Autumn Update

Autumn is just the best time of year for me. Multicoloured crunchy leaves and cosy nights in, but most importantly, the food!

We kicked the season off in style with a bit of rugby and a lot of food at the Newport Beer Festival, at Rodney Parade. We got there early in the afternoon, ready for lunch, so I made a beeline for the food stalls! It was hard to make a decision, but enticed by the pumpkin curry with salmon escalope, I headed to Big Fish Little Fish!

There was a huge meaty salmon escalope on the top, which had a lovely grilled taste, and I loved the raita on the top. The pumpkin curry underneath however was a bit lacklustre. I only had two small lumps of pumpkin and the sauce tasted of tinned tomatoes, watery spinach and not much else.

The beer tents were pretty good. Tiny Rebel, Sharps, Tudor Brewery and Otley were all in attendance, among others, and we tried a fair few random beers throughout the day. My personal new favourite was Safe As Milk by Crafty Devil, a beautifully smooth chocolatey coffee stout. Yum.

I was pretty jealous of the guys food choices earlier in the day, so I rounded the night off with an offering from the Dirty Bird van.

3 chunky pieces of fried halloumi, with their 'dirty fries', which were covered in parmesan and spring onion. Lots of cheese and fried carbs, perfect beer food!

I've also been indulging in some autumn baking myself lately, and am hoping to get some recipes up soon! Getting them down on paper is hard work, as I'm much more of a throw it all together girl than following a recipe to the word!

Comfort food at it's best, Nana style cheese, leek and potato pie!

The slow cooker has also come back out of it's summer hibernation at the back of the cupboard and made itself a permanent fixture on the worktop! Perfect for the rugby world cup, put a curry on in the morning and it's ready by half time! This one is a juicy chicken bhuna (with half 'n' half, obviously).

 

After a few weekends in, Mr P treated me to a night away from the stove and we popped to a local favourite, Gemelli's (Bridge Street). I've blogged about this before here, so I won't go into it too much, but the food is always too pretty not to share! It's a little over the top with the presentation, but I can't help but love it!

I started off with a quartet of large mussels, topped with a garlicky prawn and surrounded by a Mediterranean salsa. 

The star of the show however was the signature gnocchi dish. I love gnocchi, I mean what's not to like about cheesy potato? Served in a cheese and bacon sauce, with mushrooms and a hint of garlic, this was no exception! 

We did manage to fit dessert in, but were too greedy to remember to take a photo! Suffice to say, the amaretto cake is the one!

I think that's enough food to keep you going for now? I'll try and get some recipes up soon! What are your favourite autumn dishes? Let me know in the comments!

Pizza Hunt...Zero Degrees, Cardiff

Ever since that epic gooey pizza heaven moment at The Stable, Newquay, I've had a serious obsession with finding the best pizza I can a bit closer to home. Cardiff has an epic food scene at the moment, and every time I go, there's somewhere new I need to try.

Recommended to us during the week was Zero Degrees on Westgate St, opposite the Millennium Stadium, so we decided to give this a try.

We managed to get a table easily, as the restaurant was quite empty even for late on a Saturday afternoon. I ordered a pint of the speciality beer on tap, which was a mango beer, and the husband ordered the black lager.

The mango beer was surprisingly lovely. Light and fruity, but still retaining the thickness of a beer. Not as sweet as you'd imagine, I much preferred this to any other fruit beer I've tasted so far.

The black lager tasted like a light Guinness, with a big hit of cappuccino. Lovely to start with, but it got a little heavy on top of the pizza.

Zero Degrees hosts an exciting looking menu, with the emphasis clearly on the pizzas and the pastas. There were many items that caught my eye, but I came with a challenge in mind! The pizza menu has around twenty different toppings, all on top of a wood fired base.

In the end, I chose the old faithful Parma (Parma ham, rocket and parmesan shavings) and he chose the Spicy Mexican (Mexican sausage, roasted mixed peppers, red onions, sweetcorn, jalapeños, smoked cheese), at £10.75 each.

The pizzas were huge, and I ended up giving a slice or to away to the other side of the table, where he was more than happy to oblige, after polishing his off!

The base was well cooked, thin and crispy on the outside, and still soft and malleable in the middle (I do like to roll my pizza...)! The parma combo is an age old one, so you can't really go wrong, unless I'm being really picky. The tomato base could have done with a little more flavour and seasoning however, especially with the rocket being such a tangy leaf.

Both pizzas were really good value for a shopping lunch break, and more than filled us up happily. However, with the Cardiff food scene being as good as it is right now, I'd have preferred the menu to have included a few specialities, maybe showcasing a little more fresh local produce.

I'd definitely give this a try when I'm after a quick lunch away from the St Marys/Hayes hustle and bustle, and another pint of that lovely mango beer would be just the thirst quencher on a sunny day.

Mother's Day Pt II - Gemelli Zafferano, Newport

Next up was the turn of my mother in law for a bit of spoiling! We've all been lusting over Gemelli Zafferano on Bridge St, Newport for some time, so this was the perfect excuse. Although, as you know by now, I don't need an excuse for good food!

Gemelli Zafferano is the original of the two Gemelli restaurants in Newport, having been opened back in 1996. The second has only been opened within the last year, in a retail park the other side of town. We visited that Gemelli back last November, and had a fabulous meal, despite the odd setting (underneath a Tesco Extra) so we were looking forward to checking out the original.

The Bridge Street restaurant is so unassuming from the outside, it looks like a little shack on a railway bridge. Which is exactly what it is, until you get inside the door. The second the door opens the garlic hits you and you're transported into a little cafe in Italy. Over decorated and chintzy in the best kind of way, this tiny little shack has about 7 tables in various setups, it's a lot bigger than it looks. Statues of Venus are propped in corners and classical paintings adorn the walls and ceilings.

But as always, I'm all about the food. Gemelli has an amazing reputation when it comes to all things cake, so I (unusually for me) gave the starters a miss to make sure I had dessert room! Everyone else did the same, so the waiter kindly provided us with some crunchy garlic bread and tangy olives to munch on whilst waiting for our mains. And I'm never one to say no to anything garlicky...

Between us we ordered veal, the T-Bone steak and I ordered the seafood spaghetti, which was one of the daily specials. My mother-in-law ordered the interestingly named spaghetti Catherine Zeta Jones, which is a creamy seafood dish apparently made for the lady herself.

Every dish was more than impressive on arrival. All were served in or on huge dishes and bowls, and really beautifully presented. My dish was huge, served in it's own tagine. Spaghetti with a whole host of sea creatures... langoustines, prawns, scallops, mussels, clams etc. The seafood was cooked wonderfully and I loved the shell-on seafood, I don't mind getting stuck in and mucky fingered! There was SO much seafood in the dish, which is no complaint of mine.

Unfortunately, I found the sauce really lacking in flavour. I was expecting there to be more garlic, more chilli or more something. What little sauce there was didn't stick to the pasta, as it was very watery, and I found the dish a little bit more quantity over quality. I really would have liked a bit less seafood, and a more flavourful sauce to enjoy it with. The fish was cooked so well, it was such a shame they were so shellfish with the sauce... *cringe*

That being said, everyone else had a fantastic main. The men both had the T-Bone and veal, which both looked incredible, and the creamy CZJ spaghetti was making me very jealous across the table!

Once that was all washed down with yet another bottle of Montepulciano, we finally allowed ourselves a look at the cake counter, which in all honesty was the main event that we were all here for.

And it did not disappoint. After a long debate with myself over the extremely chocolatey roulade or the amaretto sponge, amaretto won. Such a light and fluffy almondy sponge which was topped with a thick cream and two amaretto biscuits. The cream was quite heavy for me (not a complaint, I'm just not much of a cream fan) but I definitely made light work of those biscuits.

And this is why everyone keeps coming back to this tiny little gem. Both the cakes and the service were second to none. The waiter and waitress kept an eye on everything, keeping our glasses topped up and ensured we were always munching on something, whilst not being intrusive in any way.

The spectacle of the bill is also something to behold at Gemelli's. We'd experienced something similar in the sister restaurant, but weren't sure we'd get it here too. But lo and behold, out comes the bill, in a little box disguised like a bible, and a large teapot surrounded in dry ice, bearing goodies underneath of a shot of limoncello each to round of the meal. Which was the perfect palette cleanser after all that cake!

I would definitely recommend Gemellis for all lovers of chintz, cake and classic Italian cooking. I'll defintely be back, although I think I'll be popping in to try a daytime coffee and cake next time. Mmmm...cake....