food, reviews and of course coffee
I had seen the delicious laskiaispulla on display at Gateau Kamppi in Helsinki quite a few times as I walked from my hotel to the Metro station. I decided I would go against tradition have try to the pistachio laskiaispulla. This was a sweet bread roll, the top removed and a sweet pistachio paste added, fresh cream and chopped pistachio on top. It was rather nice, fresh roll, tasty pistachio, the sweetness offset with the fresh cream. Delicious.
Having posted that I was unable to post a top ten from 2024 looking at the dashboard I realised I could see the stats for the blog posts from 2024.
In 2024 I wrote 153 blog posts. In 2023 I wrote and published 187 blog posts. Less than in 2022 when I wrote 236 blog posts. In 2021 I wrote 107 blog posts, in 2020 it was 120. In 2019 it was 58 blog posts, 2018 just 36.
The tenth most popular blog post was on cooking some Roasted Pork Belly.
Post at number nine was Time for the Chicken Shawarma.
Lidl French Week in 2020 was the eighth most popular blog post.
The post at number seven was about the tama squid I had at Wagamama.
The sixth most popular blog post in 2024 was a review of the Greek Tzoumagias-Style Sausages that Lidl sold.
The post at number five was about a Breton Fish Stew from Côte.
My fourth most popular post, was my review of some Lidl Sol Mar Cod Croquettes
The post at number three was a review of Lidl Coffee Ice Cream. They are not huge tubs, but what you get is a tasty creamy coffee ice cream, with a little chocolate in there as well.
The post at number two was about Retro Ice Cream.
The most popular blog post in 2023 was about the time I had the Pollo Cacciatore at Bella Italia.
Usually at this time I would publish a blog post of the top ten posts of the previous twelve months. However WordPress have stopped doing free stats for blogs that show adverts. So I don’t have detailed stats about the top posts.
In 2024 I wrote 153 blog posts. In 2023 I wrote and published 187 blog posts. Less than in 2022 when I wrote 236 blog posts. In 2021 I wrote 107 blog posts, in 2020 it was 120. In 2019 it was 58 blog posts, 2018 just 36.
One of the things I like about Too Good To Go is the opportunity to try out new places without spending a fortune. I was in Bristol and there was a bag for Anna Cake Couture for £4 for a £14 value. I got 24 macarons and a cake in my box.
This has a retail value of £57. Not bad for four pounds.
Yes the macarons are slightly less than perfect from a looks perspective, but taste fantastic. The cake was an end piece. However I was expecting that from the description. If you don’t like macarons then this isn’t the bag for you. Delicious patisserie. You can see why they have a rating of 4.9 out of 5.
I use the TooGoodToGo app quite a bit, more so when I am in London, as there are many more options available. However it can be a bit hit and miss. For example, last year I had a fantastic bag from Cord Cafe on Fleet Street. In that bag I got a cherry croissant, a baguette, and a brioche. Last week when I saw they had a bag on offer, I thought great, that’s breakfast for tomorrow sorted. However in this bag I got a salad, an asparagus pastry, and a sausage roll.
Last month in London I was staying close to Olympia and I looked at the TooGoodToGo app and Dash Cakes on Kensington High Street had a magic bag deal.
I got four cupcakes, a fruit tart, a macaron, and a chocolate gâteau slice. The bag cost just £3.39. I was well impressed, and all the cakes were delicious. I am not that big a fan of cupcakes, especially biscuit cup cakes, even so these were scrummy cupcakes.
The fruit tart and chocolate gâteau slice were excellent, as was the macaron (even if it was blue).
I was really impressed with the quality and quantity of cakes, and I certainly would not just use the TooGoodToGo app with them again, I would also pay full price for their cakes as well.
One of the reasons I blog, it’s more for me than other people. It’s a useful reminder for me about what I have eaten, what I have cooked, and as in this post challenges when cooking on holiday. So when planning and packing for a trip through France to Germany this July staying at an Eurocamp in Southern Germany, it was useful to refer to this blog post about self-catering when staying at La Croix Du Vieux Pont. I posted my thoughts on Le Grand Paris in Nesles-la-Vallée earlier.
In Germany we were staying in Landal Warsberg, close to Saarberg. It was an almost identical caravan to the one we stayed at in Le Grand Paris in Nesles-la-Vallée.
It was a two bedroom caravan which came with a well-equipped kitchen including a proper gas hob. However it did not have an oven, just a small combi over, and unlike other Eurocamp parks we have stayed at there was no outside gas barbecue.
I think we could have had a charcoal barbecue, but there wasn’t one provided, and I didn’t bring one with us. I wasn’t going to buy one for the four nights we were there, knowing for at least one night we would eat out, and one night we would be in Cologne watching the football.
I was glad to bring my own knives, as the provided knife was very small and very blunt! Always seems luck of the drawn what kitchen utensils and equipment you will get, usually there isn’t detail on the booking site, or on review sites. Alas there was a glass chopping board, I meant to bring my own chopping board with me, but forgot to pack it.
I appreciated the big fridge we had, and the freezer section. On self-catering holidays in caravans, in the UK, the fridge can be quite small.
In the end I cooked two meals in the caravan, pan fried meat with salad. As with our French campsite, I missed having a proper oven. For one meal I did pop to the camp restaurant and brought some French fries to go with lunch one time. I planned to do the same with an evening meal, but they had stopped serving takeaway at 6pm.
I did take my coffee machine with me, as I do like proper coffee, and don’t like drinking instant.
Missed having a barbecue.
One of the reasons I blog, it’s more for me than other people. It’s a useful reminder for me about what I have eaten, what I have cooked, and as in this post challenges when cooking on holiday. So when planning and packing for a trip through France this July staying at an Eurocamp outside Paris, it was useful to refer to this blog post about self-catering when staying at La Croix Du Vieux Pont.
This summer we were staying at Le Grand Paris in Nesles-la-Vallée, close to Paris, in France. We had a two bedroom caravan which came with a well-equipped kitchen including a proper gas hob.
However it did not have an oven, just a microwave, and unlike other Eurocamp parks we have stayed at there was no outside gas barbecue.
I certainly missed having the oven and the gas barbecue. I mainly did pan fried sausages and steaks, with salad. One night I did microwave rice, which wasn’t very successful, the next night I did some microwave pommes rissoles which were just okay.
I much prefer barbecuing meat when away, so missed the barbecue we had on previous campsites.
I think next time I will check for a proper oven and a barbecue when booking. Or check I can take a portable barbecue with me (another thing to pack in the car).
I have found the knives on holiday either blunt or broken, so I usually take a large kitchen knife and a bread knife that I use. I took a sieve with me, but in the end didn’t use it, and this caravan had a colander, which was unusual.
I took a pair of scissors as though sometimes there is a pair in the caravan, it usually is broken or blunt.
The other things I take with me our sandwich bags, cling film and foil. This is easier to store uneaten food but also for packed lunches To help with washing up and cleaning, I took some steel scourers, washing up sponges, j cloths, washing up liquid and tea towels. In addition I take spare bin liners as well as a roll of kitchen towel.
I also took the following ingredients, though I know I could get some of these in French supermarkets, I wanted to avoid spending extra money on basics that I already had in the kitchen.
I appreciated the big fridge we had, and the freezer section. On self-catering holidays in caravans, in the UK, the fridge can be quite small.
I did take my coffee machine with me, as I do like proper coffee, and don’t like drinking instant.
The campsite didn’t have a shop, so we were dependent on going into the village for supplies. Nesles-la-Vallée had a couple of small supermarkets, in addition they were two boulangeries and a charcuterie. It was nice to buy baguettes and breakfast pastries from the boulangerie.
One day I also bought some delicious fresh eclairs from there as well.
The local town of L’Isle-Adam had a larger supermarket with a wider range of produce.
Though I have eaten on trains before, on a recent journey from London to Edinburgh was the first time I have been served a proper chef cooked dinner on a train.
Most of my train travel is with GWR in and around Bristol and into London. Catering on those trains is either non-existent, or through a trolley service.
Back in the day when GWR was First Great Western, and they used the classic HST trains to London, I do remember that you could get a cooked breakfast from the buffet car, but that was back in 2007.
LNER essentially use the same Hitachi trains that GWR use but do make more use of the onboard kitchens. Some services provide hot food, but on the odd service you get the chef, who will cook you a meal.
When I was travelling the chef cooked meal was gammon, mash and savoy cabbage with a cider sauce.
This was gammon steak from Taste Tradition served with chive mashed potatoes, savoy cabbage and a creamy cider sauce.
When you consider this was prepared at 125mph and served on a train, it was a nice meal. The gammon was gammon, but it was tender and not too salty. I liked the mash and the cabbage. The cider sauce was okay, but to be honest I couldn’t taste much cider.
This certainly isn’t a meal I would order in a pub or a restaurant, but as the only real option on a late (but fast) train to Edinburgh from London, it was nice to have a proper plate of food instead of a sandwich and a packet of crisps.
I was going to have dessert, the vanilla sponge with raspberry jam centre served with custard. However, they ran out before I could have some, so I never got to try that.
We went out at lunchtime, myself and a colleague had planned on going to the vegan pasta place by Queens Square, however I had forgotten that the Redcliffe Bridge was closed as they repaired it. So it would have been a a somewhat long detour to get there. Instead, we headed to St Nicholas Market and after looking at what was available, he and I went with the Korean Fried Cauliflower from Daily Noodles by Larkin Cen.
I had mine with rice and Green Thai sauce, he had his with noodles and katsu sauce.
We took our food back to the office to eat it.
The cauliflower was nice and the batter was crispy. The sauced had soaked through into the rice. It would have been nice to have the sauce on the side, so the cauliflower could be dipped into it. Even so, it was a nice dish of food.
Daily Noodles use to be called Woky Ko and I have had chicken from them before. I did say back then:
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.
We had peeled too many potatoes for dinner, well we had peeled enough, then at the last minute one member of the household, who shall remain nameless, let us know they weren’t going to be in for dinner!
I had an idea on what to do with the spare potatoes.
A year or so ago, I bought a spiralizer from ProCook. I have used it lot when making salads, it works well with carrots and cucumber.
I decided I would spiralize the potatoes. The spiralizer worked a treat and I had a load of spiralized potatoes, well strings of potato.
I let them dry for a while before deep frying them in sunflower oil. I realised I was a bit short on oil, so I had to toss and turn them quite often.
I drained them on kitchen towel, before adding some sea salt.
They were a really nice garnish, adding a crunchy and saltiness.
I have had skinny fries before, from GBK, but what I cooked wasn’t skinny fries, more deep fried strings of potato.