food, reviews and of course coffee
This was a quick and easy meal using a stir fry deal from Waitrose.
I took some duck strips, and coated them with beaten egg. I then dusted them with some plain flour. These were then shallow fried until cooked. These were removed from the pan.
I cleaned the pan and then stir fried some vegetables. Once they were nearly cooked, I added a Wagamama Korean BBQ stir fry sauce. After stirring I added the cooked duck and some cooked egg noodles.
Mixed in and served.
I was travelling back from London and rather than catch a busy peak train, I decided I would have some dinner and catch a later train. The other option was to catch a busy train, probably stand or be cramped, and then cook when I got home. So dinner it was, and I had already made up my mind to visit Wahaca. I had heard about the branch at Wahaca at Paddington when it opened, but I hadn’t had the chance, or the opportunity to make a visit until this week.
It’s just outside the station and upon entering the restaurant you climb a set of stairs to get to the tables. Even though it was early the place was buzzing and quite busy. I was initially offered a seat at the bar, but as I wanted food and not a drink, I asked for a table.
I sat down and looked over the menu. I had a voucher for a free portion of tacos, so that was the first area of the menu I went through. I was tempted by the buttermilk chicken tacos, but went with the Ancho Mushroom Tacos, with jalapeño mayo, beetroot crisps and dressed slaw, in two soft corn tortillas
I had really enjoyed the Mexico City Nachos when I had them a few years ago. So that was next on my list of choices. I went for the veggie version, as I didn’t think the addition of the chorizo really added that much to the dish, and the veggie dish was cheaper as well.
My final choice was the Zesty Bean & Feta Tostadas, with chickpeas, borlotti beans and organic peas with fresh tomato salsa. I had hoped they would have the crab tostadas they use to have on the menu, but they didn’t.
The nachos arrived first and I was a little surprised by the size of the dish. Either the dish was smaller when I had it a few years ago, having made my own version of this plate, I was expecting something smaller, or more than likely I had just plain forgotten how large the dish was.
There was plenty of crunchy tortilla chips, a large helping of guacamole, black beans, crema, pink pickled onions, cheese sauce, fresh tomato salsa and jalapeño. I left the jalapeño, but the rest of the dish was delicious.
I really enjoyed the Zesty Bean & Feta Tostadas, full of flavour and contrasting textures of crunchy tostadas and soft beans.
The Ancho Mushroom Tacos were really tasty, I liked the mushrooms and the intensity of flavours across the two tacos.
I really enjoyed all three dishes and the experience reminded me how much I enjoy the food at Wahaca. Service was excellent, warm, friendly and efficient. It’s a real pity that the branch in Bristol closed, as it would be nice to have somewhere local to visit.
This was a quick cheat for a quick meal. Aldi have in their freezer range, Roosters Gastro Sweet & Sour Chicken Thigh Bites. These are prepared pieces of chicken in a crispy coating and a portion of sweet and sour sauce.
I cooked the chicken in the oven for 15 minutes before adding the sauce and cooking for a further two minutes. I served the chicken with some sticky rice and a garnish of pea shoots.
I think if and when I do this again I will add some onion and pepper to the chicken as well.
I would have liked to cook from scratch, but from a time and ease perspective this was simple and quick. It was tasty.
This is my go to recipe when making bolognaise. It has an intense flavours of beef and tomato. One thing I have found is that when using tinned tomatoes and tomato purée that not all are equal and some have better flavour than others. I have to say that my experience with own brand versions haven’t passed the taste test. More recently I have been using Mutti finely chopped tomatoes when cooking this dish.
It has the consistency and intensity of flavour I like when cooking bolognaise.
This serves four people.
500g minced beef, I try and get 5% fat mince, otherwise the end result can be a bit greasy. If you do buy the mince with the higher fat content, I would suggest after browning the mince to drain some of the excess fat or oil from the pan before adding the vegetables.
Splash of olive oil
One onion, diced
One red pepper, diced, I prefer the pointed peppers for this recipe
Handful of mushrooms, chopped
Splash of balsamic vinegar
Knorr chicken stock pot
Beef stock cube
Tin of Mutti finely chopped tomatoes
Mutti tomato purée
Garlic purée
I usually use a large pan with a lid, for cooking this dish. I heat the pan add the splash of olive oil and then brown off the mince until it is all done. If you have excess fat in the pan then drain the cooked mince and discard the excess oil and fat, then add the mince back to the pan.
Add the onion and pepper.
After a few minutes add the mushrooms.
Once the onion is soft and cooked, add the tin of tomatoes, the stock pot and stock cube, the tomato purée and the balsamic vinegar.
Cook for at least 30 minutes on a low heat. The plan is for all the flavours to infuse and for the beef mince to be cooked and tender.
Serve with spaghetti or a pasta of your choice. Add freshly grated Parmesan to taste, garnish with freshly topped parsley.
I used gluten free spaghetti, Rummo Spaghetti No 3 for this dish. I was really impressed with this spaghetti; it has a great texture and flavour.
Certainly, the best gluten free spaghetti I have cooked with. It isn’t the cheapest pasta on the shelf, but I think it’s worth the extra cost.
The last time I made this bolognaise, it was not as good as my previous versions. This one though was back on form.
I was in Dublin and was feeling peckish and looked around the North Wall Quay area for somewhere for lunch.
Camile Point had a lunch deal, a choice of dishes for a reasonable price. I chose the Crispy Chilli Stir Fry and took a seat.
It wasn’t too long before my food arrived, I was a little disappointed that it looked different to the picture on the menu outside.
Part of me says that if you are going to have photographs of your food, at least make an attempt to ensure that what you serve has some resemblance too what you have on the poster!
It was freshly cooked, but the sauce was a little too spicy, sweet, and sticky for me. I wanted the chicken to be crispier and probably a little less sauce.
Having said that, for the price it wasn’t too bad and was reasonably good value for money. As it wasn’t street food or takeaway, this meant that I did have somewhere to sit and eat it. This was one of the reasons I chose Camile Point. Also it was cheaper than many of the places in the area as well.
One of the regular street food markets in Bristol is the Temple Quay market. I was working in Bristol, and over lunchtime, I went to the Temple Quay street food market. After looking around at the various stalls, I went with calamari and chips from King Fin. This like the bento box from She Sells Sushi is one of my regular favourite dishes from the Bristol street food scene.
After ordering my food, it was cooked fresh to order. Usually I would take it back to the office, but this time, I ate my food on the steps by the river.
This was a nice box of food. You can’t beat freshly cooked calamari, and I do wonder considering how easy King Fin makes it look, why more “traditional” restaurants don’t cook it fresh, rather than re-cooking already cooked calamari.
It was as before delicious. I liked the freshness of the calamari and the flavour of the fries was very tasty.
I really enjoyed this box form King Fin, it was a delight.
With a coeliac in the house, we virtually cook with gluten free pasta all the time. Generally I am quite happy with the texture and consistency of gluten free pasta, and I have no problems cooking and eating gluten free pasta.
I have though had a few issues with cooking gluten free spaghetti, and have not been enamoured with the various types I have used. As well as clumping together, I wasn’t that impressed with the flavour and texture.
On a recent visit to Sainsbury’s I saw they were stocking a new Italian brand of gluten free spaghetti, Rummo Spaghetti No 3. I decided I would buy a pack and ut it in the cupboard.
On the Sainsbury’s website the description says:
I always wanted to create a gluten-free pasta that could give you all the pleasure and texture of the classic one. We select brown rice, yellow and white corn, strictly GMO free, then we blend them with a natural and ancient element stream. Thanks to our Laverazione al Vapore Method (Steam processing), we slowly obtain a soft, balanced dough that we extrude through bronze dies so that our pasta is more rough and bonds perfectly with the sauce. The result is Rummo Gluten Free with an incomparable consistency.
So, the other day when cooking a beef bolognaise, I decided I would use the Rummo Spaghetti No 3. I followed the instructions and cooked the spaghetti in boiling water for ten minutes. It did feel quite thin when it as uncooked, but after cooking for the proscribed time, it had expanded, and more importantly hadn’t clumped together.
I was really impressed with the spaghetti; it had a great texture and flavour. Certainly, the best gluten free spaghetti I have cooked with. So, impressed, the next time I was in Sainsbury’s I picked up another pack. It isn’t the cheapest pasta on the shelf, but I think it’s worth the extra cost.
I was up in Leeds for a work thing and we had a work meal planned at The Good Luck Club. As with a large work thing, we had to choose our meal from the menu in advance. Never a fan of that as what I choose weeks before, may not be what I actually want to eat on the night.
I chose the steak chimichurri, an 8oz picanha steak covered with cajun spice and grill ed over charcoal. Its thinly sliced and served with homemade chimichurri, salted fries and leaf salad.
It was well presented with the leaf salad on one side, the homemade chimichurri in it’s own pot, along with the sliced steak, the fries were in their own little metal pot.
The steak was tender, but I did feel the cajun spices were a little overdone for my taste. Overall it was a nice meal and I did enjoy it.
For our Sunday lunch I made a gluten free cauliflower cheese. It didn’t quite go to plan, but I think I know what didn’t work and so will do it slightly different next time.
For my recipe, I take a spoonful size knob of butter and melt it in a pan. I then take a similar sized spoonful of plain gluten free flour and stir that into the melted butter to make a roux.
I then add milk and whisk. Now at this point the sauce isn’t very thick, don’t be tempted to add more flour, as I found that at some point the sauce thickens very quickly (and thickly).
I did add some more milk, but my sauce was very thick. I seasoned the sauce with salt and pepper, before adding a small handful of grated cheddar cheese. This is stirred into the sauce.
In an ovenproof bowl, add some florets of raw cauliflower. Then pour over the white cheese sauce. Now I had to spoon mine in as it was too thick. Top with more grated cheddar. I also added some grated mozzarella as well.
This is then baked in the oven for about thirty minutes or until the cheese has melted and browned. It was, despite the thick sauce, delicious.
After bemoaning my thick sauce on Bluesky, one recommendation was to make the roux “wetter” by adding more butter. So the next time I make this I am going to try that.
I was staying in the Headingley area of Leeds, and as a location close to the University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University, there are quite a few places to eat. As you might expect though, they are catering for the relatively large local student population in the area. The last time I was staying in this area, back in January 2020, I went out to eat at Reds and had some barbecue. I probably would have gone there again, but since that visit it has closed down.
When I was out, I happened to walk past Fat Hippo when some customers received their food, and I did think it looked quite good. So I made the decision to try it out, and they had a happy hour deal which looked like good value for money.
Having arrived I looked over the menu. I did think about having their early evening deal, but I wasn’t sure if there was anything I wanted from the starters or even the desserts.
I would have had chicken wings, but they were not part of the deal. They only had three (very similar) dessert choices, so in the end I decided I would just have the burger.
I went for the Swiss-Tony, double beef patties smothered in gooey Swiss cheese, smoked bacon, juicy mushrooms, crispy Cajun onion strings and creamy truffle mayo. You get a free side, so I had fries.
The burger looked very food, and the photograph doesn’t really do it justice. It was a tasty burger.
Service was friendly and efficient.