When a new food joint opens up in Middlesbrough, everyone flocks to it. Can we blame them? It's exciting when a company comes to the Boro!When I first heard that Turtle Bay was coming to our little town, I fist pumped faster than you can say jerk chicken.
A new flavor of food right in the heart of our town for all us smoggies to gobble up.
A few weeks ago I went to the exclusive pre-launch where we got the chance to be the first to sample the deliciousness. We were treated with sharing platters, lots of meat and a few too many cocktails. Wait, is there such thing as too many?!
So to be invited back for round two with the whole menu at our fingertips was exciting. What would I choose? What would really stick out for me this time?
First on our list was a round of cocktails and I opted for my favorite from the launch night, the Bay Bramble. My taste buds always tingle for a berry based cocktail and this blackberry glass o' goodness didn't disappoint. I'm kinda actually swung by rum cocktails now despite me usually opting for something vokda-based.
Myself and Carli like to share. So when we go places, there's nothing that we both don't get to taste - now THAT'S a friendship, am I right?! Sharing is caring and all of that.
To begin we decided to go two options. First off was the Classic Beefy Patty. Melt in your mouth beef with spices wrapped up in a turmeric pastry. Delicious. If only they did these at the corner shop as I could easily chow down on one a few times a week.
To go alongside we decided the Trini Doubles just couldn't be resisted after we tried them on the platter at the open evening. Soft roti flatbreads smothered in curried chickpeas is bound to make any foodie lover sob with joy, we practically were. I'd easily say that this was my favorite dish of the entire evening and definitely my star choice.
For the main dishes, we went allllll out with our meats. The first dish that jumped out at us was the Braised Pork Belly. Gosh damn. I love me some pork belly.
Now I would have enjoyed this dish a lot more if it wasn't for the weird green puree that was drizzled upon it. The flavours together just didn't work in my mouth. Gutted to say the least as I could only eat tiny little bits of the dish. But to counteract that was the chunky sweet potato mash, which, although barely mashed, was bloody lovely.
We then opted for the ever-talked about Curry Goat, which I was a little bit apprehensive to try to say the least. The flavor of the overall curry was absolutely amazing, I could have lapped it up with plenty of those stodgy dumplings that come with the dish.
However, the goat was very fatty (I'd heard it is!) which wasn't all that great although the non-fatty pieces were very delicious. But as for flavouring and the fact that there were potatoes in the curry (does anyone else love this?), I couldn't fault it.
The waiter (I'm going to go with Ryan) that served our table had a brilliant knowledge of the rums on offer and convinced us into a little tipple to complement our dessert. One was a typical coconut-style rum whilst the other was quite hardcore. We both pulled faces as we sipped but felt the buzz after!
We couldn't have left without having another helping of the Dark Chocolate Brownie. I'm very much a brownie connoisseur and this one is a good one. Rich, thick and super chocolatey. Two massive thumbs up from me.
So, Turtle Bay. I'll be seeing you soon because you just have a little bit too much on offer that I need to try...
- This meal was partially paid for by Turtle Bay - cheers lads! -
Megan. xo
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