Author: jamesclay

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I don’t like doubled up cups

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.

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Tres Tacos

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.

three chicken 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.

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Haddock Goujons

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.

street food stall

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.

wrap and chips

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.

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Meze Box

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.

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KC Peri Peri Chicken

man cooking chicken in the background, sauce bottles and metal containers in the foreground

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.

food box with rice and chicken

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.

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Time for some homemade Hummus

chick peas
Image by jacqueline macou from Pixabay

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.

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Time for a Mixed Grill

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.

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Slow slow dinner

We had a team dinner at The River Station in Bristol. I was quite looking forward to the meal, as I have never eaten there before. It’s a lovely venue and we were given a warm welcome.

We had chosen our menu choices well before we sat down for dinner. I am not a fan of that, as what I like the look of when I am choosing from a menu, may not necessarily what I want to eat on the actual day of the dinner. 

After sitting down we had to wait a while for our food to arrive. For my starter I had harissa glazed carrots, roasted pears, beetroot hummus and watercress.

harissa glazed carrots, roasted pears, beetroot hummus and watercress

I liked this dish, though I thought the watercress spoiled the look of the plate of food. The carrots had bite and the harissa added a nice element of spice. The hummus was tasty. I couldn’t taste the pears! I am not even sure there were any pears.

There was quite a delay before the main course arrived, I had the chicken supreme, sautéed Cornish new potatoes, roasted romanesco cauliflower, truffle cream and salsa verde.

chicken supreme, sautéed Cornish new potatoes, roasted romanesco cauliflower, truffle cream and salsa verde

The chicken was cooked well and I liked the sauce and the potatoes.  Though I had no romanesco cauliflower, just plain old regular cauliflower.

Due to the lengthy delays in getting our food, I ran out of time and left before the dessert arrived. I had ordered the  apple, fig and chestnut crumble, with a lemon thyme custard. Sounded interesting, but wasn’t that disappointed I never got a chance to try it.

I did enjoy the food, but the long service was a little disappointing.

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The tempura crispy chicken is back…

One of my favourite dishes from the Bristol street food scene is the bento box from She Sells Sushi. Virtually all the time when getting lunch from the stall I get the bento box with a portion of beef donburi and a hirata bao bun. 

Over the many years I have been enjoying this food, the beef donburi hasn’t changed much, however there have been many variations of the hirata bao bun.

Back in 2017 I was enjoying the delicious tender pork belly hirata bao bun. In 2019 it was the Finzel Flapper bun; same soft charcoal infused bao bun, but inside was tempura battered chicken.

Over the last few years though, She Sells Sushi had replaced the crispy battered chicken, in the first instance with panko crumbed chicken strips, and recently crunchy chicken strips. They were nice, but I prefer the crispy chicken that came with the original Finzel Flapper.

So on a recent visit to the Finzel Reach street food market I had my regular bento box from She Sells Sushi, I was pleased to see that the crunchy chicken had been replaced with crispy chicken. 

I don’t know if this is a permanent change, or a temporary thing, but I really liked the crispy chicken hirata bun. The chicken had a nice crispy batter, and chicken was nice and moist. The softness of the bao bun contrasted well with the crispiness of the chicken.

The beef donburi was slow cooked teriyaki beef rib on a bed of rice, topped with crispy onions and pickles.

This a street food dish I have had many times from She Sells Sushi, and this was just as nice as I’ve had on previous visits. The beef was delicious and full of flavour and the garnishes just added to the dish.

Overall a lovely bento box, which I really enjoyed.

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Wood Chop Pizza

It was a Thursday and I was looking for some lunch, so I headed to the Temple Quay market. I had planned on having one of the delicious fish dishes from King Fin, however they weren’t there. I was short on time, so no time to head anywhere else. I did think about having some Gurt Wings, but as I looked around the market and saw the  Wood Chop Pizza stall.

They had a choice of four pizza, and I liked the idea of the burrata pizza for £7.50. I thought this was good value, they did a salami or an nduja pizza for £9, or a margarita for £6.50. I went with the burrata pizza.

They made and cooked the pizza to order. It was cooked in their (huge) wood fired pizza oven. After it was cooked it was cut and placed in a box.

There is something about a freshly cooked pizza, the doughy base was delicious. The tomato and fresh mozzarella was excellent, and I liked the addition of fresh basil.

I do like pizza, but rarely have it for lunch. This made a nice change from other things I sometimes have.