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Awesome Fritto Misto

stall

Bristol has a decent street food scene, around where I work in Bristol, as well as all the stalls at St Nicks, there are twice weekly markets at Temple Quay and Finzel Reach. The organisers of those markets always try and have a mix of stalls and types of cuisine. There aren’t that many traders selling fish, one that stands out is King Fin. If I am at a market and they are trading, it is usually one I go for. So, when I went to the Finzel Reach street food market, I headed towards King Fin to try their new(ish) Fritto Misto dish. The Fritto Misto replaces the tempura monkfish on the menu. I remember when they had Fritto Misto on the menu before, and tried it back in 2022. I wasn’t that enamoured with what I had then, I wrote:

Overall, if I am honest, though I enjoyed the dish, I was a little disappointed. The calamari was great, but the rest of the fish was a little soggy, despite having just being deep fried. There were two prawns in the dish, one peeled prawn and one whole prawn. The courgette was floppy and was quite greasy.

When I heard that King Fin were bringing back the Fritto Misto onto their menu, I was eager to try it again, despite my reservations from my previous experience.

I must go to King Fin quite a bit as I got recognised as a regular, which was nice. I placed my order and waited. As with all their menu items, the food was cooked to order. After a short while I was handed my box of food and I think it looked amazing. I took it back to my office to eat.

fritto misto in a box

It was awesome. This was a delicious box of food. The freshly cooked squid rings, prawns and (small) fish were really tasty and it was a generous portion. The deep fried sage and courgette was a nice addition. I thought this was an amazing dish and I was well impressed. It certainly was much better than my previous experience. The batter was nice and crispy.  As per usual the fries were great. 

Looking forward to having this again soon.

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La Famiglia Rana Spaghetti Carbonara

I bought the pack of La Famiglia Rana Spaghetti Carbonara as a stand by meal.

When I cooked the spaghetti carbonara ready meal from Rana I had in the fridge. I have to say I was not that impressed. It was really quick and easy to cook, cook off the pancetta, and then add the sauce mix before adding the fresh spaghetti and cooking for four more minutes. Serve with the provided grated parmesan.

It tasted alright, but it wasn’t really anything special. Not even sure I would call it a carbonara. I think it’s probably easier to cook it myself from scratch.

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The Street Taverna

I was working in our Bristol office and I headed out to the Temple Quay street food market. As it was a Tuesday there wasn’t as many choices as there are on a Thursday. I decided I would have a halloumi wrap from The Street Taverna. This is a nice thick wrap with halloumi, salad and fries.

I did enjoy the wrap; the halloumi was tasty, the chips were nice and crispy. I also enjoyed the flat bread as well. As with my previous wrap from The Street Taverna sure if the chips added anything to the wrap. I am glad I went with the halloumi.

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Bento Box

It’s no wonder sometimes when I go to Bristol and there is a street food market if She Sells Streetfood (was She Sells Sushi) is there I will go with a bento box. I enjoy the food and I think one of the reasons I like it is that it’s not a sandwich or a wrap.

This time, I went with a bento box containing the Beef Donburi and the Tan Tan Udon. This was the same combination I had before. As this was a bento box the Tan Tan Udon came in a smaller cardboard bowl than if you ordered the full size version, alongside was the Beef Donburi.

I’ve always enjoyed the Beef Donburi and this was delicious as usual. The beef was beautifully tender, full of flavour. It goes so well with the sticky rice. I do like the addition of the (new) cucumber salad. 

Last time I really enjoyed the Tan Tan Udon, so was looking forward to eating that again. The Tan Tan Udon was udon noodles in a creamy sesame broth with spicy ground pork, Asian greens and spring onions. It was excellent and delicious. The creamy broth was superb, full of flavour, thicker than a normal broth (hence the creamy). Nice noodles and the spicy ground pork just added to this one tasty bowl of food.

I do like this food.

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Braised pork ribs with Pedro Ximenez bbq glaze

When I’m in London, I often choose the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing. I find it offers great value, as it’s always significantly cheaper than hotels in the city, yet still provides an easy and quick commute from West Ealing station.

Their restaurant menu changes on a regular basis and when I do stay I do like to try new things. The braised pork ribs with Pedro Ximenez bbq glaze were something I hadn’t seen before and I did like the sound of them.

The plate consisted of three large ribs.

Braised pork ribs with Pedro Ximenez bbq glaze

Though the ribs were tasty, they weren’t very meaty. The glaze was delicious, however the ribs were mainly bone and what felt like minimal meat. The pork was also a little chewy as well. So, though they were tasty, I did feel that they were a little bit unimpressive. Not something I would order again.

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Cheese Scone at Hanbury Hall

Hanbury Hall

I don’t always have a cheese scone when I visit a National Trust property, but it is usually my go to snack when getting a coffee after walking around the house and grounds of the place I am visiting.

I had just enjoyed the 1970s and 1980s themed Christmas at Hanbury Hall and was about to head home, when I thought a snack would be nice. I wasn’t really in the mood for anything sweet, so I got myself a cheese scone. It was fresh, light and cheesy. I would have preferred it warm, but that wasn’t an option that was offered. Tasty scone, very nice.

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Merguez sausages with onions

I was staying at the Casa Hotel in Amsterdam and I looked over the menu. I decided I would have the merguez sausages with onions. I do like merguez sausages and have cooked them myself many times.

The plate arrived and there were two merguez sausages on a bed of cooked onions and pepper.

Merguez Sausages with onions

The merguez sausages were similar to ones I have had before, most similar to the ones I bought in France recently when I was there on holiday.

Overall a nice dish of food and so much better than the calamari that I ordered at the same time.

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Grilled spatchcock chicken

I was staying at the Drayton Court Hotel in London. One of the hotels I regularly stay at in London is the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing. It’s a easy trip from West Ealing station to the heart of London and is always significantly cheaper than central London hotels. 

Looking over the menu and deciding to go with something different I chose the grilled spatchcock chicken with endive & herb salad, hazelnuts & chilli oil. I liked the sound of the salad and I did think grilled chicken would be nice, especially as I assumed it would be cooked on the chargrill.

Grilled spatchcock chicken

I was intrigued by the plate of food which arrived on my table. I wasn’t quite sure at first what I had been served, but eventually worked out that this was a spatchcocked poussin sized chicken. I cooked grilled chicken quite a lot and I felt that this grilled chicken could have been cooked with more care. I will say though the endive & herb salad, hazelnuts & chilli oil was very nice. I do like hazelnuts in salad and they added flavour and text sure to this salad. Though described as endive & herb salad, I couldn’t see any herbs in my salad. It was a great salad, the chicken though was something of a disappointment.

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Well they were terrible

I sometimes have the expectation that food in hotels abroad should be better than I find from UK hotels. It’s probably an unrealistic expectation and I really shouldn’t be making that assumption. Likewise, not all hotels are the same, so as with the UK there are probably hotels which are better on the continent and there are more than likely hotels with are not very good.

I was staying at the Casa Hotel in Amsterdam and I looked over the menu. I decided I would have the calamari. 

I anticipated that this might be freshly cooked squid at best, or similar to the crispy squid I had at Novotel at worst. However, it was neither of these, it was heavily battered squid rings.

calamari

These were, well to be frank, they were terrible. The batter was too thick, you couldn’t taste the squid. I really didn’t enjoy them and didn’t finish the bowl.

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Poached Eggs on Smashed Avocado

Poached Eggs on Smashed Avocado

One of the nice features of staying at the Drayton Court Hotel is that the breakfast choice is really good. Yes, you can go down the traditional full English breakfast (and I would be misleading you if I didn’t say that was my usual order). However this time I decided to try something slightly different and went with the smashed avocado on toast, with poached eggs and a harissa dressing. I wasn’t entirely confident about the harissa dressing, as this was breakfast, however in an attempt to try something different I decided to go ahead and have the poached eggs.

I have to say the plate that arrived looked impressive. There was the crunchy toasted slide of sourdough topped with the mashed avocado. On top of that were two soft poached eggs, and slicing them open allowed the runny yolks to spill onto the avocado and the toast. The harissa dressing did in my opinion enhance the dish, adding something that I think would otherwise be missing and it would be a rather plain dish. Both the avocado and the poached eggs needed something to bring them alive on the plate.

All in all, I did enjoy my breakfast. It was a nice change from the full English I would normally have at the Drayton Court Hotel.