Bristol and Bath

[Jenni]

Jenni - well it tasted good to me, but based on your blog it's something you know a lot more about than me! Although maybe that means you are a bit more critical than most?

Er, maybe, but I'm not sure. What I mean to say is that on some occasions it has been good and on others I have found it very salty, so I don't think it's a case of them not being good at all. Just occasionally they have bad day perhaps. I like the fact that they aren't greasy-generic-takeaway style Indian a lot.

I have never realy got into falafel, despite my liking of most other things chickpea, not even in my brief vegetarian phase. Maybe I have never had a good one?

I did try Arabesque in Bath too - you were right, the roasted cauliflower is fab, as is the courgette dish.I even managed to help them coax in a couple of older ladies who seemed quite baffled by all the dishes, but were willing to give it a go!

I didn't like the falafel though, if they are good ones, then no, I definitely don't like falafel! The vegetable 'stew' (sure there is probably a lebabnese name for it) was poor as well, slightly sloppy okra and some other veg in a nondescript tomato sauce that managed to be watery and gloopy at the same time - an impressive feat. But on the whole, a thumbs up from me, most of the dishes were good, and it's excellent value.

Tbh, I'm not a huge falafel fan either, especially served on its own. But Falafel King does them in good quality pitta with salad, yoghurt, etc. and all together it is a very tasty dish. I don't think I tried the falafel at Arabesque actually, as I seem to remember they looked overcooked and dry. I think I remember the okra dish...I remember it had a slightly glutinous texture (not full out slimey though) but I don't remember watery-ness. I do think that sometimes okra works quite well with a little glutinous-ness in some stews, and I don't think I found it that objectionable (though it wasn't a stand-out dish).

[Carlovski]

The usual complaints people have about okra don't actually bother me - a lot of 'luxury' ingedients are praised for their gelatinous qualities, so why not okra? It was the sauce in this case that wasn't very good - it only bothered me because it looked like it could be good. and I wanted something to go with the quite tasty mushroom rice!

I can see how a falafel could be ok as a textural component to some good salads, sauces and bread. My usual late night indulgence is a hummus kebab from the local kebab shop, quite good, and more about the bread and salad than the hummus itself, but it is a bit squidgy!

I'm not vegetarian any more, but I don't eat a lot of meat, which is why I tend to gravitate to middle eastern and indian food.

Carl

[PhilD]

The key to good falafel is freshness. It needs to be freshly cooked to order to be really appreciated, with fresh batter dropped into the fryer not pre-cooked balls micro-waved or refreshed with another dunk in the fryer.

[Jenni]

^^^

Agreed. What's so wonderful about Falafel King is that they have one of those machines that drops fresh batter into hot oil. So the falafel are always fresh and hot. I'm not going to claim they are the best falafel ever (I have not yet tried all the falafel in the world ), but they are certainly tasty.

[Jenni]

Hmm, whilst I am here I may as well write up some of my recent meals in Bristol.

Had a fairly mixed lunch at Mazati, a Lebanese place on Small Street opposite the crown court. The setting is wonderful - the room is quite small and has a low, arched ceiling as if you were in an underground tunnel (I'm trying not to say sewer!). We had a selection of mezze, some of which was quite nice and some of which was less good (the various pastries such as fatayar stand out in my mind as being particularly not good).

Then we shared various main courses. As vegetarians my Mum and I were limited to basically a choice of three veggies cooked in tomato and onion. I had the aubergine and my Mum had the okra, but we pretty much split them. Both were quite nice but fairly unexciting as main courses. Now you may say the this serves us right for being vegetarian, but actually many middle eastern/morrocan/mediterranean places can do fantastic things with a simple aubergine dish which leave you glad to be vegetarian. This place could not quite manage it.

There was rice on the side and we also ordered yoghurt and cucumber. The boys had various meat-y things which seemed to please them. Drinks wise they have some nice freshly squeezed juices (carrot and apple juices were nice) and also a quite thick version of aryan, which was tasty. At the end of the meal it became clear that the chef was in a rush to get away, which was a shame because we wanted to take our time and relax. Turns out he had some kind of exam to get to. I think perhaps this may have had an effect on some of the quality of the food, as I did feel that some of the food was pretty average or even below average at times. I would be willing to go back again though, as it was obvious by the end that the chef was not fully focused on his cooking, and as well as there being some quite nice dishes, a lot of the rest showed promise. Also, as I said, the setting was quite picturesque and I think with more time to savour the meal it would be a nice place to eat.

I also had a nice quick lunch at Las Iguanas. Las Iguanas is a Latin American restaurant with a few branches in Bristol and also outside of Bristol. The food is quite refreshing and flavoursome, and I have had some nice longer meals there. On this occasion though I took advantage of their fantastic value lunch/early evening menu. A selection of mains are all £6.90 and you can add a starter for £1. You can also had an alcoholic drink for £1.5 or a soft drink for £1. I had "Sopa de calabaza" which was a butternut squash with a coconut milk. It had a creamy-spicy-zingy taste and the crunchy tortilla strips on top were a nice touch. I also appreciated the fresh coriander. For my main I had the veggie wrap, which was butternut squash (again!), spinach, onion, chickpeas and cheese inside a spinach tortilla, grilled. The menu said fries or salad but mine came with both. The salad was actually nicely dressed and came with interesting salad leaves and red onion, which was a nice change from the limp side salads you get in most restaurants, which are pretty much just tasteless roughage. On the table they had some of their yellow chilli sauce made with peruvian chillies (sold in Bart's Spices branded bottles), which added a pleasent fruity tang to the meal.

Las Iguanas actually do some pretty good food. Previously I have had an apparently (I am only going by their menu) Brazilian dish called Moqueca, which was a sort of creamy spicy stew (they described it as a "curry") with sweet potato and palm hearts. It came with rice, plantain, salsa and also farofa (toasted manioc flour). It was really good. Their hot chocolate is also a delight, and they also do nice mocktails (and, so I am told by the rest of my family who all drink, rather nice cocktails too).

[Jenni]

Couple of recent meals:

Another fabulous dinner at Oz, on the Triangle. Seriously, I could eat at this place forever! We went there for my Mum's birthday and had a complete feast. Everything was divine, except strangely enough for the baklava. Usually this is one of the highlights of the meal, but for some reason it was rather hard and a little painful on the mouth to eat. My Mum wanted to keep her birthday quiet, but my Dad couldn't resist telling the waitress at the start of the meal, which resulted in a surprise bottle of something pink and bubbly (I don't drink, so I couldn't tell you if it was any good!) being brought out at the end for Mum to take home. Brilliant evening, I can overlook the pudding this once and it really was an unecessary addition to our already enormous meal anyway!

Today I had lunch at La Grotta, which is on Union Street. Basically it's in Broadmead right next to the Galleries. It's quite a cosy place (i.e. small) and even though it was 2pm when I got there, it was absolutely heaving! I was told that a table would be free in a few minutes, and sure enough it was. It was my first visit, as I had been tempted in by the luscious sounding pizzas on the menu.

I chose "Mediterraneo" which had tomato, courgette, goats cheese, red onion and olives. Being rather cheeky, I asked if it would be possible to sub the onion and olives for artichoke as I had a real craving for some. Don't get me wrong, I love red onion and olives, but I was trying to find a way to add artichokes without necessarily ramping up the price and overcrowding my pizza. They were quite happy to do this for me. The pizza came very quickly, and it was HUGE and very thin - just how I like it! The toppings were all thinly sliced and it was a dream to look at, and even better to eat. Absolutely delicious, definitely the best pizza I have had in Bristol, if not in the whole of the UK.

Based on this pizza alone, I would say to get your butt down to this place right now. The price is very reasonable too, - my huge pizza (which was one of their "speciality pizzas", and thus one of the more expensive) clocked in at just £8.75, and there were plenty of other pizzas around that price or a little cheaper. There were also various appetisers, pastas, etc. I watched a few other patrons being served fabulous looking plates of pasta, and concluded that I would definitely have to try some next time. Everything looks very freshly cooked and delicious. Best of all, there were some actual Italians in there enjoying pizza, so you know it must be a good place! I'm pretty sure it's a family run place, and the staff were all very friendly. Highly recommended, and a lot better than all of the extremely tedious Italian/pizza chains that crowd the rest of bristol (ASK, Zizzi, Bella Italia, Pizza Express, Pizza Hut...)