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The Bell & Brisket Fix

7 Jun 20138 Aug 2017 Yelly

I remember really craving salt beef sandwiches. And I remember the great salt beef sandwich search. It was quite the exciting thing, trying to find the best place for salt beef sandwiches in London (I wasn’t expecting to find it in Essex–I’m glad to be proven wrong though, so if there are good purveyors of salt beef sandwiches in Essex, can I get a shout out?). I now have two favourites for salt beef sandwiches: The Bell and Brisket and Monty’s Deli. But the sentimental favourite will always be The Bell and Brisket because it was the first place I’d gotten the long-awaited sandwich from.

My first salt beef on rye sandwich with American mustard in the UK was from The Bell and Brisket and even now, I still smile when I remember how good it was when I took that first bite! It was so good! And the sandwich looked sooooooo pretty! I remember wanting to take a picture for posterity. Considering that this sandwich traveled from London to Harwich, I thought it traveled quite well!

One of my favourite salt beef sandwich incarnations is the salt beef with kimchi either on rye or on a bagel. I remember having it first at Queen’s Head in Soho when Bel had her pop-up shop there. She had meal deals and served a selection of pickles with her salt beef sandwiches. I was a bit dubious about the kimchi with the salt beef, but it was two of my favourite food things: salt beef and kimchi. It wouldn’t hurt to try it! It was a salt beef eureka moment. It was quite the East meets West food fusion moment. Who knew salt beef would work amazingly well with kimchi. Well, obviously, Bel knew!

It was ages since I had a salt beef sandwich from Bel. Last week, on Friday, I saw a tweet from Bel saying she was at KERB in Kings Cross. I quickly sent her a tweet to ask her how long she was going to be there. I thought it was the best time to catch her since I hadn’t had a Bell and Brisket fix in ages! I was quite relieved that we managed to catch her there. I had my salt beef and kimchi bagel and was in salt beef heaven!

The meat is wonderfully flavoured and is meltingly soft. There is something fundamentally comforting about hot salt beef sliced fresh right in front of you. The salt beef sandwich is quite an experience and I would recommend The Bell and Brisket to anyone and everyone! The Bell and Brisket is at Kings Cross with KERB on Fridays, every week, until 2:30PM. If you’re there, make sure you get one of the sandwiches offered because they are dee-vine!!!

Yelly Eats

Pan de sal at last!

11 Nov 201230 Sep 2013 Yelly

I’ve been looking for a pan de sal recipe that I can work with and I have think I may have found it.

Pan de sal is a Filipino bread roll that is sold at very nearly every corner bakery shop in the Philippines. I’ve missed it so much that I’ve told myself it’s necessary for me to learn how to make it. This is the third adaptation of a recipe that I’ve seen online. As usual, I read and reread the recipe to make sure I could follow the steps without reading through the recipe over and over (even if I had the iPad open on the recipe anyway!). I always worry when I’m making bread because I’m never sure it’s going to turn out right. But there was something right about how the dough looked while it was being kneaded in the Kenwood. I kneaded the dough by hand and the dough felt right then too. When I oiled the dough to prepare it for proofing, it looked right. Ha! Listen to me waxing philosophical about bread dough!

After following the baking instructions and making the bread rolls, I must admit, I was a bit worried again. It might’ve have looked right as proofing dough but I always worry that I’m too heavy handed with anything I bake! With a lot of whispered prayers I popped the trays into to oven and waited (impatiently) for 15 minutes until the timer pinged to tell me the rolls were ready. They looked gorgeous and they tasted even better. They finally tasted like the pan de sal I remember from the Philippines!

And, yes, I am very, very please!

Yelly Reads

The Fabulous Boy Who Bakes

13 Oct 201230 Sep 2013 Yelly

I love Twitter because it makes celebrities more accessible. Now, before you think that that statement sounds lightly stalkerish, I don’t mean you follow their every tweet. It just allows you to post a comment and it allows the people you look up to to respond to your message.

I’ve had a few fan girl moments on Twitter where my baking heroes have actually responded to my tweets. It can be quite the giddy moment.

I have quite a few favourites on Twitter from the Great British Bake Off. One of them being the first ever winner Edd Kimber. I’m not ashamed to say that I very much wanted Ruth Clemens to win that series but it was, really, an undeniable truth, that Edd was quite the baking talent. I became quite the Edd Kimber fan when I was given his cookbook. His blueberry streusel pie is absolutely amazing and the streusel recipe is so versatile! I’ve used it for other baking projects and it has been a wonderful addition to my other fruit pies!

Edd has a stall in Maltby Street Market selling his lovely baked treats from his Eddibles Bakery. I’ve been twice now. And today, I had the chance to get his new book (which is on my cookbook wishlist) and get it signed too! Edd was lovely and very accommodating. He talks to the people who visit his stall and talk to him about the GBBO and his baking and his books.

I felt really cheeky asking him to sign the book for me but he did, even saying that he brought a pen for “just in case!”. I asked if he could take a photo with me and he said yes! Total fan girl moment. I was honestly feeling a bit under the weather this morning but this certainly lifted my spirits!

Thank you Edd!

I’m soooooo looking forward to trying my hand at making the rainbow cake…and the lamingtons…and the bourbons…and the custard creams…

Yelly Snaps

Harry Potter!

6 Oct 201230 Sep 2013 Yelly

Yes, I am a Potter head and yes, I took the Harry Potter tour at the Warner Brothers Studios in Leavesden.

The experience was glorious. I knew what to expect because one of my church babies, Paula, had gone on the tour a few months earlier. I didn’t expect to be so captivated and I know it sounds awfully cheesy, but I didn’t expect to be transported back to Hogwarts! Going on the tour made me want to watch all 8 movies all over again! It’s just driven home the point that JK Rowling had the most amazing mind, being able to create a whole world filled with wizards, witches, a wizarding school and a whole other world!

What I loved the most about the tour was that you got to see how much detail went into creating that world that drew everyone in. It was amazing and quite the mind-blowing experience. I tip my hat off to the men and women who took part in the creating the wonderful Harry Potter experience because this was truly amazing work!

I could post the nearly 500 photos I took during the tour (yes, they even tell you to have your cameras at the ready!) but it wouldn’t really put into words how absolutely magical it was. Yes, magical. Remember how you felt when you watched Harry Potter for the very first time, and marveled at the world you were entering (via the movie, of course)? Multiply that a hundred times and that’s how it feels walking through the tour!

Yelly Snaps

Lovely Keele Hall

13 Sep 201230 Sep 2013 Yelly

My job takes me to all sorts of places. I don’t really see much of the places that I get to, it’s mostly train stations or airports, cabs, the venue and then back again. But there are times when you get to be in absolutely lovely places.

On Monday evening, I was overseeing the dinner at the conference that I was managing. We were fortunate enough to be in a wonderfully old building. I’m sucker for old buidlings and this was certainly a treat for me. We had dinner in the Salvin Suite in Keele Hall. Keele Hall was originally built in the 16th century and was rebuilt in the 19th century. After dinner, everyone who wanted a bit more tipple moved to the bar which is actually an old library.

Sometimes, even though you’re at work, you can stop and still enjoy your surroundings!