Told you Soho Coffee Co

Two years ago I wrote up about a visit to a branch of the Soho Coffee Co.

Back then I asked

Let me ask you a question, is it really so difficult in this day and age, for a coffee shop to take coffee orders and then make the coffee?

I also said

Recently I went to the Soho Coffee Co and was frankly appalled by the level of incompetency shown by the six staff behind the counter in undertaking the coffee making and serving process.

I finished off by stating

Anyway as a result it will be sometime (if ever) I go back to the Soho Coffee Co.

Well, here we are two years later and I have never gone back to that branch of the Soho Coffee Co.

Just shows the importance of decent customer service and efficient serving. I have visited many coffee places close to that branch, but have not been back.

So what of other Soho Coffee Co branches, well I did visit one once at a motorway services, but only the once. I do recall that service was okay, but not fantastic!

The thing is for me, I know the staff are poorly paid and overworked, but from what I can see the problem is not staff, but management and the management of systems. If some coffee places can get it right, why can’t all of them get the little things just right.

Chicken Fajitas “made easy”

I will admit that though I normally much prefer to make stuff from fresh, I do use (and sometimes even like) the “easy” packs from the supermarkets. In the past I have talked about Waitrose’s Easy To Cook range and Marks and Spencer’s The Cook Menu. This was the first thing I have had from the Morrison’s version.

To be perfectly honest making chicken fajitas is not exactly difficult and usually I would make my own. The reason for using this pack was a) it’s a little cheaper and easier than buying all the other ingredients separately and having lots left over and b) I didn’t actually buy it, my better half did to save me some time.

It was a very easy dish to cook. Start to cook the chicken, I used my griddle, add the prepared onions and peppers. Heat the flour tortillas in the microwave server with the salsa and sour cream.

It was as it said on the packet, easy.

So what about the flavour?

Well very nice, as it used fresh ingredients, the peppers and onions still had crunch and flavour and the spiced chicken was tender and spicy.

You can buy pre-cooked fajitas from the cook-chill cabinet that you heat in the microwave and they are pretty awful, this in comparison is so much better.

Would I buy it again? Well we did enjoy it, but when I came to cook fajitas again, I bought all fresh ingredients and I made my own guacamole to go with it.

Whatever happened to…

On my way back from Birmingham recently I stopped off at the services to grab a coffee and stretch the legs.

As I walked around the services with WHSmith, Costa, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, Burger King, KFC… it occurred to me how much motorway service stations have changed. You can also find Waitrose and Marks & Spencers at some too.

Motorway services have become mini malls and tiny high streets with familiar names. Obviously to entice drivers in and with a familiar name probably have the confidence to buy something… It would appear that the more you have heard of something, the more likely you are to buy from it.

It wasn’t that long ago that motorway services were brands in their own right, Granada (that became Moto), Welcome Break and so on… within their confined walls were unknown brands of coffee and fast foods as well as the main “canteen” style cafeteria.

Big brands started to make inroads into the services and these must have worked as now the services are awash with familiar names from the high street.

Of course the same is happening with our local shops, Tesco Metro, Sainsbury Local are now our corner shops and in many cases are on our local high streets (as well as their big edge of town stores).

When our local shopping centre expanded and a rank of smaller shops were made available next to the Morrisons, Boots and Matalan; I know i hoped for an independent baker, butcher and candlestick maker. What we got was Costa, Subway, Dominos and a Sue Ryder charity shop!

The sad thing is that, we in survey after survey, indicate how much we like our local shops and despair when they get “eaten up” by large chains. The reality is that as a society we say one thing and then go and do something else. We like the idea of local and independent store, but prefer to shop at the familiar.

An even better bargain!

After the last excellent offer in my local Sainsburys I was pleased to see another excellent offer….

Bargain

I did see a similar ‘bargain” in Tesco, but too many staff around to take a photograph. Once got “told off” in Cabot Circus for taking photographs, so am always a little careful in retail outlets.

More like this….

A Simple Salad

Salad

I made myself a simple salad, it consisted of some coleslaw. Now in the past I have made my own coleslaw and much prefer it. However this time it was from the shop!

I used some lettuce leaves with green beans, which I dressed with some olive oil and white wine vinegar. To finish off some Jersey Royal new potatoes with a spoonful of mayonnaise.

Simple and delicious.

Making Pancakes

For breakfast this morning I had pancakes.

Well it was pancake time again for breakfast on Sunday, one advantage I guess of getting woken up early.

I make a simple batter of flour, eggs and milk, with a spoonful of caster sugar and some vanilla extract; and then cook using a hot pan. I really should measure the batter, but I find that experience allows me to “guess: the flour and milk. The key is the ensure that the mixture is smooth and coats the back of a spoon.

I have one just for pancakes, well I sometimes use it for omelettes or when I need an extra frying pan… shouldn’t really, but like any good cook, I need more pans. As it is getting old, though non-stick I do use some sunflower oil. I use a pastry style brush, it was a free gift from Jack Daniels and was designed to baste barbecue food with a Jack Daniels sauce. It therefore works really well in brushing oil onto the pancake pan.

If I am making large pancakes then I have the pan hotter than if I am making small ones, partly as the smaller ones are thicker, whilst the larger ones are made by swirling the mixture across the pan (and therefore are thinner).

I serve them with proper maple syrup. Personally I can’t stand the maple flavoured syrups you can buy, and will only buy the proper stuff. Yes it is expensive, but I would rather have the good stuff now and again rather than the horrible stuff all the time.

Grazing at the Piano

Birmingham

Down on the canalside in Birmingham there are quite a few places to go and eat, all (I think) are chains. On this occasion on the recommendation of the friend I was with, we ventured into the Pitcher & Piano. I have never been there before, seeing it more as a bar rather than a place to go and eat.

Even though it was an early May evening it was nice enough to sit outside. I often prefer not to sit outside, not that I don’t like sitting outside, on the contrary I really like it. However since the 2007 smoking ban, most outside eating areas have become the place where the smokers go, and sorry smoking and eating is something that doesn’t work for me. However it wasn’t too bad and no smokers were close. So we decided to eat outside. Considering this was early May, I was impressed by how pleasant it was. Usually it can be quite cold in May in the evening, but we were lucky the weather was nice.

Persuing the menu there were some nice things, I was initially tempted by a burger, but after some deliberation I went with the grazing menu. Lots of nice things, but even with all that choice I went with two things I like, things that I cook at home, things I seem to always order; I went with chicken wings and calamari, to go with it a side order of skinny fries.

The Cajun chicken wings were whole wings and to be honest were some of the best wings I have had out to eat for a long time. Not over-cooked, tender and with the right amount of spice, well maybe a little too spicy, but the sour cream served with them helped to cool the heat.

Cajun Wings

The calamari in batter was in strips, very similar to calamari I have had as Pizza Express.

This though was better, a nice crispy batter with tender squid. Really nice.

Calamari

I also enjoyed the skinny fries.

Overall I enjoyed my grazing experience.

Roast Pork Belly with Roasted Vegetables

Crispy crackling, tender pork and tasty roasted veg; yes it was a great lunch and delicious.

Crackling

The pork was slow roasted in the oven, this I have found is always the best way to cook pork belly, it also renders out a lot of the fat, so ensuring that the final outcome is tender pork with minimal extra fat. The flavour is intense and compared to something like pork fillet, which can be cooked quickly, it does not compare to the flavour of roasted pork belly.

About 30-40 minutes before the end of cooking time, I added some onions, carrots and parsnips to the roasting tray. Twenty minutes later I added apple and mushrooms. These cook wonderfully with the pork and have a really intense flavour.

Roasted Veg

I served the pork alongside the roasted veg, roasted King Edward potatoes (they worked well) and some carrots and steamed broccoli.

Is this self-catering?

Generally when we go on holiday we go self-catering, mainly as it gives us the option to eat when and where we want to. The problem with self-catering is that you don’t always get a decent kitchen and nearly always the equipment leaves a lot to be desired. I want to cook a nice meal, what usually happens is that I get so frustrated with the lack of space, lack of decent pans, blunt knives and rubbish cookers that I get all annoyed.

On a recent holiday after struggling to cook a simple pasta dish in the kitchen in our self-catering accommodation I was so fed up that when I was in the local Sainsburys I decided to purchase a processed meal and heat it up in the oven. To be honest I was quite surprised by how nice it was. Yes if you got all the ingredients yourself and cooked from fresh, yes it would be much nicer, but in the assumption that you have useless cooking facilities, this was certainly much easier.

We had the Roasted Pork Belly with slow cooked roast potatoes and red onions, served with a tangy apple and cider sauce.

If you are regular reader of this blog, then you will know I have a fondness for pork belly so as a result I know what it can be like and what it should be like. The dish is quite simple to “cook” place in a pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes. No slicing, no dicing and no preparation.

So what was it like?

It was rather quite nice. The combination of pork belly and potatoes worked well, the pork was quite tender and tasty, though I could tell it had been cooked and then heated up. It could have done with some more onions, whilst the potatoes were a little too salty for my tastes. The cider sauce was really nice, this did need to be heated up separately, but easily done in the provided microwave. Both myself and my wife enjoyed eating it and she said it was the best meal we had on that holiday, though to be honest it didn’t have a lot of competition!

A little secret, we had it again a few weeks later when we were back home, and then I did have some decent cooking facilities…

This is how you do it…

Why is it that so many coffee places can not get making a simple Americano right?

This Americano from Caffe Nero is a perfect example of how it should be done.

What an Americano should look like...

Great espresso coffee topped off with hot water. A great coffee.

At quite a few coffee places I go to, they just get it plain wrong. The key is that the crema (that’s the froth on the top) adds so much to the coffee drinking experience and flavour. Lose that and the coffee is nowhere as near as good as it could be.

I quite like my Americano strong, now I could do that by asking for an extra shot, however as a cheapskate I ask for less water. You would be surprised by how many baristas have no idea what I mean by “not too much water please”.

I really enjoyed my Americano from Caffe Nero and would go there again.