Columbia Road Flower Market and El Ganso at Broadway Market

If you were a bumblebee in London, there's probably only one place you'd want to be on a Sunday. Columbia Road. Following our little striped friends, my mother and I met up with my godfather and headed to Columbia Road flower market to have a little poke about and see if we could find any green-fingered deals. We were lucky- the sun was shining and it was surprisingly warm for October, meaning the market was in full swing!

The market is fantastic. Buskers line the road before the stalls start, filling the air with lively music. Then come the flowers. Every stall is stuffed with a myriad of colours as different beautiful flowers fight to get your attention. The displays are beautifully overwhelming and smell pretty fabulous too! As you squeeze past the other shoppers, delicious floral scents invade your nose, enticing you in.

Mum found what she wanted (two little box lollypops to guard the front door), I found a little chilli plant to brighten up my boyfriend's uni room (fingers crossed it survives!) and my godfather found some exotic redy-orange flowers I don't know the name of.

Plant hunting however is pretty hungry work and so before long, we were leaving the sights, sounds and smells of Columbia Road behind us and following my godfather to lunch.

Now, my godfather is many fabulous things, but 'foodie expert' is definitely one of my favourite qualities of his. If I want to know anything about anything vaguely foody, whether it's where to go for the best brunch to how to bake a soufflé, it's my godfather I ask. Baring this in mind, I was rather excited when he said he knew of a 'great tapas place,' El Ganso.

Well, I don't call him an 'expert' for nothing. El Ganso was fab! The little tables outside were full of people basking in the autumn sunshine, wine glasses in hand and plates piling up in front of them which I took as a good sign of what was to come.

Once seated at my godfather's favourite table, we perused the menu and picked out a number of dishes to share.

My cheese board arrived first. Cheese matures in red wine, with grapes, walnuts, quince jam and savoury biscuits. Yum.

Then the other food started piling in. All the plates were presented so beautifully but I couldn't wait to try them! The black pudding with tomato marmalade was particularly good, as was the tuna... and the salmon... and just look at the calamari!

My godfather showing Mum how to figure out Facebook

Thoroughly stuffed though I was, I of course had room for pudding. Hello lemon and poppyseed cake!

I had a wonderfully enjoyable afternoon munching my way through enough food to feed a small village for a week, but before long it was time to go home. Congratulating my godfather on his brilliant choice of restaurant, we rolled ourselves out of the door and into our car. Food, family and friends, it turns out, is the recipe for the perfect day!

Malta: Part Four

Day four found us collapsed around the swimming pool, refusing to move. The sun was shining and I wanted to go home with a tan to prove it! Plus, the pool water was just so deliciously inviting!

Of course, all that sunbathing is hungry work and so that evening, my sister, Mum and I headed around the corner to the Westin hotel for a spot of dinner.

We attacked the terrace tapas menu with vigour, ordering chicken satay skewers, calamari rings, parma ham with fig chutney, smoked salmon piled on herby sour bread and marinated goats cheese.  When the plates arrived, we discovered they weren't your normal teeny tiny tapas portions, but easily enough for three people to share. In fact, there was so much food that the poor waitress struggled to fit it all on one table!

Apologies for the lack of photos but we were far too busy eating to photograph! 

Despite the mountain of food, we still managed to lick our plates clean and have room for more. Therefore we retreated into the bar for cake and cocktails. Ordering was quite a fun affair as a huge platter of patisseries was brought to the table for us to peruse, before we picked our favourite looking ones. Between us we had quite a selection, but I have to say that the little lemon meringue tart I picked was definitely the best!

By the time we'd finished munching, we were well and truly stuffed but very happy. We'd had a lovely evening of food and drinks- a perfect end to a sunny day!

Birmingham: Fumo and The Cube

Following our Friday night of food, we decided to spend Saturday, well, eating. So, we headed off to Fumo, an Italian tapas style restaurant, to tuck into some more delicious lunchtime goodies.

We may have gone slightly to town on the ordering- our table was practically heaving under the weight of all the different dishes!

However, the one (slightly odd) dish which stood out for me was the fried courgette sticks- I just couldn't get enough of them! I also loved the beef carpaccio and the garlic-y king scallops, both of which had me scraping the plates clean...

For pudding, we dug into a sharing plate. Here, we were presented with a whole variety of delicate little puddings, all of which were begging to be eaten. Look at them!

I especially loved the passionfruit meringue pie- the base was wonderfully tangy while the sweet meringue peaks simply melted in my mouth.

The sharing aspect of this restaurant has to be what makes it so fun. Personally, I love picking a dish or two off the menu each and then swapping bites, trying to figure out who ordered the best. I have to say, this time each dish was so good it was honestly hard to pick between them!

After we'd eaten every last crumb, we whizzed our way up to the top of The Cube for an after lunch coffee. The coffee was fairly standard, but the views over Birmingham were simply stunning. Luckily it was a really clear day and so we could see for miles!

Eventually, three little piggies waddled their way home, feeling rather content and more than a little full...!