Villandry - Bicester Village

I went to Bicester Village the other week. If you like your designer goods, don't mind that designs are a few seasons out and may be sorely disappointed that you probably won't get anything in your size, then it's the place for you. Actually, I probably made that sound very negative considering I had a good day walking around the shops and splurged on a pair of jeans (which I still haven't worn), a dress for work (worn twice) and a lovely cut pair of trousers (worn once). I even got fed at Villandry -  weighing the fact that I quite liked my visit to their London branch when I was there a few years ago, I was more than a little disappointed.

Queues were long (understandable since it was bang on lunchtime on a Sunday afternoon but there were so many tables available it boggled the mind why there was even a queue to start with!) and the service was slow (which probably explained the long queue).

My Dining companion decided on 2 starters to make up a meal - tomato soup served with bread and butter. A little too tart for my liking but overall it went down well. The 2nd of the two starters, prawn and mango salad. I was imagining green mango salad and a little surprised at the ripe orange mango slices that arrived with the salad. But overall the taste was fine.

The real let down was my grilled chicken and avocado mayonnaise salad. The chicken was dry, cold and tasteless. The dish was unseasoned and the leeks ............... what in the heck were they doing on my plate? It was totally and utterly out of place. It was a dish that really shouldn't have been on the menu.

I would give it a very middle of the road 5 out of 10. Half the meal was fine (my companion's) and the other was bad (mine). It's a pretty fair score.

Villandry
50 Pingle Drive  Bicester, Oxfordshire OX26 6WD

The Big Soup

Every now and then I crave for a big bowl of noodle soup. Sometimes I'm lazy and reach for a packet of instant noodles - Maggie Mee preferably or if I'm really hungry, one of those huge packets of Korean noodles. But then there are times when I feel like putting more love and care into the cooking pot.

The shop bought wanton skins were filled with minced pork that had ginger, garlic, soy sauce, oyster sauce and a touch of sesame oil mixed in. The fish cakes were shop bought from Chinatown and came in a squidgy fish paste block for shape-your-own fishcakes. I get really excited whenever I see these - I like most things processed :) but these were slightly disappointing. A tad too bouncy for my liking (I like the harder, chewier version) and really over-salted, though I happily ate my way through the whole packet. Perhaps one day when I'm really feeling the love and devotion toward the cooking pot, I'll make my own fish paste.

Putting it all together

• Cook some noodles (your choice) according to the directions on the packet. Drizzle with a little oil so that the noodles don't stick together. Set aside.
  
• Bring to boil a nice potful (half a potful, quarter of a potful.... whichever takes your fancy) of stock up to the bowl. I had a bag of home-made chicken stock sitting in the back of my freezer so I used that.
• Drop in the wantons (they freeze rather well and can be dumped into a pot straight out of the freezer-they only need a few extra minutes). Let the stock come back to a boil. Put in the vegetables, harder bits of stalks first and softer bits of leaves last. Be careful not to prod the wantons too hard, the skins are delicate after cooking.
• When the wantons float to the top and their skins start to get wrinkly, it means that they are cooked. I usually give them a minute or two extra to make sure :)
  
• Spoon in the fish paste into the stock. It's the easiest way without getting your hands messy. *tip* Wet your spoon after dropping every spoonful of fish paste into the pot. This ensures that the sticky mixture slides neatly into the soup and not stick stubbornly to the spoon. The fish paste only takes a minute to cook.
• Get some big bowls ready. Divide the noodles into the bowls. Dish out the goodies from pot. Sprinkle on some fried shallots or garlic if you like. Slurp away! :)
  

You Can't Go Wrong with a Ham Sandwich

In my book, there's nothing better than a good ham sandwich (not including a fried Spam and cucumber sandwich, of course - that is the king of sandwiches! :) Add some salad to the ham and it becomes an even better tasting sandwich.


Pret A Manger does a pretty mean Dry-Cured Ham and Greve Baguette with salad and a good smear of mustard mayonnaise. Look closely - the ham even looks like the real thing :) I'm quite partial to this sandwich (even with the cheese, which I would happily do without) but....


...... another sandwich I quite like from Pret is the Dry-Cured Ham and Eggs Bloomer. I love the layers of ham and even in my slight distaste for boiled eggs, I must admit they paired very well with the meat. Ham and eggs is after all a classic.


A newly discovered favourite - Red Pepper and Goats Cheese Soup. I've never liked the thought of goats cheese very much (hence the reason why I had never got round to trying any), even less so in a soup but this is rather yummy. The soup fills the tummy without being too heavy with a nice blend of red peppers and onion. The goats cheese lends a slight creaminess and salty tang. Very enjoyable indeed.

A night in with noodle soup

I'm very fond of noodle soups. More so when I make it myself - maybe because I don't make very good dry noodles or fried noodles..who knows. A big, big bowl of soup with yummy bits of veg and meat floating around. It's all good. Except maybe the part where I load it with salt. Oh yes, I'm also very fond of salt, in all it's glorious forms, especially all those beautiful Asian forms -light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, fish sauce.. oh happy days!

Noodle soup is probably one of the first things I ever learnt to cook. That along with omelette, which I still can't cook properly 'chef style' but that is another story. Noodle soup I think I do quite well. My best so far has probably got to be Maggie Mee (every Malaysian child must have gave grown up on this brand of instant noodles) with Tuna and Tomato. Ah my brainchild..

On this particular occassion I made Thai Style Noodle Soup. Mainly because I had some left over green curry paste sitting in the fridge.

• Put a few tablespoon fulls into a pot of boiling water (how much depends on how much soup you want and how concentrated the flavour you like it to be - it's all about personal preferences).
  
  
• As the water comes up to boil again, add some mince pork (during lazy times I open a packet of mince and spoon the meat into the water) and break down the mince as it cooks.
  
  
• Add seasoning - fish sauce, thai sweet chili sauce, ketchup (a personal favourite), lime juice.
  
  
• Add the broccoli stems (is it odd that I think it's perfectly normal to eat the stems?) about half a minute before the broccoli tops go in along with the noodles (I tend to go for the South Korean instant noodles nowadays - only because it's a bigger pack and I'm very greedy!).
  
  
• Just before the noodles are done add some chopped up cos lettuce and some coriander. Cook for a minute longer and it's done.
  
  
• Pour into a large bowl, sprinkle with some extra coriander and lime juice, arm yourself with some chopsticks and you're ready to dig in!