Delightful D'Arry's

What better place to bring your family and friends for a meal in Cambridge?

I know, I know, I'm raving about d'Arry's again! Cause it's simply the place to impress, whether it's to show off British cuisine in a non conventional way, or that Cambridge is just not another nerdy town with pub grub and kebab stalls only :P

Graduation lunch here with my family and Yan provided the avenue for us (mainly me) to provide a more objective review of their main courses. All of us went for their main instead of lunch menu which only consist of lighter meals like sandwiches and wraps. My oh my, their menu didn't disappoint.

Ready to feast with your hungry eyes, mind and soul??

I chose Fish Pie (£10.80) which is a combination of salmon, smoked haddock and prawns on a bed of spinach, baked in a fresh and creamy white wine butter sauce with Parmesan herb crusted top, served with beautifully roasted baby new potatoes and seasonal vegetables. Yes, everything about it sounds evil with cream and dairy overdosage, ah well, it's graduation :P I'd have preferred a crustier top though, and given their extensive menu, I'd say that there are better options out there. However, their roast potatoes are to die for ...

K ordered Fish of the Day, which was Grilled Sea Bream on a bed of roasted seasonal greens. Look at the picture. Never have I seen such a beautiful masterpiece. Not only beautiful by sight, it was also grilled to perfection, with it's succulent texture and crispy skin lightly seasoned with salt.

I'd love to be able to do this dish in the future since seafood is my favorite thing. Something simple yet with such powerful impact if done perfectly ...

M had the Bacon and Barbecue Chicken (£ 8.95), which was reviewed in my previous post on d'Arry's. This is a safe bet with chicken breast grilled with a bacon rasher (to prevent dryness), BBQ sauce and melted Cheddar cheese, served with chunky chips and seasonal vegetables. The sauce was still good with a gooey consistency, something like sweet and sour sauce with extra cheesiness :) I absolutely love the chunky chips, their presentation makes big fries trendy again!

G had the 12 oz Scotch Rib-eye Steak (£ 13.95), grilled on demand with chunky chips, roast tomato, onion rings, seasonal vegetables with peppercorn sauce. Needless to comment on how it tasted like as the dish was finished pretty quickly, a big complement coming from a rather picky eater! However, I can't believe he didn't touch the onion rings! I'm not much of a fan as well I must say, but look at those irresistible onion rings and how can you not at least try them?! Boys ... :P

D had the special Dish of the Day, written on the blackboard. I don't exactly remember the name, but all I recalled was that he ordered Pan fried Shark Meat, how cool is that! It was served with some sort of sauce and vegetable dressing, with a purple potato timbales beautifully decorated on the side.

Ok, I might have just said a confusing and incomprehensible sentence. Let me explain ...

The Purple potatoes itself are uniquely of Peruvian origin. They are a smaller oval-shaped potato with a purplish black outer skin and vivid purple, dense inner 'meat'. I so love it when you have 'odd' colored food which add a special dimension to a dish! However, I learn that they are less flavorful as other potato varieties and tend to get mushy if overcooked. On the other hand, timbales is a cylindrical metal drum which are played with 2 sticks, seems to be common in European/Latin American culture, if I'm not mistaken. Hence the purple potato is shaped like a timbales in the picture below. Now you know what it means if you see the word timbales (pronounced teem-bah-les) in the menu of a fancy restaurant :) This dish received a thumbs up from D.

Yan's choice was also from the blackboard, this was her Shepherd's Pie served with lightly roasted asparagus and root vegetables (carrots, parsnips and purple radish). Highly suspect that purple may be a trendy food color or something :P Anyway, I liked the brown colored sauce dressing. The pie was really good and the vegetables nicely balanced out the gamey taste of the pie.

It was a good lunch fare for a special occasion. Definitely a day to remember ...

Lunch was beautiful :)

Copper Kettle

The Copper Kettle restaurant at the heart of Cambridge (Kings Parade, just opposite the touristy King's College) serves a pretty good fare from breakfast to dinner. It's a good place to pop by for tea as well, sipping a cuppa with their beautiful array of desserts, cakes and snacks :) I brought my parents and Yan here on their visit to Cam for a try on their Mediterranean food.

Mom had grilled swordfish and aubergine with salad. This was all I could manage to take given the direct sun shine still at 7pm that day.

I on the other hand, was feeling slightly carnivorous that day and craving something meaty and more substantial. This gigantic braised lamb shank was the answer to my prayers :P

I also ordered hummus and pita bread as starters, as my parents have not tried them out before. Despite their curious looks and lack of adventurous spirit, they finally tried it out thanks to our persuasion :) I guess it's difficult to imagine eating mashed chickpeas with tahini sauce and pita bread for the first time!

Granchester Meadows

The pre graduation mania is worth a post.

It's ironic to think that one should be more carefree and less stressed after final exams. Yet, it's simply just a different sort of stress with more administrative stuff to do, e.g. shifting, transport, accommodation search (for myself and parents), packing up etc etc. This was interspersed with more fun stuff like May balls, garden parties and simply catching up with friends, making the post exam 'holiday' of 3 weeks before graduation equally tiring.

I took the opportunity to walk out and about a day before my parents arrived, given that there was not much to do as most people had left, or busy with their parents, and moreover, the weather was more like summer for once. I went to Granchester Meadows to check out the B&B place that I booked for my parents to make sure it was okay. The place was pretty and the lady kindly recommended that I take a stroll to Granchester. Since I have not been there (& absolutely can't leave Cambridge without visiting it), that seemed like a brilliant option to fill up my time. :)

It was a nice, quiet stroll on a sunny yet cooling day... having some 'me' time musing over the past 3 years of Cambridge. Halfway there after 20 minutes or so the weather started to be... let's just say a bit unpredictable. Being neither here nor there, I had no choice but to pray that it doesn't rain and I don't get drenched.

This is what unpredictable British weather really means ...

The day started off like this ...

And when it was this I thought I was doomed to be drenched ...


But it progressed to this, without a single drop of rain after all, phew!

Finally making my way to the Orchard, I was keen to check out their famous tea garden for some tea and scones! They have a huge array of food, ranging from light stuff like scones and cakes to main meals like pasta and sandwiches.

I chose this gigantic fruit scone with jam for only 2 pounds, with a cuppa Earl Grey tea. Must say that I've never really been a big fan of scones, but this was pretty good and super filling! It's best eaten toasted I feel :)

Here are some pics of the beautiful tea garden and it's tranquil surroundings ...

Glad I finally made a visit there to take a long slow stroll by the river Cam before I leave... Gonna miss Cambridge a lot! T_T

Pub Grub at Slug

Hey people! I'm finally back home in Malaysia for a short 3 week holiday! Expect a huge surge of posts frenzy as soon as I get over the jet lag :)

Here's another of my favorite British food, especially on a cold winter's day - Lamb Shank in onion gravy with peas and mashed potatoes. The perfect comfort food, hehe

But I still had this at Slug and Lettuce on the third week of June, maybe because it doesn't feel like a typical summer anyway this year with the strong wind and rain!

Be Right Back!

Dear all,

Graduation has come and passed, and now I'll be away for a week of holiday in Sweden! Have way too many backlog posts, will be right back soon by next week to update on Swedish food :)