food, reviews and of course coffee
A farmer is going to stop “pick your own” as people are eating all the fruit they pick in the fields and pay for hardly any.
The BBC reports.
A fruit farm has stopped doing “pick your own” strawberries because customers are eating too much of the fruit without paying.
This line made me smile for the sheer cheek.
We don’t mind people going picking and trying some strawberries, but we once had a family come with a bowl of cream.
Photo source.
2008 is (according to the UN) will be the year of the potato!
The BBC has a nice series of images on the humble potato.
The humble potato in all its thousands of varieties is gaining more and more importance as a food source for developing nations, and the UN has declared 2008 the international year of the potato.
See the pictures.
The Guardian has published a really informative and interesting article on breakfast cereals.
Britain is one of the world’s largest consumers of puffed, flaked and sugared breakfast cereals. How did that happen when many were said to contain less nutrition than the boxes they come in?
Personally I avoid most breakfast cereals, as most have way too much sugar in them, or they have huge amounts of salt in them.
Corn Flakes for example are more salty than some good quality sausages!
It should be noted that bread (for toast) is also very salty in comparison.
So what’s in your cereal bowl?
Photo source.
In order to make these kebabs, take some organic chicken, I used skinless and boneless thighs. I prefer the thigh meat over the breast as I find it has more flavour.
Cut into cubes about the size of cherry tomatoes.
Cut some red pepper and onions to a similar size.
Now thread, the chicken, red pepper, onions, along with some cherry tomatoes.
Pour some olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the kebabs, add ground black pepper and marinade for at least an hour.
Place under a hot grill or at the top of a hot oven and cook for fifteen to twenty minutes.
Serve with a salad.
I do wonder why a Mexican themed restaurant is called Chesters?
Regardless of the name, I went there for lunch today and was quite impressed.
I had the house specialty burrito.
A 10″ flour tortilla, crammed with cheese & onion and your choice of filling, served with salsa, sour cream & guacamole, complemented with a Chesters combi salad.
From the choice of fillings I went for the mexican chicken.
I was expecting it to be very spicy, but it wasn’t, it was spiced, but not so spicy to be uncomfortably spicy – as happens in some Mexican chain places I have been to in the past.
The salsa, sour cream and guacamole were nice as they tasted fresh and most certainly did not taste processed or out of a jar.
I thought the side salad was excellent, which was full of interesting salad type things, including shoots, cabbage, potatoes as well as other delicious stuff.
The coffee I had alongside was very nice too.
Overall I did enjoy my meal and thought it was very good value for lunch. My dining colleague enjoyed his risotto.
I would go there again (and more often) alas it is in Worcester and I don’t go there very often!
BBC reports on milk in plastic bags.
One of the UK’s leading supermarkets has begun stocking milk in plastic bags – but how easy are they to use?
Rory Cellan-Jones road tests a bag of milk to find out if it is likely to replace the traditional doorstep pint.
Watch the video.
Looks all a bit complicated to me.
Having said that, I read on a Canadian blog that they have been using milk bags in Canada for years. In the UK we are sometimes a little behind, for example it took us ages to move away from leaded petrol for example, or embrace organic produce.
Though I know really large milk bags have been used in catering for some years, but this is the first milk bag for consumers.
I am a great fan of Langoustine.
When they are just right there is something about the freshness and sweetness that makes them delicious.
It can be hard to find fresh ones, usually they are available either frozen or defrosted. In terms of taste, fresh is always best.
I like mine simple with a bit of mayonaise or aioli, but they are also nice split and grilled with herbs and olive oil as in the above picture.
This is a recipe that I cooked tonight, which is a variation on my lemon chicken recipe.
For this recipe I took some organic chicken thighs and legs and made some cuts in them with a sharp knife, so that they would both asorb more of the marinade and cook quicker. I had seven portions of chicken.
I placed in a bowl the zest and juice of two lemons and one lime. Though I did take a few slices of the lemon and lime before I extracted the juice to use as a garnish.
I added some fresh herbs, parsley and basil, as well as ground black pepper and a good splash of olive oil.
I then placed the chicken in the bowl and mixed well.
I left the chicken for about ten minutes.
The chicken was then placed on a grill pan and put under the grill – I used the top of a very hot oven in order to achieve the same effect.
Turn and baste as and when needed.
Serve.
I served mine with new potatoes, coleslaw, a green salad and fresh bread.
Delicious.
Today I was in Bristol and after a walk on the Harbourside I went to the Dockyard Café Bar.
From their website:
The Dockyard Café Bar is located alongside Brunel’s SS Great Britain and offers superb views on to the ship as well as across Bristol’s historic floating harbour.
Enjoy delicious light meals, snacks and drinks throughout the day; soak up the atmosphere on the waterfront terrace or inside literally watching the world sail by.
On offer daily are delicious soups, special dishes, Italian-style paninis and sandwiches freshly prepared on the premises.
Okay that’s the marketing spiel, what was the reality like?
The place is really quite nice and despite the fact it was a hot day, it was very cool inside. You could have chosen to sit outside if you wanted to.
It’s nice and open inside with lots of space, so it never feels crowded.
That’s the good stuff, however overall it was a bit of a disappointment.
First service, we sat inside and went to the counter to order… Despite there been about six or seven staff at front of house, only two seemed to be working! They had two staff who were taking orders, money, making the drinks and getting the orders together. Moving around these two were other staff who seemed to be doing nothing more than getting in the way.
There was quite a queue and as a result quite a wait to get served. It would have made more sense to me to use some of the staff to speed up the service.
Secondly the quality of the food was quite poor.
I was going to get a coffee, however the cups seemed very small, and though I don’t mind small portions of coffee, these were very much on the small side – like large espresso cups! So I went for a diet coke and it came in a glass bottle which is nice and I much prefer this over the post-mix you usually find in these kind of places.
I ordered sandwiches, a child’s meal and some chips.
The sandwiches were taken from the fridge, whilst we had to wait for the children’s meal.
These were not cheap at £3.50 each and were of a very poor standard. They tasted as though they were made with yesterday’s bread. Now that could be because they were made with yesterday’s bread, or had been left out for too long. Whatever the reason the bread did not taste fresh. Now if I make a sandwich from yesterday’s bread at home, that’s my choice, however when I go out to a cafe I expect my sandwich to be made with fresh bread.
The fillings were not generous, whilst the salad (if you can call five leaves and a slice of tomato a salad) looked as though it had seen better days.
It felt as though the manager doesn’t have children or understand that children don’t always like waiting, and like waiting even less if mum and dad have their food.
Though I felt overpriced, the children’s meal, at least the sandwich was fresh, though not quite sure what the balloon was doing in there!
So could they mess up the chips?
Yes they could.
They double-cooked them!
Basically the chips were cooked twice, so at some point the chips were cooked, left, and then when I placed my order, they were cooked again.
Overall I liked the ambience and the environment, however the food was plainly awful. I am glad I didn’t try the cooked meals.
This place has the potential to be so much better and I hope it can improve. Key steps are, use fresh ingredients and cook to order.
They should create and deliver a menu which reflects the legacy of Brunel and the SS Great Britain.
I do like lobster, but I don’t think it is as good as I think it should be.
Now I freely admit that this may be down to the lobster I have had recently. If I had had proper fresh lobster, cooked and then served, I am sure I might think differently. Alas it can be difficult to find round here. One day…