time so it only cost $17.50 for the hour.

Food: oh my god the food was good! Breakfast was great, loads of choice and plenty of everything!
We had lunch twice because it was so good the first time, and we ate in the restaurant for dinner on my birthday!
The restaurant by the pool has a pizza menu and the general menu which is mainly western food with a bit of Khmer twist. Off that we’ve had the carpaccio – amazing, I had it twice! – the tuna, chicken and the lasagne. All delicious especially the tuna!
Then James had the chicken off the Khmer menu from the front restaurant by the red pool. It definitely a hit!
This restaurant is situated at the front of the hotel and is open to the public.

Pools: there are two!!
One is at the front of the hotel with the open restaurant and is tiled in red! Very cool! It’s surrounded by funky loungers and nice to sit by for an evening drink, however it’s busy during the day and seemed to have lots of kids in it one day! This didn’t matter though because the other pool is beautiful and quiet, filled with sensible gently floating adults! This pool is blue. It has some sunbeds in full view of the sun and others situated in pairs under wood gazebo type structure surrounded by lovely curtains! Some of these had pool steps running from them! They also doubled up as a nice place to have a drink in the evening!

Staff: all lovely and most spoke very good English! We had no problems at all!

Verdict: 10/10! Definitely worth a visit if you need somewhere to stay on Phnom Penh, it’s not cheap though!

Blue pumpkin, Phnom Penh, Cambodia,

This funky little chain cafe is brilliant for escaping the midday heat!
It was first opened in Siem reap where it now has 8 branches, before it spread over to Phnom Penh where it now has three! I’m currently sitting in the one by Sisovath key overlooking the river drinking the most delicious mango yoghurt smoothie ever! Unlike most Vietnamese lassis (which I am a big fan of!) this is made with mango mango sorbet so its like a healthy mango flavoured slush puppy!
On its way to me is the most delicious ice cream ever! I had in first in Siem reap and now I’m having it as a birthday treat! It’s cinnamon ice cream and it has biscuit like chunks in it! If you like cinnamon as a flavour, and ice with bits it like cookie dough then u’ll love this!

The cafe does all sorts of other delights such as pastries, shakes, sandwiches, tiramisu, pasta, dumplings…… The list is endless!!!

Not only is the food good but its a good cafe! It gives any unsold pastries to orphanages, it supports FAmily Care in Siem reap which is a project to provide improved eduction to impoverish children, and it gives all it’s used cooking oil to Naga Biofuels to be turned into friendly biodiesel!

Definitely worth a visit!

9/10