Lunchtime Pizza at The Elephant

Last week I had a long overdue meet up with my Auntie Sue we decided to have a catch up lunch and The Elephant on St Nicholas Street was decided on. The Elephant has gone through a number of reincarnations since I first moved to Bristol currently it is a wood bedecked light and airy bar open for lunch and dinner.  It was extremely quiet when we went in so once we were handed our menus we went to sit down and ponder them. They pride themselves on using local produce, their menu is fairly small they have focused mainly on pizzas but they also do a burger with customisable toppings and a sandwich or two. I decided to go for the demi pepperoni pizza with salad. 

The base was a lovely texture nice and fluffy but also light, the flavour of the base was also really good. The best bit for me was how creamy the mozzarella tasted with the saltiness of the pepperoni it worked beautifully and was rather moreish. The pepperoni itself was thickly cut and full of flavour, this is definitely a pizza I want in my life again. It was nice to have a smaller portion for lunch as I think I would have been wiped out by a full size one this was just right and rather surprisingly good.

A short and sweet post on the delicious pizzas at The Elephant, head on down for a little bargain for £6 it is worth it. plus the barman was really friendly and helpful. To check out what other toppings The Elephant  have to offer check out their website.

A Surprise Lunch at Turtle Bay

The other Friday just before 12 I had my uninspiring rice lunch sitting next to me I was contemplating when to take it upstairs to accompany my current read when in swept in our head of division announcing he was taking us all to lunch.  There was a brief interlude while people decided whether to opt for for 4500 Miles from Delhi or Turtle Bay, luckily for the blog the latter was voted the winner.  When Turtle Bay first opened I heard a lot of varying opinions on it some good, some bad and some middling, I was curious, although my Caribbean food aficionado Becky had said that it was quite nice but not authentic, although i hadn't expected it to be really. Caribbean food can be scorchingly hot and as Rich always says, there is no way a chain restaurant would risk that level of spice in their dishes and have people send it back.

So with all that in mind when I walked in I was particularly impressed with the decor, bright, fun and quite the injection of sunshine into this stereotypical January day. I did wonder whether our large party of 20 would be able to just pop down without booking but we arrived pretty early and within about 5 minutes we were ordering drinks and heading to our seats. 

Rum Punch Cocktail

The menu has some Caribbean staples that you would expect like plantain, jerk chicken and scotch bonnets but a lot of items had a twist on it bringing in a few American barbecue favourites. We were all feeling pretty hungry by this point so Sharon and I decided to share a couple of starters the lamb patty and the jerk pit prawns, whilst I chose the street burger for my main.  A number of people had mentioned the cocktails that Turtle Bay did were pretty good and a few people on our table participated but the rum punch cocktail kept wafting over such strong rum fumes that it did put me off a little, but I loved the metal tins they were served in.

Jerk Pit Prawns

Jerk Pit Prawns up

Lamb Patty

The food arrived promptly and I tucked into the lamb patty first, this was nice and spicy and had a lovely comforting texture, and was sad when I had to swap dishes. The jerk pit prawns however were a massive disappointment the sauce you can see in the photos is just oil and smoky, read acrid, tasting oil at that. Plus the prawns were overcooked and tasted of nothing so all that was left was oil soaked flatbread at the bottom of the plate meant to moping up non-existent juice.

Street Burger

When my main arrived I was pleasantly surprised, for £6.95 this was a generous portion and the smell was a delicious one. The burger came with some caramelised onions and pulled pork on top, the pork was nice and juicy and added some smokiness to the burger. The onions were good but I could have done without the whole cloves resting in among them, luckily I spotted them before I bit down to experience the numbness that biting down on a whole clove can bring. The slaw also for me was a little bitter but I am fairly picky with coleslaw so it could have just been me. On the whole I was pretty impressed with the burger, really lovely flavour and nice and meaty plus the spiced fries were nice and crunchy.

one of the bright murals

So on the whole a bit of a mixed bag from Turtle Bay, if someone wanted to go here I would join them but I personally wouldn't be in a mad rush to return but there were some nice points.  For a fun atmosphere and a good value lunch it isn't bad at all but for proper Caribbean food Rice n Tings is a great choice. To find out more about Turtle Bay visit their website.

Post Christmas Treat at Bocabar

Firstly Happy New Year to you all, hope you had a lovely Christmas. The first blog of 2014 is upon us! In the vain hope to prolong the Christmas celebrations a last minute pizza date at Bocabar with Kym was arranged after work on Friday, it wasn't twelfth night after all so surely it still counts as festive celebrating right? Anyway I hadn't been to Bocabar for over two years so a visit was woefully overdue it was embarrassingly late really if I think about how often I used to frequent this place, that's moving areas for you. Bocabar is situated down at Paintworks and those are some lucky devils working there having this place for a local. 

Bocabar is a pretty large space, being a former warehouse and all, and is bedecked in fairy lights and soft leather sofas are strewn about the place for the loungers and tables for more upright nibbling.  They offer more than just pizzas, with lunch offers and mezze to snack on during the day and roasts on Sundays.  As it was a Friday we decided it was a wine day so ordered a bottle of Malbec and tried to narrow down the huge number of pizzas on their menu, luckily Kym had written a shortlist. The good thing about the pizzas at Bocabar is that there is an enormous amount of choice and the ingredients they use are really good quality you can taste it throughout.  In the end we decided to go for the Fazenda Chic and the Wild Cogumelo. 

Wild Cogumelo in all it's glory

Fazenda Chic

Fazenda Chic upclose

Wild Cogumelo

The Wild Cogumelo was a feast of mushrooms; chestnut, portabello and field plus soft goat's cheese, pine nuts, watercress and truffle oil.  What the Fazenda Chic offered up was ham, tomatoes, Exmouth blue cheese and also crowned with watercress.  These were some big pizzas very thin base, which I really like, the main quibble I had was that the pizzas themselves didn't seem that hot but in our case it meant we could eat it quicker. 

The flavours on both were really great it was refreshing to try some new pizza topping combos and I think that the veggie Wild Cogumelo was my favourite as it was such a great combo of flavours and texture with the pine nuts and watercress. The Fazenda Chic, the tomatoes were a bit crunchy but blue cheese, if you are a fan (and I am a big fan), is one of my new favourite pizza toppings, it may not be traditional but boy is it delicious.

The gripes I had with with Bocabar pizzas were minute and I really recommend them, I just think at nearly £14 for most of the pizzas, and it is pizza we're talking about, they are a tad expensive for a regular afterwork treat but I am looking forward to returning when I am next paid. To check out what else Bocabar has to offer visit their website.

Christmas at the SS Great Britain

Other than the suspension bridge, Bristol's other most recognisable landmark is the SS Great Britain, and both by Brunel, well if you're going to showboat using an actual boat (ship to all the salty sea dogs reading this) is a good way to go.  Our Christmas lunch this year was on board the first class dining saloon and the chance to roam about the ship after eating all we could.  The dining saloon was decorated with lots of ivy garlands and looked lovely alongside the gilded edges of the room.  This event was advertised as a Dickensian Christmas onboard the Victorian ship so some of the diners, not part of our party, dressed in Victorian fashions to enjoy their lunch, which gave a lovely feel to the meal.

SS Great Britain

We were greeted by a glass of mulled wine to cheer and warm us out of the damp and very grey outside, my first mulled anything of the season and it was pretty nice if a touch too sweet. The three course menu was mainly traditional Christmas fare, the starter, a white onion and cider soup with crispy sage and garlic croutons served with a warm roll and butter.  For me this was the weakest course of the three the croutons were plain and nothing more than toast in soup, but the soup itself was actually rather nice.

onion and cider soup

turkey dinner

The turkey was really nice and juicy helped by a flavoursome gravy although the standout was the sausage stuffing on the side, it was delicious. Even my team mate Becky who is not a big fan of roasts praised it highly. It was a shame there were no roast potatoes but actually the potato and parsnip mash was creamy and smooth and a much lighter option, which considering we still had pudding to go was a blessing.  Pudding was listed as a mandarin creme brulee with Christmas spiced biscuits.  It was a great creme brulee and although I was concerned about the mandarin flavour being too strong it was really subtle and gave it a lift. Most of us dipped the spiced biscuits in the creamy brulee when cinnamon filled biscuits met orange spiced cream it was heaven.

mandarin creme brulee

a feast of stollen and mince pies

After dessert we were all stuffed but that didn't stop me from having a little bite of stollen when the coffee was brought round. After lunch we decided to stretch our legs and Sharon and I had one goal and that was to find the dressing up box, the staff on the ship were very friendly and we located it with a minimal amount of fuss.

Brunel's handiwork

Dreams of Brunel

Should last til Christmas

So a rather nice day immersed in all things SS Great Britain and it did have a nice Christmassy feel I would recommend this event to those looking for a new direction to take the office Christmas lunch in. Hopefully the team on the famous ship will give it another go next year.  If you want any more details or anything else about the SS Great Britain visit their website.  I think this might be my last post of the year, unless I end up anywhere else before Christmas so Merry Christmas all and thanks for supporting the blog it is greatly appreciated. Now go stuff yourself with all the turkey and booze you can muster.

A Visit to Wok Cafe

Wednesday last week Jamie and I met up for a well overdue catch up dinner at Wok Cafe, which used to be Shanghai Nights. This building has been split up in to a variety of mini businesses including, a shop, karaoke, bubble tea as well as a little cafe. The cafe is a lot smaller than the old Shanghai Nights and a bit less fancy but the menu is pretty big so there is a lot to choose from.  What is rather good is that you can get a main and rice from £6 none of the dishes are over £10 so it is all in all a good budget option if you are not feeling like cooking but also not feeling like spending. 

Jamie and I ordered a pot of jasmine tea and I left the rest of the ordering up to Jamie, there were a lot of dishes I was familiar with on the menu and some that were new to me but as Jamie had been here before and she was the expert I let her guide the way. We decided to share the mixed meat crispy noodles, hotpot with Chinese sausage and preserved meat with rice, yam croquettes and some siu mai.

mixed meat with crispy noodles

siu mai

Yam croquettes

hotpot

The short of it, the food impressed me. The cafe only seats about 30 people but the food you get is really rather good, hot, fresh and tasty.  I particularly liked the crispy noodles as they are not something I have very often and the varying textures in the dish are enjoyable and a little different. Yam croquettes I also love but I know they won't be to everyone's taste as the texture is quite odd but the reward of roast pork inside with a tangy sauce is a delight. 

The whole meal cost us about £13 each which for all those dishes and including drinks is an absolute bargain. I am looking forward to exploring more of the menu and trying some new dishes, there are a lot of dishes that you will be familiar with and plenty that will be new to you, so be adventurous and give some of them a try.  To have a sneaky peek at the menu check out their website.

A Saturday Night Catch Up at Al Bacio

Last weekend our good friends Kathryn and Gavin came down to visit from London and a big catch up and as I had been dying to try Al Bacio after hearing from friends that it was rather good, I booked us in for Saturday evening.  Located in the space formerly occupied for years by Sands and after that Sahara, Al Bacio is a fairly small restaurant but the night we were there it was very busy. Rather glad to be out of the cold we were directed to our table and coats were taken. They seem to have a lot of waiting staff at Al Bacio, but for good reason because their service operation was pretty slick, friendly unobtrusive Italian waiters who seem passionate about the food they are serving and offering up the odd joke.

Having already looked over the menu several times online before our visit I had mostly decided what to order. I was impressed by how many fish dishes they offered up and not just the usual couple so definitely check out the specials menu if you are a fish fanatic. I decided to pick the calamari for starters and classic Italian dish osso buco, as I have been wanting to try it for an age. Rich went for the mixed arancini and a steak whilst all four of us shared some garlic bread pizza.

garlic bread pizza

Trio Fantasia (arancini)

calamari

Caprese Al Bacio

As you can see from the photos of the starters they like to be a little different in their presentation it is nice to see dishes in an Italian restaurant presented with a little more flair. What you will also notice is how huge the portions are, these were starters and whereas most portions of calamari are around six rings at the most there must have been nearly twenty on my plate. When my calamari arrived I did think they looked a little anemic however they were cooked perfectly, no chewiness, although I would have liked a touch more salt on the batter but I was impressed on the whole.

Rich's arancini, the trio fantasia, were so tasty I almost wish I had ordered them, in fact next time that might be on my list. Kathryn ordered the Caprese Al Bacio, like a Caprese salad but wrapped in filo, she really enjoyed it. So far so good, Al Bacio had impressed with their starters, not to mention the lovely bottle of Italian red which was warmed just to the right temperature and was a smooth accompaniment to dinner.  On to the mains...

risotto Al Bacio

osso buco alla Milanese

steak in garlic butter sauce

The veal in my osso buco was very tender it just fell apart and was full of flavour I enjoyed it, I felt the risotto alla Milanese could have done with a tad more seasoning but I would definitely order this dish again when I see it on a menu. Rich's steak was cooked exactly to order with enough garlic to keep the vampires away. Once again the portions were generous and so by the end of two courses we were stuffed although we did almost crumble in front of the profiteroles but our stomachs begged us not to.

I was impressed with Al Bacio, they offer tasty Italian food, including dishes that aren't on your typical Italian in England restaurant menus, which means you get to explore some new dishes or stick to more familiar ones if you have your favourites. The prices are also really reasonable for what you get nearly all the pasta, pizza and risotto dishes are under £10 and even the meat dishes hover around the £15 or so mark. I am looking forward to trying out their pizza next time I visit as the dough on the garlic bread was superb.  Also if you are gluten free you can be rest assured that they offer up gluten free pasta which opens up more choices to the gluten intolerant for whom usually Italian restaurants are a bit of a no go area.  A great new restaurant edition to Bristol, I urge you to check it out although booking is advisable, news has spread fast about this place. To find out more about Al Bacio visit their website.

Leftover Chicken and Chorizo Winter Pie

Hello all, it's been a while, I have no real reason other than I haven't really been anywhere new lately and have been mostly hibernating in a pile of blankets and cups of tea.  However on Sunday I made this quick pie for Monday's dinner and decided it was so good I had to share it with you. The great thing about this pie is it is pretty versatile and economical you can use up any leftovers from your roast chicken.

golden delicious

You will need:

A couple of large handfuls of left over roast chicken- I would guess I had about 300-400g

1 tblsp olive oil

1 tblsp plain flour

400ml chicken stock

200ml white wine

250-300mls crème fraîche

1 pack of pre-rolled shortcrust pastry (or make it yourself if you have time)

3-4 inches of a chorizo ring chopped into small pieces

1 egg for egg wash

1 tsp paprika

Optional items

ham 

leftover roast potatoes and/or carrots

I used chorizo as the other ingredient in my chicken pie to give it a bit of a boost but you can use these optional items instead if you prefer, or have them. Rich and I ate all the roast potatoes so we didn't have any of those left so the only other item in my fridge that would have worked was chorizo. So I fried up the chopped chorizo in a saucepan with the olive oil for a few minutes then I added the flour and stirred it all in with the oil. 

Next I added the stock gradually, like when you make a roux, stirring constantly then finally I added the wine and some salt, pepper and paprika. I let this bubble away until it was thick and reduced down then I took it off the heat to cool. 

Then I unrolled my pastry and halved it to cover the bottom of the pie dish. Once the sauce was cool I added the crème fraîche and chicken and mixed it all up before pouring it into the dish, I then covered it with the pastry top, whilst making sure to make a steam hole and brushing it with egg.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until golden on top then  serve with whatever you fancy, we just had some cabbage with ours. This is a lovely rich and comforting pie that is really easy to put together but tastes like more effort has been made, so give it a go and let me know how you get on.

chicken and chorizo pie