Merba Cookies

After hearing good things from a friend about 'those cookies which come in aluminum foil-looking plastic with a brand name starts which with an M, I think, or maybe a C, I don't know', I've decided to keep an eye out for them. An import from USA, they are almost never on the shelves of a regular supermarket. The only way to find them is through scouring the off-license shops. (little corner shops selling snacks and essentials... but mostly snacks)

Like a ninja on a mission, I toured London and dashed through every off-license store in sight, before I finally found them.

In real life, I simply wandered into this random off-license shop one evening, which surprisingly existed on an uneventful street about 10 minutes from my house, while in search of a late-afternoon snack. I stumbled upon these 'Merba' cookies which were 'the famous American Chocolate Chip Cookies' and had an aluminum-y wrapping. Bingo!

The cookies were truly American in the way that they were sweet and they weren't afraid to let you know. Healthy eating is irrelevant when it comes to these cookies. Their only mission is to taste good and lure people back for seconds.

Aside from being delightfully sweet, they were generously chock-filled with milky chocolate chips. The cookie is slightly on the hard, crunchy side rather than being the the soft, gooey type, but not to the extent that it feels dry, especially since the multitude of chocolate chips serve to moisten up every bite. Salt can somewhat be tasted in the cookie, which makes it quite impactful on the tongue – quite overwhelming for those who aren't too used to rich sweets. However, if you are an a-chocolate-chip-cookie-is-a-god-damn-chocolate-chip-cookie-there-is-no-holding-back type of person, then these ones are for you.

You look at the picture on the front of the packet and you expect something great.

You definitely get something great with these Nougatelli Cookies, which are my favourite of the lot.

It is pure bliss as you sin your teeth into the cookie and meet the Nutella-like hazelnut filling!

White chocolate and red berries is a popular cookie flavour combination which I enjoy when it is done well. (Lizzie's Food Factory does a good one.) However, these cookies were filled with dried, chewy cranberries which had an over-tangy taste, and I didn't enjoy it. The white chocolate's fragrance was unfortunately killed somewhere in the rubbery, cranberry stampede.

The 'brownie cookies' were certainly appealing, but I was doubtful of 'crispy' as a description on the packet. Aren't the best part about brownies their fudgy, soft texture?

These had the texture of a regular crunchy cookie. The only 'brownie' aspect is probably their rectangular shape, but otherwise, it is no different from a same-old double chocolate cookie. The American sweetness is still there, and there is a satisfying chocolate taste which does the brownie justice.

Aside from that cranberry mess of a cookie, Merba has great cookies which any sweet tooth will definitely enjoy. I've seen them sold in places like Costcutters and several other off-license shops, so nobody really has to go on a ninja-hunt, really.

La Creperie Bretonne Part 3

Click here for part two.

La Creperie Bretonne is becoming a weekend ritual for Emma and I, and this particular weekend, it was a must.

It's zero degrees here in London, and snowing. April begins in a week and here, it is snowing. It's not even good, fresh snow which leaves everything white and fluffy like a scene from 'Home Alone', it just makes puddles everywhere and comes with wind which makes your thighs feel like ice blocks.

I also needed a good lunch because I had a Skype session with my family in the morning which got a little emotional. (If you really needed to know, they were having a post-eldest-sister's-wedding-cum-dad's-birthday-dinner, during which Dad sang two love songs to my mum with my second brother on guitar, all of which I got a live-stream of) I braved the cold as quickly as possible and barged into La Creperie Bretonne with puffy eyes and a runny nose, making sure the first thing I got was a hot chocolate. (£2.10 for an reasonable, average-sized mug)

I got bacon and cheese Ciabatta (£3.something) which was a reasonable size, served with crisps.

This was average, really. The filling just fell short of enough, and the bacon was not mind-blowingly flavourful like bacon is supposed to be. There just wasn't enough goodness in the filling.

It's okay Emma, you tried.

Emma got a 'Mexicana' Panini, which apparently contained 'chic & mozz', but we spent the whole meal wondering whether it was salmon instead of chicken.

 Either way, after trying a little bit of this, we both concurred that the paninis by La Creperie Bretonne are one of the most satisfying things you can ever have. Crispy and fluffy, buttered bread with cheese seeping into it, just like the previous panini from a few weeks ago, with soft, tasty filling. The thing is, the colour, texture and flavour of the meat in the filling was, I swear, something like salmon. Either that, or the texture of the chicken was so soft and tender, with unique flavours. Whatever it was, the filling simply tasted amazing, with a hint of chilli to add a kick into every bite.

L-R: Emma's crêpe and mine. Each design represents our life ambition – Emma's fate is headed towards spaghetti-making, and I have a true flair for assembling scaffolding.

Emma and I ordered a single chocolate crêpe (£3.50 or something like that) to share, but the waitress kindly served the crepe to us, divided and decorated separately.

I much preferred the maple syrup crêpe which I got in the previous visit. The chocolate drizzle and filling tasted cheap, and didn't have enough cocoa fragrance. However, the crêpe was warm and yummy, freshly made on the spot, glass wiper crêpe spreader and all.

At one point, we both found ourselves nodding along to a song which was playing in the cafe, and Emma whipped out this really nifty iPhone app called Soundhound, which instantly recognises the music which is playing. The music wasn't even that loud, but the app could miraculously pick it up. (To be fair, the cafe was quite empty.) The song was 'Latch' by Disclosure. I downloaded the app there and then, and tried it on the next song – the app quickly told me that it was 'Release Me' by Agnes. I felt like time-travelling caveman who had just realised that he could press a button to get light.

La Creperie Bretonne

113 The Broadway
St Margarets

United Kingdom

La Creperie Bretonne Part 2

Click here for part one.

I didn't take a picture of the crêpe which I had for lunch, because I gobbled it up in what felt like three seconds.

This was my second time in La Creperie Bretonne, the humble café situated next to the St Margarets Railway Station. I'm with Emma this time, who also happens to be the lucky recipient of my best Drawsomething attempt ever:

I can't believe I didn't take a picture of my crêpe pancake, but you should have seen it. It was big and drizzled with light-coloured maple syrup and powdered sugar, with a light, spongy texture despite its thinness. Emma thought it was rather sweet, but I really enjoyed it.

Emma had a Chicken and Mushroom Panini, which was cut into quarters and served with potato chips.

It was so. Good.

The white bread was grilled to perfection – crispy (but not too crispy) on the outside, with dark grill-lines, and the chicken and mushrooms were simple but tasty, and there may have been some cheese in it which caused a real melt-in-your-mouth effect.

It's hard to resist dessert in a café with a display cabinet. I chose some sort of honey layered sponge cake, while Emma got a classic Billionaire Shortbread Slice.

The cake wasn't made by the café, as there was a label with a brand name in the display cabinet which started with an "M", but I simply can't remember what it was. (Update 11/16/13: This is called Medovik, and is a Russian Honey layered cake.) Anyway, this was one of the fluffiest cakes I've ever had. The fork squeezes the cake about three quarters of the way down before anything is cut. The cake is moist and delightfully fragrant, and the icing on the top creates a nice...

I never know what the word for it is. It isn't a crunch, but you can still hear something when you bite into icing.

... er, texture. 

A Millionaire Shortbread Slice can almost never go wrong. For those who are unfamiliar with this British/Australian triple-threat, it is basically a layer of shortbread, soft caramel and chocolate, all combined into a calorific slice of death. The texture of the layers go brilliantly with each other, with slightly crunchy chocolate, smooth caramel and soft, crumbly shortbread. It is decadent.

La Crêperie Bretonne hasn't disappointed me yet, and I can't wait for my next visit. 

La Creperie Bretonne

113 The Broadway
St Margarets

United Kingdom

Click here for part three!

St Margarets was all slushy and raining during a Saturday in January. I had just finished a rehearsal at school, and was looking for lunch.

I ended up joining my friends at a little café in St Margarets, just next to the station, called 'La Creperie Bretonne'. Apparently there's a famous eating place in Paris which bears the same name, and the one in St Margarets is un-Google-able.

The rain was annoying and I wanted to get indoors – this café welcomed me with its lit-up display counter containing cakes, muffins, rolls and croques, as well as a long menu full of reasonably-priced food and drink behind the counter.

One of the things I love about London is the cafés and patisseries, which are just everywhere. Even if you've just had lunch, you could pop into a café for some hot chocolate or coffee, or salivate on the shop windows of patisseries. It is comforting to know that there is food everywhere, available in a chill and comfy atmosphere.

The guy told me that this was a nougat, but [again] I can't seem to find a nougat like this on Google. It's basically some sort of danish pastry with cinnamon and almond, with glaze. It filled me up okay for a lunch meal, and was satisfying.

The hot chocolate was just great. It was sweet, warm, chocolate-y and really value for money. The small size already came in a pretty big cup, unlike in Café Nero's overpriced, tiny, little shot-mug.

Us three friends split a double chocolate muffin into three for dessert, and it was a really good muffin – hot, chocolate-y and fragrant.

As the name suggests, the café also does crêpes which I am eager to try. I will go back to La Creperie Bretonne during my next chance to try out more of their stuff!

La Creperie Bretonne

113 The Broadway
St Margarets

United Kingdom

Click here for part two.

Student budget lunches

I can never restrain myself from taking bites from my food before I reach the doorstep.

This is what my desk looks like when I have an uneventful Saturday afternoon and I choose the practical option for lunch, while Tesco express (one of the major supermarkets) is a 5-minute walk away and so is Express Coffee

I guess this is the start of recovery from the week of indulgence in which I told myself, "Hey, since I have a half-term break in London, I should try getting as many good lunches in while I can."

Thank you Google Street View. But nowadays the scaffolding is gone and the kiosk is beige.

On an unrelated note, I walked past a man outside Express Coffee who asked for the time and afterward told me that I smelled lovely. He seemed to be a pretty nice man but I got worried for his olfactory senses because I had just finished a three hour long dance rehearsal at school and I'm sure I didn't smell anything like flowers.

Anyway, when I found out this shop had about ten jars of Byron Bay cookies, I instantly appointed myself as a regular. The first time I had Byron Bay cookies, I was on a flight from Melbourne to Sydney and they handed out these Triple Choc Fudge cookies. My friend had motion sickness, (the pilot for that flight was particularly bad) so I gladly took her cookie after savoring my own.

This time, I got a Butterscotch & Pecan as well as a White Choc Chunk & Macadamia Nut. (£1.35 each) Funnily enough, I cannot find the former flavor on any of Byron Bay's websites or related Google searches.

Look at those big fat pecans

Whitey goodness

For the first, the pecan nuts were generous but the butterscotch taste took a while for my taste buds to discover. The white chunks and macadamia were well placed.

Okay this review sounds pretty dry because... the cookies were sort of like that. I hate to say it because I hate to believe it, but although they had the thickness of shortbread, they were crumbly and rather dry for my liking. Maybe it's because winter's coming and the jars aren't well-made, (as compared to the sealed plastic wrapping of the servings on the plane) or maybe it's a personal preference. Or maybe because I've been having a Ben's Cookies (stay tuned for its own review) spree this week. Either way, I do wish the cookies had slightly more buttery goodness which would further enhance its taste as well.

All hope is not lost. A few weeks ago I had the Lemon and White Chocolate Chunk Cheesecake flavored cookie. That was just so yummy. I usually avoid lemon in desserts and baked goods, but I gave in to the cheesecake. The combination of the two was harmonious – the lemon light and tangy, and the cheesecake bits sweet and satisfying.

I'm definitely not going to stop trying these cookies. Their bestseller is apparently "Dotty," which is "a rich, golden cookie that is packed with premium creamy European milk chocolate and then smothered in colourful ‘choc drops,’ " and they have a Strawberries & Clotted Cream flavour which I'm definitely getting. 

Express Coffee (but my receipt says 'The Little Pavilion')
167 St Margarets Road
St Margarets TW1 1RD
http://www.byronbaycookies.co.uk/

£1.59 (u.p £1.75)

My desk was messy and so were my taste buds as I stole bites from my cookies and sandwiches alternately while I typed out my homework.

I wonder if the sandwiches were placed tactically from not-so-nice to nicest, because that is the order I found myself eating them in. On the far left of the picture above we have the Branston pickle-spread with two slices of cheese. At this point I have to tell you that I can't differentiate one type of cheese from another unless they have a different consistency, such as grated parmesan, melted mozzarella, or white feta cubes. Anyway, I'm sure someone else might enjoy the sandwich with the pickles, but for me, the pickle spread had a salty-sweetness which clashed with the natural saltiness of the cheese slice.

In the middle we have raw tomatoes with some sort of cheese (cheddar...? #wildguess) and there's probably mayonnaise in it but I'm not too sure. I kind of detest (who ever "kind of detest"s? I do.) raw tomatoes so I pretty much suffered on this sandwich. However, when I managed to get rid of the last tomato, the remaining cheese with a hint of tomatoey taste was actually quite good. The last sandwich is a blob of cheese and onion bits, which was my favourite of the three, as there was a consistent mushiness which I quite liked, along with the savoury goodness of cheese and onions.

You might be thinking, "Who the hell reviews supermarket sandwiches?" Well I think it's pretty relevant to formally review an everyday food product such as the Tesco sandwich. I often find myself stuck infront of the refrigerated shelves at Tesco Express for ten minutes trying to decide between the fishy-sounding 'Seafood Cocktail' (see what I did there?) and the safe but boring ham and cheese. It's pretty helpful to know the kinds of sandwiches one should stick to or avoid, isn't it?

Or maybe I'm the only sad, broke student who resorts to Tesco sandwiches for lunch on a Saturday.

Tesco Express 129 Saint Margaret's Road Twickenham, Greater London TW1 1RG Tel: 0845 026 9348 __________