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Watch out, nice coffee

WatchHouse

When working in our offices, I do like to take a break and pop out for a (real) coffee, rather than face the instant stuff we have in our kitchens. We moved our London offices back in July 2018 and there are plenty of places around the area for coffee and food. I have only recently returned visiting the office following lockdown. Today I went to WatchHouse, a modern sophisticated coffee place to pick up a flat white.

I had always meant to visit the place on previous visits to London. Prior to the pandemic it was always rather busy, so I would go somewhere else. So this morning it was not busy, so I ventured in, before hitting the office. I ordered a flat white, which I took back to the office.

This was beautifully made, smooth, velvety and a great coffee taste.

I will go back.

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Time for a Samba Box

I really do enjoy visiting street food markets. It’s something I have missed during the pandemic and lockdown. I have been virtually working from home every day since lockdown in March 2020 and therefore haven’t needed to go out and grab some lunch. I’ve gone out, just not for lunch.

I have visited our offices in Bristol now and then, but have only had a couple of meals from the street food markets, some great paella and a delicious bento box.

With some in-person meetings and really an opportunity for a change in scenery and routine I spent part of the week up in London, the first time I had been working in London since March 2020.

It was a nice if a little grey day, so I headed out for a lunchtime walk and see what there was around.

In the part of London where our office was, it felt quiet and empty, again compared to Bristol which is much busier and more crowded. The streets were deserted and there was very little traffic. I was not surprised to see many of my coffee haunts and places I would go for lunch were either shut or had closed down. However there were still some places operating, but a lot less busy than eighteen months ago.

As I walked around I did wonder if the Leather Lane street food market was up and running and I was pleased to see it was. There wasn’t as many stalls as there has been on previous visits. It also didn’t help that I was having a late lunch, so many of the stalls were either shutting up or had run out of food.

After browsing the stalls I took the decision to have a Brazilian Samba Box. I had to queue, and then it started raining, but I stuck with it and stayed in the queue.

I chose the chargrilled chicken thighs which were served with Rio rice, black beans, coleslaw and lettuce.

It looked great and was very tasty.

The chicken was still tender and moist, I thought it might be a bit dry (as it was a last minute thing) but it wasn’t. The chicken was full of flavour. I liked the salad and the rice was nice as well.

I had mine served with chimichurri which was a nice accompaniment.

I really enjoyed the whole box and it was so nice to have something different, fresh and tasty.

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Short supply or high demand?

On a recent shopping visit to Sainsburys I was disappointed with the number of empty shelves and lack of produce.

I was annoyed that quite a bit of gluten free produce wasn’t available.

It must be happening a lot as they had some specially printed shelf fillers.

Sainsburys put down the problem to “high demand”, so it’s the fault of the customer, panic buying and all that.

However the problem isn’t unique to Sainsburys and on Twitter there are photos of empty shelves in Tesco. I have also had issues with buying some gluten free produce at Asda.

Not everyone though thinks it is down to high demand, as seen on this sign in Waitrose that I saw yesterday. No shelf fillers, but a sign indicating that the lack of choice was down to “country-side supply issues”.

We know there are logistics issues down to a lack of HGV drivers, and combine that with Covid-19, Brexit supply issues we are approaching a perfect storm.

When we had the panic buying in March 2020, the retail industry assured us that supply wasn’t a problem and that if we only bought what we needed then they could supply everyone. The challenge we face now is that if there is an increase in panic buying now, the situation will only exacerbate as we have supply and logistics issues. The lack of pasta and toilet paper we experienced back then could become a lack of a much wider range of products.

It’s all quite worrying.

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Calamari on the dock of the bay

I was working in Bristol on a Thursday again, which meant that for lunch I could visit the Temple Quay Market. Having been off work for a while it was nice to be back in Bristol and having the opportunity to get some tasty street food.

My introduction to King Fin was back in the summer of 2019 on a visit to the Finzel Reach Market. King Fin who sell fish wraps and chips, they also do specials This time they were selling this time was calamari and loaded crab fries.

Kingfin stall at Temple Quay Market

I did think about the crab loaded fries, but having seen a portion, decided to stay with my initial choice (and firm favourite from King Fin) some calamari.

The squid rings were coated in a flour mix and then deep fried. They were served with aioli, some salad and rosemary fries.

I sat on the side of the river and ate them in the sunshine. They were delicious.

 

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Probably the most authentic paella I have cooked

I cook paella quite a bit, though I have been told what I cook usually isn’t paella, but a rice dish!

This time I wasn’t even trying, however the end result was rather good. I admit I cheated slightly and used a Waitrose Paella Paste jar, but I think I got the cooking right as the taste and texture was reminiscent of the excellent paella I had from Riceminster last week.

It was towards the end of the month, so the fridge needed restocking and there wasn’t too much in the cupboards. I had decided to cook some cod croquettes, salmon and serve it with rice. However we didn’t have any plain (well basmati) rice left, but I did have some paella rice. I also had a jar of Waitrose Paella Paste.

I quite like the jar and when I have used it in the past it has worked well, never quite authentic, but still tasty.

As I said there wasn’t too much in the fridge, so in a large frying pan, I cooked some smoked bacon (pancetta) and a chopped red onion. I would usually use some peppers and mushrooms, but there was none in the fridge. I did check to see if I had a tin of beans I could use, but though I had tinned lentils and kidney beans, there was nothing else.

Once the onions were softened, I added the paella rice and stirred the rice around until mixed in with the onions and bacon. I then added the Waitrose Paella Paste and stirred that in.

I then added chicken stock, made using a Knorr Chicken Stock Pot, covering all the rice. I then stirred and then left alone. Well not quite, as I added some frozen peas about 10 minutes later.

I once got “told off” for stirring my paella, so now I just as advised leave it to cook.

I think what I did this time however, was not to add further stock and just let the paella cook turning down the heat slightly as the stock reduced. I did think I should add more stock, but left it alone.

I served it up and I did like how it came out. I had mine with cod croquettes and salad.

paella

As for the taste and texture it was very similar to the paella I had from the Temple Quay market from Riceminster and those I have had in Spain. I think this was one of the best paella dishes I have cooked, certainly one of the most authentic tasting.

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Gluten Free Red Onion Rings

Gluten Free Red Onion Rings

Having made some crunchy breaded chicken wings I had some of the seasoned flour and egg left. Not wanting to waste it and having enjoyed the onion rings I had cooked before, decided to mix it together with some milk and coat some onion rings and fry them.

As this was using leftovers, I didn’t measure anything out and so after mixing the egg and flour together I added some milk until the batter coated the back of the spoon.

I took a red onion and sliced it thickly across and then separated out the individual rings of onion. I kept the rest of the onion, diced for another dish. 

I used a smaller frying pan and shallow fried the onion rings in hot oil a minute or so on each side until the batter was cooked and a golden brown.

The end result was beautifully crisp onion rings, the batter had an excellent crunch, they had a succulent taste of onion on the inside. Unlike some I have had these weren’t greasy either, which I often think is a result of cooking rings twice.

These were delicious, the red onion providing a different flavour to the brown onion I used last time and a lovely light crisp batter.

As I had a little bit of batter left I did some green pepper strips as well.

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Gluten Free Crunchy Breaded Chicken Wings

Gluten Free Crunchy Breaded Chicken Wings

It was time to prepare dinner and I was thinking about what to cook and how to cook it. I had decided to cook some chicken wings, and my usual recipe is to either make a sauce or use a ready made cooking sauce and bake them in the oven. I decided I would do the chicken wings two ways. One would be coated in miso sauce and for the others I would do as crunchy wings.

I usually cut off the nib of the wing and then cut them into two pieces, to make them easier to eat.

The wings were then coated in seasoned flour. I used gluten free self-raising flour (as we were short on plain four), some chicken seasoning, paprika and chilli.

I then set up a bowl of beaten egg and one of gluten free seasoned breadcrumbs.

Keeping one had wet and the other dry, the floured chicken is coated in the egg and then coated in the breadcrumbs.

These are placed on a lined baking tray (I use baking parchment for these). The chicken wings are done one by one and are then baked in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the coating is browned and the chicken is cooked. Mine took a little longer than planned as I had more in the oven.

They were lovely and crunchy on the outside and the chicken was moist and tender on the inside. Lots of flavour in the coating as well.

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Time for some paella

There are some street food stalls which serve amazing food and I see them on a regular basis, but for whatever reason when I am decided and choosing what to eat, they don’t get picked and I go to another stall. I think to myself I will go there when I come back to this street food market. Riceminster who sell traditional Valencian Paella alas fall into this trap.

Today I was at the Bristol Temple Quay street food market and it was rather busy, busier than it was last week.

Bristol Temple Quay Market

There was a range of stalls, some familiar faces from last week, but plenty of others who were there this week and not last time. I was pleased to see it was busy, as that means there is a good chance that it will keep going and not be disappear. I was also slightly concerned as I was in a bit of a rush and most stalls had long queues.

Having seen the Facebook post about the market I had initially thought that I would hit High Steaks: Delicious Argentine inspired steak sandwiches using the best locally sourced beef, topped off with their signature chimichurri. 

Having seen both the ordering queue and the collection queue, I thought, I might not have time and I would have to rush my food. Looking elsewhere I saw that the queue for Ah Ma’s Dumplings was quite short (but there is still a cooking process for pan frying the dumplings). The queue for Riceminster was short as well, and I thought I did enjoy their paella and have been meaning to try their food again, so joined the queue.

Riceminster stall

It moved quickly and there was a choice of a chicken paella or a vegan paella. The only real difference was that the chicken one had chicken in and cost an extra pound, and the vegan one had mushrooms and vegetables.

I ordered the vegan version, I was given the chance to add garlic aioli for another pound, I said no, then lemon and chilli, I opted for just the lemon juice.

Taking it back to the office and eating at my desk I really enjoyed the paella. It was excellent, authentic and very tasty. Maybe a little salty for my tastes, but still really nice.

I thought I had been to Riceminster relatively recently, however back home, checking back through the blog (they weren’t on here) though there is a solitary Instagram photo of some delicious paella  from April 2017.

Had it really been four years since I had ordered food from them? It must have been as I do usually photograph my food. I can’t recall if I had had their paella between then and now, I may have done.

I did enjoy my paella today, so next time when I am looking for something to eat and try to remember get the paella, it’s tasty!

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We went out to eat

Our initial idea was to go to the cinema, though there was nothing at the cinema we could watch, so made the decision we would go out to eat at Bella Italia at the Mall. Virtually all the major chains in Weston have closed now, so wanting to ensure that the menu had gluten free options, we decided to head to the Mall. 

Well as we hit the M5 northbound it was chocked full and slow moving, we thought we made a mistake. But eventually it thinned out and we could go faster. We got to Bella Italia just in time.

We had a lovely warm welcome from the staff and they showed us to our table.

We had a good look over the menu. It looked like there was a lot more on there than when I last looked (which was probably last summer).

Though I like starters I usually don’t have a starter, but as others in the family were going for garlic bread, I looked over the possible choices. The calamari would have been an obvious choice for me. So I decided on the Calzonetti ‘Nduj, as I was thinking about pasta for my main course. However a last minute change of thought resulted in me actually ordering the Arancini al Granchio

There are crispy rice balls filled with crab, prawns and fennel with a side of lemon & cracked pepper mayonnaise.

They were very nice, not outstanding, but they were nice. You could taste the crab and the mayonnaise with the crunchy exterior.

For my main course I went with a pasta dish, Salsiccia Mezzaluna.

Fresh mezzaluna pasta filled with Luganica sausage & radiccio, cooked in a sage butter and finished with toasted hazelnuts and a beef dripping pangrattato crumb. 

This just sounded divine and to be honest it was totally delicious. The pasta was al dente, the filling had a nice flavour, I think it could have been stronger, but I loved the sage butter and the toasted hazelnuts and pangrattato crumb added real silkiness and crunch to the dish.

I loved it.

I wasn’t full, so went for a dessert, the raspberry and pistachio semifreddo with white chocolate and marshmallow sauce.

This was nice, but I felt it could do with more pistachio and more sauce. Having said that I really enjoyed it.

As for the rest of the family, my better half went with the  Funghi Crema made with chestnut mushrooms in a porcini, mascarpone & pecorino cheese sauce with fresh mafalde pasta ribbons.

She really enjoyed the dish and it looked great.

My youngest had a gluten free Marghaerita, whilst my son had the gluten free Pepperoni with tomato, mozzarella, salami piccante, red onion, garlic and rocket.

They both enjoyed their pizza.

My son also had the warm gluten free chocolate brownie with white chocolate chunks served with vegan vanilla gelato and a sprinkling of honeycomb.

He finished off the plate of food

This was probably one of the best meals I have ever had at Bella Italia, really enjoyed the experience, the food and the service.