Author: jamesclay

Posted on

Calamari and Fries from King Fin

calamari

I was working in Bristol and popped out to the Finzel Reach street food market for some lunch. One of my favourites, King Fin was there, so I went for one of my regular dishes, the calamari and fries.

King Fin is a consistently excellent street food stall, a true highlight of the Temple Quay and Finzel Reach markets. Their unwavering commitment to freshness and quality is what keeps me coming back—they’re easily one of my favourite stalls.

The food here is prepared to order, so you know it’s fresh. The calamari is a standout—the squid is incredibly tender, while the batter is perfectly light and crisp. It’s a truly delicious dish. The fries are twice-cooked and seasoned with rosemary, served with a tasty sauce. A small portion of coleslaw accompanies the meal.

I find myself drawn back to this dish again and again. While I always promise to try new things, it’s no surprise when I return to one of my favourites.

Posted on

Probably not

I was in Bristol and had been for a walk at lunchtime. Nothing had really taken my fancy when I looked at the street food market. I walked around and ended up at Pret. I was thinking about a salad, when I noticed they had their limited edition lobster roll in the cabinet. I thought I might give it a try. 

This was wild-caught Atlantic lobster, dressed in lemon mayo and chilli salt, finished with crispy cos lettuce, cucumber and a sprinkling of chives.

It was in a French bread style roll. I should say that though I enjoyed the roll, I was a little disappointed that this was not a fully filled roll, the lobster had been put on the edge of the roll, so it looked like it was full. Not too surprised, as lobster is an expensive luxury and not like ham or cheese. Various press reports say there is 50g in there, so at least we know that, so we can pretend to be not disappointed.

It was one of the more expensive sandwiches I have bought, here in Bristol it was £8.95. It was nice, but not sure it was that nice. Would I get it again? Probably not.

Posted on

Lamb Flat Bread

I did some pan fried lamb on flatbread with salads and homemade pickles. I used a cubed neck of lamb which I cooked in a pan and then added some red onion. I added to a flat bread, some hummus, chilli jam, cucumber, tomato, and some homemade pickled red onion.

Very nice and tasty.

Posted on

Honi Ahi Poke

I was up in London for some afternoon meetings and had arrived just before lunchtime. I did initially think about getting something from Market Halls at Paddington, but wasn’t sure what to have, and I wasn’t exactly hungry. I did notice that Bao had closed and was being replaced with a Thai stall. I did have some nice bao buns from Bao back in the summer. So, I headed off on the Elizabeth Line to Farringdon.

As I walked to the office, I saw that Honi Poke had an offer on their Ahi poke bowl.

The Ahi poke bowl, a quintessential Hawaiian delicacy, epitomises the rich culinary traditions of the islands, blending fresh, raw Ahi tuna with a medley of dynamic flavours. This vibrant bowl is seasoned with sesame soy sauce, pickled cucumber, and green onions, served over a bed of rice, making it both nourishing and satisfying. Each bite of Ahi poke bowl offers a harmonious mix of textures and tastes, transporting you straight to the shores of Hawaii.

I had been meaning to try a poke bowl the next time I was in London, and this looked really nice. I added a side of crab salad to my bowl as well.

My bowl did not look like the picture, but then what fast food ever does?

I really enjoyed the bowl, the bed of warm sushi rice was a great base for the fresh raw Ahi tuna. The accompaniments added more flavours and textures to the eating experience. 

I was pleased to see that there is a branch of Honi Poke in Cabot Circus, so I can repeat the experience closer to home.

Posted on

Wet Sponge Cake

One of the things I quite like about Lidl and Aldi are their themed weeks, where they have limited stocks of different kinds of products based around a theme, usually a country such as France or Italy.

Recently, Aldi did an Italian themed week, I picked up some pasta, but also what was a Tiramisu dessert which was described (or translated) as Coffee-Wet Sponge Cake with Mascarpone Cream.

This did amuse me, but also got me thinking about who does this kind of translation, in this instance at the Balconi factory in Italy. Do they not check with a native (or at least a fluent) English speaker about the translation?

You sometimes get weird translations with Chinese, Korean or even Japanese products, but usually with European products, the translation is more accurate. 

So anyone for a slice of wet sponge cake?

Actually I quite liked it.

Posted on

Flat White at the Darts Farm

flat white coffee on a table

I had driven over to the Darts Farm Shop in Topsham, which has a bank of Tesla chargers available. After working out the best way to position my Funky Cat to charge I headed into the Farm Shop.

This was a lovely farm shop with lots of local produce. I was very tempted. I did though head over to the cafe to get a coffee and pass the time as the car charged up.

Unlike many other farm shop cafes this cafe had table service, which was nice. They had a lovely sounding menu, however, firstly I wasn’t hungry, and even if I was, they had just finished food service when I arrived.

I ordered a flat white, and it wasn’t long before it arrived.

It was a well made coffee and I really enjoyed it.

Posted on

Time for Schnitzel

View over a German town

Last summer I was on a driving holiday to Europe. We visited Germany and was staying at the Landal Warsberg Eurocamp. On the site they have a restaurant, the Restaurant Bistro Woods. We went to the restaurant for a meal. Language difficulties made it a little challenging, but we were shown to a table, and we looked over the menu. They only had menus in German or Dutch. 

They had a varied menu, but I went with the traditional schnitzel. This came with chips and some vegetables.

traditional schnitzel

I think I would have preferred a salad to the vegetables, but it is, what it is. This was a simple meal, and actually wasn’t too bad. It was the kind of cooking that I would expect from a campsite restaurant.

We didn’t eat out much in Germany for lots of reasons, we had a bratwurst watching the World Cup match in Köln for example. It would have been nice to try out more food, though I did have a nice meal in Berlin back in 2022.

Posted on

Nice meal out in Helsinki

Back in February I was on a trip to Helsinki in Finland for a few days for work. I was staying at the Scandic Hotel Simonkenttä in the heart of the city. Though I did go to Momotoko for a number of meals, one evening our Finnish colleagues treated us to a meal at the Ravintola Sea Horse. We were eating from a set menu, with a range of choices.

For my starter I had the Shrimp Sandwich. This was a traditional open sandwich which was beautifully presented.

For the main course I had a Finnish Sirloin Steak. I did like the idea of the fish main course, but I had fish for my lunch, so fancied something different. This arrived and was presented on potatoes with onions, pickles, and sour cream.

It was lovely tender piece of steak and I liked the potatoes and other accompaniments.

For my dessert I had the frozen cranberries and hot caramel sauce, this was, well it was interesting, I really didn’t like it that much.

It was nice to have some Finnish cuisine in Helsinki.

Posted on

Had my usual…

When I get to Wagamama, part of me says, try something new, another part of me says, I like the yasai yaki soba, which is mushrooms,  soba noodles cooked with egg, peppers, beansprouts, onion, pickled ginger, crispy fried onions and sesame seeds.  I decided I would have this and some mushroom bao, another dish I regularly order. 

I don’t always order this, when I was visiting a branch of Wagamama at Cabot Circus recently, I had Honey Fried Chicken and Chicken Pho. Whilst in Nottingham though I went with the yasai yaki soba I had different bao.

This time we were back in London and visiting the Wagamama branch at Covent Garden. We have been there before and had an issue with the delay in getting the gluten free dish we had ordered to the table before everyone else finished their food. Part of that was that the server took our main order, but a manager has to take the gluten free order for the table. 

We were quite early in the evening, there was no queue, and we were shown to our table, one aspect of Wagamama which is useful in central London, and to be honest elsewhere as well, is that not only do you not need to book, but you can’t book anyhow. So, just turn up and see if a table is available. When we came to order, we asked for the manager straight away, so we could order everything together.

I really don’t mind that Wagamama bring out the dishes when they’re ready, but we did have to wait nearly an hour for our food. Luckily this time all our food arrived within a reasonable timeframe.

I enjoyed my yasai yaki soba, though I always think it could do with more mushrooms. If I order the chicken yak soba, I get a fair amount of chicken, with the mushroom version, they appear to be quite stingy with the mushrooms.

This was rather tasty, I like the contrasting textures and flavours in this dish.

I also enjoyed the mushroom bao buns. The crispy aubergine is a nice touch which gives the dish a contrast of soft fluffy bao bun, the crunch of the crispy aubergine, and the delicate texture of the mushrooms.

We all enjoyed our food and we settled the bill using the app. As we left there was now a queue which was out of the building and down the street. 

Posted on

Beef Carpaccio at 3 Brasseurs

Dunkirk

Last summer I was on a driving holiday to Europe. On the way back we stopped at Dunkerque for an overnight stay before our ferry and final drive home the following day.

The 3 Brasseurs restaurant was close to the hotel and had an extensive menu. I wasn’t that hungry and wanted something different so I went with the  beef carpaccio, which was dressed with pesto oil, capers, parmesan shavings, lemon, tomatoes, mozzarella, and rocket.

This was a very pretty plate of food. The beef was delicious, thinly sliced, and very fresh. I really enjoyed this dish.

Service was smooth and friendly and we had a lovely meal.