Reviews

Asparagus Season

Posted on Apr 23, 2012 in Food Festivals & Events, Reviews | 0 comments

Asparagus season has well and truly started, and here in Worcestershire the main auction will be taking place this weekend at the Fleece Inn, http://www.thefleeceinn.co.uk/

The British Asparagus Festival in the Vale of Evesham takes place between 23rd April and 21st June each year and celebrate this wonderful vegetable.

This event has been postponed until 27th May, due to the adverse weather and the asparagus is not in abundance.

The Handmade Pie & Ale Stop Weymouth

Posted on Apr 3, 2012 in Eating Out, Reviews | 2 comments

This place was a wonderful discovery whilst walking into Weymouth Town Centre. Fantastic looking pies, try out their Italian meatballs, or even the Broccoli 3 cheese filling. Just a little trailer parked up outside the station.

Open until 6pm on a night. Will be opening in a permanent pub, serving all pies very soon.

More details: http://www.thehandmadepieandalehouse.com/

Stamford Cakery

Posted on Feb 29, 2012 in Reviews, Specialist Food-Drink & Deli | 2 comments

Looking at cupcakes, I came across John James aka Cakeman/ Stamford Cakery, he has been advertising his cupckes through friends on facebook. He produces a vast selection of cupcakes named after his greatest passion-music.

I had purchased a box of 12 for £15. Well they are a little more expensive than what would pay for in the supermarket. Stamford Cakery uses Organic and Fair trade products, such as Doves Farm flour, Green’s & Black Organic Cocoa.
Rock Cakes – Skulls

Chocolate ganache skulls which melt in your mouth, and a rich chocolate fudge topping with a sighter drier textured sponge. You actually need that as the whole cupcake would be too sickly. Finished off with an edible gold or silver spray.

Dino

A topping of soft marshmallows, not powdered at all, topped with a drizzling of chocolate and a soft moist vanilla sponge underneath. Inside this gorgeous cupcake, as you see this was my favourite. The gooey marshmallow fluff, just seeps out from a delicate squeeze of sponge.

He continually to produce such a fine delicate cupcake. Well worth a visit to taste his fantastic selection.
Where to find Stamford Cakery : www.facebook.com/stamfordcakery or Johnjames@stamfordcakery.com

Bite ‘N’ Write Conference 19th November 2011

Posted on Dec 2, 2011 in Food Festivals & Events, Reviews | 0 comments

This was a first on many accounts, firstly Bite ‘n’Write had arranged a Food Blogger event outside London, their first, and a first for me attending it. It is strange that being in the food industry for so long, and never ventured into Blogging side before. We were greeted with hot drinks, and cupcakes from Fallen Angel Bakery. Resistance and will power was very much on the agenda, for the rest of the day.

Annie Ko introduced the order of the programme, and we began with Craig Fraser giving us tips on how to produce great food photography at a low cost. It was great to learn about tongue’n'groove for surface work, an unlikely tip of producing steam with a tampon microwaved in warm water for 10secs, and placed behind the plate, made us all laugh. Margarine has been used in place of icecream for longer shots, and a duraflex spray as an essential to your food photo kit box. I did suggest a book during this session called Plate to Pixel by Helen Dujardin and found on her blog at :http://www.tarteletteblog.com/

There were slots from Judith Lewis highlighting the benefits of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), how to get the best out of your site, using keyword research and limiting your tags & categories. Tips for the session include using Re-tweets twice a day on Twitter. Always show the audience when writing whether you purchase, are given, tried and received when writing your reviews.

Artisan Du chocolat was the highlight of the day after our buffet lunch, refuelled and was splendidly delighted in tasting 16 different chocolates from the vast range starting with 100% Bitter chocolate through to the 16th piece of chocolate flavoured with passion-fruit. I had caused quite a stir with my tasting sheet. I did have a lot of willpower to not each every last morsel of chocolate, and caused amusement of my display to remember the finer details afterwards

National Curry Week 9-15 October 2011

Posted on Oct 8, 2011 in Food Festivals & Events, Reviews | 0 comments

This year I had been talking to my dad about curry and he had told me a story of eating curry out of a banana leaf in Malaya when he served in the Army back in the mid 1950′s. So after a little research I had decided to make a fish curry, grilled in a banana leaf served with a coconut & tamarind rice noodles. Luckily banana leaves can be purchased at our local Asian supermarket £2.70 for three. Although the recipe usually does use Butter fish. I have experimented with Coley, Sea bass and Tilapia.

If the recipe seems daunting here is a video to show you how

16th October Blog Action Day 2011

Posted on Oct 4, 2011 in Food Festivals & Events, Reviews | 0 comments

What Is Blog Action Day?