Minna Liverpool

 

Tried out Minna on Lark Lane with Holly today for lunch. It's a new brunch spot that opened up before Christmas and has just started a new food menu.

House Granola - Pumpkin and sunflower seed granola. Toasted coconut, chia, passionfruit, banana, blueberry yoghurt - £5

I got the house granola and was torn between getting this or the avocado but Holly ended up getting the avocado so I decided to get something different. It was nice, the blueberry yoghurt was quite tangy.

Smashed Avocado - Smashed avo on grilled Plattsville sourdough. Free range poached egg, feta, house picked cucumber, chilli and lime - £9

This looked good and Holly said the bread wasn't hard like it usually is. As sourdough is usually really hard to cut and it's nearly flying off the plate because it's been toasted for too long. We both thought it was going to be spicy as there was a lot of red chilli on it but Holly said it was fine and her mouth wasn't on fire luckily.

Holly got an Oat Milk Cappuccino

Need to get Matcha lattes on the menu!

It was nice and cosy in there definitely a good place to stop off at if you've been on a walk. Was completely full when we walked in at around 12:30pm but luckily someone was leaving just as we got there so didn't have to wait long for a table. We were surprised at how busy it was considering how bad the weather was - we wanted to go on a walk but the weather was too bad for it. They had a lot of staff on the floor and our food took a while to come out but think it might have been because the table behind us had a lot of people so that was delaying our food from coming out.

The menu wasn't really for me as the stuff on there just wasn't appealing to me at all. Cumberland sausage seems to be their thing as that's on everything or you can order it as an extra but I don't like sausages. The Cumberland Curled Muffin was super popular as that was thing that was ordered the most while we were there. The granola, avocado and there was a pasta dish were the only things that I would order. They have pastries from The Butterholic but I think we got there too late and they were sold out so only had a chocolate croissant left, muffins and millionaire shortbread but think they usually have a much bigger selection. I liked it in there just needed a better menu for me even though the food that everyone else was ordering did look good!

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Zaza

After trekking over 25,000 steps around London on my own earlier on in the day I made it back to Kelly and Josh's and we drove into Amersham old town to have dinner at Zaza an Italian. We did go to a cosy little English town pub - what you see in films and expect an English pub to be like with a burning log fire.

These place was nice had a big olive tree in the middle which seems to be a common thing that restaurants like having trees which I guess does look nice and fits the theme.

Garlic Flatbread with Tomato & Pesto - Made with pomodoro sauce & pesto infused rocket leaves

We got this to share and I clearly just seen it said pesto and didn't realise it had rocket as I'm not a fan but it wasn't too bad as it was covered in pesto.

Conchiglia con Pollo - Giant pasta shells filled with chicken, pesto, & toasted pine nuts, with a parmesan cream & white wine sauce

Me and Josh both got the same and this was a lot smaller than I was expecting but it was nice but again too much rocket!

Lamb Ragu Pappardelle - Giant pasta ribbons with slow roasted lamb ragu, finished with fresh parmesan & crispy rosemary

What Kelly got which looks massive and tasted good - love a good thick pasta

Crème Brûlée - Vanilla crème brûlée with crunchy caramel topping, topped with pistachio ice cream

On the menu it's salted caramel ice cream but I changed it to pistachio. It was a really good crème brûlée but I was so full I actually felt sick, like the food felt like it was right in my throat and I couldn't even eat the tiny last mouthful as I thought I was going to burst! It really didn't need the ice cream I think without it I might have finished it but I had so much food. I'm not cut out to have a course meal! And I thought the main was small... If I got a different pasta dish I think I would have actually burst! Even after doing 26,000 steps overall that day this was too much food for me!

Affogato con Liquore - A scoop of vanilla gelato sprinkled with amaretti biscotti, served with a shot of hot espresso and an amaretto liqueur

Kelly and Josh got this and the vanilla gelato was really nice but yeah our eyes were bigger than our belly and it was late by the time we had dinner. Table was booked for 7:30pm. Took much food for me defo a fat 2 days in London! When we got back we watched the Brit Awards back as we were at the match the night before.

Thursday - my dad was coming to pick me up around 12:30pm so the morning I just chilled watched a bit of the Olympics on TV then went for a wander around Amersham town to have a look at the charity shops. Didn't find anything good. I got some lunch from Koyo sushi which Kelly took me for my birthday meal last year and it was one of the best sushi I've had so got a box to take away. I got the sushi rainbow which was mainly salmon my favourite!

Salmon nigiri, salmon maki and avocado maki - £6.85

My dad drove back and he got me before 1pm. Sat nav said we would be back around 4pm but didn't end up getting home till about 6:30pm as there was a crash 2 lanes shut on the M42. It was a painful journey as my bum and legs were so numb. I can't sit for hours on end without stretching my legs so defintiely would have preferred to have been on the train and I don't like public transport but if it's quicker and I can actually move and stretch my legs than I will consider that option any day!

Had a good few days down in London and thanks to Kelly and Josh again for having me so last minute and unexpected! Maybe another trip down to London later on the year but definitely be getting the train and not in the car again.

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London 2022

 

Wednesday I spent the day wandering London on my own. I got the train from Amersham to Marylebone and decided I wasn't going to get the tube at all and walk everywhere. I headed to Oxford Street to do some shopping on the hunt for the Nike shop. I did initially walk the wrong way but went to the other shops along that end of the stretch then walked back to where Nike is then went towards Chinatown to have some lunch.

Liberty London

I stopped off at this Japanese restaurant called Misato in Chinatown. I did want to get sushi but ended up getting a bento box as I was pretty hungry and needed something filling and this sounded nice.

I got the Sake Teriyaki Salmon Bento Box - Grilled salmon with teriyaki sauce, steamed rice, green salad, salted prawn, 2 pieces of maki, edamame beans, slice of orange, 2 pieces of seafood dumplings, chicken wing and miso soup - £13.80

It was really nice I ate it all! I liked the dressing they had on the salad. Don't know what it was but it was good.

This was a really bad idea getting an ice cream after eating all that food but I had to get a matcha ice cream. I was debating getting a bubble waffle but I was definitely too full for that so went for a Taiyaki Matcha Ice Cream from Bake - (a bakery) which I got last time when I was down in the summer. This was £4 the bubble waffle was £6. I also got a dan tart - Chinese egg custard tart - £1.60. Turns out this bakery is expensive as I walked into others and their tarts were only £1.20. I should have walked around more before getting this ice cream to let my food settle it was so good! After I walked to the Victoria and Albert Museum via Piccadilly Circus which was a trek but very much needed after all the food.

Piccadilly Circus

Passed Harrods on the way..

Victoria and Albert Museum

I got here and was sweating. It was so warm and I was wearing leather pants with my super warm coat as I went the West Ham match the night before so needed to wrap up and was packing light. I was sweating earlier on walking down Oxford Street and when I was trying clothes on when I went shopping it was a big of a task. I was even trying to look for clothes to get changed into but couldn't find anything I liked enough to buy. When I got to the museum I went to the toilet and when I came out I seen people sat charging their phones so I thought I'd take a breather and do the same but then I just cba and didn't want to move again! Didn't want to walk around the museum as I knew I had another trek to get back to Marylebone station as I was going for dinner back in Amersham with Kelly and Josh. I eventually got up and just did a quick circle downstairs near the entrance and took the long trek back...

Some interesting and weird sculptures but I have no idea what they're about as I didn't bother actually looking and got off after having a quick wonder and taking these photos.

Natural History Museum

My trek took my through Hyde Park

It started to rain as well but I'd walked most of it anyway so there was no point getting the tube at that point. I eventually made it back to Kelly's after over 25,000 steps. It was a long day a lot of walking and food consumed but that was just the start of it as we went for Italian for dinner.. which will be the next post!

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West Ham United v Watford

Tuesday 8th February 2022

Took a very last minute trip down to London on Tuesday afternoon and came back on Thursday night. My dad was working in Enfield and was driving down so I decided to tag along for the ride. Super grateful that Kelly and Josh let me stay for 2 nights on such short notice. 

I drove down to Kelly's in Amersham which took around 4 hours from Liverpool then my dad took my car to where he was going and would pick me up on the way back. Much rather have took the train but the drive wasn't too bad only a bit of traffic when we got to Birmingham then the rest of the drive was clear and straightforward.

Kelly was working in the office and Josh was working from home so he was in and I basically ran to the toilet put my bags down did a quick change then we had to get the train as we were going to the West Ham game. Got the train to Marylebone then changed to get the tube and I couldn't tell you what tubes we got as we changed a few times. I just followed Josh but pretty sure we ended up in Hackney... We went to a pub to wait for Kelly. They had a pint then we went to get some food before the match. We walked along the canal and found this little boat called Baltic Fresh Sea Food and got some pre match calamari.

I got calamari and salad

 Kelly and Josh both got calamari and chips - Salad or chips was £9.

It was good calamari wasn't greasy at all and had a good flavour to them. Good pre match dinner. Once we ate we went to the stadium. West Ham play at the Olympic Stadium which is now called the London Stadium where they had the opening and closing ceremony and the athletics at the London 2012 Olympics. Really gutted I never went to the Olympics but at least I can say I've been to the Olympic park now. Need to go to a day time match so I can walk around the park and see the orb properly as we were on the wrong side of the stadium to see it.

Before the match there is a weird pyro light show with flames and flashing lights. Something a bit different to a start of a football match for sure. The stadium is huge and very different to being at Goodison Park. It's round rather than being square and so much more space. Also so many more toilets - clean and new.. 

Game started slow and wasn't great the first half apart from the Kurt Zouma boos and chants whenever he had the ball. Him starting after the cat video definitely wasn't the best choice. The second half definitely got better and the match ended with West Ham winning 1-0 so at least there was a goal and it was at our end. We were sat near the away end and the abuse the Watford fans were giving especially by actual teenagers... 

It was a good night and glad I got to go to a match as I usually go to London in the summer when the season is over so this was a nice unplanned trip! Also Tom the lead singer from Blossoms was sat next to us but Kelly and Josh didn't recognise him until we googled and it was definitely him. Should have got a selfie and asked for guest list as they're supporting The Killers when I finally get to see them in Manchester in June (this was meant to happen 2 years ago but thanks to covid it keeps getting cancelled!)

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