Dinner at Tampopo

So today I had my dreaded MRI scan (which was NOT FUN) so as a treat, my fiancé and I went out to dinner at Tampopo.

Tampopo is a wonderful restaurant chain which serves a wide variety of South East Asian Dishes. They have a number of restaurants in Manchester, as well as one in Bristol and Reading.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures because I was so distracted by my MRI (silly me). However, I enjoyed my meal so much, I still want to tell you guys about it! However, if you head over here you can have a look at their lovely gallery!

I love Tampopo, the minute you walk in you are hit with this wonderful aroma of South East Asian cooking - lemongrass, sesame oil, chill and coconut. Tampopo also has a lovely authentic vibe, with individual padded stools on long communal tables.  On every table, there is a well containing a collection of condiments - Soy Sauce, Chili Sauce, Fish Sauce and another sauce which I can't remember the name of but tastes heavenly!

I ordered some Jasmine Tea, which comes in a beautiful cast iron teapot with matching cup. Chris ordered a Tiger beer, which is one of his favourite beers (although I may have stolen quite a bit).

We shared a portion of 'Edamame ', as I simply cannot resist ordering the yummy beans whenever I see it on the menu. We had the option of sea salt or sea salt with chilli oil, we decided on just sea salt. They were wonderful when they arrived, just the right temperature - lovely and warm but not hot enough to burn our fingers! As well as being coated in sea salt, they also seemed to have been blanched in sesame oil and lime, which made them taste even more divine!!

I decided to have 'Gaeng Phed Ped Yang', which is a spicy Thai duck curry dish. It was absolutely divine! The duck was cooked superbly and the coconut milk based sauce had just the right amount of spice for me!! It also had lychees for that sweet burst. My curry was served with jasmine rice, which was served exactly as I like it - nice and sticky! I ended up scraping my plate clean it was so good!

Chris had 'Char Kway Teow' which is a Malasian street food dish. It was a pork, squid, prawn and clam noodle dish cooked with chilli, garlic and soy. He seemed to really enjoy it and also cleaned his plate. (the bits I stole were really yummy)


Then for dessert we shared 'Khao Niaow Mamuang' which was made up of half a mango sliced up and then sticky rice cooked in coconut milk and serve with chilled coconut milk. I choose this dish because it sounded like something I had as a child when I lived in the Philippines. Whilst it wasn't the same dish, it was still really nice. The rice was lovely and creamy and sticky. The melon was really gorgeous and sweet. And I loved it!

Then it came to paying, which was uncomplicated as expected. Tampopo also do 25% Student Discount, which was brilliant! The bill came with a piece of mint rock each, which was also really yummy! I have that in my bag so you can at least have a picture of that :)

Overall I loved my meal at Tampopo, it has been my third time eating there and I would happily go again!

My Rating: 8/10

Spanish Nomelette

It is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day here and nice weather makes me want to make - and eat - nice summery food.

So, my plan for dinner: Spanish Omelette, Salad, Hummus and Pitta Dips. As its nice weather, I decided that I fancied my spanish omelette cold, so I cooked ahead.

Spanish Omelette:

I love spanish omelette, its easy to cook and I almost always have the ingredients in my fridge.

First off, I gathered all the bits I would need: potatoes, onions, garlic, eggs, milk, oil and spices:

 

Then I got to work peeling and finely chopping my potatoes into slices and popping them straight into a pan of lightly salted cold water

 

Once I had finished with my potatoes, I popped them on to parboil on a low heat. I also put a glut of olive oil into a fry pan and set that to warm up on a medium heat.

Now I was ready to roughly dice my onions and my garlic. 

( I had to suck on a teaspoon and burn a candle as Im a sucker for crying when chopping onions :) )

And so into the now warm pan they go, along with a sprinkle of parsley, salt and pepper. 

(I kept the heat low so as to sweat the onions)

As the potatoes and the onion mix simmered and sweated away, I got on to making the omelette 'batter'.

I cracked 6 eggs into a bowl, added salt, pepper and a glug of milk and mixed away until it was a beautiful pale yellow colour.

By now, my potatoes were nicely parboiled and my onions had sweated sufficiently, so I drained and rinsed my potatoes and into the fry pan they went. I then turned the heat up.

I added a dash of water to help steam the potatoes a bit more and let the mix cook away.

When the potatoes and onions started to brown, I turned the heat down to medium and added my omelette mix, making sure it covered all of the pan. At this stage, I preheated the grill to high.

I then let this cook until the edges of the omelette started to lighten up. Then under the grill it went.

Keeping a watchful eye on my omelette, I waited until the top was a gorgeous golden brown.

Once it was this colour, I was ready to take my omelette out of the grill. Now all that was needed was to turn it out onto a plate, wrap it in cling film and pop it into the fridge to cool. (I could have eaten it straight away, but I fancy a cold dinner so Im chilling it instead)

 

Recipe:

• Potatoes (about 4) finely sliced
• Onion ( 1 large) roughly diced
• Garlic Cloves ( 2 ) roughly diced
• Eggs 6
• Milk 2 tablespoons
• Parsley
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive Oil

1. Parboil the potatoes on a medium heat for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile sweat the onions and garlic in a frying pan on a low heat with a glut of olive oil
2. Whilst the eggs and milk together with salt and pepper to taste until fully combined.
3. Once the potatoes are parboiled, add to the onions and continue to fry on a high heat for a further 10 minutes. If needed, add a tablespoon of water to the pan and let it cook off.
4. When the potatoes are starting to brown, add the egg mixture, making sure to coat all of the frying pan. Preheat your grill to high. Cook the omelette on a low heat until the edges start lighten.
5. Put the frying pan under the grill for about 10 minutes, until the omelette turns a nice golden brown
6. Either serve straight away or Chill in the fridge for about 1 hour to serve cold.