Dinner at 125mph

Though I have eaten on trains before, on a recent journey from London to Edinburgh was the first time I have been served a proper chef cooked dinner on a train. 

Most of my train travel is with GWR in and around Bristol and into London. Catering on those trains is either non-existent, or through a trolley service. 

Back in the day when GWR was First Great Western, and they used the classic HST trains to London, I do remember that you could get a cooked breakfast from the buffet car, but that was back in 2007.

LNER essentially use the same Hitachi trains that GWR use but do make more use of the onboard kitchens. Some services provide hot food, but on the odd service you get the chef, who will cook you a meal.

When I was travelling the chef cooked meal was gammon, mash and savoy cabbage with a cider sauce.

This was gammon steak from Taste Tradition served with chive mashed potatoes, savoy cabbage and a creamy cider sauce. 

When you consider this was prepared at 125mph and served on a train, it was a nice meal. The gammon was gammon, but it was tender and not too salty. I liked the mash and the cabbage. The cider sauce was okay, but to be honest I couldn’t taste much cider.

This certainly isn’t a meal I would order in a pub or a restaurant, but as the only real option on a late (but fast) train to Edinburgh from London, it was nice to have a proper plate of food instead of a sandwich and a packet of crisps.

I was going to have dessert, the vanilla sponge with raspberry jam centre served with custard. However, they ran out before I could have some, so I never got to try that.

Rustica Black Truffle Salami & Mushroom Pizza

Bristol has a fair number of restaurants and places to eat. Cabot Circus has a fair few high street chains. One of my regular places is Zizzi, usually as I have some kind of offer.

This time I decided to use a Zizzi 25% offer I had received, combined with an existing balance on my Zizzi eGift card, though I could get a cheaper lunch.

I was given a warm welcome and pretty much allowed to choose where to sit. I took a table and looked over the menu. I went with the Rustica Black Truffle Salami & Mushroom.

A white base with truffle salami, mushrooms, crispy prosciutto, Fior di Latte mozzarella, riserva cheese, truffle-infused oil and crispy sage.

Pizza

The Rustica was thin and crispy. I do like white bases and this was excellent. I thought it was a good amount of toppings, not scarce, but also not overdone.

In the end there was a problem with the Zizzi eGift card, so lunch was not as cheap as I hoped it would be. However it was a nice pizza.

Nice coffee

cup of coffee

Popped to Caffe Nero on Farringdon Road for a coffee. I had a skinny flat white. It was well made (even if there was no coffee art). It was a bustling cafe, but didn’t feel busy. A place I may visit again.

We’ve run out…

I was back in London and staying at the Drayton Court Hotel in Ealing. I have been staying here for a fair few years now. It is significantly cheaper than central London, and with the Elizabeth Line, hitting central London is really fast. West Ealing Station is a few minutes walk from the hotel, from there you can catch a train to central London in less than twenty minutes. Downstairs is a bar with an extensive menu, that changes on a regular basis. They do a fantastic Sunday lunch,  and you also can get freshly cooked wood fired pizza as well.

Going down for dinner to eat. I decided I would have the whitebait and the pork belly. However, they had run out of pork belly. So, I decided to abandon the whitebait, and go with just the ribeye steak instead. This was Owton’s 8oz rib eye steak with triple-cooked chips, grilled tomato, baked field mushroom and peppercorn sauce.

The steak arrived, it was dressed with the grilled tomato, baked field mushroom, and some rocket. The chips came in a small metal bucket, and the peppercorn sauce was served in a miniature saucepan.

steak

The steak was cooked well but needed extra seasoning. The chips were crisp, with a fluffy centre. I also enjoyed the tomato and mushroom. I am not really a fan of peppercorn sauce, but this was nice and peppery.

Overall it was a good plate of food and one of the better steaks I have had at Drayton Court.

Crispy Crab Burger

I was back in London and staying at one of my regular haunts, the Drayton Court Hotel in Ealing. I have been staying here for a fair few years now. It is significantly cheaper than central London, and with the Elizabeth Line, hitting central London is really fast. West Ealing Station is a few minutes walk from the hotel, from there you can catch a train to central London in less than twenty minutes. The hotel has an Ealing comedies theme, there are rooms named after films, and there are numerous photographs from the films framed on the walls.

Going down for dinner, I had the fish tacos for my starter, I had considered the whitebait which was on their specials menu, but after thinking about it, I went with the tacos. What they did have on the specials menu was a Crispy Crab Burger with triple cooked chips as a main course, so I went with that. I do enjoy crispy soft shell crab, and have liked it when I have had it before, however I do remember saying back then:

the deep fried soft shell crab was crispy, but didn’t have the crab taste intensity I was expecting. So overall I did enjoy the food, but was a little disappointed with the soul of the dish, the crab.

Even so, I did have quite high expectations. The burger arrived with a side of triple cooked chips in one of those mini metal buckets.

crab burger

As well as the crispy crab, there was avocado, lettuce, tomato, and sauce.

The crab was wonderfully crispy, some parts tasted of crab, some did not.

I liked it, but I wasn’t blown away.

Cannellini Bean Salad

I really like the Cirio Cannellini Beans that come in the Tetra Recart™ pack. As well as using them in cooking I also use them for salads.

This is a simple fresh tasting salad.

I add to the beans, some finely diced red onion, diced cucumber and then I dress the bean salad with salt, pepper, white wine vinegar, and olive oil.

If I have some, then I will add some finely chopped coriander as well.

Some variations I have made, include replacing the white wine vinegar with fresh lemon juice.

Another variation is to add some cheese, I have used crumbled feta cheese. A different cheese I have used is fried halloumi. In both these cases I reduce or eliminate the salt from the salads as both of these cheeses are quite salty.

Time once more for the Fish Tacos

three fish tacos

I was back in London and staying at one of my regular haunts, the Drayton Court Hotel in Ealing. I have been staying here for a fair few years now. It is significantly cheaper than central London, and with the Elizabeth Line, hitting central London is really fast. West Ealing Station is a few minutes walk from the hotel, from there you can catch a train to central London in less than twenty minutes.

The hotel has an Ealing comedies theme, there are rooms named after films, such as Kind Hearts & Coronets and Passport to Pimlico. There are lots of photographs from the films on the walls.

Going down for dinner, I went with the fish tacos. I’ve had the fish tacos many times before, and these were just as good as the ones I’ve had previously.

The dish arrived, it comprised three tacos, each was served with a piece of fish in a crunchy coating, shredded lettuce, mayo and the aforementioned mango salsa.

These were nice and tasty fish tacos. I liked the crunchy fish strips, the mango and lettuce added some nice freshness to the tacos.

They are slightly different to the first time I had them, which was back in 2022, when they also had some grated cheese on top. 

Chicken Flatbread

I have always enjoyed the Kurdish wraps from Matina in the St Nicholas market in Bristol. The star of the show is the freshly baked flat bread, but the salads and pickles that you get in that bread are also really tasty.

I tried my own version of the wrap. Not an identical copy, one that was inspired by the Matin wrap. They were delicious, so I decided to do something similar again. Instead of lamb, this time I did chargrilled chicken.

flatbread

I made some red cabbage slaw, this was thinly sliced red cabbage dressed with white wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. This I made about thirty minutes in advance.

I also did some pickled red onion. In a pan I heated some vinegar, added salt, sugar and pepper and then added some sliced red onion. I kept it on the heat for a minute or so, then took it off the heat.

I took some Middle Eastern laffa bread from Waitrose, these are handstretched flatbreads from The Levantine Table range.

I spread some chilli jam, hummus, tzatziki, on the flatbread. I then added the chargrilled chicken, which I had seasoned and cooked on my griddle. I then added some shredded romaine lettuce heart, sliced cucumber, and coriander.

Really good result.

Time for Korean Fried Cauliflower

We went out at lunchtime, myself and a colleague had planned on going to the vegan pasta place by Queens Square, however I had forgotten that the Redcliffe Bridge was closed as they repaired it. So it would have been a a somewhat long detour to get there. Instead, we headed to St Nicholas Market and after looking at what was available, he and I went with the Korean Fried Cauliflower from Daily Noodles by Larkin Cen.

market stall

I had mine with rice and Green Thai sauce, he had his with noodles and katsu sauce.

We took our food back to the office to eat it.

The cauliflower was nice and the batter was crispy. The sauced had soaked through into the rice. It would have been nice to have the sauce on the side, so the cauliflower could be dipped into it. Even so, it was a nice dish of food.

Daily Noodles use to be called Woky Ko and I have had chicken from them before. I did say back then:

The chicken was nice and crispy, the sauce was quite tasty. I did enjoy the dish, but I don’t think it would be something I would have again.