Flix Movie Café opens tonight after a couple of training evenings where I was dragged back into the kitchen to supervise, train, tweak and taste pizzas, burgers, chips etc...
Adam's new place looks absolutely great.
The sound and picture are really good.
Once you are sat watching the movie you feel as if you are in really cinema, but even better than that said a few of the guinea pigs who were invited to test the team.
The Hartlepool Mail gave Adam a great sending off.
Fingers crossed it all goes well from now on...
In the wake of our win in the Hartlepool Business Awards back in May I was encouraged to enter the North East England Tourism Awards. (Taste of North East England)
I sent off my entry without really expecting to get anywhere. North East England encompasses a very wide area full of delightful eating places from the Scottish Borders to Yorkshire. I was really surprised when I received the letter announcing the good news.
But it really seems like a feeling of deja-vu. Just like in May when I honestly doubted that we would win, I once again do not feel very confident.
Restaurants are encouraged to use local ingredients and local suppliers to support the local economy.
We have used the same local butchers, fishmongers and greengrocers for most of our 24 years in business and have always trusted them to supply us with nothing but the best ingredients, which happen to be grown, reared or caught within the region.
Most days, our fishmonger, Hodgson of Whitby Street sends his boats past Krimo's out to the North Sea to net some of the best fish around, from cod to marckerel, langoustines to crabs.
The beef and lamb that go to make our delicious dishes are reared on local farms from the Scottish borders to North Yorkshire.
We will find out in September if we have won. If we do, then we will go to London to represent the North East next Spring.
I'm sure that most of us have gone through a few of those in our life, survived and even gained a few pounds. Well, I have.
We humans are resilient and we adapt. We can all make a penny stretch if we have to. We all know how to save money on food. We can all make panfuls of soups, slow-cook cheaper cuts of meat, grow vegetables, keep chickens, etc...
But all these money-saving ideas demand dedication, motivation and getting up from in front of the telly.
Are we prepared to act now or shall we wait until the fridge is empty before we begin panicking?
When I was a student, a million years ago, at Sunderland Poly (1976), my food intake followed the same pattern every month.
The beginning of the month, having just received my grant, I used to splash out on nice bottle of Medoc, a leg of lamb and green beans.
But as my funds dwindled, the daily menu went from a feast to a famine in just thirty days:
Fillet steak-sirloin steak-stewing steak-minced meat
Chicken breast...chicken leg...chicken thigh...chicken drumstick
Spag Bol...Spag and tomato sauce...macaroni-cheese...macaroni-butter
Chicken soup...chick pea soup...warm water...cold water
By which time I was gasping for the end of the month to arrive along with my grant.
I think I inherited my resilience from my mother, bless her soul. She was a very inventive cook and a great motivator. At least three times a week she converted us kids into vegetarians without even preaching. She just couldn't afford meat...
Cartoon Courtesy of The Guardian.
Kevin, Casa's head-chef sent me an email depicting lots of Chinese delicacies, including Lizards Tails, Dog Brain Soup, Scorpion Brochettes, etc...
I have total respect for people's (weird) tastes. After all, I like olives smothered with chili, roast beef dripping with blood, whole ungutted fish, so who am I to talk?
I hear that down in the deepest confines of the Algerian Sahara, deep-fried crickets are absolutely delicious. I have never tasted them but being open-minded I'd give them a try as long as there is a bottle of Tabasco nearby.
But I definitely draw the line at Seahorses...
I don't think I've ever seen a live one, but just do check out Finding Nemo... The Seahorses look so pretty and lovable...
I can't imagine them skewered, let alone barbequed.
Where do you draw the line?
When I conceived Casa del Mar, I decided that it should be a place where diners would be transported back to whichever fantastic Mediterranean holiday they have just come home from.
The menu includes Greek salad, Spanish Paella, Algerian Sausages, etc...
The minted lamb draws from both North African and Spanish cuisines.
Just like with Pavlov's dog, smells and tastes never fail to ring a bell inside our memory.
One warm summer's evening back in the late eighties when I was still cooking at Seaton Carew, I walked across the road to my favourite seat by the paddling pool just as I always did before the evening service, to collect my thoughts and ready myself for the onslaught.
A couple of hundred yards down the sandy beach The North Sea felt peculiarly warm. Not warm enough for a late dip but it imparted a strong Mediterranean smell, a fishy smell, a smell I had only come across back in the tiny harbour where, as a youngster I went for evening walks with family and friends. A smell that conjured up many beautiful memories.
Suddenly, I was gasping for grilled sardines, simple olive oil and lemon dressing, a walk on a beach...
Whenever I see couples holding hands across a table at Casa del Mar, their eyes full of Rosé I know they are on a beach far, far away, listening to the gentle surf of a Mediterranean evening...
I'm back!
I went to visit my father, my sisters and their families.
The weather ranged from boiling hot afternoons to cool evenings, dusty mornings and torrential rains.
As usual, the seasonal produce was on show. I was a few days too early for my sister's apricots but there were enough fruits to make up for them. The strawberries were delicious and the dates absolutely luscious.
A visit to one of Algiers oldest fish restaurants, Sauveur (a true Saviour!) was an evening to remember. Fish, fish and fish... Gorgeous.
Minted tea and roasted nuts, overlooking the Med from the south.
Fishermen enjoying a great sunset...
Yesterday, the office phone rang. It was someone from one of the fishmongers we use for our restaurants.
Cynical me thought: "I bet he wants to sell me more fish..."
He asked if I could remember sending in a recipe for the online competition the firm ran back in January.
"Fish and seafood Tagine?"
I remembered casually copying this dish from my website recipe section and pasting it onto the entry form.
He said that I had been shortlisted and asked if I would be available to attend the finals in Birmingham at the beginning of April.
I checked my mobile phone diary. A phone is not just a phone these days, you know!
"I'm free."
"All expenses paid." He added.
"It's a date!"
Once I came off the phone, I began to imagine myself teaching Gordon Ramsay how to cook my dish and watching Heston Blumenthal turn it into a chemical experiment.
For starters, I prepared two lots of pastry parcels with "Feuilles de Brick" which are similar to wonton wrappers.
1-Mix the following: Half a pound of minced prawns, a tbsp of minced ginger and garlic, two chopped spring onions and one egg white. Season well.
Place a teaspoonful on the end of a rectangle of pastry (15cm by 5cm) then fold into triangles.
Delicious!
We serve them in all our three restaurants. 
Over the years we've cooked them in various guises, but the most popular way is that simple one, Moules Marinieres with added cream, although if someone asks, our chefs can always leave that last ingredient out.
Personally, I prefer them without cream exactly the way my cousin in Dieppe showed me back in 1979.
Her husband and I picked them from rocks on Dieppe beach, cleaned them and she cooked them. I fell in love with them and have been cooking them her way ever since.
Mussels are so much cleaner these days. Because they are grown on ropes, they contain no sand at all and very few barnacles.
Ours come all the way from the Shetlands.
Yesterday, I had a bowlful for lunch at Casa and another bowlful at Portofino just before I went to watch Pools scrape a win against ten-men Port Vale.
I love to eat them with some tomato garlic bread.
If you’re going to steal recipes from a celebrity chef, you really should do it from Jamie Oliver or Anthony Worrall-Thompson. If you get caught, the chef in question will probably just sigh and say something like, “I’m very disappointed in you.”
So it was a very foolish man who got a job with Gordon Ramsay and started nicking his blueprints. Instead of a simple dressing down, Ramsay stripped the unnamed cook naked and made him do a day’s work wrapped in cling-film.
“We followed him on the CCTV and found out he was sifting all the ideas out of my kitchen,” said TV’s Mr Bad-Tempered.
“So I stripped him stark b****** naked and wrapped him in cling-film. It’s probably the nastiest thing I’ve done.”
Added Gordon, with glee: “He sweated like a pig. I don’t know why he did it, but then it’s pretty hard to talk when you’re being wrapped in cling-film by 25 cooks.”
The telly chef explained that the man had come to the back door of his kitchen and said he wanted to learn, offering to work for two years for free. Ramsay said that if he hired him, he would be paid. However, three months later, recipes were going missing.
“It was a bit naughty. If you’re going to work for a chef, don’t be so ignorant in trying to steal. I’d happily give out my recipes, but you still won’t cook a dish as good as me – the thing about this job is that it’s from the heart.”
Source: Daily Star Picture: Big
My next task for the blog is to post senior staff profiles, so look out for those guys who cook or serve the food you've come to enjoy at our three restaurants.
The hit counter is telling me that, at least 40 people visit my new restaurant blog every single day!
And yet, there are very few comments left by our customers.
Are they shy?
The only reason why we've lasted for nearly 23 years is because we listen to our customers.
So, come on! Start talking!
You can even talk b........s if you want...
Today Lydia, our longest-serving member of staff, 18 years with us, found this misshapen potato. She didn't have the heart to peel it just in case this brought tears to Colin's eyes.
...are getting very popular! 
The name, Tagine comes from the terracotta slow cooking vessel used in most of North Africa, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
Before we got a gas hob, my mother did all her cooking on a charcoal burner, which meant that she had to start preparing food very early in the morning.
When I was about 12 or 13, she began sending me to do the daily shopping before going to school. The freshest of meats, fish or vegetables!
By the time we all came back from school at midday, our delicious lunch was ready and waiting.
Nowadays, at Krimo's we prepare our Lamb Tagine in a large stew pan but serve it in the traditional Terracotta dish.
Most of our Terracotta tagines came not all the way from North Africa but from Sedgefield of all places.
I gave Bill Todd of Sedgefield Pottery, a drawing and he happily reproduced dozens of them for us over the years.
Though he really enjoyed making the tagines, due to new commitments, Bill is no longer able to create those beautiful dishes. We have since sourced other firms supplying genuine Moroccan tagines, but being the eternal romantic, I will honestly miss the marriage of Northern artistic ingenuity and North African culinary theatre.
Last year a couple of our customers went to Marrakesh and found a Portofino Restaurant. They brought me back a photo.
Karen and I went there for a few days in November and guess what? We found it!
I took this photo to prove it.
I nearly went in and boasted about our own Portofino but my shyness (!) held me back.
You may have heard of or even experienced Jemaa El Fna, a massive square in Marrakesh, which at dusk, is transformed into a giant outdoor restaurant with stalls selling all sorts of foods.
People from all over the world sit next to one another on rickety wooden benches or wobbly plastic chairs to sample Moroccan delicacies such as Tagines, Pastilla, skewered meats, fresh fruit juices, etc...
It is an experience not to be missed!
As reported in a previous post, bringing back a photo of another Portofino is worth a bottle of wine to the bearer.
are what Krimo's has served for the last twenty-two years...
They are essentially an acquired taste. Just look at the distorted face of someone who's tasting that funny fruit for the first time. YUK!!!
But, with patience you can get anyone addicted to olives.
Start with the stoneless green ones.
Rinse most of the brine off and chop them into little pieces. Mix them into a salad or rice. This can be a good start on the way to the addiction.
Then, bit by bit, and believe me, it can take a long time, you will succeed. I have on many occasions. It can be an even harder task than getting someone used to charred steaks to eat rare ones. But once someone reaches that stage, there's no stopping them. They will talk about olives in the same way as a wine expert can bore you about obscure Clarets.
Kalamata becomes their best mate!
Olive Stall at Antwerp Market
Spice up your olives...
Buy two jars of whole olives, greens and blacks.
Place the green ones and their brine in a large bowl. Drain the black ones and lightly rinse them in cold water. Add them to the bowl.
Add the following:
1 tbsp of crushed fresh garlic.
1 tbsp of chopped parsley
1 tsp of caraway seeds
1 tsp of chilli flakes
1 tsp of ground cumin
Juice of one whole lemon
Mix well and store in a jar or plastic box.
Top up with olive oil and refrigerate.
Enjoy!
It's really rare that I sit down for a meal at Krimo's because I always feel guilty dirtying a tablecloth.
Whereas at Portofino or Casa, I often have something quick for lunch.
(My favourite quick meal is a half-portion of Penne Benito. I named this dish after my first boss at the Capanella Pizzeria in Newcastle. My first job in catering.)
At Casa, I sometimes grab two or three tapas before a home match.
A couple of weeks ago, after a tourism meeting, I did however sit down with the Visit Tees Valley board for our Christmas lunch at Krimo's.
I felt a bit guilty because Karen was working short-staffed, due to the dreaded flu bug which decimated much of our staff over Christmas.
However, everyone commented on the good food and service.
The Mussels and Lamb Tagine were very popular as described by Maria from Argument Cottage. I had the fishcakes and the duck confit, and I must say that I really enjoyed my lunch.
Fishcakes with Thai sauce 
Duck confit with sweet red cabbage. 
So, what's your favourite Krimo's dish then?
Click on the image to enlarge it.
The Visitors Book sits on a shelf near the door at Portofino and is mostly used by our younger customers. They climb on a chair directly below the shelf and most often doodle or scribble inscrutable messages, a hieroglyphics expert would find impossible to unravel.
But there are those who leave neatly written notes for our waitresses.
Connor (above left) wrote "The waitresses were quick and polite."
I wonder whether young Connor, in his earlier restaurant experiences, has been used to slow and rude service but he OBVIOUSEMENT has learnt what service ought to be like in a good restaurant.
Bravo everybody!
Connor and waitresses but also our chefs who must have had something to do with the speed of service.
Nicole, Joey and Belinda (Portofino) on our pre-Christmas night out.
