k.

My Old Dutch.

Me and Alex took a trip to My Old Dutch Pancake House in Holborn for brunch today. A friend at my work had told me about it and Alex and I are always on the look out for new places to go and treats to try, we're proper foodies. Junk foodies haha. Its a small chain of Dutch pancake houses dotted around London. We were lucky to beat the rush as when we left there was a queue so you definitely know the food is good. They are known for their massive, and by that i mean head size pancakes but they also do full English breakfasts, fries and other dutch specialties like Kaasballen which is deep fried cheese or Bitterballen: dutch meatballs, but what i also admire is they offer gluten free menu items so everyone can enjoy.

I loved the decor, the walls were covered in large tulips, there were transfers of windmills and pancakes, lots of grass and two old style fireplaces with, what looked like, old hand painted tiles. Even the lighting was something i would expect of a small dutch village, its was done very tastefully to get a sense of 'Dutch in London'.

I went for a classic bacon and maple syrup pancake, you can make any pancake you like- oh, i should say these aren't crepes. Crepes aren't as big as traditional dutch pancakes or 'Pannekoek' and some argue that crepes are filled, whereas pancakes aren't. They're all similar as they culturally flow through Belgium to France but since we're Dutch here: its a pancake. Alex went for a menu favourite: 'Hot Dutch' which has chorizo, pepperoni, cheese chillies and tomato sauce.  I loved mine, naturally, but Alex said he wished he went for something sweet, there was so much to choose from. It hasn't put him off in fact its what is drawing us both back (yes). I will certainly go again, maybe with a party of friends and try all sorts of different pancakes, hopefully i'll be a pro at making (and eating) the stuff by next Pancake day.

Hope you enjoyed my post x

j.

Evolution of the twistout.

When i started my natural hair journey i envisioned all the masterful twistouts i would be able to achieve. My hair would unravel to show cascading dark bouncy curls. It would naturally stay in all day because i have curls anyway and i wouldn't need to bobby pin or secure the ends overnight because my coils would lock around each other doing the job for me. I had seen many different ways of achieving twistouts on youtube and instagram but they never seemed to work for me. For one my hair wouldn't cascade but rather ascend to the heavens and for the life of me i couldn't figure out this 'definition' people spoke of. All frizz. All day. This worried me because i thought i would have to wear my hair in an afro constantly (which i mainly do) and therefore my hair would become boring to me as i couldn't do anything with it and also wearing hair out all the time to face the environment can sometimes result in breakage be it snagging on clothes or rubbing against clothes/car seats. I hated twistouts and often didn't get on with braidouts either but one fateful day i decided to give it one. more. try. Voila! i liked it! i could face the public in it, you could see curls, it was somewhat hanging downward; there was no definition but by Jove i done it! Practice most definitely makes perfect and i think its worth exploring your own hair by yourself not looking to others- heck my headshape and the amount of hair i have is different to others so sometimes i can't do 15 twists on my head- So if you're struggling with natural hair styles try and try again and TRY THEM ALL. invent your own as well, we need more than a pompadour. I hit another bump in the road when i tried some gel to get more curl definition and all i got was grey flakes allllll over my hair and shoulders, how embarrassing, but i suppose that's why its called a journey and not a destination. Here's a picture of my first voila moment after a twistout and the second picture is my most recent twistout (before the gel disaster). I now have my method and am exploring other ways to getting that good good soft like butter twistout. Hope you enjoyed my post! x