Showing posts with label sausages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sausages. Show all posts

Friday, 7 October 2011

Moro & Morito

Quail & Grapes? Yep
I've been wanting to go to Moro http://www.moro.co.uk/moro/restaurant/default.asp on Exmouth market for ages so one Saturday me & my old chum Matt wandered down for lunch. It was a lot more laid back then we thought, in a nice way that is & we sat out in the sun! I ordered a dry sherry for starters, I'm getting quite into them at the mo & we were given some lovely homemade bread with olives. Moro is a Moorish/Spanish restaurant & the menu sounded exciting & a little different so was a hard choice to make.

I chose for starter "Charcoal grilled quail with grapes & almond sauce" & Matt went for "Pumpkin mani - Turkish pasta with chilli butter, seasoned yoghurt, pine nuts & sage", MMMmmmhh! I have to say that the quail was absolutely delicious! The skin had a nice crisp to it & the sweetness of the grapes went very well with the quail. A great starter! Matt liked his pumpkin mani very much. I had a bite & thought it was very interesting & equally a good starter.

Paprikary
For main I chose "Mackerel a la plancha with chopped garlic, parsley, hot paprika & patatas a lo pobre" & Matt went for "Wood roasted pork with chorizo rice & braised chard". The mackerel was very light & tasty, very well seasoned & the paprika gave a little oomph. The patatas a lo pobre were simply amazing. As potatoes go some of the best I've ever had. All in all delicious again. Matt's pork was also tasty & absolutely huge. He can usually put away quite a lot of food but he actually couldn't finish it off.

Cake
On to dessert & Matt was absolutely stuffed where I was feeling quite sprightly & managed to scoff down a delicious "Yoghurt cake with pistachios & pomegranate". The pomegranate & pistachio was tangy & I did feel pretty stuffed after. I also had a espresso with a free shot of brandy which was very nice of the waitress after I ordered the wrong thing. Overall amazing food, lovely service & will definitely go back.






                                                                                                                  

Onto Morito which is next door to Moro & serves tapas. Me & Daisy decided to go the other evening after seeing an exhibition by my old college teacher Bill Jackson, http://www.troikaeditions.co.uk/front-room, which was excellent.

The outside of Morito looks pretty cool & it was packed inside so we managed to get a table outside. We had 2 very refreshing glasses of Cruzcampo beer & ordered 6 plates to share.
The first to come were "Jamon & chicken croquetas" which were ok. They looked a bit overcooked on the outside & the filling was a little dry!

"Butifarra sausage with white beans & alioli"  
was also tasty, the sausage was lovely but not  
much of it & Daisy thought the white beans were  a little tasteless, I had to agree.

The next was "Crispy aubergine with miel de cana" which was lovely. Honey on the aubergine really worked but there were only 2 slices!

The "Tomato toast" was excellent & we finished with "Octopus with potato & smoked paprika". I liked the octopus but Daisy thought they had prepared it earlier & heated it up because the potato was quite starchy & fell apart when you put the fork in. It was also a very salty dish.

We didn't have dessert but finished with a lovely sweet sherry. Overall it was ok but not the best tapas I've had recently & Moro is definitely better but there was a lot of other interesting sounding things on the menu so will have to give it another go one day soon.

Thursday, 25 August 2011

Bocca Di Lupo & Gelupo

Zucchini Flowers
The other friday I wasn't feeling to hot & had an amazing hunger for Italian food for lunch. I tend not to eat much Italian out because I love eating my dad's cooking but I needed some sort of pasta. So I phoned up my friend Will from Bristol who happens to be working in London for a month & told him to meet me at Bocca Di Lupo on Archer street. They cook across Italy's twenty regions, so there's some amazing dishes & they do small or large plates so ideal for sharing. There is a desert from my dads region, Abruzzo, called Sanguinaccio which is a pigs blood dessert mixed with chocolate. Pretty delicious, like an intense Nutella served with bread.

Anyway, back to lunch! We sat at the bar which is great fun getting to watch the chefs in action & ordered a starter to share of "Courgette flowers with mozzarella & anchovy"! It was delicious, the batter slightly greasy & crispy but in a good way & a lovely taste of the saltiness from the anchovy. Very tasty indeed.

More rabbit then Sainsbury's
We then ordered mains from A the one dish lunch menu. I ordered "Bucatini al coniglio all'Ischitana" (which translates as Rabbit braised with chilli & tamato; bucatini in the sauce thereof) which is from Ischia & Will ordered "Grilled home made spicy Italian sausages with soft golden polenta & grilled Treviso" (no translation) from Veneto.

My main was a knockout. A really lovely bit of rabbit with bucatini, which is a thick spaghetti like pasta with a hole running through the center, lovely spicy tomato sauce with parsley sprinkled on top & a dried chilli on the side. Will had food envy even though his sausage & polenta was equally delicious.
                                                                                           

Phenomenale
Rather then have dessert at Bocca Di Lupo I popped over to Gelupo, I've mentioned them before & had a espresso, they do a great espresso with a watermelon & clementine sorbet! I'm not joking when I say this but there ice cream really is phenomenal! I've had so much ice cream since a baby & Gelupo wows me every time. Goooooo there.