Tag Archives: potatoes

Dinner

Meal #49: dinner

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Thanks to our lovely friend Elodie, we already knew about a regional speciality called Raclette. She recently hosted a lovely Raclette dinner- we were hooked. It wasn’t until a few weeks before we left for Europe that we learned that Raclette is a very popular regional dish here in Savoie! Lucky!

I started the meal with a generous glass of Bonal, of course. I made fresh green salads with a sharp mustard and red wine vinaigrette- just the way we like it. We also had skewers of onion, mushrooms, and zucchini, crusty French bread rubbed with garlic, and boiled baby potatoes. All covered in hot, bubbling slices of Raclette. Wow! I’m so glad Elodie taught us all about this fun and delicious French tradition!

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Dinner, Food, Uncategorized

Meal #44: Dinner

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Salted beef with pearl onions, Worm's Head Hotel, Gower Penninsula, Wales, UK

We started with this salted beef and caramelized pearl onions, it was lovely, though not in great abundance.  The beef was salty and tender, the onions had a crunch, but also brought a punch of sugar to the plate.

Hake with fennel and potato, Worm's Head Hotel, Gower Penninsula, Wales, UK
This was my main at the little pub on the cliff of the bay.  It was a delicious pan seared hake fillet laid over crisp-tender fennel stalks.  I normally don’t enjoy liquorice, but this was mild and very nice alongside the delicate fish.  The skin on the hake had a beautiful salted crispy texture.  The potatoes were a nice anchor for every other bite.  It was a beautiful meal, alongside a beautiful view of the most beautiful beach in the UK.

The view from the restaurant, Worm's Head Hotel, Gower Penninsula, Wales, UK

Dinner, Food

Meal #34: Dinner

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Steak pasty, Oriel College dinning hall, Oxford, UK

This was an example of a not so good pasty, but that’s college food for you.  The carrots were okay tasting, after I got over my phobia of disc shaped carrots, which I’ve always had bad luck with.  The inside of the pasty was dry and paste-like.  Note the packets of mint sauce on my tray, those are for the salad.  I learned that the mint sauce was the best option for a salad dressing.  They always had mint sauce available for us, but we’re never given any lamb to put it on.  The peach crumble was okay, not great.

Dinner, Food

Meal #33: Dinner

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Steak and mushroom pie, Oriel College dinning hall, Oxford, UK

I’m always glad to turn up for dinner at the college and see traditional English dishes; it gives me hope that the food will actually be tasty.  Although this steak pie was not quite as good as the pork pie, it was still really tasty.  The chunks of steak were tender, the mushrooms were small and nice, and the gravy was thick and savory.  The crust on the top seemed like it was just too thick, and not flaky enough for my liking.  The potatoes were so-so, as always, and the veg was not too good.  The dessert was whipped cream with a very small amount of lemon custard mixed in randomly.  The salad was bad, and made worse by my mistake of trying the salad cream, yuck.  But the steak and mushroom pie was pretty tasty, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Dinner, Food

Meal #20: Dinner

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World Cup themed dinner, Oriel College dinning hall, Oxford, UK

Because of the World Cup final, the dinning hall at the college decided to attempt to make dishes from the final two teams.  They made paella and a Spanish dessert called Pan de Calatrava, that’s Spain right?  So they were doing pretty well, but then they made ratatouille…. French, so…… weird, then there was a steak with a piece of Swiss cheese….. so, Swiss?….. weird.  And then the same old roasted potatoes and salad we always get, English I guess?  So out of all this weird combination of dishes, they had two from Spain, good start, and then a bunch of dishes from countries long ago eliminated from the tournament, and nothing Dutch at all.  Sounds like a World Cup theme fail to me.  By the way, all the food was terrible.

Special message to any of the Oriel College cooks that might stumble upon my blog: stop trying to make dishes that you have no idea how to make!  Make me some English food, you’re good at doing that!

Food, Lunch

Meal #17: Lunch

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Sausages and mash, The Red Lion, Oxford, UK

My first real bangers and mash dish in the UK!  I had lunch at The Red Lion, and a friend suggested the sausage and mash.  It was pretty delicious.  The sausage was much like our breakfast sausage in the states, but better.  The mashed potatoes were smooth and delicious, with a salty but balanced meat gravy.  An excellent example of traditional English cooking.

Food, Lunch

Meal #15: Lunch

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Steak and Ale Cornish Pasty, Cornish Pasty window, Oxford, UK

This pasty was pretty awesome.  Steak and Ale are a killer combination.  There were also chunks of potatoes in there.  The pasty dough was crisp and buttery on the outside and soft and flaky on the inside, a perfect vessel for takeaway food.  To be fair though, I was so hungry I would’ve gladly eaten that pigeon and been as happy.

Dinner, Food

Meal #12: Dinner

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Lamb hotpot, The Rose and the Crown, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK

I actually ordered a steak and ale pie, which looked amazing in the pictures, but they were out of them.  So I settled for this “hotpot” instead.  It was pretty good in the end.  It was made up of tender lamb and potatoes with onions and mushrooms, all baked in a little ramekin.  I actually ordered mushy peas, but they gave me whole, so I mushed them myself and put them in my hotpot.  I’m finding out very quickly that which I always suspected: English food is good if you know what to order —they are expert “pie” makers here.

Dinner, Food

Meal #9: Dinner

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Pork and apple pie, dinning hall, Oriel College, Oxford, UK

This was the best meal at the college so far!  The pork and apple pie was so good, I ate an extra portion.  It had big juicy chunks of pork in a lovely savory sauce.  There were mushrooms, onions, and slices of apple in with the pork, all under a crispy, flaky, perfect philo dough.  The potatoes and corn were nothing special, but the salad was very bland.  The dessert was awesome though, cream puffs floating in a dark chocolate bath!  I wish they made this for me every night!