Category Archives: Uncategorized

Nonna Teresa Fresh Pasta

For those of you who attend Lark Lane farmers market this probably isn’t new to you, the producer I’m talking about was really busy and almost completely sold out when we get to there at 10:30. This producer is the Nonna Teresa stall, selling several verities fresh ravioli and italian sauce. I would have liked some fresh crab or beef and herb ravioli but, they were all gone out so we had some spinach and ricotta ravs and a jar of pesto.

This was really good fresh pasta, a million miles away from the the dry paste filled stuff that resides on supermarket shelves. Delicate paster with plenty of flavoursome filling, the pesto was really well made and an excellent accompaniment.

I make my own filled pasta every now and then, but to be honest its a lot of work and takes a fair amount of forward planning. This pasta was as good as anything I’ve ever made, and I’ll certainly be back for more. Clearly this stall is well established, I’m not sure why I’ve missed it at previous markets. In future I’ll make sure I’m there nice and early to try some of their other varieties. Its excellent stuff and I’m really glad to see someone trying something different.

Filini @ The Radisson Blu

The Radisson, on Old Hall Street, has been around for almost a decade, and with it comes Filini, a modern Italian restaurant. I’d eaten there several years ago and had pleasant memories of what was a good meal, a good balance of refined food that didn’t trip on the usual obstacles of being over fussy or over priced. Thus, I was rather pleased when I was invited in to write a review of their new menu one lunch time.

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UPDATE. Fish Markets and Mongers in Liverpool

Originally publish September 2011.

Yesterday I had a short twitter conversation, with some local people I follow, about places to buy fresh fish in Liverpool. This short chat included @MissCay @custard_jim @liverpoolcheese and @sourcedeli all very good local foodie people and worth a follow. This conversation stemmed from me asking @MissCay where she got her squid from, for a recipe on her blog. The full conversation is below and we came to some conclusions.

  • There only two fish mongers we know of in Liverpool are both in Mossley Hill, one on Allerton Road and the other on Rose Lane.
  • These two shops do great fresh fish, although they are a bit limited in range, however they are very willing to order more exotic ingredients for you.
  • Able and Cole do fish to order on their website.
  • There is a great fish mongers in Birkenhead market called Wards Fish, if you fancy a short drive it worth the trip.
  • You can get fresh fish at the Liverpool farmers market, although (in my opinion) the quality isn’t great.
  • You can get good fish at Liverpool meat and fish market, it’s mainly used by commercial buyers but members of the public are welcome.
It appears that if you are buying fresh fish it can be quite difficult to do in Liverpool, unless you live in the southern part of the city. It is a great shame but appears that there are only two fish shops left in the city, I had heard there was a stall in St John’s Market, however I tried to find recently with no success. Of course there is still tesco/asda/sainsburys etc, stores that have their place, I visit them regularly, but there fresh fish is very poor and always looks tired and old.

I hope this helps with your future fish buying antics, obviously if you know of any other good local places please comment below, we would all be very keen to know.

 

UPDATE: I was contacted by Brian who the owner for B.Shrigleys, the fish mongers on Allerton Road, which has been there for 35 years. He would like me to mention that they have a good selection of seaonal fish in at all times and are very happy to order anything in on request.

The Maharaja, Great South Indian Food

Apart from stuffing my face and making stuff to stuff my face with, my favourite pastime is floating doing rivers in my kayak. Last Saturday, after a day on a North Wales raging torrent, I arrived home happy but without the required desire to tackle anything in the kitchen, a take away on the couch in front of the telly was my intended evenings entertainment. I was then struck with the difficult decision of where to order from, the nearby Smithdown Road has many choices but finding one of quality that delivers, is quite tricky. A quick query on twitter was my solution, hoping for some inspired choices for home delivery.

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Crowdsourcing: Where's the best place to get pancakes in Liverpool?

Reblogged from Little Red Courgette:

Click to visit the original post

Sometimes, food bloggers get it wrong. Really wrong. This post was supposed to be a recipe for sourdough pancakes. I spent Saturday night harvesting some of my sourdough starter and turning it into the perfect sponge and Sunday morning mixing it together with an egg, some sugar and some milk to create – what I anticipated – would be a visual and sensory battery delight.

Read more… 482 more words

MissCay says it all about pancakes in Liverpool.

Heston Blumenthal at Home

Modern cook books are a puzzle, some of them are excellent, while others, or more accurately, most, are very very poor. Cook books aren’t about cooking or learning skills, they’re about life style, selling the gastro dream of perfect manicured food every time you eat. These books are recipe after recipe, with accompanying perfectly lit glossy photographs, and on the whole they are completely useless. In the words of Michael Booth “Don’t worry, it’s not you. Recipes don’t work” there are so many permutations to a simple recipe, type of pan, heat of oven, quality of produce, age of produces etc etc, that no real recipe will ever work without a fundamental range of skills to back them up. So, as I’ve written before, I look for cook books that talk about technique and skills rather than recipes; my final list of favourite books is quite short. Continue reading →

The Fat Duck

In January I had the privilege of dining at The Fat Duck, a restaurant that needs little introduction. For some reason I never got round to writing about it, partly because it had  sliped my mind and partly because I wasn’t sure it was right for this blog. However I had posted some pics from a meal I had a Le Manoir a while back, so I think its probably is OK. I was also encouraged by the recent review written by Gordo for Manchester Confidential.

So here it is, a few pics of some of the courses we had, I‘m not really going to comment as its not needed, I couldn’t say anything that hasn’t been said before. All you need to know is, it was fantastic, a meal that is as theatrical as it is delicious, and a level of cooking that I doubt could be topped. If you would like to read more about it then check out the article in Manchester Confidential.

Sid

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