Coffee and Horchata with pastry twists

Location: Cafe at Valencia railway station, Spain
Date: 27 June 2009
Details: Coffee, horchata and pastry twists

Notes: Firstly, please admire the inlaid marble penguin in the table-top. Guapo, si? This is a logo for a brand of Spanish beer.

The coffee smelled good but was entirely consumed by The Lion.

Horchata is far more interesting - a local speciality which all guidebooks advise the traveller to sample - it is indeed delicious. The drink made from ground rice and nuts flavoured with vanilla - sounds like a pudding but it's very tasty and probably to be consumed in moderation due to the calorific nut content.

Horchata recipe from Good Food TV >>

The crunchy pastry twists are from a packet I found in a Spar supermarket. Made with wholemeal flour, the packet proclaimed the health benefits of their product. Hmm. Yes, you might be consuming some dietary fibre but they still contained the usual butter and sugar! Still, dunked in the coffee and horchata, whether indulgent or healthy, they tasted great.

Hot Chocolate, Fartons and Hello Kitty Biscuits

Location: Valencia
Date: 25 June 2009
Details: Hot chocolate with fartons, and a novelty Hello Kitty biscuit

Notes: Fartons. Spanish for "dry iced bun stick" and nothing about that name for an English-speaker to snigger at, noooo not at all.

The delicious Spanish hot chocolate is an entirely different beast to the English stuff made with powder and hot milk. This is like a liquid pudding, possibly one of the many failed 'chocolate fon-dont' puds which line the path to Masterchef victory. Would be delicious with a nice English shortbread...

Sadly the Hello Kitty biscuit wasn't a quality product. Hastily acquired in the nearby El Corte Ingles supermarket in the Aqua shopping centre, it was over-processed, dry and boring. But The Lion enjoyed the enclosed miniature Kitty plastic toy.

This ice-cream parlour served hot drinks with a little packet of these Smarties-like sweets.

English Breakfast tea and Victoria Sponge

Location: Havilands Café, Meer Street, Stratford-upon-Avon

Date: 17 June 2009
Description: English Breakfast tea and Victoria Sponge cake

Notes: Michelle and I decided to check out the new cafe attached to the Havilands bakery/sandwich store on Meer Street - all sounded promising since their cakes are superb (their window is a delight and includes elaborate gingerbread houses at Christmas-time).

Things got off to a bad start as we arrived on a drizzly lunch-break and were visually assaulted by lime green cheapo chairs outside the front. Yuk. Still, inside it's less Ikea and more minimalist tea-room with black table-tops and simple white china. I was distracted by a book on a shelf next to our table about hosting 'Tea Parties' and had to be reminded to look at the menu.

The menu is simple and caters squarely for the Stratford tourist at lunchtime - sandwiches or a variation on sandwiches. Much like the shop next door. We chose hot drinks and a slab of baked stodge. The Vic sponge (pictured) looks promising but was incredibly dense in texture and stingy on the icing - it had possibly been sat in the cabinet for a few days. And I had to ask for a fork to eat it with. Hmm. Michelle's pan au chocolat was unexceptional - just your average pastry, and so average she can't recall whether it was served hot or not. The tea was fine though and I requested that they offer skimmed milk in future. Michelle's coffee was OK but rather small and not the quality offered by specialist coffee shops.

Verdict: Great for a take-out cake or sarnie in a hurry but not a great place to indulge in a cuppa and cake.