Time for a coffee

January 7, 2013

Raking over the Coals

Out in Bristol and needing somewhere for lunch, we avoided the huge queue for Nando’s and went to the Coal Grill and Bar in Cabot Circus. I still can’t get over the popularity of Nando’s in Cabot Circus, everytime I pass it at lunchtime there is a queue of at least ten to twenty people wanting to eat there. It’s not as though there isn’t a choice as within literally spitting distance is Bella Italia, Giraffe, Frankie and Benny’s, La Tasca and Yo! Sushi. Within a few minutes are about another six to ten restaurants. However regardless of that choice and availability, people are still queuing for Nando’s. I think the other aspect that “confuses” me is that this isn’t some kind of area known for eating out, it’s a shopping centre, people are shopping and I would expect generally that most people want to stop for a reasonably quick lunch. Why would you then in addition spend anything up to half an hour queuing for lunch at Nando’s before you even sit down? Why? Okay I know it’s a place that serves chicken… but it’s chicken? It’s not even if the prices are that different then any of the other places around. Also it’s basically just chicken, whereas the other places have a little more choice on their menus. Ah well, one day I may understand… until then I will remain confused.

So we didn’t go to Nando’s, nor did we go to Yo! Sushi. In the main as the children were with us and though I know one of them loves sushi, the middle one would probably give it a go, the smallest of the three was adamant that she wanted pizza. I know for a fact that Yo! Sushi don’t do pizza, I am not even sure if they do any kind of kids menu. So we did consider Bella Italia, having had a fair few nice meals up in the Cribbs branch, but it was full. We did a quick look round at menus and decided to try out Coal.

We’ve never been before and though they have a few branches across the UK, they’re not that big a chain, so much so that all the branches they have, are listed complete with addresses on the back of a business card.

It was busy, but the polite and smiling manager found us a huge circular booth for the five of us. I forget sometimes that five is an odd number for eating out, it’s not two or four, which seems to be the norm for tables these days at restaurants. In the past it wasn’t too bad as the smallest member of the family would sit in a high chair next to us. She is now a little taller and “grown-up” so has a proper chair now.

We ordered drinks and perused the menu. I did feel that the kids menu lacked a little imagination, but my smallest was happy that they did pizza and the middle one was pleased to be able to choose Spaghetti Bolognese, one of his favourite dishes. Now in case you were thinking that my smallest is a little bit fussy, well she is in her own way, however having said that, she does enjoy linguine tossed with pesto and pancetta, and prefers mature cheddar cheese.

My eldest wasn’t quite sure what to have. He’s ten now and in many ways is too old for the kids menu and often prefers to have something from the main menu. After looking over the menu, he seemed to not know what to choose, so I suggested the Chimichanga (£9.95). This was a flour tortilla stuffed with spicy chicken, tomato salsa and cheese with a side of guacamole, sour cream and garlic rice. He does like this kind of thing and he had missed it when looking over the menu. He really liked it and finished the plate off. Personally I thought it lacked colour and looked a little drab, white tortilla on a bed of white rice with sour cream, with only a little guacamole and salad leaves for colour! Yes the inside of the tortilla had tomato, but that was offset by the white chicken!

My wife went with the Crayfish Salad (£9.65), crayfish tails and avocado mixed leaves, toasted croutons, sundried tomatoes. Though she enjoyed it she wasn’t too impressed with the sundried tomatoes as they lacked vitality and flavour. It did look very nice and certainly there were generous servings of both crayfish and avocado.

I was quite impressed with the range on the menu, but looking over it , and in the end, I decided on the Classic Burger (£9.45).

I really did fancy something from the grill, but likewise didn’t want to spend too much money. I liked how you could choose between having chicken or beef in your burger. I also think that a classic dish such as this gives you a really good idea on the quality of the ingredients and the effort that has gone into food preparation. Presentation was different, but looked impressive. The burger came in a good looking bun, a large slice of tomato and a single lettuce leaf. This was a very good burger, great texture, delicious and cooked to perfection. I also enjoyed the burger bun. The chips came in a miniature deep fat fryer, they were crispy, partly as they had been cooked twice, something I don’t always like, as they can be a little too greasy. Accompanying was some coleslaw and a spicy relish. I enjoyed the whole dish and it worked very well.

The service was excellent, just right, not too over the top that you find at some places, and likewise neither the unavailable kind you get at others. It was friendly and professional and family friendly.

Overall I was really pleased with the whole experience at Coal, it was a nice environment, comfortable atmosphere, great food, excellent service. All in all I enjoyed the meal, and would certainly visit again.

January 6, 2013November 5, 2019

Lyons Maid

If you are of a similar age to myself you will look at this advert for Lyons Maid and reflect on those ice creams that you always bought (or were bought for you), those that you now wish you had tried and those that you would never buy (either because they sounded horrible or were too expensive).

I know you can still buy choc ices, but I remember having them all the time when I was younger, but now I can’t recall the last time I had one. My main memory of them was they the ones I had used a chocolate flavoured coating rather than real chocolate.

December 26, 2012December 29, 2023

So how was it then?

As you may be aware I decided to try another four bird roast for our Christmas dinner.

This was a Sainsbury’s four bird roast, a goose stuffed with duck, turkey and guinea fowl.

So how was it then?

Firstly it was very easy to cook, as instructed I cooked it in a deep roasting dish. I would certainly use a deep roasting dish as the stuffed goose does lose a fair amount of liquid. In addition the instructions recommend adding 500ml of water to the roasting dish, which I did.

I then covered the roast in foil and placed in a hot oven 220°C for 30 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180°C for a further two and half hours. At this point I removed the foil, removed some of the excess liquid and basted the roast. It was then cooked for a further 30 minutes. It was then removed from the oven and allowed to rest for 40 minutes. During the resting period I finished off the other stuff that needed to cook in the oven.

It was rather good, and a lot better than the Marks and Spencer one I had a few years ago. It seemed to work much better with the core of the dish been a goose over a turkey.

I was pleased with the roast potatoes, for which I used my regular recipe. Taking King Edward potatoes I cut them into smaller pieces than I normally would, so they would cook quicker. They were parboiled for eight minutes, drained and then roughened up. They were then placed in a pre-heated roasting tray with sunflower and olive oil. As I wanted them to cook quite quickly and there was a fair bit of other stuff in the oven, I dusted them with some plain flour. This helps to crispen them up when there is a lot in the oven or a lot of steam.

I also made my own stuffing. In the build up to Christmas I had tried a couple of fresh shop stuffings and wasn’t too impressed. What I found was that they were too meaty. I much prefer a more bread based stuffing and if it contains fruit or nuts, you can taste them. For our Christmas lunch I made two stuffings, one was pork and apple, the other was a fruit and nut. Using fresh breadcrumbs, fresh herbs, some decent pork sausagemeat, freshly chopped onion, egg to bind; and for one chopped apple, the other a handful of a festive fruit and nut assortment. These were then placed into a foil trays and baked in the oven.

We also had a nice mix of vegetables, parsnips, brussel sprouts, carrots and squash.

Overall I was very pleased with the meal, which was enjoyed by all.

December 22, 2012

…basically a stuffed turkey!

Three years ago I managed to get in time and order a four bird roast from Marks and Spencer.

It went down well, but I did reflect afterwards:

Not sure if I would get it again, there was too much turkey in comparison to the other meats stuffed in there, but still very nice to have a mix of meats. Stuffings were nice as well.

When you look at the ingredients you get an idea why I thought that.

Turkey (66%) • Pork, Brandied Apricot & Cranberry Stuffing (8%) • Goose Breast (7%) • Chicken Breast (5%) • Smoked Streaky Bacon (5%) • Duck Breast (5%) • Poultry Stock • Water • Orange Slice • Dried Apricots • Rosemary • Salt • Ground Black Pepper.

It’s basically a stuffed turkey, the chicken, duck and goose only comprise 17%, but with 66% turkey it’s way too much turkey and at £120 is a little expensive for what is a stuffed turkey.

So what am I doing this year then?

Well, another four bird roast, but this time from Sainsburys. I did consider going to my local butcher, but their’s were too similar to Marks and Spencer’s, basically a stuffed turkey!

The Sainsbury’s version is different in that it is a goose stuffed with turkey, duck and guinea fowl. I will say that this is basically a stuffed goose; it’s 62% goose, 9% turkey and there is 8% duck and 8% guinea fowl. However as I have been meaning to have goose for a few years now, for me this is an ideal choice. It’s only 3.7kg, smaller than the 4.5Kg of the M&S version. It was also a lot cheaper at £80. I thought this was good value for money when you consider how more expensive goose is than turkey.

I am looking forward to cooking and eating it. As is now traditional in our house we will be cooking and eating our main festive meal on Christmas Eve.

December 20, 2012

I want a quick lunch

When shopping in Bath recently, my wife said to me, so where are we going to go for lunch and I am hungry now! So I did decide that we would go to the French place where we had our first lunch date when we were courting… love that word so Edwardian. However she did then add she was really hungry, so when I saw the sign for Yo! Sushi I detoured, as I knew she would then be able to lift a dish straight from the conveyor belt.

So once we were sat down, she lifted a Spicy Chicken salad off the belt and we shared it and started to eat. This is a nice simple dish of cold spicy chicken on a bed of leaves and dressed with a ginger and garlic dressing.

I also ordered three more hot dishes, partly as I like them, mainly as it was cold and having some hot food is better than just cold food.

We went with one of our regular dishes, the Spicy Pepper Squid. This was cooked well, crunchy outside and soft tender squid on the inside. The chilli was hot and spicy, maybe a little too hot!

Our server recommended one of the specials, Beef & Garlic Teriyaki. This is crispy coated slices of premium beef glazed in a garlic teriyaki sauce. This was a nice dish, full of flavour. As it is one of their “yellow dish” specials it was the most expensive dish at £6. Not sure if it was value for money, but still a very nice dish.

I had, had the Chicken Firecracker Rice before, this time though I went for the Vegetable Firecracker Rice, it is cheaper and I don’t think the chicken adds anything to the dish. It is described as spicy sushi rice with Asian vegetables.

We did consider having another dish, but in the end didn’t see anything we felt like eating, which probably meant we had eaten enough.

The only complaint I had was with paying the bill, as they charged me for a water that I hadn’t had. Now, what I don’t understand, is why Yo! Sushi charge for water in the first place? Why? They say it is filtered spring water, but it comes out of a tap on the table! Anyhow they did refund me the cost of the water.

So four dishes and two drinks for £19.70 which I didn’t think was too bad.

December 18, 2012

So do you like salt, or do you like eating?

I know it shouldn’t surprise me, but now and again it does. What is that you may ask? Well the blog post title is a bit of a giveaway, the answer is salt, or more specifically the amount of salt in both processed foods and in restaurant meals too.

I recently bought a chocolate cake from Sainsbury’s, what astounded me was that the salt content per 100g was higher than Ready Salted Pringles! I know people complain about the amount of sugar in savoury foods (I am looking at you Duchy) but this was a sweet thing. There I was thinking that supermarkets were trying to reduce the amount of salt they use in their products.

I am finding a fair few restaurants are not just adding salt to cooking, I kind of expect that level of seasoning, but then “garnish” the dish with even more salt. I recently had some sweet and sour squid, over the salt and pepper squid and was disappointed to find that the squid had been garnished with sea salt. Similarly the number of places that “garnish” their fries with salt, yes, I’m looking at you Café Rouge!

I am now pretty sensitive to the amount of salt I find in foods and I do find now that when used excessively detracts rather than enhances the flavour of the food I eat. So do you like salt, or do you like eating?

December 8, 2012

I just like Mondays

Every Monday at Yo! Sushi is Blue Plate Monday. What this offer does, is they take fifty of their dishes, put them on blue plates and charge just £2.40 per plate. As a result you can have a nice meal and not spend too much money. There is a really wide and good choice of dishes, including traditional sushi, sashimi as well as salads and hot dishes.

My only criticism is that the conveyor belt appears to be full of sweet dishes and fruit. There was quite a limited choice of cold sushi dishes. So rather than take dishes from the conveyor belt, I decided to order some hot dishes. You can of course order cold dishes too.

I went with one of my favourite dishes the Spicy Pepper Squid. Hot coils of spicy pepper squid topped with red chilli.

I would warn you that the chilli was quite hot and if you aren’t use to that kind of heat avoid it. I do like this dish, the crunch of the coating, the softness and smoothness of the squid, combined with the heat of pepper and chilli. I did very nearly another dish of the squid.

I also had Chicken Katsu this is chicken breast covered in Japanese breadcrumbs and served with a spicy fruity katsu curry sauce.

Sometimes I should read my own blog as I previously wrote.

The best way I can describe it is as a breaded chicken burger, fried, sliced, placed on rice and then covered in curry gravy! It wasn’t a horrible dish, but certainly wasn’t one I would order again or would recommend.

I will say this time I was in the mood for some crunchy spicy chicken, so that’s why I ordered it!

The third dish was Hairy Prawns. You get two prawns wrapped in kadaifi pastry with wasabi mayonnaise.

This was something I hadn’t seen or tried before, also these were really quite messy to eat There was an incredible crunchy sensation as bit into the prawns, finished off with the soft prawn itself. The prawns tasted of prawns (which is not always the case) and the wasabi mayonnaise complemented the dish perfectly.

My final and fourth dish was Chicken Firecracker Rice.

This was a nice dish of stir fried chicken and sushi rice, sticky, savoury, slightly spicy and delicious.

To drink I went with the Green Tea, which is hot and refreshing. You can also have unlimited refills.

Overall for £11.10 I thought this was very good value for money.

November 28, 2012

Okay Frankie, not too bad, this time

The last time I went to Frankie and Benny’s I wasn’t that impressed with my Calamari Salad. I decided back then that if I had a choice then I probably wouldn’t choose them as a place to eat. However having been invited out to a family dinner, I found myself once more sitting down and looking at the menu in Frankie and Benny’s.

To be honest I did quite like the idea of a salad with calamari, but remembering my last experience I thought that wouldn’t be such a good idea.

In the end looking over the whole of the menu, I went with the special menu with two courses for £10.95, which is available every day except Saturday.

For my starter I went with the chicken wings: Buffalo Chicken Wings – Large chicken wings tossed in Louisiana hot sauce. Served with a blue cheese dip and crunchy celery sticks.

You got four half wings that were pre-cooked, heated up and then covered in some weird very hot spicy orange sauce. I wouldn’t have called the wings I got as “large”. As for the blue cheese dip, I went without, not a fan of that. As for celery, well I have never seen the point of celery, really don’t like and yes I have tried and I really really don’t like it. I do like chicken wings, which is why I ordered this dish.

I thought the orange sauce was a little too hot and spicy, so much so that it overpowered the flavour of the chicken. For me spicy is nice, but it should complement and enhance the flavour of the food it accompanies, not overwhelm it. If that is what it does, just eat the sauce on its own.

For my main, I did think long and hard and in the end went with a burger. New Yorker Burger – Our 6oz grilled hamburger topped with BBQ sauce, pepper jack cheese, mayo and bacon, piled high with Cos lettuce and fresh tomato in a toasted sesame seed bun. Served with house fries and tomato-chilli relish on the side.

I forgot to ask for salad so got fries instead. The cheese was very gloopy and sticky, but the burger itself was actually very nice and full of flavour. I love the description of “piled high” as there was one lettuce leaf and one slice of tomato. I wonder if they really think that is piled high!

As I didn’t eat all the fries I did decide to have a pudding. with the £10.95 menu you can have a pudding from a selected range for just £2.25 which seemed a lot more reasonable than the cost of puddings from the main menu. As is the case with puddings from Frankie’s it will either be a constructed ice cream style desert or something heated with ice cream. I went with the Hot Chocolate Waffle – A warm cinnamon waffle topped with two scoops of vanilla ice cream, smothered in chocolate sauce and topped with crunchy honeycomb.

It was to be honest what I expected, a warmed pre-cooked waffle with ice cream and chocolate sauce, though not enough honeycomb. It was nice, though quite sweet. I should have ordered a black coffee to go with it to offset that sweetness, actually a black tea would have been nice. Something I learnt many years ago was how nice black tea is with very sweet puddings.

Overall I enjoyed my meal, I think my very low expectations were a big factor in that, I wasn’t expecting high cuisine, sophisticated and lever cooking. What I got was typical chain cooking and it was okay.

November 26, 2012

Single Espresso please

More and more I have been disappointed with places that sell coffee that can’t get the simple Americano right. It’s not difficult is it, just take some espresso coffee and add some hot water.

I think part of the issue is I quite like a strong Americano, but don’t want to pay for an extra shot, so I ask for less water, doesn’t always quite work. Also the other issue with have too much water, is it is quite difficult to drink or carry a cup filled to the brim without spilling it. Or am I just clumsy?

As a result I have moved much more over to drinking espresso, sometimes a single, usually a double.

November 25, 2012

Persian Jewelled Rice

I’ve had a jar of Tesco Persian Jewelled Rice Paste in my cupboard for a while. Having a little time today I decided to go ahead and use it.

I took some onion, pepper, courgette and mushrooms and sauted them off in a frying pan with a little butter and oil.

I then added the Jewelled Rice Paste and cooked it off for a couple of minutes. I then added 200g of basmati rice and 400ml of boiling water.

Placed a lid on the frying pan and let the rice simmer for 15-20 minutes until the rice had absorbed the liquid and was tender.

With spices and citrus flavours, it was really very nice. It was quite dry so you might need some sauce or chutney to go with it. According to the jar it recommended having chicken in the dish, I didn’t I went with vegetables instead.

It’s not “cheap” at £1.99, but the thing is with a dish like this, that you have basically cooked yourself, it does taste a lot fresher than reheating a chilled ready meal from the fridge. I think in the future I might have a go at making my own version of the paste using the ingredients as a guide.

Orange Juice From Concentrate (26%),Carrot (25%) ,Sultanas (10%) (Sultanas, Sunflower Oil) ,Lemon Juice From Concentrate (7%) ,Onion Purée ,Orange Zest (5%) ,Butter ,Vegetable Oil ,Sugar ,Cinnamon Powder ,Cornflour ,Sea Salt ,Roasted Cumin Seed ,Black Pepper ,Ground Cardamom ,Ground Saffron.

Overall I found it an easy dish to make and it was really nice to eat.