A Day out, Flowers, Caribbean and Dominican Tortilla

Finally we got the sunny weather. If you combine this with a day off and time to spare this makes for a good opportunity to have a day out. Accordingly we decided to take the train to Hannover, Germany, and look around of what is to see, buy some special food items and eat something special.

Arriving at the train station gives you the chance to have a snack right away, so we are having roasted pork in a bun. There is a place as well, that sells roasted pork in a bun nearby where we live, but that isn't half as good as the one at the train station of Hannover with soft onions on top of the meat. You could easily fill up on that, but ... I think it's better to leave some space for more.
For me, visiting Hannover means to go and see the Herrenhäuser Gärten. The gardens are really beautiful and you can enjoy them a lot. On this day it was quite quiet, if you don't count the workers. There are some days they have special events there and you can see a lot more. For the time being we enjoyed this quiet time, although it was that quiet, that they even turned off the water. If you want to see the grand fountain of water, which can shoot up the water even over 60 metres you have to be there before high noon or after 3 p.m.

Originally we only wanted to see the great garden, but the ticket came as a package with the mountain garden and the greenhouses as well. It's worth a visit as well. I would really enjoy to have some of those plants at home, too, but ...

Good there wasn't even a tiny cloud in the sky that day. So we could enjoy the gardens to the full ... with some bottles full of water.

So far regarding the cultural part. Of course you could do a lot more, but if you are walking around all the time and want to do a wee bit of shopping as well, the options are limited.
After walking around all day and buying a lot of chillies, platanos (plantains) and guandules (pigeon peas), it was time for more than a snack ... We set out for a place called Boca Chica. It's named after a place in the Dominican Republic. As we don't have the chance to fly every year to the Caribbean, this was the best we could do for now. The weather was right and they had a nice terrace where to enjoy the meal outside. We started with a mixed plate of starters ...

There was a lot going on on the plate: tostones (fried plantain), boquerones, aubergine salsa, plantain salad, yucca salad, mango, chicken, calamari and Dominican tortilla.
The Dominican tortilla is a bit like the Spanish tortilla, but instead of potatoes you use rice. This is a very good opportunity to use up leftover rice. Simple mix it with some eggs and if you like to get a bit more taste out of it add shopped up coriander or peppers. Then just fry it as small cakes. 
Next up the main dish with some fish ...

I decided to go for parrot fish as I never had it before. Seems quite healthy to me, but I still have to work a bit on my tastebuds regarding seafood. Well, that's not so easy around here as we don't have the chance to have it too often as no sea is nearby.
The rice had some guandules (pigeon peas) and that was something I had for the first time as well.
Something I didn't have for the first time was postre (dessert) ...

I have to try this one as home myself, if we ever get hands on ripe plantains around here. Well, it's not too fancy, but it makes for a solid dessert.
Anyway, it was a luvly day out we enjoyed very much. I hope I get my hands on some good and delicious cooking again soon.

Eating in Bristol - Za Za Bazaar

During my last holiday, which consisted mostly of getting blisters and sunburn (yes, the weather in Britain is not as bad as everyone is always thinking), we also made a one day trip to Bristol. Afterwards we also made a stop in Cheddar to walk the Cheddar gorge a bit, but that is another story.
We mostly went around the harbour area. Clever as I am, I put my accumulators of my camera to charging the night before, only to discover in Bristol as I wanted to take the first photo ... well ... they were still in the charger at home. So I had to use my mobile phone.
In the harbour area they had set up some ping pong tables and I was really surprised all the equipment was still there. So we decided for a match - three sets. Another surprise! I played better then I thought.
Next a visit to Brunel's ss Great Britain was on the program.

Well, you obviously see, what it is

Set table on the ship

If you are interested in such kind of subjects, it is well worth going. You get an audio guide there and can imagine what travel must have been like at that time. Concerning the guide, you can choose whether you want to travel first class or third class. There is also an audio guide for children.
For just going once and visiting the ship and the museum is not so cheap, but the ticket is valid for one whole year, so you can keep coming back. That is, if you don't live too far away.
So when you are interested, you can spend quite some time there as we did, looking at things in detail. However, all this made us hungry. After all by now it was lunch time.
But where to go? 
Around there, a lot is on offer, but you need to make sure that it fits to your likes, to the likes of those in your group, and to the amount of money you want to spent.

So we found the right thing for us in this situation: Za Za Bazaar.
Here you pay one price and can eat as much as you want. The drinks you have to pay extra.
However, that is not the interesting thing about Za Za Bazaar. That is you have a variety of desks were you can get different kinds of food: Far East, Italian, Tex Mex, Indian and other things.

Just a small overview of what you see there.
You get also a separate section for dessert as well. But be careful if you want to eat yourself through the whole restaurant. That would not be advisable or you end up with having stomach problems.
I though, risked a bit to try a few more things.

Maybe you like some sushi ...

... or Thai soup with coconut and lemon grass ...

... or even some pho

At one point I forgot to take more photos of the food. Besides, as for the presentation of the food you have to arrange things yourself. I didn't have too much time for that.
You can also watch how things are prepared there freshly and at some points you can also order dishes according to your wishes.
Without going any more into detail as to what you can have or try, like curries, risotto, Asian noodle dishes and so forth, I like to tell you what I like about the whole idea.
For example, when you are out with a group for a meal and you can not find a clear majority vote on what to have, because one wants Chinese, another Italian, yet another Indian ... and so on, Za Za Bazaar could be the place for you to go, since you can have it all.
Well you don't have the full variety as you would have in a specialized restaurant or things might not be sophisticated, but it still good value.
Whatsoever, I enjoyed my stay and, who knows, maybe you will too if you have a try. At least I would go again, would I be in the neighbourhood. My friend did it.
You find Za Za Bazaar at Harbourside, Canons Rd, Bristol.
Finally, Za Za Bazaar fits totally to the title of this blog Cooking Around the World. We had it there, just in one place.
The hiking afterwards in Cheddar was very helpful for ... well, you know!

Jamie's Italian Islington - London

During my last visit to London I took the opportunity to dine at Jamie's Italian. There are several ones in London, like for example at Covent Garden and Islington. When I was near Covent Garden I checked the one out, but since I had not reserved a table and it was packed, there was no chance for me to have dinner there.
Another day then, while being near the Angel building in Islington I had a go at Jamie's Italian there. 

The restaurants has a lot large windows so you can have already a peep inside. Besides that it makes it brighter on the inside. I preferred that more, when comparing it to the one at Covent Garden.
Well, inside I went then. The personal was all young and friendly - at least as far as I could see. I had no chance to see or talk to any of the kitchen personal.

 
Concerning the liquid part I stayed with water for my lunch. I wanted to concentrate more on the food and I wasn't in the mood to have some wine.
The waiter informed me about a special dish they had on offer for the day: a stew with mussels, squid, tomatoes, and herbs. I went directly for that one.

I didn't have something like that before. I was satisfied with it. Since this was not so filling I had enough room for a few other things I wanted to try.

Fried polenta - I tried to do this at home once, but failed totally. I guess something was wrong with my polenta itself. Those here were great and now I'm sure at what to aim, when I try to make them again at home. I simply have to.
Additional I had a simple salad with rocket and tomatoes - standard one. I do it at home quite often. So there was no big difference here compared to that.
I felt a bit greedy. Therefore I had no choice, but to have a dessert as well.

The peach and almond cake was absolutely delicious. I was so glad I still had some room for it. Well, desserts go to the separate stomach anyway. I only can recommend to try this one.

Altogether I can say it was a very good lunch. I was satisfied. On top of that I didn't have to pay a fortune to get all this nice food. The prices were quite reasonable.
There were also some other things on the menu I would have loved to try like for example the prawn linguine, but obviously I already had enough food.

At the time of my visit the place was not too packed. When I was nearly finished a larger group arrived.
Well then, if you like Italian food, and are somehow near Islington, I would see nothing wrong with trying Jamie's Italian there.