A new blog for a New Year

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the dawn of a new era. If you were lucky enough to be one of the many charming and sexy readers of the haphazardly formatted and rarely updated Eat It, then you'll love this Food Blog 2.0. But things have changed since then. Oh yes. Time makes fools of us all. For one thing, I have moved from Leamington Spa, the quaint Georgian bosom of the West Midlands, to Bristol, the jiggling, in-your-face cleavage of the South West. I like it. So, for this first post of the new blog, I'm going to write about a few of the local foodie joints I've found and started loitering around.

The Thali Cafe

Right away I'm establishing myself as an outsider here, because it seems that all the locals I've spoken to already know and love this place. 'Oh, you like the Thali Cafe? Well, duh, of course you do. What's wrong with you? Hey, here's a tip, if you're stuck for something for lunch, why don't you try a bit of ham or cheese between two slices of bread! We call them sandwiches*'. For the benefit of anyone out of the Brizzle loop, this is one of the best Indian restaurants I've ever visited, but the take-away is where they really come into their own. The first time you visit you have to buy a Tiffin box (around £20, if memory serves - it comes full of food, so I don't think it's exhorbitant), but every time you go back you bring the tiffin box with you for a cheap refill that'll easily serve two people. There are four compartments, filled with rice, dhal, a vegetable curry, and your choice of main curry. The lamb would be my regular choice, but the paneer is also excellent.

*Other than the glib 'we call them sandwiches' remark, that is a genuine tip that I once read in a Woman's Own magazine. I swear to God.

The Star and Dove

This pub/restaurant (I'm not keen on the term 'gastropub', so you'll have to indulge me the use of the less aesthetically pleasing forward slash) is something of a curiousity. From the outside it looks like a standard pub. From the inside, it also looks like a standard pub. Sneaky, aren't they? Really lulling you into a false sense of security. There's a nice cosy fire, a good range of decently kept beers, pork pies at the counter, and board games at the back. From the look of it you absolutely wouldn't think that the restaurant upstairs produces fabulous recreations of medieval to renaissance era recipes like 'Roajied ham' or 'Crabbe with hippocras', would you? Yeah, weren't expecting that one, were you? The bar food isn't like that. That would be ridiculous, can you imagine? No, the bar food is based on the 'Tavern' food of the 18th-19th centuries, obviously. When I visited, our group shared a number of different little plates - the goats cheese with nuts and wild honey was fantastic, as was the black and white sausages, and the lamb shoulder croquettes. Dessert was a platter of different tasters, including fiery hot little ginger meringues, chewy orange and chocolate brownies, a frozen orange jelly, a room temperature red wine jelly, a clean tasting just-set bay custard, and a number of other bits and pieces that reduced our table to silence as we picked it apart like vultures. Classy, highbrow vultures. I'm going back for my birthday.

Graze Bar and Chophouse

'Graze' is a great example of a place doing one thing very, very well. The menu is short. They do steak. There are a couple of other things (I think I spotted a single token vegetarian main course), but they mainly consist of things to have before you have your steak, after you have your steak, or as a side. To your steak. The only downside is they are not cheap, but as an occasional treat I still say it's worth it. Order a rib-eye, rare, with bearnaise sauce. Usually I would qualify that statement with 'if you like' or 'in my opinion', but not this time. Just do it.