Heaney's - fantastic food without being pretentious

Heaney's in Pontcanna

Last night Anne and I ate at Heaney's in Pontcanna. Tommy Heaney is the owner and head chef, and the best way to describe this restaurant is this, taken from their very own website

Opened in October 2018 in the heart of Pontcanna we wanted to bring a fun, relaxed and accessible dining experience created around the way we ourselves enjoy when eating out. From our lunch menus to our evening tasting menu we concentrate on the season in hand, sourcing only the freshest of local ingredients we can get our hands on, and more importantly grown in our ‘Chef’s Garden’. Tommy works very closely with all our suppliers to ensure we get the best quality in produce. We try our best to offer a style of food, drinks and service unique to our personalities.

Hope you can enjoy our journey with us, Big Love X

It's not Michelin starred (yet), but it is certainly a cut above, and can be described as "elevated dining". We went for the 10 course taster menu, declining a wine pairing option or cocktails but settling for a lovely Australian Shiraz to accompany our food.

I didn't take any photos - would have felt rude to, although the ambience of the place is low key enjoyment, with music playing and no dress code required, so I might have got away with it!

We can both honestly say, that the food was without exception, delicious. Portions were a little on the small size (it was a taster menu after all), but we were both about done by the end. It's not cheap either, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for, and the food was in our eyes certainly worth every penny. It's a place we'll undoubtedly happily visit again.

The staff were to a person, pleasant, chatty without being overly so, attentive without being on our shoulder, and knowledgeable about the food they were bringing - as one server said, Tommy is always in the kitchen  and always testing them so they know what they're taking out to diners.

Highly recommended!

Twitter: @Statto1927 

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Hang Fire Southern Kitchen - a BBQ delight

The Hang Fire Southern Kitchen is a restaurant in Barry, in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It's been  extensively reviewed in blogs, newspaper articles, and Twitterati, Instagrammers and people on Facebook. It's owners Sam and Shauna have appeared in their own TV series  and they've written books on their take on southern US BBQ style cooking. In short, it's an amazing place to eat (and drink) and it's really, really popular. Although walk ups are available, they disappear in the flash of an eye, and if you want to book a table, you normally have to do so weeks, if not months in advance.

We've eaten there several times, and never been disappointed. But as for all hospitality venues, the pandemic, and lockdown has been a challenge. Never ones to shirk an opportunity, Hang Fire have developed their "Heat at Home" menu. Basically a click and collect of their best dishes that you can order online and pick up to eat at home.

So this weekend, we did just that.

The online ordering process felt a little more protracted than it should have been - I have used easier online ordering systems.  Oddly, once I'd selected and paid, although I had a confirmation page with my order number, I didn't get an email or text confirmation so had to take a screenshot of the confirmation page for my sanity.

We were ordering for four adults (although neither my wife or daughter have big appetites). We ordered the Big BBQ Deal which promises a feast of 9hr smoked Brisket, 21hr smoked Pork, 3hr smoked BBQ Wings, Mac & Cheese, Pastrami & Potato Hash, plus fixings of 'slaw and pickles and 12oz tub of their Kansas City BBQ sauce. It's stated to serve 3-4 people. Cost £56. We also added their famous, 8hr smoked, free-range, pork spare ribs which they say serves 1-2 at £14. There was also some chilli brisket and beans.

I turned up at the appointed collection time, and was served in a Covid secure way, the heating prep explained (a leaflet is also provided) and was out within a couple of minutes. Seamless.

It's not the cheapest, but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for, and this is quality food, ready prepared for you to heat and eat. It's worth every penny.

The food is slated to last up to 3 days kept in a fridge, and we were planning to eat the next day.

The heating time for each item varied, but the maximum was 25-30 minutes (the Mac & Cheese, Pastrami Hash and brisket and chilli beans in their foil containers). The wings around 20 minutes, the ribs took around 20 minutes and the brisket and pulled pork heated gently in simmering water in the vacuum packs for around 8-10 minutes. Usefully everything that needed heating in the over needed the same heat level, so it was just a matter of getting your timing right.

Once everything was cooked, it looked like this

The Feast

Firstly, you've obviously got to love meat to eat this sort of food!

The wings, once doused in their special BBQ sauce were delicious. The pulled pork was tasty. The mac and cheese was creamy and warming, and the pastrami hash was chunky and added a nice texture to the plate. The chilli brisket and beans was suitably spicy but not overbearingly so. The stars of the menu though was undoubtedly the tender, thickly sliced brisket and the enormous, cricket bat sized ribs. With accompaniments of house pickles and slaw, and plenty of BBQ sauce it made for a sumptuous feast. So much so, that even with the four of us, there's probably plenty enough left for a an almost complete second sitting the following day.

All in all, it was brilliant, and I'd highly recommend splashing out on this as a treat if you like quality food, especially meat and BBQ's!

April 19th: Don't start what you can't finish...and virtual quizzes

This isn't quite the way I'd intended to spend my first spring in retirement. I was looking forward to getting out and about, and we've already lost a planned holiday and short break - but on the flip side, it could have been much worse - I'm still healthy (relatively). On the plus side, being both retired and confined to barracks means that many of the things that I'd normally file under "Oh, I'll get round to it sometime" start leering at you from every corner.

I'm already seriously procrastinating over a shedload of decorating that needs doing. But it's the small things that distract you. Yesterday the oven needed cleaning. We have one of those relatively fancy ovens that actually tells you that it needs cleaning, and a setting that's supposed to clean it. But it only cleans the back and sides. The racks and bottom have to be done manually. So I donned my marigolds and got cleaning. In my defence, I did them about a month ago so they weren't too bad but they still needed doing. And then that moment when putting them back in, I noticed the oven light. That was seriously manky. So having touched it once and got my fingers burnt (#idiot) I've now set myself a reminder to look at it once the oven's cold. Oh and there's another combo-oven next to it, so that one will have to be looked at too. And whilst I was down there looking at the oven, I noticed how dusty the bottom of the adjacent cupboards had become. My point here is, if you look long enough, there's always something that needs doing. And that leads to something else, and so on ad infinitum. In a similar vein I bleached the kitchen sink this morning. Having done that and obtained some sparkly results, it reminded me that we have several other sinks.....Oh, and the kettle by the sink needed descaling...you get my drift. The morale of the story is, I think, don't look in the first place.

Lockdown makes you yearn for many 'normal' things. My daughter has been longing for a McDonalds egg McMuffin. Strange, because she doesn't normally eat them. And she's not keen on the egg bit. Anyway, Mrs H's shopping trip yesterday resulted in all the relevant ingredients being bought, and this morning I rustled up said breakfast 'sandwich'. To be fair, it wasn't difficult. Sausage patty, what I used too call "plastic cheese", a nice egg and an English muffin, lightly toasted. The result was a well received thumbs up.

Who needs McDonalds

One of the things we've been doing as a family is the "Virtual Pub Quiz" run by a chap called Jay. I don't know how many people are watching this now, but the most recent one has been streamed almost half a million times! There are many people doing this sort of thing, but we've stuck with this one over the last four weeks and generally sit down to do it on a Saturday evening. So far the victory count is level 2-2 between my and my son 2. The best score any of us has got was this week when my son got 43/50. My wife was second with a highly respectable 35, I got 30 and my daughter 23. This quiz is pretty good - 5 rounds of 10 questions, with a break after 30 when the answers for the first three rounds are revealed. Jay has refined the quiz week on week, but we watch it after it's streamed to cut out all the pre-amble and mid-quiz break. The questions are a decent selection of history, sport and leisure, TV/Film, music and general knowledge. It's the TV/Film and music that normally lets me down.

The Government are getting an increasingly rough ride over their handling of the coronavirus pandemic. They are certainly not without fault. I don't necessarily respect them, but equally I don't envy them. Platitudes and spin don't make up for failings, and you just wish someone would say occasionally say "sorry, yes we got that wrong" or answer the question asked and not go off down another alley. It's the scientists that impress me though, with their measured and calm reflections. Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Office I've mentioned before, and another one who's putting a very calm and measured messages on social media particularly is oncologist Professor Karol Sikora (@ProfKarolSikora on Twitter). Amidst all the accusations, blathering and headlines today, his latest tweet (as I write) sums  it up for me. Maybe the politicians could learn a thing or two from him.

Mistakes have been made - we haven't got testing, PPE, the exit strategy or treating other serious illnesses 100% right.

No country's response has been flawless.

So let's move forward together, learn from it and get it sorted as soon as possible.

The cat chalked up another kill yesterday evening. Same species. I suppose living next to a large tangled hedgerow doesn't help. That's three in two days.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

7th April: Lazy days and sticky chicken

News last night that PM Boris Johnson had been not only been admitted to hospital but was on intensive care. I'm not his biggest fan, but I wish him and everyone else in similar situations well. This is a terrible virus.

My wife says things are still generally quiet where she works, although there are multiple COVID-19 patients in the hospital, including on intensive care, and they're just waiting for the inevitable explosion of cases. She says staff in her own area are feeling very emotional about family and friends and what's to come. Meanwhile, I stat home in the sunshine. It doesn't feel right, but it is right.
We did go out for a short walk when she got home.

Today was the first day that I really felt like I wanted to get out and go somewhere. Maybe it's because I had a relatively lazy day, maybe because it was yet another nice sunny day and with the promise of more to come before the end of the week, but I definitely had itchy feet. You can bet your bottom dollar, that as soon as we get given the all clear to go out a little more it'll start to bucket down with rain! But I'll take that.

I spent most of the morning writing up the notes of last evening;'s cricket meeting which we held over Skype and despite my apprehension beforehand, it all went relatively well. Eleven of us (with ages ranging from teenage to old, and with several luddites amongst our number) held an almost 90 minute meeting over the web - and it all worked. Impressive. As far as cricket goes, we're in the same boat as everyone else - all cricket activity is suspended until further notice. The general feeling is that it's likely that we won't get to play any cricket at all this summer, but we'll wait and see. If anyone local is interested in joining our club, and playing (if we ever do), give me a shout. Our website is at Dinas Powys CC and you can follow us on twitter @DinasPowysCC.

Continuing the culinary theme I set yesterday with my soda bread experiment, since retiring I've pledged to cook at least once a week. Tonight I rustled up sticky chicken (a Mary Berry recipe). There's a few variations out on the web so I won't link as I got this particular version from one of her books. Good result and the family all gave it a thumbs up (lush, as we say in these parts). I even gave it the old rice dome treatment.

Mary Berry's Sticky Chicken- lush

Later this evening it's another video call as my wife and I check in with her brother and sisters for a virtual drink/chat.

No cat news. She's slept about 98% of the day.

See you tomorrow

#stayhomesavelives