food, reviews and of course coffee
I had a coffee I have never had before. I was up in Clifton and went to the Illy Cafe.
After a nice warm welcome I ordered the Capo Triestino. I took a seat and they brought the coffee over to me.
So what is a Capo Triestino?
An illy espresso with abundant cold emulsified milk served in a small Freddo glass.
I do like Illy coffee and really enjoyed this. I don’t get to Clifton very often these days, so think it will be a while before I can make a return visit. Hopefully not too long.
I do quite like the short release items that you find at Aldi. I don’t like that they are short release items, so you can’t buy them on a regular basis.
Aldi released a range of dishes for Valentines Day, including some slow cooked beef short rib.
These British Beef Wagyu Short Ribs have been slowly cooked to deliver a deep flavour and succulent texture that falls off the bone. Serve with the rich Red Wine Sauce for the ultimate experience
I bought a box and cooked them according to the instructions, which was 35 minutes in the oven and then serve the red wine sauce on the side.
The beef was lovely tender, and fell off the bone. I didn’t think the flavour was as deep as advertised on the box, but it was tasty.
I would say I would buy it again, but it’s only on sale for a week, and I picked up the last box from the shelf.
This is a regular dish in our house, but the exact nature of the dish depends on what we have in the fridge.
This time I had some cooked long grain white rice.
Into a hot wok I added some sunflower oil, when this was hot, I added some Chinese five spice. I then diced red onion, diced red pepper, and some sliced spring onions.
On my omelette pan, I cooked a thin one egg omelette, which after being cooked was sliced into thin strips.
Once the onion and pepper is soft, I added the rice to the wok. I then added a good splash of soy sauce. After stirring, I cracked open and added (another) egg, to the rice. This was then stirred in quickly, to ensure that the egg was cooked. I finally added the sliced omelette.
The dish was then served as an accompaniment to other dishes I had cooked.
When cooking this dish before, I have added diced carrot, prawns, and I have garnished the dish with freshly sliced spring onions.
Working in Bristol and out for a walk at lunchtime. I wasn’t actually intending to have lunch out, but walking through the St Nicholas Market looking at all the different stalls, I was tempted. There are lots of lovely places in the market, there is the new Tibetan stall, MOMO, which had quite a queue. I also did think about Low and Slow, but they were equally popular. In the end I went back to the Spanish stall, La Lola.
Since I was last at La Lola, they have added some walls and windows to their stall, so sitting inside in this cold weather is much nicer. I was given a lovely warm welcome, and I ordered my food, and then took a seat. It wasn’t long before my freshly cooked squid arrived.
The crispy baby squid came in a cardboard container, it would have been nice on a plate (which I have said before), but realise that as a stall, it might not be possible.
The squid had a nice crisp coating and was very tender on the inside. The chipped potatoes had been cooked twice, so weren’t as good as previous visits to La Lola. However they were crisp and tasty. The salad was nice and fresh. It was a delicious box of food, which I really enjoyed.
We were up in the Mall doing some shopping and decided to stop for some coffee. In the basement was the John Lewis espresso bar, which I have visited a fair few times before. More recently it has been revamped and is now a branch of Ori Caffé.
Ori Caffé is a partnership between John Lewis and Massarella, a family run business with Italian origins. Massarella dates all the way back to 1864, when the family came over from Italy with a view to move to America.
The cafe area has been re-decorated, and their is a Mediterranean inspired menu sandwiches, and more traditional British cakes, as well as Italian cannoli.
As we entered it was a little awkward, in that we had to wait to be seated, but it wasn’t table service, you went up to the counter to order your food and drinks. I ordered a tea, a flat white, a vegetarian sausage roll, and a cheese and ham rarebit.
We took a seat and waited for our food and drinks to arrive.
My flat white looked very pretty.
It was an excellent coffee, which I enjoyed. The tea was very nice too.
The rarebit, was not a rarebit. It was a cheese and ham sourdough toastie.
It needed a lot more cheese, and to be a rarebit, needed a cheese sauce. The ham was good quality though. Overall I did enjoy the toastie.
The vegetarian sausage roll was rather good, or so I was told.
Overall it was a nice place for coffee and the food was tasty.
I was out waiting to pick up my daughter, and I had some time to kill. I decided to get a coffee from Costa on Marchfields Way.
I was intending to have coffee and cake. They were very short on cakes, so I just had a cortado. I had a free coffee on the app, so it didn’t cost me anything.
My main issue was that, I was drinking in, but they still served me my coffee in a takeaway cardboard cup. I prefer my coffee in a real cup, and actually will make the time for a coffee, rather than do take out. However the choice was coffee in a takeaway cardboard cup, or no coffee. As I wanted a coffee, I took the takeaway cardboard cup.
The coffee was quite nice though.
Staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I went for dinner. Despite not being available the last time I had dinner at the hotel, this time the special, crab and mussel tagliolini was available. I thought it was a starter, but the staff behind the bar didn’t think it was. It was described on the menu as crab and mussel tagliolini with razor clams, brown shrimp, glazed old Winchester cheese, purple sprouting broccoli, and chive.
When it arrived, it was obviously a starter portion and it wasn’t tagliolini, it was tagliatelle again. Tagliolini is a type of ribbon pasta, long like spaghetti, roughly 2–3 mm wide, similar to tagliatelle, but thin like capellini.
It was an interesting dish, the pasta was well cooked, I could taste and see some of the seafood, but it didn’t feel that individual seafood stood out very much. I think the purple sprouting broccoli was either missing or heavily ground down!
Overall, it was a nice starter, but I do think it was rather overpriced for what it was.
Staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I went for dinner and I really wasn’t sure what to have. I did quite fancy the crab pasta starter on the specials list, but it was unavailable. Looking over the starters I decided to have the fish tacos. As I wasn’t having pasta for a starter I went with the pasta special for my main course.
This was described as a wild boar and roasted tomato ragout, served with pappardelle pasta, pecorino, and truffle oil. This sounded rather nice.
The dish arrived.
Well, the pasta wasn’t pappardelle, this was tagliatelle. Well not the end of the world. There was a substantial amount of cheese on top. As for the ragout, well I was expecting a strong flavoured ragout. However it was rather bland, quite dry, and disappointing. I couldn’t taste the truffle oil either.
Staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I went for dinner and I really wasn’t sure what to have. I did quite fancy the crab pasta starter on the specials list, but it was unavailable. Looking over the starters I decided to have the fish tacos, a dish I have had before.
The dish arrived, it comprised three tacos, each was served with a piece of fish in a crunchy coating, shredded lettuce, mayo and the aforementioned mango salsa.
I have enjoyed these before, and I enjoyed these as well. Nice crunchy fish, with fresh salad and salsa. Delicious.
I stopped off at Hanbury Hall, a National Trust property for a break during travelling. The house was lovely, but afterwards I headed to the stable for a coffee. I went with a double espresso. It was nice and I enjoyed it.