Olá meus galos pequenos! In today’s blog post I’ll be talking about the three lovely Bristol venues I went to on Valentine’s Day, showing off the culinary gifts my manchap and I procured for each other, and sharing my recipe for the perfect vegan hot chocolate as well.
Our first stop was Hyde & Co, a speakeasy-style prohibition bar which hides itself on the Clifton Triangle with nothing but a bowler hat above the front door to give it away. If you can find it you’ll be treated to excellent service and a lovely little venue, only slightly spoiled for me by the loud nineties music blaring from the overhead speakers. I kind of hoped they would be playing something more appropriate; it sort of destroyed the ambiance a bit. The cocktails were very sophisticated. The three I tried, including the house signature cocktail which was included in our five pound booking fee, were all excellent. I’d link you to the menu and point out the drinks I had but the one on the website is different to the one they gave us at the venue. I’d love to go there again some time, if only to try Under the Clouds, which sounds and looked amazing when I saw it served to the couple next to us.
For dinner we stumbled upon Krishna’s Inn, an Indian restaurant and takeaway at Byron Place, Clifton. It has an extensive menu which includes lots of vegetarian and vegan dishes, and while it’s not the cheapest Indian I’ve ever been too, the quality of the food is well worth the price. We tried the vegetarian starter platter which included all sorts of yummy delicacies I’d never tried before; there was this savoury doughnut thing that was just…the best. The beetroot thoran I had as a main course was totally delicious, very different to anything I’d had in an Indian before, and they also did a great mango lassi and calypso coffee. Highly recommended.
We rounded off the evening with a trip to our local pub, Bag of Nails on St George’s Road, Hotwells. This one comes with my seal of approval for having a plethora of excellent beverages, a good choice of prog on the turntable and loads of lovely cats running around. If that doesn’t sound like your sort of thing, well there are plenty of Wetherspoons around :p
Onto gifts! I bought my manchap one of these:
Picture courtesy of chalet.net
A Garlic Zoom! This video of a man and his tiny human sums it up better than I ever could with my crappy camera:
It’s great for quickly and finely chopping garlic. And we use a lot of garlic at the 500 Things to do with Facon headquarters.
I got given some Colombian Hot Drinking Chocolate by Hasslacher, from the British Museum.
Picture courtesy of britishmuseumshoponline.org
This is 100% cacao with no added sugar. And with an all-natural, vegan product on my hands, I got to thinking about making the perfect vegan hot chocolate. For that I would need…MARSHMALLOWS.
I wrote about the problems I faced getting marshmallows in this blog post but since then I’ve discovered Freedom Mallows which not only taste amazing, but are sold at the brilliant Southville Deli, which is just a short walk away from mine. The real test was whether or not they’d melt into the drink, as the ones I’ve tried before just went a bit bitty and weird. To my delight they went brilliantly gooey in a few short minutes and this means I can finally bring you the recipe for…
The Perfect Vegan Hot Chocolate
Ingredients (For one lovely cup)
One mug full of soya milk or your favourite alternative
Two chunks of 100% cacao or dairy free dark chocolate
Three teaspoons caster sugar
A handful of vegan marshmallows
Method
Melt the chocolate in a small pan over a low heat. Pour in the soya milk. Stir and heat until the chocolate has almost mixed in completely then grab your whisk and whisk it. Whisk it good! Add the sugar, stir and heat until it reaches your desired temperature, but take care not to boil it. Then pour into your favourite mug and top with marshmallows. Give it a little stir so the marshmallows melt and break-up a bit, then enjoy the chocolatey goodness. No, there aren’t any pictures of how gooey and lovely my drink was. Because I drank it all. So there. It was gurt lush! And now I know how easy it is to get hold of vegan marshmallows, I’ll definitely be making it again soon.
Right, I’m off to Madeira for a week, readily armed with phrases like não, senhor, eu posso ver que é uma salsicha, parar de dizer isso risoto é vegetariana (I used that one in Italy a lot). I’ll be back…
Hyde and Co: http://hydeandcobristol.net/
Krishna’s Inn: http://krishnas-inn.co.uk/
Bag of Nails: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bag-of-Nails-Bristol/180172875383888
https://twitter.com/LukeBagofNails
Garlic Zoom: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garlic-Zoom-Original-Colours-Vary/dp/B00138N62W
Hot Drinking Chocolate: http://www.britishmuseumshoponline.org/colombian-hot-chocolate-drinking-bar/invt/cmcn455650
Freedom Mallows: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Freedom-Mallows/524220007638028
http://www.freedommallows.com/
https://twitter.com/freedommallows/
Southville Deli: http://www.southvilledeli.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Southville-Deli/140225586022764?id=140225586022764&sk=info
Fancy submitting me a recipe challenge? Want to rant about your soggy facon or why only certain types of Haribo are veggie (WHY???) Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/500ThingsToDoWithFacon and Twitter https://twitter.com/500FaconThings
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