The Food Of Jeff!: Foodie Finds

Hey peoples! Thought perhaps it was time for another roundup of food finds. Stuff I have found, picked up, grabbed, happened upon, whatever, and thought "Hey, I should put this in the blog." So here goes with a few yummy and/or refreshing items I like!

On June 1st there was a late night shopping event in Tenterden and The White Lion had a BBQ out front. Not content with burgers and dogs, they were also doing piri-piri chicken and these beauties, grilled mackerel in a bap. Fresh mackerel fillet (tail still on), grilled right in front of you and whacked into a bun. Nice!

The Abigale Brewing Company is a relatively new micro brewery in Ashford, of all places. They do four beers, Nailbourne Best Bitter, Hoyman's Porter, Ridgeway Pale Ale and this little beauty, Samphire Bitter. Delicious and smooth.

You may or may not know this, but Tenterden has four vineyards within spittin' distance - Chapel Down, Biddenden, Gusbourne Estates in Appledore and Harbourne Vineyards in Smallhythe and High Halden. This particular Seyval Blanc was delicious!

Inycon is a wine company from Sicily and I had tasted their Nero D'Avola before and liked it, so naturally I wanted to give this Fiano a try when I saw it on offer in Waitrose. Really very easy to drink, lots of fruit without being sickly. Not a bad price too (sorry Ian, but I like this one!)

Know what this is?

That's right, it's a focaccia bread, with Stilton and almond, no less. Made by this guy.

Creepy, huh? Paul Hollywood is his name, apparently.

That's right - cherry beer. Extremely delicious.

Plain old houmous (humus, hummus, hoummus, whatever!) is so boring, dontcha think? Well, this stuff rocks out loud, my friends.

M&S came out with some of the best Jubilee-themed foods in my opinion and Coronation Chicken-flavoured crisps is just inspired. (All my American buddies are now scratching their heads because they have absolutely no idea what this is.)

ShakeAway is a cool milkshake joint that does something like a gajillion different flavours. I went for the peanut butter, but you can get some seriously oddball stuff like Weetabix and Farley's Rusk. I have to try those next time.

We picked this beer up in Judges' Bakery in the Old Town part of Hastings. It was lovely, rich and dark. And guess what?

That's right, it's Welsh.

Remember back in the 70s you used to be able to buy some stuff called Creamola Foam? You put a spoonful of it in a glass of water and presto! Fizzy drink! Well it went out of production a while back but a company in Scotland decided to make a tribute to it called Krakatoa, and man, it's awesome! It's available from Ally Bally Bees.

Been a while since I had a pint of mild, and this was so good I had to have another one right after.

Dark chocolate Mocha from Caffe Nero. It's not on the menu, you have to ask for it, and they may or may not have the dark chocolate syrup, but if they do, it is soooo worth it. Way better than a regular mocha.

Greek-style yogurt is seriously in vogue right now, with every yog company putting their own spin on it. However, this is one of the few that actually tastes like Greek yogurt, and the pear version is divine.

Merrydown cider. Nuff said. It's still as good as it used to be. Eat your heart out, Bulmers.

These are crispy little kosher puffs of snackaliciousness.

Sounds good, dunnit? Well, take a look.

I grant you, it's not really proper bubble & squeak unless it's made in a frying pan, but those sausages were lovely and the mash and gravy was wicked.

I don't know where Tesco found Mr E. Gilleland (Master Brewer) or where they brewed this , their answer to Old Golden Hen, Hopping Hare, Golden Champion and all the rest, but they have a rare find there. They need to keep him because he clearly knows what he's doing. And at £1.33 for a 50cl bottle, I sure ain't complaining.

Just look at the colour of that beautiful beer.

Yes, it was reduced. I don't think I'd have even tried this if it had been its full price of £3.99 unless I was feeling especially flush, but I'm glad I did. That is one delicious masala, and the mango flavour is quite unique. Not too fruity but with a definite semi-tropical kick.