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Breakfast at the Fox and Goose

I was in London and staying at the Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. This is a Fullers Hotel and is part of the same chain at Drayton Court, which I have stayed at for a few times now. When I was staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I had an excellent breakfast.

The breakfast plate was beautifully presented. The three rashers of bacon were cooked to my liking, not overdone, full of flavour. I enjoyed the sausage and the black pudding. The poached eggs were perfectly cooked, and had runny yolks. The field mushroom was delicious, though I would have liked my tomato a little more cooked. The beans and hash brown were nothing to write home about, but did help complete the breakfast plate. I really enjoyed the breakfast and is one of the best breakfasts I have had at a hotel. 

I did make one criticism of this otherwise excellent breakfast, which was about the coffee.

However one criticism, was the quality of the coffee, which was standard filter coffee, and not very good. 

I would have appreciated better coffee to go with such an excellent breakfast.

So when staying at the Fox and Goose, part of the same Fuller’s chain, I knew (and hoped) I would have a similar excellent breakfast.

Upon arriving in the breakfast room, I was given a warm welcome and shown to my table. I ordered the full English breakfast and they also cooked the toast, so no need to mess about with the breakfast room toaster that I normally have to contend with.

Coffee was from a machine, but was so much better than the filter coffee that was on offer at Drayton. I could have my morning double espresso.

I also had a nice pot of Greek yoghurt before the main event, and dressed with some honey, delicious.

The breakfast arrived and it consisted of pork sausage, Mrs Owton’s bacon, Hampshire black pudding, grilled tomato & field mushroom, hash brown, Heinz baked beans, and two poached eggs. 

Well as with Drayton Court, it was excellent. It was a great start to the day.

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Back to the Bento Box

If you are a regular visitor to the blog then you will know I am a fan of the bento box from She Sells Sushi, one of the regular stalls at Finzel Reach (and Temple Quay) street food markets.

On a recent visit to Finzel Reach, it was raining, so the queues were shorter, but hey ho, I really did fancy a bento box for my lunch.

The last bento box I had from She Sells Sushi I had decided against the hirata bun and had some delicious Takoyaki. The reason was, way back in April I had eaten a panko crumbed Katsu chicken hirata bun.

I have to say I was a little disappointed. I found the chicken rather dry and lacking flavour. Compared to the tempura chicken hirata bun, the Finzel Flapper I’ve had in the past, this new version of the hirata bun was nowhere near as nice. I think if I order again I will go for the Takoyaki instead.

Which on my next visit I did.

This time though they had a different kind of chicken, so why not. So I ordered a bento box with the chicken hirata bun and my usual beef donburi.

The beef was as usual, excellent. It is tasty tender beef rib on a bed of sushi rice and served with pickle and spring onions.

The chicken hirata bun was also really good, though it was slightly “drowned” in accompaniments.

It was delicious, yes back on form and something I would order again.

A lovely box of food, which I really enjoyed.

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Cheeseburger and Chips

Arriving late into Birmingham for an event the next day, I was hungry, and the restaurant at the Novotel was still open so I popped in for a bite to eat. There were others eating in the restaurant, so I was not the only person who had probably just arrived feeling hungry. I was given a nice warm welcome and given a menu to peruse. The menu was in my view a standard hotel restaurant menu with some standard hotel fare. In the end I went with some calamari for a starter. For the main course I went with a cheeseburger and chips.

This was a rather good burger, with a full of flavour burger, nice thick bacon, melted cheese, slices of tomato and gem lettuce. The chips were crispy and fluffy on the inside (I think I would have preferred fries though). The bun was nice as well.

Overall I did enjoy the burger and the chips. 

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Calamari

Arriving late into Birmingham for an event the next day, I was hungry, and the restaurant at the Novotel was still open so I popped in for a bite to eat. There were others eating in the restaurant, so I was not the only person who had probably just arrived feeling hungry. I was given a nice warm welcome and given a menu to peruse. The menu was in my view a standard hotel restaurant menu with some standard hotel fare. In the end I went with some calamari for a starter.

This was some pieces of battered deep fried squid with mayonnaise and some mixed lettuce leaves.

It was actually quite nice, the squid was really tender and the batter was crispy. You could tell it wasn’t made fresh, but this was late evening in a hotel. However, I did enjoy the dish.

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Mushroom Crostini at Bella Italia

Mushroom Crostini

I was out for a meal at Bella Italia at Cribbs Causeway. It’s being a while since I was last here, but I do remember have an excellent meal here back in June 2021. I did notice that Bella Italia at Cabot Circus which has been closed for a while, is now going to be a Bao Burger. I found that branch lacked character and atmosphere, whereas the Cribbs Causeway branch has a little more character and charm. They’ve updated it over the years and though at some time it had a classic Italian trattoria feel to it, today it is slightly more of a Italian inspired funky look.

We had booked, which having arrive, made sense, as the place was rather full. We were given a friendly welcome and we were shown to our table.

I looked over the menu. I didn’t think it was as interesting as it was back in June 2021, but there were some dishes I did like the sound of. 

In the end I went with the set menu, and I had a starter of Mushroom Crostini.

This was chestnut mushrooms cooked in a creamy porcini sauce served on toasted ciabatta slices.

Apart from the fact I think it may have been sitting for a while as the toasted ciabatta was a little soggy. I really did like this dish. The mushrooms were cooked well and the sauce was rich, savoury and had an excellent mushroom flavour.

This was an excellent starter and so much better than the similar sounding Funghi Arrosto mushroom starter I once had in Leeds in 2019.

I would certainly have it again.

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M&S Aberdeen Angus Beef Côte De Boeuf




Went out and did some food shopping, first to Aldi, then M&S. 

I was looking around when I noticed that there was a reduced M&S Select Farms Aberdeen Angus Beef Côte De Boeuf.

M&S Aberdeen Angus Beef Côte De Boeuf

However I also noticed that there was a member of staff doing the secondary reductions on the other side of the aisle. I had to wait around the aisle for a while, as the M&S person reducing stuff got round to it. The full price was nearly £27 and I got it for just over £9.

Bargain!

I did think about potentially getting something like this for Christmas dinner, so was pleased I could give it a try before the festive period.

Back home went to cook it. I followed the instructions for the Côte De Boeuf. This required seasoning the joint and then searing and browning in a hot frying pan before placing in a hot oven.

I did initially think I may have undercooked the joint, but when I carved it, I realised I had slightly overcooked it compared to how I wanted it.

It was lovely and tender, but it didn’t have the flavour I thought it would.

I certainly would get it again, but only if I either got it reduced again, or had loads of spare money to pay full price.

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Incomplete Tiramisu

I was out for a meal at Bella Italia and I had a dessert, Tiramisu.

An italian classic! Espresso & Marsala soaked sponge layered with sweet mascarpone cream and finished with Amaretti biscuit crumb and a dusting of cocoa powder. 

Tiramisu

Yes, I also did wonder where the Amaretti biscuit crumb was too!

One of the issues I find sometimes in places, is you read the menu, order the dish, the menu is taken away and then you receive your dish. You feel something is not right. You then later review the menu, and in this instance you realise that the Amaretti biscuit crumb was missing. It also did not look like what was on the online menu.

I have found that this sometimes happens too often. It has happened before at Bella Italia up in Leeds with a mushroom dish I ordered, then I did complain.

I was a little disappointed with the look of the dish. The photograph doesn’t really show how sunken the Tiramisu was. It did look like it had been in the fridge for a long time!

As a Tiramisu it was okay. I think there needed to be a stronger espresso and Marsala flavour in there. The missing biscuit crumb would have added some much needed texture.

I had this as part of a set menu (so about £3.50) but this was not worth the price of £5.99.

I don’t think I would be ordering this again in the future.

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Making a Keralan vegetable curry

curry ingredients

I cooked a Keralan Coconut Vegetable Curry that I cooked. I cheated a little by using a curry kit from The Spice Tailor.

A delicately balanced, mellow coconut curry from Kerala. Its gentle spicing and layers of flavours makes this a go-to for those who love milder Indian flavours.

I have been using this curry kit for some time now.

I prepared the vegetables, this time  I used red onion, brown onion, butternut squash, sweet potato, baby sweetcorn, red pepper, green beans and cauliflower florets.

I add oil to a large frying pan and then add the spices from the curry kit. I then added the prepared vegetables. This is cooked until softened. I then add the sauce mix from the curry kit, a little water and stir it into the vegetables. I cook it for five more minutes, I then added some fresh young spinach, before covering and cooking for another five minutes or so.  I then did a final stirring the curry.

I served it with plain white rice.

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London Pride and Coffee

I was staying in London at The Fox and Goose in Ealing. Having checked in I grabbed my luggage and headed to my room.

There was a free beer in the fridge, a bottle of London Pride. Nicely chilled.

Yay!

I do like it when my hotel rooms have a fridge. I also like it better when there is a beer in there.

The fridge comes in useful for keeping drinks cold, but also fresh milk. Though saying that the hotel provided small bottles of milk for tea and coffee. Though it is part of the same chain at the Drayton Court Hotel I was a little disappointed that, whereas the Drayton Court rooms came with a Nespresso machine, The Fox and Goose rooms didn’t. However in a stroke of luck I had my coffee machine in the boot of the car. So at least I could have decent coffee during my stay.

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Coopers Sandwich

I generally don’t do sandwiches when buying lunch. Mainly as I can easily make sandwiches myself. However I have been known now and again to get a sandwich.

Up in London I and a colleague headed off to Coopers for a sandwich. Despite going regularly going out for lunch in this area of London, I hadn’t tried Coopers before. Here you can choose the bread and filling. I went for a baguette filled with a breaded chicken escalope and salad. You can decide if you want butter or not, mayonnaise or not, and so on.

It was a lovely fresh sandwich and I really enjoyed it.