food, reviews and of course coffee
Nothing quite like a trifle.
That combination of sponge, fruit, jelly custard and cream that brings back the memories of childhood flooding back.
Oh and don’t forget that sprinkling of hundreds and thousands to top it off.
At Christmas you would add sherry for a little bit of a luxury and use flaked almonds for the topping.
I do like eating lamb. Though I do understand why some people don’t like it. Lamb can be quite gamey in flavour, as in well flavoured, and if you prefer a bland meat such as pork or chicken, a piece of well flavoured lamb may not be to your taste. Some people don’t like the fatty nature of lamb. This is quite a different taste and experience to say a fatty piece of pork.
Though I do like eating lamb, one issue I do have is when cooking it as it seems to create a lot of smoke…
I do enjoy the pizza at Bottellino’s.
This is the Ortolana Pizza.
On top it has roasted courgettes, peppers, aubergine, olives and mozzarella cheese.
The pizza are quite big, so if you’re not hat hungry, I would recommend sharing one. If you do order your own, then they will provide boxes to take home what you don’t eat. Not that I am a fan of cold pizza.
I had really enjoyed the breakfast I had at the Ambassadors Hotel in Bloomsbury back in 2008.
It was a splendid affair, and though there was an element of self-service, what was nice was the staff took your cooked breakfast order and brought it to the table.
Beautifully served, it consisted of an excellent meaty sausage, some very nice grilled bacon, a small bowl of baked beans, grilled (and skinned) tomato, mushroom, bubble and squeak, black pudding and egg. You had a choice of eggs (chicken or duck) and cooked to your liking, I had a poached duck’s egg. It was also garnished with lettuce, not sure about the lettuce.
So when I was lucky enough to stay at the Ambassadors Hotel in Bloomsbury again recently, I was really looking forward to coming down for breakfast.
I wasn’t expecting to get an identical experience, but it was pretty close.
The eggs were cooked well, the sausage was nice, as was the bacon. I liked the grilled mushrooms. The tomato wasn’t as good as before and there was a solitary small hash brown.
Luckily no lettuce, just some parsley.
There was quite a choice of other cooked items as well, such as boiled eggs and kippers.
Along with the cooked breakfast, there was also a (self-service) selection of toast, bread products such as croissant and panettone, fruit, yoghurt, juice, cold meats, cheese and smoked fish.
Excellent service and great food. A good start to the day.
Last week I made Toffee Nut Slices using this recipe. In the same copy of BBC Good Food Magazine and using the same base was a recipe for Lemon Bars.
These are simple to make and really tasty and lemony. Someone who ate mine described it a bit like eating lemon meringue pie.
I was in a hurry the other day, and while the rest of the family was having salmon, I fancied lamb. So I pan fried a neck fillet of lamb and…
Well it wasn’t bad. A little underdone for my liking, however what really ruined it for me (and you don’t see this in the photograph) was the sauce I made to go with it!
I think I should have added some greek spices and used a yoghurt dressing.
Next time…
The first time I went to Caffe Gusto at the Mall I was impressed with the quality of the food and friendly staff, but less impressed with the speed of service.
So when I was in the mood for some lunch and was passing the Mall I was slightly hesitant about going to Caffe Gusto as I was in a bit of a hurry. However I knew I wouldn’t be going to Café Rouge anytime soon.
At Caffe Gusto, it’s a bit like a pub, in that you order your food at the counter, give a table number and then wait for your food.
I ordered the Shish Kebab in Pitta Bread with an Americano.
The coffee was good and I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly the food arrived, and all nice freshly cooked.
The lamb was reasonably tender, nicely cooked and well flavoured. The fries were really nice and the salad was fresh.
Overall I had an excellent meal and was pleased with what I had. I would go again.
I do like calamari, these from Bottelino’s was okay, certainly not the best I have ever had, but also not the worse. Would be nice if they were a little more authentic.
Though do compare this portion with this one.
Looks different. For me that’s a positive thing, means that this is not processed system cooking.
Sometimes speed and ease is what is needed in the kitchen. I do use tinned pulses and beans a fair bit in my cooking. Though I know I can buy dried, soak and cook them myself, I do find that using tinned is quick and easy. It also allows for last minute changes to recipes or what I am going to cook for dinner.
One problem I do have is that sometimes a regular sized tin of pulses or beans is too big. So I was pleased to find these small tins at my local Waitrose of Cannellini and Borlotti Beans.
What is also nice about these is that the beans are not in brine, so less salty.
So how did I make the salad?
Well it was literally thrown together very quickly. I cooked off the pancetta in a frying pan and then mixed it with the drained beans and sweetcorn. I then dressed the salad with olive oil, white wine vinegar and freshly ground black pepper.
I made some toffee nut slices that were really tasty, so tasty that I forgot to take a photograph.
However all is not lost as you can see a picture on the recipe that I used. I did alter the recipe slightly in that I added fruit and nuts from a fruit and nut mix. My “slices” were also much thicker than the ones in the picture.
First time I had ever used Carnation Caramel and thought it wasn’t that bad and quite easy to use.