Pint Shop, Cambridge, UK

Pint Shop is located right in the centre of Cambridge, but you could easily walk past and not notice it. That would be an error. It only opened late year, but it's been a great addition to the limited number of independent eating options in town. It's a slightly odd space with a pub/bar at the front, and a dining room at the back (and another upstairs too apparently). I went for a weekend lunch earlier in the year which was lovely (but unblogged), so it was an obvious choice for a midweek, day-off-work, late lunch. And by late lunch, I mean very late- I think we rocked up at around 3:45pm, so were the only people in the dining room, but service was still prompt and friendly.

 There would normally be other people here.

Bread and a jug of water arrived unprompted, and an exceptionally helpful front of house person assisted me in choosing the nicest gin and tonic I have ever had (with City of London Dry Gin if you're interested). Wanting something lighter to eat, I chose a couple of starters and sides (to share), which all used simple ingredients done really well. A classic asparagus and poached egg dish was cooked perfectly and well seasoned. The crumbed hake was a bit like square fishfingers, but none the worse for that, and the grilled spring onions that came with it were deliciously tender and smoky. I love broccoli with anchovy, and would have been delighted with am extra pot of the dressing for dipping purposes. As I think the picture below captures, onion rings were ginormous but still light and crispy.

Having scoffed all of this, and with the MCP devouring a large baked bream, we were too full for pudding (a rarity). All of this food, along with a couple of alcoholic drinks came to around £55 (without service) which I think was excellent value for the quality of cooking. I've only been twice, but I already pretty much love Pint Shop. I would happily return just for a G&T, but some food would be even better.

Pint Shop
10 Peas Hill
Cambridge CB2 3PN

Elizabeth Shaw chocolate

I have always found it hard to say no to chocolate in any form, so when a nice person from Elizabeth Shaw asked if I'd like to try some of their chocolate I responded in the affirmative. I also thought it would be a good chance to try out something completely new to me. In fact, it turned out that I had eaten some Elizabeth Shaw chocolate previously as they make some very acceptable amaretto flavour chocolate straws (or flutes as they seem to call them) that I enjoyed (a.k.a. scoffed a lot of) last year.

The company have now expanded their established range of mint chocolate crisps and added some new flavours which include caramel, honeycomb, butterscotch and a darker chocolate with cocoa nibs. These come in a number of selection boxes and also in bar form. I have to say that I couldn't tell much difference between the butterscotch, honeycomb, and caramel flavours as they all contained bits of honeycomb in them. But they were also very nice, and as the 'crisps' were actually bite-sized discs they did a good job of filling the need for a hit of sweetness after dinner. The cocoa nibs were not embedded in the darkest of chocolate, but it was still pretty decent. And I'm all in favour of not limiting mint chocolate to the Christmas holidays, so enjoyed those too.

So overall, I quite liked these chocolates. They haven't got the funkiest of brand names, but the actual product is pretty good with a few novel twists.

Elizabeth Shaw Chocolates
I rate them: 7.5/10
Cost: From around £2.00 for a bar.


Thanks to Elizabeth Shaw who sent me my chocolate for free and gratis.

The First and Last, Cambridge, UK

Cambridge has a lot of pubs in it, and randomly many are in 'pub clusters'. There is the 'back streets of Mill Road cluster', the 'Lensfield Road cluster' (though now somewhat depleted), and the 'behind the police station cluster' that is vaguely near town. A long-standing member of this last cluster has recently been re-born as The First and Last. This pub used to be the pretty average Cricketers, but has now been completely refurbished and has more of a gastropub vibe to it.

A few of us popped in over the bank holiday weekend to find a couple of light and bright rooms, where we happily spent the afternoon eating and avoiding the rain. We had a range of light lunch dishes, that were all under the £10 mark, nicely presented and flavourful. The sticky toffee pudding was particularly notable for being light while still being full of dates and errrm... well, sugar. Service was friendly, with a Camembert-related food delay pleasantly dealt with, and just a generally nice atmosphere. I wasn't drinking anything alcoholic, so can't really comment on that side of things, but there seemed to be a range of interesting looking wines behind the bar as well as lots of beers that I'd never heard of before (though that could be more of a reflection on me than the pub).

All in all, I am looking forward to a return visit.

The First and Last
18 Melbourne Place
Cambridge CB1 1EQ

 

Alimentum, Cambridge, UK

I remember hearing about Alimentum when it first opened several years ago, but only managed to visit for the first time last year due to some good planning from a London-based blogging friend. I really don't know why it took me so long- lack of organisation and a slight fear of disappointment I guess. Anyway, self-flagellation aside, this initial enjoyable visit provided enough of a prompt to think of Alimentum when considering venues for a bit of a social celebration with friends.

But as we trudged along some of Cambridge's busiest roads in the grey drizzle of a Monday evening, I recalled that Alimentum's location might have had something to do with the lack of earlier visits. It's almost opposite the city's 'Leisure Park' and on one of the main roads leading to Addenbrooke's Hospital, so has a great view of the top of a multiplex and numerous ambulances zooming by. However once we'd made our way in, the restaurant and its staff did a very good job of insulating us from the traffic and neon lights outside. We were soon supplied with some appetisers while we waited for our table, and though views were mixed I was an immediate fan of the cheese and onion macarons. The pale pink macaron shells were flavoured with caramelised onion, so had a sweet edge, and were filled with a sort of whipped goats cheese. I am currently wondering if it would be foolish to try and recreate these at home....

Anyway, onto the food proper. Alimentum has a very reasonably priced set menu on Monday evenings, so that's what we plumped for. As we settled into our booth, carafes of water and some delicious bread appeared rapidly. The warm sage bread was particularly nice, and came in the form of min-loaves (in the top picture). I had an amazingly light and frothy cauliflower soup to start with, which had little nuggets of subtly pickled cauliflower and sweet spring onion (I think). The whole thing had the quality of a vegetable marshmallow, which I really liked.

My sea bass main course came with a sort of chickpea stew with tomato and olives, and some sort of anchovy cream. This was a perfectly functional dish, if not terribly exciting. Personally I think a few more olives and maybe anchovy was needed to perk things up. And though the fish was beautifully cooked, I would have preferred a nice crispy skin rather than the sesame seed coating.

Pudding was a deconstructed apple and blackcurrant crumble, which caused a little consternation amongst the crumble traditionalists when it arrived at the table. However I quite liked my block of fruit mousse, and despite their similar textures it went well with the ice cream. The 'crumbs' were more like a shortbread biscuit rather than crumble topping, but still very acceptable. I also sneaked a taste of the male companion person's chocolate and passion fruit terrine type thing, and was very impressed with the rich chocolate ganache leading to a fleeting moment of regret about my fruit-based dessert.
The fixed price menu is £22.50 for three courses, which I think is very reasonable for the quality of food and service, though drinks can ratchet this up quite a bit.

Alimentum is probably not somewhere I'd pop in for a casual dinner, but is perfect for a bit of a treat. It has most of the elements of a fine dining restaurant in terms of presentation and quality of food, but doesn't make a fuss if you order a diet Coke and tap water for the table. It also does pretty well with trying to inject some soul into its new build location. On this occasion the food was good rather than stunning, but I enjoyed everything and actually those macarons and the soup were pretty outstanding. After my huge delay in going to Alimentum, I suspect I'll be making some more regular return visits.

Alimentum
152-154 Hills Road
Cambridge CB2 8PB

Bill's Cafe and Restaurant, Cambridge, UK

The opening of Bill's Cafe and Restaurant in Cambridge has caused quite a bit of excitement amongst those of us here with a passing interest in food. Bill's is a small chain which started off with locations in Sussex and has now expanded to London, and most recently Green Street in the centre of Cambridge.

While Bill himself remains elusive, his cafes have gone for the Jamie Oliver-esque concept of also being 'stores' where you can buy Bill's jams, chutneys, and books (as well as lots of other stuff). The shelves full of interesting things cover the walls of the cafe, which means the interior looks quite relaxed and funky. And they actually manage to pull off the combo of faux driftwood wall panels with industrial ducting across the ceiling too.

Bill's do quite a wide range of cafe style food from breakfast through to dinner, and when I popped in for lunch with the Male Companion Person the other day we thought we'd try a selection of starters. I had the gazpacho, the MCP had an avocado and bacon salad, and between us we shared the mezze board and some calamari.

Both the salad and the gazpacho were very generously sized for starters. My soup had a great fresh balance of tomato, pepper and cucumber, with just a little onion kick. I suspect some might have preferred a smoother texture but I quite liked the fact that it hadn't been processed to death. This would be perfect to have on a hot and sunny summer's day, but was still pretty fine on a cloudy and overcast summer's day.

The calamari were light and crispy, as described on the menu, and the garlic mayo was particularly good as well.

The mezze board came with lots of little bowls of vegetarian goodness, including an outstanding red pepper hummous with pumpkin seeds, which (I think) was spiced with some cumin as well. The baba ganoush didn't really taste of smokey aubergine though. The strongest flavour was that of citrus, but it was still very tasty. As were the other bowls of roast vegetables, olives and guacamole.

What was particularly impressive, apart from the quality of the food, was the very reasonable pricing. We had a lot of food for two people, but all of the above along with some non-alcoholic drinks, cost just over £31.00 (including service).

So good food, nice atmosphere, reasonable prices- there's very little not to like about Bill's. I'd recommend going before the rest of Cambridge finds out about it.

Bill's Cafe, Restaurant and Store
34-35 Green Street
Cambridge CB2 3JX

The Willow Tree, Bourn, Cambridgeshire, UK

I was taken out for a rather nice dinner last week. The Willow Tree gastropub in Bourn is about twenty minutes from central Cambridge. It's one of those places that you'd find quite hard to just randomly stumble across, and I'd never heard of it before. However lots of other people obviously had as it was pretty packed out for a week night in the countryside. The pub has a really lovely shabby chic look inside, and a highly impressive specials board (see below).

The menu is a combination of some pub classics such as burgers and fish and chips with more restaurant-style dishes. The main menu is pretty big in itself, and with specials for each course there also seemed to be an emphasis placed on local and seasonal ingredients.

Best specials board ever.

I kicked off with a starter of fresh crab and smoked salmon mille feuille with a chard and radish salsa. This was a perfect light summer starter, which had very generous amounts of flavourful crab and salmon. The Male Companion Person (MCP) went for a bresaola and mozzarella salad, one of the specials, which was also declared delicious.

For my main course I reverted back to pub-style and went for fish and chips, while the MCP stuck with the more 'gastro' pan-fried sea bass and spring vegetables. My haddock came in a light batter, which could have been a little crisper, but was still very tasty. The chips were somewhat on the giant side (really not sure if I approve of the trend towards brick-sized chips) but again were cooked very well. And I really liked the pea puree, which retained the natural sweetness of the peas. The sea bass disappeared very rapidly, and was still being talked about several days later.

I was unfortunately far too full to sample a pudding but did manage a cafe mocha. This was also notable for how nice it was, made with proper coffee rather than from a sachet. Also of note was my glass of Cabernet Sauvignon Spanish rosé wine. This was beautifully fruity, and though it may have been a little sweet for some, it was perfect for me.
So all in all, with the lovely surroundings, prompt and attentive but not over the top service, and delicious food, there was very little not to like about The Willow Tree. I think it was reasonably priced for the quality of food it offered, and though the MCP paid on this occasion you can get an idea of prices from the menu. So props to the MCP for discovering this gastropub, and I am very much looking forward to a return visit!

The Willow Tree
High Street
Bourn
Cambridge CB23 3SQ

Foreman and Field smoked salmon

I remember back in the day when smoked salmon was a real treat to be ooo and ahhh over. These days it's more of a daily commodity; a mainstay of office meeting catering that can often be taken for granted. However there are still producers that make smoked salmon that rises above the average supermarket offerings.

I had heard of Foreman's smoked salmon and their mail order arm Foreman and Field courtesy of some other food bloggers, so when I was asked if I'd like to try some of their London cure smoked Scottish salmon I said yes (very quickly).

I was sent 200g of their London cure, and wanting to keep things simple I used it in a big grilled asparagus, rocket and watercress salad for two, and two rounds of toast and scrambled eggs the following day. I think this actually might have been the nicest smoked salmon I've eaten. It was beautifully rich, but with a very mild smokiness that really let the flavour of the salmon come through. This delicate flavour meant that it was particular good with the eggs, and didn't dominate either dish.

As you might expect this quality doesn't come cheap, with 200g priced at £9.95 but this amount would easily serve four people as a generous starter (or an equivalent permutation). This is not really an everyday purchase, but is a great example of a product that is really worth a premium price and I quite like the idea of smoked salmon being something for special occasions again.


H.Foreman London cure Scottish smoked salmon from Foreman and Field
I rate it 9/10
Cost: From £9.95 for 200g

Thanks to Foreman and Field who sent me my smoked salmon for free and gratis.

Ryvita crackers

I remember when I was little that Ryvita crispbreads were firmly placed in my mind (alongside Weetabix) in a category of inedible foods that tasted like corrugated cardboard. So when a nice PR person asked if I'd like to sample some Ryvita crackers, I was not exactly biting their hand off. However, I think my tastes buds have matured a little over the years and as these crackers are billed as biscuits for cheese, I thought I'd give them a try.

Ryvita crackers come in two varieties, black pepper and golden rye. They both have a very light crunchy texture, but don't shatter everywhere. The black pepper crackers are pretty peppery though, which makes them ideal to go with a super-bland cream cheese, a super-flavoured strong cheese (I had them smothered in Boursin), or for dipping in hummous. The golden rye crackers are much more neutral though and therefore genuinely suitable for a whole range of cheeses. They are also high in fibre and low in fat (though less so when covered in butter or cheese), which is nice if you are into that sort of thing.
Another feature that I fully endorse is the packaging of these crackers. Each box contains about six packets, containing six crackers, which means that you don't have to worry about things going stale or finding biscuit tins. So overall a thumbs up!

Ryvita crackers
I rate them 7/10
Cost: Around £1.25 per pack

Thanks to Wildfire and Ryvita who sent me my crackers in a hamper for free and gratis.

Stickybeaks Cafe, Cambridge, UK

Just a quick post on a new independent cafe that has appeared in the chain-opoly that is central Cambridge. Stickybeaks Cafe is tucked away on Hobson Street and offers a daily changing lunch menu, along with a range of cakes and drinks. I popped in for a late lunch yesterday with the male companion person and had a very nice (and at £4, reasonably priced) frittata with crab and artichoke, while he had a selection of salads.

It seemed rude not to sample some cakes too, so along with a genuinely chocolate-y hot chocolate I had a lamington which was light and not too sweet either.

I liked Stickybeaks. It wasn't doing anything amazing but it had a bright, homely interior and provides an alternative to the numerous Costas, Neros and Starbucks that populate the town centre.

I suspect it's going to be popular though and they could really do with trying to increase their seating, as once the word is out nabbing a table may become rather tricky.

Stickybeaks Cafe
Hobson Street
Cambridge CB1 1NL

Eating for England and why I like Nigel Slater

Ok, this isn't a food review as such (or in fact at all) but mirrors a book review on the other blog. It is a food book review though, so thought I'd post it here too.

I should probably start out by saying that I really like Nigel Slater, and would ideally like him to be a close friend so that I could pop round to his for lunch and sit in his rustic but functional kitchen, or delightfully untamed but productive garden (c.f. The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater). I would be very happy to sample a seasonal meal or sip on a mimosa, while indulging in some light gossip. However, we have yet to be united in friendship so in the meantime I've been reading a couple of his books.
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