Blue Moon - wheat beer

Drink name                       Drink makers                       Drink type                Drink strength
Blue Moon                        blue moon brewing co         wheat beer                5.4%


I first tried this beer in Bristol whilst out for a meal with some friends and was mildly vexed when I got back to the north and couldn't find anywhere that sold it. Now however I've found it... in a little bottle but at least it's in the shops.

This is an un-filtered wheat beer. It says on the bottle brewed and spiced in the Belgian tradition but I don't know how true that is.

The stuff looks it's a bad urine sample and that's good in this situation.

the drink has a pleasant smell that I can only assume is wheat and the taste is better and sweet. It's a bit zesty but in a nice way and has a nice, constant favour.
I find my self wanting to say smooth but that's not right.

tasty rating
Good as a drink 08/10 Good as a beer etc 09/10
Can't put down factor 09/10 Good at getting you drunk 6/10
Bottle art 9/10
Average = 82ish out of 100% because I can't count and I don't understand percentages.
I don't trust numbers.

 Drink link

  www.bluemoonbrewingcompany.co.uk

Ben & Jerrys treat

 I love Ben & Jerry's half backed with some toffee treat on it. Thankfully the ice cream is quite over priced in my opinion so I only get it when it is in a half price sale.

It's also really bad for you due to being made with real cream and having no air bubbles forced into it in the creating process.

I just wish they did a half baked core.

Rekorderlig Berries Cider

Drink name                       Drink makers                       Drink type                Drink strength
                     Rekorderlig Premium wild berries Cider                                   4% 

What the heck is this thing called? I'm sick of not being sure exactly what a drinks name is. It's happening more and more often!
...Arrr stuff it. Who cares.

I'll be honest with you here. I like this stuff but my gut hates it. It gives me indigestion and that sucks because it does taste nice.

It smells fruity, it tastes fruity. It's good...

Except for the point where I end up 15 minuets after starting drinking it rolling around on the floor in agony thinking "If this doesn't stop soon I hope I die!" I drank this in a club once and thought I was having a heart attack!
It's the same with Brothers and Gaymers. Dam there tasty little arses.




tasty rating
Good as a drink 07/10 Good as a Cider etc 07/10
Can't put down factor 07/10 Good at getting you drunk 4/10
Bottle art 6/10
Average = 62ish out of 100% because I can't count and I don't understand percentages.
I'm not even sure how I came up with that number.

The Sutton Arms - Pub & Restaurant - Stockton-on-Tees

I stopped off at the Sutton Arms today for Lunch. It's a pub in Elton (On a map it seems to be almost on the middle point between Middlesbrough and Darlington).

Even on a rainy day like this the place looks nice. The area quiet. I almost his a wide variety of birds on the way there and they didn't even appear fussed in the slightest.

The Sutton Arms has a good menu with a lot of different foods to choose from. Theres something for just about every pallet.

The lunch lunch time specials are a little more limited but for just under £5 you can't go wrong.

I went for Chicken and Yorkshire pudding which came with gravy mash and a roasty for some reason. Maybe the roast potato was meant to be there maybe it wasn't. If it was trying to escape though it failed. The meal also came with some cooked veg comprising of carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage.

Now I like my Veg firm and they didn't disappoint. The Yorkshire pudding was crispy and the chicken was moist.

The meal was fantastic. All of it tasting great.
If I was to make one negative comment it would be that the gravy was not as think as I like it but that's a miner thing (I like my gravy so thick it has trouble poring).

The interior doesn't disappoint ether. The place is as quirky as  they come with some of the most unusual collections of things for you to spend time inspecting.

If you get the chance please go. It really is a lovely place.

Restaurant link

http://suttonarms.weebly.com/

Pie

I bought some rabbit a few weeks ago and it's been sitting in my fridge ever since.
I wasn't sure what to do with it at first but I've had an idea.
I'll make a rabbit pie. Never done one before so it should be fun.

Hears an interesting fact, if you are interested in facts that is ...  Did you know that if you ate nothing but rabbit, and by that I mean absolutely nothing but, you would die of malnutrition? (Yes I got that fact from QI)

Anyway I found My recipe. Here it is in picture form with a link. Gotta love the BBC recipe section.

Recipe link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rabbitpie_89204

Scrumpy Cloudy Cider

Drink name                       Drink makers                       Drink type                Drink strength

Scrumpy                            Westons                               cloudy cider              7.5%   2 litre

If you want to feel like a real hillbilly country bumpkin wurzels fan and yet don't want, for some reason, to drink out of a jar then this may just be the drink for you!
Westons does some good Cider I think. I know that their Old Rosie Cloudy Cider is good at any rate as I've blogged that already.

My first problem with this drink is that the bottle is massive! I just don't think I have the self control not to drink this thing. The second is that the horse on the bottle art looks unhappy and knackered. If it wasn't painted I'd be calling the R.S.P.C.A on their asses.

On opening however all worries about badly treated fictitious horses melt away as the smell of a drink made with real apples hits you.

It tastes like a good strong cider too. Acidic? Yes, a bit but mainly like apples. This cider is dry which means that in my eyes it's not perfect but if you love dry you'll probably love this.
I like a nice strong oak barrel taste and that is missing here or at least to my over worked taste buds.

I'm still liking it though and am having trouble not sipping this off apple juice right now... At least this is going to last me a while being 2 litres.

I also feel that if I were to chuck it at someone on a hot August day that the someone would quickly be carried of by wasps and Incorporated into their hive as a cafeteria which is the sign of any good fruit based drink.





tasty rating
Good as a drink 07/10 Good as a Cider etc 09/10
Can't put down factor 08/10 Good at getting you drunk 8/10
Bottle art 8/10
Average = 80ish out of 100% because I can't count and I don't understand percentages.
It's all just guess work really on my account.

Lobster

I've wanted to try Lobster for a while now so when I randomly walked passed a Whitby fish van I thought I'd stop and ask if he had any.
I was given Lobster tales.

I had them with a bit of butter as I wanted to know what they actually tasted like rather than making a lobster bisque or something.

The taste is ok. I prefer it over crab but that's not saying much. I think I'd prefer to drink a pint of snails faces whilst eating a plate of grilled bum holes off of capuchin monkeys than eat crab again.

The consistency isn't to my taste. I'd like to say spongy in some ways and rubbery in others.

All in all I'd have to be very hungry to eat lobster again on it's own but I know I could and I know what to expect (Frogs legs were better than lobster in my opinion).

Angry Birds Cake

I think just about everyone knows of Angry Birds now right?

Well here's a simple one my niece and nephew made with the help of my mother for their Farther on Fathers day.

It was a good idea to use toys on the cake as it gave the kids something to fight overrrr I mean play with!

The Icing is made of butter, drinking chocolate and Icing sugar and the cake is an Orange sponge.

farthers day wine

I'm not good at buying presents for people but this year I nailed it.

A nice rich fruity red for Fathers day.

Might buy my self a bottle

tasty rating
Good as a drink 8/10 Good as a red wine 9/10
Can't put down factor 07/10
Good at getting you drunk 10/10
Bottle art 5/10
Rated = 78ish out of 100% because I can't count and I don't understand percentages.

Little Saigon - restaurant - Newcastle

I was up in Newcastle upon tyne for a friends birthday the other day so We decided to go to Little Saigon at the Bigg Market.

It's a nice looking place that does good food.
I went there a while ago and was happy to see it was still going.

The place looks small from outside but once in you realise that is is impossibly long and has a big Mural along one wall of what I assume is a cherry blossom tree with birds flying above it.

The food is good there. My friend had a caramel pork with extra rise and I went for the Saigon house special fried noodles. It came with chicken, pork and prawns and tasted amazing.

Rounded up that was about £8 pound each for a main and a Magners cost £3.60.
So not too bad.

resteront link

http://littlesaigon.uk.com/index.html 

Address

 6 bigg market, newcastle upon tyne, NE1 1UW

apple cider - Kingstone press

  

Drink makes                       Drink name                    Drink type                   Drink strength

Kingstone press                 Classic apple cider          cider                            5.3%                

Nice and simple picture on the front of this 660ml bottle of cider and a nice cider smell.

Wow that tastes sweet. Like Honey sweet!
I can sort of taste apple somewhere under the sweetness but that's about it. Very bubbly.
My teeth feel funny. I  feel like at any moment I could develop Diabetes.

This is totally not my sort of thing.
In fact. I'm chucking the rest out before bees try to make my mouth into a home or worse winnie the pooh french kisses me!

tasty rating
Good as a drink 01/10 Good as a cider etc 02/10
Can't put down factor 01/10 Good at getting you drunk 6/10
Bottle art 4/10
Average = 28ish out of 100% because I can't count and I don't understand percentages.
So there you go.

**********************

update

I also tried there pear cider. It is pretty much the same except, surprise surprise, it tastes slightly of pears.

Low Alcohol English Cider - Sainsbury's

Drink sellers                      Drink name                      Drink type                      Drink strength

Sainsbury's                         English Cider                  Cider                              Less than 1%


Sometimes you just fancy a cider!
But oh no! There's some reason why you can't... driving somewhere, kids, martian invasion, poker game with a secret agent for your house, wife, car and the ~mik-row-feem!~
Now I can't get Terrorvisions song Celebrity hit list out of my head!!

This cider is less than 1% but pretty much tastes like a proper strength Cider.
I doesn't really smell of anything but it tastes like apples and is a bit dry but mainly sweet. It has a nice aftertaste to.

The funny thing is that sets it apart from most ciders though is that it tastes... or more feels more refreshing.

If I felt I might be drinking too much cider I think I'd drink some of this in between and hardly notice the difference.

Well done Sainsbury's


tasty rating
Good as a drink 10/10 Good as a cider etc 10/10
Can't put down factor 09/10 Good at getting you drunk 1/10
bottle art 5/10
Average = 70ish out of 100% because I can't count and I don't understand percentages. I know it should probably be lower but I cant help it. It's nice.
I just make my own percentages up. No real thought goes into it.

Cloudy Cider - Addlestones

       Drink makes                         Drink name          &       Drink type                     Drink strength
       Addlestones                          Addlestones Cloudy Premium Cider                   5%


I FOUND ANOTHER ONE!!! MUHAHAHAHHAHHHAAA! *cough*  erm, yes quite so.
Now I'm always looking for a nice cloudy cider. Hopefully one that is under 700000% proof and brewed in an outhouse :)  Really though, I can't be picky. It seems so hard to find any.

I like the taste of an oaky, appley cider. Not too strong and something in between dry and sweet.

This one, with a slight hint of apples in the smell and the cloudiness of a fairly bad urinary infection, is dam good.
Theres a good balance between dry and sweet (perhaps favouring the dry a little). I can taste the apples and bit of an acidic bite.
It's fruity and that's how it should by.

If there is one thing that is is missing, in my own opinion, it's a stronger Oaky taste. But even without that, it's good.


tasty rating
Good as a drink 09/10 Good as a cider etc 09/10
Can't put down factor 08/10 Good at getting you drunk 6/10
Bottle art 6/10
Average = 76ish out of 100% because I can't count and I don't understand percentages.
Of cause my opinion isn't necessarily shared by you... or anyone else.

Ginsing

Is Ginsing actually good for waking you up?

In summer I have a bit of trouble waking my self up in the morning. Coffee alone just doesn't cut.
So I've started drinking Ginsing tea... There isn't any actual tea in it but I'll call it that because Ginsing warm beverage sounds odd.

I think it's a hay fever thing or maybe because I'm more active in the summer but I get up and it takes about an hour for me to start feeling awake!

The Ginsing thing that I'm trying is called Dr Stuart's ... Triple Ginsing and as will as having three different sorts of Ginsing in it it also has mint and about 5 other things in it. I think that's because Ginsing on it's own tastes worse than sucking on a used sports sock.

So far (2 days) It seems to be making little difference but the drink tastes ok so I'll stick with it.

Celery and apple soup

I saw this recipe and though I love soup. I'm not sure about this one.
I'm going to have to give it a go.

recipe link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/celeryandapplesoup_85782

Calcutta Pale Ale - Cains

Drink makes                         Drink name                               Drink type                     Drink strength
Cains                                     Calcutta Pale Ale                      Pale Ale                        2.8%


Gosh! crikey! Great Scott! Gorden Bennit! I say! By God! and other such things. I just noticed that there is the outline trade mark head with a mighty moustache in the C of the name Cains on this lovely looking can. There's an Elephant picking Hops! That's normal.
I love an overly excitable can/bottle picture.
I think this is the first can I've featured... and it's brewed in Liverpool! Which is where I've never lived and so therefore I'm not sure why I'm mentioning where it's from. I have been there a few times. Once to the mental club there (asylum) and once to see the mighty boosh live.
FASCINATING STORY!!!!!!

I've opened this can and am instantly reminded that packaging effects flavour. There is a metallic tang mixed with hops and slight molt taste there. Not much smell though. I do like a good smell.
A nice and slightly bitter aftertaste too.
Very pleasant.

I may have just found my low alcohol beer with a good taste!

Calcutta pale ale is going down nicely. It's refreshing, got the right amount of taste.
It feels like a good one for relaxing in the sun on a hot day whilst watching the people with cider get chased around by wasps.


tasty rating
Good as a drink 10/10 Good as a beer etc 09/10
Can't put down factor 07/10 Good at getting you drunk 3/10
Can art 9/10
Average = 76ish out of 100% because I can't count and I don't understand percentages
I have no idea what I'm doing but I'm enjoy it anyway.

Drink link

www.cains.co.uk

Quick noodle soup

Usually I'm not one for using packets of stuff and frozen produce but I do keep some in just in case.
On this occasion That payed off.


I wanted to make an Udon noodle soup. I love thick noodles and I love soup. What could be better.

The thing is I was running low on supplies. So I raided my cupboards and freezer and came up with:

• Some Ginger
• medium noodles (not Udon but never mind)
•  Blue dragon szechuan tomato sauce packet
• frozen mixed veg
• frozen peppers (bought, copped and frozen)
• non meat chicken substitute (like quarn)
• veg stock cube

From these I was able to make a pretty good noodle soup. I guess it shows that as long as you have some backup stuff in your cupboard and freezer you can at least make something decent and not have to rely on eating mastery cans in the cupboard that you don't remember buying (stag chili as a student springs to mind)

Strawberry Lager

Drink makes                         Drink name                               Drink type                     Drink strength
Melvilles                              Strawberry                                 fruit lager?                     4.1%


Fruit Lager! Until I tried Melvilles Raspberry stuff I didn't think you got fruit lager... except for ones with a bit of lime in them.
The bottle makes me think of sauces and jams that are trying to look old fashioned. ... Hand crafted always worries me too. If you spend time with your hands in a vat of lager, trying to craft it then I worry you might be exhibiting delusional behaviour. Maybe I just don't know what hand crafted mean and I'm trying to cover up my ignorance with humour.

I'm smelling fruitiness and a lager smell which is promising.
This taste OK for a lager. They always have an aftertaste which doesn't sit right with me... like plastic and although this has that aftertaste it isn't strong.
It's good stuff.
I got this from Tesco for £1 so I think it's good value.

tasty rating
Good as a drink 7/10 Good as a lager etc 7/10
Can't put down factor 6/10 Good at getting you drunk 4/10
Bottle art 2/10
Average = 52ish out of 100% because I can't count and I don't understand percentages.
I like my scoring like I like my women... Made up and with no basis in reality.

 

 Drink link

www.melvillescraftlager.com 

Strawberry ginger beer

Drink makes                      Drink name                            Drink type                  Drink strength
Crabbie's                             Crabbie's                              Ginger Beer                4%
                                  Strawberry Ginger Beer


Right! I had to get and try this ginger beer because it contains 3 of my favourite ingredients for a ginger beer drink.
1. alcoholic ginger beer. Of cause.
2. Things that will probably taste like things that are meant to taste like strawberry's... like sweets that only taste slightly like what they are meant to taste like.
You know if they brought out strawberry flavoured crisps I'd try them. ~ N ~ E ~ way ...
3. Lime.

This stuff smells like Strawberry Wasp attractor, Looks like what might happen if bubble gum became incontinent and tastes like Strawberry sweets with a hint of Ginger!
Winner in my eyes.

I could sit all day and drink this. If I ever Barbecue something I can imagine drinking this at the same time.



tasty rating
Good as a drink 10/10 Good as a beer etc 7/10
Can't put down factor 9/10 Good at getting you drunk 4/10
Bottle art 7/10
Average = 74ish out of 100% because I can't count and I don't understand percentages
Warning. No reality was used in the %'s rating.

Makers link

www.crabbiesgingerbeer.co.uk

Fruli - Strawberry Beer

Drink makes                         Drink name                               Drink type                     Drink strength
fruli                                       Fruli Strawberry Beer               fruit beer                       4.1%






FFFFFFRRRRRUUUUULLLLLIIIIII!
Fruli.
I love this stuff. I've had it on draft and though it is expensive, it's worth it.... IF you like fruit beers.
This strawberry beer is like drinking the ofspring of starwberry sauce and beer having a passionate nigh together and making the ultimate child.

It's great.
There is a place it middlesbrough that has it on tap called the southfield on southfield road and It will always hold a place it my heart.



tasty rating
Good as a drink10/10 Good as a beer etc 10/10
Can't put down factor 10/10 Good at getting you drunk 4/10
Bottle art 7/10
Average = 82ish out of 100% because I can't count and I don't understand percentages.
I know It makes no sense and is unfair but so's your face.

Drink link

www.fruli.be

Raspberry lager - Melvilles

Drink makes                         Drink name                               Drink type                     Drink strength
Melvilles                              Raspberry                                  fruit lager?                     4.1%

For a small bottle it looks ok.
It smells fruity.
It even says it has real fruit in it which is nice because I hate the taste of wax fruit.
This driink has a strong, mildly bitter aftertaste just like respberry. As it goes I'd say this is a good fruity beer/lager but I have had better.



tasty rating
Good as a drink 7/10 Good as a lager 6/10
Can't put down factor 7/10 Good at getting you drunk 4/10
Bottle art 5/10
Average = 58ish out of 100% because I can't count and I don't understand percentages.
I know my scoring makes no sense but what dose.

 Drink link

www.melvillescraftlager.com 

Bacckus Raspberry Beer

Drink makes                         Drink name                               Drink type                     Drink strength

    Bacckus                               Raspberry Beer?                         fruit beer                      5%



Bacckus!!!
I still love this name. THAT'S RIGHT, it's the return of the odd looking happy potential murderer/woman beater in the picture of the Bacckus cherry beer paper bottle covering!

I liked the cherry beer so much I thought I'd try their other drinks... well this Raspberry one anyway.
Plus I can't resist unwrapping things in paper. Christmas for me is a nightmare rolled up in a heavenly guise.

So... Smells nice and fruity and ,if my nose brain isn't deceiving me,  very much like the cherry one. Which is a bit odd.

The taste is like extremely fruity and quite beer like. I'm going with this tastes like berries but if I didn't know what type I might guess wrong and go with snozberries. Ok I could probably guess it was supposed to taste like raspberry beer because I can't think of any other berries apart from strawberries right now and it doesn't taste like that.

So It's good. It's drinkable. I'm thinking it's a good beer and I could see myself drinking this all day in a pub, getting sunburn and being mobbed by wasps... what is it with me and wasps!?!



tasty rating
Good as a drink 9/10 Good as a beer etc 9/10
Can't put down factor 7/10 Good at getting you drunk 6/10
Bottle art 7/10
Average = 76ish out of 100% because I can't count and I don't understand percentages.
I know It makes no sense and is unfair. But what is.

 Drink link

 www.vanhonsebrouck.be