Honestly, this burger was…

I’ve had a lot of burgers in my 23 (T minus 11 hours, 24 *gasp*) years. From the famous and truly unbeatable In-N-Out Burger in California, to a cheeky Big Mac while walking home from a long night out.

After a physically exhausting day moving on Saturday (top floor apartment to an even higher top floor apartment – imagine the number of stairs climbed!), I tried out the new Honest Burgers Halloumi burger. This special launched at the start of September in collaboration with Briddlesford Farm.

Hallou, is it Mi you’re looking for? I thought this burger would be a win-win kind of situation because I am a gigantic fan of halloumi, and when combined with a juicy burger and some smashed avocado – how could you go wrong?

I’m sad (and slightly shocked) to say though, I wasn’t a big fan. I’m normally very easily pleased with food, but this just didn’t work for me. I’ve thought long and hard about why the flavours were off, and I’ve concluded that it was the harissa mayonnaise.

The ingredients are: Honest beef, British halloumi-style cheese, bacon, smashed avocado, harissa mayo, rocket and pink pickles.

When you look at that list, nothing stands out as being inappropriate for the mix. But it was definitely the mayonnaise that caused my dislike. And if I ever ordered this burger again, I would hold that ingredient altogether.

The juiciness of the burger, the smokiness from the bacon, the grilled texture and flavour from the halloumi, the creaminess of the avocado – these are not sensations that should be covered up, least of all by a condiment.

I think what would’ve worked better is a pesto or chimichurri, or a tomato chutney. Or for a cheeky breakfast-spin – a perfectly fried egg with a runny yolk, sandwiched in between the avocado, bacon and cheese. MMMM.

But that’s just my opinion.

Other than this experience of their burger, Honest Burgers’ fries are the best. I love a good, chunky, home-made style chip. When I was little, my parents used to make chips and they would not hold back on the rosemary. So these fries really remind me of that. I also always order their beef & bacon gravy as a dip, which is utterly drool-worthy. I could totally drink it with a straw!

The Halloumi burger is available until 5 October.

Let me know if you try it out, or what your favourite burger is.

Lifestyle: Self-motivation,self-care, and switching off.

I am absolutely terrible at taking a break and knowing when it’s time to step back and recharge.

Or, not so much knowing when to, but actually making myself act on that knowledge.

I often find that if I don’t keep striving and looking for ways to stay busy, get up early, smash my to-do list, I feel guilty. Then it reaches a point where I force myself to relax, but I spend all that time “relaxing” thinking about what I should be doing instead. Who’s with me here?

I could place the blame on lockdown and having to work from home and be my own motivation, but the reality is, I’ve always been like this (at least in my more adult years).

I’m the type of person who doesn’t need someone reminding them to get a task done; oftentimes, it’s me taking the lead. You know what they say: “If you want something done right, do it yourself”, “Better to lead than to follow”, and so it goes.

Self-motivation is something many people struggled with during lockdown, and are still struggling with in these new work-from-home conditions. Not having the office buzz, or even a library or café to go to, where you could place yourself in a productive atmosphere, made it so much more difficult to stay focused.

I was totally alone during lockdown, as both my flatmates scurried home to their families at the first signs of corona-chaos. So I literally spent more than eight weeks on my own, with the only face-to-face communication I had being with the staff at the supermarket checkout.

The thing that kept me self-motivated and accountable during that time was developing a stringent routine. Routine is so essential to achieving consistency. I woke up every weekday at 6:40am, signed on to either a live Instagram or Facebook workout at 7am, showered, listened to BBC Radio 4 as I made/ate breakfast, cleaned up, and then officially started work at 9am. On weekends, I would wake up around 8am. I believe it was in the book, Atomic Habits, where I read that the key to developing successful long-term habits is learning to love the boring nature of a routine. And I really do.

But sometimes, and probably way more often than I allow myself to, you just need to write a day, or even a couple of days, off: have that lie in – skip that workout – put off that task until tomorrow – binge-watch that series all day. And most importantly, you cannot feel guilty for switching off. Because if you spend your time-off feeling guilty for taking time-off, you are not maximizing your time-off, and consequently, you will not sufficiently recharge.

Having just finished my degree, I am now in the process of job-hunting (oh, Lord help me). Over the last few weeks I’ve also been flat-hunting, flat-viewing, found a flat, dealt with all the paperwork that goes with that, and am now packing up my current home to move in two days’ time. I’ve definitely been surrounded by mess and boxes for way longer than I’d like, and it’s definitely symbolic of what the inside of my brain looks like right now. Soon I’ll be unpacking, cancelling bills at my old place and setting up new direct debits, and it’s my birthday next week (for which there will probably not be much celebration as we’re back to six-people-only social gatherings here in England).

Job-hunting, like finding a new place to live, is a very time-consuming, mentally exhausting process. It also requires daily attention: What’s new on the market? Who’s posted what? Is that suited to me? Should I inquire about it?

Today I decided I needed to take it easier. I went to the gym this morning because I wanted to; I worked on an application a little bit because I wanted to; I wrote this blog post because I wanted to. Now I think I’m going to go for a long walk in the sunshine to clear my mind and get some fresh air, and to make the most of the weather before clouds and rain soon become the norm here in London.

Take a deep breath. Remember to be in the moment. And know that it will all work out in the end.

If you have anything that really helps you relax and recharge, please share it down below in the comments!

Nicole’s London Lockdown Bar

Lockdown made or broke a lot of us. For me, it gave rise to some delicious creations.

During peak lockdown here in London, there were moments when I just craved relaxing in the evening with a good cocktail in hand. Obviously, nowhere was open, leaving the task of satisfaction down to me. With only a half-stocked kitchen cupboard where my flatmates and I store our booze, I had to get pretty inventive.

And boy oh boy, did I ever!

The Aperol Tonic

Aperol, tonic water, ice & some fresh basil for garnish. I eyeball measure all of my cocktails, but I’m also used to American standards where a single shot is 50ml (not the British 25ml), so don’t be afraid to err on the side of “generous”. If I had to say though, I’d probably go for a short glass, filled with ice, 100ml of Aperol, topped with tonic, and as much basil you like.

The Aperol Tonic: After Dark Edition

For a stronger, “watershed” version of this otherwise socially-acceptable afternoon drink, follow this recipe: short glass, filled with ice, 50ml vodka, 35ml Aperol, topped with tonic water and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

Cordially VT

Ok, now this one is probably my absolute favourite – and definitely a drink I’ve still been making even since life returned to, well, as normal as it can be right now. Blackcurrant cordial, vodka, tonic water, and ice. OH MY GOSH.

It’s honestly the best thing since sliced bread. You could use any flavour of cordial, but the point is: start adding it to your vodka tonics people! For rough measurements I’d say: short glass, filled with ice, 25ml cordial, 50ml vodka, topped with tonic water. You will not regret this one.

Strawberry Rosé

Let’s be honest, it’s a high-risk task when buying a bottle of rosé. At least if you’re like me, and you don’t really go for super sweet wines. Blush rosés are for the most part safe, because you know their light pink colour means that extreme sweetness is not as likely as it is with their syrupy deep pink counterparts. This cocktail was invented when I needed to find a way to make a nasty, too sweet, cheap rosé into something actually palatable.

I believe in redemption, hence why I tried to save the situation, rather than chucking out the bottle.

Fill a wine glass with ice, then pour 1/2 rosé and 1/2 Volvic Touch of Fruit Sugar-Free Strawberry flavoured water. I’m not normally one for promoting the dilution drinks (that’s the Irish in me showing itself), but sometimes it’s just necessary. Combining the strawberry sugar-free water with the sweet rosé, created this ice-cold, light and refreshing take on a spritzer (minus the fizz) that was utterly delicious. In fact, this cocktail is so good that sometimes I’ll purposely buy a rosé wine I know I wouldn’t otherwise like, merely so that I can make this drink (which was definitely not my initial intention).

Satan’s Sangria

*Approach with caution – will probably cause a horrendous hangover if consumed in excess.

This cocktail is the only one I properly measured when creating. The great thing about sangria (red wine + lemonade) is that you can really add anything into it as long as you have the staple ingredient of red wine.

This drink was invented after I had a bottle of red wine open for well over a week and was no longer something I could have by itself (did someone say vinegar?). Ingredients as follows: wine glass filled with ice, 100ml red wine, 150ml tonic water, 30ml Aperol, and a dash of Tesco’s peach squash. If you cannot find peach squash then peach juice, or any sweet fruit juice, would do the trick.

Let me know if you try out any of these cocktails, or if you have any recipes of your own that were created in lockdown! Bottoms up!

NO, it isn’t made from oranges.

Next time you go out for a drink, you may be faced with a new option of wine on top of the usual red, white, and rosé.

Orange wine – and it’s becoming very popular.

Before you ask, because it’s the first question we all want answered, no, it isn’t made from oranges. To put it simply, orange wine is made from white wine grapes, but following the same process that red wine undergoes. This means there is skin-contact from the grape skins, which is what gives the liquid its deeper amber colour.

What does it taste like? Honestly, I am still learning how to best describe the taste to people who haven’t tried it before. Orange wines have such a broad spectrum of flavours that sometimes I feel like I am drinking a pale ale, other times a tart, fruity drink. I think this would be a good wine to introduce to those who don’t like conventional tasting wines, because that’s certainly not what you’re getting.

Smithsonian Magazine published an article over a decade ago about orange wine. As I have just learnt reading that article, because there is skin-contact in the process of making orange wine, it adds tannins, which is what gives red wines a more bitter taste and body. Newsweek, among many, reports that orange wine dates back centuries; in fact, skin-contact wine is the oldest recorded wine-making process in the world. MasterClass further explains that originating in Georgia, this traditional wine-making involved an 8,000-year-old process of fermenting crushed whole berries in clay vessels, then sealing the jars with either more clay or beeswax, and burying them underground to keep cool.

Nowadays, orange wine is produced all over the world.

Orange wines also typically (though not always) fall under the umbrella of “natural wines”, because they tend to be unfiltered, and have few to no additives: a.k.a. they aren’t really interfered with.

I’ve probably tried around eight different brands of orange wine so far, but most recently I treated myself to a gorgeous bottle of Fra’ Diàure from Bon Vino in Bermondsey. Alessandro, who owns the shop, walked me through a whole selection of orange wines – it was my own personal wine tasting experience. I met Alessandro back in September 2019 at his other shop located in Maltby Street Market – his passion for fantastic wine is utterly contagious.

Other places I have tried orange wine at include OMBRA and Sager & Wilde, both in Hackney, and Trivet in London Bridge.

I’m still trying to expand my palette of orange wines. If you have any recommendations of bottles to try, or places to get it – comment below!