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Swedish Style Steak & Fries

In September I was attending a conference and meeting at Luleå in Sweden. I have never visited Sweden before, so was looking forward to going. The journey took some planning, in the end it was more efficient to travel from London Heathrow, have a layover in Stockholm and then fly up to Luleå. Having had a great time in Luleå I made my way home. The flight from Luleå to Stockholm was fine, I then made my way to the departure gate for my flight to Heathrow. 

However…

This was the day that the air traffic control system at Heathrow failed and over a thousand flights were cancelled.

My flight was that evening, and I think SAS thought they might be able to take off, however in the end that was not to be the case. With the number of cancellations, the earliest flight SAS could rebook me onto was three days later. So, SAS booked me a hotel for three days. I now had three unplanned extra days in Sweden.

The hotel that SAS booked me into was in Sollentuna. Not knowing Stockholm, when SAS gave me a choice of hotels I wasn’t clear where they were, so just chose the first one. The Sandic Star Sollentuna was in fact a really nice hotel and I had a room with an extra living room space as well. The restaurant was nice and served a good breakfast and there was a nice choice of meals from the menu in the evening.

I arrived too late for dinner on the first night I was at the hotel. On the second night I went with the Swedish beef with grilled broccolini, tomato salad, choron sauce, and parmesan-tossed French fries.

I thought it looked really nice. It was rather good. I enjoyed the salad and the steak. I wasn’t asked how I wanted my steak cooked, but it wasn’t over cooked. It may have needed some extra resting time, but it was tender and had a good flavour. I am not sure the fries needed the parmesan. The salad was one of the best parts of this dish. It was fresh and I liked the addition of the thinly sliced radish. The choron sauce, a classic French “daughter” sauce made by adding tomato purée to a traditional Béarnaise sauce base was a nice addition.

Overall a very nice plate of food.

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Premier Inn Sirloin Steak

I was staying at the Premier Inn at Heathrow (again), cheap and next to the car parking I had booked. As with my previous visit, I didn’t really have the time (or the transport) to go somewhere else, so I headed down the restaurant for dinner. They do quite a good value meal deal with two courses and a drink for £19.99, you can throw in breakfast the following morning and it costs £29.99.

I went with a starter and had the crispy chicken bao buns again. I had enjoyed them before, so went with something I liked.

Last time I had the mixed grill, which was quite filling, this time I went with the sirloin steak. This comes with chips, grilled tomato and mushroom and peas. 

Sirloin Steak

I think the steak I had last week with the mixed grill was better. As hotel meals go, this was good. The steak was nice as were the accompaniments.

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Pinchos

I was up in Luleå in Sweden attending a conference. On one evening a group of us went to Pinchos.

It was a small plates kind of place. The food arrived on small plates on wooden boards. Food was very nice, not sure how Swedish it was though. There were mini burgers (sliders), mini bagels with salt beef (brisket), loaded fries, Skagen waffle (which was Swedish), chicken skewers, steamed pork bao buns, Tokyo fried chicken, ribs, prawns, and various salads.

It was quite a fun way of eating, and there was lots of food. 

The place closed quite early, kitchen closed at 8pm and they stopped serving drinks at 8:30pm. You can understand a café maybe closing at this kind of time, but this felt much more like a place that you went to in the evening, for the whole of the evening.

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Crispy Chicken Bao Buns (again)

I was staying at the Premier Inn at Heathrow (again), cheap and next to the car parking I had booked. As with my previous visit, I didn’t really have the time (or the transport) to go somewhere else, so I headed down the restaurant for dinner. They do quite a good value meal deal with two courses and a drink for £19.99, you can throw in breakfast the following morning and it costs £29.99.

I had thought about having a different kind of starter, but in the end I went with the crispy chicken bao buns again. Fluffy steamed buns, served with chilli, coriander, spring onions aand crispy chicken. You got two buns each with an individual piece of chicken.

Crispy Chicken Bao Buns

As before the buns were light and fluffy. The chicken was nice and crispy and you could taste the chicken. The spicy mayo wasn’t too spicy and there was extra spicy mayo on the side. Each bun was garnished with fresh coriander, spring onions and slices of red chilli.

I enjoyed them last time and I enjoyed them this time too.

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Dart’s Farm Pork Chop

plate with a pork chop and portion of rice

This was another pork chop from Dart’s Farm. When visiting Devon I often stop off at Dart’s Farm in Topsham, near Exeter to charge my electric vehicle. While it is charging I usually grab a coffee from the cafe and then browse the farm shop. There is an amazing butcher counter at the farm shop and recently I have been buying a few things to take home.

On a recent trip I bought one of their pork chops. Price wise it was similar or cheaper than a supermarket equivalent.

The first thing I did was use my chef’s blow torch on the rind, to make it crispy. The oven could do this, but then I find the pork will be overcooked. So after crisping up the crackling, I then sear and seal the pork chop in a frying pan. I then put the chop in the oven for about 15-20 minutes to finish cooking. Meanwhile in the pan I make a sauce, this time it was mushrooms and cream. Last time I did a cider sauce.

I get the chop out of the oven and let it rest. I then put the sauce on the plate, rice on the side, and the pork chop on top of the sauce.

The pork was lovely and tender and was full of flavour. So very different to the pork chops I can buy in the supermarket.

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Matina Wrap

Matina

I have always enjoyed the Kurdish wraps from Matina in the St Nicholas market in Bristol. The star of the show is the freshly baked flat bread, but the salads and pickles that you get in that bread are also really tasty.

It has been a while since I had a wrap from Matina. Their food is great, I think its for a variety of reasons. They have increased their prices, still value for money, but not the cheaper option for lunch that they were. They have stopped doing their lamb kebabs, which were always nice. They have long queues usually. I think though the main reason is that there is so much choice out there in the street food scene and I don’t get to Bristol that often, so they are on the list, but usually something else beats them.

These are still wonderful wraps, they take their freshly cooked bread, fill it with salads, hummus and sauces before adding grilled pieces of chicken (halloumi also available).

The result is a fresh tasty wrap which is full of flavour. Though you can eat it out of the paper, it can get quite messy, so I “cheat” and take it back to the office to eat with a knife and fork on a plate.

It was delicious and I might not leave it so long next time.

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Tonkotsu Pork Ramen

I was with a colleague at a conference in Luleå in Sweden. It was a Sunday night and most places were closed. In the end we headed to Hachi Luleå. With a choice between sushi and ramen, I went with the Tonkotsu ramen. This was a pork broth with with shashu pork, pak choi, egg and green onion.

Tonkotsu Pork Ramen

It was a very nice ramen, slightly difficult to eat as the pork was quite chewy in places. The broth was delicious and really raised the dish. 

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Complimentary SAS Coffee

Complimentary SAS Coffee

Most times I fly, it’s with EasyJet and I know not to have their coffee when flying. Then most flights I do are about an hour, and I can miss coffee while in the air. Actually it’s not just EasyJet, most airlines serve pretty disappointing coffee. So much so I wouldn’t want to pay money for it.

So, on a recent flight from London Heathrow to Luleå with a layover in Stockholm I flew with SAS. They provide complimentary coffee on their flights.

Well, what do you expect me to say? It wasn’t very good, but I wasn’t expecting anything better. 

It did though get me thinking about if there were any specific issues in having, say proper espresso coffee on board a plane.

Looking online I could see that Air Dolomiti does offer espresso on their flights. It was also apparent that for long haul it is an option for first and business class passengers. So, next time I must fly Air Dolomiti, though it looks like they only fly to Frankfurt from the UK.

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Time for a Mixed Grill

I was staying at the Premier Inn at Heathrow, cheap and next to the car parking I had booked.

I didn’t really have the time (or the transport) to go somewhere else, so I headed down the restaurant for dinner.

They do quite a good value meal deal with two courses and a drink for £19.99, you can throw in breakfast the following morning and it costs £29.99.

I went with a starter and had the bao buns.

For my main course I upgraded to the mixed grill.

This was a sirloin steak, gammon steak, half a chicken breast and pork sausages. Served with beer-battered onion rings, garden peas, a fried egg, half a grilled tomato and skin-on chips. I was given a choice of salad if I wanted to. I went with the chips.

The steak and gammon were really nice. The steak was cooked to my liking and was well seasoned. The chicken I am assuming was pre-cooked and was a little rubbery having been cooked on the chargrill. The sausages looked a little overcooked, but in fact were just right.

The chips were crisp on the outside, but soft and fluffy on the inside.

The only thing that let the plate down were the onion rings which were overcooked and just crunch. I was asked how my food was before I tried one, otherwise I would have probably complained, but even then maybe not, as it was just three onion rings.

I do like a mixed grill and I was quite impressed with this plate from Premier Inn, to be honest my expectations weren’t very high. Compared to the mixed grills I had last year from The Landing Light and the Railway Inn, this was much better. Though it was missing a lamb chop!