22 BBQ and Watermelon Martinis

To end my insanely chocka block birthday weekend my housemates and a few friends scattered around London gathered for a little BBQ in the English sun. Laura and Kirsty bought me a BBQ for my birthday especially, it's so cute!

Look at my BBQ Skillzzz

We're convinced that James and Youtuber Tyler Oakley are the same person what do you think?!

Now onto some more serious stuff, drinks. We discovered our ultimate summer drink and the best mixer money can buy for a few drinks before painting the town red, watermelon martinis.

Doesn't this little badboy look good? You need one big watermelon, lots of ice, as much vodka as you can handle and a smoothie maker/blender. Our smoothie maker is only a little junior so we only chucked a couple of big scoops from the watermelon, a fistful of ice and a few glugs of vodka, whizz it all up (pips included, you won't taste them!) and Bob's your Uncle. A medium watermelon will give you about 10-12 drinks so get the rounds in bar tender!

Afternoon Tea, Park Room and Library Mayfair

Mum and I's birthdays fall next door to each other, last year was the big 21 and 50 birthdays so this year we kept it a little chilled. However, a tradition curated from last year's celebrations is one we're all partial to sticking to, afternoon tea in London.

The city has seen an influx of afternoon teas, there's the classic hotels who have done it for centuries (The Dorchester I'm looking at you) but not everyone can afford it so everyone twigged on and started doing cheaper ones but with slightly less flair. With so many people enjoying this new British revival it's difficult to know where to go for a quality afternoon tea with something a little bit special. 

After some research I used my favourite website www.bookatable.com and found the Park Room and Library in the ground floor of the Grosvenor House Hotel. My Mum reads this blog but I think she'll be happy to know the deal I got for this, it looked good, the reviews were all happy, it became a contender. However, something tipped it into the YES YES category which unfortunately they don't do anymore (I think they cottoned on that it was too good to be true) we had unlimited champagne, yep you heard me unlimited. Now it's only 3 glasses but I can tell you they're not stingy on their pouring of the Pommeray.

We started with our pots of tea, I went for their House Royal Blend, I've become obsessed with Assam tea, and Mum went for the Afternoon Tea, both were slightly sweet but with a really deep taste (look at me pretending to know about tea!)

Along came a palette cleanser of mango and orange glass which was half jelly half juice.

Then arrived the main event...

They're the pictures you want to see! This beautiful array was placed on our table (with a second round of sandwiches and scones to come) we sprung into action trying everything and picking out our favourites.

This has got to be the favourite layer, the raspberry shortcake was melt in the mouth.

Thinking we couldn't eat any more along came the scones, cheese and plain with plenty of jams and thick clotted cream, you know me I'm not exactly going to leave any of it am I!

When I booked I mentioned that it was our birthdays but I wasn't sure what to expect. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a couple of waiters coming towards us and realised the pianist had started to play Happy Birthday, we were presented a fruit tart each with a candle and a lot of singing leaving us with smiles and red faces, it was such a lovely touch and really sweet.

Needless to say, we left there absolutely stuffed! The room is gorgeous, the waiters attentive and lovely, we had such an amazing start to our birthday shenanigans and I hope our afternoon tea tradition never ends!

Feast: Brick Lane Yard

Part 2 in my street feast obsession, I went in much more prepared. After a liquid breakfast in the pub watching the Lions take us to victory, I made my way over to Brick Lane to meet Emily to stuff my face yet again. Tickets were a little pricier this time and you don't get the bar tab transfer BUT this Street Feast isn't as regular and promises to attract more food vans. You can either pick the afternoon or evening sessions, we gunned for the afternoon session in the sun and it was such a lovely environment full of people trying to cool down on coconut juice straight from the source.

After a quick peruse around the area I recognised so many friendly stands from other street feasts and a few new ones. First stop, The Rum Kitchen. A restaurant in Notting Hill who funnily enough specialise in rum cocktails, to cool down we asked for rum granitas as a palette cleanser. I'll admit it was a little small for £2 each but it was absolutely delicious. 

Next, Flat Iron. I've wanted to try these guys based in Soho for SO long and I may be finally going next week for a birthday dinner, Praise the Lord! We got a wooden boat of perfectly cooked and salted steak, it did come with horseradish if you feel it looks a little dry but I'm not a horseradish fan.

Now that the starter is complete we decided on our mains, Emily went for a new discovery, the crab roll. Bonnie Gull were offering an iced chest full of goodies and her crab roll looked bloody great. I'd never heard of Bonnie Gull but hope to see them again, even for a cheeky oyster next time. I went for When Mac met Cheese, the main competitor for Annie Mae's who I saw at Truck Stop, they do it a little differently. Annie Mae's use those massive pans and constantly fill it with more cheese and pasta and then put on your toppings individually. When Mac met Cheese make it all in front of your eyes, either go for your Mac and Cheese straight up or with Jalapenos and you can add tomatoes, broccoli and herbies. They heat up a pan, pop in the thickest gooiest cheese sauce, bung in the macaroni and all of the extras and chuck it around the pan for a while, I make it sound so simple, it didn't seem so especially on such a hot day! It was incredibleeee, stretchy cheese makes me go crazy. I can't say I prefer one because they actually taste so different so maybe I might have to try them both again, poor me...

They sell deep fried Oreos, I was too scared to try!

Mmmm CHEEESEEEE

The Meringue Girls stall was a favourite which I didn't get a chance to try but their offer of the Ultimate Eton Mess with those gorgeous pink meringues had me gleeful at the thought.

Groaning with fullness we made room for the main deal, what I'd been looking forward to ever since I saw the special on Twitter. Patty and Bun's Big Poppa Special. Chillis, cheese, guacamole... they had me at hello. I sat Emily down in the shade with a couple of pink lemonades as I went to bring home the bacon (beef). As expected it was huge, cheesy, messy and oh so delicious, Patty and Bun never disappoint, please go if you can!

I got here too quickly for me to take a pic!

Sorry these made it to the internet Emily, I'm sure I'll have to pay for it in her blogs!

My burger, alll mineee!

All in all a beaut day and a very full tummy. Keep an eye out for the next one here, I'd definitely try the evening session, I heard whispers of a Patty and Bun DJ set and if their soundtrack in the restaurant is anything to go by, it must have been a banger.

Truck Stop 4th July Feast

Hi my name's Rosie, I'm a street food addict. In the first of a 2 part series of street food consumed last week I went to Truck Stop in Canary Wharf. Nestled in the middle of sky scrapers and men in suits (swoon) truck swarmed with people and good food. 

What better way to appreciate Americas independence from us than to eat all of my favourite exports from the country. 

I'd already made my mind up on the trucks I wanted to visit my poor friend Emily didn't stand a chance, first stop was Annie Mae's Mac and Cheese. One of the biggest queues (always means its good in street food worlds) and no wonder that steaming tray of cheese needs to be made mine! I went for the Dom Macaroni (pesto and bacon topping) and Emily went for the Spicy Juan which was spicy by name and by nature (jalapeños, hot sauce and sour cream) it knocked my socks off a little too much but Emily likes her chilli and I like my pesto, we'd picked well. 

While in the queue it's rude not to have a drink in your hand so I plucked for a pint sized cocktail with my Truckstop dollars (when you exchange your £10 ticket you essentially get a £10 bar tab, my kind of deal). 

After a peruse of queue lengths we decided to go for a smaller queue and hit the hidden gem that is The Bowler Gourmet Balls. I visited their van at the last feast I went to and taught Emily about the perfect ball equation of two pork balls, Thai coconut sauce with a side of fragranced rice and homemade slaw, boy do we love our balls. 

After this I disappointed myself in being full, what was wrong with me I just don't know. However the vans I would have gone to next would have been Mother Clucker (huge queue), Tacostop (they sell rib tacos, I'm sold) and Spit and Roast (I'm still dreaming about their buttermilk chicken from last time). 

I did however manage to fit in another cocktail and a frozen yoghurt cone along with Emily's double vanilla '99. Mine was a mango yoghurt but it was more kind of flavoured by the mango bits in it rather than being a mango yoghurt, that makes no sense does it?! Oh well. 

Walking away with very full tummys and still pretty full purses, I spent about £20 in all and had a whale of a time. Keep up to date with all of this through the wonders of twitter, I swear these days the only people I follow on twitter involve food. You can get tickets for the next Truck Stop in August here. Part 2 coming momentarily, hold onto your seats kids...