Did someone say there was a new restaurant in town? Have I been? Of course I have and this time I didn't have to wait around too long. si-BAR-ita in Covent Garden is a Tapas restaurant on Malden Lane. A popular foodie street, alongside Polpo, Big Easy, Franco Manca and a few more.

I booked a table for a busy meeting and I was looking forward to it. Hype was there, hungry people were on there way and my camera was ready for this blog post.

It felt good to be given the responsibility of choosing a restaurant for many people.
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And to cut a long story short, it goes well. I will share why below.

As is my new tradition, steal a few lines from the restaurant site itself; here is what they say about themselves:

Restaurateur and chef Victor Garvey is partnering with his father for this project, fulfilling a long held ambition of theirs to open what the latter describes as “the kind of laid-back wine and cheese joint we like to go to ourselves.” It’s intended, says Victor, to be “fun, casual and affordable, a place anyone can drop into at any time on their way to or from somewhere else.”

Dishes will feature Picos de Valdeon Azul, La Serena and Tetilla cheeses, while charcuterie will be sourced from all around Spain and include several varieties of jamon iberico de Bellota 5J. Among the new dishes created for Sibarita are Crispy ‘Calamares a la Romana’ with Alegria Pepper and Toasted Coriander; Free- range Chicken ‘Chilindron’ with Crispy Serrano Ham Salpicon; and Oven-baked Torta Del Casar cheese with Farmer’s Market Crudités and Garlic Bread.

The menu is broken out into sections. Ideally, the aim is for you to choose from each and share between you.

We obliged and went for Camembert from the Cheese section. Jamon Aragon from the Charcuterie; Pork Belly, Chicken, Ceviche and Octupus from the fish and meats and Croquetas of the Day and Padron Peppers from the side dishes. Enough?

It was all really lovely and delicious. With Polpo on the same road, Sibarita is easily on par if not slightly better. Tapas equals sharing and here, this is ideally. With nice drinks for all and larger sharing options available too, I am sure I will visit again.

GOOD TIMES: Croquettas and Jamon

WATCH OUT: small restaurant so make sure you book in advance

OMG: all dishes were great. Go with the intention to share

I have made it to R, which means only eight more letters left.

The vote was a close call, but, Russia with lots of love and maybe election rigging won the vote. It should be no surprise actually.

I struggled to initially find out what the national dish was; because there were many. One dish though did stand out and this was Pelmeni.

Pelmeni is Russian Dumplings and these were my first time making dumplings. See me in the flow below.

The source i used for this recipe was The Spruce. It was all quite straight forward this recipe. 
The filling for the dumplings was pork mince, beef mince, salt and pepper and grated onions. 

This was encased in my pastry, which was a bit more work, especially with more flour needed than the recipe asked for. How did it turn out?

The dumplings look nice don't they. They sure did taste nice too. Frying the dumplings in butter after definitely did help, This added a bit more texture to the dumplings and everyone likes a bit of extra fat in their food anyway.

I was happy to try this dish as I am often afraid of anything pastry related. However, I conquered the pastry and the sticky dough and made good food for my wife and father-in-law.

I actually had some pastry and filling left over that I was able to make sausage rolls the night after and burgers the night after that.

​Awesome.