Author: jamesclay

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Have you learnt your lesson yet?

So there I was needing a place to go to lunch. I did actually fancy La Tasca, however they weren’t doing anything like their Tapas for a Tenner deal though they were doing quite a few deals if there were two of you (eat for £12). However I was on my own so that wasn’t going to happen.

I looked round, but didn’t fancy Spud-u-like or Burger King so with time running out, but with a little hesitation I decided to go to Café Rouge.

Now my past experiences with Café Rouge have not been always favourable.

When I went to the branch in Cardiff I said:

Overall I was disappointed with the food and the service, I know Café Rouge is a chain, but in this case the Cardiff branch was a real disappointment.

When I was at one of the Bristol branches I was also not impressed:

They do a very good merguez sausage and it is always very well done, well cooked and nice and spicy.  The lentils were quite good too.

However the dish was let down by something as simple as rocket leaves. They were not fresh, old and somewhat manky! A disappointment using not just old rocket leaves, but ones that looked as if they were verging on going off.

Now it’s not always bad news, otherwise I would certainly not have gone again this time. I had a wonderful meal in Brighton a few years ago and I think that’s the reason I keep going back.

So what went wrong this time?

This time the food was up to scratch and I’ll start with that. What I did notice was that the merguez sausage was no longer on the menu, which is a personal favourite.

I went for the fixed price menu, which is very reasonable at £8.50 for two courses, even though the choice is limited to three items for started and mains.

For my starter I went with the Salade de Toulouse – A warm salad of smoked Toulouse sausages sautéed with new potatoes and caramelised onions on a bed of mixed leaves.

This was quite nice, the sausage though was no merguez sausage and I expected a little more flavour from it. The onions and potatoes were cooked just right and the salad was fresh and crisp. I enjoyed it and used some bread to soak up the dressing.

The other two choices were Champignons a la Creme – Chestnut mushrooms cooked in garlic & cream served with French bread and

Salade Niçoise – Classic Niçoise salad with tuna, anchovies, egg, olives, potatoes, French beans and tomatoes with mixed leaves.

For my main course I went with the Poulet et Dauphinoise – Roasted chicken leg with dauphinoise potatoes and thyme jus.

This was also very nice, the chicken was cooked fine, the dauphinoise potatoes had flavour and good texture. The thyme jus was very nice.

The other two choices for the mains were Filet de Colin – Pan fried fillet of hake served on a bed of Ratatouille and Omelette aux Fines Herbes – Fresh herb omelette served with French fries or mixed salad. The fish had run out so it was a choice between chicken and omelette in the end.

So the food was good, what went wrong, why are you not going again?

Well this time the service is what was awful.

When I walked in, the place was quite full, and the waitress did say there would be a 30 minute wait for food, I was fine with that. It just seemed to taken them an inordinately long time to take my order. The first course arrived within 20 minutes which was nice. But then I had a 30 minute wait for the main course! By this time the place was much much emptier. What annoyed me though was that other tables were getting served before me even though they had come in later. In other words I had been forgotten… this was also evidenced by the waitress asking if I had had my main course (with my empty starter plate in front of me).

I normally do tip, however on this occasion I felt that I hadn’t had any service let alone good service.

So next time I think about going to Café Rouge, remind me of this time, oh and that time too….

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Stuffed Duck Legs

Sainsburys have recently released a new range, called Easy To Cook Autumn Meals.

We have tried a few and as you might expect some are better than others.

We did try the Stuffed Duck Legs, which were part-boned duck legs with a fruity pork stuffing.

Easy to cook, the instructions did seem to indicate to cook them for an extraordinarily long time

They were quite tasty, though a little dry, I think that was even though I cooked them for a shorter time than in the instructions.

I do like duck and this concept sounded good, however the end result was not as good as I hoped.

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Fish and Chips

In the past I have enjoyed fish and chips from Sainsburys, it has been a nice piece of fish, freshly cooked and served with chips and peas. So when I was in there recently and saw it was on special, only £3.79 rather than the regular £4.79 I decided that I would have that for my lunch.

When it arrived it did look quite nice.

The fish was smaller than usual, so I was slightly disappointed.

When I cut into the fish I was even more disappointed, the batter didn’t appear to be “fresh” in other words this was not freshly battered fillets of fish, but pre-battered fish (the kind you buy off the shelf or from the freezer and put in the oven) that the café had then deep fried themselves.

As a result the fish looked and tasted over-cooked.

The chips were okay as were the peas, but I was disappointed with the fish and the meal as a whole.

Now I could also go on about the service on the day. Despite having lots of staff in the café it seemed to take both ages to place an order and then for the food to arrive. Part of the issue was only one till was working.

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Roasting Vegetables

One of the things I like to have with a roast are roasted vegetables. I also add cubes of bread towards the end of cooking, these go all tasty and crunchy.

There are different vegetables you can use, this time I was using squash, pepper, mushrooms and onions.

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Roast Pork Belly

I really do like a nice piece of pork belly, especially when roasted in the oven.

I use to be only be able to buy pork belly in slices, but more recently it has become much easier to buy pork belly in one piece. This makes it much easier to roast whole in the oven, not that it isn’t nice to roast small cubes of pork belly.

I use kitchen towel to dry the pork belly before cooking. Then when cooking, to start in a very hot oven (to ensure you get nice crispy crackling) before turning down to a much lower temperature , say 160℃ for a couple of hours. This way you get a wonderfully crisp crackling, tender moist meat and great flavour.

Now in terms of flavour, I do much prefer using “proper” pork as opposed to the mass produced stuff you can buy.  The pork pictured was “outdoor reared” and tasted really good.

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Paella

I seem to be cooking paella more and more recently.

The key for me is the right kind of rice and saffron. I really do like the way the saffron adds not just colour, but also flavour. Some people I know have used tumeric, however that is most certainly not saffron, and though adds a similar colour, the earthiness of tumeric really can ruin an otherwise decent paella.

After that you can add many different things to make a really nice paella.

The dish above contains in addition to the rice and saffron, the following, chorizo, prawns, onions, pepper, pancetta and a small tin of tomatoes.

There is something about paella, the richness, flavours that I really enjoy.

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Has the calorie had its day?

From BBC News

Counting calories is an addictive pastime for many a dedicated slimmer. Croissant or toast? Curry or pizza? Sandwich or salad?

Food labels help millions of people decide what to buy and what to eat. So it’s important that they are accurate but, according to some experts, the system on which they are based is flawed and misleading.

Read more.

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Chicken thighs with pork, sage & thyme stuffing

Sainsburys have recently released a new range, called Easy To Cook Autumn Meals.

We have tried a few and as you might expect some are better than others.

One we did like and have bought again, was the boneless chicken thighs with seasoned pork, sage & thyme stuffing.

Something that is relatively challenging to do yourself and takes a fair bit of time is to bone chicken thighs and stuff them. These already prepared saves a lot of time.

I roasted mine in the oven for 20-30 minutes with chopped onions, mushrooms, pepper and courgettes. I also added cubes of bread with ten minutes to go.

Once cooked, I let them rest for five minutes before slicing them and serving them.

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Surf & Turf

A few months ago I visited the Surf & Turf restaurant in St Ives.

I was looking for a nice meal and having had a look round decided on the Surf & Turf. I went with the signature dish as I do quite like surf and turf.

After a very nice complimentary portion of soup…

…it was onto the main course.

It consisted of half a lobster, a rib eye steak and some giant prawns. Served with salad and new potatoes.

It was all very fresh and did taste good. The steak was cooked to my liking. I did have a hunch that the shellfish wasn’t cooked from raw, which was a pity, but overall a nice dish and reasonably priced at £25.

The surroundings were very pleasant and the staff and service were excellent.

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Biscuits

Do you like biscuits?

I do and I don’t.

At this time I have really gone off eating biscuits, especially commercially made biscuits.

When it comes to home made or “crafted” biscuits I am okay, but they are not something I would go out of my way to buy and eat.

Probably just a phase.

The biscuit in the photograph was from the Sky Tower in Auckland in New Zealand. It was rather nice.