coast to coast restaurant, leicester.

last week i was invited to the launch night of the newly opened coast to coast in leicester's highcross. located in a bustling outdoor food court amongst the likes of yo sushi, wagamamas, cafe rouge,  handmade burger co and carluccio's, i was really excited to see what the american bar and grill had to offer. we were greeted with surprise cocktails; a refreshing regular mojito and one with a raspberry twist, whilst we nibbled on olives and mulled over the menu.

elderflower and kiwi daiquiri.

it seems summer is finally upon us... dusting off that barbecue, queuing at ice cream vans, strawberries and cream and fruity cocktails. so i thought i'd try out a little something. here i present you... a refreshing elderflower and kiwi daiquiri. 

my housemate made a gorgeous cocktail the other weekend made up of bottle green elderflower cordial, gin and lemonade so i thought i'd experiment with the bottle green sparkling elderflower i was recently sent. i realise daiquiris aren't strictly fizzy but the kiwi fruit accidentally gave the drink a texture similar to a strawberry daiquri :) i also used rum as a base ingredient but you can of course make a virgin adaptation sans rum. 

so how do you concoct one... or two?

vietnamese summer rolls with a peanut and chilli dipping sauce.

somewhere along my instagram news feed amongst tasty tapas, carefully decorated cupcakes and plates brimming with full english breakfasts, i remember coming across a picture of some vietnamese summer rolls. i looked up a few recipes straight away and learnt that i needed to search for a pretty key ingredient... rice paper wrappers. so when i headed to london the other weekend something i remembered to search for some in a soho supermarket :)

i based my recipe on one i found on the channel 4 food website by simon rimmer; there are a few altered ingredients and these quantities feed 2 greedy people around four rolls each :) he also includes a sauce though i made this peanut and chilli dipping sauce recipe up myself after a little experimentation.

the rice paper wrappers should look something a little like these. but what else will you need?

dishoom bombay breakfast, covent garden, london.

a full breakfast menu with an indian twist; an unlikely combination. could it work? i ordered a chocolate chai whilst i perused the likes of bacon naan rolls, breakfast lassi, fire toast and akuri which is spicy scrambled eggs. decisions decisions! there are even bloody marys for those who are feeling a little delicate. i'd been to dishoom and experienced their dinner menu before so they had a lot to live up to...

the chocolate chai was, as you'd expect, a mixture of house chai tea and dark chocolate - luxurious and infused with spice. the only thing is i did need caffeine quite badly that morning. request for chai mocha please? :)

so since i couldn't decide i went for bombay omelette and sausage naan roll - hoping the naan would be sort of like a side. it wasn't - so i was pleasantly stuffed by the end! the bombay omelette consisted of "a crazy-paving omelette of chopped tomato, onion, coriander and green chilli served with tomatoes grilled on the vine and fire toast". 

the omelette was delicately seasoned, the tomatoes perfectly grilled and the sauce was like a spicy tomato dip. the fire toast was tasty but a bit too much for me as i'd also ordered the naan! silly emily! though not bad for £5.90 hey?