Perspective and experiences and desires drives how we relate to things and what we expect.

We receive some very positive feedback on our garlic bread from people and it always surprises me.  Why?  The feedback is that the garlic butter used contains real garlic and the bread is so lovely.  The reason I am surprised is that I would only ever think of making garlic bread using real garlic, real butter and good quality bread.

But this is symbolic of what we want to do and achieve at Bella's Bites - use genuine ingredients, cook with authenticity and provide a great dining experience.  We want you to expect good quality food and genuine flavours.  So whether it is seeing and tasting garlic in a slice of garlic bread, or tasting rosemary and sage in our slow cooked pork stew, or apples in our moist apple cake, you can know that the flavour you taste is only from the same ingredient used.

One of our regular customers, who will admit freely that she is a tough but fair food critic, said that she could taste that our food was not commercially made.  It was the loveliest compliment, because she then explained that this meant she could taste that our food was made with genuine ingredients, without shortcuts and made  to a high level of quality with heart and soul put into it too.

As I write this I am eating our slow cooked herb pork stew and to me, this stew is exactly what she is referring to.  We take hours to cook it, we use our own, made stocks, heating it and adding specific flavours that compliment the pork.  We make our own seasoned flour so we can get the right flavours in the coating.  We use white wine to soak up the flavours after browing the pork.  Yes it takes time and effort, but getting the feedback from our customers that they can taste the results of this effort makes it worthwhile.

Another comment we often get about our dessert cakes - our moist apple cake, and our carrot cake is "you can tell these are home made".  Again, the people who say this are providing a compliment as they explain that they can taste the real ingredients.  They can also taste that it is not commercially manufactured in having to be full of preservatives and sugars so it can survive being transported and stored for a period of time before consumption.

Just as importantly as the feedback we get when things are done well, we also value feedback when things don't go well!  We need to know where we can improve, and sometimes it is simply that we have used the same ingredient but there is some variation in it that has affected the flavours.  One example is in our Spicy Sausage Salad.  Customer feedback was that the spicy cured meat we were using didn't have enough "kick".  Some sausages have variation in their flavour and we could taste ourselves that there was sometimes a reduction in spice that wasn't acceptable. To this end we have chosen a slightly spicier salami to ensure we can provide a good level of spice consistently.  We hope you can taste this too!

Hopefully seeing and tasting good quality food that is filling, made with a focus on health and nutrition and fresh ingredients, as well as great value for money will help shift your perspective in what you expect from food.  Hopefully you can also just enjoy relaxing at Bella's Bites.