Searching for Robin Hood...

I've lived in Nottingham for almost a year now and when i moved here i didn't know much about the city but like many, i'd heard of Sherwood forest and now that the weather is finally getting better and worth being outside in, me and Sean took a trip out of the city in the middle of last month, during our exams and deadlines to get a break from the city.

This is Major Oak *insert HIMYM joke here*, i think the story is Robin Hood and his friend hung out here or something. Historially, lets just say the tree is super old! We went on a 4 or 5 hour walk after leaving the Sherwood forest visitor centre and just walked around the forest all day and it was so nice. Sean thinks we walked about 7 miles because we weren't exactly route marching and stopped for lunch as well, but it was just so lovely to be out of the city and in the quiet forest for most the day!

Sean, the tree whisperer.

I didn't take too many photos as i'm still yet to have a "proper" camera, i just use my iphone but it was a really nice day out and sooooo lovely to just get out of the city. I do love the city and when i moved out last year i thought i'd always prefer a city over the countryside but i've got to admit, i do like a good walk in forests still!

A Visit to Byron Burgers!

The other restaurant we visited in London was Byron Hamburgers, which was a kind of last minute decision because we didn't want to plan anything because we just wanted to see what we fancied on the night. 

We considered Meat Liquor because we'd both heard good things about their food and general vibe but we looked up their website and not only do they not bother putting any allergy advise online but a few other things came up in our searches that thoroughly implied that they were not very accommodating for people with special dietary restrictions. So instead of risking it with Meat Liquor, we went to Byron Burgers, a place I've heard great things about before!

We went to the Wardour Street restaurant and we seemed to get there at the right time as we hadn't booked but there was one table spare! We sat down, got our drinks and ordered our food. The server we got was fabulous about my lactose intolerance- we ordered some of the tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole as a starter and i wanted to check there wasn't yogurt or cream in the guac (tescos "surprise" ingredient of yogurt in theirs has made me wary of all other guacs!), there wasn't which was great! And both of us had also decided on the Byron hamburgers, and i'd already asked for mine without the cheese but he also went and checked all the other ingredients to make sure it was all fine without me even asking him to which, i know to an extent is their job but it's always nice when you don't feel like you're nagging the server about dairy!

The starter, or "while you wait" snack of tortillas with salsa and guacamole was really good, i love salsa that's a right mix of sauce and chunks and Byron's was delicious. The guacamole was also lovely and the tortilla chips were huge and looked properly homemade, none of that wannabe doritos style chips!

  

The burgers were also delicious. We got the Byron burgers which is their beef burger with bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion and their "Byron sauce". I got mine without the cheese but other than that obvious subtraction, everything else on the burger was absolutely fine for me to eat! I love going out and only having to remove the cheese on items because it means you basically still get the food as it's supposed to be eaten. We also shared sides of the french fries and the HUGE onion rings which were so amazingly good!

Overall, me and Sean definitely enjoyed Byron burgers and they are definitely in our top 5 burger places, a list that might just make a blog post at some point! Byron burgers also have their allergy information on their website here https://www.byronhamburgers.com/menu/allergy/ which is very useful as i was like to know i have a good choice before deciding to eat somewhere! I'm home for summer now in Yorkshire and i know they have a restaurant in York so i might just have to have a visit before i go back to Nottingham in autumn!

Pho in Shoreditch

A while ago we decided to plan a day trip to London and one of the few things we properly planned was the food stops! 

I often make pho at home because when I first found out about it I still lived in East Yorkshire and surprisingly, there is not a ton of Vietnamese restaurants around (read: none) and when I moved to Nottingham I was really hopeful about the potential Vietnamese restaurants but somehow I managed to move to the only major English city without a significant Chinatown!

Long story short, I was really looking to finally trying proper pho! The idea was to go to Kingsland Way in Shoreditch which has been dubbed by Time Out as the "Pho mile" but we got out to Shoreditch and had a wander around Old Spitalfields Market before Google mapping our way to the Pho Mile and although it was a lovely day, walking far in London is never appealing and we then realised we were standing opposite Pho, the Vietnamese chain and just decided to go there instead.

We went inside and although I felt like we were almost "cheating" by having our first "real" Vietnamese pho experience at a chain, I was impressed by the decor, it definitely had a lovely little cafe feel and I think we really lucked out with our timing as we managed to get a little table in the window and it was a beautiful sunny day so we had a lovely view of a Brushfield Street and the edge of Old Spitalfields Market.

I ordered the Pho Tai which is thinly sliced beef steak, which is the type I make at home and Sean ordered Pho Tai Chin, which was the sliced beef steak like mine but also with brisket. They came in pretty much the proper way (from what I've gathered from looking online) the big bowl of broth with the noodles in and a side plate with beansprouts, chili, a wedge of lime and a lot of herbs, the only thing that I wasn't expecting is that it came with the beef already in the soup, which I didn't have an issue with.

The soup itself was great, the broth was lovely and meaty and just so tasty! I added all the beansprouts and a big squeeze of lime into mine as well as one of the little chili, without the seeds as the waitress had warned us they were very hot and we are not wonderful with spice! I was also very impressed with the noodles, as usually I use the thin rice noodles from Tesco, and I've only once used the flat udon noodles and I found them awful and slimy yet the ones in the pho were so lovely!

I have now been dreaming about this pho for a good while, and am definitely going again next time I'm in London! They also have a cafe in Leeds which I've seen before but never been convinced about because it was a chain, not an opportunity i'll be passing up again! Also, I didn't even ask about the dairy free aspect because I always find Asian food is great for me as the chances of them containing dairy are so slim, it only the obvious things that you have to worry about. Pho recognise this too as on their menus they have a little comment at the bottom about the fact that they are extremely unlikely to have dairy in, which is nice for peace of mind! They have many locations across London and a few in other places in the country, their website is www.phocafe.co.uk which has all the details about them you could ever need!

Morroccan Style Baked Eggs (Dairy, Lactose and Gluten Free)

This recipe is for Morroccan style baked eggs, which is a dish I’ve wanted to cook for ages but I haven’t got a saucepan suitable for this recipe as you need a pan that can be used on the hob and in the oven, but I was at my parents and took the opportunity to make this dish. I served it with tuscan potatoes which is my new favourite way of having potatoes because they taste gorgeous!

Welcome to my blog!

Hello, I'm Holly and I'm a history student living in Nottingham, and I love cooking and just food in general.

I'm also a lactose intolerant which can make cooking and eating out difficult.

The idea for this blog is that I'll post recipes I use that either are lactose free or I can substitute the dairy ingredients for lactose free ingredients. I'll also post restaurants and cafe reviews that are good for lactose intolerants because I used to absolutely love eating out and hate now how difficult it can be to find places that are still enjoyable to visit as a lactose intolerant!