We were out for dinner with friends on Saturday evening. We went to Mem & Laz, a cheap eaterie in Islington. I've only been there once before and had a fantastic aubergine nest for starters (around £3 or so - a large aubergine slice filled with roasted veg, covered with melted mozzarella) and fishcakes for mains (£6ish), and my boyfriend had a trio of deep-fried cheeses (perhaps mozzarella, brie and camembert) with cranberry sauce followed by sea bass, which came with virtually nothing at all.
We've now learnt to order the more middle-eastern food on the menu, particularly after our experience on Saturday, which really wasn't very good. I'd smelt someone cooking steak just down the road from the restaurant, so there was only one meal on my mind. They did cook it as rare as I'd asked for, which seems quite unusual these days, but it was lacking flavour and they served it with just a pile of average chips, a couple of mushrooms and a grilled tomato - no salad garnish or green at all and I felt I needed some. For £10 something, I'd expected a little better and I wished I'd had the stuffed aubergine. My boyfriend's prawn linguini was rubbish too (tasted like a Heinz shapes tomato sauce). The soup seemed ok, but could have done with some more bread, and my friend who had the kofta with rice seemed to have made the best choice as it looked good. I know to choose aubergine next time.
Sunday lunch wasn't a traditional one, although we did have it last Sunday too - a cleansing salad with anchovies, as pictured above, then another round of chicken fajitas in the evening, sadly not pictured. On Monday evening we had spaghetti bolognese, using a pot of bolognese from the freezer that I'd made on the lasagne evening last week. Tuesday, I was out for Vietnamese in Old Street with the girls. I had bun with prawns which was nice, but I thought it didn't taste of very much at all, and spring rolls to start, which were the same - maybe I was coming down with the cold I've got now.
Last night, I was out for drinks and we shared some nachos (not v. healthy) and I had some toast when I got in to soak up the booze, but couldn't sleep after that. Note to self - don't shove two slice of toast down you just before going to bed. These veggie fajitas were my lunch yesterday - there was a massive pile of veg (courgettes, peppers, onions and a few mushrooms). Oh, I think I'm going to have to have that for lunch again today, with a tortilla or two and heaps of salsa. So addictive.
Last night we had an enormous meal. It began with antipasti and sherry - we piled little plates with marinated garlic cloves, sunblush tomatoes, avocada salsa, cold, sliced ham, black olives, marinated white anchovies, pepperdews, warm ciabatta and many other goodies.
chilli/black mustard seed and garlic dressing.
