This Easter weekend, Bristol’s Harbourside will be transformed into a chocolate lover’s paradise. With a selection of stands selling and showcasing chocolate in all its forms, an Easter Egg Trail and other family friendly activities, live acoustic music and special chocolatey offers at many of the Harbour’s well-known businesses and attractions.

The Chocolate Festival, already a local favourite in London, Brighton and Oxford, will be located at the top of the Cascade Steps, on the Centre Promenade in the city centre, the main gateway to Harbourside. Visitors can expect an array of chocolate and chocolate products – from warming hot chocolate to artisan truffles, chocolate cakes to chocolate fudge, churros with chocolate and even Mexican chocolate chilli!

It is the perfect place to stock up on delicious Easter gifts for family, friends, and even yourself!

Other Fun Activities : In addition, Harbourside will host a special programme of free activities to entertain and delight younger chocolate lovers. Local illustration collective Drawn in Bristol will offer Spring animal inspired colouring-in sessions. Learn about how Bristol invented the Easter egg and take a historic chocolate factory tour. Take to the water and ‘Find the Easter Bunny’ on Bristol Ferry Boat Company’s special ferry trips. Complete the Easter egg trail around the Harbourside, and win a unique prize!

The Harbourside gets involved : Harbourside’s many cafés, restaurants, cultural and art organisations will take part by offering special chocolatey treats. The area’s leading tourist attractions will all be involved. A full list of all events will be announced on www.festivalchocolate.co.uk.

Event organiser Yael Rose, said:

“We are very excited to be launching The Chocolate Festival in the vibrant city of Bristol, especially at Easter – the most important date in the chocolate calendar! We look forward to working with local businesses, Love Local Events, Bristol City Council and Destination Bristol, to create a chocolate heaven for Bristol residents of all ages.”

Boston Tea Party Cafe is holding a ‘Crazy Hair Day’ in support of Sue Ryder Care’s ‘Febru-hairy’ campaign this Friday, 24th February in five of their cafes – Clifton & Cheltenham Road in Bristol as well as Salisbury, Exeter & Honiton.

Boston Tea Party staff will be showing their support for the campaign by coming into work with whatever crazy hair takes their fancy & will be asking customers to donate a little if they can. All proceeds will be donated to Sue Ryder Care to support their work making life dignified for people living with cancer, brain injury & other neurological disorders

Sam Roberts, Boston Tea Party Managing Director, said “Our staff need no excuse to crazy up their hair, in fact many have a head start, so being asked to do it in support of this fantastic charity doing such amazing work suits us down to the ground & we are thrilled to do our bit.”

Samantha Boardman, Sue Ryder Care Fundraiser, said “Sue Ryder are really excited to be working with the Boston Tea Party cafes during Febru-hairy. The fundraising campaign is all about getting the local community to have fun and raise vital funds for the charity and their ‘Crazy Hair Day’ embraces the hairy spirit fully! If they can raise £570, then this would cover the weekly cost of highly trained nurse providing support for our patients and their families”

The Boston Tea Party is one of the West Country’s best known & most popular independent café chains with stores in Barnstaple, Bristol, Bath, Exeter, Honiton, Ringwood, Worcester & Salisbury. It is famous for its coffee & tea & has established a well-deserved reputation for creating delicious, feel-good & affordable food. The café strives to source ethically sound products from West Country suppliers & uses only free range meat & eggs.

Situated just past the Sommerville Road junction of Gloucester Road, Huong Que is currently, as far as I’m aware, Bristol’s only Vietnamese restaurant. When the place first opened, feedback from diners wasn’t 100% positive, but after being taken over in late 2011 we were invited up there to give the food a try.

Slightly further up than the “main stretch” of Gloucester Road, its small front seating area and bar lead through to a larger dining room below street level, which – at a guess – holds only about 20 people at any one time.

Dimmed lighting and gentle music make for a relaxing atmosphere, which seemed incongruous with the laminated menus and drinks lives that we were given when we arrived. The current menus are only temporary, however – a relic from the previous owners – as the menu is due a complete overhaul this year.

Huong Que was unlicensed and operated on a BYO basis when it first opened, but now offers a selection of wines for under £10 per bottle, selected bottled ciders, and 330ml bottles of beer (including the Vietnamese Hanoi) for £2.50 to £3 each.

The food menu offers much in the way of diversity, and at great prices. Starters range from £3 to £8.50, with mains at around the £6 to £8 mark (specials are priced slightly higher). While many of the dishes are chicken, prawn or beef-based, vegetarians are also well catered for with both vegetable-based options alongside what is described on the menu as “vegetarian meat”.

We were brought a selection of starters to share, our favourite being the dried beef and mango salad (£8.50), the chunks of fruit and fresh herbs giving the whole dish a very clean and light taste.

These were accompanied by sweet and sticky pork ribs with tamarind and chilli sauce (£5.00), a salty but delicious fried Vietnamese seafood cake (£6.00) containing ground fish, squid and prawns, and crunchy Vietnamese summer rolls (£5.00) with vermicelli, pork, prawns and salad.

We shared two main courses between the two of us, the first being the vermicelli with spring rolls and grilled pork (£8.00). The meat, chargrilled to perfection, sat on a bed of vermicelli noodles, and was accompanied by beautifully crispy spring rolls. Salad, peanuts, fresh chilli and coriander leaves added a wonderful freshness to the dish. Very happy.

We were also presented with the special pho (£7.50). A simple broth, packed with flat noodles, well-cooked but tender beef, chicken and prawns was livened up by a couple of squirts from the bottles of chilli and hoisin sauce that adorn every table. A simple dish, but very clean-tasting and a generous portion for the price.

We left Huong Que feeling full, but comfortably so, having enjoyed a meal packed with flavour and at fantastic prices. We’ll definitely be back for more – and are looking forward to seeing how the menu develops this year!

Huong Que are taking part in the “Around The World In 80 Days” campaign – click here for special offers.

Find Huong Que on the Bristol Bites Directory…

Bristol University students and staff from Mission Burrito broke the existing record for the UK’s Biggest Burrito when they constructed an enormous burrito measuring 77 feet and 3 inches on Monday, 20th February 2012. 10 student volunteers and 6 staff from Mission Burrito took just 26 minutes to build the burrito which was sold off in sections to raise hundreds of pounds for local charities as part of Raising and Giving (RAG) Week.

Large crowds turned out to see the burrito being made from 118 overlapping 12 inch tortillas and 45kg of rice, beans, meats and salsa prepared and donated by Mission Burrito. The record breaking burrito, which stretched two 2 lengths of the Park Street restaurant, was consumed in under 15 minutes raising over £270. Charities benefitting from this year’s fundraising include The Jessie May Trust, Caring at Christmas, Shopmobility South, Priority Youth Housing, the Alzheimer’s Society and Holidays, an organisation that gives breaks to young carers.

The event set a new UK record beating the 65ft burrito made by Benito’s Hat in London in December 2011.

Photographs of the event can be viewed by clicking here.

Find Mission Burrito on the Bristol Bites Directory…

Guide2Bristol is pleased to announce that Bristol Good Food Awards 2012 is working with Love Food Festivals to celebrate the best local food and drink producers in and around Bristol.

Bristol Good Food Awards will be shining the spotlight on the very best of independent local food and drink producers from Bristol and the surrounding areas with the help of the public, who will be nominating their favourite local producers in fourteen categories. The three producers in each category who get the most votes will be invited to display their wares at the Love Food Spring Festival on Saturday 31^st of March at Brunel’s Old Passenger Shed in Bristol, where winners will be chosen by an independent panel of judges, including food and wine writer Angela Mount, food and wine writer Fiona Beckett of The Guardian, food writer Xanthe Clay of The Telegraph, food writer and Good Food Channel presenter Thane Prince, Bristol culinary guru Barbora Stiess of The Devilled Egg kitchen Academy and Emily Knight of foodie website Bristol Bites.

The winners will be presented with a trophy at the Bristol Good Food Awards gala evening, which will be held at the City Museum & Art Gallery on Tuesday 3^rd July. The awards will be presented alongside the announcement of the Bristol Good Food Awards for Bristol’s best restaurants.

The first votes will be cast by visitors to the Love Food Festival at Paintworks in Bristol on Sunday 12 February, and then online here. Everyone who nominates their favourite local producers will be entered into a draw to win an all expenses paid Night Out in Bristol for themselves and a friend.

The categories will be:

1)      Best local cheese

2)      Best local condiment

3)      Best local preserve

4)      Best local charcuterie

5)      Best local oils or sauces

6)      Best local bakery

7)      Best local cakes

8)      Best local confectionery

9)      Best local cider

10)   Best local beer

11)   Best local wine

12)   Best local newcomer of last eighteen months (Sponsored by Love Food Festival)

13)   Best local grower

14)   Outstanding contribution to sustainability

Closing date for nominations is March 12 2012.

The Spring Festival is the largest Love Food event of the year, held in the heart of the one of the country’s most exciting foodie capitals. It will bring  hundreds of producers, chefs,  teachers, writers, entertainers, organisations, artists and musicians together  with thousands of food loving visitors to celebrate the coming of Spring and the fantastic produce we have in the region. To come together as a community and find ways in  which we can work together to find positive and enjoyable solutions to the problems we face  as a nation with the way in which we feed ourselves.

For more information, contact Rudy Millard at Guide2Bristol on 0117 908 3092 or email info@guide2bristol.com

Galette, courtesy of Iza Redon from La Cuizine

Ingredients

250 g of buckwheat flour
100 g of plain flour
2 eggs
two tbsp of sunflower oil
400 to 700ml of water
A pinch of salt

Method

Combine the flours and salt in a bowl.

Beat the eggs with 400ml of water and the oil.

Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and beat the mixture until it smooth. Add some more water if the batter is too thick – it should have a ribbon consistency.

Let it rest for a minimum of one hour at room temperature.

Now, get your pan really hot and add a little oil. Spread the oil over the whole surface of the pan and ladle enough batter for one galette in the pan – it should be roughly as thick as a pancake.

As soon as the batter hits the hot pan, tip it around from side to side to get the base evenly coated with batter and with a spatula help the batter to be spread evenly over the pan.

It should take only half a minute or so to cook; you can lift the edge with a palette knife to see if it’s tinged gold as it should be.

Flip the galette over and cook the other side for one or two minutes depending on their thickness- the longer you cook them the crispier they will be.

Keep the galettes from drying out by covering them with a plate or some foil.

Recipe submitted by…

La Cuizine
Bristol
www.lacuizine.co.uk

I’ve not really visited many Chinese restaurants since I moved to Bristol, and the plan is for 2012 to be the year where I try out more of the places that have been recommended to me. Dynasty, on St Thomas Street, is a place that has always been talked about favourably by people I know, and the restaurant’s high ranking in a feature that I pulled together for the This Is Bristol website made me quite excited about my visit for a dim sum lunch the following week.

Unassumingly nestled in a quiet corner off Victoria Street, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the restaurant is pretty small. Opening up into a lobby area with a water feature, the hustle and bustle of the restaurant doesn’t hit you until you head up the stairs to the dining room.

We visited shortly after the Chinese New Year celebration period, and so the large dining room was still festooned with paper lanterns and decorative envelopes.

A dining venue of choice for the corporate market, and with its function room proving popular for events such as Chinese banquets and wedding parties, Dynasty offers its customers fine dining, Chinese-style. While the evenings allow the choice from the standard a la carte menu (with Cantonese, Szechuan and Peking cuisines all featured), lunchtimes bring the addition of Dynasty’s extensive dim sum menu, and it was from this selection that we dined on this occasion.

With around 80 dishes to choose from, ranging from £2.60 to £5, you’ll be spoilt for choice. Alongside the more basic options such as deep fried wan ton (£2.90) and shredded chicken spring rolls (£2.60), the more adventurous can go for dishes including snails in curry sauce (£2.60) and steamed intestines in black pepper sauce (£2.90).

Our recommendations would have to include the char siu pork buns (£2.60) – steaming balls of fluffy white dough wrapped around sweet and sticky chunks of slow roasted char siu pork. The yam croquettes with minced meat (£2.60) were also a favourite, and the barbecued pork cheung fun (£2.90), best described as cannelloni, Chinese-style, were also well-received.

We couldn’t fault the meal, really…our fried prawn dumplings (£3.20) and deep fried wan ton were perfectly crisp and crunchy, the steamed dumplings beautifully moist and full of flavour, and the deep fried squid (£3.20) were succulent and not at all chewy, as they sometimes have the tendency to be.  Ours was a fairly vegetable-free meal, but vegetarians are also catered for, with dishes such as beancurd wrap in oyster sauce (£3.00), monk’s vegetables cheung fun (£2.90) and the Dynasty beancurd pastry (£3.20) all appearing on the menu.

The employment of a specialised dim sum chef at Dynasty means that this menu is available daily between 12pm and 5pm. We’ll certainly be heading back for lunch in the near future – and I’m looking forward to trying their a la carte menu too…

Find Dynasty on the Bristol Bites Directory…

Exciting times for Clifton’s No. 4 Restaurant! Not only have they launched their brand new website today, but they’re also offering monthly “Secret Deals”, giving diners some fantastic bargains at the venue.

The Secret Deals page of the website isn’t accessible from the main site, so you need to be in the know to be in with a chance of grabbing a voucher! No. 4 have kindly let us share the link with our readers, so make sure you bookmark it and keep checking back…

This month’s deal offers a three course meal for two with Prosecco for £29.50, or just £55 for four people. Normally priced at £75 for two people or £150 for four, it’s a ridiculous saving…and there are only 50 vouchers available.

If interested, click here to visit the new No. 4 Restaurant deals page before the vouchers sell out!

Find No. 4 Restaurant on the Bristol Bites Directory…

Fancy winning a Mother’s Day meal for four at Racks, including flowers for your mum? The Clifton-based restaurant and bar has recently launched a great competition to allow you to do just that…

Entering the competition is simple: all you need to do is to tell them, in under 50 words, why you love your mum. Racks will choose their ten favourites, which will then be put to the vote on their Facebook page…whoever’s entry receives the most “likes” will win!

For your chance to win, email your entry to Leanne@racks-bristol.co.uk. You’ll also need to “like” their Facebook page, which can be found here.

Good luck!

Find Racks on the Bristol Bites Directory…

Bristol University students and Mission Burrito staff will attempt to build a 70ft long burrito this Monday, 20^th February at 1pm at 62 Park Street, Bristol.  The student volunteers and staff from Mission Burrito hope to construct a burrito large enough to surpass the existing UK record of 65ft while raising funds for local charities as part of Raising and Giving (RAG) Week.

The burrito is expected to stretch 2 lengths of the Park Street restaurant.  With over 110 twelve inch tortillas wrapped around 45kg of ingredients this will be the largest burrito ever created in the UK.  To accommodate all tastes the enormous burrito will comprise 3 sections, featuring 6kg of carnitas (Mission Burrito’s much lauded slow-cooked pork), 7kg of tinga chicken and 2kg of sautéed veggies respectively, combined with 15kg of rice, 10kg kilos of black beans, 25 romaine lettuces and hand prepared salsas.

The event is open to the public and spectators will be invited to eat one of the 100+ sections of burrito in return for a donation to RAG.  Mission Burrito owner, Jan Rasmussen explained  “We’ve been itching for an excuse to have a go at this record and RAG week has provided the perfect opportunity.”  Mission Burrito is also supporting Bristol Rag Week activities with the Mission Challenge which will see students attempt to visit all 5 Mission Burrito restaurants in one day.

If successful, the attempt will add 5ft and 15kg to the existing record recorded by Benito’s Hat in London in December 2011.

Find Mission Burrito on the Bristol Bites Directory…