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Mozzarella, tomato and pistachio salad

Mozzarella, tomato and pistachio salad

This was a quick and simple salad I made. I took some Dolce Romana lettuce leaves and some sliced heritage tomatoes. I then added some ripped mozzarella before topping with pistachio nuts. I dressed the salad with olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

I do like the Dolce Romana lettuce from Marks and Spencers, it has a great flavour and texture. It has echoes of romaine lettuce, but has more crunch and is sweeter. I quite like nuts in my salads, these were ready shelled pistachio nuts.

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Old El Paso Street Vibes Barbacoa Soft Taco Kit

I quite like these kits as a quick and easy way to prepare and cook a meal. I generally buy them when they are on special. I know that they are a bit of a cheat and in many ways it might be better though not necessarily cheaper to start from scratch.

I took some steak mince and cooked it off in a pan. When it was browned I added some finely chopped red onion. This was then cooked until softened, I then added the smoky cooking sauce.

I mashed up an avocado and added the seasoning mix to make a homemade guacamole.

The wraps I warmed up in the microwave, then using my taco holders, I constructed the tacos.

I added the guacamole to the tacos, then gave each taco a helping of the beef, before dressing with freshly chopped coriander and lime juice.

I served the tacos with some sour cream.

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Iced Pistachio Latte

It was a hot summer’s day, and I had a special offer for Caffé Nero. I went with an iced pistachio latte.

This is pistachio syrup, milk, ice, and coffee.

A nice refreshing drink on a hot sunny day.

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OG Sando

Went out at lunchtime and went to Finzel Reach street food market. It was very hot out, feeling very Mediterranean.

Though Lisa from She Sells Streetfood was there, I had only eaten from there the day before, so made the decision I would have something different on this day. I didn’t want anything too heavy or too spicy, with the hot weather. To be honest if it had been cooler, I probably would have gone with the Tan Tan Udon Noodles from She Sells Streetfood.

In the end I went with a fried chicken sandwich, OG Sando from Los Hermanos which was just £8.

Los Hermanos can be busy, and today they weren’t as busy as they usually are, however even so it took a while for my sandwich.

This was crispy fried chicken thigh served in a potato roll, with classic mayo, crisp shredded lettuce and American cheese.

I did enjoy the sandwich, the fried chicken had a lovely crispy coating, and the chicken was tender and moist. This was, what I would call, a traditional American style fried chicken sandwich with mayo and cheese. Not sure what the benefit was of the potato roll, it had the texture (and flavour) of a brioche style roll.

This was one tasty sandwich.

Many moons ago I had a delicious El Pepito sandwich from Los Hermanos at Ashton Gate. I never took a photograph or even wrote about it. It was sugar cured pork belly, chorizo butter, confit paprika onions, roasted red peppers, roast garlic mayo, on a brioche bap. I don’t think they have had that on their menu for years now. I remember at the time thinking it was delicious. 

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Cheese Scone

I was visiting Arlington Court, a National Trust property in Devon and headed to the Kitchen Cafe for some refreshment. It was a beautiful hot day so I had a single espresso, iced water and a cheese scone.

It was a nice scone, but I have had lots of cheese scones at various National Trust properties over the years. As I said it was a nice scone, but it wasn’t one of the best I’ve had, it was a little dry compared to others I’ve had. Not sure if that was the scone or possible the weather.

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Bento Box

It was a beautiful hot day in Bristol, I headed out at lunchtime to the Temple Quay street food market. As it was a Thursday there was lots of choice, I had thought about Los Hermanos, but there was quite a queue. It was all rather busy. In the end I did head to She Sells Streetfood for my usual bento box of beef donburi and katsu fries.

This is one of my favourite street food stalls and probably have it more often than not when I am in Bristol. I have thought that maybe I should try some different stalls, but I think one of the reasons I default to She Sells Streetfood is that not only is the food excellent, but it’s one of the best value stalls there, with the bento box costing just £10. 

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Tomato and Mozzarella Salad

Tomato and Mozzarella Salad

Made myself a simple tomato and mozzarella salad. Took some sliced tomatoes and interleaved them with slices of a mozzarella ball. Alongside I added some shredded lettuce and more slices of tomato. I dressed the salad with salt, pepper, white wine vinegar, olive oil, and shredded basil leaves.

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Remembering the Duck at the Hare and Tortoise

Sometimes when eating out, I don’t get a chance to write up the meal I had. Usually for another reason I am checking out that date or location and find photographs of a meal I had. This was the case here, when back in June 2024 I was staying in London at the The Hand & Flower in Olympia.  One of the places I would go for dinner in the area was the Hare & Tortoise in Kensington. This is a London chain specialising in Japanese food.

For a start I had some Tori Katsu Maki. An inside-out seaweed roll filled with deep-fried chicken in panko breadcrumbs with cucumber, avocado, dressed with tonkatsu sauce, mayonnaise and tempura flakes on top.

sushi

These were excellent, really tasty, good mix of textures and flavour.

For a main I had the Roast Duck and Rice.  Slices of roast duck, served on steamed rice with a homemade sauce mixed with cinnamon, aniseed powder and ginger, garnished with Chinese greens and spring onions.

roast duck

This was a generous portion of duck and I thought it was just okay. It was interesting when I had this same dish a couple of months later, I felt similar about the dish. I have to remind myself sometimes that the purpose of this blog is in the main about reminding me what I have eaten, when eating out, and not to order stuff I didn’t like or was not impressed with. I can imagine that over a year or so I might forget, this was just a couple of months!

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Pad Thai and Yasai Tempura at the Hare and Tortoise

Sometimes when eating out, I don’t get a chance to write up the meal I had. Usually for another reason I am checking out that date or location and find photographs of a meal I had. This was the case here, when back in June 2024 I was staying in London at the The Hand & Flower in Olympia.  One of the places I would go for dinner in the area was the Hare & Tortoise in Kensington. This is a London chain specialising in Japanese food.

For this meal I had gone for Pad Thai and some Yasai Tempura.

The Pad Thai was wok-fried flat rice noodles with king prawns, deep-fried tofu, peanuts, sweet radish, chives, egg, beansprouts and a hint of chilli.

This was a great tasting dish but did feel the portion size was quite small. I liked the fact they used tofu instead of chicken. I enjoyed the prawns in the dish too.

I was glad I ordered a side dish of Yasai Tempura.

This was a deep-fried selection of five seasonal vegetables in a light crispy batter, served with a dashi-based dipping sauce. Very tasty they were too.

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Chicken Shawarma Loaded Fries

It was a warm Thursday in Bristol, so I headed off to the Temple Quay street food market. There was lots of choice, it is the bigger of two Temple Quay markets that are on each week.

I had seen on the Instagram that Soul Fries were going to be at the market and from the photo on the Insta I was intrigued and tempted.

I did have a look around the market to see what else was there, but in the end I went to Soul Fries. I went with the Chicken Shawarma Loaded Fries. These were fries loaded with chicken shawarma, salsa, and pickles.

Chicken Shawarma Loaded Fries

This looked really good. I tucked in. This was not my favourite street food dish. It wasn’t terrible, best way to describe it was; it was just okay. I felt the chicken lacked depth of flavour and needed more seasoning. The fries were quite soft, I think they needed to be crispier. I don’t think it would be a dish I would order again.