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Picanha Steak + Fries

Paddington Station

Having arrived at Paddington Station, I headed to Market Halls for lunch. This is a new place in the Paddington Square development. There are various places now to find somewhere to eat. Back in December I had a lovely meal from Wahaca. Market Halls at Paddington is one of four halls across London, but this was my first visit to any of them. They consist of a range of street food stalls with common tables. A great place to go and eat if no one know what they want, or people want different things. 

Meet Market Halls no.4. seconds from Paddington Station is our newest location, where you’ll find the best of London’s food scene, an outdoor terrace, live music and your favourite drinks. good times flow here.

Lots of choice including bao buns, tacos, curry, and burgers. I went to From The Ashes Parrilla, which is an Argentinian grill place.

I went with the grilled picanha steak, chilli-pickles, chimichurri and skin on fries. You can opt for a seasonal green salad instead of the fries.

You are given a table buzzer and I took a seat. The food was prepared to order, but it wasn’t long before the buzzer went and I headed back to Ashes Parrilla to pick up my tray of steak and chips.

Picanha Steak + Fries on a metal tray

The steak had been chargrilled and then slices. Alongside were the seasoned skin on fries with chilli-pickles and a pot of chimichurri.

The steak was cooked well, and was very tasty. The accompanying  chilli-pickles and chimichurri did enhance the steak. I thought the chilli-pickles might be too spicy for me, but the pickling had quite significantly reduced the heat of the chillies. The fries were nice and crispy, but they were a little over-seasoned for me. I think I would have preferred plainer fries in this instance.

Overall I really enjoyed the food and it was nice to have something which wasn’t a packaged sandwich from a coffee shop or a supermarket for lunch.

I think the hardest thing about Market Halls, is choosing what to have, I did spend probably too long thinking about what to have, as I was tempted by the bao buns, and I did like the idea of tacos. So, I will be visiting again in the future.

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Schupfnudeln with Smoked Sausage

Schupfnudeln with Smoked Sausage

I mentioned previously that I quite like the themed weeks that Lidl does, recently they had an Alps style week with their Alpenfest style range of products. I got some classic smoked sausages and some German style potato dumplings, schupfnudeln. I cooked them first just in the pan, the next time I cooked them in a different way.

This time I sliced the smoked sausage and cooked it in the frying pan with some onions. When the onions were soft I added some mushrooms.

I pan fried the dumplings in a separate pan. I did add some butter to the schupfnudeln towards the end of cooking to add some colour.

I then combined the two pans with some crème fraîche and parmesan cheese.

Tasty and different to what I had done before.

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Unearthed Ibérico Pork with Gnocchi

Unearthed Ibérico Pork with Gnocchi

Once when I was staying in an apartment in London I had tried the Unearthed Iberico Pork, and had enjoyed it. Didn’t write about it though. The next time I had it  at home I did write it up.

The meat was very tender and full of flavour. I really enjoyed it.

The Unearthed Iberico Pork that I got was sold at Waitrose. This is not a huge pack and as you might expect is a little more expensive than other pork cuts on sale.

The ultimate pork meat which delivers an intense flavour! This award winning free range Iberico pork is from South West Spain. This ancient breed roams freely and forages for food. Iberico is widely revered as one of the best meats in the world due to its rich delicious flavour. Ibérico Presa Roaming freely in the dehesas, sparsely wooded pasturelands of quercus trees that can only be found in the south-west of Spain, this ancient grazing breed is perfectly adapted to this environment. Ibérico pigs are able to store large amounts of fat which makes the meat especially succulent and tender. The constant exercise and natural source of feed also mean that the meat is delicious! 

Having enjoyed it a few times now, I got another pack from Waitrose.

I followed the instructions on the pack, cooking the steaks for three minutes each side, basting in butter. I let the meat rest and then sliced and served on a bed gnocchi in a mushroom, spinach and cream sauce. I cooked the gnocchi according to the instructions on the pack. Whilst the sauce was made by cooking some onions until they were soft, and then adding mushrooms to the pan, before adding some spinach and some crème fraîche with parmesan cheese

As before the pork was lovely and tender and really tasty.

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Schupfnudeln with Smoked Sausage

Schupfnudeln with Smoked Sausage

I quite like the themed weeks that Lidl does, recently they had an Alps style week with their Alpenfest style range of products. 

I got some classic smoked sausages and some German style potato dumplings, schupfnudeln.

They were easy to prepare, and I pan fried the sausage and dumplings in separate pans. I did add some butter to the schupfnudeln towards the end of cooking to add some colour. The schupfnudeln reminded me of fried gnocchi.

This was a really tasty meal, and I served mine with some salad on the side.

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Sizzling(ish) Chicken

I was staying in London close to Euston Station, my hotel was the Travelodge. Went out with the intention of having something to eat, I wasn’t that hungry, so did think about getting some tacos from Tortilla, however Tortilla was really only takeaway. I did then think about Prezzo, but in the end as it was now getting late, I went back to the hotel and had chicken and chips.

The menu called it sizzling chicken. Well I think what I got wasn’t sizzling chicken, it was pretty obvious that the chicken was not cooked on the chargrill (the kitchen probably didn’t have a chargrill). The chicken was then dressed with a spicy sauce. Accompanying the chicken was some chips, salad, coleslaw and corn on the cob. 

It wasn’t awful, but it certainly wasn’t inspiring and it wouldn’t be a dish I would order again. I know now I should have been more organised and got out earlier to get something to eat, this was London, it’s not as though there isn’t a wide variety of places to go out and eat!

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The New Forest Sarnie

sandwich

This was my second visit to Mettricks Guildhall in Southampton, on my previous visit I had a tasty crispy chicken sandwich, however I never got a photograph and never finished my review. Even so, it was with some anticipation that on a return visit to Mettricks for a lunch meeting.

This time I went with the New Forest Sarnie, which was described as crispy oyster mushroom, smashed avocado, sliced beef tomato, pickled red onion, cos lettuce & herb mayo, served in lightly toasted sourdough. This was a vegan sandwich, however that didn’t influence my choice of sandwich, I like mushrooms and I like avocado, the choice for me was almost a no-brainer, and I certainly wasn’t going to go down the tuna melt route that my colleagues had gone for.

This was a lovely sandwich. Hey, I hear you saying, but you don’t eat sandwiches. Well, generally I don’t do sandwiches. However the menu was quite limited to sandwiches, toasties and burgers, and aren’t these all really kind of sandwich?

The sandwich was generously filled, and there was a small dressed salad on the side. As I said it was a lovely sandwich, I liked the combination of flavours and textures within the bread. If I was to make one minor criticism, that would be that the crispy mushrooms were overcooked, I did wonder if they were pre-cooked and then just fried to order. It would have been better if they were cooked fresh, but I suspect that would lengthen the time and increase the effort to make the sandwich. I liked the toasted sourdough, but as with most sourdough bread it was a little chewy and had a tough crust (which I like). So I didn’t really eat this as a sandwich and deconstructed it, eating some of the filling with a fork, and chewing on the bread separately. I know, but I enjoyed my sandwich that way.

Overall it was a delicious sandwich and I certainly would visit Mettricks Guildhall again.

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yasai yaki soba with mushroom

We were in London for a show, and afterwards we headed to the Covent Garden branch of Wagamama.

That area of London is quite busy on a Saturday evening, but the advantage of Wagamama is that you can’t book. We arrived and were able to go straight in. When we left there was a queue for the place.

There was a wide range of choices on the menu, I had initially considered a Korean hotpot with tteokbokki, however it was quite a hot day and I wasn’t sure if I wanted a hot pot dish, also for me that ruled out a ramen as well. I did like the idea of a salad, but in the end I went with the yasai yaki soba with mushroom.

This was soba noodles cooked with mushrooms, egg, peppers, beansprouts and white and spring onion. topped with crispy fried onions, pickled ginger and sesame seeds. It was really good. I love the combination of flavours and textures. It is probably my go to dish when visiting Wagamama. This dish had a good portion of mushrooms and I found it delicious.

Though service was okay, we did have a long delay on the gluten-free dish for our table. When it did arrive it was very tasty I was told. I really don’t mind that Wagamama bring out the dishes when they’re ready, but we weren’t really expecting the difference to be nearly thirty minutes! As a result I had finished my food (as it was the first to arrive) by the time the gluten-free dish arrived on the table. That was disappointing.

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Time for some Gas Street Social tacos

I met up with some friends in Birmingham for drinks at the Gas Street Social at The Mailbox in Birmingham. We decided to that we would stay where we were and eat at the Gas Street Social.

Though I visit Birmingham on a regular basis, pretty much going at least once a year I was a little surprised that I didn’t realise I hadn’t heard of or visited The Mailbox before. There are quite a few places to eat there. Somewhere I would probably now visit in the future. Of course Birmingham is a big place and in the main I have usually been to places around the ICC and Brindley Place.

Looking over the menu I went down the small plates route. I was quite hungry, as I had missed out on having a big lunch and it had been a long day.

I went with four small plates, these are only really big enough for one, and not entirely suitable for sharing.

The first of my dishes to appear was the achiote chicken taco.

A single soft taco filled with achiote chicken, and dressed with sauces, pickled red onions and coriander. The chicken was nice and tasty, as were the accompaniments. The taco was either stale or overcooked, but wasn’t as soft as I would have preferred.

The second small plate was the cajun fried shrimp, a soft shell taco, crispy cajun shrimp, sautéed shallots, peppers, and spicy Baja sauce.

Some good flavours in there, but the prawns were a little greasy for me.

My final taco was a cauliflower tinga taco. 

This was a crispy corn tostola, blackened cauli, and black bean hummus. It was nice. This was very similar to the achiote chicken taco in both appearance and flavour. I did like the black bean hummus.

Alongside I had some loaded tater tots, which were loaded with salsa, guacamole, and cheese sauce.

Though not a huge dish, it was quite filling. I enjoyed it very much. The salsa was nice, zingy and tasty.

There was a little too much food, so much so, that I probably could have had one less taco.

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Goan Monkfish Curry

Out with friends in Birmingham we went to Dishoom. This is an Indian cafe that sells some amazing Indian street food. It was quite dark inside and as result I did have some issues reading the menu. There was lots of choice, and I wasn’t quite sure what to have. 

In the end I went with the Goan Monkfish Curry, described as choicest monkfish simmered in creamy coconut, tamarind, tomatoes and kokum. Strewn with fragrant curry leaves. 

This was a delicious curry which I really enjoyed. The sauce was aromatic, and the monkfish was cooked well. Alongside I had rice and a naan bread.

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Fish and Chips from the Morrisons Cafe

The last time I had fish and chips from Morrisons I was not impressed. So, when I was in Minehead the other day I was never intending to go to Morrisons, however my plan to revisit The Cod Shop was scuppered as they were closed.

I needed to go to the supermarket anyhow and time was against me, so I thought I would give the fish and chips another try.

Fish and Chips

This time the fish and chips were much better. The large portion of fish was nice and fresh, the batter was deliciously crisp. I also like the chips. The only downside were the mushy peas which were not nice. They looked dried out and were quite solid and underneath were grey. I did not eat them.