food, reviews and of course coffee
I was in London and wanting a coffee so headed out to one of my usual haunts of Coco di Mama on New Square.
I ordered a flat white and took a seat, always like it when they bring the coffee to you rather than hanging around by the counter until they’ve made it.
The coffee arrived in a proper china cup with a little chocolate on the side.
The coffee was smooth and delicious, with a real coffee kick.
It’s one of my favourite places for coffee and they delivered an outstanding coffee again.
I was up in Manchester looking for somewhere for lunch and Banh Mi Co Ba on the Oxford Road has been somewhere I have been meaning to try for a while. They have a wide ranging menu, but I ordered the Grilled Chicken Bao Bun.
The Bao was filled with salad, chicken dressed with sauce.
I will say I wasn’t impressed, I’ve had better and even made better myself. The Bao was a little cold, the chicken was reheated and I wouldn’t have said it was grilled. The salad was probably too much and I would have served it with less. The sauce was nice though.
Needing an evening meal and not having much choice I ate in the bar at the Copthorne Hotel in Salford in Manchester. There is a typical bar menu, this time I ordered the lamb hotpot.
The dish comprised the lamb hotpot covered in sliced potato, some red cabbage slaw and some toast.
The lamb hotpot wasn’t half bad, the lamb was tender and there was a good portion, it was quite tasty. The potato slices in my mind needed to be cooked for a little longer and I prefer my potato crispier. The red cabbage slaw was nice, I think it would have been easier to eat if it had been sliced thinner. I wasn’t sure about why there was toast, then I worked out it was for mopping up the sauce.
In the end it was just okay, nothing special.
In a large pan, gently melt 150g of dark chocolate, 50g of butter and 3 large spoons of Golden Syrup. The key here is gently, too harsh then the butter and chocolate will burn. Once it has melted then leave for 15 minutes. You need to leave it to cool down otherwise when you add the marshmallows they will melt.
Crush some gluten free biscuits. I used some gluten free shortbread from Tesco. I also added about 50g of gluten free rice cereal as well, for added crunch. Then add 50g of small marshmallows.
This mixture is then stirred carefully to ensure that all the ingredients are coated in the chocolate mixture.
Spoon the mixture into either a greased lined baking tray or a foil tray. Press down into the tray and ensure that it is evenly spread.
Then sprinkle the top of the rocky road with decorations. I used small marshmallows.
Chill in the fridge and then cut into squares or slices.
I have had pickled red onion when I have been out for meals at Wahaca and Wagamama. It was something that I had thought about making myself. I have had success in making quick pickled peppers for salads, so thought I could do it.
I thinly sliced a red onion and then added salt, white wine vinegar and a small amount of sugar. I then added some dried Italian herbs as well.
This I then left for a few hours. I then drained it in a sieve and served with a salad. It was rather nice.
Back in the 1980s I do remember seeing packs of yellow savoury rice, often branded Golden Vegetable or similar. I also remember never having it and never buying it.
Over the last few years (or is that decades) I have been cooking Spanish inspired rice dishes (which I have been known to call paella), and a range of risotto dishes. When cooking paella and risotto I always use a specialist rice to ensure that it cooks right.
Well there I was cooking dinner and we decided on a rice dish, however I had no paella or risotto rice in the cupboard. I did however have some long grain rice. So reviewing a few recipes I came up with the following recipe.
1 onion
1 small red pepper
3 or 4 mushrooms
Pack of diced smoked pancetta
200g long grain rice
600ml boiling water
Knorr Chicken Stock Pot
1 teaspoon of Morrisons Chicken Seasoning
Tomatoes
Fresh parsley
Dice the onion, red pepper and mushrooms.
In a large frying pan, heat some olive oil.
Cook off the pancetta.
Add the onions and pepper and cook until softened.
Add the diced mushrooms and cook for another minute.
Stir in the rice.
Stir the stock pot into the boiling water and add to the rice mixture. Add the chicken seasoning.
Simmer for fifteen minutes until the rice is cooked.
Garnish the rice with chopped fresh tomato and chopped parsley.
We had our rice dish with some fish and salad.
I was in Manchester and needing an evening meal, my hotel restaurant was closed, so I headed out to the Trafford Centre for a bite to eat. There is a wide choice of places to choose from. I did walk around, but in the end decided I would go to Bills. There were quite a few things on the menu that I liked the sound of. They also had a reasonably priced set menu as well.
This branch of Bills is set within the New Orleans area of the Trafford Centre, so though it is a fake building, it’s quite an authentic fake building. I actually liked the facade.
I had a really good meal on my last visit to Bills in Ealing. I had some great tuna tacos and a nice steak. However that branch in Ealing has closed, it is now a branch of Las Iguanas. The menu at Bills appears to change frequently, or probably more likely I go so infrequently that it only appears to change frequently. However the tacos were on the menu, and I was tempted to give them a go again. I took my time, but in the end I decided I would go with the set menu.
For my starter I went with the crispy calamari with chilli and roast garlic & basil aioli.
I am a fan of crispy squid, so knew that I was probably going to be hyper-critical of the end result. However this was a nice plate of food. The squid was nice and tender, the coating was nice and crispy. It worked well with the aioli. I liked the presentation of the dish with the pea shoots and the chilli.
My main course was the pan-fried sea bass which was served with tomato sauce, nicoise olives, chive mash & pea shoots.
This was a nicely presented dish. The sea bass was nicely cooked and was quite tasty. I enjoyed the chive mash and it worked well with the tomato sauce. I finished all of this enjoyable dish.
I was tempted with dessert, but in the end said no.
Service was excellent and combined with the food made for a lovely meal. I would certainly go again and there are other items on the menu I want to try.
Over the weekend we had a couple of barbecues. It is one of my favourite ways of cooking. Even a little rain wasn’t enough to put me off.
On Saturday we had burgers, seasoned chicken and lamb ribs. Sunday we had a similar spread, with beef kebabs, lemon chicken and more lamb ribs.
For the lemon chicken, I marinaded some chicken thighs in lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic oil and some Schwartz Chicken Seasoning. This is then cooked on the barbecue.
I find that you have to be careful to ensure that the chicken is fully cooked, so I use an old wok lid on top, to cover the chicken, to “roast” the chicken as it is grilled. I really like the crispy chicken skin that you get on the barbecue.
For the seasoned chicken I followed a similar process, but used a new chicken seasoning (from Morrisons) which had turmeric, so the chicken was quite yellow. It was delicious.
The lamb ribs were from Waitrose and I seasoned them with salt, pepper and rosemary before placing them on the barbecue.
I did think that they might need longer cooking, but they were tasty and tender.
The burgers and kebabs were from Aldi and were quite good.
Hoping the weather continues to improve so we can have more barbecues.
I reported back in January that the chain German Doner Kebab is opening a new branch on the high street in Weston-super-Mare in February.
Well on a recent trip to the High Street I saw that they had their unit, but it was yet to open.
Their food is described on their website.
Our kebabs are made from quality ingredients that are exclusive to Doner Kebab Restaurants. The great taste comes from the secret sauces that set our products apart, from our competitors. We use lean succulent beef and our meats are imported directly from Germany to maintain quality and consistency. We only use fresh, locally produced vegetables that are delivered and prepared daily along with our special “Doner Kebab” bread. These make the “Doner Kebab” a truly unique taste experience of our customers.
Reviewing the menu, you might have guessed they sell kebabs.
My first visit to a “Lounge” was back in 2013 when I went to the Portvio Lounge in Gloucester. I didn’t know at the time that it was part of a chain, but since then I have visited a few others.
The Brunello Lounge in Weston-super-Mare opened in 2017 and I have visited it quite often, usually for breakfast or for coffee.
Recently we decided to pop in for a drink and a lunchtime snack. It was rather busy, but we decided to queue. They had some tables free but we were warned that there was a thirty minute wait for food, which we accepted.
We placed our order at the bar and waited. We did think it might be a “wagamama” thirty minutes, in other words it would be closer to fifteen minutes. However in the end it took fifty minutes for our food to arrive, by which time we had drunk our drinks, which had infant arrived quite promptly.
We had ordered some fries and a selection of tapas. We got three dishes, patatas bravas, crispy squid and buttermilk fried chicken.
The best of the three dishes was the patatas bravas. This was cubes of deep fried potato served with a spicy tomato sauce. The potatoes were nice and crispy, well cooked and I enjoyed the tomato sauce. In my opinion the crispy squid was overcooked, it was certainly crispy, but it was very very crispy and dark as well. The buttermilk chicken was nuggets of crispy chicken served with a chipotle mayonnaise. The mayonnaise was nice, the chicken was a little dry.
Overall I think these could have been three great dishes, but the final result was not as good as they should have been. One was really good, the others needed a little more refinement. I did wonder if the volume of orders was causing problems in the kitchen. In the past the food we’ve had at the Brunello Lounge has been excellent.
Having said all that I might go again and try the tapas again.