Family Fun: The Newbold Comyn Arms

I got a visit from this little pickle last week...

Whenever he comes up, we always go out for lunch rather than cooking something 

(you'd understand why I never want to cook at uni if you saw the state the boys leave the kitchen in)

I've lived in the area for nearly 3 years now, so we've done a lot of the main places around here.

One place I'd not ventured to, though, was the Newbold Comyn Arms - a pretty little pub/restaurant in Leamington Spa.

It's lovely and light inside, and looked fab on that sunny spring afternoon.

Absolutely starving (my lack of funds MAY have prevented me from eating properly recently) I chose my dish straight away. Mum chose shortly after, but it took a good 15 minutes of battling with Louis before he made a decision.

We waited and chatted, and Louis and I cuddled and snuggled and kissed and squeezed.

Aaaah, I miss him.

Then the food arrived...

Mum went for the warm pancetta, toasted pine nut and avocado salad, with balsamic dressing...

Which looked pretty tasty.

Not willing to hold back, I'd gone for the burger.

It was bloody good.

I'm gunna say it's the best I've had outside of London.

Couldn't fault the burger at all, and the only thing I'd say about the chips is that they were very potato-ey (is that a word?), but crispy chips are a personal preference and everyone's different.

Louis had chicken but the pictures pale in comparison to ours.

It was a really lovely lunch.

I can't wait for more family time this summer. I'm taking 3 months out of work to spend it all with my boy. This academic year has been a real struggle for us and I can't wait for it to be over. I just want to be with him every single day.

I mean, who wouldn't?

Taking Time Out: Coventry Cathedral

It’s been pretty quiet here as of late. I’ve just started a new job (which I love) in a marketing and press office, and am writing another essay. I did have loads of lovely things planned for the other weekend when I went home - we were going to go out for lunch, out for dinner, to a pottery, the lot - but alas, that was not meant to be, and we were all struck down with the norovirus instead. It was a horrible time.

Anyway, I feel like I’ve been giving off this vibe recently that I’ve gone off art. I won’t talk to people about it, I haven’t been in a gallery in weeks, I put off writing my MA personal statement for as long as possible etc etc.

I have to confess now though, this is all a massive front and actually I still love everything related to art, culture and heritage.

I needed to have a break from things I think, after the nightmare that was my dissertation. You know, absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that…

So I kind of accidentally started nurturing my inner culture vulture once again. I’ve been living in a bit of a bubble recently and I needed to get out of it, so I absent mindedly boarded a bus with the intention of clearing my head, and found myself at Coventry Cathedral.

There's absolutely nothing special about this post whatsoever, I just wanted to write something. This place is beautiful - probably the only good looking thing in the whole of Coventry - and it deserved a little mention.

My friends told me I was getting old when I told them I'd spent my day sitting in the Cathedral ruins, and whilst I kind of agree with them, I do think it did me the world of good to get out and clear my head.

Everyone needs some peace and quiet now and again. Everyone needs a break.

Hawker House: The place so nice, you go there twice

Several weeks ago, we jumped on a couple of buses and popped over to Street Feast's Hawker House.
We arrived about 6 (it's free entry before 7) expecting it to be dead... who goes to eat at 6pm?! (Apart from us of course)
Well, apparently, a fair few people do. It wasn't packed but it wasn't dead. Clearly quite a few people were keen to get there early - a sure indicator of the treats that were in store for us.

We did a quick scout round (each of us pretending we hadn't read the menus online before) then headed to the Rotary Bar.
£10 got me an Apollo Gin Smash. It had about a hundred ingredients that I can't for the life of me remember...

It was smashing (see what I did there?)

Sorry.

Also, on the subject of apologies, I want to apologise for the quality of these pictures.
Hawker House is in some sort of warehouse, and whilst this is kind of the epitome of hipster cool that seems to be in right now, it makes it seriously difficult to get a good quality photo.

But anyway, back to the commentary...

We perched ourselves on the central bench tables to enjoy our drinks, before Cecilia and I headed over to Yum Bun.
We'd seen photos all over the internet of these beautiful buns and we were dying to try them.

It was like eating a cloud of pork, if that makes sense?
I've never eaten such a fluffy bun in my life, and the pork was great - not tough like you often get with thick slabs of pig.
I was having the time of my life, in fluffy piggy cloud heaven.

Josh, however, is a massive bbq fanatic. Instead of heading to Yum Bun, he stopped at the stand opposite - Miss P's BBQ
I was too slow to get a photo of the food, but I got this gem of Josh instead...

I have so many photos of him like this in different situations, poor guy.

After this first round of food, I was getting pretty thirsty so I popped to the bar for a pint of Frontier.
New favourite lager right there. So good.

Now if anything makes me hungry, it's beer. I turned around and noticed a shining beacon in the distance...

We all indulged in these bad boys, and thank God we did.
With her first bite, Cecilia exclaimed "Oh my God, it actually tastes like beef!!"
None of that tastelessness you get with some burgers, these were hearty, beefy brilliance in a bun.

None of these photos do these burgers even the slightest bit of justice. I intend on paying Bleecker another visit now that they're on Southbank. We live right around the corner so I think it's entirely necessary!

We rounded off the night with Salted Caramel doughnuts with pecans from You Doughnut.

If you read my last post, you'll know about Josh's doughnut obsession. This is where it started.

We stumbled back to the bus stop happy and full. A great night...

... so great, in fact, we went there again on Saturday night.

I'd been tactful at Classic Car Boot earlier in the day, only buying from trucks I knew weren't going to be at Hawker House.
Cheeky Italian were at both, but their time to shine for me was in the evening.
Having spent 3 months in Italy, I'd say I'm pretty well versed in Italian food, and my God do I miss it.
Therefore, arancini were entirely necessary.
I practically ran over to their stand, blurted out my order, and was handed three little (actually, quite big) beauties, with a snowy coating of parmesan and sitting in a sea of marinara sauce.

I devoured them, and was genuinely sad when they were gone. I was tempted to order more, but I thought I'd get another small taster from somewhere else.
I really wanted to go to the Bowler, but the queue was long, and I knew they'd fill me up and I wouldn't be able to eat anything else.
I settled for the chicken and coriander gyoza from Rainbo

Awful photo, sorry. I was halfway across the room when I realised I hadn't taken a photo, so I tried to take one standing in awful lighting. Bad move.

I gave up after a few tries and ate them instead. Better move.

I'm not usually a big coriander fan but these were really great, and not too filling. Perfect preparation for what was to come...

Breddos Tacos Buffalo Chicken Po' Boy.

This was great, if a little hard to eat. All civility left my body and I basically stuck my face in this thing. Hot with cooling blue cheese sauce, crunchy chicken with a soft bun, this thing is basically pure paradoxical perfection.

Oh yeah, and there was a frozen margarita thrown in there from the Rotary Bar as well.

Sooooo... the verdict.

Each round of Hawker House is different so it's really hard to compare which is better.

I have to admit though, our first visit probably just had that bit of an edge on our second round, mainly due to that Bleecker brilliance.

But really, everything was pretty darn good.

Especially that Po' Boy - Breddos, for a Taco place, you did a seriously good job.

This weekend is the last weekend of Hawker House so if you haven't been yet, you really ought to head over. You'll regret it otherwise.

Classic Car Boot Sale ft. You Doughnut and Bob's Lobster

The sun was shining on London's Southbank on Saturday.
We popped down to wander around the classic car boot sale that had set up shop down there.

The queue to get in was pretty long by the time we got there at midday, but it moved quickly and you barely noticed the waiting time thanks to a few vintage ladies who entertained the crowd with dancing.
We paid our £4 and hurried in.
As you can probably tell from the picture, it was HEAVING!
Crowds swarmed around rails of vintage dresses and scarves, there were stalls displaying crockery, typewriters, pots, all sorts...
And there were a hell of a lot of bikes, vespas, cars and vans - I actually spent a lot more time hovering around these than I did the vintage stock...

Josh was on a massive doughnut hype after reading that You Doughnut were going to be there, so after a whizz round the site looking at the goods, we scurried over to the foodie section so Josh could get his fix.

I don't think they disappointed...

Not willing to succumb to our foodie cravings just yet, Cecilia and I hovered over the other end of the food court.
Something happened.
We fell in love.
With some cars.

I may not be able to drive, but that does not mean I don't need these babies in my life.
However, in an effort to cheer myself up after the harsh realisation that I could never afford a car like this hit me like a tonne of bricks, I headed over to Bob's Lobster.
Cecilia, AKA the seafood addict, was at my side in no time at all.
We handed over £13 in exchange for a comforting roll of lobstery goodness.

and just like that, I'd forgotten all about the cars and was raving fanatically about whatever seasoning it is that they put on top of these bad boys.
I want another one now, that's how good it was.
Thank you 'Bob', whoever you are!

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around, buying pretty headscarves and lusting over the vintage typewriters perched on the edge of stalls.

Also, let's just take a moment to appreciate this snapshot...

I want one of those hats.