I love the idea of a pop up restaurant in someone’s dining room, probably because I’m a nosey parker. I’d love to open up my living room to see what it would be like but my lounge/dining room is about the size of a telephone box. Laura, Anu and I started talking on Twitter and as it turns out they host pop up dinners at their house in Reading. The meal I went for was Israeli themed; having no knowledge of Israeli food I couldn’t wait to find out more about it.

Traditional Turkish coffee with cardamom and iced Turkish delight sweets

We started outside with the chilled Turkish coffee. I really liked the flavour of the coffee with the sweets and the spices and thought it was a great way to kick off the meal. It was also a good opportunity to have a chat and get to know the other diners. 
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Tomato festival galette with garlicky goat’s cheese

We sat down to our first course, the tomato festival galette. They had used a fantastic selection of tomatoes; some from the farmers’ market and others they had brought back from travels afar. I was amazed at how intense the tomatoes were and really loved this dish. 

Lavash (crackers; cumin, fennel and sesame), pistachio and feta dip, beetroot dip with za’atar, goat’s cheese and hazelnuts, homemade labneh

After this we had various different crackers in all sorts of shapes and they were so good. These came with three fantastic dips, I don’t think I could choose a favourite, very different to your normal ‘chips and dips’!

Roasted vegetables and salad with hummus and kuku sabzi (a Persian fritter with fresh herbs and walnuts)

A short while later a big bowl of roasted vegetables, including heritage carrots and beetroot, and salad arrived with the best hummus I have ever tasted. The kuku sabzi was sort of like an omelette; so full of fresh herbs and flavour it was almost entirely green.
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Pistachio and turkey meatballs with pomegranate molasses

The turkey and pistachio meatballs were really good. It was the first dish that included meat but with all the flavours and different vegetables I didn’t even notice its absence. They were surprisingly spicy and the pomegranate molasses gave a lovely sour sweetness.

Shakshuka; traditional Israeli breakfast (onions caramelised in cinnamon butter with mint and fried soft yolk eggs) read more

This was a gifted meal.
A leisurely lunch is a very enjoyable thing. Relaxing with some food and wine watching the world go by is something that I like to do. The experience is vastly improved if you happen to be on staycation and can sit there without a care in the world. That’s what I did when I went to Malmaison for lunch; I organised it with them for a time when I knew I could sit there without any time pressure.

Malmaison has a modern feel; exposed brickwork, black and white pictures and spot lights mean that the interior overall is dark but the light at your table is quite bright. Much better than when you go somewhere that is dark everywhere and you put your fork into your dining partner’s dinner, or worse, your eye.  read more

I have spent much time wandering around Reading trying to find somewhere half decent to eat that wasn’t the London Street Brasserie. I feel like I exhausted the Brasserie a long time ago and if you’re wondering, they do fantastically good puddings. I wanted good food at a reasonable price and I found exactly that.

Forbury’s looks a bit pretentious from a distance but when you read the blackboard outside you’ll find you can have 3 courses for £14. For that price, you can’t complain! It’s a really airy, modern, light space with all these newfangled flower arrangements and the like but what they are truly about is wine. What I am truly not about is the waiter being so obviously uninterested in us when we declare that despite being in a wine bar we’d rather not have a glass of wine. He looked like he was about to vomit each time we raised our offensive soft drinks to our mouths.  read more