Wednesday 24 July 2013

'Harvey's Point Hotel' Donegal, IRELAND. Stunning weekend away!

I had never been to Ireland before so you can imagine how excited I was when my friend, Aisling, told me her wedding would be in Ireland!

Great!!

Whooooooooooooooo a weekend away out of London!!!

Flights were only £80 return and me and Andy decided it would be a nice idea to hire a car so we could see as much as possible during our 3 days there.

The wedding was being held in a small town called Donegal at a hotel called 'Harvey's Point'.

WOW, I checked out the website immediately and it looked stunning!

I was so excited!

DONEGAL bound!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We flew from Stansted and it was only one hour, really quick and painless.

When we touched down we collected our little car (Ford Fiesta) and hit the road!

I wish this part had been as easy as our flight!

When we picked the car up the hire company had run out of bloody sat navs so it was back to old school map reading!!

We thought to ourselves - hey this will be a good challenge for us, it can't be that hard............

Andy was driving and I was navigating.

Oh I forgot to mention our flight to London that morning was at 7am, we had to wake up at 4.30am so we had both had about 4 hours sleep!
Not the best recipe for a 2 hour long car journey, in Ireland, with no sat nav.

We got lost.

Apparently it was my fault...........I think differently.

Note to self - ALWAYS GET A SAT NAV.

So 2 hours and 40 mins later, we saw this............


Yessssssssssss we found it!!!!!

Then we saw this .................



Driving up to the hotel was beautiful, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh such a nice reward after our stressful car journey.

The Hotel


The surroundings were just stunning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right, we arrived at 11am and the wedding started at 2pm so we had a good 2 hours for a nap. I of course needed an hour to get ready!

We couldn't wait to hit the pillows!

The bell boy took us up to the room..................an executive double.....................


It was huge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You should have seen the smiles on our faces!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bed time - we needed to re gain energy for a day of drinking ahead, this was an Irish wedding and they can sure drink!!
After our power nap we swanked up and hit the wedding!!

It was such an amazing day in picture-perfect surroundings :)




If you are thinking about going to Ireland for a long weekend away this place is seriously romantic!!!!!!

The view from the cocktail bar.





Whilst we were staying at Harvey's Point we visited Rossnowlough beach, although it was windy the sea was warm!



On our last day we decided to drive to Slieve League Cliffs - the highest sea cliffs in Europe!
Bring it on!!

It was about a 1.5 hour drive but sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


This is what we saw on our way to the cliffs.


So beautiful.



After a steep drive up...........we reached the cliffs!







Wow!! What a view!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


It was so peaceful up there we didn't want to leave.



FANTASTIC weekend away from the big smoke!!

If you fancy getting away, consider Donegal! Flights are cheap as chips and the scenery is gorgeous PLUS there are tons of great seafood joints!






Thursday 11 July 2013

Boho Mexica - Shoreditch delight!!

On a hot summers evening in London myself and a friend decided to have some drinks and dinner out after work.

I wanted to go somewhere fun in the Shoreditch area so I researched a few places on the internet and Boho Mexica came up.

The reviews were mixed, some of them were moaning about the slow service but the majority had said the food was great.

After being cooked a Venezuelan dinner a few weeks ago by a friend I was craving the flavours again.

The black bean sauce is to die for and I love trying different types of cuisine.

Right Boho Mexica it is!

As we were walking down commercial street trying to find it, we started to hear the lively  Mexican music........the restaurant was opened up onto the street and it looked like a little piece of Mexico had come to London.

Inside it was very busy, luckily I had booked!

The dudes behind the bar were energetically making cocktails and all the customers looked like they were enjoying themselves.

I was so pleased it was just what I wanted and as it was such a hot evening it felt like we were on holiday!

I loved it.

The interior had bags character with cool Latino posters and fun cartoon like drawings on the walls.





We had met earlier and sunk back a few cocktails so we got straight onto a bottle of Tempranillo.......




Hmmmmmmmmmm what to order for a main............

The food you are about to 
enjoy is all made fresh on the premises daily, using the freshest 
ingredients possible; many of which are flown in directly from 
México.
Tia Patty
Executive Chef: Patricia Vivas


I decided to get this with black bean sauce instead of rice and coleslaw.

Pollo a la Morita
Delicious corn fed chicken marinated over night with our 
mix of Mexican chiles, in a tangy tamarind & chile morita sauce.
Served with our Tabasco coleslaw and rice.
£13.95

We asked the waiter what the most popular dish was and he said it was -

Puerco Enchilanchado
Grilled succulent Paillard of pork marinated 
for 24hrs in a mix of chiles.
Served with sweet plantains, rice, 
black bean puree and fresh corn tortillas.
£14.95

So my friend ordered this and we decided to share :)

As the sun went down the waiters lit all the candles in the restaurant and the Mexican tunes got louder. I was thinking this would be a great place to come with a big group over the weekend and get totally carried away drinking LOADS of cocktails and pretending you're on holiday ;)



After indulging in more wine and enjoying the atmosphere, our food arrived!!

All the waiters seemed very laid back, friendly and chilled which suited the overall vibe of the restaurant.







Time to get stuck in.

The black bean sauce was DELICIOUS! It had pieces of chorizo in it and was just heavenly.
I grabbed a corn tortilla, pulled off some chicken and smothered it with the sauce YUM!

I love eating with my fingers, it brings out the kid within.

The pork was amazing, juicy and full of flavour, it worked really well with the sweet plantains and rice - these were flavours I hadn't tried before.

I was in a good place and was really enjoying myself, sharing food is a great way of trying more than one dish!


We ate EVERYTHING and were full........but there is always room for dessert!!!!!!

Again we asked what was the most popular.....

The waiter told us to order

Flan de Rosas con Jamaica y Copa Nevada con Cajeta
Homemade rose water flan & a light Mexican vanilla cream with cajeta.
£6.50

and

Pastel de Tres Leches
Homemade traditional 3 milk Mexican cake covered with meringue.
Deliciously juicy.
£5

Again we shared.

They arrived shortly after.....................




We devoured them within the space of minutes, they were seriously GOOD and I was making all sorts of yummy noises, as you do when you're thoroughly enjoying something!! Oh man I will be ordering them both again, the home made rose water flan was my favourite.

What a fab evening!!

So much fun, new and exciting food and some cooooooooooool Mexican music thrown in.

I am a fan of this place and although the service was fairly laid back and the food is quite pricey the whole feel of the restaurant makes it worth it!

It was buzzing and full of life and that is hard to find!



http://www.bohomexica.co.uk/