Wholesome

Afternoon,

D here.  Eleanor and I have been out on our adventures again yesterday and found another little gem to tell you all about.

Since finding TALC we have been eager to find more places of this standard.  I have to admit I miss a Nandos still but when we fancy a coffee we are actually getting excited at the thought of finding a nice little place that make beautiful things.  We decided to go out for food yesterday (Saturday 4th February 2012) earlier in the week and I decided to use the internet to try and find somewhere nice to go.  We were happy when we found Pinocchios, a little Mediterranean restaurant on St. Benedict's Street in Norwich. Their menu looked delightful and it was the sort of food we love.  After walking around Norwich shopping, we decided that we were not really hungry enough to go for a proper meal out and that we would not have enjoyed Pinocchios as much as it would have deserved so we have made a note of it and will visit at some point in the year.  On my internet search, I also found Wholesome, which is a smaller establishment which we decided would better suit our appetites.

Wholesome

1 Swan Lane

Norwich

Norfolk

NR2 1HZ

www.wholesome.org.uk

"Merry Christmas!" was the call from the man behind the counter, "Well that's what it feels like out there!" I had to agree it was freezing outside.  At this point in time, Norfolk is covered in a good three or four inches of snow and yesterday, when we visited Wholesome, it was cold enough to create it! After being told that he would be with us in a second he walked out from behind the counter to give the people sat behind us their order, not cake, not a pastry, no drinks, but two small hot water bottles.  This is a complimentary service for all in this freezing cold weather which made everyone feel at home.  If you know me at all, you will know I have a mild phobia of hot water bottles. If you don't know me, then I'm sorry, I'm weird. It's just the way they feel freaks me out but everyone else in the place was over the moon with this idea.

Wholesome is a grocers. If you go onto their website they give you a long list of the local produce they stock which includes meats, drinks and preserves but they are also a cafe offering a lovely menu of sandwiches, salads, pastries, cakes and hot and cold drinks with space both upstairs and downstairs to sit.  The decor was lovely, had a very home made, rustic and quintessentially Norfolk feel to it with mismatched chairs, china,  and decoration on the walls.  The second I walked in I have to admit I felt very much at home. 

So to the food on offer.  There is a great selection of beautiful looking salads of many shapes and colours, meats from different parts of different animals, and a great selection of cakes.  I chose to have a hot Norfolk Pasty and a mocha and the better half chose to have a slice of millionaire's shortbread and a flat white.  The selection of hot drinks on offer excited Ele as they serve "Pukka" tea which is a brand Ele has become obsessed with recently.  So after placing our order, which took us a long time through everything looking amazing, we headed upstairs, which felt like sitting in someone's dining room. This is where my only negative comes in and to be honest, it is so small I don't think it really matters.  The upstairs, which is a great size only has four tables in it.  These tables sit between four and ten but there were no tables for two, which saw Ele and I sitting at a table that would sit about ten as the parties of four or less had taken the smaller tables.  I would not have minded at all if others were to have sat at the same table as us, which is why I say this is a very minor thing, but some people would not have done so, being too shy. As I said, such a small thing and I am being majorly picky.

Our food was then brought to us very quickly and handed to us by the waitress who was really friendly.  As she was handing me my pasty she told me that in the small dish was a gooseberry chutney which they added to try if I fancied it.  

I find this bit difficult.  It is hard to be wordy and exact when all I could think when I was eating and drinking was that this is perfect. The pasty was lovely and, as a person who has never been to Cornwall, was the best pasty I have ever had (and Ele wanted to steal the Royal Wedding plate it came on!)  Everything about it was beautifully made and the flavour was so full with the pastry being light.  I could not recommend the pasty enough. I wanted to look around the room and offer a bite of it to people that had not eaten it just to show them how good it was.  Now I think you can see that I loved that pasty, but there was something that made it even better.  Gooseberry chutney is, without a doubt, the best thing to have with that pasty.  I loved every bite and had to stop myself from going downstairs and ordering another. I will also be going back to Wholesome to see if they do jars of that chutney.  I need it in my life.  To top it all off, the mocha I had was amazing.  Rich and bitter coffee with richer chocolate. Can not ask for better than this.  

My first mouthful of pasty went in and in my excitedness I turned to Ele with that look of "OH MY GOD" across my face.  I almost laughed to see the exact look I was giving staring back at me followed by Ele saying "I've eaten a lot of Millionaire's shortbread in my time but this is the best I have ever tasted."  She saved me some begrudgingly and I have to admit, I am not a fan of this sort of cake but this was mouth-wateringly beautiful.

Sitting near the stairs meant that the waitress would have to walk past us to get to her customer and every time she walked past I was staring mouth opened at the tray of treats she was bringing up the stairs.  The sandwiches looked amazing, and from looking at the sandwich board each sandwich was one that I wanted to try.  They were made in beautiful looking bread with a georgous looking side salad.  I really wanted to order one for after my pasty but thought I better not.

This idea came about through us missing a little deli in Leeds called Pickles and Potter in the hope we would find somewhere local that would be close to the standard set by them.  We both left Wholesome saying that in February, early February, we have succeeded.  Whoesome not only matches Pickles and Potter, but in some ways, could even be better.  Need to visit a few more times before I make this bold claim though! 

So if you are in Norwich, please visit.  A place like this is far too good for you not to. I think the main problem will be to not go every time we are there! 

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Wholesome

1 Swan Lane

Norwich

Norfolk

NR2 1HZ

www.wholesome.org.uk

Love D and Ele xxx

Hello!

Hello all, how are you?  Good? Good.

I am D.  I am sitting next to Eleanor at the moment.  It is the first of January 2012 and on September the 25th we both decided to try and eat and drink chain free.  Now as much as we would both like this to be all food, that just isn't really possible in our situation.  We do, however, eat and drink out a lot.  This came around as we have just moved back to Norfolk from four years at University in Leeds.  For three years while in Leeds, we ate in places we knew well and were familiar to us, the main two being Bagel Nash and Nando's.  Now don't get me wrong, I love them both, but I could go into Bagel Nash and ask for "the usual" and would get it (a mexican chicken  bagel, no avocado, on a cheese and jalepeno bagel) and Nando's was a pretty regular place for us, and if not for that, a texas barbecue double decadance with extra garlic and herb (it's really superb) sauce was a common Domino's Pizza order.  In our final year we decided to go into Pickles & Potter and I have to admit I have never eaten food like it in my life.  They served hot lunches, cake, a veggie option and the most amazing sandwiches we have both ever tasted.  My sandwich of choice was a piri piri chicken sandwich in focaccia bread, and Eleanor's choice was rare beef, brie and onion marmalade in wholemeal bread.  I have to admit, my descriptions of these sandwiches do it very little justice.  They were the most amazing mouthfuls of food I have ever tasted.  I never had a bad meal in that place.  It was tiny, and packed nine times out of ten, but everything tastes SO amazing.  The sandwiches came with a fork full of grated carrot.  I am not a fan of raw carrot but when it is grated, and dressed with what we guessed to be poppy seeds, lemon and maybe an oil, probably extra virgin, it was unbelievable.  They also did amazing salads that were vibrant and a pleasure to the eye that danced on my tastebuds.  The cake they had...well...the cake.  There were two for me.  Coffee and Pecan cake, which was slightly dry, but in an amazing way.  I could literally eat a whole cake's worth, as in a massive cake.  But the second was the chocolate brownie.  Since being small, and baking with mum to now and baking because I fancy cake, the best part of chocolate brownie was the crispy bits, then licking the uncooked batter from the bowl.  Somehow P&P managed to do just that in one cake.  It got so bad that when I went back up to Leeds recently to hand some work in I only just resisted the urge to go in and buy a lot of it to bring home.  My one regret with Pickles and Potter is not finding them sooner, as I am sure they would have taken over from the few chains we used to frequent.

So I am sure you are wondering how finding this place has made us give up chain food and drink establishments for a year.  Well I found myself in Norwich the other day walking past a lot of really lovely looking cafes and restaurants and found myself saying "That looks nice," and walking to Costa and buying a drink.  There is a heck of a lot of small independent little places that I am sure are as amazing and Pickles and Potter (although they will be hard pushed!).

So that's the plan.  Discover local gems, eat independent food, and see how we get on.  I will now make a list of places that I want to try and blog about.

The Bicycle Shop, Norwich - I met a friend there for a drink and the food looked lovely.
The Quayside Plaza, Great Yarmouth - My mother and I have been in looking at their handmade goods, and their cafe looked great.

And to be honest that is where I struggle.  There's a restaurant or two that I would love to try, some that I see and forget, and some, like Jimmy's Farm, which we just have not got around to eating at yet.

I am looking forward to it though.  It will be nice.  Have to admit, not even a day in and I miss Domino's Pizza already...sigh.

Right-o.  That'll do.  Will write again when I go somewhere new.

D