food, reviews and of course coffee
Really impressed to see some new crisps (potato chips) from Burts with no added salt, but unlike other unsalted crsisps they have flavours; plain, ketchup and vinegar.
They are really nice crisps and if you are trying to keep your salt intake down a nice choice if you like crisps.
BBC News Magazine reports on the all-you-can-eat restaurant chain Taybarns
With a “34-metre long food counter” Taybarns is all about quantity. It offers an array of food. Choose from a chip shop, carvery, pizza, pasta, even what appears to be a new hybrid-cuisine, Texican.
Its menu boasts: “Enjoy as much as you like, as many times as you like. All for one fixed price!”
Why do we flock to all-you-can-eat restaurants?
A good question.
Personally I do go to them, but often not through choice, but because others take me there…
Having said that the all you can eat buffet at the Hilton Hotels I have stayed in have been pretty good. But there you pay £27 rather than the £7.99 at Taybarns.
I agree though with the final comment.
“The American model bothers me. We want big portions, rubbish food. What we actually need is higher quality and people eating less.”
Photo source.
BBC News reports on the rise of the cupcake.
“Buttercream frosted, pink hearts and sprinkles, melt-in-your-mouth candy and violet petals.” It might be the perfect menu for an additive-enhanced children’s party, but these lavish confections are driving a sugar-coated revolution.
Not for me though…
Photo source.
Fascnating series from the BBC on how they make processed food, demonstrated by Jimmy Doherty doing it at home without the factory.
The organic, home-made food trend may have grown rapidly in the past decade, but in the recession many have returned to cheaper, processed produce. Yet few of us know how such everyday foods are made.
As household budgets have been cut, shoppers have been seeking out bargains in preference to pricey alternatives. For example, sales of organic vegetables slumped 19% in the past year.
But if the British palate has been readjusting to cheaper, often processed foods, few shoppers know much about how such produce is created. Suffolk-based farmer Jimmy Doherty has been working to overcome this consumer blind spot, finding out for a new BBC TV series how science and ingenuity combine to produce good quality food on such a mass scale.
So, what are the processes some of the most common convenience foods go through before they reach our supermarket trolleys?
Read more.
I do quite like duck and the obvious choice with duck is an orange sauce. Though I more often than not prefer to make my own sauces, sometimes you don’t have the time, sometimes you don’t have the expertise. Shop sauces can often be too sweet or usually too salty, so I don’t like to buy them. The duck with orange sauce from Waitrose though falls into the just right category, neither too sweet nor too salty.
I use to get a similar pack from Sainsbury, however they no longer stock it at my local branch (and don’t recall seeing it elsewhere either).
Having taken out the two duck breasts from the fridge, using a fork, prick the skin side of the duck breast.Duck can be quite fatty and as a result if you simply roast the duck breast it will be too fatty and greasy. So heat a frying pan, but don’t add any oil. Place the duck breasts in the pan skin side down.
Frying the duck breast in this way renders the fat out from the duck and as a result you get nice crispy skin and little fat or greasiness.
The breasts will also shrink slightly as they cook. There is technique that you can use to stop the meat curling up, but I can’t remember what it is! Something about cutting away something. If you know post a comment and let me know.
Once the skin is nice and brown, place the duck breasts skin side up in a roasting pan. Roast in the oven for about ten to twenty minutes (depending on how you like your duck).
Serve with the orange sauce.
One of the problems I face when I stay away from home is where do I go to dinner. I am not a fan of hotel restaurants, generally I find they are overpriced and the quality can be poor.
I was recently in a hotel on the A45 Cromwell Road and was not impressed with the menu, so decided to venture out and find somewhere to eat.
Well I wish I hadn’t…
I found Bellavista, what looked like a nice Italian restaurant, an interesting menu and was quite full (which I usually find is a good sign of quality) and went in.
Well I left very disappointed. It was an overpriced rubbish food experience.
I had a starter of calamari, which I initially thought was okay, but overall was disappointed as it was quite rubbery, it certainly wasn’t cooked from fresh, more likely deep fried from frozen.
My main course, spaghetti with clams was absolutely terrible. The sauce was obviously from a jar!
I couldn’t believe how bad the food was…
The couple on the table next to me ordered fish and chips, it looked worse than mine!
I had obviously entered a London tourist restaurant that caters for tourists.
I need to find some good places before I get to London in the future…
We may be up in arms about a McDonalds in the Louvre but it would appear that the French are not!
The French press has been kept busy this week – not with the news, but with news about the news.
The news was that McDonald’s is to open a fast-food restaurant in the Louvre. The news about the news was the way this was reported in the foreign – English-speaking – press.
The news itself did not especially interest French editors. It got a few paragraphs on the economy pages of Le Figaro, and a column in Le Parisien.
The news about the news was a different story. Within a matter of hours, this tale of cultural desecration a la francaise had travelled the world.
Read more.
I have had Yo Sushi before, I had some time to wait before my train so decided to sit down and eat rather than buy the takeway that I normally buy.
The concept of Yo Sushi may be familiar to anyone who has been to Japan it certainly is a weird concept for many in the UK.
Sit down and watch as little bowls of sushi pass you by on a conveyor belt. Help yourself to the ones that you want. After you have eaten they count the bowls you have eaten and charge you accordingly. Not all the bowls are the same price and range from £1.70 to £5.00. The price depends on how much is in the bowl and what ingredients are used.
As well as the cold dishes on the conveyor belt you can order soup and hot dishes from the waiting staff.
I looked at the menu and the first two items I chose were not available. So I ordered Chicken Yakitori, char-grilled chicken skewers with a soy-mirin glaze and Prawn Katsu, crispy fried prawns in Japanese bread crumbs, with a fruity sauce. I had wanted to order Prawn Tempura and Chicken Teriyaki .
While I was waiting for the hot food I started off with a crayfish salad which was very pleasant. The hot food then arrived (quicker than anticipated). The prawns were good and the chicken skewers were sticky.
I then picked a Salmon Nigri from the belt. The salmon lacked flavour but the rice was okay.
My final dish was Spicy Pepper Squid which was very nice and a good finish to my meal.
Still think it was cheeky that they charge £1 for water!
I will go again.
From BBC News
Consensus Action on Salt and Health surveyed 71 own-label “Free From” products from five leading supermarkets in the UK.
Over half contained more salt than the retailer’s standard version of the product. Some had six times as much.
I went out for lunch and had a nice piece of chargrilled tuna with vegetables from the café at Sainsburys, which was both delicious and in some ways was also surprising.
I wasn’t quite expecting them to do such a good looking and tasty dish. The sauce was nice and the accompanying vegetables was a nice touch.