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Tag Archives: Food
Top 3 places to eat in Leamington Spa
Hands up who loves to eat out in the town where they live *holds up hand*
I’m really lucky that I live in a town with some great independent eateries and a few tried and tested chains thrown in for good measure. I would be lying if I said I was loyal to one or even two places to eat because I’m not. If I can’t get a seat or if a restaurant or cafe is closed when it’s advertised to be open I’ll just find somewhere else (I’ve found some favourites this way).
I read this piece by The Tame Hare about local businesses struggling and I do really feel for them, it must be really difficult for chefs who have a real passion for food and local fresh ingredients to make a living in our current climate. I need to be honest at this point and say that we have not got round to visiting The Tame Hare, we tasted some of their food at the Leamington Food festival one year before they had opened and it was delicious so we really should make a point of visiting.
Should we all be making an effort to visit more independents? I think if your wallet can afford to do so then yes. We’re really tightening our purse strings at the moment as we’ve just bought a new house aka the money pit so our days of eating out several times a month will be reduced to one or two meaning I get to put my numerous gadgets and expensive knives to good use again and I’ll be making use of loyalty cards and early evening specials at the local chains.
Anyway I digress, eating local is great if you can afford to do so but there isn’t anything wrong with a chain now and again. If you’re visiting the fabulous Royal Leamington Spa you will be spoilt for choice with all of the eating establishments. We have chains, independents and a Michelin star bistro so if your time is limited do choose wisely.
In no particular order my current top 3 places to eat….
1. Procaffinate
We used to visit this venue when the previous owners had it before it became Procaffeinate for amazing tapas. We were really sad when it closed down but from the ashes a new favourite was born. Situated canalside, Procaffinate is a Coffee Shop with a difference. You will find a SMEG fridge just beside the entrance, go through the fridge and you enter Ape Hangers which is home to over 100 beers including one of my favourites – Lucky Buddah beer.
Procaffinate is child friendly, they even have a box of toys for your little ones to entertain themselves with whilst you get your coffee fix. Did I mention how amazing the cakes are? Prices are purse friendly and the food is delicious, it’s also open until 11pm so if you fancy a late night caffeine hit this is the place to go.
Situated as the name suggests on Warwick street, this cafe is the place to go if you’re looking for locally sourced, homemade products. I’ve never actually visited for lunch yet only breakfast and I think we’ve tried all of the breakfast dishes on the menu. I love the ethics of this place and they make a cracking cup of coffee.
The Shakshuka is incredible but my favourite is the Avocado smash experience (pictured above), I have it without the bacon and replace them with mushrooms.
Basement Browns has probably been in our favourites list since it opened in Leamington Spa. You can find them on Warwick Street but do book ahead if you can as this place fills up fast.
Our order is always the same, Margarita, half with olives and onions and when it comes to the table it’s doused in herbs. £13.50 will get you a family sized pizza and you can add up to 6 toppings free of charge.
If you’ve visited Leamington Spa or if you live here, I’d love to know your favourite places to eat.
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POSTED IN: Basement Browns, eating out, Food, Leamington Spa, Procaffinate, Warwick street kitchen
POSTED IN: Basement Browns, eating out, Food, Leamington Spa, Procaffinate, Warwick street kitchen
Mr Gourmand’s Ideal Sunday
It’s not often that Madame Gourmand allows me space on her corner of the internet so when she asked me to share details about my favourite way to spend a Sunday I couldn’t resist.
Usually our Sunday consists of a rushed breakfast, Rugby Tots, brunch then back home so Madame Gourmand can try and catch up with her never ending pile of work but last Sunday was a bit different as I spent most of it with Baby Gourmand as Madame Gourmand was elsewhere so I’m going to share with you some of what I did and what my ideal way to spend a Sunday is.
After a leisurely walk into town my first port of call is somewhere to hydrate, usually with a coffee or pot of tea. Last Sunday saw me sitting in a café having a cup of tea with Baby Gourmand while he played with his ever expanding collection of Peppa Pig figures and a couple of micro machines.
Breakfast is always next on the agenda. I’m a fan of most breakfasts and don’t mind if they contain meat or not. I visited the Royal Pug in Leamington for one of their mammoth bacon and mushroom sandwiches which is so much better than a fry up in my opinion!
After a hearty savoury breakfast I like to grab something sweet, as it’s summer we were lucky to have a bit of sun and there is nothing better than enjoying an ice cream in the park when the sun is out, Baby Gourmand agrees with this however Madame Gourmand can’t eat the stuff so we tend to go for cake if she accompanies us.
You can probably see a bit of a theme going on here, my ideal Sunday revolves around my stomach! I do enjoy a Sunday lunch but Madame Gourmand usually complains about spending so long in the kitchen cooking a roast so we tend to eat them out. Last Sunday I was treated to homemade thai chicken koftas for dinner – yum!
Although the food changes on a weekly basis, my ideal Sunday stays the same. I love food in all of it’s forms so as long as my Sunday is filled with sweet and savoury treats I’m a happy man.
How do you spend your Sunday?
Meal Planning Monday (27th April 2015)
It’s been quite a long time since I participated in Meal Planning Monday but I’m determined to write down my meal plan on a Sunday evening in the future to allow me to schedule the family meals.
I’m currently training for the pretty muddy 5k (race for life) so I’m trying to cut out the sugar and saturated fat and keeping my calories down so I can burn off some of my fat – and there is a lot of it!
This week The Gourmand family will be eating:
Monday – Thai turkey koftas with salad
Tuesday – Tempura salmon with paprika wedges
Wednesday – Homemade Pizza
Thursday – Kedgeree
Friday – Lasagna
Saturday – Mushroom risotto
Sunday – Roast Beef with all the trimmings
And that’s our meal plan for this week, pop back next week for Meal Planning Monday.
Zizzi Kenilworth
After our disastrous visit to the Zizzi branch in Leamington Spa we decided to use the £20 voucher we had been sent at the branch in Kenilworth which is the next town to where we live.
If I’m being completely honest I wasn’t expecting a great deal, I was praying that the food would be of a higher standard as it was nothing more than diabolical during our last visit and I knew it couldn’t really be any worse.
We had booked a table for 12 and when we arrived we were the first ones there and were given a choice of where we wanted to sit, the restaurant was extremely light and airy and we picked a table next to a window and close to the door should we need to take Baby Gourmand outside when he became cranky which does happen often.
After having a good read of the menu we ordered our starters, Bread sticks, Carrot and Cucumber for Baby Gourmand as part of his children’s menu. He was more interested in the colouring pencils at first but soon got stuck in to the breadsticks which he devoured with gusto.
Mr Gourmand picked the Arancini (£5.45) which he had previously eaten at a hotel in London, Arancini are risotto balls with mozzarella, peas & a breadcrumb coating which was served with a chunky tomato pepperonata dip. The risotto balls needed the chunky dip as they were lacking something but that didn’t stop Mr Gourmand polishing them off.
I really liked the sound of the Garlic bread with Mozzarella (£4.95) I was surprised when the dish arrived at how big it was, I had expected a really small bread but this was enough for two people. The caramalised balsamic onion was delicious, really sweet and decedent, I would order this again if I saw it on a menu.
Once the starts were out of the way our main courses arrived, I had ordered Baby Gourmand the Bolognese again, it wasn’t as thick as I would have liked but it was a lot better than the portion we received at the Leamington Spa branch which was the consistency of a thin soup.
Mr Gourmand hadn’t enjoyed the pizza he got during our last visit to Zizzi but decided to give them another try and ordered the Classic Fiery Nduja pizza (£9.95) which contained pepperoni, spicy Nduja sausage, green chillies, Fior di Latte mozzarella, riserva cheese & basil. Mr Gourmand really enjoyed this, the base was good and although the toppings were a little sparse they were very tasty and had a good amount of spice.
Mr Gourmand thought my choice of main course was a little risky but I really liked the sound of the Classic king prawn diavola (£10.75) so ordered it any way. I must admit that I was a little disappointed when the dish arrived, I had expected butterfly king prawns as the menu suggested which when I have had them many times before are more of a flat prawn with the tail on, the prawns on my pizza just looked like regular supermarket king prawns, deveined straight out of the packet. Putting the appearance of the prawns aside, the base was cooked to perfection, it does look like there was quite a lot of chilli on the pizza but it was just the right amount without being too hot.
Surprisingly we all had room for dessert, Baby Gourmand had vanilla ice-cream with popping candy and three mini cones. He hasn’t really had ice-cream before but seemed to enjoy it however I think the popping candy experience was a little lost on him.
Mr Gourmand didn’t want anything too heavy so picked an ice-cream or Gelato if you want to be specific. Not wanting to be boring he went for the honey, sea salt and mascarpone (£4.45) which was a little bit special, it was sweet, salty and incredibly creamy.
It was a no brainer for me when it came to picking a dessert, Tiramisu every time. The Tiramisu (£5.25)which is an espresso & liqueur-soaked sponge with layers of mascarpone & cocoa.
Has my opinion of Zizzi changed? Yes it has, I was in two minds about returning and I’m really glad that I did. It’s good to know that the standard of food isn’t always as bad as it was during our visit to the Leamington Spa branch, the space issue we encountered during my last post was not an issue during this visit, in fact there was so much room we could have had three prams round our table. The staff could not have been more attentive at Kenilworth and I would not hesitate to return.
Flavourly
It’s a long time since I last signed up to a food subscription box, I started out loving them but after a few months the products I was receiving just didn’t seem to excite me anymore, I thought I’d do a web search to see if any new subscription boxes had started up and that’s when I came across flavourly.com.
For £20 a month you will receive a box containing handpicked products from independent suppliers based only in the UK.
Your flavourly account will tell you when your next box is due to be posted so you can look out for it, it’s too large to fit through a letterbox so if you don’t have anywhere safe for it to be left you may find you need to pick it up from a sorting office.
Each box comes with a little booklet which explains how the service works and best of all give information about each of the makers featured in the box. I purposely didn’t read this until I had opened my box to keep the contents a surprise.
My flavourly box was handpacked by Arden, the meet the makers booklet tells me that Arden is the “Flavour Keeper” or warehouse Manager, I have no idea if the packers change from box to box as this was my first one. I can only assume that hand packing the boxes ensures that no mistakes are made and that each box is as perfect as it can be.
I received everything pictured above in my box, some things were full sized items and others were samples, the product value of my box came to around £18.21 which isn’t too bad considering I got to try things I probably wouldn’t have purchased myself, I have noticed that quite a few of the items are quite difficult to buy as a consumer like the Darling Corn which I could only find in bulk.
I was really excited about trying the Soffles Pitta chips as I’m a huge fan of savoury snacks and pitta bread so this sounded like a match made for me, the chips contain nothing artificial and no preservatives. I wasn’t too fussed on the flavour as I found the rosemary quite overpowering but I do like the sound of some of the other offerings like spring onion and parmesan and chilli and garlic.
Baby Gourmand was quick to grab the packet of Urban Fruit in Mango which I was happy for him to munch on as it contains to sugar or preservatives. I’ve only been able to find this in large bags which is a shame as the smaller bags would be perfect for taking out with us as a snack.
Mini Gourmand had the packet of Lizi’s Granola in Treacle and Pecan for her breakfast, she is a huge fan of granola and thinks of herself as a bit of an expert so when this got the thumbs up from her I knew it must be good. I love the fact you just needed to add water to the pouch and you were ready to eat on the go – genius idea.
The Sweet potato with chilli & lime crisps were probably my second favourite items from the box, I loved the flavour, crunch and amount of crisps in the bag. I actually ate these in the kitchen so I wouldn’t have to share them, that’s how delicious they are! I have the farmhouse cheese & chive and the sour cream & onion on my list to try next.
I haven’t had the chance to try the Saison seasoning blend but I know it will be incredibly useful, I’m a big fan of flavourful seasonings and I think this will make a delicious rub for steak or fish.
I’ve been a fan of Willie’s Cacao products for a number of years now and have tried many of the flavours but this was my first time tasting the Indonesian Gold. Willie is the only small cacao grower and producer in the UK and I find his story fascinating. I found the chocolate to be incredibly fruity tasting and I savoured each bite (I still have a square stashed in the cupboard for the next time I need a chocolate boost).
Kents Kitchen is a brand I was unfamiliar with prior to receiving this box, they take the stress out of cooking a complicated meal. I love Thai food but don’t cook it as often as I would like due to the fact that the ingredient list required is usually quite large and can be expensive if the ingredients are not in season. This kit contains everything I need to make a Thai Red curry apart from a couple of components, I’m going to use this next week and will let you know what I think of it in due course.
I was really excited to see Supernature oil featured in my box, I’ve been a fan of the brand for a while now and already own the original and chilli infused oil so to receive the basil oil made me incredibly happy as I really do love the taste of basil and have already been drizzling this on pasta and potatoes.
Rani’s Mixture is my favourite item out of the whole box, the snack is handcooked and is probably one of the best snack mixes I have ever tasted. The snack mix is incredibly Moorish and I found that once I had started eating it I couldn’t stop sticking my hand back in the packet, this was again something I was not prepared to share under any circumstances.
Umami is one of the five basic tastes, a savoury taste, I’m excited to try this but I do have to admit that I’m not sure what to expect from it. Apparently one squeeze is enough to make non-cooks good, good cooks great and great cooks extraordinary.
Bekaert biscuit butter tastes a little bit like peanut butter crossed with caramalised cinnamon, it’s definitely a love it or hate it flavour and is incredibly indulgent. I personally loved the biscuit but found the spread a little sickly so gave it to Mini Gourmand to finish.
Darling Spuds roasted sea salt corn is a very unique snack, I’m really not sure if I liked it or not and I can’t explain why. I love corn and I love popcorn but I found that this snack left a dry taste in my mouth, almost like I’d eaten something that was burnt.
I’m not sure if this berry mixture was an extra or not as I couldn’t find anything about it in my makers leaflet. Grandma Gourmand grabbed this out of the box and enjoyed it on her cereal and found it delicious, she kept the rest to snack on while on the train back to Newcastle.
Overall I am incredibly impressed with flavourly and I can’t wait until my next box arrives.
If you’re interested in signing up for a flavourly box with £5 off you can sign up here
The Fat Pug – Leamington Spa
The Fat Pug is one of those hip places where all the cool kids go offering a range of real ales and a capsule home cooked menu, of course it’s family friendly and dogs are welcome too.
We’ve passed on numerous occasions but it’s either been too early or late for lunch, but last week when we were on the way home from looking at a new car we were just in time for a spot of lunch.
Mr Gourmand would probably eat Pepperoni Pizza for every meal. Fact. When he spotted the Margherita Pizza with the optional extra of Pepperoni there was no question that this would be his choice of meal. The pizza was described by Mr Gourmand as delicious which was quite surprising to me as he usually has some sort of complaint about pizza that hasn’t come from an Italian restaurant, he enjoyed it so much he was talking about what toppings he would have next time we visit!
I couldn’t resist trying the Tempura battered fish and chips with home made tartar sauce and minted mushy peas. The fish that I was served was actually more of a whale than a fish as you can see from the picture, the batter was extremely light and superbly crisp on both the outside and inside which I was pleased about as there is nothing worse than cutting through crisp batter on the outside and finding it’s all soggy inside. The tartar sauce was chunky, tangy and creamy which complemented the fish so well, the picked onion was crispy and sharp just as they should be. My only criticism was that the minted mushy peas were a little on the watery side and this really is just personal taste, I like my mushy peas to be thick. This was a mammoth meal and even though I had baby Gourmand helping me with the peas and the fish I still managed to leave food on my plate.
After a couple of real ales and a relaxing chat about how much we liked the pub we decided to make our way home, we were really impressed with the Fat Pug and have made plans to go back again soon for breakfast as the menu sounds delicious so keep a look out for the blog post coming soon.
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POSTED IN: Fish and Chips, Food, Homecooked, Leamington Spa, Pizza, Pub Food, The Fat Pug
POSTED IN: Fish and Chips, Food, Homecooked, Leamington Spa, Pizza, Pub Food, The Fat Pug
Feed The Family For £4.06
I stupidly forgot to take photographs yesterday so you will have to use your imagination, I will make sure tomorrow’s post has them!
Breakfast for Mr and Mini Gourmand was Shredded Wheat Summer Fruits cereal, this is currently on offer at Tesco for £1.50 a box, I had a voucher for a box of Honey and Almond Special K so our breakfast worked out at £0.30
Lunch was Chicken Salad sandwiches using leftover chicken and salad on Tesco Finest Oat Bread (£1) £0.75
Dinner worked out cheaper than I had ever imagined, I purchased some Chicken Legs from Aubrey Allen butchers costing £2.50 for 5. The chickens sold by Aubrey Allen are corn fed free range and are delicious, I won’t buy cheap meat so it goes to show that if you find a good butcher it doesn’t have to cost the earth.
I used 3 of the Chicken Legs and served this with Cauliflower/broccoli cheese, asparagus, baby sweetcorn, carrots, mash and yorkshire puddings. This meal cost £2.85 with some veg left over for Vegetable potato cakes tomorrow. My hint is to only buy what you need either from a fruit and veg shop or using yellow stickers at the supermarket. Don’t be embarrassed about buying 1 carrot if that’s all you will use. I went to Tesco after 4pm and they had greatly reduced the packs of veg, all had at least a day left on them.
Snacks were some Tesco own brand Nice biscuits with a cup of tea costing £0.16
I spent a total of £4.06 on food today, I can’t actually believe it came under £5 if I’m honest! I’m going to try and save up any leftover money so we can have something special on the last day.
Sozzled Sausage – Leamington Spa
The Sozzled Sausage is a bar in Leamington Spa that we have passed on numerous occasions, often when taking Mini Gourmand to Lantern Corner for sweets if she behaves, which is not that often! Anyway, we all decided to pop in for a quick bite to eat not so long ago, and we think this place is something special!
Mr Goumand had the sausage sandwich (£5.00) which was simple, tasty, excellent bread, nice side salad and amazing onion rings! oh my gosh those onion rings were good, so light and crispy and maybe, dare I say, the nicest onion rings I had ever tried!? tough call but for the moment, and unless my memory tells me otherwise by the time I finish writing this post I’m standing by that statement….the nicest onion rings I have ever had!
Mini Gourmand had the fish and chips (£7.50)! obviously feeling a bit peckish on this occasion. Huge portion and it looked very nice, I must admit I didn’t get a chance to try it because one minute it was there, a full fish almost bigger than her head, and the next, gone, just like magic. I’m not bothered, I’ll have it next time I visit!
I had the Chicken Burger (£7.50) which was amazing. The bread, which I think came from a local shop, and the juicy chicken breast was out of this world, I couldn’t even finish it, it was that big and filling. Another tough call but again I’m going to make it, the best chicken burger I have ever had!!?? Oh and yes, the onion rings are the second nicest I have had, after some I made for Mr Gourmand a year or so ago…..where is that recipe again!?
You can find the Sozzled Sausage at 141 Regent Street, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, United Kingdom CV32 4NX
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POSTED IN: Chicken Burger, Fish and Chips, Food, Leamington Spa, Pub, Review, Sausage, Sozzled Sausage
POSTED IN: Chicken Burger, Fish and Chips, Food, Leamington Spa, Pub, Review, Sausage, Sozzled Sausage