A weekend of good food, good drink & sunshine galore

If I'm to reach my target weight of 25 stone by July (she says sarcastically), I have to make it my mission to eat my way round North London....correction...round London.  The first Bank Holiday weekend of the year was bathed in ridiculous amounts of sunshine and it would have been rude not to venture out on at least 3 out of 4 days.

Today's blog will be concentrating on some of my favourite eating & drinking establishments - some of which you may know, some of which you may not!  I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone feels the need to eat in Pizza Hut when there is a wealth of yumminess to experience out there.

So we'll begin on Easter Friday with a lunch in the Mediterranean Cafe' in Berwick Street.  Whereas all the "cool kids" go to Flat White next door, I prefer this for cheap, cheerful greek & turkish style food.  I havn't had a bad meal in there yet and I would always recommend it to anyone.  A 3-course meal for £8.95 is a bit of a winner in my book.  I had Grilled Halloumi (king of all cheeses) to start, followed by Feta pancakes, and then Banoffee Pie.  http://www.mediterraneancafe.co.uk/Home.aspx.  Off to my new 2nd home, Bar Italia next....one word...Martini.  'Nuff said.

Another sunny day on Saturday.  Whilst a lot of you night owls were sleeping off Le Beat Bespoke, I was up at the crack of dawn, heading for Muswell Hill, on a mission to check out an orange 60s coat/dress combo that had been spotted in a closed charity shop the day before.  A big fail on the clothes front but a big win as regards a new cafe'.  Swings & roundabouts and all that.  I'd heard about Nyborgs danish cafe' on Twitter and it's all that was promised.  As someone who has spent a lot of time in Scandinavia, Nyborgs is as authentic as you can get, due to the fact it's run by (I think) a dane.  We chose the danish bacon roll off the small but scrummy menu.  A lovely place for breakfast no doubt...which I will do one day.  http://www.nyborgs.co.uk/

More Bar Italia, more Martini & to end the afternoon, a trip to Zen Sai in Inverness Street, Camden.  Don't let any photos or music on the website put you off folks, this is one of my favourite places to hang out these days.  Happy Hour cocktails are a total winner - £3.50 each - the Mango Daiquiris are definitely recommended for a start.  Happy Hour tends to start whenever the management feel like starting it, and finish when they feel like finishing it....suits me!  Although I think late at night, this place generally turns into a bit of a house music bar, earlier in the evening, it's full of the most stylish 50s types, listening to great R n' B, Northern Soul etc.  I'm very much looking to next Sunday night where I shall partake in a Daiquiri or 3 myself .http://www.zensaibar.com/

Sick of reading about food & drink yet folks?  Worry ye not, nearly done!  Sunday was chores & baking day and neither of those things are interesting enough to write about on here.  The sun carried on shining today so we took a little trip to Primrose Hill, via Camden Market.  The market these days is beyond recognition and I had to get directions to a friend's vintage clothes stall, A Dandy in Aspic.  Get yourselves down there.  Today there were some particularly lovely shoes for ladies with tiny feet and some gorgeous dresses.  Unfortunately for me, my boobs didn't allow me to buy any of the said gorgeous dresses but I live in hope for my next visit!

Lunch in another favourite of mine - Trojka, the russian tearooms/cafe'.  On the menu for me today, Russian dumplings filled with mushrooms & sauerkraut, accompanied with smetana, and followed by baked cheesecake.  I love Trojka - it's particularly lovely first thing in the morning and the breakfast menu is lush! http://www.trojka.co.uk/.  A walk up Primrose Hill after lunch and then finally, as we'd promised ourselves as a treat before we go back to work tomorrow, a little trip to Marine Ices for a Knickerbocker Glory.  http://www.marineices.co.uk/

With all that talk of food & drink, I'm feeling positively STUFFED so I will love you & leave you.  I hope that some of you check out my recommendations & like them as much as I do.