Street Food Circus

Hi there!

As promised earlier in the week, here is my review on the Street Food Circus, it opened up just last weekend.

Situated behind Radisson Blu hotel in Cardiff right next to the No Fit State circus this was an impressive event, though my photos don't seem to do it any justice!

Having kickstarted the Street Food trend in Cardiff to begin with, SFC have really done an amazing job this time with the Street Food circus. They had an amazing array of food from pizzas, hotdogs and churros to Lebanese, Greek and Hokkei - the Asian takeaway run by two Masterchef finalists.

Below shows my choosing from Hokkei, beef brisket, kimchee and black beans in a soft doughy bun - it was pretty amazing!

What was most pleasing to me at the bar was the discovery of Pimms Cider Cup - as an avid cider and Pimms drinker I'd like to congratulate the inventor of this amazing beverage. Hands down this will be my drink of the summer and I can't wait to have more! (I was driving so only one bottle for me this weekend!)

The idea for the Street Food events is that you eat from a few different stands to experience a variety of foods that you might not otherwise have tried. I did play it safe this time, I knew I would love the Asian food from Hokkei and my second choice was the infamous Dirty Fried Chicken (DFC).

Arguably most famous for their controversial logo, their chicken has been raved about by many and as a chicken fan I couldn't leave without trying it.

It most definitely didn't disappoint, the chicken was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It came with a pot of sauce of your choice and a homemade slaw. I liked this but as someone who can't really deal with celery I couldn't finish it off.....sorry DFC!



Between the two ends of food stalls there is also a massive circus tent with the bars inside, and plenty of seating. There are your usual rows of chairs and tables and also a few random vehicles and sofas to sit on and devour your food. It's also decorated with bunting and a disco ball - who doesn't love a disco ball!

There were so many more food places I wanted to try, the HangFire Smokehouse and Dough boys stands are some I have seen a few times at events and am still yet to try, the Lebanese food and the stand selling the Welsh cockles and crab in flatbreads.
I need to go back and sample more food!

Have you been to the Street Food Circus? Do you have street food events in your cities?

I'd fully recommend trying out any event like this, though I am a big food enthusiast!

L xxx

Street Food Warehouse Cardiff

Hello there!

Happy bank holiday weekend!

Hope you're enjoying the seemingly good weather, fingers crossed it lasts. We both went to the first night of the Street Food Warehouse event in Cardiff  on Friday night. You might have noticed that we are food enthusiasts, food is literally our favourite thing and we'll do anything to try out new food and eateries especially in our local area.

Street Food is getting more and more popular and why on earth not - festivals and events dedicated to food is just the ideal kind of evening for us. WE LOVE IT.

The first thing we did was a quick lap of the site, it's always good to check out your options and formulate a plan. We'd already decided we were going to buy one of everything and share it, but choosing the order was tough!

The site was fairly small but it had plenty of tables to stand at with outside heaters and a marquee with long bench tables to sit at with other people enjoying their food.

They also had a Warehouse Weekly newsletter with all of the food vendors named with information about each. Unfortunately Dough Boys weren't there when we were which was a massive disappointment, freshly made pizza is like gold dust and we were disappointed they weren't there.

That said we made our choice on our first meal and drinks choices and sat down in the marquee.

Passion and Smoke was the first vendor we saw and smelt - it was enough to make me want to jump behind their counter and just get stuck in with a fork. They had beautifully cooked pulled pork and beef brisket with burnt beans and mac n cheese - you could buy these separately or buy one meal - the special no less - and try them all.

Which of course we did!

The Big Betty special cost £9 and consisted of a bun containing the beef brisket, pulled pork, homemade slaw and gravy, plus a generous side of Somerset mature cheddar mac n cheese.

All of which had been cooked inside Big Betty herself, an authentic American pit smoker:

The Big Betty Special comes with a 100% recommendation - the mac and cheese is super creamy and just like your mums should be, and the meat is just out of this world, it falls apart in your mouth and the bread soaks up all of the gravy and its just WOW. Get it, you will not regret it!

We also made good use of the cocktail bar:

We both had a few each, needless to say we were fans of the fruity drinks as it was but the fact they came in chinese takeaway cartons was even better!
So cute and quirky, and also really delicious. Fully worth the £5 price tag.

Next on offer was Rad Burger, juicy burgers with grilled halloumi and a side of rosemary fries too if you want. 

We skipped the fries due to wanting to try more courses but seeing other people eating them I did want them, they looked perfectly cooked and the rosemary seasoning looked great!
Here's the burger, I always loved seeded buns so this was a good start.

Again the meat was really good, the halloumi was too but I would have liked more - can never say no to more cheese!

Next was M's favourite - Mr Churro!
Almost every food festival has churros and I am rather partial to the melted chocolate sauce that comes with it, yum!

Last on our food menu was one of the Pastel de Nata from Nata and Co Portuguese bakery. Having seen them on the StreetFood Warehouse Facebook page we both knew we had to try it, it was described as a custard cake, in pastry.

Their food all looked amazing and the chorizo bread would have been amazing if we had room!
There were so many more tarts and sweet pastries that we wanted to buy and take with us but we didn't have room in our bags either.

The Pastel de Nata did not disappoint, as someone who is not a fan of jelly and therefore not a fan of custard slices, I wasn't sure if this would be something I would like. I would buy these forever if I could! The custard wasn't jelly-ish at all and was perfectly formed, it was gorgeous.

One vendor we didn't manage to try was Meat in the Middle, who sold burgers, fries and hotdogs from a lovely red ice cream van.

They also had Pitch Eatery at the event but my photos have turned out so blurry they're unuseable! Nightmare. I've looked them up on Facebook though and will certainly be dropping in, the food looks amazing.

Unfortunately we didn't have any more room but also we didn't want another burger, the only downside we could see to the Street Food Warehouse so far was that a lot of the food was too similar, lots of meat in buns and a bit more variety would have been preferable.

Another thing we liked? The copious amount of kitchen roll available on the table, this is a place for eating and not worrying about what you look like!

We'd definitely recommend going to the Street Food Warehouse whilst it is running, you can reserve tickets if you require or turn up and queue at the time slot you want, it's £2 per person.

Hopefully we will go again and there will be a bit more variety there, Dough Boys would be a great addition as would a chicken or spicy food vendor, Thai or Indian would also break up the burger type foods.

Do you like going to food events like this? Are you a fan of slow cooked meats like pulled pork and beef brisket?
How cute are cocktails?!

L and M xxx

Fitness Friday: Sticky Chicken

Hey there!

A late night post from me today, had a MANIC week in work and thought I'd scheduled posts until they didn't appear....oops!

This week I've got one of the best recipes and tastiest ways to make any meal exciting with just 3 ingredients. My mum found this and it is actually amazing, I'm obsessed and felt the need to share!

I've made Sticky Chicken this time, but you can make this with just about anything including salmon which I 100% recommend too.



So basically all you will need is soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and honey.

Not only is this a super simple ingredient list, it's also fool proof to make making it the perfect kind of recipe!

All you need to do is mix three tablespoons of each of the ingredients into a bowl like so:




It can be a little hard to stir in as the honey sinks to the bottom but try your best and then pile in whatever you're putting it with. Diced chicken was my choice this time and with the three tablespoons mixture you can add up to 600g of chicken.

My packets was 375g but I prefer to have lots of sauce left over so i stick with this consistency.






So after you've mixed the chicken with the sauce leave it for at least half an hour, the longer the better. Every now and then mix it around again to ensure all of the chicken gets a good covering and as much of it is marinaded as possible.

After that, get your hands on a wok, add the oil of your choice and cook it up!



Make sure the chicken is completely cooked through and then cook it to your own desires, i personally like to reduce the sauce so its really sticky and so I leave it a little longer on a low heat.



As i said you can pretty much cook any meat or fish in this. I've marinaded salmon in it also and then baked it in the oven and its perfect for those summer days when a barbecue seems like too much effort. You could eat this with salad, stir fried veg, cous cous with grilled veg and a whole host of other things including my absolute favourite sweet potato chips!

Have you tried a similar recipe? Do you have any other ideas of what you can use it for?

I'd love to see any other recipes you might have. This one is one i know will be getting lots of use from me throughout the next few months!

L xxx

Tough Training: Healthy Snacks

Morning everyone!

Having written about my fitness plan for the year in a post last week (see here) I thought I'd start sharing some of my meals and snacks that I have in order to give you some ideas and suggestions in case you're lacking in inspiration as sometimes it can be so hard. I'm no expert in this whatsoever but I've lost around 2 stone and got myself to a size 10 and even though I do have my binge moments I don't often put on weight so thought maybe this could help!

First off, my number one tip is to make sure that you always have some food on you. This will mean that you are never tempted to buy anything from a shop like chocolate, crisps, cake etc that are just far too easy to pick up. I've got a range of stuff in my handbag and there's always something there whenever I need it which has stopped me many times from legging it to the corner shop. I also ALWAYS have water on me too, I get my 2L a day ever since buying myself a proper plastic bottle and swigging it when I'm 'hungry', but that's for another day.

Here's a few of my favourite snacks!


I don't think anyone will argue with me when i say fruit can be a perfect snack....its low calorie (around 50 per portion aside from a banana at 100), contains vitamin and mineral goodness and also water to add to your bodies hydration. It can be boring trying to get your 5 a day, but now I regularly get 7/8 a day without even trying as I put fruit on my breakfast, have some as my mid morning snack, a piece at lunch and maybe on the way home if I'm hungry to stop me eating something else before my tea.

I tend to eat a banana mid morning to give me a boost and also give my body the chance to burn off the extra calories, though lets be honest at 100 it's not a big deal!




Sometimes I really want crisps. I'm mostly a fan of savoury foods so sometimes I need the salt and the crunch and fruit just isn't good enough!

Nairns oat cakes are what I turn to when this happens. There are a variety of flavours but I find the plain ones (rough, organic etc) are perfect for me. When I'm in need of a boost pre/post workout and am not near a meal time I eat 3 of these with some nut butter on to keep me going; then I get the crunch and the salty taste guilt free!





You can read the ingredients and calorie values on these pictures, plus the qualities such as high fibre and no hydrogenated fat. I also sometimes eat these with a salad if I'm on a 'hungry' day.
I try not to have carbs with my salad as I have a decent helping at breakfast and try to burn those off throughout the day, but sometimes you just have to eat and these are perfect at 45 calories per oat cake.

(is it anything to do with them being called 'cake' as well? Hmm....)



I found Nakd bars just over a year ago and haven't looked back. At around 100 calories these are one of the few bars that are completely natural (all the contain is 100% fruit, nut, oat or soya crunchies), contains no added sugar, are wheat and dairy free and count as one of your 5 a day.



There are a variety of flavours and types; the apple pie bars are the original type of bars with raw fruit, oat and nuts 'smooshed' together to create a bar and the ingredients are listed on the packaging below. You can buy them individually, in boxes like in the pictures or on their website they have 'taster' boxes where you can buy a selection of bars together to try them all out.



The newer crunch range has soya crunchies added into them so that they contain more protein which is always a good thing. More protein means you are unlikely to lose muscle after burning off calories at the gym and it also fills you up for longer.

The good news is on their website (see here) you can get some great deals, currently you can get 20% off using the code NY14 but this only until the end of the month so hurry! Otherwise there are plenty of deals on their site so look out for them.
The Find Your Favourite box is £7.99 but they also sell boxes in Asda and Waitrose and probably more places too.



Sesame Snaps are my go-to snack when I've had a long day at work and know i have the gym to contend with on the way home. I often eat an apple on the way home to keep me going through my hour long drive home as its easy to get peckish around the 5/6 o clock mark.
I eat these snaps when I'm on the way to the gym so that I've got a bit of a sugar boost to fuel me through my workout. I know that once i'm in the gym I'll do it justice but sometimes it can be hard to make the decision to go!



These are quite simple; sesame seeds, glucose syrup and sugar. Normally I avoid sugar like the plague, unless its in fruit or honey I avoid it but these really do help and for days when I need something extra these 3 little snaps can make all the difference. That and there's THREE in a packet, so I feel like I'm having a big treat!
Plus its 157 calories for the packet and you can get these from Waitrose for 75p for a packet of four.....much cheaper than a chocolate bar! If you're lucky too they also do a coconut version with desiccated coconut and they taste GREAT.




Last but not least is my latest find; Bounce Balls.

I found them on a trip to Waitrose just before Christmas in the 'Free From' aisle. Being filled with protein and containing peanuts i snapped up my first one and haven't looked back since...
There are 5 in the range but I am yet to try the walnut version. The Almond, Peanut and Macadamia are all protein based and contains some whey powder to bind the ball. I find the almond and peanut ones are quite chewy but this takes me longer to eat and therefore I feel fuller quicker.



The coconut and macadamia one tastes more like a sweet that you'd have after a meal so I save this one for when I'm having a sweet tooth moment. The spirulina and ginseng ball was a newbie for me having never tried either and was very surprised to see it as a black/green colour in the package but it tastes AMAZING and I've been back many a time to get these.

My only qualm with these is that they retail for around £1.50/£1.70 which is expensive in comparison to everything else in this post. At the moment Waitrose have a deal on them where you can get 3 for £4 and I will certainly be stocking up as I do like them as an alternative especially as they contain a good dose of protein. They're also higher calories at 150-200 per ball but I'm not too bothered about counting my calories as long they all come from good sources.


So what do you think of my suggestions? Have you tried any of the bars before? Do you have an suggestions of your own?


I'm thinking of doing a Fitness Friday series so I can write about something different each week, whether it be a recipe, training plan, meal suggestions and other handy hints, would you be interested in reading them?

Let me know as I'm completely obsessed with it all and have been for a while but I don't feel like it comes across on here. I spend 5 days a week in the gym/exercising so would love write about it more!


L xxx