Category: chicken

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Matina Wrap

Matina

I have always enjoyed the Kurdish wraps from Matina in the St Nicholas market in Bristol. The star of the show is the freshly baked flat bread, but the salads and pickles that you get in that bread are also really tasty.

It has been a while since I had a wrap from Matina. Their food is great, I think its for a variety of reasons. They have increased their prices, still value for money, but not the cheaper option for lunch that they were. They have stopped doing their lamb kebabs, which were always nice. They have long queues usually. I think though the main reason is that there is so much choice out there in the street food scene and I don’t get to Bristol that often, so they are on the list, but usually something else beats them.

These are still wonderful wraps, they take their freshly cooked bread, fill it with salads, hummus and sauces before adding grilled pieces of chicken (halloumi also available).

The result is a fresh tasty wrap which is full of flavour. Though you can eat it out of the paper, it can get quite messy, so I “cheat” and take it back to the office to eat with a knife and fork on a plate.

It was delicious and I might not leave it so long next time.

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Time for a Mixed Grill

I was staying at the Premier Inn at Heathrow, cheap and next to the car parking I had booked.

I didn’t really have the time (or the transport) to go somewhere else, so I headed down the restaurant for dinner.

They do quite a good value meal deal with two courses and a drink for £19.99, you can throw in breakfast the following morning and it costs £29.99.

I went with a starter and they had bao buns.

For my main course I upgraded to the mixed grill.

This was a sirloin steak, gammon steak, half a chicken breast and pork sausages. Served with beer-battered onion rings, garden peas, a fried egg, half a grilled tomato and skin-on chips. I was given a choice of salad if I wanted to. I went with the chips.

The steak and gammon were really nice. The steak was cooked to my liking and was well seasoned. The chicken I am assuming was pre-cooked and was a little rubbery having been cooked on the chargrill. The sausages looked a little overcooked, but in fact were just right.

The chips were crisp on the outside, but soft and fluffy on the inside.

The only thing that let the plate down were the onion rings which were overcooked and just crunch. I was asked how my food was before I tried one, otherwise I would have probably complained, but even then maybe not, as it was just three onion rings.

I do like a mixed grill and I was quite impressed with this plate from Premier Inn, to be honest my expectations weren’t very high. Compared to the mixed grills I had last year from The Landing Light and the Railway Inn, this was much better. Though it was missing a lamb chop!

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Crispy Chicken Bao Buns

I was staying at the Premier Inn at Heathrow, cheap and next to the car parking I had booked. I didn’t really have the time (or the transport) to go somewhere else, so I headed down the restaurant for dinner. They do quite a good value meal deal with two courses and a drink for £19.99, you can throw in breakfast the following morning and it costs £29.99.

I went with a starter and they had bao buns. Fluffy steamed buns, served with chilli, coriander, spring onions a choice of filling. There was crispy chicken and spicy mayo, halloumi and hot honey, or mushroom and hoisin. I think my first choice would have been mushroom, but didn’t fancy the hoisin. In the end I chose the crispy chicken and spicy mayo. You got two buns each with an individual piece of chicken.

Crispy Chicken Bao Buns

The buns were light and fluffy. The chicken was nice and crispy and you could taste the chicken. The spicy mayo wasn’t too spicy and there was extra spicy mayo on the side. Each bun was garnished with fresh coriander, spring onions and slices of red chilli.

I was really quite impressed. I do like a nice bao bun, and these were really nice.

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Waitrose Honey & Mustard Deboned Chicken

I was in Waitrose looking for something for my dinner and I saw this Honey & Mustard Deboned Chicken which had been reduced from £11 to under £4. A bit of a bargain I thought.

This is a deboned chicken, in a honey and mustard marinade. You cook it in the provided tray in the oven for 35 minutes.

I thought it was actually very good, the marinade had a good flavour. It wasn’t a large chicken so don’t expect it to feed lots of people. I am not sure that this is worth paying £11 for, but for the reduced price it was good value.

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OG Sando

Went out at lunchtime and went to Finzel Reach street food market. It was very hot out, feeling very Mediterranean.

Though Lisa from She Sells Streetfood was there, I had only eaten from there the day before, so made the decision I would have something different on this day. I didn’t want anything too heavy or too spicy, with the hot weather. To be honest if it had been cooler, I probably would have gone with the Tan Tan Udon Noodles from She Sells Streetfood.

In the end I went with a fried chicken sandwich, OG Sando from Los Hermanos which was just £8.

Los Hermanos can be busy, and today they weren’t as busy as they usually are, however even so it took a while for my sandwich.

This was crispy fried chicken thigh served in a potato roll, with classic mayo, crisp shredded lettuce and American cheese.

I did enjoy the sandwich, the fried chicken had a lovely crispy coating, and the chicken was tender and moist. This was, what I would call, a traditional American style fried chicken sandwich with mayo and cheese. Not sure what the benefit was of the potato roll, it had the texture (and flavour) of a brioche style roll.

This was one tasty sandwich.

Many moons ago I had a delicious El Pepito sandwich from Los Hermanos at Ashton Gate. I never took a photograph or even wrote about it. It was sugar cured pork belly, chorizo butter, confit paprika onions, roasted red peppers, roast garlic mayo, on a brioche bap. I don’t think they have had that on their menu for years now. I remember at the time thinking it was delicious. 

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Bento Box

It was a beautiful hot day in Bristol, I headed out at lunchtime to the Temple Quay street food market. As it was a Thursday there was lots of choice, I had thought about Los Hermanos, but there was quite a queue. It was all rather busy. In the end I did head to She Sells Streetfood for my usual bento box of beef donburi and katsu fries.

This is one of my favourite street food stalls and probably have it more often than not when I am in Bristol. I have thought that maybe I should try some different stalls, but I think one of the reasons I default to She Sells Streetfood is that not only is the food excellent, but it’s one of the best value stalls there, with the bento box costing just £10. 

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Remembering the Duck at the Hare and Tortoise

Sometimes when eating out, I don’t get a chance to write up the meal I had. Usually for another reason I am checking out that date or location and find photographs of a meal I had. This was the case here, when back in June 2024 I was staying in London at the The Hand & Flower in Olympia.  One of the places I would go for dinner in the area was the Hare & Tortoise in Kensington. This is a London chain specialising in Japanese food.

For a start I had some Tori Katsu Maki. An inside-out seaweed roll filled with deep-fried chicken in panko breadcrumbs with cucumber, avocado, dressed with tonkatsu sauce, mayonnaise and tempura flakes on top.

sushi

These were excellent, really tasty, good mix of textures and flavour.

For a main I had the Roast Duck and Rice.  Slices of roast duck, served on steamed rice with a homemade sauce mixed with cinnamon, aniseed powder and ginger, garnished with Chinese greens and spring onions.

roast duck

This was a generous portion of duck and I thought it was just okay. It was interesting when I had this same dish a couple of months later, I felt similar about the dish. I have to remind myself sometimes that the purpose of this blog is in the main about reminding me what I have eaten, when eating out, and not to order stuff I didn’t like or was not impressed with. I can imagine that over a year or so I might forget, this was just a couple of months!

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Chicken Shawarma Loaded Fries

It was a warm Thursday in Bristol, so I headed off to the Temple Quay street food market. There was lots of choice, it is the bigger of two Temple Quay markets that are on each week.

I had seen on the Instagram that Soul Fries were going to be at the market and from the photo on the Insta I was intrigued and tempted.

I did have a look around the market to see what else was there, but in the end I went to Soul Fries. I went with the Chicken Shawarma Loaded Fries. These were fries loaded with chicken shawarma, salsa, and pickles.

Chicken Shawarma Loaded Fries

This looked really good. I tucked in. This was not my favourite street food dish. It wasn’t terrible, best way to describe it was; it was just okay. I felt the chicken lacked depth of flavour and needed more seasoning. The fries were quite soft, I think they needed to be crispier. I don’t think it would be a dish I would order again. 

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Barbecued Chicken

Barbecued Chicken

I do like barbecued chicken and these chicken thighs I cooked were delicious.

I marinaded the chicken in some Italian garlic seasoning and some olive oil. This was then cooked on the barbecue.

I have a new smaller barbecue, so needed to take care to ensure that the chicken was thoroughly cooked. It can be easy for chicken to be cooked on the exterior, but still undercooked internally.

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Something different

I was working in Bristol on a Friday, I headed to the Finzel Reach  street food market for lunch. Though there was quite a bit of choice, I headed to She Sells Streetfood and ordered a bento box. This time I went with the beef donburi and for a change I had the chicken katsu curry.

The beef was delicious as always.

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

I have had the chicken katsu curry before, and this time it was just as good as it was back then.

This was crispy chicken with katsu sauce on top of rice with pickles and crispy onions.The chicken freshly cooked had a crisp coating. The katsu sauce was nice, not too spicy, but with a hint of fruitiness.

Both dishes were delicious.