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Janet S, April 2021 the ever-busy Whiteladies Road, AGC is a great place to sit and eat, socialise and generally relax. On the warmer days to come it will be possible to sit outside on the wide terrace and watch the world go by, but until then sitting at a table in the window is the place to go. The picture windows allow light to flood in, adding to the feeling of space already given by the high ceilings and the generously spaced tables. Yes, it is a very agreeable place to be - an experience enhanced by the classy decor, the friendly and attentive staff and the attention to detail in everything Ben and his team do. From the best locally sourced ingredients to fine china, linen tablecloths, stylish cutlery and comfy upholstered seating - everything tells you that this is a place to come not just to eat but to dine.

“Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper” is the oft quoted mantra of mid 20th century nutritionist Adelle Davis - a food rule I tend to ignore, indeed regularly reverse. Recently though, Mrs F and I had the opportunity to indeed breakfast like royal patriarchs, visiting the very splendid new Aqua Grand Cafe on Whiteladies Road.

In its former guise as one of the well known and popular Aqua restaurants it was a favourite of ours (and indeed many friends) so we have been intrigued to see its successor emerge. And now it has - a classy cafe restaurant heavily inspired by the menus and style of the great cafes of Paris. Owner Ben Smithson, trained in the arts of the Maitre ‘D at the Savoy Grill on the Strand, has long wanted to bring the joy and splendour of the classic French dining experience to Bristol, and is undertandably proud and excited about his new venture - in premises that once housed the legendary Colleys Supper Rooms.

So, let’s deal with Aqua Grand Cafe first as a place to visit. Set on, but well back from,

That said, it isn’t pretentious or stuffy, and if all you want is a coffee and croissant mid morning, a classic English afternoon tea, or a lush Croque monsieur when “le munchies” kick in at any time, you are as welcome as anyone coming along in the evening to enjoy an a la carte menu that features such classics as coq au vin, boeuf bourguignon and Dover sole meuniere.

So, to the food.......

When it came to our breakfast we decided to mix it up a bit - with a light bite followed by “always hard to resist when on the menu” scrambled eggs. My opener was a bit of a gamble on my part - unknown-to-me Bircher Muselli - and Mrs F had a top notch fresh fruit salad. I wasn’t sure the gamble was going to pay off as my muselli arrived looking not dissimilar to a type of porridge - my breakfast bete noire. In a sense it was - rolled oats with hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds and sultanas steeped overnight in milk - but which to my surprise was one of the most delicious things I’ve had to eat in a long while. It certainly was enough to kick off the day in fine fashion - and helped sustain me until tea time.

brioche for the good lady. Both were predictably great, helped in part by the extraordinary colour of the scrambled eggs. When asked what the chef had added to the eggs - a dash of paprika maybe - the answer was a resounding “nothing”, the eggs were from Clarence Court, the RollsRoyce of egg suppliers and which have the richest, golden yolks you can imagine. Boy were they tasty.

The hot second half to our breakfast was scrambled egg on sourdough toast for me, and with smoked salmon on toasted

So, we really did breakfast like kings - and it was a real treat to start our day there. Sadly we were both too full to extend our stay and lunch like princes, and when we return - which we will - we’ll ignore the nutritionists advice, and dinner like kings.

PRIZE DRAW - AQUA GRAND CAFE

Would you like the chance for you and a friend to have breakfast at Aqua Grand Cafe? The team there are very kindly offering breakfast for two from their terrific breakfast menu. All you need to do to be in with a chance is let me know you would like to be entered into the prize draw.

Simply send your name to me here at the magazine - by post to 8 Sandyleaze, WoT, BS9 3PY, email andy@ bcmagazines.co.uk, phone on 0117 259 1964 or text to 07845 986650 - no later than 31st March and one lucky entrant will be drawn at random to go and “breakfast like a king” at Aqua Grand Cafe.

This month we visit the middle east and specifically the nation of Iran, home to one of the oldest continuous major civilisationsone that dates back to 4000BC. Most Iranian recipes come under the moniker of Persian, Persia being the country’s historic name.

Out of your kitchen will come a Persian favourite known as Tahchin Morgh, an attractive, delicious, savoury (with a hint of sweetness) rice cake, with heady aromas of saffron and turmeric. Like a pineapple upsidedown cake, this dish is inverted after cooking and served crusty side up. This crust is known as “tahdig” - translated literally as “bottom of the pot” - and is a crunchy caramelised feature of the dish. It is best cooked in a glass ovenproof dish so you can see during cooking when your tahdig is ready - not something I’ve ever said before. It contains a layer of cooked chicken but I daresay you could tailor the dish to accommodate any specific dietary requrements.

Tahchin Morgh

Ingredients - feeds 3-4 people (it’s quite rich)

• I white onion

• 4-6 chicken thighs, boned and skin-off (or 2-3 chicken breasts)

• 350g (dry weight) basmati or long grain rice

• 3 egg yolks

• 150g (small pot) plain yoghurt

• 50g dried cranberries / dried sour cherries, roughly chopped

• 3 tbsp roughly chopped pistachios

• 3 tbsp cooking oil

Iran Fact File

• 2 tbsp melted butter

• big pinch of saffron

• 3 tsp ground turmeric

• salt and black pepper

Method

1. Crush the saffron with the back of a spoon or in a pestle and mortar then add to half a wine glass full of warm water. Stir and allow to steep.

2. Slice the onion finely, and chop the chicken thighs into smallish bitesize pieces. Add the chicken and onion into a saucepan together with a wineglass full of water. Sprinkle in the turmeric, add a punch of salt and a couple of twists of pepper, stir, bring to the boil then reduce to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally until all the water has evaporated (5-10 mins max). Set to one side.

3. In the meantime put the rice into a big saucepan, add a pinch of salt and a tsp of cooking oil. Stir together - the oil will help the rice not to stick. Add in twice the amount of water as there is rice (for me that’s seven glasses of water to three and a half glasses of dry rice). Bring to the boil, stir again, reduce to a very gentle simmer and place the lid on. Leave to simmer for about 6 minutes until partially cooked. Remove from the heat, drain the rice in a colander and set to one side.

4. In a large bowl, mix together the yoghurt, egg yolks and the saffron water, then add half the cooked rice. Stir well to ensure the rice and yoghurt is well mixed and nicely yellow.

Location: Western Asia, with land borders with Iraq and Turkey (to the west), Azerbaijan and Armenia (north-west), Turkmenistan (north), and SAfghanistan and Pakistan (east) and coastal borders with the Caspian Sea (north), and Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf (south)

Capital: Tehran

Population: 86.7 million

Official Language: Persian (Farsi) generally and Arabic for religious affairs

Comparative size: Iran is almost 7 times the size of the United Kingdom

Currency: Iranian rial

Interesting? The Iranian weekend is Thursday (our Saturday) and Friday (our Sunday).

5. Take your glass over proof dish, add in the remaining cooking oil and swirl around the bottom of the dish - this wil stop the tachin from sticking, allowing you to turn it out with a flourish.

6. Carefully spoon the yellow saffron / yoghurty rice into the glass oven dish then firm down evenly with the back of a spoon.

7. Onto the yellow rice base spread the chicken and onion mix evenly, and then scatter two thirds of the chopped cranberries / sour cherries on top.

8. Now carefully spoon the remaining plain white rice over the top of the chicken / cranberry layer and again smooth out with the back of a spoon.

9. Finally drizzle the surface of the rice with the melted butter. Cover the top of the dish with foil and then place into the oven, pre-heated to 200C or gas equivalent.

10. Cook in the oven for 45 minutes, then remove from the oven and check to see if the bottom of the tahchin is browning up (this will be the crispy top when it is turned out). If necessary return to the oven for another 15 minutes by which time it should have turned golden brown. As with toast, you can always leave the dish to cook a little longer if you fancy it a little crustier / crisper.

11. Remove the dish from the oven then carefully invert the tahchin out onto a warmed serving plate the same size or larger plate - it should drop out easily.

12. Garnish with the remaining cranberries / cherries and the chopped pistachios and serve.

Here are your weekend high and low tide times for the River Avon in March. High tides over 13m are highlighted in red, and the high tide at 0822 on Thursday 23rd March is, at 14.4m the highest of the month and the joint second highest all year.

© Crown Copyright and/or database rights. Reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office and the UK Hydrographic Office (www.GOV.uk/UKHO).