A Weekend of Feasts (1)

Part One - Bicester Village and Hilton London Stansted Airport Hotel

On Friday, we set off to London Stansted Airport to pick up my mom who was coming to the UK for holidays and we took a detour to Bicester Village in Oxfordshire.

Bicester Village, Oxfordshire

It was a nice, hot day with scorching sun above us and the place was bustling with people and cars that it took us at least half an hour to find a parking space. By the time we walked the entire length of the street we were starving, hence we found this Italian restaurant - Carluccio's - to satisfy our hunger.

Fresh Lemonade

First, we ordered freshly made lemonade to quench our thirst, a lemonade that looked and tasted more like fresh lime juice to me. Very nice and refreshing though, on a hot sunny day like this.

Bruschetta

I ordered the Bruchetta served with riped tomatoes with herbs, roasted peppers and extra virgin olive oil on toasted Toscano bread - to start. The refreshing and juicy ripe tomatoes with fragrance from herbs and olive oil plus the smokiness of roasted peppers goes really well with the crispy Toscano bread. Although, I thought the salad that came with it was too bitter for my liking.

Milanese di Pollo

The Milanese di Pollo - Breast of chicken flattened, bread-crumbed and fried, served with green salad. Sprinkled with sea salt and lemon juice, a very summery dish. I quite enjoyed the crispy fried chicken where the meat is not too dry. Yummy!



After doing some shopping, we headed to Hilton at London Stansted Airport Hotel for a rest then had some dinner at their in-house restaurant.

Sirloin Steak

The medium-well done steak as ordered was not that bad, but still not one of the best steak I had before. The peppercorn sauce went rather well with it as it is one of the most classic sauce for a steak. A rather enjoyable meal, a little bit too expensive for what I had but that is the norm in any hotels.

Full English Breakfast

However, the buffet breakfast, included, does make up for dinner. They had a warm breakfast section and also a cold breakfast section. At the warm breakfast section they served scrambled eggs, hash browns, grilled tomatoes, sausages, baked beans and mushrooms. This is in fact, quite nice to have as not many European hotels offer this type of breakfast selection.

I did not go for the cold breakfast section as I was rather full from the full English breakfast. However, I did try them on our stay in The Tralfagar by Hilton the next day. They had several selection of cold meat including salami, ham, smoked salmon etc. They also had Camembert cheese, cheddar cheese etc. A selection of fresh breads, Croissants and muffins. Absolutely amazing breakfast for a hotel, which again, was included in our room rate!

The Wings of Gallus Domesticus

On the menu tonight is......

照燒雞翅 - Grilled Chicken Wings

照燒雞翅 - by AT

Grilled Chicken Wings by AT

A beautiful dish equally tasty and you can smell it from miles away!

A lot of effort was put into it as each ingredients were prepared and cooked separately then plated step by step in the dish.

Once this dish was served, the first thing that hits you is the fragrance of fried shallots. The crispy things that Chinese likes to use in garnishing dishes as it adds flavour, smell and looks nice on a dish. And it is the crispy texture that goes so well with each bite of the chicken wing as it is just so fragrant!

The chicken wings were very delicious and full of flavours from garlic, white wine vinegar and shallots. The sauce in the dish was fantastic with rice as it has all the essence of the dish, infused with all the flavours of the chicken marinate and seasoning.

A simple everyday dish that tastes absolutely delicious!


Recipe:

Ingredients:-

Chicken wings
Soya Sauce, White wine vinegar, Sugar, Salt and Olive Oil
Garlic and Shallot

Method:-

Marinate the wings with soya sauce, white wine vinegar and sugar for at least 15 minutes.

In the meanwhile, cook the broccoli in salted boiling water drizzled with some olive oil.

When the broccoli is nearly cooked, drain and drizzle with sesame oil and place on a plate.

Heat the frying pan then fry the chicken wings (without oil) until 50% cooked on each side.

At the same time, fry some chopped garlic and shallots on a separate pan then leave it to cool.

Then add the sauce (soya sauce, rice wine vinegar and sugar) to the chicken wings, cover the pan, turn to low heat until wings are cooked thoroughly.

Once cooked, plate the chicken wings on top of the broccoli then pour the sauce onto the dish.

Dinner is served.





PS and 41 more to go......

Saturday Afternoon Lunch

Toasty Sandwiches - Easy to make, nice to eat.

Sandwich Maker

We recently bought the sandwich maker and it has been sitting on the counter for weeks. Since there was some bread left in the fridge, I decided to make a toasted sandwich for lunch.

4-Sandwich Capacity

Sandwich ready

Lovely, crispy toast with melted cheddar cheese oozing out with each bite - YUMMY!