food, reviews and of course coffee
I was less than impressed with a Flat White I recently had at Starbucks, it was flat and insipid. I wonder though how much of that was because it was in a paper cup? I’m not a great fan of coffee in paper cups and where possible I will “drink in” so I can have a proper china cup.
I still find it a little incredulous how much we pay for coffee in paper cups these days, we think it’s somewhat normal!
I haven’t been to Yo Sushi for a while now, even though I enjoyed the meal I had there the last time I was there in 2009. I didn’t think it was that long ago!
Out on a evening shopping trip out with my wife, we decided that we wanted to get a quick bite to eat and as both like sushi, decided that we would go to Yo Sushi.
The first dish we grabbed from the conveyor belt was Assorted Fish Maki, two each of salmon, tuna and prawn and chive maki. These were very nice. I then picked up a plate of Avocado Maki, alas these were quite bland, but did have a nice texture.
We then ordered some hot dishes, which means as we could see into the kitchen we knew were freshly cooked. As might be guessed by regular readers of the blog, I went with squid, well I like squid. The Spicy Pepper Squid, is described as hot coils of spicy pepper squid topped with red chilli. I personally thought it was overcooked and a little chewy, but really enjoyed the dish, the chilli was a nice touch and added some heat to the squid.
The Chicken Teriyaki, grilled chicken in a sweet, sticky soy based sauce was very good, delicious and the sauce was just right. We could have probably eaten three of this dish, but in the end had just one. The grilled chicken was tender and there is something I have alway enjoyed about grilled chicken. This was well complemented by the sticky teriyaki sauce and dressed with sesame seeds.
As I was intrigued and had never had it before, I ordered the Soft Shell Crab Tempura, which was described as soft, tasty and tender soft shell blue crab fried in a crispy and light batter with tempura sauce. I do like crab but had not had soft shell crab before. This dish was mainly about texture, there wasn’t a strong crab flavour, but was quite nice.
Overall it was a really nice meal, though we preferred the hot dishes. We thought it was quite reasonable for the price we were charged.
Despite my reservations about Krispy Kreme Doughnuts I recently bought a box of them for my team at work (as a reward).
Slightly concerned about the Christmas specials, as it is really nowhere near Christmas. I really should have picked my own selection for the box, but as I was in a bit of a hurry I got a full box with a selection already in, which included the tree and snowman.
Personally the one I had was a little too sweet and sugary for me, but the rest seemed to go down well.
Though I am not entirely sure how environmentally delivered pizza in a pizza box is… but I guess if you do order pizza, it would be better in a box like this!!!
Do you know I don’t think I have ever had pizza delivered… well maybe once.
After a series of games of ten pin bowling we decided to have a quick lunch at Frankie and Benny’s the chain of American Italian restaurants that you can find across the UK.
I decided to go simple and have the Steak and Fries.
A 6oz* strip sirloin served plain and simple with house fries and a pot of American mustard on the side. Simple but classic!
It was as it was described in the menu, a simple steak, cooked to my liking, tender and with some flavour served with house fries.
A simple but classic dish. Maybe next time I should be more adventurous!
If I have a big meal in the middle of the day then in the evening I usually happy to have a sandwich.
But if I am going to have a sandwich and I have the ingredients and the time then I don’t want a ham sandwich made from ‘plastic’ white bread!
Without sounding too much like a Marks and Spencers advert, I want a sandwich made from freshly baked ciabatta bread, a thin spread of unsalted butter, filled with fresh rocket leaves, thin slices of milano salami and a dash of mayonnaise…
Now that’s a sandwich.
This is one of those bargains you find at Tesco and other supermarkets, £1.00 each or on special, two for £2.00… hmmm
I had a really good skinny Flat White today at Costa.
Good flavoured coffee and the milk wasn’t too foamy. This was a different branch of Costa to the one where I have been before.
Still don’t understand why it is more expensive than similar sized coffees. At Starbucks they even use a “short” cup and charge more!
I quite like kebabs, but I still have not perfected a technique that ensures that all the food on the kebab is evenly cooked and ensuring that the meat is “actually” cooked.
I recently made these chicken and chorizo kebabs and though the veg and chorizo was cooked, the chicken was still a little underdone.
I had done them under the grill, usually I would “roast” them at the top of a hot oven in order to cook them evenly, but then you don’t get that crispness on the edges. I am guessing that the ideal solution is to grill the vegetables separately to the chicken.
I really do enjoy roasted vegetables either as a meal in itself or as an accompaniment to another dish.
On this platter I have roasted squash, red onions, red pepper, mushrooms, tomatoes, courgettes, aubergine, parsnips and sweet potato.
The method I used for this was in the roasting pan I placed the squash, the parsnips, red onion and sweet potato with a good splash of olive oil. This was then roasted in the oven for about 15 minutes. I then added the mushrooms, tomatoes, aubergine, courgette, red pepper and another splash of the olive oil. This was then roasted for about 15-20 minutes.
Simple and delicious.