15 August, 2009 - 12:53
I’ve been curious to try this place for a while and took the opportunity to stop in for a light breakfast before descending upon the new farmer’s market on Jubilee Square (every 3rd Saturday).
CUP (also known as BOTTLE in the evenings) is the new-ish Italian style cafe located within the myhotel building on Jubilee Street. It sits directly opposite the colourful and perpetually busy Carluccio’s cafe, whilst CUP, in contrast, sits quite still and alone on the other side of the street.
This place is terrible. I visited for breakfast around 10:30am on a Saturday. The place was empty bar one staff member on duty. I ordered coffee, OJ and two rounds of toast and jam, which came to just under £7.
Service was slow. The cup of coffee was half empty (maybe I would have said half full if the place wasn’t so depressing) and the orange juice was so stale it had fermented and gone fizzy. I thought the server had actually put lemonade in there by accident. No, it was just off. On complaining, the server remarked “I think it might be the juiciness” … !
As for style, the place feels like an empty night club, with a lot of grey paint and morbid music which gave the place a really barren feel. We would have switched to sit outside as there was a tramp playing Star Wars themes on the street. To say the Imperial March from Star Wars was more uplifting than the in-house tunes should give some indication as to the type of mood that CUP has created.
Our rounds of brioche toast with preserves took far too long to arrive. After waiting 15 minutes my partner noticed the bread was just being sliced. Just a reminder that we were the only people in the place except for one couple having coffee.
On to the plus points, the server was very friendly and welcoming and made no hesitation in changing my gone-off OJ for a fresh glass which tasted pucker-fresh and great. The brioche came with strawberry jam, marmalade and lemon curd and was perfectly adequate. Coffee was fine, if a little stingy on the portion size.
I would not go back here again.
Filed under: brighton, restaurant — minkoir @ 12:53 pm
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13 June, 2009 - 13:50
Saturday breakfast. Eggs. Always eggs. Saturday is my favourite breakfast day of the week, and almost always comes egg-shaped. Soldiers and scramblies I have perfected to Egg Master status (according to Martin), but today was such a nice sunny morning I wanted something a bit more fun.
Serves 2
- 2 eggs
- 50ml milk
- 50ml cream (optional, double the milk if you don’t have cream going spare)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 75g butter
- 3 slices of thick bread, cut into quarters
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
Optional toppings:
- Greek yoghurt
- Honey
- Handful of raisins
1. Beat the eggs, milk, cream and half the cinnamon together.
2. Heat a third of the butter in a non-stick frying pan until hot and foaming.
3. Submerge the bread pieces in the egg to completely coat in the mixture and place into the pan. Keep the bread in a single layer and avoid over-crowding the pan (mine took 3 batches, so have your diners ready and waiting - pancake conveyor belt stylee).
4. Fry for a couple of minutes until the egg starts to set in the bread and the bottom gets golden and a little crispy. Flip over and continue to cook for another minute or so. Set aside and keep warm. Repeat with the remaining butter, bread slices and egg mixture.
5. When nicely golden and a little crisp on both sides, serve up with a dollop of yoghurt, drizzle of honey and a scattering of raisins. Take the icing sugar and combine with the remaining half teaspoon of cinnamon and sprinkle on top.
Filed under: recipes — minkoir @ 1:50 pm
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13 June, 2009 - 13:28
On super hot days it gets a little too warm in my kitchen to make me want to cook, so this salad is a great way to keep coooool. Make some space in the fridge as you’ll need to assemble the salad on plates and then chill for 20 minutes before finishing the dish. You don’t have to heat the dressing, but it’s a nice contrast against the cold salad and chicken.
Serves 2
For the salad:
- 250g cooked chicken breast, torn
- Half a cucumber, julienned
- Handful of radishes, sliced
- 2 spring onions, sliced on an angle
- 1 bundle of rice noodles
- Small bunch of coriander, chopped
- 1 small red chili, diced finely
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
For the dressing:
- 2 tbsp groundnut oil (olive is fine if you don’t have groundnut)
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tsp dried chili flakes
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp peanut butter (crunchy or smooth - your preference)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
- 2 tbsp hot water
1. First, soak the rice noodles in hot water as per the instructions on the packet. Typically takes around 5 - 10 minutes soaking in boiling water. Once soft, drain and run under cold water til completely cool. Set aside to dry off a little while you prep your salad ingredients.
2. Take a handful of the noodles and tower these in the middle of the plate. Arrange the cucumber, radishes, chili, spring onion and chicken around the noodles and cover with cling film. Pop the plates in the fridge for 20 minutes while you make the dressing.
3. Take all the dressing ingredients and whiz up to a smooth sauce. Place in a microwavable dish and heat for 20 - 30 seconds. Keep watch as the peanut butter can scorch and go rancid. You just want to warm it through to wake up the flavours.
4. When ready to finish the dish, take the plates out the fridge and drizzle the warm sauce over the chicken pieces. Top with chopped coriander and sesame seeds.
Any leftover sauce will keep in the fridge for a day. When reusing, warm through gently on the hob with a few spoonfuls of hot water.
Filed under: recipes — minkoir @ 1:28 pm
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06 June, 2009 - 14:14
This salad is so easy to chuck together and makes a pucker-fresh lunch. Zing!
Serves 2
- Half a ciabatta loaf
- 2-3 tomatoes, chopped
- Half a clove of garlic, crushed
- 2-3 spring onions, finely sliced
- Small handful of fresh basil, roughly shredded
- Big glug of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 4 tbsp water
- Big pinch of salt
- Salad leaves of your choice
1. Cut the ciabatta into 1inch chunks and either dry fry in a really hot pan or grill until crisp and coloured all over. Set aside.
2. Combine the tomatoes, garlic, basil, spring onions and oil in a bowl.
3. in a separate bowl, whisk the vinegar and water together with the salt until the salt has dissolved. Take spoonfuls of this mixture and sprinkle over the toasted ciabatta. You want the bread to absorb the flavour of the dressing without becoming too soggy.
4. Time to assemble. Pile up your salad leaves (little gem works well), tomato mixture and ciabatta croutons until you have a tower of deliciousness. Serve immediately so the bread retains some crispiness when eaten/demolished.
I also added in a handful of Tomberries (the ditty tomatoes at the front of the picture below). These iddy-biddy tomatoes are about the size of a pea and were too cute to resist buying in Sainsburys today.
Filed under: recipes, shopping — minkoir @ 2:14 pm
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02 October, 2008 - 19:37
One pot cooking, cheap as chips and so dang tasty. Keeps well to zap in the microwave for lunch the next day.
Serves 4
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 12 Sainsburys Taste the Difference chipolatas, twisted in half and snipped to make 24 dinky cocktail sausages
- 1 large red onion (although I used celery and worked well)
- A few fat cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped finely, or dried rosemary
- 1 heaped tbsp plain flour
- 400g tin of canellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 400g tin of flagolet beans, drained and rinsed
- 450ml vegetable stock (cubes are fine)
Serve with blanched Savoy cabbage with lashings of black pepper and butter
1. Heat the oil in a heavy based casserole pot and brown the sausages.
2. Add the onion, garlic and rosemary and reduce the heat to medium. Soften the onion for 5 minutes or so.
3. Tip in the flour and stir to coat everything. Cook out the flour for a minute or so and add a splash of the hot vegetable stock. As you continue to stir, the flour will bind with the cooked-down onions to make a gelatinous roux-like mix.
4. Add the stock a few ladlefuls at a time and keep stirring so the liquid amalgamates with the onion-flour-goo.
5. When all the liquid has been added, add the beans to the pot, put a lid on and turn down the heat to a gentle simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Blanch some shredded Savoy cabbage in boiling water for 60 seconds. Drain, add a knob of butter and loads of black pepper.
Deeeelish.
Filed under: recipes — minkoir @ 7:37 pm
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25 May, 2008 - 12:58
Do you know what smoothie makers were really invented for? Forget all this berries and wheatgrass health tripe. Smoothie makers were meant to unite banana milkshake and Baileys into this blissful concoction. Heaven.
PS: This idea was “inspired” by the ‘Milkshakes for Grown Ups’ tent at Brighton’s Udderbelly on the Old Steine.
Serves 2 - 3
- 1 pint milk
- 2 scoops vanilla ice cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 -3 bananas, sliced
- 100ml Baileys (may need more)
1. Chuck everything into a smoothie maker / blender / processor and pulse until smooth. Taste a little and add more Baileys if it needs it.
HEAVEN.
Tip: An ice cube in the bottom of the glass will help keep the drink cool. This is not one to rush. Hic.
Filed under: recipes — minkoir @ 12:58 pm
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23 April, 2008 - 12:56
In between dribbles, some colleagues asked for the recipe of my lunch today. This is a great meal for re-heating the next day, as the chilli and fennel flavours really develop overnight.
Serves 4
- 200g thick-sliced Spanish chorizo (ask for approx 5mm slices)
- 1 large onion, roughly chopped
- 2 red peppers, sliced into fat fingers
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- Pinch of dried chilli flakes
- 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
- 2 tins of butterbeans
Serve with toasted cibatta slices and a dollop of sour cream.
1. Cut the chorizo slices into quarters and place in a large frying pan over a medium heat. The heat will gradually make the chorizo leech its oil into the pan.
2. When chorizo has started to colour a little at the edges, add the chopped onion.
3. Stir to coat the onion in the oils and fry for a few minutes. Add the red pepper to the pan and continue to fry for a further 5 minutes.
4. Add fennel seeds and chilli to the pan and cook for 5 minutes.
5. Tip in the tomatoes and rinse the cans out with a splash of water.
6. Rinse and drain the butterbeans and add these to the pan also.
7. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat slightly. Allow to bubble away for 10-15 minutes until you have a thick sauce. If the sauce becomes too thick before 15 mins is up, add some water.
8. Check seasoning and serve.
Filed under: recipes — minkoir @ 12:56 pm
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14 April, 2008 - 18:19
In preparation for our trip to Tokyo next Spring, Martin and I have been trying to bring our tastebuds round to Japanese food. Neither of us are big sushi fans (it’s the nori seaweed that does it for me, blergh) and I sometimes wonder if Wagamama is a kind of McJapanese cuisine too palatable to be authentic. Moshi Moshi has a reputation for the finest Japanese fare in Brighton for sushi and hot ‘proper’ meals too.
We had lunch on a Saturday afternoon and found the restaurant to be about half full. We took a seat up at the conveybelt and sat twiddling our thumbs for an age before our drinks orders were taken. As we had been waiting so long we were ready to order mains too, but our server didn’t want to know. “Drinks only”. Okay. After more waiting our server told us “The drinks are coming, your pear drink takes a while” as though it was somehow my fault. They must have gone to the orchard to pick the pears fresh or something, and eventually I got something to drink. The Pear Tang (£3.50) was so heavy on the ginger that you couldn’t really taste anything else. The beer is cheaper.
The sushi belt went round and round and I hoped something would catch my eye but nothing really did. The restaurant emptied a little and the music came to a halt leaving the place feeling a little desolate. The front door was propped open, despite having been a wet and windy day, inviting a cold draft to sweep through from time to time.
Our sever went off for her lunch. The food arrived and Martin had the Chicken Teriyaki (£8.50) which came with sweet potato, a little salad and steamed white rice. Their teriyaki is the best I have ever tasted. The super sweetness is tempered by a smooth moorishness that makes it totally irresistible. The chicken pieces lay on top of a block of sweet potato which worked surprisingly well with the sauce.
I opted for the Pork Tonkatsu (£8.50) with shreadded cabbage and tonkatsu sauce served with steamed brown rice. My meal arrived in a wooden, rectangular bento-style box. The pork was a succulent piece of meat, free of any gristle, breaded and fried like a schnitzel. Tonkatsu sauce is like a Japanese-style BBQ sauce - dark, sweet and slightly tangy. Absolutely delicious. The shredded cabbage was a waste of everyone’s time. It had absolutely no flavour and seemed to leech a lot of water in the bottom of the box. Their brown rice is unlike any rice I’ve seen before. It was like plump little pellets of cloud, and wonderfully nutty.
I like the way Japanese food makes me feel full up without feeling like I’ve overdone it. Martin was beaten by his though, I think the chunk of sweet potato did it.
Our server was still having her lunch, and despite asking other staff for our bill, we had to wait until she had finished before we gained any success in trying to give this restaurant our money. I will be checking out new Japanese home-style cafe, Pompoko, soon.
Eventually we were able to leave and headed to Scoop & Crumb for pudding. Effortless, attentive and friendly - how service should be. This time I had the banana chocolate crunch with hot chocolate sauce and a cup of tea. Really bananary with great texture. The hot chocolate sauce had frozen on top of the ice cream and put up quite the fight against my chisel-spoon.
Is there anything more wrong-but-right than ice cream with a steaming hot cup of tea?
Moshi Moshi
Opticon
Bartholomew Square
Brighton
BN1 1JS
Filed under: brighton, dinner out, restaurant — minkoir @ 6:19 pm
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24 March, 2008 - 16:36
At the end of each month I chop up any food mags to make way for the forthcoming issue. All the recipes are “filed” away in this binder which lives under the sofa. Since I started collecting them about 3 years ago, the binder has grown so big it barely fits under the sofa any more.
Knowing I had a full day of pottering around the kitchen, I browsed through the Big Cooks folder to pick a couple of whoppers to cook today.
Kleftico is a (very) slow cooked leg of lamb with oregano, garlic, onions, white wine and lemon. It roasts very gently for 5 hours and is pretty much looking after itself in the oven right now. Meanwhile, I made a super duper chicken noodle soup from chicken leg portions that gave me enough stock to make a gazillion more bowls of soup forever more. To the freezer with you!
Filed under: recipes — minkoir @ 4:36 pm
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23 March, 2008 - 22:01
What a haul. This year all my eggs are white chocolate. Thanks ma, pa, pauline, kevin, liz, rog, karen, david, aidan and maaaaart!
Happy Easter, everyone!
Filed under: shopping — minkoir @ 10:01 pm
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