Comedy legend
I met Rhod Gilbert tonight. He’s playing the Cardiff Comedy festival, I kind of accosted him whilst he was walking to the shop. Top guy though…
Popularity: 7% [?]
hintofsarcasm
am i still ill?Archive for Anything Else?
Things aren’t all so serious…
I tried out the electronic drum kit thing at my dads house while I was there feeding the cats.
I have no rhythm, and by the looks of it, no balance either.
I’ll be back soon, I promise. Things are just a bit hectic around here at the moment, see previous post for details.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Q&A: Fab Mash
I had the pleasure of conducting a Q&A session with Brian & Margaret Harries who are behind the venture ‘Fab Mash’ on Caroline Street, Cardiff, some days before the grand opening, which was on Sunday, March 1st.
Nathan: Since the sign went up a few weeks ago, anybody I mention the name to has been enthused to know what could possibly be served up in mashed potato takeaway. I have tried to explain it, but can you tell us, definitively, what Fab Mash will be serving?
Fab Mash: We will be serving a choice of five mash varieties; regular, leek, cheesy, spicy and breakfast mash. These are available in snack or regular sizes.
Mash can be eaten on its own or with a choice of items from our ‘Mix ‘n’ Mash’ menu, including sausage, faggot, beef casserole, lentil dhal, steak & ale pie, chicken, leek & bacon pie, mushy peas, baked beans, onions or gravy!
We also offer set ‘Fab Meals’, combining mash and selected accompaniments, ‘Snack Mash Meals’, which are just a bit smaller and an ‘All-day-breakfast’ menu, featuring our unique ‘Breakfast Mash’, plus sausage and/or beans.
Phew, that sounds more complicated than it is! Actually it’s really simple. Everything is laid out on menu boards and people are quickly getting the hang of it!
Nathan: Where did the idea for a takeaway restaurant with a mashed potato theme come from?
Fab Mash: We have loved making this type of food for a long time and people always enjoy it, so we had a hunch that this type of takeaway would go down well. After loads of research and planning we decided there was definitely a market for it.
It seems we were right, or at least the signs are good so far. We have sourced the best food and ingredients, as this was central to what we wanted to achieve. The initial feedback has been excellent and we’ve been extremely encouraged by what people have said to us.
Nathan: Cardiff is becoming quite the city for businesses to try to sell new ideas for food, what made you choose Cardiff?
Fab Mash:Although we live in Haverfordwest we have had close links with Cardiff for the last 20 years. It’s a vibrant city, it has gone through something of a transformation in the last 10 years and the fact it was nominated for City of Culture 2008 says an awful lot about Cardiff. We believe in Fab Mash and want to make it a national brand. Our capital city was the obvious choice to test the concept and its potential.
Nathan: How long have plans to open Fab Mash been in the pipeline?
Fab Mash: We’ve been planning to start Fab Mash for almost three years! It’s been a long road but we feel the results make it all worthwhile.
Nathan: I understand that Cardiff is to be the first Fab Mash location. If it goes well, where else do you have in mind to open stores?
Fab Mash: We’d like at least one more shop in Cardiff and are looking at another location currently. Our ultimate goal would be to take Fab Mash to London, which would help us establish a national brand.
It’s too early to say how long that will take and where the stepping stones along the way will be. We passionately respect our roots though, so the Cardiff store will always be our spiritual home!
Nathan: Fab Mash is located on one of the busiest streets in the city centre after dark. Do you have a late opening license?
Fab Mash: Our licence is from 10 am to 4 am. We will establish our regular opening hours over the coming weeks but the idea is to be open as long as customers are out there!
Nathan: If so, how do you see night revellers taking your concept of mashed potato and gravy over chips and gravy?
Fab Mash: Our decisions are not based on people taking preference over other takeaways. There should be enough business for everyone in this area. We are merely offering an alternative choice for people, which we think they want. Believe me, we have eaten our fair share of chips and gravy and will continue to do so!
Nathan: Chips and Caroline Street is an almost half century old tradition for Cardiff locals. Do you think you can compete against the likes of Dorothy’s, who’s patch you will be moving in on? What do you think will give you the edge?
Fab Mash: We do not see ourselves competing against the established traders in the street, who incidentally have been extremely welcoming and helpful toward us. The reputation of Caroline Street has been built by the existing businesses and we have just been pleased to be joining them on their patch.
One of our new neighbours actually summed it up very professionally when he explained to us that no matter how many people want your product when it is really busy you cannot serve them all. There is enough business in Caroline Street for all of us to co-exist.
Nathan: What advertising will Fab Mash be doing? Will there be any special opening offers?
Fab Mash: We are working to get the Fab Mash name out there however we can, and help from people like you is always welcome!
We are a family-run business and are very much about people and relationships, so we are trying to connect with real people both online and in person. We have created a Fab Mash website: http://www.fabmash.co.uk and have a twitter presence: http://twitter.com/fabmash.
This has been useful so far as it has helped us gauge opinion, albeit from a relatively small number of people. We are hoping to grow a Fab Mash community of loyal followers, that can help us take the company in the right direction.
We are also running a PR campaign, extending beyond this into traditional media and have a company helping us with all that, along with putting marketing materials together etc.
In terms of offers we will have to see how this develops. At the moment, we are just trying to see what people think of the current menu offering and pricing, then we can make some decisions.
Currently we are kept very busy! We are just focusing on meeting demand and getting as many people as possible to try our mash! Most people seem to be coming back for more, which is great!
-Syndicated from one of my other blogs, InsideCardiff.com
Popularity: 30% [?]
Fab Mash?
Shopfitting began at the beginning of this year on the site of the former Roadhouse takeaway on Caroline Street that was closed down last August due to rent arrears. Initially I was not very interested to know what it was going to be, as it would likely be another fish & chip shop, however, a sign went up last Friday that has made me wonder if I’m wrong.
Fab Mash? Sounds like a great idea to me. I love mashed potato! If it is what I hope it is and they get the combinations right, eg. a selection of different gravies and sausages (perhaps even cheesy mash and pies?) I’m sure this could be one business venture that would take off, especially being sited where it is.
Since Wok to Walk took off with phenomenal success last year I no longer doubt that Cardiff is afraid to try new things and ‘Fab Mash’ could do very well. I live right next door, so, if they let me know when it is I’ll be there on opening day without a doubt!
This was also Tweeted
See all ‘Fab Mash’ tweets
Update 19/02/2009 @ 13:00 -
The paper has come off the windows and the door is open. Looks great inside. I popped my head in and asked if they were open, but no joy. They are opening next week. Staff training today?
Update 20/02/2009 @ 14:30 -
I have been contacted by Fab Mash! They have set up a Twitter ID and inform me that they are opening on March 1st.
Popularity: 29% [?]
Microsoft Virtual Earth: Big Update.
MS has updated Virtual Earth, their equivalent of Google Maps, with new satellite and birds eye imagery for the first time this year, and it’s a big one, ~100tb in fact. The new views of Paris, France, are a treat for the eye. They are very sharp, of excellent quality and the obviously taken on a bright sunny day.
This update also sees the first incorporation of satellite views from DigitalGlobe since Microsoft agreed a license with them in October last year. DigitalGlobe have had a partnership to provide Google with their mapping imagery for many years.
Of all of the mapping tools available, MapQuest (which doesn’t cover the UK so well), Multimap, Google Maps, Streetmap (UK centric), I find that Microsoft Virtual Earth, even though it is not the most widely known, is my personal favourite.
Reasons for this include my love of the ‘birds eye’ view, images for which are taken from an airplane specially equipped with cameras and the ease of integration with the .NET framework.
Popularity: 27% [?]
Fry stuck in lift, spawns 2,000 tweets
As I am writing this, actor, presenter, geek, conservationist and comedian extraordinaire Stephen Fry is stuck in a lift in London’s Centre Point. How do I know this? Well, he sent me a picture of course.
That he sent this very same picture to 107,923 other people is neither here nor there.
This image was distributed by Stephen Fry using his iPhone and Twitter.
I have been following Stephen Fry using Twitter for around 4 months now, since he started in October.
By January he had 50,000 followers. Since he mentioned Twitter on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on January 23rd of this year the number of subscribers to his tweets has more than doubled, now standing at the figure quoted above and rising by literally thousands every day. It seems that Mr Fry has kicked off a tweeting craze here in the UK. People who did not know the difference between a retweet and a twat last week now have accounts and are posting their every move.
Stephen Fry being stuck in a lift for 30 minutes has, at the last count, spawned over 2,100 tweets tagged @stephenfry, #frylift or similar. Twitter brings celebrity closer than ever before and Fry is working it very well. He almost seems like a real friend of mine. He posts where he is going, what he is doing, how he is feeling, what he is eating, all in under 140 characters.
The other morning I opened up Twibble (the Twitter application I use for my Nokia N95) and immediately knew that Stephen was out for a walk because he felt that he had eaten too much cheese the previous night, further proof to the fact that Twitter is bringing us closer to our idols than we have ever been.
Other Twitterers include Jonathan Ross, John Cleese and newbie Russell Brand.
How long will it last though? I have been tweeting for over a year now and have a few followers, perhaps now will be my time too? One can only hope.
Don’t forget to follow me!
Update: Stephen and his new lift friends were released at 23:33. 35 minutes after becoming stranded and causing an internet storm.
Popularity: 23% [?]
Baskin Robbins wants to kill you!
The Men’s Health ‘20 worst foods in America 2009′ list has been released. After reading last years list I would have thought that the companies highlighted then would have tried to get their act together, but it seems that they are not phased by continuing to providing some of the most calorie and fat filled foods available in the American market, but it seems that the same are turning up again in this years list.
Last years ‘Worst Drink in America’ was Baskin Robbins perhaps inappropriately named ‘Large Heath Bar Shake’ which has a total of 2,310 calories. These come from the staggering 66 teaspoons of sugar which is put into each beverage, which uses an astronomical 73 different ingredients altogether giving you 108g fat (64g saturated).
This year the ice cream parlor chain, not satisfied with the title of ‘Worst drink’ has gone for the gold medal and won it, taking the ‘Worst Food in America 2009′ title. The ‘Large Chocolate Oreo Shake’ packs in 2,600 calories, 135 g fat (59 g saturated fat, 2.5 g trans fats) and 263g of sugar. That’s more than an entire days’ worth of calories and three days worth of fat!
Also hitting the list is restaurant chain Romano’s Macaroni Grill who have some how managed to ruin pasta, which I was quite sure was impossible to do. Their Spaghetti and Meatballs with Meat Sauce has three days worth of saturated fat and two days’ worth of salt, with just a little under a man’s daily recommended calorie intake at 2,430. Wow.
Men’s Health – The 20 worst foods in America 2009
Popularity: 14% [?]
The web’s best kept secret
With Christmas coming up and the recession well and truly moved in for the holidays I felt that I should let my readers know about a great untapped resource that for some reason seems to be a big secret.
I haven’t seen them advertise, they don’t have banner ads and neither do they link on price comparison sites, but I always find that the Book Depository manages to undercut everybody else on the internet for prices on books and delivery is free too (worldwide).
Let us compare like for like:
Life of Pi – ISBN10: 184195392X
Amazon Price: £4.99 – Delivery: £2.75 – Total: £7.74
Book Depository Price: £6.40 – Delivery: £0.00 – Total: £6.40
In the two years that I have been using them my orders always come the very next day and the books are brand new (not used like from Amazon Marketplace). Great for christmas presents.
This message has not been paid for by the Book Depository. I just think that it is a great unknown website.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Stop being so Sully!
I’m tired of complaining about the farce that gets published in the South Wales Echo, so, we’ll just have a laugh at this one, because seriously, is this a real campaign? Plus, the part that is comical appears to be a quote, rather than something that their crackpot pseudo-journalists have cooked up, for once.
Residents in a South Wales village say their peace has now been shattered by delivery lorries.
A Tesco One Stop shop opened a year ago on Sully’s South Road bringing, claim its neighbours:
An increase in shoppers seeking bargains …
Oh no! An army of David Dickinson wannabees! This is all that the area needs after the nearby cannabis factory was closed down.
Popularity: 14% [?]