KERB Camden Highlights

13-08-2016 Local Black BookBurger, Camden, Camden Market, ice cream, KERB, London, recommendation, Restaurant, review, street foodLeave a comment

About a month and a half ago, the company I work for moved its offices to Camden for the Summer, and it didn’t take me long to start grumbling about the limited amount of choice available when it comes to non-deep-fried lunch options around.

But the London food gods must have heard my prayers, and they brought KERB to Camden.

The latest venture by London street food collective KERB, KERB Camden is their biggest baby yet.

And what a beautiful baby it is: located at the heart of Camden Market, with 35+ vendors trading 364 days a year, food from all around the world and the cutest pastel tables, KERB Camden is everybody’s lunch dream came true!

There are loads of delicious options to choose from, from fried chicken…

To some of the best mac’n’cheese this side of the Atlantic, and pretty much everything in between…

From the usual suspects, including some beautiful Mexican street food and drool-inducing grilled cheese sandwiches…

Some beautiful, juicy hotdogs courtesy of Oh My Dog…

To some lesser known options, such as this beautifully moist shredded beef and plantain Venezuelan arepa, there truly is something for everybody!

One thing everyone should get for sure is a portion of Oli Baba’s irresistible halloumi fries.

Golden fried halloumi sticks, drizzled with garlic yoghurt and pomegranate molasse, topped with fresh mint, pomegranate seeds and chilli flakes…

It really doesn’t get any batter than that!

Except of course for Blu Top legen-dairy ice cream sandwiches!

With flavours such as carrot cake or raspberry shortbread, delicious salted caramel sauce and some seriously good cookies, it’s the best way to turn any trip to Camden into an ice day!

KERB Camden, West Yard, Camden Market, Camden, NW1

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Postcard from the Ile de Ré

26-08-2015 Local Black BookAtlantic Coast, France, ice cream, Ile de Ré, seaside, travel, travel guide9 Comments

Some places just feel like home. I can’t really explain how it works, but the second you set the foot there, you immediately feel calmer, happier and like everything’s just right. Ile de Ré is definitely one of those places for me.

My love story with the small Atlantic island started when I was a kid (I spent each and every one of my summers there) and it never went away.

It most probably has something to do with the pastel shades of the blinds and the bright, very pure light.

From the beautiful beaches to the lively markets, the salt marshes as far as one can see and the quirky bits here and there, there’s so much to love and there’s no place I’d rather be.

Especially if the plan includes a picnic, followed by some ice cream at La Martinière.

If you’re ever around, do yourself a favour and order a scoop (or three) of their signature salted caramel ice cream. And if you ever need any more tips on visiting this little gem f an island, let me know!

Where’s your happy place? I’d love to visit each and every one of them!

8 photos of happiness

28-07-201526-07-2015 Local Black Book8 photos of happiness, about me, anti diet, cake, family, happy, ice cream, Ile de Ré, tag16 Comments

It might seem a bit voyeuristic of me but I actually love tag-style articles as I find them to be a really good way to get to know the person behind the blog (and the little Gossip Girl inside me finds learning secrets extremely satisfying!).

Ariel of Ariel’s Little Corner of the Internet recently created the 8 photos of happiness tag and was kind enough to nominate me. Thanks Ariel!

And while I was busy deciding which pictures to include, the lovely Helena of Helena’s Teabreak, and the darling Amanda of Amanda Bootes tagged me as well! Thanks both!

The rules are very simple: it’s basically about sharing 8 pictures that make us happy and then sharing the love (and happiness) with other bloggers by inviting them to join into the tag!

So here are my 8 pictures!

This picture of me and my brother when we were kids is the cutest one I have and it gives me all the feelings.This picture of my sister & me, taken on Christmas Eve 😂😂As you might have guess, Christmas parties are a bit wild in my family! 😂

I love those pictures with my siblings as they remind me of how great a time we have when we are together. Being away from them is probably the most difficult thing about living abroad, but pictures like that always make me feel better. A fantastic trip, Polaroid cameras and my ever-so-wonderful boyfriend who’s getting far too good at dealing with even the craziest sides of me and would’t even think of eating a bite before I’ve taken 25 pictures of anything that’s on a table… This picture says it all! ❤Cake. Duh.

Ice cream. Basically like cake but frozen and much more appropriate in a heatwave. I’ll take 1 scoop of each please-and-thank-you-very-much!Oh, I like to be beside the seaside! Pictured is my absolute favourite place on Earth; Ile de Ré, on the French Atlantic coast.

Living in London. Yes, it’s too expensive and there are too many people and it takes you ages to go anywhere, but I love it anyway. Slow mail. The sure-fire way to put a smile on my face. If you’re unable to provide cake, that is.

And now I’m going to sit tight and look forward to seing those lovelies’ happy pictures!

Izzy of Qthee

Bella of The Other F Word

Charity of My Life’s Miscellany

Susie of Sequins and Strawberries

Ophélie of Cross my Heart and Hope to Die

Want to join in the picture fun? Don’t forget to tag me in so I can go check out your happy pictures!

NYC Day 2 – Walking the Highline (+ Pride Parade 2015)

21-07-201521-07-2015 Local Black Bookarchitecture, Dos Caminos, ice cream, New York, NYC, NYC Pride, park, Pride Parade, Restaurant, review, street food, The Highline, travel, travel guide, USA4 Comments

After having spent much of the morning going through airport security and sitting in planes and buses, we were keen to explore more of New York. As soon as we arrived, we ditched our bags and we were off again!We started our exploration with a taste of the day’s big event: the Pride Parade!Taking place on the day following the countrywide legalisation of same-sex marriage, the atmosphere was cheerful to say the least! Following crowds of rainbow-dressed people, we slowly made our way south and to the Highline.A popular destination for families and friends alike, the 1.45 mile-long linear park is build on a former railway of the New York Central Railroad. With trees and flowers all around, it’s the perfect place to take a much needed nature break!
… But you can also choose to marvel at the views… New York skyline to the East…… and the Hudson river to the West!… Not to mention some of the coolest buildings in the whole of New York! (here the ICA building, which reminds me of Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum)!
After a little while, we came accross a small street food market, where we treated ourselves to the most delicious of ice cream sandwiches.Fuelled up, we continued our exploration… After a bit more walking and a lot more chatting, we reached the end of the Highline. And found ourselves at the very centre of the trendy Meatpacking District.
… just like every single person who took part in the parade earlier! We left the tempting sweet treats and devilishly long queues behind and went for a walk through the small streets of the Village instead.
We zigzagged through the area for a long while but we failed to find the Friends buildings despite all of the efforts we put into this quest.

As the sky tuned pink, we decided to call it a day and were considering our dining options when we came accross Dos Caminos. We managed to get a table on the sun-filled terrace and admired the light go from white to golden while perusing the menu. We started things off on a high with the Bacon and jalapeno guacamole.Did I mention there was pork crackling onthere as well? #BorderlineGenius
From then on, it only when from good to best with the Chorizo Mac n’ Cheese (a personal favourite). More cheese than mac, just as it should be! We also shared a plate of the goat taccos which were the juiciest taccos I’ve ever eaten in my whole life. The accompagnying rice & beans were delicious as well but made us achieve satiety a bit quicker than we had expected.

We skipped dessert and walked home with very full bellies and a big smile on our face, chatting happily about the great day we had just had and how excited we were for the next one… before falling in a food-induced coma the second we passed the doors!

London’s best ice cream | Gelupo

08-06-201508-06-2015 Local Black Bookbest of london, gelato, Gelupo, ice cream, ice cream parlour, London, London's best ice cream, Restaurant, review, summer12 Comments

Summer’s coming! Which in my book only means one thing: ice cream! And I think I might just have found London’s finest! Gelupo is a cute little ice cream parlour down Archer Street and was opened by the team behind always-packed Italian restaurant Bocca di Lupo. Saying those guys know their gelato would be quite an understatement. They also quite possibly have the cutest window display I have ever seen. 🌸 🌸 🌸
But soon enough my attention was dragued by all the goodies on display. Not that I had any intention of trying any (I was there for the ice cream!) but it all looked very tempting indeed! After much debating on which flavours to get (we might have had to get 4 since we couldn’t decide on 3… #sorrynotsorry), we ignored the tables at the back of the store and sat in the sun to ~~devour~~ savour our selection!
Out of the flavours we tried, my favourite was the Ricotta & Sour Cherries gelato: each mouthful was so creamy, slightly acidic from the ricotta, and so, so indulgent!
I really loved the Blood Orange sorbet as well. I don’t usually like orange-y things as they tend to be too sweet and carry no similarity with citrus fruits whatsoever but it wasn’t the case at all here. The sorbetto was the perfect balance of sweetness, bitterness and acidity and basically tasted like summer.

I still can’t decide which of the Salted Almond or the Amaretto & Apricot flavour I prefered (those where also the two we couldn’t pick between!). Both where quite different from your traditional gelato flavours, and equally interesting, so you might have to go and try them for yourself! This is the GOOD stuff! Look at that sour cherry ripple! 👌 It’s been 2 days and the taste is still on my mind! So I suppose it’ll have to be a permanent feature of my London Summertime then… Oh well… As Mary Poppins says, “When you have to, you have to!”

What: The BEST gelato (seriously)!

Why: That Ricotta & Sour Cherry gelato! Looking forward to trying the Dark Chocolate sorbet on my next visit though!

How much: £6 for 4 flavours

Where: 🍦 Gelupo, 7 Archer Street, London W1D 7AU 🍦

Barcelona Day 1 | Ciutat Vella, La Barceloneta, the best ice cream and ALL the tapas!!

11-03-2015 Local Black BookBarcelona, Barcelona cathedral, Barcelona ciutat vella, Barcelona travel guide, barceloneta, happy pills, ice cream, Jai ca, tapas, travel, travel guide, vioko ice cream2 Comments

After all the tapas-sampling and general face-stuffing at the Boqueria market, a little stroll accross the city was more than welcome. For digestive purposes, obviously. But we might have stumbled upon a few more foodie gems while wandering in the Old Town…Palm trees are everywhere in Barcelona: it multiplies the “holiday feeling” by about 100 and made me oh so happy! The same also applies to orange trees…It was the middle of the afternoon (aka siesta time!), so it felt a bit like walking in a ghosts’ city… only a very specific kind, full of old stones, amazing (mainly gothic) buildings and green little courtyards! I especially loved the area around Barcelona Cathedral. Look at how beautiful the cathedral itself is, it’s quite impossible not to fall in love! Unfortunately, we couldn’t get inside as there was a wedding that day, so we headed to the Arc de Triomf and more palm trees instead, before plunging back into Barcelona’s small streets!A little close-up for you to truly appreciate the beauty of it! Wish I could have brought one of those street lamps home! Another highlight was the former El Born market, which is now home to several exibitions on Barcelona’s story. Perfect mix of old (the foundations of the former market building) and new (industrial design 😍), Barcelona, you sure know how to reach my heart! Wonderful windows and colourful street art never hurts either! But Barcelona’s true hidden gem? Vioko! As usual, the most difficult part was to choose a reasonable number of flavours to taste! Oh, and not getting tempted by the macaroons was quite a challenge as well! In the end, we settled for Tùron (chocolate & hazelnut, really not my thing but my boyfriend loved it!), Mojito (very fresh and mint-ey, would work wonder in the summer!), Grapefruit & jasmine (so fresh and fragrant!) and Creme Catalana (a must-order! I was a bit scared it might be a tourist trap, but it ended up being my favourite of the lot!). En route, we also stopped inside the most adorable sweets’ shop I’ve ever seen (and trust me, I’ve visited A LOT of those!). Happy pills is somewhat of a cross between a pharmacie (white walls, prescription bottles…) and a candy shop (ALL the candy!). You just have to fill your little bottles with your favourite sweets, pick a label to put at the front and tadaaaaah, you suddently have magic candy that would make about anything in your life just a little better (yes, even if your fave football team loses their big game!). A brilliant idea really, and it would make for terrific gifts too, wouldn’t it?!

After a little siesta, we were in mood to get in with the locals, so we headed to the tapas joint recommended by our Airbnb hosts: Jai-Ca, a tapas bar loved by locals and visitors alike! (sorry for the drop in picture quality btw, but Barcelona simply isn’t as blogger-ready as London when it comes to food pics… so if you want to be treated like a local, you better act like one!)Once again, it’s a bit of a dare-or-die sort of place, so do face your fears and fight off the crowd to get seats, and don’t be afraid of flagging waiters whenever you’re ready to order! And whatever happens, do get a platefull of Patatas Jai-Ca! Hands down the best bravas I’ve had in Barcelona!When you’re at it, you should also order my favourite: Chipirones! They are deep-fried baby squid, but if you don’t tell your date, I’m giving you my words they’ll never guess it!! Throw in some Buttifara (sausage with white beans), a couple of plates of Padron Peppers and maybe some croquetas and you should end up very full indeed! Finish things off with a Caffé con Leche… and maybe one or two cheeky chipitos?The best thing about Jai-Ca though? There’s no need to worry about the bill: somehow, it always end up being lower than you expected it to be (we payed about 30€ for two with drinks). Delicious food, cracking atmosphere, lovely staff and CHEAP? I have just one word: GO!!

Addresses:

Vioko, Passeig Don Joan Borbó Comte Barcelona, 55, 08003 Barcelona

Happy Pills, Carrer dels Arcs, 6, 08002 Barcelona, Spain

Jai-Ca, Carrer de Ginebra, 13, 08003 Barcelona

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