6 April - the seahorse @ Dartmouth

With the long Easter weekend and my birthday looming, we headed down to South Devon for a few days by the seaside. We dropped in at my parents' for a birthday lunch for my Mum en route, then after we'd checked into the fabulous Kaywana Hall in Kingswear, we hopped on the passenger ferry across to Dartmouth for dinner at the Seahorse. I had some delicious chicken livers, roasted with sage to start - plump and melt-in-the-mouth. Then we both went for the brill steak with a clam sauce and spinach on the side. I have to say, although it did say 'steak' on the menu rather than 'fillet', I hadn't really expected it to come with bones and although it was nice, it was a bit fiddly. Sadly, we were both coming down with colds, so perhaps my tastebuds weren't quite as sharp as normal either. Even feeling a bit under the weather though, I couldn't fail to enjoy an espresso topped with zabaglione and a fresh mini doughnut on the side to finish - sounds a bit odd, but believe me, it was fantastic and drew a bit of food envy from diners on either side of us!

6 January - the clifton sausage

I spent all morning waiting in for the vegbox. It usually arrives at around 11, but today, with a different driver, it didn't turn up until mid-afternoon. That meant there was very little in for my lunch, so I ended up making my version of the Greek dish "gigantes" - big white butterbeans cooked up in a tomato sauce with a few onions and some oregano. I had the beans with a few boiled potatoes and the rest of the parma ham - an unlikely combination, but not too bad.

In the evening, we went to the Clifton Sausage. As its name suggests, the menu's heavily sausage-oriented. I started with potted pork with spiced pear chutney, then as I'm not a big sausage fan, I went for the specials , which today included one of my favourites, brill. It came on a big pile of spinach with a creamy saffron sauce - mmm!

18 November - Culinara

There was some of the roast tomato sauce from earlier in the week in the fridge, so lunch was a quick dish of orecchiette pasta with the sauce and a bit of added bacon.

There aren't many Bristol eateries that we haven't tried, but until now we hadn't got round to visiting Culinaria - just 10 mins walk away. It's a small bistro with a short menu of carefully chosen food and interestingly, is only open over the weekend (Thu-Sun). It has a lovely atmosphere with friendly, interested staff, which was a great start. We both went for the fillet of brill with leek and saffron sauce, served with spinach, beans and new potatoes and it was, well, brill! To go with it we had an English wine by Limney - one we hadn't tried before but comes from Horsmonden, a village in Kent not far from where I grew up. Much like Chapel Down (from the same area), it was a lovely light wine with quite an elderflowery feel. I don't often go for a dessert, but having skipped a starter I finished off tonight with a lovely rich chocolate mousse. Culinara will definitely be added to the list of regular haunts.