Displaying items by tag: Bury St Edmunds

Lunch today was at Josef's Vegetarian Cafe in Bury St Edmunds.  This cafe reminds me of the late 70's and 80's.  Days of Bagwhan and the Rajneeshees when they were resident at their commune in Herringswell.  Bright decor and the smell of patchouli with a slight hessian look going through to the Lizard Room.  The food is very good.  I ate the Felafel with spicy salsa, cucumber and yoghurt raita in a warm hummus pitta.  The salads which were not mentioned on the menu were particularly good.  But oh, the service.  So laid back man. 

On Friday last week I so enjoyed the Thos Peatlings Christmas Wine tasting.  Over 70 wines to taste, a lighter purse and some cracking wines wending their way to the suffolkfoodie HQ for Christmas.

Two days later I was invited to an informal tasting and dinner at Pea Porridge.  Ian Steel from For the Love of Wine ( he was also at Peatlings, hidden in his favourite corner of the cellar) brought a vast selection of Italian wines to taste. Pictured is Rosso Passo 2010, Lenotti, which he also showed at Peatlings. We slurped, tasted and enjoyed a fabulous dinner.  Neil Courtier from Grapesense also joined the party.  We talked wine and food, ate too much and shared each others knowledge.  If you would like to learn more about wine then take a look at Neils website. He has some brilliant courses.

Last Friday night, late - nearly 10pm, suffolkfoodie and gang felt peckish and had to think hard where to get a good late night snack in Bury St Edmunds.   Then we remembered the newly opened Graze... We were welcomed with a smile and enjoyed some impressive small plates of excellent food.  One of our favourites were the Haggis and Rabbit Bon Bons. The wine was good too!

An invitation to Bingo on Monday night meant that inspector x and suffolkfoodie had no time for supper beforehand. Our Winners Dinner was a welcome surprise.  A hot and tasty baked potato jam-packed with prawns in mayonnaise for the budget price of £3.50. Many other businesses in the customer service sector could take a leaf out of the book of Winners Bingo Halls.  What amazing staff - friendly, fun and helpful. In case you were wondering we did get a winning line, but being the amateurs that we are, called too late and missed the prize!

Look at this for a cheese scone, it's colossal. It came from the new bakery and deli in St Johns Street, Bury St Edmunds.  The bread looked very good and the cheeses represent East Anglia very well.  The deli is called Gastrono-me.  The only website link that I could find is via twitter on http://www.vanilla-bakery.co.uk/ - but here they are on facebook.

Oh dear, suffolkfoodie has gone to London, Veggieplot has been publishing books and InspectorX has been on the road, visiting hotels. Nobody left to explore Suffolk! InspectorX did manage a family outing to the Bury St Edmunds Christmas market today.  The lack of artisan foodie producers was dissappointing.   They were probably at the far better Craft Markets at Blackthorpe Barns. We did eat a good Suffolk Ham and Cheese Crepe ( £5!)  a funnel cake ( £3.50) two cups of mulled wine, weak and warm for (£7) The best thing we ate were the two Tin Miners Pasties (£2.75) from Edis of Ely in St Johns Street on the way home, and they have been on here lots of times before.

On the specials board at Baileys2 in Bury St Edmunds yesterday, a homemade sundried tomato scotch egg. It was deliciously fresh with a nicely soft  yolk.  The caramelised onion jam was rather tasty too. Baileys2 have just won the Suffolk magazine award for best Tea and Coffee Shop in Suffolk.  Well done!

Beers from Old Chimneys Brewery (Market Weston), Brandon Brewery (Brandon), Green Jack Brewery (Lowestoft), St. Peter's Brewery (Bungay), Grain Brewery (Aldeburgh), and Iceni Brewery (Mundford) are all available in this new beer shop. I'm hoping that since I responded to their press release, a couple of bottles might be heading my way because I'm fed up with yoghurts.

Maison Bleu are running their month in Provence special menu, which is very good value at £29.95 for three courses; the restaurant in Bury St Edmunds specialises in fish dishes. Granny took the suffolkfoodie offspring for dinner and this is what they said...

"A very good choice with at least six options for each course.  Yummy food with all courses being beautifully presented and delicious."

" The staff were friendly, chatty and responsive - they all had personality"

Pictured here are the Sardine and Mackerel  Rillettes, with shallots, parsley and capers and toasted bread.