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Roast Pork Smørrebrød

Visiting Copenhagen I was looking for somewhere for a snack. There are lots of choices of places to eat. I had gone to the fifth floor of Magasin du Nord where I planned to get some coffee. They had a wonderful food department in the basement, which reminded me of Selfridges in London. While I was up there I noticed Hallernes Smørrebrød which sold some amazing looking Smørrebrød (open faced sandwiches). 

They had a lovely looking variety, egg and prawn, beef tartare, chicken, roast beef, potato and roasted pork.

I was tempted by virtually all of them, but I chose the roast pork version. This was roast pork, crackling, pickles, on traditional rye bread. 

Roast Pork Smørrebrød

You do need to use a knife and fork to eat this kind of sandwich and it was delicious. I really liked the flavour, the pickles offsetting the richness of the pork. I also enjoyed the rye bread as well.

I thought to myself, if I am hungry later, I am coming back for another sandwich.

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Castano Lounge no more

I noticed on my most recent visit to Ealing that the Castano Lounge had closed down. It opened about four years ago, however though I have visited the sister restaurant the Brunello Lounge in Weston, I never actually got to the Castano Lounge, but whenever I walked past it did seem busy. I think one of the reasons it wasn’t the place for me. Looking back I realised I hadn’t visited Brunello in a while either.

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Korean Chicken Wings

I have had these chicken wings (from Sainsburys) a couple of times now and have really enjoyed them.

In a pack of The House of Chicken Korean Crispy Chicken Wings, you get a number of wings in a crispy breadcrumb coating. They also come with a Korean style BBQ sauce.

The cooking process is nice and simple, you cook the wings in the oven and then when nearly cooked you add the sauce.

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Tapas at the Mercado de San Miguel

Mercado de San Miguel

I was spending the day in Madrid (as one does) and I had already made the decision to have lunch at the Mercado de San Miguel, well, when I say lunch, I was going to have tapas and wine.

The Mercado de San Miguel consists of a number of different stalls for food and drink, and there are places to sit to eat and drink. There was a wide range of tapas places and some interesting non-tapas places too. There were fish stalls, cheese,  beef, iberico ham, cakes, crab, tapas, chicken; as well as bao, dumplings, and fruit.

In many ways almost too much choice.

Wine was amazing value at €4 for a delicious glass of white wine and served in a real glass as well.

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An attempt at spaghetti carbonara

Having recently tried the La Famiglia Rana Spaghetti Carbonara and been a little disappointed, I decided I would make my own. I realised that though I have made creamy pasta a lot, I hadn’t made a carbonara for some time. Most of the time when making creamy pasta, I would use crème fraîche, though of course a true carbonara uses eggs and has no cream. 

I recently looked up the “proper” recipe for carbonara and decided I would have a go at making one.

I got some pecorino cheese and parmesan. Usually when I make pasta I use pancetta, but a true carbonara uses guanciale.

I cooked the guanciale in a hot pan, when it was browned, I added the cooked spaghetti, then added two beaten eggs and the cheese. I mixed the eggs, cheese, and spaghetti. Adding some of the pasta water, to make more of a sauce, and then seasoned with black pepper.

However, it didn’t quite go to plan and the sauce split.

spaghetti carbonara

It was nice, but wasn’t wow!

I might have to try again…

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Tau Yew Bak (again)

I was working in Bristol and popped down to the Finzel Reach street food market. 

My usual challenge though when visiting is that I usually default to stalls I’ve been to before, and don’t necessarily try something new. So on this visit, though I was tempted by the Fritto Misto from King Fin, I knew I had only had it not that long ago.

So, there was quite a bit of choice, I decided I would go for Fat Rice, which sells Malaysian comfort food, and try their Tau Yew Bak, which is pork belly slow-cooked in soy sauce and spices. Served with basmati rice, fried onions and pickled salad.

Tau Yew Bak

Looking at the dish, I realised, this wasn’t new I had eaten this before, just under three years ago. So, it wasn’t new, back then I wrote:

This was a good sized meal and there was a decent portion of the main part of the dish, the pork belly. The pork itself was nice and tender and full of flavour. I liked the chilli sauce that was served with the pork. The salad added zing to the dish and the rice was nice. Overall a delicious bowl of food.

I can say it was just as good this time, the pork was succulent and tender, I liked the chilli sauce, and the rice and salads completed the dish.

One tasty bowl of food.

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The place with no name

Popped out at lunchtime for a walk. I went down the Welsh Back before heading to St Nick’s to grab some lunch. I had seen the list for Finzel Reach and there wasn’t anything I wanted, well I would have had the bento box from She Sells Streetfood, but I have had that a lot recently. So, I looked over what was available in St Nick’s. I was tempted by Portuguese Taste, as I haven’t eaten there in a while. I was also hoping that Low & Slow would have some decent brisket. They didn’t. What was I going to do?

Opposite the infamous Matina stall in St Nick’s market is a relatively new stall in the main sells lamb shawarma in various ways. The signage says Kurdish Bread, but I know that was there for a while before the lamb shawarma came along. 

Looking for some lunch I decided I would try them out, I went with the lamb shawarma box, which comes with the grilled lamb shawarma and a range of salads.

There was a lot of nice salad in the box. The lamb was tender and tasty as well.

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Ploughman’s Lunch at Killerton House

Killerton House

My usual go to when eating at a National Trust property cafe is a cheese scone, or soup, or even both. On a recent visit to Killerton House in Devon, in the Killerton Kitchen Cafe they had a range of lunch items, including one I hadn’t seen before, which was a Ploughman’s Lunch.

I did like the sound of that, and I thought for £11 was good value for money for somewhere like a National Trust cafe.

I ordered my ploughman’s and took a seat. They had a buzzer system, which I have seen before, but rather than go and collect my food when it buzzes, they use the system to bring the food to your table. Yes, you could use wooden spoons, but this means you don’t need to wait around or hope no one nicks your table when you collect your food.

This was a large plate of food, and let’s get the initial disappointment out of the way which was the three pieces of celery. Not that for some people this isn’t an issue, I have never been a fan of celery, raw or cooked. I guess for most aficionados of the ploughman’s lunch (or even cheese and biscuits) celery is seen as a natural accompaniment. For me, no it isn’t. Well that’s leave that and see what else was on the plate.

There were two chunks of cheese, one cheddar, and one stilton. There was some sliced apple chunks, some sliced sausage roll (guess that was standing in for the pork pie), coleslaw, a few lost leaves of salad, red onion chutney, two pickled onions, and a pickled gherkin. Alongside was some bread and butter.

Ploughman’s Lunch

Overall I was pleased with the plate of food, well obviously not pleased with the celery, but the rest of it was looking good.

Both pieces of cheese were delicious, this was a lovely piece of mature cheddar and I also enjoyed the stilton. If you don’t like stilton then this isn’t going to be the best ploughman’s lunch for you.

The sausage roll was a good stand in for a pork pie and was full of meaty flavour. I liked the pickles and the fresh apple as well.

I probably could have done with some more bread, but that (and the celery) is my only criticism.

This was a nice plate of food and it made for a delicious lunch.

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Pasta from La Panza

La Panza

I have been to La Panza a couple of times now. It is close to my office in Bristol and is an Italian restaurant. They have a £10 lunch deal which consists of pasta, focaccia, and a drink. 

I hadn’t planned to go to La Panza, after enjoying the beef brisket from the Little Smoker recently I thought I would head to St Nick’s and get some beef brisket from Low & Slow. As it was a Monday there wasn’t any street food markets at Finzel Reach or Temple Quay, the only real choice for street food is St Nick’s. However upon arrival I found that though Low & Slow had their pulled pork and chicken, they had no beef brisket. I did think about getting some pasta from Grano Pasta Bar. Then I thought to myself, well for the same kind of money I can go to La Panza and have some pasta, but sit down, get served, have a glass of wine, and a slice of focaccia.

So, that’s when I found myself heading back to La Panza for lunch.

In the £10 lunch deal you get the pasta of the day, a slice of focaccia and a drink. There isn’t a choice when it comes to the pasta, but there is a wider menu if you want something different. Or, another choice is the sandwich, a pastry, and a drink for the same £10.

On the day I was there, the pasta of the day was bucatini with a puttanesca sauce. It wasn’t long before my plate of pasta arrived at the table, garnished with freshly grated parmesan.

Pasta from La Panza

If you are looking for a huge bowl of pasta, then this isn’t the place for that. This was a perfectly sized portion of pasta for lunch. The pasta was cooked well and the sauce was delicious. I don’t know if the sauce was homemade, but it did not taste as though it was out of a jar, it was fresh and tasty.

This was a lovely plate of pasta, which I enjoyed a lot.

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Charlie Bigham’s Thai Panang Chicken Curry

Charlie Bigham’s Thai Panang Chicken Curry

This curry was on special offer at my local Waitrose. It is tender chicken in an aromatic Panang curry sauce with coconut, lime, lemongrass & ginger. It is served with some fragrant rice.

I followed the instruction and cooked the dish in the over for 20-25 minutes.

This was a lovely and mild curry, you could taste the aromatic flavours in there. The chicken was tender and I really enjoyed the whole dish.