Author: jamesclay

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OG Sando

Went out at lunchtime and went to Finzel Reach street food market. It was very hot out, feeling very Mediterranean.

Though Lisa from She Sells Streetfood was there, I had only eaten from there the day before, so made the decision I would have something different on this day. I didn’t want anything too heavy or too spicy, with the hot weather. To be honest if it had been cooler, I probably would have gone with the Tan Tan Udon Noodles from She Sells Streetfood.

In the end I went with a fried chicken sandwich, OG Sando from Los Hermanos which was just £8.

Los Hermanos can be busy, and today they weren’t as busy as they usually are, however even so it took a while for my sandwich.

This was crispy fried chicken thigh served in a potato roll, with classic mayo, crisp shredded lettuce and American cheese.

I did enjoy the sandwich, the fried chicken had a lovely crispy coating, and the chicken was tender and moist. This was, what I would call, a traditional American style fried chicken sandwich with mayo and cheese. Not sure what the benefit was of the potato roll, it had the texture (and flavour) of a brioche style roll.

This was one tasty sandwich.

Many moons ago I had a delicious El Pepito sandwich from Los Hermanos at Ashton Gate. I never took a photograph or even wrote about it. It was sugar cured pork belly, chorizo butter, confit paprika onions, roasted red peppers, roast garlic mayo, on a brioche bap. I don’t think they have had that on their menu for years now. I remember at the time thinking it was delicious. 

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Cheese Scone

I was visiting Arlington Court, a National Trust property in Devon and headed to the Kitchen Cafe for some refreshment. It was a beautiful hot day so I had a single espresso, iced water and a cheese scone.

It was a nice scone, but I have had lots of cheese scones at various National Trust properties over the years. As I said it was a nice scone, but it wasn’t one of the best I’ve had, it was a little dry compared to others I’ve had. Not sure if that was the scone or possible the weather.

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Bento Box

It was a beautiful hot day in Bristol, I headed out at lunchtime to the Temple Quay street food market. As it was a Thursday there was lots of choice, I had thought about Los Hermanos, but there was quite a queue. It was all rather busy. In the end I did head to She Sells Streetfood for my usual bento box of beef donburi and katsu fries.

This is one of my favourite street food stalls and probably have it more often than not when I am in Bristol. I have thought that maybe I should try some different stalls, but I think one of the reasons I default to She Sells Streetfood is that not only is the food excellent, but it’s one of the best value stalls there, with the bento box costing just £10. 

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Tomato and Mozzarella Salad

Tomato and Mozzarella Salad

Made myself a simple tomato and mozzarella salad. Took some sliced tomatoes and interleaved them with slices of a mozzarella ball. Alongside I added some shredded lettuce and more slices of tomato. I dressed the salad with salt, pepper, white wine vinegar, olive oil, and shredded basil leaves.

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Remembering the Duck at the Hare and Tortoise

Sometimes when eating out, I don’t get a chance to write up the meal I had. Usually for another reason I am checking out that date or location and find photographs of a meal I had. This was the case here, when back in June 2024 I was staying in London at the The Hand & Flower in Olympia.  One of the places I would go for dinner in the area was the Hare & Tortoise in Kensington. This is a London chain specialising in Japanese food.

For a start I had some Tori Katsu Maki. An inside-out seaweed roll filled with deep-fried chicken in panko breadcrumbs with cucumber, avocado, dressed with tonkatsu sauce, mayonnaise and tempura flakes on top.

sushi

These were excellent, really tasty, good mix of textures and flavour.

For a main I had the Roast Duck and Rice.  Slices of roast duck, served on steamed rice with a homemade sauce mixed with cinnamon, aniseed powder and ginger, garnished with Chinese greens and spring onions.

roast duck

This was a generous portion of duck and I thought it was just okay. It was interesting when I had this same dish a couple of months later, I felt similar about the dish. I have to remind myself sometimes that the purpose of this blog is in the main about reminding me what I have eaten, when eating out, and not to order stuff I didn’t like or was not impressed with. I can imagine that over a year or so I might forget, this was just a couple of months!

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Pad Thai and Yasai Tempura at the Hare and Tortoise

Sometimes when eating out, I don’t get a chance to write up the meal I had. Usually for another reason I am checking out that date or location and find photographs of a meal I had. This was the case here, when back in June 2024 I was staying in London at the The Hand & Flower in Olympia.  One of the places I would go for dinner in the area was the Hare & Tortoise in Kensington. This is a London chain specialising in Japanese food.

For this meal I had gone for Pad Thai and some Yasai Tempura.

The Pad Thai was wok-fried flat rice noodles with king prawns, deep-fried tofu, peanuts, sweet radish, chives, egg, beansprouts and a hint of chilli.

This was a great tasting dish but did feel the portion size was quite small. I liked the fact they used tofu instead of chicken. I enjoyed the prawns in the dish too.

I was glad I ordered a side dish of Yasai Tempura.

This was a deep-fried selection of five seasonal vegetables in a light crispy batter, served with a dashi-based dipping sauce. Very tasty they were too.

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Chicken Shawarma Loaded Fries

It was a warm Thursday in Bristol, so I headed off to the Temple Quay street food market. There was lots of choice, it is the bigger of two Temple Quay markets that are on each week.

I had seen on the Instagram that Soul Fries were going to be at the market and from the photo on the Insta I was intrigued and tempted.

I did have a look around the market to see what else was there, but in the end I went to Soul Fries. I went with the Chicken Shawarma Loaded Fries. These were fries loaded with chicken shawarma, salsa, and pickles.

Chicken Shawarma Loaded Fries

This looked really good. I tucked in. This was not my favourite street food dish. It wasn’t terrible, best way to describe it was; it was just okay. I felt the chicken lacked depth of flavour and needed more seasoning. The fries were quite soft, I think they needed to be crispier. I don’t think it would be a dish I would order again. 

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Remembering the Sushi at the Hare and Tortoise

Sometimes when eating out, I don’t get a chance to write up the meal I had. Usually for another reason I am checking out that date or location and find photographs of a meal I had. This was the case here, when back in June 2024 I was staying in London at the The Hand & Flower in Olympia.  One of the places I would go for dinner in the area was the Hare & Tortoise in Kensington. This is a London chain specialising in Japanese food.

I went with a selection of sushi. I had the Essential Sushi Box which came with ten pieces of sushi: salmon nigiri, tuna nigiri, octopus nigiri, prawn nigiri, 3 salmon maki and 3 tuna maki.

This was a lovely fresh selection of expertly made sushi. I enjoyed the fact it was (as it should be) made with raw fish. My favourite of the ten was the tuna nigiri.

I also had the California Maki which was an inside-out seaweed roll filled with omelette, avocado, crab stick, cucumber and mayonnaise, garnished with tobiko.

These were beautifully presented and I loved the flavour and textures of the maki.

That really should have been enough but I was intrigued and tempted by the Kani Gunkan or snow crab sushi.

I should have resisted temptation, the snow crab was very watery and lacked flavour. It was not quite what I was expecting.

Despite my (slight) disappointment with the snow crab, the sushi I had were delicious. 

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Luigi Ugo Cromer Crab & Crayfish Ravioli

Luigi Ugo Cromer Crab & Crayfish Ravioli

I had seen this pasta, Luigi Ugo Cromer Crab & Crayfish Ravioli, before on the shelves and decided that I would try it out at some point.

Free range egg pasta filled with crab leg meat, pollock, crayfish tail meat, lemon juice, herbs and red chilli. Indulgent British Cromer crab and succulent crayfish, delicately wrapped in fresh, free range egg pasta parcels Crafted with the finest British free range eggs, each delicate pasta parcel is filled with sweet crab meat, and succulent crayfish tails. A squeeze of lemon, fresh coriander and a hint of red chilli lift the seafood’s natural sweetness and add warmth, creating a vibrant, restaurant quality ravioli that delivers a truly indulgent experience.

It take a few minutes to cook.

I served mine with some olive oil and parmesan. I think though it did need a squeeze of lemon juice. It did have a good crab flavour, something I have found missing from other crab filled pasta I have had. These were quite big ravioli and just a few would make a great starter.

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Barbecued Chicken

Barbecued Chicken

I do like barbecued chicken and these chicken thighs I cooked were delicious.

I marinaded the chicken in some Italian garlic seasoning and some olive oil. This was then cooked on the barbecue.

I have a new smaller barbecue, so needed to take care to ensure that the chicken was thoroughly cooked. It can be easy for chicken to be cooked on the exterior, but still undercooked internally.