Sausages4Ever

heres me, courtesy of roberto, in la champanyeria in barcelona, with some delicious chorizo. i look ratehr disturbingly pleased about the situation. the tapas there was very nice, and drinking lots of cheap cava whilst eating great chorizo alongside thick cubes of ham and *fuet* which is a catalunyan type of sausage, is a very pleasant way to spend an evening. but my smile feaks me out...

thanks to tracer hand.....

this seems to be the ultimate accessory for all sausage enthusiasts...

received in the (e)mail today!:

"Ambrose,

I thought I might as well give you a little review of the Clifton
Sausage Bar and Restaurant since you did recommend it to me. Read it,
enjoy it, and perhaps add it to your sausage blog if required.

The experience began on Sunday morning. I required a Sunday lunch
food serving establishment that was good enough to take my girlfriend's
parents to. We decided to experiment with the Clifton Sausage Bar and
Restaurant (Clifton Village, Bristol), as recommended by sausage lover
Ambrose, and that had been previously avoided on the grounds of it not
being particularly vegetarian friendly.

Booking is most certainly advisable - and it turns out it is
vegetarian friendly.

The Sunday menu is pretty big, starters, traditional mains (e.g. rib
eye beef and yorkshires), speciality sausages with a choice of mash or
champ, and a selection of deserts.

It is a fixed price menu £11.50 for 2 courses and a bit more for 3.

I went for the smoked salmon salad with horse radish (mmmmmmm), Clare
went for the parsnip soup which was very tasty also.

For mains I had to sample "the Clifton", pork, wholegrain mustard and
cider, accompanied by champ. Very very tasty indeed. Three big
sausages on a bed of champ with onion gravy.

Clare had the leek and cheese sausage option which apparently was
most satisfying.

Going back next Sunday, may try the pork chilli and coriander option.

All in all a very pleasant venue, delicious food, good choice,
reasonably priced for the quality and area of Bristol I guess, good service,
tasty accompanying cider, worth booking on Sundays.

Thanks for the tip.

Rob


Well, thanks so much Rob! a great review, now I need some sort of excuse to go to Bristol and try this place out. I wonder what Rob's cryptic remark about "the area of Bristol" means....maybe everywhere else in Clifton is very overpriced. I will shamefacedly admit that I just had to google "Champ", it appears to be a sort of leek mash.

I previously linked to the Clifton Sausage Restaurant, or posted about it, but I've lost it....(and thanks to Jack for the original heads-up!)

ok im gonna break radio silence and do an ew report, as there is important exciting SAUSAGE NEWS to bring.

the Co-Op has a new range called "Smithfields". This is supposedly in partnetship with traders from Smithfield market. So they have roped in the Guy from Simply Sausages, an old haunt of mine, to produce these sausages. I dont know how far his role extends beyond delivering a quote on the packaging, but the suasages are excellent! a whopping 89% meat content, they cook well and ae very tasty. The meat isnt ground so fine as to be some sort of dry dense brick, its fairly chunky, and they overall perfom very well. Especially good is the fact that good sausages come to random partso f the country and leave the areas where people have acess to farmers markets, good butchers, waitrose or some other form of good sausage vending. Eg, Leeds.

Hooray for Co-Op!

they are of course, pricey. about 2.60 i think for 6.

well, now i am up north in leeds, i have cme face to face with the titanic MORRISONS. It is difficult to escape Morrisons in leeds, i think their HQ is in nearby Bradford, and they dominate the student supermarket er...market here. there is nothing else in the West leeds(where 40% of all sutdnts in leeds live) really. Anyway, i bought some morrisons sausages the ther day, and made a sandwich sharpish. Curiously, Morrisons dont seem to offer an own brand, mid-range packet of sausages, so unless you want budget stuff, then you either can get a 6 pack of 'gourmet' (eg "outdoor reared pork") sausages, but it works out cheaper getting them from the dude at the meat counter. got 8 for £1.74 or something, didnt seem too bad. anyway, i've got to say i was quite impressed, flavoursome, and held together well, although that may indicate some sort of badness maybe, i dont know. I went for Lincolnshire, but they had some nice looking Toulouse, wehich i havent tried before. I have made disparaging comments about Morrisons elsewhere, but the sausages are definitely contenders. Also they come in a handy paper bag (if from the counter), which is good for storage once opened.

caustic review from will

sorry about the hiatus, a certain amount of upheaval has been occurring. back up to speed when i get full internet access and sausage sandwich places! (anywhere people know in leeds, please let me know!)

"Location >Sherwood Park Canteen, Annesley, Notts

Product>Sausage cob, 90p

Review>Roll contained 2 sausages; overcooked, with a very tough plasticy skin.

They tasted like hot dogs + were slightly burnt around the outside.

White roll was thin and soft, not fat and crispy like a cob should be.

There was also too much margarine, I had to use a substantial amount

of ketchup (no mustard available) to make this breakfast snack bearable"

90p is cheap though. you gte what you pay for. to a certain extent.

anyway, thanks will.
keep em coming!

Zak weighs in with another heavyweight review:


"tesco's finest pork and granny smith sausages - hm, not bad, not great. probably not worthy of the 'finest' tag, but then again i guess they're finer than tesco value sausages. nice and meaty, the apple gave a sweet finish which was quite pleasing, overall 6 out of 10 ."

well personally i rate this brand of sausages (tescos finest). good solid MOR jobs. the ordinary tescos sausages arent really much cop thpough, very bready, rather small and for some reason, come out squared off rather than round?! never had the value ones.

Claire writes to my gmail account (hence why i picked it up so late). to give me some more insights....

"I like the blog - I had no idea you were such a sausage fan! I am also a sausage fan but not so much in a sandwich............ although you can't beat a Scottish sausage sandwich. Slightly different to a 'southern' sausage sandwich in that they use 'square sausages' AKA 'Lorne sausages' (basically pork/beef sausage meat formed into a flat square) and it's usually really greasy but lovely! Of course it needs to be in a proper white, buttered breadcake just to add to the unhealthiness.....

And Glasgow (or pretty much anywhere on the West Coast of Scotland) is an ideal place to try out this little cholesterol-raising treat"

well well well. in fatc word had reached me previously of this square sauage, but i'm still yet to witness it with my own eyes. i will go up to Oban sometime so myabe i will get a chance then, but i doubt i will be brave enough....sounds pretty fearsome. thanks claire!