Caught Up with my old mate Raf today. I haven’t seen him since before I went away, so we had a whole Month to catch up on.
I also needed some shopping in Stapleton Rd so we could kill two birds with one stone and have a catch up whilst we shopped.
Now this isn’t like Jaki when she goes shopping for clothes. She sets out at first light with the intention of visiting every shop within a 40 mile radius of Bristol. Her usual routine is to start at Point ‘A’, touch every single item as she walks past them to Point “B”. Then, when its getting dark, return to the first shop and buy the first Item she looked at.
Raf is a ‘Foodie’ in as much as he specialises in slightly quirky food that borders on the ‘healthy spectrum’.
So, today, after visiting half a dozen Health Food shops, three Deli’s, some Vegan Food Stores and countless shop’s selling Healthy/Organic food, he bought 45pence worth of Fenugreek powder.
But I digress.
I picked him up from home but had to park some distance away as there is still major construction going on at the new railway station, which is right in front of his house and drove to Stapleton Rd, parking behind the Shal Jalal Jame Mosque a forgotten part of Bristol that has become home to dozens of old dilapidated Motor homes.
Then it was a short walk across the road to Jeevan’s Pure Vegetarian Sweets and Snacks where they sell the best vegetarian Samosa’s in the WORLD. (£1 each).
Whilst I was there I picked up a copy of their take away Menu and having looked at it, I think I’m going to put in an order and treat myself to a Veggie curry one evening soon.
On the way back to the car we passed a mobile phone shop and I popped in to see if they had a leather wallet to house my new mobile phone ( my old one was stolen in Spain last week) and they did, so I was able to negotiate it down to a Tenner.
Then we headed for Gloucester Rd . Cutting through the back streets we arrived at St Andrews Park where there were plenty of parking spaces. It was a short walk through the back door of the Co-op on Gloucester Rd and out of the front door to Gloucester Rd proper.
Our first port of call was Scoopaway where they had a 300 gram jar of Organic Ghee for sale at just under £10 which I thought was a bit dear but Raf assured me was in fact cheap. So we decided to check out some other shops and see how they compared.
Our next stop was La Ruca which has an organic / Veggie food shop down stairs which hides a dark secret.
If you go through the shop and up the stairs at the back, you arrive at the “oldest Cafe” on Gloucester Rd.
It looks like it’s been wrapped in a time warp, all old mahogany furniture and bowing ceilings which sort of gives it some status in my book.
The menu offered a range of interesting meals but there was also a specials menu on the wall which grabbed our attention and I chose the Moroccan Style Lentil and Spinach Stew with Rice. £8.99.
I have to say, this was absolutely delicious and I dont quite know how they cooked their rice, but it was amazingly good mixed with the Lentil Stew. It wasn’t spicy and it didn’t have (as far as i could tell ) any Chillies in it, but boy was it tasty.
Raf went for the Soup of the day which was Lentil, Coriander, Ginger and Coconut. £4.99.
He said it was the best soup he had ever had, which is saying something.
So the food got top marks.
What was surprising though, was the Tea. £1.80 a mug. It was absolutely delicious and I asked the server what T bags they used.
She showed me the pack.
“Clipper” organic English Tea. (£4.45 in the shop down stairs).
Service was great and the staff were really friendly even though they forgot my second cup of tea as they were chatting. But hey, happy staff, happy customers I say.
As we wandered back up Gloucester road we called in to a few more shops and found Organic Ghee but in smaller jars (250 grams) at just under a Fiver, so 500 grams for a tenner.
Where as the big Jar was the same price but only held 300 grams.
So I decide to leave it for another day ( a good excuse to go out again) and went back to the car, which by now smelt beautifully of Samosa’s.
Happy days.
You just cant beat a day out in Bristol if you love food.
In search of a great Breakfast 