Three Days of Kindness with Kindness & Co

It's cold. It's grey. It's wet. Ugh… January blues. It's easy to look past the rubbish weather as you near the end of the year; all the twinkly lights and dazzling decorations are a good distraction whilst you count down the days until there's "NO MORE WORK." Get your coat, you're on holiday.

Christmas is all fun and games - fine foods and festive drinkies galore - but you don't come out the other side unscathed. It's the extra glug of brandy and the extra pour of cream - 'cause Christmas - not to mention the mountain of chocolate that could be rationed for the entire year (definitely won't), the never-ending cheese board (not another cheese sauce?), and the open bottles of port and sherry that demand to be drunk before they go past their best (yes, that's a thing).

And so we find ourselves in The New Year Awakening. The merry mischief's over and you're noticing a few more of those unwanted lumps and bumps. "Curse you mince pies!" *shakes fist* Thankfully, Cheltenham's health food gurus Kindness & Co are here to prise you out of that post Christmas gluttony rut with their new food program.

Branded as Three Days of Kindness, the town centre café prepares you three days of nutritious breakfasts, lunches and dinners, with snacks to curb those hunger pangs. Everything is made fresh daily, boxed up in recyclable packaging, and you can either collect or have it delivered.

Health kicks are all the rage at this time of year, and as we see the back of dry January - phew - it's about now that people give in to their fad diets. Whilst you're encouraged to avoid caffeine and alcohol over the three days, Kindness & Co's package is more of a focus on wellbeing rather than restricting yourself. The time you'd normally spend planning, shopping and cooking meals is now free to concentrate on your own health, and taking the decision making out of eating means you're more likely to stick to the plan (the £105 price tag is a good incentive too).

They say that by eating three balanced meals a day - no coffee, sugary snacks or post-work glasses of wine - and drinking 1.5-2 litres of water a day should not only help you get a better nights sleep, but you should feel lighter, energised and more alert. So before Kindness & Co officially launched their plan, I got the chance to test it out to see if it was as good as it sounded.

I'm no stranger to these kinds of programs, I've done juice cleanses with Jay Halford at The Core before (who's coincidentally now working with Kindness & Co) and also with Applebar in the centre of town (which I'd highly recommend). I'm used to cutting out the crap when I need to, and in doing the 5:2 Diet, I can feel satisfied on not a huge amount of food. And that's the first thing I noticed; there was quite a lot of food! Here are my Three Days of Kindness menu boxes:

Breakfast: Muesli, yoghurt, fresh fruit
Lunch: Quinoa Tabbouleh with coriander, mint, tomato and red onion
Dinner: Veggie chilli served with roasted sweet potato

Breakfast: Raspberry smoothie bowl with nuts and banana
Lunch: Butter bean puree, tomato salsa, wilted kale and roasted courgette
Dinner: Sweet corn fritters with baby spinach and tomato salsa

Breakfast: Fresh berry overnight oats
Lunch: Baked cauliflower, chickpea, rocket and cranberry salad with tahini dressing and pistachio
Dinner: Garden pea and mint soup

Snacks each day: A piece of fruit, a pot of nuts and two Kindness Energy Balls... I'm a sucker for an energy ball.

I looked forward to picking up each day's food; there's something exciting about being cooked for (The Chap should take note). And not having to think about meals for a few days felt like I gained some freedom (because I basically think about food 24/7). What a luxury. 

None of the boxes contained those free-from substitutes or lengthily-named ingredients, they were all just packed with familiar, inherently healthy foods. The cauliflower, cranberry and tahini salad was a joy to eat - I'm going back to Kindness & Co to get my hands on some more - and there was no chance you'd miss meat in the spicy bean loaded chilli. 

I tend to eat a lot of these things at home anyway, so for me it's not something I'd splurge on, but for those that want to hit the ground running, it's a great way to get a head start. That said, I was inspired to make a big batch of overnight oats for the rest of the week's breakfasts, and tomato salsa has been creeping into our dinners much more than it did before.  

I personally didn't lose any weight, but Kindness & Co isn't really about that. I did, however, feel more in tune with myself and really enjoyed having some "time off". Healthier and happier; that's what it's all about, right?

If you're interested in the Three Days of Kindness program, then check out Kindness & Co's website or pop in to chat to them. It's £95 if you collect - they're pretty flexible - or £105 to be delivered within a certain radius of Cheltenham. Easy.

Future Foods: Wish Lists for 2018

"New Year, New Me?" Nah, not my thing either. But seeing as we're now a couple of weeks into 2018, it's time to establish those goals. 2017 was pretty spectacular - weddings, holidays, honeymoons - meaning this year has a lot to live up to. A LOT. So what is it that I want to do this year? Where do I want to go? Resolutions, wish lists, whatever you want to call them... Let's do this.

As I sit here typing this, stuck in bed feeling totally wiped out, health and wellness should be first on my agenda. It's all cleanses, diets and detoxes shoved in our faces as soon as we hit January 1st, and whilst I do really need to shift a few pounds (plus a few more), it's more about looking after myself than anything else. I always struggle talking about my IBD issues - bowel problems is pretty embarrassing after all - and although I'm lucky it's not so severe, I still get flare ups which bring with them a whole host of symptoms. I've learnt that sleeping it off helps, despite being plagued with guilt for missing work, but it's taking better care of myself that's the overall key. Fear not, I'm not going full on cabbage soup. It's all about balance, right? And there's plenty of fun to be had, so I'm determined not to miss out...

At the end of last year, Time Out published their list of the 100 Best Dishes in London, and with a pal we've decided to try and eat as many of them as possible. I've managed to tick a few off over the years already; BBQ-spiced crispy pigs' ears at Duck & Waffle, salt beef beigel at Brick Lane Beigel Bake, bacon naan roll at Dishoom, a custard doughnut at St John Maltby, pappardelle with beef shin ragù at Padella, confit pork bao at Bao and that EPIC Reuben sandwich at Monty’s Deli. I wonder how far we'll get.

The Chap and I have a few places in the pipeline already, starting with The Bell Inn Langford at the end of this month. After receiving such high praise from Giles Coren in The Times at the weekend, ‘On the final day of 2017, I had not just the best mouthful of the year, but the best mouthful of my life’, I imagine it'll now be rather tricky to get a table! The Mousetrap Inn in Bourton on the Water has also been on the cards for a long time, finally we've booked in for Feb - cheers Frank! 

March sees The Chap's birthday, where we'll be celebrating at Le Champignon Sauvage followed by a jaunt to Hereford. BEEFY BOYS. I've heard only good things about those burgers; Instagram has been teasing me with them all year. And there's a trip to Manchester planned for April too, where I expect there'll be a weekend of good eats and drinks. I'm on the hunt for recommendations if any of you have some, though I've already located a Sherry bar. Yes Shez!

It's the big 3-0 in June; how has that happened? So obviously a month of merriment is required. So far all I've narrowed down is going to Bristol and hitting up Box-E; a pint sized restaurant in a shipping container at Wapping Wharf.

Bristol's one of those places I yearn for. It's not far away, and cheap enough to get to, but it's finding the time to fit it in that's the issue. I'm desperate to get myself to Asado to try one of Lucien's mega burgers, Root for more plant based foods, and Swoon for some of the best gelato around.

Locally, I'm still yet to get to The Coconut Tree, and now they've opened up in Oxford and soon in Bristol, it's become a matter of urgency! Cocktails and spicy Sri Lankan food; why haven't I been? The relatively new Korean place down Cheltenham's Lower High Street, Ginger & Garlic, is somewhere I have been to though. The beef bulgogi hot pot was incredible, but I'm itching to go back to try their other dishes, all with a healthy supply of kimchi.

With 100 dishes to try and scoff in London, I also have a list of places I'd like to get to, which is bound to increase throughout the year:

• The Pilgrm - to stay in those BEAUTIFUL rooms and have cocktails in the lounge.
• Little Duck Picklery - from the team behind Duck Soup and Raw Duck, a fermenting kitchen and eatery. 
• Santo Remedio - Mexican in London Bridge. I want to try the guacamole with grasshoppers!
• Londrino - for a taste of Portugal. 
• Xu - the guys from Bao with gorgeous Taiwanese dishes. All of them my way thanks.
• Duddell's - for that Peking duck and goldfish shaped dim sum.
• Winemakers Deptford - good food and good wine. 

And one final thing. After looking at all my posts from last year, shamefully every single one was from where I'd been invited to do a review, or part of a bloggers event. A free meal isn't what I started doing this for. It's a perk - sure- and gives great exposure to new openings or new menus, but I do question having a whole host of bloggers posting about the same place at the same time. I'm not a brand or treat my blog as a business, I just bloody love food and drink. I'd be a fool to turn down excellent opportunities - I won't be doing that - but I'm going to consciously make more of an effort to post about the places I go to and pay for with my hard earned cash (99% of the time). With a quieter and less expensive year than last, this I think I can do. 

2018, let's be having you! 

Indian Fine Dining in Cheltenham: Prithvi

Prithvi is one of those places that's on every local food lovers bucket list. It's the swish Indian restaurant that won't fill your letterbox with takeaway leaflets, won't give you shoddily made curry, and certainly won't let you order chips as a side for your main (not that I'm a chip-o-phobe or anything).

Despite being so unassuming, it's the place that everyone in town talks about. The place at the top of most Cotswold based 'best restaurant' lists. The place in all the national food guides. The place that is notoriously hard to get a table at on a weekend... Essentially, it's the place.

Although I've been on a handful of occasions (see my post from '14), every time I walk past I find myself peering in at the lucky diners sitting in the window, desperately trying to see what they're eating. It's no good. I never get there at the right time. I only ever see empty plates - sigh - or people casually quaffing their wines - jealous - and the blinds are always drawn to the perfect height so I can't see any further in - humph. Still, it makes the green-eyed monster in me hungry for another visit and at the end of last year my luck came in.

You've probably seen all the posts from various local bloggers about 'Lunch with Prithvi' already - I hope you're not bored of reading about it - but because I couldn't attend the event, I did get an invite to return for dinner at a later date. Side note: Tuesdays and Wednesdays often have availability if you want to avoid the wait.

Prithvi has had a spruce up since our last visit - new furnishings, jazzy carpets, classy wallpaper - and it feels much better for it. Greeted by the owner Jay as you walk in, it all just makes sense. He's young, softly spoken but sharply dressed. There's not a thing out of place - both on him and the restaurant - with all the staff moving like clockwork. Seamless and suave, not stuffy.

The Chap and I hastily ordered a glass of the Brut Rosé fizz from Luxembourg (£8) recommended by the guys over the road at The Grape Escape (best place for pre dinner drinkies FYI), and then decided that we'd splurge on the wine flight to accompany the tasting menu. The only way to do it, right?

Appetisers arrive. A Quaver-like rice cracker with crispy kale and a cinnamon, mango and chilli gel, followed by panipuri; hollow chickpea puffs filled with spiced chickpeas and a fresh chutney. A tart tamarind sauce was poured in then down in one (as instructed). A whole host of textures and tastes, I'd order more if I could.

First course was pan-fried sea bass, white truffle oil, smoked tomato and mulli salad paired with Fess Parker Santa Barbara County Chardonnay, California 2014. The truffle hits you first with the spice creeping in after - an interesting combo which gets revisited later - but we couldn't help but feel that the fish was overcooked. Crispy skin, yaaaasss, but as the piece of fish was so flat, it was just a little dry. The wine match was the redeeming feature, no surprise considering my love of Cali Chards; the smoked tomato hit it off with the oakiness and the flavours lingered long after the last mouthful.

Next was tandoor Welsh lamb, cous cous and legumes with another USA wine, Smoking Loon Old Vine Zinfandel, Lodi, California 2013. Blushing lamb, so tender, with a green coriander sauce to add extra oomph. The dark berried wine was another good pairing, soft with subtle cedary notes bringing out the nuttiness of the cous cous.

Upping the game, Newent chicken, wild mushroom, whole coriander, anise sauce with sultana and almond rice. So succulent, and with the jewelled rice and glossy sauce it actually felt richer than the lamb. Never underestimate the chicken dish.

As for the wine, Jay tested us out with a few. Firstly, Domaine Roger-Joseph Belland Les Champs-Gains, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru, France. An absolute beaut Burgundy, big with complexity, and with the buttery chicken alone would have ticked all the boxes. However, as soon as the fragrant anise made itself known, then it all got rather lost. It had spice, just without heat, yet we still agreed that it craved a wine with some sweetness. Jay then brought us over the Charles Sparr Gewurztraminer “Tradition”, Alsace, and the Werner ‘Annaberg’ Riesling Kabinett, Mosel, to try side by side with the dish. Styles you'd probably find us drinking on a weekend anyway, and like choosing children it was a tough choice. Both awesome, but the sweet spice and floral notes of the Gewurz did it for me. Save the Riesling for something hotter.

The star attraction was venison, butternut squash, ginger and cinnamon reduction served with a truffle oil naan bread. Indian and truffle aren't a likely coupling, but having it twice in one night has made me think otherwise, and truffle naan breads should definitely be a thing. Definitely. Chunks of rare venison and squash scream Autumn/Winter, and with a generous pour of the punchy ginger sauce, they'd well and truly been given the Prithvi magic touch. My one qualm would be the fact that our meat portions weren't quite even. I got the better deal with two thick pieces, but The Chap had one thick and one thin. Ah well. Quickly forgotten about whilst sipping the Pacifico Sur Carmenere Reserva, Curico Valley, Chile 2015, full of blackcurrants and black pepper.

The Tour of Prithvi ended with Passion fruit cream, mango gel, coriander and honey crumble. I think we're all more accustomed to an After Eight being brought out with the bill, but here we had an assortment of sweet treats. Fresh and fruity, with cream to soothe those taste buds and coriander to add a herbal citrus note; we're still in an Indian restaurant after all. Lenz Moser Prestige Beerenauslese, Burgenland, Austria, was our final wine of the night. Equally sweet with velvety honey notes to tie in with dessert. Happy endings.

Whilst we're not short of fine dining options in The Cotswolds, nor places to scoff a Ruby Murray on a Friday night for that matter, the unique line that Prithvi draws between the two certainly is something rather special. The food and service sure have gone up a notch or two since our last visit, so it's no surprise that tables are still so sought after and the dishes remain memorable.

Jay's pride beams throughout, making it an utter joy to experience everything that is Prithvi. Let's just keep our fingers crossed for more truffle naans when we return.

Prithvi is open for dinner Tuesday - Saturday and lunch on Thursday and Saturday. The tasting menu is £53pp, and they reopen from their annual holiday on January 19th. Get booking!