La Primavera Hungerford

Well did you know there was a wonderful Italian restaurant in Hungerford with its own pizza oven?  It is at the bottom of Hungerford High Street and is so lovely inside, open fires, lots of little rooms, delightful staff and magnificent food.

A picture of the inside, very well set out with open fires, secluded corners, very welcoming, clean and well decorated.

One of the clientele, there was an interesting mix of people who appeared to be locals and diners who had driven there just for the food.  Always a good sign in my thinking.

A slightly blurred picture of my dining partner, Rachel, who isn’t really blurred although you would be forgiven for thinking that if you listen to the radio interview where I am trying to make sense of our conversation which is made totally in food stuffed laugh talk.  Translating this is a true skill and does show how good the food was that neither of us could bear to waste a breath on talking when we could be eating.

This was my starter of garlic bread with mozzarella and was totally garlicky and delicious.  It was seriously garlicky but in a very good way, it shouted its flavour rather than whispered it, we are not talking gentle tones or notes we are talking about the best garlic bread ever screaming ‘eat me, eat me”.  It could be used as a form of contraception, in fact why not buy some to take away and give it to your naughty teenage children while they are off school.

Rachel’s calamari fritti, deep fried calamari with rocket and lemon aioli.  Perfectly cooked calamari, tender squid with a crisp coating served with a lovely sauce which provided more garlic.  We were going to be smelt long before we were seen for the next few days.

I don’t think this photo does Rachel’s calzone justice.  It was massive, like a giant pasty but made with the lightest dough and an incredible range of fillings which included a range of italian meats and cheeses.  Delving in was like diving for treasure, ooh what would come out next on Rachel’s fork to face the world for a millisecond before diving into different depths.

My main dish was superb, grilled rack of lamb cooked exactly in the way I asked for, rare.  This was served with sauteed new potatoes and braised red cabbage and a scrummy red wine jus.  This dish is the kind of thing I dream of every time I go on holiday to Thailand.  I have no idea why but to me it is perfection.  I love the meat when it is cooked perfectly like this, I love it if I am in a place where I feel able to pick all the meat off the bones and get every last morsel of juice off the plate.

There were specials on offer and dishes like stone baked sea bass and chicken al mattone with a beetroot salsa verde.  There was also a wide range of pizzas from the pizza oven which I should have got a picture of.  The pizza that the calzone was made of was perfect so I would be very happy to get any of their pizzas although they also do a great range of pasta  including a very tempting lobster tortelloni.

This was my pannacotta, isnt it cute with its tuile curl and range of fruits and sauces dotted around the outside, tasted great too.

Rachel had ice cream which she said was good but I liked mine more, mwahahaha

Rachel’s coffee, I don’t drink coffee or tea but just liked the stripe.  Simple to please me!

Yes La Primavera is a great place to go to, the food was great, the service was lovely and the surroundings were beautiful.  Weekday lunchtimes you will find a decent two course meal offered for £9.95

I didn’t pay for my food and these opinions are my own.

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Another sunny weekend, all chicks welcomed

OK we will get the family pics over quickly and move onto the food.  In the spa we have my grandchildren, Noah, 2, and Danny, 8.  The pretty little girl in the white dress is Noah and Danny s aunty.  I am not sure what I am to her in that she is the daughter of my ex husband and his new wife.  Whatever, we are one big family and during winter we have chick lunches where I do a call out on facebook for a ‘Chick Lunch’.  All chicks know who they are and it is an amorphous group of about 20 depending on who is available.  It gives me the greatest reason to do three roasts, a corn fed organic chicken which gives me stock for the week.  I tell Ben my youngest step son that it has been going for years and he is utterly disgusted (but still eats).  I also like to do a fore-rib of beef, my favourite, and a belly pork so that Tony and Becky can eat the crackling.  Nothing is wasted, it all goes into Tony’s sandwiches for work so lots of food and no guilt.  In summer the Chick Lunches are a bit more hit and miss because of the weather and festivals etc but they still happen.  Family and friends and friends of friends are welcome and it is a great time to make new friends and new memories.  Sad not to see Joe, Rachel and Becky as then we could have got guitars, accordion etc out and done some singing but maybe the neighbours were grateful.

Grandchildren in spa

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Hubby and youngest stepson Ben, just behind is a friend of the kids, we call him the shower breaker.  In the next pic is Rick, my ex, in his familiar place at the bbq doing his amazing chicken wings.

So much of my stuff comes from Aden, like the wooden bowl I used before and this big bread basket.  You can see the belly pork has bee stripped of its crackling and people are diving into the meat which was slowroasted with herbs, cider, star anise etc.  On the right is my version of spare ribs.  Pork strips, marinated in hoisin and bbq sauce and cooked in the oven slowly to stop the sugar from burning then turned into kebabs.

My star, the lamb which worked this time and was delicious.  I marinated it in yoghourt with fresh garlic, ginger, seasoning and mint.  It was a leg of lamb that I boned then char grilled and sliced.  Also on the table was red onion and beef tomato salad with basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, another salad, new potatoes, rice and flat bread for the lamb.  The lamb came from Two Cocks Farm as did the pork.  Excellent meat.

More summer days please.  Oh and can someone build me a pizza oven please or buy me a Kamado or a Big Green Egg:-).  This will be a theme of my blog until someone generously offers to make me very very happy.