Real Food Store, Exeter - Best Brownies in the World!

The Real Food Store, Exeter, opened on Wednesday for the first time.  I visited yesterday and was hugely impressed - great cafe on the first floor, smiling enthusiastic staff, amazing food and overall a wonderful experience.

No pictures of the brownies as we snaffled them so quickly but they were independently voted in a blind tasting by four people to be the Best Brownies Ever! Really very chocolately indeed - just right level of moist interior and slightly crispy exterior and wonderful texture - and no nuts - even better in my opinion.

These were some of the other goodies I bought (obviously on a health kick...no, I just knew my Riverford veg box would be arriving the next day...) Handmade chocs from Teignmouth, Teonie's giant and tiny cookies Love the shape of the white loaf.  I added the pastrami, cheese and cornichons to the sourdough roll.  Makes it look a bit 70s.

Real Food Store is just down from Sofa Workshop, near the bus station, opposite the entrance to the Underground Passages.

Go, eat brownies, enjoy!

Real Food Store, Exeter - Opening 30 March

It's about half an hour away from me, so not entirely local, but I'm very excited on behalf of the residents of Exeter for the opening of this new food emporium next Wednesday (30 March) at 8am.  I even like the early opening time, proving it's a proper bakery!  They'll have an in-house bakery run by Emma's Bread, a cafe and a shop selling plenty of fresh, locally-sourced, organic and ethical food and drink.

It's a community-based scheme that originated from a group of motivated Transition Exeter individuals who wanted an ethical, community-focused food hub.  It was funded by selling community shares.  There'll even be a community meeting space.

I can't wait to visit - I might even try to get there for the opening day on Wednesday when there's bound to be a bit of a buzz.  Congratulations to them for getting this off the ground!

It's in Paris St, near the Bus Station at the Princesshay end of town.

www.realfoodexter.co.uk 

Hotel Chocolat - Putting Myself First for a Moment...

Food PR, and fellow food blogger, Beth, from Jam and Cream PR sent me this (initally) very attractive parcel of chocolate from Hotel Chocolat to review.  It's called the Essential Easter Collection and it retails for £35.  Initial impressions were favourable although I immediately felt unhappy with the amount of packaging: the Tiddly Chicks were in a packet with in a box within a bag within a box?  A tad excessive, even for mail order protection.

I decided to hold a tasting review panel with my husband and two children, aged 9 and 11.  The kids were, of course, rather enthusiastic to have an early Easter treat.  My children totally buy into the Hotel Chocolat thing.  When we visit Exeter, it's somewhere they nag us to take them.  They claim it's their favourite chocolate and love all the cutesy shapes and packaging.  They feel they're being spoilt if they get a bar of  this stuff.  My husband is of a rather more cynical persuasion (understatement of the year) and hates the shop and product.  'It's not a hotel, and chocolate has an 'e' on the end of it' is his response to their nagging.  'Overpriced' and 'style over substance' may also have passed his lips.

We gave each item a mark out of 10 for Presentation, Taste and Easter Factor. Overall winner was the Doodle Chick bar - slab of caramely chocolate with a chick moulded on the front.  The children adored the taste of this but both adults thought it was horrible - a caramely coconut taste that was too sickly.  In last place was the Easter Expose Half Egg - the most 'traditional' of the products.  We really marked this egg down for its cheeky claim on the side, something about 'we were advised to make thin eggs to save money but look how thick we've made it' - and it was thick at the visible edges and was really thin towards the back.

The Tiddly Chicks scored badly for their packaging but were cute and lovely if you like plain choc shaped little chicks (I do).

The Egglets (caramel eggs in a cardboard basket) were probably my favourite although they had been bashed around a bit in the post and weren't in perfect condition. 9 year old son really hated these and actually spat it out.

The Tiddly Pot - an Easter decorated cardboard cup filled with rabbit and chick shaped chocolates was a hit with the children but husband declared it looked like a cheap cup of carry-out tea.  He's harsh.

We enjoyed them, but didn't love them.  Huge divisions between which things the children liked compared to the adults.  Not an all round hit, but we all liked something.

Unfortunately I'm going to have to mention the wording on the packaging.  It's becoming a bit of a geeky pet hate of mine that I have to read all the packaging and I get quite wound up when it's spelt wrongly (my current bottle of Original Source Shower Gel has two spelling mistakes) and Innocent Smoothie cartons (yes, I found them refreshingly cute a few years ago, now I wish they'd bland themselves out a bit and just provide basic info).  So the offending words from Hotel Choc?

 'And with the absolute minimum of recyclable packaging, putting yourself first for a moment won't cost the earth.'

Firstly, there's a double meaning there - 'the minimum of recyclable packaging'  - so they've used as little recyclable packaging as possible?  Great, chuck it all in landfill then.  They need to lose the word 'recyclable' rather than putting it in as a soundbite.

Secondly, the idea of 'putting yourself first for a moment' - i.e. being selfish, having your little chocolatey moment and buying stuff with lots of packaging isn't that endearing to me.

Also the bag says British Cocoa Growers and Chocolatier.  Presumably this is trying to position themselves in a niche that Cadbury has vacated.  I've looked at their website and they explain their rationale for not being Fairtrade, as they have their own plantations in Ghana and St Lucia and work / trade ethically there.  OK, I was going to ask where they grow cocoa in UK as I would think that's impossible.  So is that moniker also a tad misleading?  They grow cocoa abroad.

Aha!  I've found it!  There actually is a Hotel Chocolat - it's in St Lucia and opened at the end of Feb 2011 and it's all part and parcel of their brand.  I'm off to tell husband that actually they ARE a hotel.  And I would really like to go there if my eco-conscience and money would allow.

Michael Caines Restaurant at Abode Exeter: Amazing Graze

I was drawn to this 'Amazing Graze' menu offer by doing an internet search for my own website and stumbled upon this fantastic offer at Michael Caines' restaurant at Abode, Exeter:  three course lunch for £9.95.  A few days after our trip to Caines' other establishment, Gidleigh Park (more luxurious, more traditionally English country house) we treated ourselves to lunch at Abode overlooking Exeter Cathedral.  After the whopping bill from Gidleigh, we kidded ourselves that eating here would balance out the average of the two meals.

This restaurant is in the hotel (the left hand door half visible in the picture - not the cheaper cafe, MCs next door) and is modern: light and airy with wooden floors and no tablecloths.  The waiting staff were efficient with dealing with a jam-packed dining room.  A slight delay with bringing the bill, but I could hardly blame them as it was so busy.

I chose the confit salmon that I had enjoyed at Gidleigh a few nights previously, just to compare it.  It was not identical, but pretty damn close, and at a fraction of the cost.  My husband had the mushroom risotto - a small portion of deeply flavoured goo.  After this tasty morsel, he wanted to upgrade to five courses for an extra £8, but I wouldn't let him.  Still had to collect the kids from school at 3pm.

The mains were spot-on for lunchtime: seasonal, well-cooked and delicious.  Pollock with a creamy saffron sauce and pork with boulangere potatoes.  Desserts were lovely: glazed lemon tart with lemon confit sorbet (tres tangy) and pistachio nougat glace with chocolate grue.  Yes, we had to ask what 'grue' was - a type of cocoa bean, the waiter informed us.

The petits fours with the coffee were wonderful - two wonderfully large round, sugared fruit jellies that reminded me of the boxed sweets my grandparents used to get at Christmas.  These were passionfruit and apricot flavour served alongside two dinky little chocolate and pistachio madeleines.  These have got me seeking out a mini-madeleine mould on Amazon.  Going to have to mimic them at home.

Since yesterday the price of Amazing Graze has gone up a little.  At £9.95 for three courses, it represented exceptional, unbeatable value for money.  At the new price of £13.50 for three courses it's still highly competitive and for food, service and location like this, it's definitely worth it and recommended.

You can book a table online, which I really liked.  You can see all the times that are available and you get a confirmation email - and you get to see all the special offers - early dining in the evening (be seated by 7pm) also seems good value.

Exeter Cafe Review: SW Food Bloggers at Boston Tea Party

We had a get together of some South West UK food bloggers at the Boston Tea Party cafe in Exeter at the weekend.  It was the first time in the cafe for Choclette (choclogblog), Liz (feastsandfestivals) and Matthew (matthewsfoodblog), but I think they were impressed by the place - for its sheer size and great place for meeting up with people.

The downstairs looks like this - rather small and always hectic, but in a buzzy way:

And everyone gets a BIG surprise when they get up to the top of the staircase (tray, teapot, cake all in one piece - phew).  The upstairs room is vast and has a huge array of mismatched furniture, some enormous long refectory tables, sofas, original artwork on the walls and posters advertising everything cultural that's on in the Exeter area.

I suspect that some of the student frequentees actually live here.  They know which seats have access to the sockets for when their laptop batteries fade. They can make that drink and muffin last for many an hour.  I have on occasion spent a lovely afternoon here with a cuppa, a piece of rhubarb and custard cake and a favourite novel.  Simple decadence.

OK, so that's the ambience sorted.  They have loads of types of tea on offer - all served as leaves in clever tea pots with built-in strainers.  The cakes are great - my faves are the Portuguese custard tarts pictured above, but also good are the Devon apple cake, chocolate brownie, chocolate fridge cake - a fellow blogger reported that the coffee and walnut cake was average rather than mind-blowing.

Thanks to Choclette and Liz for coming up from Cornwall to have coffee and cake with Matthew and myself - really enjoyed having an inspiring chat about food and our blogs.