Tag Archives: sweet

Healthy Pizza

Everyone seems to have this odd perception that pizzas are one of the most fattening, unhealthy meals you could possibly ever eat. If you order one from a late night takeaway, this may well be the case, but there are a few simple tricks that you can put in place to make sure that your own homemade pizzas don’t add inches to the waist:

  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Serves: 4
  • Prep: 30 minutes
  • Cook: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 250g strong white flour
  • 250g wholemeal flour
  • 1 sachet dried yeast
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 250ml luke warm water
  • 4 tbsp tomato purée
  • handful chopped ham
  • handful spinach
  • handful cherry tomatoes, halved
  • handful sweetcorn
  • handful cheddar, grated

Method:

  1. Put the flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl and mix together. Stir in olive oil and water to form a soft dough.
  2. Turn out the dough onto a well floured surface and knead for approximately 5 minutes. Leave to rest in a warm place for roughly 1 hour.
  3. Once the dough has risen, roll it out to a 30cm circle and bake in the oven (220°C, 200°C fan, Gas 7) for 5 minutes to crisp off.
  4. Remove from the oven and spread over the tomato purée. Top with as many ingredients as you like but remember not to go overboard with the cheese! Bake for another 10 minutes.

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Kachina

A platter of both vegetable and prawn spring rolls, sweet and sour pork, sesame prawn toast, sticky spare ribs, chicken satay, chicken wings, and seaweed with pork floss.

A platter of vegetable and prawn spring rolls, sweet and sour pork, sesame prawn toast, sticky spare ribs, chicken satay, chicken wings, and seaweed with pork floss.

I think it’s important to remind everyone that because I’m from Hong Kong, I’m especially critical when it comes to eating Chinese food in the UK. Most of the time, it doesn’t even remotely resemble any of the food that I’ve ever come across whilst living in Southeast Asia and can often be far too greasy because so much of it is deep-fried (especially if you order a takeaway, the ultimate sin)!

Kachina Chinese Restaurant was exceptional but at the same time a little bit disappointing. We opted for the evening buffet menu which cost £14.99 per person. We did however manage to claim a voucher from their website that gave us a whopping £10 off the total bill!

Although it was buffet, we were only allowed to order as many starters as we liked and then choose one main meal each (hence the greediness disappointment). The spring rolls were lovely and crunchy and so was the sweet and sour pork, but the chicken satay and wings were extremely dry and ended up having to be left.

The spare ribs on the other hand had mixed reviews. I personally found them to have a weird (not horrible, but weird all the same) taste but my partner in crime thought they were “tasty little morsels”. Now don’t even get me started on this sesame prawn toast debacle. Never in my entire life have I ever seen prawn sesame toast in either Hong Kong or China (I’m totally ready and willing to be corrected though) but it can be found in every single Chinese restaurant in the whole of the UK! It doesn’t even taste very nice!!! Nor has seaweed ever been served in a restaurant but oh well… I do love a good bit of algae. Ha.

In conclusion, I don’t think I’ll ever be completely satisfied with Chinese food in England. So I guess I better get used to having to cook it myself… watch this space!

The Verdict:

  • Food: 6.5/10
  • Service: 6.5/10
  • Atmosphere: 6.5/10
  • Value: 7.5/10 (but only because of the voucher)
  • Overall: 6.75/10

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Trago Lounge

(L-R) Falafels with red onion and coriander yoghurt dip, hummus with extra virgin olive oil and smoked paprika, crayfish and prawns with tomato and chilli, honey glaze shredded 5 spice pork, roasted sweet potato and butternut squash with goats' cheese.

(L-R) Falafels with red onion and coriander yoghurt dip, hummus with extra virgin olive oil and smoked paprika, crayfish and prawns with tomato and chilli, garlic and parsley mushrooms with smoked paprika, honey glazed shredded 5 spice pork, roasted sweet potato and butternut squash with goats’ cheese.

Trago Lounge is just one part of a large chain of cafés/bars called ‘The Lounges‘. It is the ideal place for an impromptu, upmarket meal, without having to go through all of the fuss of making a reservation, having someone constantly waiting on you and then worrying about who’s turn it is to pay the bill.

The restaurant reminds me of a smart, but friendly, gastropub with its classic leather and solid wood furniture. Just enough character has been splashed across the room to make it interesting and individual, I especially like the vintage wall hangings and large blackboard-style menus.

Opting for their signature tapas (a choice of 3 for for just £7.95), I hesitantly waited for it to arrive at my table after I was left incredibly disappointed when I first tried it on a trip to Seville, Spain, last year.

Fortunately, the UK’s take on the traditional Spanish cuisine seemed to do the trick. The six mini dishes arrived at the table looking vibrant as ever and were served with a nice helping of ciabatta bread.

On to the critique. I definitely enjoyed the hummus, pork, and mushrooms but I wasn’t too keen on the falafel or the crayfish (I’m undecided as to whether or not I liked the roasted veg because I think it could’ve done with a little bit longer in the oven!). The shredded pork was my favourite, it was beautifully tender and melted in the mouth, and you can never go wrong with garlic mushrooms. The tomato and chilli sadly overpowered the seafood and you couldn’t taste the subtle flavours of the crayfish at all and the falafel is just plain difficult to perfect so I’m sure I can find it in my heart to forgive them for that minor dry blunder.

All in all though, I honestly think the Lounge has one of the best atmospheres I’ve ever had the pleasure to eat in, and the food was delicious considering how affordable it was. I will definitely be making another visit sometime soon and you should too!

The Verdict:

  • Food: 7/10
  • Service: 7/10
  • Atmosphere: 10/10
  • Value: 8.5/10
  • Overall: 8.1/10

Did you enjoy your last visit to one of the Lounges? Tweet your feedback @TheLoungers