By Alice | Published:
July 12, 2010
Random adventure time. We paid a visit to The Rosemary restaurant in Stanton House Hotel which is just outside Swindon. From the outside you would not expect this hotel to be the kind of place that we would drive for an hour to get to for lunch as it looks like a business hotel. However this hotel is different because it is owned by Honda who have a factory nearby, so the hotel caters mainly for Honda people travelling over from Japan to the factory. This in turn means that the two restaurants in the hotel are Japanese! There is also a small Japanese food shop with a few essentials that is only open on Sunday afternoons for the Japanese expat needs.
I had heard about this place in a roundabout way, when I last visited Bristol I was flipping through the stockists list in the back of one of my sister’s Harumi cookery books and noticed that it mentioned a Japanese food shop in Swindon. I was intrigued… Swindon? Then after some research I found that this shop is in the hotel and that the hotel serves Japanese food. I also found two old reviews of The Rosemary, one by Jay Rayner and one by Matthew Fort.
We went on Sunday when they have a Japanese buffet lunch, and it was good. I’ve never had Japanese food buffet-style but things are cooked in small portions so it all seemed very fresh. There were all kinds of dishes of a fairly homey nature, salmon teriyaki, yaki soba, curry, fish croquettes, cold soba noodles, maze gohan, tofu, etc. Lots of choice. Of the other diners there were lots of people who looked like locals but the majority were Japanese. The buffet was £11.95 each which seems very reasonable to me, drinks were extra, and you could order additional sushi for £2-£2.50.
If this place was nearer I’m sure I would be stopping by more often. The dining room of the Rosemary was, as the two reviews said, fairly ordinary and not particularily romantic, the more formal Japanese dining room that is open in the evening sounds interesting. As a random adventure it was fun, that is a long way to go for a meal but as it is pretty much half way between Oxford and Bristol I hope that we will have a chance to pop by again. As there is only one other true Japanese Restaurant anywhere near here (that I know of, any tips?) we are willing to travel.
By Alice | Published:
May 30, 2010
Taking advantage of our long weekend I went on a short trip to visit my sister on Bristol. She took me out to show me some of the places she likes, we always have fun when we get together :)
The Folk House cafe is tucked away off a main road in the Folk House adult education centre. The food was delicious.
On the same road there is a place that does bubble tea! So rare to find it. We both got Japanese Grape flavour, it was too sweet to finish all of it but it was still exciting to find it. I am wondering if I could make this and dial down the sweetness.
Bristol is packed with cool little handmade/artist/independent shops. Really handy for presents. I got a few things for myself and some gifts.
We stopped for some cocktails at The Wild Wood.
My sister’s umbrella peeking out of her bag.
In Stokes Croft there is lots of interesting street art.
For dinner as a treat we went to The Rockfish where we had really really good fish. I had Sand Sole and my sister had Red Gurnard.
On the walk home we passed a Banksy.
The next day after hanging out at my sister’s we set out in the sunshine.
Someone had pinned their art to the fence in a little exhibition.
This really cute tea hut was in St Andrew’s park. We stopped for a cup of tea.
We had bubble and squeak for lunch and then later a brownie at The Better Food Co‘s organic supermarket. It was excellent. The Bristolians are lucky to have such a great unpretentious place that isn’t overpriced.
Then home :) Can’t wait to visit again!
By Alice | Published:
May 11, 2010
Some places (like in the top and bottom pictures) kind of force you to try out their special cocktails by not doing the classics, my real favourites are the Manhattan (when out), a Mint Julep (at home), or (only when it is very hot) a Margarita. I have made these before and they were nice. Any cocktail recommendations? :)
Posted in Yum | Tagged Fuji Superia 400, lc-a |
By Alice | Published:
March 30, 2010
Camera 1.
Camera 2.
1. Canon 450D with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens
2. Lomo LC-A with Fuji Superia 400 film
I try not to take pictures of the same things with different cameras but I just so happened to take these a while back with both cameras at my sister’s birthday breakfast before people sat down to eat. I thought the difference was interesting.
I often ask people I know in life questions like “If you could never eat chocolate again or never eat cheese again which would you choose?”, “What do you prefer, sun after the rain or sun after the snow?”, “If you could only wear one colour for the rest of your life what would it be?” etc. I think this is sometimes an annoying habit but I am genuinely interested in what people think of these sorts of things :) Life mostly isn’t “this or that”.
So, in this instance, camera 1 or camera 2? I pick camera 1.
Also posted in Opinion | Tagged lc-a |
By Alice | Published:
January 15, 2010
I was in London for work. I had a late lunch at Mrs Marengo’s which is in a handy spot in W1 near Oxford Circus, Liberty, Mac store, Carnaby St etc. It’s a vegetarian place that is mainly geared towards take out (it is the take out branch of Mildreds) but can seat about 12 on bar stools. I had the chargrilled aubergine, goats cheese, harissa, and spinach burger and got a cupcake to take away to share with Simon at home later. Satisfying and a good price for that location.
Earlier that day I had needed to be at Olympia and to get there from Paddington Station (the station for Oxford) meant a walk through Holland Park. The park itself was rather gloomy and deserted, I was not sorry when I was safely out the far side, but these trees in the streets looked interesting.
There was time to pop into the Holland Park Road branch of Daunt Books. I like Daunt because the main arrangement of the shelves is by country. I am planning a few trips so I wanted to see what fiction and history books might be good background reading. They also have nice fabric bags that they give you for your shopping.
Simon’s sisters and their families had given me some Liberty gift coins for my birthday – so kind! So before I headed back to Oxford I spent an absolute AGE looking at everything in and trying to decide what to get. I wanted to get something that would last and was special to Liberty. I was this {} close to getting a Rob Ryan mug but finally I went for some of this Liberty fabric that I really love. It’s so happy! I will make cushion covers as we are in need of some new ones. With the change left over I also bought a few bars of fancy chocolate, Charbonnel and Walker Pink Marc de Champagne, and Sir Hans Sloane of London milk and dark. I will store those away for a treat some time :)
