Back in July 2021 when I was working in (what was then) a very quiet London I went to the Leather Lane street food market and after queuing in the rain had a delicious Brazilian Samba Box.
Though since then I have been to the Leather Lane street food market many times, I hadn’t had a chance to repeat the experience. Mainly as there is a lot of choice in the market and I like to try different things, also, the queue for the stall is often very lengthy.
So on a return visit to Leather Lane street food market I decided I would have another Samba Box. I joined the queue and waited, no rain this time, and the queue moved quite fast. I chose the chargrilled chicken thighs which were served with Rio rice, black beans, coleslaw and lettuce. I also had some additional halloumi with my dish.
It looked great and was very tasty.
The chicken had lots of flavour, but this time was a little dried out compared to my previous visit. I liked the salad and the rice was nice as well I had mine served with chimichurri which was a nice accompaniment.
I really enjoyed the whole box and it was so nice to have something, fresh and tasty.
I made and cooked a paella, or a Spanish inspired rice dish.
I diced an onion and a pointed red pepper. In a hot large frying pan, I put some olive oil and I cooked off bacon lardons, and some diced chorizo.I then added the diced onion and pepper. When this was softened, I added some sliced mushroom. Once this was stirred in I added 250g of paella rice.
We recently had a saffron risotto, using a box of Gallo’s Risotto a la Milanesa, which is risotto with parmesan and saffron. We have this quite often, after trying it once.
This is prepared risotto rice to which you only need add water, though you can add butter and parmesan at the end of cooking to add a little bit of luxury and more cheese flavour to the dish.
I usually cook risotto from scratch and this box allows you to cheat somewhat by cooking a risotto in about 15 minutes.
What you get is a bag of saffron coloured rice which you cook in water for 12 minutes before adding butter and extra cheese.
It’s a really bright yellow, which might put people off, but it is rather tasty, and there is a lovely taste of saffron in there.
When I blogged about this the first time I said:
It’s a really bright yellow, which might put people off, but it was rather tasty. If I can find it again I think I will get another pack.
Well, we have had it quite a few times since then.
This dish from Marks and Spencers was originally part of their £20 Valentine Meal Deal.
The list price was originally £7.25, but on a recent visit, my local branch of M&S was selling them on special for just £2.00, so I bought a pack.
It was quick and easy to cook just six minutes in the microwave.
It was nowhere near as good as my homemade butternut squash risotto. I think that the reason is that risotto always tastes better freshly cooked, rather than re-heated. Though I did like the larger pieces of butternut squash and red onion in the M&S dish.
It was a special dish, so probably won’t be available again.
This is a regular dish in our house, but the exact nature of the dish depends on what we have in the fridge.
This time I had some cooked long grain white rice.
Into a hot wok I added some sunflower oil, when this was hot, I added some Chinese five spice. I then diced red onion, diced red pepper, and some sliced spring onions.
On my omelette pan, I cooked a thin one egg omelette, which after being cooked was sliced into thin strips.
Once the onion and pepper is soft, I added the rice to the wok. I then added a good splash of soy sauce. After stirring, I cracked open and added (another) egg, to the rice. This was then stirred in quickly, to ensure that the egg was cooked. I finally added the sliced omelette.
The dish was then served as an accompaniment to other dishes I had cooked.
When cooking this dish before, I have added diced carrot, prawns, and I have garnished the dish with freshly sliced spring onions.
I diced an onion, red pepper. In a hot large frying pan, I put some olive oil and I cooked off some bacon lardons.I then added the diced onion and pepper. When this was softened, I added some sliced baby courgette and diced mushroom. Once this was stirred in I added 250g of paella rice.
I have made my version of paella for many years. Well maybe I should call it a Spanish inspired rice dish, rather than paella.
Recently I have been using a jar of paella paste from Waitrose when cooking paella, however it looks like they have stopped selling it. M&S have stopped selling their paste as well, and Tesco haven’t sold their paella seasoning for a couple of years now. I wouldn’t buy the Schwartz paella seasoning as it uses turmeric rather than saffron. I have been known to creating my own “seasoning” using saffron and I did think I would have to go down that road. It was suggested to me to look on Amazon, so I did, and found some paella seasoning. I ordered some. The Carmencita Paellero Paella Spice Mix is according to the description the number one selling spice mix in Spain.
I used it when cooking a paella and was pleased with the end result. It looked excellent.
It also tasted great when we had it with our New Year fish supper. It is something I would use again and will order more once I run out.
I was staying in a hotel in Glasgow close to the SECC where I was attending a conference. I had planned to just eat in the hotel restaurant, but found that the restaurant wasn’t open. Well that wasn’t helpful. I had a look around the area on Google Maps and found that, apart from other hotel restaurants there wasn’t much choice close by. I could have walked up to Argyle Street, but it was dark and cold, and to be honest I didn’t fancy walking back.
I did though went for a walk and looked at the Cranside Kitchen, from the outside it looked like it was now an Italian place called Romano’s. I wasn’t sure if I wanted Italian, so walked around the area a bit more, but didn’t find anywhere else apart from some hotel restaurants.
In the end I went to Cranside Kitchen. I found out then it was a little more than an Italian place. You scanned the QR code on the table and placed your order online. As well as the Italian menu, there was also Chinese, Thai and Japanese. So I discovered I had a wider choice of what I could eat.
I actually prefer proper restaurant service, but I can see the advantages of this kind of system. You can order from different places so if you were in a group you could order what everyone wants. It makes splitting the bill simpler, as people can order and pay for their own food and drinks. It is also easy to add stuff to the order as well. I spent some time looking over the menu before choosing what I wanted to eat. It was quite a challenge as there were quite a few choices that I liked the sound of.
In the end I went with the Seafood Cha Han, this was Japanese style wok fried rice topped with mayo and mix sesame.
I really liked this dish, it was fresh, full of flavour,and really delicious.
I also ordered some Bao Bun Box. You had to order a minimum of two buns, I decided to order three. I went with the chicken karaage, aromatic duck and enoki mushroom.
When the bamboo box arrived I was a little surprised by the size of the buns, they were bigger than I expected (and have had at other places). I think I could have got away with just two buns.
The aromatic duck was my least favourite of the three, it was cooked duck in hoisin sauce. The chicken karaage was deep fried battered marinated chicken in a spicy sauce. The enoki mushroom was surprising, it was also battered and deep fried. The mushroom bao bun was my favourite.
As I had paid when I ordered, I could leave the restaurant when I had finished and wanted to.
I wasn’t really intending to get lunch out, but I was walking through the St Nicholas market in Bristol and did feel a little peckish. It was quite late during the lunchtime period, so I could see some places were low on stuff. I did think about having something to eat at the Spanish place, La Lola, but in the end thought to myself I would have something I hadn’t eaten before. Across from La Lola is Woky Ko.
Located at the heart of Bristol’s historic St. Nicks Market is our lunch spot offering quick and tasty lunch boxes designed by you, made the Woky Way. Here you will find us serving out the BEST chicken Katsu curry or Korean fried cauliflower with noodles or rice.
I have been tempted before, but this was my first visit. I do think it is an interesting perspective with Korean fried chicken served with a choice of either Japanese Katsu sauce or Thai red curry sauce.
This is three different kinds of Asian cuisine, which to be honest I am not sure actually works. I would like to have a Korean BBQ sauce with my chicken, but that wasn’t available. Is this fusion cooking, I didn’t think so. I did fancy the Thai red curry, but they had run out, so I went with the Katsu.
The fried chicken was served on rice covered in the sauce with some salad on the side.
The chicken was nice and crispy, the sauce was quite tasty. I did enjoy the dish, but I don’t think it would be something I would have again.
Dare I call this dish paella? Well this Spanish inspired rice dish is a regular dish in our house.
I diced a red onion, red pepper and mushrooms. In a hot large frying pan, I put some olive oil and I cooked off some smoked pancetta bacon.
I then added the diced onion and pepper. When this was softened, I added 250g of paella rice. I ensured that this was then coated with the peppers and onions in the pan. I let this cook for a minute or so before adding a jar of paella paste from Waitrose.
After stirring in the paste I added some chicken stock. Stirred once and left it to cook.
Before serving I added some cooked sliced chorizo and chunks of lemon.
