Bocca di Lupo, London

I love social media, a few weeks ago I saw some tweets passing by from a friend about a restaurant she was at. The tweets got me all excited to go to that restaurant, I got my review about the place from a reliable source because I know the lady and know she is a tough nut to crack ;-) So when we decided to go to London, that restaurant was my first choice.
I tend to do my research before I book a table for dinner. You probably know the story, first you google it for reviews than you go to Tripadvisor. Thanks to social media, you can just ask someone who you know you can trust on the matter. I mostly check if another foodblogger has written something about it on his or her blog.

Back to the post. We are at Bocca di Lupo today, because of Twitter.
After a walk trough the busy neighbourhood of Soho we turned into a quiet street where the restaurant and it's little sister Gelupo have found their home.

'Bocca di Lupo' the child of Jacob Kenedy and Victor Hugo, opened its doors in the winter of  2008 and has since received numerous awards and great reviews for its down to earth 'real' Italian cuisine.

On their website they say that despite being in glamorous surroundings they are still "a family business and a humble trattoria at heart".

If they can make something themselves, they will and some of the home made delights are available along with their gelato across the street at Gelupo.

Parsnip and apple breakfast cake

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, we all know it.
There is a saying: eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar
In Britain and Ireland the day is started as a king with their traditional cooked breakfast "the iconic fry-up". Cooked well, the "English breakfast" truly is a wonderful dish.
If you want to do it right you should start with a bowl of cereal and a piece of fruit, fresh juice and finish the meal with a slice of toast topped with marmelade. Last but not least, all this must be washed down with a nice cup of tea.
If this isn't a hearty breakfast, I don't know what is.
Naturally you can't eat like this every day, most people only treat themselves on a traditional "Full monty" when on holiday or on special occasions.
So alternatives are beans on toast or perhaps this breakfast cake.
Also perfect with your 'four O' clock' cup of tea and much better than a candybar.
Go on, treat yourself.

"And then to breakfast, with what appetite you have." Shakespeare
This breakfast cake is very moist and more a cross between a bread and a cake.
Someone from Ireland told me it also resembles an "Irish tea brack" though this is not made with tea.
I left out the "normal" sugar in this cake and substituted with honey and apple sirup. This makes this cake a healthier treat.

Apple glazed ham - Best of British

I went to London 3 days before christmas for a ridiculously short visit. We arrived with the Eurostar at 10:30 and left again at 5.
My bestie Vanessa and I wanted to shop for food and bras, that was our mission.
After the bras were sorted we started the food shopping and ended up with a full backpack each and more to carry in our hands. I was actually relieved to be on the train again as the 
2 kg Gammon and the quarter wheel of Stilton were doing my back in. To be fair, I did buy some dinner plates and bowls too and those might have been the heaviest of all.
I wanted to cook a glazed ham for ages, we don't get that cut of meat here so I had to buy it in London that day. Because there were strikes going on in Public transport the cancellation of our trip was pending for a week. To much of my regret I couldn't risk ordering a gammon from the butcher I wanted it from. I was looking forward to a ham from a rare breed pig rather than a pig that was kept indoors as I don't approve treatment like that. Luckily I found a nice piece of gammon that came from a farm where animals are raised naturally and outdoors, but no rare breed sadly.

If you are in London and wonder where to get that wonderful rare breed meat, these are a few places you can buy from:

The Ginger pig: shops in Sheperds Bush, Marylebone, Hackney, Waterloo and Borough market
www.thegingerpig.co.uk

Daylesford farm shop: shops in Pimlico, Notting Hill and Selfridges. 
Main farmshop in the Cotwolds
http://www.daylesfordorganic.com

Preparing this glazed ham is actually very easy, I was surprised how easy it was. Imagine how much you can save by cooking your own ham if you have a large family to feed.
If I could get my hands on this cut of meat easier I would cook this a lot!