Brighton – Tango's Baking

Going back to work this week really did make me realise I will be soon facing reality again and back to routines. So I decided to make use of the bank holiday weekend to do one last trip to Brighton before the end of summer, hoping for some nice sunshine! ☀️ The last time I visited Brighton was all the way back in October last year with my mum during the half term break (come to think of it that was before the last national lockdown- time really does fly!)

On arrival it was all bright and sunny and I headed down to the hippy area of The Lanes, stumbling this vegetarian café for food. I ordered their mushroom and courgette lasagne and it tasted really good (I do enjoy having plant-based stuff 🌿🌿 every now and then, it just feels less heavy at times lol!)

While the sun was indeed out, the beach was generally still quite windy so it felt actually colder than it looked! 🥶 However, after checking into the hotel and having rested a little, I decided to head out to the beach for a mini picnic.

Afterwards, I journeyed along the beach (passing the naturist’s beach at one point haha! 😆) and reached the Brighton Marina Square.

Scallop and crab linguine at an Italian restaurant there – tasted alright but some of the scallops were a touch overcooked

I also got to enjoy the beautiful sunset and the vibrant night lights of the Brighton seafront 🌅🌃 (making the most of staying in a hotel by the beach this time! 😂)

The next day, I also paid a visit to the Royal Pavilion (which was doing renovations when I was here last time.) Also pleasantly surprised to find out that the normal ticket is all year around, so I can visit again and again for free! 😁

Fantasying myself cooking in this kitchen haha! The dream!

The Saloon – reading how this room was restored was really impressive!

Absolutely in love with the Music Room! 🎵🎶🎵🎶 (My favourite one of them all!)

Love the Asian touches around the entire place!

After the visit to the Royal Pavilion, I still had time to revisit the other side of the seafront and sit down for a seafood lunch at a restaurant by the i360 tower! 🤤🤤

Skate Wing – trying it for the first time! 👍

Feel so zen staring out into the open sea…
🌊 🌊

Summer is finally over, but I know plenty of adventures are still out there! 🙂

So it’s finally half term, which means I will be taking off a week away from work! YAY! 😁👏👏 It also just happened to coincide with with my mum’s work break, so we decided to travel together this time. 👵Obviously, with the current pandemic, we had to think long and hard about which was the best place to visit, and we finally settled on visiting Brighton for a four-night stay! 🌊

I baked some egg tarts the night before to take with me on the travel 😂

It wasn’t a long train ride to get to Brighton (and I took off immediately after work! 😂) This time, we had to travel separately, so I ended meeting my mum at the hotel there. With her working as a chef for a hotel group, we were also very lucky to get a free stay in the city. 😁👌

Greetings from the hotel! How cute are these! ❤️

Since my mum and I were both enthusiastic foodies, we were so happy to get to enjoy so many great food on this trip! 😋 One of the first places we visited was Riddle and Finns just by the Brighton Seafront. Nothing can really beat a luxurious seafood lunch by the sea! 🦀🐙🦪🐟 (And how can one possibly say no to seafood when you are in Brighton? 😉)

The view from the restaurant (before it started raining heavily! ☔️☔️) We were so lucky we chose to eat inside (not that my mum could stand the cold 🥶 anyway! 😂) as the people eating outside were then ushered back in all soaking wet!

Complimentary bread basket with four different condiments (our favourite was the mackerel 🐟 I really enjoyed the horseradish too but my mum wasn’t a fan! 😂 ) I thought it was really cute for them to serve the butter on a shell.

Starters: braised octopus with confit egg yolk and miso yoghurt (left), New England clam and bacon chowder (centre) and tempura monkfish cheeks with a jalapeño and basil dip (right)

Jersey oysters three ways: (From the left clockwise) Porthilly (deep fried with pickled vegetables), Oysters Rockefeller and creamy champagne sauce. 🦪🦪🦪

My mum is working hard to try to get all the crab meat out! 🤣

My favourite dishes there were the oysters (the Rockefeller style was the best of the three for me), octopus and the tempura monkfish cheeks (loved that dip!) The clam chowder was okay, but I personally would enjoy it less thick and the vegetables more cooked. My mum (who is even pickier than me with food) really enjoyed the oysters too, but she also liked the crab, though it was hard work and a messy job getting all the meat out! 😂 💪 Actually felt like a proper workout after! 🤣 (I found the dish okay, but we both thought the Malaysian coconut sauce was slightly too sweet and I wasn’t a massive fan of crab to begin with… 😅)

Luckily the rain stopped pouring when we finished our lunch, so we got to enjoy a stroll around the seafront and the city, including visiting the famous Brighton Pavilion. We snapped many pics! 😆📸

Look at the waves! 🌊 🌊

Love the market feel here with all the boutiques

Brighton is truly hidden gem with its ambient, relaxing atmosphere and a beautiful seaside. Over the new few days, it was such a delightful surprise to discover all these great food places within the city! 🤤🤤 Here are some of the best ones!

Delicious, healthy salad lunch in Foodilic 🥗 That mango and avocado salad was so yummy! It’s great value for money too – only £8.50 to sit in with one hot main and three side salads. Very generous portions too! We were so stuffed afterwards! 😬

Blue cheese pizza in Fatto a Mano. Simple and scrumptious! And I introduced Burrata to my mum – which she absolutely loved! 😂 (We wandered into this restaurant as a shelter when the sky suddenly started pouring 🌧🌧 one day. Weather hadn’t really been on our side throughout this trip… 😅)

When I visited Salisbury last month, I found a Roly’s Fudge store and bought some of these back for my work colleagues. They absolutely loved it and devoured the whole box before I got to try any. 😛 So I finally got to have some this times around, but I found them rather too sweet for my liking… 😖

Our last meal in Brighton was a French dinner in the Petit Pois Restaurant. 🇫🇷 And we managed to finish on a high as this was our favourite meal throughout the trip! 👍

Complimentary appetiser: apricot and chestnut croquettes

Starters: pan fried scallops with artichoke purée, apple and hazelnut salad (top) and classic garlic and parsley snails (bottom)

Bouillabaisse- fish soup with sea bass, mussels, squid, king prawn, seaweed and potato

Duck breast with celeriac Dauphinoise, grilled spring onions and blood orange sauce

We absolutely loved the earthy nuttiness of the croquette appetiser! 😋❤️ The dish of the night though was the scallops. The artichoke purée and the acidity of the apples marries perfectly with the lightness of the scallops. 🤤 My mum also really enjoyed her Bouillabaisse. For me, the duck breast was also very yummy with a medium-rare cook (which it’s how I always like my duck) and I wished they gave me more of that delicious blood orange sauce! 😂 I couldn’t get enough of it!

Once we finished dinner, we ran back into the hotel passing through a storm ☔️ ☔️ as the rainy night marked the end of our trip. 😝

Tag: Brighton

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