Duck Takoyaki in my Bento Box

If you are a regular visitor to the blog then you will know I am a fan of the bento box from She Sells Sushi, one of the regular stalls at Finzel Reach (and Temple Quay) street food markets.

On a recent visit to Finzel Reach, it was raining, so the queues were shorter, so I didn’t have to wait too long for a bento box for my lunch. This time in my bento box I went with the beef donburi and some duck Takoyaki.

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

I have had this dish many times, and it was delicious. The beef is cooked until it is tender. It is served on a bed of rice, and the pickles and crispy onions enhance the dish.

Usually in my bento box, I have the hirata bao bun. Having had that last time, this time I decided I would go for the Takoyaki dumplings. She Sells Sushi offer a choice between octopus and duck, I went with duck. It had been a while since I last had them in my bento box. I had enjoyed them then, so was looking forward to having them again. I was tempted by the XL Bento Box, in which you can add a third dish. I did think about getting a hirata bun alongside the beef and the Takoyaki. However I wasn’t overtly hungry, so I went with the standard bento box.

The Takoyaki were very nice. Nicely presented with sauces drizzled over them and garnished with seaweed and bento flakes.

I really enjoyed my bento box, and it was nice to have a change from my usual bento box.

Pasta Bolognaise

pasta
Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

This is my go to quick dinner recipe. Well, I say quick, it does take some time. 

When writing this I did wonder if I had written up the recipe before. Well, I hadn’t written my recent bolognaise cooking, but had published a recipe back in March 2008. Looking at this post I realised I had posted a bolognese (note the different spelling) recipe in November 2022.

Those two recipes are very similar, but I have changed how I cook bolognaise, so here is my recent version of the bolognaise.

This serves four people.

      • 500g minced beef, I try and get 5% fat mince, otherwise the end result can be a bit greasy. If you do buy the mince with the higher fat content, I would suggest after browning the mince to drain some of the excess fat or oil from the pan before adding the vegetables.
      • Splash of olive oil
      • One onion, diced
      • One carrot finely diced. The carrot is there to add some veg to the dish as well as flavour.
      • One red pepper, diced, sometimes I only use half a red pepper.
      • Handful of mushrooms, chopped.
      • Splash of balsamic vinegar
      • Knorr chicken stock pot, sometimes I use the beef stock pot.
      • Beef stock cube.
      • Dried Italian herbs
      • Tin of tomatoes, puréed, sometimes I use a jar of passata.
      • Tomato purée.
      • Garlic purée

I usually use a large pan with a lid, for cooking this dish. I heat the pan add the splash of olive oil and then brown off the mince until it is all done. If you have excess fat in the pan then drain the cooked mince and discard the excess oil and fat, then add the mince back to the pan.

Add the onion, carrot, and pepper. You can add extra vegetables at this point, or extra pepper. I have sometimes added courgettes or sweet potato. If you really like it, you could add celery I guess, I wouldn’t.

After a few minutes add the mushrooms.

Once the onion is soft and cooked, add the tin of tomatoes, the herbs, the tomato purée and the balsamic vinegar.

Cook for at least 30 minutes on a low heat. The plan is for all the flavours to infuse and for the beef mince to be cooked and tender.

Serve with spaghetti or a pasta of your choice. Add freshly grated Parmesan to taste, garnish with freshly topped parsley.

I did a variation adding a topping of pan fried pancetta and mushrooms to my dish. Just to be different!

She Sells Sushi, and a really nice bento box

demolished hotel

Bristol had a great street food scene. There are markets every day of the week, most days there are at least two. Across in Whapping Wharf there are cargo containers with some great food places.

I was working in Bristol one Friday and at lunchtime I went out for a walk.  I went to the Finzel Reach street food market, saw what was there, and then walked up to the St Nicholas market. I walked back to the Finzel Reach street food market and bought a bento box from She Sells Sushi. I had my usual beef donburi and the crispy chicken hirata bun. I had to wait a while, as there was a bit of queue, which isn’t too surprising, as the food is excellent from She Sells Sushi.

I sometimes think I should have something different. I have had the crispy tofu katsu curry before, which is tasty, but I prefer the beef donburi. 

The beef was tender and had an intense flavour. I liked the pickle and the crispy fried onions. The rice was sticky and worked well with the beef.

I did think about having the Takoyaki , but in the end I defaulted to the excellent crispy chicken hirata bun.

I had two strips of crispy, well more crunchy, chicken. These were in a charcoal hirata bao bun with some mixed leaves. 

This was a delicious bento box. They also do an XL version of the box in which you can have three choices. I did have this once, I had the beef donburi, the katsu tofu puffs, and a chicken hirata Bun. It was rather filling, I decided that I probably wouldn’t have the XL size again. Well I might, but I don’t think I would have the donburi and the katsu with something else. I would probably have the donburi with a hirata bun and the Takoyaki. Lots of variety, but not so filling as having two rice heavy dishes.

I generally don’t do sandwiches…

I may have mentioned before that I generally don’t do sandwiches. 

I was working in Bristol in early January, and thinking about lunch. I had the intention of visiting Finzel Reach street food market. However, as I walked the long way there I saw that the queue for Sandwich Sandwich was almost non-existent.

I was tempted, though first I checked out St Nicks and Finzel Reach first. I then returned to Sandwich Sandwich and looked over the menu.

I decided I would have the rare roast beef sandwich, along with a scotch egg.

I was asked what I wanted and ordered my food. They have a range of sandwiches and I went with the beef sandwich. On granary bread I had  overnight roasted sirloin of beef, red onion, tomato, and horseradish mayo. I believe you can add extra fillings (or take some away).

I have read many reviews of the sandwiches from Sandwich Sandwich and one thing that many have said is the size of the fillings. Even so I was still surprised by how much filling I had in my sandwich.

I’ll be honest I had to eat it with a knife and fork. There was so much beef that it did in many ways overpower the rest of the sandwich. I felt the bread just disappeared into the beef. The beef was tasty, and I enjoyed the salad and mayo.

Alongside I went with one of their scotch eggs. It looked great, had a runny yolk, but I wasn’t totally enamoured with the surrounding pork sausagemeat. I did have quite high expectations about the scotch egg, so it was probably very nice, I was just expecting something outstanding.

Overall it was an interesting sandwich experience. I can understand the popularity of the place, and I might go again, but only if there was a short queue.

What we had for Christmas Dinner

Every year I post what we had for our Christmas Dinner, partly as a note to my future self. This year we had less people around, so didn’t go too crazy.

I did notice that across the supermarkets there was a lot less game based roasts about. Aldi for example didn’t do their excellent game box they did last year. That box came with two pheasants, partridges in puff pastry, partridge breasts, and some cranberry stuffing. M&S didn’t have their three bird game roast which we have had before, nor did they have their stuffed partridges or pheasant. I still wish Sainsbury’s did their four bird roast, a goose stuffed with duck, turkey and guinea fowl. However they’ve not done this roast for over ten years now… which is a pity.

In the end we had a Two Bone Rib of Beef from Aldi and the Slow Cooked Three Bird Roast from M&S.

We had the Slow Cooked Three Bird Roast from M&S last year and though initially I thought I had made a mistake in buying this roast, we really enjoyed it in the end.

This is the picture from the box.

This year, though I cooked it according to the instructions I don’t think it was a good as it was last year. Last year it was very easy to carve and didn’t fall apart, this year not so easy.

Last year we had a M&S salt dry-aged  British sirloin of beef roast. It was nice, but it was also expensive. We didn’t eat that much on the day, so it lasted for a few days cold. I decided that I would save some money and buy a cheaper beef joint this year and was impressed with the Two Bone Rib of Beef from Aldi, which was less than half the price of the M&S beef roast.

Though I cooked this medium, I had planned to cook it rare, was really good. Lovely and tender, and very tasty. I was really impressed with the end result.

We did have a range of stuffings and pigs in blankets, I mange to do crispy roast potatoes, and we had a nice selection of vegetables. I didn’t do any festive red cabbage this year, I also didn’t do my festive carrots.

Overall we had a delicious meal, which everyone enjoyed.

We have a tradition of having our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. We’ve done this for ten years now. We do this for a few reasons. On Christmas Day itself, the children are often too excited to sit down for a long meal, so don’t eat or enjoy the meal or the occasion. It also usually means I spend a fair few hours in the kitchen, which means I miss them opening and playing with their presents. I also find it quite demanding to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible, whilst creating a wonderful dining experience.

Having the meal on Christmas Eve means that we can both spend a bit more time preparing the meal (less stressful in itself) and enjoy eating the meal (as do the children). As a result for them it helps pass the time on one of the more exciting days of the year as they anticipate the arrival of a sleigh full of presents being pulled by eight tiny reindeer! Even though they are older now, we still maintain the tradition.

As to what we eat on Christmas day itself, well we have lots of lovely leftovers, cheeses, pickles, hot bread, etc…. quick and easy to prepare and delicious.

Time for a Roast Beef Dinner

I was in London and staying at The Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. The restaurant is in the older part of the hotel, as the hotel part is now a new build at the back. 

The Fox and Goose is part of the Fullers’ chain of hotels and pubs. I have stayed before at Drayton Court in West Ealing, and have had their Sunday Roast before and enjoyed it. I have though not had the chance to try the Sunday Roast at The Fox and Goose.

The plate arrived and it was a huge pile of delicious goodness. 

Roast beef dinner

There were roast potatoes, roasted parsnips, roasted (heritage) carrots, buttered kale, peas, cauliflower cheese, a good portion of pink roast beef, and topped with a huge Yorkshire pudding.

It looked very impressive and I was glad I was hungry. It was just as good as I remember it, possibly a little better.

The star of then plate was the roast beef, there was plenty of it and it was tender and tasty. The roasted vegetables were delicious, well seasoned, with the potatoes being crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle. I liked the kale and peas. The Yorkshire Pudding was really nice as well.

It can’t be easy serving a roast dinner to order over an evening, but I think that the time did a really good job and I enjoyed my food.

Not quite my usual bento box

It was a Friday, the sun was shining, it wasn’t raining, there was no wind, which meant that the Finzel Reach street food market was running. They had cancelled Wednesday’s market due to the weather.

My usual choice when having a bento box from the She Sells Sushi stall is to have the beef donburi and a crispy chicken hirata bao bun. I decided I would still go for the beef donburi, but I would have the sweet potato hirata bun instead of my usual chicken one.

The beef was delicious as usual. It is tasty tender beef rib on a bed of sushi rice and served with pickle and crispy onion.

This a street food dish I have had many times, as this was as good as I’ve had on previous visits. The beef was full of flavour and the garnishes added to the dish.

The hirata bun was nice, but to be honest the sweet potato was just slices of cooked sweet potato. These were inside a charcoal bao bun with some lettuce, pickles and sauce. Not sure that added much, I think I would have preferred the crunchy texture of the chicken.

Overall though, I did like my lunch and it was very tasty.

Time for TânVân

There are lots of places from which to choose from when eating out in Ealing. Some would say too much choice. There are a number of Vietnamese restaurants in the area and they all look inviting and interesting. Looking around all the different places I did like the look of the menu at TânVân.

restaurant frontage on a street with a sign on the pavement

After walking around a couple of times I went back to TânVân.

We are a family-run Vietnamese eatery and Cocktail Bar based in the heart of Ealing Broadway. We serve the Vietnamese classics such as phỏ ̉ noodle soups, bún noodle salads and bánh mì as well as having lots of vegan options! 

We are more than just a place to eat. We are a place to share, not just food, but love, memories, laughter. A place for your first date, a place to celebrate, a place to catch up with an old friend, a place for after-work drinks with your co-workers. Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, we can assure that this is the place for you.

They have an intriguing menu, but the choice of starters or side dishes felt quite limited. However there were five dishes to choose from, maybe I am just being a little picky with that. Tempted by the chicken wings, in the end I wanted to try something new, so, I went with the beef wrapped in betel leaf topped with roasted peanuts.

plate of beef wrapped in betel leaf on noodles

This was not the most delicately presented dish of food, it did look a little thrown together. There was a plate of (cold) noodles, the beef wrapped in betel leaf, and it was topped with chopped peanuts. It was served with a chilli dipping sauce. This to me was quite a substantial starter, it probably didn’t need the noodles. The beef was tasty and I enjoyed eating all the food on the plate.

There are lots of choices on the menu for mains. As well as rice bowls, there is wide choice of Phở noodle soup, Bún bowls of noodle salad, and if you prefer you can have a bánh mi sandwich. For my main course I went with the Saigon pork belly stew.

This is on the specials on the menu, and is described as melt-in-your-mouth tender pork belly braised in a light and delicately sweet and sticky sauce. It came with a hard boiled egg, a side of rice and pickled vegetables.

pork belly stew with a hard boiled egg

The pork was melt-in-your-mouth tender and the sauce was not too sweet. It worked well with the rice and pickled vegetables.

a bowl of picked vegetables

a bowl of rice

I enjoyed this dish, it was delicious and tasty, and I was a little disappointed I had finished it, as I wanted more.

Alongside my meal I had a bottle of Bia Saigon beer, which was crisp and refreshing.

a bottle of beer on a table

The service was excellent, I was given a warm and friendly welcome.

This is certainly a place I would visit again.

Doing the Polka again

Having enjoyed my previous meal at Polka Kitchen, as I was looking for somewhere to eat I decided to go there again.

On previous visits to Ealing I had noted the Sowa restaurant, but had never gone there. The proprietors of that place have now moved to some swanky new premises in Dickens Yard and renamed themselves to Polka. Now I have no idea how authentic the food is, having never been to Poland, I was intrigued and on my previous visit was impressed.

I have to say I was tempted to have the steak tartare again, as I had enjoyed it so much. However, I decided I would try something else. They have a somewhat limited choice of starters, but there are a range of soups on the menu as well. I didn’t really fancy soup, so in the end I was choosing between the beetroot carpaccio and the Polish black pudding. I went with the Polish black pudding served with cod fillet, mustard sauce and sweet onion.

This was an interesting combination and not something I would have put together, nor did I realise it was a thing, blood sausage and fish.

The Polish black pudding was tasty, it was quite similar to English black pudding, but different. The fish was a nice addition to the dish, I also liked the mustard sauce. Overall it was a really nice dish and a delicious start to my meal.

For my main course there was quite a few choices. I did initially think about the traditional pork cutlet. However I realised that this wasn’t a cutlet in the way I thought it would be, but more of a schnitzel. From another table it looked like a pork steak, breadcrumbed, and fried. Though I thought that might be quite nice, it wasn’t quite what I wanted.

So I went with the Polish-style beef roulade stuffed with bacon and pickled cucumber, served with Silesian dumplings and pickled cucumber salad.

This was a beautifully presented plate of food. 

I liked the Silesian dumplings and the pickled cucumber salad. The beef though was not as good as I thought it would be. It was a little dry and chewy. It was still a tasty plate of food.

I had enjoyed my meal, and the service was excellent.

Bento Box Time

It’s been a while since I have had a Bento Box from See Sells Sushi, but as it was Friday, and the Finzle Reach market was on, I headed off in the heavy rain to see what was around, but thinking I would probably have the Bento Box.

It was raining quite heavily, I did think earlier in the day that the market might be cancelled because of the rain and wind. However, it was open, though the weather did mean it wasn’t very busy. There was though still a queue for the See Sells Sushi stall. I did have a look around to see what was around. In the end, I went back and queued up for my Bento Box.

I had my usual choice of been donburi and crispy chicken hirata bun. Service was quick and friendly.

The beef was as usual, excellent. It is tasty tender beef rib on a bed of sushi rice and served with pickle and spring onions.

I’ve always enjoyed the hirata buns from the stall, this crispy chicken hirata bun was tasty. It was a charcoal bao bun with two pieces of crispy chicken, lettuce, pickles and sauce.

Overall a delicious box of food, which I really enjoyed.