Hanging at Jamie's

Review for Jamie's Italian



So, Jamie Oliver, British Food Network chef and author of Jamie's America just opened up a restaurant in Leeds! As a pretty big fan of the FN, how am I going to pass this one up?

The restaurant is situated in the city centre on Park Row, down the street from Wagamama's, a Japanese restaurant, which is fairly popular in the UK. The entree's at Jamie's run from cheap to mid-range to more expensive, depending on what you order and the portioning. As an Italian grill, pastas, meat-boards, fancy bread baskets, brick-cooked dishes, seafood and salads are available alongside steaks. Click here for the menu. In addition a gamut of wines, hand chosen by Jamie himself, are available for your vintage pleasure. Click here for the wine list. While there is no dress code for the restaurant (I would consider it quite family friendly), I would recommend dressing a bit more smartly than flip flops and shorts, especially for a date.

Food
For my entree, I ordered "Fish in a Bag" and my friends and I shared a starter of Jamie's "Posh Truffle* Chips," which were fantastic. The flavour of the truffles was definitely apparent and popped wonderfully amidst the sprinkled grated mild cheddar. The chips themselves were done very well and were obviously fresh; I expected no less from Mr. Oliver. Although we did not order a starter of bread, I might recommend it as the starter comes with an amazing selection of breads of all shapes, sizes and colours, also picked by Jamie.

The Fish in a Bag was pretty darn good; the fish, caught off the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, was fresh, very tasty and cooked perfectly. The shellfish was a bit small, but considering I'm no connoisseur, this might have just been typical of the types of clams and mussels. What I was most pleased with, however, were the tomatoes that the fish, fennel and shellfish were steamed with. These tomatoes were AMAZING. Generally, I'm neutral about tomatoes; I like them, but I never comment on them-- to me, they're just kind of "there" in most dishes. But these tomatoes most certainly had a presence! They were incredibly sweet, and bursting of flavour. Absolutely wonderful.



Design
Not only is the food good, but the design of the restaurant is fab! When you enter Jamie's Italian, you're greeted by crates of pasta and produce. The building, which was once originally a bank, contains multiple levels, so be prepared to climb a bit. The restaurant is raised half a floor from the entry way, but only contains a ground and first floor, so the stairs aren't terribly daunting. Upstairs there is a bar-style counter from which the food is picked up by the waiters and waitresses so even before you order you can feast your eyes on the fanciful presentations the dishes are served in, usually making your selection even more difficult! :) The colours will blow your mind, especially the colours of the various salads.


Excuse the camera-phone quality
Even the toilets and sinks are awesome; they are really old-fashioned ones made by the original Thomas Crapper company. The font and the cute-ified rococo style appliques are also something to be praised. :) One thing I could knit-pick about, and this is INCREDIBLY petty for a food blog such as mine, mind you, is that there were a few design flaws in the menu such as the white space in the centre, but we'll not pay much attention to that. The ambiance in the restaurant was friendly and the staff amiable. I am happy to say that for those with meager budgets, tap water is available for free (bottled is also available for the not-so-adventurous). Nonetheless, Jamie's Italian proved to be a positive dining experience and I would recommend it!

I will be posting more blogs for my month-long trek across various cities in Europe, so stay tuned! :) Feel free to subscribe to receive updates! Cheers! xx

-Raechel

Eating in Edinburgh

So our study abroad program put on Thanksgiving for us in Edinburgh (where the study centre is located) because England doesn't observe this American tradition. (I've gotten my flat mates to agree that they should-- here's how WE celebrated Thanksgiving: CLICK HERE) Here's how Thanksgiving in Edinburgh went down:

Seems pretty typical with mashed potatoes, turkey, cranberry sauce, creamed corn... but...

Yeah, they don't have pumpkin pie in the U.K. But these tarts with fruit paste and clotted cream were good anyways.

So apart from the Thxgiving dinner, we went around to sample some goodies. Here's a candy shop we stumbled upon:




My goodness, I LOVE hedgehogs (little guys on the right)!

And more traipsing around Edinburgh led us to a pub called Arcade...

This is a dish called 'haggis, neeps, and tatties' or ground sheep innards, turnips and potatoes. All on a beautiful moat of gravy. Very tasty!
I was a little more/less "adventurous" and ordered Hunter's Stew:

It was quite a heavy stew and definitely triggered a good ol' "food hangover."

FUN FACT: Scottish cuisine gets a lot of crap from other countries (i.e. England) for having so much fried food. This is the impression I've gotten from my English friends anyways.

Munchies in Madrid

Jessica and I went out for tapas on our first night hanging out in Madrid! We ordered a plate of spicy potatoes and a plate of mussels! It came with really great bread as well. :) To celebrate our meeting, we got some lovely wine with lemon. :)
The only thing I don't care for about Spain is that smoking indoors is legal and completely acceptable; some places prohibit smoking indoors, but they are few and far in between. My poor, poor lungs. No fumar por favor! <- My poor Spanish...


Meet what the Spanish call bocadillos! My lovely flat mate, Laura, who is a local of Madrid, Spain, showed me around on my first night there! She also treated me to these lovely sandwiches. Here's her little tour of some of the different kinds:

The restaurant we went to was called 'Cervezeria 100 Montaditos.' There were ACTUALLY 100 different kinds of sandwiches!
Anyways, Laura, made me a fantastic and very complete list of things to do, and of course, things to eat, in Madrid. She's wonderful and I can't thank her enough!


Laura put 'churros con chocolate' on her list, so Jessica, Ryan and I went out to grab some for breakfast one morning! It's just what it says it is: churros (like the Disneyland kind, but without the sugar and cinnamon) with thick, syrupy, melted chocolate! Delish. If you do order it, don't necessarily expect the chocolate to be super sweet.
Here's a close up:



Calamari bocadillo is fried calamari rings in a baguette. Very simple, salted, and yummy! Again, something that Laura recommended. Apart from it being typically chewy, I loved it!

Germany & Switzerland

BREAKFAST


Here's the lovely set out breakfast table. Lena's mother adores candles and she lit some anytime we had a meal, snack or tea. She's also a fantastic interior decorator, if I do say so myself. On the table we've got some great breads including the wonderful pretzel, some croissants and really great rolls, some with poppyseed. Bread is Germany is fantastic, with a texture on the outside and a nice fluffiness on the inside. Lena's mum goes out to the local bakery and picks up the bread fresh. Next to the breads we've got some lovely Swiss jam, Nutella and honey, I believe. Butter as well. I'm a big fan of butter with Nutella on a croissant. :)
Note: that shark at the bottom isn't particularly German. Lena's mother heard that I LOVE croissants and got some extra for me the next day for breakfast; the one I fished out of the basket had a small defect to it: it was missing teeth. So I gave it some.


Meet German New Years bread! It's a sweet kind of bread, slightly like King's Hawaiian, but not quite as cotton-candy like as King's Hawaiian bread. It's between that and perhaps a soft scone, being more dense, but not hard.


I can't quite remember what these are specifically, but I do know that that cheese is goat cheese. The meats are schinken and speck (thanks Denise!!). Nonetheless, extremely tasty. This was the first time I had goats cheese while knowing it. And I liked it. :)

APPETIZERS/SIDES

Cheese-stuffed baby peppers. A nice twang balanced out with the goat cheese. The olive oil it's soaked in makes it fantastic. I believe the peppers are slightly pickled as well. Great side.

ENTREES




This is raclette. Basically it's like an indoor grill with a top grill underneath. How it works is you grill whatever you want on top, really, and then in your individual trays, you put cheeses and meats and whatever else to be melted under the grill. When it's bubbly and gooey, you remove the tray and slid the toppings onto either a slice of french bread or some lovely potato. Delightful and very Swiss.


While this is more a dish that Lena and her mother cook (not entirely sure if it's particularly German), this meat, eggplant and zucchini lasagna was wonderful! I've never had eggplant before (just because it looks funny, in all honesty), but I thoroughly enjoyed it here. Everything in Germany = sooo much tastier than British food, by the way.



Lena made some pie that we decided to call cottage pie, since it wasn't quite shepherd's pie or any other English pie. It was great! :)


Nurnberger Rostbratwurst and potato salad. My last night in Germany, Lena and her mother searched forever to get me traditional sausages from Lena's mother's hometown Nurnberg, or Nuremberg as we say in English. And success! I'm learning that sausages are very particular... (I wish I could take a class on learning about the types. Same for cheeses.) Also, teamed with some really really good potato salad. It was made with dwarf potatoes, sliced pickle and a certain kind of oil.

DESSERT/SWEETS


Though we had this for afternoon tea, it technically can go under desserts. It's a really nice vanilla cream cake basically. :) The cream was very good. Eaten at the Hohentwiel restaurant down the mountain from the actual castle.


You can't go to Switzerland without having Swiss chocolate because it actually is amazing. So milky, soft and wonderful! It's like velvet in bar form! (I'd also LOVE to take a class on just chocolate.)


Bratapfel: so there's no Wikipedia page in English for the bratapfel, but it basically means "baked apple"-- no, not that kind of baked. >_> I shadowed Lena as she made it, so I can describe it and hopefully duplicate it one day! The apple is first hollowed out and then filled with a mixture of breadcrumbs, raisins, ground almonds, honey and a bit of sugar. Then slices of butter are placed on top and it's placed in the oven and wonderfully baked! I really adore this dish... (Boy, I sound like Ina Garten now.)

This is just something adorable I have to share:

I've set my heart on finding one and buying one to bring home. Except my fridge is not magnetic. Dammit.

Grub in Istanbul

BREAKFAST

Turkish Breakfast - this is all eaten with bread rolls; there's sausage, cheese, tomato, an egg, olives, sourcherry (popular in Turkey) jelly, chocolate spread, butter and honey. And an orange slice to taste. This was the complimentary breakfast at the hostel, but I saw the same thing on menus at several other restaurants.

ENTREES


Lamb doner with rice, salad and chips - The lamb was cooked perfectly (really tender!) and was complimented with great spices which I can't really name.
A lot of places are beginning to add chips (or fries) to their foods. At one restaurant we had doner wraps with fries IN them. Not bad. A bit like a California burrito. But not a burrito-- man! I miss Mexican food! The restaurant I ate this at was very close to my hostel. The drunken restaurant owner, who called himself "Uncle" beckoned us in. And he gave us a free concert. What a man. I'll provide you with some entertainment by Uncle before we continue this tour of Turkish cuisine (Uncle let me play with his "guitar" thing before he gave us a free acoustic concert):




Perde Pilavi - This dish starts out like a cylinder-shaped tower of rice with almond slices on top (representing children). Inside is rooster meat (representing the groom) and chicken meat (representing the bride). The rice symbolizes blessing and the dough sheets on pilaf represents the immunity of the home. Originating from Middle Asia, this dish is now popular for Turkish weddings. That little dumpling thing on the side is kinda like a pizza in a roll with mushrooms, cheese and peppers.


Grilled fish - they have these open grills all over the riverside next to fresh fish stands. If you want, you can even hire a boat to take you on a tour, have the staff catch a fish for you, and grill it right on the boat.


Grilled fish sandwich - this is usually how the grilled fish is eaten, with lettuce, tomato, onions, oil and salt. We ate fish sandwiches twice simply because they were really amazing. I haven't had many fish sandwiches, so this was easily the best fish sandwich I'd ever had. The key? The fish. INCREDIBLY fresh.


Chicken kebab with rice bulgur pilavi (rice), lettuce and flat bread

DESSERT


Rice pudding - You can get this in lots of Turkish shops and restaurants, but be careful: it has to be done right! If it's too watery, well, all I can say is that it's ruined! The consistency is meant to be between jello and grits.


Baklava from Karakoy Gullugolu Baklava Shop - The best baklava I've had to this day (and ask my mother, I've eaten a lot of baklava). Perfectly flakey and caramelized; good texture. Not too hard. A nice twist with the ground pistachio.


Tulumba tatlisi - I don't know the translation of this sticky, delicious cross between a churro and a glazed donut, but it's very sugary. The syrup, which I'm pretty sure is JUST sugar will essentially glaze your hand if you don't eat it fast enough.


I've heard of the company that makes these bars, but this I've NEVER seen this one before! It's essentially a Neapolitan chocolate bar! Light, airy (like those Aero bars) strawberry and vanilla on the inside, covered in chocolate. I dunno about you, but I think this is a great invention.

BEVERAGES


Turkish apple tea- made with loose leaf tea, not exactly sure what else is in it besides apple, but I bought a box before I left Istanbul. It's one of my favourite teas now because it's so true to the apple flavour and scent.

Pomegranate Juice
I sadly have no photos of this, but it's not exactly an unheard of drink. Basically what makes it special is that they juice the pomegranate for you right there. And it's delicious. :) And good for you!

Welcome!

Hello and bon appetite!

I'm launching this sub-blog of my travels to provide food coverage! Food from everywhere! While I generally try to save money whilst traveling by buying bread and cheese from grocery stores, I splurge on the occasion to get a taste of the local eats! This is where you can read up about it! I'm going to make entries for each trip (in no particular order), complete with pictures so as to not clog up my regular travel blog. Food deserves its own space.

Cheers!
Raechel