Inside Out Nkuto Cookies

Hello there! 

Yes, it’s been a while and it’s great to be back! Hope you didn’t miss me here too much? I did 😅 so it’s really awesome having you read here today!

Ever wondered what you could use Shea butter for aside your skin and hair? Well, I recently rediscovered the flair for baking with Shea butter and now excited to share with you my quick and easy Nkuto bake! 

General info

Inside Out Nkuto Cookies - our Foodie Recipe

My Motivation

Where do I start? This is a long one 😅 My mum... my first Nkuto (Shea Butter) bake was made by her, with her willingness to experiment with what most wouldn’t bake with. She made me realise the delightful shortening Shea Butter could produce. 😘😘👩‍👧, the Ghana Food Network asked the world on Instagram what we use Nkuto for and reminded me I could actually do this again. @vanessa who recently dashed me massive amounts of genuine Nkuto from the Northern parts of Ghana. All this with my craving for a homemade bake, my desire to experiment once again, and my curiosity for pushing machines to give me more than what they’re traditionally known for 😏

My Hack

All that lovely milk which masked the strength of the Nkuto like no other, and in combination with it gave me the taste that could fight with a delicious shortbread any day! 🤩 If Nkuto does not remind you of silky tastes, then try a good Milk-Shea-Butter combo, it may just click 😃

My Challenge

Dealing with a small turn table. I’ll probably half the portions next time 😅

My Excitement

I feel like I made shortbread!!! I won’t tell a lie! And to my surprise (I must be completely honest), the taste and texture this recipe gave me makes me realise one thing... I shouldn’t be making these often if I want to fit in my clothes. Delish! And the crunch within... I knew microwaves cooked from within but to produce this magical combination is an experience I’m happy I’ve had. Speaking of which, it was quicker to make with the microwave - enough motivation for me to try more microwave bakes in the future 😍

Serving Size

Approx. serves 6 at 2 cookies per serving 

Overall Cooking Time

25 mins (16mins Prep time; 9mins Cooking time)

The Recipe 😃

I hope you this video motivates you to try out this recipe! Do let us know what you think of it when you do 😃 

And till we meet again, do continue to have exciting foodie experiences 😋😍



Thank you for reading our post and watching our video today. If you loved it or simply learnt something new, kindly remember to like, comment or share with others.

Warm regards, 

The Ndudu Tales team 

Lebanese House Restaurant

Hi everyone,

Great to be back. Today I have a restaurant experience to share. Ready? I am!

Location & Opening Hours

Lebanese House Restaurant

5/6 Weavers Walk, Newbury RG14 1AL

01635 552644

https://goo.gl/maps/KseoUG2c1Eq

The Lebanese House Restaurant in Newbury is in a cosy corner off the Northbrook street in Newbury. As I love to say when it comes to my eatery reviews, remember to check the link for opening times. 

Ambience & Service

It’s a rather spacious area on one floor, but the seating arrangement and hues on the wall gives it a rather cosy and warm feel. Pleasant, if you don’t feel distracted by anyone.  I would recommend it for family eat outs or even corporate hang outs.  

Initially, I got upset with the service. Two of the waiters that attended to us seemed to be having a bad day of some sort. And when my main meal order arrived and it was not what I was hoping for, I was thoroughly upset. 

But...

Here’s where the big but is... the one that makes me want to recommend Lebanese House any day...  

At some point, another waiter came up to us and asked if we were enjoying our food. We were definitely enjoying the other orders but my main course: I chose to combine the calamari (buttered squid seasoned & deep fried) under the hot mezza menu with some french fries.  

Both starters were lovely, and my dining partner that day, Joana Lemaire, had ordered a delicious main course! But I was too stunned by my main meal “disaster” to actually say anything. Anything. I won’t lie. For those who know me, I’m barely short of words. You probably can tell that too by my posts. But I was stunned. Joana had to prime the complaint out of me by telling this waiter I wasn’t happy. My fries were underdone and my calamari was not a calamari 😭.

And guess what? 

This waiter not only listened carefully to me and accepted to take the food away whilst offering us the choice not to pay for it, or to have it totally replaced by anything we wanted on the menu without further charge... he actually patiently and very respectfully explained why I disliked my main. 

And guess what again?  

The waiter admitted that what I had ordered wasn’t home cooked from scratch - that's one. It was named the way it was on the menu because it actually wasn't the authentic calamari - two. Like saying a beef crisp isn’t actually made of real beef. So their buttered squid wasn't exactly raw squid covered in batter or fried in butter. And three - I think I was simply won over by his honesty and willingness to make things right. Aside the french fries that was clearly undercooked, my proteins weren’t actually protein... lol... using the example I cited, my beef crisps weren’t beef! No wonder I felt duped by an “inauthentic” meal.  

But because I’m a sucker for awesome customer service, this little experience was a game changer big on my list. My bill was not charged with the main I disliked, I got a very respectful lesson on the difference between what I was expecting and what I ordered, I received an honest, professional and apologetic conversation in response to my complaint, and I received a sweet dessert on the house. 

Mehn! I haven’t seen that in a while. 

So yes, this post was created not because I had delicious dishes at the Lebanese House Restaurant, which I did aside my hiccup order, but because the turnaround to what could have really messed up my night was beautiful. 

Now on to the actual tastes and textures I so enjoyed, shall we?

Tastes & Texture

So Joana and I had a Hummus Kawarma and spicy Chicken Wings for our starters. Both very delicious, and if you’re a lover of hummus like me (but unlike my dining partner... lol...) you’d love this hummus. 

The chicken was moist and tasty, rather spicy and flavourful but not too peppery. This hummus reminded me of my very first intro to Lebanese hummus, the very reason why I love it. Deliciously tangy, very smooth and light but rather filling, it was good it came in a small portion. The well-seasoned lamb and soft pine nuts that were slightly crunchy were a wonderful part of the meal, complementing the hummus served. 

Chicken Wings - Marinated grilled chicken wings served with garlic sauce 

and

Hummus Kawarma - Chickpeas puree with sesame paste (tahini), lemon juice, & garlic topped with fried diced marinated lamb & pine nuts served with a Lebanese Flat Bread

Joana's main dish was good! A king prawn platter served with rice, it was a huge portion and luckily for me, it was big enough to share between us (as my choices for my main meal had failed me). 

The rice was deliciously braised with strands of what seemed to be a fried raw pasta that had been eventually boiled with the rice. The infused flavours of the rice also had a pleasant hint of garlic or onion in it. In all it was a good side to have with the king prawns and veggies and reminded me of an upgraded "anwamo" (a braised rice made with onions that is popular in Ghana). 

The king prawns were well cooked. Tasty and slightly tough, I felt it was filling especially with the salad it was served with. Joana and I were not accustomed to the dressing served with it, but an occasional dip achieved was an interesting adventure for my taste buds. 

This dish hit high scores on all fronts for me and I would recommend it for anyone who is a lover of prawns and tasty rice. 

King Prawns - Grilled king prawns with lemon & garlic, served with rice

Now, the compensatory dessert that I received on the house is a Lebanese treat made with flour, honey, sugar and pistachios. I love pistachios so I enjoyed having them crushed and sprinkled all over it. The dish was super super sweet so combined with the reminder that I had made a blunder with my own main meal, it was hard for me to dig in. But if you ever ever ever have a super sugary sweet tooth to please, you may want to request this sweet treat. Unfortunately, I do not remember the name, I must be totally honest with you, but I do have a picture of it below.

Cost

Between the two of us, we spent about £30 including a virgin cocktail I had (below).

I would recommend you budget £20 - £25 per head to be in a safe space if you decide to visit this Lebanese House Restaurant. This should comfortably set you up for a 2 course meal and a drink at least. Worth every penny, the taste, ambience and awesome service of the Lebanese House Restaurant is surely something to write home about. 

Now that you have my personal view of the Lebanese House Restaurant, I hope you're are motivated to make a stop there if you're ever in Newbury. Delicious food, lovely ambience and awesome customer service, it's a place I doubt you would be let down by. Till we meet again, please remember to keep having wonderful foodie experiences - it's one of life's gifts if you ask me any day!

Thank you for reading our post today. If you enjoyed it or learnt something new, kindly remember to like, comment or share with others. We would appreciate this. 

Warm regards, 

The Ndudu Tales Team

Cornish pie crust mess, quiche crust just right!!!

Helloooooo everyone!! 

It has been a while... but we’re glad to have some foodie tales lined up. We’ll do our best to keep up with the weekends.

Yesterday, I attempted something I had never done before: make a Cornish pie crust with olive oil instead of butter or margarine.

I ended up making quiche! And a delicious one at that. But that isn’t the amazing part...

The amazing part is how I eventually got to improvise based on the baking knowledge I already had with the disaster before me... just because I was more motivated to make this work than throw each disaster away.

The oil and the flour combo was a mess: oily, and falling apart. That’s when I remembered that all my caterer friends mentioned to me that they used oil for cakes, not pastries!!! So I added eggs to help bind it up. That helped, but the dough would not roll out without breaking up. My Cornish pies were not happening. So without access to muffin tins, I created small dough moulds to hold the beef filling. That’s when the quiche idea was born, because I couldn’t figure out how on earth I’d be able to create a workable lid for the pie. By then I knew without a proper baking mould, the dough could spread out during baking and not really hold the filling. So I baked only the moulds for some minutes, took it out before it was properly cooked and compressed the bases further before adding the beef filling, the milk and eggs and popping them back in the oven.

I was truly astonished and so proud how it turned out; probably you can tell by my write up so far. The crust was light, flaky and delicious. But I realised even more that determination often makes possible the impossible.

I almost gave up and threw away my dough at each disappointing turn...

Really encouraged by this particular baked goodie. 😁

Now that my excited narration is complete... lol... let’s move on to the video recipe, shall we?

I hope you enjoyed the video and are motivated to try out this recipe! Do let us know what you think of it when you do 😃

And till we meet again, do continue to have delicious foodie experiences 😁



Thank you for reading our post and watching our video today. If you loved it or simply learnt something new, kindly remember to like, comment or share with others.

Warm regards, 

The Ndudu Tales team 

My favourite pepper mix

Hi everyone!

This post was birthed from a variety of feedback from different people. From compliments about how tasty 😋 the overnight-marinated meat was, to what’s that mix that you just took from the freezer through to how did you make this dish so quickly???

So I’m pretty delighted to share my favourite pepper mix with you today. I’m sure you and my other Ndudu Tales partners may have similar versions, but it’s since it’s wonderful to add on tasty knowledge, I hope you enjoy this post and give it a try some time. 😊

Uses

Now before I go into the simple method and ingredients for this pepper mix, permit me to list a few things I use it for:

• Overnight marination of  meat and fish: I tend to poke holes in the meat/fish with a sharp knife and then add some water and salt to the pepper mix. This allows the flavour to affect all parts of the cooked meat/fish. For grilling/baking/barbecuing, I love to allow the meat/fish to bask in it overnight or at least 8 hours. 
• Stewing meat: Adding this and some salt to my meats before placing it on low heat for it to stew is an awesome prep for my fried meats. Alternatively, if these stewed meats were to form the initial stages of making a soup or stew, I would add some blended garlic and onions and some more salt. If you allow the meats to absorb all the fluids from this stage before frying, serving as is, or adding the other ingredients for your soup/stew, you tend to enjoy maximum flavours in your dish. 
• Coating fish for frying: As with the others, this pepper mix scores an awesome flavour point for fried fish. Just add a little salt and if you have some time, allow it to stand for an hour or so. 
• Making stir fries, stews or shitɔ: I tend to always include this at the beginning, either with blended onions and garlic (or just onions) or soon after I allow my chopped onions (with diced garlic at times) to fry a bit. A tip for increased flavour: allow the pepper mix to look like crumbs when frying in a lot of oil, or at least start to taste sweet before adding your other ingredients. 
• For yam/potato based dishes: This tends to bring sweet life to fried or baked dishes like fish cakes, yam balls, shepherd’s pie, etc either by including a bit of the mix in the mashed yam/potato or in the meats/fish used for these dishes. 
• Any other dish that would benefit from the ingredients of this pepper mix: Go wild, have fun and attempt experiments with this pepper mix if your dish requires most or all of its ingredients. When combined properly, it tends to make most foods exciting! 

Ingredients and How to Make it

Because this pepper mix uses  proportions rather than exact weights more often than not, remember you can vary the ingredients as suits you. I tend to use the following because I love sweet but pepper fiery food. However, depending on the dish and how I prefer it, I vary the quantities too... so do feel free to do same... what counts is the ingredients feature. You may opt out on the garlic if you’re not a fan or replace the peppers with milder ones eg sweet pepper. 

Chop: 

• 5 parts onions 
• 4 parts ginger 
• 2 parts garlic  
• 1 part rocoto peppers  

Add a little water, and blend starting from the onions and garlic to introduce more fluid. Add the ginger and then end with the pepper (since that tends to slightly choke you when blended).    

C’est fini, c’est bon... your pepper mix is ready for use or to be stored by freezing.

Benefits

I’ll quickly list a few benefits of my favourite pepper mix: 

• Flavour: need I say more? Lol... 
• Convenience: if made in large quantities, you could store it in the freezer for weeks and use as needed. I would advise you store in small single use quantities so you wouldn’t need to refreeze what remains unused after thawing. Doing so allows you to keep its flavours as fresh as possible. 
• Versatility: a number of dishes benefit from it

Do let us know if you tried this as described or if you have your own pepper mix recipe and would like to share it. Till we meet again, please continue to have awesome foodie experiences.

Thanks for reading our blogpost today. If you enjoyed it or learnt something new, kindly like, comment or share with others. 

With warm regards, 

The Ndudu Tales Team 

Creamy fishcakes and veggie sauce

It’s great to be back to share another first attempt at a set of recipes I’m not familiar with. Achieving this dish made my week, and remembering it, it makes my hour all over again.

I fell in love with fishcakes at the Bathampton Mill; our blogpost on my visit there would give you some indication of how excited I was about my first taste of fishcake. And I decided to create my own... one which was creamy and smooth and comforting but also lightly spicy and full of flavour. Some ambitions are high and require a lot of research but this surely paid off!

I also hadn’t made potato skins ever... I just felt, hey, I could stop waste by converting it into a crispy topping. Also, the sauce... well, was a combination of my first attempt to actually cook with wine and also not waste the milky fish stock I had left over.

An overall success... and having three other people give me lovely compliments that day, I was simply elated! Super thankful I tried. Super thankful I had the support to try, especially from Ariel and Naa Djama. And super excited and humbled that Yassine, Joana and Ariel enjoyed my first ever fishcake dish. I hope when you do try this recipe, people who get to taste your dish would be happy too.

Enjoy the video 😃

Did you notice my mention of my favourite pepper mix in the video??? Well, for the recipe to this mix  in the video, please click here.

Till we meet again, please keep having wonderful foodie experiences and do let us know if you have any questions in the comments below.


Thanks for watching our Creamy Fishcake and Veggie sauce recipe. If you enjoyed this video and blogpost, please remember to share it with others, like or comment. 

Nkatecake! 2 ingredients, yes... just 2!!!

Hello there!

Lovely weekend I’m having so far and looking forward to it ending on a high note. What about you? How’s your week, weekend, day or night going? I hope however it’s panning out to be our post today will make it even better...

So this week, I’m sharing how we made nkate cake!!! 🤸🏾‍♀️🤸🏾‍♀️🤸🏾‍♀️🎉 In case you have no idea what that is, the more popular name on Google is peanut brittle. Very common snack I had growing up in Ghana, this is so easy to make it’s a wonder I never tried it. This recipe being only 2 ingredients to work with gives a good hint on that... lol

Lovely thing about this recipe is it was totally new to me... so after a few mess ups like burning the whole first round after trying to fix my first attempt at making it...

A snapshot of the messed up first attempt 

... we got back up again and tried the recipe that Joana shared. Bless her grandma’s heart... we loved it!

We’re still trying to crack a different version which is less brittle... I’ve had that before and I adored it to the core... but till we do, or get someone to share that with us... do enjoy our video below of our first nkatecake at Ndudu Tales!!! Drumroll, please 🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁

Nkatecake recipe 

I hope you enjoyed today’s recipe and try it sometime soon! If you do, please remember to let us know! We’ll be delighted you did and just be in seventh heaven if you loved it too! Till we meet again, don’t forget to have awesome foodie experiences 😃



Thank you for reading our post and watching our video at Ndudu Tales today. If you enjoyed it or learnt something new, kindly remember to share with others, comment or like it. We’d love to see you here again! 😁

Warm regards,

The Ndudu Tales Team

The Bathampton Mill

Hello again 👋🏾

I hope your weekend has been good so far? Mine has been interesting, though filled with both wonderful and not so wonderful news, I can be utterly thankful 😁

Today’s post is proudly brought to you by unintended destinations. We ended up here because we got our original destination wrong to begin with, by omitting one of its key words. To be honest, we had no idea there were two similarly named places differentiated by one key word... lol... having been thrown off course and still not knowing so, we had a pleasant walk on a sunny day in a meadow by the Avon and discovered the Bathampton Mill. ☺️💓

If there’s anything I’d repeat about unknowingly getting lost that day, it would be this.

Location & Opening Hours

Bath, a place that captivated me by its preserved history, its light-coloured stone-cut picturesque buildings and its pleasant countryside scenes, was definitely a place I enjoyed seeing. Bathampton Mill is further out of town towards the countryside and would take about an hour to walk from to the Roman Baths. I’ve shared the Google Map link below:

The Bathampton Mill

Mill Lane, Bathampton, Bath BA2 6TS

01225 469758

https://goo.gl/maps/9pue3vb6FQw

As usual, the Google link would also give details of their opening hours. It’d be great to check this before planning a meal there. I also included their website below, which would definitely become handy especially if you plan a visit there. I’ll speak more to that in a bit.

https://www.thebathamptonmill.co.uk/# 

Set by a riverside, it kinda gives you the reason why it’s called the Bathampton Mill. As we approached I thought I would look up its history but soon forgot about that as we enjoyed our meal. It’s funny how I’m only remembering this now... lol... I’d probably Google it soon... lol

Ambience & Service

It’s definitely a cosy and welcoming place. With options to eat outdoors or indoors, I’m glad we chose to eat indoors. And that wasn’t because I needed a break from the sun, but because I got to see some of the different parts of the indoor space. Almost every section was partly secluded from another. You recognise it’s rather spacious and could easily pack a fair few. However, with some sections in different corners or on different sub levels of the same floor, you could easily enjoy a more private meal in the midst of many. Pretty interesting... 

The furniture definitely mimicked something outside the 21st century, with different kinds of seating to choose from... from simple wooden chairs with soft seating around a large farm-like table to huge armchairs around small round Jane-Austen-drawing-room-like tables... lol... The waiters were friendly and honest and the overall service was decent.  

I tend to love a personal mess up when I eat in a new place. It gives me a realistic blunder to write about so you can be wary of it yourself... lol. So what did we do wrong? 

When we got to the Bathampton Mill, we went inside and noticed a queue that led to the counter and a sign that referred to joining it, so we did so. Whilst in the queue, we noticed the book online sign, so we went to the website I shared earlier and then made a reservation. We remained in the queue and waited our turn; thankfully it was long enough to while away the 5mins or so till our reserved time... lol...    

At the counter, we placed our order for food and drinks. Luckily, we had asked for a menu whilst in the queue. And somewhere in that conversation with the lady who was attending to us she said, ‘oh, since you had booked, you could have requested a waiter show you your table instead of joining the queue.” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I’m not sure if I laughed out of relief or embarrassment but it surely was a good laugh.  

So the moral of our Bathampton Mill blunder is: make a reservation online, preferably before you get there. Spot a waiter and let them know you’ve booked online.  you for a few details and then seat you - no queues... lol. We realised the queuare normally for those that didn’t want to book, especially those coming in for only a drink.

They also tend to have different promo periods for different times, say afternoon weekday lunch or couple, group packages. Their website proved useful for confirming what offer is on for when.

Taste & Texture

So what did we order that day? Let me share snippets of the menu:

I had and loved the Lobster and Devon Crab Fishcakes. If comfort food means anything to you... warm filling food that is perfect for a cold day, makes you smile and goes down smoothly and softly whilst slightly heating up your insides as you swallow... then the Lobster and Devon Crab fishcakes could be a dish of lovely value. Though it was a pleasantly warm day, I had whipped up an appetite from our 20min walk to the Bathampton Mill from where we parked and comfort food could not be any more real to me. Filling, satisfying, delicious! Mehn, did I enjoy every bite!   

Mine was almost smooth within, you could taste the carbs, which I feel was potato, but also lightly taste the lobster and the crabs.  I honestly was expecting a heavier “crabby lobstery” flavour and probably a “crunchy-ish” texture. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this dish... I loved every bit and left no survivors in my plate 🤣🤣🤣. The asparagus was cooked enough to remain rather crunchy and the pea and truffle oil did a great job on complementing it all. A lovely meal it was for me.  

I tasted a small piece of the Homemade British Beef Burger. I found that I could taste the actual beef and not think it was under spiced either, it was also grainy enough for me to know I wasn’t eating a beef patte as some burgers can be 😛. The chips were alright too, crispy at the edges, and not ridiculously salty. I loved the taste I had been permitted to have 😅😂🤣🤣.  Though I personally can’t say much about the entire dish, I can confidently say the picky eater I went with loved it. And since this person did, I can vouch for it any day. I would also recommend it for those who aren’t too adventurous, just by  matching the profile of my fellow diner, who, of course, is barely adventurous with food. 😈  

And when I thought I had been treated to the core, this lovely Crumble came along...  

I feel flooding this space with three shots is enough to describe this beautiful delight! But I’ll still try and put down a few words. The combination of sweet, sour, creamy, and crunchy met and had a prettying party in this dish. If you love any of these attributes and you love warm custard especially over freshly baked goodies, you would definitely love this. The Brawy and Apple Shortbread Crumble was more than just icing on the cake with our visit to the Bathampton Mill, it was something I’d have done myself a huge disservice if it were never ordered. Since I’m very excited about this dessert, I’ll end my few words... lol... on it right here... lollllllll...  

Cost 

This is becoming my favourite section of my eat out reviews. Mainly because I’m recently finding value for money in places I visit. So for these three and two half pint soft drinks that we ordered, our total bill without any discounts came to £33.40. For me, it’s a fair price for the quality of service, deliciously textured and flavoured food and the full bellies we walked away with. 

My only word of caution is, tax is calculated after your bill is computed so do be wary of that when ordering your meals. A dish that cost £10 on the menu would actually be more than that since it’s not tax inclusive. 

My advice, for a decent meal for 2 and probably a shared dessert, do budget about £40 today to be in a safe space. And if you happen to visit later, up your budget a bit so no future price increases catch you unawares 😱😅 

So that’s a wrap from us on my experience with the lovely Bathampton Mill. Do remember to let us know what your experience there was or is. And till we meet again, don’t don’t don’t forget to have lovely foodie experiences 💓💗💝

Thank you for reading today’s post. If you enjoyed or learnt something new, please remember to comment, like and/or share with others. We love to have you here. 

Warm regards, 

The Ndudu Tales Team   

Green Pepper Sauce... sweet and spicy...

Hello everyone 👋🏾

I am more than pleased to meet you here at Ndudu Tales today. I trust you are well and are savouring your recent foodie moments.

Speaking of savouring, some good friends and I organised a barbecue recently, and aside exciting our palletes with well marinated meats and enjoying our time together, one of our sauces was particularly popular in the ‘savouring space’ that day. So popular, I was able to give one of our friends a free lesson the following day and had the chance to make this video! I doubt my friend would want to be named here but my special shout outs to him as he reads this: thanks for the encouragement and all your awesome phone shots! Lol

Green pepper sauce has become pretty common in Ghana over the years. It’s often served with meat (normally grilled or fried), or with one of our startchy foods like kenkey or banku and can be a good substitute for the more famous shito. I feel the amount of onions used sweetly compliments the spicy hot side of this sauce. And for some interesting reason, it’s green colour is pretty appealingly to me, maybe it’s because I barely have any that disappoints in taste. I am still trying to decide which one was more exciting for me: showing my friend how to make it or digging into some grilled meat, ɛba and kenkey with it after the lesson. Either way, I am glad to share this video with you and hope you find our green pepper sauce useful to you soon. Enjoy the show 🍿🎞...

I hope our video entices you to make some green pepper sauce soon. Do let us know what you had it with. And I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Till we meet again, pleeeease remember to continue to have great foodie experiences - one of the sweet blessings of life 😁...

Thanks for spending time with us and reading our post. If you enjoyed it or learnt something new, kindly share this with others, leave a comment or like our post. Thank you! 

With warm regards, 

The Ndudu Tales Team

Baked Garlic Flour Chips

Hello!

I trust you are well. I am... exhausted from a long day but super happy I can share our latest video with you!

First, I’d like to thank Irene Appiah Kubi for the special request to publish this recipe, and then to Birago for allowing us to ‘christen’ her new oven with this recipe and to my three wonderful cooking assistants who have special mention in our video today 😁.

So my grandma taught me this recipe a little over 15 years ago. At the time she lived with us and was a raw garlic die hard! I hated it! We shared a room and I had had more than enough of the scent of garlic 😫. So you can imagine my intense horror when she informed me she was going to add crushed garlic to the flour chips recipe she was teaching me! I begged and complained so she wouldn’t add it. In her frail 80ish voice and heavy Fante accent she said, “Owww... daabi ooo, ɔbɛyɛ dzɛ. Awo de hwɛ...” freely translated as, “oh... no oooo, it’d be nice. You wait and see...” I remember that defeating moment so well because she was not only right, but absolutely right! And since then, I have never loooked back with garlic, though I still hate it raw 🤦🏾‍♀️

Mama, you taught me well, this one... wish you were here to read this 😁

Now that you know the stories behind this very video, let’s jump straight into it! Have fun, enjoy and I hope you love it!

Thanks again for watching our video! Please do give this recipe a try and let us know what you think 😃!

Till we meet again with another foodie blogpost for you, do remember to keep making your foodie experiences wonderful! 

Thanks for stopping by today to read our post and watch our video. If you enjoyed it or learnt something new, or both 😉, please share this post with others, like or comment. We’d appreciate that.

Warm regards, 

The Ndudu Tales team 

Wow!!! Wau!!! Newbury’s Malay cuisine...

Hello hello!

I’m starting to think I should vary my greeting a lot more... maybe one day... lololll... How are we today? I’m good and ready to share my latest discovery in Newbury and probably my first experience of Malaysian cuisine... Wau!!!

If you’re ever in Newbury and enjoy flavourful (as in full of flavour) food and can enjoy food across the pepper hot spectrum from no pepper to nice and peppery, you may want to stop by Wau and hopefully be Wow-ed as I was 😃

Location 

I find the location of Wau interesting... because it’s pretty close to the train station and has a bus stop not far from it. I must be honest, I’m not sure where the Newbury bus station is, but I know that’s close as well. 

Makes me wonder if you’d want to add it to a UK foodie road trip soon... lol... if I ever plan one, I’m pretty sure Wau would be right on the route... lol...

So the Google map link below would also provide opening hours so have fun getting there if you do some time!

Wau

49 Cheap St, Newbury, RG14 5BX

01635 528877

https://goo.gl/maps/hzb2BUN3j9y

Ambience, Service and Cost

It’s cosy. And that’s not an understatement. It feels and looks pretty small on a busy night and since their patronage has gone up over the months, you’d probably want to book a table ahead of time. We didn’t and we wish we had.

It looks like there’s a private room at the back though, which looked more spacious from where I sat at the bar. Unfortunately I didn’t ask, but surely you can ask when calling to book seating before you get there. Remember, don’t forget to book. 

Aside that, the lighting they use is warm and dimmed. Definitely bright enough to see your food and the people in the room, but also dim enough to be welcoming and feel private in a way, like the small office desk in the corner of a big bedroom with its table lamp on.

Overall, I love the ambience, and it’d be great to know what you think about it too.

With the service, I would say it’s alright. The general feedback and timing they give when you have to wait for your food is absolutely honest. You know how annoying it is to be promised 10mins and get it in 20? Well, no experience like that for me there.

On a busy night, the service is still alright. It’s not 5 star with a waiter or waitress at your beck and call but it’s decent. I think what came to mind when I was there was, restaurant workers  are human too... lolllllll... There were some that went the extra mile to check if we could get certain requests met, others that just said things as they were (no filter, no offence) and others that asked polite questions that livened our mood. Overall, it was ok... just still wish we knew we had to book ahead of time 🤦🏾‍♀️🤣🤣

You may want to also note that after you place your order, your food is brought to you as and when it’s ready. So you tend to eat your total order in batches if you ordered different stuff.

When it comes to cost, I’ll say budget £20.00 a head to be on safe side. On our visit, we spent £30.00 in total got all the meals mentioned below and a drink. That came to £10.00 a head for us, and because we wanted to share each meal, I’d say that shout up our value for money score brilliantly! Remember, you don’t need to order a drink if you don’t feel like it, just ask for tap water and you’d be good to go!  

Taste and Texture

So, as usual, when I go to an eatery that has options, I’d talk about what we had... and my oh my... what we had was beautiful... especially when British food no longer fascinates you and home cooked food is just everyday home cooked food. So, presenting our night at Wau in order of appearance...

Stir Fried Noodles (chicken option)

I loved these noodles because of the different flavours in each spoon I had. You know when you have noodles and every separate element you see tastes absolutely different, with some even tasting absolutely bland, you kinda have to get each element in your mouth and chew a bit to get the full flavour? Or when you have noodles that has each element tasting exactly the same be it the noodles itself or the veggies you see in it? Well, this noodle dish was somewhere in the middle, beautifully balanced on soft, crunchy and meaty with each element almost  uniquely tasty in itself. Also, whatever combination of elements you had in your mouth at a time, you could easily recognise you were eating the same dish but also could tell that you probably had missed that soft veggie with this mouthful or oh, there’s no chicken in that mouthful but it definitely was delicious! The menu description read: Stir fried noodles with sambal, egg, vegetables and a choice of chicken or prawns. It was my first taste of Malaysian food, and it definitely left a good impression on me, whilst setting a good precedence for the rest I had that night.  

Satay Chicken on a Skewer 

The menu description of this dish read: Flat grilled chicken on skewers marinated in spices and herbs, served with peanut sauce, cucumber and onion. I loved the peanut sauce. It was rich in flavour but at the same time not rudely overpowering. I literally saved it as a sauce for our other dishes. The chicken was juicy and slightly bouncy. I loved this; as soft textured chicken that isn’t dry is always a winner for me. Plus it was tasty, I definitely loved their Satay Chicken!! 

Roast Pork Belly

And just like the Satay Chicken, this Pork Belly made me smile from the depth of my foodie heart when it came to texture. I think my only issue was it was rather salty. Unfortunately, I haven’t been back again to check if it was a one off flaw or if that was the usual salt level for their pork belly. However, the salt wasn’t overpowering enough to prevent you from tasting the deliciously matured flavours. If you are wary of fatty meat though, you may want to be wary of this dish. Overall, it was lush. Lush enough for me to ignore the soy sauce altogether. The menu description under the dish’s name read: Roasted with seasoning in a charcoal furnace at a high temperature. Crispy skin with juicy and tender meat, served with a light soy sauce. My opinion? This description nailed it! 

 Nasi Goreng (Chicken option)

The menu description read: Malaysian style wok-fried rice with sambal and soy sauce, choice of chicken or prawn, served with sunny-side up egg  and keropok. Now I had no idea what keropok was but it reminded me of prawn crackers dipped in some tasty spicy juice and then fried. Plus it was crispier than all the prawn crackers I have ever had, deliciously brittle. I still don’t know what keropok is but I’d leave it to you and me to Google it later. For now, you have an idea what to expect if you are yet to have the keropok I had. 😁 If you like your sunny side up egg yolk runny with the white well cooked, you’d like this. If not, you would want to prompt the waiter that you’d like the yolk well done. I’d personally be disappointed if that can’t be managed. On the whole, my co-diners that night loved it more than I did for sure, but of course, they are bigger rice lovers. Hint hint to my rice lovers out there! You may want to sink your teeth in this one!

My first ever Dumpling (Totally forgot the shot 😭) 

This was my first ever dumpling and I loved the taste and the texture. The meat and fish were tender and sweet. It’s a shame I didn’t get a picture of it in it’s pretty woven container. But one thing for sure, if first impressions mean anything, this meant a whole lot. I am definitely ordering more dumplings in the future. My mouth is currently salivating within at the sheer memory of it. Two words: Yum yum!!! 

Char Koay Teow (Prawn option)

Now this order came last the night we were at Wau because we ordered it way later. Long after we had enjoyed what we had planned to eat, we called for more. I’m not convinced it had anything to do with the portions they serve but more convinced it had to do with the cuisine we were enjoying. The menu description read: Stir fried flat rice noodles with sambal, soy sauce, beansprouts, egg, onions, pork sausage and choice of chicken or prawns. I feel I’ll be repeating myself over and over if I say it was tasty, and delicious and fresh but well, it was. Another unique dish in taste; glad we ordered it.    

So finally! We’ve come to the end of my narration of my delightful experience at Wau... beautiful first experience of Malay cuisine, I hope it motivates you to try it too if you are yet to try it. Or convince you to head back to a Malaysian restaurant for a good meal! I hope if you do go, you go to Wau, and are wow-ed!

Till we meet here again, keep remembering to have beautiful foodie experiences... it’s one of life’s pleasant treasures ☺️



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With warm regards from the Ndudu Tales Team