Does it get much better than Latin American food?

I don't believe it does.  Las Iguanas is a favourite of mine, I truly am such a sucker for anything spicy served in a tortilla wrap or with rice.  Recently went for lunch with my nearest and dearest for a 'Big Burrito'; tortilla parcel bulging with spicy chicken, peppers, onion, rice, slaw & cheese, topped with homemade salsa, soured cream & guacamole, and a raspberry and elderflower cooler.

 

xoxo la dolce eater.

Spuntino restaurant in Soho.

Last year I took the boyfriend to London for a birthday weekend, and my cousin told me that I must go to Spuntino in Soho - looked online and found no website or menu, but TimeOut rated it so highly as well that we went on a hunt for it.  It did not dissapoint, as the atmosphere and the food was wonderful, we feasted on a variety of mini 'slider' burgers and shoestring fries and other various plates, but the real winner was this dessert:

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Two layers of a thick peanut butter ice cream with a sweet jelly filling and a crushed peanut topping - to die for.  I'm honestly still waiting for the day I have an excuse to go to London any time soon just so I can treat myself to one of these again, I will eat my hat the day someone shows me a dessert as good as this one.

(apologies for such poor photo quality, another one off an old phone that lost all quality after being transferred between phone and Facebook etc!)

xoxo la dolce eater.

Cupcake time

Cupcakes are always an appropriate birthday present - I made these pretties for a friend of mine last year and just rediscovered the photo of them...  White chocolate and marshmallow cupcakes with pink vanilla frosting and a crushed Malteaser topping!

xoxo la dolce eater.

Beautiful box of chocolates at the Taste of Christmas event I went to in London in December. Oh and only £25.99, what a bargain...

xoxo la dolce eater.

A very belated Merry Christmas...

As I said before, some of these particularly seasonal backlogged photos are going to seem completely out of context when I post them now as Christmas is long gone, but I couldn't let the photos pass by...

My festive cookies which found their way under many people's trees last year (the joy of being a student and not being able to afford real presents) - a selection of gingerbread, spiced orange and cinnamon shortbread biscuits.

My festive dessert in Blubeckers White Hart restaurant in Chobham, Surrey (http://www.hcpr.co.uk/chobham/), an absolute favourite restaurant of mine: mulled wine jelly with stewed fruit and clotted cream, beautiful!

And finally my Christmas present to my parents, selected and prepared at the deli where I work in Brighton (http://www.artisanlivetoeat.co.uk/) by me, a festive hamper of little Italian treats! Unfortunately the quality of this picture is rubbish due to it being taken on my phone, and the bottom left corner full of cheese and olives cannot be properly seen :( either way, it went down a treat!

xoxo la dolce eater.

It's taken me so long to get round to starting this blog that I've acquired quite a large backlog of photos that I want to upload, so prepare yourselves for what's coming! Thought I'd set the ball rolling with the Italian in me and a celebration of anything and everything dough-based;
 

 

The beautiful presentation of the Calzone Con Carne Piccante my boyfriend ordered when out for dinner in Ask...

And my first ever attempt at baking a calzone - granted, it doesn't have quite the same artistic flare to it, but my god it tasted good enough to make up for it!

And finally a pizza I recently cooked made up mostly from ingredients in the deli I work in and Jamie Oliver's pizza dough recipe (http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pizza-recipes/pizza-dough) - pancetta, salami, chorizo, chilli, mixed peppers, rocket and mozzarella. Fantastico.

xoxo la dolce eater.

The blogger bug...

... has officially bitten.  I've spent the last few years uploading photos of my proudest food achievements to my Facebook profile, only to receive feedback of "Lydia we don't need to know everything you eat for dinner" - so, blogger, here I am to share my love of all things food with the people that do care!  I've been a student living in not-so-nice student houses for the last two years so my cooking skills had to be very selective depending on whether or not any of my housemates had actually considered doing their washing up for a change, but since moving into a lovely tidy flat last August I've finally been able to be as creative as I like with my cooking and baking, and I LOVE it.  So expect to see my favourite photos, reviews and recipes on here, and most importantly, eat and enjoy.

xoxo la dolce eater.