Posts

Posted on

Another Bento Box from She Sells Streetfood

It wasn’t that long ago that I wrote this:

When there is a street food market in Bristol and one of the stalls is She Sells Streetfood, then this is the place I will get my lunch. 

So, there I was a week later working in Bristol on a Tuesday again, I headed to the Bristol Temple Quay street food market for lunch. Though like last time there was quite a bit of choice, I headed to She Sells Streetfood and ordered a bento box, with beef donburi and katsu fries.

The beef donburi was slow cooked beef in an oriental sauce on top of sticky rice with pickles and crispy onion.

The katsu fries are dressed with katsu mayo and furikake seasoning. On top are two crispy pieces of fried chicken.

As before the bento box was delicious.

Posted on

Coleridge Cheese Scone

The National Trust cafe at the Coleridge Cottage in Somerset is quite small, well it is part of the actual cottage. They have a limited menu, which isn’t too surprising. They did however have a Poet’s Lunch available, which is a cheese scone, red onion marmalade and a generous piece of Cheddar inspired by Coleridge’s favourite comfort food, grilled cheese! It also comes with a hot drink.

Now on the day I visited it was really hot, so I asked if I could swap my hot drink for a cold drink, they said yes, but then charged me more money! Ah well, I don’t mind, the profit from the cafe does support the property and the National Trust.

It was a typical National Trust cheese scone, typical but still really good. I did enjoy the chunk of cheddar and the chutney. I enjoyed it all.

Posted on

Bento Box from She Sells Streetfood

When there is a street food market in Bristol and one of the stalls is She Sells Streetfood, then this is the place I will get my lunch. So, there I was working in Bristol on a Tuesday, I headed to the Bristol Temple Quay street food market for lunch. Though there was quite a bit of choice, I headed to She Sells Streetfood and ordered a bento box, with beef donburi and katsu fries.

The Katsu fries are dressed with katsu sauce and furikake seasoning. On top are two crispy pieces of fried chicken.

I am growing to like this dish, I’ve had it a few times now. The fried chicken was excellent and with the fries and sauce it is all very tasty.

The beef donburi as always was tender and full of deep Unami flavours. 

The crispy onions add texture and the pickles and cucumbers salad add the necessary sharpness to cut through that rich tasty beef.

One of the reasons I buy this box on a regular basis, is that this is excellent fresh street food, full of flavour and very tasty. Also in a time where street food is getting more expensive (not surprisingly with increased costs of food and fuel) it is excellent value for money at £10 for the bento box.

Posted on

Moroccan BBQ Merguez Sausage Baguette

I was exploring York; the sun was shining and as it was lunchtime I was feeling a little peckish. There are lots of places to eat in York, but after walking down the Shambles I popped to the street food market which is next to the Shambles. There were quite a few options and wasn’t initially sure about what to have. In the end I went to the Moroccan BBQ stall.

I went with the merguez sausage baguette for my lunch. It took a while to cook, normally a street food market is a compromise between freshness and convenience. Luckily, I wasn’t in a hurry but eventually arrived.

These merguez sausages were rather nice, the baguette was okay and I enjoyed the sandwich.

Posted on

Gochujang pork ramen

Though there are plenty of places to eat in York, I headed off to the Designer Outlet to charge my car. While I was there charging my car, so I headed into the outlet and went to Wagamama.

My usual go to at Wagamama is mushroom yaki soba, I do like ramen, but find it can be quite messy to eat (drink) and so opt for teppanyaki noodles instead. As I had time, I decided I would go down the ramen route and chose the gochujang pork ramen.

Gochujang pork ramen

The ramen was gochujang pork, ramen noodles, a silky chicken broth, charred sweetcorn, pea shoots, spring onion and a tea-stained egg.

This was rather lovely. The pork was very tender and full of flavour. I really enjoyed the broth, which was as described was silky and smooth. I did enjoy the flavour of the charred sweetcorn as well.

A delicious bowl of food and something I would order again in the future.

Posted on

Korean fried chicken bao buns

Though there are plenty of places to eat in York, I headed off to the Designer Outlet to charge my car. While I was there charging my car, so I headed into the outlet and went to Wagamama.

Normally if I have bao buns at Wagamama I go for the mushroom buns, this time though, being different, I went with the Korean fried chicken bao buns.

These are two steamed buns, stuffed with crispy fried chicken.

Korean fried chicken bao buns

According to the menu description, they are supposed to include pickled rainbow slaw, gochujang sauce and yuzu mayo. I think mine were missing the sauce and the mayo. I think they needed that.

Posted on

Repeating a disappointment

Yesterday I published a blog post about some disappointing duck gyoza I had eaten at Wagamama in York in April 2026. 

I was not impressed with these and I would not have them again (ever).

When I publish posts to the blog, a (WordPress) algorithm shows some related posts and there at the bottom of the post was a post from September 2011 about some duck gyoza I had had at Wagamama in Leeds. 

duck gyoza

Back then I wrote:

Though generally I enjoy most items I have eaten at Wagamama I was less impressed with the deep-fried duck dumplings served with a spicy cherry hoi sin sauce.

Can I really say I should read what I have written before, this was fifteen years ago. I think now that I will avoid these in future for sure.

Posted on

Disappointing Duck Gyoza

Though there are plenty of places to eat in York, I headed off to the Designer Outlet to charge my car. While I was there charging my car, so I headed into the outlet and went to Wagamama.

On my Soul Food app I had some free gyoza, so I ordered the duck gyoza. These were fried duck gyoza with a sweet cherry hoisin sauce.

Duck Gyoza

I was not impressed with these and I would not have them again (ever).

I was expecting steamed gyoza which had been pan fried. What I think I got was, well I am not sure, they tasted more baked than fried, but I am guessing they were fried if that was what was said on the menu. The duck filling was, decidedly unpleasant in flavour and texture.

The sweet cherry hoisin sauce did nothing to help these unfortunate gyoza, and it was too sweet and I did not like the flavour.

Posted on

Cheese and Mushroom Toastie

Cheese and Mushroom Toastie

I think I may have mentioned a number of times that generally I don’t do sandwiches, and when looking for something for lunch, I would prefer not to have a sandwich. I do get the attraction of sandwiches and it’s a preference rather than a absolute hatred and boycott of anything between two slices of bread.

However despite that preference, I do quite like a mushroom toast. Not everywhere does them though. I was on my way to York and I had stopped at the Solihull Retail Park to charge the car. Though there was lots of retail outlets, there didn’t appear to be many places to eat. In the end I headed off to M&S which had a cafe. I did wonder what to have and in the end when I saw they did a cheese and mushroom toastie I was sold. You could have had it with chips, but who needs lots of carbohydrates, so went with a small bowl of accompanying slaw.

It was nice that they bought your food to the table, so I didn’t need to wait at a counter wondering if that next toastie was mine or somebody else’s. 

I am not really what to say about the toastie, except I did enjoy it. There was nice proportion of cheese and mushroom and it was nicely browned as well. The slaw added some needed freshness and the vinegar dressing cut through the richness of the cheese. 

For a quick lunch it was ideal, and I enjoyed it.

Posted on

Chilli Squid

Though there are plenty of places to eat in York, I headed off to the Designer Outlet to charge my car. While I was there charging my car, so I headed into the outlet and went to Wagamama.

As well as a chicken donburi, I also had some chilli squid. This has been a staple for Wagamama for many years.  This was a nice generous portion of crispy squid, dusted with shichimi spice, and served with a chilli and coriander dipping sauce. 

Chilli Squid

I do like this dish and I was not disappointed, really tasty squid and the dipping sauce is the perfect accompaniment.