food, reviews and of course coffee
It was nice to see that the Schwartz Citrus Brazilian BBQ seasoning is back in stock at Aldi. This is one of a temporary range, which also includes Monterey Steak and Shish Kebab.
I wrote about this seasoning pack back in September 2022 and how I used it to cook some chicken thighs.
I picked up some packs from Aldi and will use them to cooks some chicken. I might even try cooking it on the barbecue this time.
I was visiting the University of Birmingham and wanted a bite to eat. There was a branch of Kimiko. I had seen it on a previous visit to the university. I went in and ordered the spicy Korean chicken, with rice, and a portion of fried octopus takoyaki.
The spicy Korean chicken came with rice and was garnished with spring onions.
The chicken sadly wasn’t freshly cooked and was a little dry, even with the sauce. The sauce was good though.
The takoyaki was presented with sauce and pickled ginger.
These were excellent and very tasty. I enjoyed these (more than the chicken).
When I stay at the Drayton Court Hotel in London, most times, it not all times I have the full English breakfast for my breakfast. It is excellent and delicious. One of the features of staying at this hotel is that, not only is breakfast included in the stay, but the hot food is cooked to order and brought to your table. This is a little thing that I like compared to dealing with the hot buffet at other hotels I stay at. They have an extensive and interesting hot food menu for breakfast, though as I said, I usually go with the cooked breakfast plate.
Deciding to have a change I ordered the spinach and mushroom omelette.
This was a homemade cooked omelette generously filled with spinach and mushroom. There was a ham and cheese option as well.
It was hot and tasty but needed a little more seasoning.
I wasn’t too sure about the large lettuce garnish; I don’t usually have salad for breakfast.
When I go out and buy coffee I usually drink in, and have a proper cup. I always think if I am spending a lot of money on coffee, I want it in a china cup, and not a paper cup.
I was at Paddington Station with some time before my train, and using my Three+ offer I had a £1 skinny flat white from Caffe Nero. As this was a kiosk, the coffee was in a paper cup.
They did something which they think is helpful, whereas I don’t. The Caffe Nero flat white comes in a smaller cup, which the cardboard sleeves they use on their larger cups don’t fit. The cardboard sleeves act as an insulation layer. As the sleeves don’t fit on the smaller cups they double cup; use an extra cup instead of a sleeve. They do this, so that it acts as an insulation layer.
Now I get this, but as a result I personally find it difficult to drink from the doubled up cups after removing the lid. I also find it quite challenging to remove the spare cup without spilling the coffee.
Yes, it is not a major problem, just a minor annoyance.
I need to remember the next time, to ask for a single cup.
Needing a quick lunch, I went to Tortilla and had their three tacos. You have a choice of flour or corn tacos. This time I went with flour tacos.
For the filling I would usually go for the beef, but this time I went with the chicken. I have gone for the beef in the past, thinking it would be steak, but it usually isn’t.
The chicken was a much better choice. It was very tasty, and I enjoyed my choice of toppings of tomato salsa, sour cream, guacamole, and cheese.
It’s quite a light lunch, which is what I wanted. If you wanted something more substantial, you could have the burrito option.
I always think it is a little cheeky to charge extra for guacamole and then put essentially a small spoonful on each tacos. I remember having (takeaway) tacos once from a place which did this, I actually went to Tesco and bought a tub of guacamole rather than pay more for less.
It was a grey Wednesday in Bristol, so I headed off to the Finzel Reach street food market to get some lunch. It wasn’t as busy as it can be, so the queues were shorter.
Across the Bristol street food market, one stall stands out as being slightly different and that is King Fin, which sells freshly cooked seafood.
Over my many visits to King Fin I have enjoyed many different kinds of fish dishes. My usual and my favourite has to be the calamari. I also enjoyed the monkfish tempura when I had that last year. The soft shell crab burger was a great concept, but I do feel it lacked the intense crab flavour I would like from it. I was though less impressed with the fritto misto I had back in 2022.
One of their offerings I have never tried is their fish wrap with fries. This week it was haddock goujons with pea puree, tartare sauce, lettuce, in a wrap with double cooked fries and house sauce. Other times they have had cod goujons on the board.
As they messed up someone else’s order (who didn’t want tartare sauce) I got my food quite quickly.
As the fish was wrapped the photographs doesn’t really do the food justice. The haddock was cooked well, and I liked the crispy coating. The pea puree was quite rough, but I liked that it added texture and taste. The double cooked fries were a little limp, with double cooking fries, I like them to be crisp on the outside and fluffy in the inside.
Overall though it was a delicious dish, which I really enjoyed, and would certainly have again.
It was a Friday in April, in Bristol and I headed off to the Finzel Reach street food market to see what I could get for lunch. A guest food van was there, the Cyprus Kitchen.
They offered a choice of flatbread wraps and a meze box. In the wraps you could choose between lemon and oregano chicken, halloumi, garlic beef sausage, or aubergine.
When I got there, they had sold out of aubergine. I did think about a wrap, but liked the idea of the meze box, so I went with that. I had mine with the garlic beef sausage, and lemon and oregano chicken. It came with chips, salad, and various pickles and relishes.
This was a delicious generous meze box and I really enjoyed it. My only comments really are that the sausage was slightly overcooked and the pomegranate seeds were under-ripe. The rest of the box though was excellent. The chicken was moist and tasty. I liked the salads and the fries. The flatbread was a nice addition. Delicious box of food.
I hope that we see The Cyprus Kitchen back at Finzel Reach in the future.
The smell of cooking chicken over hot coals was a real feature of relative newcomer to the Bristol street food scene, KC Peri Peri Chicken.
The smell of the barbecue was very tempting, so I thought okay, lets go for it.
For £8.50 you get barbecued marinated chicken with yellow rice, lime and charred corn greenslaw, and a peri peri sauce of your choice. I went with lemon and herb. Service was a little slow, but eventually I did get my box of food.
This was a really nice looking dish. The rice was great as was the greenslaw, though I am not entirely sure what greenslaw actually is. I did feel a little short changed on the chicken though. I would really like to have had more chicken in the box. The chicken though was great, nicely cooked and full of flavour.
I certainly would go again, wonder if they would do a large version of the box with more chicken.
Having got a food processor for Christmas a few years ago, I use it quite often to make homemade hummus. I would probably make it more often, but don’t always have the ingredients in the cupboard.
I used this as the recipe for the hummus. It is based on my usual recipe, but as I didn’t have any lemons, so I used a lime instead. I used puréed garlic from a tube, as it was easier and quicker than using
400g can chickpeas, drained
60ml extra virgin olive oil
50ml water
1 teaspoon of purred garlic
1 lime, juiced.
3 spoonfuls of tahini
Drain and rinse the chickpeas in cold running water, and then place in the food processor with the olive oil.
Blitz until you get an almost smooth consistency. Then add the garlic puree, lime juice, tahini and 30ml of water. Blitz again until you have a smooth creamy texture. You can add more water if it is too thick. Season and then transfer to a bowl.
Served with warm flatbread and chargrilled chicken.
The Landing Light is a Marston pub. Though very close to where we live I think I have been there only once before, for a meal, and even then I am not sure I actually had. So I was looking forward to going there when we went there for a birthday meal. The Landing Light is not an old pub, it opened ten years ago, it has a modern retro feel to it.
I looked over the menu and there were lots of things I liked the sound of. I decided I would have the mixed grill. This was a 4oz rump steak, a 6oz gammon steak, a pork chop, a lamb chop, a pork sausage with a fried free-range egg.
It took a while for the food to arrive, and my mixed grill was a large plate of food. Alongside all the meat, the plate came with chips, grilled tomato, mushroom and a green leaf garnish.
The meat was cooked well, the steak was delicious. Nice char but pink inside. I liked the lamb chop and the gammon. I wasn’t that impressed with the sausage, and the pork chop was less of a chop and more of a loin steak.
I did enjoy the plate of food and would certainly visit the Landing Light again.