A strange name for a cafe, but a delightful setting overlooking the orchard at Harvey's Garden Plants in Thurston. Outside you can watch the chickens scratching and I like it best early in the morning for a decent coffee. Plenty of homemade cakes and baked goods are also on offer, plus some gluten free and 'free from' choices too. The salads could be a little more inspiring than quartered tomatoes and sliced, unpeeled cucumber though.
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Now's the time that the new seasons lamb is at it's best, the sweet, succulent new lamb being perfect roast with a little garlic. Mind you, much of the lamb sold at this time of year will be lamb that was born in the spring of last year. In the trade it's known as hogget and is usually still very tender and full of flavour. Here's my recipe for a satisfying Moroccan Spiced Lamb casserole. Delicately spiced, you can modify the vegetables to suit your tastes or store cupboard. Fresh fennel which is really at its prime at the moment works particularly well. Ras el Hanout spice is a complex mix of spices which includes cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, ginger and often rosebuds and lavender. It is readily available on the spice shelf of most big supermarkets. The meat you choose can be shoulder or leg of lamb. Cooked on the bone is best but if you prefer to use diced meat then just shorten the cooking time a little. The lovely saffron infused ‘gravy’ is not thickened but if you like a thicker sauce coat the meat in flour before frying. If you make the stew the day before and store in the fridge then you can remove any fat that has set on the top. No lamb? Then try the recipe with chicken which works remarkably well.
Pizza Rosso has certainly put some life into The Railway Tavern in Elmswell. Friday night's only, grab yourself a lovely thin and crispy stone baked pizza from the food truck in the car park (from about 5pm to 8.30pm). Order your pizza, pop into the pub and have a pint while you wait for a text to tell you the pizza's ready. We ordered the Carne with salami, spicy beef and prosciutto and the special Code di Gambero with cray fish tails, jalapeno, sweetcorn and cajun seasoning. The smoked chipotle chilli dip was so fiery that it called for another pint of Aspall's. Lovely service from the owner and his mum, plus a pudding of the day too. Note that The Tavern, as the locals call it, only takes cash and despite it being run down has a dart board, a pool table and a friendly landlord. Unlike Elmswell Fox who has a grumpy landlord, I mean who shouts at customers for walking through a door in the wrong direction? Pizza Rosso is in Woolpit on a Monday, Stanton on Tuesday, Bacton on Wednesday and Thurston on Thursdays.
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Code di Gambero with crayfish tails, jalapeno, sweetcorn and cajun seasoning
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Carne with salami, spicy beef and prosciutto ham
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open from 5.30pm until about 8.30pm
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No drizzles or blobs but gutsy, generous dishes; powerful yet simple flavours; a superbly written menu including offbeat ingredients and natural, biodynamic wines. That you won't find anywhere else in East Anglia. Pea Porridge - It's tough to decide what to eat!
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Bertha grilled sardines, salmoriglio, grilled lime
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Blythburgh pork belly 'Petit Sale aux lentilles', soft polenta, crispy pigs ears
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Tarte tatin, vanilla ice cream
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We love the Rural Coffee Caravan. For the past 14 years it has been touring villages across Suffolk offering tea, coffee and company to people living in rural isolation. The charity visits more than 70 villages, some where there is no where to meet anymore and where the more elderly villagers just find it hard to get out and about. As well as refreshments it offers an information service, a bit like a CAB on wheels. You can imagine how sad we all were to hear that the caravan has been stolen. Fundraising is well on the way to help with a replacement caravan. Here is the link if you are able to donate.
We are loving the look of the new café at Framlingham Castle which has opened following a major revamp by English Heritage. The menu includes Suffolk Grumbly, a regional dish made with sausage meat and a mustard and cheese sauce, and a Tudor Tarte Owte of Lent, made with ingredients you’re not allowed to eat during Lent – cheese, cream and eggs; cooked in a light pastry case. Lots of other local produce too, including Maynards juices, milk and cream from the Marybelle Dairy in Halesworth and beer from St Peter’s Brewery.
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beautifully incorporated modern facilities in the castle
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family friendly cafe
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delicious home made cakes
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Discover the Suffolk coast with the East Suffolk Food and Drink Trails interactive platform. Lots of places to stay and things to do, as well as eat. Take a look.
Actually it doesn't need to be ice cream weather to enjoy a visit to Hadley's Parlour in Lavenham. We went on rather a chilly day but enjoyed tasting a selection of the handmade icecreams that really do offer satisfying, smooth and creamy flavours using locally sourced Fen Farm milk and cream, Elmsett Game Farm eggs, Maldon sea salt and Pump Street chocolate, to name a few. You can get very good coffee and mini cakes as well, if you are greedy like me.
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Is this the best pub in Ipswich? An astonishing range of craft beers from around the world, a beer sommelier, gorgeous gins, street food on a Friday and the friendliest staff.
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Cradle has got a real Hoxton/Shoreditch look about it and also the kind of place you could imagine finding Gwyneth or Madonna. The tiny cafe/bakery was buzzing with activity when we went for lunch last week and it's obviously quite the meeting place for the yummy mummies and the cool vegans of Sudbury. Simple and stylish, it's completely plant based with everything made from scratch on site, including nut butters and an excellent rooibos based fermented kombucha (so hipster, so refreshing). Bread is baked on site, with house milled rye, wheat and spelt flour used in the proper crusty loaves. There's also some very tempting patisserie on display. A small blackboard menu offers an interesting and surprisingly fancy range of dishes with thankfully no fakin' bacon but just prime, fresh ingredients superbly cooked.
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the kombucha story
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a simple blackboard menu
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a glass of kombucha and juice of the day (parsley,kale,apple, lemon and coco)
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kombucha fermenting
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pan fried polenta, spinach, bechamel and toasted hazelnuts
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pear danish pastry
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mushroom a la grecque with dill cream cheese, herbs on toasted sourdough - the house tartine
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drum roll please for a classic brioche Tropezienne with a creme anglaise ( and yes, even without eggs and cream it tasted better than most creme anglaises we've been served elsewhere)
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walnut and caramel tart with vanilla icecream
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hummus of wild garlic, half a loaf, olive oil and beet balsamic
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What's this all about then? I took 8 friends to the new Northgate in Bury for dinner on Sunday night. We started the evening with excellent cocktails in the bar. The bar staff were great, friendly and charming. Then it all went a bit downhill. My starter was good, main course satisfactory and dessert awful. The dessert wine didn't arrive until after the pudding and the coffee and tea order was eventually taken just before midnight. As for the faff to make the tea. Do I need to be told to warm the cup, wait for it to brew ( timer supplied for the countdown) in order to get two mouthfuls of English Breakfast brew? The most spectacular thing of the night was the bill.
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Line caught mackerel, beetroot, apple and parsnip (9/10)
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Sidecar of the Orient (10/10)
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Loin of venison, shank, sauerkraut and kale (6/10)
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Roasted pistachio sponge, salted chocolate, burnt apricot (1/10 for the apricot)
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Tea at midnight! Losing the will so ask for the bill.
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Bang on at Bury St Edmunds Christmas Fayre. Tom's Salty Shack ...four fabulously fresh Mersea Island oysters and a glass of Prosecco. £8.00.
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and a glass of Prosecco
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dancing with the Morris Men later
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a bamboo plate of four fabulously fresh oysters
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