food, reviews and of course coffee
Do you know I can’t remember if I should only be eating mussels when there is an ‘r’ in the month, or when there isn’t!
I use to really enjoy mussels, both fresh and those large New Zealand green ones, but recently seem to have gone off them. As with any food, too much of a good thing can result in one no longer enjoying it as much as one did.
Small, yet perfectly formed.
The Munchkin Pumpkin is as you would expect from the name, a miniature pumpkin.
Today I cut the one I had bought into wedges and roasted in the oven for about thirty minutes with a splash of olive oil and some honey.
The end result, looked quite nice, but there wasn’t much flavour. The parsnips and sweet potato I had done alongside were much nicer and with a really nice natural sweet flavour (no honey on them).
I originally had these biscuits when I would make business visits to Scotland, so am always pleased when I can find them south of the border.
These are some of my favourite biscuits, they are perfectly cooked, extremely buttery and melt in the mouth like they ought to
Blinding obvious comes to mind when I read on the BBC about the CASH (Consensus Action on Salt and Health) report on salt in fast food.
The daily recommended intake of salt for an adult is just 6g.
According to the Cash survey, a family of four sharing a Pizza Hut meal deal – consisting of one Cheesy Bites Meat Feast, one medium Super Supreme, a portion of garlic bread, a portion of potato wedges, chicken wings, and a cheesecake dessert – could eat 12.3g of salt each.
Most fast food “meals” contain about the daily recommended amount of salt. That’s a lot of salt, and remember some people then add extra salt to their salted food as well.
Most people eat way too much salt, it’s not difficult to cut down, but people forget that herbs and spices can add a huge amount of flavour to a dish without needing to resort to salt.
However it can be difficult if you are going out to eat. It’s surprising how many chefs think that just because they haven’t added salt it’s not salty. I have been offered as salt-free dishes, a salad with olives, cured loin of pork (like gammon) and even ham sandwiches.
Researchers have cracked the mystery of why eating garlic can help keep the heart healthy.
Tonight I made a mistake of going out and buying a chinese takeway. Now I wish I hadn’t.
It seemed such a good idea, get some egg fried rice, some prawn crackers, sweet and sour chicken, duck and something and king prawn dish.
No cooking, nice and easy Friday night meal.
Well we did order, and we got, egg fried rice which was somewhat dry (as it generally always is) and large crispy prawn crackers that didn’t really taste of prawns. We had chunks of chicken in thick crispy batter and a sweet and sour sauce that is a thick red gloopy glue. The duck with bamboo and water chestnuts had potential, but the Bisto style gravy let it down. Whilst the king prawns with cashew nuts was probably the best of the bunch, but still nothing to write home about.
After eating (and we did leave some) we didn’t feel quite right, a little bit sick and later some pain.
The idea was nice, the execution was poor and the aftermath not pleasant.
I bought chinese food, I wish I hadn’t.
Today sees the start of British Food Fortnight.
It is the biggest national celebration of the diverse and delicious range of food that Britain produces.
I am going to try and blog about British food over the next two weeks (or maybe not, depends on what I fancy cooking).
I had a cup of tea at the end of Clevedon Pier this morning. At the end of the pier is a tea place which sells hot drinks, cakes and ice cream.
Unfortunately it was a typical “here’s a cardboard cup with some hot water and a teabag, help yourself to milk” type of tea rather than anything fancy or posh! It would have been nice to have had a china cup, maybe it’s just me getting old, but tea in a disposable cup is something I want to take away and drink, not what I want to drink out of when I sit down in a cafe for a drink. It was only a £1, but you needed to spend £1.50 to get on the pier so it was quite expensive really!
Ah well, maybe I should have gone for the ice cream.
It was hot and refreshing and I suspect on a cooler windier day, a nice cup of tea would be just the ticket.
I am a great fan of Langoustine.
When they are just right there is something about the freshness and sweetness that makes them delicious.
It can be hard to find fresh ones, usually they are available either frozen or defrosted. In terms of taste, fresh is always best.
I like mine simple with a bit of mayonaise or aioli, but they are also nice split and grilled with butter and garlic.