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Cardboard Cortado Coffee

I was out waiting to pick up my daughter, and I had some time to kill. I decided to get a coffee from Costa on Marchfields Way.

I was intending to have coffee and cake. They were very short on cakes, so I just had a cortado. I had a free coffee on the app, so it didn’t cost me anything.

My main issue was that, I was drinking in, but they still served me my coffee in a takeaway cardboard cup. I prefer my coffee in a real cup, and actually will make the time for a coffee, rather than do take out. However the choice was coffee in a takeaway cardboard cup, or no coffee. As I wanted a coffee, I took the takeaway cardboard cup.

The coffee was quite nice though.

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Crab and Mussel Pasta

Staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I went for dinner. Despite not being available the last time I had dinner at the hotel, this time the special, crab and mussel tagliolini was available. I thought it was a starter, but the staff behind the bar didn’t think it was. It was described on the menu as crab and mussel tagliolini with razor clams, brown shrimp, glazed old Winchester cheese, purple sprouting broccoli, and chive.

When it arrived, it was obviously a starter portion and it wasn’t tagliolini, it was tagliatelle again. Tagliolini is a type of ribbon pasta, long like spaghetti, roughly 2–3 mm wide, similar to tagliatelle, but thin like capellini.

It was an interesting dish, the pasta was well cooked, I could taste and see some of the seafood, but it didn’t feel that individual seafood stood out very much. I think the purple sprouting broccoli was either missing or heavily ground down! 

Overall, it was a nice starter, but I do think it was rather overpriced for what it was.

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Disappointing Ragout

Staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I went for dinner and I really wasn’t sure what to have. I did quite fancy the crab pasta starter on the specials list, but it was unavailable. Looking over the starters I decided to have the fish tacos. As I wasn’t having pasta for a starter I went with the pasta special for my main course.

This was described as a wild boar and roasted tomato ragout, served with pappardelle pasta, pecorino, and truffle oil. This sounded rather nice.

The dish arrived.

A wild boar and roasted tomato ragout, served with pappardelle pasta, pecorino, and truffle oil.

Well, the pasta wasn’t pappardelle, this was tagliatelle. Well not the end of the world. There was a substantial amount of cheese on top. As for the ragout, well I was expecting a strong flavoured ragout. However it was rather bland, quite dry, and disappointing. I couldn’t taste the truffle oil either.

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Fish Tacos once more

Staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I went for dinner and I really wasn’t sure what to have. I did quite fancy the crab pasta starter on the specials list, but it was unavailable. Looking over the starters I decided to have the fish tacos, a dish I have had before.

The dish arrived, it comprised three tacos, each was served with a piece of fish in a crunchy coating, shredded lettuce, mayo and the aforementioned mango salsa.

I have enjoyed these before, and I enjoyed these as well. Nice crunchy fish, with fresh salad and salsa. Delicious.

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Hanbury Hall Espresso

I stopped off at Hanbury Hall, a National Trust property for a break during travelling. The house was lovely, but afterwards I headed to the stable for a coffee. I went with a double espresso. It was nice and I enjoyed it.

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MOMO bar

MOMO Bar

Going for a walk in Bristol today I noticed that in the St Nicholas Market a new stall has opened, the MOMO Bar.

Selling Tibetan dumplings and other stuff, there was quite a queue for their wares.

They sell four kinds of momo dumplings, beef, chicken, a vegetarian spinach and cheese and a vegan mushroom dumpling. You can also mix and match. Eight dumplings will cost you £9, whilst six would be £7.00

They also sell a thukpa noodle box, three choices here, beef, chicken or mixed vegetables. The noodle box costs £7.50, but you can make it a combo box, by adding two momo dumplings for £9.50.

I wasn’t looking for lunch, but it does look quite interesting. Though I felt the prices were a little high, but then again all the prices in St Nick’s have gone up. The delicious Kurdish wraps from Matina use to be £5 are now £7.50 for example.

So one day I may give the MOMO bar a try.

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Society Cafe

Going for a walk in Bristol today I noticed that at the bottom of Baldwin Street was a new, well new for me, coffee place, called Society.

I didn’t have time to stop for coffee, but did pop inside to see what it was like inside.

It felt very modern inside, so wasn’t sure if it was my kind of place, I quite like the wooden environment in Coffee #1 for example. However the real question is, what is the coffee like?

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Time for Tres Tacos

I was up in Manchester for some meetings. Before a long afternoon meeting I headed out into Manchester for something to eat. I needed to be quick, so I went local.

Many years ago I had some excellent tacos from Chilango in Manchester. When I was in Manchester in May 2022 I went to Chilango, they no longer sold their tacos, so I had a hotbox instead. 

So when I was up in Manchester this month (January 2023) I was intrigued to see that the branch of Chilango had closed and had been replaced by a branch of Tortilla.

They sell tacos and I like tacos, so I ordered some grilled chicken tacos with cheese, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream.

These were very fresh and tasty tacos.

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Cooked Paella

I made and cooked paella this evening.

I diced an onion, red pepper.  In a hot large frying pan, I put some olive oil and I cooked off some bacon lardons.  I then added the diced onion and pepper. When this was softened, I added some sliced baby courgette and diced mushroom. Once this was stirred in I added 250g of paella rice. 

To this I added some paella seasoning, paella seasoning, Carmencita Paellero Paella Spice Mix.

This is according to the description the number one selling spice mix in Spain.

I ensured that the rice was coated I added some fish stock and water. Stirred once and left it to cook.

Before serving I added some cooked sliced chorizo, freshly chopped parsley, and some chunks of lemon.

I served this with some freshly cooked fish and salad.

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Steak Frites

I was up in Manchester staying at the Copthorne Hotel on Salford Quay and went for dinner in the bar, the restaurant was closed as the kitchen was being upgraded.

I had ordered Steak Frites. This was steak with garlic butter, fries, a parmesan and rocket salad. Unlike the previous time I ordered this, this time the steak came with the garlic butter. 

Though the steak came with the garlic butter, and I had fries, the kitchen had obviously run out of rocket and the salad was made with chard lettuce leaves, this did not work as well as rocket. Though I had asked for medium-rare, the steak was cooked rare, which I didn’t mind. The steak was much tastier with the garlic butter.

It was a better experience than I had before.