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Thursday 20 February 2014

Damp Lunchtime at The Stable

Last week I was due to meet up with my mum and Auntie Sue for lunch, and the venue chosen was The Stable. I've heard a lot of things about The Stable since it opened almost a year ago, some good, some bad I was well overdue a visit to make my own mind up. After almost getting blown into the fountains by the high winds I made it windswept to the venue. Thankfully it was delightfully cozy and warm inside I found my family at the only occupied table in the place, near the back.
The Stable Bristol

The Stable has a healthy selection of pizzas to choose from as well as a number of pies in case pizza doesn't float your boat. The Stable offers a smaller lunchtime pizza for £6 with a salad which is what I ended up going for as I am not really one for eating big at lunchtime, it tends to make me very sleepy and seeing as I had to go back to work that was not really the best plan. There are 4 smaller pizzas to choose from, the two that particularly appealed to me, the West Country Porker, topped with Bath Pig Co. chorizo and the Harbour Herbivore which was topped with blue cheese, potatoes, Spanish onions and spinach. In the end I chose the Porker as who can really resist chorizo? Luckily mum picked my other choice so I knew I would be guaranteed a taste.

The main downside to The Stable is it took nearly half an hour for our pizzas to arrive, half an hour in a place this empty, the proof is in the photo I took above I am not sure what took so long maybe they went to Italy to make them for a true authentic taste. However once the pizzas arrived they did look very nice.
The Stable Bristol
The Harbour Herbivore
The Stable Bristol
West Country Porker
The Stable Bristol
How do you feel about potato on a pizza?
The Stable Bristol
Bath Pig Co. Chorizo upclose
Once the pizzas arrived they looked pretty tasty, albeit half covered in a forest of leaves, the bases were nice and thin which is how I liked them and cut very nicely with the giant pizza wheel.  I was impressed by how much thick chorizo that topped my pizza it was really very nice and excellent quality, which is obviously to be expected from the Bath Pig Company.  I did find the base a little over floury but that is just me being picky probably. So pretty good pizzas all round but the best was yet to come. Mum and Auntie Sue decided they needed dessert so ordered the caramelised apple and ginger cheesecake with pecan praline and also a brownie with clotted cream.
The Stable Bristol
apple and ginger cheesecake
My oh my if this wasn't one of the best cheesecakes I've had in years, it pushed all my buttons. The apple and ginger stopped it from being super sickly sweet and the cinnamon, well that will always hit my sweet spot.  I would have been heartbroken if this was just a special, luckily it seems to be on their permanent menu, if you are fan of cheesecake I heartily recommend this one. We were fed pretty well at The Stable it was a good pizza I am interested in trying some of their more crazy combinations, the roast lamb pizza has had very high praise indeed from lots of people on my Twitter feed. The pudding was the star for me however, and I am not a pudding person. To see what else The Stable have to offer, visit their website.

Thursday 13 February 2014

Barbecued Delights by Hickory Pig

Tuesday, much like every day so far this year, was a rainy one. I know us English people really seem to enjoy talking about the weather but most of the time it's out of sheer frustration or the safest form of small talk there is, you know where you are with weather talk when meeting someone new.  I digress. Rich and  I arrived rather sodden at the Three Tuns where Hickory Pig is currently residing and offering barbecued delights to the masses, and ordered some drinks which we waited for our friends Jayne and Si to arrive.

Looking longingly at the unlit fireplace the evening menus started to be distributed and our friends joined us with their drinks in hand. The menu was small but despite that I wanted to eat pretty much all of it. I decided to go for the Dirty Burger, I think it was the maple glazed bacon that drew me in, and some fries to share with Rich. He chose the BBQ Pulled Pork which came with chipotle aioli and some home made coleslaw, plus an order of the Hot Wings which came with a traditional celery and blue cheese dip. 

Hickory Pig Bristol
Hot wings with blue cheese dip
Hickory Pig Bristol
The Dirty Burger
Hickory Pig Bristol
Barbecue Pulled Pork Bun
For around the £7 mark the portions are generous my burger was pretty difficult to get my mouth around and was haemorrhaging liquid fast, no one could look graceful eating this burger.  It was a tasty burger I found the patty could have done with a little more seasoning, but the stars of the show were the maple glazed bacon and the barbecue mayonnaise, sweet yet tangy.  Rich lucked out in my opinion the pulled pork in his bun was the best I have ever tasted, really juicy and full of flavour, the red cabbage coleslaw was great with it as was the chipotle aioli I was a little bit jealous if truth be told.

The blue cheese dip that went with the wings was fantastic I would love to have a go a making this myself to go on top of burgers it was so tangy and creamy, it definitely cooled down the heat in the wings.  My other favourite part of the meal was the fries, we all agreed that skin on chips are definitely tastier and these were the don of all chips, crunchy, flavoursome, in a word, perfect. Jayne was swayed to order the chili cheese fries, which if I am lucky enough to return I will definitely share some to go alongside a pulled pork bap for a true glutton's paradise.
Hickory Pig Bristol
Chili Cheese Fries
Hickory Pig Bristol
fries from heaven
So you've seen that Hickory Pig pull out all the stops when it comes to making tasty barbecue food the pulled pork alone is phenomenal but they then top it off with all these tasty extra goodies. If you haven't already experienced Hickory Pig check them out at the Three Tuns either on a lunch time or in the evening  on most days, you won't be disappointed, I am already looking forward to my next hit. To find out more about Hickory Pig visit their Facebook page or give them a follow on Twitter.

Thursday 6 February 2014

A Pre-Theatre Lunch at Thai Edge

Last week, my almost sister in law, Natalie had tickets to the matinee of West Side Story, but before we revelled in all things Bernstein we had to decide on where to go for lunch.  Heading down the hill to the centre we spotted Thai Edge and Natty remarked that she had never been there and loved Thai food. I hadn't been there for a good couple of years and spotted they had a £8.95 two course set lunch menu so we headed out of the cold and into the restaurant.

Thai Edge has four restaurants currently in the UK so I would class this as a mini chain it has an independent feel with the food for sure. As we entered there were a few tables that were occupied but we were ushered to a table in the window, what I think most people will remark upon when it comes to Thai Edge is the decor. It is quite clinical, with the odd dash of purple among a sea of white, it makes the restaurant feel a little lacking in warmth and atmosphere. However we were hungry and as we were handed the lunch menu I was surprised how much choice there was on their set menu. In the end I went for the Tom Kha soup followed by Choo Chee Pla, a fried fish curry, whilst Natty picked the spring rolls and the chicken red curry.

Thai Edge Bristol

Thai Edge Bristol
Tom Kha soup
Thai Edge Bristol

We munched our way through the complimentary Thai prawn crackers with gusto and shortly afterwards our starters turned up. My bowl of Tom Kha soup was pretty large and had all the right flavours I expected, sharp yet creamy the only complaint I had was that the texture of the chicken was a little chewy and dry, Natty was very pleased with her spring rolls however which was lovely and crisp and stuffed full of filling.

Thai Edge Bristol

Thai Edge Bristol
Choo Chee Pla
I thoroughly enjoyed my main course, the portion was pretty large it had about 6 medium pieces of fried fish in it with a really moreish, lightly spiced, coconutty sauce I tried to resist polishing it all off but I failed completely.  In fact thinking about it now makes me want to eat it for dinner, it was surprisingly good. So to sum up, Thai Edge's food is mostly pretty good but it could do with a shake up in the atmosphere stakes, I shall definitely be taking up their lunch menu again as it is a total bargain.  To see what Thai Edge has to offer visit their website