jamesclay, Author at Time for a coffee

June 7, 2024June 6, 2024

Pumpkin Ravioli

A favourite spot I frequent in London is the Drayton Court Hotel in Ealing. It’s been my go-to for years now. Compared to central London, it’s much easier on the wallet, and the Elizabeth Line makes getting downtown a snap. West Ealing Station, just a short walk away, offers trains that zip you into central London in under 20 minutes.

They have an ever changing menu and they have a specials menu. One of the specials was a roasted pumpkin & sage ravioli with maple roasted prince pumpkin, herb pesto, creme fraiche & toasted seeds.

This vegetarian dish sounded interesting, so I had it for dinner.

It wasn’t the most appetising looking dish I have had at Drayton Court. I think a swirl of creme fraiche would have enhanced this dish. The menu description said creme fraiche, but I am not sure if either it was missed off, or mixed in with the pesto.

The ravioli was cooked well, too easy to overcook filled pasta, but this was still al dente. I liked the deep fried sage which added flavour and texture to the dish, as did the toasted pumpkin seeds. I enjoyed the chunks of maple roasted prince pumpkin which were quite tasty. Overall it was an interesting dish, not sure I would order it again though.

June 6, 2024June 5, 2024

Mediterranean pizza with mushrooms, artichoke & olives

One of the regular places I stay when in London is the Drayton Court Hotel in Ealing. I have been staying here for a fair few years now. It is significantly cheaper than central London, and with the Elizabeth Line, hitting central London is really fast. West Ealing Station is a few minutes walk from the hotel, from there you can catch a train to central London in less than twenty minutes. The hotel has an Ealing comedies theme, there are rooms named after films, and there are numerous photographs from the films framed on the walls in the bedrooms.

The staff are always welcoming and friendly, and the whole place has a real charm to it. The dinner menu is excellent and unlike other Fuller Brewery hotels they also have an extensive pizza menu.

I usually avoid pizza in hotels as they usually use pre-cooked bases, or even prepared pizza. I remember once having a pizza at the Doubletree Hilton and being very unimpressed with that pizza.

I think they had used a pre-cooked base, rather than making it fresh. I wasn’t too surprised by that. I was a little surprised that the tomato base was tomato puree and not passata or other kind of tomato sauce. This I wasn’t too impressed with. The toppings were nice and fresh though.

The Drayton Court Hotel however has a proper pizza oven and use proper pizza bases. I had enjoyed the time I had pizza there back in March 2023. I had the Florentine Pizza, which included spinach, mushrooms, olives, and an egg. It is one of my favourite pizzas and I have quite often when visiting pizza places.

This time I ordered the Mediterranean pizza with mushrooms, artichoke & olives. This is in fact a vegan choice, so I asked to swap the vegan cheese for “normal” cheese. I am not really a fan of vegan cheese.

It wasn’t long before my pizza arrived, in a box. I wasn’t expecting that. As the weather was nice, I headed out into the beer garden and had my pizza al fresco with a beer.

There was a generous amount of mushrooms, artichoke and olives on top of the pizza. The base was freshly cooked, crisp on the outside and soft and doughy on the inside. I really enjoyed the pizza, it was very tasty.

June 5, 2024June 4, 2024

Citrus Brazilian BBQ is back!

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.

June 4, 2024

Spicy Korean Chicken with Rice and Takoyaki

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).

June 1, 2024May 30, 2024

Breakfast Omelette

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.

May 31, 2024

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.

May 31, 2024May 30, 2024

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.

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.

May 30, 2024May 27, 2024

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.

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.

May 29, 2024May 27, 2024

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.

May 28, 2024May 27, 2024

KC Peri Peri Chicken

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.