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My time at the Ginger Pig Kitchen

I was once asked where I go to eat out in Weston-super-Mare and I recognised that most times I go out to eat are in other places. When eating locally, as a family, we usually end up in Bristol, as part of doing something else. It doesn’t help that quite a few places that we use to frequent have closed down.

So it was a nice to go out to eat at a local bistro in Weston-super-Mare. I and others visited the Ginger Pig Kitchen recently (as in January) for a “Christmas” dinner.

“At the Ginger Pig Kitchen we’re proud to be serving Modern British bistro food, made from fresh, with passion, using local suppliers and produce. We trust that with every visit you make you will get great service in a great environment.”

The environment is certainly interesting with pipework and wooden tables and what felt liked random chairs.

The menu looked inspiring and interesting, and it was quite difficult to make a choice, but as this was a booked meal I had to make my choice the week before! I also prefer not to do this, as what I felt like eating last week, may not be what I feel like eating now. However I did think I made the right choices.

For my starter I had the Cauliflower Bhaji, which was served with mango yoghurt chilli jam and crispy onion.

I got two bhaji, made from onion and cauliflower. They were crunchy and crisp outside and soft inside. I couldn’t really taste the cauliflower, but they were nice and spicy. I liked the crispy onion, but I do feel that it needed more yoghurt. Overall I did enjoy the bhaji and they were really tasty.

We then had a watermelon gazpacho in a spoon, which was quite nice and zingy. 

Forgot to take photograph of the spoon before drinking the soup.

My main course was I think the house speciality, which was Woodbarn Farm pork belly. It was served with a GPK black pudding bon bon, mashed potato and a braised carrot. On the plate was also a scattering of green leaves, crispy onions and something else.

It was quite a small piece of pork belly, but was well cooked. The cracking was crisp and crunchy, but wasn’t going to be teeth breaking. The pork was tender and tasty.

The GPK bon bon was nice and meaty, I think it could have had a deeper flavour. I did like the use of crackling as the bon bon stick. The mashed potato was nice and creamy, but I would liked to have had a gravy with a deeper flavour, the same could be said for the braised carrot. 

On the plate was also a scattering of green leaves, crispy onions and something else. I am not sure what this was and what it added to the dish. It did add texture, but I was a little underwhelmed by this addition to the dish. Overall I did enjoy this plate of food and it was delicious.

I had a choice of desserts, in the end I went with the cheese and biscuits. I had three pieces of cheese, crackers, chutney, fruit, and celery.

I did not eat the celery. Overall it was okay, nice cheese and nice accompaniments.

It certainly was a popular establishment and was full all evening. Took a photo of the restaurant (at the top of this post) as we were leaving and was now nearly empty, but that’s because it was late. The service was excellent, warm and friendly. I really enjoyed the food, it was delicious and it is certainly a place I would visit again.

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Wasabi Sushi

I was in London and needing a quick lunch. Popped out to get something to eat, lots of long queues at my favourite places, so I walked along to Wasabi to get some sushi.

I bought a mixed sushi box, which contained various sushi.

Wasabi Sushi

It was all nice and fresh and rather tasty. The prawns lacked flavour, but otherwise I quite enjoyed the box.

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Trying a new Paella Seasoning

I have made my version of paella for many years. Well maybe I should call it a Spanish inspired rice dish, rather than paella.

Recently I have been using a jar of paella paste from Waitrose when cooking paella, however it looks like they have stopped selling it. M&S have stopped selling their paste as well, and Tesco haven’t sold their paella seasoning for a couple of years now. I wouldn’t buy the Schwartz paella seasoning as it uses turmeric rather than saffron. I have been known to creating my own “seasoning” using saffron and I did think I would have to go down that road. It was suggested to me to look on Amazon, so I did, and found some paella seasoning. I ordered some. The Carmencita Paellero Paella Spice Mix is according to the description the number one selling spice mix in Spain.

I used it when cooking a paella and was pleased with the end result. It looked excellent.

It also tasted great when we had it with our New Year fish supper. It is something I would use again and will order more once I run out.

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New Year Fish Supper

An annual tradition in our house is to have a fish supper on New Year’s Eve. This year we had a great selection of fish and seafood.

I bought some prosecco & lemon butter lobster tails from Aldi, these were rather good.

I made some crispy squid, using some fresh squid, which I then coated in seasoned flour and fried in oil. A combination of a crisp crunchy coating and sweet tender squid.

I also cooked some queen scallops, simply pan fried in butter.

I did baked lemon salmon fillets in the oven.

The prawns were cooked in a pan with herbs and butter.

All served with homemade paella.

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Time for Filetto di Manzo e Rucola

I was staying in Berlin in December, for a few days attending a conference. The last time I had been to Germany was in 1985 staying for a couple of days in Munich on the way back from a camp in Yugoslavia. This was my first visit to Berlin and the first visit to a unified Germany. I was staying at the NH Collection Mitte ‘Checkpoint Charlie” in the heart of what was East Berlin. I had various meals and snacks while I was there in Berlin.

I did feel a little guilty going to an Italian restaurant while staying in Germany, but when you realise that Vapiano is a German restaurant franchise company headquartered in Cologne. The chain’s restaurants offer Italian food adhering to the fast-casual principle, it certainly has some German food credentials.

The service was simple, in that you ordered from a screen, took a buzzer, and then collected your food from the kitchen. Looking over the menu, I initially decided I wouldn’t have pasta or pizza, but would probably go with a risotto.

I did though look over the pasta menu, I liked the idea of choosing your own type of pasta, and it was fresh pasta. So, I changed my mind and went with the Filetto di Manzo e Rucola, or Beef Fillet and Rocket.

The menu could be accessed in English, so the description of Rinderfilet, Weißwein, Karotten, Zucchini, Champignons, Lauchzwiebeln, Zwiebeln, Rucola, could be translated to beef fillet, white wine, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, spring onions, onions, rocket.  Saw I could add “brot” for free, so I did. Well, my Grade 4 CSE German comes in handy when I remember that ‘brot’ is German for bread and it was a free extra to my food.

When my buzzer buzzed, I went to the kitchen to collect my food. The dish looked great.

It also tasted great. It was fresh and delicious. The steak was tender and I liked the addition of the rocket to the dish. The rest of the ingredients in the dish added to the flavours and textures.

I really enjoyed the pasta dish. The bread was nice as well.

Though I had intended to have the Bruschetta as a starter, because of the process of ordering through a screen meant that the Bruschetta and the pasta arrived at the same time. The Bruschetta was toasted bread with fresh tomatoes, onion, and rocket.

It was a great combination of textures and flavours. The tomato was nice, fresh, and it was well seasoned.

Tasty. Though another time I think I would order my starter first and then order the main course.

Had an Orangina as well to drink.

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Knuckle Time

I was staying in Berlin in December, for a few days attending a conference. The last time I had been to Germany was in 1985 staying for a couple of days in Munich on the way back from a camp in Yugoslavia. This was my first visit to Berlin and the first visit to a unified Germany. I was staying at the NH Collection Mitte ‘Checkpoint Charlie” in the heart of what was East Berlin. I had various meals and snacks while I was there in Berlin.

Much of the time I was eating at places which didn’t sell German cuisine, but as well as the conference dinner at Max und Moritz I also had dinner at Restaurant Maximilians in Berlin.

I did think about going there the first night I was in Berlin, but wasn’t sure, it looked like it was for tourists with all the waiting staff wearing lederhosen. However on another night I decided I would give it a try.

The place was really busy and noisy, but was shown to a table and sat down and I looked over the menu. I did quite fancy the goose special from their Christmas menu, but it was out of my budget. I did want to try something typical German, so I decided to go with the Pork Knuckle. You could either have a half or a whole knuckle, and it was served with Bavarian cabbage and bread dumplings.

Initially I was going to go with the half knuckle, but being a little bit hungry (and greedy) I went with the whole knuckle. 

I also ordered a beer to go with it. There was a wide choice of beers, however I went with the standard lager beer. I liked the beer, but it was different to the beers I have been drinking in the UK.

The knuckle arrived, it was huge and there was a knife stuck in it! Alongside was some gravy.

pork knuckle

The pork knuckle had been slow cooked and then deep fried (I think) before being served. I enjoyed the crispy crackling on the outside, and the pork inside was soft and tender. 

The Bavarian cabbage was nice, as were the bread dumplings. The gravy was much needed adding moisture and flavour.

In the end there was way too much food for me, the dumplings though nice, were quite heavy and filling. There was a huge amount of pork, and I was unable to finish it. I probably should have not had breakfast or lunch before eating there.

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Beef Donburi and a Crispy Chicken Hirata Bun

Went out at lunchtime for a walk on Thursday, I decided to head to the Temple Quay Market. In the end I succumbed to temptation and ordered a bento box from She Sells Sushi, going for the Beef Donburi and a Crispy Chicken Hirata Bun. I noticed that they now also sell an XL bento box, which allows you to choose three dishes. I decided I wasn’t that hungry.

This a street food dish I have had many times, as this was as good as I’ve had on previous visits. The beef was full of flavour and the garnishes added to the dish.

The chicken hirata bun was tasty, a charcoal bao bun with two pieces of crispy chicken.

I will say I prefer the crispy chicken that came with the original Finzel Flapper bun they did a few years ago. The mayo dressing was spicier than I remember.

Overall a really nice lunch.

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German Pasta

I was staying in Berlin in December, for a few days attending a conference. The last time I had been to Germany was in 1985 staying for a couple of days in Munich on the way back from a camp in Yugoslavia. This was my first visit to Berlin and the first visit to a unified Germany. I was staying at the NH Collection Mitte ‘Checkpoint Charlie” in the heart of what was East Berlin. I had various meals and snacks while I was there in Berlin.

I did feel a little guilty going to an Italian restaurant while staying in Germany, but when you realise that Vapiano is a German restaurant franchise company headquartered in Cologne. The chain’s restaurants offer Italian food adhering to the fast-casual principle, it certainly has some German food credentials.

The service was simple, in that you ordered from a screen, took a buzzer, and then collected your food from the kitchen. I had started with soup, after finishing that, I then went back to the screen to order some pasta.

I ordered the linguine with beef tenderloin, shrimp, lobster sauce, carrots, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, onions, spring onions, basil, brandy. I liked how you could use the type of pasta in your dish and add extras if needed (such as cheese).

The pasta was perfectly cooked and the rest of the dish was very tasty, though I didn’t really taste the lobster in the lobster sauce. 

It was certainly an interesting pasta dish and I enjoyed it. In some ways it was a strange combination of ingredients, though you often have prawns and steak together as a surf and turf. Would I have it again, probably.

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Frites at Frittenwerk

I was staying in Berlin in December, for a few days attending a conference. The last time I had been to Germany was in 1985 staying for a couple of days in Munich on the way back from a camp in Yugoslavia. This was my first visit to Berlin and the first visit to a unified Germany. I was staying at the NH Collection Mitte ‘Checkpoint Charlie” in the heart of what was East Berlin. I had various meals and snacks while I was there in Berlin.

One lunch was chicken shawarma poutine from Frittenwerk. I had liked the look Frittenwerk and it also was busy, which is a good sign I think about a place. When I was planning my trip, I had anticipated focusing on German food, but though I had some good German food when I was there, I also had other cuisines as well. This is why I ended up ordering Canadian poutine in the German capital.

I had considered ordering a traditional poutine, but in the end went with something different. I didn’t really fancy cheese and gravy. The chicken shawarma poutine comprised a large portion of fries with marinated chicken, tomato and avocado salad, paprika and chilli dip and lemon ajoli.

Frittenwerk poutine

This was a quick, hot lunch, that was relatively inexpensive at €9.70.

The dish was made to order and as I waited it arrived very quickly.

It was a tasty dish and I really enjoyed it. The chips were nice, the chicken was tender and tasty, the sauce certainly was zingy. In all very nice.

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Nourish and Flourish

Though I have coffee from Coco di Mama quite regularly, it is generally not a place I choose lunch from. Not that I’ve had bad food from there, on the contrary I’ve enjoyed eating lunch when I’ve being there. I think the reason is that there are quite a few choices in the area (of our office) so with that many options, I rarely frequent a single place. However it is the best place for coffee close to the office.

Having little time to get some lunch, the first place I ventured to was Pret, however they were doing well and only seemed to have tuna salad left on their shelves. I decided to head to Coco di Mama, as I thought if I can’t get a salad, I will have a pasta pot.

They were quite scarce on salads as well, my colleague nabbed the last chicken caesar salad. I looked over and went for the vegan nourish and flourish salad pot.

Nourish and Flourish Salad from Coco di Mama

This was mixed leaves, with orzo pasta, tomatoes, mixed seeds, peppers, radishes and other ingredients. I had a balsamic vinegar dressing with it. I also bought a bread roll to go with it.

It was rather tasty, fresh and delicious.