Dinner at Bodo's Schloss

Named after Bodo's Cafezelt, the oldest tent at Munich's legendary Oktoberfest - and Schloss, the Austrian word for palace, Bodo's Schloss aims to offer an alpine escape without guests having to set foot outside of London.

As soon as you near the restaurant, which is modelled on an authentic Austrian farmhouse, you know you're in the right place. Charming fairy lights adorn the building's entrance and the rustic wooden interior and checked tablecloths wouldn't look out of place in a real Austrian alpine venue.


Before our visit, friend and I had checked out the menu online, which looked divine, and picked our favourites. However, when we arrived we were told that because of Fondue Wednesday they would only be serving a reduced menu which, incidentally, didn't list any of the dishes we'd been excited to try. This was disappointing, not to mention strange as many of the authentic Austrian options the restaurant advertises were missing as well.

To make matters worse, as I took a sip from my water I nearly cut myself as there was a big shard missing from the rim of the glass. I would've probably noticed this sooner had it not been so dark inside the establishment but either way, Bodo's Schloss and I were not off to a good start.

After some deliberation we chose the seasonal soup to start our meal with, which was a sweet potato one when we visited. We were presented with huge bowls of steaming hot thick soup that could've easily passed for a main course. I enjoyed it, particularly the crunchy pumpkin seeds it was served with as it gave the dish some much-needed texture, but my fiend found it too bland and thought that having a soup made of just sweet potatoes and no other (root) vegetables didn't work.


For my main I opted for the only authentic Austrian dish available on the reduced menu: the Schloss Wiener Schnitzel. I love a good chicken schnitzel and as Austria's unofficial national dish I of course had to give it a try. The meat was properly thin and came with a deliciously crispy crust. It was served with cranberry sauce, which was a good choice as it made what could've been a very dry meal, nice and moist.

The side of a cold potato salad with a few slices of cucumber was adequate, but I did miss some vegetables with the dish. Unfortunately the reduced menu didn't offer any sides at all so I wasn't able to order anything else with the meal. I also wasn't a big fan of how the schnitzel was presented, in the pan it was cooked in, as it made it awkward to cut pieces from it.

My friend's hearty lamb goulash was a bigger success than her starter had been. The pieces of meat were succulent and plenty and the dish was complimented well by the side of crispy spaetzle (an Austrian egg noodle) and crunchy toasted hazelnuts. It was a side I'd never tried before but I had a taste as well and it was delightful.


For dessert my friend chose the apple strudel with custard which didn't do much for her. An excess of raisins made it hard to find the 'apple' and the custard it was served with wasn't very tasty nor did it come with a pouring jug, making it difficult to eat.

While I hadn't been in the mood for the cheese fondue as a main, I did get a taste of the Wednesday specials with my dessert as I chose the chocolate fondue. It came with generous helpings of assorted dippers - from strawberries to marshmallows and Amaretti biscuits to coconut flakes - and I was even told that if I wanted a top up, all I had to do was ask.

This wasn't necessary as there was more than enough for me (my friend even discarded her apple strudel in favour of the fondue and tried some of the dippers as well - there was that much) and I loved every bit of it. Dipping the various fruits and candy bits in the scrumptious hot chocolate was fun (albeit slightly messy as the strawberries kept falling into it) and tasty, making the fondue the undisputed highlight of my meal.


While Fondue Wednesdays are a fun idea we were disappointed that this unfortunately meant that the rest of the menu was considerably reduced and barely catered to. This wasn't made clear on the restaurant's website at all, so it took us by surprise after we'd already been seated and been presented with the small alternative menu.

The dishes we did order, were mostly fine but as they weren't the ones we'd had our heart set on, they were never going to be able to live up to our expectations. Thankfully the chocolate fondue was delicious and managed to lift an otherwise rather disappointing evening considerably. My friend wholeheartedly agreed and as she dipped her final slice of pineapple first in the hot and gooey chocolate and then in the popping candy, she commented it felt and tasted like a party in her mouth.

Bodo's Schloss, 2a Kensington High St, London W8 4PT.

Theatre review: The Pajama Game

About: The Pajama Game is a buoyantly blissful blend of romance and comedy, based on the novel 7 1/2 Cents by Richard Blissell, with music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross and book by George Abbott and Richard Blissell,

First staged in 1954, the original Broadway production won three Tony Awards including the Tony for Best Musical, and later picked up another Tony for Best Revival of a Musical for its 2006 Broadway revival.

In 1957 a musical film based on the stage musical was released. The principal cast of the Broadway musical repeated their roles for the movie, with the exception of Babe, who was played by Doris Day.



Rating:

Book review: Return to Mandalay by Rosanna Ley

My edition: paperback (proof), to be published on 22 May 2014 by Quercus, 563 pages.

Description: Eva Gatsby has often wondered about her grandfather Lawrence's past, and exactly what happened to him in Burma during the Second World War. But it is only when Eva's job as an antiques dealer suddenly requires a trip to Mandalay that Lawrence finally breaks his silence and asks her to return a mysterious artefact of his own - a chinthe - to its rightful owner.

As Eva arrives in Burma her mission soon proves dangerously complicated, and the treasure she is guarding becomes the centre of a scandal that will have far-reaching consequences. Caught between loyalty and integrity, Eva is determined to find the truth about her grandfather's past, of her own family origins, and of the red-eyed chinthe itself - enigmatic symbol of the riches of Mandalay.

Rating:

Sunday post #27

Sunday is when I sit back with a lovely cup of tea and write about all the wonderful new books I've received and purchased in the past week. This post participates in fab memes Showcase Sunday and Stacking the Shelves.


• Five by Ursula P. Archer (won)
• Payback by Kimberley Chambers (???)
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (unexpected surprise)
• The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson (won)
• The Travelling Tea Shop by Belinda Jones (review copy)



It's been a while again, but I hope you've all treated yourselves to some fantastic new reads recently. I am super excited to start reading my new books, for various reasons. I already read (and loved) The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden, which shows a fascinating and different approach to fiction. I haven't read the author's first novel (The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared) yet, but I'm keen to check it out now. The Girl Who... reminded me also of Last Bus Coffeeville, which is a book I recently fell in love with and I hope this will spark the imaginations of other writers to pen novels along a similar style.

Five came into my possession by way of a brilliant scavenger hunt organised by @DeadGoodBooks in London. They left clues on their Twitter page and with one being near my office I ventured out into the rain during lunch and victory was mine (no killing necessary). Finding one of the five copies of eh... Five also puts me in the chance of winning a meal at a restaurant which serves surprise menus in the dark - which sounds really cool! I think a few of the books are still in the wild, so check the #findfive hashtag on Twitter and you may be able to find an advance copy of the novel too.

Station Eleven was a lovely unexpected gift from Sam at Pan Macmillan who sent a copy my way after I was shamelessly gushing over the cover. It's even more stunning in person (Picador have really outdone themselves) and the blurb sounds super intriguing too, so I cannot wait to read it. I have no idea where Paycheck came from, but The Travelling Tea Shop is the first novel I've received specifically for review for Novelicious.com, which I am stupidly excited about (so much so that even though I just received the novel, I've already nearly finished it and it's so cute!).

What new books have you guys bought/received recently? Have you read any of the above yet?

Dinner at Rub Diner & Milk Bar

If you have a craving for some deliciousness of the speedy variety, but don't necessarily want to visit one of the fast food chains dotted around the capital, then Rub Diner & Milk Bar might be just the thing for you. The restaurant is based in North London and claims to specialise in slow cooked food delivered fast.

The eatery opened its doors last summer and is currently undergoing a major refurbishment, which is to transform the intimate dining space into a more comfortable eating area. When we visited they were in the middle of the refurb and so the atmosphere was a bit lacking, but we hope that once finished the home-from-home look and feel the diner is aiming for will be that of a comfy and classy home, rather than a shabby one.

The restaurant serves an array of American diner style food - from spicy buffalo wings served with creamy blue cheese dip to sticky brioche with pulled pork - and so we couldn't start the meal with anything but a proper shake. Faced with the choice between chocolate and double chocolate (amongst others), friend went with the latter while I opted for the slightly safer former variety. The drink was thick and creamy and tasted just like a good ice cream, making it the perfect start to what would be an indulgent meal.


From the food menu we chose two types of burgers with a side order of onion rings, fries and sweet potato fries, though when the plates with mountain-like burgers arrived we realised that perhaps we'd ordered slightly too much for just two people.

Rub Diner being known for their slow cooked food, I tried the Piggy Back Burger, which is their basic burger with an added generous helping of perfectly succulent 10-hour cooked pulled pork. It made a tasty and hearty combination with the thick, juicy burger patty, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, cheese and gorgeous homemade burger sauce. The burger was stacked high though, which not only made it impossible to eat it in a dignified manner, but try as I might I also couldn't finish it.

My friend chose the even bigger Smoke Stack, which was all of the above with added smoked sausage and smoked bacon. Needless to say, despite her applaud-worthy efforts, her plate didn't get polished off either. We did finish both side orders of fries and our favourite was hands-down the sweet potato variety; perfectly crispy and with a delicious bite we would've happily devoured another portion (if we hadn't been so full already). The onion rings were unfortunately not as successful as they were flavourless and greasy, but with the wealth of other food on the table this wasn't a huge miss.


What the restaurant lacked in atmosphere and personality during the refurb was more than made up for by the helpful and friendly staff serving us on the night. And with generous portions of swiftly served feel-good food, this diner is on the road to becoming a comfy home-from-home.

Carole Matthews at The Chocolate Festival in London

Carole Matthews is probably best known for her Chocolate Lovers' Club books, so what could be more apt than for her to make a special appearance at a festival that is all about the delicious melt-in-the-mouth sweet? As I am addicted to both the cocoa treat and Carole's delightful books, this sounded like a winning combination to me.

Unfortunately the festival was more of a lonely cocoa bean rather than Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and the organisation left a lot to be desired. For the first few minutes us book lovers were huddled in a corridor for the reading, but could barely hear over the sound of a singer whose piercing voice, as Carole fittingly put it, could probably hit notes only dogs could hear. Thankfully we soon moved to a private room where were treated to an intimate reading, a Q&A with the guest of honour and even some fun facts about chocolate. Massive kudos to the incredibly lovely Carole for singlehandedly making it such a wonderful afternoon despite the odds not being in her favour (oops, wrong franchise).

Carole is an avid reader herself so we easily started talking about all things books. She mentioned that she cannot cope without a book on the go, which is what got her into writing in the first place. Her passion lies with historical novels and she's a particular fan of Philippa Gregory. The reason she doesn't write historical fiction herself, she revealed, is that she is better at the kind of research that involves chocolate, wine and gossip. She also enjoys grisly crime (reading it, that is), though really she'll read anything and everything.


Asked how she decides the topics for her novels, Carole tells a story about a book she wrote which featured opera heavily and for which she ended up seeing three operas a week. Needless to say, by the end of it she never wanted to see an opera ever again. Nowadays, she picks a topic that she won't mind studying for six months. She jokes that she's considered writing a novel titled The Secret Cake Eaters Society, but that the research probably wouldn't be very healthy for her.

The chocolate idea actually came about when she was having dessert with her editor and talking about a novel she was working on at the time. He said: "Darling, a book about chocolate would sell ten times more". She wanted to feature a group of women in it, like in Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives, and so The Chocolate Lovers' Club was born. She is currently working on the third book in the hugely popular series, titled The Chocolate Lovers' Christmas. Fans will have to be patient though as it's not out until August. Thankfully, she is releasing a Christmas novel this year and another summer title next year to tide us over in the mean time.

Something funny to note is that Carole’s Christmas books get their first release when it's still summer. This is because her novels receive a soft launch as a hardback first – aimed at libraries, export and hardcore fans – followed by a paperback release a few months later, which gets the full publicity campaign. As she has a new seasonal read out each year she is always editing or writing one and glitter starts moving into the house from March onwards! Christmas cannot come early enough for me, so Carole's house doused in glitter and having lots of chocolate dotted around for research sounds pretty amazing to me.


Some of Carole's research for her cocoa-centric books sounded amazing, such as visits to Cadbury World and a tour across America, and had me seriously considering writing a book about chocolate myself. Other anecdotes, meanwhile, made me shudder at the mere thought and wonder why anyone would ruin a good piece of chocolate like that. She has, for instance, eaten chocolate ants and chocolate made from beans that have passed through the digestive system of a weasel. Weasel poop aside, all this research into the sweet treat has turned Carole into a self-confessed chocolate anorak.

Not only did we listen to Carole's hilarious readings and hear all about her writing process, but she also treated us to some chocolate fun facts throughout the event. Here are a few that are too good not to share:

• The Aztecs considered chocolate such an aphrodisiac that women weren't allowed to touch it.
• Chocolate stimulates the release of endorphins in your body, making you feel happy (This is true. We were surrounded by chocolate and giggling like mad, I'm definitely blaming the sweet treat for that and not my mental state).
• The blood in the famous shower scene in the movie Psycho was actually, you guessed it, chocolate.
• Fifty per cent of woman prefer chocolate over sex (Carole commented that this couldn't possibly be correct and must be a much higher percentage).

Thanks Carole for a wonderful and educational chocaholic afternoon! Her latest novel, A Place to Call Home, was published on 10 April.


This post first appeared HERE on Novelicious.com

Book launch: Ghostwritten by Isabel Wolff

One of the most exciting perks to being a book reviewer, besides reading lots and lots of amazing new novels, is being invited to all sorts of inspiring literary events. Often this means getting the chance to meet the author and publishing team, and sometimes even rubbing shoulders with a celebrity who looks oh so familiar – even if you can't quite figure out who they are.

In March I attended the launch for Isabel Wolff's mesmerising new novel Ghostwritten (find my full review here), which delves into the harrowing story of a Dutch woman who lived in Java during the Japanese Empire's occupation in the 1940s. The launch was at the Free Word Centre in London and despite having worked around the corner for years and the building having a colour-popping Kermit the Frog green exterior, I never even realised it was there. As a centre for literature, literacy and free expression it was a very fitting venue for the event though and one I'll now certainly be keeping a closer eye on.

Lots of gorgeous copies of Ghostwritten, ready to be signed

Some people are fashionably late; I'm usually unfashionably early. Being one of the first ones to arrive did mean Laura and I bagged some comfy seats on the couch and had the chance to chat to the guest of honour before she was swept away by other invitees congratulating her on the publication of her novel. Isabel was absolutely lovely and a delight to talk to as we asked her about the story behind Ghostwritten. And, the proper book geeks that we are, we even got our photo taken with her.

While enjoying a nice glass of red wine (okay, two glasses) we met Jaime Frost, a publicist at HarperCollins who we may have slightly interrogated about her fab job. She was lovely about it though and happily answered our many questions. Jaime also spoke about some of the exciting novels she's currently working on and from the sound of it there are some great things in the works for HarperCollins.

Ghostwritten author Isabel Wolff and I

Midway through the evening Isabel held a speech thanking some of the people who had been of great help during the process of writing her latest novel. She also read an intriguing passage from the story and even though I was already interested in the book before I attended the launch, her gripping reading ensured it went straight to the top of my to-read list.

During the reading I was standing behind a glamorous woman who looked incredibly familiar, but even though friend and I racked our brains to figure out who the mysterious blonde was, we both clearly failed at celeb spotting. Thankfully Jaime messaged the next day, preventing many sleepless nights I'm sure, and revealed it was none other than Helen Lederer of Absolutely Fabulous fame – very befitting for what was a fabulous evening!

We had an absolutely lovely time at the launch, many thanks to Isabel for the kind invite!


This post first appeared HERE on Novelicious.com.

One Big Book Launch

I was delighted when Sarah from CompletelyNovel contacted me to invite me to their new initiative called "One Big Book Launch". She found my details through my review of Last Bus to Coffeeville by J. Paul Henderson (a brilliant book by the way which you should all check out, find my full review here) and while I did primarily attend for the opportunity to meet the author, I was pleasantly surprised by how many other brilliant novels I fell in love with on the night.

First of all, I have to congratulate CompletelyNovel and Literally PR for organising such a fantastic and well-executed event. One Big Book Launch was born out of the idea that when authors have a book launch usually only friends, family and those who are in a way connected to the book or author attend, however if you combine the book launches of 10 different authors and all those friends and family members attend they'll be exposed not only to the book of the person they know, but also to those of nine other authors - expanding their horizons and providing a great form of publicity for each of the chosen titles.


Each author was given five minutes to present themselves on stage, there was a strict deadline enforced with the help of party poppers, and each one of them did so brilliantly and in their own unique way.

Particular highlights for me were Sabrina Mahfouz, who got completely into character during her reading, bringing the pages alive in front of our eyes with her different voices and accents, and Simon Fairbanks, who mentioned that he wrote his debut novel The Sheriff during NaNoWriMo - which means in just 30 days!

All authors were inspiring and engaging and if I didn't already have a towering to-read pile waiting for me at home I would've bought all their books on the night.

  And of course I was thrilled to have the opportunity to meet Coffeeville author J. Paul Henderson. He was lovely as we spoke about his inspiration for the novel (he lived in Mississippi for a while and he knew he wanted to feature the place in his story and combine it with his own experience of a parent suffering from Alzheimer's), the real Coffeeville (I had no idea it actually existed) and what he's working on now (his third novel, the second one is already being scrutinised by his publishers).

He was also kind enough to sign my copy of his book and since I was the first (or one of the first) people to ask this, he asked what I'd like it to say (bless him) and I said whatever he felt comfortable with. So he signed it with just his first name and said that makes us friends now *beams*


I also had a chance to chat to lovely Frances and Amy from No Exit Press (Paul's publisher - see me just using his first name now), which was such a nice unexpected surprise (I've been following Frances on Twitter for a while, but didn't realise she'd be there until just before the event).

In all, it was a great evening filled with bookish fun, mingling with like-minded people and most of all celebrating new authors and novels. Many thanks Sarah for the invite and I hope you guys will organise another one of these wonderful events in the not too distant future!

Theatre review: Avenue Q (UK tour)

Synopsis: Avenue Q is a laugh-out-loud musical that tells the story of a recent college graduate named Princeton who moves into a shabby New York apartment all the way out on Avenue Q.

There, he meets Kate (the girl next door), Rod (the Republican), Trekkie (the internet sexpert), Lucy the Slut and other colorful types who help Pprinceton finally discover his true purpose in life.

From the producers of Seussical (West End), Spring Awakening (Debut UK Tour) and Lord of the Flies (UK Tour) Sell a Door Theatre Company revive this critically acclaimed musical at their London home the Greenwich Theatre before embarking on a 12 Week UK Tour.


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Book review: The Headmaster's Wife by Thomas Christopher Greene

My edition: paperback (proof), published on 1 May 2014 by Corvus, 288 pages.

Description: Arthur Winthrop is a middle-aged headmaster at an elite prep school in Vermont. When he is arrested for an act that is incredibly out of character, the strait-laced, married headmaster confesses to a much more serious crime.

Arthur reveals that he has had a passionate affair with a scholarship student called Betsy Pappas. But Betsy is a fickle and precocious teenager. When she switches her attentions to a classmate, Arthur's passion for Betsy turns, by degrees, into something far darker. Now Arthur must tell the truth about what happened to Betsy.

But can Arthur's version of events be trusted - or is the reality much more complex and unnerving?

Rating: