The Spring Cafe - Arts and Heritage Centre, Havant

I had to collect a parcel today from the Post Office in Havant, so decided to try out The Spring Cafe at the Spring Arts and Heritage Centre, East Street, Havant, Hampshire, PO9 1BS which is opposite.

The Spring Cafe used to be called Red Mango which used to be a Vegetarian Cafe. Unfortunately, they decided to put meat back on the menu, however they do offer more Vegetarian meals than meat from what I could see today.

I have been in here before and spoke to an employee about their reason to introduce meat to the menu and was told that, because of the recession, they have to cater to the wider audience. I can understand this, although, as a Vegetarian, I would much rather go to a completely Vegetarian cafe, and would specifically go out of my way to do so. I imagine alot of Vegetarians and Vegans would feel the same?

You can choose a meal from their menu, or select one of their specials of the day.

The Vegetarian specials of the day were a Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche, a Aubergine and Cheddar Quiche or a Spinach and Emmental Pastry (that my Mum raves about!)

I was going to have the Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche, but it looked a bit dry, so I decided on the Aubergine and Chedder Quiche.

Although it was very tasty, I think it was a little overcooked, there also wasnt alot of filling, but I feel it didnt really need it as the pastry base was a nice thickness which didnt over power the filling. The edge of the pastry was a little dry though.

I think this is only the second time I have ever eaten Aubergines, but it wont be the last as they were delicious and work really well in a quiche. The cheese was vey tasty, but it had gone a bit hard where it had been in the heated display I imagine. It also seems that the cheese was added after the quiche was cooked and then put under the grill? as it wasnt actually mixed inside the quiche filling. If it had been, I dont think it would have gone hard :-/

Served with a simple mixed leaf salad, with chopped cucumber, tomato, spring onions and a serving of homemade coleslaw (delicious!!)

I decided on a Latte as a drink (I have to admit, its pretty much always a Latte or a Diet Coke with me!)

This had quite a nice taste to it, not too strong, but not too weak either. Im a bit of a coffee nazi and this did taste a bit 'machiney' to me as I really like the roasted strong taste of a good freshly brewed coffee, so I think that is me just being a bit of a coffee snob. They also used Cravendale milk, which I thought for a cafe with a high milk turnaround, was a bit odd. I also think their drink sizes are a bit on the small side. I had a diet coke here about a month ago and I thought they had given me a childs size.

My meal was £5.95 and my Latte was £2.00 so in total = £7.95 which I think is a fair price.

My overall experience (out of 10):

Food: ******* (7)
Drink: ***** (5)
Atmosphere: ******** (8)
Friendliness of Staff: ******* (7)
Cleanliness: ******* (7)

Taken from their website:

The Spring Café & Bar is a great place to meet friends, enjoy a range of light breakfasts, homemade lunches or grab a sandwich and coffee to takeaway.  The café serves delicious cakes and Fair Trade tea & coffee from 9.30am till 3pm, breakfast is available from 9.30am till 11.30am, lunches are served from 11.30am till 2.30pm Monday to Saturday.  For any enquiries please call 02392 249065 or email: rachelc@thespring.co.uk

Waitrose Asparagus and Portobello Mushroom Pie

I bought this pie in Waitrose as I saw it was reduced, so thought I would treat myself haha

Its nice to see a Vegetarian pie that isnt Cheese and Onion! Although, it has to be said, there are alot more Vegetarian pies on the market these days :-)

I served this with some minted mashed potato and peas. The pie itself was a good size and very tasty. I thought I tasted a shiitake mushroom in it (my favourite), which, after looking at the ingredients, I did. There was a good amount of filling and the pastry was nice and crisp. One thing that normally disappoints me with pre-packaged pies is that the base is normally quite soggy, however the base of this pie was nice and thick and not at all soggy, so I was pleasantly surprised.

The only negative thing I could say about it really was that the asparagus was a bit bland and overcooked and it looked more like asparagus stems, rather than tips, but it was still very tasty and I would definatly buy one again!

Described as 'Tender asparagus tips and portobello mushrooms in a creamy mushroom and herb sauce, encased in a light puff pastry.' 210g

Per pie:
Calories: 532
Fat: 34.0g
Saturates: 17.6g
Salt: 1.58g
Sugars: 4.0g

Ingredients:
Asparagus and portobello mushroom filling (56%), puff pastry (42%), pasteurised free range egg glaze.

Asparagus and portobello mushroom filling contains water, asparagus (16%), double cream (13%), onion, portobello mushrooms (6%), white wine, shiitake mushrooms, chestnut mushrooms, cornflower, oyster mushrooms, mushroom stock, butter, rapeseed oil, salt, chives, garlic puree, parsley, thyme, black pepper, tarragon.

Puff pastry contains wheat flour, margarine, water, salt.

Margarine contains palm oil, rapeseed oil, water, salt, emulsifer mono and diglycerides of fatty acids.

Mushroom stock contains mushroom concentrate, palm oil, wheat, glucose syrup, salt.

Garlic & Herb Croutons

I had a bread roll left that I bought from Waitrose on Monday which was getting a bit stale, so I decided to make some croutons with it.

Here are the ingredients I used: Olive Oil, 2 cloves of Garlic, Bread Roll, Garlic Granules and Mixed Herbs:

Firstly, finely chop the garlic:

Then cut up the bread roll:

Now you need to make the oil to drizzle over the bread, which consists of a glug of olive oil, the chopped garlic, some extra garlic granules to give it an extra kick (optional) and some mixed herbs (all ingredients added to your taste):

Then drizzle the oil over the bread and place in the oven on a medium heat for about 10-15 mins:

The finished result:

Perfect to be used in a salad or with tomato and basil soup. Yum yum yum :-)

New Covent Garden Soup

Hi everyone, I just wanted to share with you an experience I had with New Covent Garden Soup.

I bought a few of their Plum Tomato and Basil soups late last year, ate one, had no problems, then had a second one and found what I thought was meat in it :-( I put the pieces in my fridge, contacted them through their Facebook page, where they asked me to email in the batch number and sell by date. Unfortunately I had already thrown the packaging away, so I just left it.

I then had the third pack a day or so later and actually bit down on what seemed to be a piece of chicken (bleurgh!) so I then contacted them again and they asked me to send the 'foreign objects' in, and thankfully, I was able to pass on the batch number and sell by date this time. To be fair, I imagine the previous carton was from the same batch as I bought them at the same time.

Here is a photo of the letter I received:

Not sure how clear the picture is on others computer monitors, so Ive typed what it says below:


Their Reference: LD/CR/21348

27 January 2011

Dear _________,

We were concerned to receive your letter regarding your experience with our Plum Tomato & Basil Soup. Please accept my apologises for the delay in our reply.

Our soups are made in the same way as one would make them in a domestic kitchen. We do not use additives, colourings or preservatives and we pride ourselves on producing products of the finest quality.

The item you found was immediately passed to our Quality Assurance Team for inspection. It did appear to be a piece of meat.

As you kindly gave us the batch code and use by date from the carton we were able to look back on batches made on that day in the factory. No meat batches were made on this day prior to this soup. Therefore we are at a loss as to where this meat has come from. I can assure you that the vessels are thoroughly cleaned between batches.

A full report has been issued to the factory staff regarding this incident and more care is to be taken in future, along with thorough checks of the vessels in between batches. Also thorough checks will be done in the ingredients in case this came into our factory via them.

We are sorry for the distress our soup has caused you on this occasion and hope that you will accept the enclosed vouchers for £10.00 as a gesture of our goodwill. We hope that you will remain a valued and loyal customer of New Covent Garden Food in future.

Yours sincerely

Lynn Dickens
Customer Relations

I passed the vouchers to a meat eating friend and will no longer use New Covent Garden Soups. What really makes me feel quite ill, is, not only finding the meat in my soup, but the fact that they state that no meat soups were made that day, so how long exactly were those pieces of meat sitting in the tubes of their machines for, before ending up in my soup?! Doesnt bare thinking about!!