The best things the CODE team ate (and drank) this week

As we look ahead to the reopening of restaurants, here are all the best things the CODE team ate and drunk this week.

StarChefs x Robin Gill for St Patrick’s Day

The usual St Patrick’s Day festivities can’t happen this year (sadly no Guinness and oysters for breakfast at Corrigan’s Mayfair) but you can still enjoy the craic at home thanks for StarChefs’ meal kit by Robin Gill. Dishes include London-cured smoked salmon with Robin’s soda bread and then a hearty beef and bone marrow pie with croissant pastry with Kerrygold mashed potato – just don’t balk at how much butter you’re meant to add! It also comes with some Redbreast Irish whiskey old fashioneds and a 12-year old whiskey to end the meal – plus CODE members get 10% off the price. Slainte! 
Adam Hyman, founder
£150 for two people. Click here to order

A Cook’s Tour

In the first in a series of collaborations, A Cook’s Tour has teamed up with Thomasina Miers of Wahaca fame. Unsurprisingly her feast to finish at home was all about Oaxaca. I particularly loved the sea bream ceviche, which came with a beautiful purple radish, and very piquant seasoning. There was also barbecued goat, tacos of course, and a wonderful flan to bake in the oven. Watching Tommi put it all together in a YouTube video was an unexpectedly brilliant addition to the whole experience. I look forward to future collabs…
Lisa Markwell, editor
Various menus and prices. Click here to order

Poster Bakes

Over the past year we have witnessed how good food can bring a community together and raise money for a good cause. Poster Bakes – a social enterprise from homelessness charity The Connection – is a great example of that. Sadly stuck outside the capital, I didn’t get the chance to try Poster Bakes’ doughnuts when they launched last year, so I was happy to hear that the Easter special hot cross buns kit is available nationwide. In reality they only needed proving, cutting and putting in the oven – but I still felt a huge sense of achievement when proudly proclaiming I had (sort of) made hot cross buns. They were incomparable to any you can buy in a supermarket. So good, I have already bought another kit for this weekend.
Harriet Prior, staff writer
£12 per box. Click here to order

HG Walter and Tiger Vines

The parting words from my wife after I had successfully negotiated a detour via HG Walter were ‘don’t get carried away…’ So naturally we have somewhat had to up our meat consumption over the last week or so – think roast pork chops, homemade lamb burgers, sausage casserole, veal skewers (you get the idea). But hey, it was 20% off on the CODE app, what was I meant to do? The week was topped off with this rather fantastic rump steak (cooked by yours truly), accompanied by a dangerously drinkable bottle of Chateau Les Croisille 2018 Cahors ‘Le Croizillon’ malbec from Tiger Vines.
Will Lake, COO
To become a member of the CODE app and get you first month for £1, click here

Occasions by Hakkasan

Who doesn’t enjoy a bit of Hakkasan and now you can get their meal kit, Occasions by Hakkasan, to enjoy at home. Coming beautifully packaged, it’s also incredibly easy to follow and simply to cook – even I could do it. Their signature dim sum simply needs steaming for six minutes and then the Chilean sea bass and smoked beef ribs simply need putting in the oven for around 15 minutes followed by their chocolate and hibiscus souffles. And to get that real Hakkasan vibe, dim the lights, get their playlist on your Sonos and burn some of the incense they also supply with the meal kit. Plus, there’s 20% off for CODE members.
Adam Hyman, founder
£175 for two. Click here to order

Le Swine

Le Swine has had a bit of a makeover, but I’m happy to report that having tried one of their kits in lockdown one, that the new version is just as good, in fact it might even be better. Two wonderful caramelised onion and milk buns, four sensational rashes of bacon from a butchers in Lancaoshire, little tiny branded bottles of both mushroom ketchup and Chipotle ketchup, and a few sage leaves thrown in for good measure. Once you’ve frazzled up the bacon and put everything together it’s pretty much the perfect bacon butty, which is lucky since that’s what Le Swine puts on the packaging.
Lisa Markwell, editor
£14 for two. Click here to order

To read more of the best things the CODE team ate and drunk, click here