Otto's: Moroccan

Mike and I have decided to keep trying different cuisines other than the traditional Italian, Chinese, French etc. Also, we're trying to keep away from chain restaurants like La Tasca, Frankie and Bennies, TGI Fridays for a few examples. 

Last time we tried a quaint Spanish Tapas restaurant, this time we tried Moroccan. I think this cuisine idea came as a recommendation that Mike got from a regular at work. He thought that the name began with M but when I researched it, this was the restaurant that came up most often. 

It's called Otto's Moroccan Restaurant and when I saw pictures of it I remembered that I had walked past it before whilst I was studying in Sheffield. I only gave it a thought as one of my friends' nicknames is Otto ha! Took a picture and sent it to him, obviously.

Here's the website: Otto's Restaurant   

Here's some reviews: Otto's Restaurant Trip Advisor

As I read up on it, the more I wanted to go. The reviews say it's great. Obviously I didn't take everything at face value as different people would have had different experiences however, the majority of the reviews are very positive. 

In hindsight, we should have gone on a different night. We went on a Sunday and we were the only people in the place. It was very nice but would have been nice to have more people for a better atmosphere. Apparently, it's great on a Friday or Saturday with live piano playing. There were adverts for live belly dancing nights as well which I think would be great to experience. 

The food was lovely and the price of the set menus wasn't too bad either even with the £3 supplement for the lamb tagine we had. The lamb was so tender, it fell off the bone. To be honest, I thought that tagine was something totally different to what we had and if we went again we said that we'd got a side portion of cous cous. We both thought that it had rice but apparently it's kind of stew. Either way it was very nice and this is coming from someone who isn't a big lamb eater (from having a previous preoccupation of not wanting to eat animals with cute faces, obviously I've been missing out). The chocolate tart I had for the pudding was scrummy as well. 

One of the things I found was good was the fact that it is a licensed property but you can bring your own beer and wine, there's a corkage for using their glasses but this would make it cheaper overall. Some of the reviews say that the shop across the road does cheap wine and beer which is convenient. We didn't have any alcohol as I was driving home in the evening. The location of the restaurant is on Hunter's Bar which is a bit out of the way, well it's about 30 minute walk from the centre, but as Mike lives near there it's easier for us to get there than go into the centre. 

Overall, Otto's is worth the money but I'd suggest going on a busier night :D

Next time I go to Sheffield I think the cuisine is Turkish. Plus I'm going to try bouldering :s Wish me luck as Mike said it was difficult and he's in a lot better shape than I am.

xx

30 Day Shred- Level 3

So, I'm on the last leg of the DVD. I found that Level 3 went quicker than Level 2. I felt it was very stop and start on Level 2. Level 3 is very quick moving which I liked.


To be honest, the pictures aren't doing my body justice. I look the same in most of them ha! But I do see the more subtle changes that the camera doesn't pick up.

I've now also started doing the 30 Day squat and crunch challenge just for something to do in the evening when I'm sat around doing nothing. I might see a difference but I doubt it will be much. However, it's better than me just sat on my bum all evening. Anything is better than nothing.

I've bought the next DVDs as well. I've decided on Killer buns and thighs and 6 week 6 pack. I don't want a 6 pack but it will keep me on track. At the end of DVDs people sometimes think wow that's it and go back to their old habits. If I keep things on the go then I'll always be doing something.

I would like to to find something I like doing. I like swimming but the nearest pool is in the gym I used to go to, it's tiny and expensive. The nearest one to that is 20 mins away. The leisure centre that I could have gone to, burnt down and it being rebuilt so that will take a few years. Seems like the world doesn't want me to swim ha! 

I don't really like the big claims that workout DVDs make. The 30 Day Shred claims that people could lose up to 20 pounds in 30 days. I've lost a bit but nowhere near that. That claim is for people heavier than I am and I find that they should be claiming to get healthier not skinnier. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying skinny isn't healthy but people can weigh more and still be healthy. Muscle weighs more than fat so I'm trying to not focus on the number I see on the scales.

So, I had to give up on this workout. I got to the last couple of workouts and my shoulder and wrist really started to hurt. I powered through until the last workout and decided to stop as I didn't want to cause more damage and let it recover.
By the time I get to actually do the last workout there won't be much point in posting the picture as I've gone a bit awol with food as well.
I feel healthier overall, I just need to get my diet under control.

xx

La Mama: Latin Tapas Bar

So, for the last two days I've been bad with eating and my workouts however, I hadn't seen Mike in over a month so I wasn't too bothered about it.
We made banana bread, carrot cake and Mike made me his version of beef bourguignon, it was lovely :D.

On the night before I left we went to a lovely little Latin tapas bar called La Mama. We had a discussion about what cuisine we wanted to eat. We always have Italian, Chinese, Indian, English etc and I didn't want Moroccan (however, decided we'd have this next time) so we decided on Spanish. We've been to La Tasca and I think it's nice, Mike doesn't think much to it don't know why though, but we wanted somewhere nearby and not a chain restaurant. We found La Mama and looked on trip advisor for some reviews, most of them said it was excellent and I now see why. Here's their trip advisor page La Mama Tripadvisor.

There's always going to be some people who don't like places which could depend on anything how busy the restaurant is, the mood the staff/ customers are in etc. We went with the majority of reviews that said it was excellent.

Here's their blog :D: La Mama Blog

Mike and I are quite big eaters so we ordered 4 tapas dishes including hummus and homemade bread, meatballs, chorizo in a cider sauce, peri peri chicken and whitebait. The waitress made a mistake with our order and sent out spareribs instead of the meatballs and they rectified it no problem, plus gave us the spareribs for free. Bonus! :D Free food is always good in my books.
I love Spanish food so we also ordered their speciality mixed seafood and chicken paella, which they said would take 40 mins to cook. I liked that it was cook to order and the chef himself came out to explain that it would be another 15 mins after we'd had the tapas. He was so lovely and polite, as well as the waitress that was serving us. Once it was ready the chef brought the paella to the table and explained that we could either eat it on the plates that we were given or we could eat it the traditional way and just eat it from the dish. It was a nice touch to be told how we could eat it.

Everything was delicious, I couldn't actually decide which dish I liked the best. However, the paella was near the top of the list. When I went to Spain on holiday we had paella and to be honest I've loved it ever since. I got a craving for it so that's why we had it. I love rice so paella was a perfect choice. The only thing I would say is that the squid rings were a bit chewy but I've had a lot worse and they were only a small part of the dish, overall it was amazing :D. I would definitely go back and recommend it to anyone. The place is quite small but very quaint and as it was a warm night the doors at the front were open. It's location is a bit out of the way, about 20 min walk away from the city centre but only a 5 min from Mike's house so it was great for us :D

Next cuisine is Moroccan as I've never tried it before and I'd like to try tagine :)
It's amazing how much my food tastes have changed. Before I met Mike I'd never tried and wouldn't try curry, chilli, lamb, mussels, squid and a lot more other things. I was a picky eater but Mike made me try different things.

xxx