FOOD: Hold On The Brits are Coming ... With Their Scotch Eggs

Think about stereotypical British food and scotch eggs may top your list, or at least come close, perhaps alongside pork pies, fish n chips, sausages rolls and even mushy peas. Surprisingly, scotch eggs are making a fast experience in pubs and eateries in Metro Detroit of all places outside of your British themed pubs. 

I have to be honest here, from leaving the UK to this March, I haven't eaten a scotch egg (or sausage rolls, bakewell tart .... it's an endless list). Hearing about the tend, reading all the restaurant reviews, well it was making this Brit hungry. 

But what on earth is a scotch egg I hear you non British folk cry?! Well take a boiled egg, wrap it in sausage meat and breadcrumbs, fry away and there you go. One scotch egg. Typically us British eat it as is hot or cold. It's often considered a picnic food, a snack or have with your lunch. Here in the US it's appearing more and more on menu's as an appetizer, a snack to have with your beer often served hot with a dipping sauce - think ranch, a hot sauce or mustard.

While the history of the scotch egg is a little up in the air - no ones really too sure of it's origins. Fortnum & Mason, the London department store happen to lay claim to them having invented them back in 1738. Others argue they have a more Indian cuisine background. Either way the British have laid claim to them and we just love to eat them.

Scotch eggs have become so much of a popular, perhaps we could say hipster food that Eater dedicated an entire list to finding them in Metro Detroit. One such place was One Eyed Betty's - a gastopub with lots, and lots of beers, pinball machines and as it happens awesome tasting food - including their scotch eggs - yippie! (they even have crispy Brussel sprouts as an appetizer too - apparently loving their random British foods). Served with a hot sauce, they were everything I could have wanted and hoped a scotch egg could be, and more.

Whether this is a growing tend across the US, who's to say? Maybe it's because they are a kinda quirky hand food, great to share, easily eaten and enjoyed with a beer and kinda like an all day breakfast food. I've personally seen them pop up on a menu while eating at the British (no surprise there) themed Piper's Pub in Pittsburgh, PA. Back in January 2014 the Chicago Tribune published a piece on the scotch eggs increasing menu presence with the rise of the small plate restaurant. But I'm just happy they're more readily available on my doorstep.

So I guess alongside my adventures in hunting out fish n chips, I have another British food stuff to eat, enjoy and as always, compare.

Any excuse for eating out ... any excuse ...
 
Places mentioned:

One Eyed Betty's: 175 W. Troy St, Ferndale, MI, 48220
Piper's Pub: 1828 E. Carson St, Pittsburgh, PA 15203

Rachael

FOOD: Mad Hatter Afternoon Tea

All things Alice in Wonderland greet you once you step inside Birmingham's Mad Hatter bar and bistro. From the doorknobs, to walls of mirrors, clocks and the red & black upholstery and furniture throughout, you'll feel like you just fell down a rabbit hole and earned yourself a spot for some delicious afternoon tea for your troubles. 

It has been far, far too long since our last afternoon tea adventure to The Whitney and after coming across Mad Hatter on a visit to Birmingham in December, the bar and bistro ended up on our to try list. Feeling a little homesick, Joe booked us a reservation for afternoon tea a couple of weeks ago. 

Everything Mad Hatter is very whimsical but without going too overboard. Table are adorned with pretty mismatched tea cups and saucers. Tea is presented in quirky teapots and food is severed upon traditional three tier serving platter to round things off. 

With our teacups filled with hot cinnamon spice tea, it was time to dig in. We started with the traditional finger sandwiches (think cucumber with minted cream cheese, artichoke, smoked salon and caper - my favorite and roasted pepper and hummus) all small, but all very filling.

Now, as with my fish and chips adventures in the US, I always love to see how the US takes on and caters British food traditions to the American market. Scones being one of them - because you know as Brits, we're rather picky about them. According to the menu the scones presented are the choice of the chef, we were served chocolate chip and poppy seed. Probably not something you'd see on traditional afternoon tea back in the homeland. Served with mascarpone cheese and lemon curd, I have to be honest, they were delicious and make a nice change from the norm. 

To finish things off, the top tier was filled with wonderfully cut and presented fresh fruits surrounding a selection of cakes - chocolate brownies, lemon tarts and a wonderful Oreo dessert.

Everything is served with your choice of tea. With fourteen regular teas, alongside decaf there's probably something for everyone from the Mad House Blend, Chocolate Mint to say Chinese Flower to name but a few. We even purchased a caddy of the Hot Cinnamon Spice to take home with us it was so delicious. Even better, you can try multiple tea blends throughout your stay. 

For $24 per person, you'd be hard pressed to find something so delicious and well serviced (our server was both friendly and very attentive throughout our stay). The venue is also a bistro and bar and it has me very tempted to return, for more tea drinking and the rest of their menu. 

Plus anywhere with a chandelier comprised of tea cups and spoons is a winner in my book. 

Mad Hatter Bistro: 185 N. Woodward Ave, Birmingham, MI 48009. 

Afternoon tea by reservation 11am - 3pm. 

Are you a fan of afternoon tea?

Rachael

LIFE: Small Things #10

The lighter evenings are starting to appear and oh my, do they make me wish and long for spring even more. To be able to push open the windows, see daffodils starting to drop their brightly colored heads in the breeze and awaking to morning birdsong. Michigan winters make those days feel so far away. Granted our winter this year hasn't been as cold, or as snowy, but there's only so many days in the minus numbers I can handle although it's always the perfect excuse to curl up on the sofa with the TV remote and a good book. 

In other news various happy things, and somewhat a sneak peek of things I'll eventually get around to sharing here on the blog;

• Lovely five day long weekend extending into Presidents Day with the OH although it always does result in me being confused about the day of the week afterwards. Right now I have no idea if it's Wednesday or Friday ... when it's actually Thursday.
• Gorgeous afternoon tea at the Mad Hatter Bistro and Tearoom in Birmingham (review to come).
• The last week or so has actually been all about tea - afternoon tea, buying some fancy spiced cinnamon tea, Persian tea. All the tea.
• Seeing Deadpool early Friday morning. The humor was right up my street and it was a brilliant adaption of the comic book. Villains were a little on the weak side but I'll get over that. Also probably features the best Stan Lee cameo. 
• Also public service announcement - stay to the end of Deadpool, because you know, extra scenes and all. I'll never understand people leaving early ...
• Speaking of spring I may have spotted some bulbs poking up in the back garden - I also may be really wrong and they are just weeds. Or now dead because of the chilly week we just had. 
• Rushing out to buy a load of wings from Detroit Wing Co., after hearing your favorite radio hosts (Valenti & Foster on 97.1 The Ticket - yes oddly enough my favorite radio hosts are on a sports talk station - what is happening to me?!) talking about chicken wings for four hours.  Four flipping hours, who couldn't say no to wings after four sodding hours?!
• Mexican hot chocolate treat for our adulting ongoing DIY adventures from Cafe Con Leche.
• Waving at my favorite Detroit building while drinking that Mexican hot chocolate - the Fisher Building. Gorgeous.  
• Stitching a little wild flower seed packet design for a forthcoming birthday card.
• Reading two awesome books - The Boston Girl and The Turner House - both I'd highly recommend. 
• I'll probably say the same about Judy Blume's In The Unlikely Event which I've just started reading. 70 odd pages in and very intriguing. 
• Oh and lots of graphic novels but I'll get to that in my monthly graphic novels review dump don't you fear. (*whispers*) it features - Through The Woods, Lumberjanes and Sisters.
• Finally getting all that stubborn old bathroom floor tile up, hammered out some concrete and replaced some floorboards. Getting overwhelmed with all this adulting points atm. We even hired a nail gun and didn't kill ourselves in the process of using it.
• Paczki Day! Joe sneaked out early on Fat Tuesday/Shove Tuesday to grab some paczki's from Dutch Girl Donuts. Delicious! What's a paczki you ask?! Well I talked about them a couple of years ago.
• Signing up for Daily Burn (a fitness workout over the internet, TV whatever you got - if you have Hulu you'll probably know their annoying adverts about leg day) and actually using it somewhat regularly. 

That's probably the most bullet points of happiness I may have ever achieved on my small things posts. Does help I'm bullet pointing three things daily that made me happy in that mission to work and overcome my stress issues. Ah well happy days indeed. 

How are things with you?

Rachael

FOOD: From Tarts to Tacos

Moving to America opened up an whole new world of cuisine, especially Mexican food. Whether it's cheap and cheerful fast food or authentic dishes from Mexicantown, Mexican food has found a special, and happy place in my stomach. 

We were looking for a new place to try out for date night and the idea of platters of tacos I admit was what won me over in trying out Ferndale's Imperial a fully serviced bar and all things Mexican restaurant.

To picture Imperial, think of California street tacos in a bar playing Johnny Cash.

It's bare bones, it's simple, it has a touch of rock n roll.

And tequila. Lots of tequila.

Hot dogs and tacos.

Up front you're greeted with a communal seating arrangement, with long wooden tables to share, make new friends and chat the night away. If a more private, darker feel is your jam there's the same but small wooden tables over looking the patio.

Food is presented family style - everyone's order on the same place adding to friend making atmosphere. Perfect too for a date night, perhaps a little awkward those not too comfortable with sharing their grub off of the same dish. 

While the menu is on the small side, what they do do, they do it well and also have separate menus for late night and brunch. The Sororan hotdogs (particularly the Bakersfield being my favorite bite of the night). While many may be put off paying for chips and any of the salsas they do, for around $2 - $5) they are well worth the pennies.

Detroit Tart (left) & Whiskey Sidecar Cocktails

In comparison to their food menu, they have an extensive drinks list particularly when it comes to beers and liquor. But with a great selection of $8 - $10 cocktails I was happy to try them out. And if tequila is your liquor of choice, you'll find some great picks. My favorite being the Detroit Tart - great in name and taste.

Imperial : 22828 Woodward Ave, Ferndale MI 48220 

Rachael

LIFE: Photo An Hour - January 2016

Saturday rolled around with no particular plans in mind. January is always a slow and cold month for estate sales, so we're rather hit and miss about them. But still, I'd be looking forward to joining in with the first Photo an Hour link up of 2016 with a plan of just seeing what fell into place.

With no aforementioned plans, the morning started with a cup of coffee and finishing of a page in my Vive Le Color Japan coloring book - a particular favorite recent purchase of mine. An hour later by the time 10 am rolled around, I was adding in some more of the black background to my stitched bookmark I've been working on.

With some not every water tight plans in the making, we decided once 11 am rolled around to have lunch early (a cheese toastie for me, a toasted sarnie for him) and a pile of tomatoes on the side. Noon actually saw us picking up Joe's first ever pair of glasses and an hour later we were back on the road traveling to Ikea, that magical place. 

It's probably a good thing we don't live on the same side of the metro region that Ikea reside, because I'd probably be in there every other week. We planned to pick up some odds and ends and get an idea about some new cabinets for Joe's Transformer collection. Ended up buying a load of shelving for my office come craft room. 4pm marked a stop on the way back home to my favorite fish n chip - Scotty Simpson's in Brightmoor. This place happens to be the best fish n chip shop I've come across since moving to 'merica (see previous review here) nothing beats their fish n chips, even if the chips are on the skinny side. They also make the most delicious pies. Most people will probably avoid the place because of the area, but I love it there.

5pm and back home saw me working on the jigsaw puzzle that is was putting together two lamps from Ikea, like seriously, is there nothing that can be just put together in two steps from that place?! All that yummy food though and being lazed out for the day left me on the sofa catching up with the internets happenings and watching Invader Zim, as you do.

Trying out the Darth Vader comic book series while catching up on some episodes of Ghost in the Shell before popping into a very relaxing bath by 8pm with some whiskey on the rocks and a rather fizzy bath bomb. The rest of the evening was back on the sofa, curled up in pjs catching up on the Abominable Bride episode of Sherlock Holmes, with even more whiskey.

How was your weekend?!

Rachael

FOOD: Toast

Walk into Toast, a breakfast & lunch diner in the Detroit 'burb of Ferndale, you'll be greeted to walls decorated in a funky street art style, old style tables and quirky vintage toasters lining the walls. Offering an impressive breakfast and lunch menu, Toast has become the toast (yes pun intended) of the town, even before being voted one of America's top 100 places for breakfast. 

Toast became our destination for brunch over my birthday weekend. We'd heard great things about it, but not being ones to dine out for brekkie, it had always passed us by. But anywhere with crowds and queues outside can only be a good thing even if you're lacking in patience like myself, so when the mother in law was in town, it was our brunch destination of choice. 

From waffles to burritos, all kinds of omelets to an ever growing adult drink menu (think cucumber mimosas and adult coffees) alongside the standard juices and hot drinks. The strawberries atop my waffle were fresh and sweet, and the thick slice of cinnamon bread a side to Joe's Petoskey omeltte (think dried cherries, brie, bacon and caramelized onions mmm) was delicious. The place is loud, it's quirky, it's full of personality and very charming in it's appeal. It's certainly popular with the locals, with a 20 minute wait outside for seating on a somewhat warm September morning it wasn't too bad, there's always mug fulls of coffee to keep you warm in your waiting.

For two people not really huge breakfast fans any place that makes us want to return surely as to be a hit.

View Larger Map  |  Get Directions  |  View Bird's Eye

Fancy checking it out for yourself? Well you'll find Toast at;
23150 Woodward Avenue
Ferndale, MI 48220

LIFE: Birthday Love From Detroit

Mid week birthday's give you the perfect excuse to drag celebrations out across two weekends. Fun weekends sandwiching your birthday from either end. While I'm not a big birthday celebrator, I'd rather not have all that attention, I don't mind using it as an excuse for some yummy food, exploring a couple of new places on our endlessly long Detroit visit list and spending some time with family who visited from Pittsburgh. From a mighty tasty blackened catfish sandwich followed by a huge bowl of the best mac n cheese Detroit has to offer in Slows BBQ, washed down with some handcrafted cocktails next door in The Sugar House. Capturing a sunset over the Motor City with our stomachs full and happy. A Sunday morning starting off with brunch at Toast down the road in Ferndale (review to follow) and a very delicious strawberry waffle and my new favorite place for breakfast. 

But that is just me. 

Happy memories, exploring a great city (yes really) and eating some great food.

FOOD: Nakd Bars - a Wholefood Alternative

One of my favorite aisles to wander down on any given shopping trip is the natural foods aisle especially around all the treats and snacks. I'm guilty of being a big snack eater and with choosing to be a bit more selective and healthy in our buying choices, a whole new range of goodies have been opened up. And it's pretty fun getting to taste them all out, finding some new favorites. So when Natural Balance Foods got in touch with me about trying some of their Nakd bars, I was excited to try yet another temptation.

Natural Balance Foods are all about iron rich foods. British based, they are branching out into the US market (online at least - you can make your purchases through their website) offering a wholefood alternative - with snack bars free of those unnatural processed foods using natural sugars (like those found in dates and raisins). But it's more than that, their bars are wheat, dairy, gluten free and 100% vegan.

Delving into their goodies and you'll come across some tasty flavors - caffe mocha, rhubarb and custard to cocoa orange and ginger bread to name but four. Soft and chewy they give you a great boost whether you need a mid afternoon snack or you're busy on the go. Speaking of being out and about they are the perfect size for fitting into your pocket, your bag, or popping into your lunchbox. What I really love is how clear and bright their packaging is especially with how clear the ingredients are labelled - so it shows you just how simple their recipe really is.

Using natural sugars found particularly in dates (43% of the Nakd cocoa crunch bar was made up of dates) they aren't low on the sugar front so you do have watch your intake. Not being a huge date fan sometimes it was a bit over powering, but still edible. I have to admit the more British of the flavors - the Bakewell tart and rhubarb and custard (although oddly enough rhubarb is not listed in the ingredients which was a bit of a let down that it's probably just a "natural flavoring" which was a bit of a downer) had to be my favorites.

The bars certainly fill up a hunger gap, they are a great size and come in a great variety of flavors. It's a shame they aren't available to buy in stores - because for me, that's just how I tend to do my shopping - picking whatever flavors rather than brands that I fancy. But for me, the high date content and flavor puts me on the fence a little.

Have you ever tried Nakd Bars? 

I received a complimentary sampler box of Eat Nakd bars in exchange for an honest review. However as always, my opinions and photographs are all my own. 

FOOD: Amar Pizza

There are three food stuffs I really love. Pizza. Indian curries. Spice. Throw them all together and I'm in food heaven. And thus, I've found my new favorite pizza - the tandoori chicken pizza, and well the rest of the pizzas at Amar Pizza are pretty awesome tasting too.  

Amar Pizza is a place that makes you rethink what you know about pizza. It's a place that will get you trying new things, new flavours, new flavours together, possibly even pushing your limit. It's friendly. It's local (to me at least). It's independent. It's cheap. It's a winner on all counts. 

Seafood Pizza 

 

If you enjoy your Travel Channel food shows, you might have even caught this pizza place on Andrew Zimmerman's Bizarre Foods when he passed by a couple of years ago. In fact it was Detroit's first ever appearance on the channel so there you go. I remember catching this place on one of the endless reruns they show, then promptly forgot about it - story of my life when it comes to places to eat in Detroit. So many that I forgot which ones to try. I think I need a list. But I digress.

So to the spice. Pizza's here tend to be on the medium and higher scale. But if you want to take things to the next level, you can order pizzas that make use of spicy fish and naga sauces and the ghost pepper. The ghost pepper, oh yes, one of the hottest pepper's in the world, one uncomfortably hot. It's so hot they don't actually put the pepper onto the pizza, it's mixed into the sauce instead. But fear not the menu is great at labelling the spice levels.

Tandoori Chicken Pizza

So what did we end up trying? Well the sweet & spicy tandoori chicken pizza and the seafood pizza which was made up of shrimp and crab meat (mmmm) with a deliciously hot Cajun crust. Lots of Cajun. Lots of mmmm's. Now we've finally got around to trying it out, there's all the rest of that menu to get around to trying!

View Larger Map  |  Get Directions  |  View Bird's Eye
Amar Pizza
11608 Conant St, Hamtramck, MI

Ever had a spicy pizza?!

LIFE: The Small Things

While I've been thinking about restarting my small things posts for a long while. I never really get around to sitting and typing them out. Then things change and they get forgotten. But I've been having a rough couple of months with my health which is boosting my health anxiety/stress to new levels to I thought it was high time to use and type this out as a relaxing way of remembering happy things and distracting that over thinking mind of mine.

Old printed cross stitch designs

After my mam taught me how to cross stitch back when I was about 5/6, everyone use to buy me those old printed samplers on linen. They'd have some simple design, often a quote and you got to pick the colours. I found such an old Paragon design at an estate sale the other week and it brought back so many memories. I don't think I ever actually finished such a design in the past, I normally loose my patience with them because it was always so hard to get your stitches neat but i'm up for a new challenge. This one was half started, somewhat messy and half the stitches pointing in the wrong direction. After spending a couple of nights pulling it all out I'm off to dig out some folksy PA Dutch shades of thread and get started! 

Plus while i'm not a fan of quotes, it speaks a lot to me at the moment. Give to the world the best you have and the best will come back to you. 

In other cross stitch news - too many ideas, not enough time to stitch them all.

Soft Parade

Nothing better then a Michigan made beer, but a Michigan made beer fermented with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries is even better. Short's Soft Parade is delicious for this time of year.

Fresh from the garden

There's nothing more exciting at the moment then heading out into my vegetable patch every morning and coming back with a full bowl of raspberries, perhaps a cucumber or a zucchini and all the fresh herbs.

Home-made pie

Not only did I bake my first ever zucchini loaf, developed a love for eating carrot tops, but I've been busy baking all those raspberries into pies. With Michigan blueberries on offer the other week in Kroger, I throw some of those in too. The lattice topping needs work, but you don't need to look at that too long with how yummy it tastes.

Toaster Ovens ...

Not sure how I went about without one of these - it toasts, it bakes, it broils. It's magic. #EasilyPleased

My wild patch

From one free pack of wild flower seeds, the little wild patch along the edge of my veg patch has become one of my favorite places to go for a wander. There's so much colour. It's getting to that time of year to start thinking about plants for next year, there's certainly going to be more poppies around my garden.

Netflix

With most of our shows on summer break, Hulu (and not having cable) has taken a back seat against Netflix. Murder She Wrote (seriously you don't want to know Jessica Fletcher she attracts death), NCIS, Property Brothers, CSI: Miami and Hotel Inspector alongside Parks & Rec and Rules of Engagement - yeap all over those.

As you can see, i'm old before my time and that's the way I like it. What little things have been rocking your world lately?

LIFE: 4th of July and a Ribfest

There's probably no better way to celebrate everything 4th of July and American than finding yourself some yummy BBQ food. Because damn, America can do BBQ really well. Luckily enough the holiday weekend also marked RibFest - our local event being down the road in Royal Oak. The thing to do in such events when you're not entirely sure of what to munch on is to add yourself to the longest queue for food. You can't be wrong if it's that popular. So we opted for the Caribbean BBQ stand, BBQ shrimp on a stick and a bowl of delicious mixed seafood goodies. Tasty good. Add some freshly squeezed lemonade into your other hand and you can't really go wrong. It always seems a little odd me being a bit "celebrating" independence day, but i'm more than happy to join in when there's yummy food involved. 

How did you spend your weekend?!