Turn up to a random location to be led to a “dining experience” sounds like the beginnings of some kind of horror film, so the fact that my trip to the Secret Dining Society was focused around cinema food seemed fairly apt. (spoiler – it had a happy ending)

After pitching up to the Old Crown in Digbeth and finding some equally looking confused people we were rounded up and taken to the Custard Factory wherein we were offered some delicious chilli popcorn and nachos.  Usually at the cinema I’m a bucket of Diet Coke and a sack of sweet popcorn kind of girl, so made-on-demand popcorn with a deliciously spicy edge could have me persuaded.   And the nachos; the bready, creamy cheese sauce was just delicious.  Plus there were drinks a-plenty, soft drinks or something a little stronger with a nice range of beers and wine.

Candy floss

We were then shepherded into the Custard Factory’s very own cinema and treated to some clips of some of the best food related clips from films – from When Harry Met Sally to Hook.  Afterwards it was time for more popcorn, nachos…and CANDY FLOSS.  I’ve never had candy floss in a cinema which is probably a good thing because part of the fun is ripping the clouds.  Still having candy floss during the break was ace and even better they’ve managed to marry sweet spun sugar with savoury flavours.  Perfect.  We were then back in to round off the food clips before heading out for the main attraction.

Hot Dogs…with bacon bits and mustard and ketchup and salad and, if you wanted, hot sauce.  And then seconds.  The sausages were nice a meaty and there was proper mustard, plus plenty of salad.  I ended up having to pull off half my toppings, so it was almost like eating twice.

A loaded hotdog from the event

Almost as though the food clips before were trailers, we settled down for the main show; a rather odd Japanese film called Tampopo.  To be honest trying to explain this film would be rather miss the point of its oddness (although Wikipedia does a good job of explaining the plot if you really want to know), but coupled with some scoops of specially-made ice cream from local ice cream parlour Entices, it was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

There has been some criticism of the event as not being entirely food focused and I think this either missed the point of the event or showed the lack of imagination in the audience.  Personally I was going for an experience with the promise of some good food, I never expected to be stuffed full like some sort of foie gras duck.  What I got was some delicious food which is miles better than anything I’ve ever had at a cinema, watch a film I’d never normally have the chance to and a different way to spend a Sunday afternoon all focused on food.  I’m not sure what was not to like.

The next Secret Dining Society is entitled Fire and is on the 18^th August and tickets are available here.  I’m in London that day otherwise I would go.

 I like reading about food almost as much as I like eating the stuff, so writing about it was a bit of a given.  I really ought to blog about food more, but I’m really glad when other people give me the opportunity to do so.  Brum’s very own guide to where and what to eat, Dine Birmingham, recently did this and I reviewed the rather fantastic Blue Ginger in Kings Heath.

Head over there to read my blogpost…

Birmingham has been getting some food press recently about its foodie exploits, so the launch of a new magazine celebrating this seemed fairly apt.

Edible Brum is a darling of a magazine created by the team behind the Warehouse Cafe (a fab veggie restaurant in town) and features an array of articles from local food heros.  It’s got an interesting collection of articles, from one by Loaf‘s Tom Baker (whose Bread Basics course I went on a few years ago and would highly recommend) on the state of bread and where to get a good loaf from, to an exploration of indie coffee shops (including two of my favourites and one I’ve been meaning to try for a while), interviews with top chefs and a host of other articles.  Oh and there’s an article by a certain bar showing you how to make your own seasonal rhubarb cocktail too.  I was around when this was being created and its pretty delicious – sloe gin and rhubarb liqueur, of course it would be!

I’ve already made a mental list of things mentioned in there I need to seek out and I’m already looking forward to the summer edition.  Have a read of the first issue below…

I know it looks like I’ve abandoned this blog, given the amount of time it’s taken me to post something but that’s not the case – honest!  I have, however, been writing for another blog I set up on a new project I’m working on.

Half Cut Cakes is my new blog looking at alcohol and cake.  Having worked for a pub and a bar (and soon to be a steak and ale house too) I figured it was about time I learnt more about alcohol.  So as well as attending some of the training sessions, rum clubs and asking a lot of questions, I thought I’d combine it with another hobby – baking!

At the moment it’s a cross between using found recipes and making up my own, but please take a look.  And if I can help tempt you, here’s my recipe for Whisky Cake using Chivas Regal Scotch Whisky.

Ingredients for Whisky Cake
175g Caster sugar
185g Self raising flour
175g Butter
3 Eggs
1/2tsp Vanilla extract
75ml Whisky (I used the Chivas Regal 12 year old Scotch whisky)
1/4tsp cinnamon
30ml freshly brewed coffee (I used Ethiopian Mocha coffee)
Icing
75g Butter
175g Icing sugar
25ml Whisky
1/4tsp Orange liqueur

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180c
Cream in the butter and sugar
Add the eggs one by one, making sure they’re combined
Add the cinnamon, whisky, vanilla extract and coffee
Sieve in the flour and fold in
Bake for about 45mins-1hr, then leave to cool.
The icing is a basic buttercream; cream in all the ingredients and ice the cake once it has cooled fully.

Whisky Cake using Chivas Regal with a slight orange and whisky buttercream icing

I seem to be making a lot of cupcakes recently.  The last few batches have been made from recipes from the Primrose Bakery, but I was invited to an ex-vegan-now-vegetarian friend’s birthday and thought I’d finally have a go at making vegan cupcakes.

I’ve always shied away from vegan cupcakes because a lot of them seemed to involve adding things that just seemed odd to have in cake.  Admittedly since eating beetroot and courgette cakes I’ve relaxed a bit on that, but we’ve never had tofu in the house and it seems odd to start now.

Thankfully I found a recipe on The Vegan Society website where the weirdest ingredients are oil and vinegar.  That’s okay; we have those in the house (well we didn’t have vinegar, but we needed it).

8floz (230ml) soya milk
1 tsp vinegar
5oz (140g) caster sugar
3floz (90ml) vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4oz (125g) plain flour
1 1/2 oz (45g) cocoa powder
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F/175C/gas mark 4 and line muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together soya milk and vinegar in a large bowl and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add sugar, oil and vanilla extract and beat until foamy.
3. In a separate bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are okay).
4. Pour into liners, filling three quarters of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack. Eat while still warm or allow to cool completely and ice with chocolate ‘buttercream’ .

From Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World by I C Moskowitz & T H Romero (www.theppk.com) with thanks. Makes 12.

 

I couldn’t get the soya milk and vinegar to curdle and I replaced the vegetable oil with sunflower as we had it in the house, but everything seemed to turn out fine.  My housemate did say that the batter looked like melted chocolate and once baked they did look pretty dark with chocolate, but actually they weren’t too sickly.  Even with a load of vegan chocolate buttercream icing on top.

I’m not a huge fan of baking chocolate cake, but these were easy enough to do, didn’t really require anything too odd and apart from an issue with the silicone cupcake cases (silicone ones went wonky, paper cases were fine) they weren’t really any different to regular cupcakes.  Definitely a recipe for the binder.

On the back of the success of the first co-working venue review that I did alongside my friend Liz – and inspired others to do the same, we thought we’d chance a second.  We ended up picking another venue quite close to the other one, more out of ease for us, but at some point we will venture further a’field.

Kitchen Garden Cafe, York Road, Kings Heath

The KGC can pretty much be summed up as a hidden oasis off a busy High St.  Part garden shop, party cafe it’s really got this quaint, magical quality to it.  Artwork for sale adorning the walls, a programme of live folk and craft in the evenings, a play area for children and an environment of quirky it’s really very cute and a bit of a hidden gem – though thankfully fairly well known amongst locals.

I met Liz there around 11am, who bumped into a friend who was already working there.  The cafe has a reasonable number of tables, but does get very busy.  We sat in the back of the cafe, in order to find a plug for charging the laptops (note to anyone thinking about co-working anywhere, generally it’s wise to charge up before you go) and there were plenty.  Unfortunately this is also the area with the toys for children.

Internet

Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath

Kinda hard to judge this one as I’ve been a few times and so my computer picked up the net no problem.  Then again, even if you’ve not been before they usually have little slips of paper with the internet password freely available.  And it’s your standard way of finding the network, enter the password and away you go.  No complaints from me.

Food and drink
Food wise, the KGC is a little pricer than your usual cafe, but then again this is because the food is freshly made on site (from the counter you can just about see into the kitchen) and where possible they use seasonal, fairly-traded, local and/or organic food.  And there’s a notable level of quality to the food because of it.

A while ago they removed sausage sandwiches from the all day menu and I never really forgave them for it (though they are on the breakfast menu served to midday), so I couldn’t tell you what breakfast or dinner at the KGC is like, but lunch wise its pretty good.  This time I had the Home-made Haddock Fish Finger Sandwich which at £5.95 is pretty pricey for a sandwich, but the fresh battered fish is delicious and in all fairness I rarely feel it needs another side – although I have ordered a side of chips with it before.  It’s the kind of sandwich which is just so delightful that I never really mind the fact that its £6, it kinda feels worth it.

General atmosphere
The KGC really is a delightful place.  Unfortunately it isn’t great for co-working.  Why?  Easy answer is children.  It’s an incredibly child-friendly place, which is fine if you’re there for food and a catch up, but if you’re planning on working there it can be problematic (particularly when kids are crying for periods of time, but cafe etiquette is another blogpost).  Generally I can work through most noise, but if you plan on taking any calls it just won’t work.  I had to go outside to call anyone and whilst I could leave my laptop with Liz, it was a pain and whilst there’s a very safe, comfortably atmosphere to the KGC its not exactly recommend behaviour leaving your stuff.  The music is a little louder than it needs to be too.

I love the KGC for lazy lunches, tea and cake, folk on a Sunday and somewhere to show off when friends come to visit the city.  But for co-working, it just doesn’t really feel like its really up to it.

Check out what Liz thought here.

One of the perks of my job is that I can work wherever there is internet.  Whilst this generally means I work from home or work, it does mean that some times I park up in a coffee shop for a change of scenery – and occasionally some co-working (which is just the snazzy way of saying sitting with other people who are also working from the same place).  Far from being a bit of a doss, co-working gives you the opportunity to bounce ideas off people – and have them look after your computer when you go to the loo.

My friend Liz (who runs a proof reading business) and I are going to test out some of them and so some reviews and such, to weed out which ones are good to work in and which ones aren’t.  Here goes…

Loco Lounge, High Street, Kings Heath

Loco Lounge, Kings Heath High St.

A fairly new addition to Kings Heath High St, this relaxed cafe bar is one of a number which has sprung up around the country over the last year.  It’s going for that shabby-chic look, but does appear to be a little out of the box (the “rips” in the wallpaper are deliberate).  Overall though there is a good floor space with plenty of seating – from comfy sofas and padded benches to wooden table & chairs.

I met Liz around 10.30am when it was a little quiet, but then quite a few coffee shops are during weekdays, excluding lunchtime (it picked up around then).  Did mean we got the pick of seats, although if you needed one with a plug it looked like you might be restricted to one table – charge up before you go.

Internet
Connecting to the internet was a little difficult.  The server didn’t seem sure about it and asked the manager.  Rather than the usual connect via a password, this required you to set up your own username and password via U2com.  Fair dos.  Problem with this is that it takes an age to load the page to sign-up.  I signed up fairly easily, but it failed to tell me I had 15mins to validate it and after the allotted time tried to kick me off.  This resulted in some jiggery-pokery with my computer and logging into my emails via my phone, but got there in the end.  It tried to get Liz to sign up twice, only to tell her the username was in use and then never required use of the validation page.  Also the connection did drop off a few times and was slow.  Not quite the days of dial-up, but not great.

Food and drink
I’d been to Loco Lounge a few weeks before and had a panini for £6.50, which was really tasty but a bit steep considering ‘served with house salad and fries’ means a pinch of both.  So this time I was a bit wiser and ordered a bacon butty (£3) and a bowl of fries (around £2 I think), which was a much more value-for-money serving.  Food was tasty and arrived in reasonable time, but I do find the menu a little uninspiring for lunchtime where the choices are a few sandwiches or brunch.  Plus it’s quite pricey considering there’s a raft of coffee shops and food establishments in Kings Heath with menus with more variety at better prices being equally if not tastier.  Drinks wise, pints of Diet Coke price wise were nothing out of the ordinary and I was having a stay away from dairy, so can’t comment on the tea or coffee.  Overall drinks seem reasonable.

General atmosphere
Overall Loco Lounge is nice enough.  The internet is a bit of a hassle, but then this is something which won’t be a surprise to those used to working from coffee shops.  No one hassled us to buy more drinks and the venue is nice, but I’m not sure I’d be comfortable wandering to the loo and leaving the staff to look after my laptop, as it’s a little vast.  Food wise I find it a bit disappointing; the menu looks like it’s trying to be concise and all-things-to-all-people and just doesn’t really achieve it, particularly as it just feels too pricey for the High St.

I’d go back for drinks with friends and a catch up (still need to try the cake) and at a push maybe to work, but it’s not a patch on my usual work-away-from-home.  And whilst the food is fine, I’d rather go to somewhere else on the High St for better value.   Drinks yes, food somewhere else.

Check out what Liz thought here.

Where: Loaf HQ, Cotteridge

When: day course, check the available courses here

Cost: £75 (free for me as it was a Birthday present)

What: See, taste, feel and understand bread in a way you’ve never before.  Seriously.

A day course on the basics of bread; what goes into it (very little), what mass produced bread contains (lots of nasties) and how to make your own.  And by how to make your own, I mean how to make a lot of bread in a relatively short space of time.   We made loaves, buns, batons, ciabatta, wholemeal bread, white bread, glimpsed the wonders of sourdough, pizza and fougasse all in one day.  Oh, and went home with the dough for brioche, to be cooked the next day.

Would I go again?Without a doubt.  The course was fascinating, not only to see the ease of making your own bread, but also the magic of it.  Call me silly, but to see flour, water, yeast and salt transform into dough and then left for a couple of hours double in size, is fairly amazing.

The course is paced well, with enough time to make a mountain of bread, but also to chat to the others on the course, eat freshly made brioche for elevenses, cook and make pizza for lunch and ask questions.  And we did ask a lot of questions; from where to get the flour to what liquids to use and whether breadmakers are a good idea (yes and no).

In fact, I enjoyed the course so much that three days later I’ve had a go at making my own bread from the booklet provided. What’cha think?

Continuing the ageing of my good self to that of the middle years, I got up early and cooked blueberry pancakes for my housemates before we trekked off to the cinema to see Coraline in 3D, buy cables in Maplins and eat ice cream in Selfridges.

The recipe came from Olive Magazine’s May issue where they had a recipe a day article and this was the one for today.  It’s incredibly easy and uses sensible, everyday ingredients – which is always a plus.  The last time I made blueberry pancakes was about three years ago and I distinctively remember failing to find buttermilk in Lancaster in December.  I know the supermarkets in Birmingham sell it, but it’s not exactly an everyday purchase that I’ll use again.  So the fact this used things we would already have in the house (minus blueberries) sold it to me.

200g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 egg
300ml milk
25g melted butter
85g 100g blueberries (I used more because some of the pancakes had lots of blueberries and towards the end some were lacking)

• Mix in the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
• Mix together the wet ingredients – butter, egg and milk.  I had some problems with the melted butter in the cold milk – best to leave it to room temperature before adding.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk.  The recipe said to do this in parts, but it was fine all in.
• Stir in the blueberries.
• Heat some butter in a non-stick pan and drop in tablespoonfuls of the mixture.  Cook for about three minutes on one side and then flip for another three.

Easy to make and very, very tasty.  Housemates well fed – possibly too many for three people.  Would be good for four.  Yummy.

*This was originally posted on my old blog BeanHeartBatman*