River Cottage Canteen, Finale to National Vegetarian Week

River Cottage Canteen Bristol is probably a little known, little gem. The newly established progeny of the successful Axminster canteen is set to rise in popularity, if not for the good tasting, honest grub then for the league of more sustainably aware and environmentally sound restaurants popping up throughout the country. Unlike some of these restaurants, River cottage doesn't pang of pretentiousness but instead provides a great, no fuss, reasonably priced and family friendly place to eat. 

To celebrate the end of National Vegetarian Week and Bristol Veg Fest, we dined at River cottage. Also in celebration, RC Bris made a very brave move and declared an all vegetarian menu for the whole day. I'd like to hope that not only vegetarians sampled its delights, but also that meat eaters were able to taste some great vegetarian food to satisfy any pallet. Although I myself was joined by two meat eaters I can't help remembering the moment when dinning in a gorgeous vegan restaurant in York, a family of 'meat eaters' sat down, peered at their menus and promptly left again... I think the lack of mysterious pulses and whole foods and also the safety blanket of 'chips on the side' make RC an ideal place for a first veggie dining experience.

River Cottage Bristol's informal dinning area and welcoming staff made it a real pleasure to eat out. The service was perhaps slow at times but easily forgiven as they're still finding their feet. Their 'open kitchen'  or 'food theater' is a love it or hate it thing but the bustle and array of ingredients really added to the relaxed atmosphere. Now down to the food! It was fresh, flavorsome and in some cases, down right beautiful. Among the starters were aubergine and feta parcels and fava bean falafels. Pickled racchio pizzas and freshly made flatbreads were all baked in the stone based oven on display. I'ts a mean feat to achieve such a degree of satisfaction when the food actually tastes like its doing you good, but River Cottage managed it. With their ever changing menus in time with the seasons, they won't fail to get returning customers. So if you're looking for somewhere refreshingly local, environmentally conscious and down right tasty it is definitely worth a visit. 

Eat local, Eat seasonal, Eat well.

Small Cook xx

Gloucester, oysters and juicy beef

Today, I went to Gloucester food festival! The sun was shining, the food was cooking and my mouth was watering.....


Now, this is not to say I don't love chutneys, oils and vinegar's, but it just seems that every other stall is one of the above! You do spot something a bit unusual, which is nice, but when you've had one garlic oil and made the right noises to the stall holder "mmmm, how nice" and "oh yes, this would go lovely in a bit of mash potato" you've pretty much had them all. Although, sometimes you do discover an unusual gem like blueberry and vanilla balsamic vinegar, which was really nice and would totally go with some strawberries.


There was some fantastic beef cooking on a grill (kinda South American styleeee) which was sliced and put in a bun - melt in the mouth, with a really cowy, juicy, smokey flavour! YUM! (my boyfriend did actually have to rip the bun out of my mouth as it was actually his, but I just couldn't help having a bit of a gnaw).


I had a couple of oysters which were delicious! I compared and contrasted a Jersey Rock Oyster and a West Mersea Rock Oyster. The first was slightly more plump and seemed to be slightly sweeter. It was hard to concentrate my oyster eating comparing though, as eating an oyster seemed to cause some commotion! A lady came over and was making sick like noises and others were wincing around me. I did find it quite rude and I felt very sorry for the guy on the stall. I seemed to be one of his few customers, but I'm not surprised when people react like they did around me today. For years I didn't like them, but that was when I swallowed them down without actually tasting them. I think if they were slightly better looking, this whole "oysters are minging" attitude wouldn't exist!


I purchased some macaroons - chocolate and mint, tiraimisu, cherry and almond, pistachio and passion fruit. Hopefully eating these will help me improve my macaroon making! I think I am due my next attempt at making them - I'll keep you posted! 


All in all, a good days eating and a good day of discovering! Best, most unusual stuff I saw: Green, fresh coconuts being served with rum, jerk chicken bbq, the oysters and unusually for Gloucester, very few chavs!