Fat Bottom Foodie

Durham Day Trip

Hi my fellow foodies, I hope that you’re all well and eating good

I’ve decided to post fortnightly, as I feel that this works best for my blog but fear not, the food reviews will be equally as good

So, as the title says, I spent the day in Durham last week when it was sunny for once

I really wanted to try the OiSaki Kitchen as I’d seen a lot of Insta posts of the food, so I had to go and see for myself if it lives up to the hype

It’s so easy to find, as its just by the river in the city centre. Theres signs outside too, as you have to go down a set of steps to get there

The doorway was carefully blocked off (safety first!) and the lovely lady came to take our order, once we had looked at all the lush meals they offered. They also offer cocktails which looked nice and refreshing

After trying to decide what I wanted, I caved and went for the classic Katsu Curry, as it’s one of my favourite curry dishes

Also, as I’ve had a lot of them, I would know if OisaKi’s is up there with the best ones I’ve had before

It turns out that it was just as good as I had heard. There was plenty of the breaded chicken, which was tender but had a little crunch

Surprisingly, I found that there was enough Katsu sauce to last and coat all of the rice underneath, result! I could drink that sauce as I love it so much, so I was pleased that there was enough to go round

The carrots and green beans were a nice way to add a pop of colour to what is a very beige dish. I suppose it makes a bowl full of sticky white rice feel somewhat healthy

For £7 a bowl, it was very filling and generous with the portion size. I would go again and try their honey chili chicken, as that looks outstanding too!

We bought a cheap but tasty bottle of white wine to wash the Katsu down with. It was a sunny day afterall so why not have a little tipple

For some reason, I always think that food tastes better outside, so that’s why the curry was the perfect takeaway option for that day. I had a lovely time chilling on the grass with good company and most importantly, good food

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this post and I hope that I’ve tempted you to visit OisaKi Kitchen to try a Katsu Curry sometime soon

Stay tuned for the next post where I will review my first resturant meal since lockdown…exciting right?

Check out @fatbottomfoodies for more foodie posts and reviews

Sweet Treat Surprise

Hi my fellow foodies!

It was my boyfriends birthday at the start of the month, so I decided to treat him to an afternoon tea.

I wanted to support my local cafe/bistro, especially during lockdown, so I ordered the afternoon tea from Seventeen on Coxhoe high street.

It did not disappoint.

On collection, it was presented beautifully in neat little boxes and decorated with a cute pink bow! This was such a nice touch.

As it was afternoon tea for two, the boxes were filled with cakes, sandwiches and more sweet surprises…

The cake box (my favourite) was filled with a maringue topped with fruit and cream, a cream and jam scone, a melt-in-the-mouth chocolate brownie and a classic cupcake with vanilla butter cream.

The box also had two massive strawberries decoratively drizzled with white and dark chocolate!

I decided to go one step further and glam up the cakes by putting them on my pink cake stand to get the perfect close-up.

In the savoury box, we had little finger sandwiches. The three fillings were ham and pease pudding, cheese savoury and egg.

Next up, the pastry.

Each box had a mini sausage roll, pork pie, cheese and tomato quiche and a corned beef pie. They were absolutely lush, and filling too.

I think we were sat eating this for at least 2 hours, slowly nibbling and chatting away, but he absolutely loved it as a birthday surpise.

It was a great idea to support my local cafe and to celebrate by enjoying some lovely cakes and pastry’s.

Don’t forget to check out the Instagram account @fatbottomfoodies for more sweet treats!

Food Fit For a Quarantine Queen

Hi my fellow foodies! Guess who’s back…

Hi my fellow foodies! I’ve been inactive for ages now, as I have been putting all my energy into completing my degree.

Now my uni days are over, I’ll be putting my energy back into writing this blog. I’ve always been actively posting on the instagram account @fatbottomfoodies, to keep the foodie fans entertained.

Since in lockdown, I have missed going out for food. It’s actually made me realise that I need more hobbies…so I’ve challenged myself to make my homemade food look good for the gram.

Firstly, I decided to try to bake some sweet treats.

I made some brownies for the first time EVER and I was impressed with them. They were gooey, packed with chocolate chunks and to top it off, I drizzled chocolate on the top.

They were a solid 9/10, as the only regret I have is forgetting to put rolos in the middle of the mix. Now, that would have been a 10/10.

Too much chocolate? I don’t think so.

I’ve also been enjoying having a healthier brunch when I’m about a productive day. Can’t be having a greasy fry up all the time I’m afraid.

Having cereal every day can become boring, so I wanted to switch it up and create different porridge bowls to find my favourite combo of fruits and a sweet dressing.

It turned out that a big bowl of porridge drizzled (or in my case, swimming) in golden syrup/honey is my go to. Put some frozen fruit on top to add some colour, and it’s ready to eat.

This combo is by far the tastiest and the presentation is on point.

Finally, the staple to a Sunday dinner, the Yorkshire pudding. In lockdown mine have had some height to them, they were HUGE and delicious.

I usually end up having a Sunday dinner on a Monday too as we make so many puddings! Not complaining at all though as Monday dinner is just as nice, if not tastier.

So there we have it, a few of my homemade little treats and meals.Catch the latest food posts on the gram @fatbottomfoodies.

I hope you enjoyed my post and most importantly, I hope it made you hungry!

Fat Bottom Fame

Hi my fellow foodies! Sorry that I haven’t posted for a few months, the first semester of third year at univeristy has been very intense with writing my dissertation

Anyways, now that I’m back I can’t wait to tell you all that’s been going on with the Fat Bottom Foodies blog

The accompanying Instagram account for this blog @fatbottomfoodies,has gained an incredible amount of followers since I last posted

I’ve gone from having a mere 400+ followers to now having 1,000+ (1,064 to be exact!) which is really impressive. People seem to really like the content that I post, which makes me very happy

I’ve been recieving many DM’s and comments complimenting my food reviews, which means I’m doing something good, right?

With more followers, comes fame! As the blog has gained more followers and a larger audience this increases the reach of my food reviews

The exciting news which has come from this increased following, is that local food companies now have been inviting me to events and gifting free food in exchange for a review or coverage on my Instagram page (I will discuss these events and gifted food in next week’s post!)

I still can’t get over it, as I am getting event invites and having food sent to me for free. I am truly living my best life as I am just obsessed with food

I also feel lucky that these companies value my opinion of there products, it makes my voice feel important

I’ve been added to a group chat on the FatBottomFoodie Instagram account, its called North East Foodies and ten other food bloggers are also involved

The chat is honestly so lovely, as us bloggers can chat about food, share our recent posts to increase our engagment and reach, as well as talking about ourselves as individuals

It’s a great social space, as without connecting to the other food bloggers I just wouldn’t feel as confident about the blog as I do now

This has been a short and sweet post, which I hope you have enjoyed. I just thought that it would be nice to update you with the brilliant progress of the blogs Instgram account, as I am still chuffed about it

I’m happy to be able to share my love of food with my audience and I’ve worked really hard to create and maintain this blog, from its aesthetics to the written content of the review

I guess that this just shows how hard work does pay off and I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that my follower count continues to rise!

Don’t forget to follow my account here: https://www.instagram.com/fatbottomfoodies/

Las Iguanas Newcastle – A Food Feast

Make sure you go hungry!

Hi my fellow foodies!

I have already been to Las Iguanas before but it was so yummy I had to visit again. Last time I visited the one in Manchester, so it was exciting to visit the one in Newcastle at the Quayside.

On arrival, me and the girls waited at the bar to be seated. We decided to order a few cheeky cocktails to make the wait for the table go by quicker. When it’s 2-4-1 you have to really! We ordered two passionfruit cocktails and two strawberry mojitos. So as we sipped away at our fruity cocktails, we had a good catch up and before we knew it a table was ready for us. We were seated at a spacious booth, which I thought was the best seat in the whole restaurant as the other diners looked quite cooped up being sat at normal tables in the centre of the restaurant floor.

It was time to order our food!

I was the only one who wanted a starter so the girls ordered another cocktail while I ate it. I orderded the halloumi skewers, which were covered in sweet chili sauce. I was obsessed with them! They tasted incredible and they 100% made the girls wish they ordered them. I gave them a little nibble each as they both asked so nicely (and wouldn’t stop staring at them!)

For our mains, I wanted to be a little crazy so I opted for the veggie chilli for something different. It was presented very nicely and it also tasted beautiful. It had butternut squash in it as a meat alternative which added a kick of sweetness. It also had cickpeas and a nice level of spice, as I am someone who normally would have to down a glass of milk if my food was too spicy! There was an even ratio of rice to sauce, which made me happy as I don’t like having plain rice at the bottom of the bowl to polish off without any sauce.

On the side of the plate there were two torilla wraps folded up, this was a nice addition and I used them to scoop up all of the remainer chili at the bottom of my bowl. Considering this veggie chilli was only £8.95 – it was well worth it. I would considering opting for more meat alternative meals when eating out, as it is slightly cheaper and it tastes just as delicious, if not even more so than the meat meals.

My friends Kate and Celia both ordered the black bean enchalada. I unfortunaley didnt have food envy with this one, as my chilli ticked all the boxes for me. However, it did look rather delicious. The presentation was on point, with the enchilida central of the place and the black bean sauce dribbled all over it mmm. The girls said that it was the perfect level of spice as well as my veggie chilli was. They loved the crispyness of the tortilla and the cheese which oozed out of it.

Their meals were slighlty pricier than mine, but this was since theirs had mince meat inside – which usually makes meals more expensive. Despite this, they would reccomend their meals, as would I.

Dessert time! We all ordered the same, as we are all obsessed with churros. They were so lush. They came slightly warmed up, and this made the chocolate dipping sauce melt onto them, which was just perfect. My only critique would be that I wish that there had been more than 3 on the plate!

Enjoy the picture below of the sweet tooth heaven.

Overall, I loved eating out here. They also accepted student discount, which took 20% off our bill – result! We all know how uni students love a good bargain.

I strongly reccomend giving Las Iguanas a try my fellow foodies.

The Best Pancakes in Newcastle!

WARNING: Food Porn Below!

Hi my fellow foodies! I hope you’re all doing well

The Dispensary Coffee House recently opened its doors to the foodies of the Toon and this made me so excited

Their Instagram page had gained mass amounts of followers and I’m hardly surprised as their daily pancake posts were drool worthy!

I had to go for myself and see what all of the hype was about. I have to say, I was far from disappointed

Luckily for me, there was no queue to get sat down (which was lucky) I heard that the queue for the opening week was at least a twenty minute – half an hour waiting time. This was a good start to the trip, as I was already starving.

But, breakfast is the most important meal of the day right?

Once we were seated (next to the window!), I scanned the menu and decided to try the dirty breakfast fries, which consisted of skinny fries, cut up sausage & bacon and loaded with two types of cheese

The cheese pull was honestly just incredible – I still think about it to this day

My friend Joe opted for the traditional English breakfast and it gave me food envy. You got the usual breakfast goods, bacon, beans, mushrooms, grilled tomato, hash browns, an egg and sausages

The yolk pop of the egg was perfect, and you get given two sausages! Normally, when I get a full English they only give one sausage, so this got me rather excited

We both were little hungry pigs and scoffed our breakfasts down rather quickly…embarrassing really

Moving on to the next course! I don’t know how we managed to eat our breakfast AND then still want more

However, the pancakes are what The Dispensary are renowned for, so we had to really!

I really wanted to try the Nutella and strawberry pancake stack with the cool syringe of maple syrup placed inside

This syringe was a nice little quirky touch, which made the pancakes even more Instagrammable than they already were

We recorded ourselves injecting the sticky syrup into the centre of our pancake stack

My friend Joe ordered the banoffee pancake stack, as we agreed we couldn’t both order the same one for the purpose of the pictures and to try different things on the new menu

I am drooling typing this because these were up there with the best pancakes I’ve ever had. The white chocolate sauce mixed with the Nutella was incredible

Especially since I’m more of a savoury girl than a sweet tooth, I’m super surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did

Joe also enjoyed his pancaked and they were demolished quite quickly once again. We were that stuffed we could barely move

The smiley waitress took our plates away and asked for feedback on the food – and it was all positive of course

Alongside the food, the drinks that we ordered were lush. I ordered Pink Tea, which tasted like a warm strawberry milkshake

This came with two pink wafer biscuits, which was a nice little extra touch

Joe ordered the most Instagrammable drink there was on the menu. The iced coffee stuck to the theme of ‘The Dispensary’ as it looked very scientific

The coffee was filtered into the glass through a very cool way, it slowly dripped out and changed the milk to a caramel colour

This was highly impressive, and a very good opportunity for a Boomerang!

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time visiting The Dispensary

I would strongly recommend going if you’ve got a sweet tooth.

I will be returning – 100%

Check out @fatbottomfoodies on Instagram for more lush fo

Afternoon Tea was Tealicious!

Attention lovers of tea, cakes and all things sweet

Hi my fellow foodies, I hope you’re all doing well!

Like any daughter out there, I wanted to take my mam somewhere lovely for Mother’s Day and treat her. I booked us an Afternoon tea for 2 in Durham’s quaint and independent tearoom, Tealicious.

Tealicious is somewhere that I’ve wanted to try for a while, so Mother’s day seemed like the perfect opportunity. It is suitable for all ages and all lovers of tea and cake!

We made our way into the tearoom and the staff greeted us with beaming friendly smiles. They sat us down at our table, which was comfortable and not too overcrowded by the other customers

The tearoom was pretty busy with other bookings, but the staff were still very attentive to our needs.

The decor was cute, cheerful and fitting for the tearoom. I personally loved the fresh flowers which were on every table, it was a nice touch

Also, the wallpaper was a collage of colourful china teacups and saucers which was an adorable and fun choice of wallpaper.

We ordered our choice of bottomless tea, they offered over 40 blends! I opted for the lemon & lime tea, as I love a little kick of sweetness

My mam ordered an English Breakfast tea, which is a classic. The tea came with little tea strainers in the shape of a teapot, which I thought was a really cute touch.

There was about a 10 minute wait for our Afternoon Tea from ordering our drinks. This was no problem as we could gaze out the window and people watch.

When the food did arrive, we were in awe at the beautiful presentation and didn’t know what tier to dig into first!

I’ll take you through each tier. Starting at the bottom, the sandwich choices were salmon, lemon and rocket, plain ham, cucumber and cream cheese and egg mayo.

The middle tier had 4 scones on, two plain and two cheese which I smothered in salty butter and seeded rich jam.

Saving the best till last, the top tier had two caramel cakes in the shape of love hearts, which oozed out caramel sauce when bitten into!

There were two massive jammy dodger style biscuits, two fresh blackcurrant cakes with a nibble of a ginger biscuit on the top (my favourite) and two chocolate nutty rocky road style slices.

Enjoy the close up of the gorgeous cakes!

It’s fair to say that we were absolutely stuffed after eating all of it. For £19 per head, I would say that it was beautiful, the atmosphere, the afternoon tea and most importantly the company.

I would definitely return again for a cuppa and a slab of cake.