Author: jamesclay

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Why no oven chips?

French fries
Image by Matthias Böckel from Pixabay

I wrote about my impressions of self-catering at Cerro Mar in Portugal in a previous blog post. 

I do like to shop at local supermarkets and buy local produce or ingredients to cook with. As self-catering can be quite limited, I do sometimes on holiday buy convenience food to cook.

One of things I did find different in Portugal was the lack of oven chips available in the local supermarkets. They did sell frozen chips, but these were for deep fat frying.

I don’t know if this is a cultural thing, having bought oven chips in France and Spain on previous holidays.

I did buy the chips, but cooked them in the oven with some oil. They were okay.

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Self Catering in Cerro Mar

hotel complex

I have in previous years written about my self-catering experiences when going on holiday abroad.

Coping with self-catering in Calpe

Self-catering at La Croix Du Vieux Pont

This year we went on holiday to Albufeira in Portugal. We were staying at the Cerro Mar Garden apartments.

The self-catering kitchen in the apartment was large, spacious and well equipped.

kitchen

As well as a full size oven, four ring hob, there was a large fridge freezer, a dishwasher and a washing machine. There were lots of pans, utensils and kitchen tools. The kitchen knife was nice and sharp as well. There was a good chopping board too.

What was missing though, were some baking trays for the oven. This restricted how we could use the oven. There was also no sieve or colander. We did pasta and rice, but it was a bit of a challenge in getting them drained.

There was a kettle, a toaster, and a coffee machine. Our coffee machine was leaking, but this was quickly replaced by the hotel. It was a filter machine, I would have preferred a Nespresso capsule machine or similar.

In the past on self-catering holidays it has been challenging to cut fresh bread, this time the local supermarkets had a self service bread slicing machine you could use, so I used that to slice the bread.

One of the pans had a uneven base which meant it didn’t work on the induction hob, took me a couple of goes to realise that, as I don’t normally use induction hobs.

I appreciated the big fridge we had, and the freezer section. On self-catering holidays in caravans (mobile homes) the fridge can be quite small.

Overall it was a great apartment, and the kitchen worked out really well.

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Homemade Mexico City Nachos

Having really enjoyed the Mexico City Nachos from Wahaca, I have now been making this dish quite often myself.

Homemade Mexico City Nachos

I used some tinned black beans, I also had some other mixed beans and sweetcorn. To this I added some tortilla chips, and then dressed the dish with guacamole, sour cream, grated cheese, a tomato salsa, Mexican cheese dip, and some homemade pickled red onion. I added some freshly chopped coriander as a garnish.

It was a really nice and fresh dish, and was a good but slightly different version of the dish I had in London.

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Open Steak Sandwich

Joined some colleagues for lunch. Went to the Portwall Tavern. Though close to the office, I had never actually been there before. We ordered at the bar and took a table outside. I went with the open steak sandwich.

Open Steak Sandwich

This was a slice of toasted ciabatta, sliced grilled steak, served with field mushroom, roasted red peppers, Stilton, Dijon mustard sauce and wedges. I asked for the wedges to be replaced with fries. Not sure if that was the best decision once the plates of food arrived, the wedges did look good.

The steak was cooked well, and the sauce was quite intense, the Stilton and mustard sauce was strong in flavour (and a little salty). However I did enjoy the food

A colleague of mine went with the California Veggie. This was (in her case) a gluten free ciabatta with avocado, goat’s cheese and vegetable pickles, served with potato wedges.

She said it was excellent.

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Spicer & Cole Flat White

Having missed out on lunch, I headed out for a walk and possibly coffee. I ended up at Spicer & Cole and ordered a flat white to drink in.

I was asked to take a seat and when my coffee was done they brought it over to me.

flat white

This was an excellently made coffee and I really enjoyed sitting down, doing some working, watching the world go by and drinking coffee.

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Monkfish Tempura

I was in Bristol and went for a walk at lunchtime. Went to the Finzel Reach market intending to have something from Big Nath’s BBQ stall, but they weren’t there, so went to King Fin instead. 

Was torn between the calamari and the new monkfish tempura. Whatever I chose I was going to have chips anyhow. In the end I went without the chips and went with both the monkfish and the calamari.

The calamari was excellent as usual (maybe a little too salty), but they were cooked to order, so the squid was nice and tender, and the coating was nice and crispy. The and cider vinegar slaw was a nice accompaniment.

The special, monkfish tempura was new to me. 

The pieces of monkfish were deep fried in a tempura batter, and served with a lime and coriander yoghurt, tamarind, crispy sweet shallots and curry leaves.

The monkfish was cooked perfectly, and the batter (on top) was nice and crisp. Alas by the time I got back from the market to the office, the batter on the underside of the fish had got a little soggy from the yoghurt. I think if I had eaten the dish as soon as I was served it, it would have been fine. If I was to offer one piece of advice, I would probably say serve the yoghurt on the side, rather than on the bottom of the box. Or have something to separate the crispy fish from the yoghurt. Even so I liked the lime and coriander yoghurt which added a sharpness to the fish. I also enjoyed the tamarind, crispy sweet shallots and curry leaves.

Overall it was a little extravagant to have two mains, and no fries, however I really enjoyed having the calamari instead of fries.

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That’s why I don’t go to Starbucks

I was charging my car when I walked over to my local Starbucks. This branch has a drive through, but also space to sit down. As I was waiting, I decided to drink in. I was going to have an iced drink, but they had no ice.

I ordered a flat white.

I thought it was well overpriced at £3.74. I know we have excessive inflation, but I think £3 for a coffee in London is expensive. I suspect that they use the same pricing structure as Starbuck branches on motorway services. This Starbucks is next to a petrol station but is in Weston-super-Mare and not on the motorway.

It did look nice, but it wasn’t in my opinion a really good coffee. I remembered I am not really a fan of Starbucks coffee. 

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Green Bean Salad

Green Bean Salad

Over the summer we eat a lot of salad, what goes into the salad often depends on what we have in the fridge.

One salad dish I remember from my childhood was tinned green beans with mayonnaise. Though I haven’t’ had that for years, I have been added cooked fresh trimmed green beans to my salads.

I cook them for about six to seven minutes and then let them cool before adding them to the salad. Sometimes I serve them on their own with a vinaigrette dressing.

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Coffee at the Rada Cafe

coffee

Close to the Adagio Aparthotel in Brentford, one of the regular places I stay in London is the Rada Cafe. Though I have been staying at the Adagio for a few years now, I have never been to the Rada Cafe. The main reason was that either I arrived late at the hotel or left early to catch a train. Usually though I would have coffee in the apartment, as they have an Nespresso coffee machine.

The other week I arrived at the Adagio early afternoon and my room wasn’t ready. So I popped over to the Rada Cafe across the road and ordered a cortado. I do like it when ordering coffee in a cafe, they let you sit down and bring it over. Not quite table service, but so much better than hanging around a counter waiting (and in some cases it feels like fighting) for your coffee.

This was a lovely coffee, well made, and delicious.

When I left the Adagio later that week, I had some time before my train home, so I went for another coffee, and another excellent experience. 

I think next time I stay at the Adagio I will make the time to pop to the Rada for another coffee.

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Making the Leap

I was up around the Gloucester Road and needing to kill some time, decided to go for coffee. There are plenty of places to get coffee on the Gloucester Road around the Zetland Road area. One place I had been meaning to try for a while was Future Leap. The Future Leap Hub was opened on Gloucester Road, Bristol, in 2019, using the site of the old Tandy shop, and was the first carbon neutral co-working space of its kind in the UK.

The place looks very different to when I remember it as Tandy, it has been completely refurbished. There is now a welcoming sustainable feel to the space, lots of wood and plants.

I was given a warm welcome and I ordered a cortado. I took a seat and the coffee was delivered to my table.

I had intended to take a photograph of it before I drank it, but my phone was playing up, so had to restart it.

half a cup of coffee

I really liked the smooth coffee taste and enjoyed it. 

The food menu looked interesting and tempting, I nearly had some soup. Certainly a place I would go again.