Author: jamesclay

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Yo Sushi

I have had Yo Sushi before, I had some time to wait before my train so decided to sit down and eat rather than buy the takeway that I normally buy.

The concept of Yo Sushi may be familiar to anyone who has been to Japan it certainly is a weird concept for many in the UK.

Sit down and watch as little bowls of sushi pass you by on a conveyor belt. Help yourself to the ones that you want. After you have eaten they count the bowls you have eaten and charge you accordingly. Not all the bowls are the same price and range from £1.70 to £5.00. The price depends on how much is in the bowl and what ingredients are used.

As well as the cold dishes on the conveyor belt you can order soup and hot dishes from the waiting staff.

I looked at the menu and the first two items I chose were not available. So I ordered Chicken Yakitori, char-grilled chicken skewers with a soy-mirin glaze and Prawn Katsu, crispy fried prawns in Japanese bread crumbs, with a fruity sauce. I had wanted to order Prawn Tempura and Chicken Teriyaki .

While I was waiting for the hot food I started off with a crayfish salad which was very pleasant. The hot food then arrived (quicker than anticipated). The prawns were good and the chicken skewers were sticky.

I then picked a Salmon Nigri from the belt. The salmon lacked flavour but the rice was okay.

My final dish was Spicy Pepper Squid which was very nice and a good finish to my meal.

Still think it was cheeky that they charge £1 for water!

I will go again.

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Chargrilled Tuna

I went out for lunch and had a nice piece of chargrilled tuna with vegetables from the café at Sainsburys, which was both delicious and in some ways was also surprising.

Chargrilled Tuna

I wasn’t quite expecting them to do such a good looking and tasty dish. The sauce was nice and the accompanying vegetables was a nice touch.

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An unwelcome break

You know sometimes you know better and trust your judgement, othertimes you fail miserably.

Today was one of those days.

Decided that it would be nice if we stopped for morning coffee, it was early on, not much was open and as we were in the area decided to stop at the Welcome Break on the M5 close to Junction 22. They had a Coffee Primo.

I have been to Coffee Primo before and it was okay.

Was it okay on this visit?

No.

It was awful.

I know I should have complained, but to be honest there wasn’t any one to complain too!

So where should I start?

Well the coffee we ordered was disgusting. I asked for an Americano. Now this is quite simple to make. A couple shots of espresso to which you add hot water.

Did they get it right?

No they did not!

The Cappuccino seemed okay.

We also had cakes.

The chocolate croissant was passable and not too bad.

The raisin swirl though rather heavy and sickly wasn’t too bad, but we weren’t sure what to make of the very dark cherry on top!

However the “chocolate” muffin was revolting.

For some reason it had something chewy on top, maybe it was toffee, didn’t taste of toffee. The muffin, though it was brown, certainly didn’t taste of chocolate.

An unwelcome break

Overall, though we laughed about it, it was a most unwelcome break.

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Paella

Made a homemade paella the other day.

Took some onions, pepper and some pancetta, and fried them in a large heavy pan.

I then added the paella rice, and it always makes sense to use paella rice, and never any other kind of rice.

Ensuring the rice was coated in the onions, pepper and oil, I added a splash of white wine. Then add the saffron and chicken stock.

Simmer for twenty minutes adding more stock if required.

I had already cooked the chicken and the prawns, I was also using cooking chorizo which was cooked separately.

The dish was the put together and served.

I would have liked to use more shellfish, but all I had was prawns. I would have probably also cooked the chicken in the rice, but that was done separately on this occasion.

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Floyd No More

Keith Floyd who died today was a real inspiration, and in many ways inspired me to cook and cook better.

When in the 1980s cookery programmes were boring and staid, his outdoor, open,  flash style made the programme a joy to watch. As a teenager with no real interest in cooking, I changed my mind as his flambouyant style made for really entertaining television.

I remember I was inspired to try Thai food after watching Floyd.

Even now many years later I still enjoy watching Floyd cook and often catch his programmes on Freeview.

Cooking has lost a hero.

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Cooking Chorizo

In October last year I blogged about how Tesco were going to stop selling their cooking chorizo.

Only a couple of days ago I mentioned cooking Chorizo Frito al Vino using Tesco’s Cooking Chorizo.

You can imagine my disappointment that my local Tesco is discontinuing to sell the cooking chorizo.

I’ll have to start using the dried version.

Well imagine my delight when they started to sell it again.

Cooking Chorizo

For dishes such as  Chorizo Frito al Vino and Paella it works much better than the dried version. It is easy to slice and cooks really easily.

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Egg and Chips with a nice mug of tea

Egg and Chips with a nice mug of tea

Food and class. Great article from the BBC Magazine on Egg and Chips with a nice mug of tea!

For a lower-middle class boy from Liverpool, a plate of egg and chips at five o’clock was not the done thing.

Read more.

Being middle class I would never have tea at 5pm, more likely  we would have “supper” at 7pm. For me tea was a birthday tea with cakes, biscuits, crisps and sausages on cocktail sticks. I remember being very surprised when a working class friend invited me home for tea and we didn’t have a birthday tea, but had supper!

Photo source.