Spooky Spirits at TwoRuba

Somehow we've made it to the end of October. There's a palpable chill in the air - and a frisson of excitement. It's party season! The trifecta of Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas never fails to make me happy. I've equipped my flat with a little army of tealights and I'm just waiting for permission to break out the mulled wine. In the meantime, though, there's cocktails to be had. I recommend a trip across the river, where you'll find TwoRuba on the ground floor of the Hilton Tower Bridge. With a brand new autumn cocktail menu featuring a host of twists on classic drinks, TwoRuba is the ideal joint for a fall-themed tipple. This month I was thrilled to be invited to sample TwoRuba's drinks as well as experience a mixology masterclass here, in the company of my friendly fellow bloggers. 

I stepped in from the drizzle and bluster of an October evening unfashionably late (curse you, corporate hours...) and had an Autumn Lady pressed into my hand. This gin sour is a twist on the classic White Lady - a smooth, citrusy concoction of Sipsmith gin, egg white and chopped ginger. Exactly the medicine I needed to shift a stubborn cold, warming me up immediately. Tasty and extremely drinkable. 

When a man is tired of cocktails, he is tired of life. Isn't that how the old adage goes?

Puff pastry nibbles - the taste of party season! Exactly what was needed to line the stomach.

Hair of the dog for my second drink of the evening. The Scary Mary is a Bloody Mary with extra gin  and garnished with rosemary - truly terrifying! This one was particularly apt for Halloween, looking as though it had been scooped straight out of a witch's bubbling cauldron.

Tottering slightly and inhibitions worn away, it was time for some lessons from the pros.

The talented men of TwoRuba treated us to a masterclass in creating the fantastical Rainbow Cocktail - a riot of colours and delicate flowers, I imagine this is what unicorns sip after a long day at the office. This was quite nostalgic for a few reasons: the layers of grenadine, OJ and blue curaçao reminded me of a Rowntree's Fruit Pastille ice lolly, while the curaçao element took me back to my teen years, when it was the cool drink of choice. Still a guilty pleasure!

Some of us tried our hands at bartending for the night - and I dare say managed to nail the layered aesthetic.

But back to the mulled wine for a second (I'm obsessed - literally, I've been debating making the stuff on Twitter since September). TwoRuba will be serving a taste of Christmas at their waterside pop-up, TwoRuba by the Pier, as well as at the Christmas By The River Christmas market. Glühwein with a view of Tower Bridge - really, what more could you want? 

TwoRuba Hilton London Tower Bridge

5 More London Place

Tooley St

London SE1 2BY

I was a guest of TwoRuba on this occasion; however, as always, all opinions remain my own.

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Jin Go Gae

The weather has taken a severe nosedive lately. The Met Office reports are lousy with innocuous-sounding storm names (I mean, Clodagh? Sounds like an affable nanny with a proclivity for jelly-making, not torrential rain and 80mph gales). Basically, winter is upon us and while there's still a day to go until I fully embrace the mulled wine, Christmas movies and rampant carol-singing, I welcome any food capable of warming me up with the most open of arms. And it turns out Korean food does the job incredibly well.

Somewhat miraculously, I've managed to avoid Korean food for the past 23 years. Naturally, I was determined that my first experience of the food of Joseon should be excellent, and, convinced by London Eater's glowing review, settled on a trip to Jin Go Gae with Angela. So it was that I found myself making the hour-long trek down to New Malden on a rainy November evening...

To start, a host of various Ban-chan pickles (see top) arrived at our table - kimchi, kat-tu-gui (mooli), suk ju namul (beansprouts). I'd always been slightly wary of kimchi as I don't usually go for pickles, but I loved it all. I was also struck by the generosity of our hosts in bringing these, alongside a small bowl of rice, on the house - something Angela assures me is traditional. In the pickles' wake came 'yuk whe' - thin strips of beef sashimi accompanied by thinly sliced pear, pine nuts and, of course, a fresh egg yolk stirred in. This dish was quite simply the bomb. And this is coming from someone who's not a huge lover of steak tartare. The addition of the pear lent the beef an unexpected freshness and sweetness that had me digging in for seconds, thirds, fourths...

Next came par-jeon - delightfully crispy, flavourful seafood pancakes filled with spring onions, crabstick and squid. Simply delicious.  

Kan poon-gi - deep-fried chicken with sweet and sour sauce. Turns out Korean Fried Chicken is my new favourite KFC. Chewy, crisp and packed with spicy flavour, these were unfairly addictive.

I was less sure about this 'Sundae' soup (a world away from the caramel-drizzled sundaes of your childhood, before you ask): a broth filled with steamed homemade sausages, spring onions and pork. It was definitely interesting to try the sausages - these ones were stuffed with glass noodles, sticky rice, vegetables and soybean paste, something I've never seen before! However, the broth itself was incredibly peppery but otherwise unseasoned; the diner is encouraged to eat the soup alongside tiny salty preserved prawns. An intriguing experience, but to be honest, outshone by the other dishes.

Such as this one. Definitely edging into the limelight of the yuk whe, Jin Go Gae's jap-chae was stunning. Glass noodles sprinkled with sesame seeds and pan-fried with vegetables and beef, these were so sticky and rich in umami flavours, I could have cried. Absolutely fantastic. 

Jin Go Gae has something for everyone - the Korean food virgin, like me, or the seasoned eater, like Angela, who proclaimed the food better than the Korean joints in central London. Even though we over-ordered (with lucky me getting to take a couple of our leftovers home in a doggy bag), Angela and I barely scratched the surface of the menu - we didn't try bibimbap, barbecued kalbi or any of the hotpot soups. And yet I know that had we ordered any of these they would have been just as memorable as our dishes, because I can tell that Jin Go Gae has incredibly high, consistent standards. It's why the restaurant entertained an almost exclusively Korean clientele on our visit - the cognoscenti know that this place is at the top of its game. It's 100% worth the journey to K-Town, aka New Malden. I'll need to make another jaunt south of the river for a fix soon, because be warned - (yes, Korean food obsessives, you may roll your eyes at my naïvety now) - this stuff is addictive. 

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Halloween at Sponge & Cream

Autumn ushers in a host of childish joys: a carpet of crisp golden leaves made for jumping about in, a drop in temperature that just calls for hot chocolate and an exciting 'back to school' wardrobe of knitwear and coats. And...dare I say it...my favourite holiday. Maybe it's because I'm a December baby (and thus have the terrible first world problem of having any birthday thunder stolen by Christmas), but I've always had a soft spot for Halloween...

I love the creativity that goes into thinking up costumes, reading up the history of the holiday, and consuming as many scary books, TV shows and films as I possibly can. If you've been following me for a while you'll know that I had a mini Halloween reading challenge last year and it's become a bit of a tradition for me since - this year's poisons of choice have been the Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV show, The Turn Of The Screw, N0S4R2 and World War Z, in case you were wondering! So when I was invited to a Halloween-themed ZoMeeto masterclass at Sponge & Cream, I fully admit I jumped up and down like a little kid in anticipation.

Owner and former Hummingbird head baker Paulina Byrne welcomed us into her charming kitchen in Brixton Market with a combo that sat firmly within the 'treat' spectrum of trick-or-treat: bubbly and a gigantic slice of cake! I plumped for a slice of the banana cake, another childhood fave (I sense a theme of regression here) which was at once moist and rich, topped with chocolate brownie frosting...! Ridiculously delicious. I also had a taste of my fellow ZoMeeto attendees' choices, particularly enjoying the unique butternut squash cake. 

Full up on cake already, we gathered around the kitchen worktop for Paulina's speedy masterclass in how to assemble, frost and decorate a multi-tiered lemon and coconut cake packed with lemon curd, sprinkled with desiccated coconut and topped with candied slices of lemon. It looked absolutely scrummy and luckily for me, we got to take home our own mini lemon and coconut cupcakes as part of the next stage of the workshop!

Next the Halloween element of the evening came into play, as Paulina brought out little packets of coloured fondant icing, cutting, snipping and rolling little pieces with great dexterity to create three possible cupcake toppers: a ghost, a pumpkin and a witch's hat. 

And then...it was our turn to have a go!

Making fondant sculptures was very much like playing with Play-Doh. So at this point of the evening I'd actually regressed to person in a sandpit level. Especially where it came to my fine motor skills. Paulina made the process of making the little critters look incredibly quick and easy. The harsh reality? I spent a good ten minutes rolling out my witch's hat (which ended up more of a misshapen, Sorting Hat monster). Shh, art was never my strong point...

After making our fondant models it was time to put them in pride of place on top of some delicious Sponge & Cream cupcakes. Paulina taught us how to frost the cupcakes appropriately: lemon and coconut daubed on rustically for the ghost, ribbons of orange for the witch's hat and green grass-like spikes of frosting for the pumpkin to sit on. I personally had the most fun with the grass, and now I have more of an idea of how to ice properly (though I'll definitely need a lot more practice!) 

My pièce de resistance: Casper the Friendly Ghost.

So yeah. Thanks to my greedy inner child, I scoffed all my cupcakes within 24 hours. Thank you very much to Paulina for the wonderful cake, for teaching us how to make the three-tiered cake and the fondant sculptures and most of all, for being so tirelessly patient with me and my sad lack of icing knowledge! And thanks so much to Zomato for organising another incredibly fun event! Paulina hosts similarly fabulous workshops and baking classes currently at Fair Cake (there's one on tomorrow if you're that keen!) so if you're looking to improve your cake skills, keep an eye on the Sponge & Cream Facebook and Twitter pages for news on the next one.

I'm even more pumped for Halloween than I was already and am planning recipes to use up pumpkin from the jack-o'-lanterns I'll invariably be carving next week! Do you have any plans for Halloween this year?

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The Horniman Museum

All you naughty children sniggering over the Horniman Museum's name at the back there, quieten down now. It's a seriously awesome museum, and one of my favourite spots in London. Best of all, general admission is completely free. I decided to visit on my own a couple of weeks ago, fleeing up the hill to escape pelting, icy rain. I'm no stranger to the HM, but this didn't matter to me at all. I think there's something so special about wandering around a museum alone, unimpeded by other people's opinions or walking paces. Yup - it was time to get my inner museology geek on.

The Horniman is a bit of a crazy place - in a good way. There's several galleries featuring anthropological exhibits - there was an exhibition about Romanian dress and identity when I visited, as well as a room holding pretty much every musical instrument you can think of. But my favourite is a cabinet of curiosities-style gallery in the basement. It's dark and atmospheric, rarely populated by other visitors, and absolutely full to the rafters of random artefacts from all over the world - reminiscent of Cambridge's Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. There's everything in here from sculptures of avenging Hindu deities to Alpine masks, fishing hooks and torture chairs.

But the real reason to visit the HM is for its amazing natural history gallery. Rivalling the Natural History Museum in the amount of taxidermied and model specimens it possesses, it's definitely a lot quainter and less crowded than the NHM, making it a joy to wander from cabinet to cabinet in peace.

I loved the handwritten caption on the Callides Grandes, top left. It really conjures up the time and place where it was found. I can just imagine how happy Mr. Horniman would have been when he chanced upon it innocently crawling along the leaf of a tea plant on a trip to Kobe at the end of the 19th century.

I remembered this little guy from my last visit - probably because his cheeky grin and tufty spikes remind me of Alex! 

Seeing the skeletons of other primates always strikes a chord with me - we really are so closely related.

The most famous animal in here is the majestic walrus, who's lived here for over a century - give or take the odd tour or renovation. He's absolutely gigantic because the taxidermist overstuffed him, not knowing that walruses are meant to be wrinkly...

This gametes chart took me straight back to GCSE Biology.

The Horniman also has an amazing collection of birds from all over the world. My favourite sections include an incredible sequence of pigeons at various stages of flight and, best of all, the exotic birds collection.

The tiny sunbird.

A kingfisher (Malaysia represent!) 

The long-tailed, brightly-coloured quetzal from Central America.

I thought the iridescent plumage on the golden-headed trogon was especially fascinating, and very beautiful.

From the top...

...and from the bottom. 

After the needle-like rain had eased off I took a stroll around the museum grounds.

At the top of the hill there's the most amazing view stretching all the way to the City.

I sat on the crest of the hill admiring the view from the bandstand for a while and trying not to get blown off my bench by the relentlessly buffeting winds. 

The Horniman is absolutely worth the trek down to the southern reaches of Forest Hill! You'll definitely learn a thing or two in the amazing museum, and on a warmer day it's a perfect place to have a picnic. If you spent your childhood delving into Horrible Science and thought that the NHM was heaven on earth, this'll make a perfect day trip for you.

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