4. where to eat Archives - Miss Foodwise

The Goods Shed farmers market – Canterbury

Regula — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 12:06:00 +0000

Food with flavour.

You take it for granted -flavour- but the truth is that retaining the taste of each ingredient in your dish is actually pretty hard.

This is what makes a good dish for me.

Not how it looks, or how expensive or exclusive it is.

Getting your timing right and capturing flavour of every single item on the plate is what makes a good chef.

A chef who works with the best locally sourced produce takes pride in his work. This is what makes the difference between a chef by passion and a chef by profession.

Not often a dish sings to me but yesterday a The Goods Shed in Canterbury, it certainly did.

It was the hottest day of the year in England and although we were hungry, we didn’t really have an appetite due to the heat.

The Goods shed is a covered farmers market with restaurant serving British food prepared with fresh local ingredients from its own market.

Ten years ago a lady bought this derelict building and transformed it into a place where farmers, butchers and fishermen can sell their produce. Over the years the profit went up and down but after a decade they are still standing and enjoying todays ‘real food’ revival.

The owner wants to give the people of Canterbury and beyond a place where they can buy locally produced food and they want to be a fierce competition to Supermarkets.

In the food hall the first thing you notice is the huge blackboard comparing prices of the meat from The Goods Shed to that of Sainsbury’s which is situated in the same street.

With those prices black on white -or white on black in this case- why would you shop at a superstore? Here at The Goods Shed the prices are cheaper, the produce better and the whole shopping experience much more enjoyable.

You get a wide selection of foods here, a butcher, baker, grocer, cheese monger, fish monger, local beers, wines and much more.

After a browse at the market we made our way up to the restaurant.

We were lucky to have a table as they are usually fully booked every weekend.

After we drank a much needed bottle of (local)water to cool off we ordered our food.

Just main courses today, it was just too hot to eat a lot.

Hake with crab and summer vegetables for me, Sirloin steak with Stilton for B.

We were the first guests at the restaurant and we could smell the lovely scents of our dishes being prepared in the kitchen. We started to get an appetite and began to look forward to eating, I think at this point it must have been 30 degrees outside.

The food is served on vintage British crockery and although B really doesn’t like those plates he said it fitted nicely in with the concept. Really, those plain white plates everywhere are so boring don’t you think?

My dish looked inviting and fresh, the fish was cooked just how I like it. Nothing worse than dry overcooked fish! The vegetables were a pleasure to eat, something that too often tastes bland but not here. Perfect seasoning. The steak, although a very plain and simple dish it stood out because of its freshness and flavour. A very good meal, British cooking at its best.

I will most definitely return for another dinner, breakfast or lunch as this is to my humble opinion the best place to eat and shop in Canterbury.

The Goods Shed is situated just 5 minutes of the High Street, next to Canterbury West Railway station. It’s also situated on the Crab & Winkle Way route which is a lovely bike route running all the way up to Whitstable. You can read a little something about this journey on the lovely Urvashi’s blog here

I ate at this restaurant at my own expense.

The Good Shed Farmers market and Restaurant

Station Road West
Canterbury, CT2 8AN

T: +44 (0) 1227 459 153

www.thegoodsshed.co.uk

What’s your favourite farmers market?

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Polpo Soho – London

Regula — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:56:00 +0000

This was the perfect end to a spring day.

We went to London to visit the Chocolate festival, the weather was beautiful and the city buzzing because of the first warm spring day.

On our way to the underground we passed by Polpo in Soho to see if there was a long line waiting for dinner. Much to our luck the lovely lady told us it was only going to be a 30 minute wait for a table.

We drank our aperitif at the bar and had look trough the menu.

The dishes listed are classic Italian, served in ‘Cicheti‘ small plates much like tapas.

B. and I like the concept of small plates, that way we can taste a lot of different things in one evening. Deciding between dishes is always very hard so now you don’t have to choose, unless you want them all of course… We did, but decided to come back instead of ordering the whole menu in one go.

Polpo is housed in the ground flour of a 18th century building just around the corner of Carnaby street. The interior is rustic but still feels modern, it’s casual and atmospheric.

We enjoyed the food, we had Arancini as a nibble and a few different things to share. The Mortadella, gorgonzola & pickled radicchio pizetta was our favourite. The dough had a lot of flavour and the fattiness of the Mortadella was delicious with the slightly sour pickled radicchio.

The Brown crab and zucchini orecchiette had a decent amount of crab in it and tasted lovely and fresh. The only thing I was disapointed by was the beetroot & hazelnut salad, I wished it was raw beetroot but it was cooked. I personally don’t like eating big lumps of cooked beetroot and I feel the dish could have been better with raw beetroot. But perhaps it’s just me.

Finished of with a chocolate salami and strong coffee we were ready for the journey back to Sussex.

We enjoyed our time at Polpo, perfect after a day in London when you want a relaxed dinner and good value for money. The music might have been a bit too loud and I noticed the couple next to us pointing out the same matter.

You can book a table for lunch but if you want to go in the evening, it can be a wait.

We were lucky as we didn’t have to wait too long and for people like us who didn’t have dinner reservations this really comes in handy.

Polpo Soho

41 Beak Street

London

*This is not a sponsored review, all food and drink was payed for by ourselves.

Please feel free to leave a comment, I enjoy reading them!

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Bocca di Lupo, London

Regula — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 01:13:00 +0000

I love social media, a few weeks ago I saw some tweets passing by from a friend about a restaurant she was at. The tweets got me all excited to go to that restaurant, I got my review about the place from a reliable source because I know the lady and know she is a tough nut to crack So when we decided to go to London, that restaurant was my first choice.
I tend to do my research before I book a table for dinner. You probably know the story, first you google it for reviews than you go to Tripadvisor. Thanks to social media, you can just ask someone who you know you can trust on the matter. I mostly check if another foodblogger has written something about it on his or her blog.

Back to the post. We are at Bocca di Lupo today, because of Twitter.
After a walk trough the busy neighbourhood of Soho we turned into a quiet street where the restaurant and it’s little sister Gelupo have found their home.

‘Bocca di Lupo’ the child of Jacob Kenedy and Victor Hugo, opened its doors in the winter of 2008 and has since received numerous awards and great reviews for its down to earth ‘real’ Italian cuisine.

On their website they say that despite being in glamorous surroundings they are still “a family business and a humble trattoria at heart”.

If they can make something themselves, they will and some of the home made delights are available along with their gelato across the street at Gelupo.

We had high hopes and quite and appetite after we went prop shopping at Potobello Market in the morning.

The onion focaccia and the big green olives soothed our first hunger and soon we made a choice between all the delicious dishes on the menu card. Next to every dish on the menu is the region mentioned where it originated from, nice touch.
Sitting at the Chefs counter we were able to see all the cooking happen in front of our noses.
We had a few primi from which I must say the radish salad was my absolute favourite, even B who would usually never touch pomegranate loved it.
The great thing about this place is that you can choose between a large or a small portion so you can have an assortment of small plates to taste if yo want.
That way you can try a lot of things and you don’t form an opinion on just one or two dishes.
B was totally in love with the spinach and ricotta malfatti and I could have eaten a bucket load of the tortellini filled with Mortadella. I had tripe ‘Italian style’ for the first time and rather liked it.
Soon all the little plates were empty and spoons licked clean.
The service was correct, attentive and not too formal, just the way I like it.
This Italian restaurant is a little gem tucked away in Soho, after our meal we crossed the street to Gelato for the delicacies and ice cream.
I left the Bocca di Lupo experience with the big Bocca di Lupo book under my arm and a Ricotta bonbon in my mouth.
Lovely experience, can’t wait to eat here again.

Bocca Di lupo
12 Archer street, Soho, London
Underground station: Piccadilly

Some of the dishes we tried

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