Third "Thai" Lucky...

Wow, my titles are quite ridiculous, sorry about that..

Anyway moving on, tonight for my third post I have decided to post about a Thai Restaurant in Richmond called "Thai Square" that I recently went to with my fellow foodie (the boyfriend).

After quite a big night out, I was feeling a little jaded, and was craving CARBBBBSSS..

But was also in the usual hungover mind set of not being able to make up my mind about what it was that I wanted to eat. Our usual lazy day haunts weren't quite getting my mouth watering, and as we were on the way to Richmond anyway to meet my Beautiful cousin we did a bit of Googling about places in the area we could get something delicious in, as soon as I saw the tab for "Thai food" I knew its what I wanted!

And this is how it all began!

So on arrival, the first thing that struck me was the "Best restaurant of the year award 2012" certificate, the second was the beautiful interior, the third was "Shit, I think this may be out of our budget". We were greeted by a beautiful waitress, who gave us the best seat in the house! Right next to the authentic wall with beautiful images of people and patterns carved into it (I wish I had been more snap savvy with my phone- I blame the hangover).

So at this point we were already like two children in a sweet shop, The boyfriend ordered a virgin strawberry mojito and me a diet coke (again, I blame the hangover as usually fizzy drinks do NOT pass these lips of mine). THEN.. onto the starters, (the waitress came twice before we were ready to order) EEEKK it was amazing, the food just sounded and looked incredible, after much deliberation he ordered soft shell crab and me a giant duck spring roll. Everything from the presentation to the dipping sauce to the taste was amazing. His starter was tempura which on arrival he said often he is disappointed with as so many places get it wrong but according to the boyfriend it was perfect, as was the sweet chili dipping sauce accompaniment. Mine was amazing, the duck inside was hot and perfect and had clearly been marinated or cooked in some spices, the vegetables inside the roll were crunchy and fresh, and the sweet sauce spooned over it was gorgeous (mouth watering test accomplished, as I am writing this.. YUM)  I so so so wish I had pictures, Oh well I guess I will just have to go back.....

Then we were faced with the task of ordering our main, and wow, this took some time!! I was torn between the famous Green curry, or something from the "chefs specials". The boyfriend only eating Halal was "restricted" to the sea food, but honestly, it really wasn't a restriction! Unlike most places, the sea food and vegetarian option weren't sorry excuses for a second best main dish, they were dishes in themselves and even had me taking a fancy to them! Sea food makes me poorly (which says allot about the menu) so I am usually the meat eater when we are out and him the vege/sea food eater (a match made in heaven if you ask me, cue the AWWWS) anyway, I digress.
Eventually the lovely waitress recommended the Scallops with Thai Holy Basil and chili to him, any dish with the word "Holy" in is bound to excite the senses of foodies, and as we understood it the difference between Thai Holy Basil and the Western Basil we have here, is that Thai is spicy and English is sweet. My lovely boyfriend cannot stand anything too sweet, so this mixture of ginger, scallops and spiciness ticked all of his boxes. He was so excited for this because he had always wanted to try Scallops, we decided to order sticky rice and Pad Thai as our sides to share as we were feeling glutinous and wanted to try both, I eventually chose the chicken Massaman curry which is coincidentally a Thai Muslim curry dish, made with my favourite peanuts, potatoes, cardamom, Cinnamon, etc etc etc etc. From the little I know about Massaman curry, I believe it to be quite an old dish with regal links, some theories suggest it is of Muslim Persian decent, what a beautiful mix if that is correct. (but please do NOT quote me on that)

When the food arrived (sorry for the dodgy picture, it was all I could manage!) WOW, the dishes looked and smelt incredible, and tasted even better! He loved his food, and being half Indian/Half Singaporean can handle HEAT HEAT HEAT, but the bad boy chilli's in his dish were too much, so he wussed out and palmed those off. Due to sea food making me ill, I wouldn't try his dish but was informed it was outstanding, "Tangy, zesty, zingy". My food was equally as incredible (my one complaint was we didn't eat with chopsticks and as a proud new master of them I relish every opportunity to use them, but in fairness, if we hadn't been so busy troffing then we could have asked for them I guess).

My food was sweet, nutty and aromatic, with a very unusual spice combination, literally a Thai curry with its aromatic-ness and an Indian curry with its spice and hints of Persian with the subtle Herby harmony tastes. The rice was perfectly sticky (A learning chop stick masters' dream), the Pad Thai was beautiful.
 What more can I say? It was easily my favourite meal that I have eaten out, to date, ever!
 Everything was hot, the wait for the food wasn't too long, we weren't stuck on a seat near the door, the service was lovely, it was busy and atmospheric! The place 100% deserves and earn the Best Restaurant award 2012.

I would HIGHLY recommend this restaurant "Thai Square" to anyone, and on further investigation I found out they have other restaurants too in and around the London area. My third initial impression of the restaurant was correct, it was slightly out of our budget, but then technically we are students so everything is out of our budget so I am not sure that's a true reflection of anything really!! The food was worth every single penny, and I/we shall be returning in the very near future.

Love  H x

(P.s that random photo was taken in a frozen yogurt bar called "Snog" one of the coolest places I've ever been.. I feel another blog coming on soon!) X

(P.p.s Please note, that everything I blog about is my own opinion, and if you do hopefully decide to go to any places I blog about then please remember you are going based on MY experience and MY recommendation, I can only blog about places that I love, and obviously opinions are not universal (or we would live in a very boring place) it is what it is on here, an opinion, an experience and a recommendation, I am not a professional food critic and am no way shape or form making out that I am... I just like food :) XXX

Every day should be Mothers day

Today I have decided to post about my lovely mummy. Two years ago my mum moved to Italy with her lovely partner/my nearly sort of stepdad, and anyone would think she moved to Australia with the way I go on about missing her!!

I have spent most of the day (not revising for my exam tomorrow) trying to figure out what to write about on here and how to go about my chosen topic, I wanted to write something inspirational about Mums.

My mum is so many things to me, firstly she is my mum obviously, and she is amazing at it! Secondly she is the person I speak to every single time I need help whether its relationship advice, trying to remember the name of a song, or how to cook Ratatouille! Everything and anything she is there for me.

Next she is the person I shout and yell at when things are going wrong and when I need someone to vent at, this is the thing that I am going to change, because being horrible to my mum brings about the worst possible feeling ever in me, yet I still do it- Probably because I know subconsciously she is one of the very few people I can be a horrible cow too and she will still love me!

This lead me to thinking (a little guiltily) "I must not be the only one horrible to my mum when I am throwing a strop" and after a bit of a deep heart to heart with my lovely housemates, it seemed, no I am not the only one!

BUT WHY can we all be so nasty to our lovely mums when we know it makes both of us feel HORRIBLE. We forget that when we are shouting at the phone on them and they are saying "irritating things" they are just trying to help, and the likelihood is, they have been in a similar situation so it’s probably a good idea to actually listen to them instead of (if you’re anything like me) shouting "YOU DONT UNDERSTANDDDDDD!!!"

I have decided it is time, especially for us stroppy girls to start being much nicer to our mums, and not just wait for birthdays and mothers days to be nice and kind to them. Every day should be Mothers day!!

(Technically I guess this should be a rule of thumb for everyone in our lives) but on this occasion I am dedicating this just to my mum, and all of the mummy’s out there!

She is such an inspiring woman for so many reasons, too many to mention if im honest. After battling with her weight for many years (I think she is always beautiful)  she, with the help of my wonderful Aunty an NLP and personal trainer who goes by the name of "The Feel Good coach" has managed to drop allot of weight and her physical stamina is amazing. She is returning this October to England to run a half marathon which I am just astounded by, she has certainly given me a kick up the back side to revaluate my health and fitness! I am so so so proud of her, as this has been one of the most challenging things she has ever done, and actually there are no words to describe how proud I am of her. So I will stop trying, to describe it, just know it’s VERY PROUD!

When I moved away to University, if someone had told me that I would be homesick I would have laughed in their faces! But now, after some growing up time, I have realised I really am a home bird. 

 I love my mum so so much, and now she is in Italy, it’s harder to show her that and I guess that makes me realise a little what life would be like without her in it and also how lucky I am to still have this amazing woman on the planet. I guess this is why I have started to begin to feel a tad philosophical about how myself and others treat their mums, as you never know what is around the corner (or when your mum is going to set up camp on a mountain in Northern Italy where they still use horse and carts!!) 

I know I wont be alone when I say "I have the best mum in the world", and if you are lucky enough to have a lovely mummy in your life, tell her that..

Love H x 

My first time blogging, with love x

  What better way to kick start my blog than posting about something very close to my heart! This Valentine’s day I was treated to something that I have never experienced before!! Even now I think about it over and over again and pester my boyfriend to have it most weekends, it is something truly incredible!
    
  (Haha ok enough with the innuendos Harriet! note to self, family will probably be reading this!) 
 

OK, the "thing" I am talking about, is my Boyfriends' "sweet and spicy secret Indian Lamb shank" which he lovingly slaved over for days and days marinating to create the PERFECT taste, and trust me, perfection is the only word to describe this dish. In fact, hand on my heart it was the bestest Valentine’s day I could ask for- Amazing food, wearing his joggers and slumped in front of the tele after a really stressful week.
 

It had everything I could ask for from a dish, (although the recipe is top secret in his family, much to my horror that I wouldn’t be able to re-create this dish myself!) I could identify- 

Honey

Chilli

Coriander

Tamarind

More Chilli

Tomato

Some of his special concoction of Indian spices

More Chilli

A Balsamic Vinegar taste?

And of course, my favourite ingredient ever, Pineapple. 

Now I understand that this combination of ingredients may sound strange but honestly WOW, this meal I could live on for the rest of my life. (If carbs, saturated fats and bingo wings were fictitious of course!) 

Incase you haven’t guessed from the exotic ingredients, my lovely boyfriend is Indian and he completed this perfect romantic meal by feeding my English rose self, gorgeous roast potatoes and roasted root veg! A match made in heaven, an Indian twist on the English roast dinner, what could be better?!

This was probably the moment that I realised not only how much I love food, but how important food is culturally and how it can bring such different people together! (We could all learn allot from the marriage of different food combinations and the mixture of ingredients).

Sorry to say that on this occasion I cannot share the recipe, (I wish I had it!!!) but I hope you enjoyed reading about it, and by all means knock yourself out by experimenting with the ingredients I was able to identify, you won’t be disappointed!!

Love H x