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Monday, 15 February 2010
Pushing the love boat out...
So, did you lovers out there treat your women good at the love weekend? Like they say to kids, "Everyday is Christmas for kids". It's the same in my house, the girlfriend might be younger than me but I don't say that to her, but I do say, "Everyday is like Valentine's Day". It still didn't stop me pushing the love boat out (euphemism not intended) with a Saturday night special menu presented to her on the day and prepared and cooked by yours truly.
Keeping it local, we had home-made craster kipper pate with herbed toast. To add to our kipper breath, for mains, it was fillet of beef on a crouton topped with a portobello mushroom and marsala sauce, sauted pototoes and creamed spinach. Both a mouthful to say and eat, but it went down pretty well. Now to make sure you get full brownie points, give the girl a homemade Lindt and almond chocolate fondant and top it with homemade honey ice-cream. You know you've got the fondant right when it oozes gooey chocolate when you delve into it. This picture proves the moment, although it does look a little like something left on the beach on a Sunday morning....
Forget flowers, forget chocolates, deliver these goods. She was wowed, star struck I reckon but well deserved. Happy Valentine to my beautiful girlfriend and to you and all who sail in you.
Keeping it local, we had home-made craster kipper pate with herbed toast. To add to our kipper breath, for mains, it was fillet of beef on a crouton topped with a portobello mushroom and marsala sauce, sauted pototoes and creamed spinach. Both a mouthful to say and eat, but it went down pretty well. Now to make sure you get full brownie points, give the girl a homemade Lindt and almond chocolate fondant and top it with homemade honey ice-cream. You know you've got the fondant right when it oozes gooey chocolate when you delve into it. This picture proves the moment, although it does look a little like something left on the beach on a Sunday morning....
Forget flowers, forget chocolates, deliver these goods. She was wowed, star struck I reckon but well deserved. Happy Valentine to my beautiful girlfriend and to you and all who sail in you.
Labels: food
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
What a fat christmas pudding
The man night out is of course always a special one. Over the years at Christmas it has turned into a much more civilised event where we dress like a clapped out version of Take That and go for a posh curry. That said we did have a great night at Spiced Cube in Newcastle. The food could've been better but we still made it a good night out with plenty of old stories and constant micky takes (one including the fact that I blog things like this!) Mark who is pictured here was the only one to opt for a dessert which didn't surprise me as his face lit up when he heard the word chocolate fudge cake. He ate the lot and got none on his Mark Owen shirt or his Christmas-bauble-like-head. Like a child he couldn't drink his Cobra but could manage a great fat pudding. Merry Xmas to you all and those millions of blog readers, enjoy the festivities.Labels: food
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
In the market for a sausage
Sometimes, a man just can't resist walking past a german food stall and admiring the size of the sausage. I admired it so much, I just had to have a Super Bratwurst sausage from the Christmas Market in Manchester. They are rather long and stick out of the small buns they put them in. Mine managed to find its way out of the bun and onto my jacket during eating, much to the surprise of those around me. It felt like my fly was open.Labels: food
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
3 good time girls, 2 have-a-go hit-men, 1 suicidal double-act...
I'm such a good son, we took my mother along to see a production at The Live Theatre at the weekend. I must say I really enjoyed it. It was called Jump! and was set in the North East at New Years Eve. It had 3 separate stories, gangsters, suicide and girls drinking. Typical of the North East I reckon, but there was not one mention of Greggs pasties. The acting was great, the story brilliant, the dialog funny and dark and the wine I had was very nice too. Like a Tarantino film, the stories came together right at the end although you could see it coming. It was a really different night out, it touched parts of me I thought only Carlsberg or the girlfriend could. I got someone to take a photo of us at the show - that's me in the middle ;)I was feeling a bit heavier while watching the play after a top notch meal again from Cafe Vivo. I decided to have real buffalo mozzarella for starters - proper creamy stuff, I could've jumped in it naked. I followed that with beautiful melting Veal, the once controversial meat. I was then forced into eating a chocolate and hazelnut tart. The waiter kindly added a free try of the home-made choc chip ice-cream. Wooo, when I write that down, why I am I not a fat get? No comments please.
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Burgers baby
Thanks to all who voted, I managed to WIN the burger recipe competition with Sainsbury’s Trynation. There’s only one thing for it, make those winning burgers. I reckon it’s like having a baby or practicing to have one:-
Do it outside, it
’s more fun and the neighbours can talk all about you to the other neighbours.
Get your hands dirty, get them in the bowl and give the meat a good old work around.
Once you’re out of breath, you’re ready for a bit of patting, molding that meat, make sure you touch the sides.
Produce 6 lovely babies, double it if you’re a catholic or were born in Sunderland.
Do it outside, it
’s more fun and the neighbours can talk all about you to the other neighbours.
Get your hands dirty, get them in the bowl and give the meat a good old work around.
Once you’re out of breath, you’re ready for a bit of patting, molding that meat, make sure you touch the sides.
Produce 6 lovely babies, double it if you’re a catholic or were born in Sunderland.
Labels: food
Monday, 14 September 2009
B-Factor
The burger recipe competition closes in a few days and I'm still in the lead by 4%, there were thousands of entries. If you haven't voted (many thanks if you have), forget the veggie burger in 2nd place and vote for me. Whose heard of a burger without meat anyway? I'm sure it's only in there for diversity reasons. I'm surprised the blue cheese burger was allowed in without having other burgers representing the spectrum of colours. The winner gets £500 worth of shopping so tins and crisps for family Xmas presents this year. GO VOTE FOR ME NOW, TELL YOUR FRIENDS, TELL THE WORLD Labels: food
Thursday, 3 September 2009
The little burga made it
Exciting burger times. My sundried tomato and pine nut burger has made the last 5 in a competition. So if you are reading this and would like to vote, please click here and select the 'Vote for this twist' button for Ian's sundried tomato and pine nut burger. Thanks for voting, will blog the results.
Labels: food
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Manly burger
Hey I've got one of my burgers on the Sainsbury's web site. I could win a prize. Take a look, it might still be there. I could talk all day about burgers. I've made a few different ones in my time and love to get the BBQ out, along with the pinny and tools that make you feel manly. The one I submitted is made with sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts, so go and get your hands in that bowl and mould a few shapes. That means you Andy...
Labels: food
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Tynemouthing off
Another birthday celebration (the mother) took us to a restaurant in the up and coming area of Tynemouth, my home town. It used to be the renowned AA rosette winning Sydney's, it's been re-invented now and called Brasserie 1883 (that's some bra size). The chef is the award winning Alan O'Kane, who appears to be back in the kitchen cooking excellent food. If the food we had is anything to go by, the awards might be coming their way again. A duck pate and a pork belly, that was my food choice, not my physique. Great tasting food. That's the manager in that photo, not me with a different head on.There's also a newly managed pub (used to be called The Percy Arms) and eating place called The Priory which is definitely worth a visit. It's got a modern feel and makes you want to take your shoes off and put your feet up. We called in for late drinks and there was live music on. The girl singing playing keyboards, backed by a guitarist had a pure voice and did some unusual twists on some popular songs. I nearly swung my pants on 2 occasions. A good atmosphere but I suppose after a few beers it always seems that way.
Monday, 17 August 2009
Count 40 rings on his forehead if you don't believe me
I have some friends (real ones, not those on facebook), some have just got to the mid-life crisis age of 40 where they think they can still wear muscle vests in the summer. He's pictured here to the right of Harry Potter, looks like a cross between the camp singer from Right Said Fred and a fat Phil Collins. He's holding some money (his favourite subject), as we've all just give him some to get a hair transplant and a personality assessment. We celebrated his 40th at Red Mezze, a turkish restaurant in Newcastle. There's all sorts of small little plates of food you can have, ideal for the birthday boy as he's only 4 foot 2. I had vine leaves, meatballs and the hard-to-refuse pudding, baklava. It was a great night, the lightweight 40 year old even managed a teeny sip of ouzo at the end of the night. He was off to a surprise break in Barcelona the next morning with his woman. The spanish will love him prancing around in his vests eating tapas. I hear they call him "CALVA"....Labels: food
Monday, 3 August 2009
2 Cocktails and a Packet of Crisps
I took the beautiful girlfriend out on Saturday night, not with a baseball bat, but for her young birthday (Happy Birthday - I know you read this religiously). We went off early doors to Nancy Bordello's in Newcastle, sounds like a very camp drag queen act, but it is infact a trendy pub place with modern Victorian decor. Popular with students but they’re all on daddy’s yacht at this time of year so we had lots of space for us tax payers.
A couple of cocktails and a packet of munster munch later we started to head off towards The Grainger Rooms. It's a modern british restaurant that gives you the feeling of being in a house, infact a Georgian house, which it was, so that figures. Sampling the food from local producers was superb; battered whiting with pickled cucumber dip, poached chicken with summer veg and local cheeses
Labels: food
Sunday, 21 June 2009
How many times can you write the word piccalilli?
A bit of food, a bit of wine and a bit of music. What more do you want? For me, that's a good night out, especially when the food is good and it wasn't bad at The Exchange Bistro. A ham and parsley terrine with piccalilli was better than it sounds. It was moist (love that word) and a nice sharp taste from the piccalilli. Couldn't resist having a rib-eye steak for mains with mushrooms and home made chips, it's a perfect Friday night tea isn't it? I was further impressed with the beautiful lady opposite me tucking into red snapper with mango salsa followed by lamb. She didn't dribble once. The pudding (to share of course) was poor so I'm not going to even mention it, but the maltesers in it would've been better put back in the box and eaten on their own.With a pretty full stomach it was off to the Magnesia Bank to see a below average band who murdered a Stevie Wonder song, wish I'd saved some piccalilli to throw at them. The saxophonist was really good though so it slightly made up for it.
So, are you hungry after reading this? I am. I'm off to make piccalilli, can't believe the main ingredient is cauliflower - urrrrgh, bad tasting evil brain looking food.
Sunday, 17 May 2009
Chefs don't always get burns from pans
A top day all round for me on Saturday. A full day cooking and learning with David Hall, Masterchef Finalist and recent award winner (he'll love me for reminding him about that). We'd already agreed on a menu and he got to work showing me techniques, talking about food, other things and getting to try out the dishes before I let the girlfriend sample them for dinner that night.
We started with dressed crab fresh from the North Sea, learning how to get at all that lovely meat and making our own mayonnaise. Truly delicious, well worth the wait after he had texted me 'I've got crabs' the previous day. The
re was also a seafood salad with razor clams, a pea and leek tart (girlfriends favourite of favourites), herb crusted rack of lamb with vegetables and fondant potatoes and the superb award winning pudding of David's;spiced 
pumpkin bread pudding. What a treat to cook with him, then cook and eat the food for my girlfriend, I'm such a romantic. She adored the food (and me of course, millions of brownie points).I stuck a nice d
ollop of home made ice-cream on the pudding just to end the evening on a cool note. Hope David didn't have too many scratches from his day - nothing to do with the cooking; he locked himself out his house later that day after I went round to fetch the main course lamb he'd inadvertently left my house with. Sometimes you have to go back to your childhood to scale a garage roof, even if you're approaching 40... Labels: food
Monday, 23 February 2009
My name is Michael CAINES...
Well it's coming soon, a special birthday for me, I turn the age when your spine probably starts shrinking. To start the celebrations, we went off to Glasgow for the weekend as we've never been. It's a great City and men do wear kilts and the Scottish breakfasts are a carb explosion. We had a very special night at Michael Caines' restaurant Abode. Don't mix him up with the cockney actor though, he's a 2 star Michelin chef - what a show off. What an amazing meal we had, including Scottish salmon confit, venison and a raspberry and chocolate tart. The lady in my life had crab tortellini, halibut and a banana souffle. How posh we are.Labels: food
Monday, 19 January 2009
In Vivo
You've got to try Cafe Vivo in Newcastle. Honest Italian food. At last, an Italian style restaurant in the town that doesn't ram pasta and pizza down your throat as if there's no other option. We were knocked back by the flavours they packed into the food. The girlfriend had the best bruschetta with portobello mushrooms ever tasted and I would second that cos I knicked some. I had prawns with lemon and chilli dressing and they were superb, followed by succulent moist Tuscan pork. I thought my eating partner was going to faint when she tried her steak, cooked rare with true flavour. So good. The restaurant has to be a winner, it should be, it's a Terry Laybourne thing, the man behind Jesmond Dene and Cafe 21. A great start to the night, just before going to see Sarah Millican.
Labels: food
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Forget pub crawling
You're supposed to start the new year off watching what you eat but circumstances led us to visit 3 restaurants in 2 days. The first being Danielle's in Hexham. Ran by an over-enthusiastic Italian fella, he loved touching my shoulders as he put down my lamb shank which was a treat in its red onion gravy! The next day we went to Uno's for lunch on Newcastle Quayside, it used to be the place to go. In contrast to Danielle's, they were a bit unfriendly when we asked for a table for 5 as if we were putting them out. The food is bog standard, bog being the operative word. For dinner, we went off to Zeera's in South Shields, a contemporary Indian restaurant. A great menu (away from the norm along that street), especially the fish. The lamb should be so tender in my Pasanda but wasn't, I would still go back though to try the fish. They did try and keep the change from the bill at first, a misunderstanding...mmmm.
Labels: food
Saturday, 27 December 2008
Chef for a day
Well I got the best Xmas present ever this year from the beautiful lady in my life. Masterchef finalist David Hall is going to come round my house and give me some professional cooking advice, let me decide on a 4 course meal to make and be shown all the techniques and how to cook it to perfection. Very exciting, can't wait. Just got to think of four ways to make beans on toast now ;) Of course I will blog it when it all happens.
Labels: food
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Cooked Butt not cooked
I was kindly invited to go along to HanaHana, a Japanese restaurant where they cook your food on a big hot plate in front of you. The last time I went, the food seemed better I must admit but that time I’d had a bit to drink and would probably think eating the sole of my shoe was nice. This time I got up to do the trick where you put an egg on the hot plate, take one of the spatulas and throw it in the air catching it in your chef’s hat. Sounds hard, but I did it without falling back onto the other hot plate and cooking my butt. Sushi was nice, but the fish didn’t seemed cooked ;)
Labels: food
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Andrex curries
Well I continue to get more involved in food, buying local food, cooking with it, writing and reading about it (particularly the new local Flavour magazine). My new cookery course is an Asian one where I learn about and cook Asian food funnily enough. Curries will of course be on the menu for 10 weeks or more. That's a lot of toilet paper.
Labels: food
Sunday, 14 September 2008
Diner Voyeurisme
Been meaning to go to Jesmond Dene House restaurant for a while now so we went along. There's a new French chef there with an unpronounceable name. His food left me speechless. I've been waiting to see a menu with our wonderful pease pudding on so I had to try the scallop wrapped in bacon with pease pudding. Very geordie-french, loved it. Best of all was to follow, a duck breast which melted like candy floss, with a duck leg confit. The service was precise, so it should be as the Frenchman has requested a webcam to see his food arrive at your table.
Labels: food
Thursday, 11 September 2008
Pudding times 2
I gave some modern Spanish cuisine a try at Grado restaurant in Manchester at the weekend. Some very clever, delicious, inspiring food, we opted for a tapas so we could keep it coming. Like myself, a good looking dish each time, including the most succulent black pudding (from Spain so the manager told me) I have ever tasted, served with a fried duck egg in a red wine vinegar. It tasted like a really posh breakfast, imagine waking up to that. Our pudding was just as intelligent, a chocolate dome, alcohol poured over it and set alight at our table which peeled back the dome to reveal a chocolate fondant. Wow, just like an adult kinder egg.
Labels: food
Sunday, 31 August 2008
There's a hair..y biker in my food
Managed to bump into the Hairy Bikers and David Hall (local Masterchef finalist) at the Linden Hall Food Festival. The bikers are indeed very hairy but down to earth. There was lots of local produce on offer ready for cooking with. Amongst some of the things I bought was some beetroot I cooked with this week, it makes your wee red you know. This photo shows the bikers with a piece of meat they used later in a dish.Labels: food
Friday, 1 August 2008
Underneath The Arch
In Tynemouth there's a restaurant I've been meaning to try called the Arch. I gave it a go and wasn't disappointed by the food or setting. Its contemporary looks matched the contemporary, arty, locally sourced food. The chef was obviously showing off with his modern british style and included canopies in between courses of smoked eel and a lamb trio. I'll be going back....very soon.
Labels: food
Monday, 3 March 2008
Can't cook, won't cook it all
Not sure how Kublai Khan can live up to its 'restaurant' status, when it makes you queue for food, pick your veg & raw meat from a tupperware, then take it to be cooked. Not much skill required there, may as well put it in the microwave. Pretty sure they deliberately forget to put noodles/rice on the plate after you've left it with them for cooking and they also take some food off your plate. This was consistent in our party, so watch out for it.
Labels: food
Friday, 29 February 2008
Too many cooks...
Been learning cooking techniques for Italian, Indian and Moroccan at my world food cookery class. The hype surrounding cooking at the moment is starting to annoy me though. All the cooking programs, people talking about it, how good they are, what new over the top kitchen gadgets they have...la..la..la. Anyway, it's a good thing I suppose as it hopefully means people are looking after what they eat more. I'll just continue to enjoy cooking as I always have so I'm off to watch that cooking program and order a pan with a Wi-Fi lid.
Labels: food
Monday, 25 February 2008
Happy 'Nan' day
Visited York at the weekend for my birthday. I won't bore you with history and 'Minster' photos. A beautiful place and a fantastic curry from Akbars, where they hang HUGE nan breads up on hooks on your table and they taste great. Thanks to my girlfriend for that and she got 10 waiters to sing "Happy Birthday" to me for a laugh. Look closely at that photo, I stayed on the bus obviously.Labels: food
Thursday, 17 January 2008
Little Chef
I've been told I'm a really good cook many times. I love food and cooking and have done for years. So now I'm doing a 10 week cookery course where I learn techniques and food from all around the world. It's Italy this week. Maybe one day I'll rub shoulders with Ainsley and punch him right in the crockpot.
Labels: food
Sunday, 13 January 2008
Raval in it
If you're ever in Gateshead/Newcastle quayside, go to Raval Indian restaurant. The food is amazing, subtle flavours, menu choice is simple, service superb. A new place to watch. A place with a difference in an old listed building. My girlfriend left a tip, see photo!
Labels: food
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