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A tasteful kebabs adventure at Durum Restaurant, Finchley London

They do say that variety is the spice of life, and London has so many fine restaurants; I could had chosen anything from any corner of the globe, and money was not an issue. But finally, after about 5 seconds of thinking. Yes. I chose a late night classic; meaty kebabs!

Many wouldn’t associate kebabs as being romantic. The idea of being taken out on a food date and gorging on kebabs – this guy must be shot right!? But hey, I’m a ‘classy and real’ Northern girl who’s come to learn that many kebab shops can be spotless and the ingredients are really fresh. You can get quality food from a good kebab shop.

Whenever I’m in London, Durum on Ballards Lane in Finchley (North London) has become one of my favourite hang outs for the ‘classic’ kebab. Where food is cooked fresh to order and as always, the portions are generous (so make sure you’re really hungry). You’ll find yourself in a relaxing, unpretentious environment surrounded by the delicious smell of the strips of barbecued chicken/meat and vegetables. I’ve seen the chefs use traditional Eastern methods and typical ingredients in authentic Turkish dishes serving from hot and cold starters, to moreish and adventurous kebabs cooked with satisfying flavours in mind. The service tends to be great too with courteous and attentive waiters.

We started out with hummus and flat bread and a plate of Kalamar (freshly fried squids). The consistency of the hummus was thick and creamy, the way good hummus should be. Sometimes, certain places have their hummus a bit gritty and grainy, it’s not good when it’s this way! The breads were served warm and soft, cut into nice chunky strips (the wraps were cut into triangles).

Durum’s Chicken Shish Kebab is enough to satisfy me when I’m hungry with meals all served with fresh salad, lemon, a grilled tomato and a hot pepper – and just look at the lovely fresh breads, and then there’s also the pickled chilli and cool garlic & yoghurt sauce too. The prices are ideal for the quality and the quantity. Double deliciousness.

Durum’s eat-in and takeaway meals are freshly made, inexpensive, and huge!

Pudding? – Baklava
If you ask nicely, Durum will finish off your meal with a free baklava and/or Turkish delight. I enjoyed getting up close and personal with Baklava. Wow, one small piece of sweetness made me weak at the knees – I felt transported somewhere else! I also ordered the Turkish coffee, of course.

Finally, there’s nothing wrong with the ‘classy’ kebab food date; keeping it honest, real and tasty. If the food’s made well it can sometimes feel like a trip to Turkey in a meal time – so, now who said I wasn’t a classy lady!?

Missie Asks – what’s your favourite dessert to round off a romantic meal? Let me know by commenting below.

Durum Restaurant 119 Ballards Lane | Finchley | London N3 1LJ | T: 0208 346 8977

{Photos by Cindy Cheung as shared on Instagram}

Red Peppers Greek Mezze sharing platter

Red Peppers Chicken Burrito served with mexican rice

Red Peppers spicy Thai chicken burger served with peanut sauce and fries

I went to Red Peppers in Birmingham with a friend of mine over the weekend and what a fantastic restaurant, the food was amazing and the staff were so friendly, would recommend it to anyone. I’ve been here quite a few times, located in the The Mailbox building. There are lots of places to eat there at the end of the canal, it was good value and attentive service, we were sat upstairs – the restaurant is over two floors and you can even sit outside if the weather’s nice too. Friday or Saturday nights are their busiest (but we seemed fortunate enough to grab a table as soon as we walked in, maybe because it was only 6pm so it was just before the ‘rush hour’ but otherwise, you’d be wanting to reserve a table first, usually rest of the time you can drop in though.

Food is always of the best quality, lots of choices all-round for veggies and non-veggie too… I have to say I’m a big fan of their Greek Mezze sharing starter – it’s to die-for – served with four generous sized ramekins of taramasalata, hummus, tzatziki, feta and mixed olives and homemade fresh garlic bread (the bread’s really tasty!). Lovely location next to the canal, always really friendly staff with quick and efficient service with a smile. Good value menu too with quite a lot of variety (mixture of European and further afield) which includes pizzas, pasta, steaks, enchiladas, burritos, freshly made salads etc. There’s a mixture of inexpensive and more pricey stuff – for example you can get a really nice BIG pizza for under a tenner (usually less) that beats most other places and if you can’t finish it all they’ll also box up the leftovers for you to take home, if you ask – I did!

The service is friendly but not overpowering (which is really important to me – i like to just sit, enjoy the company of my friends and eat my food without too much waiter attention). I’ve been told that the restaurant also do a nifty e-club thing where if you give them your email address, they email you vouchers (I think it’s once or twice a month with a decent discount off your food bill, e.g. 2 for 1 or a 20% off your bill during weeknights, etc). It’s worth doing if you’re a Brummy local! :) …Went for a nice walk by the canal afterwards. Mmmm, a great evening!

In my opinion this place is a total gem. Look forward to visiting Red Peppers again!

Red Peppers
Web: www.red-peppers.co.uk
117 Wharfside Street
Birmingham B1 1RF
Tel: 0121 643 4202

Revolución de Cuba on Mapin ST, Sheffield. Nicely presented and straightforward snacks.

The menu has various salads, burritos, tapas etc and a '3 small plates for £12' deal.

Coffee and chips anyone? I loved how the fries were served in a cup! Nice.

I really like how thay managed to get Che in my coffee. Slurp!

I start off with my favourite cocktail - a creamy Pina Colada

Has anyone been here yet? Revolucion de Cuba is based on Mappin Street in Sheffield and hasn’t been opened very long (since April). I had a nice coffee and enjoyed some hot snacks in Revoluction De Cuba this week. The place was highly recommended to me by a friend and I wanted to see why. One of the main things that caught my eye about this place is the fact that once inside, you feel like you’ve entered that cheesy ‘Dirty Dancing 2′ film – Havana Nights! especially with the salsa music playing in the background :) somewhere warm and tropical, as if you was on holiday. The high walls of the restaurant are covered in interesting large-sized prints enclosed in elegant looking frames.

Whilst gandering at their huge drinks menu, I could see that they had a enormous range of rums from all over the world available (rum’s my fave spirit too – yum :). The place offers Cuban and Caribbean style food – which come with their own very special rum sauce which is made in-house to a secret recipe I’ve been told.

We didn’t order a ‘proper’ meal to eat as we’d just had a few snacks somewhere else, plus the main reason for popping in was to enjoy a drink. I’ve also heard that they have a LIVE salsa band that’s sometimes on which helps makes customers nights out here even more special (the band wasn’t on when I went in and think they might be on just for weekends only?). But I was still in awwwe with the whole restaurant’s decor and the feel of the place was excellent. The waiter was extremely helpful, friendly and attentive – service with a smile too!

Will definitely be going back for a ‘proper’ feeding of delicious food and cocktails!

See www.revoluciondecuba.com for more.
Opening Times:
Mon – Wed: 11:00 – 01:00
Thurs – Sat: 11:00 – 02:00
Sun: 10:00 – 01:00

Missie Cindz (me) is always busy fooding around, you’re likely to see me up and down the City, not having much time to sleep and having a best friend as a smiley fork.

I’d like to challenge my followers, fans and readers to find ‘Missie Cindz’ – I tend to be hidden and hanging in Sheffield’s lovely foody joints. Missie’s distinctive purple hair and skin, bright yellow frock, big friendly eyes, and holding a smiley (yet cheeky) fork make her slightly easier to recognise. Twitpic, tweet or Facebook me your pictures (email too if you’d prefer) – you need to also let me/mention where you found me (so others can find out and share too :) …..you never know your image could be in next month’s issue of Toast Magazine or on my delicious Missie C’s online gallery which is in the making and will need you to provide content so watch this space! Keep your eyes peeled, chaps.

Happy munchings. Missie Cindz x

Sheffield Moss Valley pork chop served with sweet potato wedges, salad and fruit salsa

Missie’s lunch today was at Sushi Express on Milton St (Sheffield) and everything was very delicious, healthy and fishy. I was a little indecisive (at first) as to what to have (when am I not? when we’re all so spoilt for ‘food’ choices?) – Tuesday was a fish finger salad at The Rutland Arms and yesterday (Wednesday) was a meat feast at Bar and Grill in Leopold Square – I did think maybe a sandwich will do today!? but naaaahhhh, there’s far too much good stuff to try in Sheffield.

Remember to please Twitpic or Facebook me your colourful salad lunch photos this month – I’d loved to see these (afterall I do always share with you my delicious lunch and dinner pics). I’ll be down in Devon this weekend for a friend’s wedding party too (I’ve never been this far down South!) and am really looking forward to checking out their foody delights and offerings – homemade scones and clotted cream? – YES please!! :)

Keep a look out for my tweets and Twitpics whilst I’m down there, you’re going to be in for a treat! by the way, it’s also Open Farm Sunday this weekend too so please don’t forget to hi-five your local farmer and thank him for all his hard work and tasty produce: Missie’s Open Farm Sunday blog post

Missie Cindz x

Amazon Brazil, Birmingham - ready for a meat feast?

Last week was National Vegetarian Week and I end my green week on a high by having a meat feast Brazilian banquet in Birmingham’s Amazon Brazil on Broad Street. This was my second time having Brazilian cuisine – Brazilian restaurants are so few and far between (is there one in Sheffield? if there is please tweet and let me know) but from my first experience, I knew ALOT of meat would be on the menu and the format at Amazon turned out to be fairly straightforward.

Brazilian Buffet Experience
You can choose to dine either solely from the buffet or from the buffet and grill, in which case a waiter brings a succession of meats and fish to your table on massive skewers. When your carnivorous desires are fully sated, you simply turn over a disc on your table from its green to its red side to proclaim that you can manage not another ounce of fleshy protein.

Me and my hungry friends all chose the buffet/grill option (£20.00 p/p). The selection at the buffet table was impressive – various salads, fish and starchy things in very rich flavoured sauces, a few cured meats, all fresh and well prepared. It was a good spread. You take a plate and help yourself to their traditional hot and cold dishes (buffet). Once I filled my plate, I returned to our table and the waiter began bringing over various grilled meats that arrived on giant skewers from their open fire (see my pictures above), from which slices were carved or chunks were pulled off by ourselves with the provided tongs.

I got to sample lamb, a couple of cuts of beef, chicken wings and thighs, chicken hearts and sausages before our stomachs cried out for mercy. The quality was varied, though on the whole good. Their marinades were largely complementary to the meat, but the seasoning was often aggressively over-salted (which I didn’t like) so make sure you order a pint of water for your table, you’ll need it! And while most of the grilled morsels we ate were succulent, moist and heavily flavoured, a couple were overdone and dry.

This is a style of food that would be paricularly relished by those with heroically meaty tastes – Carnivores heaven. I didn’t have space for a full dessert, but I did finish the meal with a chunk of grilled pineapple. Crisp, deliciously sweet and moist, fragrant with brown sugar and cinnamon, this was a fabulous thing.

The only disappointment I had from the evening was their service (great customer service is really important to Missie!). The staff were so slow in getting our drinks to us (we waited almost 25 mins for drinks to arrive from the moment we ordered them) and the clearing up the plates wasn’t any better. Perhaps they were very busy or short on staff? I’m not too sure but this shouldn’t be an excuse.

Overall, try it out Amazon Brazil if you’re in the West Midlands (just for the lamb and roasted pineapple if nothing else!) – a tasty and authentic Brazilian meal.

Key to the above picture:
A – Amazon Brazil, Birmingham £20.00 per person eat a much as you want.
B – spit-roasted lamb.
C – chicken hearts.
D – various salads, fish and starchy things from the salad buffet.
E – I was given a go on their hot open fire at grilling the meats. Hot stuff!
F – salad buffet.
G – chunky grilled pineapple served as dessert.
H – fruity cocktails.
I – succulent pork spare-ribs.

Amazon Brazil
197 Broad Street,
Birmingham,
West Midlands
B15 1AY
Tel: 0121 643 3723