The Crown & Anchor Restaurant Review

Posted on by

Chiswick High Street is quite a bustling, yet tranquil part of West London. It is green and full of environmentally conscious people and yummy mummies. We headed to the newly refurbished Crown & Anchor to review it.

anchorandhopewine unnamedprosecco anchorandhopesalad anchorandhopeterrain anchorandhopeThe Decor looks great and there is a good atmosphere. It is a sunny day and the flowers on the table all add to a lovely vibe. We start with the Pork, Apple and Leek Terrine With Piccalilli and Baby Toffee Apple & Toast and Watercress, Tarragon, Mint & Purple Carrot Salad With Roasted Pistachios, Sunflower Seeds & Orange Blossom Dressing. The terrine is delicious, very well done and all of the ingredients work well together. The salad is interesting and too tasty for something so green, but could of done with a little something else, more colour perhaps, or more dressing. It was a popular dish, the manager, Gordon, told me, and it was delicious. I just thought it could do with a little kick of something.

We also had a good bottle of prosecco. Perfect for summer.

anchorandhope1 anchorandhopefishandchips anchorandhopehalfchicken

There is a lot to say about our mains, mostly because they were so huge and generous that we really didn’t need a starter or a dessert. In fact, it took us ages to finish them and we still didn’t actually manage to polish the plate off.

We had the Cider & Tarragon Battered Cod With Mushy Peas & Tartare Sauce With Double-Cooked Chips and the Half Roast Chicken With Bread Sauce. The cod is well-battered with a good twist thanks to the tarragon and cider, the mushy peas are great and have some mint in them, the chips are double-cooked and there is also a good tartare sauce. The chicken is huge, an actual half chicken. No stinginess here. The bread sauce is very good, as is the gravy. It comes with a huge Yorkshire pudding, carrots, broccoli, parsnips and roast potatoes. This is a meal and a half, and you certainly get a lot for your money. It tastes good too.

All the way through our meal the service was amazing but seemed to completely drop off when we were ready to order dessert. It took a while to catch a waiters eye and order something. To be fair, they probably got sick of waiting for us to finish. My colleague and I hate wasted food but gave up towards the end.

anchorandhopedessert anchorandhopetartFor dessert (yes, our legs are hollow) we had an Earl Grey Infused Tart With Creme Fraiche and a Chocolate and Pear Tart With Creme Fraiche. Both were great and came with a biscuit and another sauce that really complimented the other ingredients. Very good desserts. I loved my chocolate and pear one. The combination of flavours really worked.

We enjoyed our meal at The Crown & Anchor. They also have a newly refurbished upstairs bar and more seating. It is a gorgeous, friendly pub with good food.

 

The Crown & Anchor

374 Chiswick High Road

London

W4 5TA

020 8995 2607

www.crownandanchorchiswick.co.uk

enquiry@crownandanchorchiswick.co.uk

www.facebook.com/CrownAndAnchor.Chiswick

@crownanchorw4

 

 

Bottle Green Elderflower Cordial Review & Cocktail Recipes

Posted on by

We love Bottle Green’s Elderflower Cordial at Frost. It is a delicious, refreshing and versatile drink. We got sent some to review this week and have been trying it in different ways. It is great with cold water, either still or sparkling, and preferably with ice. It also tastes great in hot water, champagne and various cocktails. We have some great cocktail ideas below.

bottlegreenelderflowercordial

The light, delicate taste of hand-picked elderflowers perfectly captures the essence of warm summer days and relaxing evenings on the veranda. Simply dilute with iced water or try adding to Champagne for a refreshing twist.

 

Grey Goose Le Fizz

grey-goose-lefizzcocktailrecipe

An elegant and refreshing combination of Grey Goose vodka, fresh lime juice and elderflower, served in a flute topped with chilled soda.

Glass: Flute

Ingredients

35ml Grey Goose vodka

15ml elderflower cordial

15ml freshly squeezed lime juice

75ml chilled soda

Method

Add the GREY GOOSE vodka, fresh lime juice and elderflower cordial into a cocktail shaker and shake hard. Double strain into a flute glass and top with chilled soda water.

 

The Elderflower G&T

 

G&T Cocktail recipe

Gordon’s & tonic and elderflower cordial – two British classics, one classic drink.

Step 1 Fill a chilled glass with cubes of ice

Step 2 Add 50ml* of Gordon’s gin and 5ml of bottlegreen Elderflower cordial

Step 3 Squeeze a wedge of lime into the glass and add a choice of fresh cucumber, mint or strawberry

Step 4 Top up with fresh tonic and stir to release the refreshing taste

 

Elderflower Cooler

 

elderflower_cooler_cocktail recipe

Utterly refreshing and elegantly simple, this cooler really hits the spot with the elderflower and vodka complimenting each other perfectly. Enjoy.

Ingredients

25ml bottlegreen Elderflower cordial

apple wedges

Fill with ginger ale

50ml Vodka

Glass

Highball

Decoration

apple wedges

Method

Stir ingredients into glass and add apple wedges to decorate

 

Elderflower Delight

 

main_cocktails_christmascracker

A wonderfully light and refreshing cocktail, blending the freshest ingredients to finish with a perfect cocktail for a Summers evening.
Ingredients

6 mint leaves

50ml Gin

15ml bottlegreen elderflower cordial

15ml Orange Juice

5ml Syrup

Glass

Martini

Decoration

Mint leaf

Method

Muddle Mint with Lemon Juice and Sugar Syrup.

Add remaining ingredients and shake with ice, fine strain into chilled 5oz martini glass.

Garnish with mint leaf on surface of drink.

 

Available from Amazon and Ocado.

 

 

The Saatchi & Saatchi Guide To Mobile Marketing By Tom Eslinger Review

Posted on by

The Saatchi & Saatchi Guide To Mobile Marketing By Tom Eslinger is worth it’s weight in gold. It’s actual weight in gold, because it is basically free marketing advice from Saatchi & Saatchi. Mobile is the way forward: 50 per cent of all unique e-mail opens now occur on mobile devices, one half of all local searches are done on mobile devices and mobile commerce accounted for an estimated 15 per cent of total e-commerce sales in 2013. It is fair to say that if you are not utilising the mobile version of your site you are missing out, losing visitors and sales.

mobilemarketing

This book is useful and practical. It is not text-heavy and full of jargon, it is easy to read and navigate. Above all, this book leaves you educated instead of adrift. The mobile market is no longer a strange place, this book demystifies everything and leaves you with the knowledge to make the most out of your business. Essential reading.

 

Mobile phones and tablets aren’t like computers or TV or any other media channel or hardware technology that came before them. They’re personal—your mobile device is yours alone, the place where you go from work to play to socializing with the swipe of a finger. They’re portable—your mobile device goes wherever you go, and can connect you to almost anything, anywhere. Put together, these features come together to make mobile powerful—the most potent communication and marketing channel available to marketers today. How do you get onto your audience’s mobile, deeply engage them and have the privilege of staying there? Mobile Magic, by mobile marketing expert and Saatchi & Saatchi’s Worldwide Director of Digital & Social Tom Eslinger, takes you from the practical points of development and through to production, content strategy, content management and how to market your digital and social campaigns. You’ll learn how to understand your audience and how to maintain your mobile initiatives. This book will guide you in executing winning mobile strategies for your business. Written especially with marketers new to mobile in mind, Mobile Magic is your key to the wide world of apps, mobile websites, integrated campaigns, social media and cross-platform thinking and strategies that every marketer needs to know.

 

Mobile Magic: The Saatchi and Saatchi Guide to Mobile Marketing and Design is available here.

 

 

Clearspring Organic Japanese Sencha Blend Matcha Green Tea

Posted on by

matchagreenteaGreen tea has always been hailed as the healthiest hot drink out there, but new research has found it can also be good for your mind.

 

Scientists claim green tea enhances several cognitive functions, in particular our working memory. The new research, from the University of Basel, found that green tea increases the brain’s effective connectivity. Scientists at the university saw significant improvements in working memory tasks after people had consumed green tea.

 

So we reviewed some Clearspring Organic Matcha Green Tea. It is a delicious blend and is created especially for Clearsrping by expert tea producers in Japan. It combines the exceptionally light, smooth and refreshing flavour of Japanese Sencha with distinctly rich and exquisite ceremonial grade Matcha Powder. Skilfully blended and packed on their tea producers’ estate immediately after production to ensure the freshest quality. Available from March in Waitrose and here, RRP £3.99

 

It tastes great and left us feeling very healthy. We’ll keep you updated on any improvements to memory, if we remember.

 

Ecover Launch Bottle Made From Ocean Plastic

Posted on by

We love environmentally friendly products here at Frost and this bottle of washing up liquid, made from Ocean Plastic, certainly fits the bill. There is a huge island of plastic in the middle of the pacific ocean and something must be done about that, and the waste in the ocean in general. ecoverEcological cleaning pioneer Ecover has launched its first ever bottle made from waste plastic fished out of the ocean. The Ecover Ocean Bottle, which holds Ecover’s washing-up liquid, is made entirely from recycled plastic, with 10 per cent of that plastic coming from the sea. The washing-up liquid itself has been developed with a special ‘sea lavender and eucalyptus’ fragrance – bringing the scent of the sea to homes across the UK without compromising on performance.

Ecocover.Photo: Professional Images/@ProfImages

The company’s ultimate aim is to create the conditions for a systematic clean-up of the huge amount of waste plastic in the sea. Not only does the reduction of waste plastic in the ocean make for healthier, happier fish and sea mammals, it also has a direct impact on us humans as it would ultimately reduce the levels of microplastics in food, drink and other products, meaning we would eat more fish, and less plastic.

 

The new limited edition Ocean Bottle will be available from Tesco for £2, while stocks last.

 

• Fish in the middle depths of the Northern Pacific Ocean are ingesting as much as 24,000

tonnes of plastic each year3

• Reducing the amount of waste plastic in the sea would reduce the levels of microplastics in

food and drink

• Ecover wants to stop any more plastic from getting in to the sea, as well as creating the

conditions for a systematic clean-up of the waste that’s already there

 

Ecover will be using one tonne of ocean plastic, which it aims to increase to three tonnes next year.

 

“The scale of the ocean plastic problem is enormous – around 46,000 pieces of plastic are swirling around every square mile of ocean, and every year at least a million sea birds and 100,000 sharks, turtles, dolphins and whales die from eating plastic. There is no choice – we simply have to aim to clean up ocean plastic for good,” said Philip Malmberg, CEO of Ecover.

 

“Our ocean plastic bottle is just one small step on the way to solving the problem, but you’ve got to start somewhere – what we need now is to create a wider network of fishermen, recycling facilities and manufacturers to really make this happen. We also have to exploit existing supply chains and make it as easy as possible for manufacturers to use ocean plastic. At the moment the will is there but it’s just too much effort for many manufacturers to make it work.”

 

 

Red Bull Music Academy Sound System Series Announced

Posted on by

redbullcarnival

The Red Bull Music Academy Sound System series will bring a roaming pulpit of sun-drenched rhythms, triumphant beats and street-party antics to three UK cities this summer. Kicking off the mini tour in Bristol on July 5th, the series then veers North for a stop off in Manchester on the 19th, before a boomerang swing down to London’s illustrious Notting Hill Carnival on Monday 25th August.

Launching the tour, Bristol’s St. Pauls Carnival sees the Red Bull Music Academy Sound System stage graced by the inimitable king of house-kissed R&B, Jazzie B presenting ’25 years of Soul II Soul’. Formed initially as a sound system spinning records at house and street parties, it’s fitting that swift-fingered founding father tops the bill. Local boy Redlight goes b2b with Toddla T for a dancehall via 2-step special, self-confessed “Riddim Obsessives” Jus Now let loose some bass-laden Soca beats and Reprazent player DJ Krust knocks out his signature Bristol drumfunk. They’re joined by Black Butter boys My Nu Leng , Mensah’s dubsteppin’ alter-ego New York Transit Authority, house duo GotSome, and Débruit popping out the synth-heavy syncopated beat brawl that’s won him fans the world over.

redbullacademy

Onto the Manchester brigade, headed up by an exclusive carnival set from king of (the) jungle and Kiss FM heavy DJ Hype, who’s unrelenting torrents of drum’n’bass, breakbeat and hip-hop have made him one of his generation’s dancefloor pioneers, alongside local bass cartel lynchpins Murkage and Jamaican/Glaswegian outfit Mungo’s Hi Fi. Ninja Tune’s urban electrosmith and 2010 Red Bull Music Academy graduate Poirier, Levelz, grime fusion mechanic Chimpo and Sheffield’s reggae record mecca Sama Roots step in, with many more yet to be announced.

Completing the Carnival circuit, the Red Bull Music Academy Sound System stage touches down in London, bringing its Notting Hill throwdown back to the Westway. With the line-up set for release in early August, expect that same mashup of luminaries, legends and new blood to soundtrack the capital’s ultimate celebration of summer.

Find out more at redbull.co.uk/rbmacarnival 

Jah Wobble Presents Jasmine Flower Fusion

Posted on by

Event Date: Saturday 12th July 2014

Venue: Pagoda Arts Centre, Henry Street, Liverpool, L1 5BU

 

Presented by global music collaborationist extraordinaire Jah Wobble, the Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra and Liverpool Signing Choir come together in a fusion of Chinese folk, dub, grime and reggae.

Jasmine Flower Fusion

Six years ago, Jah Wobble’s Chinese Dub enthralled audiences all over the UK with its hugely successful fusion of Eastern and Western music and dance.  Inspired by this unique project, the Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra worked with Jah Wobble to create Jasmine Flower Fusion, an unprecedented mix of Chinese folk song and grime.  Little did Jah Wobble realise that this acorn project would continue to grow and thrive, and five years on, he returns to witness the progress of the youth orchestra, leading the evening performance with award winning songs from Chinese Dub, Jasmine Flower and something new to the young people – Reggae!

 

The International Festival For Business, hosted in Liverpool this year, is funding Jasmine Flower Fusion.  Liverpool’s Resonate Music Education Hub and Our Big Gig, a national celebration of music are also at the heart of the event as Jah Wobble and the Pagoda Youth Orchestra invite the public to join them in the creation of Chinese Music.  The workshop, to be held at the Pagoda Arts Centre, Liverpool runs on July 12th from 2-3pm where people are invited to learn how to make Chinese music on Western instruments and try some of the Chinese instruments for themselves.

 

The evening performance, also at the Pagoda Arts Centre, begins at 7.30pm.  Tickets for each event are £10, admittance to both events costs £15.

 

Commenting on the performance, Jah Wobble promises “a heady brew of East-West fusion as Chinese music gets the dub treatment”.

 

 

Artistic Director of the Pagoda Arts Centre Zi Lan Liao said “Everyone at Pagoda Arts is very excited about this project and looking forward to bringing the orchestra into a new musical phrase.”

 

 

First World War For Dummies Book Review

Posted on by

firstworldwarfordummiesbookreview The First World War has been an endless source of fascination for decades now. The inhumanity, the loss of life. To a lot of people war seems unfathomable, it is not really something that has happened to my generation.

 

This book is brilliant. Well-researched and full of anything you would want to know about World War 1. Dr Seán Lang certainly knows his stuff, and we will have an interview with him soon.

 

The books gives an amazing overall education on the complex causes that led to war, the key battles, the Generals and how the war changed the world, along with the lasting effect. This book has everything you could ever want to know about World War 1. I learned a substantial amount and the book also pieces everything together beautifully, leaving you with an overview of the whole war and the key players. Even though this book has a ton of information and some harrowing history, it is always easy-to-read and the format makes retaining the information easy. Good for learning.

 

I also loved the Part of Tens section, with its list of wartime writers and poets, along with a list of films about World War 1. Over 380 pages of well researched and enjoyable to read, if sometimes sad, history. A must for history buffs.

 

First World War For Dummies is available here.