King For A Day?

King Cod, 193 Bedford Road, Kempston, MK42 8DD

 

Two word review: NO SCRAPS!

Another lunchtime another growling belly (I mean my actually Belly, not my alter ego), so what’s a man to do? KFC? BK? They’re the same everywhere you go so where’s the fun in that?

No dear friends, I will not go to the messiahs of Franchise belly entertainment. I am the common man, I am tasting for you! I’m clogging my ...

arteries so you don’t have to (what a champ eh?).

The first chill of the year is upon us, a chill that can only be melted away with the warm deep fried promises of a large sausage in batter & chips (I’m sure other things would do just as well like a healthy soup or a nice hot cup of tea but as I said before “I am the common man, I am tasting for you!”).

So… King Cod (or as I call it “Posh Chippy”) is the newest chippy to open up in Kempston. I think it’s been around since the spring. When you enter the place you’ll see what I mean by “Posh Chippy”, the decor is very modern, exposed red brick wall on one side, gleaming stainless steel counters and serving area, olde pictures of Kempston's past on the walls (for sale too!) and a specials board which today listed (among other things): Pork & Chili Sausages… what kind of chippy does that?

A POSH ONE!

So, we have posh chip shop decor, posh sausages and blood posh prices! Large Cod £4.65… that’s just the fish man! I’d expect a large cod plus a snog behind the bike sheds for that sort of cash!

Anyway… down to the food.

Large sausage in batter & large chips (no ‘king scraps *grumble grumble*)
The portion was pretty big and I’m ashamed to admit that it did beat me. I’d say I have eyes larger than my belly but I have quite squinty piggy eyes (which ironically match my porky piggy belly) so that would be quite frankly, balls…

The chips themselves were a pretty mixed bag (no pun intended) some were over crispy, some were soggy and others were undercooked to the point of almost being raw in the middle. They were all kind of greasy too. I think it all depends on the cook. I went back one lunch time recently and had some amazing chips, they were crispy on eth outside and fluffy on the inside, perfectly cook. I went back a couple of weeks later at the same time, different cook, shite chips.

 My initial impression of the sausage in batter was good; I was impressed that even after a 10 minute car ride home the batter had remained very crispy, not a single piece of it was soggy at all. Sadly the look & touch of the batter was the best part, biting in to the batter I could feel it crumble away (not in a good way, in a kind of stamped on Crunchie bar was but without the awesome taste) then I felt your mouth was awash with grease, swimming heavily around the inside of my chops. That’s when I hit the sausage, firm and meaty but with that odd Walls sausage roll after taste. A Horrible fatty just off meat taste…. Blurgh.

 

As a customer you expect some sort of standard from the places you frequent such as flavour. There just doesn't seem to be any consistency in chip shops and the like. Yes, I know they're just chip shops but if one guy/gal can perfect their product to a set standard why is this information not passed on to the other cooks?

 I’m not sure what’s happened in the Fish N’ Chip world this last decade or so but there seems to be an increase in shite chip shops. Those that were once grand are falling in to their fishy knees while the new blood fails to rise above their spuddy ankles all of them resting their battered heads in a greasy puddle of muck. 

To Lee's Or Not To Lee's?

Lee’s, 131 Castle Road, Bedford, Beds, MK40 3RF 

What is there to say about Lee’s Chinese? Well, for starters it’s one of the oldest Chinese takeaways in Bedford, I’ve visited this place since I was a small child and… it is now a shadow of its former self.

Back in the day the joint was run by (you’ll never guess) Mr & Mrs Lee (funny that) and it was great, the food was great the service was friendly. No complaints could be made. However, a few years back Mr & Mrs Lee sold up but (from what I hear) they sold up on the condition that the new owners stuck to Mr Lee’s original recipes, and they did until recently.

Gone is the MASSIVE pancake roll which has now been replaced with the odd tasting 2 x smaller pancake rolls.

Gone are the juicy sweet & sour chicken balls, now replaced with overcooked batter while the chicken seems a little bit slimy.

Gone is the sweet & sour sauce which seems to have been replaced with sweet & sour jelly (honestly, when this stuff gets cold you could turn the cup it’s served in upside down and you’d have yourself a little wobbly sweet & sour tower, I think the police could use this stuff to catch fleeing criminals or it could replace stingers as this gloop will stop a car solid in its tracks!).

The first time I noticed things had changed was a few months back and I avoided the place for a while but I do like to give places a fair shot so I went back last night to try it again just in case my previous impressions were just being tainted by the memories of the past.... they're weren't, the place really has turned to shit!

First off, I love pancake rolls and I really used to enjoy the Lee’s MASSIVE (this thing was HUGE with a capital HU, you could have battered King Kong to death with one of those bad boys and even if it broke in two you'd still have enough left to take down Godzilla.... and Godzookie!) pancake roll filled with shrimp, beef, pork, beansprouts etc. Now the new smaller pancake rolls are filled with pretty much the same stuff but the crispy coating is now a soggy mess, the pork smells & tastes a little bit funny, the bean sprouts are no longer crunchy and the beef seems to have buggered off back to the fields (lucky escape for the beef I say, if you're gonna die to feed someone you at least want to end up somewhere you'll be appreciated).

The sweet & sour chicken balls as I mention before have seriously dropped in quality and every time I took a bite I could feel a soft sliminess which then puts the thought of the chicken not being cooked properly in to your head so every bite comes with a dirty thought and each dirty thought puts you more & more off what you’re eating (never a good sign when it comes to food).

The only thing I didn’t really have an issue with was the mushroom rice, the mushrooms were perfect and the rice was pretty good (although still a decline in quality from what came before).

Sadly Lee’s is Lee’s in name only these days and it’s a name that has now been sullied by the ever declining quality in its product…

Perhaps I’m living in the past but if this is the future of Lee’s then all I want to know is where’s the Delorian? I wanna go back!

Spaghetti Western: You're Not Fooling Anyone Gringo

Spaghetti Johns, 15 Castle Lane, Bedford, MK40 3NT

Well it has been a full weekend hasn’t it! Chip shop Friday, Chicken Shop Saturday and now Italian on a Sunday.

 Spaghetti Johns is located in Castle Lane which is a reasonably new development in Bedford Town Centre, just behind the Swan Hotel and next to the old Castle Mound, the problem is that the building that Spaghetti John and its neighbours... occupy had been left empty for quite a long time since building finished that I really don’t think a lot of people know it’s there.
I know a couple of people who have already been and have heard mixed reviews on the place so I thought I’d better check it out myself being both “The Belly” and also a lover of Italian food.

The building and area which surrounds are pretty much brand new, what used to be a grotty old car park is now a street of boutiques, bars, restaurants & apartments. I’ve got to hand it to the developers as this is a vast improvement on what was here and makes great use of the area.

Walking ion to the restraint I notice that there is a large Italian family eating here (always a good sign for an Italian restraint), also the place is run by genuine Italians, the problem was that apart from the family were the only other people in the place (which goes back to me thinking not many people know about this area yet). Sadly, as my wife and I sat down the family left leaving us the only two customers in the rather large area (always a bit daunting).

We were soon seen to by a waitress who brought over our menus and took our drinks order. Looking through the menu there was a good choice of dishes but not too many which I personally like. There were the traditional dishes you expect to see plus some others that you wouldn’t such as the Al Cinghiale (Wild Boar Ragu), Arancini Repieno (Deep Fried Rice balls) and the Di Bacala, Rucola e Zucchini (Cod raviolo, rocket and zucchini with celeriac puree, radicci and provolone cheese).

There was the option of Lasagne on the menu with a notice underneath to ask the waiting staff about today’s lasagne. When we did ask we were told by the waitress that she “thought” it was just normal… and that was that. I’d expect her to know to be honest since she is serving the customers but even if she was unsure I still would have expected a “I’m not sure, let me ask the chef and I’ll come back to you”.

After my parents joined us we all placed our orders:

Starters
Me: Arancini Repieno (Deep Fried Rice balls)

Pa Belly: Tris di Bruschette (Traditional bruschette Tomato and basil, beans,tuna and onion and buffala mozzarella with pesto)

When asked which of the toppings he would like, Pa Belly ordered the Buffalo Mozzarella but did question the waitress as he had ordered it the last time he’d been there and recalled that each bruschetta had a different topping. Later the waitress came back to say that he was right…. Again, I would have expected the waiting staff to know what the dishes were.

Mrs Belly & Ma Belly: Cesto Di Pane Misto (A basket with fresh backed mixed Italian style bread, butter, extra virgin olive oil and homemade tomato and chilli jam).

The rice balls were excellent, they came served with a small side salad and a sun dried tomato dip that was also excellent. The bread basket my wife & ma ordered was quite big so all four of us had to help out on that but again the bread was very good and the chilli jam was quite unique, a bit like strawberry jam with sweet chilli sauce. I can’t comment on the bruschetta but Pa Belly seemed to enjoy it!

For our main courses:

Mrs Belly ordered the Tagliatelle con Ricotta e Noci (Tagliatelle with ricotta and walnuts) and really enjoyed it.

Myself, Ma Belly & Pa Belly all ordered the Al Cinghiale (Wild boar and meat ragu in a traditional tomato sauce) but after we started eating it we kind of wish we hadn’t. The actual boar meat ragu & tomato sauce were delicious, really rich in flavour but the pasta was fresh, thick and chewy which although it didn’t ruin the meal completely it was a bit of a let-down. We did mention this to the waitress who again went off and never returned, it wasn’t until we’d finished eating that the owner came to take our plates and to discuss the pasta. We were told that because the pasta was fresh & thick that it would never go soft from boiling and that it was “Al Dente”. I hate to disagree with an Italian about pasta but when I’ve made my own pasta it has always cooked soft, if the pasta was supposed to be Al-Dente then it should have stated it on the menu. It was undercooked, end of… I just wish he’d have said “sorry about that but thank you for bringing it to my attention”. It’s not like I want anything free out of it but if something’s not as it should be then I feel you need to let these places know.

Since Mrs Belly has a bit of a sweet tooth we obviously stayed for dessert and since Spaghetti Johns boats about being a Gelateria then we just had to have the ice cream.

What can I say about the ice cream? Hmmmm, it was simply amazing! There were 12 or 14 flavours to choose from and it is all made fresh on eth premises by the owner. My god does he have a talent there! I’ve been to Italy twice before and this really does match up to the ice cream I had over there, it’s a bloody art in my opinion. I got myself three scoops to try: Cherry, Pistachio and Ferrero Rocher. Seriously, they were all delicious, the cherry ice cream had whole glacier cherries mixed in to it, the same goes for the pistachio with full nuts mixed in and the Ferrero Rocher had massive chunks of the Ambassadors favourite party food throughout.

That’s the food out of the way, there are a couple of other niggles I have about the place. Firstly when you enter the restaurant the first think you’ll notice is just how damn bright the place is, since the inside of the building is very minimal, white & stark the bright lights basically kill any atmosphere that may have been there. If they dimmed the lights a little the whole place would feel warmer & more inviting. The other issue I had was that there seemed to be a lot of people working there but very little custom, there were four people working in the kitchen, three waiting staff + the owner. Then there were some other people who were either working there or just friends of the staff. The problem in a situation like that is that people are just hovering about, I could see that everyone was basically watching us eat. I can’t stand that, I don’t want people staring at me while I eat thank you very much! It’s like they’re desperate for something to do, at one point it appeared that we had finished (we hadn’t we were just paused & chatting) and I could see the waitress heading towards the table out of the corner of my eye so I picked up my fork just before she reached us and I saw her spin on her heels 90 degrees and head off the other way (heh).

I know I’m being a bit down on the place but I honestly think a lot of the problems are down to the place being new . I’ll go back and give the place a fair chance again maybe sometime later next year to see how things have improved but my first visit wasn’t exactly the experience I was expecting or wanted.

Bedford Belly On Tour: Luton AFC

AFC, 47/53 Bute Street. LU1 2EP

Another weekend, another take-away! Kind of…

I’ve ventured out of Bedford and headed to the bright lights of Luton Town as there’s a gig on at the George II pub. Before the drinks start flowing however I need to fill my belly so my friend and I wandered down the road to AFC.

AFC is obviously not in a grand location, it’s just out the back of the Arndale centre (you may call it “The Mall” now… because renaming it will make it less skanky apparently), across the road from what used to be buildings but is now a waste land car park within the grounds of modern ruins.

When you see the outside of the shop it’s not exactly welcoming, you step in side and it’s not eth most pleasant of places. It could do with a good clean in the dining area the beige hue that seems to be draped over the area may just be down to the age of the fittings.

The guy that served us was for want of a better word, indifferent. He really didn’t seem like he gave a shit whether we would actually order something or not and when we did he still didn’t seem that pleased about it. This might just be a one off as I’ve eaten here a few times before and they staff have normally been quite pleasant. What I did find a bit odd was the random people behind the counter that grabbed food and then popped off out of the shop. Perhaps they were staff going home of delivery staff but they weren't wearing the slinky purple t-shirts the other guys were wearing so in all honesty they could have been anyone… if fact I’m now wondering if I couldn’t have just done the same?

Anyway, we both have 2 pieces of chicken and chips (fries), they ask if it’s eat in or take away (we’re eating in). The food comes and it’s served on a plate, I am in favour of this as takeaways are almost always served in cardboard or polystyrene boxes even if you’re eating in. These items should on be used for walk out or delivery orders since they are disposed of almost immediately and are a massive ecological nightmare.

The chicken comes and I’m disappointed to see two pieces of dark meat. I am by no means a chicken snob who poo poo’s the dark meat & only eats the white meat, I love the dark meat but it’s like the pudding part of the chicken to me. Breast is the mains, dark the afters… The breast should be chicken piece number 1. If you order one piece you get the breast, two pieces should be breast & leg, 3 pieces should be breast, leg, thigh etc.

Putting my disappointment over the lack of breast (stop it!) to one side I notice that the southern fried coating is a bit patchy however the coating is crispy and is holding on to the chicken (In the past I’ve mentioned the floppy batter issue most chips shops seem to have, well this is also noticeable with southern fried coating on chicken at quite a few places too). The chicken meat is very juicy and tasty but a little bit pink in the middle.

The fries are next (which I have smothered in the very tasty Chilli sauce), Remember when Burger King introduced its “Stealth Fries” a few years back? Well, compared to these BK’s fries are frickin' rubbish. What you get at AFC can only be described as the perfect French fry! They’re long, they’re straight and they’re bloody crispy on the outside yet REALLY fluffy on the inside. The vinegar & chilli sauce have not at all affected the structural integrity of the tasty little monster either yet they’re not at all greasy.

For those of you that think magic isn’t real are wrong, it IS real and you can see it, touch it, taste it in the AFC French fries!

There’s a lot more on offer at AFC including kebabs, pizza and curries. Now this is what I don’t like about modern take-away establishments. I feel that a place called AFC (where the “C” stands for chicken) should only sell chicken and side orders. I’ve not eaten anything but chicken from this place myself but one online review I found said this:

  "My korma was vile like chicken in sugared cream the Jalfrezi was also awful the rice was not nice curry so horrible I couldn’t eat it nor could my daughter was an hour late and all cold."

Perhaps I should cut this bit out as I’ve never experienced it for myself but it wouldn’t surprise me. I’m of the opinion that places need to stick to one area, if they did I feel that the quality of said items would improve. I would never order a curry form a fried chicken shop myself because I’d rather go to a curry house where I know that the curry will be made as it should be. In some respect I feel the person who wrote that review kind of had it coming to them.

Enough of that though let me get round to the last item here, at the start of this review I mentioned the inside of the establishment, what I failed to mention was that they have (and this is brilliant) a sink in the dining area!

A SINK, FRICKIN’ GENIUS!!! Napkins just don’t do the job on greasy chicken fingers but a nice hand wash will do very nicely. It’s ugly and a bit odd to see it there but it works. There’s also a hand dryer for after (isn’t that good).

So, to sum it all up. Fries’ = like the God’s themselves have lovingly crafted them , chicken = juicy but a bit pink (something I’m a bit wary of), service & premises = mixed.

I’d give it a 7 out of 10 based on the chicken & chips (French Fries) but will knock it down to 5.5-6 since the inside of the shop isn’t exactly pleasant. I’ve yet to try anything else on the menu so if anyone else here has tried other items on the AFC menu or ordered in then I encourage you to speak up and post your experiences below.

A Chip Off The Old Block?

Fish and Chip Shop, 91 Mile Road, Bedford, Bedfordshire,MK42 9UD

 It was a time for heroes, a time for champions, a time for….. LUNCH!

Ok, perhaps I’m going a bit far with the hero bit but it did take a heroic effort to even consider lifting my fat ass out of my comfy office chair and brave the cold weather just to get some chips.

Chips??? Again??? Next you’ll be telling us about some Italian joint (funnily enough I probably will be, honestly I’m not some potato/pasta hound but it’s just the way things have fallen of late).

What can I say about the very creatively titled “Fish and Chip Shop” ? (Formally “Cools” or it could have been “Coors”, they had that funny joined up writing font so it was always a little hard to make out, I’m not saying I find cursive writing difficult to read just the particular font that was used on the…. Oh, who am I kidding. If it ain’t block capitals I’m lost!) Well I could say that they produce the best batter in the world… but they don’t. I could even say that their sausages in batter are the finest in all the land… but they’re not.

We can play this game forever so let’s get around to the facts.

Facts

1) The chips are pretty good, outside is solid with nice crispy bits inside however can be a little dry but that can be sorted with an (un?)healthy dose of vinegar!

2) Batter, not too shabby but not great either. There is a crispness to it but it only seems to retain its crispness on the smaller “sticky out” bits. The rest of the batter, while never loose & flappy is in fact a bit “damp”. The flavour is pretty good but again not good enough at the same time.

3) The Sausage meat is a bit odd too. It’s better than the fluorescent pink sausage meat they were using a couple of years back but when you’re eating it you get a weird smell waft up your nose from time to time and there’s this odd after taste too, not repulsive or anything just a bit odd.

4) Portions are pretty big, a large bag of chips would most likely feed yourself + partner and maybe a small child. I obviously couldn’t test this theory out as I have no small child of my own and mothers these days get a bit “screamy” when you try and drag one in off the street. Since I am The Bedford Belly I managed to finish all but one chip (yay me, you can catch me at my funeral this time next year…)

The premises is pretty clean on first look but if you do take a closer look you’ll see the air vents in the walls to the front of the shop could do with a bloody good scrub and the place could do with a lick of paint. The serving area however is pretty much spotless so I’m not at all saying the place is unsanitary just a bit worn.

The guy behind the counter is really friendly and is always happy enough which is something I like when I’m being served food. I don’t care if you think I’m scum, I don’t care if you’re having a bad day when you take my order I want to see smiles! He smiled…

So, there you have it. I think I need to devise some sort of rating system for each of these places, maybe deep fat friars instead of stars. If that’s the case then I’ll give this place 6 DFF’s out of 10 with a playful ruffle of its hair and a “could do better” mark in its report book to take home to its mum.