food, reviews and of course coffee
Pipp & Co are a relative newcomer to the bakery scene in Bristol. I had been meaning to go there for a while, so when I did I was impressed with them. More traditional than the Americana style of Krispy Kreme or Tim Hortons. These sugar coated doughnuts are filled with different fillings, all very tasty.
Back in February I was on a trip to Helsinki in Finland for a few days for work. I was staying at the Scandic Hotel Simonkenttä in the heart of the city.
For a quick good value meal I went to Momotoko in the Kamppi shopping centre, it was close to the hotel, and it was nice food that was reasonably priced. Part of me wanted to have some authentic Finnish food whilst I was in Finland, but I was on a budget, and I quite like Korean style food. You order at the counter and then they bring the food to your table.
I had enjoyed my previous donburi at Momotoko so when needing something to eat it was easy to head back there. This time I went with the Teriyaki Chicken Donburi, this was rice with teriyaki sauce and chicken slices. It was accompanied by marinated egg, shiitake mushrooms, edamame beans, marinated cucumber, sesame seeds and spring onion.
This was a delicious bowl of food, fresh and tasty. The chicken was tender and nicely done. I liked all the accompaniments, I did like the egg and the mushrooms.
I also had another Kimchi Fried Chicken Bao, which I had on my previous visit, This was chicken fillet, salad leaf, fresh cucumber, kimchi, momo-mayo and spring onion in a steamed bao bun.
This was similar to bao buns I have had elsewhere. A crispy piece of chicken, the freshness of the salad constructing well with the kimchi. Really tasty bun.
I have since found out that Momotoko has now closed down, so if I ever get back to Helsinki, I won’t be able to taste these dishes again.
I made and cooked a paella, or a Spanish inspired rice dish.
I diced an onion, some red pepper, and some chestnut mushrooms. I also cut up some green beans.
In a hot large frying pan, I put some olive oil and I cooked off some smoked pancetta. I then added the diced onion, pepper, and mushroom. I also added the green beans.
When this was softened, I added 200g of paella rice. To this I added some paella seasoning, paella seasoning, Carmencita Paellero Paella Spice Mix.
This is according to the description the number one selling spice mix in Spain.
I ensured that the rice was coated added some chicken stock and water. Stirred once and left it to cook.
I served it with some prawns and squid.
I do quite like, what I suspect we would call posh doughnuts, but don’t always like paying the high prices we sometimes see.
Back in February I was on a trip to Helsinki in Finland for a few days for work. I was staying at the Scandic Hotel Simonkenttä in the heart of the city. The Kamppi shopping centre was next to the hotel. Whilst I was at the hotel I popped out, with an idea to get some snacks from the supermarket, but as I passed Round Bakery, I saw their donuts were 50% off. They looked very nice, so I bought two of those. I got a chocolate one, and a maple and coconut donut.
These were excellent doughnuts, despite being reduced they were still nice and fresh. I liked the decorations which added to the doughnut. What I didn’t find out until now was that all their doughnuts are vegan.
Back in February I was on a trip to Helsinki in Finland for a few days for work. I was staying at the Scandic Hotel Simonkenttä in the heart of the city.
For a quick good value meal I went to Momotoko in the Kamppi shopping centre, it was close to the hotel, and it was nice food that was reasonably priced. Part of me wanted to have some authentic Finnish food whilst I was in Finland, but I was on a budget, and I quite like Korean style food.
You order at the counter and then they bring the food to your table. There were quite a few choices, so I went with the Korean Pork Donburi. This was rice with Korean style sauce and deep fired tofu. Accompanied by marinated egg, shiitake mushrooms, edamame beans, Momotoko-kimchi, sesame seeds and spring onion.
I really liked the tender pork in this dish. The freshness of the edamame beans was a good contrast to the deep spicy pork and flavoured mushrooms. The pork was tender, and I liked the addition of the egg.
I also had a Kimchi Fried Chicken Bao, which was chicken fillet, salad leaf, fresh cucumber, kimchi, momo-mayo and spring onion in a steamed bao bun.
This was similar to bao buns I have had elsewhere. A crispy piece of chicken, the freshness of the salad constructing well with the kimchi. Really tasty bun.
I have since found out that Momotoko has now closed down, so if I ever get back to Helsinki, I won’t be able to taste these dishes again.
Cabot Circus is set to gain a new restaurant called Bunsik, which specializes in Korean street food and corn dogs.
The menu online looks interesting and the prices at the Manchester branch looks like good value for money as well.
No date when it will be open, but when I was at Cabot Circus at the weekend, I saw that the outside was all done up.
I think I will try and get there when it does opens.
Having just had an excellent tour of the Thatchers cider press and a fair number of tastings, we decided that we would get some lunch from the Thatchers owned Railway Inn. The Railway Inn is owned by the Thatchers cider company who are also based in the village of Sandford, which is on the A368 between Weston and Churchill.
I went for the (small) fish and chips from the bar menu. This was fish fried crisp in a cider batter, with chips, mashed peas and tartare sauce.
This was a lovely plate of fish and chips. The batter was nice and crisp; I loved the chips which were perfect. Overall, a tasty plate of food.
I had stopped off at Cribbs Causeway to charge my car and grab a late lunch.
Was going to go to Wagamama and try out their tteokbokki. However, they were quite busy, and I couldn’t see the tteokbokki on the menu. In the end I went to Tortilla and had tres tacos.
I do like the tacos from Tortilla, they are tasty, fresh and I think good value for money. I went with three chicken tacos and added extra guacamole. That is probably my only annoyance, is that I have to pay extra for guacamole, and it’s not as though you get a massive portion of guacamole either, it’s a small spoonful on each taco. I remember once getting tacos from somewhere else, a street food market, and then popping into Tesco Express to get a pot of guacamole as it was significantly cheaper and you got more guacamole. Don’t think I could do that at Tortilla unless I did takeout.
I made some homemade mushroom bao, well I bought the bao buns ready made. I cooked some mushrooms in a frying pan and when they were nearly cooked I added some teriyaki sauce.
After filling the buns, I dressed them with some pea shoots and some Japanese mayo. I placed them within one of my colourful plastic taco holders.
One of the things I found at Sainsbury’s once was some thinly sliced lamb breast. It was described as Quick Cook Extra Thin British Lamb Steaks and was only £3.
I did think that this would be an interesting ingredient but wasn’t exactly sure at the time how I would cook it and how I would use it. The packaging says it only takes about two minutes to cook.
I decided in the end I would have a Teriyaki Lamb Ramen. Thinking the lamb would cook fast, I prepared everything else first.
I cooked the lamb, it did cook very quickly. I added the teriyaki sauce. I then added this to the ramen bowl I had prepared earlier. I also added a fried egg on top.
I was actually quite impressed with the flavour and tenderness of the lamb. A tasty homemade ramen.